On the Fly (11 page)

I bit down on my tongue to keep from
hissing at the pain of being on my feet, not wanting to let on that
he was right. I closed the door in his face before limping gingerly
to take care of my business. At least he didn’t insist on helping
me with anything other than actually getting to the bathroom. I
didn’t want to be rude, but there were some things I just couldn’t
tolerate.

When I opened the door, he hadn’t
moved a muscle, not even to back away a few steps to give me some
privacy. I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sight of him, tall
and imposing on the other side of the doorframe, his dark hair and
dark eyes combining to leave me breathless.

“
All done?” he asked idly.
Nothing that had come from his mouth in our brief acquaintance had
ever sounded lazy until this moment. He had both his arms crossed
over his chest, and it looked almost like he’d been tapping his
foot while waiting for me.

How could he seem both bored and
impatient all at once?

I nodded. I figured he’d pick me up
and return me to the living room, but he didn’t. Nor did he move
out of my way so I could go back on my own. I craned my neck,
trying to get a good look at him, see what was going on in his eyes
in case it could give me a clue to his thoughts, but I couldn’t see
him without taking a step backward.

So, I did.

When I moved, I nearly fell over
because of the look in his eyes. His stare was one of the most
intense things I’d ever seen in my life, dark and brooding and a
little too sexy for my own good.

Or maybe a lot too sexy for my own
good.

My breath caught. I tried to swallow,
but I didn’t have enough saliva in my mouth. I licked my lips,
hoping to increase the moisture flow there, but immediately
regretted it when Brenden’s gaze followed the path of my
tongue.

How would it feel if he kissed me? I
felt as weak-kneed and feverish as I had when I’d been a teenager,
when Jason Shaw had first flirted with me—back when a cute boy
flirting was all it would take to get me to fall into bed with him.
Right now, I wanted to fall into Brenden Campbell’s arms, whether
that was the intelligent thing to do or not.

Damn it, what was wrong with me? I
didn’t have time to let myself get involved with some guy I barely
knew. Even if I did, I couldn’t because of Maddie.

For all I knew, I was reading things
in his eyes that weren’t there. It had been so long since any man
had looked at me like I was a woman and not the discarded mother of
two kids, that I was likely just starving for any man’s attention.
Surely he wasn’t looking at me like I thought he was.

I couldn’t afford to think like
that.

“
Excuse me,” I finally
said, once I’d gotten a grip on myself again. I tried to push past
him, but he blocked my exit. He didn’t look like he was in any big
hurry to move, not with the way he just raised an eyebrow and
cocked a grin at me.

At least he was smiling. That was a
definite improvement.

We stood there like that for so long I
started to feel antsy.

He narrowed his eyes. “What did you
mean?” he asked instead of moving out of my way. Actually, he took
a step closer so that I had to drop my head back to see him, and
then I fell in that direction, taking a step to steady myself. He
leaned his shoulder against the doorjamb, looking all sorts of
cocky and casual and way too good for it to be safe for me to be
alone with him in a confined space. “When you said you don’t date,”
he finally finished.

The urge to lick my lips again was
strong, and my pulse was like a jackhammer in my veins, all because
he was talking like he was interested. In me.

I had no idea where this was heading,
but it could only mean trouble.

I shouldn’t have
asked her that. At least not without some warning,
a lead-in of some sort so she had a clue what was
coming.

Rachel had a deer-in-the-headlights
look in her eyes, one that made me want to wrap her up in my arms
and promise her I’d keep her and her kids safe. At the same time, I
wanted to let her run past me to wherever she intended to hide, as
though I was the danger.

I should probably let her run. That
would be the smart move. Getting involved with a single mom was
sure to be one of the stupidest decisions I could ever
make.

I didn’t let her leave.

Which meant I didn’t give myself that
out. I suppose, conscious or not, I had made a decision about what
I wanted with her.

I wanted everything. That thought
should have scared me, but it didn’t. It felt right. Good. It was
like all the girls I’d dated in my life had been lessons, teaching
me what I really wanted and needed so I’d recognize it when I saw
it—when I saw her.

“
I meant I don’t date,” she
said, exasperation drawing her eyebrows together into a cute
line.

Her brows were the same flame-red as
her hair. That thought turned to another, and in no time I was
thinking about where else her hair might be red. I shouldn’t be
thinking about that, but after letting my mind go there I couldn’t
think about anything else. At least I shouldn’t be thinking it
right now, while I was trying to convince her I wasn’t dangerous or
a pervert or any number of other things she should reasonably be
wary of.

I realized my eyes had been slowly
moving down her body, and I forced them back to her face. Instead
of that bright red, the long lashes lining her eyes were more of a
blond, almost see-through. I could stare at her eyes all day, green
and soft and sultry.

Her eyes were safer for me to stare
at, at least, than her boobs or the apex of her thighs.

Still, I couldn’t stop myself from
grinning. “Why not?” I crossed my ankles, settling in to see what
she’d do.

“
Because I have two kids
who need me to be a better mom than I have been lately.”

I laughed and shook my head. “So
what’s the deal with this logic? You give birth to a couple of kids
and that instantly removes you from the dating pool? I don’t see
anyone else doing that. People with kids date all the
time.”

Especially people as young as she was.
Rachel didn’t look old enough to have kids as old as hers were.
Maybe toddlers, but not two who were already in school. The longer
I spent in her company, the more I was sure of that, which only
made me more curious, made me want to get to know her better. Had
these kids belonged to an older sibling? That could explain her
overprotectiveness, I supposed, if they’d lost their real
parents.

No matter who their parents were, they
were definitely related to Rachel with that hair and those freckles
and all the other ways they looked like miniature versions of her.
But she couldn’t be older than her mid-twenties. She couldn’t
really be their mom, could she?

“
Those other people aren’t
me, and their kids aren’t my kids.”

Now she was just being overly
vigilant. Granted, with all that had happened to Dana, I understood
the need to be overprotective—more than a lot of people. I’d
started to learn that sometimes it was best to let those people we
wanted to protect so much figure things out for themselves, though.
“Kids are just kids. You can get a babysitter—”

“
I’m not going to leave my
kids with someone I don’t know,” she interrupted. She actually
looked like she was getting angry, not just exasperated like
before, with her eyes narrowing into a glare that looked more
adorable than fierce. It left me wanting to kiss her even more than
I had already wanted to. Shit, what was wrong with me? Why was I
always thinking about kissing her and finding out if she had red
hair everywhere and any number of other things I had no business
thinking about?

Instead of leaving her be, I shrugged
my shoulders and said, “You know Babs. Tuck and Maddie like him. He
could watch them while I take you out.” Once I’d said it out loud,
I knew there would be no going back—no convincing myself I didn’t
want to date her. To be with her. As much as her need to take care
of everyone exasperated me, I also found it refreshing. Most of the
girls I’d dated over the years were so self-centered that they
almost didn’t realize there was anyone else in their lives. Not
Rachel. She was almost too aware of everyone around her, and I
couldn’t get my fill of her because of it. I’d seen more than
enough glimpses of her true self—caring enough to feed Babs,
selfless enough to put her kids first—to know most of what she was
giving me was nothing more than a protective shell, like Dana had
worn for years. Dana had shown the world only what she’d wanted
seen and did a pretty good job of it, but Rachel was even
better.

She shook her head, and it looked like
she might cry for a second. Then she straightened her spine and
tried to push past me. “I need to get back out there. I need to be
with my kids.”

I put my arm down to grab her waist
and stop her, and she tensed against me. Even if she was
frustrating me, I couldn’t let her walk around on those feet. Not
so soon. Now was not the time to cross that line. “You might be the
most misguided, stubborn woman I’ve ever met,” I muttered as I
lifted her into my arms.

She didn’t relax against me at all,
perched in my arms like she was ready to spring away at the
slightest provocation. Even so, her lips were parted slightly, and
I watched as the line of her gaze moved to my mouth.

She wanted me to kiss her. She just
didn’t want to want it, and that might very well drive me insane
because I wanted to kiss her more than was good for me.

But I didn’t. I carried her into the
living room and back into the chaos of Babs playing video games
with her kids.

“
Woo woo!” Tuck shouted,
giving a victory pump of his fist in the air. “Beated you
again.”

Babs gave him a high five, shaking his
head. “I can’t keep losing to the Ginger Ninja. Best three of five,
eh?”

Rachel squirmed, trying to get free,
but I didn’t release her. I liked the sensation of having her right
up at my chest, of having her fit against me, and letting her walk
around on those feet right now would only cause more harm than
good.

“
Come on, guys,” she said,
sparing one last glare in my direction before she turned her head
to her kids. “We have things to do today. Homework,
laundry…”

Maddie almost immediately put her
controller down on the floor and stood, even though disappointment
had stolen her smile, but Tuck shouted, “One more game, Mommy!
Please?” His eyes went wide, pleading even louder than his
voice.

I could feel the indecision in Rachel,
the urge to get away from me warring with a desire to please her
kids. That part of her that was so concerned about giving Tuck and
Maddie some fun softened her a little, just enough that she lost
some of the tension keeping her rigid.

Then I couldn’t seem to stop myself. I
dropped my head down so my mouth was right by her ear. “One more
game,” I whispered. I was so close that my lips skimmed her lobe as
I spoke. I forced myself to pull away before I went too
far.

She shivered and collapsed against me,
the fight leaving her body. It was all I could do to keep myself
from taking full advantage of her acquiescence, however brief her
moment of vulnerability might be, and kissing her
senseless.

“
One more,” she agreed, but
her eyes fell on me and not them.

The weakly spoken words were all Babs
and her kids needed. They started playing again and ignored the two
of us. I carried her back to the sofa, but instead of putting her
down on the cushions, I sat and pulled her onto my lap.

Rachel blushed, her face as bright as
her hair as she tried to move away. “What are you doing?” she
hissed.

I didn’t have the slightest idea what
I was doing. Not a fucking clue. Not really. All I knew was now
that I had her in my arms I didn’t want to let her go.

With both of her hands, she lifted my
hand free of her leg. She didn’t scurry away, though—she gave me a
look I couldn’t interpret but stopped struggling to get
free.

Shit
. What was I doing? I shook my head, at a loss as to how to
explain my behavior to her. Nothing that came to mind seemed like
it would satisfy her.