Smiling peacefully, she laced her hands behind his neck and pulled him down to her. Slowly she took more of his weight, enough to feel he was real, solid. “You’ve had some security classes,” she accused, knowing finesse like that came only with practice.
“Summer camp. My parents are proactive when it comes to safety.” Kal gave her a sound kiss, then rolled off, sitting up beside her on the makeshift table. “Though we never practiced anything like that. This is no longer my favorite suit,” he said as he kicked off his shoes, then his slacks. “You can keep the tie if you want.”
“I’d rather keep the key,” she said, seeing the tie on the floor beside her boots. When did that come off? The words had sounded real and convincing as she said them, probably because there was a kernel of truth to them, and she felt a moment of guilt. My God, the man has skills.
A smile quirked the corners of her lips up, lingering as she looked at the remnants of their date. Kal was nice when he wasn’t being a jerk.
He reached past her, bringing up a corner of the blanket to cover her. He lingered, brushing the hair from her face, his eyes never leaving hers as he sent his hand lower, a tingle tracing from his careful fingertips. “I’ve never run into anyone who wasn’t afraid to use ley lines like that.”
She propped herself up on an elbow. “Is that what you call this? Run into?” She laughed to tell him she wasn’t serious. “Did you just run into me, Dr. Kalamack?”
With a savage growl, he spun, eyes alight, and pinned her to the straw, delighting in her shriek, muffled as he kissed her again, bringing her alive once more. Her breath was fast when he pulled back, still holding her down. “It’s been a while,” he said as if apologizing. “Sorry that was so fast.” He let go and eased down beside her, tugging the blanket up more until they were both under it. “It’s early yet. More wine?”
Fast? It felt as if they had been dancing toward this for two weeks. Content, she spun to lie on her front so she could reach for the bottle of wine. “Yes. Thank you.”
But then she almost dropped it when he ran a rough-smooth hand from her shoulder down to her backside, lingering suggestively until she quivered.
Turning to face him, she caught his eyes with her own, waiting until he saw her concern. “Kal, where do we go from here?” she asked, no longer sure.
He cupped her face and pulled her closer, his lips so light on hers they were almost not there. “I suggest you follow your own advice, Dr. Cambri,” he said when he drew back. “The night is not for thinking.”
No, it isn’t, she thought as he kissed her again, his hands gentler this time while he began to explore her, unhindered by anything, anything at all.
15
The musty smell of her oldest books usually put Trisk into a content mood, but tonight, as she took them from her built-ins and stacked them in produce boxes, it only filled her with a heavy melancholy. It had been a week since she’d made plans to go to Kennedy and Kal had signed off on the Angel’s patent transfer. It gave her freedom, but NASA was the only lab that had shown any interest in her résumé. That the enclave had found a replacement for her at Global Genetics so quickly didn’t bode well, either, and her stomach hurt. She couldn’t decide whether she was hungry or she’d eaten something that disagreed with her.
I’m never going to get these back out of storage, she thought as she consigned another armful to a box. She’d taken the day off with the excuse that she needed to pack, but the truth was she was avoiding Daniel. She hadn’t realized how much their lives intertwined until she started untangling them. The real estate agent had said her place would sell better with the furniture. That was fine with her, but there was a dismayingly small pile of boxes beside the front door and in the bed of her truck to take to storage. Three years, and nothing to show but twenty-five acres of sticks in rows.
Depressed, she didn’t look up at the soft scuff of sock feet on the smooth floors when Quen left the kitchen, his steps light as he came down into the sunken living room. “Three thousand miles away,” he said as he set one of the two cups of coffee in his hands on the low table. “You sure you want to do this?” he asked, sitting on the couch with a sigh.
Ignoring the mug for the moment, she stretched for the masking tape. The brrrp of the tape grated on her, and she pushed the box aside and set an empty one in its place.
Elbows on his knees, Quen held his mug under his nose and breathed deeply. “I know why you’re doing this, but I still think going to NASA is a mistake.”
“Duh,” she said as she carefully tucked a stack of paperbacks away. But the truth was she had nowhere else to go. Depressed, she sat back on her heels and picked up the coffee. She took a sip, her face scrunching. “This tastes awful. Are you sure you made it right?”
“I know how to make coffee, Trisk,” he said darkly. “You want tea instead?”
She shook her head, her grip tightening on the warm porcelain. “No, this is fine,” she said. “Bitter or not, I’ll finish it,” she added, thinking of her situation with Kal.