her eyes knowing they could bare her soul, tell him everything she'd been thinking. One thing she had decided about Rex Morrow--it would not pay for him to be aware of all her weaknesses.
He was following her; she could feel him. She hurried on down the stairs, talking.
'Rex, it's all wonderful. No spiderwebs, no dirt, no creeping, crawling creatures. Thank you. Thank you so much. And you went to just the right degree... I mean, thank you, but if you'd gone any further, it wouldn't have been good. Do you know what I mean? I'm trying to prove that I can do it. No, I don't have to prove anything. Well, that's not the truth, really. I suppose that I am trying to prove--''
'You're babbling--that's what you're doing.' She'd reached the landing; he spoke from behind her-- close. A tingling crept along her spine, she was so aware of him. I'm confused! she wanted to scream. She'd never had feelings like this, and she didn't know what to do with them--but she did know that she should take things slowly and carefully.
'Am I?' she said, but she didn't turn around. She started walking again, pushing through the kitchen doorway. She let the door fall back, aware that he had plenty of time to catch it. She went straight to the refrigerator. 'I'm dying of thirst. Don't you want something? The sun is murderous out on the beach. Hmm. I don't even know what's in here. I'm going to have to get out to the store today.'
He curled his fingers gently around her arm and pulled her head out of the refrigerator and her body around so that she faced him. He wore a quizzical expression that was handsome against the fine, strong lines of his face. “What is wrong with you?'
'Nothing.' She was breathless. 'What do you want?'
He smiled slowly. 'You.'
'To drink.'
'Are you afraid of me?' he asked.
'Not in the least.'
'Good. I'll have a beer. And I'll get it myself, thanks. Want one? That is all you've got in the refrigerator.'
'I shouldn't--'
'Why?'
He brought two out. Alexi nervously sat at the table. He sat across from her, and their knees brushed.
'Ah...' he murmured, and she saw that a secret smile had curved into his lips. 'You are afraid.'
'Of what? That you're going to attack me in my house? You've already done that, right? The first night.'
'There's attack, and then there's attack....'
'Whatever.' She waved a hand dismissively in the air. He reached across the table and opened her beer. Damn him! She took a long sip, and he was still smiling, fully aware that she was drinking the beer as if reaching for a lifeline.
He lifted his bottle to her.
'Me and thee and Eden.'
'Do you try to pick up every woman over eighteen and under fifty?'
'No. Actually, I don't.' He took a long swallow from his bottle, watching her. 'Alexi...you have to know that you're beautiful. A woman who does Helen of Troy commercials has to be aware that she--'
He broke off abruptly. Alexi's eyes widened, wondering what he had been about to say that would have offended her.
'That she's what?' she demanded. 'Beautiful,' he said with a shrug. 'That's not what you were going to say.' 'All right.' He sounded angry, she thought. 'Sexy Sensual, sexual. Is that what you want to hear?' 'No! No-- no, it's not!' 'Well, then, why the hell push the point?'
'Could you go home, please?' She realized that she was sitting very straight, very primly, and that, in the bathing suit, she wasn't dressed for dignity. Nor did the beer bottle she was clutching do much for a feeling of aloofness, either.
'Yeah,' he said thickly, rising. 'Yeah, maybe I should do just that. 'Cause you know what, lady? You scare the hell out of me, too.'
'What?' she demanded, startled. No one could scare him; it had to be a line. But she felt bad--no, she felt guilty as hell. He had done everything for her. And somehow he seemed to understand her. She didn't want anyone in the family to know that she was anything but entirely competent; Rex didn't think that she wasn't competent, just because the snakes had nearly paralyzed her. He'd had the cleaners in; he hadn't really changed anything. He'd known instinctively just how far to go. He'd given her his own home; he'd spent time here--and he was a busy man. He'd bought her the beautiful kittens, just so that she would feel that she had some protection against things that slithered and crawled.
Rex reached across the table and gently cupped her cheek in his hand, stroking her flesh lightly with his thumb. 'I said you're kind of scary yourself, my sweet. You own and you possess and you steal into a soul...without a touch.'
Into a soul... She couldn't look away from his eyes. Dark and fascinating. All of him. She remembered spilling out everything on their first meeting, remembered thinking of him on the beach, aware that he was there, strong and masculine, and wishing that she could curl against him and laugh, because he seemed to understand so easily the things she needed.
She lowered her head; his hand fell away. She wondered if it wasn't time for a little more honesty, and she was amazed that she could bluntly say what she intended. 'You'd find me atrociously disappointing,' she said. Her voice was low, even weary. But she looked up and met his eyes again and felt the warmth suffuse her. “Looks can be deceiving. What you see isn't the real me.'
'I see fire and warmth and beauty.'
'It--it isn't there.'
'It needs only to be awakened.'
'And you're the one to do it, I take it.'
'I think I already have.'
'I think you have tremendous nerve.'
He laughed suddenly. 'Probably. But then, like I said, you do things to the psyche and the body....' His voice trailed away, and he shrugged. He had a bunch of papers on the counter, and he turned away, shuffling them together.
'Don't forget to feed the kittens.'
'You're leaving?'
'You told me to.'
'Well, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. All right, well, I meant it when I said it, but only because--'
'Because I was hitting on you?' He was amused, she thought. She cast him an acid gaze, and he laughed again. 'Well, I can't promise to quit, especially when you're half-naked.'
'You're more naked than I am.'
He smiled. “I suppose I should be glad that you noticed. Aha! That's it.'
'What's it?'
He thumped an elbow onto the table, then leaned forward. 'You're more afraid of yourself than you are of me.'
'Don't be absurd.'
'You are. You don't want me asking, because you're willing to give.'
Alexi groaned, wishing she weren't trembling inside. 'You win; I give up. Go home.'
'For now,' he promised, straightening and going for his papers once again. 'But you know how it is. A man, a woman, an island--'
'This isn't an island.'
'Close enough. But for now, goodbye, my love.'
Alexi stood and followed him out to the hallway. He whistled, and Samson came bounding out from the parlor. The kittens followed after him. Poor Samson had a tortured look about him. It seemed that the kittens hadn't recognized the fact that the shepherd was a hundred times their size; they had adopted him as a surrogate parent.
'Henpecked by a couple of kittens, huh, boy?' Rex said, laughing.
