Brazen

'Anyone else call you Sammy Jo… besides Zee, and he's outside waxing my car with no access to a phone.'

'Waxing your… He's eighty years old. Do you want to give the man heatstroke?'

'I'm joking, Samantha.'

'Oh.' She laughed, even as she swiped at a stray tear that trickled down her cheek. 'But I'm not. No one calls me Sammy Jo but you.'

'Damn right,' he muttered. 'And don't you forget it.'

He wasn't angry. She would have heard it in his voice. At least she thought she would have, but she couldn't be sure. 'Mac?'

'What is it, sweetheart?'

'I… I'm glad you called.' She paused, listening to his steady breathing, letting the sound burrow into her heart and reassure her. 'And I'm sorry I walked out on you this morning. But I have things I need to take care of here, and I didn't know how to say goodbye, and now I'm sorry because we would have had more time, and I don't know if you're angry. Of course you have every right to be, but…'

'You're rambling,' he interrupted her.

She grinned, pictured him grinning back, and the tightness in her chest eased for the first time since she'd left him in bed. 'I know.'

'Because you're nervous.'

'Yes.'

'I can take care of that, you know.' His husky tone caused every nerve ending in her body to quiver. He aroused her with innuendo, relaxed her with his voice and touched her with a simple phone call.

She squeezed the receiver in her hand. 'How?'

'Trust me, sweetheart.'

* * *

'I do.'

The simple admission did Mac in. He eased himself back against the pillow, wishing he weren't alone, that he didn't have to settle for her voice over the phone.

But the bar needed work, and Mac wasn't one to turn the reins over until the place had been cleaned up. He wouldn't ask Zee to help out, either. The old man had planned his weekly trip to the cemetery to visit his wife's grave. Mac couldn't intrude on his solitude. So until Bear returned in a few hours, Mac was on his own.

Think resourceful, Mackenzie. 'Okay, sweetheart. Relax and tell me where you are.'

She sighed. 'My room.'

He laughed. 'I know that. I called you, remember? Describe it.'

'Well, there's been some sort of mistake, and right now I'm in a suite. It's incredible. The colors, they're like a dream. My dream, the one I told you about, remember?'

As if he could forget. A house, a home, children, his and hers. Samantha's soft voice drifted over him like a cloud. She was happy in his hotel, in the suite that adjoined his, the one his sister used to live in before she got married and moved a few hours away.

'And Mac?'

'Yes?'

'You should see the bathroom. The colors are heaven, and the tub? It's a Jacuzzi.' She'd dropped her voice, and the husky sound brought him back to the moment he'd first seen her, dirty from the desert but irresistible, nonetheless.

'You know what else? It's got a shower massage.' She paused a beat. 'Hand-held, Mac.'

He groaned. A pulsing began in his groin that only grew with each image she evoked. He'd pictured her in his tub, naked and relaxed, all soapy skin, legs spread wide…

'Are you there?' she asked.

He cleared his throat. 'Yes. I thought I was the one that was supposed to be taking care of you.'

'I thought we could take care of each other.' The pause this time seemed less deliberate. 'We were good at that, weren't we?' she finally asked.

'You know we were. Have you eaten yet this morning?' He grasped for everyday conversation. Safe conversation that led him away from thoughts of Samantha, shower massages and making love. Long distance didn't cut it.

A direct flight from Arizona to New York wouldn't cut it, either.

'No breakfast yet, but I'm starving.' She let the word drawl out on her tongue in a way that shot his resolutions to hell and back. 'What about you? Are you hungry?' she asked.

Ravenous, he thought, but not for food. He glanced at the clock. A couple of more hours and this damn charade would be over with. 'What are your plans?' he asked, steering her back to safe ground.

'Well, I have a cocktail party around four today, which is an obligatory thing, and then I've got… some personal business to take care of.'

At which point he'd be back where he belonged and more in control of the situation. And himself. So far, he'd managed to keep the truth from Sam by offering Joe, his newest but most eager employee, a bonus if he managed to have Sam treated like a princess. One who had no idea who'd placed her on the throne.

That was Mac's job, one he planned on handling tonight.

'What about you?' she asked.

'I'll be doing my usual thing later on.'

'Sounds good. Wish I could be there.'

You will, sweetheart. You will. 'I've got to clean things up around here… before Bear comes back.'

'I never got to meet him.'

Her wistful voice knocked a hole in his heart. 'Maybe someday.'

'Yeah. Maybe.' Though he hated like hell leaving her with the impression that things between them were uncertain, she'd given him no choice. The telephone hadn't been invented for personal revelations this big. 'Got to go, sweetheart.'

'Bye, Mac.'

He waited until she hung up the phone before doing the same. Then he dragged himself into the bathroom and turned the cold water on in the shower, full force. It would help ease the ache of desire, but not completely.

Only Samantha could do that. She had no idea what she did to him, and he wasn't talking just physically. Their relationship transcended sex. She taught him new things about himself, about his ability to love and give, but more important, she seemed to learn more about herself each day as well.

He finally had her where he wanted her, but the thought made him uneasy. As long as she remained in the dark, everything would be fine.

10

Sam bolted upright in bed. A sheen of perspiration covered her body, courtesy of the sensual dream she'd just experienced. Strategic parts of her body still tingled with the memory of Mac's hands on her skin, his lips tasting hers. She wrapped her arms around her waist to still the trembling, the yearning for something she couldn't have.

Because although Mac had called, he hadn't mentioned seeing her again. It hurt, she admitted, and she'd have to deal with that.

First she had to cope with reality, and that meant getting herself out of this gilded cage she couldn't afford. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and reached for her purse when she caught sight of her left hand and Mac's ring.

The ring she had to remove and replace with Tom's… at least until she officially ended things between them.