I left for college and haven’t been back much since.”
“So why’d you get a job here? You’re interested in this New Age stuff?”
She looked toward the dangling beaded doorway with shelves of crystal balls lining either side and rolled her eyes.
“Interested? I don’t know about that. More like indoctrinated.” At his arched brow, she shrugged and admitted, “Cassiopeia is my mother.”
He might only have a vague recollection of the store, but he definitely remembered Cassiopeia. Third- generation woo-woo queen, all the guys in high school had had crushes on her. Bodacious, outrageous and eccentric, the outgoing redhead had a scary handle on that psychic stuff she sold to her customers.
“I remember your mom. She did readings at my senior carnival.”
“Mine, too.” Pandora didn’t sound nearly as intrigued as he’d been. The son of a colorful character, Caleb could sympathize.
Talk about the apple falling so far from the tree it could make orange juice. Now that he knew what to look for, he could see the resemblance in the curve of her cheeks, the rounded eyes more hazel than her mother’s emerald. And, of course, the red hair, again, more muted in Pandora’s case. It was as if she’d stepped into a shadow instead of embracing the full wattage her mother liked to wave around.
Interesting.
Even more interesting was that Caleb was finding muted about the sexiest thing he’d ever encountered. He just couldn’t figure out why since he’d always been a Technicolor kind of guy.
“You know what I heard while we were still in the store, then again while you were in the back getting cake?”
“You mean while you were hiding back here?” she corrected.
Caleb grinned, glad to see she had claws. It was always more fun to tangle with a wildcat than a pussycat.
“I heard people saying you serve up something besides food back here.”
This time the color wasn’t subtle. Nope, she blushed a hot, brilliant red. Her eyes flew to the store, then to the cake before meeting his gaze. A stubborn line furrowed between her brows.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she dismissed.
“You’re a horrible liar.”
“A gentleman would take the hint and change the subject.”
“Sweetie, I’ve never worried about being a gentleman.”
“Obviously.”
Grinning, Caleb decided it was time to change gears. He stood, and with a glance at the still-milling crowd in the store, decided to take his cue from his father and head out the back way.
“Walk me out?” he said, making the demand sound like a request.
“The back? The door’s right there,” she pointed out. But she got to her feet anyway.
Caleb didn’t know why he was pushing it. He’d already declared her off-limits, and while he was a guy who was all about pushing boundaries, he never crossed lines he, himself, drew.
But right now, he didn’t care.
“So is it true?” he asked, heading toward the door, counting on her being trapped by good manners into following.
“Is what true?”
“Do you really serve aphrodisiacs?”
She ground to a halt so fast, she teetered in her flat-heeled boots. “Don’t believe everything you hear,” she said dismissively.
“So, it’s a lie?”
“It’s more of an…exaggeration,” she decided. “After all, who’s to say whether aphrodisiacs are real or whether they’re a figment of the imagination?”
“I have a really good imagination.” He reached out and took her hand, lifting it to his mouth.
“What are you doing?” she asked with a gasp, tugging. But he didn’t let go.
“You have chocolate,” he told her, “just…here.”
He swiped his tongue over her knuckle. Her eyes went heated, her breath shuddered and she leaned against the wall with the cutest little mewling noise.
In an instant, Caleb went from amused to rock-hard. An overwhelming urge to touch her, to taste her, washed over him.
Never a man to ignore his gut, he went with the feeling. Stepping forward, the rich taste of chocolate still on his lips, Caleb pressed her body between his and the chilly glass. One hand on either side of her head, he leaned closer.
“This is crazy,” she breathed, twisting her hands together at her waist. But she didn’t pull away. Instead, she lifted her chin.
That’s all the encouragement he needed.
Holding her gaze captive, he brushed his lips over her soft, sweetly moist mouth. He slid his tongue along her lower lip, then gently nibbled at the cushioned flesh.
Passion throbbed, urging him to take it deeper, to go faster. But he resisted.
For the first time in forever, Caleb felt as if he’d come home. Even as the sexual heat zinged through his body like lightning, he relaxed. Need pounded through him, making him ache. But he was at peace.
It was that confusion more than any desire to stop that had him pulling back. He stared, waiting for Pandora to open her eyes. In them he saw confusion, hunger and a hint of fear.
The same as he was feeling.
“You might want to go easy on that cake,” he suggested, brushing his knuckles over her cheek before forcing himself away. Stepping back from the warm, soft curves of her body was harder than it should have been. Way too freaking hard. Caleb frowned, not sure what the hell was going on here.
Hand on the doorknob, he looked back. She was still leaning against the wall, her breath ragged and her eyes huge.
“Like I said, I’m in room seventeen. Come on by if you want to do something about that interest. Or serve up something a little hotter than cake.”
4
“I’LL HAVE THE PASTA SPECIAL, the house salad with raspberry vinaigrette and the house white,” Kathy ordered over the melodic jingle of crystal and silver.
“And you, madam? What would you like?”
“I’d like what’s in room seventeen,” Pandora muttered, staring blindly at the menu.
“Beg your pardon?”
“What’s in room seventeen?” Kathy prodded with a nudge of her toe under the white linen-covered table.
Playing back what she’d said, Pandora scrunched her nose in a rueful grimace. God, she couldn’t get Caleb Black out of her head. His intense gold eyes, his sexy swagger and oh, baby, those magic lips.
He’d tasted so good. So enticing. Like the most deliciously decadent chocolate eclair. Rich and tempting and mouthwateringly hedonistic. All she had to do was close her eyes and she could relive the sweet slide of his mouth over hers, her body heating instantly at the memory.
“Dory?”
Pandora blinked. Damn, she’d done it again. Spaced off into Caleb fantasyland. She’d been taking that trip over and over and over for the past two days. She’d just bet his body was a wild amusement park, too. One she was in desperate danger of knocking on the door of room seventeen to beg to ride.
“Pandora!”
Pandora winced and gave the waiter an apologetic smile and said, “Sorry, I’ll have the same thing.”
Not that she had any idea what Kathy had ordered.
