but her hands snaked around his neck and for a moment, she clung.
He stroked her back and tamped down any regrets. “Don’t worry. It so happens, time is in plentiful supply.”
And strange as it seemed, given she’d turned him down yet again, Dax felt an inkling of hope for their future.
12
THAT NIGHT, Dax lay in his bed staring at the ceiling wondering how long it would take for sleep to claim him when the phone rang.
Given how his heart picked up speed, he knew who it would be. “Hello?”
“Did you mean it?”
Amber. Unsure and unhappy. “I meant every one of those three little words,” he assured her grimly.
“Another promise?”
“Another promise.”
There was a long silence, and he knew she was very busy thinking.
“Have I broken one to you yet, Amber?”
“No,” she said slowly, but she sounded slightly reassured. “I have to go.”
His heart twisted, a feeling he was beginning to associate with her. “Good night, Amber,” he whispered.
DAX FOUND Amber at what he now knew to be her favorite lunch spot. He grinned at her bowl of strawberry yogurt. “Are you going to let me watch you eat that?”
She stopped licking her spoon and eyed him over the bowl with an interesting mix of pleasure and wariness. The wariness he expected because it had been four days since he’d sought her out.
The pleasure was a nice surprise.
“No,” she finally said.
Ignoring that, because whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was crazy about him, he swiveled a chair around and straddled it. Leaning forward, he took in her cool, sedate, navy blue suit. “I don’t suppose I can convince you to spill again so that you could lose the uptight clothes.”
Surprising him, she laughed. “Actually, I thought of you this morning when I put this on.”
“Yeah?” For some reason, that gave him ridiculous pleasure. So did the thought of her standing, fresh out of a shower, naked, thinking of him.
Her voice was low. “I thought of it as my armor.”
“Against?”
She played with the yogurt now. “Sometimes you give me a certain look and it makes me feel…funny.”
He gave her one of those looks now and the air sizzled between them.
“That’s the one,” she said a bit shakily, pointing at him with her spoon. “That’s it right there.”
“Do you feel funny now?”
“A little, yeah.”
“Me, too.” He heard the rough arousal in his voice and couldn’t stop himself. “And it has nothing to do with the clothes you wear.” He leaned close. “You could put on real armor and it wouldn’t matter one damn bit.”
Her eyes closed briefly, and he knew he didn’t mistake that quick flash of helpless desire on her face before she carefully masked it and rose. “I have work.”
He touched her arm, stilled her. “You can believe in me, Amber. Believe in yourself enough to see it.”
“I’m trying, Dax. Whatever you think of me, I want you to know that.”
He rose, too, and skimmed his fingers over her cheek. “I know you’ve had no one to trust with yourself before, but I promise you, I’m different.”
And then, because they were in the crowded cafe, and because neither of them were quite steady, he stepped back. “Think about it.”
AMBER WANTED to do nothing but think about it. As she entered her office, her mind whirled. She moved toward her desk and the mountain of work waiting for her.
Halfway there, the earth rumbled beneath her feet. For a second she allowed herself to believe it was her overly active imagination.
It wasn’t. The earthquake was short and quick, and absolutely terrifying.
There had been many this year, and she remembered each and every one of them because they’d brought on a heart-stopping panic she couldn’t control.
A normal reaction for someone who’d been through what she had, she assured herself, gripping her desk, prepared to dive under it if necessary.
“It’s okay,” she said out loud as she waited, tense and frozen. “Just an aftershock.” She knew they could occur for years after a main quake. The knowledge didn’t help. Many people in the area had been terrorized by the aftershocks, not just her. It was normal.
She told herself all of this, repeatedly, but she still forgot to breathe and her chest hurt. Her vision spotted.
And though it was over long before she even fully registered it, she remained there, rigid, heart drumming, palms damp, shaking like a leaf.
The door to her office opened and shut, and suddenly Dax was standing there, saying her name in that deep, wonderful voice.
“I came the second I felt it,” he said. “I was still on the street. I thought-I didn’t know how you would feel- Dammit, I hate those things!” he exclaimed, taking her arms in his strong, reassuring hands. “Are you all right?”
“Certainly.” But she clung to his big, welcoming body. Just for a moment, she told herself. She’d allow herself to lean on him for just a moment. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t.” With a gentleness that was so tender, so sweet it hurt, he curled a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Don’t fake being strong for me.”
“It was just an aftershock. Hardly even big enough to register on the scale.”
“It registered on my scale,” came his gruff reply, and for the first time she heard his breathlessness, felt the quiver in his own muscles, and realized he felt the fear, too.
She gave herself permission to hold him for another moment.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, gathering her tighter, absorbing her weight with ease. “We’re okay.”
“Taylor,” she said, lifting her head. Urgency overcame her. “I want to call-”
“We will. Soon as I can remember my mother’s phone number. We’ll go get her together, okay? Amber, just hold onto me for a second.”
For some reason, the words softened her as nothing else could have and she let out a lungful of air, burying her face in the wonderful spot of his neck that seemed meant for her. “Don’t be afraid,” she told him. “I have a big, tough desk. It’ll hold.”
He laughed, as she had meant for him to, and somehow that softened her even more so that her arms wrapped even tighter around him.
“We’re both shaking like leaves,” he muttered, sinking with her to the floor. “I really hate earthquakes.”
“Just for the record here,” she wondered. “Who’s comforting who?”
“I’m not sure, just don’t let go.”
She didn’t. They sat huddled on the floor in each other’s arms like two little children. Her legs were entwined with his, her skirt high on her thighs. His hands were on her back, slowly running up and down in a reassuring gesture that hadn’t been anything but sincerely comforting, until his hands slipped beneath her jacket to the silk of her blouse.
