Honor warred with need. This time, to his regret, honor won.
Reluctantly Kevin settled for a whisper-light caress of her shoulder, as he shifted one fallen strap of her gown back into place. Fingertips skimmed over cool, silken flesh, lingered as his pulse skipped, then raced.
Lacey’s breath hitched at the touch. He held his own breath in an agony of anticipation, waiting to see if she would wake, hoping against hope that she would. He told himself he would be blameless then.
When she didn’t awaken, when the pattern of her breathing became slow and steady again, he sighed.
Tomorrow, he promised himself. Tomorrow they would find their way back into each other’s arms.
* * *
Lacey spent the morning trying to figure out why Kevin suddenly seemed so nostalgic. It was as if he’d spent the whole night lost in memories, caught up in the same sweetly tormenting dreams that she had had when she’d finally fallen into a restless slumber.
Today it seemed as if he were using those memories to rekindle the desire that had always surged between them like a palpable force.
“What’s gotten into you?” she murmured, when his hand curved around the nape of her neck for just an instant as he returned to the breakfast table. The casual touch sent her pulse scrambling. She tried to cover it by spreading jam on her toast.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, pouring himself a second cup of coffee, his expression all smug male innocence.
She regarded him with disbelief, then finally shrugged. “Perhaps it’s just my imagination playing tricks with me.”
He nodded, rather quickly she thought.
“I’m sure that’s it,” he agreed, but the gleam in his eyes contradicted the too-casual response.
Her gaze narrowed. “Are you sure you have no idea what I’m talking about?”
His eyes widened. “None. Did you sleep well?”
“I tossed and turned a bit. You?”
“I was a bit restless myself. I looked in on you,” he said in a voice that sounded a bit husky.
Surprised, she didn’t know what to say, finally settling for a simple, “Oh?”
She reached hurriedly for a section of the Boston paper so she could hide the flush of embarrassment that she could feel creeping into her cheeks. Kevin nudged the paper aside.
“Lacey.” His voice was soft and slow as honey, but it held a definite note of command.
She swallowed hard, then forced herself to meet his gaze. “Yes?”
“You looked very beautiful.”
This time there was no hiding the heat that climbed into her cheeks. “Kevin Halloran, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to rattle me.”
He grinned at that. “Then you obviously don’t know me at all. Actually my intentions aren’t nearly that honorable. I want to seduce you.”
Lacey felt every muscle in her body clench, not just at his words, though those were disturbing enough, but at the spark of satisfaction in his eyes.
“Am I having any luck?” he asked, his tone light.
“The offer is tempting,” she admitted.
“That’s good.”
“It is the middle of the morning, though.”
“And what is wrong with making love to my wife in the middle of the morning?”
“Not a thing,” she murmured breathlessly, captivated by the possibilities.
She saw his whole body tense at that. He held out his hand. She was about to reach for it when reason intruded. There were a hundred reasons for going to bed with Kevin and a thousand more for saying no. She had remembered them all last night. Today it seemed she had to search her memory for just one.
“We can’t, Kevin,” she said desperately, thinking of Linc’s insistent warning. “It’s too soon.”
Sudden anger turned his eyes a stormy shade of gray blue. “Too soon?” he repeated in a voice that throbbed with sarcasm. “Too soon for whom? We haven’t made love in a year. Maybe more.”
Though he had missed her meaning entirely, Lacey was too stunned by his harsh, bitterly accusing tone to explain. Instead, she snapped back, “And whose fault is that? Not mine, dammit. I wasn’t the one who spent sixteen hours a day in an office and came home exhausted. I’m not the one who was so caught up in work that nothing else mattered.”
“No,” he said, his tone and his gaze as cold as a winter morning. “You were the one who walked out.”
At that she shoved her chair back from the table and forced herself to be silent. Arguing was no solution. If anything it would only make matters worse. But all of this tiptoeing around their problems for fear of upsetting Kevin was beginning to get to her. How many times could she clamp her mouth shut, holding in her hurt, her anger?
At the sink, Lacey gripped the edge of the counter so tightly her knuckles turned white. She drew in a deep, calming breath before she turned back to face him.
“We have to talk about all of this, but only when we can do it calmly.”
“I’m not feeling one damn bit calm,” he said furiously. “I am sick and tired of being made out to be the bad guy here. I’m a human being, Lacey. Not some storybook hero. I’m sure I’ve made more than my share of mistakes, but so have you.” He glared at her. “So, my dear, have you.”
Before Lacey could gather her wits for a comeback, Kevin was gone, leaving her alone with her anger and with the sad awareness that after all these days together, they were not one bit better off than they had been months ago. They didn’t understand each other at all anymore.
* * *
Lacey was still in the kitchen, lingering over a last cup of coffee, when she heard a car pull up outside. She heard Kevin open the door and she wandered into the hallway to see who’d come to visit.
Jason and Dana. Dear Lord, she had forgotten they were coming. She viewed their arrival as a mixed blessing. They would serve as a buffer after this morning’s angry exchange. At the same time, their presence would create even
