The next morning, she found him shivering again in the kitchen, pouring freshly brewed coffee into a mug. At least he was dressed this time. “Good morning,” he said when he saw her. “Want some?” He gestured toward the coffee.
“Sure. Thanks.” She went to the table and sat. This was nice, actually. Nice to be waited on for a change.
She watched him pour the coffee, then he sat across from her at the table, pushing her cup toward her. He curled his hands around his mug, letting the steam caress his face. He was still shivering.
“Cold?” she asked.
He shuddered. “You really should turn up the heat a little.”
“You really should wear some pajamas to bed.”
He made a face. “Pajamas are for wimps.”
“I wear them.”
“You’re a girl.”
“I see.” She smiled and sipped her coffee, watching him desperately clutch the heat of his mug. “I’m not shivering, though.”
“All you have to do is turn the heat up.”
“Heat’s for wimps.”
His eyebrow quirked, his mouth compressing as if holding back a smile. “Touché.” He swigged down the last of his coffee and went back for more.
She watched his retreat into the kitchen, focusing on the way his jeans hugged his rear end. Maybe she wouldn’t have to worry about his staying the whole month. His citified, pretty-boy genes couldn’t take it in the mountains.
“It’d be a lot warmer if we’d been in bed together,” he said then, and she rolled her eyes reflexively as he leered and poured more coffee.
“We’d just be that much colder now. It’s like getting out of the hot tub when it’s snowing outside. It feels twenty degrees colder because you’re already so warm.”
His eyebrows rose. “You have a hot tub?”
“Yes, I do.”
His sober nod spelled danger. Something was going on behind those gray eyes. He was hatching some kind of plan. “Sounds nice,” was all he said.
She decided to let that rest, for fear of putting other thoughts into his head. Let him work out his seduction scenario on his own. “I have to be at work in a half hour. What do you want to do?”
He gave her a wicked grin. “What do you mean by that?”
“You know what I mean.” She barely repressed the urge to roll her eyes. “You can come with me, or stay here and try to drive down to the shop later. I can leave you directions.” Rey had never been much for driving, though, city boy that he was. She was half afraid he might end up in Shawnee if he tried to drive to the shop by himself. Or Utah.
“I’ll come with you.”
“Are you sure? It might be just as dull at the shop.”
“Maybe, but there are other places within walking distance of the shop. I can snoop around what passes for downtown if I get tired of hanging out with the pots and jewelry. Plus I can follow you in my rental car, so if I get too bored I can come back here or take a drive or something.”
“That’s fine.” She stood, drained her coffee mug and set it in the sink. “I’ll be ready in a bit.”
He wanted to follow her into the bathroom and watch her morning routine. He’d always enjoyed watching her put on her makeup. He liked the funny faces she made when she applied her mascara. But he had some things to get ready, too. He finished his coffee and toast, found eggs in the refrigerator and started a couple frying on the stove, then headed into the living room. His laptop was ready to go, already folded up in its case. He checked the outside pocket of the case for his digital camera. His USB drive was in another pocket, and he also had power cables for the computer. All set. With luck, he could get some work done while he was out, provided he could stay under Joely’s radar.
The eggs were just the right side of done when Joely emerged from the bathroom, her porcelain skin even lovelier under a light application of cosmetics. He took a moment to absorb the sight of her, then turned back to his eggs.
“We have to go,” she told him, coming into the kitchen with her giant purse slung over her shoulder. “You don’t have time to eat those.”
“No problem.” He snagged two more pieces of bread from the loaf and dumped the eggs out of the skillet between them, making a sandwich. “I’m ready.”
She smiled a little, and he was encouraged to see the softness in it. “I forgot you need more than toast in the morning.”
“I’m a big, strapping man. I need protein.”
She laughed. He grinned and followed her out the door.
• • •
From behind the counter, Joely and Perry watched Rey as he studied the merchandise in the front jewelry cabinet. He was squatting on the floor in front of the case, and the position did such marvelous things to his thighs and buttocks that it was hard for Joely to concentrate on Perry’s earnest advice.
“Don’t stand there drooling at him and ignoring me and tell me you don’t still love him,” Perry finally said, in half-mock exasperation.
“Lusting after him and loving him aren’t the same thing.”
“I’m sorry, hon, but that’s not lust.” Joely looked at her in surprise. Perry shook her head with a tolerant smile. “There’s something in your eyes I’ve never seen before.”
“Really? What?”
Perry nodded sagely. “Fear. And lust, my dear, does not inspire fear.”
Rey straightened and turned toward the shop’s high, wide back window, giving the women a view of his clean profile.
“Look at him,” Joely muttered. “He’s not even that good-looking. I mean, look at his nose. It’s huge.”
“Is he in proportion?” Perry’s eyes twinkled lewdly.
Thinking about the wet cotton briefs and what they had failed miserably to conceal, Joely nodded. “More or less.” She sighed again, then shook her head. “I can’t throw him out. Not now. There’s too much—” She broke off, unwilling to face the emotion her words had begun to evoke. “I have to give it a chance.” Rey stepped closer to the window, and Joely looked at Perry. “Do you think it’s the right thing to do?”
“I think if it weren’t, you wouldn’t be agonizing over it so much.”
“You might be right about that.” She crossed her arms firmly over her chest. Just then, Rey turned his head to look at her and smile. She smiled back, but she knew it looked forced, and her brow refused to unbeetle.
But her soberness only made his smile widen. He knew, she thought. Somehow, he knew exactly what she’d been thinking, and he knew what decision she’d made.
Well, good for him. That would save her having to actually tell him. Inexplicably angry, she wheeled and huffed into the office, slamming the door behind her.
• • •
Rey couldn’t help laughing a little at Joely’s vehement departure. He hadn’t been able to hear what she and Perry had been saying, but he’d known damn well they were talking about him. Joely was, he knew, agonizing over what could have been a simple decision. Keep him or kick him out. Yes or no. Why did it have to be so hard?
He wasn’t being fair, though. He’d come out of nowhere, asking more than he should have. If he hadn’t been so desperate to get her back, he never would have forced himself on her like this. But living without her had been like living without part of his heart. He needed her back, and it was hard for him to imagine she might not feel the same way.
In any case, it looked like she’d made her decision. He was going to get his probation period. The next question was, how far to push it? Did he dare imagine he might be able to get her into bed tonight? The thought made him weak inside. It had been nearly eighteen months since the last time they’d made love—his fault, for ignoring her those months before she’d finally packed up and left. And he hadn’t touched another woman since the last time he’d touched Joely. His body hurt with his need for her. It was all he could do to keep standing there, nonchalant, smiling now at Perry, then returning his attention to the gorgeous sweep of scenery out the wide window.
“It’s pretty up here,” he said, nodding toward the window, surprised his voice sounded normal rather than strangled and tortured.
“Yes, it is,” Perry said. Something tight in her tone made him look at her. She had her arms crossed over her chest and was regarding him with one eyebrow cocked. “If you hurt her,” she said, “I’ll kill you.”
Rey’s smile fell off his face. He’d thought Perry was on his side. “I—” he started, then faltered under the intensity of Perry’s glare.
The bell on the front door rang and a young woman came in, a little girl balanced on her hip. Perry cast Rey one last dark look. “I mean it, Rey.”
Rey swallowed. “I believe you.”
“Good.”
Perry turned to her new customer then, her face changing from deathly threat to smiles and charm. Rey, disconcerted, shook his head.
Between the unpredictable weather and the unpredictable women, Colorado was a scary place.