Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [39]
And looked straight into Caleb Middleton’s dark, unreadable eyes.
8
“Sorry to spoil your plans, sweetheart,” Caleb said. “But all this is wasted on me. You had me at hello.”
“Oh, fuck you,” Rachel snapped.
“Don’t let David hear you say that,” he said, moving past her. The small hallway led into a wide rectangle of a living room, all angles and planes and gleaming wood floors and not a speck of dust. A fire was lit, there were candles burning and the table was set for two. He left his shoes on when he knew David insisted on their removal at the door, tossing his battered leather jacket over a chair. “Where is he, by the way?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” she grumbled. To his surprise she didn’t automatically sweep up his coat and hang it in the closet, the way David would have done, and she didn’t give him shit about his shoes. David hadn’t brainwashed her completely. Maybe there was hope for her after all. “And what are you doing here?”
He couldn’t stop looking at her mouth. It was red—he knew it wasn’t left over from the kiss they’d shared hours earlier, but it was all he could think of. “My brother invited me for dinner. He thought we needed some family time. Didn’t he bother to tell you?”
“I haven’t seen him since I left…your place.” Her stumble over the words was so slight that most people wouldn’t have noticed. She was remembering the kiss as well. Good.
Without another word she spun around and headed for the kitchen, her skirts swirling around her long legs. Caleb took a moment to appreciate it, as well as the sway of her hips and the bounce of her tangled auburn hair, and then he followed her, just in time to hear his brother’s voice on the answering machine, a pale copy of Stephen Henry’s rich, Shakespearian tones. Rachel hit the delete button before he could make out the message, but the expression on her face wasn’t happy.
“He’s been held up,” she said briskly. “Something to do with on-campus grief counseling. He’s very good at that, you know.”
“I expect he is.”
“So maybe you’d better take a rain check. There’s no telling when he’ll get back.” She made a move toward him, as if to shoo him out, but he wasn’t in the mood.
“Oh, I wouldn’t think of it, after you’ve gone to so much trouble.”
She was just managing to control her temper. “I haven’t gone to any trouble at all. David’s a vegetarian—he gets twigs and berries. You strike me as a meat and potatoes kind of guy.”
“I do have healthy appetites…What do you eat here? Hummingbird tongues?”
“He who dines only on hummingbird tongues is destined to starve to death?” she quoted back at him. “I eat meat. Just not when David’s around. He’s too sensitive.”
Caleb said nothing, moving over to the massive refrigerator and peering inside. “You’ve got jack-shit to eat in there. Doesn’t Sophie get any junk food?”
“Sophie’s none of your business,” she said, trying not to look uneasy and failing completely. “In fact, she has her own refrigerator in her room, where she can have all the garbage she wants. Fortunately she’s always been a wise child and she’ll eat anything interesting.”
He nodded, closing the barren refrigerator door. Not even a beer in sight. “Where is she?”
“None of your damned business.”
“It’s a logical question. Clearly she’s not here. You had this big seduction scene all set up so you had to have stashed her somewhere, which kind of surprises me. You strike me as an overprotective mother.”
“I’m not overprotective, I’m normal,” she shot back. “And Sophie’s spending the night at her best friend’s house, who happens to be the daughter of the chief of police.”
He nodded. “Very wise. And your police chief doesn’t have a hell of a lot to do now that the FBI are pushing their way around here.”
“How did you know that?”
“Because they already questioned me,” he said, a tossed off line, waiting to see her reaction. “Tell you what—let’s go out and find something to eat.”
“You’re kidding.”
“David isn’t going to be home till late, so your Mata Hari routine is wasted, unless you want to practice on me. I’m hungry, and by the looks of your