Secret Desire

“You wouldn’t do that!”

“It’s my duty. Look…I…Have lunch or dinner with me tomorrow. If you’re busy then, let’s make it breakfast. I want to see you.”

He moved like a cyclone, and she could see herself getting caught in the whirling cone of his determination. “You put a twenty-four-hour watch on the store, and Officer Cowan patrols the store regularly, so I don’t see what else I need.”

“We’ll discuss whatever else you need when we’re together tomorrow. Suppose we make a day of it. I’ll be over for breakfast. What time?”

“Should I have a notebook handy?”

“For what?”

“I wouldn’t want to forget what you have to say about what you think I need.”

“Trust me, sweetheart, I’ll see that you don’t.”

She knew she should end it right there. He excited her as no man ever had, and she knew she’d find all that she longed for with him, but she had a premonition that getting involved with him could bring her more pain than Nathan Middleton had ever caused her.

She ignored her inner voice. “By nine o’clock Randy’s starving,” she said, feeling spineless.

“Then I’ll be there at nine…if it’s all right with you, that is.”

He had a quality of grace, a gentlemanly demeanor, even when, like now, he was overbearing. But she didn’t care that he’d pushed her a little hard; she wanted to see him every bit as much as he wanted to see her.

She swallowed, and had to clear her throat. “It’s fine with me.”

“You sure?”

“If you’re asking if I’m sorry I caved in, I won’t know the answer until after tomorrow, and maybe not even then.”

“That’s right—leave no row unhoed. Nothing like a straightforward answer to keep the record clear. We’ll make a day of it?”

“If Randy doesn’t have a program.”

“Come off it, woman. What kind of program can Randy have that you didn’t arrange? You don’t need an excuse, Kate. If you don’t want to see me, just say no.”

She bristled. “How is it that you’re such a genius at vexing me? If I wanted to say no, I would. I never do anything I don’t want to do. We’re that much alike. And you stop trying to bamboozle me. See you in the morning.”

She could feel the warmth and the enticement of his laughter through the wires, masculine and suggestive—an invitation to madness, a lure that she didn’t want to resist.

“Way to go. I like your tinsel. With you, a man has to stay on his toes, eat his Wheaties and keep his engine fine-tuned. Till tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow.” She stared at the phone until the operator told her to hang up. Gone was her bravery of hours earlier, when she’d parted her lips and kissed him. Shivers plowed through her as she let her mind tease her with visions of the ways in which he’d make her pay.

Luke gazed at the food spread out on Kate’s dining-room table—plenty of everything the Yankees crammed into their stomachs, but not a biscuit in sight.

“Kate, do you know how to make biscuits?”

“Of course I do.”

“And grits and sage sausage and scrambled eggs?”

“Sure.”

“Then—”

“When I start eating that stuff, especially biscuits, I can’t stop, and all of it’s fattening. And don’t tell me I don’t have to start, because I can’t pass up a biscuit. I’ll make some at your place and leave while they’re baking, but not here.”

Her lashes flew up and a soft gasp escaped her when he pulled her nose and winked at her. “I’ll buy that.”

“Where’re we going, Captain Luke?” Randy asked when they’d finished breakfast.

“Wherever your mother wants to go. Hop in the kitchen and help. If she cooks, you help her clean. I’d help, too, but she asked me to repair this table lamp.”

“You’re always telling me what to do.”

Luke put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “If you behave the way you’re supposed to, the only words you’ll hear from me will be praise. Now, into the kitchen.”

Randy dashed toward the kitchen, and he put his attention on the lamp. Not a second alone with her, and how he itched and ached to get his hands on her. Twenty minutes later she reappeared in a red blazer, navy blue miniskirt, and a pair of sandals laced to midcalf. Her hair fell loose and sexily around her shoulders. He crossed his thighs. She had to know what she did to him. He took a pad and pen from his jacket. “What’s the name of that perfume?”

“Fendi.”

He wrote it down. “It’s worth whatever it costs. Ready?”

She nodded. “Could we go look at the boats?”

“You bet. Ever been to the naval base? It’s the biggest in the country.”

He loved to see her smile, her face sparkling, and the eyes that reminded him of a lover’s moon in spring. “I haven’t been there yet, but I’d been planning to take Randy.”

“Can we get on a boat, Captain Luke?”

It surprised him that Randy took his hand as they boarded The Carrie B, a paddlewheel riverboat, for a harbor tour. He pointed out the gray ladies of the United States Atlantic Fleet—nuclear-powered submarines, destroyers and aircraft carriers, great hulking figures that seemed out of place against the bright modern buildings that graced the shoreline.

“What’s on your mind, Kate?” he whispered while Randy gaped at a mammoth aircraft carrier, lost in the wonder of it.

When she didn’t respond, he realized that she, too, was caught up in the magic of the setting as the sun’s rays bounced off the green, gray and black-shaded skyscraper windows and danced in rainbow like colors against the fleet of ships.

He took her hand and relaxed when she let him hold it, but he didn’t consider that cause for overconfidence. This wasn’t a woman who allowed her libido to dictate the terms of her life; she was as capable as he of turning her back on something she wanted. With gentle pressure, he squeezed her fingers until she looked into his eyes and smiled, and he thought he’d die from the furious pounding of his runaway heart. Her unsuccessful attempt to shift her gaze from his fueled his need, and when she parted her lips and her breathing accelerated, frissons of heat shot through him. She must have seen the signs of his rising passion, for she dropped his hand, rushed to Randy, and put an arm around the boy’s shoulders.

“Look, Captain Luke, a submarine’s coming up out of the water.”

He joined them at the railing as the huge, gray vessel broke through the water. Again, Randy took his hand, and he wondered at the child’s impulse. Kate wouldn’t look at him, and the scene gave him an uneasy feeling, a portent of things to come. The Carrie B eased back to shore, but Randy didn’t want to get off.

“You must learn to obey your mother and stop giving her a hard time,” Luke told him. “She’s trying to take care of you, so you cooperate with her.”

Randy whirled around and glared at him. “My daddy never talked to me like that. I don’t like for you to tell me what to do.”

“Mind your manners, Randy,” Kate said.

If she wants to raise that boy to be a respectable man, Luke thought, she wouldn’t do it that way.

He looked at Kate. “I’d wanted us to spend the day together. But I’m not taking another ride on this boat, and I don’t allow children to sass me with impunity, so I’ll see you another time.”

“We’re getting off this boat now,” she said through clenched teeth, “and Randy is going to apologize to you.”

“Aw, Mom.”

“This minute, Randy, or my hand is going to your behind.”

“I’m s-sorry, Captain Luke.”

He could hardly believe it when Randy’s hand grasped his again. “Apology accepted, Randy.” He’d like to know Randy’s method of controlling his father, because if that was what he’d done. Well, it wouldn’t work with him.

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