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She glanced upward, looked into his face, and tried to say something intelligent. No words came. Not a croak. Not a whisper. Not a stammer. Nothing.
He lifted his brows and offered the glass again. She took the champagne and clutched the flute in a death grip.
“Grandpa Pete?”
“I wouldn’t mind one of those to wet my whistle,” Pete said, taking one of the remaining two.
“Did I interrupt something?” Matt asked.
“I was just trying to convince Eve to move to Texas so she could have lots of room for her animals. Eve, this here’s my grandson, Matt.”
Matt’s dark eyes bore into hers. “Oh, do you have animals?”
She tried again to speak, but her mouth was dry. She took a sip of champagne and managed to whisper, “Yes.”
“Did he convince you?” Matt asked.
Convince her? Of what? She tried to think, to recall the earlier conversation, but thinking was like trying to walk in knee-deep mud. He obviously noticed her perplexity because he smiled and said, “Did Grandpa Pete convince you to move to Texas? Sounds like a great idea to me.”
She shook her head. “Impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible.” He tossed back his wine in one swallow and set the glass aside. “Dance?”
“I—I’m not much of a dancer.”
“I don’t believe it. Angels float on air.” He peeled her fingers from the stemmed glass and handed it to Pete. “Come,” he said, holding out his arms to her.
She stepped into his arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and they began to waltz. Eve, who’d always had two left feet, glided across the floor in perfect synchronization with Matt’s lead.
They danced on and on, swirling around the floor until laughter rippled from her throat like bubbles from Dom Perignon. He smiled down at her, his eyes shining like a starry midnight, and an unbelievable thrill went through her body.
The tempo of the music changed to a ballad, and he pulled her close. Her forehead rested perfectly in the hollow of his cheek. Still in perfect sync, their steps became slow, but as their bodies touched, her pulse began to accelerate. She could feel heat radiate from him, and his warm scent, a unique mixture of spice, citrus and musk, filled her nostrils and titillated the synapses of her spine. Everything emanating from Matt Crow proclaimed his total, visceral maleness, and everything in her responded. Chill bumps raced across her skin while a writhing hot mass swelled deep within.
Eve began to tremble.
She pushed away. “I—I don’t want this.”
The expression in his eyes almost made her weep. “What don’t you want?”
“This. This—” She pushed against his chest, but his arms held her fast, and their feet still moved in cadence. Her reaction to Matt Crow was scary, and she was quickly getting in over her head. He was way out of her league.
“Explain.”
Feeling as awkward as a teenager with a crush on a movie star, she shook her head. She was too embarrassed to explain her feelings. After all, she was simple, gawky Eve Ellison, and he was...well, he was a sophisticated man, a Texas millionaire used to bevies of beautiful, sophisticated women.
He pulled her back against him, and his lips brushed her ear. “It seems almost overwhelming, doesn’t it? From the moment I saw you, I felt as if I’d been kicked by a bull. I knew that you were the most perfect woman God had ever created. It’s only right that you should be named Eve.” His tongue traced the curve of her ear. “Offer me an apple, sugar, and I’m yours body and soul.”
Eve’s knees gave. She sagged against him.
“Let’s find someplace private,” Matt whispered. “I think I may die if I don’t kiss you.”
She thought that she might die, too. He was a smooth one, all right. Oh, she knew his type. She knew that he was feeding her a line a mile long, but her brain didn’t seem to have one iota of control over her body. Despite her every effort, her head nodded.
With his arm around her waist, he guided her from the dance floor and maneuvered her through the crowd. Her pulse was racing, her heart pounding, and she felt in imminent danger of hyperventilating. She should dig in her heels and put a stop to this nonsense right now. But her feet didn’t pay any attention, either. They padded right along beside Matt like a lamb to slaughter.
He located a secluded alcove and pulled her into it. Instantly his mouth covered hers. She almost fainted. Her hormones began to run amok like crazed, marauding elephants smashing into each other and flattening everything in their path. She plastered herself against him and kissed him back.
After about five minutes of fervent French kissing, Matt pulled away. His breathing was ragged. “Good God in Heaven, darlin’. I think I’m having a heart attack. Will you marry me?”
Some measure of sanity returned to Eve’s brain. “Marry you? Certainly not. Are you mad?”
“I may be. Something strange is going on, that’s for sure. There’s magic between us. Don’t you feel it? If you won’t marry me, will you at least come home to Texas with me? If we live together for a while, maybe you could get used to the idea.”
The marauding elephants stopped dead in their tracks. “You are mad. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Why not?”
“I should think it would be obvious. You’re practically a stranger. I don’t know anything about you.”
“We can soon remedy that. What do you want to know?”
He started to kiss her again, but she averted her mouth. “Don’t do that,” she protested.
“I thought you liked it.”
“You were mistaken.”
“Was I?”
She’d often heard the term “rakish grin,” but she’d never completely understood the power of one until that moment When he looked at her and grinned in that captivating way, she melted. This tall Texan was totally beyond her experience; he was way, way, way out of her league, but she kissed him again anyhow.
A strident noise blared between them, and she startled. He cursed. “Damned phone. Sorry, honey. It must be an emergency.” Scowling, he pulled a slim cellular unit from inside his coat. “This had better be good,” he said to the caller. After a minute of listening, he added a few other colorful phrases. “I’m on my way.” He stuck the phone back into his pocket and took her into his arms once more. “I have to leave. Come home with me,” he murmured as he nipped her ear and nuzzled her neck.
“Impossible. I can’t just run off on a whim. I have a career. I have obligations.”
“Quit your job. You won’t need to work. I’ll take care of you. Come with me, Eve.”
“Take care of—” A bucket of cold reality splashed her, and she stiffened in his arms. What kind of person did he think she was? “No way.”
Matt cupped her nape and searched her face. “Why not? Kim said that you weren’t married or engaged. Is there someone else?”
Deciding to take the easy way out, Eve crossed her fingers behind her back in a childish gesture. “Yes. Yes there is. Charlie.”
“Ditch him. You couldn’t care much about the guy and kiss me the way you did.”
“You’re wrong. I adore Charlie. We’ve lived together for the last two years. I couldn’t leave him.” At least that part was true.
Standing with his gaze downcast, Matt was quiet for a long time. Then he looked up. “I see.” If Eve hadn’t known better, she would have thought there were tears in his eyes. A trick of the lighting, she was sure. “For a while there, I really thought this was it.” He gently kissed her forehead. “Charlie is a lucky man. So long, angel. Would you tell everyone goodbye for me? I’ve got an emergency, and it’s something serious. I’ve gotta go.”
Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded, then he was gone. It was a good thing she hadn’t fallen for his slick line. And it was simply a line, she reminded herself. Matt Crow moved in another world, one far removed from her simple life. Irish, the gorgeous, super-cool ex-New York model, could handle this kind of stuff, but Eve? No way. A guy like Matt would have only broken her heart.
Two
Holding the mail between her teeth and juggling a ripping sack of groceries, twenty pounds of cat litter, her shoulder bag and a bulging briefcase, Eve kicked the front door closed just as the phone began to ring.
The sack ripped another few inches. She dropped the litter and her briefcase and tried to grab the sack to save the eggs.
Too late. The blasted thing split completely, and she only managed to mash a loaf of bread and a half gallon of Rocky Road against her body. The egg carton landed with an ominous splat beside the mushrooms; oranges and onions and cans went rolling every which way.
The phone continued to ring.
Eve made an exasperated noise, marched to the phone and snatched it up. “Heh-woe.”
“Eve?” a man’s voice said. “Eve Ellison?”
She spat out the letters she still clutched between her teeth. “Sorry. Yes, this is Eve Ellison, and I don’t want any insurance protection for my credit cards, cemetery plots or—”
“Eve, this is Matt Crow.”
She dropped the mangled bread and ice cream carton on the table and sank into a chair. “Matt Crow?”
He chuckled. “Yes, we met at the wedding last weekend. Surely you haven’t forgotten me so soon.”
Forgotten him? Fat chance. Hadn’t the memories of him nearly driven her up the wall for the past few days? “No, I remember you,” she said, fighting a tremor in her voice and trying to be casual. “You’ll have to forgive me, it’s been one of those days—no, make that one of those weeks, and it’s only Wednesday.”
“I’ve had a few of those lately myself. Problems?”
“Lots.”
“Want to tell me about them?”
Something about the gentle tone of his voice made her want to pour out everything to him. Instead, she said, “I’m sure that you don’t want to hear my sad story.”
“You’re wrong, Eve. What’s happened?”
“You name it.” She tried to laugh, but the sound seem strangled. “I had a blowout and took out two garbage cans and a fire hydrant before I could stop the car. I received a notice yesterday from the Dog Warden of the City of Cleveland Kennel that I’m in violation of a city ordinance, and I have to get rid of some of my animals or risk having them seized. I figure that’s partly because of Elmer and Minerva getting out last week, and Elmer eating Mrs. Gaither’s sweetpeas or it might have been Mrs. Ramsey who complained about—”
“Whoa!” Matt said, chuckling. “Who are Elmer and Minerva?”
“Sorry, I’m ranting. Elmer is a goat and Minerva is a pig.”
“A goat and a pig in the city?”
Eve sighed. “I’ve been trying to find them homes. Would you like a goat?”
“I live in a high-rise, but I could talk to Grandpa Pete about it.”
“Thanks, but Elmer isn’t the only problem. The logical solution is to move to another house.”
“You could always move to Texas,” he said, his tone conjuring up visions of hot nights on cool sheets. “My offer is still open.”
Her heart stumbled. Her face flushed. He was obviously teasing her again, but she didn’t know how to handle such comments. She didn’t want to make a serious response and have him think that she was so unsophisticated, but she wasn’t experienced in social banter with men like him.
“Eve?”
Forcing gaiety, she laughed and said, “I was just trying to picture Elmer and Minerva and the others in your living room. I’m afraid I’ll have to pass, but after meeting Godzilla today, I might be tempted.”
“Godzilla?”
“My new boss. They brought him in as the creative director, but the last creative thought he had was in 1989. Only thing he had going for him was that he worked in a New York agency. That job should have been mine, darn it. Sorry, I didn’t mean to whine, and I’ve been babbling on and on.”
“You weren’t whining or babbling, and I enjoy talking to you. We didn’t get to spend enough time together at the wedding, and I’ve been putting out fires ever since I left. Say, I’m going to be in Cleveland in a day or two, and now that we’re practically family, I was hoping that we might get together for dinner... or something.”
A rush of panic swept over Eve. Even though he made her knees weak and her heart go pitter-patter, she felt completely out of her element with a man like Matt. Being around him too much might make her have goofy ideas—like believing they weren’t totally mismatched. She knew that he was simply making a duty call since he was going to be in Cleveland and since they were “practically family.”
One part of her wanted desperately to go out with him, but another more sensible part told her that nothing could ever come of anything between Matt Crow and her. And even if they got together for a brief fling, it could cause awkwardness in the family later. Eve remembered a painful experience a few years before when she’d dated her friend Amy’s brother. When the romance fizzled, things were never the same between Amy and her again.
“Eve?”
“Yes?” Simply tell him nicely that you have other plans, she told herself, but she couldn’t make the words come out.
“Is it Charlie who’s the problem?”
“Charlie?” Suddenly she remembered that Matt assumed the Charlie she lived with was a man. Praying that God wouldn’t strike her dead for another little white lie, she said, “Yes. I’m not sure that he would approve. He’s jealous, extremely jealous, but thanks for calling. I have to run. My—my bathwater’s running over.” She quickly hung up the phone and slumped back into the chair.
Charlie Chan, the half-Siamese, half-mystery cat who was the unofficial ruler of the house, hopped on the table beside her and sat regally, waiting for her attention.
Eve scratched Charlie’s head. “Hey, fellow, how did your day go? Mine has been a bummer. Do you think Matt Crow thought I was a nut case?”
The cat cocked his head. “Meow. ”
“Yeah, he probably did. But seeing him again would be very unwise. He would break my heart, Charlie. And if he broke my heart, my mother would know and then Irish would be upset and drag Kyle into it, and he would be in an awkward position because they are cousins and very close. No, Charlie, it’s better this way.”
But if it was better, why did she want to cry?
When the answering machine came on again, Matt cursed and slammed down the phone. It had taken him three days to gut up enough to call Eve; now he’d been calling every hour from six to midnight for the past three nights. After that first conversation, he’d gotten her machine every time. That was a hell of a long bath she was taking.
After he’d left Ohio, he’d tried to convince himself that Eve was taken and to stay away from her, get her out of his mind. He hadn’t had any luck. She plagued his thoughts; she invaded his dreams; she haunted his senses.
He couldn’t think of a single woman who could hold a candle to her. Despite her beauty, she seemed totally lacking in conceit. Instead of arrogance, she radiated genuineness and caring, even shyness. There was an inner beauty about Eve that was more dazzling than the outer.
Matt just couldn’t forget her.
To hell with Charlie, he’d finally decided. It was every man for himself, and Matt meant to fight for her. He knew what it was to fight for what you wanted, and Matt had never wanted anything in his life like he wanted Eve Ellison.
Eve couldn’t care that much for old Charlie and have kissed Matt the way she did. That was what gave him hope. And Charlie wasn’t taking very good care of Eve, or she wouldn’t be so frazzled. There were problems in that relationship; Matt was sure of it. And he intended to take advantage of those problems.
He drummed his fingers on the telephone. Something didn’t ring true about that phone conversation with Eve on Wednesday. She’d seemed jumpy. Nervous? Scared? He wondered if that jerk had been listening? Is that why she wouldn’t take his other calls?
