Countdown to Baby

“I don’t even like coffee.”

“So you came in because…?”

“Because I wasn’t ready for the evening to be over.”

The admission certainly didn’t seem to surprise her. Nor did it appear to perturb her. She had to have known when he’d followed her home that the moment would come when she would have to decide how she wanted their evening to end.

Maybe she had made that decision when she invited him in. She glanced at his hand where it rested on her arm and then looked back up at him through her thick, dark lashes. The smile that played on her lips was neither shy nor hesitant, but the smile of a woman who knew what she wanted. And tonight, it seemed, she wanted him.

“Then maybe we can make it last just a little while longer,” she murmured, sliding her free hand up his chest.

His pulse rate sped up in anticipation. “Just for a little while,” she had said, making it clear that she wasn’t expecting more from him than this one night. She was no starry-eyed ingenue who would take his attentions too seriously. No hungry, wannabe socialite hoping to secure a country-club future by snagging a most-eligible bachelor.

Perhaps that was why he’d had such a good time with her tonight. She’d had no expectations, no demands of him. He hadn’t been trying to sell her anything or charm anything out of her, and the same had been true in reverse. He had been free to be himself—to eat what he’d liked, to talk without overanalyzing his words, to laugh and dance and sometimes sit quietly and listen to the music.

Damn, it had felt good. He wanted to hang on to that feeling for a bit longer. He released her arm only to slide both of his own around her. “I suppose you’ve been told that you have beautiful eyes.”

She gave him a look that was a mixture of amusement and reproach. “You’ve been refreshingly natural all evening. Don’t start spouting corny lines now.”

He laughed, though it hadn’t really been a line. She did have beautiful eyes. And an absolutely amazing mouth. And a body that seemed to have been tailored to fit nicely against his.

“Okay,” he promised. “No corny lines.”

She seemed to give that vow a moment’s thought, and then she shook her head and slid her arms around his neck. “Oh, the heck with it. Tell me more about my eyes.”

He was still grinning when he covered her mouth with his.

He had been fantasizing all evening about tasting her full, soft lips. He discovered now that imagination couldn’t compare to reality when it came to kissing Cecilia Mendoza.

Though he had bent down to her, she stood on tiptoe to meet him. The position brought her even more snugly against him, making him intensely aware of the womanly fullness of her breasts and hips. Geoff had always appreciated curves, having never been a fan of the fashionably underfed look.

He no longer tried to hide the effect she had on him. They weren’t in public now, and he felt free to be completely honest with her. If she didn’t know how much he wanted her by now, then she simply wasn’t paying attention.

He surfaced from the kiss long enough for them both to draw quick breaths of air, and then he dove in again. As waves of pleasure swept through him, he found himself thinking about how glad he was that he had changed his mind about spending the evening alone with his guitar.

No woman should reach the age of forty without having at least a few reckless adventures to remember, Cecilia figured. And since she was getting rather close to that particular milestone, this was one adventure she simply could not resist.

Kissing Geoff was a revelation. Who would have thought any man could make her feel so much with no more than a couple of deep, skillful kisses? She was typically a bit slower off the mark, so to speak. But then, it had been quite a long time since she had participated in the sport.

She could feel the heat in her face when he finally drew back. Her hair was beginning to slip its restraints, lying against her cheeks and tickling the nape of her neck. She knew she must look flushed and disheveled, but still Geoff gazed at her as though he found her beautiful. And while she knew she wasn’t, really, it still felt nice to have him look at her that way.

His smile was crooked, and his voice satisfyingly gravelly when he said, “I should warn you that I feel another corny line coming on.”

She cleared her throat. “I’m getting close to spouting a few myself.”

“As much as I would like to hear any outrageous compliments you choose to make about me, maybe it would be better if we move the conversation to another location. We could at least sit down. Or, if it’s getting too late, you could walk me to the door….”

Another gentlemanly way to offer her an out if she had any doubts. He really was a nice guy, Cecilia thought as she slid her fingers into the back of his neatly brushed hair. She couldn’t help thinking how nice it would look tousled around his handsome face.

Because he held her so tightly against him, she knew their kisses had affected him as deeply as they had her. Yet his lightly spoken words had been intended to ease any tension their passionate kisses might have created between them. Geoff wanted her to feel comfortable with him, the way she had at the restaurant earlier. He was obviously trying to reassure her that he was putting no pressure on her, that she was fully in control.

While she appreciated his consideration, she almost wished he would sweep her off her feet so she didn’t have to make any decisions. It was an uncharacteristic thought, and one she quickly suppressed, since she was admittedly a control freak who wanted the final say in all areas of her life.

“Maybe you would like to see the rest of my house,” she said, giving him a smile designed to let him know exactly what the invitation included.

“There’s nothing I would like more,” he assured her huskily.

She took his hand. His fingers closed eagerly around hers.

Because there was no way she could have known anyone would be joining her in her bedroom that evening, it must have been a lucky impulse that had made Cecilia change her sheets and put out fresh flowers from her garden before she left for work that morning. She enjoyed coming home to a clean house after a long day in the clinic, and tonight the faint whiff of the flowers only added to the romantic haze she had slipped into.

The small Tiffany-style lamp on her nightstand was connected to a timer so she didn’t have to walk into a dark room after working late. The lamp glowed softly now, throwing gentle illumination over the 1930s-era dark pecan bedroom furniture and the hand-pieced quilt she used as a bedspread. Period accessories gleaned from flea markets and antique shops decorated the vanity and double dresser, and more family photos hung on the walls. Numerous soft, colorful throw pillows turned the room into an old-fashioned, comfy boudoir, complete with a bentwood rocker tucked into one corner.

This was Cecilia’s haven, the place where she hid out to read and daydream. Though the decor had changed, it was the same room she’d had as a girl, never having the desire to move into the rooms that had been used by her mother or her brother. She rarely brought anyone in; even Eric had stepped foot in her room only a handful of times, and then only to make various repairs.

It took an enormous leap of faith for her to invite Geoff Bingham into her private space. For a woman who generally took as few risks as possible in her life, this was pretty huge on the adventure scale.

Maybe he sensed her sudden attack of nerves. He turned to her and gave her a smile that was both gentle and endearing. “It’s not too late to walk me to the door.”

“I know, but the thing is, I don’t want to do that yet.”

“Can’t say it’s what I want you to do, either,” he murmured, his smile crooked again.

Drawing a deep breath, she walked her fingers up his chest. “Tell me again about my eyes.”

“They are—” he lowered his head to speak against her lips “—amazing.”

She let herself drift into the kiss, into the moment. She’d had a few great kisses in her life—some that she would have described at the time as spectacular—but there was something different about kissing Geoff. She couldn’t think of a word that wasn’t clichéd or trite or simply inadequate, but there was definitely something….

Apparently he found time to work out during his travels. Beneath the conservative businessman’s clothing was a lean, solid, nicely muscled body. She had noticed that during their first slow dance. Her observation was confirmed when she slid his jacket off his shoulders and tossed it over the rocker. Even through his shirt, she could see that his shoulders were wide and his stomach flat. What she couldn’t see, she mused as she went to work on his tie, was whether his chest was smooth or furry. Tanned or pale.

Only moments later she was able to confirm that he was lightly tanned and that there was only a smattering of dark hair down the center of his chest. Drawing his shirt slowly down his arms, she tried to anticipate how it would feel to be pressed against that very nice chest, with nothing between them except desire.

She couldn’t wait to find out.

Holding her gaze with his own, he slipped his hands behind her. A brush of cool air followed her zipper down her back, and then her dress pooled around her bare feet. She couldn’t really remember kicking off her sandals, but then the details of this night were beginning to blur into a haze of sensation. She had given up on rational thought a long time ago—maybe even the first time Geoff had smiled at her.

Unfortunately, her intuition hadn’t warned her to don sexy lingerie beneath the red dress. She was still wearing the serviceable beige bra and matching panties she had worn to work. Before she had time to regret the choice, the problem had become moot; Cecilia barely had time to reflect on how suspiciously good Geoff was at removing women’s undergarments before she found herself in his arms again. With nothing between them but desire.

It felt even better than she could have imagined.

As he lowered her to the bed, she came very close to telling him that she never did things like this. That it was so unlike her to bring a man she had just met into her bed. She bit the words back because they sounded so overused. So difficult to believe—even though in this case they were so absolutely true.

She could only hope he somehow understood without being told that this was a special evening. A brief visit to fantasyland.

Reality intruded momentarily when he retrieved a plastic package from his pants pocket—did he always carry condoms or had he hoped to hook up with someone tonight?—but she pushed the question to the back of her mind to ponder later.

He kissed her eyelids. “Have I mentioned that I have a thing for big brown eyes?”