Part 21 (1/2)
”Your nose is pink.” Damon flicked her cheek with a finger. ”Too much time frolicking in the sun?”
”We were on the lake a good part of the day. And it was wonderful. I can't wait to show it to you.”
”I look forward to it. I've already explored a bit of the countryside a and you're right, doll, it's spectacular.”
Emma brushed herself off, then allowed Casey to draw her into his side. Around Damon, more than anyone else, he felt the constant need to display possessiveness.
”So who gave you the tour, Devaughn?”
Damon went very still while clapping his gaze on Emma. He replied to Casey, but it was Emma who held all his attention. ”A friend of yours, actually. Ceily Brown.”
Emma gave a tiny jerk. ”You were with Ceily?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. ”Yes. I met her while having lunch. I thought she was a waitress and didn't realize she was the owner of the place until we'd already been flirting back and forth a bit and things were ... in progress.”
Startled, Casey asked, ”Ceily was flirting with you?”
”So?”
Uncomfortable with the idea, Casey shrugged. ”So she doesn't...that is, she normally...”
”I know.” Damon grinned. ”She's discriminating. She told me so.”
Emma suddenly turned to Casey. ”Well, I suppose we should call it a night.” She attempted to usher him a inconspicuously a toward the door.
Casey refused to budge. ”What's wrong?”
”Nothing.” Her smile didn't touch her eyes. ”It's just that it's way past my bedtime and it has been a busy day. I'm ready to drop.”
B.B. agreed with that and headed for the bed. Casey decided he'd pressed her enough for one day. He'd made enormous headway already. ”All right.” He went to the door, but brought Emma with him.
Damon didn't move, he just crossed his arms and watched them. In his underwear. Casey really didn't like him much at all.
”I'll see you tomorrow when I get home. Will you have your cell phone on you so I can find you?”
”Yes. I should be done visiting the hospital by then, but I'll need to think about a run back home.”
Damon asked, ”We're leaving already?”
Casey scowled at him, but Emma said over her shoulder, ”I'll explain in a minute.” Then to Casey, she said a firm, ”Good night.”
He smiled. Then he laughed. His timid little Emma was long gone, and in her place was a woman more exciting than he'd ever known. ”Good night, sweetheart.” He bent and kissed her, but kept it quick and light with Damon looking on. ”Sweet dreams.”
EMMA SHUT THE DOOR behind Casey. She apparently heard Damon approaching, because she pretended to faint, falling back against him. ”Oh Lord, what a day,” she said.
Damon caught her under her arms and laughed. ”Made your knees weak, did he?” Seeing her so happy made him happy too. From the second he'd gotten a good look at her, he could see she positively glowed, and not just from too much suns.h.i.+ne. Casey had a startling effect on her, and that told him all he needed to know.
Groaning, Emma straightened, but went to the bed to flop down. ”It's too incredible.” She stared at Damon in what he could only call wonder. ”He wants to see me.”
Damon pretended to gasp as he followed her over to the bed. ”No! He wants to see a gorgeous, s.e.xy woman? How strange. What do you suppose is wrong with that man?”
Fighting a smile, Emma smacked at him. ”It's more complicated than that, and well you know it. And he doesn't just want to see me a little. For as long as I'm here, he asked that we be exclusive.”
”He's a possessive ape. I picked up on that right off.”
”He is not an ape.”
Damon noted she didn't challenge the possessive part.
”And Damon, we might be here a lot longer than we'd first planned. Or at least, I'll be. That's what I meant about making a run home. I'll probably need more clothes. But there's no reason for you to stay.”
Damon could think of several reasons to hang around, and first and foremost was his astounding reaction to a certain small-business proprietor. Then there was the stretch of land Ceily's grandfather was supposedly going to sell. And his own dissatisfaction with his life...
Emma spent several minutes explaining her father's condition to him, and Damon, as usual, did his best to be a good listener. He had such wonderful, caring parents himself, he couldn't imagine the emptiness she had to feel, knowing hers cared so little for her. Yet, she still suffered with her own sense of responsibility toward them. It was another mark of Emma's generous spirit, and one of the reasons she was so easy to love.
”What are you going to do?”
Propping her elbows on her knees, Emma buried her face in her hands. ”I don't know,” she wailed with only slightly exaggerated frustration. ”I want to be with him. G.o.d, to be truthful, I still have feelings for him.”
He'd a.s.sumed that much all along, of course, which was one reason he'd insisted on accompanying her on this trip. Emma didn't love easily, but when she spoke of Casey, the love she felt for him was more than apparent. ”And how does he feel?”
She shook her head and straightened. ”At first, it was almost like he thought he'd been slighted...because he hadn't gotten to...uh...”
”Make love to you?” Yeah, Damon could see that. Hudson might consider her the one that got away. He'd been controlling things, keeping Emma at arm's length a right where he wanted her, not too close but within reach. Then suddenly she wasn't around at all and he'd likely floundered with mixed feelings. Far as Damon was concerned, it served him right.
But the way Emma avoided his gaze when she nodded, Damon wondered if the s.e.x issue had already been seen to. It would explain her glow and the heat he'd witnessed in Hudson's eyes. He almost grinned. ”I take it once isn't enough?”
She punched him in the arm. ”You know me too well.”
”I was talking about him, actually but, yeah, I know you too well. And there's no reason to blush. If you're happy I'm happy.”
Absently, she began to stroke B.B., and the big dog gleefully dozed off. Emma was good with her hands and she loved touching. If you sat by her, you could expect to get as many pets as the dog. She made a perfect ma.s.sage therapist a and she'd make an even better lover.
”I know getting involved with him, even temporarily, is beyond stupid.” She winced. ”When I leave, it's going to make it so much harder. But I just can't resist grabbing this opportunity.”
Watching her closely, Damon asked, ”So who says it has to be temporary?”
She blinked at him, laughed a little nervously. ”Because it's just s.e.x.”
”Did he say as much?”
With an uncertain look, she shook her head. ”No.”
Damon squeezed her knee. ”Then I think you need to stop making a.s.sumptions and give the guy a chance. If he just wanted s.e.x, seems to me his little co-worker Kristin was more than willing.”
She thought about that, then nodded. ”True.”
”And you definitely need to shake off that dark cloud. You're in Buckhorn two days and already you're reverting to that silly girl I first met.”
”I wasn't silly.”