Page 28 of Untouchable

“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t actually feel like dessert. I’m tired.”

She couldn’t help but feel a spark of satisfaction at his frustrated expression. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah. Just tired.”

“Then don’t go home. Stay here tonight and rest up some more, and we can talk tomorrow morning.”

She studied his face and decided she had him right where she wanted him.

If she was going to attract him enough to hold his interest beyond a few rounds of sex, he couldn’t think she was so easy.

So she relented. “Okay. I’ll stay here tonight, but I was serious about being tired.”

He gave her a flash of a smile. “Did you think I was going to make a move?”

“I wouldn’t put it past you.”

“You’ve got me all wrong.”

Kelly knew one thing for sure. She hadn’t gotten him wrong at all.

A few hours later, she had steeled herself for what she needed to do, so she got out of bed and checked her hair, making sure it was hanging down in a thick, rumpled fall down her back.

He thought she looked innocent and untouched, so she would use that to pull him in even deeper.

She would be scared about the mysterious someone who was threatening her and sending thugs after her. She would not want to be alone tonight. She would go to his room, looking vulnerable and needy. He would get to feel all strong and protective again.

She was sure it would work.

The idea of sex with the man who killed her father was so upsetting now that her stomach churned, but she ignored it.

She’d had sex with men she didn’t know or particularly like before. She’d had sex with Caleb before. She could do this. Shehadto do this, if she was ever going to succeed with this ridiculous plan of getting close to him and finding evidence of his guilt.

She closed her eyes and steeled herself a little more, shaking herself off as she exhaled deeply. In the process, she bumped into a small table, making it wobble. Before she could catch it, a large crystal vase holding cut flowers toppled and then crashed to the floor.

“Damn it!” She stared in frustration at the mess and broken glass on the floor, catching her breath after being deeply startled by the accident.

She was tempted to just leave it since she’d prepared herself for sex and was afraid the mental preparations would only last a short time. But it would look decidedly suspicious for her to tumble sleepily out of bed and head for Caleb’s room, leaving a broken vase on the floor.

She needed to clean the mess up now and then decide whether she could still make her way to Caleb’s room afterward for her seduction plan.

She tiptoed down the quiet stairs and into the deserted kitchen. There, she started opening closet doors until she found the necessary cleaning supplies.

Grabbing a broom, mop, and dustpan, she hurried back up to her room and picked up all the flowers she could without getting cut by the glass. She swept the rest of them up with the broken glass into the large dustpan and then mopped up most of the water.

When she was through cleaning up the mess, she opened her bedroom door, preparing to return the supplies to the storage closet in the kitchen.

But, as she stepped into the hall, she nearly collided with Caleb.

“Shit,” she muttered reflexively, her heart leaping as she jerked backward unthinkingly. Her pulse began to pound uncomfortably, and she had some momentary trouble disguising her instinctive, negative reaction to unexpectedly seeing this man standing before her.

She was off stride now. Not prepared to encounter him. Her whole experience with Caleb over the past day and a half had been a balancing act. She needed to be on all the time, to never slip into anything genuine or revealing. But she wasn’t ready right now.

Once she’d basically pulled herself together, she was unpleasantly aware of the fact that she no longer looked like a pretty, innocent seductress. Her hair was no longer sleek and shiny but rather messy and hanging in rumpled tendrils all over her back and shoulders. Her cheeks were overly red from the rushed exertion of cleaning up the broken vase. And she was carrying a mop and broom.

Cursing silently, she managed to say, “Sorry. You scared me.”

Caleb stared at her speechlessly and didn’t respond.