Mine Until Morning (21 page)

“Kiss me good night, Cleo.”

She shuddered.

He couldn’t let her out of the car without a kiss or an intimate touch. He couldn’t let the distance grow, or by the morning it would be a chasm he couldn’t cross.

“Just one,” she whispered.

One was all he needed. For now. Her lips were still plump and well kissed. As he drew her close, the sweet scent of sex rose off her. He opened his mouth, drew her in. Her sigh rippled through him. He could have her again, here and now.

It struck him how sweetly odd that was for him. He loved pleasuring women, showing them their potential, helping them appreciate their beauty and unique qualities. Which was why he staved off ejaculation until he sensed a woman had surpassed herself, her threshold reached, and gone a tiny bit beyond. Then he released.

With Cleo, he was a double dipper.

“Sleep well,” he whispered against her lips, and she climbed from the car as if sleepwalking. He would have walked her to the door, but that felt like pushing his advantage.

Especially since she’d agreed to let him drive her to work. There were so 136

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many things he wanted to do for Cleo.

After tonight, she was on the verge of letting him.

WALKER HAD ARRIVED EARLY TO PICK HER UP. THANK GOD HEIDI had already left. Cleo hadn’t wanted to explain. So he’d sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and charming her mother while Cleo raced around with those last-minute things. She couldn’t hear every word, but her mother did a lot of cackling punctuated by the low rumble of Walker’s laughter. Oh yeah, Ma had definitely been charmed. Walker could beguile a lady of any age right out of her panties. Having been charmed out of hers, Cleo knew all about that, not to mention the quantity and variety of women he’d entertained at the restaurant.

She wouldn’t think about that now since she’d been feeling pretty darn chipper all day despite the car and the ceiling. A couple of minutes before five, she switched the messaging system to auto, turned off her computer, straightened the magazines in the lobby, and waved good night as several of the office workers trundled out.

Walker had said he’d pick her up at five. The thought gave her heart a kick. She’d always done everything, shuttling here, there, and everywhere, rushing, rushing, rushing. She did the carpool thing in the morning when it was her turn, but Heidi took the school bus home in the afternoon. If there was a doctor’s appointment, she had to take time off work. Ma had given up her license a couple of years ago after a couple of incidents. So it was nice to have someone do this for her. Just this once. She hadn’t thought about how she’d pay for the car. She’d worry about it when she knew what was wrong. She’d called Jimmy early. He said he’d try his best to at least take a look today. She’d gone to high school with him, and he knew the car inside and out. She’d call him again when she got home to see what he’d found. Until then, she wasn’t going to worry.

Walker’s blue luxury sedan rolled into the lot. Her heart gave a happy little jolt. It was scary, but oh so sweet. She’d have ten minutes to enjoy it. Dammit, she would take those ten minutes before she went home, faced Heidi, another fight, maybe, maybe not, then rushed off to the restaurant with a stone in her stomach.

She gathered her coat and purse as Walker pulled to the front. She’d pushed 137

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open the lobby door, an idiotic smile on her face. Then she realized he wasn’t alone in the car.

Oh shit.

Heidi sat beside him in the passenger seat.

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9

CLEO OPENED THE FRONT PASSENGER DOOR. HER HEART BEAT HARD

against her ribs. What had they been talking about? What had Walker said to her daughter? A whisper of fear spread through her womb. She didn’t need any more problems with Heidi, especially not over a man.

“Hope you don’t mind,” Walker said, leaning down a little to talk to her through the open car door. “Your mother got busy with dinner and sent Heidi and me to pick you up.”

Cleo didn’t know what to say. All she could do was nod. Walker waved a hand. “Hop out and let your mom have the front seat, Heidi.”

“Sure, Walker.” And Heidi did.

It was amazing. She even smiled at Cleo, though she didn’t say hello or kiss her cheek the way she used to. Too old for that. Too angry. But Walker had . . . done something, created magic. Sure, he put women at ease, made them feel special, appreciated. But charm a teenager, least of all Heidi?

Guess the problem really was big, bad MOM, with capital letters. Walker smiled at Cleo as she climbed in and buckled up. “Have a good day?”

She half expected him to kiss her hello, but he kept his lips to himself. “It was good, thank you.”

“Walker helped me with my algebra for a couple of hours after school.” Heidi leaned between the two front seats.

Cleo opened her mouth, but Walker beat her to it. “Belt in, hon, would ya?”

He winked in the rearview mirror. “Safety first.”

“Sure, Walker.”

Cleo slapped her mouth shut before her jaw dropped. Okay. This was most definitely not normal. It was downright frightening. Had her daughter turned into a zombie, a pod person? Walker waited until Heidi was secured before he eased around the parking lot and out onto the road.

“Thanks for helping on the homework,” Cleo said, trying to regain her equilibrium. What else was there to say, especially since Cleo hated algebra. “I suck at math.” Walker had saved her from being inadequate again. In school, she’d loved anthropology. If she’d finished college, she would have been a 139

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forensic anthropologist.

“My pleasure.” He smiled, glancing in the mirror again, then his gaze slid back to Cleo. “I was just taking a look at the toilet and the ceiling and pondering what needed to be done when Heidi got home from school.”

Another jaw-dropping moment. “You were looking at the toilet?”

“While I was waiting for you this morning, Ma told me about the ceiling falling in. So I went back to look over things after lunch. Hope that was okay.”

He was calling her Ma now? “Um, yeah.” But was it?

“Walker says fixing it will be easy-peasy,” Heidi piped up from the backseat. He thrust a thumb over his shoulder. “Well, not easy. I’ll need some help, but I’ve got a contractor friend.” He shrugged.

“Gran invited Walker for dinner since he’s going to be working for us.”

Cleo turned in her seat and stared at Heidi. Walker this, Walker that, and Walker was now working for them?

“I told Ma we needed to check about dinner with you first.” Walker took a turn, his line of sight following her for a moment.

“Well, sure. Of course.” She wouldn’t undo Ma’s invitation, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about all of this, either. He was bulldozing his way into her life. Heidi was being human, but only because of Walker. Somehow it didn’t seem fair.

How did Walker reach her daughter when Cleo herself was such a miserable failure?

“I called your mechanic to find out about the car,” he said when they’d stopped at a light.

“Oh?” She recognized the edge in her voice. So Jimmy had talked to Walker but hadn’t called her back?

“It was the solenoid. He didn’t have one in stock, so he ordered one, but it’ll be a couple of weeks. I’ve been searching the Internet to see if we can get one here sooner.”

We? She glanced back at Heidi, who watched the exchange with rapt attention.

Traffic flowed. She didn’t want to sound ungrateful or bitchy. Yet she was taken aback. It was too fast, too much. But with Heidi in the car, she really had to think hard before she said anything. “Uh, thanks for doing all that checking.”

Then she winced, remembering the paramount issue. “Did he happen to say how 140

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much he thought the whole job would cost?”

“Well, you practically have to take the engine out to get to the solenoid.” He glanced at her as he took the turn onto her street. “Five hundred. And another hundred for the part. But I think I can get it down to more like fifty if I find it on the Internet.”

Her stomach sank. “I . . . Well . . . thank you for looking for the part.”

Okay, step back a minute. Don’t panic. She had the fifty bucks to pay Walker for the part, and Jimmy would let her pay on installment. Things could be a lot worse. But how was she supposed to get up to the restaurant if it took two weeks to get the part? She’d have to rent a car. Another expense. Walker pulled up in front of the house. “Not a problem.”

He was invading her life, taking over. She wanted to resent it. She could take care of herself and Heidi and her mom. She might be having a few money problems, but she wasn’t a complete failure.

Yet she felt herself blowing in the wind because it felt so damn good to have a little help. Jimmy, while he’d been great to her, didn’t have time to search out a cheaper price. If Walker and his contractor friend could fix the ceiling? She didn’t want to even think about how much it would cost to find her own contractor, and in the end, how would she know she wasn’t being ripped off?

Oh man, she could get used to this. Scary thought. The men she picked had a tendency to walk out just when she started depending on them.

IT WAS EVEN SCARIER HOW WALKER STEPPED RIGHT INTO HER little family as if he belonged. He’d driven Cleo back and forth to work like a regular soccer mom. Ma invited him for dinner four nights in a row, and tonight, Friday, she’d cooked a feast.

Ma had seated him at the head of the table as if he were the man of the house. “Ma, this is the best roast beef and Yorkshire pudding I’ve ever had,”

Walker enthused.

It wasn’t. Ma had used a lower grade of meat because they couldn’t afford the good stuff. The homemade gravy and Yorkshire pudding, however, went a long way to improving it. Ma glowed beneath the praise. Walker drove a nice car, dressed well, had good manners, teased her, complimented her cooking, and that was enough for Ma to grant acceptance.

“Gran makes the best Yorkshire pudding.” Heidi beamed, getting her two 141

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cents in as if afraid she’d been forgotten.

Her mother and daughter had been taken over by aliens. That had to be the explanation. Or Walker was a magician with hypnotic powers. Moms, daughters, and animals adored him. In less than a full workweek, Walker had captivated her family, tracked down her solenoid, made measurements, written lists, and gotten deals on the materials for the bathroom repair which he and his friend Barry would start tomorrow morning. Walker also made delicious sex with her every night in out-of-the-way nooks on the way home from the restaurant. She wanted to resent how easily Ma and Heidi accepted him, how inadequate she felt because it seemed as if she were a total screwup, yet Cleo experienced the same mesmerizing tug herself. Between the hot sex, the sense of being important, cared for, and special, she was hook, line, and sinker for the guy. It was all too good to be true, but oh man, she wanted more of him. He winked at her across the dinner table. “Pass the salt, please, honey?”

Honey? “Sure, sweetheart.” She gave him both the salt and the pepper. Too good to be true? She didn’t even know if he was for real. Cleo was waiting for it all to bite her in the ass. She knew it was coming, because her life was not this easy and simple. The worst thing, though: when Walker left, what would that do to Heidi?