Running From Fate (35 page)

Curiosity tempted her to tear the envelope open, but some hidden instinct told her that she had to treat it carefully.
As gently as possible, sh
e opened the flap and extracted
a single sheet of
printer
paper.
In the middle of the page, composed with what
seemed to be letters cut from
a
fashion
magazine, was a message: STAY AWAY FROM JAMES KELLY
IF YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR YOU!

Any normal person, Mira told herself, would probably feel some trepidation when confronted with such a blatant threat.
Apparently
, she wasn’t a normal per
son because far from fear, she
was
actually
kind of amused by the attempt to intimidate her.
Of course, the fact that she had a pretty good idea who the letter had come from helped things.
This had all the hallmarks of something concocted by the lovely
, but vacuous
Kimberly
Roberts
.
The fact that she had seen a red convertible
with a tall
blond
woman in the driver’s seat cruising by her neighborhood recently further convinced her.

She decided that she would save the letter, but more f
or amusement than anything else
.  It
would make her feel kind of stupid to bring it to the police
. 
Just as she was slipping the offending envelope into what was quickly bec
oming her junk drawer
the doorbell rang
.
This was something between the other woman and herself so
she
saw no reason to tell James about the
original threat or the
letter.
Besides, she could handle Kimberly Roberts.
With a
bump from her hip
she
shut the
d
rawe
r.

James
stood on the stoop and
tapped his foot, waiting
impatiently for Mira to answer the door.
He
hadn’t been sure what to expect when
she
had called and asked him over for dinner
and
he
actually found himself slightly
anxious to find out
.
From what he had been able to tell
their relationship was progressing well despite the fact that things were moving slower than he would have liked.
Because of the slow pace,
which
was entirely Mira’s idea, the invite to her home was a little suspect.

They had been officially dating for
almost a month
now and had been dancing around their attraction for each other since they had first met.
Considering the intense physical pull between them, James had been sure that
, by this time,
they would have already ended up in bed.
She
, however,
seemed to have other ideas
.
In fact, recently, she had
seemed reticent to
go anywhere beyond kissing and, during the past few
days
she had actually avoided physical contact with him
altogether
.

He
had a feeling that what
ever
happened tonight would change the course of their budding relationship.
She
would either break things off, which seemed likely, or
she would finally decide to
take things to the next level.
It had been a long time since a woman had broken up with him, but he usually took the end of an affair very philosophically
because there
were always more women out there.

This time, though, he didn’t think that he would come away unscathed
if the relationship ended
.
Despite his original intentions,
he had been unable to keep an emotional distance.
The more time he spent with Mira, the more time he wanted to spend with her.
He
was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to
replace her and the thought
of being so vulnerable
terrified him.

Suddenly, the door opened and there
she
stood wearing
a tiny black dress and three-inch heels that made her legs look mile
s long.
Her unbound hair floated around her shoulders
and one teasing strand tickled the top of her breasts
.
His mouth dropped open and his
brain went fuzzy
. 
All that he could think was a
woman didn’t wear a dress that screamed s
in
when she was ready to
break up with a man.

As an overwhelming sense of relief poured thro
ugh him,
he
reached out and
grabbed
her
, pulling her into his arms.

“Is something wrong?” Mira asked
as she tightened her arms around him
.
It wasn’t like James
to be
so
s
pontaneously affectionate and she found it a little worrying
.
“Are you feeling sick
?
”
Concerned, she pulled back
slightly
and placed a hand on his forehead
,
checking for a fever.

“No, I’m not sick.”
James chuckled and gave her a quick squeeze
before releasing her
.
He gently pushed her inside and shut the door behind them
before heading unerringly for the delicious aroma coming from the kitchen
. 
“Something smells really good. 
What are we having?”

Mira didn’t answer and
he
turned around
to see what the problem was.
She
was standing in front of the door staring at him with a puzzled look on her face.
He grinned
, happy at the thought that he had the ability to confuse her,
and opened the oven to check its contents.
It looked done so h
e grabbed a couple of towels and bent down to pull
out the delicious looking lasagna
.

“What are you doing?” Mira demanded
, coming out of her trance
.
She shook her head to clear it and rushed over to grab the dish out of James’ hands before he could sit it on her beautiful
marble
counter
top
.
Very carefully, she sat it down on a wooden cutting board
that
she had brought out earlier
and went back for the garlic bread
.

“Did I do something wrong?”
he
asked.

“Don’t worry about it.”
She
sighed and ran her fingers through her unbound hair.
Damn it, she thought in frustration, she had forgotten to put her hair up and she wasn’t even wearing any makeup.
Nothing was going the way she had planned.

“Is there something
I can do to help?”
H
e watched Mira glare at the lasagna
as if it had personally insulted her
and tried not to laugh.

“You can pour the drinks.”
She gestured vaguel
y toward the open bottle
.
“The wine glasses are in the cupboard above.”
A door
open
ed
and
she
figured that she had a few minutes to serve the food and get it on the table.
Opening the cupboard above her, she reached for the plates.

James lifted
the
wineglass and turned, intending to take
them to Mira.  She
was standing on he
r
tiptoes stretching up to reach the top shelf.
A hint of black lace peeked out from under her dress.
He swallowed thickly and deliberately sat the glass
es
down.

Mira jumped when James stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
The plates in her hand
s
rattled together and she carefully sat them
down
before they fell
and shattered on her lovely floor
.
She very badly wanted to lean back and snuggle in but, after weeks of resisting temptation, she wasn’t sure how strong her control was.
If she gave in now, even a little bit, she might never say what she needed to.

“What are you doing James?
Can’t you see that I’m trying to work here?”
she
demanded in as firm a tone as possible.
She desperately needed to sound annoyed rather than tempted, but the slight quiver in her voice betrayed her.

Sensing her capitulation, James moved forward,
trapping her against the counter
with his body
.
“What do you think I’m doing?”
h
e
said in a husky voice
.
He removed
an arm from
around her waist and shifted her silky hair.
With a practiced move, he bent his head and lightly
nipped
the nape of
her neck.

The exquisitely restrained caress made Mira’s entire body quiver and she
fought to
bite back a
moan
.
Instead, the
noise
cam
e out
sounding
more like a cat’s mew
l
.  She
had to get out of this situation before
the thrill of desire coursing through her blood
blinded her.