Talk Nerdy to Me (30 page)

She
stroked his butt and snuggled against him. "You were incredible,
Charlie." She sighed happily. "And the chaps were incredible. Thank
you."

"I think I heard
something." Plastered against her the way he was, he could feel her lazy
contentment disappear, to be replaced by the tight muscles of anxiety. Damn it
to hell. "I could be wrong, though."

"I heard something,
too."

That pretty much clinched
it. One person could have imagined the noise. Two people—not so likely.
"Was it like the front door closing?"

"Yes. Very
quietly."

"Did
you hear it open?" He hadn't, but maybe he'd missed that sound.

"No.
I only heard it close. Maybe I was wrong, though. Maybe it was only the house
settling."

"Maybe."
But he didn't think so. And as the implication dawned on him, every individual
hair on his body stood upright. If they'd interpreted the sound correctly, then
whoever had been in the house was no longer there. But chances were they had
been there, probably listening, maybe even watching, while he and Eve had been
having sex.

"Charlie,
what if they were here the whole time we were—"

"Let's hope not." He disentangled himself
from her warmth. "I'll go investigate." "I'll go with you."

"No.
Stay here." Standing with his back to her, he reached for the tissue box
on her nightstand and dispensed with the condom.

"I
don't want to stay here." The sheets rustled as if she might be getting
out of bed.

"No,
seriously," he said over his shoulder as he unbuckled his chaps.
"Lock the bedroom door after I go out, just in case. That's what the cops
say to do. Lock whatever door you can and call 911." He climbed out of his
chaps, all the while watching the door and wishing he had better vision. He
didn't want to face an intruder, but he especially didn't want to face one
while he was naked and couldn't see worth a damn.

"I'm
not calling the police until we know whether we actually heard something or
just imagined it. We both might be spooked by the earlier breakin. And for the
record, you have a great butt."

"Thanks."
Grabbing his briefs off the floor, he turned to find her getting dressed on the
far side of the bed. Even though she was blurry, he could tell she'd already
put on her glasses.

"I'm
not just saying that to take my mind off this potential home invasion."

"You're
not?" He quickly put on his briefs and grabbed his jeans as he went over
to her dressing table to retrieve his glasses. Once he could see clearly again,
he shoved his legs into his jeans.

"Well,
maybe partly. But that doesn't mean it's not true." She came around the
bed wearing her sweater and jeans. "You have excellent buns, and I'd much
rather think about them than some jerk who might have been standing in the
bedroom doorway while we played mattress bingo."

"I
understand completely." He buttoned and zipped his jeans. At that point,
he'd put on all the clothes available to him. The rest were in the kitchen.
"And for the record, you have outstanding tits, and I'm not just saying
that, either."

"Thanks."

"You're
welcome." He'd much rather think about her tits than the other subject
crowding into his mind. Whenever he allowed himself to consider the
possibility of someone hiding in the house while he'd gone through his undressing
routine in the kitchen and Eve had waited alone and naked in the bedroom, he
got the shakes.

He
was reasonably sure that had been the scenario. He didn't really think someone
was still in the house. They'd left five minutes ago through the front door.

What
if his repair on the back door hadn't held up? If he'd had any sense
whatsoever, he would have checked that door the minute he and Eve had come home
from the bakery. Had he done that? No, he hadn't. He'd been too busy thinking
about getting naked with Eve.

He glanced at her. "At
least let me go first."

"Okay." She
looked scared.

"If
someone was out there, I don't think they're around anymore."

"Right."
She nodded and tried to muster a smile, but it looked fake and her pupils were
still dilated.

He
couldn't blame her. It wasn't only the thought that someone had been in the
house. It was also the thought that they'd stayed for the show in the bedroom.

That
was the only explanation for the timing of the exit. They would have had a
better chance of leaving undetected if they'd taken off right in the middle of
the activities. Instead they'd left after the main event was over. Creepy.

He
peered out the doorway, looking right and left. "Where's the switch for
the that light?" At this point he was ready to turn on every damned light
in the house. He wanted no shadowy corners anywhere.

"At
the far end, right before you go into the living room, and another one by the
back door."

Then
neither one would help light his way in advance. "Then maybe you'd better
stay here. I want to take a look at the back door."

"Are
you kidding? Wherever you wander, there I'll be, cowboy."

He
glanced down at her. I suppose that's better than splitting up, now that you
mention it."

"You
think?" Her eyes rounded in mock amazement. "I can tell you haven't
seen enough scary movies or you'd never suggest splitting up. That's the kiss
of death. When somebody says 'you stay here, while I go look around,' then you
know one of them is going to get whacked."

"Neither
one of us is going to get whacked." He started slowly down the hall.
"If they'd had that idea, they could have done away with both of us very
easily."

"Don't
remind me." She followed close behind, her hand on his bare back.
"I'm feeling extremely traumatized. I'm worried that I'll never want to
have sex again."

Finally
his sense of humor reasserted itself. "It's just like falling off a horse.
You have to get right back on."

"Is
that right?" She slid her hand down his back and squeezed his butt.
"Are you offering to be my riding instructor, smarty-pants?"

"Why
not? Are we going to let some voyeuristic intruder ruin our evening?" He
was secretly afraid that he was as traumatized as Eve.

But
he also was attracted to the cure he'd tossed out originally as a joke. He was
especially attracted to it after she'd squeezed his butt. That brought back the
warm sensation of lying between her thighs, his extremely happy dick buried
deep inside her as she'd stroked his naked backside.

So yeah, once they were
satisfied that the house was secure again, they should probably get it on and
wipe out all the scary associations. He didn't know if he'd ever have sex with
her again after tonight, and he didn't want the lingering memory to be the icky
feeling of being spied on.

In
the meantime, they had to go over every inch of this house while they tried to
figure out what the hell was going on. He turned the comer expecting to find
that the back door had been pried open once again. But no, his hinges were
still screwed firmly in place.

Eve
stood beside him. "Maybe we really did imagine the whole thing. Wouldn't
that be great?"

"Yeah,
it sure would." Charlie flipped on the light to make sure he wasn't
missing anything, but the door looked exactly as he'd left it. No one had come
through this way. "Guess we go to the front door next." He started
back down the hallway.

Eve hurried after him.
"I just had a horrible thought."

"More
horrible than some creepizoid getting his jollies by watching us in bed?"

"I'm
not sure I locked my car. The garage door remote is inside the car."

"Then
we'd better start with the garage." At the end of the hallway, Charlie veered
right toward the kitchen. But the minute he got there, he remembered that he'd
locked the kitchen door. "Nope. Even if somebody got into the garage, they
wouldn't have made it through this door without jimmying something." He
pulled at the door and it didn't budge.

When he turned around, Eve
was smiling at him. "What?"

"Your
clothes." She used her Vanna White gesture to indicate his stuff scattered
around. "It tells a whole story. Jacket neatly hung on the chair. Boots
lined up and socks inside. Then, judging from the shirts tossed in each corner,
something must have snapped."

"In
case you hadn't noticed, wild and crazy doesn't come naturally to me."

"Not
yet." She stepped forward and slid both hands up his bare chest. "But
you're making progress." Leaning forward, she kissed him.

He'd
known the kiss was coming and he'd told himself not to get too involved. They
hadn't finished casing the house for clues. But her wide, generous mouth was
magic. Before he could stop himself, he'd pulled her close, and in no time,
tongues were involved.

Kissing
Eve was a stress-buster to end all stress-busters. As he combed his fingers
through her silky hair and cupped the back of her head to deepen the kiss, he
managed to convince himself that no one had been in the house, after all. The
click had been a branch rubbing against the eaves, a piece of ice falling off
the roof, an owl dropping a pebble into the chimney. The longer Eve kissed him,
the more creative he became in explaining away the noise.

She
was the first to pull away. "Oh, Charlie, I just thought of something
else."

"Me,
too." He slipped his hand under her sweater, gratified that she hadn't put
on a bra. "A couple of things, actually."

"No, about the
intruder."

He
cupped her breast and rubbed his thumb over her nipple. "I think we
overreacted. I'll bet it was something else, and we leaped to
conclusions."

She
moaned and closed her eyes. "I hope you're right, but... oh, that feels so
good."

"It's
supposed to." He had a fantasy of doing it in the kitchen, with Eve braced
up on the counter. First he'd get on his knees for a little oral sex, and then,
once he stood, he'd be at the perfect height for the next stage.

He
still had his two condoms, because she'd come up with one while they were in
the bedroom. She must have snagged it from the bathroom, but that left him
with—

"They
could have..." She took a shaky breath. "They could have relocked the
door."

"What
door?" Somehow he'd lost track of the conversation, probably because he
was hard as a rock which meant his blood had drained south, exactly as she'd
described back in the bedroom. That had been some monologue. He hadn't realized
you could be nerdy about sex. And boy, did it work for him.

"The
kitchen door. It's one of those old-fashioned locks you can open with a credit
card. They could have done that and then relocked it."

His hands, which had been
so busy under her sweater, stilled.
Shit.
Sex
was making him stupid. How could he have looked at that locked door and made
the assumption that no one had gone that way? She was right about the ease of
opening a lock like that. Any marginally intelligent person would have come
into the garage, used a credit card on the kitchen door, and locked it behind
them.

With
a bitter sigh of regret he withdrew his hands from under her sweater.
"You're right. Obviously I don't have a brain cell working."

There
wasn't a smidgen of blame in her blue eyes. "It's been a long night."

"We
might as well check the front door and then we'll go outside and find out if
you left your car open." He walked over to the converter and snagged his
flannel shirt. "And this time I promise to concentrate." He buttoned
the shirt as he walked back toward her.

"You've
been concentrating." She stood on tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss.
"Just on other things."

"I
don't have that luxury right now." Cupping her cheek, he gazed into those
incredible eyes. "I haven't told you, but I'm taking the next two days off
work."

"For me?"

"Yep. You and your invention." "That
is so sweet!"

He
could live on that sparkle in her eyes. "And necessary. You and I need to
get this hovercraft operational so you can take the design to New York. I think
someone's trying to steal your concept, but if we start negotiations with a
viable company, we'll make the thief irrelevant."