Unnatural Relations (Lust and Lies Series, Book 1) (19 page)

"Wait a minute," Matt said without looking at her. "The match is almost over."

It occurred to Barbara that she could have stayed in Kyle's car indefinitely and these two might not have noticed.

A few minutes later, Matt let out a victorious
"Yes!"
and Tammy tweaked his nose. "I'll get you next time, Hammerhead," she threatened in an imitation of a professional wrestler. As Matt turned off the game, she asked Barbara, "How'd it go?"

"Very nice," she answered honestly. "Better than I expected."

"When are you going out with him again?"

"Yeah, Maw, when? Tammy said she'd come back and keep me company anytime you wanted to go out. Maybe this guy would like to take you away for a whole weekend sometime."

"Matthew! Where would you get such an idea?" She looked at Tammy, but the girl quickly shook her head in denial. Contact with Tammy seemed to have aged him considerably since that morning. "I gather you had a good time tonight."

"The best!" he exclaimed, then launched into a minute-by-minute account of what he did, what Kenny said, what Tammy didn't do and moved on to give a review of the movie.

After an hour, he was finally calming down, so she announced that it was well past bedtime. He started to whine, but a pout from Tammy put a stop to that. She promised to come back again and gave him a hug.

When Matt went to his room, Barbara thanked Tammy profusely for befriending her son. "I've never seen him attach himself to anyone as instantly as he has to you."

Tammy giggled. "I'm glad he did, because I think he's adorable. I really ought to thank you, though. I was really missing my kid brother before today. We used to be very close, but it was never the same after I moved out of the house. He probably thought I deserted him."

"I'm sure he'll come around when he gets a little older. In the meantime, I'm sure Matt would be happy to step in once in a while."

It took Matt another half hour after Tammy left to calm down enough to sleep and by that time Barbara was more than ready for bed herself.

For some reason, she had always imagined that Matt would be jealous if she ever dated. The fact that he wasn't even curious about what the man was like gave her a sense of relief, but left her feeling a little jealous of Tammy.

The next day the green-eyed monster rose again when Matt couldn't seem to talk about anything else. It was silly, she knew. Having to share Matt's affection with another woman was something she had to get used to sooner or later. One day in the not-too-distant future, he would be a handsome young man who would fall in love for real and might forget his mother even existed. She hoped that was an exaggeration, but the reality was, someday he would make his own life and she would no longer be the center of it.

When that time came, she would simply have to adjust to being alone... for the rest of her life.

That depressing line of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door. Matt was checking out the visitor through the window before she could get up from her chair.

"It's a man," he told her as she came up behind him. "A stranger."

Barbara was more than a bit surprised to see that it was Kyle. "That's the man I went out with last night," she explained quickly. She hesitated a second and considered letting Matt greet him so that she could go brush her hair and put on lipstick. The hell with it, she decided, and opened the door. "Hello. This is a surprise."

Kyle came inside looking slightly embarrassed. "I'm sorry for dropping in like this, but you never did give me your phone number and I wanted to invite you and your son to the Ringling Brothers Circus this afternoon. It's the last day they're in town."

Matt's face lit up. "The circus! Wow! Can we go, Maw,
please?"

Barbara wondered if Kyle was always this spontaneous. Didn't she used to be like that, once upon a time? "Wouldn't you like an introduction first?" she asked Matt with a look meant to remind him about the stranger rule.

He let out a loud sigh then showed off how smart he was. "His name is Kyle. You went out with him last night. And if he was a bad guy, you wouldn't have smiled when you saw him through the window. And you wouldn't have let him in." He held out his hand to Kyle for a manly shake. "Hi. I'm Matt." Necessities out of the way, he turned back to his mother. "So, can we go, huh?"

Laughing, she asked Kyle, "Do we have time to get cleaned up a little?"

"If we leave here within the hour, we should still get to the arena before the show starts. If it's all right with you, we can eat there."

"Okay. Matt, take a fast shower while I clear away the breakfast dishes, then put on something without holes in it." He rolled his eyes at her in exasperation. She supposed she was going to have to start letting him do things on his own.

"One other thing," Kyle said before Matt left the room. "I remember when I was a boy it was always more fun to go somewhere with my parents if I could take a friend, so I got four tickets in case you'd like to invite someone."

"Can I, Maw?"

"Sure. Now hurry. I need to use the shower, too."

As Matt got her cell phone out of her purse, Barb took Kyle's coat and hung it over a chair. "Coffee?"

"If it's no trouble," he said, following her into the kitchen.

Matt held the phone out to her as they entered. "Tammy said she could meet us there, but she wants to talk to you first."

Barbara blinked at him.
Tammy?
Covering the mouthpiece with her hand, she whispered, "I thought you'd invite Kenny."

He grinned up at her. "I like Tammy better."

"How did you know her number?"

"She wrote it here on the message board for me. See?"

Barbara's mind jumped from her son's unexpected choice to how Kyle would react to the stunning,
younger
woman. Would he be as easily infatuated as Matt? She certainly couldn't compete with Tammy on a physical level. With a shake of her head, she thought this could be a blessing in disguise. She told Tammy that she was most welcome and with Kyle's prompting, told her where to meet them.

After Matt said good-bye to Tammy and headed for the shower, Kyle said, "I hope that girl's parents aren't just going to drop her off."

Barbara smiled. "That
girl
is twenty-two. She works in the building where I do. Matt just met her yesterday, but apparently it was love at first sight for him—his first crush. She's the one who sat with him last night. If I'd known he was calling her instead of his buddy down the street, I would have tried to discourage him."

"Maybe you'd better talk to the lady and make sure she takes special care with his heart. A boy's first attack of true love is nothing to make fun of."

She angled her head at him. "Do you remember your first?"

He grinned. "As if it were yesterday." Stepping close to her, he ran his fingers through her hair. "Actually, it was the day before." He tried to embrace her for a kiss, but she glanced at the doorway and backed away from him.

"Your son's in the shower," he said in a low voice, and drew her against him. "Be nice to me now and I promise to be a perfect gentleman in front of Matt for the rest of the day."

Thinking that once he saw Tammy, he may never want to kiss her again, she decided to take advantage of his offer. With a smile, she rose up on tiptoes and brought his head down to hers for a kiss that he wouldn't easily forget.

A few seconds later, he broke it off and took a deep breath. "For future reference, that is
not
the way to convince me to be a perfect gentleman."

She smothered a satisfied chuckle and finished fixing his coffee. "Make yourself at home. I'll be as quick as I can."

As she walked away from him, she felt something else she hadn't known in many years—confidence in her femininity. And damned if it didn't feel great for a change.

Tammy was waiting for them when they arrived at the arena. She looked fabulous as usual. Men and women both openly stared at the beauty as they passed and Barbara held her breath as she introduced her to Kyle. They smiled at each other and said the appropriate polite phrases, but neither appeared to be terribly impressed with the other.

The circus was an awesome display of daring feats and eye-popping costumes. At first Matt was clearly having the time of his life, but about halfway through the show his mood changed. Considering how much junk food Kyle had bought him, Barbara chalked up his sour expression to an upset tummy, and his response to Kyle's dinner invitation on the way home confirmed that.

"I just want to go home," he snapped. "I don't feel good."

Recalling her spontaneous days of long ago, she said to Kyle, "We could order something to be delivered. Chinese or Italian."

Her suggestion brought a groan of complaint from Matt, so she tried to get his mind on something besides his stomach. "I was telling Kyle about your collection of comic books, and he said he used to collect them, too."

"So?"
he replied in such an uncharacteristically rude tone, Barbara raised her eyebrows at him.

Kyle touched her hand to stop her from scolding the boy. "So-o-o," he said, "I was hoping you'd show me your collection."

Barbara gave Matt a look meant to remind him of his manners no matter how queasy his stomach was.

"Fine," Matt murmured with absolutely zero enthusiasm.

After they arrived home and Kyle proved to Matt that he did, in fact, know something about comic book collecting, Matt perked up a bit. Watching them together as they discussed various superheroes, Barbara was struck by the realization that her fears had prevented Matt from experiencing a normal relationship with an adult male. She had always thought she could be both mother and father for her son. Was she wrong? As he approached puberty, would he need a real father figure to talk to?

Two days of excitement caught up with Matt after dinner and he fell asleep while they were watching a movie on television. Though he roused enough to be guided to bed, Barbara knew he was out for the night.

As she pulled the covers up to his chin and kissed him on the forehead, she got nervous about returning alone to Kyle. He had only promised to be a gentleman in front of Matt, and she wasn't sure she could trust herself if he was intent on seducing her.

Knowing there was even the tiniest possibility that Matt could wake up was deterrent enough to give her the courage to resist anything Kyle could do to her.

That courage faltered, however, when she walked into the living room and saw the way Kyle was looking at her. He wanted her, now, and knew she was his for the taking. She stopped a few feet away from him and crossed her arms. "Matt said to thank you for giving him such a fun day."

Kyle crooked his finger at her. "Come here."

Chapter 9

"Kyle, it was a wonderful day for me, too, but—"

"Stop. I know what you're about to say, and it's not necessary. I'm not a teenage boy who can't control his hormones. Please come here."

She sighed, uncrossed her arms and sat down on the couch beside him. "I'm still confused."

He smiled and eased her into his arms. "It's a temporary condition that I'm sure I can remedy if you'll give me the chance." He gave her a peck on the forehead. "Now, as I was saying, I'm not going to lose control of my sex drive just because your son went to bed. I haven't made any secret of how you make me feel, but I'm in no hurry to act on it."

He stopped to laugh at himself. "That's not entirely true. I
am
in a hurry, but I can wait, because I'm absolutely certain that this is only the beginning. We're going to have a lifetime of opportunities to make love, when circumstances are more favorable. For tonight, I'll be happy just to hold you for a while, then I'll leave. All right?"

She relaxed against him and showed her appreciation for his understanding with a shy smile.

For a long comfortable time, while the movie ran to its conclusion, he merely held her close and caressed her skin with his fingertips. But when the credits began rolling, he clicked off the television and focused his complete attention on kissing her senseless.

"I can't get over how good you taste to me," he whispered in her ear, then nibbled the lobe. "I haven't stopped thinking about that since I first kissed you in the parking garage. I'll keep my promise to wait, but you should know how badly I want you. At completely inappropriate times, I imagine feeling your bare skin sliding against mine, and..." He sighed heavily. "I haven't had this kind of problem since I was a teenager."