“Just some guy. What are you doing here?”

“What were you doing in here with him?” He looked over his shoulder, but the other man had already left the dressing room.

“He was just flirting with me.” Kelly was frowning now, and her shoulders were stiff. “What did you think? We’d come in here for a quick fuck?”

“You didn’t know him?” Caleb was starting to wonder if he’d overreacted, but there had been a vibe earlier that he couldn’t quite pin down, something that roused his suspicions.

“Of course I didn’t know him. He was in here looking for a shirt to wear to a wedding, and I talked him out of buying a really ugly one. He was just coming on to me. It happens, sometimes, you know.”

That squared with what the guy had said as he left, but still. Caleb stood tensely, studying her face, wondering why he still wanted to clobber someone.

“I didn’t peg you for the jealous type,” Kelly said, turning away to get her purse and a blue dress out of the cubicle. “And I’ve got to say, all this alpha male possessiveness is really not appealing. I’m allowed to talk to other men, you know.”

Of course she was allowed. He didn’t normally overreact this way. He had no idea what was wrong with him. Only he hated the idea of Kelly with another man.

He hated it.

“As long as talking is all you do,” he muttered, an edge to his tone that surprised him.

It evidently surprised her too. She stared at him for a minute, her hair slipping out of her long braid the way it always did. “If I’m supposed to curb my extracurricular activities, then the same better apply to you.”

Did she really think he was fucking other women? Did she really think he even wanted to?

He stepped forward, walking her backward and holding her in place by bracing a hand on the wall. “I don’t share.”

Her cheeks were flushed now, and she arched slightly, visibly turned on. But her voice was controlled as she replied, “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

“I’m serious. If something is mine, then it’s mine only.”

“I know you’re not talking about me as your possession.”

Of course she was his. Her gold hair, her creamy skin, her lush curves, her long legs, her supple mouth. Her knowing, intelligent eyes. All of it felt like his, and he still bristled at the idea of anyone else laying a hand on her.

“Okay,” Kelly said, reaching up to stroke his jaw. “If you’re going to go all caveman on me, then you’ll have to wait until we get home. I’m not getting fucked in the dressing room.”

“It doesn’t have to be now, but you’re definitely getting fucked.”

She was smiling as she pushed him out of the dressing room, and he stood beside her as she paid for her dress. She didn’t say anything, but she kept slanting little looks up at him, as if trying to figure out what was going on with him.

When they left the mall, she got in the passenger seat of Caleb’s car instead of riding back with Pete.

She was studying him so closely now that it was making him self-conscious.

He said, “I know you’re hot for me, but we agreed we’d wait until we got home before you get fucked.”

She gave a little laugh, but he hadn’t distracted her from her questions. “What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“Yeah.” He’d turned on the car, but he hadn’t shifted into drive yet.

“I know you didn’t blow your whole schedule to go shopping with me, so what’s going on?”

There was no good reason to tell her. But he heard himself saying, “I had to…do a favor for a friend, and then just didn’t go back into work.”

“What favor?” Her voice was soft, as if she were afraid of spooking him.

He let out a long exhale and closed his eyes. “I had to take a friend’s mother to the hospital for a blood transfusion.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, clearly surprised. “Why you?”

Naturally, she would be surprised. He wasn’t the sort of man to go out of his way for someone else. “Because she knows me. She’s not doing well, and the only people she remembers are from way back. My friend didn’t have anyone else to ask.”

“Well”—she paused—“that was really nice of you.”

He opened his eyes and gave her a narrow-eyed look. “Nice isn’t the word I’d use to describe me.”

“I know. But still.” She looked strange, like she was rattled for some reason. Her eyes kept darting from his face to her hands in her lap. “I’m sure your friend appreciated it. Was it…”

“Was it what?”

“Was it hard? You seem kind of—I don’t know—stretched or something this afternoon.”

He closed his eyes again.

“Yeah,” he said, then decided the conversation had gone on long enough. He straightened up and backed the car out of the parking place.

She didn’t pursue her earlier questions. She sat with her arms hugging her stomach, looking strangely fragile and confused.

After about ten minutes of silence, he looked at her and asked, “You okay?”

She smiled, but he could tell it was forced. “Of course. I’m waiting to get fucked at home.”

He could tell she didn’t mean that either.

It was a few minutes before he spoke again, and when he did, it wasn’t what he’d intended to say. “I don’t like hospitals.”

He’d surprised her again. Her big blue eyes gazed up at him questioningly.

He gave a little shake of his head. “I don’t.”

“You run a pharmaceutical company,” she said slowly. “I’d think you would have gotten used to them by now.”

“I haven’t.”

She said, “Too many people to save.”

She understood completely. He stared out the windshield at the traffic on the highway, murmuring, “And no way to save them.”

—

The next night, Kelly asked him to tie her up.

He’d brought her to his room at bedtime, and they’d been kissing and caressing under the covers. Nothing wild or creative, but it had felt intense. He was tired after a long week and was mostly in the mood for something quiet.

He certainly hadn’t planned on anything like this.

Kelly said she just wanted to try something new.

He agreed. There was no reason not to. She wanted it, and it might be exciting.

He picked up some silk cords he had from some previous, nearly forgotten affair.

She was lying naked on his bed, her eyes huge and very blue as they focused on him. He gazed at her for a minute, trying to read the expression in her eyes. Caleb had never seen that particular look there before. Her expression was deep, and conflicted, and significant, but he couldn’t figure out how to interpret it.

He started to tie her right hand, winding the cord around her delicate wrist and around the post of his headboard. He intentionally kept it loose. She was as tired as he was, and he was afraid anything too intense would be too much for tonight.

He hadn’t thought either of them was really in that mood.

“It’s not tight enough,” Kelly whispered, her full lips soft but unwavering.

Caleb looked at her face silently, again trying to figure out what was going on. He was used to being in control, used to being competent, used to knowing exactly what to do.

He wasn’t used to feeling like this.

“What’s the point of this if I can pull my hand out? I want to do this, Caleb. You said I could try anything with you, and I wanted to try this. If you are going to do it with me, at least get it right.” She sounded more like herself, and there was a glint of clever impatience in her eyes as she slanted them up at him.

Caleb stopped worrying, wondering, and retied the cord, more tightly this time. Finally, he let himself look at her for real, let his body enjoy the sight.

Kelly wasn’t wild and playful right now, the way she’d been when she’d gotten him to spank her. She wasn’t full of that vivid, taunting sexual provocation he was used to from her. She felt deep, like there were layers to her he’d not even come close to exposing.