Page 26 of Untouchable
That was exactly what he was supposed to think. “Caleb?—”
“Just stay. At least until I get back.”
“Maybe.”
He reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, and Kelly almost jerked away from the touch of his warm hand. “Promise me. Promise me you’ll be here when I get back.”
He was really laying it on thick. Pulling out a whole armory of persuasive intensity and cool charisma in order to keep her where he wanted her.
And, if she hadn’t kept reminding herself who and what he really was, it would have worked on her.
Master of manipulation.
Lying bastard.
Kelly smiled at him. “I’m not promising anything.”
“You’ll be here.” He sounded smug, absolutely confident that she would do what he wanted her to do. “In the meantime, make yourself at home.”
“I’m not here on vacation. And I’m not planning to raid the refrigerator or have a long soak in your hot tub.”
“Why not?” He gave her a decidedly flirtatious glance over his shoulder. “You’re welcome to raid the wine cellar too, although you might wait until the headache is gone. The tub in this suite should be decent, but the best one is in the master bath. You’re welcome to use it if you’d like.” He cocked an eyebrow. “But I warn you, it has very powerful jets.”
Kelly saw his face blurring in front of her eyes as she processed the fact that they were actually flirting. But she made herself hide it and playfully threw one of the throw pillows from the bed in his direction as he started to leave the room.
It bounced off the back of his shoulder before it fell to the floor.
She could hear his chuckle as he moved down the hallway. Warm, husky, sensual.
It made her hate him even more.
7
She stayedin bed for a few more hours. Once her headache was mostly gone, she got up, took a shower, and ate some of the lunch that had been carried up to her room.
Her clothes from the night before had been freshly laundered, and the housekeeper found her a pair of more comfortable shoes so she wouldn’t have to go around in her heels. So she got dressed, clipped her hair up into a heavy knot, and went out to explore the estate.
Kelly would have expected any home of Caleb’s to be cool, modern, and stylish, but the house was an old brick Georgian that had been beautifully updated, so it was full of both character and comfort. The house was built on a large piece of land, so she wandered around, peering at the lake, the stables, and the stretches of grassy lawn. She avoided the wooded areas. There wasn’t much else to keep her occupied, and she figured walking around was a predictable thing for a guest to do. She knew she was probably being watched by Caleb’s security—he had more surveillance than she’d expected to find—so she couldn’t do anything that looked suspicious. But it was a sunny day and warm for April, and the walk and fresh airrevived her considerably and banished the final symptoms of her concussion.
There was a high wall surrounding the whole estate, and—as she approached it—she noticed the iron gate that led to the road.
It wasn’t open, but it wouldn’t be very hard to get beyond it, if she were coming from inside and not from outside. She studied it idly, thinking through what she would do tonight, until a man, obviously security, stepped out into the open between her position and the gate.
He didn’t say anything, but his presence there was meaningful. Obviously he’d been told that she wasn’t supposed to leave.
But surely even Caleb wouldn’t dare to keep her here as a prisoner.
She took a short nap in the middle of the afternoon, knowing it would be wise to catch up on her sleep since she wouldn’t be doing much of that tonight. At about five thirty, she took her towel and the bathrobe she’d been offered up to Caleb’s master bathroom.
It wasn’t as if she were really in the mood for a long, luxurious bath. She was getting edgier by the minute, thinking about what would happen when Caleb returned from work. But he’d offered, and it was a good idea to accept the invitation.
She was tempted to snoop in his bedroom, but it was far too early to try something so risky.
Instead, she went into the huge bathroom, shut the door, took off her clothes, and drew herself a hot bath.
After dumping some of the bath salts she found into the enormous tub—the salts appeared to have never been opened, soshe assumed Caleb wasn’t in the habit of taking baths himself—Kelly turned on the jets. She lowered herself into the water and shuddered in automatic pleasure.
Caleb hadn’t been lying about how powerful they were.
