Night with Sole Regret

TOUCH ME XV

“Hey, Caitlyn. Are you ready to leave?”

“Are you w*****g yourself out?” she asked.

“What? No, of course not.”

“I’m not sure why you’re even having a discussion with this woman,” Kelly said, nodding toward the diamond queen. “As if you’re considering this bullshit or something.”

“I wasn’t considering it. I just wondered if men actually went through with it. That’s a lot of money.”

Caitlyn’s arm circled Owen’s waist, and her hand slid over his bare belly. “You know I get half of every dime you make, baby. How much did she offer you?”

Owen laughed. Kelly gaped at her. Owen slapped Kelly on the chest. “Inside joke. I’ll explain later. Let’s go.”

“How do you have inside jokes with someone you just met?” Kelly said as he started toward the exit again.

“Good luck finding your fantasy,” Owen said to the woman in diamonds. s*x with another man was one of those s*x acts he’d never tried. Probably never would. Letting Caitlyn have her way with him was as close as he was going to get to having a homosexual encounter. He didn’t think reciprocal hand jobs counted.

As the three of them stepped onto the walkway outside, the cool cement registered in Owen’s brain. “s**t, I forgot my shoes,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you in the limo.”

“You sure you want to leave me alone with your girl?” Kelly asked.

“I expect you to take good care of her.”

“Oh, I’ll take real good care of her.” He wrapped an arm around Caitlyn and tugged her against his side. Her eyes opened wide. Kelly was only teasing, but Caitlyn had no way of knowing that.

“I’ll hurry,” Owen said. Assuming he didn’t get distracted between here and there by rich women with money to blow and fantasies to fulfill.

The limo pulled up just as Owen dashed back into the building. Caitlyn didn’t feel right being plastered to Kellen’s side. Not that it was a bad thing. She just felt as if she were cheating. On a guy she’d just met, barely knew, and who had no long-term interest in her. Boy, was she all mixed up inside.

“You’re tense,” Kellen said near her ear. “You don’t have anything to worry about from me. I was just giving Owen a hard time.”

“You don’t find me attractive?”

“You’re gorgeous,” he said. “I just have a certain type.”

“Big blue eyes?” Like Owen’s…

“How’d you guess?”

“You and Owen need to have a talk.”

Kellen’s dark brows drew together. “About what? So Sara had blue eyes, what does that have to do with Owen?”

So maybe there wasn’t any attraction on Kellen’s end at all.

The driver opened the door, and Caitlyn hurried to climb inside. The relationship between Kellen and Owen wasn’t any of her business. She wasn’t sure why she was so fixated on it.

“Owen will be out in a couple minutes,” Kellen said to the driver. “Just wait here.”

“No problem, Mr. Jamison.”

Kellen slipped into the seat beside Caitlyn. She stared at her hands, which were folded in her lap. She probably shouldn’t have said anything to Kellen about Owen. They knew their feelings for each other far better than she did. She wasn’t even sure if they actually had feelings for each other.

“Why do I need to have a talk with Owen? He already knows what type of woman I’m most attracted to. In fact, he said I’d have better luck getting over Sara if I dated someone who doesn’t look anything like her. What do you think?”

“I couldn’t say,” Caitlyn said. “It must be hard to be reminded of someone you lost when you look at some other woman.”

“I see pieces of her in everyone,” he said. “In everything.”

“Even in me?”

He grinned crookedly and released a huff of a laugh. “Yeah, you have soft lips like Sara’s.” Kellen reached over and touched a finger under her chin. He rubbed his thumb along her bottom lip, sending sparks of pleasure down her nerve-endings. “I still remember how she tasted.”

“How did she die?” Caitlyn asked, hell-bent on sticking her foot in her mouth repeatedly tonight. “Was it sudden?”

“Owen told you just enough to encourage annoying questions, I see.” Kellen dropped his hand. “Not sudden. It took her several months to die once they found the tumors in her lungs. But a thousand years with her wouldn’t have been enough.” A distant look stole across his chiseled features. “One was definitely not enough.”

Caitlyn bit her lip and ducked her chin, swallowing around a lump in her throat. It didn’t seem fair that a dead girl had the unwavering devotion and love of someone as vibrantly alive as Kellen Jamison.

“I shouldn’t have asked. I apologize. And…” She looked up to find him staring off into space. Why did she hurt so badly for him? She didn’t even know him, but she could practically feel the devastation seeping from his pores. “I’m truly sorry for your loss.”

He nodded curtly, avoiding her eyes. She couldn’t possibly ask him if he had any feelings for Owen. Not with him so obviously hurting over a woman. She sat awkwardly beside him trying to think of something, anything, to say.

“I lost my sister a couple of years ago.”

“Cancer?” he murmured.

“No. There was an accident at work. She was training to be an astronaut and…” She couldn’t continue. Morgan’s loss was like a fresh wound every time Caitlyn had to tell someone what had happened to her. “The safety harness failed. They say she didn’t suffer.” Which is more than could be said about anyone who battled cancer.

“It hurts most when you speak of them, doesn’t it?”

She nodded, drawing deep breaths through her nose to keep threatening tears at bay.

“So you find yourself avoiding talking about it,” he said. “To anyone. Because it reminds you that it happened. It wasn’t just a nightmare. It’s reality.”

She wasn’t sure if he was really talking to her. He wasn’t looking at her.

“Don’t break his heart, Caitlyn,” Kellen said unexpectedly. “He likes to pretend he’s a player, but he’s very sensitive when it comes to love. He’s nice. Too nice at times. He only sees the good in people. So when you shred his heart, be it tonight, tomorrow, or years from now, take it easy on him. He doesn’t take rejection well.”

Kellen turned to her then, and she couldn’t speak. Could only stare into his dark eyes. It was as if she were under some sort of spell. After a long moment, he looked away and she found her tongue.

“It’s a bit soon to be talking about love,” she said.

Kellen laughed softly. “I knew I would love Sara for the rest of my life the first time she smiled at me.”

And what in the hell was she supposed to say to that?

Before she could think of a response, Owen slipped into the car beside Kellen. Relief flooded her. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because Owen was all light and wonder, while Kellen was all dark and practicality. Caitlyn needed Owen, because she was more like Kellen than she cared to admit. As soon as the door closed behind Owen, he climbed over his friend’s lap and wriggled until he slipped between Kellen and Caitlyn’s hips.

“You could have asked me to move,” Kellen said, scooting closer to the door to give Owen breathing room.

“I wasn’t expecting you to be sitting on top of her,” Owen said.

“I wasn’t.”

“Not that I blame you,” he said. “Are there any decent sandwich shops around here that are open this late?” he asked Caitlyn.

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Don’t you live close by?”

She shook her head. “I’m from Houston. I’m just here visiting a friend.” She smirked. “And enjoying the nightlife San Antonio has to offer.”

“You know what?” Owen said. “Tony has a club in Houston. I’ll take you sometime. We can try out some of your other kinky fantasies.”

“As tempting as that sounds, I don’t think I’ll be visiting another of Tony’s clubs,” she said. “Not that I didn’t enjoy my time there tonight, I did, but my curiosity is sated now. Maybe I’ll try Internet dating next.” Or maybe she’d take for herself. To get over Charles. She hated him, yes, but she still wasn’t over him. She wasn’t ready to love again. Hot s*x with Owen? Yeah, she’d been ready for that, had needed that. She was ready for hot s*x with Owen again, truth be told. But if he was one of those guys who believed in love at first smile, like his excessively intense friend, then she should probably take her leave as soon as possible. Before she shredded his heart or something equally appalling.

“I’ll see if I can find a place that’s open,” Kellen said as he tugged a cellphone out of his pocket. “What are you hungry for? Wait, I get one guess. Pastrami on rye?”

Caitlyn chuckled. “How did he know that?”

Kellen grinned as he tapped a search into his phone with one finger. “Owen always craves pastrami after sex.”

“Not always,” Owen said.

“Owen usually craves pastrami after s*x,” Kellen amended.

“Only when I sweat a lot,” Owen said. “And Caitlyn definitely made me sweat a lot.”

She stared up into his grinning face, fighting the urge to kiss him. Just looking at him made her feel good about herself. Made her happy. She didn’t understand why, but didn’t care overmuch at the moment. She wasn’t supposed to like him this much. The attraction was supposed to fade after their tumble in bed. She was supposed to have sated her lust and lost interest—that’s the way it worked. But she hadn’t lost interest. She was more intrigued than ever.