Man Who Loved Pride and Prejudice by Abigail Reynolds Page A

wanted to forget.
       Cassie snatched her keys from the desk. "Erin, I have an errand to do. I'll be back in a while."
       "Sure. Whatever." Erin, sounding dispirited, didn't even look up from the specimen tanks.
       Cassie found her car in the crowded lot and tossed her lab coat on the passenger seat. There hadn't been a problem parking at six this morning, but she would have a hard time finding a space for her car when she came back. She drove carefully around the blind corner at the Marine Fisheries Aquarium, watching for children who often ran out heedlessly into the street in front of the seal pen. When she saw the guard booth at Penzance Point, she almost lost her nerve and turned around. But apparently she looked familiar enough to the guard, and he waved her through.
       She stopped the car in the circular driveway of Scott's house. Her hand rested on the keys in the ignition. Did she really want to do this? It was completely unlike her. She looked uncertainly at the house. Calder was standing in the doorway. He must have heard her drive up.
       She had come too far to back down now. Opening the car door, she made her way up the steps to the deck where he was waiting for her. He was watching her unsmilingly again, leaving her dizzy, her skin charged with electricity. She stopped directly in front of him.
       It was like the morning all over again. There was no discussion, no slow, subtle approach, no flirtation, just his hands on her waist and sliding down to her hips. Her body had no uncertainties.
       Without releasing her, Calder closed the door behind them. His hands went directly for the zipper of her casual sundress, then inside it, caressing her skin as if it were fine porcelain. She shivered with desire, wanting him to touch her in all the intimate ways he had before, to take her to the point where she didn't have to think anymore or ask herself why she was doing this.
       Within minutes their clothes were scattered on the floor. Cassie held her hand out to him and then sank down on the plush carpet in front of the fireplace. He kissed her fiercely, pressing her shoulders back until she lay flat, where he could explore her body at will. His mouth at her breast and his hand between her legs, he built the tension in her to the breaking point as she arched and moaned and then he murmured something incomprehensible in her ear as he brought her back with powerful surges of pleasure. This time he had a condom, and she helped him roll it on before they made love with a fierce passion, right there on the floor, then again later in his bed, in the impersonally modern room whose only sign of his presence was a scattered pile of books on the bedside table. He seemed determined to give her no chance to reconsider; he would lie spent in her arms for only a few minutes before putting his fingers and mouth to work again on destroying her rationality.
       When finally she stopped him, his muscles grew lax, and then he touched her lips. "Wait," he said, standing and padding over to the bathroom.
       She watched after him and then heard running water. Calder was outdoing himself at taciturnity; he had said hardly a word since her arrival, but it didn't bother her. She didn't want to talk either. Now that it was over and she was out of his arms, she was embarrassed to face him. She pulled the expensive sheet over her, wondering how she could end this gracefully.
       He returned and held out his hand to her. It was easier to take it and follow him to the ornate bathroom than to think. Steaming water poured into the sunken whirlpool that dominated one corner. She turned a questioning look on him, almost immediately distracted by the sight of his body, his shoulders tapering into the length of his torso, the quiet solidity that made her want to hold him again.
       He stepped down into the tub, frothy bubbles swirling around him, and reached out for her. She followed him into the shockingly warm