Total Package by Cait London Page A

them was easy, and on a whim, Sidney decided to call Danya. Uncertain how to best reach him, she left a message on the Stepanov Building Company machine, then settled back to mentally script her talk with him—if he returned the call.
    She’d promised to take the Stepanov family pictures, and there would be no way to do that without interacting with Danya.
    Well, okay. If she went back to Amoteh, and Danya seemed okay with it, they could have very satisfying, earthshaking sex.
    That is, if he hadn’t made complete emotional transference from missing his wife to Sidney.
    On impulse, Sidney stood up and walked into a bedroom she seldom used for anything other than storage of her work. She tugged off her clothing and considered herself in the full-length mirror.
    Danya’s earrings caught the light, sparkling in her reflection. She’d been right, when howling at the moon on Strawberry Hill and talking with the chieftain entombed there: She did have all the basic equipment, which was now sensitized and aching and lonely. She glanced at her bed, heaped with boxes of her work.
    If she had Danya on that bed right now, she’d—
    The telephone rang and Sidney waited until Danya’s deep voice came into the room. “I miss you,” he said simply and the line clicked off.
    Sidney quickly redialed the Stepanov Building number and Danya answered. “Hi,” she managed breathlessly.
    “Hi.”
    “Sex with you wasn’t so bad,” she said, surprising herself and knew instantly that Danya had the power to bring things to her mind and lips that would never have previously escaped.
    There was a long pause before Danya murmured dryly, “Thanks. You weren’t so bad either.”
    Now that was real encouragement, coming from a romantic sort of guy. “I’m wearing your earrings…um, just thought you’d want to know. I’m taking really good care of them.”
    Danya cleared his throat, his tone uneven as he asked, “Anything else? Are you wearing anything else?”
    He was the first man to be interested in what she was wearing. Sidney held her breath as she answered, “Not a thing. Nope. Just those earrings.”
    Then it seemed appropriate to ask, “So what are you wearing, guy?”
    “Skin.”
    Sidney thought of Danya’s smooth skin covering all those powerful muscles and deep within her that clenching ache began. She turned to the full-length mirror and remembered when Danya had stood behind her at the Amoteh Resort, his open hands pressing her close. The image was sensual and standing without clothing, she could easily remember Danya’s hard body against hers. “Oh.”
    “Your skin is very soft. I love to taste it—all over.”
    She forced a swallow down her dry, tight throat. “Oh.”
    Tit for tat, she thought and searched for equal footing in whatever was going on between them. She wanted to be held tight against him, to lock him to her, flying through pleasure and heartbeats and that passionate storm at the end. “Your butt is cute.”
    “Thanks. So is yours.”
    “I’m overweight now. Fat grabs on to my butt and my chest.”
    “You’re perfect, Sidney…curvy and feminine. If you were here right now, I’d be in you, making love to you. I’d be waiting for those sounds you make, like purring and then like hunger.”
    That shocked her, that a man would speak so openly. “Hey, what?”
    “In you, making love,” he repeated slowly, softly, and Sidney’s heartbeat kicked up, her body started trembling. “I’d cherish that little scream at the end. But the next time, don’t bother to try to hold it in.”
    “Now that is just plain offensive. You’re saying I’m noisy.”
    Danya chuckled on the other end of the line. “Sweetheart, I’m saying I like it. Good night.”
    After the call ended, Sidney debated the word “sweetheart,” as applied to her specifically. “The guy is a real romantic and he’s lonesome. I saved him from jumping—though he’s not admitting it—and he’s got a little transference thing