Carnal Innocence

now.” She let out a long sigh. “Maybe some other time. But this is my home, my place, and I’m sticking. My grandmother lived here her entire adult life. My mother was born here, though she’d prefer you didn’t mention it. I’d like to think there was enough McNair in me to last one summer.” She shook off themood and smiled. “Are you going to give me those flowers or let them wilt on the step?”
    He considered several valid arguments, then let it go. When people weren’t allowed to go their own way, they were more likely to break than bend. “These?” All innocence, he held up the roses. The little plastic nipple of water each stem was tucked in kept them fresh. “Did you want them?”
    She shrugged. “I wouldn’t want them to go to waste.”
    “Me neither, since I had to drive all the way over to Rosedale to get them—and that wine there. Had to borrow Della’s car to do it,” he added, taking an indulgent sniff of the blooms. “And with Della, nothing comes free. You should’ve seen the list of chores she gave me. Dry cleaning and marketing, and since she’d gotten herself a flyer about a dollar sale at Woolworth’s, I had to fetch all that stuff, too. I drew the line at picking out a negligee for her sister Sarah’s girl, who’s engaged to be married and having a wedding shower next week. A man’s got to have his standards, and I don’t buy fancy underwear for women unless I’m intimately acquainted with them.”
    “You’re a man of substance, Tucker.”
    “It’s a matter of principle.” He laid the roses over her lap, where the slender cupped blossoms glowed like little points of sunlight. “I thought yellow ones suited you best.”
    “They’re beautiful.” She inhaled the perfume, sweet and strong. “I suppose I’ll have to thank you for them, and for all the trouble you went through to get them for me.”
    “You could kiss me instead. I’d rather you did.” He smiled when her brow creased, then tipped up his chin with a fingertip. “Don’t think about it, Caroline, just do it. It’s better than any pill for curing headaches.”
    So with the roses glowing between them, she leaned over and touched her lips to his. The taste was as sweet and as strong as the fragrance that floated over to her. And, she discovered, as comforting. A little dreamy-eyed, she started to draw back, but he cupped a hand around the back of her neck.
    “You Yankees,” he murmured. “Always in a hurry.” He nudged her mouth back to his.
    He was savoring. She understood that even as her mind began to mist over with emotion. She was aware of how slow, how deep a kiss could be if you just let yourself fall into it. With a little sigh she did just that.
    Even when she felt his fingers tense on her skin, she didn’t worry. Under the palm she’d pressed to his chest, his heart was beating fast and hard. But the rhythm brought her pleasure rather than taut nerves.
    And all the while his lips cruised over hers so that the kiss was like slipping into a cool blue lake dappled with sunlight.
    It was he who drew back now. He hadn’t touched her, but for those fingers that had grown strong at the back of her neck, he hadn’t touched her. Hadn’t dared. For he knew once he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop.
    Something here wasn’t playing the tune he was used to. Difficult though it was to stop, Tucker knew he’d better think this through.
    “I don’t suppose you’re going to ask me in.”
    “No,” she said, and let out a long breath. “Not yet.”
    “I’d better be getting back, then.” After a quick internal tug-of-war between stay and go, he rose. “I promised Cousin Lulu a game of Parcheesi. She cheats.” He grinned. “But so do I, and I’m quicker.”
    “Thanks for the flowers. And the wine.”
    Tucker stepped over the pup, who was snoring at the base of the stairs. Since there was only three inches between Della’s Olds and the BMW, he had to get in through the passenger side and slide over. After he’d started the engine, he rolled down the window.
    “You keep that wine chilled, sugar. I’ll be back.”
    As Caroline watched him shoot backward down her lane, she wondered why that brief, cocky statement had sounded so much like a threat.
    Josie and Crystal sat in their favorite booth in the Chat ’N Chew. Their excuse was dinner, but since both of them were on a perpetual diet, the reason was gossip.
    Josie poked at her chicken salad with little interest. What she