The Welcoming

easier to lie, to say what you think I want to hear.”
    “You’re not simple,” he murmured, lifting a hand and brushing it against her cheek. “I’ve never met a more confusing, complicated woman.”
    Shock came first, then pleasure. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. No one’s ever accused me of being complicated.”
    He’d meant to lower his hand, but she had already lifted hers and clasped it. “I didn’t mean it as a compliment.”
    That made her grin. Relaxed again, she sat back on the windowsill. “Even better. I hope this means we’re finished feeling awkward around each other.”
    “I don’t know what I feel around you.” He ran his hands up her arms to her shoulders, then down to the elbows again. “But awkward isn’t the word for it.”
    Touched—much too deeply—she rose. “I have to go.”
    “Why?”
    “Because it’s the middle of the day, and if you kiss me I might forget that.”
    Already aroused, he eased her forward. “Always organized.”
    “Yes.” She put a hand to his chest to keep some distance between them. “I have some invoices I have to go over upstairs.” Holding her breath, she backed toward the door. “I do want you, Roman. I’m just not sure I can handle that part of it.”
    Neither was he, he thought after she shut the door. With another woman he would have been certain that physical release would end the tension. With Charity he knew that making love with her would only add another layer to the hold she had on him.
    And she did have a hold on him. It was time to admit that, and to deal with it.
    Perhaps he’d reacted so strongly to her declaration of love because he was afraid, as he’d never been afraid of anything in his life, that he was falling in love with her.
    “Roman!” He heard the delight in Charity’s voice when she called to him. He swung open the door and saw her standing on the landing at the top of the stairs. “Come up. Hurry. I want you to see them.”
    She disappeared, leaving him wishing she’d called him anyplace but that innocently seductive bedroom.
    When he walked into her sitting room, she called again, impatience in her tone now. “Hurry. I don’t know how long they’ll stay.”
    She was sitting on the windowsill, her upper body out the opening, her long legs hooked just above the ankles. There was music playing, something vibrant, passionate. How was it he had never thought of classical music as passionate?
    “Damn it, Roman, you’re going to miss them. Don’t just stand in the doorway. I didn’t call you up to tie you to the bedposts.”
    Because he felt like a fool, he crossed to her. “There goes my night.”
    “Very funny. Look.” She was holding a brass spyglass, and she pointed with it now, out to sea. “Orcas.”
    He leaned out the window and followed her guiding hand. He could see a pair of shapes in the distance, rippling the water as they swam. Fascinated, he took the spyglass from Charity’s hand.
    “There are three of them,” he said. Delighted, he joined her on the windowsill. Their legs were aligned now, and he rested his hand absently on her knee. This time, instead of fire, there was simple warmth.
    “Yes, there’s a calf. I think it might be the same pod I spotted a few days ago.” She closed a hand over his as they both stared out to sea. “Great, aren’t they?”
    “Yeah, they are.” He focused on the calf, which was just visible between the two larger whales. “I never really expected to see any.”
    “Why? The island’s named after them.” She narrowed her eyes, trying to follow their path. She didn’t have the heart to ask Roman for the glass. “My first clear memory of seeing one was when I was about four. Pop had me out on this little excuse for a fishing boat. One shot up out of the water no more than eight or ten yards away. I screamed my lungs out.” Laughing, she leaned back against the windowframe. “I thought it was going to swallow us whole, like Jonah or maybe Pinocchio.”
    Roman lowered the glass for a moment. “Pinocchio?”
    “Yes, you know the puppet who wanted to be a real boy. Jiminy Cricket, the Blue Fairy. Anyway, Pop finally calmed me down. It followed us for ten or fifteen minutes. After that, I nagged him mercilessly to take me out again.”
    “Did he?”
    “Every Monday afternoon that summer. We didn’t always see something, but they were great days, the best days. I guess we were a pod, too, Pop and I.” She turned her face