Nora Roberts - Times Change

What would it be like? he wondered. Just a touch, an experiment. A mouth that soft, that full, was designed to tempt a man. Would she fight, or would she yield? Either would prove rewarding. Annoyed by the distraction, he looked into her eyes again. He had a purpose, one he didn’t intend to detour from.

“I’m sorry if I startled you, or if I interfered with your privacy. I was looking for someone.”

“There’s no one here but—” She caught herself and swore under her breath. “Who? Who are you looking for?”

It was best to play it safe, Jacob decided. If he had somehow miscalculated the time, or if Cal’s report had been faulty—as they had sometimes been before—it wouldn’t be wise to be too specific. “A man. I thought he lived here, but perhaps my information is incorrect.”

Sunny blew her bangs out of her eyes. “Who? What’s his name?”

“Hornblower,” Jacob said, and used his smile for the first time. “His name is Caleb Hornblower.” The surprise in Sunny’s eyes was all he needed. Instinctively his fingers tightened on her wrists. “You know him?”

Ideas about her sister’s somewhat mysterious husband sprang into her mind. He was a spy, a fugitive, an eccentric millionaire on the run. Family loyalty ran deep, and she would rather have had bamboo slivers under her fingernails than betray a loved one.

“Why should I?”

“You know him,” Jacob insisted. When her chin came up, he let out a frustrated sigh. “I’ve come a long way to see him.” His lips curved at the understatement. “A very long way. Please, can you tell me where he is?”

When she felt herself softening, she jutted her chin out again. “Obviously he’s not here.”

“Is he all right?” Jacob released her hands and gripped her shoulders. “Has anything happened to him?”

“No.” The very real concern she heard in his voice had her putting a hand over his. “No, of course not. I didn’t mean to—” She caught herself again. If this was a trap, she was falling neatly into it. “If you want any information from me, you’ll have to tell me who you are and why you want it.”

“I’m his brother, Jacob.”

Sunny’s eyes widened as she let out a long breath. Cal’s brother? It was possible, she supposed. The coloring was similar, and the shape of the face. There was certainly more family resemblance between this man and her brother-in-law than there was between herself and Libby.

“Well,” she said after a brief debate with herself, “it really is a small world, isn’t it?”

“Smaller than you can imagine. You do know Cal?”

“Yes. Since he married my sister, that makes you and me . . . I’m not exactly sure what that makes us, but I think we’d be better off discussing it vertically.”

He nodded, but he didn’t move. “Who are you?”

“Me?” She offered him a big, bright smile. “Oh, I’m Sunbeam.” Still smiling, she wrapped her fingers around his thumb. “Now, if you don’t want this dislocated, you’ll get the hell off my bed.”

Chapter 2

They moved apart warily, two boxers retreating to their corners at the sound of the bell. Jacob wasn’t entirely sure how to handle her, much less the bombshell she had dropped. His brother was married.

Once they were standing a careful three feet apart, he dipped his hands in the pockets of the comfortable jeans. He noted that, though her stance was easy, she was still braced, ready to counter any move he might attempt. It would have been interesting to make one, just to see what she would do and how she would do it. But he had priorities.

“Where’s Cal?”

“Borneo. I think it’s Borneo. Might be Bora Bora. Libby’s researching a paper.” She had time to study him objectively now. Yes, there was a definite resemblance to Cal, in the way he stood, in the rhythm of his speech. But, even though she accepted that, she wasn’t ready to trust him. “Cal must have told you she’s a cultural anthropologist.”

He hesitated, then brought out the smile again. He wasn’t nearly as concerned now with what Cal had or had not told him in his report as with what his brother had told this woman named Sunbeam. Sunbeam, he thought distractedly. Was anyone really named Sunbeam?

“Of course.” He lied smoothly and without compunction. “He didn’t mention he’d be away. How long?”

“A few more weeks.” She tugged the red sweater down over her hips. She could already feel bruises forming. It didn’t annoy her. She had held her own—well, almost held her own—against him. And she hoped she’d get another shot. “It’s funny he never said you were coming.”

“He didn’t know.” Frustrated, he looked out the window at the snow and the trees. He’d come so close, so damn close, only to wait. “I wasn’t sure I could make it.”

“Yeah.” With a lazy shrug, she rocked back on her heels. “Like you couldn’t make it to the wedding. We all thought it was odd that none of Cal’s family showed up for the big day.”

He turned back at that. There was definite censoriousness in her voice. He didn’t care for it—he rarely tolerated it—but in this case it was almost amusing. “Believe me, if we could have been here, we would have.”

“Hmm. Well, since we’ve finished wrestling, we might as well go down and have some tea.” She started toward the door, flicking a glance over him as she passed. “What degree black belt do you have?”

“Seventh.” He cocked an eyebrow. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Right.” More than a little miffed, she started downstairs. “I didn’t figure people like you would go in for martial arts.”

“People like me?” He spoke absently as he ran his palm over the smooth wood of the railing.

“You’re a physicist or something, right?”

“Or something.” He spotted a woven throw over the back of a chair in striking colors that challenged rather than blended. Though the look of it tugged at his memory, he resisted the temptation to go over for a closer examination. “And you? What are you?”

“Nothing. I’m working on it.”

When Sunny swung into the kitchen, she went directly to the stove. She didn’t notice the blank astonishment on Jacob’s face.

Like something out of an old video or reference book, he thought as he scanned the room. Only this was much, much better than any reproduction. Delightful, he thought, astonishment turning to pleasure. Absolutely delightful. His hands itched to try out every dial and knob.

“Jacob?”

“What?”

With her brows drawn together, Sunny stared at him. An oddball, she decided. Gorgeous, certainly, but an oddball. And for the time being she was stuck with him. “I said we’re big on tea around here. Do you have a preference?”

“No.” He couldn’t resist. He simply couldn’t. As she turned to put the kettle on to boil, he wandered over to the white enameled sink and turned a clunky chrome dial. Water hissed out of the wide-lipped faucet. Holding a finger under the running stream, he discovered it was ice-cold. When he touched the tip of his tongue to his damp finger he detected a faint metallic flavor.

Completely unprocessed water, he decided. Amazing. They drank it exactly as it came out of the ground. Forgetting Sunny, he stuck his finger under again and found that the water had heated enough to make him jolt. Satisfied for the moment, he turned the water off. When he turned back, he saw that Sunny was still standing by the stove. She was staring at him.

There was no use cursing himself, he decided. He was simply going to have to control his curiosity until he was alone.

“It’s very nice,” he offered.

“Thanks.” Clearing her throat, she kept facing him as she reached behind for the mugs. “We call it a sink. They do have sinks in Philadelphia, don’t they?”