Alex shifted sleepily, and then gasped in surprisedpain as her knee banged into something hard. Blinking her eyes open, she peered about, a sigh slipping from her lips as she stared around her kitchen from a perspective she'd never thought she'd have. She was on the cold ceramic tiles that covered the floor, somewhere between one of the grills and one of the food-prep tables. The table was what her knee had hit.

She rubbed the spot to ease the soreness, and then glanced toward the man collapsed half on top of her. Cale Valens, an amazing chef, incredible business manager, and extraordinary lover. The man appeared to be exceptional at everything he did. She could vouch for that. She also couldn't seem to get enough of him. All he had to do was touch her, and she melted like warm chocolate.

In the last-she didn't even know how many hours-they had made love in her office, the dining room, the office again on the couch, and, finally, the kitchen. The last time hadn't been any more planned than the others. They'd come in here in search of food, but their desire for each other had derailed their attempt to enjoy the groceries Bricker had brought them. Which was how she now found herself waking up on the cold kitchen floor, half-covered by Cale and surrounded by the remains of their attempted picnic.

Her gaze slid over the half-eaten fruit strewn on the floor around them and the nearly empty can of whipped cream. Aware that her nipples were growing hard again as she recalled how that can had gotten emptied, Alex decided it was time to move. While making love in almost every room of her restaurant had been fun, she'd had enough of hard surfaces. A nice soft bed with warm blankets and clean sheets would be her first choice from now on.

Alex sighed faintly at the thought as she eased out from under Cale. She had given up thinking that they could return to a more professional relationship. Actually, Alex didn't even want it anymore. The idea of giving up the pleasure they'd shared tonight was no longer one she even wished to consider. The man had gotten under her skin ... and in her skin. And she wanted him there again, and again, and again for as long as possible. Alex suspected it would break her heart when he left, but there was nothing she could do about that at this point. She'd already fallen for the guy, and the only thing she could do was make as many memories with him as she could before he left.

Cale sighed sleepily and shifted onto his side, and Alex froze briefly, half-upright; but when his breathing returned to a slow, steady rhythm, she finished standing, and then tiptoed across the room to her office and through it to the bathroom. She leaned into the tub and turned on the taps, deciding she would take a quick shower to remove the sticky film the whipped cream had left behind. Then she would get dressed before Cale woke and wake him to suggest they head to her place.

Alex adjusted the knobs until the water was nice and hot without being scalding, and then hit the button to send the water through the showerhead rather than the taps. She stepped into the tub, pulling the door closed before too much water could escape. As she turned under the warm spray, Alex had to admit that leaving the bathroom in place rather than making her office larger had been a brilliant move. It had certainly come in handy tonight. She just wished she'd thought to buy more than the liquid hand soap they'd been forced to use tonight. She pressed the pump to squirt some of the vanilla-scented soap into her hand and began to work her hands to make a lather.

Some shampoo and a proper bar of soap, or even body scrub would have been nice too, she thought as she spread the lather over her body, washing away the sticky whipped cream. Getting some proper bath towels in here would be nice as well. The overlarge hand towels she'd bought for the bathroom were still really too small to be of much use, it had barely reached around Cale's hips. Recalling how skimpy the item hadbeen on him, Alex felt heat flow through her and immediately turned into the spray to rinse the lather away.

"Mmm. Warm and wet Alex, my favorite meal."

Alex glanced over her shoulder with a start. Her eyes widened with alarm when she saw that Cale had the door open and was stepping in to join her.

"Oh, no," she said, backing into the corner to avoid his touch when he reached for her. She knew from experience that if he even so much as brushed against her, she'd fall into his arms. If that happened, she'd find herself waking up on top, or under, him in the bottom of the tub. If she woke up at all, Alex thought grimly. With her luck, she'd pass out on her back on the bottom of the tub and drown from the water spraying into her mouth.

Realizing that Cale had frozen and was now peering at her uncertainly, she smiled wryly, and explained, "I was hoping we could try a bed next time. Maybe go to my place? "

Cale relaxed and nodded, his voice solemn when he said, "Oui. I'd like that."

Alex let out a relieved breath, but knew she wasn't out of the woods yet. Now that it had been unleashed, their passion for each other was volatile enough that they still might end up a soggy puddle in the bottom of the tub should they brush against each other even accidentally. She glanced down at herself and saw that the water had rinsed the soap away.

"Then I'll get out and get dressed. I was done in here anyway," she said, easing toward the sliding panel at her end of the tub.

"Are you sure? I can get out and wait if you-"

"No, no, I'm sure." She slid the door open and stepped out. "You go ahead."

Alex quickly eased the door closed, shutting him inside alone, and only then released a little sigh of relief. She'd grabbed one of the towels and begun to dry herself when Cale spoke from inside the tub.

"Maybe we should collect your car on the way so you aren't trapped at the house after I leave for work."

Alex paused and grabbed her wristwatch off the sink counter where she'd left it before her first shower that evening. She frowned when she saw the time. "It's almost two in the morning, Cale. Surely you don't plan to work today when you've had so little sleep?"

"Not right away, no. But I don't sleep as much as most people. I could come back later in the day while you're resting and get at least a couple hours' paperwork done. I wouldn't want to shirk my work and disappoint my boss," he added with a chuckle.

"Trust me, I don't think it's possible for you to disappoint your boss," Alex said dryly, and smiled when he laughed again. Shaking her head, she added, "And your boss thinks that having spent Saturday night and Sunday babysitting her after her head injury, you deserve a day off."

"Well, I might have to make a run to the hotel for fresh clothes at some point, and you'll need the car eventually. We might as well stop and collect it on the way."

The old La Bonne Vie restaurant wasn't exactly on the way. In fact, it was quite out of the way. However,at this hour the traffic would be light on the highway, which probably cut the time it would take to get there in half, she realized.

"Okay, we'll stop and pick up my car," Alex said finally, and then stiffened when the sound of rushing water suddenly died. When the sliding door then began to open, she dropped the towel she'd been using and rushed out of the bathroom to retrieve her clothes from where they still lay strewn on the office floor. Alex had her panties, jeans, and bra on and was just pulling her sweater over her head when Cale came out of the bathroom. She took one look at his proud naked body as she tugged her sweater into place and immediately headed for the door, muttering, "I'll get your shirt."

Alex found his shirt in the dining room, lying forgotten on the floor between the two tables they'd used, only one to eat on. She then wrinkled her nose and collected their forgotten meals from Emile, stacking the containers one on top of the other to carry into the kitchen.

"Ah, you found it," Cale said, entering the kitchen as she crossed it. He moved toward her, his gaze sliding to the containers she held and a grimace claimed his features. "Emile's meals don't look nearly as tasty cold."

"No," she agreed, handing him his shirt, careful to be sure that her hand didn't touch his. Alex then continued on to the garbage and dumped the plastic containers of food while he finished dressing.

"I'll get our coats," Cale said, tucking in his shirt as he turned to head back to the office.

Alex started to follow, intending to get her purse, butthen recalled the food on the floor from their last session and instead walked around the counter. However, there was no food on the floor when she got there. Cale must have collected and discarded it all before following her into the shower, she realized with surprise, and thought the man was just too good to be true. There just had to be some horrible flaw she didn't yet know about. No one, man or woman, was this perfect.

"I brought your purse too," Cale announced, returning to the kitchen with his coat on but undone and his scarf around his neck. "Was there anything else I should have grabbed?"

"Thank you. No, that's all I had," she murmured, accepting her coat and purse, noticing as she did that he too was careful that their hands didn't touch.

"You said you wanted to try my car, do you want to drive it to La Bonne Vie One?" Cale asked as he did up his coat, and then retrieved his hat and gloves from his pocket to don them as well.

"Okay." Alex smiled at the offer, surprised he remembered. Her smile faded though as she led the way to the back door and the thought occurred to her that he really was too perfect.

"Here." Cale held out the keys to her as she turned from locking the back door of the restaurant moments later, and Alex held out her hand for him to drop them into. They then quickly walked to his car, both of them hurrying to get out of the cold. It was bad enough during the day, but at that hour it was absolutely frigid. At least there was no wind today to make it even worse, Alex thought as she scrambled into the driver's side.

She started the engine before doing anything else, and then adjusted the seat before glancing to Cale with surprise as he opened the back door rather than the front.

"Turn on the defroster," he said as he retrieved a scraper from the backseat, and then the door closed and he began to scrape the windows.

Alex did as he suggested, and then glanced around the backseat to see if there was another scraper. Not seeing one, she picked up her purse and quickly retrieved her air-miles card. After taking a moment to crank up the heat, she slid out and began to scrape the driver's side window.

"Where did you get a scraper?" Cale asked with surprise.

Alex held up her air-miles card and laughed at his surprised expression. "We hearty northerners learn to improvise while quite young."

"I guess so," he said with amusement.

"Credit cards work too," she informed him as she finished with the side window and moved to the back. "But it can be inconvenient if you damage them so I prefer to use my air-miles card."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Alex smiled faintly and moved to the rear window. As quick as the job was with them both working, she was still relieved when they'd finished and could get back into the car, especially since it was much warmer than it had been when they'd first come out.

"Do you want to grab a coffee at a drive-thru on the way?" Alex asked as she steered the rental car out of the parking lot.

"Sounds good," he said, and then asked suddenly, "Don't you have any gloves?"

Alex heard the frown in his voice and glanced over to see the concern on his face as he eyed the way she was holding the steering wheel. While the car interior was warm now, the steering wheel still felt like a block of ice, and she was holding it with as little contact as possible. Biting her lip, she closed her fingers around it properly, and said, "I do have gloves ... somewhere. But I seem to forget to grab them all the time. It doesn't matter, though. I'm fine."

"Here." His gloves suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision as she stopped at a light.

Alex hesitated, but the steering wheel really was cold. Sighing, she accepted the gloves and tugged them on, murmuring, "Thank you" as she did.

"I'm buying you gloves for Christmas," he decided, and then teased, "The kind with the connecting string between them so that they're always in your coat, hanging out your sleeves waiting for you ... and I'll insist you wear them."

"That threat doesn't scare me," she scoffed. "Christmas isn't for another ten months, and you're leaving in less than two."

"Maybe," he murmured.

His tone was so soft she'd almost missed the words, and Alex glanced at him sharply. "What does that mean?"

"It means I like it here and might be willing to make this my permanent home. It just depends."

Alex swallowed and turned her eyes back to the road before asking, "Depends on what?"

"On you."

Alex jerked to a halt at another set of lights and turned to peer at him with something like awe. The man was talking about a future with her. At least she thought he was. Wasn't he?

They were both silent for a minute, simply staring at each other, and then Cale turned to glance out the front window and said, "The light has changed."

Alex glanced to the light to see that it was green and eased her foot off the brakes.

Neither of them spoke again for the rest of the trip. She didn't know what Cale was thinking, but her own mind was so busy running around in circles that she was hardly able to give driving the proper attention. Alex even forgot to stop for the coffee she'd suggested when they'd started out as she pondered the possibility of a real, permanent-type relationship with him. Cale was the kind of man every woman was looking for, smart, sexy, considerate, and an incredible lover. The fact that she found him attractive was just the icing on the cake, because frankly, even a not-so-attractive man started to look like a supermodel when he had all those other traits. And he might be hers, she thought, her head whirling ... and then the more cynical side of her spoke up, saying there had to be some huge flaw to the man, or he surely would have been scooped up by some other woman years ago. He probably liked to dress up in women's clothing on the weekend and pick up men, she thought ... or maybe he was a serial killer.

"You go ahead and drive this car," Cale said as shepulled in next to her own, still waiting in La Bonne Vie's parking lot. "Your car will still be cold."

He was out of the rental before she could respond, but Alex was quick to follow.

"Get back in the car." Cale scowled at her over the hood of the rental. "There's no need for both of us to be cold."

"I can help. Two scrapers are better than one," she said lightly, and started to tug off his gloves. When he came around the car protesting, Alex kept one on and handed him the other as she slid her now bare hand into her pocket. "I only need one hand to scrape."

Cale hesitated, but then smiled wryly and accepted the glove, commenting, "Compromise is good."

"Yes it is," she agreed softly, and turned to her car to retrieve her own scraper.

"Here."

Alex straightened to see him holding out her keys.

"Get the engine going while I start scraping."

Nodding, she took the keys and slid behind the wheel, starting it quickly. As she had in his car, Alex then turned on the defroster and cranked up the heat, but she also took a second to adjust the seat back to accommodate his long legs before grabbing her scraper and getting out.

With both of them working, they had the windows scraped in no time. Cale then opened the door of his rental for her.

"Here take your glove back, this steering wheel is warm now, and mine won't be." Alex removed and handed him the second glove as she slid into the driver's seat of the rental. As Cale took it, she added, "You should probably take the lead on the way to my house. You have to pull into the driveway first; otherwise, my car will be blocking yours."

"Good thinking." Cale pushed the door closed, and then jumped quickly into her car. A moment later they were both buckled up, and she was following her own car out of the parking lot.

Cale paused at the corner and glanced in the rearview mirror as Alex eased up behind him. A small smile claimed his lips as he recalled her reaction to his words that whether or not he stayed depended on her. She hadn't looked put off or horrified by the suggestion, and he was feeling good about how things were going, hopeful for the future.

Now that he'd put the idea of permanency in her head, Cale intended on spending every possible moment he could with her and bringing it up again and again until she not only got used to the idea but wanted it as much as he did. Today and tomorrow were Alex's days off, and Cale decided he would put them to good use. He'd make love to her until she couldn't stand, work while she was sleeping, and then return and make love to her again. It would mean consuming a lot more blood. He could go without sleep for quite a while so long as he upped his intake, and-

Cale let these plans go and frowned as he noticed a dark pickup pulling out of a side street behind him. Alex had fallen back about two car lengths, and the vehicle took advantage and slid between them. Not thatthere was that much traffic at this hour, but there was some.

Cale scowled into the rearview mirror, considering taking control of the driver's mind and making him shift into the other lane or something so that Alex would be behind him again, but then decided not to bother. No doubt the pickup would turn off soon enough. Besides, Alex knew the way to her own house.

Turning his attention back to the road, Cale wondered if he shouldn't hit a coffee shop and pick up some of that coffee Alex had mentioned stopping for. He suspected his comment about staying in Canada had pushed the plan from her mind, but he wouldn't mind a nice hot coffee about now ... and maybe a sandwich. They hadn't eaten much of the food Bricker had brought them, managing just a bite or two of Emile's meals.

And probably half the can of whipped cream, he thought, a smile curving his lips. Alex was the one who had discovered the dessert topping. She'd been nibbling a strawberry as they'd surveyed what Bricker had brought them when she'd spotted the whipped cream. She'd grabbed it up with an oooh of pleasure and squirted some on the strawberry in her hand. Alex had then offered him the can and strawberries. Cale had taken the whipped cream, but recalling Bricker's suggestion about making Alex his dessert, had bypassed the fruit. Moments later the two of them were rolling around on the cold ceramic floor, covered in whipped cream.

Cale's smile faded somewhat as he recalled the stickymoment or two it had led to when she'd tried to lick some of the whipped cream off him and experienced his pleasure along with him. Fortunately, he'd realized what was happening pretty quickly and intensified his attention to her body, managing to distract her from what she'd just experienced. There was no way to explain how they could feel each other's pleasure without revealing what he was, and Cale didn't think Alex was ready for that talk yet. It was why he'd stopped her in the dining room when she'd startled him by dropping to her knees to take him into her mouth.

He knew it was going to be a recurring problem. But it was one he would have to deal with until she knew what he was. So long as he was the only one doing the caressing, she would simply think their combined pleasure was hers alone. But if he let her pleasure him as she wanted to, she would definitely twig to something being different, Cale thought as he took the ramp onto the highway to cross the city.

He had heard countless tales of the merged mind and joined pleasure that existed between life mates, but it had still taken his breath away to experience it. It made all his other sexual experiences, both with mortals and immortals alike, pale in comparison. They were like the flicker of a lighted match next to a roaring inferno. It was addictive. Even now, his body was crying out for her, part of his mind wondering how quickly he could get her out of her winter coat and clothes and sink himself inside her body when they got back to the house.

Cale sighed as the thought caused a semi-erection that pressed insistently against the zipper of his jeans. He was nothing but a walking, talking erection at the moment, and from what he'd heard, he could expect that to be the case for a good year.

Grimacing, Cale reached down and tried to adjust himself to a more comfortable position, then glanced in the rearview mirror to see that while the pickup had followed him onto the highway, it was now in the passing lane, allowing Alex to steer the rental up behind him. Despite his night vision, all he could make out was her silhouette in the vehicle's dark interior, and he knew that as a mortal, she wouldn't even be able to see that much of him.

That thought had barely drifted through his mind when the car he was driving suddenly jolted to the right. Cale gripped the steering wheel, and glanced to the side to see that the pickup in the outside lane had suddenly swerved and rammed into him. Thinking the driver had lost control for some reason or other, Cale tried to focus on him or her, intending to take control and steer the vehicle safely off the highway; but he'd barely touched on the driver's mind when Alex began to honk her horn.

Cale instinctively glanced to the rearview mirror to see that she was no longer directly behind him but to the side. Cale swiveled to peer out the front window again, gasping as he saw that the pickup had forced him out of his lane. He was straddling the right lane and an off-ramp ... and headed straight for the concrete divide.

Cursing, he hit the brakes and tried to swerve off the road, but his vehicle was apparently hooked on something on the pickup. Cursing again, Cale hit the gas instead, wincing at the high shriek of metal on metal as he drove up the side of the pickup. Much to his relief, whatever was holding the vehicles together suddenly released, and he went veering onto the off-ramp, scraping along the side of the concrete divide before managing to right the car. He was free, but Cale now had another problem. He was going too damned fast for the curve.