I gave him an apologetic look. "I'm kind of seeing someone ... I mean it's ... I don't know what it is but-"

He held up a hand and gave me a disappointed smile. "I get it. Really, it's no problem."

"I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about," he assured me. I smiled gratefully at him. Such a seemingly sweet guy. What the hell was I doing? "You've still got to let me buy you something to eat, though. No strings?"

"You know what ...? I think we should make Rachel do that."

"I concur," Jeff agreed beside me, and I looked at him to see he was not happy. Apparently Rachel hadn't told Jeff I didn't know about the setup either.

"I couldn't," Charlie insisted. "My mother would kill me if I let a woman buy her own dinner."

I chuckled. "Isn't that a little outdated?"

"Probably." He grinned. "But she's terrifying, so I do what she says."

I nudged him with my arm. "Okay, then, I'll have a hot dog, please."

"Hot dogs! Hot dogs! Get your hot dogs!" a burly guy in a yellow vendor's shirt bellowed from behind us, skipping down the steps with his hot case of dogs held above his head.

We burst out laughing. "Nice timing," Charlie said, and lifted a hand to catch the guy's attention as he turned at the bottom of the box.

Two hot dogs and a cold beer later, we were thirty minutes into the game and the Red Sox were killing it. The electric atmosphere of the crowded park fed into me and like always made me forget even the slow moments in the game.

"I have to get one of those shirts!" Rachel reached across Jeff to slap my knee. "The replica baseball shirts."

"Why don't you try the team store?"

"I want a girly one, though. My breasts will get lost in the guy's one."

I couldn't remember seeing a feminine style of the shirt in the store. "Online?" I suggested.

Instead of answering, Rachel looked over my shoulder and her eyebrows rose. I glanced back to see what had distracted her.

A tall, well-built older man in a Red Park Security shirt was staring down at me with this deeply disturbing blank mien. "Alexa Holland?"

I ignored Charlie's curious gaze on my face and wondered what the heck I'd done wrong. "Um ... yes," I was almost afraid to admit.

"Mr. Carraway requests your presence in his suite on the EMC level."

Holy ...

I blanched.

How the hell had he spotted me in this crowd?

As if he could read my mind, the security guy pointed up behind me. I looked up over my shoulder. Caine's suite was right above me.

Of course it was.

I sighed.

"You don't have to go, Lex," Rachel shouted over the noise.

I threw her a look. "Yes, I do." If he'd seen me with Charlie I could only imagine what he was thinking. After telling them I'd catch up with them later, I followed the security guy out of the field box. I stewed over what kind of reception I was about to get, and what would bother me more-Caine not trusting me or his indifference.

As soon as the security guy swung open the door to Caine's suite, I was taken aback to see Caine was not alone. Effie and Henry were there, among familiar faces from work. Effie came hurrying over to hug me close, and the guilt I'd been feeling dissipated under my anger.

He'd invited all these people to watch the game and he hadn't invited me.

Not until he'd seen me there with someone else.

"You look hot, kid." Effie grinned up at me.

I smiled, pushing my ire back down. "As do you."

She made a "pfft" noise at me as Henry stepped up to say hello. He looked different wearing his Red Sox shirt and jeans. More approachable. Gorgeous. "I got banana cream pie," he announced, and I laughed. I'd managed to talk Effie into easing up on Henry.

Effie rolled her eyes, but she was smiling as she engaged an older couple in conversation.

People waved who recognized me and I smiled politely back, letting Henry edge me closer to Caine. He was standing on the balcony, his back to me as he watched the game. He looked remote out there, even surrounded by so many people.

My anger drifted away.

He liked it this way. He liked to be alone even with so many others around him.

But I was beginning to think he was unable to be alone around me ... and I realized then that was why he'd never invited me to share the game.

Until he'd seen me there. With someone else.

"Better go say hi to the boss." Henry winked at me.

Although Caine hadn't told a soul about our relationship, I knew Henry had very definite suspicions that something was going on between us. Other than Effie, he was the closest thing Caine had to family. And he was a smart man. He knew Caine well enough to note changes in his schedule, his demeanor, and his attitude with me.

Feeling butterflies flutter to life in my belly, I strode out onto the balcony and settled in beside Caine, keeping a few inches of space between us. I glanced up at his profile, hating the way those butterflies went crazy just at the mere sight of his face. "Hey."

"Who are they?"

I flinched at the coolness of his tone. "Friends. A college friend and her husband and his colleague."

"You didn't think it was important to mention you'd be at the game tonight?"

His words were quiet, but I could feel the tension emanating from him, and my own frustration and irritation started to build again. "You didn't tell me you were coming to the game."

"I have season tickets. You know this."

"You don't always go to the game," I argued softly.

"I don't care that you came to the game." He finally looked at me, anger in his dark eyes. "I care about the guy who is all over you."

I should have been thrilled by his jealousy, but I wasn't. Not anymore. I was sick of the uncertainty between us. "Rachel set up a blind date and didn't tell me. I told him right away that I'm ... seeing someone."

"I don't think he got the memo."

"And you can tell that from up here?"

Caine suddenly leaned into me, clearly forgetting where we were and that we had an audience. "I saw you weren't doing much to dissuade him."

I looked pointedly over my shoulder, silently reminding him where we were.

He pulled back, his jaw clenched as he stared forward again.

I edged close enough to him so he would hear me without anyone else overhearing. "I wasn't encouraging him, and honestly this whole possessive bullshit is pissing me off."

Caine threw me a cutting look, but I refused to be intimidated. "I'm not the only one who gets jealous," he reminded me.

"No, you're not. And do you know why we're acting like crazy people? Because you're not willing to give the whole 'friends' part of our deal a real shot. There is uncertainty between us because you keep throwing up this wall." I looked over my shoulder again, double-checking that no one was near us. My gaze returned to meet his. No more games. No more tactics. Honesty. It was all I had left. "This isn't just sex, Caine. This is an affair." I held my hand up to stop his coming protest. "I'm not suggesting permanency. I'm suggesting that you admit that there's a difference in what we're doing here. We aren't two people who just have sex now and then. There are feelings here whether we want to admit it or not. I'm not asking for forever. I'm asking you to stop pushing me away. I'm asking you to be real with me for however long this lasts."

His eyes blazed. "And if I don't?"

My knees trembled. "Then I think we should end it."

He exhaled and looked away again.

Time to be even braver. "I don't want to end it. I don't think you do either."

"And what makes you think that?" he drawled lazily, and I almost believed his indifference.

Almost.

"We're not done with each other."

After a few seconds Caine looked at me again and I saw the heat and longing in his eyes. "No, we're not." We held each other's gaze for a few moments and that burn of desire started to pool low in my belly. "So, what exactly do you suggest, Lexie?"

I smiled slowly. "Spend the day with me."

He blinked in surprise. "Spend the day with you?"

"Anywhere I choose. Spend the day with me and just be my friend for a few hours. Afterward I promise to bang your brains out." I grinned.

Caine considered my suggestion and then chuckled before looking back out at the game. "Deal."

CHAPTER 18.

My toes sank into the sand and a gentle breeze from the ocean cooled my cheeks against the hot summer sun.

"Was this what you had in mind?" Caine broke the silence, throwing me a small smile.

I returned that smile. "Maybe."

True to his word, Caine had given me Sunday. All of Sunday. To be friends. To hang out. I'd chosen Good Harbor Beach in Rockport as our hangout destination. Although Caine was surprised by my choice, I think he was secretly pleased. He owned a dark blue Vanquish Volante that he only drove around the city when he didn't need his company driver, which wasn't often. Good Harbor was a little over an hour away, which gave him the excuse to stretch the Aston Martin's sleek lines.

I had to admit it was fun riding shotgun.

When we'd arrived Caine had parked near the beach, oblivious of the men and women who were drooling over his car as we got out of it. He was too intent on me. I think he was trying to understand what I really wanted from him.

Standing on the beach, his shoes and socks dangling from one hand while his other arm rested lightly around my waist, he said, "Why Good Harbor?"

I shivered at the question, feeling the breeze cool my body even more as it slid across my arms. "I like it here. The only vacation I ever remember taking when it was just Mom and me was here." I looked out at the water, pain slicing through me at the memories. It was funny, but for once I welcomed that pain over the frustrated anguish that wrecked me when I remembered my life with my mother in my adult years. "Back then my whole world revolved around her." I glanced up at him, wondering how he'd react if I mentioned my father. Deciding today was a day for pushing all limits, I stepped into the quagmire that was our shared history. "My father visited on my birthday every year and he stayed a few days. I thought there was no one quite like him, and my mum helped create that idea. She filled my head with all these romantic notions about him. He was like a fairy-tale character, a relief from real life. My mom ... well, she was the real deal. My entire happiness depended on her.

"We didn't have a lot, but it didn't matter because she made me feel safe and loved. We had more than we should have, though."

"Your father?" Caine deduced.

I looked up at him, searching his face for a reaction to our conversation. He seemed contemplative, not agitated like I'd half expected him to be. "Yes. He gave my mom money."

"And Good Harbor? Your mother lived in Connecticut. I find it more than coincidental that your only vacation with her was in Good Harbor ... near your father."

I smirked unhappily. "She grew up in Boston, so this place was familiar to her, but ... yeah, my father showed up toward the end of our vacation. Before he turned up, my mom and I spent every day on the beach." I smiled. "It was heaven. We goofed around and just hung out. My mom never spoke to me like I was a little kid, you know. She had actual conversations with me.

"Her parents died when she was a baby and her aunt raised her in Boston. She told me this story about when she was a little girl. One summer her aunt took her to Good Harbor. My mom told me that her aunt had to take her home from the beach and she refused to go back. When I asked why, she said that there was a little boy there and he kept jabbing this stick into an injured seagull. My mom got really upset and so her aunt asked the little boy why he was tormenting the bird. And he said that a seagull had swooped down and taken his last piece of fried dough the day before. He'd found this injured one and decided it just might be the offending seagull. So while it was hurt, he was exacting his little-boy vengeance. My mom said to the little boy that he should forgive and let the poor creature alone, and his answer was to jab at it even harder. My mom burst into tears and her aunt took her away. Mom refused to go back to the beach.

"I don't even know why she told me that story ... but I remember it sticking with me for a while." I blinked back the burn of tears. "Now I can't seem to get it out of my head."

We walked along the shore in silence for a few seconds and then the heat of Caine's skin met the coolness of mine as he laced our fingers together and clasped my hand in his. I didn't say a word to acknowledge the gesture. I just held on.

"She was a sweet person," I said. "A good person. But around my dad she changed. Our vacation at Good Harbor ended abruptly after my father showed up. Everything was okay the first day-more than okay, it was exhilarating like always. But the next day he was suddenly gone and my mom wouldn't stop crying. She packed us up and cut the vacation short. It was kind of a theme as the years wore on."

"Do you forgive her? For abandoning you for him?"

"I don't know. She stopped being the mom I had when I was a kid. She put him before me."

"She was human. She was flawed, Lexie. It doesn't mean she didn't love you." He squeezed my hand. "Perhaps you should stop poking that seagull."

My step faltered.

Caine smiled kindly. "She's gone. It's done. The only one you're hurting here is you, baby."

I blinked back more tears and squeezed his hand in return. "How did you get so wise?" I gave a halfhearted teasing laugh.