BEST FRIEND’S BROTHER

He moved his face closer, and Sasha felt helpless beneath a gaze so probing it made her feel that he could look into her mind and read every thought there.

Could he tell that she wanted him with an urgency which had her fingers itching to pull his face down to hers? To meet and meld with those sweet, hard lips which would open under pressure… She swallowed down her desire with difficulty and wriggled out of his grip.

“We have to be positive,” he whispered. “Both of us.”

She nodded her head. “I know we do.”

His eyes blazed. “I don’t want you to worry, Sasha. Not about anything. Do you understand?”

The attack of lust passed as quickly as it had arrived, in time for her to realize that he was talking to her as if she had just had her brain removed. “But I’m not worried!” she protested. “Honestly!”

He shook his head, as if he thought she was just reassuring him for the sake of it, to be polite. “Well, I am,” he said flatly.

“You’re worried?”

“Yes, I am.”

She looked at him expectantly. “What about?”

“About a lot of things…. LiLike u living in that apartment of yours all by yourself,”

Sasha fixed him with a furious look. He hadn’t thought her apartment so ghastly that it had prevented him from making love to her there! “What’s wrong with it?” she inquired.

“Well, imagine if you needed help and no one was there to help you. What? What if something crazy happens? Like the kitchen…. What if the kitchen caught fire!” he said heatedly.

Sasha frowned. “Why should it?”

“I don’t know. Things happen. Crazy things. You can’t blame me if I worry. Lots of things could make a kitchen catch fire, you know? Good grief, your oven could explode!”

“And so could yours!” she retorted. “What is your problem? I’m not living in a booby-trap, you know!”

“I’m not suggesting you are-”

“And for your information, I’m careful about safety. In the kitchen and every other room in my house! I’m careful every day!”

“Exactly!” He beamed with triumph. “It’s too much for you to handle! You’re doing that now and you look exhausted, if you want the truth. Imagine when you’re dragging yourself around at forty weeks.”

“You’re making me sound like an Atlantic whale!” Sasha objected mildly. But she was surprised and impressed that he knew how long a pregnancy lasted, and remembered his earlier comments about what doctors recommended about drinking. “And since when did you become such an expert on childbirth?”

He gave an unfamiliar and sheepish grin. “I went out and bought just about every book there was on the subject.”

“And how many was that?” she asked faintly.

He counted off on his fingers. “Four books on pregnancy. There’s an even bigger section on the first year of life, and then-”

“I’ve heard everything I need to know.”

“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong!” He poured them out some more mineral water, as if playing for time. “Whatever objections you may put up, you know in your heart that I’m right.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“If you say so, Kaleb,” she said demurely, thinking that if she gave him enough rope he might hang himself!

He breezed on, not seeming to notice her skeptical expression. “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with your place. I’m just saying that I don’t like the idea of you, a pregnant woman, to be living alone. And that’s why I’ve decided-” he drew a deep breath, like a man seeking courage to make the ultimate sacrifice “-to let you come and live here.”

Sasha was so thunderstruck by Kaleb’s suggestion that she just stared at him, her mouth limply falling open. She must have misheard. Must have. “I’m not sure I heard that properly, Kaleb.”

He smiled the complacent smile of a man who had never been turned down for anything in his life. “You can come and live here,” he explained kindly. “My home will become your home.”

“When you say live here…” heSasha sitated as quiet hysteria gave her the terrible temptation to giggle. She tried to find a diplomatic way of wording her question and realized that there wasn’t one. “What do you mean, exactly?”

His eyes were wary.” It sounds straightforward enough to me.”

“Well, not to me. I’m interested to know just what role I’d be expected to play.”

“What role?” he repeated cautiously.

“Sure. Will I be your partner, in the full sense of the word? Will we be sharing a bed and having sex together? Or am I simply expected to drift around the edges of your life? And, in that case, won’t your girlfriend be rather spooked when she sees a woman who is heavily pregnant-with your child-walking around the place and treating it like home. What if I unwittingly walked in just as you were about to seduce her on the sofa?

“Sasha!”

“It’s no good saying ”Sasha!” like that,” she said serenely, enjoying the look of outrage on his face. “That doesn’t answer any of my questions.”

“Do you really think that I’d be upstairs…?” His voice trailed off in disbelief and it took a moment or two for him to repeat the word. “Upstairs…”

“Making love?” she put in helpfully, feeling emotionally stronger by the second. “Well, that would certainly be preferable to you being downstairs making love!”

“Just what kind of a man do you think I am?” he demanded.

“Well, since you ask…” Sasha met his gaze unflinchingly. “The kind of man who has sex when he feels like it and doesn’t even bother seeing the woman afterwards. Does that sound familiar?”

“Oh. Oh, I see.” His watchfulness transformed itself into a panther-like stealth, and Sasha wondered if she had pushed him just a little too far. “Is that what this is all about?” he queried silkily. “The fact that it was just a one-off? Is that why you’re so angry?”

“I thought I was being more practical than angry,” she reasoned, because anger would imply vulnerability-and she needed to be strong. “I’ve learnt to cope with most things in my life, Kaleb, and this won’t be any different.”She shrugged her shoulders. “These things happen.”

“Let’s not forget that it wouldn’t have been a one night stand or a one off, if you had gotten on that plane and came to be with me in Rome. You made it a one night stand.”