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  “All I want is to make love so we can put this dumb bet behind us and start a real relationship, although maybe not after this.” She yanked on the belt again. “This could set us back some.”

  “Nope,” Cal said, insufferably calm. “We agreed that nothing could hurt this relationship now. It’s a little bent, but I like that about us.”

  “You’re a little bent,” Min said. “I am completely normal. Now untie me and fuck my brains out.”

  Cal caught his breath for a minute, and Min thought, Take me, and then he bit into the doughnut again, and she exhaled through her teeth in frustration.

  “Maybe I’m filling the wrong mouth,” he said, and tore off a piece of the doughnut. “Open up.”

  “Look, I don’t—” Min said, and Cal slipped the pastry into her mouth, and the sugar flooded everywhere. “Oh,” she said and let the chocolate melt into her senses.

  “My goal in life is to put that look on your face without chocolate,” Cal said.

  Min swallowed. “You do. You’re just never looking at me when it’s on there.”

  “Really.” Cal cupped her breast and began to stroke her with his thumb, and Min felt herself tighten under him again, but this time, when she opened her eyes, he was staring at her, watching her, and she blushed, from embarrassment and from heat and from wanting him. “Damn, you’re right,” he said and bent to kiss her, and Min forgot to be embarrassed and rose to taste him as he caressed her, sighing against his mouth.

  “Untie me,” she whispered, and he looked over her head.

  “Nope, we still have half an hour to kill.” He slid his hand down her calf. “I think I’ll start with the toes this time. It’s never been toes for me before, so this will be new.”

  “You’re going to suck my toes for half an hour?” Min said in disbelief.

  “I’m going to start at your toes,” Cal said. “And work up.”

  “Up?” Min said.

  “And in about fifteen minutes, you’re going lose the rest of this nightgown.”

  “With the lights on?” Min said, outraged, and he laughed and bent to her toes.

  David dialed Diana’s cell phone on the theory that after what had happened to her on Sunday, Diana would be ripe to maim any man in her path, especially one hurting her sister. When the ringing stopped, he said, “You should know this,” only to be overridden by Diana’s voice mail. “Don’t any of you people stay home on Wednesdays?” he snapped, but when the beep sounded, he said, “You should know this. Calvin Morrisey is seducing your sister right now to win a bet.” Then he hung up and thought about the last call he had to make. The scary one.

  It’s anonymous, he told himself. She’ll never know.

  He went back up to his apartment to have a drink first anyway.

  At quarter after nine, having been touched everywhere she could imagine and a couple of places she hadn’t thought of, Min felt Cal untie her.

  She sat up and slugged him on the arm. “Don’t ever do that again.”

  “Ouch?” Cal said, and she pushed him back and climbed onto his lap and kissed him hard, wrapping herself around him as tightly as she could.

  When she came up for air, she slapped him on the shoulder again. “I mean it, never again,” she said, and then went for his mouth again, hungry for it. A minute later she broke the kiss, breathing heavily, slugged him again, and said, “Never ever again.”

  “Really?” he said, as breathless as she was, and she looked back at the arm of the couch, the belt still tangled around it, and shivered.

  “Well, not in the living room,” she said. “And not for so long, and not with all these lights—”

  He dumped her back on the couch, pressing her against the pillows. “When we do it again,” he told her, his hands hot on her, “it’ll be where I want, when I want, with spotlights if I want.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said and he kissed her again and she thought, Oh, hell, whatever you want, and kissed him back.

  “Whatever I want,” he whispered in her ear.

  “Okay,” she whispered back. “But can I have you now?”

  “Almost,” Cal said into her neck. “Fifteen—”

  “You know what my favorite fantasy is?” she whispered in his ear, and he groaned. “It’s you, sliding hard inside me.” His hand tightened on her, and she said, “I love that part of sex, the first part, the way it feels, and it’s going to be the best with you because everything else with you has been the best I’ve ever had, the way I feel when you touch me, the way you kiss me, that’s why I know the way you—”

  He kissed her hard, pushing her back on the pillows, taking her voice and her breath away, and when he stopped, he said, “Shut up, we’ve got fifteen minutes yet,” and began to lick his way down her body.

  “Uh,” Min said, as he set every nerve she had alight again. “What are you going to do for fifteen minutes?” and he bit into her thigh as he moved her legs apart with his hand.

  “Oh, God” Min said, as he licked inside her. “I’m going to lose ten dollars.”

  Liza’s cell phone rang in the kitchen at Emilio’s, and Tony got it out of her purse and handed it to her, never dropping the fork he had buried in his spaghetti.

  “You sure we’re not seeing each other?” Liza said as she took the phone. “Because you sure show up here a lot.”

  “I eat here,” Tony said, twirling more spaghetti on his fork. “I predate you.”

  “Right,” Liza said, clicked her phone on. “Hello?”

  “Liza?” a man’s voice said. “You should know this. Cal Morrisey is tricking Min into winning that bet.”

  “What?” Liza said. “Who is this?”

  “The bet’s over at midnight,” the voice said, sounding smugly familiar. “And he wants to win.”

  “David?” Liza said.

  The phone clicked off and Liza was left with a dial tone.

  “David?” Tony said, looking up from his spaghetti.

  “Hey, Emilio?” Liza yelled over the kitchen noise. “I’m taking a break.”

  “Oh, no,” Tony said.

  “Eat your pasta,” Liza said, moving toward the door.

  “Oh, hell,” Tony said and dropped his fork to follow her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  When Min was wound so tight, she was shaking, Cal laced his fingers in her hair and turned her head to show her the mantel clock. “It’s nine-thirty-five,” he said, his voice husky. “I lost the bet to David. It’s over.”

  “We wasted five minutes?” Min said wildly.

  “You weren’t complaining,” Cal said, resting his head on her stomach.

  “Take me to bed or do me on this couch,” Min said, breathing hard. “I want you now.”

  “I’m definitely marrying you,” Cal said, and pulled her up off the couch and toward the bedroom.

  She tripped behind him and then gasped as he toppled her onto her satin comforter, her body sizzling against the cool fabric as he stripped and found a condom, and then he was beside her, pressed hotly against her, and she closed her eyes to savor him, bone and muscle hard against her. “Don’t wait,” she said, and felt his hands on her again, sliding over her, making every nerve she had scream, and when his fingers slipped inside her again, she opened to him, shaking under him, and when she felt his body between her thighs, she arched to meet him, desperate to feel him hard inside her. His eyes were hot on her and she stared back, caught, crazy for him, and then he kissed her and slipped his tongue in her mouth as he slid into her, slick and hot, and she gasped and clutched at him as the shock of him went everywhere.

  He pulled back and then slid deeper, and she bit her lip, weak with pleasure as heat thickened in her, and then she began to move with him, catching his rhythm, dizzy with the rightness of him, of them together. He whispered in her ear as he moved against her, telling her that he loved her, that she was beautiful, that she was his, over and over and over, until she could feel him everywhere, his voice and his breath and his hands and
his body, all loving her, making her drunk with love and lust. She licked her tongue across his lips and she told him she loved him, forever, forever, no end, forever, and she felt him build in her blood, felt him everywhere, in her fingertips, behind her eyes, and deep and low where they were locked together, where the heat and the pressure and the tension twisted and tightened, glitter and stars, fusing into brightness sharper than anything ever before. He rocked higher, sharper, and she dug her fingernails into him and cried his name as he rocked again and again and then she broke, arching under his hands as he held her down, spasming helplessly as his body surged against hers. And then, while she was still clutching him, still gasping from shattering ecstasy, he shuddered, too, and collapsed into her arms.

  “Oh, God,” Min said, when she could speak again.

  “Good?” he said, breathless, and she nodded her head.

  “Very good. World class. Phenomenal.” She took a deep breath to stop the gasping and he slid his hand up to her breast where it belonged. She put her hand over his and pressed it tighter to her, and drew in another deep breath. “God, I love you.”

  “Good,” Cal said, looking exhausted. “I love you, too. Sorry we didn’t have time to talk about what you wanted.”

  “I wanted that,” Min said between breaths.

  “You got it,” Cal said, and rolled his head and caught sight of her clock. “Oh, Christ.”

  Min looked up at her curling brass headboard and drew in a deep sighing breath. “I think I might want to be tied to this headboard someday.”

  “Just for the record,” Cal said, “I usually last more than seven minutes.” He let his head fall back onto her pillow. “Of course, foreplay usually doesn’t last a month.” He took a deep breath. “Go ahead, tell me the statistics on how long foreplay usually lasts.”

  “Not long enough,” Min said. “You’re the exception. Maybe I’ll tie you to this headboard. And I’ll do the chocolate icing.”

  Cal closed his eyes. “Thank you. I’d like that. Make a list. We’ll do it all. Probably not tonight, but eventually.”

  Min curled into him as her pulse began to slow. “I’m so happy. I’m so crazy about you, and I’m so happy.”

  He rolled closer to her and kissed her, and she settled into him, safe and warm and satisfied.

  “I love you,” he said, and she opened her mouth to tell him that she loved him, too, when someone began to pound on her door.

  “What the hell is that?” Cal said.

  “My door?” Min said.

  “Did Diana forget her key?” Cal eased himself up into a sitting position. “Ouch. You’re a very athletic woman, Minerva.”

  “Not really,” Min said as the phone rang. “I got C’s in gym.”

  “They were giving you the wrong assignments.” Cal patted her on the hip and reached for his pants. “You get the phone. I’ll get the door. I’ll meet you back here. Stay naked.”

  Cal buttoned his shirt as he crossed Min’s living room, reminding himself that yelling at his future sister-in-law would be bad. That made him almost glad when he yanked open the door and saw David instead. He could yell anything he wanted at that dickhead.

  “Is Min here?” David said, looking smug.

  “Yes, go away.” Cal started to close the door and then remembered. “You won. I’ll send you a check tomorrow. Now go away.”

  “I don’t think so.” David blocked the doorway. “I have to see Min.”

  “David?” Min said from behind them, and when they turned, Cal lost his breath.

  She had her blue-violet comforter wound around her, and Elvis twining around her ankles, but her shoulders were bare, and she looked disheveled and rumpled, her gold-tipped curls tousled, her baby-doll cheeks flushed, and her full lips bruised and rosy, and Cal thought, I did that, and wanted her again so much that he took a step toward her.

  “God,” David said, slackjawed.

  “Mine,” Cal said. “Go away.”

  “You won,” David said, and shoved the check at him.

  “What?” Cal frowned at him. “No.”

  “The bet was for midnight,” David said, still staring at Min. “You’ve got more than two hours left.” He smiled at Min. “Guess Calvin the Great is also Calvin the Fast.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Cal said as Elvis hissed at David and David took a step back.

  “It was for midnight?” Min’s voice was too high as she came closer to them, tripping over the comforter on the way.

  Minerva, what are you up to? Cal thought, and watched her with interest and rebounding lust.

  “Of course it was.” David smiled triumphantly at Cal. “All bets end at midnight.”

  Min hauled the comforter up again. “Do you mean to tell me,” she said, her voice breaking, “that Cal won this bet?”

  “Oh, yes,” David said, smugly.

  “Well, gee, thanks,” Min said in her normal voice as she took the check out of his hand. “I can always use ten bucks.”

  “What?” David said, losing his smug.

  Min smiled cheerfully at David. “I know Cal won it,” she said, “but we have this unwritten rule that I get all the money he wins on me. I’m picking up quite a bit of spare change that way, so this—” She looked at the check and almost dropped her comforter. “Oh, my God.”

  “Not ten bucks,” Cal said, yanking up the comforter before she lost it.

  Min looked up at him, appalled. “You bet ten thousand dollars you could get me into bed?”

  “No,” Cal said. “I’m going to get a T-shirt made that says, ‘I did not make that bet.’ ”

  “Ten thousand dollars,” Min said, looking at the check again. “If you’d told me about this the first night and offered to split it, I’d have slept with you then.”

  “Really?” Cal said.

  “No,” Min said.

  “I didn’t think so.” Cal took the check out of her hand and pushed it at David. “You can go now.”

  “What is that?” David said, pointing to the couch.

  Cal looked back and saw Min’s belt still draped over the arm.

  “He tied me to the couch,” Min said helpfully. “Then he ripped off my nightgown and smeared chocolate icing on me and licked it off. It was a nightmare.” She grinned. “If you leave, we can do it again.” She looked at Cal. “We’re not out of doughnuts, are we?”

  “If we are, I will run out and get more,” Cal said. “Run being the operative word.”

  David looked floored. “That’s . . .”

  Min waited.

  “. . . so not like you,” he finished.

  “Well, it wasn’t,” Min said. “It is now.”

  “But—” David began, and then Nanette and George pushed him out of the doorway to get into the room.

  “Oh, great,” Cal said, lust evaporating as George caught sight of him.

  “That’s what I came to tell you,” Min said, clutching her comforter more tightly. “David called Di, who called to warn me that he’d probably called some others.”

  “You,” George said, heading for Cal, and Min stepped between them.

  “You’re overreacting,” Min said to George.

  “I’ve never liked your apartment, dear,” Nanette said, looking around. Then she saw the green and white bag on the table. “Doughnuts?”

  “You should have been feeding me cocaine,” Min said to Cal. “I understand that’s slimming.”

  George stuck to his guns. “Min, David says this man made a wager that he could—”

  “No,” Min said. “David tried to get him to make that bet but Cal said no. Go yell at David.”

  “Then what’s this?” George ripped the check out of Cal’s hand. “This is—” He caught sight of the amount. “—for ten thousand dollars.” He looked at Cal. “You’re not only immoral, you’re reckless with money.”

  “I didn’t make the bet,” Cal said. “And no one will ever believe that.”

  “I believe it,” Min said, smiling up at him.r />
  “Then the hell with everybody else,” Cal said, and moved closer to her.

  George drew himself up. “Minerva, get your clothes on, you’re coming home.”

  “Dad, I’m thirty-three,” Min said. “No.” She reached out and took the check out of his hand. “Go home now. Take Mother with—”

  “Calvin,” a voice like ice said from the doorway.

  Cal looked around George to see his mother. “Oh. Wonderful.” He looked down at Min. “This is pretty much my fantasy. I finally make love to the woman of my dreams, and my mother shows up for the afterglow.”

  “Well,” Min said, trying to keep the comforter up. “It really isn’t a party until somebody brings the ice.”

  “Excuse me,” Nanette said, trying to push George out of the way. “You’re Lynne Morrisey, aren’t you?”

  Lynne looked at Nanette as if she were part of the work force.

  Nanette held out her hand. “I’m Min’s mother, Nanette? So pleased to meet you.”

  “How do you do,” Lynne said, without taking the hand, and turned back to Cal. “Calvin.”

  “Hello, Mother,” Cal said. “This is the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. If you don’t approve, we’ll spend the third Sunday of the month listening to Elvis at the diner. Your call.”

  Lynne looked at him for a long frozen moment, and then Cal saw Cynthie come through the doorway behind her, looking sheet white. “Cynthie?”

  “I called her,” Lynne said. “I felt that—”

  “No,” Cal said to them both.

  “You cannot be serious—” Lynne began.

  “Don’t push him,” Cynthie said, quietly. “That’s what I came to tell you. This is infatuation. It’ll pass. Give him time.”

  Cal shook his head and pulled Min toward the couch, away from the loons.

  “I’ll give him time,” George said, still scowling. “I’ll give the bastard—”

  “Oh, you’ll give him time,” Nanette snapped. “Like you’re not worse than he is.”

  “What?” George said.

  Min curled up next to Cal on the couch and laced her fingers with his. “So I owe you ten dollars since you made me wait until after nine-thirty.”