Free Feeling the Heat by Brenda Jackson Page A

thing you said a couple of nights ago at that party—you didn’t know me. I never gave you the chance to know the real me. If you’d known the real me then you would not have believed the lie your father told you.”
    She didn’t say anything, but he knew that didn’t necessarily mean she was agreeing with him. In her eyes, he was guilty until proven innocent. “I want you to get to know the real me, Kalina.”
    She took a sip of her wine and held his gaze. “And how am I supposed to do that?”
    At least she had asked. “You and I both have a thirty-day leave coming up as soon as we fly out of India. I’d like to invite you to go home with me.”
    * * *
    Kalina sat up straight in her chair. “Go home with you?”
    “Yes.”
    She stared at him across the lit candle in the middle of the table. “And where exactly is home?”
    “Denver. Not in the city limits, though. My family and I own land in Colorado.”
    “Your family?”
    “Yes, and I would love for you to meet them. I have fourteen brothers and cousins, total, that live in Denver. And then there are those cousins living in Atlanta, Montana and Texas.”
    This was the first time he’d mentioned anything about his family to her, except for the day he had briefly spoken of his parents when she’d asked. “What a diverse family.” She didn’t have any siblings or cousins. He was blessed to have so many.
    He leaned back in his chair with his gaze directly on her. “So, will you come?”
    “No.” She hadn’t even needed to think about it. There was no reason for her to spend her vacation time with Micah and his family. What would it accomplish?
    As if he had read her mind, he said, “It would help mend things between us.”
    She narrowed her gaze. “Why would I want them mended?”
    “Because you are a fair person, and I believe deep down you want to know the truth as much as I want you to. For whatever reason—and I have my suspicions as to what they are—your father lied about me. I need to redeem myself.”
    “No, you don’t.”
    “Yes, I do, Kalina. Whether there’s ever anything between us again matters to me. Like I told you before, I truly did enjoy the time we spent together, and I think if you put aside that stubborn pride of yours, you’ll admit that you did, too.”
    He was right, she had. But the pain of his betrayal was something she hadn’t been able to get beyond. “What made you decide to invite me to your home, Micah?”
    “I told you. I want you to get to know me.”
    She narrowed her gaze. “Could it be that you’re also planning for us to sleep together again?”
    His mouth eased into a smile, and he took another sip of his wine. “I won’t lie to you. That thought had crossed my mind. But I have never forced myself on any woman and I don’t ever plan to do so. I would love to share a bed with you, Kalina, but the purpose of this trip is for you to get to know me. And I also want you to meet my family.”
    She set down her glass. “Why do you want me to get to know your family now, Micah, when you didn’t before?”
    Kalina noted the serious expression that descended upon his features. Was she mistaken or had her question hit a raw nerve? Leaning back in her chair, she stared at him while waiting for an answer. Given that he’d invited her to his home to meet his family, she felt she deserved one.
    He took another sip of wine and, for a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to answer and then he said. “Her name was Patrice Nelson. I met her in my second year of college. I was nineteen at the time. We dated only a short while before I knew she was the one. I assumed she thought the same thing about me. We had been together a few months when a plane carrying my parents went down, killing everyone on board, including my father’s brother and his wife.”
    She gasped, and a sharp pain hit her chest. She had known about his parents, but hadn’t known other family members had been killed in that plane crash, as