Free Time After Time by Kay Hooper Page B

took a long, hot shower, trying to shake off the last of the night’s peculiar feelings. But they wouldn’t go away. She stood before the vanity in her bathroom and stared at the fogged image of herself, restless.
    Restlessness had always meant it was time to change. To move on, to try a different job or cut her hair or move the furniture. Now, for the first time, Alex wondered if she had gotten her own motivation wrong all these years. Was it change her restlessness had urged, or had she been searching for something she hadn’t been able to name?
    For ten years she’d been either literally or figuratively on the move. Ever since a visit to a circus had tugged at the mind and heart of a sixteen-year-old, she had moved from place to place, from one job to another. Contentment for a while, then restlessness and change.
    Today she was restless, but she didn’t want to move on. This, she thought, was a different kind of uneasiness. Not discontent, but rather the tensehesitation of someone about to make an important decision. A part of her insisted the decision was made, but Alex was afraid to put it into words. She was afraid because she had never in her life reached out to anyone else. She’d been a temperamental orphan who had refused to allow herself to be comforted after a scraped knee or bruised heart; she’d grown into a woman who was wary of reaching for someone who might not be there.
    She wasn’t accustomed to casual touches, to hugs or kisses or arms holding her in the night.
    Alex watched the mirror fog up even more, and realized her own tears were blurring her vision. Swearing softly, she dashed the moisture away and went to start breakfast.
    When she answered Noah’s knock a few minutes later, Alex was under control and calm. “Hi,” she said. “Ready for breakfast?”
    “Are you offering?” he asked with a ridiculously hopeful expression.
    “It’s the least I can do for my boss.” She closed the door behind him, her control faltering for amoment as she wondered a bit wildly why the man had to be so damned
handsome!
    “You abandoned your boss at the crack of dawn,” he chided her.
    “Sorry. Had to walk the cat.”
    Noah paused near the couch to look at the picture of a small white kitten atop Cal’s broad head and chewing busily on his ear. “Damn. Wish I had my camera.”
    “Coffee?”
    “Thanks.” He accepted the cup she held out, sipping the hot liquid and watching her move gracefully on the other side of the low partition. “I didn’t take advantage, sprite,” he said suddenly, his tone light.
    “You were a perfect gentleman,” she agreed, matching his tone in spite of the tightness in her throat.
    Very softly he said, “Then why the whip and chair?”
    Alex busied herself turning strips of sizzling bacon. It gave her a moment to think, but she still couldn’t answer that question. Instead, she senthim a wry glance and said, “Seven in the morning and the man’s asking cryptic questions.”
    “Was that cryptic? Sorry. Maybe I should have asked why you’re a few hundred miles away from me this morning.”
    “Not that far, surely.” Alex was suddenly aware of his presence directly behind her, but she was nonetheless startled when he slid his arms around her waist and pulled her back against him.
    “Hey, she’s real,” Noah said quietly. “She’s not a figment of your imagination, old sport. Or a ghost. Just a very elusive lady with an invisible whip and chair.”
    “Noah, you’re making me burn the bacon,” she managed to say.
    “Wouldn’t want to do that, would we?” He released her and stepped back.
    Alex turned suddenly and caught his hand before he could move away. “Noah …” She looked at him, at his still face and curiously guarded eyes, and she dredged up a self-mocking smile from somewhere. On a half-laughing sigh, she murmured, “Stop
roaring!”
    His fingers tightened around hers and his still face relaxed in a faint smile. “King of the beasts. Unlike