Free Remember the Dreams by Christine Flynn Page A

reactions and a little less to his nonexistent ones. "This morning," she finally responded, and poured a liberal amount of cream into her mug. "I need the calcium."
    She couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like there was a faint flicker of amusement in his deep gray eyes. Kyle said nothing though, and taking his mug with him, he walked out of the kitchen.
    Toni let out a long, low breath and scowled down at her coffee. "How positively unenlight-ening," she muttered.
    She didn't know what she had expected anyway. An apology? A passionate good-morning kiss? As far as she could tell, Kyle didn't seem particularly concerned about what had happened—if he remembered it at all.
    That last thought wasn't very flattering.
    ❧
    By the time they had finished dinner the next evening, it was obvious that the incident in the hallway had been relegated to the land of the never-mentioned. It was also apparent that Kyle hadn't forgotten the unexpected physical explosion that had passed between them. Their conversations had been easy, quite companionable actually. But some enervating tension seemed to strain their intermittent silences.
    It was during those silences that Toni found herself glancing guardedly toward him. And every time, she would find him watching her, a telling darkness narrowing his eyes. But all he would do was either give her a noncommittal smile, or look blankly away. The desire he would shutter so quickly was encouraging—and more than a little frustrating.
    The attraction was definitely there, but it didn't look like he was going to do a thing about it. If anything, he was going out of his way not to touch her.
    Toni, being her usual, practical self, decided that there was only one thing she could do. She hadn't imagined Kyle's response to her caresses any more than she had imagined her own to his.
    It wasn't carved in stone that the male had to be the aggressor, so why shouldn't she be the one to make the move? She could handle an affair with him, couldn't she?
    Toni was omitting one very important detail from her mental questioning. The only thing allowing her to think this way was the fact that she was hopelessly in love with him—practical or not. If she were honest with herself, she'd have to admit that she'd probably been in love with him for the past five years. And Someone Up There was giving her a second chance.
    There was only one tiny little problem. Toni had never seduced a man before, and she wasn't quite sure how to go about it.
    The most obvious place to pick up that kind of information was from a pro, of course. And who knew the art of seduction better than Kyle? She'd never hesitated to ask his advice before. So why not get a few pointers from the expert? Toni closed the file she'd been all but ignoring for the past half hour and slanted a glance through her lashes at Kyle.
    He was lying on the sofa reading the evening paper. From where she was sitting on the opposite side of the living room, she could see only his long, denim-covered legs and his fingers grasping the edges of the paper. Outside the pool of light from the table lamp beside him, mobile shadows moved on the wall from the flickering light of the fireplace. And she could hear the rain being thrown in windy gusts against the wide glass doors behind her.
    It should have been a scene of absolute serenity. And it might have been except for that indefinable tension that seemed to fill the room. It made the air feel about as thick as one of Madeline's stews.
    "Kyle?" Toni began, glancing down at the file resting on her knees. "Are you up to giving me a little friendly advice?"
    Absently she flicked at the metal tab holding the papers in the folder. She had to appear as nonchalant as possible.
    The newspaper rustled as he turned the page. "Sure. You having a problem with investment strategy or something?"
    "It's a strategy problem, but it's something of a more personal nature."
    "And you want my advice?"
    Was there a thread of strain in his