You Made Me Love You Page 21

  By unspoken mutual consent, they didn’t speak of Joshua, or the cemetery, for the rest of the day. Eli took her home, where he spent several necessary hours with his colleagues from the lab. Liza polished a couple of routines for her class, then spent the bulk of the time visiting with Rachel Ramsey. Rachel listened sympathetically to Liza’s report of the morning—then nailed her with a shrewd look. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

  Liza cringed. “I don’t know.”

  “Yes, you do. You’re in love with him.”

  “Rachel—”

  “It’s not the end of the world, you know.”

  “Easy for you to say. You’ve been in love, what? Seven hundred times?”

  A smile played at the corners of Rachel’s mouth. “I lost count after five hundred thirty-two.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “But as it happens, my, er, extremely active love life is not the point here.”

  “I know. My non-existent one is the point.” Liza swirled her coffee in the mug as she glanced out the window of the small cafe where she’d met Rachel for lunch. “I like it that way. It’s safer.”

  “Then why did you take him to see Joshua’s grave this morning?” When Liza didn’t answer, Rachel prodded. “You’ve never taken anyone else, Liza. Not me, or even Anna. It meant something for you to show him that.”

  Liza finally met her gaze. “Eli and I—we have a connection. I can’t explain it.”

  Rachel nodded. “I know.”

  “How?”

  “You had that look. You sort of—glow.”

  “I’m exhausted.”

  Rachel’s laugh was warm. “Maybe that’s what causes that look. I don’t know. I just recognize it and know what it means. And you’ve got it.”

  “I think what you’re seeing is lunacy.”

  “Trust me, babe. I’m the expert on this. The King of the Jungle has you under his spell.”

  Which, Liza thought, was exactly what she feared. “You’re probably right.”

  “So why do you look so miserable?”

  “I don’t know.” Liza suppressed an inner voice that told her she knew exactly why. Rachel was right, as usual. Fool that she was, she’d given away the last piece of her heart. And terror was threatening to overwhelm her. “I suppose Amelia Pankhurst would be thrilled to be standing in my shoes.”

  Rachel laughed again. “From what I hear, about half the women in the free world would trade their eye teeth to have that man even glance their way.”

  “It’s, um, potent,” Liza admitted. “Having all that single-minded attention, I mean.”

  “I’ll bet.” Rachel leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Are you feeling up to telling me the baser facts, or are you going to leave me dangling?”

  “I see you were snoozing through Miss Martin’s etiquette-for-young-ladies class while you were at Breeland.”

  “I skipped it as often as possible. Besides, I’m pretty sure that Old Maid Martin never covered the proper way to ask a girlfriend just how well her guy comes through in the sack.”

  Liza gave up the fight and laughed, genuinely, for the first time that day. “I assure you, I lived in fear of getting caught skipping class. I went to every session and we never went over this. I would have remembered.”

  Eli was staring out the window of his apartment when he heard Liza let herself in later that night.

  “Eli?” she said into the semi-darkened room. “Are you here?”

  “I’m over here,” he said from his place by the curtains.

  “Are you all right?”

  He faced her, and felt his heart lift at the sight of her standing just inside his door. “Yes. I’m tired. And frustrated, but I’m all right.”

  She dropped her key on the hall table and walked toward him. “Things didn’t go well today?”

  He shrugged and held out his arms. Liza came into them without hesitation. “They went okay.”

  “You talked to the Paschells?”

  “Lord, this is such an unnecessary psychodrama. I’m seeing Doris and Leonard around noon, and then we can get the hell out of here.”

  Liza rubbed her cheek against his shirt. “I thought you liked it here.”

  “Not without Grace.” His hands caressed her back. “Not without you. I missed you today.”

  She laughed. “Liar. You were concentrating on your interview notes and you didn’t give me a second thought.”

  “You’re selling yourself short. Every time I noticed the lack of furniture in my living room and that expanse of carpet, my concentration was shot.”

  Her smile dazzled him. “Oh. What a nice thing to say.”

  He narrowed his gaze, trying to determine whether or not she was teasing him. “I have it on fairly decent authority that my conversational skills leave something to be desired.”

  “Really?” She was nibbling the side of his neck.

  His concentration was beginning to unravel. “Really,” he said. When she flicked open the top button of his shirt with her tongue, he flailed about for several seconds to find the thread of the conversation. “Mara used to say that I was the only man she knew who could make a compliment sound like a clinical dissertation.”

  “I thought we established,” Liza whispered against his ear, “that Mara was a moron.”

  He choked out a laugh. “Did we?”

  “Uh huh.” She gently bit his ear. “And I don’t really want to talk about her. Especially not now.”

  He tipped his head back when Liza traced the whorl of his ear with the tip of her tongue. “Why now, especially?” he gritted out.

  “Because,” there was unmistakable laughter in her voice, “I’m going to ravish you, and I don’t really give a rip what your ex-wife thought of you.” Her hand slid inside his shirt. “I’ve got a few opinions of my own,” she assured him. “And they’re getting stronger by the minute.

  His lingering frustration melted away. “Are you going to let me take you to dinner tonight?” he asked.

  “Hmm. Maybe later.”

  His hand settled on her shoulders. “You have to,” he assured her.

  With visible reluctance, Liza met his gaze. “Why?”

  “Because Grace gave me specific advice on how to impress you. I want to try out her lines and see if they work any better than mine.”

  A smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. He couldn’t resist the urge to kiss it. Liza’s hand threaded into his hair. “If they work any better, I might not survive until tomorrow morning.”

  “Oh, hi, Dad.” Grace looked up from the kitchen table when Eli walked into the apartment they shared in Terrance. And his world righted itself again.

  “Hi, sweetie. I’m home.”

  She smiled at him. “I’m glad.”

  “I’m glad, too,” he assured her. The smell of baking brownies filled the apartment, and he wasn’t surprised when Anna walked out of the kitchen to greet him.

  “You’re home. How did things go?”

  He gave her a telling look. “The interviews were tedious, and the meetings were boring,” he said, deliberately leaving out the details for Grace’s sake. “Liza and I had a lot of time to talk, though. She’ll probably want to talk to you about it.”

  Anna’s expression told him that she understood. She smiled at him. “I’ll look forward to it.” She looked at Grace. “Can I trust you to take those brownies out of the oven when the timer rings?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Grace nodded vigorously. “They smell good.”

  Anna pulled the dishtowel from her shoulder and wiped her hands on it. “I thought you two would rather eat here than at the dining hall tonight.”

  “Aren’t you going to join us?” Eli asked.

  She shook her head, then glanced meaningfully at Grace. “I think dinner a deux is a good idea.”

  Eli thanked her with a silent smile. She handed him the dishtowel. “There’s a lasagna in the oven. It’s ready when you are.”

  He walked with her t
o the door. “Thanks, Anna.”

  She laid a hand alongside his cheek. “She did well,” she assured him. “Let her talk tonight. You’ll probably learn some things.”

  “I will.” He looked back at Grace. Her head was bent over her notebook where she was intently working a math problem with a pencil. “Honey, thank Mrs. Forian for staying with you.”

  Grace gave Anna a genuine smile. “Thank you. And thanks for taking us to the ballet. I had a really good time.”

  “So did I. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She gave Eli a knowing look as he pulled open the door for her. “And I’ll call Liza tonight.”

  “Tell her I said, HELLO.”

  “Anything else?”

  He laughed as he shook his head. “Nothing else I’m going to tell you.”

  “I’ll wheedle it out of Liza.”

  “I’m sure you will.”

  She winked at him. “Have a good evening with your daughter. And if you would, er, like to let her stay in the dorm again one night soon, I’m sure that could be arranged.”

  Eli ushered her out the door with a firm hand at her elbow. “I’ll remember that. Thanks again.”

  When she stood just past the threshold, she reached for his hand. “Eli, one thing. Did she—do you know now?”

  He didn’t pretend to misunderstand her meaning. “About Joshua?”

  Anna looked relieved. “She told you.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “So am I.”

  For her part, Liza welcomed the solitude of her second-floor apartment in the small building on the western side of Breeland’s spacious campus. After the intensity of the weekend, normalcy felt good, and comforting. She kicked off her shoes, adjusted the thermostat, checked her messages, then settled herself on the sofa with a cup of coffee and her class notes.

  The wonderful feelings from the weekend, she knew, would yield all too soon to the relentless pressure of the students, the classroom schedule, and the demands of Breeland’s multifaceted programs, but she couldn’t keep her mind on her work. Her skin felt unnaturally sensitized, as if Eli’s hands and mouth had left permanent imprints. She could feel the layer of clothes against her flesh—abrading the particularly sensitive spots that still thrummed with energy. She allowed her eyes to drift shut as the feeling of remembered bliss washed over her.

  She’d felt closer to him than she’d felt to anyone in her life. And her body ached from the effects of their too-soon separation. She drifted into a light sleep, where her dreams focused on the passion she’d seen in a pair of leonine amber eyes.

  When the phone rang two hours later, she frowned at it. Her machine picked it up, and she heard Eli’s voice. She reached for the receiver. “Hi, I’m here.”

  He sighed. “What are you doing?”

  “Paper work.”

  “Really?”

  “No, not really. I’m supposed to be going over the enrollment applications for the next session, but I keep finding myself distracted by certain, er, memories.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  She laughed. “Are you any more ready for tomorrow than I am?”

  “Are you kidding? I was a little—preoccupied—this weekend. I didn’t have much time to review my lecture notes.”

  “I noticed.”

  “You don’t sound very contrite,” he said.

  “I’m not.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’d hate that.”

  Liza sank deeper into the couch. Something about his blunt, decisive way of expressing himself gave her an incredible feeling of intimacy. “I’m sure you would.”

  “Did Anna call you?” he asked.

  “Yes. She said Grace did well this weekend.”

  “We had a good evening,” he assured her. “She seemed to have a great time with Anna.”

  “It’s easy to have a great time with Anna,” Liza assured him. “I always did at Grace’s age.”

  She heard him shift the phone to his other ear. “I think I’m really close to getting through to her, Liza. It feels good.”

  “I think you’re close, too. Just be patient.”

  “I’m trying. It’s not my strong suit.”

  That made her laugh. “I kind of noticed that.”

  “Are you complaining?” he growled.

  “Not in the least. It, uh, suits me.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that.”

  “Cretin,” she muttered.

  “Hey, I’ve got the scratches on my shoulders to prove it.”

  Liza felt her blush bury itself in the roots of her hair. “So, uh, did you want something, or was this just going to be an exercise in seeing how frustrated we can make each other?”

  “Actually”—she could almost hear his teeth grinding—“I called to make sure you knew how much I appreciated having you with me this weekend. It meant a lot to me, Liza.”

  “Oh. It meant a lot to me, too.”

  “I was concerned that maybe you thought I was pulling away from you when we didn’t talk about Joshua again after Saturday morning.”

  She had, of course, and she’d spent most of her remaining moments cursing her own neuroses. “I needed the space,” she told him. “It was okay.”

  “It wasn’t,” he insisted. “If I hadn’t been so busy—”

  “Eli, it’s okay.”

  “I’m serious.”

  She sobered. “So am I. I’m sorry.” She shifted the phone against her ear. “I really appreciated what you did for me this weekend. I want you to know that.”

  “I want you here with me.”

  “I want that, too, you know,” she reminded him.

  “When am I going to see you again?”

  “You mean without the supervisory eyes of the entire faculty and student body?”

  “That’s exactly what I mean.”

  “We’ll figure something out.”

  “Anna mentioned that Grace might like to spend another night in the dorm soon.”

  “Do you think so?” Did he hear the eagerness in her voice?

  “Grace asked me tonight if I could get her a room there for the entire next session.”

  That made Liza laugh. “I see the advantages of living with a hundred girls her age are beginning to dawn on her.”

  “I think it would be good for her—and before you say something smart about ulterior motives, I mean that sincerely.”

  “I think it would be good for her, too,” Liza assured him. “You know I supported that from the beginning.”

  “Yes.”

  “We can talk about it tomorrow.”

  “I think it might kill me to sit across from you in the dining hall,” he confessed. “There’s significant scientific research to suggest that sustained periods of sexual frustration can have a permanent disabling effect on a man’s brain.”

  Liza laughed. “Will it make you feel better if I tell you that I have arranged to take tomorrow afternoon off? I’m free from three to five.”

  “My free period starts at three-thirty.”

  “The fact had not escaped my notice.”

  He chuckled. “Just how long were you going to wait to tell me this?”

  “I was thinking of surprising you at the lab.”

  “Oh, really?” His voice was almost a purr.

  “Hmm. Would you rather go for something more mundane—say, my place at four?”

  “Hell, no,” he assured her. “You’re not going to set me up like that and then leave me dangling.”

  “It won’t be a surprise, now. You know about it.”

  “I’m sure you’ll think of something,” he assured her. “Good night, Liza.”

  She smiled into the receiver. “Have nice dreams, Liontakis.”

  15

  “It was supposed to be . . .” Liza’s voice trailed off.

  Eli interjected. “I know. A surprise.” He kissed her bare shoulder. Her head dropped back against the shelf of the supply closet.

  “I was the one doing the surpr
ising. Ah—what are you doing?”

  “Surprising you all over again.”

  Twenty minutes later, Eli summoned the energy to stand upright in the cramped space. “Are you all right?” he asked her.

  She gave him a sleepy look. “You have to ask me that?”

  He laughed. “Okay, how’s this? Are you feeling as worn out as I am?”

  “Fishing for compliments?” She reached for her shirt. It was tangled with the leg of his trousers on the bottom shelf.

  “You bet.” He retrieved one of her shoes from a half-empty box of paper.

  “Okay.” She pulled his tie from a carton of paperclips. “I’m completely exhausted. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to stand up straight for at least a week. And I think I have Liquid Paper in my hair. Satisfied?”

  He grinned at her. “Absolutely.” He’d cornered her outside her office and lured her into the supply closet immediately after his last class. Then he’d spent the next forty-five minutes working off the sexual tension that had been steadily building since he’d dropped her at her apartment the day before. With studied diligence, he buttoned her blouse for her, then paused to kiss her long and lingeringly.

  Finally, Liza broke the kiss. Her fingers threaded into his hair, and she tugged until he lifted his mouth from hers. “We can’t stay in here all day, you know?”

  “Why not?” He would have kissed her again, but she evaded him. “Because, it’s Monday. And on Monday afternoons at five o’clock, we have faculty meetings.”

  “I know.” He smoothed his hands down her back to cup her bottom. “They’re the highlight of my week. It turns me on to watch you run them.”

  “So I take it you aren’t planning to restrain yourself this afternoon.”

  “Hell no.”

  She laughed. “I should have known.”

  “You should have.” They’d finished righting their clothes, and done what they could about mussed hair and flushed skin. Eli swung the door open. And they came face to face with Amelia Pankhurst. At the poor woman’s startled gasp, Eli gave her a beatific smile. “Amelia. Where in the world have you been lately? I’ve been meaning to tell you how much Grace enjoyed staying in your dorm the other night.”