Kitabı oku: «In Bed With...Collection», sayfa 41
CHAPTER FIVE
YES!
A fierce elation burst through Tommy. She’d given in to him. For once in her life she hadn’t suspected his word, flouted it, mocked it, or walked away from it. And placing her hand on top of his was more than acceptance. Much more. It was a voluntary move towards him.
“Thank you,” he breathed, revelling in the appeal to him in her eyes, the appeal of a woman who didn’t want to fight, a woman who was looking—hoping—for something else from him, feeling her way tentatively towards it.
“I may not have said it, but I do admire all you’ve achieved, Tommy,” she said earnestly. “The success you’ve made of the air charter business and the wilderness resort. They were great ideas and you’ve proved how timely they were with Outback tourism gathering more and more business.”
The admission was surprisingly sweet. He was beyond needing anyone’s approval or admiration for his pursuit of ventures he’d believed in. His own satisfaction in making them profitable was enough. But coming from his most nagging critic…
“I never meant to sound as though I always thought the worst of you,” she rushed on apologetically. “I do respect your…your judgment on these things.”
Now that was pure grovel and he didn’t believe it for a second. She’d used him as a whipping boy far too often, invariably casting him in the worst possible light. On the other hand, the attempt at conciliation was intriguing. What did Samantha want today?
Her earlier tart responses had denied any desire for him and she’d been tense and uncomfortable with every physical contact he’d made. But just before Janice’s intrusion, he’d definitely been on a promising roll. Keep it wild, he thought, out of the ordinary.
“Shall we start over?” he suggested whimsically.
She looked confused.
He moved his hand to capture hers and carry it to his lips. “I truly am charmed to meet you, Samantha Connelly,” he declared, brushing a kiss across the back of her fingers. “And I look forward to forging a closer acquaintance with you.”
She laughed—surprised, relieved, delighted and slightly embarrassed by his show of gallantry. “I think you are too forward, sir,” she replied in kind, revealing her eagerness to play this game of turning a new page, to be written on as they pleased.
He gave her a wounded look. “You would forbid me your hand?”
She responded with arch chiding. “If I give you an inch you may take a mile.”
He grinned. “And then some.”
She shook her head at him. “A dangerous man.”
He lowered her hand to cover his heart. “It’s true that only the strong dare tread my path with me.”
She cocked her head consideringly. “Perhaps a risk must be taken for a gain to be made.”
“In meeting a challenge, much can be won,” he assured her.
“If you will lead, I may follow.”
“I trust you are open to persuasion.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “That depends on how convincing the persuasion is.”
“I shall put my mind to it.”
“Your heart, as well, sir, or I shall take my hand back.”
He laughed, exhilarated at her matching his flirtatious badinage. But then she always had matched him, before topping the matching with the last word. Not this time, he promised himself. The last word would be his this time.
With slow deliberation he raised her hand to his mouth again, then turned it over and pressed a long, sensuous kiss onto her palm. He saw her eyes widen, heard a gasp escape her lips, and knew the sexual current running through him was just as electric in her.
“Too late. Your hand is mine now,” he declared, interlacing his fingers with hers.
She scooped in a quick breath, and with colour high in her cheeks, asked, “Is it safe in your keeping?”
He instantly shot the challenge back at her. “As safe as you want it to be, Samantha.”
There was no answer to that. Tommy knew it was unanswerable because it left the decisions to her. Except he now knew she wanted what he did, knew she actively wanted to satisfy herself with him, and he’d give her every chance, every encouragement, every persuasion to pursue that desire. He was well and truly primed to meet her more than halfway.
Right now, he’d pressed far enough. He lowered her hand, adopting a less aggressively possessive grip to let her feel safe, then nodded towards the bridal couple. “I suspect it’s time to rejoin the company. The photographer is going into herding mode.”
She left her hand in his as he walked her back to the gazebo, a friendly companionable link which his mother immediately noticed.
“Ah, there you are!” she said, satisfaction in her voice and pleasure in her eyes. “I’m just about to collect the children for some photographs by the gate. The pergola and bougainvillea will make a lovely frame.”
“Picture perfect,” Tommy drawled, referring to the image he was presenting with Samantha, mocking any triumph his mother felt at the current outcome of her interference. What was happening be-tween himself and the scourge of his life bore no relation whatsoever to the extracted promise. This wasn’t peace. It was war of a different kind…a war shifted onto more delicate ground…an engagement that was very much in the balance, not yet won.
“I think so,” his mother returned, unperturbed. “If you’ll all go on down…Miranda, Nathan, Jared…” She called them to attention. “…the photographer wants us at the lattice gate.”
Jared extracted himself from a group which Tommy recognised as the pearling contingent from Broome. The gap he left revealed a spectacular woman on the other side of it. A mass of black wavy hair sprang away from a centre parting. Her oval face had an exotic cast, almond-shaped eyes, prominent cheekbones, a longish nose, a wide full-lipped mouth. Big jewellery—dangling earrings and heavy necklace in copper, evoking an Aztec design. Her dress shimmered in shades of orange, red, morone, purple—dramatic and daring.
She gave him a curious, assessing look. On some other day he might have followed up that indication of interest, but he had what he wanted right in his hand, and nothing was going to distract him from seeing where it could lead.
“Sam…” Jared spoke her name in that tone of affectionate appreciation that always grated down Tommy’s spine, then topped that by spreading his arms wide in a gesture of beholding a vision of beauty. “…you did carry it off as superbly as you look.”
Tension seethed through Tommy. If Samantha broke free of his handhold and hurtled into his brother’s embrace, as she usually did with Jared, he’d pay her back by heading straight for the exotic woman. She’d already snubbed his touch once today, whipping away from it to throw herself into hugging Nathan. All these years, favouring his brothers, throwing them up to him…if she didn’t show good faith now, if she was simply testing her desirability out on him…
Her fingers squeezed his! Then she turned her gaze up to him, sparkling blue eyes inviting more flirtatious fun as she said, “Oh, I just kept telling myself I mustn’t fall at Tommy’s feet.”
“That definitely isn’t where I want you,” he replied with feeling, delighted when she blushed again, even more delighted with her choice to stay linked to him.
“She was a bundle of nerves before heading up the aisle,” Jared explained good-humouredly.
“Then I’m glad I gave her the inspiration she needed to come all the way to me.” All the way, Tommy vowed to himself, before this day was over. Nothing less would satisfy him.
“Without so much as a tiny falter,” Jared added, smiling warmly as he stepped up and curled his hands around her naked shoulders. “A class act, Sam,” he purred, and dropped a kiss on her forehead.
The jealousy Tommy had stifled so many times raged through him. “Who’s the striking woman in the Broome group?” he sliced at Jared, pointedly training his gaze in her direction.
It served to spring his brother from his familiar fondling. It also caused a flutter in the fingers that had previously squeezed. And so it damned well should, Tommy thought savagely, fed up with watching open affection willingly granted to his brothers. No flinching from their touch! No avoidance of it, either.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Jared warned, no purr in his voice now. It was as hard as steel.
Tommy raised his brows in quizzical innocence. “Don’t what?”
“Target her,” came the sharp retort.
“Now why would I be doing that when Samantha is favouring me with her company?” he asked, flashing her a smile designed to show where his interest lay, while planting a seed of jealousy that would make her work harder at holding his interest. If the interest was genuine and not just a revelling in the power of being a woman who could attract any man. Even Tommy whom she’d snubbed countless times.
This is a two-way street, sweetheart, and don’t you forget it! he beamed at her.
“Just let this one go, Tommy. All right?” Jared demanded, completely missing the point.
The dead-serious glint in his younger brother’s eyes suggested he was well and truly smitten. “If you’re out to impress her, Jared, I’d stop acting so taken by Samantha, if I were you. It gives the wrong signals.”
He frowned. “That’s easily explained. Sam’s part of the family.”
“There’s no blood relationship between the Kings and the Connellys. Think again, brother.”
“Damn it, Tommy! Do me a favour and stick by Sam today. That will sort it out.”
“Only if Samantha sticks by me,” he countered. “She does have a habit of showing how much she likes you, Jared.”
“That’s because…” He stopped himself, breath hissing through his teeth as he turned to Samantha. “This is important to me.”
“I’ll stay with Tommy as long as he stays with me,” she assured him, hedging her position.
“Now there’s a promise that warms my heart,” Tommy rolled out, bitterly resenting the quick understanding between the other two. “And just to show who belongs to whom…” He released Samantha’s hand to tuck her arm firmly around his, drawing her into very positive partnership with him. “You can walk on the other side of me, Jared, as we proceed to the gate for more photographs. That should draw the right picture.”
They both fell in with this arrangement—no other choice—and Tommy relished the control it gave him. Samantha had come his way and he wasn’t about to let her go. If he had to use every tactic he knew, she was going to be his today.
“So who is this new light of your life?” he asked his brother, idly stroking the hand now clinging to his arm. He slid his thumb under her wrist and felt a highly erratic pulse beat, which put a fine zing into his own heated bloodstream.
“You’ll meet her in the reception line at the marquee,” Jared answered.
Not exactly forthcoming, which piqued Tommy’s curiosity. Jared was clearly uncertain of himself with this woman—a tantalising prospect since he readily made multimillion dollar deals in the pearl industry with hard-headed businessmen. Confidence usually oozed from him.
“Give us a name so we don’t fumble over it when we do meet her.”
“Christabel Valdez.”
“Interesting. Where does she hail from?”
An agitated little movement on his arm, fingers curling, nails digging into the fabric of his sleeve. Jealous of his interest? Feeling threatened? How de-liciously ironic that she couldn’t scorn him for it, not after her promise to Jared.
“Brazil, Holland, Singapore, Australia.”
Tommy sifted the information, matching it to the woman and Jared’s business interests. “A jewellery designer?”
“Yes. I’ve just hired her.”
“What does Mum think of her work?”
“A risk.”
“But you’re going to take it.”
“Yes.”
“Well, good luck to you on both fronts.”
It earned a wry smile. “Thanks.”
The nails stopped digging. Threat over. But it stuck in Tommy’s craw that she thought he would have no conscience about competing against his brothers for a woman either one of them was taken with. To him it was an unbreakable code of honour—respecting each other’s territory—no crossing lines drawn unless invited.
He’d known Miranda was Nathan’s territory the first night the two of them had met. Not that Nathan had spelled it out as Jared had just done on Christabel Valdez. Nathan wouldn’t. But the writing was on the wall the moment he’d offered to show Miranda the Bungle Bungle National Park. She’d gone with Nathan, more or less pressed into the outing, then after that…nothing between them, which had intrigued Tommy into asking her out with him.
Pure curiosity…a little digging in mind…but, of course, Sam had read it differently. As she’d done with the little French piece, Celine Hewson, after he’d fixed things for Nathan and Miranda. No attempt to find out the truth of that tricky encounter or even listen to it. Judged in the worst possible light and slammed for it. Every time.
Until today. And even now the same kind of thinking was undoubtedly simmering away in her mind, ready to leap out and claw him…except it was deeply at odds with the sexual simmering, which he intended to keep fanning to the point where Samantha completely overrode Sam.
The photographer shuffled them around to a pose of his liking, moving Jared to the other side of Nathan and Miranda, with their mother beside him, the children strung out to flank the central group. With Jared out of earshot, Samantha obviously felt driven to comment.
“It’s nice that Jared has found someone he fancies, don’t you think?”
“Oh, I daresay in his years as a jetsetter he’s fancied many women,” Tommy responded noncommittally.
“But this one must be special,” she pressed, an anxious thread in her voice. “He said she was important to him.”
“Well, it’s to be hoped she wants what he wants.” He slanted a sardonic smile at her. “That’s not always the case, is it?”
She looked discomfited. As well she might. Having not wanted what he wanted for so many years, she could hardly expect him to put the scars she’d left on him out of his mind and simply take what was now on offer. Though he would take it. If and when she proved she was really serious in wanting him, and not just responding to the excitement of feeling his desire for her.
Her gaze turned back to the milling guests. They had a clear view of Christabel Valdez in profile. Her hair rippled almost to her waist. Some Spanish heritage there, he decided.
“She’s very sexy,” Samantha murmured.
“Who?”
She frowned at him. “Christabel Valdez.”
He pretended to find her. “Do you think so?”
“Don’t you?”
“She certainly has the female assets to look desirable, but I’ve always thought sexy was in how a woman responded to me. How she looked at me, acted towards me, and generally showed I was her preferred man.”
It startled her into looking back at him.
He smiled, making capital of the eye contact. “I guess what it comes down to is a man wants to be wanted by the woman he wants. Exclusively. Because he’s the best man for her. That’s what I’d call very, very sexy.”
“Yes…exclusively,” she repeated, her eyes projecting that very need.
You could have had it anytime. Anytime, he thought, all his most primitive instincts aroused and humming. If you’d ever reached out to me instead of playing your one-upmanship game. If you’d ever paused to ask where I was coming from. Ever tried to understand my needs.
He dropped a kiss on her forehead, wiping out the impression of Jared’s mouth on her skin. “For me, you are by far the sexiest woman here today, Samantha,” he murmured.
Her breasts heaved delectably under their satin covering. A sigh from her lips feathered his neck. Her eyes sparkled clear happiness.
Which was good.
He didn’t want her confused.
He wanted her to give him what he wanted. All of it. And finally concede he was the best man, and always would be for her.
CHAPTER SIX
SAM dutifully smiled when the photographer said, “Smile!” but her mind was whirling with what Tommy had told her about showing him he was wanted. She’d never known how to do that. The feminine wiles used by other women had always seemed gross to her. She’d felt she should be valued for her worth as a person, not as a sexpot, trading on all the bits and pieces of her anatomy that could be displayed to provoke lust.
But maybe they were the right signals to excite a man’s interest. Maybe she had it all wrong. Or maybe she’d been too frightened of failure to try in case she made a hopeless fool of herself. In moments of sheer desperation she had fantasised playing up to Tommy, but she’d never dared do it until today. Even now she felt self-conscious about it, half expecting him to drop her at the sight of someone more attractive, like Christabel Valdez.
Yet he’d given her every reason to feel positive and confident about what seemed to be happening. Tommy was focusing on her, making her feel sexy and desirable, preferring her over Janice Findlay and every other woman here. All the same, she wished she could feel secure that this was real and not just another playboy game to him.
She thought the desire was real enough. The way Miranda had dressed her had made her feel different, so she could understand Tommy feeling differently about her, too. But what if it was a novelty that would wear off? What if…
Stop it! Where had negative thinking about Tommy got her? In a pit of her own making! This was her chance to climb out of it. Probably her only chance. She had to risk it. There was no safe course to take. If she ended up hurt, what did it matter? She’d been hurting for years.
“Thank you, children,” the photographer said. “You can scoot off. I only want the six adults here now.”
For the next ten minutes they were grouped and regrouped in different combinations—the final one being just the three King brothers. Sam couldn’t help thinking what handsome men they were as they lined up, chatting and laughing at each other. It seemed odd that neither Nathan nor Jared affected her as Tommy did.
What was it that made Nathan so compellingly special to Miranda? Why didn’t Jared set either of their pulses racing? It was only ever Tommy she had wanted to impress, Tommy who made her nerves jangle and tied her emotions into painful knots, inevitably plunging her into doing or saying something that put him off instead of drawing him to her.
“Right, gentlemen! Face me and smile,” the photographer instructed.
Tommy’s gaze zoomed to Sam, and the moment he found hers concentrated on him, the half-smile hovering on his lips widened with a dazzling burst of vitality that zinged straight into her heart, setting off an explosion of joy mingled with a clamouring need for all her fantasies to be answered.
“That’s it!” the photographer called when he’d finished clicking.
“I’d like some shots taken of Miranda with me on the western verandah,” Nathan requested.
“Lead the way,” the photographer agreed affably.
“Sam, will you come with us and make sure I’m arranged right?” Miranda asked.
“I’ll come, too. Give you the benefit of my expert eye,” Tommy chimed in, waving them both forward. “Clearly I’m the best man to do it.”
Miranda laughed and patted him on the cheek as she passed by to join Nathan. “The best, best man. You’ve been wonderful, Tommy.”
“To be faultless is my aim today.”
Sam stopped dead, her hopes teetering on the edge of a black abyss. Tommy transferred his devil-may-care grin from Miranda to her and she stared at him, too mortified to take another step. No faults for her to pick on…no baiting…no bickering….
“Is that why you’re being nice to me?” she blurted out, unable to bear it if it was.
He frowned, as though not seeing the connection.
“Did Elizabeth ask you to…to make me feel…”
“There you go again!” he broke in, his face tightening in exasperation. “Can you not accept…”
Instant panic. “Yes! Yes, I can!” she cried, frantically denying the negativity. She reached out and grabbed his arm to press her plea. “I’m sorry. I’m just not used to you being…”
“Nice to you?” he repeated incredulously. His hand clamped over hers, strong fingers dragging at her skin as though he’d like to dig right inside it. “Believe me! What I’m feeling for you is not an insipid little politeness.”
His voice shook with a passion that rocked Sam out of any misconception about his aim where she was concerned.
“Is that how it feels to you…nice?” he demanded, his eyes searing hers with their dark blaze.
“Please…” Her chest was so tight she could barely breathe and her heart was thumping like a sledge-hammer. Sheer pressure to come up with something that would blot out her gaffe, stirred her mind into flashing back to the intoxicating fun of their starting over repartee. “I want to take this path with you, Tommy, but there are ghosts along it. You said you’d hold my hand.”
“Ghosts…ah, yes!” he answered slowly, his mouth curling over the words and his thick lashes half veiling the furnace of feeling in his eyes. “I must admit there are quite a few of those flitting along on both sides of the path. Warding them off does depend on the strength of our togetherness.”
He lifted her hand, hooked his arm around hers, then covered her hand again with a reassuring squeeze. “Is that better?”
“Much,” she acknowledged in blessed relief.
He swept her up to the homestead verandah, en-ergy pumping from him in such strong waves, it somehow infiltrated Sam’s tremulous legs and kept her in pace with him. Her head felt dizzy. She was glad to reach the roofed verandah and get out of the direct heat of the sun.
By the time they walked around to the western side, Nathan and Miranda were already placing themselves in a trial pose for the photographer to find his best angles.
“If you centre them between the verandah posts and feature the frieze above them, it could make a stunning frame,” Tommy casually advised.
Sam was amazed he could lift himself so quickly into a natural manner, showing no trace of the contretemps that had almost left her legless. But then he hadn’t been at fault. It was she who had come close to shattering the precious peace between them.
Except it wasn’t peace.
It was chaos for her.
She felt as though she was skipping from ecstatic elation to despairing torment. Her stomach was a churning mess, her mind a buzz of helpless agitation. It was one thing to fantasise a coming together with Tommy, quite another to experience the reality.
Miranda called her over to make adjustments to the fall of her veil and the drape of her skirt. Tommy stood behind the photographer to get the right view of the pose so he could give her direction on the most artistic arrangement. Working in a harmonious partnership to get the best possible angles and shots soothed some of Sam’s inner turmoil. Tommy projected good humour with every bit of helpful advice. An aura of love shone from Miranda and Nathan. Conflict seemed absurd in such a happy atmosphere.
Whenever she stood back to be out of the way of the photographer, it was obvious why Nathan had chosen this place for the more intimate poses with his bride. It wasn’t for the frame of the verandah posts and the ornate frieze that ran around the roofline of the grand old homestead. It was for the view behind them—the river which was the lifeblood of King’s Eden, and beyond it, the vast Mitchell grass plains of the great cattle station stretching to the horizon.
This was Nathan’s land, his home, and the heart of the man belonged to it and all it meant to him—his heritage—two million acres of cattle country passing from father to son for five generations—and this was what Miranda had committed herself to sharing with him, all their lives, here in the Kimberly Outback.
Nathan…the firstborn son of Lachlan.
Tommy…the second.
Elizabeth’s words suddenly flashed into her mind…. Tommy’s been competing against Nathan all his life. It’s why he broke away from Nathan’s authority over the cattle station and built up his air charter business.
Was this wedding conjuring up painful reminders of what could never be for Tommy because he was the second-born son? Was that what he’d meant when he’d referred to ghosts flitting along both sides of the path they were taking today?
Strange, how all these years she’d never really looked at things from Tommy’s point of view. She looked at him now, but could not discern any trace of envy in the benevolent smile he was aiming at his brother and his new sister-in-law.
“You’re happy for them, aren’t you?” she murmured, wanting to tap into the heart he had never shown her.
“Very,” he answered warmly, then raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Any reason why I shouldn’t be?”
The calmly searching probe of his eyes flustered her for a moment. Was she hopelessly wrong again? “I was wondering if you minded all this…the home-stead and station…being passed on to Nathan and Miranda for them to make their lives here.”
Not so much as a flicker of reaction. His eyes bored steadily into hers. “As you mind the Connelly station being passed on to your brothers?” he softly answered.
She flushed at the accuracy of that knowledge. “I did at one time,” she admitted. “But it doesn’t matter now. I’ve made my own life.”
“So have I, Samantha. So have I.”
The cold pride on the face he turned away from her made Sam’s heart sink. She’d done it again. Struck the wrong chord with him. Better not to try to reach into him. Better to wait until he chose to reveal himself. Which would probably be never if she kept on going like this.
Resolving to keep her mouth firmly shut until he spoke to her, Sam remained doggedly silent while the photography session came to a conclusion.
“I’m going to my room to freshen up before joining the guests again,” Miranda announced. “Want to come, Sam?”
Would Tommy wait for her? “No…I…uh, think I’m okay.”
“I’ll come with you,” Nathan said, grinning wickedly at Miranda as he scooped her with him to the door that gave access to one of the hallways of the huge house.
Her husky laugh at his desire to be alone with her brimmed with sexual understanding. Sam stood rooted to the spot, watching them disappear inside, fiercely wishing she could give the same uninhibited response to Tommy, wishing he would just scoop her up and carry her off to his room and…
“Do you envy Miranda?”
She almost jumped at his quiet and all too perceptive question. Heat flared into her cheeks as she tried to banish the wildly carnal thoughts that had sprung into her mind. Agitated that he would be able to read them, she swung her gaze to the photographer who had packed up his gear and was heading down the verandah, back to the main scene of activity.
“I take it your silence means yes. Which leads me to think…you would have liked to marry Nathan yourself.”
Shock jolted her into facing him. “That’s not true!”
He regarded her with hard scepticism. “You’ve always looked up to him. As you pointed out to me, he inherits all this, which would undoubtedly have been a feather in your cap since you lose out to your brothers on your own family station. And you have displayed considerable feeling for him, Samantha.”
“He’s always been a friend to me,” she expostulated, sickened by the picture Tommy was drawing of her. “But I’ve never wanted to be his wife. And I’ve never coveted this place, either. If I envy Miranda, it’s because…”
“Because she’ll get all his hugs from now on?” His eyes glittered derisively. “Was that your farewell hug to him in the gazebo after the wedding ceremony? Do you feel on the outer now, left without a…”
“Stop it!” She stamped her foot in sheer frustration. “I don’t care for Nathan that way.”
“Poor Samantha,” he drawled. “Do you think I didn’t see you sizing the three of us up, out by the pergola? What were you thinking? Nathan married. Jared captivated by Christabel. That only leaves me, doesn’t it? Me, whom you’ve never cared for.”
She shook her head, rendered totally speechless by his venomous reading of the situation.
“Well, since you decided to try your womanly wings out on me…” he went on, hooking his arm around her waist and pulling her so hard against him, Sam’s hands instinctively flew up to defend herself against his strength, slamming onto his chest.
“…and I disappoint you in every other area…” his voice rolled on, his arm keeping her relentlessly pinned to him as he used his other hand to cup her chin, tilting her face up to his.
Anguished by his angry summation of her attitude to him, Sam didn’t know where to begin to refute it. And there was no giving her any time in his eyes. They burned into hers with ruthless intent as he delivered that same intention in speech.
“…I’ll try not to disappoint you in the one field where you credit me as an expert. The Playboy King. That’s how you refer to me, isn’t it?”
Her mouth was too dry to reply.
“But there are always two sides to that game. So why don’t you slide those hands up around my neck, Samantha? As you did with Nathan earlier on. As you’ve done with Jared so many, many times. But never with me.”
The seething challenge stirred all the desires Sam had kept hidden. They screamed through her, demanding to have at least this satisfaction. It didn’t matter what she said or did, she was never going to win with Tommy, so why not have what she could? He’d invited it, however furiously, and she was not about to deny herself any part of him he offered.
Hands around his neck…
She moved them slowly, her eyes clinging to his with a fierce demand of her own—don’t you dare pull away from me, Tommy King—as her palms soaked in the strong breadth of his chest, the hard muscle of his shoulders, the tension across his back…and her breasts pressed closer, the stiff, excited peaks of them gradually squashing into the hot wall they met…and she shifted her thighs closer, too, touching, feeling, rubbing as she lifted her arms higher to curl around his neck…every nerve in her body electrically charged with awareness of this man she had wanted for so long, feeding off every bit of contact with him.
