Kitabı oku: «In Bed With...Collection», sayfa 42
His eyes dilated then gathered pinpoints of white hot light. The vibration of his breathing quickened, the rhythm of it coursing through her sensitised breasts, accelerating her own intake of air. The arm locking her to him shifted, slanting down from her waist, exerting pressure on her lower back, pushing her into a more intimate fit so there was no space at all between them and she could feel the growing hardness of intense arousal—ripples of sweet delight spreading through her from the feeling.
She moved her fingers over his collar, grazing bare skin, gliding up behind his ears, into the thick wealth of springy black curls that matted his scalp. How many times had he ruffled her hair in passing, a tease she’d always hated? But she didn’t ruffle his. She luxuriated in the sensual feel of it, softly raking her fingers forward and backward in a slow, loving massage.
His head started bending, eyes coming closer, like black shiny velvet now, and she knew he was about to kiss her and her heart leapt and quivered in almost painful anticipation. It had to be right. It had to be good. It had to be….
His mouth claimed hers in a wild succulent tasting and a terrible greed seized her. She wanted so much, so much, so much…her hands clutching his head, holding it to hers as she responded with a wilder tasting, kisses that taunted his wanting until he proved it with such explosive passion, Sam was lost to the overwhelming excitement of sensations streaming everywhere.
It wasn’t just a kiss. It was an invasion of such riveting intimacy, it affected every part of her, arousing a super-sensitivity to the pressure of his body against hers. His hand had left her chin. He held her to him with both arms, and the hard power of his desire was evoking a compelling need in her, an ache, not a sweetness, a fierce ache to have all his mouth promised and more.
“Shall we go to your room?”
His abrupt withdrawal and the hot tingle of his breath on her ear distracted her dazed mind from registering the gruff words. She dragged in a deep breath, wishing he was still kissing her. His mouth was grazing the side of her cheek.
“It’s what you want, isn’t it?” he murmured.
Yes rushed out of her mind until it belately sifted what he’d asked first…Go to her room?
Which had to mean…finishing what she’d started in answer to his anger. Her body still screamed yes. But reason frantically argued…what about after wards? How would Tommy feel about her then if he thought she was using him as a Nathan or Jared substitute? It would be awful…awful…
His chest expanded as he lifted his head back from hers, his shoulders squaring. “Shocked to find such strong chemistry between us, Samantha?”
Embarrassed by her own urgent ardour, she slid her hands from his hair, resting them lightly on his shoulders before daring to look up at him. The dark mockery in his eyes sparked a fiery defiance.
“You know how attractive you are to women, Tommy. Why should I be any different?”
“Nice, was it?” he bit out.
“Hardly an insipid little politeness,” she threw straight back at him. “More like a volcanic eruption.”
“Still quaking?”
“I can feel one section that’s rock-hard.”
His mouth quirked. “Stimulation tends to do that to a man.”
“Well, it is nice to know you’re not reacting to me as a kid sister anymore.”
“Oh, you’re definitely all woman today. You now have all the proof you need. Any time you want to take it further…”
Pride instantly whipped out, “I don’t really care to join a queue.”
“A queue? You?” He threw back his head and laughed.
Sam felt a violent urge to hit him. Wasn’t she good enough to line up with the women he’d had in the past? His mouth and body had answered yes. If he denied that now she would hit him.
The devil was dancing in his eyes when they zeroed in on hers again. “Don’t you know you’re one of a kind, Samantha Connelly?” He brought up his hand and traced her kiss-sensitised lips with feather-light fingertips as his voice dropped to a low, throaty throb. “Which makes what you just gave me…very special. Uniquely special.”
Her heart contracted, then burst into a gallop that flooded wild hope through her veins. She wasn’t just another bit of sexual satisfaction…or whatever he got from the women he’d bedded.
“Now come with me,” he commanded, turning her to scoop her over to the verandah railing, im-prisoning her there, his hands gripping the railing on either side as he stayed close behind, speaking over her shoulder with an intensity that reverberated through her brain. “You see the land out there? It’s an elemental part of Nathan. His soul is tied to it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes,” she whispered, unable to find any volume for her voice, totally confused by his actions and helpless to sort them into a sense she could understand.
“And Jared is fascinated by what can be formed by the forces of earth and nature,” he went on. “Gold, diamonds, pearls. Underwater and underground treasures. Remember him panning for gold in the river, back when we were all here together?”
“Yes.” The memory was clear, even though nothing else was.
“Finding such things, shaping them into beautiful objects, seeing them enhanced to their most perfect potential…that’s in his soul, Samantha. And as lovely as these pearls look on you today, I don’t believe they mean anything to you. Do they?”
“Not really,” she acknowledged.
“Now look above the land and what do you see?”
Nothing but…“Blue sky.”
“That’s my world, Samantha. I don’t envy Nathan. I don’t envy Jared. Because flying in that sky is what’s in my soul. It has no boundaries. It has no substance. But when I’m up there I feel I own it. Or it owns me.”
She sighed, realising he was expressing her own feelings when she was in the air, piloting whatever small craft she’d taken up.
“So where’s your soul?” he murmured close to her ear. “Is it bound to the land or flying free up there, Samantha?”
It felt as though he was tugging on her soul…or laying it bare. “Up there,” she answered truthfully. There was just no point in lying.
“Then that’s something else you share with me…apart from strong chemistry,” he said softly. “Or maybe it’s part of the chemistry…a soul link like that…”
She felt his lips graze down the curve of her bare neck and shoulder, a trail of warm butterfly kisses that sent little shivers through her heart…almost as though he was caressing her soul, pressing for access. She held her breath in exquisitely tense anticipation of what might come next.
Nothing.
He dropped his imprisoning stance, stepped around her, and turning his back to the view, leaned against the railing, subjecting her to a seemingly objective appraisal from hooded eyes that revealed nothing of his feelings.
“Your lipstick is smudged,” he advised her. His mouth curved into a wry little smile. “Best take a visit to your room after all…to freshen up your make-up. There’ll probably be more photographs to be taken down by the marquee.”
For several wretched moments Sam was ravaged with disappointment. She struggled to interpret what was going on in Tommy’s mind. This sexual encounter—if it could be called that—was over. What was she to expect from him now?
“Will you wait here for me?” she asked, feeling he surely must have been establishing further ground for them to tread by suggesting a soul link.
“I’ve waited a long time for you to join me, Samantha. I’m not about to walk away from finding out what it’s worth to me. What’s it worth to both of us.” He made a casual, invitational gesture. “Something for you to think about, too.”
It was certainly that. She needed to know its worth more than he could ever guess.
Was he just stringing her along, curious as to which way she’d bounce? It was difficult to know anything with Tommy. He was like quicksilver, impossible to pin down, switching from passionate intensity to blithe spirit in the twinkling of an eye.
“I’ll only be a few minutes,” she said, and left him, knowing only that he had to spend more hours with her.
Throughout the whole wedding reception they would be seated next to each other at the bridal table in the marquee. Surely in that time she would be able to discern what was serious and what was play in Tommy’s behaviour towards her.
A soul link…one of a kind…uniquely special…Sam grasped those words from all he’d said and welded them onto the hope that wouldn’t die. They had to mean what she wanted them to mean. They had to.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SUNSET was the given time for guests to make their way to the huge marquee which had been set up near the river. It was always a very short twilight in the Kimberly, so even as the sun was sinking below the horizon, turning the river into a gold ribbon and streaking the purpling sky with brilliant colour, the marquee was lit up by thousands of fairy lights, mak-ing it look like a magnificent tented palace.
Appreciative remarks flew around the stream of guests walking down the long lawn towards it. Tommy slanted a grin at Sam and remarked, “Trust my mother to come up with the dramatic effect. She’s really quite brilliant at organisation.”
“It looks very romantic,” she replied, unaware of a wistful note creeping into her voice.
“That sounds very much as though you yearn for romance, Samantha. Do you?” he asked, putting her on the spot.
Not playboy stuff, she silently amended, emotionally torn by the charm of manner Tommy had been exerting ever since they’d rejoined the throng of guests. Clearly he had switched into party mode, and while he included her in the smiles and the laughter and the happy banter, he also sought to keep people around them, socialising rather than seeking any fur-ther tete-a-tetes with her. It hadn’t exactly reinforced the idea she was uniquely special to him.
However, they were more or less in a twosome now, most people focused on heading for the marquee. And he was still holding her hand, though loosely, not possessively.
“I think there’s a time and place for romance. Especially when two people love each other,” she answered warily.
“And how do you define love?”
The light lilt in his voice turned it into a provocative question rather than a serious one. She decided to toss it back at him.
“How do you define it, Tommy?”
He shrugged. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking you.”
“Well, what do you think it is?” she pressed, secretly glad he hadn’t found it with any of the women he’d been involved with.
“I’ve thought it could be many things, but my feeling now is that it has to be everything. It’s been my experience that half-measures never do develop into everything. They just stay…half-measures. And that’s not enough.”
Sam hadn’t expected a serious answer, yet it was one, spoken with a wry self-mockery that underlined disillusionment in the affairs he’d entered into.
“Do I take it Janice was a half-measure?”
“More like a quarter-measure,” he answered dryly. “I was feeling low at the time and Janice put a bit of fun into my life for a while.”
“Why were you feeling low?”
His eyes glittered briefly at her then looked ahead as he spoke. “Oh, there’s this feisty little red-haired witch on my payroll who takes pleasure in cutting me down. Even when I’ve been acting for the greater good, she never sees it in that light. Just keeps hacking away.”
Sam frowned. Was that a fair description of how she treated him? Did she really make him feel low?
She flushed as she remembered Elizabeth’s words—men wanted to be respected, too. Probably all those women Tommy had been with had respected him and all he stood for, while she…but didn’t she deserve respect from him, too?
“It could be a reflex action to the way you treat her,” she put forward, trying to keep her voice quiet and reasonable. “Perhaps she feels…down-sized by you.”
He threw her a sceptical glance. “Now how could she feel down-sized when I trust her to run an important part of my business? And I invariably implement the ideas she comes up with.”
He sounded convinced he had always done right by her.
Which bewildered Sam.
Didn’t he know it went back long before he’d thought of the wilderness resort, right back to his reaction to her breaking his horse for him, and the way he’d furiously criticised her tactics with the helicopter when they’d been mustering cattle together?
At the time he’d offered her the position of resident pilot for the resort, she’d hoped their relationship would move to a different basis. A more adult basis. Mutual respect. But when she’d asked him why he’d thought of her for the job, what was his answer?
Not, “I want you with me” or “I like having you around” or “I know you’ll do it well” or “I trust you more than anyone else.”
It was, “You’re less likely to kill yourself doing this kind of work.”
Maybe he didn’t realise what he did to her—all the put-downs that flattened her. In any case, and whatever the truth of his view of their relationship, this was a rare opportunity to reach an understanding with him, and however vulnerable it made her feel, Sam knew she had to seize it. Another time might never come. Besides, it was easier, putting the hostility at a distance, pretending they were speaking of someone else he knew. She chose her words with care, trying to make him see.
“I guess business is one thing and people’s personal feelings are another. For example…Do you praise her? Do you make her feel valued? Have you ever shown her approval?”
The ensuing silence gathered a heavy host of memories. Sam swung between surges of guilt and self-justification over her own behaviour, but mostly she felt miserable, wishing their history had been different. She had to concede he had trusted her with a responsible job, and he had taken her ideas on board, but there’d never been any reward for what she’d done. At least, not the reward she’d wanted—having him look at her as he had today, wanting her above every other woman.
“If she feels so ill-used, why hasn’t she left and got a position with another charter airline?” came the slightly abrasive reply. “She could have made the competition more competitive.”
Sam’s heart sank. He saw no blame in himself, or was not prepared to admit to it. In actual fact, she’d thought of leaving him a thousand times. She just couldn’t let go.
“If you feel so ill-used, why don’t you get rid of her?” she countered, her nerves very much on edge now, feeling she had lost and there was nothing she could do about it. How else could she have explained?
It wasn’t all her fault, was it?
Panic clutched her again as she looked ahead and saw Elizabeth and Jared already stationed at the entrance to the marquee. There wasn’t much time left for private talk. Nathan and Miranda were moving into place, setting up the reception line. She and Tommy would be joining them in a matter of seconds and then they’d be busy, greeting the full complement of guests as they passed by on their way inside.
She couldn’t help an anxious glance at him. He caught it and unaccountably, shot her a crooked little smile. Then, as he’d done twice before, he lifted her hand and hooked it around his arm, drawing her into a close togetherness that set her heart fluttering with wild hopes again.
“Why do you suppose neither of us can let each other go, Samantha?” he said softly.
In the twilight his eyes were too dark for her to read, but she felt their intensity, boring into hers, touching all the raw places he’d opened up. Her mind burned with the answer…Because I love you. I’ve always loved you. And my life won’t be complete unless you love me right back. But she couldn’t say those words. They would lay her too unbearably unprotected if he couldn’t return them.
“Something more to think about, isn’t it?” he murmured, then walked her straight to their allotted position beside the bride and groom.
A stream of guests exchanging a few happy words with them precluded any thinking beyond meeting the requirements of being sociable. Most of them passed quickly by, but Janice’s parents, Ron and Marta Findlay, claimed Tommy’s attention for several minutes, waxing lyrical about the wedding and the setting.
They owned a string of travel agencies across the Top End—Cairns, Darwin, Wyndham, Kununurra, Broome—and had been highly promoting Outback tourism, so they were a good business connection. Sam wondered how they viewed Tommy’s short lived affair with their daughter. They showed no sign of knowing Janice had been comprehensively dumped. Undoubtedly they would favour Tommy King as a prospective son-in-law, and they were certainly currying his favour.
Not that they were short of wealth themselves, Sam thought, eyeing the obviously expensive rings on Marta Findlay’s touchy-feely hand, and her classy silk dress, featuring a similar deep cleavage to her daughter’s. Nevertheless, if they were into status symbols, one of the legendary Kings of the Kimberly was probably a prize scalp to bandy around.
Sam felt relieved when Marta unclutched herself from Tommy and moved on with her husband. It was probably foolish to let such women get to her, but they invariably did with their artful little mannerisms, their gushing, their confident awareness of being female.
She could feel herself getting prickly every time she met one, and found it extremely vexing that men were suckered in by such stuff. To her mind, it diminished them, which was why she’d been so cutting to Tommy about the women who seemed to fawn over him. Which, according to him, had sent him straight into the arms of Janice Findlay.
Perhaps she was too judgmental. All the same, she had never seen Miranda fawning over Nathan, and they had found what they wanted in each other. Why couldn’t it be that way with her and Tommy?
Her parents went by with simply a smile directed at them, not holding up the queue still outside the marquee. Sam reflected her mother had never been a gusher. Nor was Elizabeth King. Though both women had an innate pride in being women. There was definitely something to be learned from them, she decided, wondering if she could reform herself enough to hold Tommy’s current interest in her.
“I’m Christabel Valdez,” a soft musical voice announced.
Sam, whose gaze had followed her mother, instantly switched it to the woman now standing in front of Tommy, offering her hand.
“We haven’t met,” she went on.
“No, but Jared has spoken of you,” Tommy said warmly, taking her hand as he added, “Welcome to King’s Eden, Christabel. I hope you’re enjoying yourself.”
“Thank you. I now understand why Jared thought a visit here might be inspiring. Your King’s Eden has a heart of its own.”
She was quite awesomely beautiful, Sam thought—flawless olive skin, magnificent hair and her almond-shaped eyes were not dark as they had looked from a distance—probably the effect of the thick black lashes—but a striking golden amber.
“That it does,” Tommy agreed, smiling his most charming smile. “And it tends to call us all back home from time to time.”
“Yes,” she answered seriously. “I imagine it would do that.” She retrieved her hand and gave him a rather formal nod of acknowledgment. “I am pleased to have had the chance to meet you.”
“Delighted,” Tommy replied, but still she didn’t smile at him.
Sam got the strong impression of a very self-contained person who made absolutely no attempt to trade on her spectacular femininity, which in Sam’s opinion, left Janice Findlay’s for dead. She found herself warmly approving Jared’s interest in Christabel Valdez, and she was even more intrigued by her manner as the woman stepped from Tommy to her and offered a smile, as well as her hand.
No smile for Tommy but a smile for her? Sam wondered if Christabel smiled for Jared, or did she keep her distance from all men. It would answer Jared’s uncertainty about her response to him.
“Hello,” she said far less formally. “Samantha Connelly, is it not?”
“Yes. Nice to meet you, Christabel,” Sam returned, giving her hand a friendly squeeze.
Her face lit with warm animation. “May I say I have never seen that lilac colour suit anyone so well. With your blue eyes…I look at you and think of the sky. And that is where you are happy…flying. Yes?”
“Yes.” Sam found herself grinning, instinctively responding positively to Christabel Valdez. “There’s nothing quite like owning the sky. For me, that is.”
“Whereas with me…” she gave a little shrug “…I am suited to the earth colours of Broome. Perhaps I have found my soul-home there.”
“Many have. I think more people of different nationalities have settled in Broome than anywhere else. It’s like a world of its own. I hope you’ll be very happy in your life there.”
“Thank you.”
With another little nod she moved on. Sam stared after her, suddenly struck by the echo of Tommy’s words to her about the sky being in their souls and the earth in Jared’s…possibly Christabel’s, as well. Had Jared finally found the woman who would share his life?
“What’s your impression of her?” Tommy asked between more greetings.
“I liked her. What did you think?” she shot back at him, curious to know his reaction.
“I think Jared will have a tough time winning her.”
“Why?”
“She’s very guarded.”
“She wasn’t with me.”
He slid her a sardonic look. “You’re not a man, Samantha.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to remark that every woman didn’t have to melt at his smile. She barely caught the acid little arrow back. It wasn’t a fair comment. And Tommy’s was. She’d seen the change in Christabel’s manner between Tommy and herself, indicating the relaxing of a guard she kept with men that she didn’t find necessary with women.
Sam wondered what had happened in her life to make her like that. It wasn’t really fair to keep all men at bay on the basis of past experiences. Nevertheless, wasn’t she herself doing a similarly unfair thing to Tommy, all too ready to snipe at him even when he was being reasonable? If she didn’t stop it, she’d drive him away again. After all, why should he take nasty barbs from her when there were so many women who’d be sweet to him?
Here she was, standing shoulder to shoulder with him, sharing a togetherness she wanted, knowing that despite everything that had gone on between them, he wasn’t about to let her go. If she hung on to him and kept being a desirable woman instead of a witch, she might be a winner instead of a loser.
Sam had no sooner thought this than her stomach curdled at the sight of her brother, Greg, with Janice Findlay hanging all over him, clutching his arm, squashing her ample cleavage around it as she poured sweet sexy suggestiveness into his ear. Sam just knew it had to be sexy because Greg’s face was flushed, his eyes bright with excitement, and Janice had a feline smugness written all over her face. She was creaming him and Sam hated it, certain it was a tit for tat for Tommy’s defection, which meant her brother was being taken for a ride.
“Well, Sam-m-m…” she purred, completely ignoring Tommy. “I didn’t know you had such a hunky brother. I do so lu-u-u-v men of the land.” She accompanied this with a fingernail stroke down this chest, bisecting the space between the lapels of his suit.
Greg laughed with a kind of embarrassed pleasure. His first hot come-on, Sam thought caustically.
“Greg is a great guy, Janice. Maybe you should take the time to get really acquainted with him.”
“Oh, I intend to. There’s something about weddings that makes one feel…” She let the word linger, sliding a catty look at Tommy, then back at Sam. “…deliciously horny.”
With a provocative little laugh, Janice snuggled up to Greg again and carried him off into the marquee.
Before she could stop herself, Sam threw a daggerlike look at Tommy. “And that kind of mush from Janice made you high again?”
His eyes hardened into smoking black coals. “Don’t knock it, Samantha. There are times when a man simply wants to feel wanted. As Greg does right now.”
She flushed and dropped her gaze, painfully aware she hadn’t made Tommy feel wanted. Until today.
“And she’s probably right about weddings,” he drawled sardonically. “Seems to me you were very definitely turned on when you kissed me on the verandah.”
That was different. Entirely different. “She’s using Greg as a substitute. You know she is, Tommy,” she said fiercely.
“And you weren’t?”
“No!” she flared at him. “I wanted…”
“Me?” His eyes glittered at her, pinning her down.
There was nowhere to go but the truth. “Yes. I wanted to know what it might be like with you.”
“And I with you, Samantha,” he returned, giving her the instant relief of knowing he wasn’t about to use her admission to any mean advantage. “Do you have a mind to continue this journey of discovery with me?”
“Yes,” she said recklessly.
“Good! Because that’s what I’d like, too.”
A dizzy sense of triumph fuzzed her mind. Everything she’d risked so far had paid off. Tommy was reviewing their relationship, wanting more from it, wanting to see where it might lead if they gave it a chance to move forward.
It didn’t occur to her until they were on their way into the marquee that the questions he’d put to her were all related to “feeling horny.”
Had she just committed herself to having sex with him?
Did he have anything more than that in mind?
Her heart started fluttering.
Then a fierce resolution kicked in.
I don’t care. I’ll have whatever I can have of Tommy King. At least then I’ll know how much I mean to him.
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