Kitabı oku: «The Prince's Virgin Wife», sayfa 2

CHAPTER TWO

SHE moved in a week later.

The job was an easy one. Tom was not a slob and although he was clearly used to money, he didn’t require Cordon Bleu meals. She had plenty of time to pursue her studies and take care of his domestic needs. On top of that, he made her feel like his house was her home.

All she had to do was perform her job to his satisfaction and she had the run of the place. He was adamant she didn’t limit her time at home to cleaning and then staying in her room. It was very similar to living in the foster care system, where she’d figured out early that if she performed well and made herself indispensable, she’d always have a home.

Mostly it had worked for her.

The only drawback to the perfection of her arrangement with Tom was the fact that she fell totally, hopelessly, forever-after in love with him. And he’d made it clear he wanted nothing more than friendship with her…ever.

His girlfriends were beautiful, sophisticated women that made Maggie feel worse than ordinary. Every single one of them underscored a truth she could not deny: even if she didn’t work for him, Tom Prince would never look at her as anything but a friend.

Then halfway through his last year of graduate school and her sophomore year at the university, he broke up with his latest girlfriend. Instead of starting to date another drop-dead beauty, he took Maggie with him when he wanted companionship…out to dinner, to a movie, to a sports event, or even to a party.

The feelings she’d had during that month were still vivid after six long years of trying to forget.

It had been a cross between Heaven and Hell. She loved the extra time they spent together and her susceptible heart reveled in having his attention all to herself. But she never forgot his warning that he’d fire her on the spot if she tried to pursue anything more than friendship with him. Not that she would. She wasn’t such a fool as to think that the change in his dating pattern meant anything special for her.

One night all of that changed, though.

She was curled up on the plush leather sofa in the living room, studying for her midterms, when he came home.

Looking totally yummy in a pair of dark jeans and Ralph Lauren sweater over a navy-blue T-shirt, he made her feel things that turned her virginal ideals on their head.

She just hoped the sensual hunger did not show on her face. “Hi. You eating in tonight?”

He dropped his books on the table by the doorway. “I thought we could both eat out.”

“I wish I could,” she said sincerely. “I have to study.” She indicated her books and notes surrounding her on the sofa. “Midterms.”

“You work too hard. You need a break.”

“No, I don’t.” Life was easier for her now than it had been in a very long time. “You’re just spoiled.”

“And you are the one who spoils me.” He moved closer to her, his rich, masculine scent tantalizing senses always on edge when he was near. “Let me spoil you and take you to dinner.”

“I can’t. Really, Tom. I have three tests tomorrow.”

He shook his head, his expression disapproving. “You would not have so many tests if you did not take extra classes.”

“I take the maximum the scholarship allows for. I want to be done early. It’s better for me that way. I can start working sooner.”

“If you would let me pay for your living expenses until graduation, you would not have this worry.”

“No can do. What you do for me now is enough. Too much sometimes.”

“You are too stubborn, you mean. And I do nothing for you that you have not earned.”

“Well, since you won’t be living here next year, you can’t say I would be earning my keep if you provided it, could you?”

“Can you not consider it another scholarship?”

She wasn’t the only stubborn one. “No.”

“What are you going to do next year?”

“Get a job, or two, and find an apartment. I think one of the girls in my economics class wants to be my roommate.” She hated talking about the next year, when Tom would be gone.

It hurt to know that for all intents and purposes he would be walking out of her life as easily as he had walked in. While she had a horrible suspicion she would miss him forever.

“There is no reason why you cannot stay here.”

“There is every reason. It’s not my house.”

“It is mine and I want a caretaker.”

“No, you don’t. You want to give me charity and I won’t accept. Please stop pushing it.” She hated arguing with him as much as she hated thinking about never seeing him again.

He grinned, his expression flashing from annoyed dominant male to smiling confidence. “I am very good at getting my way.”

“I noticed. I have lived with you for a while now.”

He plucked her book out of her hand and tossed it to the end of the couch and then grabbed her wrists and tugged her up. “Then you should accept that if I want you to have dinner out with me tonight, that is the most likely scenario for our evening.”

She landed with a thud against his hard male body and gasped before scrambling as far back as his hold would allow. She tried to break it, but though he wasn’t hurting her in the slightest, there was no chance. “I need to study.”

“You need to eat. What can that hurt?”

“We’ll be gone too long. You never just go eat somewhere.”

“So, maybe there is a movie playing that I want to see…you need a break. I said so.”

“And because you said so it must be true?”

“Yes, this is true.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re awfully arrogant for a man who isn’t even twenty-five.”

“I was bred to it.”

“I guess.” She never asked about his background because he made it clear it was not a subject he wished to discuss, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know he came from major wealth.

“Why don’t you ask one of your friends to go to the movie with you?”

“I am. I am asking you.”

“I’m your housekeeper.”

“You are also my friend.”

Maybe…but somehow she didn’t see them exchanging phone calls and Christmas cards after he finished graduate school and moved on. And that was what decided her. She had only a finite amount of time left in Tom Prince’s life. She needed to take advantage of it.

“All right. I’ll study when we get home. Please tell me the movie is an early showing.”

“Your wish is my command, little Maggie.” He sealed his promise with a kiss.

On her lips.

He’d never done that before.

The logical part of her brain told her that kind of salute was common for him, even if she’d always been adept at avoiding any sort of touching between them.

But her body had other ideas, and lips that had kissed only one other boy before him went instantly soft against his, parting in an invitation that was as old as time and equally unmistakable. Being the natural predator that he was, he accepted the deepening of the kiss with alacrity.

His tongue slipped between her lips and slid along hers. She’d dreamed of tasting him, but no dream could compare to the rich ambrosia of his mouth. His lips and tongue explored her with such effective mastery, she moaned in pure pleasure. He made a feral sound low in his throat that sent shivers throughout her body, and pulled her forward, tugging her hands around his hips.

Her fingers convulsed in his sweater, gripping it so tightly it would have ripped if it hadn’t been so well made.

His hands came around her and pressed against her tailbone, bringing her into intimate contact with his lower body. She felt his rigid length hard against her belly, but couldn’t quite work out in her brain what it meant. She was too busy being devoured by an expert kisser. And loving it.

Some small part of her sanity remained and the muffled voice of reason asked her what she thought she was doing, but she had no answer. A far more strident voice, that of unrequited love, told her she would never have such a chance again. It urged her to experience all of him that she could.

Her heart and her clamoring body demanded compliance to that voice.

Tom did something with his hand against her back and her knees buckled.

Suddenly she was tumbling backward and he was going with her. She landed with one hip on the sofa and one hip off. Her equilibrium wasn’t up to keeping the balance and she and Tom tumbled to the floor. She landed on top of him, but amazingly he’d kept their lips locked together. He growled and flipped her under him, his hard thigh settled between her legs. She went utterly still, feelings rushing along her nerve endings that made her tremble and yank her head away from his.

It was too much.

She clamped her lips shut on a tiny whimper, but it escaped anyway.

He looked down at her, the angles of his face drawn with an emotion she did not recognize. “Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head, unable to speak.

“You whimpered.”

She stared up at him, mute, her legs separating just a tiny bit in an involuntary gesture that she immediately tried to rectify, but could not. He had settled more firmly between her legs and pressing her own back together only had the effect of hugging his masculine thigh tighter to her.

She gasped and closed her eyes against the disgust she knew would be in his. She’d promised never to do this, but it was as if her brain had lost control of her body and it had a definite will of its own.

The fact that it was following her heart did not help her self-control.

“Open your eyes, Maggie,” he demanded in a tone she doubted many people would have the strength to disobey. “Look at me.”

She steeled herself to deal with his anger and opened them. “I’m sorry,” she managed to whisper.

Far from being angry, his eyes were heated with a look he’d never directed her way before. “Why?”

Her gaze slid to his lips before returning to his eyes. “For kissing you.”

“I kissed you.”

But she had invited more. She’d been the one to open her mouth. She simply shook her head, unwilling to put her culpability into words.

“You want me.” He sounded as if the thought had never once occurred to him, but she could still see no evidence of anger that she had broken their agreement. “Since when?”

She turned her head away, her pride refusing to give him an answer. The sofa was so close she could see the grain of the leather, but as a distraction from his presence it failed miserably.

He tugged her chin with implacable fingers until she was once again looking at him. “I want you, too.”

“You do?” she asked in utter shock. “That’s not possible.”

He laughed and moved against her, making her aware of more than just the hardness of his thigh. “I’d say it’s very possible.”

As the implication of what she felt sank in, she blushed hot crimson.

He laughed again and then his mouth lowered over hers. This time, it was he that demanded entry to her mouth with his tongue. The kiss was incendiary, burning her sense of reality to ashes around her.

All she could do was feel. Every touch was new for her, every caress a step into an unknown but amazing world. One where passion ruled and desire was a tangible presence surrounding her.

He traced the curves of her face and neck with barely there fingertips. But when he reached her breast, his touch changed, growing more insistent and he cupped her soft curves possessively through the thin fabric of her worn flannel shirt. It was so intimate, she shuddered from the impact while he growled his approval of her braless state.

He began to knead her with a knowing finesse that made her ache in her most private place.

She needed to touch him, too, wanted to feel his skin with no barriers between them. She yanked his T-shirt out of his jeans so she could get her hands under it and his sweater. His skin was hotter than she expected, emanating warmth that made her fingertips burn deliciously.

And the hair on his chest was silky smooth. She touched everywhere she could reach, exploring his tight body with hungry innocence. When she found the nubs of his hard nipples, she stopped and circled them with her thumbs, then brushed over them, primal delight shimmering through her at his passionate response.

She was only vaguely aware of him unbuttoning the front of her shirt and peeling it back.

She noticed when his hand touched her bare skin though. Her whole awareness was consumed with the feel of his hands on her bare flesh, as her nipples hardened almost painfully and small goose bumps broke out on her flesh.

He kissed along her jaw and down her neck. “You’re so soft, Maggie, so delicious.”

Her only response was another soulful whimper as his mouth found her breast and then a scream as he began to suckle the nipple. Her hands fell to her sides, thudding against the carpet. She twisted her head back and forth as a mewling sound came from her throat that she could barely recognize as herself.

Then speech burst forth from her, words she did not plan on uttering tumbling from her lips in a breathless cascade. “Oh, wow! I knew it would be wonderful, but this beats anything. I feel so much, like my whole body is buzzing from a beesting.”

He laughed, pulling his mouth from her nipple. “I will gladly sting your petals and drink your nectar with my tongue.”

The erotic words shivered through her and she moaned.

He smiled darkly and went back to sucking her tenderized flesh. She tried to arch off the floor, but his body held her down.

“Tom…that’s so good, oh, it feels so good…” The word drew out long and low on a moan she didn’t even try to stifle.

She wasn’t sure how it happened, but he lost his T-shirt and sweater and then she felt his bare skin against hers. It was amazing and things were happening inside her she’d never experienced before…a feeling of spiraling tension she didn’t know how to handle. It just grew tighter and tighter and then he unzipped her jeans and slipped his hand inside.

His fingertips trespassed the top of her panties, touching her mons and then slipping between her swollen lips to caress her sweetest spot. Something happened inside her. It was like a rocket exploding and she screamed as her body bowed with unbearable pleasure.

“That’s right, bella. Let me feel your pleasure.”

She stared at him, her body convulsing as his fingers continued their ministrations. Who was Bella? Her thoughts splintered as one fingertip barely slipped inside her and he pressed the heel of his hand against her clitoris, prolonging the bliss.

He pushed further inside and she felt a stab of pain at the same time as he said, “Maggie!” his voice laced with stunned disbelief.

“You are a virgin?” he demanded as he withdrew his hand from her body, but his hand remained in possession of her most private flesh.

“Yes.”

Something strange flashed in his eyes and he started whispering in a language she didn’t understand and pressing kisses all over her face and throat. Overwhelmed by sensation, she didn’t realize what was happening until he started pulling her jeans off.

“Tom?”

“What, bella?”

His use of the other woman’s name again brought her back to herself with a jarring thump. Of course he was thinking she was another woman. He wouldn’t want her otherwise, but she couldn’t give him her virginity on such a pretext. Could she?

“What are you doing?” she asked stupidly.

He laughed, the sound husky and strained. “Making love to you.”

But it wasn’t love. It was sex and she didn’t know if she could go through with it. “I’m a virgin.”

“I know.”

“I mean I’m not on the Pill, or anything.”

He had her jeans down to her knees and he tugged them to her ankles. “I have condoms.”

“But…” She put her hand down to shield herself even though she was still wearing panties. “Please, Tom. Wait.”

He stopped and looked at her, his expression frightening in its intensity. “You do not want to go all the way?”

“You called me Bella.”

Uncomfortable chagrin flashed in the depths of his cobalt blue eyes, confirming her fears she was a substitute for another woman. “Well…yes. You need me to explain?”

“No!” The very thought of hearing about some other woman he had loved while she lay practically naked below him was repugnant. “Absolutely not.”

Now he looked confused. “Then what is the problem?”

Was he really that dense? “I don’t want to make love with you while you’re thinking of one of your girlfriends.”

“I would never do such a thing,” he said, his whole body going stiff with affront.

She wished with all her might she could believe him, but what had he just been doing if not that very thing?

Driven by fear of playing substitute and what making love would ultimately entail physically, she said with pure honesty, “I’m not ready.”

“I think you are.”

“You said you’d fire me if I ever tried to seduce you. What would happen if we had sex right now?” she asked.

His expression turned grim, disappointment flashing in his blue eyes. “It would no doubt ruin a good friendship,” he said cynically.

Despite her protests, that was not what she had wanted to hear. Pain lanced through her. “I guess you’re right. It would be stupid to make love, then. I can’t afford to lose my job over a single night of lust.”

She hated saying the words, no matter how true they were.

He jerked back from her, an impenetrable emotionless mantle settling over him. “I will not push you into doing something you believe would be damaging to you,” he said stiffly.

“I know that.”

He did not reply, but moved to sit on the sofa. She could not see his expression because his head was down and his big body shuddered with several heavy breaths.

Without the passion to lose herself in, she became embarrassed and quickly redressed. She stood up, awkward and unsure what to say.

After a few seconds, even his breathing was under control. When he looked at her, there was nothing in his gaze to tell her what he might be thinking. He simply sat there in silence with his hands dangling between his jean-clad legs.

“Tom, I, uh…”

“If I found you naked in my bed, I would not fire you.” That was all he said and then he got up and walked out of the room without another word.

A second later, the front door opened and shut and she was completely alone in a house that seemed to echo with all that had not been said.

Had he really wanted her?

Who was Bella?

She took his place on the couch, tears burning her eyes. Had she just avoided a monumental mistake or made the worst one of her life?

Those questions along with his words played inside Maggie’s head throughout the following week.

They popped into her consciousness first thing when she woke up in the morning and bedeviled her throughout the day and then made it hard to sleep each night. When she did sleep, she dreamed of him and the pleasure he’d given her.

She would wake up aching between her legs and craving him. Her desire for him grew to unbearable heights. Two things held her back from jumping into his bed: the memory of him calling her by another woman’s name and the fact that he was rarely around. Being honest with herself, she had to admit that if the latter were not the case, the former probably wouldn’t even matter.

He hadn’t dated a Bella that she’d known of, but when Maggie had stayed on as caretaker of his house the past summer, he had gone home. He could have dated anyone then. Had he fallen in love with Bella and she dropped him?

It would explain why he hadn’t been as focused on his relationships with women this year, why he’d only had one girlfriend and he’d broken up with her when she started getting serious. Maggie hated the thought of being a substitute for another woman. However, the temptation to try to capture his affection for herself through passion became more irresistible with every passing day. Particularly as Tom grew more distant and spent less and less time around her.

He wanted her and he’d practically invited her to his bed. Those were two facts she simply could not dismiss from her mind.

Finally the fear of losing what she did have of him decided for her. It was after eleven already and Tom wasn’t home. He’d called and said not to worry about dinner, that he had a study group he was going to. On a Friday night. Like he had ever attended one of those before. He was avoiding her and she couldn’t take it any longer.

She’d known it would be hard to watch him walk away at the end of spring, she hadn’t known it would be impossible to live in the same house and lose what she had of him anyway. Right or wrong, she was going to sleep with him and she just hoped it would regain the closeness they’d shared before the encounter in the living room. It was worth any risk to have a future with the man she loved…even knowing that future might be extremely short-lived.

She donned her nightgown, nowhere near bold enough to actually climb naked into his bed, and turned out the house lights except one in the hall. Then she walked into his dark, empty bedroom with her heart pounding a mile a minute. She had no idea how she would have survived doing this if he’d actually been home.

The prospect of him finding her in his bed seemed much less daunting than to have to go to him and explain what she wanted. He was smart. He’d figure it out.

Even so, she got beneath the covers gingerly, feeling like a thief or something. But he had told her he would not fire her if he found her naked in his bed. She clung to that thought as she snuggled into his pillow, inhaling his scent. They would be intimate tonight and then this awful, empty void inside her chest would be gone.

As she lay there waiting for him, her week of sleepless nights caught up with her and unbelievably, her eyes grew heavy. Her last memory was looking at his digital clock to see that it was now after midnight.

She woke up to whispered voices on the other side of the bed. The mattress dipped at the same time as the small bedside lamp was clicked on and she gasped at what the light revealed.

Tom had his hand on a woman’s shoulder. A gorgeous brunette with deep brown eyes, her blouse unbuttoned to reveal perfect curves encased in black lace.

“Maggie, what are you doing here?” Tom demanded, his blue eyes wide with shock, his hair obviously mussed from what they’d been doing before coming into the room.

“Sleeping,” she blurted out blankly.

An explanation for her motives in being there was totally beyond her and Maggie’s heart shattered while the beautiful brunette looked at her like a particularly nasty bug caught under her shoe.

The light of understanding dawned in Tom’s blue gaze and along with it a wary chagrin that hurt as much as his new girlfriend’s sneering regard.

“Maggie, I…” For the first time in eighteen months she saw Tom Prince at a total loss for words, but his girlfriend wasn’t.

“Why is your housekeeper sleeping in your bed?” she asked Tom, her voice laced with suspicion.

“I forgot to tell her I was coming home tonight. It’s wash day. Her bedding must have been unavailable.” As excuses thought off the top of the head and given without the least advanced warning, it was a pretty good one.

However, the knowledge he didn’t want the other woman to know Maggie might have another reason for being in his bed burned through her like acid.

The beautiful woman’s lips pursed in disapproval. “I should think she’d sleep on the sofa, then.”

“Yes. I should have,” Maggie said with quiet dignity. She stared at Tom, her eyes accusing. “It was a big mistake to come in here.”

“The timing was unfortunate,” he replied, a wealth of meaning in his words.

“Most unfortunate,” the brunette agreed. “However, the problem can now be rectified, can’t it?”

“Of course.” Maggie climbed from the bed, glad she’d worn her white cotton gown.

If she’d been naked, she wasn’t sure she could have survived the humiliation. As it was, she felt angry and mortified, tears burning the back of her throat. She’d been such an idiot not to realize a man like Tom Prince wanting her could only be a temporary aberration.

Refusing to justify herself, and frankly incapable of saying another word, she spun on her heel and rushed from the room. She sprinted down the hall to her own room and rushed inside, slamming the door and locking it before collapsing on the floor and giving into the pain mushrooming inside her.

She’d been so stupid to think he really wanted her. She’d thought he was avoiding her because he couldn’t handle the fact she’d said no, when in fact he’d simply found another woman and had been spending time with her. Her foolish dreams mocked her with painful indictment.

But he hadn’t bothered to tell her he’d found someone else. Probably because in his mind it wasn’t someone “else” but merely someone. What he’d said hadn’t meant anything more to him than a reassurance about her job after the embarrassing debacle the week before. His comment hadn’t been an invitation at all. It couldn’t have been, not with him going out with another woman immediately after.

It had all been a product of her overactive imagination. Nothing more. But he shouldn’t have said it if he didn’t mean it. It wasn’t fair. Maggie felt like she was going to be sick, but she swallowed down her bile. Instead, for the first time in years, she let the silent tears flow.

In that moment, she hated Tom Prince as much as she loved him.