David closed the dossier and picked up a lawbook. Streams of dull legal phrases swam before his eyes. He reached into his desk drawer and removed a bottle of Scots whisky and a glass. David uncorked the bottle and filled the glass, then recorked it and replaced the bottle. He took a small ring of keys from his trouser pocket and locked the drawer, then threw the key ring across the room so he wouldn’t be tempted to overindulge. It bounced off the wall and skidded across the floor.
Sipping his drink, David concentrated on the printed page. There had to be something here, some legal precedent, some tiny loophole to prevent the Territory of Wyoming from prosecuting Tessa Roarke. Tessa. He groaned as her name conjured up pictures. Tessa with her yellow dress bunched around her waist, her breasts bared. Tessa, her lips swollen, her cool hands against his chest. Tessa, stalking away, her beautiful back displayed just for him. He imagined her lying naked amid the lawbooks and papers on his desk, begging him to love her.
“Dammit!” David muttered, raking his left arm across the top of his desk, sweeping books and papers off the shiny surface. The heavy law books thudded to the floor. “Dammit!” He pressed his forehead against the polished wood. He had to concentrate on his work. He had to stop thinking about her.
“David?”
He lifted his head, blinking at her image. She moved toward him, and David wondered if he’d conjured her up from the depths of his memory.
“David?” Tessa repeated his name, then saw the glass of whisky in his hand. “Are you drunk?”
“Nope. It’s my first.”
“Oh.”
He gazed at the long, shapely legs outlined against the fine silk of her nightclothes. She wore a chemise, brief silk and lace underdrawers, and nothing else. The shadow of the triangle between her thighs beckoned to him. “You sound disappointed.”
Her face flushed with color. “Maybe a little.” Tessa studied him, gauging his sobriety.
“I hate to disappoint you,” David told her, shifting against the leather chair, “but I’ve limited myself to one drink.” He raised the glass and saluted her. So much for her coming to gloat over the fact that she’d driven him to drink.
“Oh, I thought…” She shifted her weight from one leg to the other.
“You thought I might be drinking myself into a high temper on your account?” David interrupted.
“I…hoped you might,” she told him.
“Not this time.”
Tessa moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue.
Leaning back against the comfortable leather, David took a gulp of whisky.
“I guess you’re not ready yet,” Tessa said, trying to hide her disappointment. “Maybe if I come back later you’ll be ready.” She turned, as if to return to her bed.
“Ready for what?” Her words puzzled him.
“To make love all night long, like you said.”
“What?” The lead-crystal glass slipped from his hand and shattered against the floor.
“You know… You told me not to be afraid of you because you weren’t a mean drunk,” Tessa explained.
David didn’t remember saying anything of the kind.
“You said that lots of drinking made you…and I thought maybe you wanted to…earlier tonight.”
David stood up and pushed back his chair. The wheels crunched on the remains of the glass. The strong odor of expensive whisky drifted up from the floor. David ignored it, focusing his attention solely on Tessa.
She wanted this one night with David Alexander and she meant to have it. With her mind made up, and her conscience firmly pushed aside, Tessa wet her lips again, then smoothed her hands over the soft fabric of her chemise.
David ached to do the same. “You thought if I got drunk enough, I’d want to make love to someone?”
“Not just someone. Me.”
“You?” David parroted, wondering if he’d heard correctly.
“Maybe you think I’m not good enough? Maybe you’d rather have Charlotte or Myra?”
“Yes. No,” David blurted out.
“Well,” Tessa demanded, hands on her hips, “which is it?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t think I’m as good as they are?” She moved so close David could feel the tips of her breasts brushing against his shirt, driving him out of his mind. And he gave in.
“No,” he told her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to his body. Tessa felt the hard length of him against her abdomen. “I think you’re better. Much better.”
“You’re not going to the Satin Slipper?”
“Dammit Tessa, you know I’m staying right where I am,” David said fiercely, “with you.” He kissed the side of her neck, nuzzling the hair around her ear.
“Have you had enough?” Tessa asked, shivering in response.
“Not by a long shot.”
Tessa pulled out of his arms.
“Where are you going?” David asked, grabbing hold of her chemise.
‘To get you a cup,” she told him. “You broke your glass.” Tessa pointed to the mess behind his desk. Then a thought occurred to her. “Unless you’d rather drink straight out of the bottle.”
“Contessa?” David’s dark brown eyes sparkled.
“Yes?”
“Forget the cup. And the bottle. I won’t need it.” He pulled her back into his embrace. “I never did.”
“But you said—”
David stopped her words with his mouth. He kissed her until her knees buckled. She clutched at his shirtfront. David bent and swung her up into his arms. He released her lips long enough to say, “Are you asking me to make love to you, contessa?”
“All night long,” Tessa reminded him. “Just as you said.”
David laughed. “What exactly did I say?”
“You don’t remember?” A frown creased her forehead.
“Bits and pieces.” David kissed the tip of her nose. “Refresh my memory.” He sat down on the top of his desk with Tessa in his arms.
“You told me I didn’t have to be afraid of you. You said that despite what people say about Indians and half-breeds like you, I should know you weren’t a mean drunk. You said—”
“I must have been crazy,” David commented, “to say all that.” He kissed her again. “What about the whisky?” he asked.
“You said it doesn’t make you want to fight or be cruel or slap women around. You said—”
“Too much, apparently,” David remarked. “Skip to the good part. What’s this about all night long?”
“You said whisky made you want to take a woman in your arms and make love to her all night long.”
“I said that?” David couldn’t believe it. “To you?”
“Yes. To me.” Tessa frowned again, wiggling in his arms. “Who else?”
David tightened his arms around her. “Nobody else.” He pressed his lips against her shining hair.
“David?” Tessa squirmed against him, demanding his attention. “Are you going to make love to me or not?”
“I’m not.” David looked down at her and saw the darkening of her blue eyes. “I’m not going to make love to you, contessa.”
Tessa opened her mouth.
David covered it with his own, answering the question he read in her eyes, kissing her until they were both gasping for breath. “I think,” he teased, “that we’ll enjoy it a hell of a lot more if we make love to each other.”
“All night long?”
“What’s left of it, anyway.” David slid off the desk. “Grab the lamp,” he instructed.
Tessa reached up, found the cord of the overhead lamp and pulled it down on a level with his face. David blew the flame out.
“Now,” he whispered, “we can get down to business without giving the rest of the town a show.” He gently lowered Tessa onto the shiny wooden desk top, then moved to stand in front of her.
“What are you doing?” Tessa felt his fingers at the pearl buttons of her chemise.
“I thought
we’d start in here,” David answered, unbuttoning the garment to her waist, “and work our way to the bedrooms.”
“Can we do that?” Tessa sucked in her breath as David raked the tip of her nipple with his thumb.
“Why not?” He caressed the other breast. “We’ve got the place to ourselves.” His voice grew huskier. “And we’ve got all night.”
* * *
“David?” Tessa lay sprawled across the top of the desk, her chemise gone, her long legs draped over his shoulders. She couldn’t see his face in the darkness, but she felt his lips on her, felt the cool leather back of his chair against the soles of her feet, heard the creak of its wheels as he shifted his weight.
“I’m here, Tessa my sweet.” His warm breath tickled the hair of her mound. Strands of his thick black hair brushed her inner thigh.
“What are you doing?”
He heard the wariness in her voice and reassured her. “I’m kissing you.”
“Not there.” She felt him nuzzle her.
“Yes, here,” he said. “I’m going to kiss you everywhere.”
“Can you do that?”
Tessa felt rather than saw his sensual grin. “I can if you let me.”
She decided to let him.
Tessa gasped when he kissed her. She squirmed beneath him as he used his mouth to give her the most extraordinary pleasure. She alternately pleaded with him to stop the wonderful torture, and demanded he never stop—until the unbearable tension ended suddenly in a wave of exquisite pleasure that washed over her. Tessa arched her back. She called his name without knowing she did it. David stood up to hold her. Tessa wrapped her arms around his waist as she clung to him, pressing tiny kisses on his warm flesh and shivering with reaction.
She continued to shiver long after the spasms left her limp and pleasantly sated.
David realized she was cold. He scooped her up in his arms. Tessa relaxed against him, looping her arms around his neck.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To bed.”
“Oh.” She smothered a yawn.
David chuckled. “Don’t go to sleep on me now, Tessa. We’re just getting started.” His voice was laced with tenderness. He discovered that despite the life she’d led at the Satin Slipper, Tessa had never before felt the exquisite sensations he’d aroused within her moments before. She had more to learn about lovemaking, more pleasure to experience. David felt honored to teach her.
He carried her to his bed.
Tessa snuggled into the covers, watching as David peeled off his shirt. He lit a lamp, turning the wick down low. “I want to see you,” he told her, “and I want you to see me.” He kicked off his boots, then shucked his tight pants.
Her eyes widened in surprise as he revealed himself to her. Sleek and bronzed in the lamplight, he was magnificent. His wide shoulders tapered into a hard, ridged stomach. A light sprinkling of black hair trailed from his navel, pointing downward to… She closed her eyes. A hot blush stained her face red.
David grinned. “Open your eyes, Tessa,” he commanded softly. “Look at me.”
She opened one eye, then the other.
“See what you do to me.” He walked to the bed, pulled the covers back, and slipped between the sheets next to her. “Feel what you do to me.” He pressed his large body into hers.
“You’re so warm,” Tessa told him, placing her hands against his chest. “I’ve never felt anything like this.”
“Touch me, Tessa,” David directed, taking her hand in his, guiding her down to the hard length of him.
Tessa marveled at the contrast. The steel hardness encased in velvety softness, the rough crinkle of hair at the base, the smooth, gentle slope at the summit. David removed his hand. She no longer needed his guidance. She explored him on her own.
David groaned aloud, biting his full lower lip as she tested his limits. He squirmed beneath her hand, whispering her name over and over, like a litany. She ran a hand down his inner thigh. David reacted instantly. He caught her hand in his, moving it up to his chest. “No more.” His voice was hoarse, strained. “I can’t stand it.”
Leaning on an elbow above him, Tessa trailed her hand across the expanse of his chest, then up his neck, to his mouth. She traced the fine contours of his lower lip with her fingertip. “What should I do next?”
Smiling at the innocent question, David hooked an arm around her neck and pulled her down to him. He captured her lips with his own, kissing her with a thoroughness that sent her coherent thoughts flying. “Make love with me,” he murmured between breaths.
Rolling her to her back in one sure motion, David positioned himself between her legs. He pushed, trying to bury himself in her moist cavern, and met resistance. “What’s this?” He looked down at her face, saw the way her teeth worried her bottom lip, and he understood. “God, Tessa, I didn’t know… I never dreamed…” David slowed his movements, gentling his touch. He struggled to find the words to thank her for gifting him with her innocence. “You’re wonderful. Magnificent.” He praised her as he moved his hips, easing his way inside her. His heart felt near to bursting at the flood of sensations and the wave of tenderness he felt for her.
Tessa squirmed against the pressure building inside her.
David kissed the corner of her mouth. “It’s all right. I can wait until you’re ready. There’s no need to hurry.”
But there was. Tessa’s heart pounded in her breast. She moved against him, yearning to explore the wonderful feeling, wanting to quench the fires within, sensing that only David could help her.
“Tessa, don’t move,” David pleaded. “Please don’t move. Not yet.”
But she did. She hugged him. Pulling him as close as possible, Tessa pressed her lips against his breast, finding his nipple, feeling the rapid thundering of his heart.
And David was lost. Unable to control the emotions urging him onward, he withdrew a bit, then plunged his length into her welcoming depths.
Tessa felt a twinge of pain a moment before he began the rhythmic stroking. Then she forgot all about the pain, forgot about everything except David and the pleasure spiraling inside her. She arched against him, then locked her long legs around his waist.
“Hold me,” David demanded hoarsely in her ear. “Don’t let me go.”
Tessa obliged, holding him through the storm as he buried himself deep within her one last time. Tessa heard the wonder in his voice as he called her name and felt the pulse that shook his whole body. She answered his cry with a cry of her own only seconds before their world exploded in a shower of colors, like the fragments of a rainbow.
Tessa opened her eyes, hugging David tightly as he rolled to her side.
He held her close. “Oh, Tessa…” he whispered, kissing the sensitive skin beneath her ear. “My sweet, sweet, Tessa. I promise I’ll take care of you.”
“Don’t,” Tessa whispered back. “Don’t make promises.” She snuggled closer in his arms. “You might not be able to keep them.” She sighed deeply, then closed her eyes and slept.
Chapter Fifteen
David opened his eyes. Horace Greeley sat perched on his chest. Tessa lay cradled against his side, her body nestled against his, her head pillowed on his shoulder. Greeley flicked his tail in agitation, leaned forward, and sniffed Tessa’s hair.
Arching his back, the cat stretched and then ambled across David toward Tessa in an effort to reclaim his favorite spot in the bed.
Realizing Greeley’s purpose, David intercepted him. He picked the cat up and moved him away from Tessa. “Get your own girl. This one’s mine.”
David scratched the underside of Greeley’s chin. It was true: Tessa was his. He listened to the contented purr rumbling in Greeley’s chest, wishing he could do the same. But things had become more complicated. Tessa had given him her virginity, become his lover as well as his client, and now David wasn’t sure what to do.
God, what a mess! He’d been so convinced he wouldn’t be the first man in her bed. After a
ll, Arnie Mason was murdered in her bed. But Tessa had been a virgin. Until last night. David watched her sleeping. She was loving and beautiful and brave. He turned his head and pressed a kiss against her shining red hair. She was everything he could want in a woman. And he wanted her. God, how he wanted her. But he couldn’t have her. Not again. Not until she was free. It wasn’t fair to her, and it wasn’t fair to him. He was her defense attorney, but he wouldn’t be able to defend her properly if he couldn’t think about anything except making love to her.
David was struck by the tremendous responsibility. Their lovemaking had been a mistake. It should never have happened. David could have prevented it, but didn’t. Instead, he’d welcomed her with open arms, and she hadn’t disappointed him. He was a fool.
He was haunted by the idea of Lily Catherine in an orphanage somewhere back east. He couldn’t stand the thought of Tessa going to prison, Tessa possibly bearing a child, his child, in prison. He couldn’t take the risk. What had happened between them could not happen again.
But, David realized, he wouldn’t have changed last night for anything in the world. The loving was spectacular. Better than anything he’d ever experienced. There was no doubt about that. But he was confused. Had she come to him out of gratitude or had she given herself out of love? Would she have chosen him if she were free or had last night been the result of a moment of weakness? He wasn’t sure. He only knew that before they made love again, Tessa had to be able to choose. She had to be free. David didn’t want her to come to him out of gratitude. He didn’t want payment. He wanted love.
He carefully eased his body out from under her, then lifted Greeley off his chest and rolled to the side of the bed. He couldn’t make love to Tessa again while she remained in his custody, but he could try to make her life as pleasant as possible. He pulled on his pants and headed into his office.
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