by Sandra Brown
“Oh, God,” he rasped between clenched teeth. “Leigh, do you know what you’re doing?”
“Loving you.” Mercilessly she persisted until his breathing against her neck was ragged with desire.
“Darling, if you… you don’t stop… ah, Leigh… I won’t be able to.”
“I don’t want you to.” She adjusted her body to his, accommodating his instinctive initial thrust.
A long, shuddering sigh shook him as he delved into the silken realm. “You take me so completely. So tightly. So perfectly.”
He was right. It was perfect.
* * *
“No kitchen should be without one,” he said into her ear after pushing her hair out of the way with his nose. His arms came from behind her to brace against the countertop and pin her between.
“Without what?” she laughed, wringing out the sponge she had been using at the sink to wash their breakfast dishes.
“Without a sexy-as-all-get-out cook.” His mouth opened over the skin of her neck and teased it with his tongue.
“You smell good,” she said, laying her head against his shoulder and turning her face into his throat.
“I availed myself of your shower and razor before I got Sarah up.” Her ear was being analyzed in detail by his inquisitive mouth. “Luckily I had a change of clothes in the car.” He was wearing jeans and another plaid cowboy shirt. She could tell he had his boots on. They always made him an inch or so taller.
“Thanks for letting me sleep late.”
“Well, I thought it was the gentlemanly thing to do. I kept you up half the night.”
“You were up half the night, too,” she quipped naughtily, rubbing her hips against him.
He smacked her jeans-clad fanny. “You’ve got a saucy mouth, too.” Apparently his hand couldn’t think of a good reason to leave what it found so interesting. It stayed to caress the firm, round muscles of her bottom. “But I like your sense of humor. As a matter of fact,” he growled in her ear, “I like just about everything about you. This, for instance.” He squeezed her lightly. “And the way you feel against me.”
He stepped closer and fit his middle against her hips. “See what a match that is?” he asked seductively. Leigh sighed and leaned back against his chest. “We haven’t even got to the good parts yet.” His hands slid around her waist, up over her rib cage to fondle her breasts. Only the soft cotton of her T-shirt covered them. “Tell me when to stop,” he said as he massaged her.
“Never.”
“Never? Hmm… so you’ve decided to keep me around after all?”
Chapter Seven
She stood upright and swiveled around to face him in one swift motion. “I didn’t mean it that way, Chad.”
He folded his hands around her face and impaled her with his compelling eyes. “Then what did you mean?”
With effort, she tore her gaze from his. “I don’t know,” she sighed. “I do know we’re attracted to one another, Chad, and we’ve shared a precious moment together—the birth of Sarah. But that’s not enough.”
The corners of his mouth shifted into a frown. “I explained why I didn’t tell you about my job, Leigh.”
“Oh, I know, Chad.” She buried her face in the warmth of his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Give me time. Please. I still can’t reconcile your career with my own future. When Greg died, I swore I’d never get involved with a man whose work was dangerous. Don’t you see? I can’t risk losing the man I love a second time—I just can’t.”
He gripped her shoulders hard. “You wouldn’t be risking that. I swear it. It’s ridiculous to cling to a resolution you made long before we met. We belong together, Leigh. I’ll do everything in my power to convince you that you should marry me. I won’t pressure you, but you’ll say yes, sooner or later. I won’t give up until you do.”
He started his campaign with a kiss so earnest that Leigh almost capitulated immediately. But she broke away from him before the persuasion of his mouth became too hard to resist.
Leigh turned her back to him and braced her hands on the countertop. She struggled against the weakness stealing over her, struggled against succumbing to his appeal.
“Don’t you have to go to work today?” she asked, hoping to divert him.
“I called in this morning. As long as they know” At her wince, he paused, then went on calmly. “As long as they know where to reach me, I have a few days to myself. Do you have to work today?”
“I want to stop by the mall to see that the poinsettias have been watered and that no one has tampered with any of the decorations.”
“No fallen reindeer,” he teased, and she laughed. “Okay, you finish up here. I’ll bathe and dress Sarah.”
“But, Chad”
He stopped her objection with a firm kiss. “I’ve never been around a child Sarah’s age. I have everything to learn.”
He did amazingly well, actually. Leigh had changed into a skirt and blouse, applied her makeup, and done her hair by the time Chad had the baby dressed. She passed Sarah’s room on her way to the kitchen to finish loading the diaper bag with prepared bottles and jars of baby food, the heating dish, and Sarah’s baby spoon.
“How’s it coming?” she asked.
“We’re almost there. Meet you in the living room.” The only help he had asked for was in selecting what Sarah would wear.
* * *
For all the world, they appeared like a family on a shopping outing, and Chad did nothing to alter that image. He insisted on carrying Sarah as they toured the mall, keeping a possessive arm around Leigh as well, except when she was actually checking the decorations. As always when they were out in public, people spoke to Chad with familiarity. Proudly he introduced Leigh and Sarah to everyone.
After leaving the mall, they stopped at a fast-food place and got an order of fried chicken to go, then Chad headed the Ferrari out to Saddle Club Estates. “I want you to see my house,” he told Leigh. “We can have our lunch there.”
Chad’s house had been one of Leigh’s favorites even before she knew it belonged to him. A combination of traditional and contemporary, it was built of stone and cedar. The yard was beautifully landscaped, with several as yet immature pecan trees giving the promise of shade in years to come.
He pressed a button on a transmitter lying on the console of his car, and a gate on the driveway swung open. He drove through and parked the Ferrari outside a garage door. “We’re home,” he said cheerfully, juggling the bucket of fried chicken in one hand while holding the car door for Leigh and Sarah with the other.
Unlocking a door leading off the brick patio, he ushered them inside, then quickly stepped around them to disengage the alarm system that had beeped its warning as soon as they stepped through the door. He pushed the correct series of numbers on the panel and it clicked off. “Remind me to give you a key and the combination of the burglar alarm so you’ll never have any trouble getting in.”
Leigh nodded dazedly. She felt like a bumpkin in the city for the first time. The house looked like something out of Architectural Digest. The unmistakable flair of a professional decorator was on everything, yet the impressive decor didn’t have the sterility that touch often carried with it. The highly polished brick floors were scattered with antique Oriental rugs, more valuable because of their age and faded condition. Original works of art were grouped tastefully with prints and posters. Objects that Chad must have picked up in his travels around the world were evident on tables and étagères. His personality was stamped on everything.
“Chad,” Leigh whispered as though she were in a museum. “It’s beautiful.”
“But do you like it?”
She turned and saw that he was looking at her with painful anxiety, so afraid that she might not approve. “Yes, Chad,” she said on a slight laugh. “I just can’t take it all in.”
“Come see the rest of it.”
That was considerably more than she had bargained for. The house had four bedrooms with a sit
ting room adjoining the master bedroom, four bathrooms, not counting the one in the master suite, a formal dining room, a breakfast room, a game room with a wet bar, the giant living area, an office, a laundry room, and a country kitchen. There were fireplaces in the master bedroom, the sitting room, the living room, and the informal dining room adjacent to the kitchen.
Outside there was a jewel of a swimming pool with an attached spa, a changing cabana, and another complete wet bar that was weather-secured.
“One person lives in all of this?” Leigh said distractedly as she stood in the living room with the vaulted ceiling.
“Ridiculous, isn’t it?” Chad said ruefully. “I bought the house a couple of years ago from a friend of my dad’s, an oil man. He was building another one, bigger and better.”
“Bigger and better than this?” Leigh asked incredulously.
Chad laughed. “I bought it more as an investment than anything else. The owner wasn’t looking to make a profit and just wanted to unload it. It’s appreciated in value considerably since then due to the boom in Midland. But it’s lonely as hell to come home to, Leigh. No one’s ever lived here with me. I bought it after Sharon… died.”
He put his arms around her, mindless of Sarah between them. It seemed only right to include the baby in their embrace. Chad kissed Leigh warmly. “Who knows,” he said against her mouth, “we might end up filling those other bedrooms with little Dillons.” His hand was at her breast, caressing with a touch she had come to know, but that never failed to thrill her with its newness.
“And I suppose now that since you’ve had practice, you’d like to deliver all of them,” she teased.
“I’d rather make them.”
Leigh pushed away suddenly and covered her mouth with her hand. “Chad, I just thought about… last night. I didn’t… and you didn’t…”
He laughed. “Nothing would tickle me more than for you to get pregnant. Then you’d have to marry me right away.”
“Chad! I haven’t even said I’d marry you, much less—”
“Shhh. I was only kidding.”
Sarah was becoming bored with the conversation. Her small head was bumping against her mother’s shoulder and the tiny fists were beginning to wave in a warning signal that her patience was just about to give out.
“I think we’d better feed the one we’ve got,” Chad said. “I’m hungry, too, Sarah. Come on.”
He relieved Leigh of the infant and carried her to the kitchen. But he soon had to give Sarah back. Leigh was more accustomed to holding the baby in one hand while preparing her food with the other. Chad set the table with stoneware, but used the paper napkins that had come with the chicken.
“Who keeps this house clean for you?”
“I have a lady who comes in once a week. She does laundry and cleaning.”
Leigh cast him a shrewd, suspicious look. “What kind of ‘lady’?”
“Jealous already?”
“What kind of lady?” she repeated.
“Twenty-two or so, glossy black hair to her waist, long slender legs, terrific figure, but her teeth are slightly bucked. You know the type.” He shrugged indifferently.
“I hope you’re teasing again.”
“If she’s going to bother you that much, I’ll fire her.”
“Chad Dillon”
He caught her to him and kissed her soundly. “Sit down, woman. Mrs. De Leon has six children, all grown now with several children of their own. I know because if I’m here I have to listen to more than I want to know about each grandchild. She’s about sixty years old, not quite five feet tall, and has greatly appreciated food all her life. Now, may I eat my lunch?”
Leigh poked a mouthful of strained beef into Sarah’s waiting mouth. She pursed her lips primly, trying to suppress a smile, but felt it tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“I love kissing the backs of your knees,” Chad said, biting into a crunchy piece of chicken.
That did it. She started laughing. “You’re terrible. First you get me going about your housekeeper, then you say something totally inappropriate for the lunch table.”
“Can I help it if you have great-tasting skin? All over.”
Remembering the intimacies they had shared the night before, Leigh felt her body grow hot with renewed desire, but she was determined to eat her lunch. “Did you get some gravy for these mashed potatoes?”
He chuckled. “Changing the subject? You can try, but I promise you I have a one-track mind these days.” One look into the cerulean eyes that gazed at her and Leigh knew just what he was thinking about. She hoped he didn’t realize that her own thoughts kept returning to the same groove.
When Sarah was done with her bottle and had gnawed all the flavor off of a stripped drumstick bone, Chad suggested they lay her on the loveseat in the master bedroom for her nap. “We can turn it around to face the wall and it’ll be like a crib.”
At Leigh’s insistence, they lined the damask with plastic garbage bags before tucking a sheet around the cushions. “I’d die if she wet—or something worse—on this loveseat,” Leigh said.
“She’d never do anything that unladylike,” Chad said in Sarah’s defense. He received a baleful look from her mother.
“Let’s take a nap, too,” Chad whispered when they stepped away from the sleeping Sarah. Not waiting for her consent or disagreement, he took her hand and led her across the carpet to the wide, king-sized bed.
The whole room was decorated in shades of beige, dark green, and russet. The effect was masculine, but beautiful. Chad went to a closet and dragged two quilts off the top shelf. “My maternal grandmother made these,” he said, spreading one over the suede bedspread. Going to the closet again, he took out two feather pillows with freshly laundered initialed cases. He plopped them onto the bed, then sat down on its edge and began pulling off his boots. Next the wide western belt with its brass buckle was dragged through the loops of his jeans. He lay down on the bed and reached out for Leigh’s hand. She knew a vague disappointment that he was in truth talking about a “nap.”
She kicked off her shoes and lay down beside him. He pulled the other quilt over them. “Comfy?” he asked drowsily in her ear. He snuggled against her, throwing one arm across her stomach, and buried his nose in her neck.
“Mm-hmm,” she sighed, not realizing until then how sleepy she herself was.
“Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.” He pinched her bottom lightly, then cuddled tightly against her once more.
She was smiling as she drifted into a dreamless sleep.
* * *
She lifted the heavy arm away from her and moved slowly so as not to awaken Chad. He was sleeping soundly. Leigh slid to the edge of the bed, yawned broadly, and then stood up. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that she hadn’t disturbed him. The brass clock on the bedside table indicated that they had been asleep for over an hour.
The lush carpet absorbed her footfalls as she crossed the room and peered over the back of the loveseat to check on Sarah. She was still huddled in her crouch and sleeping peacefully. A bead of saliva rolled down her chin. Leigh smiled tenderly, her heart constricting with love.
She went back to the bed. Chad’s slow, even breathing told her he was still deep in slumber. His face was relaxed, the lines around his eyes less evident. His hair was boyishly mussed. He was a model of masculine beauty.
Leigh felt a mischievous demon prod her as she gazed at Chad’s tranquil face. She eyed her pillow speculatively. The temptation was too strong to resist. Picking it up, she raised it high. It was on its rapid descent to his head when his arm shot up and caught it in midair.
Leigh stifled a startled scream and scampered away from the bed. In one athletic lunge Chad was off the bed and after her. He tackled her in the middle of the room, toppling them both to the carpet.
“Thought you had me unawares, didn’t you?” he asked, rolling her onto her back beneath him.
“I’m sorry, Chad, I’m sorry. Oh, no, p
lease,” she pleaded as he started tickling her. “Chad, no.”
“Apologies will get you nowhere.” His hands were everywhere. She batted at them until her own hands were pinned on either side of her head by iron fists. They laughed together, breathing heavily from overexertion. Her breasts rose and fell with each gasping breath. The laughter gradually quieted as they were made aware of each other, of the sexuality that each of them exuded, of the heat of their bodies, of the desire that surged between them.
They became still save for the deep breathing. Their eyes locked, then dropped at the same time to each other’s mouth. They stared. Chad’s tongue came out to wet his lips. Leigh wet hers, and their eyes came together again. His hands released her wrists to hold her head, sifting through the coppery strands that glinted against the dark carpet. Her hands lifted to close around his head, to touch with loving fingers the hair that lay against his shirt collar. He moved, transmitting a message to her with his body. The message was received and acknowledged with an answering movement.
Wordlessly he collapsed atop her and fastened onto her mouth rapaciously. Her tongue met his in an erotic skirmish as her arms folded across his shoulders. Holding her tightly, his mouth still on hers, he rolled them over and over on the floor, their legs entangled.
Coming to rest with Leigh lying over him, he frantically sought the buttons of her blouse. They fell free one by one in spite of his clumsy fumblings between passion-laden kisses.
When all were undone, he lifted his head to caress with his lips the swell of her breasts above her bra, dragging his tongue across the creamy expanse, stopping at intervals to brand her tender flesh with a fiery kiss. Her fingers twined in his hair and pulled him against her.
When he had tantalized her past endurance, he unclasped her bra and moved it aside. He watched her face as his hands caressed her gently, kneading her breasts as they lay full and feminine in his hands.
