by Karen Anders
Tally still couldn’t believe that she didn’t know anything about Mark’s life outside of the family get-togethers. She made a mental note to rectify that as soon as they found him.
She took a drink of her club soda as she watched the two men talk. Then she saw the man Christien was talking to shake his head and something snapped in Tally.
She rose from the table so quickly, she almost tipped it over. Approaching the men, she could see that the lead singer’s jaw was thrust out, his eyes spoiling for a fight.
“What’s going on?” Tally asked, interjecting herself between the two men.
“He refuses to answer my questions.”
Tally turned to the lead singer. “Look. What is the problem? I need to speak to my brother. I’m worried sick about him. If you know where he is, why won’t you tell me?”
“Whoa,” Christien said, taking Tally’s arm and trying to pull her back.
The lead singer threw a sidelong glance to the drummer who shrugged his shoulders.
“Mark told me he was leaving town for something really important. He didn’t tell me where he was going or when he’d be back. He said he wanted to surprise you and your sister.”
“I can’t wait. I must speak to my brother. It’s urgent.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know where he is.”
“If you do speak to him, could you please let him know I need to talk to him?”
“I will.”
Tally turned, knowing that they’d hit another dead end. She put her hand on Christien’s chest. “Let’s go.”
They left the bar and walked to where Christien had parked his Jeep.
“Where to now?”
“Home, please. I’m exhausted.”
“I just need to make a quick stop first if that’s okay with you?”
“Sure, Christien.”
Tally slumped in the seat as Christien drove, trying to work out in her head how she was going to get enough money together at this late date to buy the Blue Note, but she came up empty-handed. The Blue Note was the culmination of everything she’d planned for and now that was slipping through her fingers. Her heart squeezed hard in her chest and she blinked rapidly trying to push back the tears clogging her throat.
“Hey, we’re not beat yet. I’ll figure something out.”
Tally closed her eyes tight against the pressure to cry, the tenderness in Christien’s eyes hitting her harder than the thought of losing the Blue Note. His sweetness only made the tears press harder to the back of her eyes.
“Thank you,” she managed to say.
Christien pulled up in front of a restaurant. “I just have to go inside for a few minutes. I’ll be right back.”
She watched his lean form disappear and thought stupidly that her world was falling apart and Christien was getting takeout?
The bizarre twists that her life had taken lately weighed her down. Captain Dampier’s ghost, the grandmother ghost who Tally was sure wasn’t done with her yet, Kachina’s serious advice about her mother, and the loss of all her plans.
But when Christien came back out, a white paper bag in his hand, Tally couldn’t help the leap her heart made. His face illuminated for a moment in the lamplight made her admire what a dangerously attractive man he was.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He turned to her with a wicked gleam in his eye. “Got something to cheer you up.”
“What is it?” she asked, reaching for the bag.
“Oh, no, you’ll have to wait to find out.”
She sat up straighter and tried to grab at the bag. Christien whisked it out of her way, grabbing her around the waist and setting her back in her seat.
He was like a little boy with a secret and her mood changed and lifted at the seductive grin he gave her.
His hands lingered at her waist and drifted up her sides. His mouth hovered over hers, but didn’t descend, just tantalized. Her lips tingled in anticipation, but he kissed the corner of her mouth, pressing his jaw along hers.
He gathered her against him and just held her.
It felt too good.
Tremors radiated through her. She felt thoroughly possessed by him, body and soul, in a way that defied their impersonal bargain and the simplicity of an affair. In a way that aroused feelings that had no business being a part of this short-term relationship.
At the moment, she couldn’t seem to care that she had to keep her distance. Wanting and needing were all that crossed her mind.
When he pulled away, she was glad to see the passion in his eyes, but something else warred in his hot brown depths. Before she could analyze that last emotion, before she could dwell on what she had seen, he pushed away from her and started the engine.
Tally settled into the seat. Only three days after she’d hired Christien, she was already losing her resolve to remain detached.
She remembered how she didn’t want to get in too deep.
Too late.
10
AS SOON AS TALLY CLOSED the door of her town house, Christien slipped his arms around her. His mouth, hot and open, caressed her lips and she lost herself in the sensual haze. He slipped his hand under her T-shirt, cupping her breast, another gripping her bottom through her pants.
Her curiosity got the better of her; gasping for breath, she placed a hand on his chest to hold him at bay. “What do you have in the bag?”
“You’ll see.”
Her gaze remained on his face; his stare sank deep into her heart. From the first, he’d possessed the power to see too much.
He went into her kitchen and grabbed a bowl out of the cupboard.
Looking up at her earnestly, he said, “Do you have candles upstairs in your room?”
“Yes, but—”
“No questions. Go on up and I’ll be there in a minute.”
“You can be very high-handed, Mr. Castille,” she said, turning away.
“Yes, I can.”
Up in her room, she lit the candles, three on the dresser and three each in her windows. Making her way over to the night table, she lit the two sitting there. When she turned to go around the bed to light the other two, she shrieked and jumped back. Captain Dampier stood right next to her.
Christien called from downstairs. “Are you all right?”
“Got too close to a candle,” she called out and quickly closed the bedroom door. “Did you forget our ground rules?”
“I wanted to give you a warning. The crone is very angry. I really don’t know that she can harm you, but I wanted to let you know.”
“Thank you. Now get out of here.”
He hesitated, looking more ghostly in the candles’ glow. The hair on the back of her neck rose, the reality hitting her again. She was talking to a ghost.
“Did you find your brother? The map?”
“No. Are you sure you can’t remember where it is?”
“I cannot recall. I am sorry,” he said as he started to fade away.
There was something about his eyes that made her think he was lying, but why would he lie? There wasn’t anything he could gain from it.
He disappeared just as Christien opened the bedroom door carrying a flaming bowl on a tray. The interior of the bedroom took on a warm glow.
“What is that?”
“Cherries Jubilee.”
“That’s one of my favorite desserts. How did you know?”
“It was an educated guess.”
He set the tray on a nightstand and grabbed Tally’s hands. “Come on.”
She let him pull her toward the bed and Tally had an insight into Christien’s behavior. He was offering her comfort. The comfort of food and sex. His comfort. She sat close against him and finally, for the first time, let herself lean on someone else.
He stroked her hair away from her face. “I won’t let you down, Tally.”
“Thank you,” she said, his hand soothing against her skin. But she couldn’t quite let go of her wariness. The most important person in her life ha
d let her down so many times and most of her relationships since had been very unfulfilling.
Until Christien.
Turning her face away from the dessert’s eerie blue glow, she faced Christien, his deep brown eyes welcoming, compassionate and sincere. Fear warred with the need to confide in him. She’d labeled him a heartbreaker before she ever knew what kind of man he was, but now that word took on a whole new meaning. He was so much more, yet the danger to her heart was very, very real.
She was afraid that she hadn’t really grasped the true meaning of love. But love was fleeting. Everything in her life taught her that. The only constant was money, the ambition her key.
“I’m going to buy the Blue Note. It’s the only thing that means anything to me.”
He cupped her cheeks and feathered his thumbs along the hollows. His eyes taunted her with an awareness of exactly what she was trying to do. He wouldn’t have any of the distance she hoped her words would evoke. That was all that was left of her defenses.
Christien breached them with a soft smile and even softer eyes. “I believe you could rule the world, Tally, if you put your mind to it.”
She closed her eyes for a second as his mouth replaced his thumb, his lips soft against her skin.
The alcohol on the dessert was burning low, indicating it was almost ready to eat. Christien pulled her top over her head, his mouth going to the ridge of her collarbone. Her nipples puckered, his fingers working the clasp of her bra until it came undone and her breasts were freed.
Gently, he cupped her breast and sucked her nipple, pulling hard with his hot wet mouth.
Swallowing a whimper, she closed her eyes and gripped his shoulders. His tongue licked and swirled, and his teeth nipped, sending waves of heat rolling through her. Long, questing fingers grazed her belly.
He removed his mouth and Tally felt a warm sticky substance against her other breast. She looked down to find that Christien had smeared melting cherries over her nipple.
“Time for dessert,” he said softly before his mouth covered the spot. He sucked and licked every bit of the concoction from her flesh.
She gasped as his parted lips worked the aching tip, bringing a rush of moisture spiraling to her core.
Christien backed off and stood, quickly ridding himself of all his clothes. His cock was hard and fully aroused. Completely, unabashedly nude and all hot and aroused for her, he stole her breath away.
Back on the bed, he reached for the button of her jeans and released it. Curling his fingers into the waistband, he pulled both denim and lace down her legs and off. Before she could move, he slipped his arms around her calves and dragged her toward his waiting mouth.
His finger dipped into the bowl of dessert and he drew a line all the way to the top of her sex.
His hot mouth went to her belly, sticky with the warm cherries. Each stroke was like sweet torture as he lapped at her, cleaning her with each swipe.
Once more his finger delved into the bowl, scooping out morsels of the dessert. Depositing the mixture onto her clit, his thumb stroked against the hood of her sex.
She gasped, her voice filled with excitement. “What are you doing?”
He looked at her with dark, daring eyes. “Seeing if I like all my cherries hot.”
He dipped his head, his upper arms flexing as he leaned forward bracing his palms on her inner thighs to push them farther apart. With his thumbs, he gently pressed her open, revealing the heart of her pleasure to his hungry eyes.
He groaned soft and low, causing Tally’s hips to lift from the bed in anticipation of that clever mouth and tongue around her sex.
She didn’t have long to wait as his mouth covered her, his tongue tasting her with a long, slow lick. She caught her breath at the exquisite sensation, hovering between ecstasy and surrender.
His rough cheeks abraded her inner thighs adding to the tingling heat pulsing inside her clit. When his tongue dove inside her, Tally cried out, the trapped air in her lungs released in a whoosh of sound.
His mouth closed again over her pulsing clit, and his tongue circled it with twirling pivots, accelerating her heart rate until it was pounding like a bass drum. He took her fervently, hotly, voraciously, sending her over the finely honed edge of orgasm.
At that moment, she met his stare and she watched him take in every nuance of her pleasure. The look in his eyes was open and honest and, for the first time in her life she felt a connection, deep, abiding and strong. No promise was spoken between them and Tally was grateful for that because she wasn’t sure if she could make any guarantees. The intensity was too much, as if she’d opened a box expecting to find nothing and instead found everything.
He slid up her body and pressed his palms against hers, lacing his fingers with hers. She tightened her grip, savoring the warmth in his touch. Suddenly, a calming sense of rightness settled over her. She knew that what he offered her, what she wanted from him, went deeper than just physical. Emotions were involved. How deep those emotions went, she didn’t know. All she knew was what she needed.
Wanted.
More.
But she felt the resistance the moment she thought those words. A resistance that was like a big wall rising up and up.
Christien was everything she wanted.
But all that she feared.
He gave her no time to dwell on the images as he said, “Spread your legs for me.”
As she parted her thighs to make room for him, he grabbed one of the condoms, tore open the package with his teeth and rolled the latex down his shaft. Sheer primal lust shimmered off him in his quick, efficient movements. She witnessed his hunger as he swept a heated look up the length of her.
A muscle in his cheek clenched in barely controlled restraint and his nostrils flared.
“Wrap your legs around me, Tally.”
There was a warning in his tone broadcasting that his control wasn’t going to last long.
Staring into her eyes, he pushed into her an inch, teasing them both with his hot shaft. “When I get inside…” he said, “I’m going to lose it.” His voice was a rough growl.
“I want you, Christien, just you.”
He slipped into her, strong and deep, and Tally accepted him all the way to the hilt, crying out in pleasure and realization.
His eyes flared wide in response, giving her a brief glimpse of passion, heat and something else warring in their hot brown depths. Before she could analyze that last emotion, before she could dwell on being consumed by him, he began to move, his body grinding against hers as he increased his pace.
A low, throaty moan escaped him, and he seared his mouth to hers, kissing her with a fierce passion that caught her off guard. His tongue swept into her mouth, matching the pistoning stroke of his hips and the slick penetrating slide of his flesh into hers.
Tremors radiated through her from the sensitive spot where they were joined so intimately. She felt thoroughly possessed by him, body and soul.
Pushing all thought aside, she concentrated on the pleasure he gave her, and how alive he made her body feel. Running her hands down the slope of his spine, she curved her fingers over his taut buttocks to pull him closer and abandoned herself to yet another orgasm.
This time, he was right there with her when she reached the peak of her climax. Groaning, he broke their kiss and tossed his head back, his hips driving hard, his body straining against hers.
“Tally.” Her name spat out between his clenched teeth as his body convulsed with the force of his release.
When the shudders subsided, Christien lowered himself on top of her and buried his face against her throat. His ragged breathing was hot and moist against her skin, his heart racing as fast as her own.
A smile drifted across her lips as she trailed her fingers back up his spine, all the way to the damp, silky tendrils of hair at the nape of his neck, savoring the feel of him inside her, draped over her. She’d never felt so utterly satisfied, so sexually and physically content.
&nbs
p; Though these feelings only stirred her deep-seated fear that she was clutching on to him for different reasons.
He turned onto his back, bringing her against his body and it wasn’t long before his quiet, even breathing told her he was asleep.
CHRISTIEN WOKE HER in the night, his hard-muscled skin rasping against her cheeks. His mouth captured her nipple, his fingers already on her sex, rubbing at her clit until she was moaning in the darkness.
He spoke in rapid French, almost too fast for her to understand—concentrating on his words at that moment was beyond her. His wicked hands were stealing away her reason until she mindlessly moved against his fingers, the aching core of her tingling and pulsing with a desire only he could fulfill. She climaxed hard, her back arching with the intense pleasure of it.
Then he was inside her, her waning orgasm still throbbing with each thrust of his hard cock until he cried out and collapsed against her, rolling until they were entwined once again.
But this time Tally couldn’t fall back to sleep. Cautious and quiet, she disengaged her legs from Christien’s and slipped out of bed. It was barely five o’clock. More than anything, she wanted to stay in his arms. Wanted to make love with him again. She couldn’t, she reminded herself.
Now that they were at an impasse in finding her brother, Tally was more restless than ever.
Still, she couldn’t bring herself to leave him, not yet. She padded across the floor toward the bed. Christien lay on his side, one arm stretched out. Waning light coming through the window splayed across his square jaw and high cheekbone; his hair was rumpled from the fingers she’d tunneled through it.
Reaching out, she stroked a fingertip across the inky thickness while emotion tightened her throat. The hold he had on her heart was alternately comforting and terrifying, and she wondered where they would go from here.
She closed her eyes against the tightness that settled around her heart. She couldn’t just stand there wondering about what the future held, not when the present pressed down on her with such urgency. She had made a pledge to herself to secure Gabriel’s treasure and forge ahead with her plans. Later, she would examine her feelings for Christien. All she knew for sure was that they had created a powerful bond between them. A bond far different and more compelling than she’d felt with any other man.
