Donnay couldn’t help the wry smile that touched her lips. “Oh, he’ll handle it quite nicely since your plans fall so neatly in with his. He’s been after me for some time about finding a man, settling down and giving him great-grandkids. So in essence, you’ll be giving him something he truly wants.”
“And it’s something I truly want, as well,” he said, smiling over at her. “And I’m more than happy to oblige.”
They began walking again and she was glad moments later when they came to the private path that led to the guest villa where he would be staying. As soon as she got him there she planned to hightail it to the nearest shower to cool off. The man had a way of heating her body with a touch or a mere look. Resisting him was becoming a challenge.
“This path leads to the villa, the one you’ll be using,” she said, turning to walk a few steps ahead of him down the trail. “It’s surrounded by a wrought-iron fence and is secluded enough to assure complete privacy. It’s like your own little world inside a bigger universe.”
He smiled. “It reminds me of a French château and I like it already,” he said when he reached the gate and he saw the huge two-story structure. From his expression she could tell it was more than he had expected. “Who was this place built for?” he asked when she opened the gate for them to enter.
“No one in particular. The other villas are relatively small compared to this one and Gramps wanted to construct one that was larger and roomier. Like I said earlier, I think it was meant for me, although he would never admit he would do anything to persuade me to stay if I ever decided to leave. He felt pretty bad about what happened between my mother and father.”
Spencer lifted a brow. “What happened between your parents?”
Donnay glanced over at him as they strolled up the walkway toward the front door. “They met when my father took a summer job here. He was in the army and was working at the winery while waiting to be deployed. He met and fell in love with my mother and she fell in love with him, too. He tried convincing her to marry him and travel the world with him since he planned on making the military a career. Although she loved him, she turned down his marriage proposal and sent him away because she didn’t want to leave my grandparents alone. She felt her place was here with them at the vineyard. It was only after he left that she discovered she was pregnant with me.”
Spencer paused, his hand on the doorknob. “So he never knew about you?”
“No. She tried writing him but the letter came back. Evidently he moved around a lot in the military.”
“And you never tried finding him?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s not that I never wanted to know Chad Timberlain—it’s just that I knew developing a relationship with him would be a constant reminder to my mother of the love she gave away. That would be painful for her, especially if he had eventually married someone else over the years. My grandfather has always felt he and Grammy were unintentionally responsible for Mom turning her back on her true love, although they tried convincing her they would be fine here and that she should follow her heart.”
When he opened the door she took a step back. “You don’t really need me to give you a tour of the place so I’ll leave you alone now.”
He leaned in the open doorway, his stance nearly overpowering. “What time do you want to leave for the hospital?”
“Anytime after five will be okay. Grammy is spending the night with Gramps tonight. We prefer that she didn’t because she’ll be sleeping on a cot they bring into the hospital room, which won’t be all that comfortable. However, no matter what Mom and I say she’s determined to do so. After fifty years of marriage, I think she misses him.”
He nodded. “I understand. Although my parents haven’t been married quite that long, they have a strong marriage, as well.”
“Do they?”
“Yes. Like I told you, strong and long-lasting marriages run in the Westmoreland family.”
Yes, he had told her that. “Well, I’ll see you later,” she said backing up to leave. If you’d like, you’re welcome at lunch. Grammy usually has it on the table around one. If you want to get back to the main house just follow the path and you won’t get lost.”
“All right, and thanks for the invitation. I might take you up on it.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, forcing a cheerful smile before turning and quickly walking away.
* * *
“I appreciate you offering to help,” Spencer said, ignoring Chardonnay’s raised brow as he opened the door to the villa later that night. He knew she was thinking she hadn’t offered. He really hadn’t given her a choice in the matter.
She hesitated before stepping over the threshold and he strolled in behind her, closing and locking the door. He watched her glance around for a few minutes, and then she turned to him with a bemused expression. “I expected to see boxes all over the place.”
He smiled in a perfectly calm way. “Did you?”
“Yes. You said you needed my help putting things away.”
“I do. But everything didn’t arrive today, so I have time.”
The suspicion he saw in her eyes then became more pronounced. “In that case why am I here?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips “Why did you lead me to believe that you needed me tonight?”
She would have to ask, he thought as he leaned against the closed door and stared at her. And since she had, he would be completely honest when he gave her an answer. “Because I do need you tonight.”
* * *
Donnay inhaled sharply. The tone of his voice, the intent of his words both were a soft caress across her skin. Their gazes held and she felt it, unquestionably. His eyes were so dark she actually felt their intensity, could see the desire lining their depths. An instant passed, and then another and she felt herself getting breathless beneath the depth of their attraction for each other. Regardless of wanting to deny it, she couldn’t.
She opened her lips to say whatever he needed tonight was his problem and not hers, but closed them when shivers raced up her spine. He was doing that to her and hadn’t even touched her, hadn’t even moved away from the door. His concentrated stare was making crazy things happen to her.
Sensations began gripping her and she felt the tips of her breasts grow hard as she remembered his mouth, tongue and teeth on them. She also remembered the place his fingers had been and felt a sudden ferocious ache right between her legs. She shook her head, trying to clear her mind of such memories and found it was no use. She then concluded that what she had deemed as his problem was now her problem, as well.
She watched as he came toward her and she had the mind to take a step back and couldn’t. Every fiber in her being was attuned to him, attracted to him, aroused by him. She couldn’t resist him any longer. Nor did she want to.
“I want you and I need you, Chardonnay,” he whispered huskily when he came to a stop in front of her.
She tilted her head back and looked at him, felt the heat coming from his gaze. And when he reached out and slipped his hands around her waist, bringing her body against the solid hardness of him, she inhaled when she felt his rock-hard erection press against the juncture of her thighs. Even the denim of her skirt couldn’t downplay just how firm he was.
For moments he held her close against him, as if he needed the contact as much as she did. It then became crystal clear that her life and her future were going to be tied to him. He said he wanted a long-term marriage and a bunch of kids and she believed him; so why not accept how things were destined to be for her and move on? Why continue to fight what she couldn’t change? Her grandfather was happy about their pending marriage, so was her grandmother. However, she could tell her mother was more worried than elated.
“Chardonnay?”
She tilted up her head to stare into his face. “Yes?” He was a strikingly handsome man. The thoug
ht of having a son or daughter who shared his features pulled on her heartstrings.
“I’ve told you what I want and need. Now it’s your turn. Tell me what I can do for you tonight. If you say there’s nothing you want or need from me then I will accept that and walk you back home. But if you have desires, I will not let you leave here unsatisfied.”
Donnay swallowed because that’s what she was afraid of. Spencer had unraveled her emotions in a way that Robert never had. What she should do was tell him good night and leave. Instead she found herself asking in a soft, curious voice, after remembering her intimate times with Robert, “What makes you think you can?”
He raised a dark brow. “Can what?”
“Satisfy me.”
She watched as a slow, confident smile touched both corners of his lips. “Why would you think I can’t?”
Since they would be getting married soon and he was determined that they would share a bed, she decided to be honest with him. She might be one of those women a man couldn’t completely satisfy. “Robert didn’t.”
His brow arched higher. “The professor?”
“Yes, the one and only guy I’ve slept with.”
“I can’t imagine any man making love to you and not making you feel like an explosion hit and that every part of you has been shot to the stars and beyond.”
Donnay couldn’t imagine anyone making her feel that way. “And how will you accomplish that?”
The look in his eyes indicated that he couldn’t believe she really had to ask. But he answered anyway. “First, I’ll undress you, kissing every part of you that I expose, lingering on some areas a lot longer than others. Next I’ll take you into the bedroom and engage in foreplay of the most intense kind. So intense that I’ll have you begging.”
She shook her head. He’d made that claim before and she recalled how close she’d come to doing just that the night when he’d invited her to his place at the Chablis. “Is that what you think, that you’ll make me beg?”
“No, sweetheart, that’s what I know. In addition to long marriages, there’s something else Westmorelands are known for.”
She was almost afraid to ask but did so anyway. “And what’s that?”
“Satisfying their mates. We are extremely physical beings who enjoy making love. Our sexual needs are sometimes inexhaustible.”
Donnay felt a frantic tug between her thighs. “Thanks for the warning.”
“It’s the decent thing to do since I plan to keep you in bed with me quite a lot after we get married.”
She wondered if he was joking, although the look in his eyes said otherwise. “Do I have a choice in the matter?”
His smile was amusing. “I guess you could always claim a headache, but I doubt that you would want to.”
For some reason she doubted it as well, although she would never admit it to him. He was too sure of himself already.
“You know what?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts.
She heard the serious tone in his voice. “What?”
“I’m tired of talking.”
A lump formed in Donnay’s throat. She’d figured that sooner or later he would be.
“And if you plan on leaving, now is the time to do so because I told you what happens if you stay,” he added.
She didn’t move. She didn’t say anything. She just stood there and stared at him. The more she stared, the more his gaze was touching her all over, making her feel hot and bothered, pushing her over the edge of her control.
And then he tipped the scales when he said in a voice too sexy for words, “Chardonnay Russell, soon to become Chardonnay Westmoreland, welcome to my world of forbidden passion.”
He extended his hand out to her while locking his gaze on hers. She thought of everything he said he would do to her if she stayed and knew once she gave her hand to him, she would become his. For some reason that thought didn’t bother her as it once had.
Inhaling deeply she placed her hand in his and watched his eyes darken even more before taking her hand and lifting it to his lips to kiss her fingers. And then he was slowly pulling her into his arms and taking her mouth with an intensity that would have brought her to her knees had his hands not wrapped around her waist.
His strength became the overt force that sustained her, the given power that was unconcealed and unrestrained. A shiver raced through her entire being when his tongue mated with hers in a way different from before. This was one of care, custody and control. He was placing ownership all over her mouth, claiming every breath she took and making the moans erupting forth from her throat totally his. The effect was enthralling, sensuously spellbinding and shockingly blazing.
Then she felt his hand working at the zipper at her waist, and moments later when he stepped back slightly without breaking the kiss, she felt her skirt slide down her hips to pool at her ankles. She was left in her blouse, a half-slip and a thong. And as she very well knew, this man had amazing fingers and definitely knew how to use them. He could strip a woman naked before she realized he was doing so. She then felt him slide his hand beneath the waistband of her slip to palm her almost bare bottom.
The moment he touched her, she moaned into his mouth and instinctively her body melded to his, felt his hardness, his erection, and the center of his arousal. He was taking more than she had been prepared to give, was priming her for what was yet to come and fanning a need within her to flashpoint. So she did the only thing she could. She let go.
Then suddenly he pulled back and swept her into his arms. Taking the stairs two at a time he entered the bedroom and placed her on the king-size bed. Her heart began beating faster, almost out of control, when he quickly worked at the buttons of his shirt.
Watching him, studying his eyes, she detected a hunger he was holding in check for now. Her mind began twirling with questions as to what could or would happen if he were to ever let go. She didn’t want to think how he would overwhelm her if that were to happen.
He removed his shirt and tossed it on the other side of the room and her breath caught. His chest was so beautifully carved that she felt a moment of intense pride. This was the naked chest that would touch her own each time they made love, skin to skin; the chest she would rub her face in whenever she wanted to inhale the essence of his scent. And his shoulders, broad and firm, were the ones she would cling to when that explosion happened. And for a reason she didn’t understand, she had believed him when he’d said it would.
A shiver racked Donnay’s body when Spencer’s hand went to the zipper of his pants. She held her breath as he eased it down, felt a lump form in her throat when he lowered his pants down his legs and stepped out of them. She finally released her breath and stared at him, her gaze more concentrated than before. It swept past his shoulders and chest to the area hidden by the black silk boxer shorts. The impression showed a very well-endowed man, a man who had everything to back up all the talk, and she believed he knew how to use everything he was packing.
She focused on that part of him that would soon connect their bodies, their minds, their entire beings. In the short time she knew him, she had come to realize that he didn’t take too many things lightly. He was intense, demanding, a highly unmanageable person. But on the other hand, she believed he was fiercely dedicated. He would not deceive her like Robert had done.
“What are you thinking?”
His words broke the silence and she looked up to his face. She decided to be only half truthful. “I was wondering how I would handle you. Handle it.”
He smiled at that. “You see both as a challenge?”
She blew out a breath. If only he knew. “Yes.”
“Don’t.”
Evidently changing his mind about removing his briefs just yet, he moved back to the bed and pulled her up on her knees toward him and then bent down and captured her mouth
in one smooth sweep. Something stirred the air surrounding them. She felt it as his tongue began mating with hers again. She felt it when his hands went to her blouse, when he broke the kiss just long enough to pull it over her head. And then he was easing her back into the bed, into the soft, thick cushions of the bedcovers, and straddling her body.
He pulled back and with a quick flick of his wrist and ready fingers, he removed her slip, thong and bra. Before she could inhale a deep breath, his lips were trailing a path down her body, continuing without pause until he reached the twin globes of her breasts. He began kissing them, devouring them, taunting them with his tongue, lips and teeth until she was moaning from deep within her throat. Desire set her ablaze when moments later his mouth began moving again, downward past her ribs and toward her navel. There he discovered her one moment of liberation during her first year in college. A belly ring.
He lifted his head, met her gaze and a broad smile touched his lips. She couldn’t help but return his smile and at that moment something significant had passed between them. Acceptance of each other’s likes, dislikes and values.
He lowered his head and her stomach tensed when he formed a ring on her belly with his tongue, a hot, wet one that seemed to brand her skin. And then he angled his head as his mouth began moving lower. She stiffened when he kissed the undersides of both her thighs while he reached down to let his fingertips trace a path along her calf.
She heard him murmur words that sounded foreign to her befuddled mind just seconds before he placed the other hand between her thighs to open her legs to him. And then she felt him there, his tongue touching her intimately in a way that lifted her hips off the bed. Her action only seemed to serve his purpose when he took the liberty to lift those same hips closer to his mouth and plunge his tongue inside her, even going so far to raise her legs over his shoulders for deeper penetration.
What he was doing was shooting sensation through her so intensely she felt every part of her shattering. With every flick of his tongue she felt a tug at her insides, as he deliberately pulled everything out of her, every single resistance, every rebellious thought. The feeling was excruciating, intense, unbelievably erotic. She reached out and gripped his shoulders, powerful and strong, and held on for dear life when he demanded anything and everything she was holding back from him.
Dreams of Forever: Seduction, Westmoreland StyleSpencer's Forbidden Passion Page 25
