by Linda Conrad
The two events would be held only a few days apart. But it wouldn’t be a problem because several of the garden club ladies had offered their help with both.
Now, if she could just keep her mind on her work…
The office door swung wide, letting in bright sunlight and a whirlwind who was dressed in resplendent fuchsia. “My goodness but it’s hot out there. This has been some spring.” Jewel marched into the room with her arms full of notebooks, brimming over with reminders and lists.
“I thought I was the only one bothered by the heat.”
“Hardly, sugar,” Jewel said with a laugh. She set her bundles down and fanned herself, using both hands. “I brought samples of tablecloths suitable for use at the barbeque. Do you have an accurate count of RSVP’s yet?”
“Oh, yes. All these donors are busy executives and they stick to tight schedules. But they also all like Ty and want to see him and meet the kids.” Merri reached for a book of tablecloth samples. “There’ll be forty guests. Most of them will be flying in that morning and flying right back out that evening after the barbeque.”
“Very well,” Jewel said absently. “After they’re gone we’ll get more of your attention on the modeling show.”
The guests for the barbeque and the garden club’s luncheon would be completely different.
“Everything is coming along just fine for the modeling show,” Merri told her. “Janie is ready to provide the outfits as soon as we send her the rest of the measurements, and I’ve already written much of the narration for the show. The garden club members are doing the publicity and working on the luncheon. We’re on schedule.”
Jewel sniffed. “Yes, well, a few ladies are upset that you haven’t made last-minute decisions on the models. We’ve given you the lists of those willing to participate and everyone is waiting, none too patiently, for your final roster.”
“Uh… I’ve been thinking it might be nice to have some of the girls from the Nuevo Dias Ranch participate. They have so little to look forward to. What do you think?”
Jewel’s face softened into the most blissful expression Merri had ever seen. “Wonderful idea. That really is the kindest thing I’ve ever heard.” Her eyes welled up, but she scrunched up her face and fought back any wayward tears. “Those girls don’t have mothers to travel down the runway with them. Won’t they be too nervous to model alone?”
“I thought maybe you would find a few local women who don’t have daughters that would be available to help,” Merri told her softly. “And I’d be willing to be a substitute mom for a couple of the girls myself.” She couldn’t bear the idea of those sweet kids being disappointed.
“Oh, yes, that should work.” Jewel touched her hand lightly. “You are such a dear. No wonder Ty thinks you’re so different.”
Before she explained that strange remark, Jewel straightened and opened a notebook. “We need to complete the food orders for the barbeque and arrange to have the tables taken out of storage. This party should be a snap since it’s just forty people and we’ll have Ty’s ranch hands helping out.”
Merri wanted to go back to the subject of why Ty thought she was different, but she just smiled at the older woman’s words about the barbeque instead. It had been positively amazing to find out what a huge operation Ty’s ranch really was. As much as he said he wanted to do everything for himself, there were apparently a lot of duties that needed to be done by others.
She only wished he would take care of one very special duty himself. And soon.
“Hey, darlin’. You weren’t asleep, were you?” Merri heard Ty ask through the earpiece of her home phone. He’d been gone for ten days and this was the first time he had called her at home.
“No, not yet.” The truth was she hadn’t been sleeping much at all lately. She would lie here in bed and think of having his lips against hers and his mouth on other tender parts of her body. And it would drive her to sleepless distraction.
“Where are you this time?” she asked wearily. So far he had traveled the globe, conducting further quiet talks with oil drillers, ministers and barons.
“In the far east,” he answered with a bone-deep exhaustion that worried her.
“Are you coming home soon?” She didn’t like the whiny, nagging tone she heard coming out of her mouth. But she was feeling an acute sense of loneliness without him.
“I just found out I won’t be able to get back to the States tomorrow like I thought I would. In fact, I’m going to be lucky to get back by the day of the barbeque. Will you be able to handle things without me?”
Her body’s hopes faded and the heat that had been growing deep in her belly began to cool. “Yes, of course,” she said despondently. “I dropped by your ranch yesterday to check on the preparations. Everything is progressing nicely. You have an amazing place, by the way.”
She sensed him hesitate for a minute before he said, “Thanks, but I wanted to show you the ranch myself. I…”
“It’s okay,” she interrupted. “I was only inside your office for a few minutes and then out onto the terrace where the party will be held. You can show me everything else when you get back.” She hoped he’d meant he wanted to show her the master bedroom. That was all she’d been able to think about lately. Being in his bed.
“Do you miss me, Merri?” His voice was so deep and quiet that she barely heard the question. He sounded lonely, too, and it made her heart stutter wildly in her chest.
“I do,” she said in a hoarse voice. She cleared her throat and tried to find something else to talk about…something to take their minds off the distance and time between them. “Uh…when I was in your office, I saw a strange old hand mirror on the edge of your desk. It didn’t look like it belonged there. Do you collect antiques?”
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “Not hardly. I got that mirror from a weird gypsy while I was in New Orleans. She said it was magic.” With those words, he barked out a laugh but didn’t sound terribly happy.
Magic? She thought she’d felt something strange about that mirror. When she’d picked it up, it had shimmered in her hand. She had felt a tension and an electric jolt run through her body when she turned it over and studied it. But magic?
“I don’t get the magic idea,” Ty told her. “It isn’t even a real mirror. Just plain glass.”
“Of course it’s a mirror,” she said in a rush. “The reflection was wavy, like the glass was very old. But I saw my image just fine.”
Ty was quiet a long time. It made her wonder what he was thinking, but before she could ask, he changed the subject again himself. “Jewel tells me she had a plumber and an electrician out to your cottage, but that you wouldn’t let her send a roofer. You like water in your kitchen, do you?”
“The roof hasn’t leaked since you fixed it that night.” The mention of that night caused goose bumps to run up her arms and the energy to settle back in her gut.
“Good.” She heard the slow sensual smile spreading out in his voice. “I’ll do it proper when I get back.”
There were a few other things she’d rather he do proper first. Mostly having to do with her body. But she didn’t want to upset him by begging—not just yet. And she also didn’t want him to hang up. So she thought of another topic.
“Speaking of Jewel,” Merri began. “The other day she said something strange. She said you thought I was different. What did she mean by that?”
“Merri.” He’d said her name like a whispered prayer, then breathed a heavy sigh. “It might not be smart for us to talk about how we feel toward each other while we’re still thousands of miles apart.” His voice held a sensual quality that she barely recognized—except in her dreams.
Her body responded instantly to the erotic sensation. She leaned back against the pillows and closed her eyes, but found she couldn’t make a sound.
“Dang,” he said softly. “All right. You’re different because you aren’t like any of the other women I’ve ever known—and especially not like the woman I wa
s once engaged to marry. You’re very special, darlin’.”
She’d heard the pain behind what he’d said. But she also heard the desire. It hummed through her veins and set her skin on fire. Her whole body began to ache.
He wanted her. And, oh Lord, how she wanted him.
Nine
“Tell me what happened to your engagement,” Merri murmured hesitantly through the phone lines. “Make me understand how she hurt you so badly.”
Ty heard Merri’s hesitant tone, heard her need to be closer hiding beneath that. His own body had been ripe with desire for her since the first moment he’d heard her sexy voice tonight. Now it sounded as if she felt the same.
He’d known it had been a mistake to call while she was at home. Even thousands of miles and continents away, his body was in a constant hazy state of readiness over just the memory of her. He should’ve never tried this while it was quiet and still where he was, and even darker and more sensual surrounding her.
The pictures in his head of her in bed, all sleep-tousled and wearing some little scrap of silk for a nightgown, suddenly became too strong. They threatened to shred through every bit of his control.
He sat down on his hotel room bed and toed off his boots. Maybe it was time to trust someone else with his hateful memories. He couldn’t think of anyone he wanted to trust more than he did Merri. And maybe the talking would take his mind off of what she was wearing at the moment.
“It’s not much of a story,” he began. “You sure?”
“Yes, Ty. I’m sure. I want to know you better.”
He reached over and flipped off the bedside lamp, leaving himself in rich darkness. “Right.” He wanted to know her a whole lot better, too. But he guessed he was honor bound to be the first one to spill his guts.
“When I was in college…and a lot younger and more foolish, I thought I was in love with one of the university’s beauty queens,” he said through the anonymity of long distance. “The two of us didn’t have a whole lot in common, she’d come from a big city in the northeast. But it was a real turn-on to think such a gorgeous creature would want me. I was just a doofus from Hicksville. But I had already managed to rehab my way to my first million in real estate and thought I was so smart…
“It never occurred to me that it was the money she wanted.” He decided to rush through the rest of this embarrassing story before he lost his nerve entirely. “Long story short, I asked her to marry me and a month later caught her in bed with one of her old ‘friends.’ Unfortunately, before they knew I was there, I heard her telling him about what a redneck I was and how if it wasn’t for the money, she wouldn’t be able to stand being married to such an ignorant cowboy.”
The sound of Merri’s soft gasp rode along his nerve endings and stirred his blood. He had to gulp down the sudden lust as he leaned back against the headboard.
“I’m so sorry you had to find out that way,” Merri told him with honest sympathy. “But she was obviously not worth your spit. Don’t give the memories any more of your time or attention. She doesn’t deserve it.”
“Not worth my spit?” he mimicked with a snort. “Lady, you are starting to sound just like one of us. I’m not sure that’s such a good thing.”
The high tingling notes of her soft laughter caught him off guard. Mercy, but he was hungry for her. Now. Right now, he needed her more than anyone before.
“Merri, what are you wearing?” The wayward thought popped out of his mouth.
“Me? I was in bed reading when you called so I have on the oversized T-shirt that I usually wear to sleep. It’s really old and droopy, you wouldn’t…”
“I’d love to see you in it,” he interrupted a little too sharply. He lowered his voice to a whisper and tried again. “Is it so old that it’s been washed soft?”
“Ty,” she sighed. “I wish you were here.”
“Me, too, sugar.” He took a deep breath and unbuttoned his shirt. “Just keep talking. I need to hear your voice. You’re still in bed, aren’t you?”
“Are we going to have phone sex?” she asked in a small unsure tone. “I…I’ve never done that before. I don’t think I can manage it.” She sounded right on the edge and he figured he was pretty close himself.
“Relax, darlin’. You don’t have to do anything. You trust me, don’t you?”
“Definitely.” The word just jumped out of his earpiece and made him smile. He wouldn’t tell her, but he had never done anything remotely like this before, either.
“Merri, do you remember the last night we were together? How I held you close in my arms?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Good. Close your eyes then and try to imagine my arms around you now. Can you feel me next to you?”
“Mmm.” The little mewing sound hit him dead in the chest with a lust too strong to ignore. He vowed to somehow make this good for both of them.
“Darlin’, you are going to have to breathe out loud for me so I can judge how you’re doing. Okay?”
“Yes,” she said with a wispy sigh. “Uh, Ty, how will I…?”
“Hush, sweetheart. Just listen to the sound of my voice and breathe.” He shrugged out of his shirt and unbuttoned the top button on his jeans, positive now it was going to get a hell of a lot hotter in this room at any moment. And wondering if this was a smart idea—or perhaps the dumbest thing he had ever attempted.
“Eyes still closed?”
Merri nodded, realizing too late that he couldn’t really see her through the phone. “Uh-huh.”
“Picture how it was between us. Feel the heat growing stronger, starting to burn your skin from the inside out.”
“Ty, how do you know how I felt? How do you…”
“Shh, honey. I was there with you, remember? I felt everything you did. I pulsed when you did and shattered right along beside you.”
And he hadn’t forgotten one minute of it, either, Merri thought happily. She snuggled down under the covers and listened to him breathing on the other end of the phone.
“All right, darlin’,” he began again.
He spoke in a terrifically hushed voice, low and slightly dangerous. And she was taken right back to that night with a flash of fire and wanting.
“Put your fingertips against your lips and think of my kisses,” Ty whispered. “Can you feel the need that’s pouring from my body into yours through our tangled tongues?”
Merri rubbed the pad of her forefinger across her bottom lip and felt a stirring in her breasts, and lower in her belly. She slipped her finger into her mouth, licked and sucked like she’d done while his tongue was inside her, imagining Ty’s kisses.
Her breasts suddenly became tender and achy, crying out for Ty’s touch. “Oh,” she whimpered. “Oh.”
“Yeah, I feel it, too, sweetheart. Keep remembering the way it was. Use your fingers, but imagine they are mine. I want to touch you so badly.” She heard him blow out a deep breath and the blood gushed to several parts of her body.
“I want to lick my way down your neck and cover your breasts with the palms of my hand.”
“Ty, I feel the heat of your hands on me. It isn’t possible.” She squirmed and realized her own palm had covered her aching nipple.
“Don’t think,” he urged. “Just listen and feel. I’m going to take the hardened tip of your breast into my mouth. I need to. I want you to feel the warmth of my tongue as I flick it over your bud. Is the hot, wet sensation giving you pleasure, darlin’?”
She gasped as a sudden erotic jolt pulsed right through her, traveling from her nipple to the spot between her thighs that was beginning to throb.
Ty chuckled, the noise rumbling deep in his chest. She could almost feel the vibrations running over her skin.
“I have to taste more of you this time,” Ty rasped. “I want more than I took before. I want everything.”
Merri sighed, too loudly. But it didn’t seem to bother Ty on the other end of the phone.
“Mmm,” he groaned. “I love the way your s
kin tastes as I nibble my way across your body. Vanilla and lavender, like cookies in the spring.
“Farther down,” he drawled. “Rubbing lazy circles around your belly button with my tongue. Teasing the tender skin between there and my goal.”
The images of what they’d done in the elevator disappeared from her mind. And all Merri was left with was the pounding beat of her heart as she truthfully felt his tongue slipping down her body.
Moans filled the phone lines, but she couldn’t distinguish hers from his. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but the sound of his voice and the sensation of her pulse skittering across the edges of her skin. Moving lower.
“I have to touch you,” Ty begged. “You’re so wet, so hot for me. Mmm. I need to taste all that heat. I want to put the tip of my tongue on the sensitive place that’s beating just for me.
“I know how you taste, love,” he continued softly. “I’ve dreamed it a hundred times.”
“Oh,” Merri panted. Somehow the sound of her voice sounded frantic, too high-pitched and needy to be her own.
“I…I…” She’d stopped thinking and wanted to beg. “Come inside me, Ty. Please. Please. Please. I need to feel you there.”
“Yes,” he gasped. “It’s time. You’re wet and ready for me.”
She was—more than ready.
But she was also holding her breath…waiting.
“Breathe, sugar. Let me hear how you sound as I slip inside.”
“Oh…Oh…” She was about to black out but refused to miss any part of this. Her whole body was throbbing, pulsating with need, soaring to places she had never been.
“Ah. So tight,” he groaned. “The fit is perfect…the way I knew it would be. Oh, God. You’re so good. So right. Stay with me, love.”
The next few minutes turned into a blur of moans and gasps from two sides of the world as his voice took her to the brink over and over again. At long last, the sharp edge of her desire began to crack as if it were a shattered mirror that had started the break with one fine line and spread out from there into a cobweb of a thousand glittering shards.
