Waiting for Someone Like You (Destiny Bay-Baby Dreams Book 3)

by Helen Conrad

  She ignored him, putting her things down about twenty feet away, and searching through her large bag for something, until he couldn’t stand it any longer and had to make a comment.

  “Going for a swim?” he asked. It seemed a perfectly normal question, under the circumstances. But she looked about her as though sure he couldn’t have directed his question her way.

  “Oh, excuse me, are you talking to me?” she asked at last.

  He raised his sunglasses and glared at her. “There’s nobody else here, Kat.”

  She smiled sweetly. “Yes, but I promised myself I wouldn’t bother you anymore with my unacceptable presence. So if you’ll just pretend I’m invisible, I’ll do the same for you.”

  She turned her back and whipped off the sunglasses, then the straw hat. While he watched, the terry-cloth robe was slowly lowered and dropped, and she stood before him in an electric blue bikini that revealed things he’d only felt on her, but never seen before. His stomach fell and clenched like a fist, and she turned slowly and made her way to the edge of the pool, testing the water with her toe, pretending she had no idea he was watching all the while.

  He had to force himself to keep breathing steadily. He really couldn’t stand this. If this was temptation, he was obviously too weak to resist it. And why should he, after all? They were more than casual friends, weren’t they? He pulled himself up and swung his feet around, ready to go on out and grab her, but a shout stopped him.

  Shading his eyes, he groaned. A group of young men was descended on the pool. There were five of them, all in their early twenties, all in swim trunks, pushing and shoving and teasing like puppies, until they caught sight of Kat. Suddenly, all mirth stopped.

  “Hi,” said one of them to Kat,

  She turned and looked surprised to see them. “Hi,” she called back sunnily.

  Each young man glanced at Tanner, judged the distance of where she’d left her things to where he was sitting, and made a quick evaluation of the situation. Smiles appeared all around. Tanner had the urge to call out and tell them Kat was his, but he knew she would make him look like a fool if he did. He settled back against the lounge, deciding to let things ride. It seemed like the best thing to do.

  He had a long time to regret that decision, a long, long time. Kat hit it off with the young men right away. They introduced themselves, offered to rub on suntan lotion, and took turns pushing her around the pool on the raft. Once she ventured into the water, one of them had a lot of ideas for games to play, most of which involved Kat as the center of attention. She squealed, she simpered, she giggled—and he sat where he was and boiled.

  Once in a while she seemed to remember him. After a game that involved a lot of shouting and throwing of water, she turned at one point and said with exaggerated pertness, “Oh, excuse me, sir. Did we splash you? I’m so sorry we bothered you.”

  He wasn’t wet, but he was bothered. He knew what she was doing. He just didn’t know how to stop her without.., without what? Making some sort of commitment that he didn’t dare make?

  He knew he should retreat to his room and leave her to her fun, but he couldn’t do that either. Some invisible magnetic force was keeping him here, wallowing in his misery. For a while, he amused himself with planning different methods of drowning for each of the young men she was playing with. Then he considered going to the phone and recruiting some young women to come in and take their attentions away.

  But he knew none of that would do any good. The problem was between him and Kat, and nobody else had anything to do with it.

  It was almost an hour later when she came out of the water, dripping wet, the electric blue fabric clinging to her body like plastic wrap, and he almost groaned aloud. When she shook off the water, drops fell all over him, like a private spring shower. He caught one on his fingertip—it seemed to melt like a snowflake.

  Not noticing, she turned and looked about on the deck.

  “Gee, I wonder where... I’ve lost my towel.”

  The boys sprang up to look for it for her, but she waved them back into the water. “Never mind. I’ll just ask this elderly—I mean, older—gentleman here if I can borrow his.” She turned and grinned at Tanner. “Excuse me, sir. May I use your towel for just a moment? Thank you so much.”

  He held out a towel to her, glaring, his mouth a straight, hard line. She dried herself off and laughed in his face.

  “Such a grouch,” she muttered as she handed it back to him.

  There were a few things he could have called her, and the way she looked, most of them were complimentary, despite his annoyance with her. But the words stuck in his throat as he looked at her beautiful body with the light sprinkling of sparkling water droplets she’d missed. She did things to him no one else did. The trouble was, the young men she’d been cavorting with thought she was pretty darn delicious, too.

  “Here’s a new game,” the tallest was calling out as Kat walked over to the side of the pool and flopped down to dangle her toes in the water, right where they were gathering. “Whoever picks up the most pennies from the bottom of the pool wins.”

  “Great. But we need a prize for the winner.”

  “What should it be?”

  The tall one turned and smiled. “How about the winner gets a kiss from Kat?’’

  “A kiss from Kat.” She laughed. “Imagine that. Now what would you boys want something like that for?”

  Silly question. Nobody bothered to answer it.

  The pennies were thrown and five young bodies threw themselves headlong into the race. Kat sat back and watched the splashing, and finally the results, as they poured their treasures out on the deck and counted.

  The tall one won. He approached Kat as if she were made of porcelain, precious and breakable, his lips barely touching hers before he drew back, blushing.

  Tanner watched the entire procedure like a prisoner who knew he could scale the prison walls if he tried. Just sit tight, he told himself over and over again. She’s just doing this to pay you back.

  But the kiss did it.

  Okay. He’d had it. He’d tried to be a nice guy, and what had it got him? A man could only take so much. And Kat had driven him over the edge. He threw down the book he’d been pretending to read and rose from his lounge. Strolling over to where Kat sat, he looked down at her entourage, his mouth twisted cynically.

  “If you boys are through fooling around,” he said softly, “I’ll show you what you have to do if you really want to kiss a woman. It goes like this.”

  It was nothing to lift her up into his arms. She was light is a feather. And he did it so quickly, she didn’t have time for defensive moves.

  “This is how you kiss a woman, boys,” he went on, looking down into her shocked face. “The first thing you do is... you make her want it almost as badly as you do. Then...”

  He kissed her hard. There was no doubt about who was in charge at this moment. Her hands fluttered for a few seconds, and a gurgling sound came out of her throat, but then she stilled and melted against him, kissing him back for all she was worth. It was a movie kiss, big and bold and breathless—and she loved it.

  When it was finally over, they pulled away from one another slowly, gazing deeply into each other’s eyes. Right here, in front of everyone, the look they exchanged said more than any words they had ever spoken.

  Tanner had been planning to drop her back down with her playmates and walk away like some mythic tough guy, but he changed his mind. Instead he held her tightly and looked at the gaping young men.

  “Then you take her someplace private,” he advised. “So you can do things right.” And he started off, Kat in his arms, for the elevator to his room.

  She threw a quick smile over his shoulder to reassure the boys that she wasn’t really being kidnapped by a stranger, but then she curled into his embrace and sighed happily.

  “Where are we going?” she asked him.

  “You haven’t seen my hotel room yet,” he said smoothly. “I thought
it was about time.”

  She laughed softly, snuggling closer as he carried her through the lobby of the hotel. They made an odd sight, he in his trunks with an open shirt, she in her blue bikini. People were turning to stare at them, probably thinking they looked like a jungle man and his prey, but she didn’t care.

  One older gentleman came close as they waited for the elevator and tapped her arm.

  “Young lady, do you need to be rescued?” he asked worriedly.

  She smiled at him. “Oh... thank you just the same, but I think I am being rescued already.” She waved at him as they got on the elevator, and laughed all the way to the eighth floor.

  Tanner didn’t say anything until he’d found his key and had swung the door open and deposited her on the couch.

  “Well, here it is,” he announced, standing back.

  She sat up and looked at the room—the heart-shaped bed with the red velveteen cover, the lace curtains, the pictures of undressed lovers on the walls, listening to the piped-in music.

  “Wow,” she breathed. “This has got to be...”

  “The honeymoon suite,” he said. “Want to get married?”

  She choked and looked quickly into his eyes, but he was laughing. He reached out a hand for her and pulled her against him.

  “Well, we can always pretend,” she murmured, closing her eyes as his lips began to drop tiny, quick kisses on her face.

  His hands held her as though she were some priceless gem, something he worshiped, and he knew, from the flood of feeling he got just looking down at her, that he was a goner. He’d been half joking about getting married, half challenging himself. And he wasn’t sure which side was going to win out, but he did know he loved her. There was no denying that any longer.

  Her arms slipped around his neck and she stood on tiptoe to reach his mouth, searching for him with her own, trying to pull him more firmly into line. But he avoided anything direct, moving his hands, his face, so that all she got were fleeting kisses.

  “You’re teasing me,” she protested, leaning back to look into his eyes.

  He nodded, touching her cheek with his thumb. “You were teasing me for all you were worth down by the pool, and you damn well know it.’’

  She was ashamed to admit he was right. “So you decided turnabout is fair play, did you?”

  He kissed her again, then drew back as she responded, his hands sliding down the length of her. “This is going to take a long, long time,” he murmured very near her ear. “I’m going to torture you just the way you’ve been torturing me all day.”

  “No.” But she laughed, turning in his arms, luxuriating in his touch. She knew she was a fool, that she was blocking out reality, but she didn’t care, All she could think about now was this man in this place and this time. That was her reality. That was all she could deal with.

  His hands trailed across her body in slow motion and she closed her eyes, swaying to the soft Latin beat coming over the speaker system. It felt as though she were moving in whipped cream, so rich, so slow, so luscious. His hands slipped beneath the straps of her top and slowly, ever so slowly, pushed them away, so that the bra fell open and revealed her soft, pink-tipped breasts. She sighed, feeling the cool air on what had so recently been covered, shivering with anticipation, her senses tuned only to him. He lowered his head and kissed her cool flesh, warming her, letting his tongue caress her. She dug her fingers into his thick hair and hummed softly, drifting with the music, magically transformed by his touch.

  “I’m going to tease you so long,” he murmured, his breath hot on her skin, “you’ll be begging for me before I’m done.”

  She smiled and arched her back. “I’m already begging for you,” she whispered. “Can’t you tell?”

  “Not yet.” He swung her up into his arms again and carried her to the bed, placing her in the center of the heart. “It’s not really begging yet.”

  She laughed softly, lying back, looking at him through her eyelashes. “How will you know when it’s the real thing?” she asked lazily.

  “I’ll know,” he murmured back, tugging at her earlobe with his teeth. “Believe me, I’ll know.”

  He held her close until she began to writhe, reaching for him, and then he drew back and began the long, slow job of tugging down her tiny bottom brief. She was half laughing, half moaning with the increased pace of her anticipation once he was done. Then she had to wait while he took off his own clothes, revealing himself to her in the light of day for the first time making the breath stop in her throat as she caught sight of him.

  He was so beautiful, so completely male, it stunned her for a moment, almost frightened her, but then he had her in his arms again, holding, stroking, gently bringing her to the urgent frenzy that was his goal. And finally he seemed satisfied. She lay before him, trembling with need for him, reaching out to try to pull him closer, whispering his name in a husky demand that sent white heat coursing through him.

  He’d never known a woman who could call up this arousal in him. He knew as he looked down that he couldn’t let her walk out of his life. There had to be a way....

  And then there was no more room for thought, only for the texture of desire. They came together with a desperate urgency that seemed hardly human at the time, something wild and raw throbbing in them both. Something that drove them to join, drove them to cling together, drove them to whisper words of love and need that neither had ever uttered before.

  And then they lay side by side, panting, and Kat heard the strains of “My Sweet Wife” coming over the speakers in all its sugary splendor. She couldn’t help it. Her shoulders began to shake.

  “You’re laughing again,” he said accusingly, rolling over to look at her.

  She grinned at him. “Laughter is good. Laughter is a sign of joy.”

  Something warm flickered in his eyes, but he turned down the corners of his mouth anyway. “Laughter is a sign of ridicule.”

  “My, what thin skin you have.”

  He went up on one elbow and looked into her face, his own blue eyes dark and serious, and he took one thick lock of her hair between his fingers and caressed it. “No, Kat, what I have is a soft heart where you’re concerned. And maybe a soft head.”

  She rose to face him, searching for clues in his eyes. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Kat… “ How could he say this? He couldn’t come right out and tell her he was falling in love. Could he? His fingers circled her wrist. “I don’t want to lose you.”

  She licked her dry lips. “I—I thought you needed time to think things over.”

  “I’ve thought. God, I was awake all last night doing nothing but thinking.”

  Her heart was beating very quickly and she could hardly breathe. There was something blocking her throat. Was it hope?

  “And what conclusion did you come to?”

  “Kat.” His face was tortured. Reaching out, he took her face in his hands and stared down into it. “Have you ever been in love? Really in love?”

  She nodded slowly, eyes shining. “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Me, too. Kat... I think I’m in love with you.”

  Tears filled her eyes, pooling on the lower lids, reflecting the lights in the room like stars.

  “Me, too,” she choked out, nodding. “Oh, Tanner, me too!”

  He took her into his arms and held her close, not saying a word, hardly daring to believe she had actually said it. They clung together like two refugees from a storm, holding each other as though they were afraid to let go, reveling in the warmth, the love. They were in love. And now they had admitted it to themselves.

  “What are we going to do about it?” she asked at last, her voice muffled against his chest.

  He pulled back so that he could see her face. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you’re about to fly off to New York and I’m going back to Nebraska.”

  He nodded slowly, looking at her huge eyes, her beautiful brows, like angels’ wings, her shini
ng hair. Everything about her was enthralling. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

  “Come to New York with me,” he said with sudden inspiration. “I’ve got a huge—“ Penthouse suite, he was about to say. Sooner or later she was going to have to know the truth, but he hoped to avoid it as long as possible, “A great apartment,” he amended swiftly. “I can show you the town.”

  “But I have to work.”

  “Right, the newspaper. Can’t you take a few weeks off?”

  Her smile was full of the same joy he felt whenever he looked at her. “I suppose so. And then you could take a few weeks off and come stay with me in Nebraska.”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  They looked at one another and laughed, laughed so hard they had to hold on to each other, laughed until tears were rolling down their faces. It seemed storybook simple. It seemed too good to be true. Kat held him very tightly and shut her eyes. Was it too good to be true? Could she make it work this time?

  They took a shower, playing with the soap and washing each other’s hair. They spent almost an hour at it, marveling all the time at how good it was to be together. It was magic and very, very special. And at the same time, Kat kept feeling a small surge of panic at the oddest moments. Could this possibly last?

  She came out of the bathroom humming, drying her hair. He was finishing up and singing an aria from some opera she’d never heard of. That made her laugh. Opera. New York was going to be a revelation, of that she was sure.

  Just two hours ago, she’d been in misery. Just days ago, she’d thought she would never love again. And now she had found him. Would it last?

  That little chill was with her again. She frowned, hating it, and began to put on the soggy swimsuit for the trip back to her room. Once it was in place, she reached into the closet for the complimentary robe and sandals meant for the bride staying in the room. She would have to borrow them to assure at least a modicum of decency. As she pulled the robe off the hanger, her gaze fell on a few scraps of crumpled paper lying on top of the dresser. Her name sprang out at her. She frowned, puzzled, and reached out to take a look.