“Brenna …” Then her name was on his lips as his mouth sought hers in a whisper of a kiss.
It was a kiss given without passion. It made no demands. It was a kiss that simply asked her, gently beseeched her, to share the power she possessed to heal the pain in him. And she wielded that power with infinite care, knowing it had the strength to wound as well as to heal.
They stood with their arms about each other, holding each other close, sharing the soothing strength they found in their kisses and quietly whispered words. Then the pain was gone and that awareness they had of each other as a man and a woman began to make its own demands on them.
She felt Garrett’s hands on her back, stroking the length of her from shoulder to thigh in slow, almost unconscious movements. Then her own hands began an exquisite, leisurely study of each bone and muscle that formed the tantalizing outline of his body from shoulder to waist down to the angular curve of his hips. It was a mutual search that lead to the rediscovery, the reawakening of the passion between them.
Brenna raised her head and looked up at him with that wild longing in her eyes. Stunned by the force of her own need for this man, the words came out in a suffocated whisper. “How can we want each other—?”
“—again so soon?” Garrett finished for her in a husky-voiced drawl. “I don’t know, honey,” he confessed, his hand shaking imperceptibly as he reached up to tuck a stray wisp of hair behind her ear. “I only know that we do.”
As if seeking confirmation of that fact, he bent his head and took her mouth in an overwhelmingly persuasive kiss, the edge of his tongue inviting her lips to part. At the gentle hint of intrusion, Brenna opened herself to him, eagerly welcoming the enticing touch of his lips and tongue on hers. Then he surged into her with a hunger that took her breath away.
“Oh, Garrett, what are we going to do?” she groaned, gasping for air, her fingers clutching at the leather belt around his waist as she swayed against him.
“There’s only one thing we can do,” he told her in a raspy whisper as his hands moved over her back, seeking and then finding the zipper of her cotton skirt. He carefully eased the zipper down, then urged the skirt over her hips until it fell silently to the carpet at their feet.
Brenna raised her head suddenly, and there was a questioning look in her eyes as they stared into his. “But… here?”
“Yes, here, sweetheart, and now. I need you now!” he grated in a fierce whisper as he ground his hips into hers, the indisputable proof of that arrogant male need rising between them.
She shivered as his hand slipped beneath the elastic waist of her panties, his fingernails lightly scoring the sensitive flesh of her buttocks. He traced a seemingly random pattern along the curve of her thigh and around to her flat, smooth abdomen. And then his hand insinuated itself between their bodies and moved lower, covering her, finding her warm and moist as she instinctively responded to his caress.
“Oh!” Brenna bit off the sound, unwittingly sinking her teeth into his shoulder as her body arched against the probing quest of his hand.
“I want you, Brenna!” he declared with single-minded intent, his dark eyes ablaze with his unquenchable thirst for her. He slowly withdrew his hand and swept her up into his arms, heading for the sofa.
He laid her back against the cushions, quickly removing the sandals from her feet. He slipped out of his own shoes before settling himself alongside her with a thoroughly masculine grunt of satisfaction. And then his hand was on her leg, delicately fingering the sensitive skin behind her knee before moving up along her hip. He detoured for a moment, pressing his palm against her pulsing warmth, then continued on over the cotton gauze of her summer blouse to cover one breast.
“We have to be crazy—both of us!” Brenna began, then swallowed roughly as Garrett pressed his mouth where his hand had been, his teeth nipping her through the flimsy material of her blouse.
Her breasts strained against the barriers that separated them from the source of that exquisite pleasure; her nipples swelling to meet the impertinence of his tongue. He boldly ensnared first one hardened peak and then the other between his lips, his tongue flicking back and forth, leaving a small damp spot on the material around each aroused point.
And then with a muffled groan, he tugged at the buttons down the front of the blouse, wanting to feel only her bare skin. Pushing the material aside at last, his fingers unclasped the hook of the skimpy bra and her breasts spilled forth into his awaiting hands.
“How can one woman be so soft?” he rasped in wonder, scraping his palm across her sensitized flesh.
Her only reply was a low, impatient whimper as she pushed herself against him, frantically seeking his mouth with hers. The tip of her pink tongue teased and cajoled until his lips parted. Her fingers lightly caressed him through his shirt, then slipped down his chest and lower still to press against the bold, unmistakable force of his desire.
“Brenna!” he implored, violently sucking his breath in as his body surged against her hand.
“Please, help me!” she cried out in frustration as she fumbled with the belt buckle at his waist.
In response, Garrett pulled away from her for a moment and struggled to his feet, quickly completing the task she had tried in vain to begin. Discarding his clothes without another thought, he reached down and gently drew the small panties over her hips and tossed them aside.
He came back to her then, stretching his long, lithe form down beside her on the cushions, wrapping his hair-roughened legs around the silky smoothness of hers. Then he shifted his weight and rolled beneath her, pulling her across his chest.
Startled, Brenna looked at him with eyes as round as saucers. Throwing her loose dark hair back from her face, she pressed her hands into his chest and tried to sit upright.
“I suppose you think you’re as clever as the devil, Garrett Forsyte,” she said in a panting voice, feeling him warm and lean beneath her.
“Oh, I’m not the least bit clever, my sweet,” he purred in a gritty tone. “Well, perhaps just a little bit,” he admitted at last, releasing a low, shaky laugh as he reached under her blouse to touch the peaks of her breasts.
Then he was urging her along the length of his body until she was poised above him. He made a sound deep in his chest as his tongue darted out to find the tip of her breast before boldly drawing it into his mouth. She could feel his lips on her, hot and moist and insistent as her legs pressed into his sides.
“I don’t know why I want you so,” Brenna confessed in a moment of mindless wonder. “I only know that I do.” She knew she wasn’t making any sense, but somehow it no longer seemed to matter.
“And I only know that I want to love you,” Garrett whispered in a husky growl as he found her mouth in a kiss that seemed to go on and on without end.
Their breathing was tortured as he hesitated, once more keeping his promise to protect her. Then he began to move beneath her, his bare skin rubbing against hers. His hands seized the curve of her bottom, coaxing her closer and closer to the very heart of their passionate need. And then he settled her astride his hips and gently brought her down onto him.
For a long moment they were still, trying to absorb the impact of that union, that sweet merging of his body with hers. Then the slow, sensual movements began that would take them once more into the center of the storm as it unleashed its thunderous fury upon them.
They clung to each other as the tempest of their passion tossed them to and fro, building with a force they had never known before, hurling them toward that one timeless moment of oblivion together.
“Garrett!” His name was torn from Brenna’s lips. It was a cry from the heart that echoed through every part and particle of her until she was his in mind, body and soul.
“Hold on to me, darling!” he whispered fiercely, cradling her against his chest. “Hold on to me!”
“I will! I will!” she vowed, although in truth she had little choice in the matter. For he was her shelter from the storm, her b
ulwark against the intense furor that threatened to tear her asunder.
Then Garrett’s body arched into hers with all the power that was his, a power that was as great as her own, a power that in the end unleashed the full force of their passion and drove them over the edge—leaving them with only this moment, with only each other to cling to in the eye of the storm.
It was a long time before either one sought to move, to break the sensual haze that surrounded them, to end the special intimacy they had shared. And it was only with the greatest reluctance that they finally did so.
Brenna slowly moved away, settling for a moment on one end of the sofa as she watched Garrett gather up their hastily discarded clothes. He placed hers gently on the cushion beside her.
“We’d better get dressed, honey,” he urged with a tender smile. Then he turned and opened the door to the adjoining bathroom. “You can freshen up in here if you like,” he suggested, running a hand through his already rumpled hair.
“You go first,” she heard herself tell him in a languid murmur as she tried to put her blouse to rights. She needed a few moments to collect herself, and in truth, she wasn’t certain her legs would support her quite yet.
It was some time later that she emerged through the adjoining door to find Garrett waiting for her in his office. He turned and smiled at her from across the room, then silently covered the distance between them, stopping only when he stood directly in front of her.
Then he draped his arm around her shoulders as he bent his head and dropped a tender kiss on her mouth. “Are you ready to go, darling?”
“Yes, I think so,” she answered with a tremulous smile as she gazed up into his handsome face.
“You know, honey,” Garrett murmured as he paused in the doorway of his office and looked back, “I’ll never feel the same way about this place after today. Every time I walk into this room I’ll think of you and remember.” He put a gentle hand against her lips. “And that, I’m afraid, is going to wreak havoc with my concentration,” he said with a chuckle.
Going to wreak havoc with his concentration? What of hers? She didn’t seem to have the ability to keep one rational thought in her head when she was with this man. It was crazy. And that, Brenna acknowledged in a moment of truth, was the price a woman paid for infatuation.
“Thank you for bringing me this afternoon,” she told him politely as they stepped onto the elevator. “I really did enjoy seeing your office,” she added on a bright note as they walked across the lobby and out into the summer sun.
“Believe me, no more than I enjoyed showing it to you,” he returned with a suggestive drawl as he helped her into his sports car. “How about stopping for an ice-cream cone on the way home?” he proposed as they left the downtown Chicago area and drove north toward the suburbs. “There’s a place up ahead that advertises thirty-three flavors including ‘bubble gum,’ ‘strawberry shortcake,’ and ‘goody goody gumdrops.’”
At that she burst out laughing. “Goody goody gumdrops?”
Garrett’s nose went up in the air as he looked at her with a ridiculously haughty expression on his face. “Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.”
Brenna couldn’t seem to stop laughing. “Who would even want to try something with a preposterous name like that?” she demanded, wiping away the tears that coursed down her cheeks.
“It just so happens that ‘goody goody gumdrops’ is one of my personal favorites,” Garrett informed her.
“Oh dear,” she mumbled, biting her lip. “By the way, exactly what is it?” She couldn’t resist asking.
“Exactly what is what?” he repeated, his lips forming an obstinate line.
“Exactly what is ‘goody goody gumdrops?’”
“It’s vanilla ice cream with gumdrops, of course,” he told her condescendingly. “You can have a lick of mine if you’d like,” he added as he pulled into a parking space in front of the ice-cream shop.
“No! No, thank you.” Brenna quickly dismissed that possibility with a wave of her hand. “I’m partial to plain chocolate, myself.”
It didn’t take her long to find out that this was one man who took his ice cream seriously. After fifteen minutes of thoughtful deliberation, Garrett finally made his choice, requesting three scoops to her one.
“How can you possibly eat that stuff?” she interjected, shuddering as he dug into the concoction of licorice, gumdrop and chocolate-mint ice creams with obvious relish.
“Not everyone is content to go through life with nothing more titillating to the palate than a scoop of plain chocolate,” he sniffed disdainfully.
“I don’t think I’ll ask what that has to do with ice cream,” Brenna chuckled on an amused note.
The subject was still under discussion when they pulled into the driveway alongside her house some ten minutes later.
“Don’t worry about it, honey,” Garrett was assuring her, not altogether seriously, as he opened the door on the passenger’s side and took her hand. “We’ll start you out nice and slow—say, with a scoop of chocolate chip,” he improvised, rather proud of himself.
“All right, perhaps I should try something new next time,” Brenna conceded as she unlocked the back door of the house and walked into the kitchen. When she turned around, she found Garrett standing directly behind her.
“You can’t be afraid to try something new every now and then, my sweet,” he teased as he caught her about the waist and hauled her against his chest. “Who knows? You may even like it.”
“Perhaps …” she murmured, licking her lips. “You do manage to talk me into trying the craziest things.”
“Perhaps it’s because you inspire me to do crazy things,” he drawled, taking a nibble of her ear.
Brenna quickly pulled away and put a distance of several feet between them. “And I’d say you’ve had quite enough inspiration for one day, Garrett Forsyte.”
“You may be right,” he confessed, stifling a yawn. “Inspiration can be quite tiring at times. I think I’ll go home and grab a nap before we go out for dinner.” The look of utter surprise on her face brought a flush to his. “Didn’t I invite you to have dinner with me tonight?”
Brenna firmly planted one hand on her hip. “No,” she began with a touch of exasperation, “you did not invite me to have dinner with you tonight.”
“It must have slipped my mind, with everything else going on this afternoon,” he said with total innocence. “Will you have dinner with me?” he asked her then in his softest tone.
“I’ve already arranged to have dinner with some friends,” she said with a slight edge to her voice.
“That doesn’t answer my question, honey,” Garrett gently pointed out, looking intently into her eyes.
She hesitated for a second, then nodded. “All right, I’ll have dinner with you tonight,” she sighed, knowing she could make her excuses to the Daltons with little regret on either side. “What time were you thinking of going?” Brenna gave him a look of polite inquiry.
He glanced down at his watch. “It’s four o’clock now,” he said. “And I wasn’t kidding about needing that nap,” he added with a grin. “Would eight be all right?”
“Eight o’clock would be fine,” she replied matter-of-factly, all the while telling herself that she was a fool to accept his invitation. It would be far wiser to have dinner with the Daltons.
“I have this elegant little restaurant in mind—white linen tablecloths, candlelight, crystal chandeliers,” Garrett was telling her as he covered the distance between them in a single step. “So, put on your best bib and tucker, honey, we are going out to celebrate tonight!” Then he swooped down and gave her a swift, hard kiss before heading back out the door.
And just what were they going to celebrate? Brenna asked herself as she heard the roar of his car retreating down the driveway. The man was definitely up to something. She could tell. She only hoped and prayed it wasn’t going to be another one of his crazy schemes. But a little voice kept insisting that
she was the crazy one.
She was crazy, Brenna admitted as she aimlessly wandered about the house, straightening pillows that didn’t need to be straightened, watering plants that didn’t require watering. She was crazy to think for even one minute that she could handle having an affair with a man like Garrett Forsyte!
It was time she faced facts. In the short span of one day, the man had made love to her again and again until she couldn’t think of anything but him. He had shared his deepest pain with her and then had made her laugh until she cried. How in the world did a woman handle a man like that?
Very carefully, she told herself. For it was too late now to turn coward and run. She was good and truly caught in the grip of a passion such as she had never known before. And, in the end, she would have to pay whatever price that passion demanded of her.
Brenna was ready and waiting when the door bell rang at precisely eight o’clock that evening.
This was no time to lose her nerve, she reminded herself as she went to answer the door. The Victorian lace blouse and soft batiste skirt she was wearing were all the current rage in fashion. Her hair was swept up into a soft, feminine style that emphasized her dark eyes, making them appear even larger than they were. She knew she looked her best and she knew, too, she would need every bit of her self-assurance before the night was over.
“Good evening, Brenna.” Garrett greeted her with uncustomary formality as he thrust a small white sack into her hands.
“What in the world is it?” she exclaimed, glancing up at him in surprise.
He gave a little grunt that might have been a laugh. “I stopped by the ice-cream shop on my way over,” he explained, his eyes briefly touching hers. “I thought you might like to try some chocolate chip later.” He seemed about to say more and then apparently changed his mind.
“Thank you,” she responded with the same polite formality. “Why don’t you come in for a minute while I put this in the freezer?” But he simply stood there as if he hadn’t heard a word. “Garrett?” she tried again in a slightly louder voice.
Only This Night (Silhouette Reissued) Page 12
