Probably her next-door neighbor, she thought. She’d moved clear across the country, yet some things stayed the same. The woman in the next apartment reminded her so much of her neighbor, Mrs. Nedbetter, back in Copperville, that several times she’d called her by the wrong name.
She glanced at herself in the mirror. Oh, well, it was Halloween. She’d explain that she was trying on costumes in preparation for a party. She really should make herself go, she thought as she walked toward the front door. A simple costume like a gypsy or a pirate wouldn’t be that hard to create.
The doorbell chimed again. Then a voice that made her breath catch called out “Trick or treat.”
“Mac!” She raced to the door and unlocked it, fumbling in her eagerness. So what if he’d only come for a visit and would leave her worse off than she was now? She didn’t care. She flung open the door and gasped.
He was dressed as a sheik, complete with rich-looking robes and a gold piece of braid holding a white flowing turban on his head. When he saw her, his jaw dropped. “Wow. This is just plain scary.”
“Yeah.” She held his gaze, her heart pounding. “Scary as hell.”
“Are you going to a Halloween party?”
“No. Well, maybe. I was invited and I was trying to decide if I wanted to go or not, so I put this on in case I could wear it.” She gulped for air. “But I can’t.”
“Funny, but you seem to be wearing it. Or is that an optical illusion?”
“I—listen, come in.” She stepped back from the door. “Do you have bags? How long can you stay? When did you—”
“No bags. I left them at the hotel.”
Her hopes died. “H-hotel? You’re not…planning to stay…with me?”
He walked through the doorway, his sheik’s robes swaying, and closed the door behind him. Then he turned to her. “I didn’t want to impose on you. I’m sure you have all sorts of things going on.”
So he had come for a visit, with a capital V. He probably wanted someone to show him the sights, and she was handy, but he’d distanced himself from her by checking into a hotel. His sheik’s outfit was a little joke, not a significant statement of his intentions.
“Well, of course I have things going on.” She was determined to hide her pain. “But I’d be glad to adjust my schedule. If you’d told me you were coming, I might have been able to arrange a couple of days off, but on short notice, I’m not sure.”
He waved a hand as if that didn’t matter to him. “I don’t want you to interrupt your work for me.” He hesitated. “You said you were invited to a party.” His voice became husky. “Do you have a date?”
For a split second she considered lying, but she’d never been good at that, especially with Mac. “No. It’s just some people from work. Not a couples sort of thing.”
“And you’re thinking of going in that?”
She bristled. Deciding not to wear it because of the memories it evoked was one thing. Having him question her choice in that tone of voice was quite another. He didn’t have that right. “Why not?”
“Because it’s indecent!”
“You didn’t think so that night I danced for you!” She blew the veil impatiently away from her face. “You enjoyed this outfit so much your tongue was hanging out, mister!”
“And it still is! And so will every other guy’s at that party!”
Her chin lifted. “What’s it to you?”
He stepped forward and grabbed her. “Everything.”
Her breath caught as the space surrounding them seemed to glow and pulse. She became lost in his gaze.
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Damn. I didn’t mean it to come out like that.”
“You didn’t?” Some of the luster faded.
“No.” He looked into her eyes. “I meant to go slow, find out if you had a boyfriend.”
The luster returned.
“Well?” he prompted.
Wherever this conversation was leading she wanted to go along, but he’d taken his time about having this talk with her. She decided not to make it too easy and ruin the challenge for him. “Well, what?”
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
What a beautiful day. What an absolutely gorgeous day. “I think so.”
“You think so?” He scowled down at her. “What kind of an answer is that?”
She was glad she still wore the veil. It hid her smile. “He’s not being real clear about his intentions, so it’s hard for me to know whether he’s my boyfriend or not. But I’m pretty sure he is.”
Mac’s scowl darkened. “So he’s one of those wishy-washy types?”
“Let’s just say he’s a little confused.”
“And how do you feel about him?”
“I’m crazy about him.”
His eyes blazed and his grip tightened on her arms. “You can’t be.”
“Why not? He’s terrific.”
“Terrific? What do you mean by that?” His eyes narrowed. “Tess, have you and this guy…made love?”
“Not recently.”
“I don’t give a damn if it’s recent or not! Tess, how could you make love to another man? How could you—”
“In fact, I haven’t made love to this guy since August,” she added gently. “I was wearing this outfit at the time.”
Understanding slowly softened the fierce line of his eyebrows and the glitter in his blue eyes. “Oh.” He swallowed. “Did I hear you say you’re crazy about this guy?”
She nodded.
“I can’t imagine why.” His voice was hoarse. “He’s an idiot.”
“No.” She reached up and touched his cheek. “Just confused.” She stroked the curve of his jaw with a trembling hand. She wanted him, no matter how long he could stay or what his terms might be. “Would you like to cancel that hotel reservation? No one in Copperville has to know that you stayed here during your visit, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m not visiting.”
“What?”
“I’m job hunting, looking into a couple of commuter airlines. I’ve come here to live.”
She reeled from the news. “Mac! What about the ranch? What about your parents?”
“They’ve hired someone to take over my part of the work. Telling them that I needed to go out on my own wasn’t easy, but it was the right thing to do. I should have told them sooner, but I guess I needed you to blaze a trail for me.”
“I’m stunned.”
His eyes grew shadowed. “Look, this puts you under no obligation. I’m not asking you to change your life just because I decided to come here. I mean, sure, I’d like to see you, and everything, but—”
“And what do you mean exactly by and everything?” She moved her hips boldly against his and felt his instantaneous response. “This?”
He groaned softly. “Tess, I—”
“And this?” She pushed the material of his sheik’s robe aside and brushed her jeweled bra against his bare chest.
His gaze smoldered. “You drive me insane, Tess. I’ve missed you so much I can barely think straight.”
She pressed her body against his. “If you can’t think straight, then maybe you don’t remember what you told me when we made love that last time.”
“Oh, I remember that, all right.”
She gathered her courage and continued. “I need to know if it was just something you said in the heat of passion, or if it meant more than that.”
He held her tighter. “You want all my cards on the table, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then take off that damn veil.”
She reached up and unfastened it immediately, tossing it to a nearby chair.
He gazed down at her, his glance warm as it roved over her face. Then he reached beneath his robe and pulled out the pearl necklace. “I think it’s time you put this back on.”
Her heart thudded wildly at the implication. She trembled as he fastened the clasp around her neck and nestled the pearl between her breasts.
“I’m ready.”
“I’m willing to wait until you’ve experienced all…” He paused, as if finally registering what she’d said. He looked into her eyes.
She nodded.
“Oh, God.” His mouth came down on hers, and he kissed her until they were both breathless. “You’re sure?” He held her face in both hands, his gaze probing. “I mean, you just started this new life, and maybe you need to stay single for a couple of years, to—”
“To what? Nothing could be as exciting as living with you as your wife. I think I’ve known that since I was three years old. I love you, Mac, desperately, completely and forever.”
His smile was tender. “Yeah, but do you swear on the tomb of old King Tut?”
“You bet. And now let me give you some vital information. The bedroom is through that door on your right. Do you think we could go in there and make mad, passionate love for about ten hours? I’m feeling very neglected.”
He grinned and lifted her up in his arms. “Only ten hours?”
“For starters.”
He feathered his lips over hers. “Got ice?” he murmured.
Epilogue
PLEASANTLY FULL after a meal of fried chicken and potato salad, Mac lay back on the picnic blanket, closed his eyes and sighed with contentment. No New York traffic, no jackhammers, no jet engines. Only the gurgle of the river, the call of a quail, the rustle of the breeze through the reeds.
He’d visited beaches and riverbanks in many parts of the world this past year, but he’d recognize the baked-sand and wet-moss scent of this one blindfolded. The breeze moved over him like a caress. How he loved summer nights in Arizona.
Something tickled his nose, and he swatted it away. The tickling resumed, and he opened one eye.
Leaning over him, Tess brushed a feathery tip of a wild-grass stalk over his mouth.
He gazed up and noticed that when she leaned over, her blouse gaped open quite nicely. Taking the stalk from her fingers, he slipped it down the front of her blouse and stroked it over the swell of her breasts. “They already seem fuller.”
“It’s probably your imagination. I’m barely three months along.”
“I’ll never forget the look on our folks’ faces when we told them.” He could see desire stirring in her eyes as he continued to tickle her breasts with the grass.
She smiled. “I think they were even happier about the baby than when we told them we were home to stay.”
“I’m pretty happy about that baby, myself.” He brushed the grass up the curve of her throat and tickled under her chin. “Any regrets about leaving the big city?”
“Only that we never did it on top of the Empire State Building.”
“We’ll visit someday and do it then.”
She shook her head. “Nah. We don’t have to. Making love to you for the rest of my life is all the adventure I need.”
“You mean that?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then take off your blouse,” he murmured. The sight of Tess unfastening buttons was one of the joys of his life.
She obliged him and tossed the garment aside before gazing down at him, a question in her gray eyes.
“Keep going.” His erection strained his jeans as she flipped open the front catch of her bra. In another moment her breasts spilled into view, her nipples already taut. He stroked the grass across them anyway, loving the ripple of desire that went through her, the surrender in her sigh.
His voice grew husky. “Lean down.”
She moved over him and he filled both hands with the weight of her breasts, kneading gently as he began to taste her.
While he feasted, she managed to wiggle out of her shorts, open his jeans and free his erection. He groaned with pleasure as she slid down over his rigid shaft. How miraculous to make love this way, without barriers. Releasing her breasts, he guided her down for a long, satisfying kiss.
She drew back and gazed into his eyes as she initiated a slow, sensuous rhythm. “I love you, Mac.”
“And I love you,” he said. Above her the cottonwood leaves dappled the twilight sky. Heaven couldn’t be any better than this. “I love you more than life.” His climax was building quickly, and from the way Tess was breathing, she wasn’t far behind him.
“Stop,” she said, panting. “I just remembered.”
His fevered brain wasn’t working. “Remembered what?”
“Hold on a sec.” She reached toward the small picnic cooler near the edge of the blanket.
He squeezed his eyes shut, teetering on the edge. “I don’t know if I can.” He felt the pulsing begin. “Tess, I can’t—” Something cold pressed against a critical part of his anatomy and he erupted, sensations crashing over him in waves, ripping moans of ecstasy from deep in his chest.
Finally he lay still, spent and quivering, while she sprinkled kisses over his face.
“What…was that?” he asked.
She sounded very smug. “Ice.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6115-4
PURE TEMPTATION
Copyright © 1999 by Vicki Lewis Thompson.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Visit us at www.romance.net
Pure Temptation Page 18
