Heaven Sent

by Rochelle Alers

  Opening his eyes, he stared down at her staring up at him. What he had to admit was that even though Serena appeared young and quite virginal she projected an aura of sensuality that most women could never claim. Her provocative voice, the way she looked up at him through her lashes, and the way she moved were all as measured as a choreographed dance. The entire package screamed silently for him to take her. Take her and enjoy whatever she was willing to offer.

  But was she offering? He shook his head. No. She’d offered him the knowledge of her profession, and nothing more. It was he who wanted more.

  Why now? What could he want from Serena that he hadn’t gotten from other women in his past? And why her? Why the daughter of his nemesis?

  Arching her sculpted eyebrows, Serena smiled. “Are you ready for your walk around the block?”

  Returning her smile, David revealed a mouth filled with large, white, straight teeth. “Lead on, MacDuff.”

  She handed him the cane, watching as he adjusted its length. Gripping the rubber-padded handle with his right hand, he took a step, then another. Satisfaction lit up his dark eyes. He extended his left hand, and he was not disappointed when she grasped it.

  Serena felt the strength of his long fingers curled around hers. “I think we’ll begin with walking the length of the hall. If you get tired let me know, and we’ll stop.”

  Side by side, they made their way out of the bedroom and down the carpeted hallway. David passed the room with the locked door, pausing momentarily. “Whose room is this?”

  Serena glanced at the door, then closed her eyes. When she reopened them she saw David staring at her with an expectant look on his face. “It’s my brother’s.”

  He nodded, wondering why the Vegas had elected to lock the door. He still maintained a bedroom suite at his parents’ West Palm Beach residence, and the door to the suite remained open and available to him whenever he returned.

  Thoughts of his own unoccupied Boca Raton house elicited a wry smile. It had taken him two years to locate the architect who could design the house he sought, and another two years from the time the plans were drawn up to the time the towering structure was completed.

  His home was configured in three sections—the main house, running vertically from the local road, and two additional “bookend” structures that made up a guest house and a recording studio. The rooms were voluminous, with twenty-foot high ceilings, permitting ample height for the intense Florida heat to rise above the tiled and carpeted floors. The main house contained living and dining rooms, a master bedroom, a smaller bedroom, and the kitchen. Guest bedrooms with private balconies were situated within one of the “bookend” structures, which were fully accessible from the courtyard. A series of French doors displayed a bougainvillea-covered pergola bordering the courtyard.

  He thought of the last time he stood in his home, staring out at the swimming pool, noting his approval of the dark finish inside the pool which allowed the water to absorb as much radiant heat as possible during the winter months. What had pleased him most about the structure’s overall design was that screens were designed to slide into walls, so that when the house was open, it was truly open.

  The only thing that had prevented him from moving in was its lack of furnishings. He was to meet with his oldest brother’s wife once he concluded his business with Cordero-Vega to begin the process of selecting furnishings and accessories. The delight in Parris Cole’s green-flecked brown eyes was apparent once she strolled through the massive empty spaces. She’d promised to decorate it with furnishings that would make it a designer’s showplace worthy of a layout for Architectural Digest.

  He had waited four years from design to construction, and he was willing to wait another six months to complete decorating its interiors.

  “What are the chances of your brother being found not guilty?”

  Serena chewed her lower lip before answering. “I don’t really know at this point. My father hired one of the best criminal attorneys in Florida, but he wasn’t able to persuade the judge to let Gabe out on bail.”

  David saw the anguish on her lovely face and registered the pain in her words. He had brothers, and he wondered how he would feel if they were to spend days, months, or even years incarcerated.

  Tightening his grip on her slender hand, he glanced down at her enchanting profile. “I can’t promise you anything, but when I return to Florida I’ll see what my father can do. He no longer wheels and deals like he used to, but he still has enough clout to make a telephone call to Florida’s inner circle of power brokers.”

  Stopping, she turned and smiled at David with an open, expectant expression. “You’d do that?”

  A smile brought an immediate softening to his battered features. Inclining his head, he said quietly, “Yes, I would.”

  Rising on tiptoe, she pressed her mouth to his. “Thank you, David.”

  The warm sweetness of her mouth stoked the smoldering fires burning within him. David was certain that if he had not been holding onto the cane or her fingers, he would have taken Serena in his arms and allowed her to feel the sense of sexual urgency that made him want to take her to his bed.

  He did not want to make love to Serena as much as he wanted to copulate. He did not want emotions to enter into the act. What he wanted was for their coming together to be as primitive and unbridled as an act of mating, and once he entered her body he would hold nothing back. There was something about her that touched the most primeval core of his existence, and he wanted to assuage the savage craving by using her body as a receptacle for his seed. The thought that he wanted to use her body for his lust caused him to stumble.

  “Why don’t we stop and rest?” Serena offered, thinking perhaps that David had tired.

  “It’s okay. I can make it to the end of the hall.” He was breathing heavily, but it wasn’t because he had overexerted himself.

  Why was he thinking of using her, when he’d never used any woman to slake his sexual frustrations? I’m losing it, he berated himself. The last thing he wanted to do was take advantage of Raul Cordero-Vega’s daughter while under the man’s roof. And if he did, he doubted that he would leave Costa Rica with his head intact.

  Continuing down the hall, he noticed an alcove and the door to another room. “What’s there?”

  “My parents’ bedroom.”

  “How did they meet?”

  “His first cousin was my mother’s roommate in college.”

  “Had your mother gone to college in Costa Rica?”

  Serena shook her head. “No. Gabriella came to the States to major in English, while my mother majored in Spanish. Both were foreign language majors. My mother came to Costa Rica during a holiday recess and met Raul at a family gathering.

  “It was apparent that they were attracted to each other, but Juanita was engaged at the time. Family gossip says that Raul followed her around like a lovesick puppy, telling her that if she broke her engagement he would marry her the following day. Juanita did not break her engagement and married my father Hannibal Morris a month after she graduated college.

  “They waited five years before starting a family, because my father wanted to finish medical school. It wasn’t until she was twenty-seven that Juanita found herself pregnant. They were overjoyed with the news, but their joy was short-lived. My father died instantly in a head-on accident when a teenage driver lost control of his car during a severe thunderstorm. My mother, who was eight months pregnant, woke up in a hospital’s recovery room to find that she had become a mother and a widow.

  “She moved in with her parents for a while. Then, when I was six months old, she took Gabriella up on her offer to spend some time with her in San José. She and Raul met again and he pursued her like a man possessed. There were rumors that he took advantage of her grief, but no one would deny that he didn’t love her. A year and a half later she agreed to marry him. Juanita presented Raul with his first and only child the day I celebrated my fourth birthday.”

 
“It appears that your stepfather was a patient man.”

  What he did not say was that Raul Cordero-Vega was also tenacious, stubborn, and obstinate. Each time they met it was he who had compromised, until the last time. But not this time. This time the Interior Minister wouldn’t walk away a winner.

  “He’s not perfect, David. That was something I realized years ago. But he is the only father I have, and I know he loves me as much or more than I love him.”

  They made it to the top of the staircase, turned, and retraced their steps. The sounds of their feet were muffled in the carpeting which ran the length of the hallway. David’s right foot throbbed slightly as he walked into his bedroom and sat down heavily on the side of the bed.

  Serena took the cane from him and rested it against the bedside table, where he could reach it if he needed to get out of bed. “Do you want anything to eat or drink?”

  He barely moved his head and she knew instinctively that his headache had returned. “No,” he managed between clenched teeth. “I just want to rest now.”

  Swinging his legs into the bed, she covered him with a sheet. She ran her fingers down the left side of his face, noting that the flesh over his cheekbone had tightened considerably. Her fingers moved to his temples and she massaged them gently, releasing his tension. She felt the muscles easing with her tender ministrations.

  He stared at her, his gaze as soft and loving as a caress. “Thank you for taking care of me, Miss Serena Morris.”

  She met his gaze with a gentle one of her own. “You’re quite welcome, David C. Cole.”

  He smiled, his dimples winking at her. “The C stands for Claridge. It’s my father’s middle name.”

  “Why don’t you try to get some sleep, and when you wake up we’ll share lunch and you can tell me all about your family.”

  His lids fluttered before a sweep of long black lashes lay on his high cheekbones. “You’ve tucked me in but haven’t given me a kiss,” he teased.

  “Nurses don’t kiss their patients.”

  “You did before.”

  “When?”

  “When I told you that I’d contact my father on your brother’s behalf,” he reminded her.

  Serena felt her face heat up. “That was different. It was a kiss of gratitude.”

  Rising on an elbow, he reached out his right hand and he held her face gently. “Let me show you how grateful I am that you helped save my life.”

  Before she was given an opportunity to protest, Serena found herself lying across David’s bare chest, her mouth fused to his. This kiss was nothing like the one they’d shared on the veranda, or the one she had given him in the hallway.

  His firm lips moved like watered silk over hers, coaxing her to respond as she felt the blood coursing through her veins and arousing the passion she had locked away when her marriage ended.

  She felt the dormant strength in his body as his arms curved possessively around her waist, while his broad shoulders heaved as he breathed in the scent of her bare flesh welded to his. Her breasts grew heavy, the nipples tightening from the shivers of delight igniting between her thighs and journeying upward. She gasped, giving him the advantage he needed, and his tongue slid sinuously between her parted lips.

  His heat, the intoxicating smell of his aftershave, and the protective feel of his arms around her pulled Serena into a cocoon of wanting where she forgot everything but the man whose mouth was doing things to her she had not thought possible.

  Her hands went to his head, where her fingers played in the short, silky strands lying close to his scalp. Moaning softly, she shifted, feeling his hardness searching against her thighs through layers of cotton.

  “Da—vid,” she moaned, his name coming out in a long, lingering sigh of complete satisfaction.

  “Mi vida, mi alma,” he groaned, answering her. And that she was. She had become his life because she had helped give him back his life. And now that he’d kissed her she had become a part of his soul. A soul he did not and could not afford to lose.

  Tightening his grip on her slender body, David reversed their positions, devouring her mouth. He pulled back, giving both a chance to catch their breaths before taking her mouth again in a kiss that made her surrender to his unyielding, relentless assault as her tongue met his.

  Serena welcomed his weight, throwing her head back and baring her throat. He rained passionate kisses along the column of her neck, moving down to her breasts. One hand searched under the bodice of her dress and closed over a full, firm breast.

  Seconds later, his mouth replaced his hand at the same time she arched off the mattress. His teeth closed gently around a turgid nipple. A low, keening sound escaped from her open mouth. Not recognizing the sound as her own, she froze as a rush of moisture bathed the secret place between her legs. Her eyes widened in shock. No! She couldn’t! Not with a stranger!

  “No, David!” She tried rising, but couldn’t because of his greater weight bearing down on her. “Let me go.”

  Through the thick haze of desire making him a prisoner of his own passions, David heard her desperate cry. Raising his head, he stared down at the fear shimmering with the tears in her large, rounded eyes. What had he done to frighten her? All he did was kiss her.

  Cradling her face between his palms, he pressed a kiss on the tip of her nose, then released her and rolled off her body. She slapped his hand away when he attempted to adjust the bodice of her dress.

  He stared at her lowered head as she smoothed out the wrinkled fabric after she’d pulled the narrow straps up over her shoulders. “Don’t expect me to apologize for kissing you.” Her head snapped up at the same time her jaw dropped. “I kissed you because I wanted to,” he explained softly. Her expression shifted from one of shock to anger. “If you hadn’t wanted it, then you should’ve said so, and not kissed me back.”

  Serena scrambled off the bed and glared at him, her hands folded on her hips. “You arrogant son of a—”

  “You liked it, Serena,” he snapped, cutting off her angry tirade. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have had your tongue down my throat.”

  She went completely still as her mind replayed his accusation. You liked it. And she had liked it. No, she loved it. The feel of David’s hands and mouth had taken her beyond herself. And for the few minutes she lay in his arms she’d forgotten every other man who had ever touched her, wondering what it would be like for him to possess her totally.

  Tilting her delicate chin, she stared down her nose at him. “You’re right, David Claridge Cole, I liked it. I liked you kissing and touching me.” It was her turn to watch his expression change from cockiness to bewilderment, and she decided to challenge his arrogance. “And I’m willing to bet that you want more than a kiss or a feel.” Hooking her thumbs under the straps of her dress, she took a step closer to the bed. “You want all of me, David?” she crooned. “Do you feel up to burning up the sheets? Do you think you can handle me?”

  He watched, mouth gaping, as Serena slipped the straps of her dress off her shoulders and gathered the skirt and pulled it above her knees, baring her slim, muscled thighs. Her lids lowered over her eyes, not permitting him to see their clear gold depths.

  “Do you mind me being on top?” she questioned, her voice dropping to a lower register where it sounded like a muted horn in a thick fog. “I like submission in my men when I make love.”

  The blood rushed to David’s head, tightening the vise of pain around his temples. He wanted the blood in another part of his body so that he could take the seductive witch up on her challenge, but it was not to be. The heat and pain stabbed him behind his left eye, nearly blinding him.

  “I can’t,” he admitted. He shook his head, then chided himself for doing so as the pain intensified. Easing down on the bed, he lay back and placed a muscled forearm over his forehead. “Please go.”

  Serena pressed her attack. “I’ll go, but I want you to remember something, Sport. Don’t ever tell me what I want or like. I’m quite capable of verba
lizing my wants and my dislikes. If I want you to kiss me or decide I want you in my bed I’ll come out and tell you. Do I make myself clear, or do you need the Spanish translation?”

  “Lo siento mucho,” David apologized, breathing heavily and wishing she would leave him alone.

  “So am I,” she countered, turning and walking out of the room. And she was sorry, sorry that she had permitted him to kiss her, sorry that she enjoyed it so much, and sorry that it reminded her of how sterile her life had become.

  Chapter 14

  Serena spent the afternoon berating herself for her wanton exhibition in David’s bedroom. For a brief, crazed moment she had become a puta, displaying her wares and offering herself to a man for his sexual pleasure. What had saved her was that he had not been able to follow through with the blatant seduction.

  Walking slowly through the greenhouse, she barely noticed the many plants and trees as she recalled David’s gasp when she’d bared her thighs. A smile softened and curved her lush mouth when she remembered telling him that she liked being on top. Just for that brief instant she feared that he would faint. It was only after he lay down that she realized that he was in pain.

  But something also nagged at her, telling her that David Cole was not a man who would permit a woman to openly challenge him. If he was anything like her father, she knew he would exact punishment at another time, and by his own methods.

  Shrugging a slender shoulder, she continued her tour of the enormous, enclosed, glass structure. She and David had not shared lunch because she told Luz Maria to have one of the women assigned to La Montaña’s housekeeping staff bring him his lunch. Deciding to forego her own meal, she telephoned Leandro and suggested that he come by after office hours to check on his patient. She wanted him to discharge David so that he could conclude his business matters with her father, then leave Costa Rica. Having him live at La Montaña had become too encompassing and distracting.