That clarity staggered her. There was no longer darkness or doubt or hardness or turmoil within her, only a brilliant clarity that pulled her head up so she could gaze into Luke's eyes. Oh, those green eyes. They looked down into hers with a tenderness that made her tremble and with a heat that wasn't just physical passion, but something else, something she had never known before and couldn't quite recognize.
"Luke," she murmured, her mouth seeking his, joining it in a gentle embrace that seemed to Tess to say so much.
He held her tightly in his arms, her head resting against his chest. She heard the fast, hard beat of his heart and didn't understand it at first until sensation fully returned and she felt the tension of his body against hers. She felt the hard heat of his desire, and still he held her, his arms wrapped around her as if he would never let her go.
The world felt different somehow. It took a moment for Tess to find the word.
Safe.
She was safe for the first time in her life.
And so she went a little mad. She pushed Luke onto his back, her mouth finding his as her hands explored his taut skin, desperate to learn every inch of him.
"Tess—"
"You don't know," she said, talking quickly, "you can't know how much I need to touch you, how much I need you. You don't know."
Her fingers traced every inch of his skin, her mouth following in heated kisses, her tongue occasionally lapping out, tasting, savoring, as Luke began to writhe beneath her. She knew the utmost satisfaction, that she could please him, make him want her, strip away his own defenses as he had stripped away hers. Never had she known such pure joy.
"I want you in me now," she gasped.
With a groan, he rolled her onto her back, kissing her as if he meant to devour her. She returned each hot caress, arching against him, her hands feverish against his back, pulling him closer, imploring, cradling him between her legs.
"There's never been anything…" he gasped. "I've never… Oh God!"
He thrust into her then, fully, deeply, both of them crying out. Tess's head was thrown back, her cry a mingling of pain and the stunning newness of this bonding.
"Tess," Luke said, gazing down at her, his face taut with worry.
"Don't," Tess gasped. "I don't want your concern. I don't want tenderness. I want this," she said, arching up into him, pulling him even deeper into this fevered joining.
The world shattered all around Tess as Luke began to move within her. Nothing existed except this heat and this wrenching pleasure and this passionate man in her arms who was guiding her on a journey she had never anticipated. All she could do was wrap her arms and legs around him and ride out the storm they had created, listen to their ragged gasps of breath, feel everything, feel every millimeter of herself and Luke, and this roiling storm.
One hand clenched in his chestnut hair, she dragged his mouth back to hers, her tongue slipping into him to plunder and join, mirroring his own urgent thrusts. There was a pressure within her, a tension she had never known. She was afraid to let it claim her. Afraid to let it go.
"Luke!" she cried out, asking for something she couldn't name.
He cupped her head in his hands, his emerald eyes burning into her, burning away the fear.
"Take me now," he said hoarsely.
Their sharp cries blended in the gentle silence of the library.
* * *
Tess slowly drifted back into consciousness, feeling warm and utterly content and safe … until she opened her eyes and saw Luke resting on his elbow and smiling down at her.
Oh God, what had she done?
With a recklessness Tess could not comprehend, she had opened herself, heart and soul, to this man who meant to see her ruined. In that moment, Tess knew the ultimate definition of vulnerability. It was this feeling curling through her body, making her aware of every inch of the man beside her.
"Oh crud, what do we do now?" she burst out without thinking.
Luke began to laugh even as a blush crept into her cheeks.
"I meant—" she began.
"I know," Luke said, shaking with laughter.
Tess couldn't help but smile. She was being ridiculous. After what they had just shared, she couldn't go back to hiding her feelings, let alone denying the truth within her. She had known glory in Luke's arms and a joy that still shimmered in her blood. She smiled because there was just so much that drew her to this man who a few minutes ago had been as open and vulnerable to her as she was to him. There was no ruse, no hidden agenda. What they had just shared was real and right and true and Tess couldn't have been more amazed.
Amazed not only because a lifetime of her self-built walls lay crumbled to dust, but amazed that a man who had endured so much betrayal and pain in his life would still leap off that harrowing cliff into … what? Tess had no name for what they had just shared. But she knew what they were sharing now: comradeship.
"Are you quite finished?" she politely inquired as Luke finally got himself under control.
He flashed her a decidedly wicked grin. "For now."
Tess blushed again. "My question still stands. What do we do now, and no lewd suggestions, please. We are sitting naked in the Cushman library, our skin is flushed, the scent of sex is in the air. Even Hodgkins could figure out what's been going on and he would be horrified."
"Are you?" Luke asked, brushing a wisp of hair from her forehead.
"Appalled, perhaps," Tess conceded, "but not horrified, at least not now."
"Good," Luke said, leaning across and kissing her lightly on her mouth, "because I refuse to retract one second of what just happened between us."
Tess grimaced. "It is the oddest sensation to be sitting naked with a man discussing sex."
Luke chuckled. "Which raises an interesting point: what do you mean by being a virgin?"
Tess blushed again. "It used to be an acceptable state for the unmarried female."
"Are you telling me that not one of those princes or millionaires or talented jewel thieves was able to lure you into bed?"
"There he goes," Tess said with a sigh, "getting a swelled head."
"That's not the only thing that's swollen."
"Luke!"
He erupted once more into laughter.
"I'm glad at least one of us is having a good time," Tess said grimly.
"I haven't felt this good in years," Luke assured her. "So what do we do now?"
"I suppose," Tess said, biting her lower lip, "that we'll have to stop spitting and hissing at each other."
"That sounds reasonable. I am personally in favor of a truce."
"Truce?"
"I think we've accomplished a cessation of all hostilities, don't you?"
"I wondered what that was."
"What else should we do now?" Luke innocently inquired.
But Tess wasn't fooled. Her blush deepened. "Maybe," she said casting him an anxious glance, "we should both agree that why I'm in this house isn't as important as it used to be."
"Oh, that's a given," Luke said, his eyes dark with passion.
It was hard to catch her breath. "And I guess, at least in private, that we should probably start acting like … like…"
"Lovers?"
Tess paled. She drew her knees up to her chest and buried her face in her hand. "I am losing my mind."
"I noticed. I like it … a lot."
Tess raised her head. "You like the oddest things."
Luke smiled at her. "You've reminded me of them ever since I met you. I had forgotten how much I like adventure. You've brought adventure into my life with a vengeance and I love it. I love the anticipation, the excitement. I love that no day, no hour, is the same as the last. Oh, I hate it, too. I hate floundering around in the dark. But I haven't felt this alive since I was a kid. I owe you more than I can say, Tess Alcott."
And what would he say a week or two from now when the con was over? Tess wondered. The thought chilled her.
"Getting cold?" Luke asked and, when she
nodded, he scooped up her pajamas and handed them to her. "Here, you'd better get dressed."
Tess was more than happy to oblige. She pulled on the pajama bottoms and then the top. Luke's long fingers suddenly closed over her hands and pushed them away. Then he methodically began to button her cotton top one button after the other. Tess trembled inwardly. What she really wanted was for Luke to undress her and make love to her all over again.
Instead, they stood together in the library, she dressed, he still gloriously naked.
"Um," she said, not quite able to meet his gaze, "how exactly have we agreed to act with each other?"
"As lovers."
"Yes, but what does that mean? I've never been… I mean…"
"I know. I'm a bit rusty myself," Luke said gently, one hand sifting through her hair. "We'd probably better move slowly. Our conflicts of interest haven't evaporated, they've just been put on the back burner." His green eyes grew darker. "The far back burner," he groaned as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her as if he would never let her go.
"Oh," Tess gasped when he finally let her catch her breath, "we'd probably better agree to do that at least once a day to start."
"Twice."
"Three times."
"Sold." Luke bundled her tightly against him.
Tess had never known such happiness. Luke's heart was beating against her cheek, his arms holding her safe.
Why had she ever been afraid of this?
* * *
CHAPTER ELEVEN
« ^ »
It took several minutes for Tess to make the return trip upstairs, because Luke—wearing only his slacks—was her escort and every few steps he—or she—would lunge for the other and the clinch tended to be both long and dizzying. Finally, however, Tess found herself back in her bed—alone—and feeling very odd.
Did lovemaking always create this awe that welled within her now? New or reclaimed—emotions were surging to the surface. It was hard, in many ways, for Tess to recognize herself. Where was the frigid, passionless, calm, methodical woman she had known all of her adult life?
"Lovers," she said softly into the room. She trembled slightly. "We are lovers." She believed it.
She felt like Dorothy walking out the front door into a Technicolor Munchkinland. She considered herself with a sense of wonder. The shadows of her soul had not yet returned. She felt almost newborn, innocent in a way her life had never let her be, because she trusted and believed in someone other than herself.
She was still Tess Alcott, but a Tess she had never met before. Would this new Tess stay? Or would the cold realities of her job and the ever-present threat from Bert catapult her back into her old self?
Tess grimaced. She liked where she was, who she was, just now. To return to that other Tess would be stultifying, claustrophobic imprisonment.
She rolled onto her stomach. She was new now and she liked it. Her body reminded her of every moment in Luke's arms. That had been freedom. With a smile, she slowly drifted asleep.
Tess dreamt that she stood only two feet away staring at the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Margo Holloway's long, dark brown hair was pulled back into a chignon, emphasizing the sculpted planes of her face. Her eyes were large, dark brown, luminous. Her mouth was lush, ripe, intoxicating. The prison gown she wore did nothing to hide a figure that would drive any sane man to lust.
Suddenly Margo reached out and grabbed the front of Tess's shirt, jerking her forward until they were standing almost nose to nose. "Be very careful around Luke Mansfield, kid. He's a cobra whenever he thinks he's been betrayed. Sleeping with him, however much he claims to have enjoyed it, is just another way to put the noose around your neck. Trust me," Margo said, stepping back into her jail cell, "I know."
The slam of the cell door jerked Tess awake. She sat up, shivering in the gray predawn.
"Making love was not a trap," Tess said aloud over and over again, like a mantra. "He meant every kiss, every caress, every word. He did!"
Still, she couldn't shake the dream. With a sigh, she lay back down and pulled the comforter to her chin. Maybe the best way to banish Margo from her thoughts and her dreams was to see her, talk to her, make her real. Find out if Luke really had used sex to get back at her.
But no, that wasn't like Luke! He would never use someone like that.
Except, according to Baldwin Security's files, he had fallen in love with Margo, he had made love to her, they had lived together and, once Leroy Baldwin had proved to him, after her acquittal, that she had murdered her father, Luke had been the moving force behind the firm's around-the-clock surveillance of Ms. Holloway that had finally landed her in jail for life.
"All right, all right," Tess muttered. "He's a dangerous man and everything in the library was real. I've just got to hold on to that, and my sanity, and everything will be fine."
There were no more nightmares. Still, Tess woke into the bright morning sunlight feeling a little disgruntled that last night's happiness had been dimmed by Margo Holloway. She definitely had to banish the murderess from her dreams. What she and Luke were creating was too lovely to be lessened by an old ghost.
She showered and dressed quickly, placed a call to Gladys to ask her to arrange a meeting with Margo, and then headed downstairs, uncertain what the day would bring, uncertain how to act with Luke, uncertain about what she even wanted.
Until she came to a screeching halt on the third to the last step of the stairs.
Luke stood in the Grand Hall staring hungrily up at her with his clear green eyes. Tess's heart rate became erratic; her brain function ceased.
"Luke," she said, unaware she had spoken.
"Tess," he growled, dragging her down into his arms.
Her breasts were crushed against his broad chest as his mouth slanted across hers, hungry, insatiable, demanding … everything.
She felt like dry paper held near a roaring fire, setting her ablaze.
She arched up to merge her fire with his. He demanded entrance and she parted her lips eagerly, a moan welling up from her throat as he began an intimate exploration that left her trembling in his arms, arms that pulled her closet so that she felt the full, hard length of the man and it was glorious.
With a gasp, she pulled from his arms and backed up a few steps, her breast heaving with the effort to draw oxygen into her lungs.
"That's one out of three," she managed.
Luke grinned at her. Every dark suspicion that had ever lurked in his eyes had melted away. "No rapid back-pedaling? No frozen pronouncements that we've got to return to a saner path?" he inquired.
"Are you nuts?" Tess demanded, arms akimbo.
"Certifiably," Luke said, kissing her gently once, twice, and then stepping back. "I've got to go to work."
"I'll bet you say that to all the girls."
He smiled down at her in utter delight. "You're really getting the hang of this."
"I was always a fast learner," Tess said modestly.
Chuckling, Luke kissed her once more and then headed for the front door.
With a happy sigh, Tess journeyed to the breakfast room to be met by the frozen gaze of Hodgkins who brittlely informed her that Jane had breakfasted in bed and would be down shortly.
"Your usual hot chocolate, miss?"
Tess considered this. "Not today, thanks. I feel like having a glass of lemonade with breakfast."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Lemonade. It's a drink. You use lemons. I'd also like some toast and scrambled eggs."
Hodgkins slid out of the room as Tess took her seat at the table.
A moment later, Hodgkins stolidly reentered the breakfast room, portable phone in hand. "Dr. Weinstein is calling for you, Miss Alcott," he announced with no trace of emotion.
Really, the man's manners were improving every day.
Tess took the phone and watched the butler leave the room. "Hello, Max," she said when she was sure she was alone. "What's up?"
"We need to talk, yo
u little fool. Now!"
Tess's happy bubble exploded. Fear replaced all thoughts and feelings. She knew that tone of voice. It had preceded some horrible beatings in her childhood. "Um, no can do, Doc. Jane wants to take me to the office with her."
"You will meet with me now or I will come there and personally tear you limb from limb! Your choice."
"Well, gee, Max, if my mental health is in such grave danger, I'll be right over," Tess replied. She hung up the phone, her fingers drumming for a moment on the receiver.
So much for her rose-colored world. She could feel the hardness sliding back into place to reinforce the mask she habitually wore.
Hodgkins placed a breakfast tray before her and Tess stared at the food. She had no appetite. The thought of eating made her stomach churn. But still, if she was going to be meeting with Bert, she would need all the strength she could get. She forced herself to choke down the eggs and half of the toast. The lemonade was a cool, tart blessing that steadied her stomach and her nerves.
Pushing back her chair, Tess started for Jane's suite of rooms on the second floor and met her only halfway up the stairs.
"Ah, there you are, my dear," Jane said. "Hodgkins said you had a call from Dr. Weinstein?"
"Yes," Tess said, the lie already fully formed in her mind. "One of his patients went into crisis on a business trip to Seattle and he has to fly out tonight. He wants to see me for a few minutes this morning to make sure I'm doing all right before leaving me in the lurch."
"What a considerate man," Jane said. "Shall we rendezvous at my office in two hours and then go to lunch?"
"That would be perfect, Jane. Sorry for the change in plans."
"Don't give it a thought," Jane replied with a kiss on her forehead. Tess nearly jumped. "Shall we?" Jane said, offering her arm.
Tess looped her arm through Jane's when she wanted to run instead. Jane had used physical affection on her constantly and it was constantly throwing her off balance. Was this some sort of weird manipulation, like the physical examination, to catch her unawares and get her to make a mistake? She wouldn't put it past the matriarch. Jane Cushman was nobody's fool and everybody's nightmare when she was on the attack.
STOLEN HEARTS Page 13
