Tall, Dark...And Framed?

by Cathleen Galitz

  And as beautiful as a butterfly spreading its wings for the first time since escaping its cocoon.

  Gone was the sense of deep inadequacy she had always felt with Joe. In place of the awkward girlish lover she considered herself to be was a woman secure in her own sensuality. In the loving circle of this man’s arms, she did not shy away from the passion he offered, but rather opened herself up to it fully. She slipped her hands to his collar and un-loosened his tie. The buttons of his shirt gave way beneath her eager fingertips.

  When his hands reached up to stop her, Susan’s newfound sense of feminine prowess splintered into shards of broken glass and pierced her vulnerable heart. Hot tears rose to her eyes and clouded her vision. It was no code of ethics governing lawyer-client relations that was stopping him from taking her on the spot as she so desperately wanted. No, she told herself, shattered. The fact that Seb pulled away from her advances could mean but one thing.

  He simply didn’t want her.

  Six

  Seb wanted this woman as he had never wanted any woman before. What he was feeling was more than mere physical longing. He cared for Susan, as well. From the very first time he’d laid eyes on her, she stirred a protective response in him that he had never felt for another. Many was the time he had played the part of the hero in carrying out covert missions for the Texas Cattleman’s Club, but never had he felt such an overwhelming need as the need he felt now, to see himself reflected in this woman’s eyes as someone worthy of her consideration. Unfortunately the fact that she was defending him against charges of murder made that an extraordinarily difficult task.

  When her cocky little jerk of an ex-husband had gone out of his way to be rude back at Claire’s, Seb found it hard confining himself to verbal jabs alone. What he’d really wanted to do was break a few more blood vessels in that bulbous drinker’s nose of Joe’s by driving a fist through his smug expression. If Joe Wysocki was that vicious in public, Seb wondered how he had treated Susan in private. The thought of her enduring that kind of abuse caused the blood to bubble and surge through his body in angry spurts.

  Having seen the pain reflected in Susan’s big, doe-like eyes and witnessed firsthand how she curled protectively around herself like a seashell in the man’s presence, Seb did not want to take advantage of her simply because she was feeling vulnerable tonight. Still, if their relationship was to move to the next level, he planned to offer this woman more than a shoulder to cry on. He needed to be wanted with the same intensity that he felt for her. Though Seb considered himself a good man, he had no desire to be a saint.

  He wasn’t exactly sure what he was feeling…beyond overpowering desire. He only knew that when he had first posed that ridiculous bet down at the Texas Cattleman’s Club about who would be the last bachelor standing at their annual charity ball, he had never dreamed such a phenomenal woman would enter his life—and certainly not under such bizarre circumstances. In light of the fact that he might well be spending the night of the big charity ball doing time rather than orchestrating the social event of the year, it hardly seemed fair to ask Susan to consider him a potential suitor.

  Indeed, the possibility of marriage had crossed his devoted housekeeper’s mind far more often than it did his own. For as many years as Rosa had been after him to find a nice woman and settle down, she had never been particularly impressed with the predatory women who had set their sights on him. She sized them up truthfully enough: pretty, flighty things able to carry on little conversation beyond the gossip presented in the local society pages and incapable of calculating beyond the impact that his considerable fortune would have on their lives. On the whole, Seb considered them too much like the young gold diggers his father fancied to be taken very seriously. Susan’s humble background, altruism and sense of independence made her completely different from other women who had slipped in and out of his life like ghosts. He felt certain that Rosa would approve of her.

  That is, if he could stop Susan from running out on him right here and now. She jumped up from the couch with unshed tears glistening in her eyes and glanced at her watch.

  “It’s late. You’d better get on home.”

  Seb reached out and gently encircled her wrist with one hand.

  “I think you misunderstood my intentions. I certainly didn’t mean to insult you,” he said softly, drawing her back into his lap and letting her know just how aroused she made him. “I want to be sure that you don’t feel pressured to do anything that you’ll regret later. I don’t want to be held solely responsible for crossing that precious lawyer-client boundary that you’ve been using as a shield to keep me at arm’s distance since the first time I expressed an interest in you as a woman.”

  Susan stopped tugging to be released from his grip long enough to consider his feelings. He was right, of course. She wasn’t being fair to him—or to herself, for that matter.

  “I shouldn’t have to remind you that I’m not your ex-husband,” Seb chided softly. His gaze never wavered as he searched the depths of her soul through the mirrors of her eyes. “Or some jerk who wants nothing more than the bragging rights to a one-night stand. If you want me to stay the night, Susan, you’ll have to be the one to do the asking. And you need to be prepared to have me stick around for more than breakfast the next morning.”

  Susan felt a fire building behind her eyes. It wasn’t the kind of speech she expected to hear from a man whom the social pages characterized as a world-class womanizer. Truly, his words were as honest and forthright as the desire shining in his eyes. It was a refreshing change to be treated by a man as an equal rather than as a puppet to be manipulated and controlled.

  Yielding to an impulse, she leaned forward and kissed Seb on the cheek. “That’s for giving me the opportunity to make up my own mind,” she told him, noting the disappointment that crossed Seb’s features as he struggled to accept her apparent decision to keep their relationship on a strictly professional level.

  “And this,” she added, slipping her hands inside his shirt, “is for allowing me the prerogative of changing it.”

  Never had she felt so brazen or powerful as when her touch caused him to moan aloud. The sound of it reverberated through her body like a tuning fork, making it hum in eager expectation. Feeling a surge of womanly confidence, Susan didn’t fumble with the buttons on his shirt as she had before, but rather freed them all with the expertise of one far more schooled in the art of seduction than she actually was. Her lips sought the sensitive hollow between his collarbones. From there she trailed kisses along the curve of his neck to his square jaw, where the stubble of a day’s growth of beard brushed against her own tender flesh and thrilled her with its unmistakable masculinity.

  Clothes littered the floor in a trice. A woman’s yellow suit jacket, a silk tie, shoes, socks, all marked the path to a tidy little bedroom. Since she’d occupied this apartment, no man had lain on her new violet-patterned sheets. If the decor was too feminine for his tastes, Seb did not say so as he carried her to the bed, tore back the comforter and placed her upon those clean, inviting sheets. He paused a moment to gaze at her half-naked beauty as one would behold a painting of inestimable worth.

  Slowly and with utmost care, he proceeded to finish undressing her. First the silken shirt that hung only where it was tucked into her skirt. He paused to pay her breasts tribute by cupping them in both hands and depositing kisses on their creamy abundance before unsnapping the fastener at the back of her satin-and-lace bra and feasting his eyes on all their loveliness.

  At his pronouncement that they were “perfect,” Susan felt relief wash over her. Pleased that she hadn’t disappointed him, she lifted her hips off the mattress to assist in the act of divesting herself of her matching split skirt and nylons. By the time Seb reached for her lacy panties, Susan thought she was going to die from pleasure. It was so sublime that every cell in her body throbbed in anticipation. That his body was reacting in a similar fashion was undeniable and incredibly gratifying to a woman who
up until this very moment had been uncertain about her ability to please a man sexually.

  Erotic silhouettes danced against the walls in the light cast by a bulb burning in the hallway. Time slowed as minute details became succulent morsels of sensuality to savor. Seeing Seb undress was less an act of voyeurism than the beholding of something awesome. Susan watched in reverence.

  Standing well over six feet, he looked to her like a beautiful warrior worthy of comparison to a Michelangelo sculpture. Seb was quick, however, to remind her that he was not made of stone but of flesh. He reached out and took one of her feet into his hands and began kneading it softly. The act brought tears to Susan’s eyes. Never before had she been treated to such tender foreplay. Never had she been pleasured so skillfully.

  In Seb’s hands, she felt herself a sacred object.

  From the soles of her feet, he massaged his way along her ankles to her calves, pausing to nibble whenever he felt the need. By the time he reached her thighs, Susan was moaning. Unaware of the sounds emanating from someplace faraway and deep inside, she was conscious only of the feel of flesh against flesh, of lips devouring her and making her whole. She opened her heart to him, silently begging him to stop, hoping he would not.

  “Not yet,” he said. His voice was the sound of water washing gravel down a stream and had the power to smooth rough edges from the sharpest pebbles.

  Susan wondered what she would do if the dam restraining Seb’s passion broke and the floodwaters swept her away to places she had never been. Would she revel in it, emerging anew, like Aphrodite from the foam?

  Seb did not give her the opportunity to consider such matters long. Kissing the feminine curve of her tummy, he dispersed such thoughts along with any haunting reminders of how Joe had enjoyed finding fault with the body singing beneath a gentler man’s touch. Susan cried out as he suckled her breasts, worshiping each equally and reiterating his opinion that she was flawless.

  He kissed her so thoroughly that Susan yearned for consummation as never before. She beseeched him with more than her eyes alone to take her completely. That he was able to remember protection at such a time surprised her—she herself was beyond rational thought. Though she knew she would appreciate his wisdom later, right now she wanted to know that this brief hiatus taxed him, as well as her. Needing proof of the power she exercised over him, she took Seb intimately into her hands and was gratified to find him rock hard.

  “See what you do to me?” he murmured, demanding that she take ownership of the state of his arousal.

  Lowering himself to her, he murmured her name as if uttering a prayer.

  Simultaneously Susan cried out Seb’s name in astonishment. Having had but one lover before him, she was not prepared to be filled so completely or to succumb so fully to a manliness that demanded so much of her body without intentionally inflicting pain. Indeed, Seb had no need of trying to make himself seem bigger than he actually was in any way whatsoever.

  On the verge of losing control, he somehow managed to restrain himself. “Am I hurting you?” he asked, searching her eyes in the dim light for the truth, for fear she might well lie just to spare his feelings.

  Not yet, she longed to tell him, suspecting the real hurt would come later, after the sweet soreness of the lovemaking had long faded. She wasn’t sure whether her poor heart could survive the memory of a night such as this, could not bear the thought of going back to the lonely life that had been hers before Seb had made her his own.

  Not to be dissuaded by logic, her body refused to allow her mind to override passion. Flesh demanded no more than what the moment had to offer, and it had far, far more to offer than Susan had ever thought possible between a man and a woman. Slick with wanting, her tender flesh stretched to accept a union in which two became one.

  Bodies throbbing with tension seemed to share the same breath as they scaled heights few dared to attempt. Reaching the peak was exquisite torture, as each movement brought them closer and closer to a sweet release that promised to open the doors of bliss. Glistening with sweat, they clung to one another and rode out the explosion that rocked the earth beneath them and metaphorically aligned the stars blinking in the heavens above. Together they drifted away to an emotional plane where souls achieved the freedom of weightlessness.

  Left behind, their bodies trembled in aftershock, and they took pleasure in slowly subsiding pulsation.

  “Hold me through the night,” Susan entreated, fearing that if she closed her eyes, Seb would disappear, leaving her to curse a dream too sweet to be true. She clung to him.

  Along with a strand of hair that had fallen haphazardly across her cheek, he brushed away her insecurities. Arranging her hair on the pillow so that it resembled a halo, he assured her, “I’m not going anywhere.”

  He hoped not, anyway, brushing away thoughts about the impending trial that could well rob him of his freedom. Clearly Susan was worried that the case was not going well.

  Long past the time when her breathing deepened into sound and peaceful sleep, he lay awake studying her. Smart, funny, sexy—and clearly terrified of falling in love again—she was unlike anyone he had ever known before. Despite a difficult childhood and a monstrous marriage, she’d retained an innocence that touched something so deep inside him that he trembled as he placed a kiss on her cheek. Repose smoothed the worry lines from her face, making her look like an angel.

  Seb felt a fierce surge of tenderness as he watched her sleep. Suddenly this devoted bachelor wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life getting to know this woman better and proving to her that love could be both tender and passionate.

  Curling his body around hers, Seb considered all he had to lose if things did not turn around for him soon. He’d known the risks when he’d accepted the covert mission for the Texas Cattleman’s Club that prevented him from providing the alibi that would clear his name. Still, the thought of forsaking his own heart for a higher principle couldn’t keep a man warm in prison.

  Seb tightened his grip around Susan and vowed somehow to find a way of protecting the club without sacrificing himself in the process.

  Seven

  Susan awoke to the aroma of coffee and frying bacon. True to his word, Seb had not only stayed for breakfast but even appeared to be in the process of fixing it himself. He must have gone to the grocery store while she was sleeping, because Susan hadn’t had more than a half-gallon of milk and a loaf of moldy bread in her refrigerator. She was deeply touched by his thoughtfulness. Who would have guessed a millionaire could cook the way he did? Both in the kitchen and the bedroom…

  Having enjoyed good sex only occasionally before, Susan reveled in the aftermath of truly great sex. It had truly been a mind-boggling experience. Last night the world had seemed to extend no farther than Susan’s skin. No fireworks display could compare to the explosions that had rocked her so completely and sent her spinning dangerously out of control. The memory alone was enough to make her moan with renewed longing for Seb’s loving touch. Though her mother assured her that it wasn’t enough to base a marriage on, Susan was sure that such intense physical pleasure would help any relationship over the rough spots.

  The indentation on the pillow next to her was a sweet reminder that she had not just awakened from a dream too good to be true. Drawing his pillow close to her, Susan breathed deeply of his masculine scent and wished there was some way of bottling the heady fragrance. Then she would have something around to remind her of Seb once she became a distant memory to him and he was back to his glamorous, jet-setting life. After his acquittal…

  Or after spending years in prison for a crime she was certain he did not commit. A crime he might pay for as a direct result of her lack of skill in the courtroom.

  Self-pity was instantly swallowed by a sense of panic. What if she was unable to prove him innocent of the charges? The last two juries she’d faced had decided against her client, and in this particular case, she had even less to go on than in either of those. Susan did
n’t think she could live with herself if she failed this man. She wasn’t sure she could ever get out of bed again if Seb was to disappear from her life for any reason whatsoever.

  She pulled the pillow over her face to stifle her feelings, lest they somehow find voice and alert Seb to her fears. The last thing he needed right now was to discover his attorney unraveling. That sort of thing didn’t tend to inspire confidence in clients, and right now Susan knew it was important to be strong for him, as well as for her.

  “What have I done?” she mumbled into the pillow, punching it once for good measure.

  “Hungry, sleepyhead?” a deep sexy voice asked from the doorway.

  Bare-chested, Seb took her breath away.

  “Uh-huh,” she affirmed, covering herself with a sheet as she sat up in bed. “And after I satisfy my hunger, do you think we could have some breakfast?”

  “You’re incorrigible,” he replied with a lazy grin. “This certainly is a side of you I’ve never seen before, Counselor. Just as soon as you sample the veritable feast I’ve prepared for you in the kitchen, I’d sure like to see more of it.”

  Smiling coyly, Susan lowered her sheet with all the suspense of a practiced striptease artist.

  “More of this?” she asked, feeling naughty and playful and completely unlike her normal modest—boring?—self. From where this wanton woman had sprung was a mystery, but judging by Seb’s reaction, she would definitely have to bring her out more often.

  “Well,” he said, knitting his eyebrows and tapping his brow as if actually thinking it over, “seeing as you do have a microwave to heat my fine cuisine up later, I cast a vote for breakfast in bed.”