by Leanne Banks
Too long, she decided, opening the closet door. She rummaged past the shoes and boxes until she found the box she was looking for. Sitting on the floor, she carefully lifted the porcelain music box and set it on the carpet.
It was still beautiful. The man still had his arms clasped around the pretty lady. His head tilted toward hers; her gaze was lifted toward his.
Katherine noticed a few things she hadn’t before. He held her so tightly that her dress wrinkled where he touched her. It was almost as if he were nudging her closer. And her hand didn’t rest artfully on his shoulder. It clasped firmly. She seemed to be leaning in to him. The man’s eyes and hair were dark like Alex’s. Catching herself, Katherine shook her head at her craziness.
She blew the worst of the dust off the figures and wound it up. Nothing happened. Disappointment sifted through her. It had been broken for years, she reminded herself. There was no reason it should work now. She tinkered with it for a few minutes, trying to prod it into playing.
A light knock sounded at her door, and Alex walked in. The water from his recent shower dotted his chest and kept his hair smooth. The earring, which was a secret turn-on for Katherine, winked impudently. He wore a pair of jeans that outlined his lower body with heart-stopping intimacy. His gaze for her was equally intimate. Then he caught sight of the music box. “So, there it is.” He knelt beside her. “Will it play?”
“No,” she said sadly. “Still broken. Beautiful, but broken. It’s probably because I played it so much that summer when I was ten.”
“And you think he looks like me?”
“Yes. Dark hair and eyes. Very gallant. Very intense.”
He touched the lady’s hair, then Katherine’s. “She should have been a redhead with eyes that shine like diamonds.”
“Think so?” she whispered.
Alex leaned closer and kissed her cheek. “I know so.” He shoved the closet door closed and gestured toward the full-length mirror. “Look.” He picked up the wide-tooth comb and pulled it through her hair. “What do you see?”
Katherine saw eyes that said too much and lips that wanted and needed. She saw a woman passionately, desperately in love. She closed her eyes against it. “I see the perm from hell.”
He gave her hair a sharp tug. “Wrong. You see the kind of hair men dream about. They fantasize about burying their fingers in it.”
“Honest?” Her eyes met his in the mirror. “Is that what you do?”
“Yes.” He pushed the collar of her robe down to her shoulder and kissed the skin there. “I think about how your hair would feel brushing against my chest and belly. The idea—” he paused, and his lips slanted sensually “—teases me.”
The idea teased her, too, but she’d wanted things to proceed differently tonight. She pulled away, standing. “You’re messing up my plans. I wanted tonight to be special.”
He nodded, giving her a knowing look. “That’s why you insisted on separate showers.”
“Yes. So I could get—” she felt flustered “—get pretty for you. Or at least try,” she muttered, looking away in embarrassment.
“You already are pretty—no, beautiful.” He rose to stand beside her. “But I’m curious. What would you have done?”
“I would have tried to tame my hair.”
“Too late. I like it wild, anyway. What else would you have done?”
She felt silly and self-conscious. She shrugged. “Just a few things. Women things,” she said, hoping that would be enough.
His gaze caressed her. “Perfume?”
She nodded.
“Makeup?”
“Just a little.”
His grin was slow and very male. “Sexy lingerie?”
He was enjoying her discomfort entirely too much. Katherine tilted her nose into the air. “Possibly.”
“Don’t get snooty.” He took her hand and looked at it. “You don’t need a manicure.” He frowned. “Come to think of it, you never need a manicure.”
“I do them when I’m nervous. Have since I was a teenager.”
He was silent for a long moment. “Your nails have been a different color nearly every day since I’ve been here.”
“I’ve been nervous nearly every day since you’ve been here,” she retorted, grabbing back her hand.
He chuckled and hugged her from behind. “So I’ve ruined your plans. Let me make it up to you.”
Her mind filled with unbidden sensual images. She shook her head. “No, it’s not—”
He quieted her by covering her mouth with his hand. It was warm and gentle. “You’re still resisting me.” He turned her to face the mirror. “Just for tonight, don’t.”
Their gazes met and mingled in the dark reflection. She felt the call of him in her blood. Her chest tightened with anticipation, while a thread of apprehension wove its way around her belly. There was a dark desire that seemed to shimmer from him, and his eyes were fathoms deep with emotion.
She didn’t want to miss it, she thought. Whatever he had to give, whatever she could give him, she wanted to give, for the time they had left. She swallowed hard. “Okay.”
He untied the belt of her robe. The lapels parted, revealing her bare skin, her cleavage, belly button and the wispy auburn hair at the top of her thighs. She took a deep breath, expecting him to push the robe off her shoulders.
He did. She waited, feeling sensual in her nudity, expecting him to carry her to bed.
“Stay here,” he murmured, and went to her vanity. He picked up one bottle and smelled it, then discarded it and picked up another. After the third one he nodded to himself and walked back with it in his hand.
“Would you have put it here?” he asked, rubbing the scent on her neck. He tilted the crystal bottle into his hand and slid his fingers between her breasts. “And here?”
Her throat thickened, and Katherine watched as her nipples tightened before his gaze and hers. She nodded. He smoothed his fingers down her belly, skimming to the inside of her thighs. “And here,” he whispered, caressing her.
An insidious weakness threatened her knees. Her legs felt boneless, and her skin felt much too hot. She closed her eyes.
“Don’t close your eyes, Katherine. I want you to see you the way I see you.” He pushed her hair so that it fell over one shoulder, covering one breast. He ran his scented thumb over her shoulders and down her spine to her buttocks. Then he lost interest in the perfume, and after capping it, he carelessly shoved it back on the vanity.
“Which drawer is your gown in?”
“I can get it.” She started toward him.
“No. Wait there. I’ll get it. Which drawer?”
She pointed to it, and he pulled out the gown she’d chosen, a slippery piece of coral satin with lace insets on the breasts and slits on each leg.
He pulled it over her head and smoothed it down her legs to where it flirted with her thighs. The perfume was sultry, wrapping around her and him, every time they moved. Every time they breathed, it seemed. She wanted the nightgown off. She wanted his skin against her instead.
“Alex,” she began.
“Lipstick and eyeliner,” he said in a husky voice. “Your cheeks are already flushed.”
Before she knew it, she felt the gentle glide of kohl eyeliner applied to her eyelids. His hands were warm against her hot skin. She stood still for his ministration, transfixed by his touch, by his deliberateness.
He slid coral lipstick over her lips, twice. Then, as with the perfume, he capped it and tossed it on the vanity. This time a hint of impatience bled through his movements.
Alex looked at her, his nostrils flaring. He pulled her against him. His chest was firm at her back, his arousal full at the back of her waist. He sifted his hands through her hair, then slid his palms over breasts and belly down to her thighs. He nuzzled his face into her hair, groaning. His hands left a trail of fire that licked at her veins, making her breath come in fits and starts.
“What do you see?” he asked in a rough voice, his
hands continuing to move urgently beneath the coral satin.
Her thighs trembled. “I don’t know,” she said helplessly. The feelings were too much, the arousal too consuming.
He made a sound of frustration and moved his hands to her breasts. “Then what do you feel, chérie?”
“I…feel…hot.”
He laughed, and the sound was rich with passion. “So do I. What else?”
She sighed, brokenly. “Sexy,” she admitted. She could hardly believe she was that woman in the mirror, the one with the full lips and come-hither eyes.
“That’s right,” he encouraged her, rubbing his open mouth against her throat.
Katherine arched against his moist lips. “Ohhhh. You make me feel beautiful, Alex.” She lifted her hands to run her fingers through his hair.
The position was awkward, thrusting out her breasts, but she needed to touch him.
Fascinated, Alex plucked her nipples through the satin.
A moan bubbled up from her throat and escaped her lips. His eyes met hers, and something inside him seemed to snap. He nudged her head into the crook of her shoulder and made love to her mouth.
His tongue penetrated her moistness; his mouth sucked her tongue into his. He kissed her until she was achy, breathless and clinging to him.
She wanted to face him so she could feel him against her, but he wouldn’t allow it.
Katherine made a murmur of wanton dissatisfaction.
“What do you want?” he asked, his breath harsh against her hair.
“You. Dammit. You know what I want.”
“Tell me.” He darted his tongue into her ear.
She went dizzy from the sensation. She was so frustrated, she could cry. “I want you to get rid of those jeans,” she hissed.
“Why don’t you do it for me?” he taunted her.
She jerked, and there was a sensation within her of something private being torn away. Her inhibitions were burned up by the fire of his eyes.
Putting her thumbs through the loops of his jeans, she pulled him around to face her. Then, biting her lip in concentration, she released the button and slid the zipper all the way down.
She pushed his jeans down his hips and cupped him with her hands.
He swore. “Katherine—”
She shook her head. “No. You started this.” She wrapped her hand around his full, throbbing erection and started stroking.
He grabbed her hands and stopped her, his chest heaving.
But Katherine felt desperate. She put her mouth against that heaving chest and licked his nipple.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” he muttered. A shudder ran through him, and he forced her away, whipping the coral satin over her head. She was on him immediately, and he stumbled out of his jeans.
Her warm mouth was on his chest again, with her hands sweet and teasing over his aching shaft. She pulled his head down and scorched him with an explicit come-and-get-me kiss.
His blood gushed through his veins like a raging flood, only hotter and much more potent. “Katherine,” he muttered, striving for a shred of sanity, trying to slow down.
“No,” she said against his mouth. “You wanted me this way, no holds barred. Now, you’ve got me. Take a look in the mirror, Alex.”
She fell to her knees, and his mouth went dry. He licked his lips, vainly.
Her warm breath caressed him, making his legs shake. She rubbed her soft palms down the sides of his belly to the inside of his thighs. The sight of her painted nails so close to him made him feel like exploding. She inched closer, and he held his breath.
It was such a long, unbearable moment that he closed his eyes.
Katherine squeezed his thighs. “Open your eyes, Alex. I want you to watch. I don’t want you to forget.”
He opened his mouth to assure her that forgetting was impossible, but then she touched him with her lips.
A drop of his essence slipped out, and she licked it with her tongue. His heart went wild. He watched her warm, avid mouth on him and tried to choke out a curse, but his voice wasn’t working. She alternately cupped and stroked and licked him until he cried out and roughly pulled her up his body.
Her perfume swam around his head, his earlier titillation coming back to haunt him. “I’m in love with you.”
Katherine went completely still and silent. Stunned, she shook her head.
“Yes, I am. And you’re in love with me.”
She shook her head again, her expression almost horrified.
He ran his hand down to where she was moist and soft, and stroked her. He covered her astonished mouth with his and loved her with his tongue and lips. Then he lifted her high and slid her down until she enveloped him in her tight, wet womanhood.
“Look,” he said, his voice strained. “What do you see?”
Katherine looked in the mirror and saw her thighs wrapped around his waist, her breasts crushed to his chest, her eyes shiny with unshed tears.
“I see two people in love,” he murmured, answering his own question.
A chime sang through his consciousness. A grind, and a soft clicking sound. The music box played. Katherine’s eyes grew round. Alex hugged her to stop the trembling, but he wasn’t sure which one of them was doing the trembling.
He took her to the bed, never parting from her. While the music played, he made love to her, kissing away her tears and surprise. The scent of Katherine and the sound of her music filled him, becoming a part of him. The sweet tune embedded itself in his mind as surely as Katherine had captured his heart. Alex was lost—sweetly, completely lost.
The night passed in a haze of sweat, wrenching longing and exquisite passion. He turned to her again and again, needing to feel her touch, to hear the break of her sigh when he entered her, to see the open, honest love on her face.
He drove her relentlessly until their bodies wouldn’t cooperate anymore, and they both collapsed in weak laughter. Then he curled her against him.
Katherine stared at the music box in mute wonder. If she’d had the energy to dissect the experience, she sensed it would scare her to death. Instead, she took a deep breath and let the strength of Alex’s arms lull her to sleep.
The shrill ringing of the phone woke her early the next morning. Too early, she thought, looking at the alarm clock. Five a.m.
It rang again, abrasive and intruding. She scowled. Katherine lifted Alex’s arm, heavy with sleep, from her shoulder. She eased out of bed and nearly fell flat on her face. Now she understood what people meant about doing it until you can’t walk.
She stiffened her rubbery legs and grabbed her robe from the floor. Carefully, putting one foot in front of the other, she tottered to the kitchen and picked up the phone.
“Hello.”
The line crackled. “Hello,” a feminine, desperate-sounding voice said. “Hello. I must speak to Alexander Merrick. Oh, damn. He changed his name to Al something. Al—”
“Sanders,” Katherine finished for the woman. She had a sinking feeling about this phone call. “Al Sanders.”
“That’s right. Tell him it’s Isabella. It’s very important. I must speak to him, immediately. Right now.”
“Gotcha,” Katherine said, and set the phone on the counter. She shoved her hands through the robe and tied the sash. She took a deep breath and walked back into the bedroom. Alex was still sleeping, his face hard but content.
Katherine took a long look. “Alex, wake up,” she said, careful not to touch him. “It’s your sister Isabella.”
His eyes blinked open. He frowned in confusion. “Isabella.”
“She’s on the phone.”
Alex rolled his eyes, muttering. He got out of bed, and Katherine was secretly pleased to see he was nearly as unsteady on his feet as she’d been.
She followed him to the kitchen, fighting down overwhelming fear.
His voice was terse as he talked with Isabella. His mouth hardened, and he swore long and viciously. Then he seemed to come to his senses. He apologized to Isabe
lla, thanked her for calling and hung up.
He ran his hands through his hair and bent over the counter as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders. When he turned to Katherine, his eyes were bleak.
Her heart sank. He didn’t have to say a word. She just knew.
“I must return to Moreno,” Alex began as he walked toward her.
The pain of her heart breaking was so great that Katherine didn’t hear the rest of what he said. And when his arms went closed around her in quiet desperation, she hurt even more. She didn’t want to touch him, but she couldn’t have stopped her body from nestling against him. She breathed his scent. Her throat was tight, but she managed to get out the words. “There will never be anyone like you, Alex.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “Never.” Katherine squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to cry. God help her, she didn’t want to cry.
Alex was grappling with his own stunning sense of pain. “You’re such a treasure, Katherine. How can I leave you?” The prospect had him resenting his position, nearly hating it. He swore softly and kissed her sleep-tousled hair, then sifted his fingers through it, realizing he would never touch her again. The sense of loss was staggering, worse than anything he’d ever experienced.
He felt her shudder, the dampness of her tears against his chest, and it was almost too much to bear.
Chapter Nine
Within an hour he was gone.
She’d watched regret and his enormous sense of duty tear at him while he’d explained that he had to return to Moreno immediately. He’d promised to call. She’d tried to smile. And their parting kiss was bittersweet.
She felt shattered into a thousand sharp pieces. She thought she’d been prepared for his leaving. She’d thought she’d be left with a melancholy but manageable sort of sadness.
But nothing could have prepared Katherine for a bed that held the scent of their lovemaking, a body that reminded her with every movement just what she’d done last night, a music box that wouldn’t work, and the press.
