Green Fire

by Stephanie James

  “I invited you to go swimming, remember?” He lifted his head to study her with a lambent gaze.

  “I remember.” She could feel the flames from his eyes as they licked across her body, and then the sensation became confused with the cool lap of water against her warm skin. Shelley felt caught and suspended between the flames and the water, and she hovered, entranced in an exquisite torment of her senses.

  He held her to him as he waded out into deeper water. When he came to a halt, the glistening blue water was up to his shoulders, and Shelley was floating in it, anchored by his arms. Slowly, he eased himself backward until he was treading water with long sweeps of his legs. When she wound her arms around his neck, he released her to use his own to keep them both afloat.

  “You have to hold on tightly or you might go under,” he advised with sensual amusement in his expression.

  “I’ll hold on tightly,” she promised.

  “On the other hand, going under might not be so bad.”

  “You think not?”

  “Not as long as I’m there with you.” He floated them backward toward the edge of the pool, his glowing gaze going to the softness of her breasts as they were crushed wetly against his chest

  When he reached the side of the pool, Joel once more stood erect, but when Shelley automatically started to slide her hands down from behind his neck, he caught her wrists and pressed them back into position.

  She sighed achingly as he kissed her deeply, and then she felt his hands on the wisp of her panties, sliding them off until they were gone completely.

  “Oh, Joel.”

  He sipped his name from her mouth while he began to probe the lower regions of her body, searching out the feminine secrets there. With one arm wrapped snugly around her back, he tangled his fingers in the toast-colored thicket between her legs.

  Shelley stiffened momentarily at the blatant invasion, but he whispered and caressed until she relaxed against him. Deftly, he pulled her closer in the water, inserting his hair-roughened thigh between hers and gently forcing her body to open further to his touch.

  “Trust me, honey,” he breathed huskily into her ear as she buried her face in his shoulder. “I know you. I understand you. It’s going to be all right”

  She wanted to believe him; indeed, in the intoxicating depths of his spell, it was impossible not to believe him. A part of her whispered warnings against the seduction, but she thrust them aside, preferring instead to luxuriate in the feel of his hard, water-slicked body. She nuzzled his throat and slipped her hands inside the elastic waistband of his briefs.

  “Yes, sweetheart, yes, please,” he encouraged hoarsely.

  Shelley shivered as he stroked the heart of her desire, learning the contours of her body thoroughly and sending ripples of pleasure through her as he did so.

  “Oh!”

  The throaty cry was a gasp from her tips as she let herself take the thrilling excitement he was offering, and her flattened palms pushed downward, removing the briefs he wore. She felt the fullness of his aroused as she dared to touch him as intimately as he was touching her.

  “My God! Tonight you hold me in the palm of your sweet hand in more ways than one, Shelley, honey. I Think it would leave me aching for a month if you were to refuse me what I need so desperately this evening!” The words were raw and a little savage, and he ended the statement by grasping her hips and lifting her several inches in the water. When her breasts emerged above the surface, he lowered his head and tasted the hard buds of her nipples.

  Shelley balanced herself with her hands on his shoulders, breathing deeply as she reacted to the passionate hold he had on her. When he lowered her gently again, her mind was whirling and cloudy with desire, and she whispered his name over and over as he toyed with the wetness of her lips.

  “Sweetheart,” he murmured urgently in between the hungry, biting kisses. “Honey, listen to me. Can I make love to you now? Are you protected?”

  For a moment, she couldn’t understand what he meant, and then she realized exactly what he was asking and shook her head dazedly, eyes opening wide and appealing.

  “No! Oh, no. Joel, I’m sorry, I’m not—I mean there hasn’t been any reason—that is I haven’t been—”

  “Hush,” he growled, silencing the stammering flow of feminine apology. She thought she detected a thread of satisfied humor in him. “Can I take it from that rather unstructured sentence that you’re not currently sleeping with Dean Ackerly or anyone else?”

  “You’re a brute. You know that, don’t you?” she groaned accusingly. “No, there is no one else.”

  “Good,” he said in a dragon’s purr of masculine content “Then that leaves only me, doesn’t it?”

  “What would you have done if I’d told you there was someone else?” she provoked deliberately.

  “It wouldn’t have made any difference!” He cradled her in his arms and started toward the steps. Now what? Wasn’t he going to make love to her, after all?

  “Joel?” she questioned, her eyes flying up to meet his.

  “I may be a brute in some respects, but I’m not such a selfish one that I’d inflict this kind of risk on a woman,” he declared thickly as he carried her out of the water.

  She shivered against him, but Shelley didn’t know for certain if it was because of the desert breeze caressing her damp skin or if it was because of incipient disappointment. “That’s—that’s very thoughtful of you,” she began unevenly, not at all sure she was really gratified by his restraint. Her body was throbbing with longing, and she wanted him in a way she’d never wanted any other man. The emotions coursing through her were enough to make even an intelligent woman such as herself take stupid risks.

  He stared down at her suddenly rigid body in his arms, and then he appeared to realize what she was thinking. “There seems to be a slight misunderstanding here,” he teased, mouth curving up gently at the corners. “Just because some people do not exercise forethought and planning in all aspects of their lives doesn’t mean all of us are guilty of such oversights.”

  “Oh,” she got out, strangely embarrassed, and buried her warm face in his shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’ll take care of everything,” he continued, hugging her close. “Will you mind making love to me in a conventional bed instead of the pool?”

  “No,” Shelley said in a small, muffled voice. Her body trembled with renewed anticipation.

  He kissed the top of her head and carried her through another glass door that opened onto the bedroom. In the shadows Shelley caught a glimpse of a wide bed, a bookcase and assorted other furnishings, all done in the woods and natural fabrics of the other part of the house. The floor he paced across was polished wood, and there was a thick-piled area rug beside the bed.

  “We’re—we’re dripping all over the rug, Joel,” she pointed out nervously.

  “It’ll survive.” He set her on her feet “I’ll be right back.” After disappearing into the adjoining bathroom, he re-emerged a moment later with two huge bath sheets patterned in brown and white stripes. Wrapping one around his hips, he engulfed her in the other, massaging her dry with a caressing touch that set her skin tingling.

  They were both trembling by the time the drying was finished, and Shelley’s senses responded almost violently to the obvious signs of his need and passion. She touched him lightly, feeling the strength of him, glorying in the play of muscles beneath tanned flesh. Joel turned back the bed, picked her up and tenderly set her down in the middle. Then he was beside her, whispering his desire for her into the sensitive hollow of her ear.

  Strong hands moved over her from ankle to throat, learning and possessing every place in between.

  “There is a part of you that I didn’t succeed in drying,” he groaned as his fingers trailed urgently to the juncture of her legs. “Soft and moist and welcoming.”

  “Joel, I need you,” she murmured, and knew she had never meant those lover’s words when she had been married the w
ay she meant them now with this near-stranger. In the morning, she told herself, she would sort it all out Right now she could only surrender to the pull of this unbearable attraction.

  “You couldn’t need me half as much as I need and want you,” he declared thickly. With a reluctant movement he lifted himself up on one elbow and fumbled with the drawer of the night stand. He trapped her languidly shifting legs with one strong thigh while he went through the masculine ritual designed to protect her, and then he was moving to overwhelm her body and fit her to him.

  “Oh, Joel!”

  She arched into his hardness, feeling the promising thrust of him as he came in contact with her welcoming flesh. But he held off a moment longer, raining kisses across her breasts and teasing her with tantalizing little thrusts that never quite entered until she thought she would go out of her mind.

  “Joel, please! Joel, I need you!”

  She used her teeth with punishing sharpness on his shoulder, raking her nails lightly down his back until she could sink them into the muscular curve of his buttock.

  He groaned and responded to the sensuous punishment with a slow surge against her body. Shelley shivered and accepted his invasion eagerly, making Joel draw in his breath with a harsh, ragged sound.

  “Shelley! My God, Shelley…”

  He gathered her tightly to him, initiating a driving rhythm that began to tighten an already taut spring in Shelley’s body. The pattern of his lovemaking became the pattern of the world they were creating around them. Nothing else mattered. Shelley clung to him, circling his lean waist with her legs and crying out her passion in gasping little breaths.

  As the culmination approached, Joel caught her hips and anchored them still for a moment while he slowly withdrew from her body.

  Shelley thought she would lose her sanity altogether. The tension within her demanded release. She would not let him tease and taunt her now!

  “Joel,” she begged, digging her nails savagely into his shoulders. “Joel, love me!”

  “Yes!” he exclaimed, and surged masterfully back into her, dazzling her senses with his power. She felt the explosions of ecstasy ricocheting through her, convulsing her muscles in waves of thrilling completion, and before they had ceased, she heard his own hoarse shout of satisfaction and triumph as he locked himself to her in fulfilled passion.

  After that there was a long, blissful, languorous silence that they floated through together just as they had floated in the crystal waters of the pool much earlier. Shelley allowed herself to surface slowly, finding the enticement of curling red chest hair delightfully near her fingertips when she opened her eyes. Joel was lying beside her, cuddling her close. She wrinkled her nose against the tickle of the crisp hair and dropped a butterfly kiss on him.

  He stirred, chuckling indulgently. “That tickles.”

  “Grin and bear it,” she ordered, giggling.

  He laughed and slapped her thigh admonishingly. “Enough, woman!” he ordered softly, pulling her deeper into the strong circle of his arms.

  She found she was in a contented, unbelievably happy state of mind. No thoughts of the past or the future were allowed to intrude. They existed, but they would be dealt with later. Much later. Shelley yawned delicately against his chest

  “Not falling asleep on me already, are you?” he complained.

  “I was thinking about it, yes.”

  “Not yet, honey. I have a better idea.” He sat up and lifted her back into his arms.

  “Another swim?” she inquired, looking up at him through her drowsy lashes.

  “Another everything.”

  “Oh. Amazing.”

  “Not so amazing when you think about the practical side of the matter,” he informed her severely as he strode out onto the patio. “I figure the chlorine will disinfect some of the wounds you left upon my fragile body.”

  “Wounds!” She struggled in his arms, suddenly contrite as she tried to peer around at the broad shoulders to which she had been clinging so desperately. “Joel, did I really hurt you?”

  “Let’s just say it’s lucky for me you’re not into whips and leather.”

  She smiled placidly. “I’ll bet you’re secretly thrilled by the aggressive type.”

  “What thrills me,” he stated quite clearly as he walked down the steps and into the inviting waters of the pool, “is having you explode like a burst of fireworks in my hands. You’re high-energy stuff, Shelley Banning.”

  “As good as a video game?” she challenged lightly, feeding on his sensual praise as avidly as a hummingbird at a flower. Whatever lay ahead in their relationship, she would always have tonight, and she found herself clinging as fiercely to the moment as she had clung to his hard, driving body.

  He shook his head, and some of the steel came back into his eyes as he looked down at her in his arms. “There’s at least one major difference, sweetheart,” he drawled with lazy emphasis. “Men stand in line to play video games. I’ll be the only male standing in your fine. You’re mine now, and I won’t be sharing you with any other man.”

  Chapter 5

  The phone call from Nina Winslow caught Shelley in the middle of a review of the Ackerly Manufacturing budget She dropped everything after her friend’s first words.

  “Can you meet me for lunch, Shelley? I’ve got some news for you.”

  “Ralph proposed?” Shelley chuckled.

  “Of course Ralph didn’t propose. Ralph will never propose. You know that. I have also decided I don’t want him to, anyway. No, this is business. It concerns your new client”

  “Ackerly?” Shelley frowned thoughtfully, tapping the pencil in her fingers restlessly on her desk top.

  “Yes. Frankly, I’d rather not say anything else over the phone. Can you get away around one o’clock?”

  “You bet That little sandwich place that has the salad bar?”

  “Fine. I’ll see you at one,” Nina said briskly, and hung up the phone.

  For a long moment Shelley sat at her desk staring into the middle distance and mulling over the possible news Nina had for her. Nina Winslow was a successful Phoenix real estate broker. Nearing forty, she was an energetic, hard-working woman with a flair for making money in her chosen field. More of a flair than several of her competitors. Because of her role in the business community she often had inside knowledge of important real estate deals before they were made public. It had been Nina who had told her about Joel’s coup with the large California conglomerate.

  A few minutes before one, Shelley left her office and stepped out into the warm Arizona afternoon. The city sprawled away from her toward the distant mountains, a lively combination of its Indian, western, and East Coast business heritages.

  Nina arrived at the friendly little sandwich and salad restaurant a few minutes after Shelley. She came through the door with her usual dynamic stride, her handsome features framed by a cloud of silvering black hair. Nina’s suit was expensive, fashionable and very tailored, just like the rest of her. She spotted Shelley at once and started toward the small table in the corner where her friend sat waiting with two glasses of white wine.

  Often when she looked at Nina, Shelley saw her own future. Nina, she knew, had been through two unsuccessful marriages before declaring that she was giving up on the institution. She devoted herself to her career and maintained a series of short-lived affairs. Was that what she would be doing by the time she was forty? Shelley wondered with a pang of sadness. In the past, she had not allowed the string of dating relationships to evolve into full-blown affairs, but after last night she could no longer make that claim.

  Was Joel a harbinger of the life-style she would be living in her thirties? She shivered, remembering his passion during the night and his farewell that morning as he’d driven her, first back to her own home so that she could change clothes and then on to the office.

  “I’ll call you this afternoon,” he’d told her as he’d parked the white Maserati at the curb in front of her office building and l
eaned across the seat to pull her briefly but fiercely into his arms. “You and I are going to have to do some talking, woman.”

  She’d nodded and slid breathlessly out of the car, turning to lift a casual hand in farewell before escaping into the safety of the high-rise building. They had been late getting up that morning, and there had been Hide chance for conversation during the rush to get her home and then to the office. But the satisfaction and anticipation in Joel’s eyes from the moment he’d awakened her would have made a serious, logical discussion difficult, anyway. Shelley wondered how Nina handled her affairs. Did knowing they were destined to end lessen the excitement of the beginning? How did a woman learn to deal with that foreknowledge?

  But Nina was all business as she approached the table. Swinging her oversized handbag down with relief, she reached for the glass of wine Shelley had ordered and sipped before she was even fully seated.

  “God! I needed that. What a day this has been! Sorry I’m late, Shelley.”

  “No problem. Shall we get our salads and then talk?”

  Nina nodded enthusiastically, and together they went through the extensive salad-bar line with the skill and precision of professional dieters. After the way Joel had been stuffing her with food for the past two evenings, Shelley knew she was overdue for the restrictions of a salad luncheon.

  “A successful day, Nina?” she asked in a friendly fashion as they carried the plates of greens back to the table.

  “I was running around all morning like a deranged chicken trying to close that deal on the tennis ranch, but I think ifs in the bag now,” Nina explained, sinking into her chair again with a small sigh.

  “Congratulations.” Shelley carefully worked the single tablespoon of salad dressing she had allowed herself into the farthest reaches of the lettuce.

  “Thanks, but I didn’t call you in order to boast.” Nina took another swallow of her wine. “Remember that California group of investors I told you about when you asked me if I’d ever heard of Joel Cassidy?”

  “I remember. You had just heard about the real estate deal they had concluded with him.”