Just Hold Me: Carrington Cousins

by Summers, Amy

  "Have you ever seen the whales migrating through these waters?" she asked him quietly.

  He shook his head in a curt negative.

  "It's a fascinating sight. They swim north in the spring, south for Mexico in the winter. You can see them from the shore. They slap their huge tails down and blow water high into the air."

  "I'm sure I'll have a wonderful view of them from my living room—once the house is built."

  Thawn ran her tongue over dry lips. This wasn't going to be easy.

  "In the old days the water was teeming with life— sea lions, whales, sea otters. Every one of them has now been threatened by man. The sea otters were almost extinct until they came under government protection."

  Rafe whirled and stopped her with a hand on her arm. An angry muscle twitched near his jawline.

  "What are you trying to say, Thawn?" he demanded coldly. "Are you accusing me of wanting to kill off all the little animals?" He let go of her and gestured, palms open. "Do you see any blood on these hands, Thawn? Do you really think my building the house will destroy Bambi and Flipper?"

  Some impulse made her grasp his hands. "No... no!" He wasn't even trying to understand. "But don't you see? People are so adaptable. Most animals aren't. They have to be protected or they'll perish and vanish from the earth, just like the ammonites did."

  His strong fingers curled around her slender hands and held tightly as he looked deep into her eyes, as though searching for an answer.

  "I'm not the big bad hunter, Thawn," he told her softly. "If there's a way to compromise, tell me. If we can save the fossils and still build my house, explain."

  She'd always seen him as unfeeling and insensitive but today she was learning that there was more to him than that. He was human. He had a right to his dreams and to his quest for something special in his life.

  "Are you really willing to compromise?" she asked tentatively. "If you could guarantee to keep the ammonite site just the way it is... if you redrew the plans for your house..."

  He was looking into her eyes so deeply, he seemed to catch a hint of her enthusiasm and it showed. A certain warmth began to spread.

  “I don’t know.” He sighed, but it wasn’t a sound of annoyance. More like friendship.

  "If we work on it together, I'm sure we can find a way."

  Yes, he was definitely warming. A hot current of happiness shot through her veins and she nodded. "We could try," she said hopefully.

  A grin curved his mouth. "We'll do more than that," he promised. "We'll make a commitment right here and now. Are you ready?"

  She smiled back. "All right," she agreed, not sure what he meant.

  He raised his head and spoke to the sea and sky. "We, Thawn Carrington and Raphael Armstrong, do hereby pledge to find a way to build the house that will bring back to its rightful place the Armstrong family and protect the environment at the same time."

  He cocked a shaggy eyebrow. "Is that official enough for you?" he teased. "Does an announcement to Neptune give it the badge of authority?" He lowered his face and smiled down at her. "But wait," he said softly. "We can do even better. We can seal it with a kiss."

  She gasped but it was too late. Her natural tendency at defensive moves was crushed before she had a chance to steel herself against him. She melted like butter on a hot stove, no resistance left.

  His lips were warm and soft against hers. A blast of cold wind from the sea tore her hair free from its ribbon and whipped it about until it lashed both their faces.

  "Come on," he said, his eyes alight with energy. "Let's explore."

  He pulled her along, tempting her, coaxing her, coercing her into his world of exploration. Before she knew what was happening, they began running along the sand, searching for treasures among the piles of graying driftwood, hunting for gems among the surf-polished rocks, discovering tiny creatures in the tide pools.

  Thawn showed him how to catch sand crabs by waiting until a wave swept across the shore, then digging quickly down where a tiny bubble gave evidence of life and coming up with a wriggling little sea animal.

  "They're cute," she insisted when he frowned and asked why anyone would want to catch them in the first place. "They feel so funny trying to dig down into your hand."

  Rafe won the stone-skipping contest handily, but Thawn had an ace up her sleeve. "If you are very, very good," she promised him archly, "I will take you to an enchanted place."

  "How good is very, very good?" he asked, pulling her near and nibbling on her earlobe. "I feel a real siege of bad coming on."

  She sighed and tilted her head so that he could better explore the tender skin below her ear. "Good can be a relative term," she murmured. "The definition can change with the wind."

  His arms slid around her, brushing her soft breasts. "I'll be good," he whispered huskily. "You just wait and see how good I can be."

  Then she was laughing and running from him again. The sun was peeking around the gray cloak that hid the sky, and from its low position, it was clear that evening wasn't far away.

  But Thawn didn't care. She felt an incredible sense of joy. She hadn't felt so free or so happy in years. She knew it was a temporary sensation, but she didn't care.

  "Here it is," she said in exaggerated whispers as she led him back away from the sea, along the sides of a small creek that ran down from the distant mountains. "You must go quietly so as not to break the spell."

  "You must go quietly," Rafe corrected as he stepped over a bent piece of barbed-wire fencing, "so as not to alert the farmer through whose field we are trespassing."

  She threw him a look of outrage. "How did you ever get into movie making with such a lack of imagination?" she accused. "You'd better be quiet or the bad sea witch will hear you and turn you into a toad. Her spells can be difficult to break."

  He caught her by the neck and pulled her back for a quick, hungry kiss. "When do I get to sample one of your spells?" he asked, his eyelids heavy with sensual provocation. "I want to see exactly what you turn me into."

  Her blood raced with excitement, fully aware of what he was suggesting. Was she brave enough to risk that again?

  "Isn't it magnificent?" She turned to draw him into the circle of her radiant smile, giving it all to him—the crystal-clear pond with its round lily pads and shiny green frogs, the fragrance of flowers blooming, the soft buzzing of bees, and the huge, spiny sprays hanging heavy with wild blackberries.

  He grinned at her. She could see that he wasn't quite as enchanted by the setting as she’d hoped, but willing to like it if she did. "Just the place for a newly formed toad," he said dryly.

  "Don't worry," she consoled him. "If she does turn you into a toad, I'll kiss you quick and get back my handsome prince."

  "Why don't you kiss me quick anyway?" he murmured against her neck, and she turned willingly in his arms and held on for his mouth to work its magic.

  They broke away breathlessly, suddenly shy, and hurried to gather and eat blackberries, until their fingers were stained, and then they teased frogs just to hear them splash into the warm water.

  "What will the sea witch turn you into?" Rafe asked curiously at one point, when Thawn had been laughing loudly enough to threaten the spell.

  "A dragonfly," she answered promptly. "A huge, electric-blue dragonfly with lacy wings."

  He grinned wolfishly. "One perfect meal for a toad."

  They were resting in a grassy hollow between high blackberry bushes and a thicket of thistles. Rafe lay back lazily, his head in Thawn's blue-jeaned lap, while she popped the swollen purple berries into his open mouth.

  “The coast seems like a natural habitat for you,” he said at one point. “Did you grow up around here somewhere?”

  “Not really. I lived and went to school in Northern California. But I have ties here, and I spent a lot of summer just south of here, at Destiny Bay. I’ve got a lot of cousins down there.”

  She stopped, remembering something. “You know when you told me about your gran
dfather and the early California heritage you treasure, it reminded me of some of my family. I have a great uncle who still maintains the old Carrington Ranch about fifty miles south. He has a ranch house for the old place that looks more like a museum, with so much paraphernalia from the old Rancho Days.”

  “Great. I’d like to see it some time.”

  She nodded. “That would be fun.”

  She popped another blackberry in his mouth and he laughed as he savored it, then gave her a teasing glance.

  "Does the farmer—" he began.

  "Sea witch," she corrected him hurriedly.

  He smiled. "Does the sea witch ever make an appearance here?"

  She nodded. "The sea witch has been known to watch from yonder hill with binoculars," she admitted. "That's what makes our journey here so deliriously dangerous."

  Slowly he reached up and softly cupped her breast with his large hand. His eyes were clouded with intent when he spoke again. "What we need now is an enchanted sea cave."

  Thawn hesitated, tingling from his touch. Should she tell him? She knew what she was inviting if she did.

  "I know of one," she said softly, before she could reconsider.

  He sat up slowly, holding her gaze. "Do you?" he said gently. "Where is it?"

  "I'll take you there," she said, her eyes burning into his.

  In moments they found the rounded caves cut into the sandstone by ancient waves. Thawn had been there once months before, when Tom's ten-year-old cousin had shown them to her.

  "You have to get down on your hands and knees to enter," she told Rafe, cursing the tremor in her voice. "But inside you can stand up."

  From the outside no one would dream such spacious rooms existed along the shoreline. The relentless sea had smoothed the sides and carved blowholes along the ceiling, which now let in the late afternoon light. The sand beneath their feet was as soft as velvet. The air was cool, but protected from the ocean breezes, it felt good.

  "Maybe I’ll just move in here," Rafe said admiringly, looking around. "I don't imagine I'd need much of a permit, do you?"

  She shook her head without answering, then reached out to touch the smooth cave walls. Rafe came up behind her, his hands sliding under her sweater to cup her breasts.

  "Do I need a permit to make love to you, Thawn?" he whispered against her ear. "Do we need to chart the impact first?"

  Her breath was coming quickly. Was she really so afraid? Perhaps she did need to stop and think about what making love with Rafe would cost her. But she didn't want to. She wouldn't.

  "I think the impact will be self-explanatory," she murmured back, twisting in his arms until she faced him. "Permit granted," she thought, but didn’t dare say aloud.

  But he didn't sweep her up into his arms as she expected. Instead he looked quietly down at her.

  "I've wanted you since the moment you fell into my arms on my sea cliff," he told her huskily. A bittersweet smile tugged at the comers of his lips. "With your freckled nose and wide, innocent eyes, I knew loving you would be something special."

  He dropped soft, exploratory kisses along her lips, across the bridge of her nose, and over her lowered eyelids.

  "You're so different from the women I'm used to," he murmured, almost more to himself than to her. "So real and natural." He tilted her face up to receive him, and then his tongue mastered her mouth, entering to take possession like a pirate boarding a captive ship.

  She kissed him back with no regrets. She wanted this as much as he did.

  His hands moved down and slipped beneath her sweater again, this time to work their way into the smooth skin at the small of her back. He quickly found the gap where her jeans didn't quite hug her body, and his warm hands plunged down to knead the flesh at the base of her spine.

  "Thawn, my seabird," he whispered hoarsely into her warm mouth, "spread your wings for me."

  She groaned and arched toward him, loving the feel of his hard body against her softness. He deftly peeled up her sweater and tossed it aside, then pulled her with him down onto the cool, soft sand.

  The ocean was a distant roar as they lay, protected, in their special hiding place. The sand seemed to melt away from Thawn's bare back, holding her in a bed of magic. The chilly air that filtered in through the vents was warm when it reached them. All of nature seemed to be doing its part to create the spell that held them.

  Thawn lay back and watched Rafe caress her breasts, teasing the nipples until they formed hard, dark sentinels against the creamy skin. She reached to dig her fingers into his dark hair, to pull his mouth down to finish the job his fingers had begun.

  "Rafe," she gasped. "Oh Rafe!"

  He raised his head, and she was stunned by the depth of desire in his stormy eyes. She'd never seen anything like it before. It frightened her but aroused her as well, and she found her hands reaching for his shirt and pulling at the buttons to make way for her own exploration.

  His dark chest hair intrigued her. She pushed her fingers through it, curling strands about her fingers. She thrust her body against his, wanting to feel the crisp, rough hair against her nipples.

  His hands were like flames, drawing patterns of fire across her body. She turned beneath them, twisting to the pulse they created.

  When she felt him fumbling for the zipper on her pants, she arched to help him rid her of her final covering. His strong fingers touched her, and she moaned her readiness.

  "Love me, Rafe," she cried aloud. "Love me now."

  With a new urgency, he rose and stripped off the rest of his clothes, then stood towering over her for a brief moment. When he came to her and took her against him, she looked up and their eyes locked, sultry with passion. She began to writhe, calling his name, and then gasped, shivering with response, as he took control and joined their bodies with a sure and powerful movement.

  Their union was like a wave caught at the apex, a wild ride in an angry sea. It swept her along and threw her high against the clouds, but when she came down again, Rafe was there to catch her.

  She lay with her head against his wide, bare chest. The rhythm of his breathing had finally slowed. She could almost think he was asleep, but he moved beneath her, and she realized he was savoring the interlude in the same way she was.

  "So this is what one of your spells is like," he muttered huskily, forcing her face up to meet his gaze. "Tell me quick, what did I turn into?"

  Happy laughter bubbled up in her chest. "Oh, no"— she shook her head—"I'll never tell."

  He cast her a mock frown. "Come on," he coaxed. "All this magic and I don't even get to know what I did with it?"

  She grinned, snuggling down against him and running her hand in tiny circles along his naked side. "What do you think you turned into?" she teased.

  His grin was cocksure. "Oh, no, you don't. You're not going to trap me into being an egotistical braggart."

  She laughed out loud. "Oh ho! So now I have some idea of what you think."

  He caught her face with both hands. "And what do you think, Thawn?" he probed.

  Suddenly the mood was serious. She stared back into his deep, misty eyes, then drew in a trembling breath. "I think I like you very much, Rafe Armstrong," she told him bravely. "Is that good enough for you?"

  It wasn't. She could tell by his fierce frown. But what did he expect? He was famous for his lack of commitment. Did he actually want one from her?

  Instead of answering, he lowered his head to nip at her navel. "Do you realize we haven't had dinner?" he growled against her satiny skin.

  She pulled away from him and reached for her sweater. "That's not on the menu." She chuckled, and when his eyes met hers again, he was smiling.

  "Hear that ocean?" He cocked his head toward the sound of the waves. "It's calling us back." His eyes lit with mischief. "Shall we go?"

  They scrambled back into their clothes and tunneled out into the cold ocean wind. The setting sun had turned the sky a thousand flaming colors.

  "Sunshine tomorrow,
" Rafe told her in a knowing tone, and gazing in awe at the peach and crimson horizon, Thawn believed him.

  Chapter 6

  They started back, but they were moving slowly, as though they didn’t want this day to end. At one point they rolled up their pants legs and raced the tide, dashing down into the water as the white foam of a spent wave retreated to the dark and lonely sea, then turning back toward land with a shout when a new wave broke and cascaded toward them.

  Eventually Thawn was doused by a huge wave and lost the race. Rafe stopped to drag her back out of the surging water, and soon he was wet from head to foot as well.

  They struggled to higher ground, bent over with laughter. This good-humored acceptance of whatever happened next seemed so much a part of him that Thawn was surprised she hadn't seen it before.

  Of course it couldn't last. Maybe if she entered into the relationship accepting that, it wouldn't hurt so badly when the break came. Maybe if she kept reminding herself of all the other women who had hoped to make Rafe Armstrong theirs...

  It didn't matter. She was fascinated with him, but that wasn't love. She just had to make sure the feeling didn't develop into anything serious. If she could.

  All the while they cavorted together in the surf and across the sand, she held her doubts at bay. But she knew she would have to face them sometime.

  "You're the sea witch, aren't you'.'" Rafe laughed at her as he pulled her, dripping wet, from the waves again. "What happens when a mortal takes the sea witch as his own.”

  She shot a quick glance up at him. He was only teasing her. He didn't know how close she was to wishing it would happen.

  She managed to smile. "Dire results," she warned with mock gloom. "The sun is struck from the sky." She pointed toward the dark horizon, behind which the sun had disappeared almost an hour before. "You see how powerful she can be."