Time Fuse

by Penny Jordan

  He saw her face, whitening under the cruelty of what he was saying. Of course he didn’t care who she was; he didn’t care full stop, and yet suddenly she was in his arms, his fingers biting into her waist as he pulled her hard against him, his face buried in the softness of her hair.

  ‘Selina, Selina, don’t you realise I’m so deeply in love with you that nothing else matters…nothing…’ he told her emphatically, lifting his hands to cup her face, holding her so that she was forced to meet his eyes. ‘You little fool…why did you put us both through this hell?’

  His mouth on hers unleashed a wild torrent of emotions that made her weak with the aching need to be part of him. Her hands moved feverishly beneath his jacket, impatient of the thin silk of his shirt, her mouth surrendering to the deeply possessive passion of his kiss. He released her slowly, holding her slightly away from him.

  ‘I love you,’ he told her softly. ‘So much that not another damn thing in the world matters. When I discovered that I was your first lover I felt sure you must feel something for me. I was wild to make sure of you…to tie you to me…I could make you love me I told myself…the ingredients were there.’

  ‘But you kept on saying you didn’t trust me…that…’

  ‘What man ever trusts the first woman to make him fall in love,’ Piers said dryly. ‘Of course I was suspicious of you. You behaved in a suspicious fashion. All those qualifications for an extremely mundane job…the fact that you didn’t fall into my bed the first time I looked at you…’ He smiled a little then, ‘Vain, aren’t I? You recoiled from me so intensely the first time I kissed you that I knew that touching you was the one sure way to provoke a reaction from you, and I wanted that reaction. You challenged me but what I hadn’t bargained for was my own reaction to you. I was furious, both with myself and with you… Every instinct I possessed told me you were hiding something. I owed it to my own intuition to find out what it was, but when you looked at me with those bruised, vulnerable eyes, all I really wanted to do was to take you in my arms.’

  ‘But you didn’t?’

  ‘No, I told myself it was just simply that you were a better actress than I’d suspected. I fought hard against loving you…as every man does. I told myself it was fruitless to even think of loving a woman I couldn’t trust, and one moreover who didn’t love me in return.’

  ‘I did, but I daren’t let you see it. I thought you would hate me because of my mother.’

  He gave her a little shake. ‘Forget your mother,’ he told her curtly. ‘You are yourself, Selina. I know what happened in the past hurt you…but there’s no need for you to carry any burden of guilt for what happened. You were innocent…a victim if you like.’

  ‘But you were so angry when I told you.’

  ‘Because of the way you told me,’ he corrected wryly, ‘plus the fact that I thought you’d simply been using me to get closer to Gerald. That hurt,’ he told her simply. ‘And when you told me you intended to abort any child you might have conceived.’

  ‘I didn’t mean it…’

  ‘Don’t you think I don’t know that?’ He whispered the words fiercely against her skin. ‘I can’t make it up to you for all you suffered as a child, Selina, but I do love you.’

  ‘The citadel has finally crumbled,’ she managed to tease.

  ‘With devastating swiftness. If I’d ever thought that once I possessed you, I’d stop wanting you, these last few days have been enough to prove how wrong I was. There hasn’t been a single night when I haven’t wanted to wake up and find you in my arms…when my body hasn’t ached for yours…when I haven’t cursed myself a thousand times for losing my temper and walking out instead of staying… Stay here with me tonight.’

  ‘Mary is expecting me back,’ she demurred, her eyes already darkening as she thought of his lean body against her own.

  ‘Then I’ll just have to ring her and tell her not to expect you, won’t I?’ He bent to kiss her throat and Selina surrendered herself to the heady pleasure of his touch, tensing a little when he raised his head and laughed.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘I’ve just wondered how Uncle Gerald will approach taking me to task for seducing his daughter. No doubt he’ll expect me to make an honest woman out of you…’

  ‘And…’ Selina queried, mock angrily.

  ‘And I shall of course have to comply,’ Piers responded mock virtuously, adding thoughtfully, ‘you know if I’d known the truth earlier I could have saved myself a good deal of trouble, couldn’t I? All I would have needed to do then to get you to agree to be my wife would have been to make love to you. Gerald would have insisted on our being married.’ He sounded so smug that Selina had to laugh.

  ‘And seducing me would have been easy would it?’

  His eyes darkened as his glance slid over her body. ‘Not easy perhaps,’ he said huskily at last, ‘but infinitely, infinitely pleasurable.’

  As he took her back in his arms, Selina gave a mental ‘Thank you’ to Dulcie. Without her encouragement she would have not been here today… She stiffened and Piers released her reluctantly. ‘If I hadn’t come here…would you…’

  ‘Would I have what?’ he muttered throatily, busily exploring the delicate convolutions of her ear with his tongue.

  ‘Would you have come to me?’

  ‘Eventually…when my need had overcome my pride. No man likes being rejected the way you rejected me. I needed to see you here today…to hear you saying you love me. I would have come to you, but perhaps I would always have had doubts that my feelings were stronger than yours…and like you I should have found that an intolerable burden to bear. Like any other human being I need to be shown that I’m loved and desired.’

  She trembled beneath his regard, her insides melting with need. ‘What time is it in New York?’ she murmured huskily.

  Piers frowned, ‘Why?’

  ‘I was just wondering if the time difference meant that you should be in bed. I’d hate to see you suffering from jet lag,’ she added mock solicitously, her heart doing crazy things as she saw the way he was looking at her, the naked hunger in his eyes making her shiver in apprehensive delight.

  ‘Right now I’m suffering from something far more acute than jet lag,’ he muttered throatily against her skin, ‘and the cure for it is a considerable amount of time spent with you in my arms. Starting right now…’

  It was over an hour later when Selina heard the phone ring, its insistent peal making her move sleepily away from the warmth of Piers’ body. In sleep he looked so much younger, his dark hair ruffled, his mouth relaxed. She trembled slightly, remembering the fierce hunger of his lovemaking and her own abandoned response to it. As she tried to slide out of the bed, Piers reached for her. ‘Stay here,’ he demanded huskily.

  ‘The phone’s ringing,’ she protested.

  With a faint sigh Piers threw back the bedclothes, the early evening sun through the blinds striking barred patterns against his skin. She could watch him for hours Selina thought dreamily, her body already tingling alive as she gazed on the male perfection of his. He walked into the sitting room without bothering about a robe. Selina heard him speak as he picked up the receiver. ‘Yes, mother she’s here…’ she heard him say as she slid from the bed to join him. As she approached he stretched out an arm, tethering her against him, her head resting against his chest as he added, ‘You can tell Mary she’d better prepare herself for a wedding.’ There was a brief silence and then he laughed. ‘You’ll have to wait a little while for that,’ she heard him say, ‘but I promise you I’ll do my best.’

  ‘What did she say?’ Selina asked curiously when he had replaced the receiver.

  ‘Oh nothing much.’ Humour glinted in his eyes, quickly changing to desire as he ran his hand along her side, cupping her breast and bending to kiss her. Her mouth flowered under his, the kiss long and sweet. When Piers released her he said teasingly. ‘She just wanted to tell me not to be too tardy in providing her with grandchildren. I told her I’
d do my best… What do you say to us getting in a little practise?’

  ‘I’d say that practise is only needed to make perfect,’ Selina responded demurely, ‘and you’re already that…’

  ‘Well, yes…’ he pretended to agree with her, ‘but there’s always room for a little improvement.’

  She was laughing when he picked her up and carried her back to bed…her laughter quickly turning to soft gasps of pleasure as he proceeded to demonstrate the truth of his comment… She must remember to invite the Judge and his wife to the wedding, Selina thought hazily, before the ability to think completely deserted her. After all, if it hadn’t been for them…

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-0403-4

  TIME FUSE

  First North American Publication 1985.

  Copyright © 1985 by Penny Jordan.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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