by Penny Jordan
Samantha trembled as he kissed the other one oh, so lingeringly.
‘And this...’ His mouth was caressing the soft warmth of her belly. ‘And these...’
He reached down and stroked his hands up over her knees and along her thighs and Samantha made a soft anguished sound of tormented pleasure.
‘And this...’
All the breath in her lungs wheezed out of her in shock as Liam turned her on her back and slipped between her legs, his fingers gently probing the secret of her sex, his mouth slowly caressing it.
The undercurrent to the tide she had felt earlier had now become an inescapable force that threatened to swamp and flood her.
‘You are beautiful...more beautiful than any woman has any right to be, more beautiful than any other woman could ever possibly be,’ she heard Liam telling her thickly as he slowly gathered her up in his arms and covered her with his body.
As he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, Samantha was conscious of only one thing and that was her need to complete the magical cycle that they had begun, but as she moved to wrap her legs around him, Liam moved his body away from her, kissing her briefly as he whispered, ‘Stay there...’
‘Stay there!’ Confused Samantha watched in disbelief as he got off the bed and padded towards the bathroom. Her whole body was on fire for him, aching for him, so much so that she was actually beginning to shiver as pitifully as a drug addict caught up in the agony of deprivation because he wasn’t there.
In the bathroom Liam searched feverishly through the basket of complimentary toiletries for the discreet package he had seen tucked there earlier. The hotel, it seemed, intended to make sure that their guests practised safe sex, which was just as well because his current lifestyle certainly did not include carrying the means for doing so around himself.
Samantha was lying still, curled up in a bundle of rejection, her eyes closed against her pain—why had he disappeared, left her like that?—when he returned.
‘Liam,’ she began shakily as he touched her and then stopped as he wrapped her in his arms and proceeded to kiss her whispering, ‘Sorry, something I had to do.’
Her relief at his return and at the fact that he still wanted her prevented her from asking a question. Her body, already aching with longing for him, quickly caught fire from the hungry caress of his hands and this time it was Liam who moaned out loud as he held her hips and she arched her body towards his in invitation and abandonment.
As he entered her, Liam felt the universe turn full circle around him. They fitted together so well they might have been made for one another. He could feel her body responding to every movement of his own, welcoming each powerful thrust, caressing and holding him so lovingly that he could feel his eyes smarting with tears of emotion.
Samantha’s eyes were starting to burn with her own shocked, emotional tears. Nothing had prepared her for the intensity of what she was experiencing and it wasn’t just the sensation of Liam’s body drawing hers to the edge of the precipice which would ultimately throw them both over to free fall through time and space as though they were immortal, that was arousing her almost too unbearably. No, it was the sure strong knowledge that this was her destiny and Liam her mate—that being with him like this now was the most powerful pivotal moment of her whole life.
* * *
‘MMM...’ LAZILY, HER eyes still closed, Samantha reached out for the wonderful male warmth she had sensed had been there beside her in bed whilst she slept. But it wasn’t there any longer. Anxiously she opened her eyes and then as she came fully awake her awareness of what had happened the night before brought her bolt upright in bed, panic, disbelief and denial all clamouring for supremacy in her overloaded brain.
Vaguely she was aware of another external noise overriding the frantic buzzing of her confused thoughts. Someone was knocking on the outer door of the hotel suite.
The bathroom door opened and Liam strode into the room, his hair wet, a towel wrapped discreetly around his hips.
‘Mmm...good morning,’ he murmured, coming over to the bed and leaning down, obviously intending to kiss her. Nervously Samantha leaned out of the way.
‘The door, Liam,’ she told him.
‘It must be the waiter with our breakfast,’ he told her, adding throatily, ‘I don’t know about you but I sure worked up an appetite doing something or other last night!’
Silently Samantha watched him walk into the suite’s sitting room. Last night she had seduced Liam into making love to her—not that he had needed much persuasion, she defended herself quickly.
How could she have done such a thing? She closed her eyes. She knew only too well how... How many, many times in the past had she cursed the impetuosity of her volatile nature, the need for action, which sometimes overrode all the cannons of common sense and caution. She had done some mighty foolish things in the past, but nothing, not one single one of them, had come anywhere near beating the magnitude of the folly she had committed last night.
Lost in the painful mental interrogations she was subjecting herself to she was only vaguely aware of Liam answering the impatient summons to open the suite door.
But it wasn’t the waiter with the breakfast he had ordered he was admitting to his suite, Samantha recognised with a sharp thrill of horror, it was Bobbie and her mother-in-law Pat.
‘Oh, Liam, thank goodness you’re here,’ she heard Bobbie exclaiming worriedly. ‘You haven’t seen anything of Sam, have you? She never came home last night. She and James were to have dinner here at the Grosvenor and, at first, when she didn’t come back I thought... But then when James rang this morning asking for her—’
As she heard her sister’s voice becoming clearer and clearer, Samantha stared transfixed at the bedroom door which Liam had left partially open. Perhaps if she moved now she might just make it to the bathroom where she could conceal herself, but even as she frantically wondered what to do she heard her twin’s sharp in-drawn breath of shock as she came into view standing in the open bedroom doorway staring stupefied at her.
‘Samantha...’ she breathed jerkily, whirling round to look pink-faced at Liam exclaiming, ‘Oh, Liam, I...’
‘Bobbie, I can explain,’ Samantha called out protestingly but her sister was already discreetly hurrying her mother-in-law away from the open bedroom door. Samantha could hear her apologising to Liam, explaining, ‘Liam, I’m so sorry, I had no idea...no one, Samantha never said...but I suppose I should have guessed. The two of you always did strike sparks off one another... Oh, but the folks will be so pleased.’
Bobbie’s shock was quite obviously giving way to excitement and suddenly she reappeared in the open doorway calling out to Samantha, ‘Sam, I’m going to give the both of you one hour to get yourselves downstairs so that we can all celebrate. Fancy not even giving me a hint. Oh, my...just wait until I tell Luke...’
‘Bobbie. No. You don’t understand,’ Samantha started to protest in panic but her twin was already ushering her bemused mother-in-law towards the suite door.
‘Liam, I am sorry if we appeared at an inappropriate moment.’ She could hear Bobbie laughing. ‘But you really have only yourselves to blame. I know what it’s like when you’re freshly in love and you just want to keep the whole thing to yourselves, but Sam might have given me some kind of hint. And to think that I’d almost got her paired off with James.
‘Well, Luke is quite definitely going to say “I told you so” to me. He’s maintained all along that Sam and James would never suit...and Pat is convinced—’ She broke off, giving Pat a rueful smile before her mother-in-law tactfully left, and then turned back exclaiming, ‘Oh, Liam...’
In the hallway to the suite Bobbie flung her arms excitedly around Liam and hugged him.
‘I am just so pleased for you both. I know that Sam has always maintained that she was over her teenage crush on y
ou but I’ve always had my doubts—and who can blame her. If I didn’t love Luke so much...’ Bobbie laughed and hugged Liam a second time. ‘Oh, I can’t wait for Mom and Dad to come over now. This family is just going to have so much to celebrate—Pop’s retirement, your inauguration and a wedding...’
As she heard the suite door close behind her sister, Samantha slid down beneath the bedclothes, hugging them protectively around her.
As soon as Liam appeared in the still-open doorway she demanded accusingly, ‘Why did you let her in...?’
‘I didn’t have much choice,’ Liam retorted calmly, ‘and besides...’
‘...and why didn’t you tell her the truth?’ Samantha shrilled furiously at him. ‘Why did you let her go on and on like that about us being a couple...in love...? Now she thinks that we’re about to get married and...’
‘Is that such a bad idea,’ Liam interrupted her quietly, quickly seizing the opportunity fate had so unexpectedly given him.
Samantha stared at him. She had to be hearing things.
‘Us...get married...you and me...’ She started to shake her head and then stopped as the appalling truth hit her.
‘You planned this, didn’t you,’ she accused him in a shocked whisper. ‘You planned it. You deliberately...’ She closed her eyes and gulped. ‘Oh, but I’ve been such a fool,’ she told him angrily. ‘I can see it all now... Miss Washington PR turned you down and so you targeted me. After all, what better wife could you have than the daughter of the retiring Governor... I’m the perfect wife, for you aren’t I, Liam...and more importantly, my father is the perfect father-in-law... Oh...’
‘What the hell are you saying?’ Liam interrupted her sharply, his original rush of exhilaration turning swiftly to angry pain. ‘You’ve got to be joking.’ But he could see from her face that she wasn’t and that she honestly believed the accusations she was hurling at him. He had expected her to be slightly withdrawn from him this morning, to feel a little shy and hesitant, but this... Of course it was unfortunate that Bobbie had seen Samantha in his bed and jumped to the natural conclusion, but...the very idea that Sam could honestly believe that he would stoop so low as to deliberately trick her into a compromising position was so crazy that he ought to be laughing at her, but he couldn’t. The way she was reacting rubbed raw against his pride...and against his heart. He had genuinely thought that last night could be the start of—of what?
He had been a fool to let his hopes get out of hand like that and even more of a fool to let his needs get even further out of hand.
Samantha was throwing back the bedclothes and scrambling for the robe she had discarded the night before.
‘I need to speak to Bobbie...’ she was telling him frantically, almost gabbling the words in her fury. ‘I need to tell her the truth...’
‘The truth...’
Liam could feel his own anger rising to match hers. ‘And just what exactly might that be?’ he demanded bitingly, his eyes turning an ominous shade of dark stormy grey.
‘What are you going to tell her, Sam...? Are you going to tell her how you crawled into my bed and begged me...’
‘No.’
Angrily Samantha placed her hands over her ears to shut out his shaming words.
‘No?’ In two strides Liam was across the floor, wrenching her hands away from her ears.
‘You can tell Bobbie what lies you choose, Sam, and I can’t stop you, but the truth is that last night you wanted me...you begged me...you...’
‘I wanted to get pregnant,’ Samantha railed back at him, her face hot with the intensity of her emotions. ‘I wanted you to give me a child.’
Immediately Liam released her hands and stood back from her. His face had gone white, his jaw clenched tight. Samantha had never ever seen him looking so angry and for a moment she felt almost afraid of him, shivering as she anticipated the cruelly destructive lash of his tongue as he lacerated her pride with his condemnation of her, but instead, as he turned his back on her and stared out of the window he was motionless and silent for so long that Samantha didn’t know how to react. Her own shock-induced anger was beginning to ebb away, now leaving her feeling both ashamed and vulnerable. It was her own sense of shame at being discovered in his bed by her twin that had led her to react so horribly to him. She knew that she owed him an apology.
And then, just when she thought he simply wasn’t going to speak to her at all, he began to do so but so quietly that she had to strain her ears to catch what he was saying.
‘For your information,’ he told her with his back still to her, ‘the reason, the only reason, I didn’t correct Bobbie’s misunderstanding of the situation was because I wanted to protect you—and not just you, Sam, but your family, as well. Do you really think if I wanted a wife so badly, that I couldn’t find one?’ he challenged her as he swung round, adding in savage indictment, ‘And I’d sure as hell have to be desperate to pick you, despite what you seem to think.
‘I can’t think of a single woman out of all the women I know who is less emotionally and mentally equipped to take on the role of Governor’s wife. You epitomise every characteristic that no politician in his right mind wants in a partner. You’re impulsive, you leap to implausible conclusions and, even worse, you act on them as though they’re known facts. You’re stubborn to the point of totally illogical wrong-headedness, you won’t listen to reason, you...’
To her chagrin Samantha discovered that tears were pouring down her face.
‘...and as for what you said about going to bed with me so that you could get pregnant...’
To Samantha’s shock he threw back his head and laughed harshly.
‘What is it? What’s so funny?’ she demanded. ‘Why are you laughing?’
‘I’m laughing, my dear, dear Samantha, because if you’d told me at the start just why you wanted to go to bed with me, there’s no way you’d have ever got me there, and if you don’t believe me then try asking yourself just why I took the trouble to make sure that you were protected—to make sure that there were no consequences...’
‘“No consequences,”’ Samantha repeated dully. She stared at him, her anger rising again. ‘No consequences...’ She thumped the bed in furious indignation. ‘My baby is not a consequence, I’ll have you know, Liam Connolly. My baby...’
‘Our baby,’ Liam corrected her grittily. ‘Our baby, that’s what he or she would have been, Sam. Not your baby but ours, and there’s no way I’d ever allow my child to be brought up by a woman who’s got the kind of half-baked ideas that you...’
They were off again, arguing, accusing and counter-
accusing whilst Samantha struggled to take in what he had told her. That visit to the bathroom which she had dismissed merely as a frustrating interruption of their lovemaking had had a purpose she hadn’t even guessed at.
‘I hate you,’ she told him passionately as her eyes clouded with fresh tears.
‘I don’t feel too hot about you, either, right now,’ Liam told her grimly, ‘but that still doesn’t alter the fact that in less than an hour’s time you and I are going to have to put on a convincing show of being idyllically in love.’
‘What!’ Samantha’s jaw dropped.
‘You heard me,’ Liam told her curtly. ‘Right now your sister believes that you and I, having spent an illicit night of passion in one another’s arms, are about to swear eternal love to one another.’
‘I’m going to tell her the truth,’ Samantha reminded him shakily.
‘Are you?’ Liam shook his head. ‘I don’t think so,’ he told her firmly. ‘Have you thought about what this could do to your parents, Samantha? How they’re going to feel knowing that you took me to bed purely to get yourself pregnant.’
Samantha opened her mouth and then closed it again.
‘I... I won’t tell them about that. I’ll say it
was just...just...’
‘Just what? A moment of passion, and have them think that I seduced their daughter. Oh, no. No way are you going to put me in that kind of bind,’ Liam told her softly. ‘Oh, no, right now the only way you and I have of getting out of this with our reputations intact is to play along with Bobbie’s belief that we’re deeply in love and truly a committed couple.’
Deeply in love...committed. Her and Liam... Samantha opened her mouth to object to what he was saying and then closed it.
‘Yes,’ Liam challenged her tersely. ‘If you’ve got another solution then I’d sure like to hear it.’
Dumbly, Samantha shook her head. His mention of her parents had brought her sharply and painfully down to earth. She knew just how shocked and upset they would be if they heard the truth, how hurt and saddened by her behaviour—and Liam’s. They already thought of Liam almost as a son and the news that he was to be their son-in-law would delight both her parents, but most especially her father.
‘But I can’t marry you,’ she whispered painfully. ‘You’re going to be Governor and I don’t... I can’t...’
‘Who said anything about marriage?’ Liam derided her.
Uncertainly she looked at him.
‘All I’m saying is that for now, for everyone’s sake, you and I have to play along with Bobbie’s assumptions and allow everyone to believe that we’re in love and planning to get married.’
‘But we aren’t going to get married,’ Samantha repeated, keeping her gaze fixed on Liam’s face.
Immediately he shook his head.
‘Oh, no. No way,’ he told her savagely. ‘No way would I ever marry a woman who only wanted me for the children I could give her.’ He looked at his watch.
‘We’ve got half an hour to get downstairs, unless of course you want your sister to think we’re so passionately in love that we’ve gone back to bed, that we simply can’t keep our hands off one another.’
