Miss Liz's Passion

by Sherryl Woods

  “…I thought we could pick her up at the airport together,” Todd was saying.

  “What?” she said incredulously, certain she’d misunderstood. “What are you talking about?”

  “On Thursday morning, I thought you and I would pick her up. I want you to meet her before I take her to the house. I need you to help me prepare Kevin for this.”

  “You want me there?”

  “Of course, I want you there. We’d planned the day. Hank’s coming. That should help some. Not that he’s crazy about Sarah, but he’ll be supportive. I know it may seem a little awkward for everyone, but I think it’s the best way to handle it for Kevin’s sake.”

  For Kevin’s sake. But dammit, what about for her sake? How was she supposed to cope with being the outsider at this little gathering?

  “Liz, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Don’t tell me nothing. You’re upset. I know I probably shouldn’t have sprung this on you at the last minute, but I thought this was what you wanted.”

  “It was. It is. Oh, Todd, I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I guess the reality has thrown me more than I expected it to. I’ll be fine by Thursday.”

  She was not fine. She covered her fears by wearing a dress that she knew was one of Todd’s favorites, by cooking a meal that included all the traditional Thanksgiving fare, by setting Todd’s table so perfectly it could have been photographed for a gourmet food magazine.

  At her insistence, they warned Kevin about the surprise visitor they were having. He turned very quiet at the news and retreated to his room.

  “What do you suppose is going on in his head?” Todd asked worriedly. “Maybe this was a mistake.”

  “You’re doing the right thing,” Hank said, walking in on the end of the scene. “Of course, he’s going to be a little taken aback. Give him some time for it to sink in. When Sarah gets here, it’ll be up to her to win him over.”

  In the end Todd went to the airport alone, leaving Hank and Liz with Kevin.

  “Nervous?” Hank asked as she kept poking her head in the oven to check the turkey.

  She let the door slam shut and paced instead.

  “You don’t have a thing to worry about, you know.”

  “Who says I’m worried?”

  “Sorry,” he said, grinning. “It was just a guess. For the record, though, I’ve known Todd for a lot of years. I was around when Sarah made mincemeat out of his heart. He’s never been happier than he’s been since he met you.”

  She sighed and touched his hand. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Then she resumed pacing.

  “Don’t mention it.” He caught her wrist as she passed by him for the fourth time. “Can I make a suggestion?”

  “Why not?”

  “Todd will probably kill me for butting in like this, but let me stay here with Kevin tonight.”

  “Why would you want to do that?” she said, staring at him in confusion.

  “So you and Todd can be alone. Go to your place. Go to a hotel. It doesn’t matter, as long as you spend some time together. I think you’ll have a lot of talking to do, once Sarah’s gone.”

  Hank’s words were innocent enough, but his implication was anything but. Liz’s face flamed in embarrassment, but she felt tears clog her throat. In that instant she decided that Hank Riley had more sensitivity than anyone she’d ever met besides Ann.

  “You’re a fraud,” she accused softly, giving him a watery smile.

  “Oh?” His eyes twinkled with amusement.

  “Don’t even waste your time trying to deny it. I just hope I’m around when the right woman takes the time to get beyond that tough, lecherous facade of yours.”

  “It’ll never happen.”

  “That’s what they all say, right before they fall.”

  The reunion between Sarah and Kevin was every bit as awkward as Liz and Todd had anticipated. Kevin stared at his plate all through dinner, speaking only when spoken to and then only in monosyllables. He never once looked directly at his mother. He asked to be excused even before Liz served the pumpkin pie. Sarah looked as if she might cry.

  “Give him time,” Liz told her gently, surprised at the compassion she was feeling toward her. She’d wanted so badly to hate her, but she found that she couldn’t.

  “Liz is right,” Todd concurred.

  “I’m not so sure. I hurt him very badly. Maybe I don’t have the right to even ask his forgiveness.”

  “Everyone has the right to ask forgiveness,” Liz said. “Kevin needs to learn that forgiving and forgetting are part of growing up, too.”

  “You can come back tomorrow,” Todd reminded her. “You have the whole weekend to try to get through to him.”

  After they’d called a cab to take Sarah to a nearby hotel, the three of them cleaned up the dishes, then Hank looked pointedly at Liz before making a discreet exit to play video games with Kevin.

  “What was that all about?” Todd asked, staring after him. “Hank usually can’t wait to go off on some date after one of these holiday celebrations. Family togetherness makes him nervous.”

  “He’s planning to play matchmaker tonight.”

  “Matchmaker?”

  “He’s offered to stay here, so you and I can be alone.”

  Todd looked stunned. “He had no right,” he said indignantly. “I’m sorry if he embarrassed you, Liz.”

  She put a hand on his arm. “He didn’t embarrass me.”

  “He should never…what?”

  She grinned, hoping her expression conveyed bold daring, rather than the jittery nervousness she was feeling. “I said he didn’t embarrass me. I think he’s right. I think it’s way past time for us to have an entire night alone.” She stood on tiptoe and wound her arms around Todd’s neck. Her mouth met his in a slow, sensuous caress. “Am I getting through to you yet?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said with feigned puzzlement. “Could you try that again?”

  “With pleasure.”

  It was several minutes before Todd broke free of the heated embrace. Breathing hard, he whispered, “I think we’d better leave now or we’ll have a helluva time explaining to Kevin why we locked him and Hank in the bedroom.”

  Liz nodded with a sort of lazy contentment. “After you,” she murmured, certain that she had never before felt anything to match the warm glow that had settled deep inside her.

  Todd shook his head as he linked her arm through his. “Together, sweetheart. From now on, we do it all together.”

  Chapter 12

  Halfway to her house, Liz suffered the onset of a terminal case of cold feet. If there had been any way short of declaring a medical emergency to get Todd to turn the car around, she would have done it. Todd was the right man, but this was the wrong night. Sarah’s presence had triggered a decision that should have been made under less volatile circumstances. She wasn’t really ready. She’d be ready in another year or two—or perhaps the next century, whenever they started handing out guarantees with relationships.

  She glanced over at Todd. He looked thoroughly at ease. Confident. Though his full attention appeared to be on the busy road, a smile played about his lips. She wondered if she’d put it there, if some private anticipation of the night ahead was already giving him pleasure. Renewed panic promptly set her heart to pounding harder. As if he’d heard it, Todd turned toward her. His expression immediately grew troubled.

  “Second thoughts already?”

  “What are you, a mind reader?” she said lightly.

  “It’s hard to miss the signs. You’re holding onto your purse as if you’re anticipating a mugging at every intersection. If you bite your lower lip much harder, it’ll be far too sore for me to kiss it the way I want to.”

  Powerful, sensual images suddenly captivated her. “The way you want to,” she repeated weakly. She was going to faint, just from the caress of his words. One actual kiss and she would simply float happily into oblivion. She swallowed hard and
tried to appear only mildly interested in the direction of the conversation.

  Todd, however, was not through with the torment. In a voice that slid over her senses like silk, he said, “All I’ve been able to think about all day is a slow, leisurely kiss. There were too damned many people around. I wanted to taste your mouth when it was still flavored by cranberry sauce and wine. When you ate the whipped cream off your pumpkin pie, I could just imagine…”

  Liz knew exactly what he could imagine. She wasn’t sure she could stand hearing him say it, though. “Todd, do you think we could talk about something else?” Her own voice was no more than a husky whisper.

  “Why? Is this bothering you?”

  “No.” The denial came out as a squeak. “It’s just that there’s a lot of traffic. You really ought to be paying attention. If you’re thinking about kissing and…whatever else it is you’re thinking about, you might be distracted. You know what the drivers are like around here. You have to drive defensively every second.”

  “I think you’re the one who’s distracted,” he taunted, sounding very pleased about it.

  “But you see that doesn’t really matter,” she insisted. “I’m not driving.”

  “Okay. I’ll concentrate on driving, if you’ll tell me what you’re thinking about.” There was a wicked boldness behind the suggestion. Liz’s heart lurched once, then set off at an erratic clip that should have required installation of a pacemaker. “Well?”

  She tried to stall for time to gather her thoughts. She needed to come up with a diversionary tactic that was far removed from the wildly sensual images that were actually rampaging through her mind.

  “I, um, I was just wondering if I turned the dishwasher on before we left your house.”

  Weak, Elizabeth, she thought disgustedly. Really weak. She glanced over at Todd to see how he’d reacted. He was regarding her skeptically. Amusement danced in his eyes. “Oh, really?”

  She persisted with dogged determination. “Maybe I should call Hank and check, when we get to my place. I’d hate to have all those dishes waiting for us tomorrow.”

  “I turned the dishwasher on.”

  “Oh.”

  “Anything more on your mind? Perhaps you’d like to discuss something a little less weighty? Perhaps a solution for world peace?”

  She glared at him. “Don’t make fun of me.”

  She caught him struggling with a grin. “I don’t mean to, sweetheart. It’s just that you’re taking all this so seriously.”

  “It is serious.”

  “It’s meaningful. It’s wonderful. It is not life or death. Making love is a natural outgrowth of a relationship between a man and a woman. I want you, Liz. I’ve wanted you in my arms and in my bed practically since the first time I saw you.”

  “We’re going to be in my bed,” she pointed out irrationally.

  Todd laughed. “Caught on a technicality. Want me to call Hank and have him take Kevin to his place for the night?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “It’s hard not to be, when you’re acting like a giddy teenager who’s afraid her parents are going to discover that she knows all about sex.”

  She immediately stiffened. “I’m sorry if I can’t be casual about this.”

  “Sweetheart, there is nothing casual about my feelings. I promise you that. Casual is a one-night stand. Casual is sex on a first date. Casual is falling into bed with someone you know perfectly well you’ll never marry. This is not casual. Okay?”

  She sighed. “I know,” she said in a low voice, barely above a whisper. “Maybe that’s the worst of it.”

  At the next traffic light, he turned to her, his expression grave. “Liz, do you want to change your mind about tonight? If you do, I’ll understand. I want you very badly, but I can wait until you’re ready.”

  The offer hung in the air between them. Liz seriously considered taking him up on it, then realized that not only would it be cowardly, it also was not what she wanted at all, not deep inside where emotions formed.

  “I don’t want to wait,” she said, then added with a kind of quiet desperation, “I just want to be there.”

  “Me, too, sweetheart. Me, too.”

  The urgency and longing in Todd’s voice got to her. As suddenly as they’d attacked, the butterflies vanished. She was as sure of her feelings for Todd, as sure of what she wanted as she’d ever been of anything in her life. He was a man of warmth and humor and sensitivity. When he cared, he cared with a blind and deep passion. He would always cherish those he held dear, scaling mountains, slaying dragons, if that’s what was called for. A growing part of her was ready to relinquish at least some of her independence in order to bask in that loving protectiveness. He was right. There was nothing casual about the feelings between them.

  Even with that reassurance, at her front door she fumbled through her purse for the key until Todd finally took over the search. He unerringly found the keys and had them inside the house in less than ten seconds.

  It seemed like a lifetime.

  Despite the resolution she’d come to in the car, Liz found herself at a loss again the minute they crossed the threshold.

  “I think we could both use a glass of wine,” Todd said.

  Liz nodded. Then her heart sank. “Oh, dear, I don’t think I have any.”

  “No problem,” he said, holding up a bottle she hadn’t even noticed. “An old Boy Scout is never unprepared.”

  “I didn’t know Boy Scouts drank wine,” she said, her sense of humor making a tentative comeback.

  “They don’t, but that motto stays with them for life. Sit down and I’ll get the wine ready.”

  Liz didn’t want to sit down. She didn’t want to let Todd out of her sight. If she were alone too long, she had a feeling all her insecurities would come spinning back and take control again. When she was close to him, all she could think about was getting closer. His heat drew her like a fire on a chilly night. His scent was every bit as alluring as the tang of salt on an ocean breeze. His touch…ah, yes, his touch had the power to send her senses on a path every bit as thrilling as that of a star hurtling through a midnight sky.

  Apparently unaware that she’d followed him, he turned quickly away from the kitchen counter and found her less than an arm’s length away. His eyes widened, then sparked with golden fire.

  “I didn’t want to wait alone,” she explained as he put the glasses and wine back on the counter and reached for her.

  “You’re not alone, sweetheart. Not anymore.”

  Blunt but gentle fingers tangled in her upswept hair and sent it tumbling down her back. Warm, wine-scented breath whispered a caress along her neck and turned her blood to flame that fired her body from the inside out. Held tight against his body, hip intimately fit to hip, thigh caressing thigh, she trembled and nearly wept with the joy of the sensation. By the time his lips claimed hers, her body had already surrendered, accepting finally that fate had made her his.

  “Liz, should we talk?” he said, his breathing ragged, his voice hoarse.

  “No more. Not now. I want to feel. I want you to love me, Todd. We’ve waited so long. Just love me.” The last was part demand, part plea. The urgency conveyed itself to him, because he swept her into his arms and carried her through the house, guided by her murmured directions, spurred on by her unrestrained kisses.

  At the sight of her brass bed, Todd’s eyes smoldered. “Somehow I’ve always known,” he said. “When I’ve imagined you waiting for me, it’s always been in a bed like this.”

  “I haven’t always had this bed,” she said, wanting him to know he would be the first to share it. There were no ghosts here. “I bought it after…”

  “Ssh. No talk of the past tonight. We’re living in the present. There’s just you and me and the way we feel when we’re together.”

  With great care and evident fascination he began to remove her clothes. His hands were adept at the task, but it was the expression in his eyes that set off
fireworks. There was so much adoration there, so much tenderness. Liz had never felt as beautiful. He took away her shyness and gave her back love.

  He took far less care with his own undressing. She wanted to savor the slow revelations as he had with her, but it was as if he’d already expended the last of his self-control. He was bare to the waist in what seemed no more than a single urgent tug of his shirt. Belt and pants followed before she could even begin to delight in the broad expanse of his chest. Dressed only in navy briefs, he pulled her back into his arms. She felt as if she’d come home, after a long, lonely journey. She felt as if heaven might be no more than a kiss away.

  The slow, sweet caresses gave way to more demanding touches. With unerring accuracy Todd discovered the secrets to her body. He teased boldly. He stroked with maddening tenderness. And when, at last, he claimed her, it was with a promise on his lips and in his touch. With passion exploding in a burst of rainbow colors, the promise was kept.

  Again and again through the timeless night, they found new ways to communicate without words. Todd sighed in contentment as Liz lay curled against his side, her head resting on his shoulder, her hair streaming across his chest. He had known she would be like this. He had known that her sensuality would match his, that she would arouse him beyond his wildest dreams.

  Time and again, he had watched her amber eyes darken with passion, lit by an internal flame. With breath held, he had watched her lazy, catlike stretches. Then, unable to resist the tempting curves, he had stroked her until her skin glowed and her body turned demanding. Sheathed in silken heat, he had found release. He had discovered commitment.

  The only things he didn’t find during the hours when they loved and slept and loved again were the words to tell her how he felt. He talked of love but not permanence. He blamed it on Liz’s oft-spoken fear of marriage, but he knew it was his own. The commitment might be there in his heart, but the vows terrified him. They were too easily broken, the heart a long time mending.