by Mollie Molay
He gave in to the desire that blazed inside him. He bent and gently ran his tongue over the lips that seemed to taste of honey. Inhaled the scent of the lily of the valley shampoo a thoughtful bride had given Arden for her wedding night. When her arms rose to encircle his head, he lost himself in the magic that was Arden.
She undid the first few buttons on his shirt and slid her fingers across his chest, at first hesitantly, then more urgently. His muscles tensed when she bent to listen to the steady rhythm of his heart.
He opened the rest of the buttons on his shirt to give her entry and watched the wonder that filled her eyes. The touch of her fingertips gliding across his skin sent waves of pleasure coursing through him.
“My turn,” he said softly as he reached for the ribbons that closed the sheer negligee at her neck. It was difficult with the suitcase and the overcoat dragging at his side. He muttered a soft curse under his breath as he overcame the obstacle. He slid the robe off her shoulders, let his fingers drift over her bare shoulder to the hollow between her breasts.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said softly as he lowered his lips to the breasts she offered him. “Beautiful, inside and out.” He teased her taut breasts with his tongue.
“You’re sure you want this? I can stop now.” He laughed shakily. “But I warn you I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to stop later.”
She shook her head. “Don’t stop,” she whispered. Desire drove Margo’s list out of Arden’s mind. She opened her arms and folded him to her. Her dreams were coming true. Maybe not exactly in the approved way she’d been taught, but Luke was the man she wanted to take her to THE GREAT AWAKENING. Tomorrow would have to take care of itself.
“Here, wait a minute,” he told her. “It’s going to be a little awkward, but if you’re willing to chance a few more black-and-blue marks, I think we can manage.”
He paused to fumble in his wallet. He wasn’t going to do anything that might endanger Arden, now or in the future.
This was what she had been waiting for. To be this man’s woman, if only for tonight. And to make him hers, if only for tonight.
He was fast becoming more than just a fantasy. He was the personified dream of a man she could love. He was vibrant, caring, a man of mystery, a man with an edge that drove him to live his dreams as no ordinary man could. But then, he was no ordinary man.
Luke gently urged her to remove her robe and her nightgown. He wouldn’t let her be shy. “I want to see all of you,” he told her. Soon his passion became her own.
“When you think of this, remember that I care for you,” he murmured.
“And that I care for you,” she sighed into his lips. “I want to feel you all over, too.”
“Sorry, my sweet, that’s impossible. But I’ll do the best I can.” He pulled his suit jacket and shirt as far away from his body as he could without taking them off. “I’m afraid the rest will have to wait until another time,” he said ruefully.
Would there be another night like tonight? Arden wondered dimly as Luke took her to him. Would there be another chance to know all of the man in her arms?
She instinctively stiffened when Luke gently prodded her legs apart and murmured soothing words. Now that the moment had come that would change her forever, doubt flickered in the back of her mind. Was she right in giving herself to her fantasy? Was that all Luke was? A fantasy?
From the urgent way he held her to him, she knew there was no turning back. Not now. The fantasy man had disappeared in the sensuous haze of reality. Luke was a flesh-and-blood man and, for the moment, hers. The man she cared for, and the man who cared for her.
The man she’d chosen herself, instead of one her father had chosen for her.
With a sigh she lost herself in his arms.
Chapter Twelve
The sound of water running in the shower awakened Arden. It took a few moments for her to remember where she was and whom she’d been with. Luke…she smiled as she lay back against the pillow to relive the way he’d made love to her: so soft, so tender and caring. Her body, bruised with his kisses, ached pleasurably. Her skin still tingled where his unshaven cheeks had brushed against her skin.
Even the briefcase had been forgotten while he’d stirred her senses, made her feel womanly, alive.
A thousand nerve endings throbbed as her thoughts swirled around her. Warm memories held her captive..
If this had been THE AWAKENING Margo had hinted about, it had been worth waiting until Luke had come along. Not that she’d needed Margo’s notes after the first few moments in his arms. Loving him had come to her naturally.
A quick glance showed her his trousers were still lying on the edge of the cot. She smiled as she visualized him trying to take a shower dodging the water with the remainder of his clothing bundled around his arm.
The thought of his bronzed body brought her wide awake. A blush cascaded over her. She wanted to touch him, feel his hard muscular strength straining against her again. She turned to welcome him, ready to tease him into coming back to her. Her smile faded as she caught sight of Luke as he emerged from the shower.
Luke was naked?
Impossible!
But true.
His clothing, including his overcoat, was neatly folded in a pile on the roomette’s sole chair. The briefcase that had become so much a part of him was hidden underneath. Only a glimpse of brown leather revealed its presence.
The briefcase was on the chair?
“What do you think you’re doing!” she asked as cold reality set in and her sensuous memories vanished. She grabbed her negligee and scrambled out of bed.
Luke froze in the act of reaching for the towel. “Taking a shower,” he offered cautiously. He whipped the towel around his lean hips and stood there poised waiting for her next reaction.
She clutched the borrowed white lace gown to her chest. “I can see that! I’m talking about what you look like!”
He glanced down at his body, bare except for the towel. He shrugged as he met her gaze.
This had to be a dream! The last time she’d seen him, the briefcase had been attached to his wrist by the handcuffs and chain that had prevented him from taking off his overcoat, shirt and jacket. He’d worn them the entire time he’d gently initiated her into the ways of a man and a woman.
Now he’d somehow removed his clothing and the briefcase! But how, when he’d assured her he didn’t have the key? Hadn’t he told her more than once the handcuff couldn’t be removed until he delivered thebriefcase to the owners of the Majestic Hotel?
If he’d lied about the briefcase, had he lied about caring for her as well?
Head cocked to one side, he continued to eye her warily. If he had any ready answers, it was obvious he wasn’t willing to share them with her.
She became more bewildered by each passing moment. How could he act as if there was nothing unusual about his appearance?
“I want to know why you’re taking a shower with your clothes off!” she persisted. “All of them!”
“The usual reasons,” he said lightly. “To shower without getting my clothes wet.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. You’re just stalling for time!” she retorted. “I want to know how you were able to take the handcuff off your wrist now, when you couldn’t do it before.”
He ran his hand across a damp forelock that persisted in falling over his eye, hesitated before he answered. “I’m sorry, Arden. You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t have the heart to awaken you. I thought I had enough time to shower and be dressed again before you did. Although, maybe I should have told you sooner.”
“If you were an honest man, you would have,” she answered, still in a state of shock. “From the way it’s beginning to look, I’m not sure what else you may be hiding from me.”
“Come on, Arden. Don’t be so hard on me. I had my reasons for keeping quiet.”
“Reasons! You never intended to tell me the whole truth of who you are or what you’re up to,
did you?” she demanded, fighting to hold back tears. “What I want to know is how you managed to open the lock on the handcuffs?”
“It’s a long story and has nothing to do with you. Or with this,” he said gesturing to the narrow cot. He wiped lingering drops of water from his forehead as he reached around her to pick up his trousers. “But believe me when I tell you I never meant to hurt you, or for you to see me like this.”
Arden’s heart sank as she stared at the man whose powerful body had enthralled her just moments ago. Now its sheer masculine power seemed intimidating.
He shook his head and closed the few steps between them. His jaw clenched as he tried to speak. His sable eyes were shadowed. With concern? Guilt? Remorse? An intense sorrow gripped her as she realized she’d been manipulated by this man as easily as if she’d been a puppet on a string.
How could she have been so wrong about him? How could she have been so naive as to think there was a decent man behind the dark and mysterious edge that had initially attracted her, and heaven help her, attracted her still? Even after he’d told her he wasn’t the man. she thought he was. And even after he’d’ warned her he wasn’t the man for her?
How could she have given herself to him after she’d been warned repeatedly about the dangers of being attracted to men like him?
She closed her eyes and saw herself as if in a mirror. It was time to take a look at herself, to be honest with herself. Luke had warned her, but she’d still made a conscious decision to give herself to him, anyway. And, to her shame, she’d been the one to force the romance of the moment.
She was no more honest than he was, unless she admitted the truth. She had no right to put the blame on him.
He took another tentative step toward her. He reached for her, dropped his hands when she drew back. “I never meant for this to happen.”
“I know you didn’t,” she agreed. She backed away, feeling as if her heart was breaking. “You only took what I offered. Under the circumstances, I have no right to blame you. But I think I do have the right to question you about the handcuffs.”
As their eyes locked, Arden felt the last of her dreams crumble around her feet as surely as the walls of Jericho had fallen after the assault of its defenses by Joshua. But Luke wasn’t a Joshua and this wasn’t a biblical story. This was real life, and so was Luke.
And somehow she found she wasn’t sorry at having given herself to him.
He wasn’t only the man she’d conjured up out of her imagination. He was the man who’d introduced her to a side of life she’d longed for. A longing that had begun when she’d met him last night and that had crystallized this morning. A longing that had made her invite him to make love to her.
He was also the man who’d betrayed her trust.
She shook her head, hoping she’d awaken to find this was a dream, after all. That Luke was really the man she’d created in her fantasy instead of the devious man he’d turned out to be.
“You’ve been living a lie and taking me with you,” she said sadly. “Maybe this was all a game and I was just too naive to see it. But if it was only a game, and if you cared for me at all, you should have stopped before it was too late.”
“No, Arden, it wasn’t a game,” Luke said gently, aching to hold her to him, to soothe her hurt, to show her with his love how much he did care for her. To show her how deeply he shared her pain. But he didn’t dare. Not now, and not until he could manage to restore her trust. And especially not until he could convince her there was a decent man waiting for her, even if it wasn’t going to be him.
“I couldn’t stop myself. Not after I saw you waiting for me with that sweet invitation in your eyes,” he answered carefully. “I’d already come to care for you too much to ignore that invitation. I may have been selfish, but if any man was going to teach you the ways of a man with a woman, I wanted it to be me.”
Arden gestured as if to push his words away; a tear slid down her cheeks. Icicles formed around his heart at the bleak look in her eyes.
Luke felt devastated, helpless. Her innocent appeal had drawn him almost from the first moment their eyes had met. He damned himself for thinking only of himself and not dreaming of the possible consequences. How could he have been so stupid as to draw her into a tangled web of his own making?
“I couldn’t tell you the truth because I couldn’t give myself away,” he went on. “I didn’t dare. I felt I had to behave like the man I outwardly appeared to be— a harmless courier making a delivery. For your sake as well as my own. Believe me when I tell you I had no ulterior motives when I spoke to you the first time.” He shook his head. “I can’t even explain the instant attraction I felt for you as soon as our eyes met. All I can do is ask you to trust me.”
“You didn’t have to string me along with the story about the briefcase. Or take advantage of my foolish dreams,” she answered sadly. “You let me think you cared. You even let me fall in love with you.”
“Ah, Arden,” Luke said sadly, aching to take her in his arms and soothe her hurt away. “I don’t think you love me. No one could possibly fall in love in one crazy night at an airport.”
“I did,” she answered quietly, “or I wouldn’t have asked you to make love to me. I was never more certain of anything in my life.”
“I don’t think you know what love is,” he said, hoping the regret he felt inside was in his eyes and his voice as he closed the few steps between them. How else would he be able to persuade her he’d meant her no harm?
“I swear I never meant for you to fall in love with me. Or that I even considered letting myself fall in love with you. But you were hard to resist. Actually,” he added, glancing at the door behind her, “in this business my life depends on secrecy, on being a loner. The truth is, it’s long past the time when I could choose anything else.”
Now he wondered how he’d sunk so low as to contemplate becoming the same kind of man he’d spent twelve long years bringing to justice. Gazing at Arden, he couldn’t believe he was even thinking of becoming one of the men he’d hunted.
“But you still took me up on my offer. Knowing all the time you intended to walk away?”
“Even then,” he answered. “I’m sorry. Even then.” Luke grasped her hands in his, lifted them to his lips and kissed her cold fingers. “Especially then. I couldn’t help myself.”
She had no idea of the life he’d led before now, Luke mused as he kissed her cold fingers one by one. Of the enemies he’d made, hunting down the wanted criminals the government had hired him to find. Of the inner battle facing him now.
Or that his past might be waiting for him outside the door, maybe even hiding around every corner, every street. And that if he took the contents of the briefcase and disappeared as he’d planned, he would be looking over his shoulder the rest of his life.
As for Arden, he was grateful she had no idea of that past. Nor how important it was now for him to disappear before he took her into danger with him.
Maybe he shouldn’t have taken advantage of her naive faith and trust in him. But she’d been too hard to resist. He’d had to make her his, to share her honeyed sweetness if only for tonight.
And, for better or worse, before he disappeared to put his plans to make a new life for himself into action.
“What kind of man are you?” Arden whispered through her tears. Then she seemed to find the inner strength that demanded answers. “Tell me who you really are! You owe me that much!”
Luke’s heart sank. He knew the man he’d been, but what kind of man had he become?
Maybe he’d lived in a dark world so long he’d already become no better than the men and women he’d helped to bring to justice. He couldn’t tell her that. He couldn’t destroy all her dreams and her faith in herself.
“To tell the truth, I’m just an ordinary man,” he answered. He couldn’t tell the whole truth. It was sure to make her hate herself for giving herself to him and hate him for taking what she’d offered. He cradled her cold hands
against his chest. “A guy who’s surprised to find out how much he cares for you. And,” he added with growing wonderment of his own as he gazed into her troubled blue eyes, “it looks as if I might have managed to grow to care for you more than ever in the process.”
“Care for me?” She pulled her hands away. “If you cared for me, how could you have taken advantage of my foolish dreams? Especially when it must have been clear to you, you were a man I’d conjured up in my imagination?”
“I couldn’t. But honestly, soon after we met last night, it wasn’t all pretending,” he answered. “I discovered I enjoyed being with you, listening to your dreams, seeing miracles through your eyes. I think I loved you from the time I first laid eyes on you until I had you warm and willing in my arms.” He held her away from him, smiled down into her eyes. “I can’t believe I was lucky enough to find someone special like you in a crowded airport of all places. And all in a single night!”
Softly, he stroked her cheek with a forefinger. Smiled to see her blush. “Maybe because it was the spirit of Christmas that mellowed me, but I couldn’t help myself when I asked you to join me. And then, I got a kick out of the way you defended me to Airport Security and talked your way out of trouble, mine and yours. And the way you found something good in everything and everyone, including a guy like me.”
He held his finger across her lips and shook his head as she started to speak. “No, let me finish,” he said into her eyes. “I was intrigued by the way you saw a miracle in a baby being born on the floor of an airport terminal. And who could resist a woman who finds such delight in a simple little music box, in a toy Santa and his reindeer and in Christmas mornings.”
She leaning helplessly into his chest. “That doesn’t explain the briefcase. That doesn’t tell me where we go from here.”
“I wish I knew,” he said softly into her sweetsmelling hair. “I guess I sensed you needed someone to hold you tonight. I wanted that someone to be me. As to where we go from here, I guess I only meant to give us something to remember.”
“For only tonight?” He heard the break in her voice.
