Dev spent the requisite time talking to his father, hearing how well his brother was doing and how Derek was using his degree and helping out with the business. Dev deflected the usual feelers about when he would be moving back to Seattle and joining their ranks.
“Why isn’t Derek here this evening?” Dev asked.
“He’s handling some business in Los Angeles,” his father replied. “There’s another meeting on Monday, so he stayed the weekend.”
“His excuse must have been more convincing than mine,” Dev remarked. Excusing himself, he guided Brynna to the buffet table inside. They made their selections from the elegant fare, seated themselves to eat and shared a glass of wine.
As darkness fell, subdued lighting came on. The orchestra played, and Dev enjoyed Brynna’s company and this time alone without controversy. For a change, the atmosphere felt good between them. He could almost imagine they could work things out.
When the musicians moved outside, Dev took Brynna’s hand and led her gracefully across the flagstones. A few other couples joined them under the stars. Watchful of her balance on the uneven surface, he held her close. How different this was from the times they had danced at Joe’s Bar and even the one time at a dinner club in Billings. No jeans or peanut shells here; no pool balls clacking in the background.
It was a romantic setting and an idyllic evening for both of them—no smell of fire, no beeper, no real-life intrusion. They would return to all that soon enough; for tonight there were only the stars above and the dreamlike strains of the music…just the two of them.
“I must remember to thank my mother for manipulating us into coming,” he said.
“I enjoyed this afternoon,” she replied.
“And tonight?”
“And tonight.”
He pulled her close and inhaled the intoxicating scent of her hair. He’d missed her more than he could ever express—needed her more than he ever thought he would need a woman.
“Are you enjoying this evening, too?” she asked.
“Very much.”
“Even though you had to dodge bullets earlier?”
“I’m used to the old man,” he replied. “The inquisition was well worth this.”
And it was. He’d missed holding her and enjoying this closeness. He took advantage of every moment. As they danced, he remembered the sight of her fastening her shoe, the exposed length of her silky thigh, and he couldn’t control thoughts of touching that length of skin, pressing kisses to the inside of her knee.
His body reacted, and since he held her so close, she knew.
Chapter Nineteen
She looked up and met his gaze. Her eyes were dark and luminous. He didn’t care that he couldn’t hide his desire.
“You are so incredibly beautiful and sexy, Brynn,” he said softly, and she smiled.
A few at a time, the guests left until Dev and Brynna were the only ones left, but they didn’t seem to notice. Dev kept her dancing until the musicians packed their instruments, and then, finally, he realized the music had stopped. He took her hand and led her into the garden, the path lit by torches.
Brynna started for the concrete bench, but Dev pulled her back toward him. She came up against his chest and gazed up.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he told her, delighting himself in the warm feel of her back beneath the filmy dress. “I haven’t been able to take my eyes off you all day.”
She didn’t reply, but she didn’t draw away. Brynna placed her palm against his shirtfront and leaned into him, her soft breasts crushed against his chest.
He cupped her bottom and brought her flush against him, showing her again how she had affected him.
Brynna raised her other arm to his shoulder and he leaned forward, meeting her lips and crushing her mouth beneath his in a hungry exploration. He traced the crease of her lips with his tongue and she opened to him, taking his tongue into her mouth the way he wanted her to take the rest of him into her body.
Crickets chirped a chorus against the soothing sound of the waterfall, and the night closed in around them. At that moment under the stars, they were lovers with no past, no future, existing only in this pulse-raising moment.
Inching her silky skirt upward, he gathered the fabric until his fingers found the warm smooth skin of her bottom. He stopped kissing her to ask, “What are you wearing?”
The scrap of underwear left her cheeks bare for his exploration, and he took advantage, molding his hands to them while holding her firmly against him. “Or maybe what aren’t you wearing is the question.”
Brynna raised her arms to his shoulders, straining upward for another kiss, and framed his face with her hands. She groaned when he ground his hips against her. She let her head fall back and he ran his tongue along the skin of her throat, nipped her shoulder and tasted her earlobe.
Dev spanned her hips with his palms, stroked upward and cupped her breasts. “Is that little scrap of underwear all you have on under this dress?”
“Uh-huh.”
“If I untied those ribbons, would the front open?”
“Uh-huh.”
He reached for the rose at her hip, but she caught his hand. “Not here.”
“Not here” meant she was willing for him to untie it elsewhere, so he grabbed her hand and urged her toward the house.
“There you are!” Estelle spotted them once they were inside. “I wondered where you’d run off to.”
Dev moved Brynna in front of him and spoke to his mother over Brynn’s shoulder. “We had an early day. We’re ready for bed.”
“Did you enjoy yourselves?”
“Oh, the party? Yes, it was very…uplifting,” he said.
“Everything was very nice,” Brynna added, her cheeks flushed.
“Good night, dears. Sleep well.” Estelle waved them off.
Keeping Brynna in front of him until they reached the stairs, Dev then tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and led the way, ushering her into their quarters and closing the door with an eager click.
Someone had turned down the covers and two muted lamps burned on the wall on either side of the bed.
Dev reached for the ribbons at her hip, untying the bow and peeling the fabric apart. There was a small hook, as well, which he slipped out of its mooring. The dress wrapped across her breasts and was hooked on the opposite side as well, and he figured it out impatiently.
The fabric skimmed down her body to pool at her feet, and he bent to help her step out of it, then draped it over a chair. She wore nothing but the V-shaped white thong and those shoes with the white roses. She was all legs and satin skin, better than his memory, better than his imagination. Her breasts were pink-tipped and perfectly shaped. Her nipples pebbled and he touched one with the tip of his finger, kissed her shoulder, stepped behind her and ran his fingers down her spine. She turned her head to see him over her shoulder. He stepped against her, pulling her back along his length, cupping her breasts, inhaling the scent of her hair.
Brynna reached an arm up and back to slide her fingers into his hair and nuzzle her face along his jaw.
“Are you sure this time?” he asked, needing to be certain. “I don’t want you to feel later that you’ve made another mistake.” Half afraid of what she’d say, he waited for her reply.
She kissed the underside of his chin. “I’m sure.”
He slanted his head to kiss her lips, and she responded with a sigh. As if impatient for more satisfying contact, she turned in his arms to face him and opened his jacket. “This isn’t fair,” she said. “You’re having all the fun.”
He obliged her, removing his coat and shirt, and his blood hammered when she unfastened his belt and trousers and reached inside to fill both hands.
Dev gritted his teeth against the intense pleasure and allowed her purposeful caress for as long as he could stand it.
Stopping her by gently grasping both wrists, he moved her to the edge of the bed. She scrambled to the cent
er and watched him remove his shoes and socks so he could shuck his pants. He joined her, pressing her against the mattress and kissing her before suckling her breasts until she whimpered.
She sat up and reached for the buckle of one shoe, but he stopped her. “No, just these,” he said and eased her back to slide the thong downward. With a seductive smile, she helped him. He kissed her ankle, her calf, gazing with appreciation at the delights revealed only to him.
Leisurely he tasted the inside of her knee, the length of her thigh, knowing he could make her impatient, and taking gratification in drawing out her anticipation as well as his own. Her desire increased his, and he soon had no thought but pleasing her. He loved her with his hands and mouth, pausing when he knew the sensations were too intense, prolonging when she caught her breath and her entire body quivered.
She was so exquisite, her reactions so spontaneous, his heart raced. His love for her was boundless, and he wanted to worship every inch of her, give himself to her unsparingly and know her love the same way in return.
When at last he covered her with his body and joined them, he was trembling with unspent need. She welcomed him with kisses and warm embraces, clinging to his back and shoulders, holding him tightly with her knees. Dev lost himself in the sublime indulgence of her body, grateful as always that her fiery appetite matched his. Finally, grasping his hips, she met his thrusts until their passion was spent.
Dev collapsed at her side, his head on her shoulder. She caressed the hair away from his temple and placed a kiss on his closed eyelid. He opened his eyes to see her, hair disheveled, skin aglow in the lamplight, a lazy smile on her kiss-swollen lips. She was a woman well loved, and he took satisfaction in the knowledge that she was his, and that he was the one—the only one—to give her such pleasure.
She brought her knee up. “Can I take these off now?”
He stroked her calf while she unbuckled her shoe. “Oh, I don’t know, if you leave them on, you can wear them to breakfast.”
She dropped one shoe off the side of the bed and worked on the other. “Wonder what your mother would think.”
“That you didn’t pack tennis shoes?”
She laughed and discarded the other before stretching languidly. Dev stroked her velvet skin and when she turned into him, they snuggled. For the first time in their relationship, he hadn’t done anything to prevent conception. Had he been purely caught up in the moment or did he unconsciously want her to get pregnant again? How unfair would that be, when their relationship was so unstable? Did he think he could bind her to him?
Should he mention it?
She had folded herself into his embrace, rubbing his bare hip and occasionally pressing a soft kiss against his chest. She raised her hand to his neck and kneaded the muscles until he sighed. She knew as well as he what could happen, better because she was an obstetrician, and if she hadn’t said anything, he didn’t want to be the one to destroy the tentative bond they’d restored tonight.
Brynna straightened in his arms, pressed her face against his neck and hugged him tightly. He wanted to stay here forever.
Dev threaded her hair back, cupped her chin and raised her face for a kiss. She met his lips tenderly at first, but with increasing passion. Moments later, she slid her leg across his body and raised up to straddle him. She sat motionless, gazing down into his eyes.
Dev’s reaction was immediate, and he watched appreciation flit across her features in the dim glow of the lamps. She moved sinuously to ease his swollen thickness inside her. Her eyelids fluttered shut.
“Look at me,” he said, his voice rough.
She did.
Ardor growing, he watched her, her hair sexily mussed, her dark eyes luminous with desire and what he hoped was still love. He stroked her thighs and hips, appreciating the lovely vision she made above him. Gauzy fabric surrounded them, filtering light and enclosing them in their own private world. She began a slow seductive rhythm. Brynna, beautiful Brynna, this smart sexy woman was his, and he couldn’t bear to lose her.
If it was unfair to hold her with this wild physical attraction, did he care? It had been this way between them since the moment they’d met, and it had worked fine for most of a year. Better than fine. They’d been happy.
They’d been in love.
She knew just how to turn him inside out. He closed his eyes and concentrated on holding back.
“Dev,” she said breathlessly, “look at me.”
He did.
She knew what she was doing. And she was relentless.
He moved his hands to her breasts and gave himself over to her, to the sensations, to the inevitable. His climax spurred hers and she throbbed around him, finally falling forward and lying on his chest as though she hadn’t a bone in her spent body.
He drew her hair aside and stroked her shoulder.
And together they dozed….
Brynna awoke to feel Dev curled around her naked body, his warm skin a tactile delight everywhere they touched. The dim lights were still on, and she glanced around the gauzy drape at the small clock on the night table to see it was a little after two. Perhaps the light had awakened her, or maybe it had been the seductive joy of having Dev so near and so accessible she could touch him anytime she pleased.
And it pleased her now. She reached back and ran a hand across his hip.
Rousing, he made a sound of appreciation deep in his chest and pressed himself closer to her.
She was awake now, and she moved to adjust their entwined limbs, rolling to her back and seeking his face.
His green eyes met hers sleepily. “What time is it?”
She told him, and his eyes drifted closed.
“Still want to take that dip in the pool?” she asked.
His eyelids flew open.
Chapter Twenty
“Do you?” Dev asked immediately.
“Uh-huh.”
He straightened and stretched. “You’ll either kill me or keep me young,” he said with a roguish grin, and ran a hand through his rumpled hair, mumbling something about brain damage.
“Do we need suits?” she asked.
“Just something to cover up until we get there.” Not bothering with underwear, he shrugged into his trousers and Brynna pulled on a robe. Dev found towels and they slipped out through the sliding glass door to a balcony and down a set of stairs.
She’d never been to the upper pool before, but Dev led the way up stone stairs lit by landscaping lights, and she followed. It was more of an enormous hot tub than a pool, surrounded by green foliage and hidden by cleverly arranged stone walls. Dev opened a concealed control panel and the water began to bubble enticingly.
A lovers’ paradise. Dev removed his trousers and made his way down the stone stairs into the water, her admiring gaze following. What a seductive month he could adorn in a hunk calendar. When he stopped and turned, the water reached his waist. He beckoned to her. “Come on.”
She dropped her robe and followed him in. As she descended, the warm water swirled around her ankles, knees, hips, belly, surrounding her in a sensual caress. A shiver ran up her spine.
Dev met her and pulled her against him for a sound embrace. “Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.
“I was asleep. I don’t know what woke me.”
“I know what woke me,” he said. “And I’m not complaining.”
She smiled and stroked his hip as she’d done then. “This isn’t really much exercise, is it?” she asked. “I was thinking a swim.”
“You can swim in the pool if you like. Actually, it’s pretty refreshing after soaking in here. But this feels good on the muscles.” He guided her to a ledge that served as a seat, where the jets pulsed warm water around their bodies. “See?”
She leaned back and enjoyed the soothing sensations. Dev sat beside her to do the same. “Mmm,” she purred. “Physical therapy with style.”
“Think you’d like one of these?” he asked.
She grinned. “I can see it now. Outside
our back door and everyone driving by on the highway could wave.”
He chuckled.
Brynna realized she’d just said “our back door” and he hadn’t reacted as though she’d blundered. There were so many things she couldn’t mention, subjects they couldn’t talk about now, things like “their house.” Certain words had become forbidden to their conversation, words like marriage, baby, husband, wife…pregnant.
A couple should be able to talk these things through without hurt feelings and anger, shouldn’t they? There had to be more to a comfortable, meaningful relationship than sex. They had the sex part, that had never been a problem.
Or maybe it was the problem. Maybe they were so crazy hot for each other that they abandoned reason and common sense. Maybe sex had pushed their relationship too far too fast. Perhaps if they’d taken time to discuss their mutual goals and really understand each other, they would never have decided to get married in the first place.
They’d have enjoyed a brief affair, and when things got shaky, they’d have gone their separate ways.
No. Even if they’d been simply having an affair, Brynna might still have become pregnant, and the same thing would have happened…they weren’t even married for real anyway, so what was the difference now?
“Brynn?”
His voice brought her out of her reverie. “Hmm?”
“What are you thinking?”
Nothing she could mention while still enjoying the rest of their time together. “Purely carnal thoughts, I assure you.”
“Really.” He slid beside her, hip to hip, and slipped his arm around her.
Brynna turned toward him, and, quite naturally, straddled his lap. She wrapped her forearms behind his neck and he pulled her forward to kiss her. The water pulsed against their skin, bubbling and eddying in a sensuous prelude.
Perspiration had dotted Dev’s forehead and temples. Brynna scooped a handful of water and trickled it over his head. She continued to wet his face, pausing to caress his temples and jaw. After slowly running her thumb over his lower lip, she kissed his mouth. He met her tongue with his and deepened the kiss.
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