by Robyn Grady
“First kiss, huh?” He tried to think but his own was too far back to remember.
“As our lips—or should I say braces—met, he backed me up against the rough fence rails. Unfortunately a whole pile of livestock had been there before us.” Her nose scrunched. “We were wearing boots but still not good.”
He chuckled. “Amazing you weren’t scarred for life.”
“He said he’d write. He did once. Even sent a silver locket in the envelope. Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to Dwight Jackson.”
He couldn’t tell if the faraway look that had come to her eyes was feigned or sincere.
“If I didn’t know better I’d think you were trying to make me jealous.”
One teasing eyebrow arched. “Are you?”
“To my core.”
Growling playfully, he leaned forward. Their mouths touched over the center of the table and that same delicious got-to-have-you feeling scorched his every nerve ending. The temptation to slide his hand around her nape and deepen the kiss was almost too great to resist. But, given their current environment, unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.
Soon their meals arrived. The filet mignon was sublime, Elizabeth enjoyed her chicken-fried steak, and the next hour evaporated as they talked over the candlelight, first about Nita being out of town tonight, then the places they’d visited around the world and spots they still wanted to see.
As they finished the last of the wine, the waitress appeared and Daniel looked around. The restaurant crowd was thinning.
“Can I interest you in dessert?” the waitress asked.
Elizabeth leaned closer to Daniel. “Nita wanted me to let you know that caramel apple cheesecake is still fresh.”
Looking up, he handed the waitress back her menu. “There’s your answer.”
And his. He’d wondered if, after giving so generously of her time this morning, she might make him suffer and string him out. But from the inviting smile simmering in her eyes now, hopefully she’d want him to stay for breakfast, too.
As they moved away from the table, Daniel noticed Bradford Price had left and his mind clicked over. Did Abigail know anything about the hushed conversation he’d overheard? Blackmail was an ugly word that accompanied an ugly deed, particularly when you were standing for office, public or private.
“What’s the story behind Mr. Price?”
“Bradford’s an extremely successful businessman. And playboy. His family’s in banking. They founded most of the artistic foundations in Houston and Dallas. He has a solid reputation but when Abigail first threw her hat into the election ring, he made jokes behind her back. Their rivalry since high school is a bit of a legend in these parts.”
He pulled a pained face. “I do like my anonymous life.”
“I hear you’re nothing less than a celebrity in your profession,” she retorted, grinning. “I’m sure you don’t lead a sheltered life, Daniel.”
“No. But I try not to attract unwanted attention.”
“Trouble sometimes follows when you deal with family, friends, community.”
He looked at her twice and knew, despite her angelic expression, she was having a dig at him. But, right or wrong, he was too old to change. He might live a busy life but it wasn’t cluttered with family baggage. Not anymore.
They drove to Milton Ranch, Daniel tossing around some ideas on the new clubhouse design. He spoke with Elizabeth about the history of architecture in the region, from Spanish Colonial and Mexican Republic through to Modern and beyond.
“Do you think there’s a possibility in reinventing any of those for the design?” she asked.
“In my opinion, I think we need something totally new.” He grinned. “Easier said than done.”
“Perhaps that cheesecake will help.”
Her hand found his thigh and, in that instant, nothing mattered but the wash of warmth the contact inspired. He’d come up with something that would grab the hearts of the Cattleman’s Club members. But tonight he was more interested in Elizabeth’s heart.
When he steered the vehicle up before the house, the arcing beam from headlights let them know they still had company—the flamingos. Daniel dropped the gear into Park.
“Maybe you should drum up an army of gnomes to keep them company.”
“And we could stick plastic primroses in their little pots.” Opening his door, he froze and she laughed. “Daniel, I was joking.”
He accompanied her up the path and waited while she unlocked the tall timber front door, all the while trying to rein in the heightened awareness tugging at his senses…the anticipation of gathering her close and claiming her mouth with his. Rocking back on his heels, he inhaled the perfume of fall wildflowers and told himself to be patient. Good things came to those who waited.
“Why don’t I cut you a slice of cake,” she said, setting her keys on the hall stand, “and we can take a tour.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
She walked a couple of feet ahead, showing him the way down a long, high-ceilinged hall decorated in timber panels and the occasional painting depicting the area, glorifying the cowboy legend with lassos and dust flying. Daniel imagined the smell of cattle and dogwood blossoms, the magic of a Texas sunset and stories of cattle rustling told over campfires.
In the kitchen, Elizabeth extracted a cream-topped pie from a monster refrigerator and Daniel’s taste buds tingled. He wished he’d left more room.
“Are you joining me?” he asked.
“If I consumed all the desserts Nita has prepared over the years, I’d be the size of our barn.” Crossing back from a cupboard, plates in hand, she winked. “But tonight’s special.”
Daniel wet his lips. Yes, it is.
When the pie was cut and waiting in individual bowls, Elizabeth slapped a spoon in his palm and, with a lift of her chin, indicated he should follow. Side by side, sampling their first creamy taste of pie, they traversed that hall again, this time ducking into a massive double-story ceilinged room, housing studded maroon leather chairs and walls of books. With the lingering aroma of pipe smoke hiding behind heavy baroque curtains, Daniel surveyed the sea of polished timber floor, numerous ornate architraves and a padded window seat, which looked out over green patches of lawn. He crossed to a section of old spines and eased out one musty book.
“Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche.” Impressed, he set down his bowl and carefully opened the hardback cover. “Your father enjoyed a little light reading.”
“That book belonged to my mother. Dad was more a Billy the Kid fan.”
He shot her a look. “Your mother read this?”
“Sure. When I was old enough she passed it on to me.” Her eyes lit. “Have you read Nietzsche?”
Heavy-duty philosophy?
“My reading material comprises titles like Architectural Digest.” Sauntering close again, he sent her an intrigued grin. “Just how many layers do you have?”
“You mean in general,” she said as she dropped a look down over her red silk dress, “or just tonight?” She slid a spoonful of pie into her mouth and sashayed out the room.
After loosening his tie, Daniel collected his bowl and followed.
“This is the nine-ball room,” she said, a few moments later.
Daniel examined the full-size table, the timber-and-steel-studded bar and, most impressive, a ceiling fresco portraying a stampede of wild horses. Nice.
Next she introduced him to the sitting room, the media room, an amazing A-framed undercover outdoor area…in all he guessed around 20,000 square feet of luxury. Every room boasted stylish symmetry that would be bathed in natural light during the day, some with crossbeam ceilings and murals. Numerous wood-burning fireplaces, granite floors in wet areas… Daniel had a better idea of why Mr. Milton wanted to keep it in the family.
But on a professional note, nothing jumped out and said, with regard to the Cattleman’s Club, Hey, run with this!
They’d climbed an elegant staircase to the second story, where the maj
ority of bedrooms where located, he presumed, thumbing a smear of cream from his lower lip into his mouth. As if reading his mind, she crossed through an opened double doorway, clicked on some muted down-lights and moved into a room decorated completely in snow-white and the exact green of her eyes.
“Now this is my suite. Here’s the fireplace,” Elizabeth said, gliding with catlike grace over the spongy carpet. “My private retreat.” She indicated a silk-covered chaise, facing a window that overlooked the lit waters of an Olympic-size swimming pool. “That way to the attached bath,” she said, and gestured to the left, “and this is where I like to do the majority of my sleeping.”
In a sensual, fluid move, she lowered herself onto the edge of a king-size bed, which was covered with a plump white duvet.
His pulse booming, he started forward as she slipped off her sexy red heels. When he joined her, she was reaching behind, removing the heavy ruby necklace that graced the slim column of her throat. An heirloom, perhaps.
“And that concludes the tour,” she told him, setting the necklace on the duvet and curling her legs up to one side. Her gaze meshed with his, she languidly rolled back and sank into airy white. “I think you’ve seen enough tonight.”
His gaze devoured her lips. “Not nearly enough.”
He slid off his tie and released his belt, all the while drinking in the alluring sight splayed out before him. When she stretched out, telling him without words to hurry and join her, he finished unbuttoning his shirt but then dropped to his knees. Collecting her foot, he brushed his lips up and down the bare instep. Her toenails were painted to match her dress. Was her lingerie the same shade? A rich, sexy red.
His palms slid up her smooth shins, knees, before he dropped a slow, moist kiss on her thigh. Her head rolling to one side, she sighed as his fingers filed up beneath her dress and twined around thin silk bands sitting high on each hip. When she arched, helping, he peeled the scrap of fabric down and off her legs. He wound out of his shirt then began a mouth-to-skin glide up the inside of one leg until he reached the point where he was gripping red satin and dragging it higher.
The tip of his tongue slid up between her thighs, delaying long enough to circle and tease her swollen nub, which made the cradle of her hips twist, dip and lift. After a gentle nip, he moved to capture her hem and ease the dress up over her waist, her breasts. When she lay naked on the bed beneath him, her hair fanned out and eyes heavy with want, he shifted back to remove his trousers.
Daniel had seen Elizabeth without clothes this morning, but as he gazed on in the soft light now her curves sent his erection into a near spasm. Controlling the urge to drive her thighs apart and take her quickly, he flipped back the duvet and joined her as she wiggled up then under the cover.
Lying front to front, the tips of her breasts teasing his chest, she coiled an arm around his neck and asked, “Do you have anywhere to be tomorrow?”
He nipped her lower lip and groaned as a spike of pleasure speared through him. “Only here with you.”
Humming against his lips, she murmured, “Mr. Warren, you read my mind.”
He made love with an agonizing lack of speed, firstly tasting the line of her collarbone while lightly pinching and rolling the tips of each breast until she begged him to take her into his mouth. As he lowered and captured one rosy tip, Daniel recalled this morning—forbidden, fun and over way too fast. Tonight’s union would be about exploring places Elizabeth had never been before, had never known existed. He planned to take them both to heights filled only with bone-melting sensation and incandescent light.
He moved higher, his mouth searching out hers again, probing and teasing while his hips against hers mimicked the slow, stoking rhythm. When her lips left off savoring his and began to trail down his chin, over the pulse beating wildly in his throat, Daniel lay back, resting a forearm over his eyes and warning himself to hang on.
She slid farther down, all the way, until she reached his hard, ready length. As her mouth slipped over the head of his erection and her tongue swirled a lazy loop again and again, he groaned and, stemming the thundering force shooting through his veins, made a this-is-way-too-good fist.
Cupping him with one hand, dragging and squeezing with the other, she accepted more and more of him. The suction growing, his energy swelling, Daniel held tight every muscle as he moved in time and stroked her hair. At the same moment perspiration broke on his forehead, one dainty hand splayed up over his quivering belly, driving higher to rub one side of his chest then the other. Each time her palm grazed a nipple, a line directly connected to his manhood vibrated then tugged. When her teeth got involved, grazing skillfully up and down, on the brink, Daniel grabbed her shoulders and hauled her up.
Surprised, she threw hair back from her face. “I wasn’t finished.”
“I nearly was.”
A wicked gleam swam up in her eyes and she shifted until she straddled him, a knee on either side of his hips, her parted thighs hovering over his engorged glistening length. Setting her palms side by side on his ribs, she tipped forward and stole a heart-hammering kiss that set a sky of fireworks shooting off in his head.
With her breasts brushing his chest, she kissed him until he didn’t know which way was up. With each passing second he only knew he wanted to feel her velvety warmth wrapped moist and snug around him.
“Maybe we should think about a condom,” she said as the kiss slowly broke.
He’d planned to enjoy foreplay for a while longer but with her mouth working down his throat again and his fuse near ready to blow, he’d go with her “protection now” plan.
Stretching, he lifted the package he’d set earlier on the bedside table. He ripped the wrapping with his teeth and rolled the condom on with Elizabeth on her knees, hovering like a vision above him. His hand was barely away before she took his sheathed length and, maneuvering her hips, gradually eased down and over him.
Sucking in a breath, Daniel grabbed her rump and held her still. A line of sweat slid from his temple as that internal time bomb ticked and pulsed loud and hard. Eyes squeezed shut, he groaned out a short laugh.
“You want to embarrass me?” Make me finish too fast.
“I want to enjoy you. I want you to enjoy me.” With his hands on her rear, she began to move. “You have more condoms, don’t you?”
Eyes still closed, he smiled. “Oh, yeah.”
Her palm slid over his wet forehead as her hips rotated in a slow, sensual circle and, for the first time in living history, Daniel let the bedroom reins slip from his grasp. He’d been sexually physical with the opposite sex in all the best ways. But gazing up into Elizabeth’s dreamy face now, something fundamental shifted inside of him. And as the burn of imminent release turned from red to glowing white hot, Daniel was helpless to deny it.
She was unlike anyone he’d ever been with before. Unlike anyone he’d ever met. As his touch trailed up her slender waist and he weighed the perfect curve of each breast, Daniel closed his eyes again and concentrated on the pure heaven about to break.
Thank goodness they had all night.
A noise in the late-night hours woke Daniel from a deep sleep. Blinking into the misty light, he wondered where he was. It came back not in a blinding flash so much as a welcome warm rush. With her perfumed scents drifting over him, he moved carefully onto his side. Elizabeth lay nestled close, curled up, her hands a pillow beneath her cheek.
That warmth stirred and became something deeper and hotter in his chest. He felt the smile on his face as he reached to gently touch her hair, fair and silver threads splayed out in the lifting shadows.
And then he heard the noise again and an unsettling feeling gripped him. His senses shifted to concentrate. When another scuff sounded, directly below at the front door, he sat bolt upright.
Elizabeth made a sleepy, humming sound and shifted her arms to stretch above her head. Her eyelids fluttered, her gaze found his then her drowsy smile dawned in the dark. Her voice was a sultry drawl that se
nt his sexual antennae aquiver.
“Hey,” she murmured, “I remember you.”
He wanted to wrap her up and kiss the inviting words right out of her mouth, but he couldn’t dismiss those noises. It was probably a coyote bumping around, but Daniel couldn’t stop a snapshot of Bradford Price from creeping into his brain.
Blackmail… Baby…
He couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling. That noise again.
Heart lurching, he threw off the covers then heard Elizabeth shift, sit up.
“Where are you going?”
“Nowhere. Just outside.” On his feet, Daniel found his trousers. He wouldn’t bother with the shirt. “What’s outside?”
He held up a warning hand. “Just stay put.”
“Daniel, what is it?”
“I don’t know. Probably nothing.” He came back to dot a kiss on her crown. “I want to make sure.”
“Well, you’re not going alone.”
“For God’s sake, Beth, do as I say.”
Daniel realized he’d used the shorter, more familiar derivative of her name at the same time she pressed her lips together and threw back the cover, too.
“No.”
He wanted to stride off ahead, but, man or woman, this was her property. He couldn’t stop her, unless he manacled her to the bed. Hell, that might not even hold her.
On the way out, she grabbed a silk robe off the chaise and, with her lashing the tie, they double-timed it down the stairs. At the bottom, in the dark, she caught his shoulder.
“I’ll get a rifle,” she whispered.
Daniel recoiled. Not if he could help it. He didn’t want a potentially bad situation made worse. And he knew from experience, where guns were involved, things could always get worse.
He shooed her around and close behind. “Just don’t go doing anything brave.”
Gingerly, he unlocked the door and, as the cool air brushed his skin, he cast a wary glance around the quiet grounds. All seemed routine. The night was tranquil. The low lawn lights shone across strips of grounds. And still, unease rippled up his spine.
Then, way off down the driveway, an engine ignited. A quick flash of headlights as the vehicle hit the main road and then the rumble faded into the distance. Cursing, Daniel thumped the doorjamb. He’d known it wasn’t his imagination.
