"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I couldn't get Joey to stay for dessert. Twelve year old boys would kill for dessert."
"It was getting late."
"You didn't suggest they head for home?"
"Why are you so suspicious?"
"I've learned a lot about you in the past few days, Gregory. You're many things but subtle isn't among them."
"My approach isn't subtle, but you have to admit I get results."
"A bullwhip gets results, too, but it's not socially acceptable."
She pushed past him into the huge solarium and made a show of checking on the girls who were sleeping in front of the television, and on the cat who was sleeping on top of the television, and on the mynah bird who sat, laughing at them all, from the safety of his cage. She adjusted the transmitter on the baby monitor she'd purchased in town yesterday. She would do anything rather than face up to the fact that she was alone with him and scared to death. "If you had any decency you'd say goodnight."
"I haven't had my coffee yet."
"I'm sure there's a diner open some place." He flipped a fifty cent piece that she caught neatly in her right hand. "Think that'll get me a cup of coffee and some of that chocolate cheesecake I saw in the refrigerator?"
"It might." The coin was warm from his body and she clutched it in the palm of her hand as a rush of odd sensations flooded through her. This was what she'd been trying to avoid all day, ever since their interludes in the kitchen and on the beach. Gregory Stewart had the unnerving ability to cut through her defenses. Already he knew more about the workings of her heart than most of her friends ever would. "Come on," she said, tossing the half-dollar back to him. "You took care of the barbecue. I suppose the least I can do is give you that cup of coffee."
He pocketed the coin then draped an arm lightly around her shoulders. "I was hoping you'd see it my way."
You're out of practice, girl, she thought as they strolled down the hallway to the kitchen in the rear of the house. This was not a sexual situation. This wasn't even a date. Dates didn't include twin toddlers and fat cats and loud-mouthed mynahs and divorced mothers with big-eyed sons who tore at your heartstrings.
Just because he'd kissed her on the beach that afternoon was no reason to think he had any intention of kissing her again. As he'd said, the timing then had been right; it was as simple as that.
Dates included two people, at least one of whom had romance on his or her mind.
Gregory drew her closer as they entered the darkened kitchen and her pulses quickened alarmingly.
Like now?
She slipped out of his grasp and switched on the overhead light. There was nothing like fluorescent lighting to point out a person's flaws. Unfortunately, he didn't have any.
"This really isn't fair," she muttered, certain her own facial flaws were standing out in bas relief. "Were you airbrushed at birth?"
His thick dark brows slid together. "What was that?"
"I said, do you use cream or do you take your coffee black?"
"Black," he said, "and no, I wasn't airbrushed."
She nearly dropped the coffee pot on the tile floor. "You louse! You heard what I said."
"Every word."
"You can go home now, Dr. Stewart. My humiliation is officially complete."
"You did say it out loud, didn't you? Why are you so surprised I heard it?"
She sighed deeply and put the coffee pot down on the counter top. "This pathetic wretch you see before you is what happens to a once normal woman after she's spent three years alone with an Abyssinian."
"You talk to Ignatius?"
"You probably think that's weird."
"Only if you tell me he talks back to you."
"Not yet, but after a month with Boris, who knows?"
"Call me if he starts meowing the Gettysburg Address. We'll make a million."
She poured the coffee then cut them each a wedge of the cheesecake. They took their dessert out to the patio and sat at the edge of the swimming pool with the receiver from the baby monitor not far away. The glow from the citronella candles was reflected in the still water. Dusk had finally given way to darkness and the sky was a swath of black velvet, dotted with a haze of diamonds, blurred by a thin wash of clouds.
The easy, companionable feeling of the early part of the evening was gone and, in its place, was a heightened -- almost painful -- awareness of his nearness. He ate with an economy of motion, but each time he lifted the fork to his mouth, his body rippled with muscles most men didn't even have.
What an idiotic notion! Gregory Stewart had the standard issue male body; it was just packaged better than most that was all. There was certainly no mystery to that.
And she happened to enjoy looking at it.
There was certainly no mystery to that, either.
Show her a woman who didn't appreciate a beautiful pair of biceps and she'd show you a woman without a soul....
Be honest, Mother, her conscience prodded. It isn't your soul that's on Red Alert.
"Coffee's good," he said.
"Thanks."
"Cheesecake's good, too."
"Thank the bakery for that. You were with me when I got it."
"Are you back on that I-give-lousy-parties routine again?"
"Take a look around you, Dr. Stewart. It's eight o'clock and you're the only one left."
"So?"
"What do you mean 'so'? I lose party guests quicker than Sean Penn loses his temper."
He leaned back on his elbows and looked up at her. Even by the light of citronella, he looked terrific. That thought depressed her even more. "I told Mary Ann to leave."
"You what?"
"I told Mary Ann to leave while you were on the phone the second time with your sister."
Diana leaped to her feet. "Get out."
"Aren't you overreacting?"
"Get out before I throw you out."
"Mother wouldn't treat a guest like that."
"Party's over, Dr. Stewart," she said, chest heaving with outrage, "and you're not a guest anymore; you're a trespasser."
"You have no sense of humor, Diana. Anyone ever tell you that?"
"My ex-husband. You're in wonderful company."
She turned to storm back into the house but he caught her around the ankle and she fell backward across his lap with a yelp of surprise.
"Are you hurt?" His face was so close she caught the aroma of coffee on his breath and the tang of salt air on his skin.
"Only my dignity." She tried to pull away but he held her fast. All day she'd been imagining how it would feel to be in his arms and now that she was, she wanted nothing more than to escape. "Let me go. "If only she sounded as if she meant it.
"Not yet." His hand slid up her calf, caressing the tensed knot of muscle, then easing along the sensitive hollow behind her knee. "I've wanted to do this for hours." She made a sound of protest but words were beyond her ability.
He stroked the back of her knee with the pads of his fingers while his palm pressed warmly against the muscle of her thigh. "In fact, I waited all afternoon for you to strip down to your swimsuit."
Her power of speech returned at the thought of displaying her thighs to his fevered gaze. "I wondered why you made such a production of going in the pool. You did everything but send up fireworks."
His hand inched higher up her thigh. "What do you have on under those shorts? A string bikini?"
Desire flared hotter at the thought of his fingers splayed across the naked flesh of her hip. "No string bikini," she managed. "Ten pounds ago maybe, but not now."
His other hand stroked her back in lazy, honeyed circles that made it hard for her to think. "You look great to me."
"You're a kind man."
"No, I'm not. I'm blunt and opinionated and innately selfish and I don't do or say anything I don't mean. You're sexy as hell, Diana."
"I don't know what to say."
"Why say anything?" He lowered his face toward hers
.
"This is crazy," she managed, her hands pressed against the muscular wall of his chest. "I -- "
"Shut up, Diana," he said, his voice as dark as the night and infinitely exciting. "Shut up and let me kiss you."
He closed the distance between them, capturing the sound until she wasn't certain if she had spoken at all or merely imagined it. His mouth was demanding against hers, the kiss powerful and urgent. His tongue moved tantalizingly across her lower lip and she parted her lips slightly and gasped as he coaxed her tongue into sensual battle, deepening the kiss until even the sound of their breathing in the sheltering summer darkness became erotic to her ears.
How long had it been since a simple kiss had the power to send her mind spiraling up and out of her body until she felt as if her consciousness was drifting somewhere above the stars? Ten years? Twenty?
She could almost swear she heard fireworks.
And the telephone.
"Let it ring," he murmured, breaking the kiss for an instant.
Diana needed no coaxing. She clasped her hands lightly around his neck and brought his mouth to hers again.
The phone rang a second time, and then a third.
"Persistent." Gregory kissed the side of her neck. "Probably your sister."
"Mmm." Diana closed her eyes and drifted on a sea of exquisite sensation. Go away, Paula. Leave me alone.
The phone fell silent. The only sound was the ocean crashing against the shore and the syncopated pounding of her heart. It was the first time in Diana's life her sister had ever listened to her.
Talk about perfect timing.
How delightful it was to discover that the venerable Dr. Stewart kissed as good as he looked -- which was really saying something since he was easily the most gorgeous collection of male hormones Diana had ever seen.
Grasping her by the waist, he repositioned her so that she was curled toward him; her breasts were flattened against his chest, the snap on his jeans bit into the slight curve of her belly. Intimate, tantalizing contact made all the more shockingly wonderful by the sheer surprise of it all.
And once again the phone rang.
"You need an answering machine."
Her sense of responsibility reared its ugly head. "It might be important. May I should answer it this time."
"It must be three in the morning in Monte Carlo. Doesn't your sister ever sleep?"
"It might be Dave." She struggled to her feet, leaning against his shoulder for balance.
"I doubt it. I don't think that baby's coming before Thanksgiving."
The ringing of the telephone continued and she started toward the back door. "There's only one way to find out."
He rose and followed her, muttering something about leaving the receiver off the hook next time. She felt suddenly self-conscious and acutely aware of the sway of her hips, the slight jiggle of her breasts beneath her t-shirt, of his gaze upon her and the fact that she'd give anything to be 5'8" of willowy elegance.
An answering machine, she thought, dashing across the kitchen toward the wall phone. An answering machine that gave an hourly report on the health and welfare of the twins, complete with EKG and resting pulse rate. Anything to tame Paula's mad urge to call at the drop of a franc.
But this time it wasn't Paula at all.
It was Dave announcing the birth of a strapping seven pound, eight ounce boy who, according to the proud new father, had "...Peggy's eyes and my lungpower..."
She handed the telephone to Gregory so he could hear the details directly from his partner while she rooted around in the newly-stocked refrigerator for something celebratory to toast the occasion. Mother would have to remind her readers of the importance of having a bottle of champagne on hand at all times.
"It's not Taittinger's," she said as she handed Gregory an icy bottle of Bud Lite, "but the sentiment is the same."
He grinned and took the bottle from her. "Still think you give lousy parties?"
"As a matter of fact, I'm thinking of claiming full credit for this blessed event."
"To new life." He raised his bottle high.
"To new life." She clicked her bottle against his and then they linked arms and drank.
From somewhere up the beach came the sharp crack of fireworks and they turned to the window in time to see the flash of a rocket exploding out over the water. A sudden rush of emotion overtook Diana and the tears she'd withheld all day rolled freely down her cheeks. She stared straight ahead at the makeshift fireworks display and made no attempt to brush the tears away lest she draw attention to them, but Gregory draped an arm across her shoulders and drew her close to his side.
All day long she had lived at the outer edge of her emotions, swept up in strong currents of yearning for the things she'd spent her lifetime postponing for the future. That afternoon, right there at Gull Cottage, the entire spectrum had been displayed before her: Peggy, ripe with child, at the beginning of that incredible journey; the twins, beautiful and bubbly, Paula's miraculous achievement. Joey, so brave and so painfully young.
Mary Ann Marino had called her an optimist but Diana didn't know if it was optimism or stupidity that made her so certain she would never know the darker side of life. Not even her divorce had seemed traumatic; Jack had wanted to start a family when Diana, flushed with her new-found success, had wanted nothing more than to revel in the luxuries a nationally syndicated column could buy. Bad timing, not bad blood, had brought an end to their marriage and she carried no scars or bruises like the ones Mary Ann carried.
She worked too much and she ate too much and she moved from place to place like a gypsy but it was all her choice. She scheduled her life because she liked schedules, because she liked to make her own decisions and know what was going to happen each morning before she opened her eyes.
And so far it had worked: She was where she wanted to be, when she wanted to be there.
In an uncertain world that was something, indeed.
Lucky, she thought, shivering slightly. Lucky, lucky girl...
"Cold?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I'm fine."
"Been a hell of a day, hasn't it?"
"Oh, yes," she said as his arm tightened around her shoulders. "It's been that." What a pleasure it was to stand so close to a man as obviously blessed as Gregory Stewart. His big strong body radiated health and a virile pleasure in life and all things physical. How avidly she'd watched him today, drinking in the sight of his muscular back as he swam laps in the pool. Simple things like the sparkle of the sun on his dark hair; his irreverent sense of humor; the tenderness he showed to the girls and to Joey -- why, she'd felt fourteen again and madly infatuated with the quarterback on the Newtown High School football team.
He turned her toward him, enveloping her in his embrace and she was fourteen again, foolish and awkward and painfully aware of each breath she took, each beat of her wild young heart.
"It's getting late," she managed at last, just as the deep silence threatened to turn meaningful. "I need to bathe the girls and get them ready for bed."
He stroked her hair with the palm of his hand, long languorous movements that caressed her scalp and made her entire body tingle with pleasure.
"You're throwing me out," he said in a voice as dark and vibrant as the star-filled sky.
"It's only fair. You did the same to Mary Ann and Joey."
"Play by the rules, do you, Diana?"
"Yes," she said, meeting his gaze. "I'm afraid I do." She knew all about the rules between men and women and where she and Gregory Stewart were headed was some place she wasn't ready to go -- at least, not yet.
"I want to see you again."
"Dave invited me to see the baby the day after tomorrow."
"I can't wait that long."
Her laugh was high and extremely pleased. "I have to start working, Gregory, and you have an animal hospital to run."
"Lunch tomorrow."
"I'm sorry. No."
"Dinner."
"Gregory, I -- "
He kissed her hard on the mouth. "Breakfast?"
It was scandalous the way her hips seemed to melt into his. "I'm a relentless schedule-maker, remember? Tomorrow is strictly work."
"I can't tempt you?"
"Oh, yes, you can tempt me but I won't relent." She kissed the cleft in his chin. "We can go to the hospital together to see Peggy, if you'd like."
"There are a few things I'd like better."
Her body swayed toward him and she placed her palms against his chest to keep from totally disgracing herself.
"I'll take you to dinner afterwards."
"That would be wonderful, Gregory, but I'm a package deal these days."
"We'll find a place with highchairs. I want to get to know you better."
She forced air into her burning lungs and reason into her brain. "I'm only here for the month," she said lightly. "You'll have to settle for what you can learn in the next twenty-seven days."
"And I'm leaving August 15th," he answered, cupping her face between his massive hands. "I'll have to move fast."
"I -- umm -- the girls and I are a package deal, Gregory."
He pressed a kiss to the hollow at the base of her throat. "You said that before."
"I don't think you understand. I take the responsibility seriously. I don't want them to see or hear anything they might not understand." I don't want to make any mistakes. The next time I fall for a man, I want to be sure he's the right one.
He watched her carefully. "I know what you're saying, Diana."
"I'm not sure that you do. I -- there really isn't an easy way to say this: I'm not looking for summer romance, Gregory, for something temporary." She took a deep breath and took the plunge. "Oh, damn! What I'm saying is, I don't sleep around."
He didn't laugh and her feelings took another sharp and dangerous turn as he met her eyes. "I'd like to spend time with you while you're here."
"No strings?"
"No strings."
"Well," she said slowly, "I'd like that."
"Good," said Gregory, lowering his mouth to hers.
"Good," said Diana, moving into his kiss.
"Fat chance," said Boris from the solarium and Diana was afraid the bird just might be right.
Mother Knows Best Page 11
