by Shirley Jump
Susannah stopped, drinking in the view. How long had it been since she’d taken the time to admire the lake at night? “It’s like diamonds,” Susannah said softly. “The moonlight, on the lake.”
“I agree,” Kane said. “Did you know, like snowflakes, no two diamonds are alike? The oldest diamond is billions of years old, yet we’ve only been mining them for a couple thousand years.”
“Wow. I didn’t realize that.” She followed him down the grassy path to the lake, reaching out to steady herself with a tree. Rover scrambled along with them, stopping every few seconds to unearth a new treasure, from pinecones to rocks.
“They’re amazing gems, diamonds are, and one of my favorites. Cutting and polishing a stone can take away as much as half of its size. It takes a true artisan to be able to see a raw diamond and realize its potential.” Kane bent over, picked up a handful of rocks and jingled them in his palm. Beneath the stars, strains of quartz glinted.
She ran a finger over the marbled seam of the largest rock, then drew back. “How do they know what shape to cut the diamond in?”
“Ah, that’s where skill comes in.” Kane dropped the rocks to the ground, then dusted his palms together. Rover headed off to nose at the edge of the lake, darting into the water, then back out, as if playing a game with the lapping waves. “Not just anyone can be a diamond cutter and polisher. It’s a skill that’s passed down from generation to generation. Fathers teach sons, grandfathers teach their grandsons.”
“No mothers teaching daughters?” She grinned.
“Some. But mostly, it’s about getting quiet with the stone. Looking at it, hearing what shape it should be, and being true to the stone’s nature before you lay a single tool against it.”
Susannah bent down, grabbed a thick rock that had likely sat at the edge of this lake since this beginning of time, and hefted it in her palm, as if it were a rare gem. “Everyone’s always looking to create the next Hope diamond, is that it?”
“No, not really. What gets jewelers and people who work with gems excited is finding that next rare jewel. Or seeing the one no one else has ever seen. A red diamond, for instance, is the rarest of all. And then the public will create a demand for something like chocolate diamonds, which are diamonds with brownish tones. Years ago, no one wanted them. Now, they’re the next hot thing.”
Susannah replaced the rock, then rose, brushing her palms off on her jeans. “Working in a jewelry store must be romantic.” She hugged her arms around her chest, a slight barrier against the cool evening breeze. Her denim jacket was too light for the midspring weather and she found herself wishing she’d dressed warmer.
He laughed. “Romantic?”
“All those couples coming in, picking out engagement rings. All those people thinking forever is just a gold band away.”
Kane took off his leather jacket and draped it over her shoulders, settling his palms on her for just a second, as if cementing the coat in place. She leaned into his touch, then drifted away before shooting him a smile of gratitude. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had done something so chivalrous—without being prompted.
“You sound mildly against the prospect of marriage,” Kane said.
“For me, not as a rule for everyone.”
“Because?”
“Because I think that not everyone ends up with the fairy tale. That’s all.”
“And because you have other plans.”
“Exactly.”
They began walking the perimeter of the lake, a slow stroll, allowing the spaniel to continue his playful game with the water’s edge.
“So what would you do if you suddenly met Mr. Right? Say, while you’re hiking across the Alps or touring Big Ben?”
She laughed. “The chances of that are pretty slim.”
“Perhaps.”
He stopped, then picked up a rock and skipped it across the serene water’s surface. It bounced twice before sinking to the bottom. “That’s exactly why I never tried out for the baseball team.”
“You need a flatter stone,” Susannah said. “That one was too round.”
She bent, searching in the earth for the right rock, then when she found one, stood and put her palm out flat to show Kane. “Try this one.”
“Show me.”
“Okay. But I’ll warn you, you’re dealing with a pro here.”
She turned slightly, then drew her arm back, and in one fluid movement, let the rock go. It skipped five times, bouncing in lower and lower arcs, before slipping beneath the inky water.
“Wow. You’re really good at that.”
She shrugged. “I told you so.”
“I mean it. How did you get so adept at stone skipping?”
“I used to have a lot of time on my hands after school. Waiting on Jackie to catch up, while we were walking home.”
“Was she just a slow walker?”
“No. She was what you call a social butterfly. Still is. She had to stop and say hello to everyone she saw. Instead of waiting like a third wheel, I’d go do my own thing and she knew I’d be here at the lake. I’d skip stones or climb trees or do any of the tomboyish things that my sister thought were the kiss of death.”
“Kiss of death?”
“For a respectable social life.” Susannah laughed. “Maybe she was right. After all, she’s the one who’s getting married. And I’m the one…still skipping rocks.”
Kane slipped both his hands into Susannah’s and turned her in the dark to face him. Beneath the silvery beams of the moon, her countenance glowed with a faint shimmer, bouncing off her eyes, her lips. She’d been wrong. It wasn’t the lake that glittered with diamonds, it was Susannah. Her eyes. Her hair. Everything about her. He captured her jaw, turned her mouth up to meet his, intending only to catch her attention, but instead finding he had caught himself in the spell ten times more.
“You’re much more than that, Susannah. You’re…so different from anyone I’ve ever met.”
“So plain, you mean. So—”
“So unique.” His thumb caressed a lazy circle along her jawline, silky peach skin working almost like a balm to his tough exterior. To a man who had left New York jaded, overworked, sure there was no one left in the world who possessed an innocent bone in their body, she brought a sense of peace, of hope, to Kane’s soul.
Susannah Wilson seemed to be the very embodiment of what women should be. Nurturing. Unpretentious. And yet, at the same time, a challenge.
“Listen, you don’t have to butter me up,” she said, “just because you’re the best man. I’m not feeling left out of the wedding or anything like that. I know Paul and Jackie probably sold you some kind of sob story about the poor eldest sister, the spinster, as if God forbid that’s some kind of crime around here. In a small town, it’s like a disease not to be married. But I’m—”
“You talk too much,” he said, silencing her speech with a finger to her lips.
“I—”
“I can see it’ll take a lot more to shut you up,” he said, teasing. Then he leaned forward and did what he’d wanted to do nearly from the moment he’d met Susannah.
He kissed her.
At first, she held her ground, unyielding to his touch, then finally she softened against him by degrees—her lips, her face, her touch. She leaned into his body, her hands ranging up his back, reaching higher, until she had him pulled against her, tight, firm.
And Kane’s world exploded.
Damn. He had kissed women. Dozens of them. Women who purred against him. Women who stood still as statues. Women who made it their life’s mission to cater to his every need. But never had he kissed a woman who poured herself so wholeheartedly into something so simple as a kiss.
Susannah tasted of the bitterness of coffee, mixed with the sweetness of cookies. The air held the vanilla and citrus notes of her perfume, the wave of her body heat.
His grip tightened around her, desire singing its siren song through his veins, pounding in his head. He tangled his
hands in her hair, letting the silky strands slip through his fingers like a rainstorm. Knowing that for as long as he lived, this would be a kiss as unforgettable as his first.
Finally, Susannah stepped back, out of his embrace. “What…what was that?”
He grinned. “If I have to tell you, then maybe you want to repeat health class.”
She swatted him gently on the shoulder. “That wasn’t what I meant and you know it. Why did you kiss me?”
“Because I wanted you. Simple as that.”
“I don’t want a relationship.”
“Did I say I did?”
“But…” Confusion warred in her gaze. “Why kiss me then?”
“Does every kiss have to lead to a walk down the aisle with you?”
She laughed. “You’re in a small Indiana town. Things out here are different. We don’t do too many things halfway.”
He reached out and trailed a finger down her cheek, watched her sharp inhale of breath, as an echoing roar ran through his chest. “Maybe it’s time you did, Suzie-Q.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE world had turned inside-out, upside-down and sideways.
Why did Kane Lennox have to go and kiss her? Just when Susannah thought she had everything on an even keel, thought she had a plan for the days ahead, for her life—okay, maybe not her life, but at least for the next few weeks—he’d gone and added an X to an even equation. She didn’t need a relationship, even a temporary one.
And she especially didn’t need to be kissed by a man who made her wonder if she’d been missing out on something all her life, as if there was some great secret every other woman in the world had been holding tight—and she’d just now discovered.
Because, damn, that man could kiss.
Definitely better than her first boyfriend, Darryl Taylor. Ten times better than Tim Mills, her last boyfriend—and the one she’d dated the longest, for two years. Not that any of the men she’d dated had been bad or inattentive. Simply clearly lacking something in the experience department.
Except…more experience meant Kane had a lot of women to choose from. A lot of women in his dating past—who also must have had plenty of experience. If that was so, why would he want to date someone he’d met on vacation, a woman from a small Indiana town? Unless, as he’d said, all he wanted was a quick little fling?
Nothing more than kisses?
And did Susannah want the same thing?
“A penny for your thoughts.” Kane slipped his hand into hers and began walking with her around the perimeter of the lake.
“Why are you here? Besides the wedding?”
“My job is stressful and I thought I could use a few days off. I haven’t taken a vacation in…well, forever.”
“Yeah, but why here? Chicago is only a few hours away. Detroit. Cincinnati. Heck, you could hop on a plane and be about anywhere but here.”
“I live in a city. I wanted something different.”
“And I live in the small town. I want the city. Guess we’re the two proverbial mice.”
“Or maybe, once you get to the big city, you’ll find out that everything you ever wanted was here to begin with.”
“Maybe once you spend more than a few hours here, you’ll realize you were crazy for thinking there was anything more exciting than watching corn growing here.”
He laughed, a deep, hearty sound that she couldn’t help but echo. “Maybe.”
Rover came charging up from the water’s edge and ran a frenzied circle around their legs, then took off for the water again, as if trying to entice them to join him in his hunt for creatures at the lake’s edge. Kane chuckled at the spaniel’s antics. “Why don’t you own a dog of your own?”
“I work with them all day, and that’s enough for me. Plus, I want to travel, and it wouldn’t be fair to the dog to just keep leaving him or her home, or boarded at a kennel. But I love dogs. They’re my favorite animals in the world.”
“Why? I mean, cats are cute, too, right?”
Susannah chuckled. “Yeah, I like cats, too. But there’s something about dogs. You always know where you stand. They’re honest. That’s why I started working with them. There’s none of that rubbish you get with people. Dogs are easy to read, easy to please, and they give back what they get. Honesty is important to me, and so I chose the most honest creatures on earth to be my coworkers, of sorts.” She smiled.
“Maybe I should hire in a bunch of golden retrievers instead of stuffy executives.”
Susannah laughed. “You might get better results. And even better, they work for biscuits.”
They walked a while longer. Kane’s hand captured Susannah’s, as naturally as if they had always done this, always walked together. She held on to his palm, allowing herself to enjoy the little thrill that ran through her whenever Kane touched her. Out in the middle of the lake, a fish jumped, spoiling the serene surface. From far across the lake, someone turned on a stereo. With the clear night, the sounds of the song carried crisply on the air.
“Someone must have read my mind and added a little mood music,” Kane said. “Would you like to dance?”
Susannah shook her head. “I have a lot of skills in life. Dancing is not one of them.”
“You can’t be the maid of honor and not dance.”
She shrugged. “All eyes will be on Jackie, anyway.”
He stopped walking, swung around her, captured her hands and then her gaze. Whenever Kane Lennox looked at her like that, a quiver began in Susannah’s belly, and grew into a tingle that spread through her entire body. The breeze seemed to catch in the trees, the night birds stopped calling, the water stopped lapping at the shore. All Susannah heard was the rapid beat of her own heart, the heavy intake of her breaths. “I doubt that,” he said. “Jackie may be the bride, but that doesn’t automatically make her the most beautiful woman in the room.”
Her face heated, and she broke eye contact with him. He didn’t know the Wilson sisters. Jackie had always been the center of attention—and would be on Friday night, too. And that was fine with Susannah. Her turn was just around the corner.
Kane ran his thumbs over the back of her hands. She looked into his eyes, unable to forget his kiss from a moment ago, wishing he’d kiss her again, under this quiet veil of night.
“Dance with me, Susannah,” Kane said softly, and she couldn’t resist. Across the lake, the music had segued into something slow and easy, the bass throbbing out a beat as hot and heavy as their earlier kiss. “It seems they’re playing our song.”
“This is our song?”
Before she could protest, Kane slipped on arm around her waist, then put her hand into his opposite palm. She fit into his body with the ease of a missing puzzle piece, warmth seeking warmth, their legs stepping easily in rhythm, as if she’d done this all her life. “Any song that lets me do this with you is our song.”
Oh, boy. She was in trouble.
Kane Lennox might be saying one thing—that he wanted nothing more than a few kisses, a turn or two around a dance floor, and she might be agreeing, but everything about this man, his charm, his easy way with her, sent Susannah’s pulse racing into another stratosphere, and she simply couldn’t imagine a quick entry and an even quicker exit.
Because she’d already begun to crave more. Another kiss. Another dance. And…
More? What if he stayed, beyond the wedding? What if she did? What if…
But no. That wouldn’t happen. Because both of them had plans to leave town after the wedding. And this dance, these kisses, would be it. She could do this. She could have this moment of fun.
She closed her eyes and gave in to the music. To his touch. To the easy feel of his body against hers. The temptation for more rolled over her, whispering to her to abandon everything, just leave every responsible thought in her head behind.
“That’s it,” Kane said quietly, his voice as dark as the night. His hand inched up her back, helping her fit into his groove. “Just let yourself be, be one with the
rhythm, with me.”
From far off, a night bird called, his song an interruption to the one on the stereo. The sound brought her back to reality, reminding Susannah she could have a temporary reprieve from her responsibilities, but anything more was out of the question. She had a sister and a business to worry about. Until the wedding was over and until she was on that plane to Paris, her life really wasn’t her own to have. Jackie still needed her—it was clear in all the bad decisions her sister kept making. And so did her business. Until then, a relationship could wait.
Susannah jerked back, out of Kane’s arms. “I…I can’t. This is…a bad idea.”
“Dancing? Is a bad idea?”
She shook her head, trying to clear it. Of this man, of the possibilities he’d awakened. “This is more than dancing, and you know it.”
“And what’s so wrong with that?”
She turned away, and started heading back to his car. Rover trotted alongside. “I really do have some work to get done tonight. If you don’t mind dropping me off at the shop—”
“I do mind. You need to take time off as much as I do.”
She whirled around. “Who asked you to drop into town and suddenly start telling me how to live my life? I got along just fine before you showed up.”
He bit his lip and didn’t say anything for a long moment. Then he nodded. “Okay. You win. I’ll shut up and drive.”
She grinned. “Now, that’s got to be the best thing you’ve said all night.”
He chuckled, the tense moment between them gone. “You really know how to romance a man, Susannah Wilson.”
“See, that’s the trouble, Kane,” Susannah said with a sigh. This man had yet to hear her, really hear her. “I’m not trying to romance you. At all.”
Even if a part of her kept saying otherwise.
Kane had lied.
Well, partly. He did drive Susannah to The Sudsy Dog. And he did drop her off. But he didn’t go back to his cabin. He headed over to Flanagan’s Pub, took a seat at the bar, and told himself several times he should go home, and instead lingered in downtown Chapel Ridge.
