by Diana Palmer
* * *
“Not nice,” Isabel chided him when she sat down. “Trying to hog all the macaroni and cheese.”
“Villain,” Merrie agreed with twinkling gray eyes. “We love it, too! Nobody makes it like Mandy does.”
Mandy made them a nice curtsy before she brought the coffeepot to the table and put it down in the center, next to the cream and sugar on the silver tray.
They ate in a pleasant silence until Mandy brought in the pound cake, sliced and served it with coffee.
“What did the insurance company say about the car?” Sari asked.
“I’ve got a guy coming out tomorrow to replace the back window, and a cleaning crew to get out all the glass and other debris from the car,” he said without looking at her.
“Glass?” Merrie asked, puzzled. “What glass?”
“Didn’t your sister tell you?” Paul asked. “We got caught in a downburst in San Antonio and a tree came through the back windshield. Part of one at least,” he added, forking into his slice of cake. His face was carefully schooled to show no emotion whatsoever as he spoke.
“You didn’t tell me!” Merrie exclaimed. “Were either of you hurt?”
“Not a scratch,” Isabel assured her. She ate cake mechanically, while her heart raced madly and her breath caught in her throat. “We were lucky.”
“My gosh! I’d have been terrified!” Merrie said, shaking her head. She glanced at her sister. “I wondered why you looked so shaken when I passed you in the hall. And you never said a word!”
It was an indication of just how badly Isabel had been shaken, Paul thought sadly. He couldn’t do anything about it. He had to let her think he was unconcerned. It was something that never should have happened. He had to make sure it never happened again.
“The cake is great, Mandy,” he enthused when he was having a second cup of coffee.
The girls echoed the praise.
Mandy grinned at them. “Aw, shucks, t’waren’t nothin’,” she drawled in her best Texas backcountry accent.
“It’s a miracle I don’t weigh three hundred pounds, with food like this,” Paul sighed. His dark eyes twinkled at her.
“It’s a miracle we don’t all weigh that much,” Merrie teased.
“Where was Daddy going?” Sari asked without looking at Paul.
“Finland,” he said. “To some economic conference. He does know his way around the world of high finance.”
“Yes, he does,” she agreed.
“How long is he going to be gone?” Merrie asked.
“Two weeks, he said.” Paul remembered all that Darwin had said to him and his dark eyes glittered as he finished his coffee. “I’d better do a quick recon outside,” he said, “and check in with the rest of my staff, to make sure they’re on the ball.”
“Is Daddy getting jumpy again?” Merrie asked. “The last time he got jumpy, one of the racehorses was stolen. We got him back, but Daddy was furious. He talked to some people about the man who stole the horse…”
“And the police got him on other charges,” Sari interrupted with a sharp glance at her sister. It was dangerous for Paul to know what they knew. “Daddy didn’t even have to testify.”
“When was this?” Paul asked.
“Just before you came to work for us,” Sari replied. “It was a long time ago.”
“But Daddy has lots of people watching the horses now,” Merrie added.
And watching Darwin Grayling’s daughters, too, he thought irritably. He wasn’t going to mention that, but it irked him that the man didn’t think Paul could protect them. If he had, he wouldn’t have whole sets of bodyguards following them every time they left the house.
“I’ll make another pot of coffee if you like, before I go to my church meeting,” Mandy offered, glancing at the clock on the wall.
“You go ahead. I can make myself coffee if I want it,” Paul said with a warm smile. “Get Morris to drive you. We’ve got three other men watching the house and the horses. It will be all right.”
“That’s nice of you, Mr. Paul,” she said. “Thanks.”
“Have to take care of you,” he mused. “We’d starve if you got carried off by martians or anything.”
She laughed. “So you might!”
“I’m going to watch that new fantasy movie,” Merrie said. “Want to watch it with me, Sari?”
“No,” she replied. “Thanks, but I’ve got some textbooks to find for my classes. I’m going to get them online.”
“Going to do digital ones again?” Merrie asked.
Her sister nodded. “Except for one that’s only available in paperback.”
“Dry old law books,” Merrie teased. “You’ll gather dust like they will.”
“Virtual dust,” Sari said, waving her hands. “Witchy things!”
“Careful, somebody might throw water on you,” the younger woman mused, tongue in cheek.
Sari’s mind went to the Wizard of Oz scene where the green-faced witch melted after being doused with water, and she laughed. “Wicked,” she said.
Merrie just smiled.
Paul smiled, too, but not with any enthusiasm at the byplay. He went out the back door, grateful for the cool night air that might help him forget Isabel’s hungry eyes begging for his mouth as they lay together in the car.
* * *
He paced in his bedroom, his mind going back again and again to the downburst, to the car, to Isabel in his arms, hungry, responsive, wanting him.
His mind told him that he was crazy to think he could ever have her. If he showed the least personal interest in her, Darwin Grayling would have him skinned alive and grilled, just before he fired him. Of course there were plenty of other security people who could replace him, but none with the history he had with Isabel and Merrie. They were family to him. He went above and beyond to keep them safe, because he genuinely cared about them. Another man might be careless, might not bother with the tiny details that never escaped Paul. Well, there was Morris, his second-in-command. The man had been working for Grayling for several years. He seemed to be fond of the girls, but he did anything that Grayling told him to. He never questioned an order.
On the other hand, Paul knew he was coming to the end of his time with the Graylings. Merrie was out of high school, Isabel was in law school. Sure, they still needed protecting from possible kidnappers or people with a grudge against their father. But he couldn’t stay here much longer. The genie was out of the bottle as far as Isabel went. They were physically aware of each other. That situation was only going to get worse. The tension would grow as they denied the hunger; it would build to a flash point and then explode.
He didn’t know how he was going to stay alive with no glimpses of curly reddish-gold hair and blue, blue eyes in a gamine little face with freckles just over the nose. He didn’t know how long ago Isabel had wormed her way into his heart, but she had possession of it now. And he couldn’t have her. He could never have her.
He groaned out loud. He stood at the darkened window, looking out toward the stables, where security lights burned near the accommodations for the boss’s Thoroughbreds. He had three men out there full-time, just to make sure nothing happened to the horses. Inside, the girls were safe with him. He didn’t have cameras in the house, but he had the doors and windows wired. Nothing—no one—would get in without his knowing about it.
He perched his hands on his lean hips over the black silk pajama bottoms as he contemplated his next move. When the boss came back, he was going to have to put in his notice. It was for Isabel’s protection as well as his own. Her father had an unpredictable temper. He didn’t know much of what had gone on before he started watching the girls, but he’d heard gossip. He didn’t want Isabel to get in trouble because he’d gone too long without a woman and couldn’t keep his ha
nds off her.
The tap at the door was so soft that he didn’t hear it until it came again. He frowned as he went to open it.
Isabel was wearing pajamas with a thick cotton robe. No way was she going to be accused of tempting him.
“I won’t come in,” she said, eyes downcast. “I just wanted to apologize.”
He drew her inside and closed the door. “Apologize for what, baby?” he asked softly.
The tenderness in his voice ground into her heart like broken glass. “For…what happened. I shouldn’t have… I should have…”
He pulled her into his arms and wrapped her up tight, his face in her warm throat. “You didn’t do anything. It was me. I’ve been too long without… Well, I let things get out of control.”
She drew back and looked up at his handsome face. She searched his dark eyes quietly. “Too long without a woman.” She finished the sentence for him.
His face hardened. “Yeah.”
“How…how long?” she asked daringly.
He drew in a rough breath. His hands slid up under the wide sleeves of her robe onto her bare, soft arms. “Years.”
Her heart jumped. She hadn’t realized that men could go without sex for years. She didn’t dare ask the question, but her eyes did.
“It’s something I can’t talk about,” he told her. “Not even to you.”
Her eyes scanned the hard lines of his face like an artist, drawing a picture, memorizing the subject. “I…I would…” she began.
He put his fingers over her soft mouth. “And what do you think would happen then, Isabel?” he asked solemnly. “You know how your father thinks. He’ll want someone with a title for you, at least someone with a wealthy background like yours.”
Why, he’d considered a future with her, she thought in amazement. “There are these places in the Amazon jungle where people go and are never heard from again,” she began.
He chuckled softly. His eyes lit up, dark and soft. “Sure. We’d be eaten by bugs and used for target practice by the people who live there.”
She grimaced. “It was just a thought.”
His big hands framed her face. He searched her eyes and groaned inwardly. “I can’t have you, baby,” he whispered. His head bent, despite his will, until his hard mouth was poised right over her soft one. “I can’t ever have you, Isabel…”
Her name went into her mouth. His lips parted hers, burrowing softly into them and then hesitating, as a surge of pleasure like a shock of lightning froze him in place for just a few seconds. Then he groaned and wrapped her up in his arms, his mouth hard and slow and insistent.
She didn’t know anything, but she melted into him and let him do what he wanted to her mouth. The sensations he aroused in her were shocking, shattering, to a woman who’d never even been kissed before.
Her arms started up around his neck, but he stopped them. He smoothed the robe away from her body, still in the thin silky blue pajamas, and he bent and lifted her, his mouth hungry on hers.
“This is a big mistake,” he said through his teeth, but he didn’t stop kissing her.
“I don’t care,” she sobbed. “Paul…!”
He put her on the bed and followed her down, his legs tangling with hers as he made a meal of her soft, responsive mouth. His hands were busy unbuttoning the pajama jacket. In seconds, it was gone and his mouth was on her white, soft, freckled breasts.
She was unprepared for the shock of his lips on her bare skin and she jumped. He lifted his head, amused at her tiny start of surprise.
“Men do it to women,” he said softly. “It’s okay. Honest.”
“All…all right.”
He chuckled as he bent back to her body and drew his lips slowly over the soft mound of her breast, teasing around the nipple until it went hard and rosy, then swallowing it with a soft, slow suction that made her arch and shiver.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as she moaned, her mind in limbo, her body shivering with its first taste of sensual pleasure.
The sound went right to Paul’s head. His mouth traveled down her body, to the place where her belly and her leg were joined and then over her soft stomach and back up the other side. She smelled of some soft, floral cologne and she tasted like heaven. He was drunk on her already, and he’d barely started.
She lifted to his mouth, guided his head back to her breasts, her eyes wild and excited as each stab of pleasure was replaced by one even more intense.
“Oh, baby,” he whispered against her soft skin. “You taste like whipped cream!”
“I don’t know…how to do…anything,” she whispered.
He smiled against her soft skin. “What do you want to know how to do?”
“How to make you feel…what I’m feeling.”
“I already do.” He lifted himself above her, so that his eyes looked down into hers. “I’m on fire for you, honey. I ache all over.”
“Me…me, too.” Her eyes dropped to his bare, hair-
roughened chest and she arched expressively.
“Is this what you want?”
He eased down over her, so that his chest rubbed against her taut nipples.
She gasped and clutched at him.
“It is, isn’t it?” he said, almost to himself. His eyes darkened as he moved, levering himself between her long legs so that only two layers of cloth separated them from each other in an intimacy she’d never yet shared with a man.
Her nails bit into him. She was willing, it was in her eyes. But she was also afraid.
“Don’t panic,” he whispered as he moved slowly against her. “We can’t go all the way. But we can go…this…far…!”
He thought, he really thought, he could control what he felt. But he couldn’t. He drove against her helplessly, so hungry that he was dying for her.
She shifted under him, her earlier fears forgotten in the heat and hunger he aroused in her. She moved again, her long legs starting to curl around his hips.
Her father. Pregnancy. The past. Blood. So…much…blood…!
He jackknifed away from her and rolled over onto his stomach, gripping the pillows so hard that he almost tore them as he fought his hunger for her. It had been close. So close. Too close. He shuddered.
Isabel watched him and felt the guilt all the way to her soul. He was in agony. And it was her fault. She’d come in here and tempted him. She’d known on some level how very hungry he was for her. She should never have tempted him. The pain he was feeling was so obvious that she groaned inside.
She got up off the bed, fastened her pajama jacket, and searched for her robe. She took her time putting it back on. By the time she closed it, Paul was breathing easier. He was still lying on his stomach, cursing his own weakness.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I really just came to apologize.”
He heard the guilt and shame in her voice. He rolled over, his body still aroused but the killing heat slowly draining out of him.
He got to his feet and moved toward her, but he stopped an arm’s length away.
“That was a near thing,” he said quietly.
She nodded miserably.
He drew in a shaky breath. “This can’t happen again. I can’t control it. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “The Amazon jungle probably wouldn’t be far enough away, anyhow. Daddy’s got people all over the world.”
“I know.”
She searched his eyes, pain in her own. “If only,” she began huskily.
He managed a taut smile. “If only.” He reached out and barely touched her tousled curly reddish-gold hair. “He has plans for you, honey,” he said after a minute. “Try not to let him force you into something you don’t want. Life is too short to live by other peoples’ rules.”
She smiled back.
“It’s a little harder than it seems to talk back to people you’re scared of,” she replied.
He shrugged. “I talked back to my father,” he said. He chuckled. “I was missing a tooth or two the first time I did it, but I didn’t stop. He had ideas about what he wanted me to do with my life, too,” he added. “I wasn’t willing.”
“Life is so hard,” she bit off.
Something flashed in his dark eyes. He drew back his hand and let it drop to his side. “You can make book on that. Now go to bed.”
She nodded. She turned and glanced back at him over her shoulder, loving the slight swell of his lower lip where hers had pressed so hard against it, loving his tousled black wavy hair, his dark eyes, his beautiful chest.
“Go on,” he said, forcing a smile, because he wanted to throw her down on the bed and go into her, so hard…!
“Good night, Paul.”
She went out the door and closed it behind her. He stared at it for a long time before he turned off the light and lay down in bed. He knew what he was going to have to do. It wasn’t going to be pleasant. But he no longer had a choice.
SIX
Paul was polite and courteous to Isabel and not much more in the days that followed. He had Morris go with him when he transported Isabel up to San Antonio for her first days of classes in law school. Isabel realized why he was doing it. She pretended not to care that it tore the heart out of her that Paul was going to draw back.
Realistically, she knew she couldn’t have him. He wasn’t rich or titled, and she was worth millions. It shouldn’t have mattered. But it did. Her father could have him killed, if he ever found out how close she and her bodyguard had grown. She didn’t want Paul hurt. On the other hand, it was killing her to know how sweet it was to be held and kissed and touched by him. She wanted it all the time, but Paul never even looked at her now.
She was businesslike with him now, because it hurt so much, what she’d lost. It was a change that was noticed by Paul’s associate who rode along with them to San Antonio.
“Boy, has she changed,” Morris remarked when he and Paul were on their way back to the ranch after dropping Isabel off at school. “She was crazy about you for a while there.”
