The Darling Jade

by Peggy Nicholson

  His laugh came out in a single explosive breath. 'Except for me, Jade! I didn't want you serious about anyone else, damn right! That's all I meant.

  'What else?' he challenged fiercely, his hands sliding slowly up her sides till his thumbs found her breasts. 'What else stopped you?'

  She barely had air for the one word. 'Irena.'

  Zan nodded once. 'Irena.' His thumbs moved in slow, delicate circles, and he smiled slowly as her eyes widened, and her breath came faster. 'I tried every way I could think of to make you see I wasn't interested in her.' His hands glided slowly to the clasp at the front of her bra. 'That "love affair" she refers to consisted of one night, three years ago. We went to a publisher's cocktail party together, Jade, had lots of free champagne, and I guess I got a little . . . accommodating.' He smiled crookedly, then his smile faded as he saw her breasts. He stroked her with a single, delicate finger, his eyes darkening. 'She's never let me forget it. I suppose she'd like to get her little claws into me . . . fifty per cent of my royalties is better than ten per cent.' His eyebrows twitched in amusement. 'Don't ever mix business and pleasure, Jade. I've been regretting that slip for years, but she's too good an agent to let go.'

  He leaned down to kiss her breast gently and with a soft groan, she arched up to meet his mouth. 'Anything else bothering you, sweet?' he murmured against her skin.

  Her hands twisted through his hair and held. 'The... rest of your. . . address book collection.'

  Zan laughed softly. 'And I thought you got those eyes from eating too much spinach!' He kissed his way slowly up to her face and touched noses with her, his eyes enormous and dark. Their eyelashes tangled. 'I've gone through fourteen years' worth of girls looking for you, Jade. We sure got our schedules mixed up somehow.' His mouth brushed tantalisingly across the surface of her lips and then lifted again. 'But there hasn't been anyone else since you crashed into my life.' Grey eyes stared intensely into green. 'And there never will be again.'

  She ran her hands slowly up his hard arms, slid them around to trace the muscles of his shoulders and neck. 'But you said you've never been in love . . .'

  'Right, nimwit.' The smile was shining through his voice and his eyes began to crinkle. 'I never have—till you:'

  His mouth brushed along her cheek, lifted to hover above her mouth. 'That reminds me, Red, which kind of kiss is this—love or lust?' Hot, slow, and hungry, his mouth covered hers. Her lips parted softly and the bed, the world—no, their tangled bodies seemed to be spinning down into warm, dizzy darkness.

  Gradually, eyes shut, Jade discovered she could breath again.

  'Hmm?' he murmured above her. 'Which?'

  'I. . .' she smiled blindly, and managed to shake her head.

  'Don't know? . . . let's try the other one.' Zan's voice smiled above her and then they whirled slowly into the darkness again to a cadence of muffled drums.

  'Hmm?' he coaxed at last, his quickening breath fanning her cheek.

  '. . . can't. . . tell the . . . difference, Zan.'

  'Bright girl,' he whispered mockingly.

  * * *

  In the last, velvet hour before the dawn they whispered drowsily, their bodies twined together. Beneath her ear, his slow, steady heart-beat was the homiest sound she'd ever heard. 'So where'd you stay?' she murmured lazily, her eyes closed.

  Zan's hand stroked her shoulder rhythmically, absently. 'With my ward—Al's son—and his aunt. They've always got a room for me when I need it.' He took a deep, contented breath.

  Fingers outstretched, she slid her hand slowly through the crisp, tickling hair across his chest. 'I figured you stayed with Irena.'

  She felt him snort silently. 'I was trying to forget women, sweet. I didn't need Irena stroppin' round my knees like a hungry cat.' He shifted slightly and pulled her closer, thinking. 'But that's not fair,' he murmured sleepily at last. 'She was a big help. We sat down and brainstormed all one night, tore the manuscript right down to the roots. It was Irena who figured out the problem.'

  Jade rubbed her cheek against his skin in silent apology. 'Problem?'

  'Mmm. I was writing a love story, not a thriller.' His arm tightened around her. 'Once I stopped fighting that, it went like a shot. It'll be a good book . . . new kind of story for me . . .'

  Zan lay quiet for some time, his fingers gliding slowly up and down her back. When he spoke at last, his voice was huskier, rougher than before. 'So you'll quit your job, sweet? Come and be a painter instead of a teacher?' His hand stilled against her skin. 'I believe Winslow Homer liked the Bahamas,' he offered coaxingly.

  It was so strange to hear that note of uncertainty in his low voice. 'Twist my arm,' she suggested, mischievously.

  'Later,' he promised, the smile back in his voice. 'Or if that doesn't work, I could always try blackmail . . . I have this confession . . .'

  Jade laughed softly. 'I thought you lost that?'

  She felt him shake his head. 'No. It's in my wallet.'

  'But you said—'

  His arm tightened painfully. 'It was all I had of you, Jade. I wasn't about to return it.' His low laugh sounded shaky. 'I'm going to frame it, now.'

  She sat up suddenly to stare down at him. 'Don't you dare!' She snapped, scowling as she shook a wisp of hair out of her eyes.

  'You big enough to stop me?' Zan laughed, sitting up in one smooth surge. 'I bet I could lick you with one hand tied behind my back.' His tongue stroked a moist, fiery trail up her shuddering spine to her shoulder where he bit her gently.

  Gasping, she whirled away from his teeth and leaned back against the pillows, her eyes wide and laughing.

  Zan sat still, stroking her face and her body with dark, caressing eyes. Jade flushed shyly and looked beyond him. The view was indeed superb, the finest anywhere.

  'Red?' Zan asked huskily.

  Silently, she smiled and glanced to either side of her, searching for a redhead.

  'My darling? Jade?' Zan leaned slowly towards her, his voice rough with sudden urgency.

  She leaned forward, hooked an arm around his neck to pull him to her, groaned with soft pleasure at the weight and hardness of him. 'Yes, Master?' she purred contentedly.

  'Love me?' A boy as well as a man hid behind the roughness of that low question, and tears burned her eyes. It wasn't for just this moment that he was asking.

  Tightening her arms, she breathed the words into his ear, making them a kiss as well as a promise. 'For ever and ever.'

  Beyond the shaggy outline of his head, she could see the bridge, spanning the night sky to link two dark and different shores in a curve of joyous light. 'For ever and ever, love.'