by Leanne Banks
The ringing began again. The phone, she realized and carefully rolled to her side to retrieve it from her bedside table. “Hello?”
“This is Guy.”
Delilah’s stomach heaved. She closed her eyes and took a careful breath. “How did you get my home number?”
He laughed. It was an unpleasant sound. “I’m resourceful. I talked to Miss Lilly White.”
“You leave Lilly alone,” Delilah said, nausea rising to her throat. “Can’t talk. I’m sick—” She dropped the phone and raced to the bathroom, making it just in time. Rinsing her mouth and brushing her teeth, she swore at her reflection. She stripped off her clothes and took a quick lukewarm shower, scrubbing her face and body. Pitifully weak and exhausted afterward, she sank onto the top of her bed, naked.
When she felt a chill, she climbed under the covers. Catching sight of the phone on the floor, she stretched until her fingers grasped it and pulled it on the bed with her. She stared at it for a few moments, locked in internal debate. She hated to ask for help. She despised needing help.
Sighing in surrender, she punched out the number for her sister Katie. At the sound of her sister’s voice, she felt her heart swell. “It’s Delilah. I need your help. I need Michael’s help.”
After a flurry of phone calls, she and Katie learned there were no seats available on any flights departing Philadelphia for Houston due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Katie was so upset she wanted to charter a jet, but Delilah persuaded her to wait until after the Thanksgiving weekend.
She just had to last until Monday after next, she told herself. Just until Monday. She wouldn’t answer her phone until then. Today was Saturday. Nine days. She could do it. Sure she could.
The phone rang again and she started to sweat.
By Saturday evening, Delilah regained some of her appetite. She scrambled eggs and buttered some toast. The condo was way too quiet. Feeling fidgety, she turned on the television. The Wiggles appeared on the screen, causing a knot of loneliness in her chest. She quickly changed the station to a cooking show.
Just as she finished her last bite of toast, Benjamin walked through the door. Her heart bumped at the sight of him. He walked through the foyer and stood in front of her, studying her. “You look like you feel better.”
“Than last night?” She gave a wry laugh. “I was feeling no pain. It was this morning that—”
“I checked on you before I went to class to make sure you were still breathing,” he interjected.
Delilah cringed. “You saw me this morning. Ewwwww.”
He glanced at her plate. “I was going to ask you to join me for dinner.”
“Too late. I’m all done.”
“Would you go and sit with me? I’ll buy you a drink.”
His invitation sent a weird rush through her. She realized no one had asked her on a real date in a long time. But he was a Huntington. “Better not,” she said, surprised at the sting of disappointment she felt. “I don’t want to ruin your rep.”
“You think I can’t handle the gossip?” he asked, his gaze solid.
Her heart fluttered again. He was a big boy. He could probably handle anything, and that was part of his attraction. Still, she wasn’t dying to cause him trouble. Someday he would come to his senses and start dating a woman with great bloodlines and impressive education, get married and have babies. He would be a terrific father, she thought and sighed. She didn’t want to be a skeleton in his closet. “I didn’t say that. I was planning on staying in tonight. And I plan to abstain from any alcohol until I completely forget how awful I felt this morning.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Abstaining from alcohol and sex. Your father would be proud.”
She narrowed her eyes and scowled at him.
He tugged at her hand. “Fix me something to eat.”
“What?”
“I don’t care. You’re watching a cooking show,” he said, pointing at the television. “Fix what he’s fixing.”
Delilah laughed, but allowed him to drag her to the kitchen. “You don’t understand. I watch these shows with the idea that someday I’ll cook like that. Do you know when someday is for these kinds of things? Never. I’m warning you I don’t have much in my cupboard.”
“I’m easy,” he said, his voice silky with suggestion.
She shot a quick glance at him, but his eyes were wide with innocence as he leaned against the refrigerator with one lifted arm. His stance emphasized his broad shoulders, the developed muscles of his chest and flat belly. She was tempted to allow her gaze to venture further down, but decided she would be asking for trouble.
“Hamburger it is,” she said, pulling a frozen patty from the freezer. She defrosted it in the microwave then fried it, put a slice of cheese on top and added condiments per Benjamin’s instructions.
He downed it with her last beer in no time.
“Should I have fixed you two burgers?”
He shook his head. “That took the edge off. I didn’t eat lunch. You know how that goes. If you haven’t eaten in a long time, you eat fast because you feel deprived.” He fiddled with the cuff of her blouse, dragging his finger against her inner wrist. “Then you can slow down.”
The sensual gesture reminded her of how he’d touched her that night they’d made love. His expression told her he was remembering the same. Delilah felt her body temperature crank up another degree.
She cleared her throat, shook her head. “I’m not going to bed with you again. Been there, done that. Got the tattoo.”
“I don’t remember seeing any tattoos,” Benjamin said.
“It’s an expression.” She pulled her hand from his.
“I didn’t ask you to go to bed with me.”
“Not in so many words,” Delilah said. “But you were thinking it.”
“How do you know what I was thinking?”
“I could tell,” she said, lifting her chin.
“Well, you’re wrong. I was thinking I’d like to dance with you.”
She blinked. She hadn’t expected that. Her stomach turned a little flip.
“What kind of music do you have?” he asked, heading for her entertainment center.
“No opera,” she retorted, following him.
He chuckled. “That’s okay. I wasn’t looking for opera.” He pulled out a CD and put it in the player. “This’ll work.”
Delilah felt oddly nervous. “I didn’t say I would dance with you.”
The smoky voice of Norah Jones filled the room. Her favorite. He was a beast, she decided.
He extended his hand to her. “Dance with me.”
Her feet moved forward of their own volition. “You didn’t really ask.”
“Okay, do you want to dance with me?” Before she could answer, he pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth with one index finger. “Honest.”
When he looked at her that way, it was hard to muster a defiant lie. She closed her eyes and sank against him, letting her body talk. It was just dancing. It wasn’t sex.
As the notes flowed into each other, she inhaled his scent and savored the moment. His body and hers worked well together, no surprise there. His movements were smooth, not fussy or overdone. She liked that. He held her just tightly enough, provided just the right amount of lead to make dancing with him a pleasure.
One song slid into another, then another. Toward the end, they were barely moving, just swaying, his thigh between hers. She could feel his heat. There was no mistaking the evidence of his arousal pressing against her, and yet there was no pressure, just anticipation. It clung to her like humidity on a hot summer day.
His lips brushed her forehead. The sweet caress touched her in a dark, secret place. It was gentle, almost protective. It had been such a long time since someone had been protective of her.
She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to taste his lips and inhale his breath, touch his naked skin and take a bath in his strength. The need was strong, the want was fierce. A vague, primitive need crystalliz
ed inside her. She wanted to mate with him. She wanted to have his baby.
The shocking thought stopped her breath. Oh, hell. She must be crazy.
With her heart hammering in her chest, she took a careful breath, steeling herself against the knee-weakening effect of his scent. She bit her lip. “That was really nice,” she said.
“But you want me to leave.”
She smiled at the wry note in his voice.
She looked up at him. “How did you know?”
“Every time I get close, you tell me to leave.”
“I won’t ask you to come to bed with me,” she said, a knot rising in her throat. Why did he affect her so strongly?
“You don’t have to,” he said.
“But you’re hard.”
“And you’re aroused too. It doesn’t mean we have to have sex right this minute.”
Even though she wanted to. She just thought it would be smarter for her to stand on the highest point of a golf course pointing a golf club to the heavens during an electric storm.
“I am going to kiss you, though,” he said and lowered his mouth to hers, leaving her no time to refuse.
She wasn’t particularly inclined to refuse his kiss. It seemed sort of safe, like dancing.
From side to side, he rubbed his mouth against hers then slid his tongue across the seam of her lips then rubbed some more.
Delilah swallowed a mmmmm sound. He drew her bottom lip into his mouth and ran his tongue over her soft inner lip. Following his lead, she joined in the seductive rhythm of his caress, although he kept in control, the same way he had when they’d danced.
If she thought about it, it was the same way he’d lightly kept control when they’d made love.
He tilted her head for better access and explored her recesses more deeply. Her head felt light, her knees buttery, her skin hot and other various parts swollen and achy. His mouth moved in a way that reminded her of sex with him, provocative and consuming, making her want more.
When he finally pulled back, he inhaled with a ragged breath. She did the same, unable to look away from the deep, drugging intimacy in his dark eyes.
He inhaled again, his gaze still holding hers. He lifted one finger to her still-buzzing lips. “Have you even been courted?”
She shook her head, not sure what was happening between them, inside her.
“Maybe it’s time you were.” He leaned forward to kiss her forehead and pulled back. “Good night.”
Unable to respond, she watched him as he walked out of the condo. Courted? How strange. Her heart felt all squishy and her stomach was jumpy. She felt like a little girl again, just jerked from her mother’s custody and living with her father. New home, new school, no friends. She was gawky, raw and vulnerable. Hopeful that someone would like her. Hopeful that someone would approve of her.
She’d been hoping that for years. That was why Cash had been so important to her. She closed her eyes and slid her fingers through her hair and tried to tell herself that she was an adult and she didn’t need anyone’s approval, especially Benjamin Huntington. But she couldn’t totally extinguish that little girl hope.
Robert still hadn’t made love to Lilly. She was ready to tear her hair out. Stifling the urge to tap her toe in impatience, Lilly bided her time during the dreadful rubber chicken dinner at the Kiwanis Club meeting. She’d figured out what she needed to do. She needed to thoroughly disrupt Robert. Subtlety wasn’t going to work.
As she sat in the large gathering room provided by the library, she toyed with her food. She hated to admit it, but she’d used Delilah as her guide. If Delilah had wanted to get a man’s attention, what would she do? How far would she go?
Further than Lilly would go, she suspected, fighting an anxiety attack. If the elderly man seated beside her knew what she had planned, he would keel over with a heart attack. That meant she needed to make sure that Robert was the only one who heard what she planned to say to him.
She downed a sip of iced tea and wished it was alcohol. Wondering if she should have brought a tranquilizer with her, she mentally slapped herself. What would Delilah do? she chanted to herself. Delilah would get a huge kick out of her secret. She would smile and laugh at herself.
Lilly needed to go to the ladies’ room.
She rose. “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” Taking her courage in her hand, she bent slightly and cupped Robert’s ear. “I’m not wearing any panties.” She counted to three. “What are you going to do about it?”
Her face flaming, she quickly walked to the rest room before her bladder finished the job of embarrassing her to death. After using the bathroom, she washed her hands and fanned her face to bring down the color. She took a deep breath, reassuring herself that she wouldn’t have to deliver on her dare until after Robert had given his speech. She still had the last course of partially frozen Sara Lee cheesecake to bolster her nerves. She just hadn’t known that going pantyless would feel so, well, breezy.
Pulling open the door, she stepped outside and nearly walked straight into Robert.
“Whoa.” He caught her with his hands.
“Oops. Excuse me,” she said, feeling her throat tighten with embarrassment.
He drew her to the side of the hallway and cleared his throat. “I think I didn’t hear you correctly a few minutes ago.”
Lilly wanted to seep into a crack in the floor. She couldn’t say the words again, especially not in the bright light of the hallway, directly to his face. She swallowed over her dry throat. “I said excuse me.”
He shook his head. “No. You whispered something to me right after you got up from the table.”
“What did you hear me say?”
He paused, his gaze meeting hers. Then he chuckled. “I want to hear you say it.”
Do I have to? She bit her lip. She glanced both ways and whispered, “I’m-not-wearing-panties-what-are-you-gonna-do-about-it?”
He cupped his ear and drew closer to her, his mouth twitching with telltale humor. “Excuse me. I think you said it too fast.”
At that point Lilly knew he was teasing her, pulling her leg, as her father used to say. She narrowed her eyes. “You know what I said. You know what I asked.”
He raised his eyebrows. “There’s nowhere to meet your challenge. We’re supposed to meet my parents at their house for a drink after the meeting.”
“We can be late,” she said defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest.
“But where?” he asked wearing a surprised, but intrigued expression that gave her hope.
“There’s a room that’s being renovated at the end of the back hall.”
“Here?” he asked, incredulous. He lowered his voice. “In a library?”
“Only if you’re up to it,” she said, packing her words full with double entendre. “We should get back to the meeting.” She skimmed her hand down his red power tie. “You can think it over during your speech. And for the record,” she said, as she cupped his ear again, “I’m on the pill.”
On Virginity: Take heart. The second time is usually better than the first.
—DELILAH’S DICTUM
Chapter 18
If her father knew what she was doing, he would roll over in his grave ten times. After she and Robert returned to the table, she asked herself the question again, what would Delilah do?
When Robert walked up to the podium to speak, she moved her chair to the front, so that no one stood between her and Robert’s vision.
He glanced in her direction and she crossed her legs.
He paused an extra beat and continued to speak.
Oh, yes, the man was smooth. It would take quite a bit to ruffle him.
He looked again in her direction and she uncrossed her legs, discreetly, of course.
He paused again, this time clearing his throat.
He continued to speak and every time he turned his head in her direction, Lilly crossed or uncrossed her legs. By the end of his speech, she counted eight coughs and ten forehead
touches, as if he were trying unsuccessfully to keep his head from turning in her direction.
She was amazed at how powerful she felt, and all she had to do was move her legs and wear no panties. Technically, she could have just said she wasn’t wearing panties.
Robert concluded his speech and everyone applauded. Standing, she waited for him to shake hands with the crowd of people who had rushed up to speak to him afterward. Several moments passed and her feeling of euphoria began to wane. By the time he finished glad-handing, she wondered if he would remember her dare and her pantyless state.
A few more moments passed and she wandered to the water fountain for a sip of water. Lowering her head, she took a long drink. Just as she was ready to lift up, she felt a hand over hers on the lever for the fountain.
“Better drink up,” Robert murmured. “I want you to give me a private tour of the library renovations.”
Lilly nearly strangled over her drink of water. She met his gaze and he looked more determined than she’d ever seen him. Her heart hammered with a combination of anticipation and trepidation. A quick slice of panic raced through. Omigod, could she do this?
She had to. She glanced behind him. Several people still milled around in the large meeting room, but no one appeared to be looking.
“Hurry,” she whispered, snagging his hand and urging him down the hall with her. She guided him around another turn and down an unlit hall to a door with a sign that read DANGER: RENOVATING. NO ADMITTANCE ALLOWED.
Lilly pulled out a key and opened the door.
Robert stared at her in amazement. “How did you get that key?”
“I asked for a tour of the library earlier today. After the librarian finished, I asked for a key to get a second look at the renovations.” She slid the key into her purse. “I’ll return it tomorrow.”
“You planned this,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Are you complaining?” she asked in what she prayed was a sultry voice as she stepped inside the darkened room where she would finally lose her virginity.
“Not at all,” he said, following her in and closing the door behind him. He reached to turn on the light and she covered his hand.
