A touch of love (16 page)

They were an improbable pair, but the intuition she cherished told her this was right. She shut out all thoughts save those of him, and the only vision that filled her mind was one of heavenly bliss. She slipped her hands inside his shirt and ran them over the smooth, muscular planes of his back. As her fingertips brushed his skin, she felt an almost musical tingle.

She leaned into him as he moved his hands to her hips, then down again over the satin barrier of her panties. He traced lazy circles with his thumb between her legs, teasing her senses with a mere hint of the erotic possibilities they might explore until she shuddered with longing. He stepped back a moment to remove her panties, but neither could bear to end their deep kiss. He quickly pressed close, his belt buckle cool against the flatness of her belly, before he brought his hand up between them.

Aubrey was already wet, and Jesse used her salty essence to ease the taunting trail of his fingertips. With a touch

that was both feather-light, yet knowing, he dipped into her, then slowly moved up, caressing her most sensitive flesh with a leisurely grace that brought her to the brink of rapture before he withdrew to deliberately create a craving for more. All the while, his kisses bestowed an affection mere words could never express.

He slid his fingers into her again and with a fluttering rhythm delved deep, while using his thumb to tease the bud at the peak of her cleft. Then once again he stilled his intimate caress and waited for the joyous sensations he had coaxed forth to subside. Filled with an aching need, Aubrey wrapped her legs around him, but with a response that was carefully timed, Jesse remained still a few more seconds.

Then all he had to do was brush his thumb across her and the delicate motion set off a tumultuous climax that rocked Aubrey clear to her soul. She stiffened in his embrace, and Jesse tightened his hold on her as she relaxed completely and went limp in his arms. He cradled her head against his shoulder and waited until he thought she wouldn't still be so sensitive that he would cause her pain before he reached for his belt buckle.

The pleasure rippling through Aubrey was so intense that it was an effort to breathe, let alone think, but when she felt Jesse unbuttoning his Levi's, she put her hands against his chest and shoved hard. "No. Wait."

A look of stunned disbelief crossed Jesse's face. "Don't you want more?"

That was most definitely not Aubrey's problem. "I'll probably die in your arms, but yes. I do want more, but you told me you were careful not to father any children. And that's not the only risk if we're not careful."

Jesse had condoms in his shaving kit, but he sure as hell didn't want to take the time to go looking for them. He

rested his forehead against Aubrey's and took a deep breath in a valiant attempt to cool down. As he straightened up, he noticed his reflection in the window and realized anyone could be standing in the driveway peering in at them. After all the commotion they had had there that night, he didn't put it past a nosy neighbor to do just that.

He quickly buckled his belt, then plucked Aubrey off the counter and eased her down on her feet. "I've tested HIV negative several times, but you're right, I ought to protect you."

Aubrey bent down to pick up her panties, then looked Jesse in the eye to make a painful admission. "It's you I'm worried about, not me, but let's talk about it upstairs."

Jesse grabbed her arm as she tried to move past him. "Dear God in heaven, you're not HIV positive are you?"

Aubrey hadn't meant to frighten him so badly, and his anguished expression touched her deeply. She covered his hand with her own. She had not thought she would ever be able to relate the whole humiliating episode to anyone, but it was surprisingly easy with him. "Not yet, but Larry cheated on me so often that I've no idea what the future might bring. When you sleep with me, you'll be sleeping with all the women he had sex with, too, and I can't bear to think being with me might rob you of your future."

Only a moment ago, her gaze had shone with the soft light of perfect contentment, and Jesse wanted to create that marvelous expression again and again. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her with a fierce passion. Had they gone swimming that evening, they would have no future, and he could not bear to think of either of them dying now. He had pushed whatever store of luck he might have to the limit when he was riding bulls, but he prayed he had enough left to give Aubrey Glenn the chance to live a long and happy life.

As for Larry Stafford, her snake of an ex-husband, he

sure hoped he had the opportunity to shorten his lifespan by a decade or two. He was going after Harlan Caine to avenge a terrible wrong, but dealing with Larry would be pure pleasure. He stepped back and took Aubrey's hand. He would be happy to continue their discussion upstairs, but he planned to do a hell of a lot more than talk.

door. Neither of them had mentioned the developer's name, but it still rang with a menacing clang in his mind.

Turning away from the window, Jesse sat down on the softly cushioned windowseat and smiled invitingly. Whether or not he cared to hear it, he sensed Aubrey needed to tell him about her ex-husband's affairs. He had absolutely no intention of providing the lengthy list of his own. "I find it difficult to believe you'd stay with a man who was unfaithful to you."

"I didn't know," Aubrey replied. "Perhaps that sounds ridiculous, but while I was well aware that nothing I did ever really pleased Larry, I didn't realize his dissatisfaction went that far."

She twisted her calla lily ring as she attempted to express the depth of her dismay, but it all seemed so long ago now and the pain which had stabbed through her then was no more than a faint memory. "As I told you, Larry is an ambitious and successful attorney. He frequendy worked long hours preparing for a case and he'd always have his secretary call to tell me not to bother making dinner or wait up for him. It was one of the few thoughtful things he did—or so I thought at the time."

Jesse leaned back against the windowsill and crossed his ankles to get comfortable. He already had the whole picture, but again, didn't want to rush Aubrey into bed when he planned to keep her there a very long time. "But he wasn't really working late, was he?"

Aubrey glanced up at Jesse only briefly. His expression was filled with sympathy rather than pity, and that warmed her clear through. "A good deal of the time he was, but several evenings a month it was merely an excuse to keep me from growing suspicious. Frequently he'd have to take trips out of town, and apparently they weren't strictly business. He always told me they were, however, so that I'd not ask to come along. I know you must think me incredibly

naive, but my parents have such a close, loving marriage that I'd been raised to expect fidelity.''

Jesse didn't pause to reflect upon what he had been raised to expect from marriage, but it wasn't the idyllic partnership she described. Now there was a tale, he thought, but not one he had ever shared. "I can understand that."

Seated on the violet-strewn bed, Aubrey looked very small and sweet, but Jesse had frequently glimpsed her strength, and while he waited calmly for her to draw upon it, he offered some encouragement. "Tonight wasn't the first time I've accused you of not being nearly as open in private as you are in your seminars, but there's really only a small portion of yourself that you won't share. I asked you for the truth the afternoon Larry was here. You told me part of it then, and I appreciate your having the courage to tell me the rest now. How did you find out about Larry's affairs?"

"I told you that I'd asked him for a divorce, then reconsidered. It was during that time. I was taking a couple of Larry's suits to the cleaners, and in the pocket of one found the travel agents' flight schedule from his last trip. There was a woman's name, Karen West, on it in addition to his. I didn't want to believe that he'd been unfaithful and thought she might possibly be an associate of his firm who'd also had reason to make the trip.

"At the same time, my intuition chided me for not accepting the truth while I was holding the blatant evidence in my hand. Still, on the off chance Karen West was with Larry's firm, I telephoned and asked for her. The receptionist gave a startled gasp, which in itself revealed a great deal, then said she had never heard of Ms. West. I found her name in the telephone book and left a message on her answering machine. I merely gave my name and said we really ought to discuss our mutual acquaintance.

4 'Larry came home early that afternoon, and I'd never seen him so angry. I already had my bags packed and didn't respond to his hostile accusations that I'd been spying on him. That outraged him all the more because there had been a time when all he had to do was raise his voice in a slight reproach and I'd dissolve in tears. When he realized that he'd no longer get such an emotional response from me, he lost his temper completely. He didn't just admit that he'd had an affair with Karen, he bragged about it, then began spewing out names of the other women he had slept with during our marriage. A couple were attorneys I'd actually met, but most were women he'd simply picked up in hotel bars when he traveled."

Aubrey remembered that horrible afternoon vividly, "At the time, I'd already detached from the heartache he had caused me and it was as though I were watching some ghastly confrontation in a movie." She whispered the last of it very softly. "Of course, he claimed it was all my fault, and that if I'd only done more to please him, he'd never have strayed."

Jesse straightened up. "That's bullshit."

Aubrey shrugged. "That's precisely what I thought at the time. It was a last ditch effort to undermine my confidence in myself as a woman, and even seeing it for exactly what it was, the words still hurt. But a feeling of betrayal was my primary emotion, and I could barely recall how much I'd once loved him. All I loved was the illusion he had created before our marriage, not the man who truly was my husband."

Aubrey released a poignant sigh. "I consider myself lucky that he didn't bring home any sexually transmitted diseases while we were married, but who knows what the future might bring? Perhaps there's something even worse than AIDS that also has a long dormant period and has yet to be discovered."

She was studying her ring rather than looking up at him, but Jesse couldn't allow her to live another minute expecting a death sentence that might never come. He yanked off his boots and set them aside before walking over to the bed where he sat down beside her. He raised his hand to her shoulder and began to rub her back in gentle circles.

"I think you'll create a spectacular future, one without a bitter legacy from your ex-husband. I've read that Don Juan-types are such insecure individuals they have to constantly pump themselves up with new conquests. That's really pathetic. I'm not even sure marriage is still a viable institution, except for those who want children, but you're far too much woman to be alone. You mustn't let anything Larry said make you doubt just how desirable you truly are."

When he leaned down to kiss her, Aubrey had no doubts at all. She reached up to encircle his neck and pulled him down with her on the bed. She knew as well as he did that they were a mismatched pair if there ever was one, but it didn't matter tonight. He hadn't buttoned up his shirt, and she slid her hand down his belly, tracing the thin line of blond curls that disappeared beneath his belt buckle. She drank in his scent, and then leaned back to ask what it was.

"It's LagerfekL I don't know what kind of clothes he designs, but I like his cologne."

Aubrey raised up slightly. "So do I, but I didn't realize cowboys would bother with it."

"You've been watching too many Westerns. We're quite civilized now." Jesse pulled her back into his arms and kissed her long and hard. She relaxed against him with a fluid grace, but he wanted her closer still. He shrugged off his shirt and hung it over the foot of the bed. He usually

didn't waste much time undressing a woman, but he was still worried about spooking Aubrey.

"I don't want to wrinkle your clothes," he whispered against her throat.

His mustache tickled her skin in the most delightful way, and Aubrey arched into his caress. She would not have cared had he ripped off her dress, and wrinkles were not even a minimal concern. When he eased his hand up her leg, she tensed slightly. She had tossed her panties in the hamper, and he nearly choked on the delicious rush when he found her bare. He moistened his fingers in her wetness and began to tease her again with a whisper-soft touch that was now achingly familiar.

"One of us is going to have to get you out of that dress," Jesse promised with a lazy chuckle. "If you don't want me to stop what I'm doing, then it will have to be you."

There was no question as to whether Aubrey wanted him to continue, and she fumbled with the single button at the neckline of the soft knit dress, then yanked it off over her head and tossed it aside. She unfastened the center snap on her ice-blue bra, and quickly discarded it as well as the matching half-slip. Barefoot to begin with, she was now nude, but felt no embarrassment under Jesse's admiring gaze. He moved up slighdy to lap at her breast, and she ran her fingers through his hair to hold him close to her heart.

It had been so long since she had made love, really made love as they were now, and she closed her eyes to drift on the luscious sensations. There was a magic to being with Jesse that mere chemistry didn't explain, and yet she didn't want to analyze it for fear of spoiling its spell. She giggled when he trailed kisses down to her navel, then gasped with delighted surprise when he shifted position to move lower and brought his mouth down on her.

His intimate kiss was incredibly sweet, and she reached

for his hair, guiding him with subtle hints to make his lavish affection even more arousing. He rolled his tongue and drank up her nectar with an excruciating tenderness that was almost more than she could sanely bear. The instant he slid his fingers inside her again, her body responded with an explosive climax that ricocheted down her spine and rebounded clear to her fingertips and toes.