A Woman To Blame (14 page)

"Change it."

"Improve it, Rick."

"Change it," he said.

"I think we're into semantics here. Everything changes sooner or later, but my radical approach was wrong. What I need to understand are the subtleties of Pappy's Crab Shack."

"Subtleties? There's never been anything subtle about that place, Bryn."

"You know what I mean. Those quirks that made it cozy. The funky flavor that made you laugh." When he didn't say anything, she decided to back off and give him a moment to get used to her idea. "Anyway, will you think about it? About helping me make Pappy's Crab Shack better than before?"

Rick rested both arms against the rail as she returned to the telescope and took his place on the stool. He watched her take her sighting through the eyepiece.

She could have gone on with her plans for the restaurant, and sooner or later she would have turned a profit. But rather than hold fast to the wrong idea and take the chance of breaking Pappy's heart, she'd decided to drop the selfish reasons and do the right thing.

A comforting warmth spread through his chest as he felt himself needing to be closer to her. Joining her at the telescope, he basked in the new sensations she had inspired. He watched her from the corner of his eye with admiration and curiosity. "Making wishes?" he asked after a while.

"Yes," she said, adding her whispery voice to the rustling palms and sea sounds surrounding them. "Of course, I'm probably making them on planets instead of stars. I can never tell the difference." Laughing at herself, she lifted her face from the telescope, one eye still closed. "Do you think they'll come true anyway?" Waiting for his answer, she opened her eye.

New stars were forming in the dusky blue heaven behind her. Dozens of them. All shimmering and new and somehow brave in the darkened sky. Tonight they almost seemed close enough to touch. He slipped his fingers into the curls beside her face. "They have to be stars."

"Well, let's see if they were," she said, gliding her hand along his arm, then pressing it over his. "I wished for your help with the restaurant."

He nodded, moving his thigh between hers in a quiet act of masculine assertion. "You got it. What else?"

"I wished that you would kiss me." Running her teeth along her bottom lip, she left inviting wetness there. "How'd I do on that one?"

Blown away by her frank invitation, he filled his arms with her. "Good call." Starting with a gentle brush of her lips, he delved past them, exploring her interior with a lazy tongue. She welcomed his invasion with tender nibbles that elicited a deep and immediate groan from him. When he moved his thigh against her, he made his own wish that she understood he wasn't playing any longer. Her quick intake of air told him she got the message. Sliding his hands beneath the hem of her T-shirt, he moved his fingertips over the satin-smooth skin around her navel, then skimmed them around to the small of her back. With a slight pull he invited her to come closer. He felt the squeeze of her thighs on his before she settled her feminine center high on his leg and began rocking herself against the taut muscles. When he felt the damp heat of her erotic embrace, he pressed his thigh upwards and swore for control.

"One more wish, Rick..."

She didn't have to tell him. He knew. He'd always known. "Well, Bryn, you chose all stars tonight," he said, smiling softly as he withdrew his leg and lifted her into his arms, "because the last wish is about to come true."

He carried her through a set of French doors and into his bedroom, stopping twice to kiss her. With her lavishing his neck and chest with nipping kisses, he somehow made it to the bed. Lowering her to her feet, he reached around her hip. "Don't worry, I have protection. It's right here," he said, tearing open the nightstand drawer and shuffling through the contents. "Somewhere."

His hasty search stopped like a freeze frame when he felt her fingers working the snap on his shorts. If she touched his hot, hard flesh, if she stroked him once, he'd spill himself.

"Rick?"

The answer came before he did. "The bathroom," he said, reluctantly setting her away from him. Of course the pack of condoms was in the bathroom. He kept condoms there because he hadn't used them in this bedroom in years. The short time it took to find the pack and return to the bedroom gave him back a modicum of control. A modicum of control quickly relinquished when he saw what was waiting for him.

Holding a corner of the sheet between her legs, Bryn was kneeling naked in the center of his bed, looking straight at him when he walked back through the door. Words caught in his throat, words he soon forgot. All he could think about were the mixed messages he was receiving. Even though she'd just stripped off her clothes in record time, she was covering herself with that white sheet like a timid virgin on her wedding night.

Dragging the sheet to her breastbone, she clutched both handfuls to her body. One tightened nipple peeked from behind rumpled white cloth. "Say something, or I'll die of embarrassment."

"Okay," he said, tossing the condoms on his nightstand. Propping his hands on his hips, he smiled. "Drop the sheet."

She blinked those thick lashes at him, then opened her eyes as wide as possible. "Now? Just like that?"

"We don't want rose petals and raindrops," he said, shaking his head. Walking closer to the bed, he continued talking softly. "Not tonight, Bryn. Tonight we want thunder and lightning. Am I right?"

Bryn licked at her lips, striving to understand this new excitement racing through her. He gave her a long, hot look that scorched her with its blazing honesty. "Rick, I've tried," she said, her voice earnest with desperation and apology. "But I've never had the thunder and lightning, and..."

"Go on."

"I want it, Rick. So badly... I want it with you," she said, watching him remove his shirt and toss it over his shoulder.

"Bryn, drop the sheet," he said, sitting down on the edge of the wide bed.

Her grasp continued tightening on the sheet until he started that daring smile. Tanned skin crinkled at the corners of his eyes, drawing attention to the wicked yet humorous light there. Delicious promises radiated from every pore of his magnificent body. The moment suddenly hummed with rightness.

She didn't drop the sheet. She lowered it slowly, her confidence building with each revealed inch. By the time she bunched it over the apex of her thighs, she'd accepted his challenge without understanding the full measure of it.

"What else do you want?" he asked, reaching for her beaded nipple, but drawing his fingers down between her breasts instead.

"I want the rose petals and raindrops too."

When she began trailing her fingers after his, he swallowed hard. "Do it again," he whispered.

"Like this?" she asked, skimming a thumb over her nipple before repeating the stroke along her body.

By following his lead, she'd discovered the way to tap into his passion. Soon he wouldn't be able to hold back what he'd so carefully guarded. The knowledge excited her, making her want to please him in ways she'd only imagined. Pushing the sheet away, she leaned back on a bank of pillows. "This too?" she asked, touching her thighs this time.

He swore under his breath, threatening the heavens if she didn't stop it, then threatening the heavens if she did. She didn't stop. She kept on stroking, taking her cues from his darkening eyes and his deepening breaths. When he stood and removed the rest of his clothing, she invited him closer with the whisper of his name.

"Rick... I want it all."

It was as if she'd understood every desire, every fantasy he'd had about her. Even the ones that frightened him, those sweet romantic images undeniably more precious now that they were within his reach. With one sweep of her eyes she moved him, bringing life to that emotional void where he'd been numb so long.

"So do I."

Leaning back on her elbows, she dropped her head back in an eloquent act of consent. Moving over her, he touched her as lightly as falling petals from a swollen rose. He ran his fingers down her throat to the delicate hollow, following them with a skimming trail of kisses. Wet and warm, they touched her like raindrops before a summer storm. Giving the same exquisite attention to the rest of her, he steeled himself against the pounding need in his loins. When she began weaving her hips, he moved lower, moistening his lips in her sweet healing wetness. Her breath caught in a ragged gasp, and with one whispery moan she tumbled another one of his walls.

He reached for protection, and together they rolled it on. Striving for one last semblance of control, he managed a breathless smile. "Thunder and lightning?"

Leaning back on the pillows again, she opened her secrets to him like his trusting lover. "Thunder and lightning," she repeated, stroking herself from the valley between her breasts to the nest of auburn curls near the glistening place between her thighs.

He was past words now, intent on following her lead. With a pleasurable shudder, he let her guide him inside her narrow entrance. She contracted around him instantly, urging him deeper into her silken embrace with a tug of his hips and a sizzling sigh. Easing himself halfway to her center, he watched her eyes as the first wave of undiluted pleasure struck her. He'd never held a shooting star, but now he knew what one felt like as her sensuous moves flared to a burning climax around him. Before he could stop it, his guarded well of passion surged forward in a series of hot, hard strokes. Crying her name, he let his last wall tumble as he sank himself into the deepest part of her. She came with him in one stunning explosion of pleasure. The incredible feeling of oneness lingered long after his thundering heartbeat stopped echoing through her body. She lay quietly within his embrace, brushing an occasional kiss to his chest and leaving him to wonder at the miracle of it all.

* * *

Later Bryn felt him moving her onto the pillows and covering her with the sheet. Holding her face between his palms, he kissed her several times, each time softer than the last. Lulled by his gentle touch, she couldn't think about anything except their total intimacy and that she wanted it to go on forever.

"Sleep," he whispered, before moving off the bed and heading toward the bathroom.

Drifting in and out of her drowsy state, it took her a moment to realize he'd finished in the bathroom and was out on the deck, securing the doors. She moved around the empty bed trying to find a more comfortable spot. She ended up rolling into the space he'd left. Already cool to the touch, she began nuzzling the sheet, inhaling the scent of their lovemaking in an effort to recreate his presence. Half aroused with wanting him again, she indulged in another new experience, wrapping herself in her lover's scent. Reveling in the hedonistic act, she tugged the material around her and drew the vital fragrance into her body. Nothing, she thought, would ever break the spell of this night.

Rick watched her from the door, enjoying her voluptuous moves as if she'd orchestrated them specifically for him. Moonlight played on the satin curves of her body, tantalizing him with what he saw and what he didn't. The more she nudged herself against the twisted sheet, the more aroused he became. "If I come back to bed, will you wrap your knees around me like that?" he asked.

Tensing at the sound of his voice, she stopped moving on the sheet. Pushing up, she lowered her buttocks to her heels, then looked over her shoulder at him.
Don't stop,
he wanted to tell her, but he knew her private moment had passed and a shared one was about to begin.

"Will you make those sounds for me?" he asked, walking into the room and next to the bed. Bracing his hands on the bed, he leaned in to kiss her hip. "Will you move like that for me?"

When she didn't answer him, he sensed her silence came not from her embarrassment but from her disoriented state. She stared blankly at the dry-cleaning bag he'd taken inside before, and he began to wonder if she'd been aware of what she'd just been doing. Kneeling beside the bed, he began stroking the indentation of her spine.

"Are you really awake?" he asked softly.

"Yes."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"No, you're not," he said, standing quickly to sit beside her. "What's wrong? Did I hurt you before?" Approaching her slowly, he lifted her chin on his fingertips. "Did I scare you? Christ, Bryn, I'm sorry. It's been a while since—"

"Has it?" she asked.

Her question seared the air between them. In the light of a full moon, he could see her eyes narrowing with concern before she lowered her head. "Where did that come from? No, don't turn away," he said, reaching for her shoulder. Relieved that she didn't flinch from his touch, he kissed the warm skin next to his hand. "Not after what we've just been through," he added gently. "Tell me what's bothering you and I'll try to help."

"The other night, after I smeared that pie on your sleeve, I decided I should be the one to take it to the dry cleaner's." She looked away again. "When I was carrying the jacket to the car, I guess I held it close to my face. I smelled perfume on the lapel. Shalimar. I don't wear Shalimar." She plucked at the sheet covering her knee. "Rick, if there's someone else in your life, I have to know, because I can't be with you. I'm not like that and—"

"There's no one else."

"But the perfume—"