Blind Attraction (11 page)

“
Victoria,” he protested, though he didn’t try to stop her from leading him. “Are you sure about this? I can’t see.”

“I think you see
better than just about anybody I know,” she said with complete earnestness. “And you’ll be with me; I won’t let anything happen to you.”

*****

Her words were almost comical; then why did his heart just thud painfully in his chest?

James swallowed past the emotion clogging his throat but before he could say anything, she was in his arms and they were swaying to the music. It wasn’t quite dancing, but it was beautiful and wonderful
and he got to hold her. Her body pressed against his, her cheek lay against his neck and with a sigh, he buried his nose in her hair and breathed in the sweet scent of Victoria.

Who was this girl? The trust in her voice, the conviction of her words, struck him in the center of his chest, making him believe in
happily ever after. Even if she wasn’t a stunning goddess he would be fascinated by her; lucky for him she came in a complete package.  Pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head, breathing in her sweet scent, he smiled; Victoria was even more incredible than he had hoped.

After a few minutes, he began to feel other bodies around them
as other couples joined them on the dance floor. He took the opportunity to pull Victoria closer to keep her from getting trampled on; unconcerned if she could feel his erection pressing into her smooth belly. All that mattered was keeping her as close as possible and never letting her go.

She was his soul mate.

Letting his eyes close, he pictured her in his mind; that glorious, pale blond hair, her heart-shaped face, her lips parted in pleasure, her lithe body spread out beneath him. He wondered if she was sun-kissed over her entire body or if she had tan lines. His hips involuntarily gently thrust against her at the thought and her slight gasp let him know that she felt him. Smiling ruefully, he whispered in her ear, “This is what you do to me, Victoria.”

Softly, her breath warming his neck, she whispered,
“I didn’t think it was possible to fall so quickly; I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and it’s all going to be a dream.”

“Then I’m dreaming the same thing,” he murmured,
lightly brushing his lips against her temple. “But if it were a dream, I’d be able to see you.”

Without hesitating
, she took one of his warm hands in hers and brought it up to her face. Pressing his palm against her cheek, she whispered, “Then see me.”

The world disappeared and the only two people who existed were James and Victoria as he tenderly ran his hand over her face. The fleshy pads of his fingertips traced the slight arc of her brow, the silky curve of her cheek, the smooth line of her jaw. Her breath moved lightly over his fingers as her lips parted. Keeping his fingers on her mouth, he bent his head and kissed her, oblivious of their surroundings.

Sliding his hand around to the back of her head, he held her in place as he tasted her lips. Slanting his head to the side, deepening the kiss until his breath was hers and her breath was his, he touched the tip of her tongue with his and felt the flame incinerate his entire body. Blood boiled throughout his limbs, his erection strained to break free from the confines of his pants. Unable to help himself, he moved against her, torturing himself with sensations that were not enough to satisfy, but enough to whet his appetite for more.

Trying to
will his erection to go away before the song ended, he tried to think of anything but the beautiful, sensuous woman in his arms. Of course, it was practically impossible because as long as she was standing so near he was going to be aroused and she couldn’t just leave because then everybody would discover exactly how turned on he was.

As the song came to an end she didn’t step away from him, keeping as close to him as possible, almost as if she could shield him from prying eyes.
He couldn’t help but smile; she was so passionate, and so protective of him. He would wait a hundred years to make love to her; granted, he hoped it wouldn’t be that long of a wait. He would much rather spend the next hundred years making love to her.

*****

Victoria’s senses were whirling as the world spun madly out of control. In the center of the storm James stood, unaware of the chaos he was wrecking on her heart. Her body was no longer her own, melting into his even as her breasts grew heavy and her nipples tingled and tightened, as her belly trembled. He was the hurricane and the eye; passion and deliverance. She could feel the strength of his arousal as he moved against her.

Tearing her mouth away from his, she tried to catch her breath.
As she rested her forehead against his chin, as he pressed soft kisses to the space between her brows, the sounds of the party filtered back into her consciousness. She could feel the heat of her blush creep up her neck and into her cheeks as she remembered where they were. Discretely, she glanced around at the other guests, hoping that nobody was paying them any particular attention.

James brought his hands up to her shoulders, stroking her throat with his thumbs
. “Victoria.”

Hearing him speak her name in that low, husky voice of his, sent a pleasurable shiver down her spine. Smiling, she tilted her head back and looked at him; he was just as flushed as she felt.  “Perhaps I should let you socialize with your
other guests while I find us some punch.”

“Or maybe we should just leave and find some place more private where we can finish what we started,” he suggested instead, accentuating each word with a soft kiss.

This time the tremor in her belly was from nerves, it had to be; she barely knew this guy, despite the feeling that she had known him forever. Was she really ready to sleep with him? Well, yes – and that terrified her.

Placing her hands over his, she grudgingly shook her head no, “It’s too fast, James.”

Kissing her forehead, he murmured, “We’ll go as fast – or slow – as you wish, Victoria; I can wait.”

She smiled, feeling more confident in giving him her body as well as her heart. “Thank you. Now, perhaps I should find that punch? I’m feeling a bit warm.”

“I’ll go with you.” He smiled ruefully, “I don’t want to be apart from you.”

“Of course.”
Turning away from him, she started to walk, keeping her body as close to his as possible to guide him. The feel of him walking so close was a heady feeling, one that she could easily become addicted to if she wasn’t careful.

When he kissed her it didn’t matter that they were in a room full of people – full of his friends and employees. The moment he took her into his arms, when the heat of his body melded into hers, nothing else existed. It had scared her how easily she would have surrendered her body to him. She had known him for all of four days; she had known Alex almost two years before she made the decision to sleep with him
and that never happened. Was James her soul mate? Did she even believe in soul mates?

She felt like she was drowning but she was too enthralled with the sensation to care. As she walked, her heart racing, she could still feel his lips pressed to hers; the jut of his erection against her stomach.  For all of her ideals of romance and love, soul mates had seemed beyond the scope of possibility.
Victoria was convinced that instant attraction was absolutely possible but it took more than a moment to fall in love with someone, with a perfect stranger. Yet why did she feel like she was drowning?

The incessant ringing yanked
Victoria from her dreams. Groggily, still mostly asleep, she reached out an arm and grabbed her phone from the night stand. With a flip, she held it up to her ear, “What?”

“I always forget that you’re not a morning person,” Taylor’s way-too-cheerful voice bubbled through the line.

Victoria cracked an eye and saw that it was barely six o’clock. “It’s not morning for at least three more hours, Tay. Why are you calling so early?”

“Chandler has insisted that we stay through the week,” Taylor said.

“That’s great,” Victoria mumbled, her brain already starting to drift back to sleep.

“
Victoria! Are you listening?” Taylor’s voice penetrated the haziness that was trying to envelop Victoria and lure her back to sleep. “I’m staying with Chandler – for the week.”

“It’s Sunday,”
Victoria whimpered, desperate to get a few more hours of sleep. After getting home from the party, her brain had been too wired to actually sleep, so she had spent a few hours doing inventory. And when she finally fell asleep around two, her dreams had been filled with erotic sensations and images of James, making actual sleep elusive. Victoria figured it would be okay because the store didn’t open until noon; she hadn’t planned on getting a call from Taylor. At six in the freaking morning.

“I know!” Taylor beamed, oblivious.

“I’m going back to sleep,” Victoria grumbled, clicking the phone shut. Punching her pillow a few times, she finally found a comfortable position when the phone started ringing again. She tried to ignore it and managed to do it three times, before she realized Taylor was even more stubborn than she was. Resigned, she picked the phone up again, “What?”

“I think he’s going to ask me to marry him,” Taylor enthused, finally getting to the heart of her excitement.

“Really?” That announcement woke Victoria some. Somehow, her eyes managed to remain shut. “I thought you weren’t very serious about Chandler.”

“I’m not,” Taylor trilled lightly.

Victoria frowned, “Then why do you think he’s going to marry you – at six o’clock on a Sunday morning?”

“It’s just a feeling,” Taylor said breezily, unconcerned by the
frustration at being woken up so early that was rampaging through Victoria’s sleep-deprived head. “I wanted you to be the first to know.”

“
Tay, I’m really tired,” Victoria moaned. “Can’t this wait until later?”

“I guess,” Taylor agreed almost hesitantly, as if she wanted to talk but really didn’t have a reason to keep
Victoria awake. “Just tell me how the party was last night.”

“It was fine,”
Victoria grumbled, flinging her arm over her eyes, trying to block out the sun that was just starting to slip through the blinds over her window. Her mind was trying to wake up and make lists of what needed to be done at the store before she opened.

“Just fine?”
Taylor nudged.

“Apparently he’s
the
Templeton,” Victoria muttered. She expected Taylor to say something – anything, but there was only silence on the other end. Maybe the connection was cut – or Taylor’s phone died and would have to be re-charged. Maybe….

“OHMIGOD!”
Taylor screamed, dispelling the hope that Victoria would be returning to sleep; also, shattering her ear drum. “You’re dating James Templeton?! I knew he looked familiar; he’s like the Ultimate Bachelor. I’ve seen pictures of him with some of the most gorgeous women in the world and they are always these haughty socialites with an obscene amount of elegance and grace.”

“You mean someone who looks like you,” Victoria said with a wry smile. “But bitchy.”

After a long pause, Taylor clumsily answered, “Um, yeah.”

“Great,”
Victoria mumbled, switching ears and trying to get the sound to work again in the first ear. Yawning, she decided that she really needed the extra sleep; if she had any hope of staying awake for the date she had with James after she closed the store she was going to need it. “Tay, I’ve gotta go….”

“
Victoria, I don’t think you can handle someone like him; he’s a thousand times worse than the boys in high school,” Taylor said at the same time. Without apologizing, she continued, “You’re just the sweetest thing in the world and he’s James Templeton; you have no defenses against his skills of seduction, honey. And you’re not particularly blond; well, not baby blond.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Victoria lied, her cheeks burning with remembrance of the kiss they shared in the middle of the dance floor. Of his saying he wanted to finish what they started. She conveniently ignored the part about baby blond-ness. Besides, baby blond could come from a bottle; not that she particularly wanted baby blond hair, it was simply possible. “I barely know him, Tay; it’s not like I’m going to rush off and jump into bed with him.”