Diamond (11 page)

“I’ll always take care of you, honey,” he said. “I promised.”

The fever between them rose. Diamond knew that in moments, she’d never be the same. As his mouth demanded, his hands teased. As her body arched to meet his, she fell under his spell and his body as easily as she breathed.

At first his movement inside her was nothing more than a slow burn that made her limbs weak and her heart race. And then it changed to a spiraling ache as he increased the power and speed. She felt his own need grow as he buried himself deeper and deeper into her in an all-consuming need for completion.

When his quick, intense breaths became harsh gasps for air, she lifted herself to him, wrapped her legs around his waist, and took him with her into the light.

Jesse stared mindlessly up toward the ceiling and tightened his arms around her as she slept toward morning. He remembered the first touch of their bodies as they had joined, and then everything after that was an intense blur of heat and need. He’d never been as swept away by passion in his entire life as he had by this woman.

Diamond moaned in her sleep, and to Jesse it sounded like a sob. He looked down in sudden fright, aware that the woman he held in his arms had become more than a passing fancy. The thought of her pain was unbearable to him, just as was the thought of never loving like this again.

“Ah, God, lady,” he whispered. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to love you, not like this.” He ran his hands gently up and down her arms and then pulled the sheet over them both. “I wasn’t supposed to love you…but I do.”

Only Diamond didn’t hear him, and when morning came, Jesse didn’t repeat it. He could only stare in wonder as the sunlight coming through his window blazed a path across her hair and brought a myriad of colors to life. And when he ran his fingers through the thick, honey-colored strands, the highlights glittered, like diamonds falling through his hands.

Henley let himself in the back door and started the coffee before he noticed that the food he’d prepared the day before was still untouched. He was walking through the living room on his way upstairs when he spotted the first article of clothing on the steps above. It didn’t take him long to see the path of clothes, or to notice that they weren’t exclusively Jesse’s.

He smiled to himself and then made a hasty but quiet retreat back downstairs. It looked as if his boss had gotten over his anger about the truck. He walked into the kitchen, pulled pen and paper from a drawer, and began to compose a note.

Henley closed the back door quietly behind him, locking them in and himself out. He’d just given himself the day off, and from the look of things in the house, he didn’t think anyone was going to mind.

The phone rang in another part of the house. Jesse’s answering machine picked up the call. And no matter how loudly Tommy yelled into the phone, no one got on the line.

He slammed it down in disgust, knowing that he’d have to make a trip out to Jesse’s ranch if he wanted to accomplish any work today, or else wait until tomorrow.

Tommy rolled off his bed and started to dress when he remembered how withdrawn Jesse had been on the way home. Something told him that pushing Jesse into working on his only day of rest might be a mistake. He yanked his pants back off, plopped down on the bed, and dug in his shirt pocket for the unopened pack of cigarettes.

He’d bought them in Denver, right after Jesse had refused the offer of the buxom Bobbie Lee. It was the first time Tommy could ever remember Jesse completely turning off at the sight of a pretty female fan.

“Damned woman,” he muttered as he peeled the wrapper and tapped out the first cigarette he’d held in over a year. He slid in into the corner of his mouth, struck a match, and took the first drag. It was intensely satisfying, he told himself, and well worth the wait. If he had to suffer that blonde bitch in Jesse’s life, he wasn’t going to do it willingly. A man had to have some pleasures, he thought…and besides, everyone dies eventually. How he got there was his business.

Diamond woke slowly and looked down at the head pillowed upon her breast. Strands of Jesse’s dark hair lay across her body in stark contrast to her own fair, delicate complexion. His thick black lashes, as straight as his hair, made small, feathery shadows below his eyes as he slept.

She moved once and smiled to herself at the possessive manner with which his fingers tightened their hold upon her arm. Even in his sleep, Jesse wouldn’t let her go.

Last night had been unbelievable and inevitable. The attraction that had simmered between them had finally boiled and overflowed into a passion that left her still breathless. She didn’t want to face life without this man, though she feared that she would have to. Diamond trusted her own feelings, but not his. Although she knew what had happened between them had been special, she wondered if she’d been the only one to feel the magic.

Unable to resist, she threaded her fingers through hair as dark as a warlock’s heart, gently brushing it away from his forehead as she imprinted Jesse’s face on her mind.

His high cheekbones framed his strong, shapely nose and gave emphasis to the often stubborn jut of his chin. His hands were slender, the fingers long and supple—true artist’s hands. And after the previous night, Diamond had no doubt as to Jesse’s mastery of the human anatomy. He’d played her body as gently and skillfully as he played his guitar.

Testing the surface of his skin was addictive. It felt sleek and hard, yet the muscles that rippled beneath her touch were fluid and alive. A faint tan line at his waist teased her to look farther. And when she did, she wished she hadn’t. It only made her want him…again.

For the last several minutes, Jesse had been watching as she gazed her fill of his body. And when her line of vision dropped below his waist, he closed his eyes and willed his body not to betray him. It was no use. It did, and he succumbed to temptation.

He rolled over and lifted himself onto his elbows, cupped her face in his hands, and looked down at the woman beneath him. Her eyes, as clear and green as spring grass, beckoned him as she bestowed upon him a smile as wide and generous as the mouth that formed it.

“Good morning,” he said, and kissed the smile on her face. “If you know something I don’t, now’s the time to confess.”

“Only someone with a guilty conscience needs to make a confession,” she said. “I have no guilt; therefore I have nothing to confess.”
But I have secrets, Jesse Eagle. And I don’t think you’re ready to hear them. I don’t think you want to hear what’s in my heart
.

Jesse watched shadows steal across her face and knew there was a part of herself she was still protecting. His arms tightened around her as he faced the fact that she still didn’t trust him. The knowledge hurt him in a way he’d never imagined.

“Don’t turn away from me, Diamond. Last night wasn’t just an incident. It was a beginning, and the sooner you face that, the better.”

Her mouth parted. Words that she intended to say were never born. Jesse took her and what good sense she had left into a place where nothing mattered except his touch and the spiraling heat he created in her.

It was noon before they made it downstairs and found Henley’s note. Jesse read enough between the sparse lines to know that Henley had seen the clothes—and where they’d led—and had made as graceful an exit as he knew how.

It was just as well. He didn’t want to share Diamond with anyone today. What was between them was too new and fresh.

“You have a message,” Diamond said, pointing to the blinking red light on his answering machine.

Jesse played it back and then turned off the machine, unwilling to record any more of the same nonsense from Tommy.

“No, I don’t,” he said. “That wasn’t a message, it was just Tommy having a fit. He can have that without my help, any day.”

Diamond laughed.

Jesse smiled at the sound. A toe-tapping song came on the radio. Unable to verbalize the emotion he was feeling, he chose to act on it instead and swung her into a rousing two-step, dancing her around the kitchen and out into the hall as if they were in a wild honky-tonk instead of scuffing up Henley’s highly polished floors.

By afternoon they’d run out of food and time. Today had been a little bit of heaven. Tomorrow was going to be another story. Tomorrow Jesse would be back in the studio, and Diamond would be fielding dirty looks and innuendos from his band.

For the first time since she’d left Cradle Creek, she wished Queen was there. Her big sister would know how to take the starch out of the boys in Jesse’s band. She hated the discomfort they made her feel but didn’t dare tell Jesse what was going on. It would only cause trouble he couldn’t afford.

“You’re frowning,” Jesse said, wrapping his arms around her. “You know what that means.”

She smiled as he bent down for his kiss. “You’re gonna have to wipe that frown right off my face, right?”

“You got it, honey,” he said. “Come here and take your medicine like a big girl.”

“Making love to you isn’t medicine, Jesse Eagle. I’d say it’s more like a lesson in instant insanity.” She returned his kiss and added one for good measure.

His whisper was soft and low as his mouth took license with the curve of her neck and moved down the slope of her breasts.

“Then let’s go crazy together, love.”

So they did.

7

Henley watched Jesse’s sports
car pull out of the driveway as he and Diamond headed into Nashville. Although it felt strange to be bidding his employer good-bye as if they were family, he could not ignore Diamond’s wide smile and the excitement bubbling within her as she leaned out of the window and waved back at him. He had to return the favor.

It would have been obvious even to a fool that the relationship between Jesse and Diamond had changed. When they touched each other, even discreetly, one could tell it was not enough. The heat between them was tangible. If Henley hadn’t become so fond of Diamond, he would have been uncomfortable in their presence. As it was, he felt like a constant Peeping Tom. But however intense the emotion between them, Henley suspected that it would not be enough to stop the inevitable from happening.

Instinct told him that no matter how hard they tried, they would not bridge the gap between their lives and be happy until Diamond Houston learned how to trust. Henley sighed as he reentered the house. He liked Jesse’s lady. He knew that Jesse liked her, too. He hoped that was enough.

Diamond fidgeted as Jesse pulled onto the main road leading into Nashville. The constant touching and smiles between them at his house were addictive, but she knew that if it happened at the studio, in front of Tommy or the band, they would know in an instant that the relationship had changed. And they would laugh or, even worse, make more of the same insulting remarks she’d been hearing. She didn’t think she could bear it.

Jesse sensed her fear, and it made him worry. After three miles of sidelong glances and deep sighs, she finally spoke.

“Jesse…”

The hesitance in her voice made him swerve the car. The rhythm of his heartbeat skipped and then returned to normal as he told himself not to borrow trouble.

“I don’t want you to…please don’t be so…” she began.

He slammed his foot onto the brake and brought the car to a halt at the side of the road. Diamond braced herself against the dashboard. The anger in Jesse’s voice surprised her, as did his behavior.

“Dammit, Diamond! Just spit it out. Say what’s on your mind and put me out of my misery, okay?”

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked. “All I was going to do was ask you not to…touch me so much in front of Tommy or the boys in the band. I don’t want them to know that we…that things have…”

Jesse sighed and buried his face in his hands before sliding them up through his hair. He leaned his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes. He took two long, steadying breaths before he trusted himself to talk. And then when he moved, it was only to pull her out of her seat and into his arms.

“You scared the hell out of me, lady,” he said, trailing kisses along the side of her neck and across her cheek. “I thought you were sorry about yesterday, that you already had regrets and didn’t know how to say it.”

Diamond buried her face against his neck and inhaled the warm, spicy scent of his cologne.

“The only regret I feel is that I don’t know how to handle myself in situations like this. I’m not as practiced in relationships as you are. I don’t know how to be casual about the fact that I can’t keep my hands off you, or that I panic when I can’t hear your voice. I just don’t want them to know.”

“Thank God,” he said. “Because there’s nothing casual about the way I feel for you—and to hell with Tommy and the band.”

He kissed her gently, lingering longer than necessary on her lower lip. With every tug of his mouth, the heat in her stomach spread.

“You’re going to have to trade cars, Jesse,” she whispered as he finally relinquished her lips.

“Why, darlin’?” he asked, and gently brushed her hair away from her face and neck.

“Because it’s difficult enough just to get myself into this thing and ride. It would be damned near impossible to make love in it.”

He smiled, and his eyes glittered as he moved his hands over her body.

“It’s not easy, darlin’, but it’s not impossible,” he said, and set out to prove it.

“From the look on Jesse’s face, homecoming was goo-ood,” Mack said, and slid a slow whistle out from between his teeth as he watched the pair coming through the door into the studio.

“Oh, shut the hell up, Mack,” Al said. He wiped down his fiddle and glared at the big guitar player. Mack laughed in his face and then went to get a cup of coffee.

Al was sick and tired of Mack’s innuendos about Jesse’s woman. As far as he could tell, she was nothing but a lady, and in Al’s book, that was all that mattered. Even though she was staying in Jesse’s house, she hadn’t tried to take advantage of her situation by making a name for herself, nor did he believe that she was some star-struck groupie looking for a free ride.