Heartbreaker (15 page)

She smiled at him. “Wasn’t it?” she laughed. “I’ll enjoy them. Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” he replied, and his voice was soft.

Nell stuck a plate in his hands and then put Tellie’s on her lap. “Eat, before the bread molds,” she told them. “That’s homemade chicken salad, and I put up those dill pickles myself last summer.”

“Looks delicious,” Grange said. “You didn’t have to do this, Nell.”

“I enjoy making a few things on my own,” she said. She grimaced. “I had to lock Albert in the closet, of
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

course. His idea of a sandwich involves shrimp and sauce and a lettuce leaf on a single piece of toasted rye bread.” She looked disgusted.

“That’s not my idea of one,” Grange had to admit.

“This is really good,” Tellie exclaimed after she bit into her sandwich.

“Yes, it is,” Grange seconded. “I didn’t have time for breakfast this morning.”

“Enjoy,” Nell said, smiling. “I’ll be back up for the tray later.”

They both nodded, too involved with chewing to answer.

Grange entertained her with stories from his childhood. She loved the one about the cowboy, notorious for his incredible nicotine habit, who drove his employer’s Land Rover out into the desert on a drunken joyride, forgetting to take along a shovel or bottled water or even a flashlight. He ran out of gas halfway back and when they found him the next morning, almost dead of dehydration, the first thing he asked for was a cigarette.

“What happened to him?” she asked, laughing.

“After he got over the experience, the boss put him on permanent barn duty, cleaning out the horse stalls. The cowboy couldn’t get a job anywhere else locally because of that smoking habit, so he was pretty much stuck.”

“He couldn’t quit?”

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

“He wouldn’t quit,” he elaborated. “Then he met this waitress and fell head over heels for her. He quit smoking, stopped drinking and married her. He owns a ranch of his own now and they’ve got two kids.”

His dark eyes twinkled. “Just goes to show that the love of a good woman can save a bad man.”

She pursed her lips. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

He laughed. “I’m not a bad man,” he pointed out. “I just have a few rough edges and a problem with authority figures.”

“Is that why you don’t get along with J.B.?”

He shook his head. “That’s because we’re too much alike in temperament,” he said. He checked his watch. “I’ve got to run,” he said, swooping up his hat as he got to his feet. “Can’t afford to tick off my boss!”

“Will you come again?” she asked.

“The minute the coast is clear,” he promised, laughing. “If Nell doesn’t sell us out.”

“She won’t. She’s furious at J.B. I don’t know why, nobody tells me anything, but I overheard her say that she’d quit and had to come back to take care of me. Apparently she and J.B. had a major blowup before I got hurt. I wish I knew why.”

“One of these days, I’m sure you’ll find out. Keep getting better.”

“I’ll do my best. Thanks again. For the roses, and for coming to see me.”

“I enjoyed it. Thanks for lunch.”

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

She grinned. “I’ll cook next time.”

“Something to look forward to,” he teased, winking at her.

J.B. came in late. Apparently he’d been out with whichever girlfriend he was dating, because he was dressed up and a faint hint of perfume clung to his shirt as he sat down in the chair beside Tellie’s bed.

But he looked more worried than weary, and he wasn’t smiling.

She eyed him warily. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

He leaned back in the chair, one long leg crossed over the other. She noted how shiny his hand-tooled black boots were, how well his slacks fit those powerful legs. She shook herself mentally. She didn’t need to notice such things about him.

“Nothing much,” he said. Actually he was worried about Marge. She was in the early stages of treatment for high blood pressure, and she’d had a bad dizzy spell this afternoon. The girls had called him at work, and he’d gone right over. He’d phoned Coltrain, only to be reassured that some dizziness was most likely a side effect of the drug. She was having a hard time coping, and she missed Tellie, as well as being worried about her health. J.B. had assured Marge that Tellie was going to be fine, but his sister wanted to see Tellie. He couldn’t manage that. Not yet.

He drew in a long breath, wondering how to avoid the subject. That was when he looked at her bedside table carelessly and saw the huge bouquet of yellow roses. His green eyes began to glitter as he stared at her.

“And just where,” he asked with soft fury, “did you get a bouquet of roses?”

Nine

“T hey were a present,” Tellie said quickly.

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

“Were they?” he asked curtly. “From whom?”

She didn’t want to say it. There was going to be a terrible explosion when she admitted that she’d had a visitor. It didn’t take mind-reading skills to realize that J.B. didn’t like Grange.

She swallowed. “Grange brought them to me.”

The green eyes were really glittering now. “When?”

“He stopped by on his lunch hour,” she said. She glared up at him. “Listen, there’s nothing wrong with having company when you’re sick!”

“You’re in your damned pajamas!” he shot back.

“So?” she asked belligerently. “You’re looking at me in them, aren’t you?”

“I don’t count.”

“Oh. I see.” She didn’t, but it was best not to argue with a madman, which is how he looked at the moment.

His lips made a thin line. “I’m family.”

She might have believed that before yesterday, she thought, when he’d touched her so intimately.

The memory colored her cheeks. He saw it, and a slow, possessive smile tugged up his firm, chiseled lips. That made the blush worse.

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

“You don’t think of me as family?” he asked softly.

She wanted to dive under the covers. It wasn’t fair that he could reduce her to this sort of mindless hunger.

He leaned over her, the anger gone, replaced by open curiosity and something else, less definable.

His fingers speared through her dark hair, holding her head inches from the pillow behind her. His chest rose and fell quickly, like her own. His free hand went to her soft mouth and traced lazily around the upper lip, and then the lower one, with a sensuality that made her feel extremely odd.

“I’m…seventeen,” she choked, grasping for a way to save herself.

His dark green gaze fell to her parted lips. “You’re not,” he said huskily, and the hand in her hair contracted. “It can’t hurt for you to know your real age. You’re almost twenty-two. Fair game,” he added under his breath, and all at once his hard, sensuous mouth came down on her lips with firm purpose.

She gasped in surprise, and her hand went to his chest. That was a mistake, because it was unbuttoned in front and her fingers were enmeshed in thick, curling dark hair that covered the powerful muscles.

His head lifted, as if the contact affected him. His eyes narrowed. His heart, under her fingertips, beat strongly and a little fast.

“You shouldn’t…” she began, frightened of what was happening to her.

“I’ve waited a long time for this,” he said enigmatically. He bent to her mouth again. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, Tellie,” he whispered into her lips. “Nothing at all…”

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

The pressure increased little by little. Her fingers dug into his chest as odd sensations worked themselves down her body, and she shivered.

He smiled against her parted lips. “It’s about time,” he murmured, and his mouth grew insistent.

She felt his body slowly move closer, so that they were lying breast to breast on the soft mattress. One lean hand slid under the pajama top, against her rib cage, warm and teasing. She should grab his wrist and stop him, her mind was saying, because this wasn’t right. He was a notorious womanizer and she was like his ward. She was far too young to be exposed to such experienced ardor. She was…but he’d said she was almost twenty-two years old. Why hadn’t she remembered her age?

His hand contracted in her soft hair. “Stop thinking,” he bit off against her mouth. “Kiss me, Tellie,” he breathed, and his hand suddenly moved up and cupped her soft, firm breast. His head lifted, to watch her stunned, delighted reaction.

For an instant, she stiffened. But then his thumb rubbed tenderly over the swollen nipple, and a ripple of ardent desire raged in her veins. She drew in a shivery, shaking breath. The pressure increased, just enough to be arousing. She arched involuntarily, and moaned.

“Yes,” he said, as though she’d spoken.

His hand swallowed her whole, and his mouth moved gently onto her parted lips, teasing, exploring, demanding. All her defenses were down. There was no tomorrow. She had J.B. in her arms, wanting her.

Whether it was wrong or not, she couldn’t resist him. She’d never known that her body could experience anything so passionately satisfying. She felt swollen. She wanted to pull him closer. She wanted to touch him, as he was touching her. She wanted…everything!

Her arms slid up around his neck and she arched into the warm pressure of his hand on her body.

His mouth increased its pressure, until he broke open her mouth and his tongue moved inside, in slow, insistent thrusts that made her moan loudly. She’d never been kissed in such an intimate way. She’d never wanted to be. But this was delicious. It was the most delicious taste of a man she’d ever had. She wanted more.

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

He hadn’t meant to let things get so far out of control, but he went under just as quickly as she did. His hand left her breast to flick open the buttons of her pajama jacket. She whispered something, but he didn’t hear it. He was blind, deaf, dumb to anything except the taste and feel of her innocence.

He kissed her again, ardently, and while she followed his mouth, he stripped her out of the pajama top and opened the rest of the buttons over his broad chest. He gathered her hungrily to him, dragging his chest against hers so that the rasp of hair only accentuated the pleasure she was feeling.

When his lean, hard body moved over hers, she was beyond any sort of protest. Her long legs parted eagerly to admit the intimacy of his body. She shivered when she felt him against her. She hadn’t realized how it would feel, when a man was aroused, although she’d read enough about it in her life. Other women were vocal about their own affairs, and Tellie had learned from listening to them talk. She’d been sure that she would never be vulnerable to a man like this, that she’d never be tempted to give in with no thought beyond satisfaction. What she was feeling now put the lie to her overconfidence. She was as helpless as any woman in love.

Even knowing that J.B. was involved more with his body than his mind didn’t help her resist him.

Whatever he wanted, he could have. She just didn’t want him to stop. She was drowning in sensation, pulsating with the sweetest, sharpest hunger she’d ever known.

“I’ve waited so long, Tellie,” he groaned into her mouth. His hand went under her hips and lifted her closer into a much more intimate position that made her shudder all over. “God, baby, I’m on fire!”

So was she, but she couldn’t manage words. She arched up toward him, barely aware that he was looking down at her bare breasts. He bent and put his mouth on them, savoring their firm softness, their eager response to his ardor.

Her nails bit into his shoulders. She rocked with him, feeling the slow spiral of satisfaction that was just beginning, like a flash of light that obliterated reason, thought, hope. She only wanted him never to stop.

His lean hand went to the snap that held her pajama bottoms in place, just as loud footsteps sounded on the staircase, accompanied by muttering that was all too familiar.

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

J.B. lifted his head. He looked as shocked as Tellie felt. He looked down at her breasts and ruddy color flamed over his high cheekbones. Then he looked toward the hall and realized belatedly that the door was standing wide open.

With a furious curse, he moved away from her and got to his feet, slinging the cover over her only a minute before Nell walked in with a tray. Luckily for both of them, she was too concerned over not dumping milk and cookies all over the floor to notice how flushed they were.

J.B. had time to fasten his shirt. Tellie had the sheet up to her neck, covering the open pajama jacket she’d pulled on.

“Thought you might like a snack,” Nell said, smiling as she put the tray down next to the vase of roses.

“I would. Thanks, Nell,” Tellie said in an oddly husky tone.

J.B. kept his back to Nell as he went toward the door. “I’ve got a phone call to make. Sleep tight, Tellie.”

“You, too, J.B.,” she said, amazed at her acting ability, and his.

When he was gone, Nell moved the roses a little farther onto the table. “Aren’t they beautiful, though?”

she asked Tellie as she sniffed them. “Grange has good taste.”

“Yes, he does,” Tellie said, forcing a smile.

Nell glanced at her curiously. “You look very flushed. You’re not running a fever, are you?” she asked worriedly.

Tellie bit her lower lip and tasted J.B. there. She looked at Nell innocently. “J.B. and I had words,” she lied.

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Nell frowned. “Over what?”

“The roses,” Tellie replied. “He didn’t like the idea that Grange was here.”

Nell sighed, falling for the ruse. “I was afraid he wouldn’t.”