Impulse (4 page)

After the cousins had tried, strange women felt free to come up and invite Chas to dance.

Amy was surprised at the feelings the women’s conduct aroused in her. She was possessive. But again he kindly turned the women down. Not “No” but “Perhaps later.” He never did dance with anyone but Amy.

It was heaven to dance with him. He knew exactly what he was doing, so he could do it effortlessly. Amy didn’t really care if they danced or not, although she did appreciate his skill. She would have been just as thrilled to simply be held against him. He held her perfectly. He felt so good against her body. His arms were enclosing, and his breath was sweet.

He twirled her and dipped, he did the Peabody, he could dance any step. He made her look terrific. It was his skill in leading her, she only followed his directions as his hands moved to guide her.

As he brought her to him after a dip and moved forward to her backward steps, in male aggression, she laughed— secure in his arms— as she looked up and asked, “What did you do to learn to dance so well? Are you a closet gigolo?”

“My mother was adamant. She said, ‘All your life you will be in circumstances where you can dance. It beats sitting and drinking and listening to drunks. Learn to dance.’”

Chas looked down into Amy’s face as he hesitated deliberately in his step, holding her. Then he added, “I’m glad mother is right again. I’m glad she hounded me into learning. I despised it at first. But I enjoy moving to the music with you. I like moving with you.” His voice was husky and low as he held her tightly to him on the crowded floor in the noisy room.

His comment was very close to flirting. There had to be something she could reply that would hint that she was interested in him. She should have paid more attention to the men who came on to her.

She tried to remember what they had said and how they had handled themselves. She’d never been interested enough to really listen and respond. She lacked tactics.

Were there books? When you got to
The Joy of Sex
you were pretty far along. There had to be some intermediate maneuvers before you actually had a man in bed.

Chas held her close to him there on the dance floor and said in that smoky voice of his, “I’m hungry.”

“Shall we go back for the pizza now?”

He smiled, so amused about something, and replied, “Why not?”

They took their leave discreetly, exited the bar, recrossed the four-lane busy road at the light and went back to their suite. He didn’t rush her at all. He was skilled in working with strange women.

They sat on their balcony, sipping wine, as they discussed the complex, the weather, the night and the coming wedding. They went on to current news, and he fetched the bottle of wine.

With the end of their second glass, he suggested ordering the pizza. She was agreeable. He inquired, “Surely you’re not an anchovy devotee?”

She apologized, “Yes.”

“My God. They set up the entire anchovy distribution just in the hope of pleasing you?”

She returned placidly, “I’m worth it.”

His lashes came down to conceal the fires that leapt in his eyes. “How do you justify making the entire rest of the world say, ‘Everything but anchovies,’ just so they’re available for you?”

“I travel.”

“And you know Martin Durwood.”

“Only because of an inquiry I did.” She found she didn’t want to lie. There was nothing against being misleading, but she couldn’t lie outright to Chas.

“In your surveys and inquiries, do you choose designated places?”

“Pretty much.”

“Who do you work for?”

“Several...organizations.”

“Amy Abbott...” Did he deliberately pause? “Are you the Pilgrim the name implies?”

“Ah, yes. An innocent.” That was the truth! “Actually, the Pilgrims would have been strong women who had to have spines of steel to have gone onto the
Mayflower
and survived here. We’ve been around that long in this country.”

“Women in general, yes, but you mean your own family?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Mine, too. Besides Billy Cougar, or whatever his name really was, we’ve been here all along.” He watched her.

“If this is Show and Tell, tell me about Charles Cougar. What do you do?”

“The family is involved in many things. I happen to be in manufacturing. It’s a thankless job. Not the romantic sort to entrance a lady. It deals in facts and figures, unions and contracts, deadlines and overruns on occasion.”

“What would you prefer to do?”

“Manufacturing,” he replied simply. “I find it a challenge. I have a great sense of supplying things people need. I love it. I only meant it’s rarely something for social conversation.”

“You have no desire to be a pirate?” That had been what she’d expected him to say, and she could have believed his doing that much more quickly than for him to be contentedly bogged down in the nitty-gritty of manufacturing, for God’s sake!

“A
pirate!
” He raised his unruly eyebrows. “I’m a law-abiding man with no tolerance for cheats. Ah, here’s the pizza. Sit still.”

He moved too smoothly for a law-abiding man. He moved like a dangerous man. He was like one who knew how to get from here to there, see everything in between and not be seen himself.

He said he was law abiding and had no tolerance for cheats. Cheats like Amy Abbott Allen who had insinuated herself into the Cougar clan? If he found her out, before she vanished into oblivion, how angry would he be? What would he say?

He returned to hand her one of the kitchen towels instead of a paper one that would blow away. They sat companionably, sharing the pizza and wine.

He was relaxed and his conversation was amusing. He looked around, but he only rarely looked at her.

When he did look at her, Amy felt it to her core. Her body reacted to him so strongly that she began to doubt if she wasn’t quite stupid to become involved even so casually with Charles Cougar.

He tidied up the debris, and Amy began to think how awkward it would be to say she would be going to bed. It was the first time in her entire twenty-four years she’d been in this particular situation, alone with a strange man.

He was extremely, potently male. What if she said, “Come on to bed,” just like that? She looked at him in speculation.

He glanced up at her as if her look commanded his response. Then he handed her the cable guide. “I think there’s a film at ten that I’ve been wanting to see.
Take It Easy with Me!
”

She was jolted by his words. He
knew
what she intended for him? He knew she planned to seduce him and he wanted her to be kind? “What?” she asked in some embarrassment.

“Have you seen it? I understand it’s above the average. Shall we give it a try?”

He wanted her to watch TV? That was a shock! He must feel quite safe with her. She found his feeling safe was a little annoying. She felt a bit petulant but opened up the guide and there it was listed:
Take It Easy with Me!
It came on in ten minutes.

He put some brandy on the end table before he busily opened out the sofa bed! Then she realized he was telling her in a very ordinary way, “Why don’t you get the other pillows from the bedroom? We’ll watch in perfect comfort.” He stopped and gave her a look. “You do want to watch it, don’t you?”

“Sure.” She thoughtfully went in to the bedroom and returned with four additional pillows. What a scene for a seduction! Pillows, TV, bed opened out. Yeah.

Could his seduction be
tonight?
Her nerves shimmered. She couldn’t possibly seduce him tonight.

She wasn’t ready mentally. She
could
get in some serious kissing, and see if he responded. She’d hate to have him bent back over her arm and have him say, “No,” to her. She’d die.

“Take off your shoes before you get into my bed.”

Get into my bed?
That’s what she was doing; she was getting into his bed. Just to be comfortable in order to watch the movie.
Take It Easy with Me!

She was filmed with sweat as she shivered a little. This was a nerve-rending business. By Saturday, when she actually seduced him, she was going to be a complete wreck.

“Shall we leave the sliding door open? It makes it cool and cozy. I’ll get one of the blankets.” Without comment he extinguished the lights behind the kitchen bar, leaving only one lamp on at the end of the sofa bed.

Efficiently he made the nest. He turned on the TV and the preliminaries had begun. Amy slipped off her heels and crawled onto his bed. His bed. She had slept there just last night. Tonight it was his bed. She was on his bed.

“Comfortable?” He unbuckled his belt, causing her to gasp, but he simply pulled it from the pant loops and pitched it over onto a chair. “Got any belts you want to remove?” he inquired chattily.

“No.” It was a quick reply.

He removed his shoes and settled into the nest, taking up an unusual amount of space. Amy had never in her life shared a bed with anyone. He was big. He crowded her.

“Have a sip of brandy.” He watched the screen as the movie came on...a man and a woman in a hot, hungry embrace, their hands prowling, their mouths moving as if to consume.

Amy watched, fascinated, her cheeks heating, her body reacting very strangely.

Chas said, “Ahhhh,” in soft appreciation.

His sound electrified her body. She would like to have Chas kiss her in exactly that way and make that same sound. It was disturbing to watch two other people doing it while she sat tensely in a pillow nest, with a man like Chas, on his bed.

Something interrupted the clinch on the screen, but Amy wasn’t sure what. She was so aware, so concentrated on her body’s reaction to being there, on his bed, with Chas, that she was distracted from the story.

Chas took her glass from her inadequate fingers and lifted it to her mouth. His eyelashes almost covered his green eyes as he watched her obediently take a sip. He smiled as if she’d done well. Then he put the glass off to the side table, as the liquid fire burned down her gullet...and it...ssprreeaad.

He turned back to her and kissed the brandy on her lips. He sipped several little kisses from her mouth, then he shifted. His mouth pushed her head back and his hands moved on her, laying her backward into the pillows as the kiss then became a very serious one as he leaned over her.

The excitations that rioted inside her body went completely berserk! She gasped, and he kissed her just like that kiss on the screen had been. Hungry. Intense. The seduction of Chas could begin now! All she had to do was make her move!

T
o seduce Chas that night would place his seduction two days ahead of schedule! A rather shockingly sudden move. Amy was a very organized woman and to rashly disrupt the sequence of events was disquieting.

Her thought brakings were distracted by Chas, who reached to click off the remaining light. Then he kissed her again. His breathing was unsubtle and somewhat erratic.

He gently began rubbing his face slowly all over hers in the most erotic manner. His hot breath was quick as his mouth sweetly took small, burning kisses along the way.

He was so like a cougar that she expected to hear him purr, but his sounds were human and very male, relishing sounds.

Amy was sure a twenty-four-hour acquaintance and seduction had to be something of a record even for a man. And so, lying there in that nest of pillows on his bed, flat on her back with the cougar bent over her, trapping here there...Amy made her move.

She slid one hand around his back, but the other hand she
deliberately
lifted to his nape, to cup his head with her hand.

There. The die was cast. Now he knew her intentions— blatant and bold. She wanted him. She would have him. Then she even turned her body toward his!

She had expected some reaction from him. A gasp of surprise. Perhaps a hesitation as he realized what she’d done.

He didn’t gasp or jerk in shock. He moved his hot mouth under her ear and breathed his hot breath there, nibbling and rubbing his evening whiskers gently on that tender skin. And his right hand moved from her stomach to her rib cage and then up to cover and squeeze her breast.

How many women had he made love with that such a bold signal from her hadn’t startled him? But his hand moved, kneading, pushing, squeezing. Then that hand went down to her hip and around to her bottom and spread there as he pulled her strongly against his body.

How quickly he’d become aroused! How astonishing. And marvelous sensations swirled around in a lazy turn from her ribs down to her core.

He probably wouldn’t say no. He would be willing. She could become bolder.

She put both hands to his head and slid her fingers into his thick black hair. Then she sought his mouth in order to be kissed. She wasn’t exactly sure how to go on from there.

He didn’t seem to worry about it. He kissed her with remarkable skill and began pulling up her skirt. That caused flurries of almost panic inside her chest and her breaths became quite erratic.

Still kissing her, he managed to lift her enough to get the skirt up around her middle and push her panties down to her knees. Then he touched the inside of her thigh, up high.

It was just a good thing he was half lying on her or she might have jumped right through the wall. She did gasp and jerk, and her body trembled so that Chas slowed down and petted her as he made soothing sounds, and his kisses became like gentle rain. Scalding rain.

With the last shreds of coherent thought, she gasped, “I’m not on the pill.”

His slow voice breathed in her ear, “I’ll take care of you.” Then his mouth moved down to nip her nipple beneath that silken cloth before he opened his mouth over it and nuzzled and suckled the flowering bud hidden there.

Her knees bent up, and she writhed, and her panties around her knees were hampering so she kicked them off.

He laughed low in his chest as he rode the motion, and the next thing she knew he had the dress off over her head and she was stark naked.

Suddenly her feet were freezing. Cold feet? It was
true!
“I’m naked.” She was astounded that was so, so she felt the need to mention it.

“And I’m not. Well, I can fix that.”

He lifted away from her and knelt up on the bed. He was going to put her dress back on her? She wasn’t sure she wanted that. She rather liked being there like that, with him, in his bed.

In spite of the fact that she was in the dark, she covered herself with her hands. And she could feel she was blushing fiery red, but she wasn’t about to stop her seduction. She still wanted him.

In the flickering light of the TV, Chas tore off his shirt and flung it aside. Then he stood on the floor, to get rid of his trousers and underwear.

Amy got to watch Chas put on a condom. He appeared to know how to do that quite well. He’d probably practiced.

He returned to the bed and crouched there, looking at her from head to toe in the same flickering light from the television. He reached one hand to her and watched her body as he smoothed his hand over her and up to her face.

It was so intimate. She was so aware that she was female to his male. His voice was somewhat hoarse as he said, “Beautiful. God, Amy, you are simply breathtaking.”

Her lungs labored and she had to breathe through her mouth. She would have figured her distress was embarrassment at being naked...except that all her nerve ends were shimmering in excitement. Her knees rubbed minutely and she licked her lips. She wanted him against her.

She reached a hand to touch...his arm. It was textured with hair. She was excited by the touch. It was so intimate.

His arm. Yes.

But he loomed there, watching her, and his hand cupped her face as he leaned and kissed her almost chastely. “Are you sure?”

That she wanted him? How maddening! “Of course!” Why did he think she was seducing him? She was almost irritated with his hesitation. Did he plan to back out on her? She half rose and said, “If you don’t want— ”

Making his voice lighter, he quickly replied in a very soothing way, “Amy. Come to me. Stand up.”

He helped her off the bed and drew her to him. He deliberately rubbed his hairy chest against her bare breasts, then he slowly pulled her hesitating body against the length of him. She was surprised by him. Holding herself away from him, she asked, “Will I hurt you?”

His voice was a tad ragged but very earnest as he assured her, “Oh, no.”

So she allowed herself to be pressed against him. From chest to thighs, she was against the hard maleness of him. She felt his hard hairy chest, the pressure of his iron-hard arms and his muscular, hair-textured thighs.

Her stomach was against the hot shaft of his bulky sex. The size of him was intimidating.

“It will never fit.” She stated that flatly and felt bitterly disappointed.

His smothered rumble of laughter was so amused. He hugged her, moving his hands on her back in a soothing way, and he assured her, “Everything will be fine. No problem.”

She wasn’t convinced. She put her head back and looked up at him. “The statues never show anything like— well, they are all much smaller. I don’t believe this is going to work.”

“Really, honey, it’ll be all right.”

With some surprise, she asked, “You’ve done this before?”

“Uh...”

“No, I shouldn’t have asked. These sort of things shouldn’t get too familiar and— ”

Cautiously, he asked, “What— sort of things?”

As a woman of the world, she replied in an instructing manner, “Affairs. Since they are only brief encounters, there shouldn’t be any exchange of past details. I...this is my first time.”

He didn’t say anything.

She laughed a little. “I’ve surprised you, haven’t I? Well, I have been out of the mainstream, and I just never tried it. So when I saw you, and being here and all, I thought it might be a good time to see what it was like.”

His breaths were harsh, but his hands had turned so gentle. He kissed her temple and then held her with exquisite tenderness. “Why me?”

Quite frankly she replied, “I’ve been in a man’s world for years. Traveling with my father...” Whoops, she almost gave it away. She went on in a stilted, formal manner, “I’ve been rather closely chaperoned. However, I have heard things, and several times men have approached me. I never wanted to before. I thought you might be willing.” She had tugged him back down onto the bed. “I’m getting cold.”

His voice blurry, he was earnest. “We can’t have that!” He tucked her in beside his heat and held her. “Let’s take it easy for a day or two and see how things go.”

Her slight gasp caught his ear.

“Have I been so inept?” she asked sadly. “Was my approach all wrong?”

“You’ve driven me out of my mind.” That was certainly true. He hadn’t noticed her “approach” because he’d been too concentrated on approaching her. Hadn’t she realized how he’d moved in on her both physically and actually? She
was
naïve! She was probably a virgin, or was she immeasurably clever? Could a practiced woman be this innocent? She was at least twenty-two? “How old are you?”

“What does that have to do with sex?”

“You’re over eighteen?” he asked in some alarm.

“Just because I’m not very good at seducing a man doesn’t mean I’m a child!” she exclaimed quite indignantly. “I am twenty-four.”

“Guessing women’s ages is a tricky thing to do. I met a twelve-year-old not long ago who looked twenty-five. As soon as she opened her mouth, you knew that was a very high guess, but she still could have passed for eighteen— and she was
twelve!
Women baffle me.” He lay back and put his hands behind his head.

She turned so she was curled against the warmth of his side. “Men are a complete unknown to me. I know the mental side of business and men, but the physical is beyond me. I have no brothers, no sisters, either, but I’ve never before seen a naked man. You are quite beautifully made.”

“Thank you. I return the compliment. You bend my mind out of shape and you do strange things to my body, too, if you’ve noticed. I’m just a tad obvious.”

“Could I...touch you? Are you warm? Is it like ears? Cold?”

“Right now my ears are quite warm, and you have my permission to do whatever you like, if I may have an exchange of privileges?”

“Well, you already touched me, you do remember that?”

“Oh, yes. If you want to touch me in my seminatural state, you’d better be quick. You’re getting me excited again.”

“Am I really? How nice of you to say so!”

“Don’t you realize how you affect men?”

“I’ve never tried before now.”

His lips parted and it was much too late for her to examine a latent male.

“Could I turn on the light?”

“We’ll have to close the drapes. Someone might look over here.”

“Okay.” She hopped out of bed and pulled the drapes across with the attached handles. “Now.” She got back onto bed and knelt beside him. “May I?”

He reached and turned on the light. He laughed a little in an awkward way, amused, titillated and just a bit embarrassed.

That charmed her. She leaned and kissed his mouth. Then she sat back on her hip and looked at him. “How interesting.” She touched him, and he reacted to her. She was fascinated. “You are amazing.”

“I’m a man.”

“Oh, yes.”

“Amy...”

She turned serious eyes to his green ones. “It will fit?”

“Yes. I promise it’ll be all right. I’m not at all unusual.”

She made the decision. “If you really don’t mind, I should like to try it.”

“How did you live twenty-four years and stay so innocent?”

“I don’t believe I’m that unusual, either. There are as many women like me as there are the others. Especially with the diseases, there are a lot of women who don’t believe in free sex, or they’ve never had the opportunity, or they choose not to be distracted, and there are those who just aren’t interested.”

“But you’re interested?”

Seriously she regarded him. She replied softly, “With you.”

“Are you real? Did anyone put you up to this? Am I being tricked?”

Her eyes flew back to his. Tricked! He suspected? “I simply want an affair.” Her voice was genuinely earnest. Then she added the rider, “No strings.”

He reached a hand out to her nape and asked softly, “No strings?”

She shook her head.

He pulled her down to him, his mouth opening. She leaned down willingly, her breasts brushing against his chest, and she gave him her lips. He said, “Open your mouth.”

She did, and he gave her the most amazingly sensuous kiss she had ever imagined. His tongue met hers and unbelievable feelings shivered in her stomach and breasts.

She moved until she lay on him. Her breasts were exquisitely sensitive to the texture of his hairy chest. One of her hands moved on his chest, then, on its own, that hand moved down his body to touch him, to caress, to tease him. He gasped a groan and made such savoring sounds that she laughed in her throat.

“You tease,” he growled low and wickedly amused. “Laugh, will you?” He moved her effortlessly, turning her onto her back. He looked at her, lying there, as if she was a feast. Then he set himself to enjoy it all.

If she could have gotten out from under him, she would have climbed the wall. She said, “No wonder...” And she said, “I understand...” And she said, “Oh...” a good many times. And she whispered, “Chas...” even more times.

He did fit, as he had promised. And after she adjusted to his invasion, the feel of him was a marvelous thing. She cried in little gasps, her emotions were so high.

So were his, for he’d never had a virgin before, and he was very tender and sweet to her.

Their bodies filmed with sweat as he carefully led her through the paths of love, as he patiently took her with him, to the heightening plateaus, and to that ultimate peak to paradise.

She gasped in astonishment and clutched at him in the sweet, tumultuous madness that rocked them to their cores. It was the ultimate burst of sensation, and they fell slowly back onto their bed, leaving them limp and spent.

Eventually she murmured, “No wonder men hunt women. No wonder women are learning to do that, too.”

“This was special.” The old hand instructed the new girl. He lifted to his elbows and looked down at her in the lamp’s light.

In her innocence, she asked, “Isn’t it always like that?”

“It’s always nice. But it’s seldom like that. That was amazing.”

“Wow. And I made it the first time.” She grinned up at him.

“It might be only with me.” He felt an odd possessiveness rising in him.

She laughed in a murmur of
M
‘s. Then she told him, “You are terrific.”