Lady Be Bad (15 page)

"I said you look too damn good." Noah
enunciated each word clearly. "I'm not the only one who thinks so.
You should see the way Arthur drools when he looks at you and talks
about you. Gwen said he has plans to make you a permanent
acquisition."

"Yes, I know."

He was visibly startled. A vein bulged in
the side of his neck. "What the hell do you mean? You know? Has
Arthur tried --"

"Of course he has," she returned easily,
"but he hasn't succeeded." Marlayna visually caressed the sinewy
contours of his shoulders and chest, the bubbles casting a
shimmering iridescent glow on his firm flesh. "I'll bet Gwen has
tried with you, too."

"I can handle her."

"With tact and diplomacy?" Marlayna inquired
sweetly.

"Yeah, with tact and diplomacy," Noah
retorted and then his deep voice softened. "I don't think my
conscience can justify hurting anyone else."

That rankled. "Really! Somehow I think both
Gwen and Arthur would have to be bludgeoned for anything to
short-circuit their own selfish wants and needs."

"You've got a point there." Noah tapped open
the top of an egg shell with the bowl of his spoon. "Well, what
would you suggest? Keeping in mind that incurring Arthur's
well-known wrath wouldn't do either of us any good." He offered her
the egg.

Marlayna shook her head and reached for the
loofa sponge that was housed in a mammoth seashell that held a
variety of decorator soaps, bubble capsules and bath oil beads. She
pondered the problem while submerging the beige fibrous scrubber
and waiting for it to soften. Slowly her wrinkled brow began to
smooth and her frowning expression disappeared. "Maybe I'll just
stick with my initial game plan."

Noah squinted at her. "You lost me. What
game plan?"

She opened her mouth to explain, then closed
it, lowering her eyes from his face to the soap-filled sponge and
began to rub at her forearm.

"Mimi. . ." he dragged out the two syllables
in her nickname. "Come on, out with it."

Keeping her gaze averted, she reluctantly
explained. "I...I didn't know what I would find here. With you and
Gwen, I mean." She swallowed hard. "I told you before I went kind
of crazy when I saw that engagement notice. So...I decided if you
were physically able to love her, that you could . . . well…make
love to me too." Blue -gray eyes stared into interested brown ones.
"Your memory has bedeviled me for six years, Noah, and I thought a
little sexual recreation would drive out that devil."

"What if I had been in love with Gwen? What
if our engagement was a two-sided one?"

"My plan was to seduce you anyway and plant
seeds of doubt in both Gwen's and Arthur's mind about Noah
Drake."

His resonant laughter echoed off the tiled
bathroom walls. "I'm flattered, Mimi, but you couldn't have done
it." His dark head gave a knowing shake. "You just aren't the
seductive type. You're too…too…" Noah searched for the proper word,
"…wholesome. That's it. Wholesome and too mature to play adolescent
games."

"Seduction is not an adolescent's game,
Noah," she said dryly. "A knowledgeable woman can turn seduction
into an art."

He wagged a finger at her. "Ahh...see,
there's the catch, that word knowledgeable." Noah favored her with
a sympathetic smile. "Face it, honey, you never were any good at
using your feminine wiles. I in fact, during the three months we
dated before we got married and even after we were married, I was
always the aggressor. You were properly shy and sweetly
embarrassed."

"Proper and sweet?" Marlayna twisted the
loofa between two hands. With each repetition of the phrase, her
pride and femininity were dealt a lethal punch.

Noah cleared his throat. "Why do I get the
impression you'd rather be wringing my neck than that sponge?"

She threw it up in the air, caught it and
smiled at him. "Because it's true."

"Come on, Mimi," he chided, "there's no
reason to take offense. You were always a very independent,
liberated woman, but sexually you were…"

"Sweet and proper," came her sarcastic
addendum. "I don't have to be. I came here without a sweet thought
in my head or a proper bone in my body." Her sea-colored eyes were
wide and guileless.

His broad shoulders lifted in a careless
shrug. "It was an interesting idea, but to tell you the truth, I
think I'd burst out laughing any time you went into your so-called
seduction act."

"Think so?"

"Forewarned is forearmed." Noah smiled. "Let
me think about…" He frowned at her. "Now why are you shaking your
head?"

"Because I'm not going to defer. I'm
accepting your challenge."

"Mimi, it won't work."

His authoritative tone increased her courage
and strengthened her determination. "Oh, yes, it will." Her lashes
lowered in a dark sweep. "I bet I could seduce you right now."

Noah moved to cross his arms over his chest,
then suddenly stopped to examine his hands, holding them for her
inspection. "See these withered, prune-like fingers, that's an
exact duplicate of another part of my anatomy. Besides, I'm
exhausted from seducing you all night."

Marlayna might have demurred if Noah hadn't
capped that blatantly macho comment with a patronizing grin.
How
like a man to take full credit for a night of pleasure. How clever
of
a
woman to make him think just that!
Dipping
the loofa sponge back into the percolating, steamy lather, she
marshaled every clever wile she possessed and decided to flex a few
feminine muscles. "Oh, Noah, you poor man. Here I've been babbling
on and on about utter nonsense when you needed ministering."

Startled by her sudden turnaround, Noah
inspected her with suspicion. His wariness, however, rapidly
dissolved with just one glance. She looked so soft and vulnerable.
Her skin was blushing like a dew-kissed pink rosebud; the humidity
had tightened her hair into shiny sable and amber ringlets that
sculpted her head. A cherub. He gave her a dreamy smile. She was a
delightful mix of child and woman with a sweetly innocent face and
a gentle, melodic voice.

"Maybe this will help, darling." Shifting
her position in the jetted tub, Marlayna took possession of Noah's
left foot, the one with a direct line to his heart, and balanced it
on her bent knee. "I read an article that said invigorating the
feet through massage can help eliminate body fatigue and actually
revitalize a person's entire system."

She used both hands, making sure they were
always wet and soapy. Her thumbs massaged firm circles along the
callous footpad, moving slowly down the edge of his foot to the
thick-skinned heel.

"Mmmmm . . . that does feel wonderful."
Closing his eyes, Noah exhaled a grateful sigh and slithered his
shoulders further under the water. "My therapist used to do this a
lot."

Marlayna began to make subtle changes in her
therapeutic technique. The clinical touching became a much more
sensual kneading. The tips of her fingers gently rotated over
Noah's sensitive arch, her nails whispering across his skin. She
continued the feather-light stroking until his toes began to wiggle
and his leg tensed.

Noah's brain was late in acknowledging that
the hospital therapists had never been able to sensitize his entire
body by massaging his foot. He wasn't quite sure what Marlayna was
doing, but he was certainly enjoying it. As a matter of fact, he
craved even further exploration. Craved! Noah hastily tightened his
leg muscles and tried to stiffen and strengthen his resolve.

He vaguely began to wonder whether she was
up to something. Noah opened one eye to check but saw nothing more
than a woman concentrating all her effort and attention on his left
foot. Toes, actually. Her thumb and forefinger were caressing each
digit. Caressing and stroking and rubbing and… No. No, came his
sharp mental directive.
It's just therapy. Imperson
al.
Hands on feet.

He silently chided himself. After all, no
one in his right mind could get excited over a foot massage. There
was nothing erogenous about a foot. Noah swallowed hard as another
little current snaked up the back of his leg and ended up giving
his solar plexus a pleasant jolt.

She ran the natural sponge across the bones
on top of his foot. "I can feel the ridges. Didn't they set
well?"

"No." He cleared his throat when that word
came out an octave too high. "The doctors didn't pay a lot of
attention to my feet." Noah dropped a few medical terms here and
there while he watched her hands slide along his calf.

The more her fingers caressed his
well-muscled flesh, the more incoherent Noah became. Marlayna's
nails danced playfully against the sensitive back of his knees then
began tracing the tendon that tensed in his thigh.

Noah tried to swallow a guttural moan, but
his pleasure was too exquisite to control. The childlike play that
he had always associated with bubbles suddenly turned very adult in
this sultry, steamy oasis. He felt her palms move firmly against
his hair-roughened, flesh, her fingernails drawing delightful
squiggles on that particularly susceptible area high on his inner
thigh.

Marlayna decided to diversify and readjusted
her position. With the loofa in hand, she swirled the sponge over
his flat belly, traveling the path made by the whorls of dark hair
that forested his sinewy torso. "You've got the body of a young
athlete."

Her hands replaced the sponge, spreading the
shimmering lather on his chest and shoulders. Slowly, her wet palms
rotated against the tough masculine terrain, the soft pads of her
fingers lightly pressed into the whipcord pectoral muscles. "Mmmmm
. . . very strong, Noah."

He didn't think it was possible to be
destroyed and restored at the same time, but Noah could feel it
happening. His entire body trembled. With every word she spoke, her
throaty voice conveyed a seductive message. Her hands roamed all
over his body, moving from one spot to another, surprising him by
going exactly where he wanted them to.

He pulled her closer, his large hands
sculpting her body. Fingers and palms slithered wetly, tracing the
lush curves of her torso, finally settling in the indentation of
her waist. Marlayna floated just above him; her full breasts glided
against his flesh, the rosy peaks teasingly hidden beneath a lacy
cap of bubbles.

"God, woman, you're driving me crazy." His
hands moved to the satiny globes of her derriere and pressed her
rightly into him. "I didn't think it was possible." Noah scattered
urgent kisses along her jawline to her mouth.

Marlayna turned her face slightly, putting
her lips a scant inch away from his. "You didn't think what was
possible?" Came her purring inquiry.

Noah nuzzled her neck; the delicate scent of
jasmine and roses teased his senses. "You know . . ." Groaning
words were mumbled as his lips sampled the dewy swells of her
breast while the lower part of his body tried to merge in a more
vital connection.

"Hmmm . . . yes, I do know," she whispered
into his ear at the same time that her feet began to shuffle
backward. "But do you
know
that I just seduced you and you
didn't laugh once." Her forefinger tapped his nose. "You didn't
even chuckle." Delight bubbled in her throat. She watched his
lambent brown eyes widen in silent acknowledgment. "I think I'll
give the rest of my plan a try."

"Hey!" He made a grab for her but missed.
"Wait! You can't go off and leave me like
this!"

Marlayna eyed him over her shoulder while
she wrapped a pink bath towel around her dripping body. "Oh, poor
Noah." Her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth. "That's
the same line you used in the back seat of your Maverick when we'd
go to the drive-ins." Her lashes lowered in a provocative sweep.
"It didn't work then and it won't work now."

She laughed out loud at his muttered curse
and scowling expression. "Seduction is the plan for today. Keep on
your toes, Mr. Drake. You never know when I'm going to strike." Her
fingers fluttered a good-bye wave before she disappeared into the
adjoining bedroom.

Noah experienced a few uncomfortable minutes
while both his temper and his body simmered. By the time he
struggled out of the tub and limped into the Queen Anne suite,
Marlayna had already departed. He had no alternative but to make
his way back through the maze of passageways that led to his own
bedroom one floor down in the west wing.

Perkins was there, impatiently pacing back
and forth. "Ah, perfect timing, sir."

"What's your problem?" He lifted a dark
brow.

"Actually, it is your problem, sir." He
began helping Noah exchange last night's evening clothes for fresh
white slacks and a dark blue knit sports shirt. "Miss Gwen has been
frantic. She tried raising you by the house intercom and when that
failed, she came pounding on your door. When she saw your bed
neatly made . . ." Perkins hesitated a moment before adding,
"Really, sir, if you're going to keep any more nocturnal
rendezvous, you must learn how to play the game of subterfuge."

A low groan escaped Noah. He ran a hand over
his face. "Why suddenly is everyone such a game master! First Mimi;
now you; next me." His eyes clouded. "Perkins, I'm not up to all
this; it's not my style."

"Nonsense, sir." He brushed off the collar
and shoulders of the shirt. "You're handling yourself brilliantly.
Here are your boat shoes. I told Miss Gwen that you had been up and
out early and the maid had already tidied your room."

Settling on the massive cannon ball bed,
Noah shook out a navy sock and wiggled it over his foot. "What was
I up and out early doing?"

"Checking the entablatures on the roof for
possible signs of stress along the cornice, frieze and
architrave."