Reflected Pleasures (8 page)

This getup ought to discourage pictures. And hopefully it was bad enough to put a damper on Ty's passion for her as well.

Lately, every time he looked in her direction she saw the temperature rise in his eyes. His hotter and hotter need was easy to recognize because she felt it, too.

But Merri had to find a way to cool things down. Ty didn't seem to be the kind of guy to go for one-night stands or short, carefree flings. Everything she had ever heard about him told her that he would be interested in more permanent relationships—if not in marriage.

Which was good and bad news. Good because that
made him a decent guy who tried not to hurt anyone. Bad because she was becoming desperate for him and the two of them were not destined for anything permanent. The minute he had any inkling she'd been lying to him it would be all over between them. And that day was coming—sooner or later.

Sighing, Merri turned to put her compact in her purse, hesitated over the lipstick and decided against it. The more washed-out her face looked next to the hideous dress the better. No one here should be able to recognize her face from her pictures, she hoped. And if she got caught by some wayward camera lens tonight, no one would ever recognize her picture.

A knock sounded on the door to her bedroom. “Merri, are you decent?” Ty called out.

Well, maybe her thoughts about him weren't decent. But if he'd meant to inquire if she was dressed, the answer was
ugh
…if you wanted to call this costume a dress.

“Yes,” she answered. “Just let me get my…”

He popped his head into the room, caught her eye and let himself in. “I brought you…” He stopped mid-sentence and stared at her.

Ohmigod. If she was the reverse Cinderella, Ty had definitely done a U-turn into Prince Charming. Dressed in a black tuxedo and crisp white shirt, the man just oozed sex appeal and potent masculine attraction.

It embarrassed her to imagine what he must be thinking about the way she looked. She tried telling herself that this was what she'd wanted. He needed to tone down his desire and there was nothing like an ugly dress and drab hair to cool a man's ardor.

“You look beautiful,” he said without moving.

“What?”

Ty saw her confusion and realized he wasn't saying this right. Typical of his bad manners and tongue-tied efforts at being glib, charming words just never came out the way he meant. But it was important for him to make her understand what he felt tonight.

Forcing his feet to move him closer to where she stood, he tried a half smile. “You don't have on your glasses and your eyes are the most spectacular green I have ever seen. They just light up your whole face.”

“Oh.” She scowled and turned to find the black-rimmed glasses on the table.

“Please don't put them on,” he said quietly. “There's no need for you to see anything special tonight. I can tell you what's going on.”

The little laugh she gave sounded more like a hiccup. But she put the glasses in her purse and clasped the itty bitty scrap of cloth to her side.

He took another step in her direction. “I brought you this corsage.” Looking down at the fiery red bouquet in his hand, he couldn't help but frown. “I thought Janie said your dress would be navy or black. The red roses were meant to liven it up a bit but…”

This time she laughed out loud. “It's okay,” she said, through a grin. “For tonight, I can be the one who's wearing clothing that clashes. You look spectacular, by the way. You clean up real good, Tyson Steele. I'm impressed.”

He smiled at her in return. Though he knew she was joking, it warmed him to hear her using a less formal way of talking. Maybe she was becoming comfortable with his small-town Texas ways. Good. Maybe that
meant she would stay around for a while longer. Like maybe forever.

Letting his gaze move lazily over her, his mouth began to water at the very sight. The dress wasn't much to look at, he had to admit. But it clung to her body in all the right places, leaving not much to the imagination.

His imagination was working double duty anyway. He visualized her standing there before him naked. Breasts tipped up and beaded, waiting for his caress. Hips curved and soft, waiting for the palms of his hands to glide over them. He blinked back a shudder of desire and shook himself free of the strangling erotic dreams.

Nothing was going to happen in that vein tonight. He had promised, and he intended to keep that promise. No matter what. She wasn't quite ready for everything he had in mind. But he sure hoped she would be—soon.

Merri pinned the corsage to her shoulder and then slid her arm through Ty's. “Okay, let's go. Tonight is your night.”

No, unfortunately, it wasn't. But he intended to make the most of it anyway. Ten more yards to first down on the way to goal.

He escorted her down in the elevator to the ballroom. Merri glued herself to his side, praying to blend into his shadow so that no one would notice her.

There was the reception line to get through, but that turned out to be a snap. Very few people paid any attention to her at all. Most of the women were so busy drooling over Ty that she became an insignificant blip on their radar. Just as she'd hoped.

The only hitch was the governor himself. He said something kind to Ty, but then turned to her and took her hand in both of his. “And who is this beautiful creature? You can't possibly be a native Texan, young woman. I would never forget meeting anyone so lovely, and I pride myself in knowing all my gorgeous constituents.”

Ty scowled but grudgingly introduced them. The governor caught the possessive tone Ty used and chuckled.

“You can't blame a man for looking, Steele,” he said with a wink and a nod.

Merri couldn't stop the blush, but she'd never heard anything so ridiculously political in her whole life. She was under no illusions about how she looked tonight.

After three hours of the ball, she'd had enough. She'd sat through a Texas-sized banquet dinner, with platters of two-inch-thick prime rib and baked potatoes. Fourteen awards for charitable service and the acceptance speeches that went along with them. And two hours worth of listening to the heavyset woman sitting on her left who droned on about the good works of her charity to help preserve historic Texas oil derricks from the ravages of time.

Now the photographers had asked everyone to line up for pictures, and she hung back. “You go on,” she told Ty. “I'll wait for you over there.”

He took her hand. “Come with me. The Foundation needs your pretty face to make the public take notice.”

She shook her head and forced a smile. “No. I told you it was your charity…and your night. Just stand there and look important. You'll be fine.”

Reluctantly Ty agreed, but before he left her side he leaned in to whisper, “Don't go anywhere. I have a favor to ask. I'll be back in a minute.”

Merri's curiosity was piqued. But before she could question him, he disappeared into the sea of people surrounding a spot where flashbulbs were popping away. She looked around for somewhere to sit, knowing full well that he would be gone for ages. If there was one thing she had learned, it was exactly how long photograph sessions usually lasted.

But just as she found an empty spot and sat down, Ty appeared beside her again. “Dang, those guys take forever. Sorry.”

“You're done? Are you sure?”

“Oh yeah. They have a regular assembly line going. I stood still and pretended to shake hands with the governor. Then I gave some idiot my name and charity. And that was that. Done, and grateful to be free.”

He reached out his hand to help her up. “Dance with me, Merri.”

She looked up into the deep blue sea of his eyes. “Is that the favor?”

Ty nodded and pulled her to her feet. “A dance with you will help redeem this disastrous evening.”

As he led her to the dance floor, Merri looked around and thought the ball wasn't so bad. The decorations were glorious with all the twinkling lights, ferns and fountains. The hall was set up to look like a spring garden on a warm star-filled evening. And the music had gone from Texas two-stepping to soft slow-dancing ballads.

Walking Merri through the crowded tables, Ty was
startled by the appreciative glances they were getting from all over the hall. She was moving beside him with all the elegance and style of a royalty.

On the dance floor he pulled her into his arms and molded her body to his. She fit perfectly there, with the top of her head next to his cheek, his arm around her waist. As tall as she was, she seemed to be made just for him.

They moved around the dance floor in time to the music. When the tempo slowed, she inched closer and he could feel her warm breath on his neck.

The heat was making him lose track of where they were. His own breath was becoming ragged.

Suddenly, a photographer stepped out of nowhere and began snapping candid shots of all the dancers. Merri groaned and buried her face in his chest, flattening herself along the length of his body. He whirled her away to a darker corner, needing to keep her all to himself.

But the minute they were cast in shadows, his brain went south again. He slowed their pace and let his hand slide down her hip, following the feminine curve of her body. So smooth. So right a fit in his palm.

Too smooth. He
had
lost his mind, because he lifted his head slightly to ask a really thoughtless question. “You're not wearing any panties under that dress?”

“They would've shown through,” she told him without embarrassment. “It would've ruined the line of the dress.”

All of a sudden the unattractive dress was the most fantastic thing he'd ever seen. He stepped back from her and blinked.

“That's it. Ball's over. Let's go upstairs.” He took a deep breath. “Now.”

T
y took her hand and beat a path through the crowds, heading for the elevators. Merri didn't seem to mind leaving the ball and easily kept up with him.

But when he saw the crowds waiting to pack into each upward carload, he shifted direction and moved toward the freight elevators he knew were located down a darkened corridor near the kitchens. A couple of times in the past he had carted his own luggage up or down those elevators. They weren't much to look at due to the thick padding that lined their walls, but they should be completely empty at this time of night.

Sure enough, when they arrived, the freight elevators stood propped open and looking gloriously vacant. Good thing he knew how to operate all the unmarked buttons. One propped the doors open, an
other kept them shut, one more was an express button to various floors.

His heart was pounding in his chest. The thoughts of Merri, her dress, her nakedness under the dress—it was all too much. He pulled her into the empty elevator and hit the express button to his floor.

He had excellent intentions…that is if his brain had actually been working. He knew they were not going to go all the way tonight. She hadn't given him the signal that she was ready, and he would never push.

He wanted her trust first.

But from the minute she'd told him about not wearing panties, his body had demanded that they leave the ball. He just couldn't have every other man in the world looking at her like that.

“You didn't want to stay any longer, did you?” he belatedly asked as the elevator doors shut.

“No, not at all. I'd had enough…except for dancing with you. That part was great.” She gazed up at him through thick lashes that looked like a sexy veil covering those startling green eyes. “You're a wonderful dancer, Tyson Steele. Another nice surprise.”

His mouth came down on hers before either of them had their next heartbeat. A pounding staccato beat from his heart skittered down his spine and then moved much lower, driving him to instant hunger.

He backed up to the padded wall and dragged her between his thighs while he kept on kissing her. It was a dizzying sensation. She nibbled at his lips, he nipped at hers. Wet tongues lathed and sucked in a tangled dance.

When he ran his hands up and down her sides, lin
gering under her breasts, Merri moaned and writhed closer. His pulsed jumped as he licked his way down the column of her throat and palmed her hardened tips through the satiny feel of the dress's material.

Senses on full alert, when the elevator came to a stop and the doors began to open, he reached around behind his back and punched the “doors closed” button and then flicked the “elevator hold” switch. He couldn't have moved away from her right now even if his life depended on it. And he had no intention of having an audience.

“Ty,” she gasped and inched back. “What if someone opens the doors?”

“Don't care,” he managed. “Trust me.”

His mouth came back to hers, and Merri felt the power between them growing. The heat was unbearable. All she could think of was getting both of their clothes off so she could touch him freely. And of having him touch her—easing this terrible need that was making her wet and turning her to butter.

She burned for him. Craved him. Wanted to crawl right inside him. It was madness, but she couldn't help herself.

Ty's hands were everywhere, ranging over her breasts, sliding down her spine and cupping her bottom. She couldn't keep up with him, wanted to touch him in return. But her limbs were weak. Merri desperately threw her arms around his neck and hung on before she turned to liquid right where she stood.

“I need you so badly,” he groaned against her hair.

She leaned her head back to give him access as he trailed kisses down her neck and across the flimsy ma
terial covering her breasts. When he bent to take a nipple into the warmth of his mouth, she gasped. Heat seemed to sear a hole right through the dress's ugly beige satin.

Electricity zinged along her nerve endings, driving shots of slick lightning to the center of her universe.

Stunned by the sensations, she reached out blindly. Grabbing his shirt front, her only thought was to touch him. To run her lips down the planes of his body, taste salty skin and satisfy this desire. But she couldn't think well enough to undo the studs, so she just clutched at the stark white shirt and hung on.

Ty's hands slid down her hips and bunched her long dress in his palms. He leaned back against the elevator wall, steadying them both while he hiked the dowdy material slowly up her thighs.

Merri felt the whisper of beige as it tickled against her thigh-high nylons. Felt a soft draft of air hitting her bare skin. Then the heat of Ty's gentle touch on her inner thigh brought a startled gasp to her lips.

He captured her mouth as their moans mingled. Shifting her feet, she opened her legs to allow him better access.

“So hot,” Ty whispered huskily against her lips. “I have to touch you. Have to…”

Slowly, his fingers edged upward toward the place that ached for him. The trail of his touch set fire to her skin, frustrating her with its too steady pace. She knew he was a gentleman deep in his soul, but he had to go faster now. She had to make him see how badly she needed…needed…

“Touch me,” she murmured. The hoarse voice didn't
sound like her own. Desperation was capturing her spirit and making her become someone else entirely.

“Please, Ty,” she begged. “Please.”

Her needy pleas drifted through the lavender haze surrounding Ty. She was in his blood. In his soul. He knew exactly what she craved and how to take her there.

But he wanted her complete trust first—without reservation. If he couldn't have that tonight, he would take what trust she offered. It told him something, that she trusted him with her body. It was a small start. A beginning to everything he wanted. And enough for now.

He cupped her in his palm and let their combined body heat move through them both. The trembling shock waves of her desire ran up his arm. She was so hot for him.

Merri moaned and pressed hard against his hand, begging for him to take more as she locked her lips on his. Merri the shy, plain sophisticate had become a tigress.

Her aggression didn't turn him off, instead it served to make Ty want more. However, it did manage to remind him of an earlier promise not to take her to his bed tonight. He'd been trying hard not to scare her away, and moving too fast would be the worst possible thing he could do.

He wanted her around for the long-term. Not sure of his own true feelings, he nevertheless knew he needed her in his life. She had become the very best part of his world.

So as badly as he wanted to be inside her, to feel her
surrounding him, he vowed once more that it would not happen tonight. He blocked his own needs and dedicated tonight to giving her pleasure. Allowing himself the supreme satisfaction of watching her come apart in his arms.

Sifting his hand through tight intimate curls, he parted her and stroked across the sensitive bud at her core. She moaned as he slid a finger inside. Finding only more heat and wetness, he added another finger and pushed deeper.

Merri shuddered and he felt her go weak in the knees. Bracing himself against the wall, he dropped an arm around her waist and held tight. Her head fell back and she closed her eyes, mumbling incoherently.

Ignoring his own throbbing desire, Ty's fingers stroked in and out of her heat. Watching the joy drift across her face, he saw the tension building inside her. It was growing in his groin as well, but he bit it back and concentrated on her.

Merri's small cries turned low and feral as she climbed the wall to her summit. Deep, pleading moans seemed to come from some spot buried so far inside her that she was totally unaware of their existence.

She was beyond beautiful in her erotic fog. He bent and licked a path across her jaw that ended in a taste of her lips. He wanted to taste all of her. Every inch. But it would have to wait.

When he pulled back to gaze down at her face again, he realized she was fighting it. Trying hard not to fall off the cliff without him.

He tightened his hold and once again teased her nub with his forefinger. “Come for me, Merri,” he mur
mured. The need in his own voice surprised him but he didn't stop.

“You need to let go, darlin',” he rasped. “Open your eyes. Look at me. Let me watch you going over.” His voice was a strangled whisper.

Her eyes opened to meet his gaze and with a last twist of her body, he felt her internal muscles begin to flex.

“Ty,” she cried.

With her body sucking at his fingers, Merri whimpered and clung to his shoulders. Over and over she climaxed, making him all too aware that he was not going with her this time. But if he had his way, he would be. Soon.

Breathing heavily, Merri finally sagged against him. “I can't believe we just did that in an elevator.”

“I can,” he murmured as he slowly released her dress and let it slide back into place. “At last I caught a glimpse of the real you. The you that you keep hidden from the world.” He made sure she was steady on her feet.

Her chin came up and she narrowed unfocused eyes at him. “What do you mean?” Ty spotted an emotion that looked like fear, before she hid it again.

He found himself almost chuckling at the sight of her kiss-swollen lips all turned up in a frown. She simply had to be the most exquisite creature he had ever beheld.

Before he answered her, he punched the “door open” button and swept her up off of her feet and into his arms.

“There is a sensual temptress inside you, darlin'. I don't know what's with the prim outfits. But underneath it all, you sizzle hotter than any fire. I dreamed that about you. Now I know for sure.”

The adorable scowl that crossed her face struck him as sexy as he reached into his pocket for his key card to unlock the door to the suite.

Once across the threshold, he gently set her back down and locked the door behind them. “Thanks for the nice evening, sugar. Better get some rest. We'll be leaving early.” He refused to leave her side just yet, though.

Merri didn't move, but tilted her head and gazed at him with questions in her eyes. “Ty? You didn't…” Stumbling over the words, she tried a different tactic. “Back there. I…uh…and you didn't…uh. Don't you want to?”

He took her hands into his own. “Yes, I want to,” he muttered. “More than you can imagine. Desperate might be a more fitting word, as a matter of fact. But not tonight.”

“Why not?” She licked her lips and drove him to an edge.

“Don't look at me that way or I might not be able to keep my head. We both need to think about this before we just fall into bed.” He released her hands so he could run a thumb over her cheek.

“I don't want to keep my head,” she groaned. “I just want you in my bed. Tonight.”

“Merri, darlin'.” He kissed her and ran his hands over her body to let her know how much he wanted that, too.

When he covered her upturned breasts with his palms, she made an urgent little sound against his lips and reached out to lay a hand over his groin. He groaned, and with a supreme effort, gently moved her hand away.

He shook his head. “Nope.” Hearing the wheeze in his voice and feeling the shaky end to his reserve coming close to the surface, Ty stumbled away from her. “I want more than a single night.”

“I can't say that will definitely happen,” she groaned. “What's so wrong with just tonight?” She looked forlorn, and he thought he must have finally gone over the edge of sanity. What kind of fool would walk away from her?

“You don't trust me yet.” He couldn't believe that he was saying these things.

“Trust you?” she laughed wryly. “After what we just did in a public elevator?”

He fisted his hands by his sides and blew out a deep breath. “There will be other nights. I want a whole future full of nights.” God. Did he just say that? Was that the way he really felt?

She looked confused and hurt. He didn't want that, but he didn't know how to make it any better at the moment. Two-way trust was the most important thing in his life.

“I don't know what to say, Ty. I don't think…”

“Shush, sugar,” he said with a forced grin. “Don't say anything. Let's grab some sleep and we'll talk more about it when we get home.”

With those words, he turned his back on her lovely face and stormed off to his bedroom to spend what was sure to be the most depressing night of his entire lifetime.

 

Merri had been impatiently waiting for their talk—and another chance to touch him—for several days now.

Before they'd even arrived back at home the morning after the ball, Ty had received a phone call from the office of the President of the United States. It seemed the president wanted Ty to join a couple of other oil men at a private conference being held with a cartel in South America. Ty knew all the men and the difficult trade concepts involved and he spoke fluent Spanish. His country needed him there.

But Merri needed him with her, too. Leaning back in the computer chair, she sipped her tea and debated with herself what she'd wanted to happen between them.

Thoughts of the night of the ball danced through her mind, stirring images and emotions to the surface the same way she'd just stirred sugar into her tea. Swirling memories of Ty as he'd been touching her body, breathing warm tingling air against her skin and whispering intimate words about a future between them that could never be.

The sensual thoughts made her breasts tender and achy while warm sensations ranged low in her belly. She was lost. Maybe she had been lost from the very first day she'd met him.

Sighing, she let her shoulders drop and slumped down in the chair. She was falling in love with him.

Merri knew that if he wanted her, she would give him her body. Happily. Gladly. Eagerly.