Sins of Sarah (14 page)

It intrigued her why he had never remarried after his wife's death so many years ago. He was, after all, titled, as well as being an obviously charming man. Her brother had spoken highly of Charles when Sarah had asked George about him, and there must be dozens of girls around, she thought, who would be far more suitable and anxious to marry Charles Hastings than she was.

She was aware of Charles's admiration for her, and dismissed it. Though he and Nick were a similar age, they were light years apart in outlook. Nick seemed years younger than Charles, not just physically, or in the clothes he wore, but in his attitude to life in general. Nick lived in the modem world, albeit an expensive version, whereas Charles was rooted in the aristocratic style of life his parents had dictated, and he found no real reason to change it.

With Nick suddenly in her mind, she pulled a very businesslike swimsuit from her weekend bag and slipped into it. Let him try getting this off, she grinned to herself, and made her way down to the pool with a towelling robe from her bathroom over it. She had no intention of any of the crew seeing her in a compromising position with Nick if she could help it - that was if he had meant what he had said the night before. Though Nick rarely said things he didn't mean.

The pool was empty, and she paused by the windows at the end looking out dreamily over the acres of green lawns and the curve of the stone bridge over the lake. It was a peaceful moment at Hastings that she always enjoyed before the film crew shattered it with their noisy banter and revving car engines.

Nick made her jump as he joined her, on silent bare feet, sliding his arms around her waist from behind. 'Too busy dreaming to swim?' he enquired. 'Or were you waiting for me?' He had meant it, she realized, suddenly embarrassed, and wriggled away from him, throwing off her robe.

'It's not much fun racing myself,' she grinned at him, as he took in the swimsuit with a challenging smile.

'Business as usual?' He raised an eyebrow.

'Something like that. Ten lengths?'

'That's gone up!'

'You're getting into practice,' she challenged, poised to dive. 'But I'll let you kiss me if I win!' 'That's the most underhand bribe I've ever heard, young woman!'

'Take it or leave it!' Sarah dived, neatly and cleanly, a good ten feet in front of him. To her fury Nick still beat her, laughing as he did so.

'No way are you bribing me. Come here!' He grabbed her purposefully and hauled her out of the water, her wet hair streaming. He laid her on one of the loungers and proceeded to kiss her until she was breathless, leaving her in no doubt that he really had meant every word he had said the night before.

'You're insane!' she protested, when at last he allowed her some respite.

'Maybe it's the effect you have on me,' he allowed. 'Have dinner with me tonight?'

'With or without champagne?'

'Wait and see! I think I'll keep you in suspense all day.' He ducked her swinging fists with a surprising agility for a big man, and then lifted her to her feet. 'I'll do my best to be patient today, I promise, if you can manage to keep your hands to yourself!'

'You can talk!' Sarah was still laughing as she ran upstairs to get dry and throw on some clothes, before she went through to Ronnie.

'So, have we kissed and made up?' James enquired with a grin when she waltzed in.

'I guess so. But mind your own business, James,' she rebuked cheerfully.

James couldn't believe it that morning. Sarah forgot her lines, missed her marks and seemed totally disorientated, yet Nick forgave everything and let her get away with it.

'How the hell have you managed not to have him break your neck?' he demanded at lunchtime. 'You must have wasted miles of stock this morning.'

'I'm sorry, James.' Sarah giggled. 'I'm just a bit off this morning.'

'A bit! I'll strangle you if he doesn't!' James grinned. 'Get yourself together, woman. What are you doing to keep him sweet - screwing him?'

Sarah almost choked over her salad as she hastily denied it. 'I'll be all right this afternoon,' she added.

'You'd better be,' he threatened, laughing, 'or I'll take a leaf out of his book and beat you - but it'll be on the set, in front of the crew!' Somehow, with that in mind, Sarah pulled herself together, and they were back on schedule by the time they wrapped and Nick strode over to her.

'Come through to the drawing room when you've changed,' he said, quietly. 'We can have a drink in peace and we'll go out later.'

'My, aren't we civilized?' Sarah couldn't resist teasing him as he turned to go. Then she saw the swift rise of his dark brows and it made her shiver suddenly.

Half-inclined to dawdle, she went to the pool area to shower and wash her hair - to be ready for dinner, she told herself - letting Ronnie dry it and put it up for her, after slipping into the fresh jeans and halter-necked white body that Cress had brought over for her.

'Another evening with Nick?' Ronnie teased as he pushed in a final grip. 'We are getting cosy!' 'Purely business,' Sarah assured him airily. 'It beats fighting!'

'Oh, I don't know. A little rough stuff seems to have worked wonders with you, madam!' 'Leave it, Ronnie.' Sarah stood up, her tone sharp, but she regretted it as his face fell. 'I am more than capable of dealing with Nick, and I do have a perfectly adequate boyfriend - remember?' She blew him a kiss in apology, and, pushing her feet into sandals walked slowly across the yard to the house.

It was true, she did have a boyfriend. She remembered their pranks and games on the boat, but suddenly Peter seemed like a childhood memory she had left behind. Now the reality was Nick, and the new effect he was having on her previously reluctant body. She knew there was a great deal more to lovemaking than Gerard's vicious assault, but very little about how to react.

To her surprise. Nick was sitting at the grand piano that was set across the comer of the room between the windows, playing it softly. Liszt or Chopin, she wasn't sure, but he was totally involved in the music until she crossed the room to stand at the end of the piano. Smiling up at her, he paused, then reached over to hand her a glass of champagne.

'I didn't realize you played so well,' she complimented him. 'Don't stop.' She smiled back at him with recognition at this signal as she drifted around the room, sipping at the wine. Nick rippled his hands over the keys as he watched her. In her slim, figure-hugging clothes she seemed taller than usual, her graceful body unconsciously stretching to the music.

'I'm very rusty now,' he admitted, 'but I wanted to be a concert pianist long ago, before I discovered what hard work it could be - and discovered women! I love music, though, that certainly hasn't changed, and I always like directing anything with a musical content. One of the first things I ever directed was a children's serial for television - a thing called Happy Feet'

'Oh, Nick! I remember that so well!' Sarah began to laugh. 'I was about ten. It was on just before I went away to school. It was about a dance school, wasn't it? I so wanted to be like those girls in the show.'

'Oh, God!' Nick looked aghast. 'That makes me feel like Methuselah!'

No, just the man who inspired my career!' She grinned at his discomfort. 'Before that I wanted to be a rider, because all the other girls at Pony Club wanted to be three-day eventers. But then Daddy took me to see Sleeping Beauty, and then there was Happy Feet and I was hooked.' His fingers automatically strayed into the Sleeping Beauty waltz and he watched her move easily to the music, stretching into an arabesque, her back leg reaching high above her head in a straight line with an astonishing ease.

'I'm impressed!' he told her. 'I'd forgotten you danced until you mentioned troupe-dancing the other day.'

'I would've loved to do classical ballet,' she sighed, 'but I got too tall. That nearly broke my heart.'

'Their loss was theatre's gain,' he comforted. 'I bet you made a gorgeous cat.'

'All claws!' Sarah reached over, as she had been longing to do, and ran her nails gently over the dark mist of hair in the open front of his shirt. Nick, too, had changed - and shaved, she noticed. His loose white Lauren shirt, though tucked into his jeans, had only. the bottom two buttons fastened. Immediately he stopped playing and caught her hand in his, lifting it to his lips, kissing her fingertips one by one.

Sarah stopped teasing then, as his other hand went to her hair, tangling in it, pulling her closer. They forgot that the piano was in full view of two windows as he kissed her, with deep, exploring kisses that brought her arms up around his neck, as she clung to him, taking everything his lips gave in those few minutes. As delicately as he had played the piano. Nick stroked her breasts with his fingertips through the thin jersey fabric. She was bra-less under the tight halter, and he was quickly aware of her throbbing arousal. 'I think we'd be a lot more comfortable upstairs,' he suggested softly. 'Does that meet with your approval?'

'Not on the piano? I would have thought that might appeal to you, Nick?'

'On a Bechstein?' He sounded horrified. 'Maybe in movies, but I have far too much respect for a good piano - and Mrs J's feelings if she caught us! Come on.' Laughing at their conspiracy they ran up the stairs together, anxious not to be seen by the staff, not relaxing until they had gained Nick's room and he had locked the door behind them.

Suddenly, Sarah was hesitant, knowing what he was intending to do and unsure whether she wanted the same now. The room was flooded with the early evening sun, lighting the soft chintz of the four poster bed as Nick drew her towards it and threw back the covers. There would be no darkness in which to hide from him, she realized as she trembled in his grasp, and her heart sank.

'Don't be nervous, Sarah,' he said, gently, mindful of her confession. 'I'd never do anything you didn't like, I promise. Nothing need even happen if you don't want it to. I'm happy just to kiss you.' Slowly, Sarah put her hands on his chest inside his shirt, feeling the hard muscles and the strong beat of his heart, taking reassurance from him. His heart was pounding almost as much as hers was.

'I want it, Nick,' she said. 'I'm just frightened you'll be disappointed in me.'

'That's hardly likely!' He sounded relieved, and his kiss, when it came was long and penetrating, growing in intensity as he laid her back on the bed, his hands on the fastening of her jeans. They were tight, and he eased them off with some difficulty, chuckling at the discovery of the garment under them. 'You don't believe in making things easy for me, do you?' he chided as he searched for the poppers he knew held the body together.

'It's only one thing - far easier than underwear,' she pointed out, with a tremor in her voice, as he pulled the offending garment upwards, dislodging her carefully pinned up hair.

'True!' He knelt on the bed beside her for a moment, stripping off his shirt, his eyes never leaving her face when he stood, then, to impatiently shrug off his own jeans. She had seen him in brief swimming shorts almost every day, but completely naked Nick's broad build was awe-inspiring. She felt every muscle under his tanned skin as he joined her on the bed. There was no way, despite her confident boast to Ronnie, that she could fight him off - even if she'd wanted to. And now she didn't - not on her life!

Against all his baser instincts. Nick forced himself to relax and take it slowly. He moved carefully at first, touching and exploring with his fingertips, learning the shape of her body, following with his mouth, once he heard her gasp with pleasure at his gentle touch. As his lips found her breasts she remembered the sensations of the previous evening and arched expectantly towards him, her hands in his hair, moaning with delight at the new sensation as he sucked on the tips of her nipples, making them almost vibrate with pleasure.

It was as if her whole body was on fire for .him. She was feeling sensations in nerve endings she'd never known she had as his hand slipped between her thighs. Helpless with longing, she gave a low scream then, as his fingers slid into her, never still, probing for and quickly finding the delicate pressure point inside her.

He gave her no respite, bringing her again and again to the point of hysteria as she writhed and twisted under his tortuous hands. Only when she was trembling all over did he give in and roll onto her, slipping easily between her thighs to thrust deeply into her. For a few minutes he battled with his control, then gave up completely when she instinctively ground her hips against him, wrapping her legs around him as he drove into her. Despite his resolve. Nick took her more fiercely than he had ever taken any woman, but his dominance was gone as they both strove to take the maximum pleasure from each other's bodies, their breathing harsh and laboured in the last frantic seconds of climax.

Collapsing together, they lay still for long minutes, their arms around each other, their bodies still joined. Sarah had always assumed her hot body would be distasteful to a man, but Nick seemed to take pleasure from holding her close, his weight transferred to his arms in a considerate gesture, but still holding her tightly.

'One thing is certain,' he said eventually as their breathing eased, and he pressed his lips to the damp valley between her breasts in sheer, sensual pleasure. 'I could never find you disappointing! I didn't hurt you, did I?'

'No, of course not! That was wonderful. Nick, just wonderful!' Sarah realized then that she had experienced the real thing. The orgasm the books raved about - and they had not exaggerated the effect one bit. She was only too eager to try again!