The West Wind (13 page)

The rain poured down but Hero hardly noticed, though her dress now
clung to her like a second skin. It briefly crossed her mind that her mother
was going to be furious about the dress and shoes, but then, her mother would
never understand what it was like to feel like she was dancing across the
clouds. As Xander spun them around again, the thought slipped away as the
sensation of floating grew stronger. Though the space they danced in was
limited, their contact with the ground grew so light that it seemed they were
in an endless ballroom, skipping across cumulo nimbi and riding the lightning
as it arced across the sky.

When the song came to an end, Xander bowed and Hero curtsied. She
open her mouth to speak, but he shook his head as another, slower song came on.
It was one she didn’t recognize, one without a beat she could immediately
identify as belonging to a particular dance. She was surprised when, instead of
slipping back into a formal ballroom closed position, he wrapped one arm around
her waist and pulled her close against him. He began rocking gently in a
circle, somewhere between a high school dance and that first blues dance they
had shared when they met. She laid her head against his shoulder and let the
closeness of him fill her senses.

Downstairs, Anna DiBenedetto hunted everywhere for her daughter.
No one had seen her in the last twenty minutes, though of course they were
certain she was with that fine young man she was dating. Finally, irritated to
the core that things weren’t going exactly as she had planned she stalked
toward her husband and Zachariah McConnell, who were still talking over scotch
whiskey on the rocks.

“Have either of you seen our children?” she asked.

Jared shook his head, while Xander’s father leaned his to the side
as if listening for something.

“Is it raining?” Zach asked.

“Yes, it started a little while ago,” Anna replied. From her tone,
she was obviously offended by the change of subject.

“Then they’re dancing,” Zach said as if it explained everything.

“They aren’t
in
the ballroom, I checked,” she said in a
huff.

“Outside,” he responded, nodding his head toward the wall behind
him.

“What?” Anna screeched. Some of the guests turned toward the
commotion. “Do you have any idea what that dress cost?” she started to rant.

“Anna,” Jared intervened, laying one hand on his wife’s arm. “It’s
her birthday. Let her do what she wants. As long as you’re sure they’re not,
well, you know?” He directed the last at Zach.

“No, they’re definitely dancing,” the widower replied absently,
lost in a memory of another time.

Though the rain and the song played on, Xander’s motion slowed
almost to a stop. Hero lifted her head from where it was snuggled against his
shoulder and smiled softly into his eyes. Her hair and clothing were soaked and
she was pretty sure he was wearing most of her mascara on his jacket. In spite
of the rain, she had never felt safer or happier in her life than she did now,
in his arms, on this rooftop. It was hard to imagine someone like Xander, but
there he was, filling her life with surprises and making impossible dreams come
true.

Xander stared down at her, amazed by the woman in his arms.
Despite her reticence, she’d been willing to take this adventure with him. Once
resolved, she embraced the moment completely. He wondered how many women would
have. Someone like her mother, certainly not. Even soaked to the bone she was
gorgeous in the silver dress, and the way it had molded to her body made him
swallow. The look in her eye stirred his blood and heated the emotions that
burned comfortably inside as he remembered the other dances they had shared,
and the work they’d done together.

“Hero. . .” he began, leaning into her. Her eyes widened a little
in concern, his face was so serious.

“Yes, Xander?” she asked, unable to resist lifting her chin and turning
her face up to him.

“I love you,” he said as if those three simple words were a poem
all their own.

Hero answered him silently, her lips pressed against his, warm and
wet with rain. She didn’t know what to think at first when he took her face in
both hands, then her knees almost buckled as he
lead
the kiss and it
became a dance of its own. Never had she been kissed so tenderly, so
passionately, so completely. His full attention was centered in his mouth and
how it came in contact with hers. He was in gentle, firm control of every
aspect of the kiss: its depth; the pressure of his lips; the subtle searching
of the tip of his tongue as it sought hers, found it, and slipped away again.
Her hands pressed close between them against his chest and clenched, twining
his shirt so tight between her fingers that it rang out some of the water that
soaked the cloth.

Time ceased to exist. It no longer had any meaning. With each
endless second that passed, the sensation that spilled through her with each
touch of his lips intensified. She completely forgot the rain. There was only
his mouth on hers, her eyelids shut tight. Touch was the only sense left in her
world. His hand still cradled her face and tilted it to one side to meet him.
He held her back gently when she gave into the hunger his kisses awakened in
her. Sourceless light flashed behind her eyelids, then turned into a sea of
stars and she let herself float away in it until she became the kiss. The rain,
the house, the ocean beyond all faded away until her whole self was sensation
and electricity and a universe of lips and mouths and tongues and teeth. When
it ended she felt charged, as though a current of energy had passed into her
and revitalized her. She couldn’t tell whether the kiss had lasted minutes, or
hours. She took a deep breath and dragged her nails down his torso until her
hands caught on his belt.

“Wow,” she breathed. He smiled and kissed her lightly this time,
wrapping her up in his arms. His hands ran over her back, somewhere between a
caress and a massage as he held her. Hero leaned against him for a moment
longer.

“Thank you,” Xander said into her ear, referring to the whole
evening.

“I love you too,” Hero said, though not as a response, her cheek
against his chest. He kissed the top of her head. She felt him smile into her
hair.

“You said there was something you wanted to talk about?” he asked
her as time wore on.

She shook her head and looked into his eyes, which were still
strikingly blue in the grey light. “No, I think we covered it.”

He grinned. “Alright. Are you ready to go in?”

“Okay,” she sighed, not really wanting the moment to end, but
knowing it had to for now. “Do you have a towel I could borrow?” she asked.

“Actually, there are couple just inside. I came prepared,” he said
with a smile.

“Great,” she replied, her mouth twitching to the side as an idea
popped into her head. Xander raised one eyebrow in curiosity, then lead the way
inside.

Just in the door, he grabbed a large, fluffy, red towel and held
it out for her, stretched out almost his entire arm span. He expected her to
step into it, but to his surprise Hero stopped a step away. She gave him a coy
smile and put up one finger, asking him to wait. He nodded, not certain what
was going on. Hero turned her back on him and leaned down to pull off first one
shoe, then the other. The way the wet cloth hugged her curves made him swallow
again. She was absolutely gorgeous. As he watched, she reached up under her
left side and slowly undid the zipper. His eyebrows shot up as she looked over
her shoulder at him and she smirked with contentment. Still facing away from
him, she slipped the halter over her neck and let the dress fall into a silver
puddle around her feet. His eyebrows went up further; she had nothing on
underneath.

At the sight of Hero’s tan, naked skin, Xander felt his pulse
quicken and he exhaled a long breath. She let him admire her for a minute then
lifted her arms straight out to the sides. His eyes continued to wander.

“Xander. . .” she said to get his attention.

“Oh. Yes?” he asked, blinking his thoughts away.

“You can give me the towel now.”

He was still holding it out. He hadn’t even noticed that his arms
were getting tired being in the same position for so long. Half a grin slipped
across his face. He stepped forward, careful not to step on her dress, and
wrapped the towel around her. When his arms were all the way around her, she
took over, tucking the towel into itself. She turned in his arms and kiss him.

“Can you go find Jaimie for me and ask her to meet me in the guest
room? I need to get dressed and redo my hair,” she said.

“You’re a tease,” he complained, though his voice betrayed
amusement and pleasure at the turn of events.

“Did you like what you saw?” she asked, kissing his neck just
below the ear.

“Yes. Tease,” he re-stated.

She stepped back, doe-eyed and feigning innocence. “I have no idea
what you’re talking about,” she said, letting her eyes fall to his crotch and
back up.

He grinned. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him again. “You’re
not alone,” she whispered, her voice thick. “Now, go find Jaimie, please.”

Xander grinned wider and nodded. “I love you,” he said again,
tasting the words and rolling them over his tongue.

“I love you,” she replied, her heart warm and strong in her chest.

As luck would have it, Xander encountered Jaimie almost
immediately upon arriving downstairs. She rounded a corner into the hallway
just as he was about to pass, almost running into him. The surprised girl
jumped back quickly to avoid contact with his wet clothes, an obvious look of
distaste on her face.

“Hero,” she demanded as Xander stood dripping on the floor.

“The guest room,” he answered, equally succinct.

“This is going to be good,” Jaimie responded with one eyebrow
still raised at the puddle gathering at his feet. Without another word she
moved in a wide arc to avoid the wet boy and stalked off. Xander wondered, not
for the first time, if Hero and Jaimie had been switched at birth and raised by
the wrong parents. He shrugged and laughed to himself. Hero was certainly going
to get an earful.

“Well, were you right about her?” Zach’s voice suddenly asked from
behind him.

Xander turned quickly, then recovered at the sight of his father
and leaned casually against the wall. “Without a doubt, Dad. Without a doubt,”
he answered with a smile he couldn’t keep from drawing across his face.

Zach offered his son a knowing smile and took the conversation
another direction. “Your mother-in-law is not very happy,” he pointed out.

His son laughed. “That doesn’t surprise me, for some reason.”

“You should probably suck up to her for the rest of the evening,
now that your diem is well carpéd. Keep your mother-in-law happy and the rest
of your life will be much, much easier.”

Xander laughed again. “Thanks for the advice. I’ll do that.”

“Good idea. I’m glad you had it,” Zach said with a straight face.

“Great minds think alike,” his son replied, playing along.

“Did you know you’re soaking wet?”

“I may have noticed.”

“You should probably go change.”

“You know, I think I will.”

“I’ll get the mop,” Zach said, laughing as his son headed off to
change, leaving a small puddle behind.

The rest of the evening drifted by pleasantly. Xander came back
down in a dress shirt, dark wash jeans, and a pair of Aris Allen’s men’s swing
shoes. Hero re-appeared about half an hour later in a black satin swing dress
and her wing tipped dancing shoes, with her hair re-curled and tied back with a
ribbon. Anna immediately pounced on her, seizing her by the arm.

“Hero DiBenedetto! What were you thinking? Do you know how much
that dress cost? You have guests! You can’t just run off and play in the rain!”
she hissed.

The smile glued to Hero’s face throughout the tirade clearly made
her mother suspicious. She continued to berate her daughter.

“What were you doing out there? Were you two. . . canoodling?”

Hero’s eyebrow shot up in amused disbelief at her mother’s word
choice. While Anna continued her rant, Hero’s eyes were drawn to Xander as he
stood talking with the Coven.

“Hero, are you listening to me? I’m serious!”

She turned to her mother. “Yes, mother. I’m sorry about the
dress,” she said rather insincerely. “I’ll take it to the dry cleaner on
Monday. But, like you said, we have guests, so we should do this later. I’m
going to go dance.” With that, she slipped out of Anna’s grip and over to her
friends, peeling Xander away from them and on to the dance floor.