Total Package (11 page)

“You look fine. Your work boots add a lot to the look.”

“The heels were just borrowed and I don’t have anything else.”

His eyes skimmed the square bodice of her long black gown and for a moment, time spun around Sidney, slowed and stopped as Danya bent to slowly, effectively kiss her.

“Mmm—” Sidney gave herself to the hard warmth of his lips, to the flick of his tongue, her internal motors turning up.

Just then, the door opened and Fadey and Viktor stood together, grinning at the sight of Sidney in Danya’s arms. “Um,” Sidney began nervously and realized she was blushing again. “Um,” she managed again and then gave up any explanation of why Danya was holding her.

“Welcome to my home,” Fadey said warmly, stepping back for Danya to enter with Sidney.

Viktor’s expression was soft and filled with love. “My son.”

“I don’t weigh much. He’s not hurting his back,” Sidney said hurriedly. “He’s pretty strong, you know. And he seems to like to pack things around. I don’t know why.”

“I know.” Viktor took Sidney’s hand and kissed the back of it with an old world elegance.

“Put me down,” Sidney whispered again to Danya as she noted the rest of his family in the spacious living room.

He wasn’t paying attention but watching his aunt come from the kitchen. Mary Jo, a long-legged former Texan, smiled warmly at Sidney and came to nestle in Fadey’s arms.

“Hello, darlin’,” Mary Jo said. “We’re glad you could come. Put her down, Danya. She’s embarrassed, poor thing.”

When Danya placed Sidney on her feet, she frowned at him. “Oh, now you put me down.”

Mary Jo took her hand and walked into the large living room with her. A massive stone fireplace dominated the room, the huge windows overlooked the ocean, and the sturdy Stepanov furniture, the wooden wall panels all created a beautiful, comfortable setting. Thick, serviceable rugs crossed the gleaming hardwood floors, and pottery in shades of earth, sea and sky softened the room.

Jarek, Alexi and Mikhail stood when she entered the room and the women greeted her with warm smiles.

She’d never really been in a family setting—where she was a lover of a man of the family, therefore, a pseudo-family member herself. Now that was terrifying. If Danya continued as he had been, those children playing with that massive dollhouse could include her own—

Babies. Home. Things she’d never known….
Terrified that she was entering an unfamiliar realm, Sidney backed up and found Danya’s body. His arms went around her waist draw
ing her close, and she felt instantly safe. Danya always felt safe, she realized, even when he was angry. “Danya?”

He leaned down so she could whisper in his ear. “I don’t want to hold any kids, okay? That’s what people usually do, stick babies in my arms and I don’t know what to do with them.”

“Okay,” he whispered back, then he announced, “Sidney is afraid to hold babies. Don’t make her take them—uh!” Her elbow nudged his ribs, stopping any more humiliation.

Viktor was chuckling aloud. “Give me that girl,” he said, reaching for Sidney and wrapping her in a bear hug that took away her breath and lifted her feet off the ground. “You remind me of my dear wife, Sara,” he said. “Small, perfect, beautiful. She gave me two strong sons, you know,” he announced proudly. “You have boys in your family?”

“Just Stretch and Junior, my sisters.”

“I hope you like Tex-Mex food, darlin’,” Mary Jo said, taking Sidney’s hand and leading her to the spacious kitchen. “I saw some of your work. You’ve got the eye to capture natural expressions. No wonder the models loved you so. You caught them at their best—they told me so.”

“I did?” Sidney turned to look back at Danya, who was watching her with that shielded, dark intent look that said he wanted her staked out beneath him. After that, she barely noticed the spacious tile-lined kitchen with its pottery and hanging strands of red chili peppers.

As the family prepared to take their places at the massive, long walnut table, and Danya came to stand beside her. With a glance, he indicated where she was to sit. Since there was an empty chair next to hers, and Mikhail was already seated, Sidney pulled out Danya’s chair. With a long sigh and a wry look around the table, he sat slowly. “Thank you.”

Sidney sat beside him. The family was talking, a steady energetic buzz of settling children around the table.

“I’m overdressed,” she whispered to Danya as she noted that the other women were wearing cotton summer dresses.

He drew her hand to his thigh and held it as he leaned to
kiss her cheek. “But you’re beautiful and you’re wearing a gift from Ellie.”

Startled by his open show of affection, Sidney shielded her blush. “Don’t do that again, Stepanov.”

He toyed with her earring and kissed her ear. She frowned up at him. Her “You’re pushing your luck, buster” statement landed in the middle of a very quiet moment, when all the Stepanovs had suddenly stopped talking.

Viktor erupted in roaring laughter, so much that tears came to his eyes. “So like my Sara,” he managed, dabbing his eyes with a napkin.

Ellie seemed to understand Sidney’s embarrassment and reached across Mikhail to touch her arm. “I’m so pleased you wore the dress I made. I feel honored. I love to sew. Mikhail made me the most beautiful sewing cabinet, and you’ve got to come see my sewing room.”

“And my office,” Mary Jo added. “Okay, everyone. Let’s eat.”

After dinner, the family moved into the living room, and Danya drew Sidney to sit on his lap. “Room economy,” he explained with a devastating grin.

“Sure,” she returned, disbelieving him because she had noted several empty seating places on the long gorgeous couches. She also noted Jessica sitting on Alexi’s lap, Leigh on Jarek’s, and Ellie on Mikhail’s. The women, comfortable with their husbands, snuggled close and the couples spoke intimately, clearly in love.

Sidney inhaled, noted how Danya’s eyes went instantly to her breasts, and held her breath. Beneath her, Danya’s body was thrusting and hard, his hands open on her body, drawing her close. “Don’t move,” he whispered unevenly in her ear. “You’re not wearing any—”

She released her breath and decided to pay him back for packing her out of the shop. She wiggled slightly and smiled smugly up at him. “No panties. Mess with me, will you? Take that,” she whispered.

“Oh, you’re going to…”

“Dinner was nice. Lots of family. Beautiful home…loved the landscapes of Texas, all the fields and cattle,” Sidney summarized as they walked along the beach.

Danya caught the underlying uncertainty in her tone. “And it scared you. You didn’t relax until after dinner.”

“And only then, because the food was so good and I was getting drowsy…. You’re wasting your time with me, Danya. I’m not going to fit into this picture. I’ve never lived in one place in my entire lifetime.”

“I’m not asking you anything. We’re enjoying each other, aren’t we?”

“No. Not always. At the shop, you showed a very nasty, snarly side. I’m not usually put into the position of trying to smooth things. Either they are, or they aren’t. No offense, but you’re a relationship kind of guy, a deep one. Too deep. You take things and turn them and think about them. A very hard-to-read kind of guy, brooding, sort of. I take life as it comes and if I don’t like it, I move on. And you yelled at me—sort of, I took it as yelling anyway.”

“Are those my good points?”

In the moonlight with the waves rolling onto shore behind her, Sidney turned to look up at him. “It’s all those moody angles that I don’t understand. I still haven’t gotten over being packed out of that shop over your shoulder. I mean how much dignity in that is there? I’m a professional, after all.”

“So are you going to stay with me? While you’re here?” he asked as he smoothed that wisp of hair from her cheek. It slid silkily upon his skin before the wind took it away, just as Sidney’s assignments could take her away from him.

“I could stay at the resort until the portraits are done. I’ve worked out deals before—maybe Mikhail would trade a room there for the work done on his brochure. There’s always lots of bartering in this business. Your aunt’s brochures are lovely, so is the Stepanov Furniture. I could probably stay with your aunt and uncle.”

He bent to brush her lips with his, tasting the hunger there. “That would embarrass me.”

“How so?”

“I’d come to you, and I haven’t crawled into a bedroom window for years.”

“Oh.” Sidney looked out onto the black waves, the shimmering, silvery trail of moonlight coming across them.

Danya took her face in his hands, turning it up to him. “Now who’s thinking too much?” he asked gently before kissing her. He lifted her into his arms and carried her toward his cabin. “I like this,” Danya whispered as he carried her inside and closed the door.

“I haven’t figured out how I like it—being carried around—but it sure is taking a long time to get you onto that bed.”

“I’m seducing you, dear heart. I don’t want you to get any wrong ideas about payment later, either.”

“Sorry about that. I know that hurt your feelings. It’s just that I didn’t have anything to give you.” She was still high in his arms, holding him and kissing him, giving those little hungry noises from deep inside her throat.

“You bring me peace and warmth and pleasure and friendship. Those are very special gifts that I haven’t had for a very long time.”

Sidney felt a piece of her heart tear softly away. “With your wife. She must have been wonderful.”

“She was. We were young and life waited for us, the adventure of it.”

Sidney snuggled against him. She’d never been a cuddler, but Danya was perfect for it. She loved to touch him, to run her fingers through his waving hair, to look into those sky-blue eyes and feel his skin against hers, his hands upon her. “You’ll find someone and get that home and children, Danya. But I’m glad that we’re together now.”

“Oh, I intend to get what I want. What I need,” he said firmly as he carried her to the bed.

T

Dressed in a sleek business suit, Mikhail stood in the shad
ows, his arms crossed as he watched Ellie and Sidney prepare the shots. Jarek had just come to check on the Stepanov Furniture display room and watched with interest.

Absorbed in her craft, Sidney snapped pictures quickly. She moved around the serving table for better shots, backed into someone and heard a masculine grunt. Irritated that someone had caused her to lose focus and the shot, she pivoted quickly. “Listen, bud. I’m working here. Just keep out of my way, will you?”

She looked the long way up to Danya’s pleased grin. The huge bouquet of red roses he held between them startled her. “For you, my darling.”

He bent to kiss her and then straightened, that devastating boyish grin widening as he held the bouquet out to her.

Stunned, Sidney gripped her camera. She’d never had a bouquet before. “There must be some mistake. You already gave me a flower, an orchid. I still have it. Oh, it’s all flat now, squashed between the pages of a coffee table book I did on India, but it’s still good.”

“These are fresh.”

Sidney carefully placed her camera on a table, removed her light meter from her neck and took the bouquet. They were beautiful and fragrant and in an obviously old tall, cut glass vase. “What do I do with them? What are they for?”

“For you,” Danya said quietly as he removed one bud, shortened the stem and tucked it over her ear.

She’d heard of other women receiving roses after a romantic, sensual night and understood the gesture immediately, which brought a blush to her cheeks.

It seemed only right that she give him something, too, so Sidney placed the vase on a table and took a rosebud. She carefully shortened the stem as he had done and then stood on tiptoe to tuck it over his ear. She leaned close to whisper, “Thanks for last night, but really, this wasn’t necessary.”

Then because he looked so pleased with himself, so tall and beautiful and sweet, Sidney removed another bud from the bou
quet and placed that one over his other ear. “Thank you,” Danya whispered unevenly. “I’d better let you get back to work.”

Sidney gripped his cotton shirt in her fist; she couldn’t let him go. She turned to the Stepanovs who were all smiling softly, just as they had at the calendar windup party. While she tried to think of an explanation of why Danya had given her the roses, he whispered huskily, “See you tonight.”

Danya picked up a juicy strawberry and slowly placed it in her mouth; she returned the favor automatically, fascinated by that hard masculine mouth. It slowly curved into a pleased smile and then he turned to walk out of the room. He was whistling; the Stepanovs were smiling softly at her.

Her heart started to beat again and tears burned her eyes. “I…I think I need a break,” she murmured unevenly as she picked up a delicate napkin and blew her nose on it. “I must be getting a cold. Or maybe it’s allergies.”

Or just maybe—she hurried after Danya.

She caught him in the hallway near the furniture display room. Surprised, Danya turned, caught her as she leaped upon him, her arms around his neck. With her in his arms, Danya pivoted and entered the display room, closing the door behind him.

“Do you have to be so difficult?” she asked against his lips.

“Who, me?”

“Now how am I going to top that bouquet?” she asked as she pushed him back onto the display bed and came down upon him. Entranced with the rugged man beneath her, the way his blue eyes looked up tenderly at her, Sidney smoothed his hair back from his face. The soft moment clung between them—not sexual, but gentle and sweet. “You look good in rosebuds, Danya.”

“I planted the bushes this morning. The blooms made me think of you.”

“I’m more of a cactus person, don’t you think?”

“No, you’re definitely a rose in full bloom, with maybe a few daisies in the mix.” His big hand was doing that smoothing thing on her head, like petting, she decided as she leaned into it.

Was it so wrong to want these perfect moments, to store them inside? Sidney wondered as she snuggled close and safe to Danya. She would probably finish shooting the Stepanovs within the week. “I should go.”

“Stay,” Danya whispered against her lips. “Or I’ll have to come after you.”

“You’d do that?”

“I would.”

A week, no more, Sidney promised herself as she slid over Danya. In the predawn, he was still sleeping and thus perfect for a fast take. He’d probably sleep through the whole thing and never realize that she needed him once again after the two times they’d shared during the night. She’d make love with him so many times in the next week that he’d never forget her. She’d have those memories to take with her into the long hot safaris and cold Arctic nights. Taking the opportunity for good natural shots had given her expertise in recognizing the right moment—

The right moment had occurred immediately after she’d entered the cabin last night, carrying her precious rose bouquet. Danya had been cooking, and he’d turned to her with a smile that had stilled slowly as their eyes had met and their sensual hunger began. He’d turned off the stove and Sidney had placed the beautiful vase onto the table. Dinner had been a long time later.

Now, lying beside her, Danya was hard and perfect and sweet and her fever for him was running high. She closed her eyes as she slid upon him, bracing her weight apart, holding him tight and full within her. She moved slightly, experimentally, not wanting to wake him.

Then drawn by the beauty of his face, those long eyelashes, those fierce brows, those sensuous lips, Sidney paused to study him. She smoothed away the waving hair from his cheek, considered the hard shape of his jaw, the texture of his early morning stubble rough against her fingertip. She’d re
member him forever, a picture locked in her mind of a man she’d once known, and had cherished.

Sidney frowned slightly. But a relationship like those she’d seen in the Stepanov family, the men teasing, the women’s seductive looks, that quiet, sharing loving clearly seen between them?

A week was best. Just a perfect little time capsule to draw out and remember—she placed her lips on his, brushing them lightly, and Danya’s blue eyes opened slightly and his expression was wry. “Having fun?”

“Yes, and you’re supposed to be sleeping.”

His hands raised to smooth her hips, bringing her closer. “I like to do my share. You could get pregnant this way, you know—without protection.”

That thought surprised her. Sidney hadn’t thought of herself as a mother, of a child growing within her, yet at the moment, that possibility didn’t frighten her. The need to capture a part of Danya, a beautiful little child, fascinated her. But then that child should belong to a woman who could give him everything—

Sidney had lived a lifestyle where she took what she could get at the moment, and Danya was very much at the moment. “I thought I’d be gone before you got serious.”

“Ah. I see. Hit and run.”

She left her body flow into his hands, his caresses over her already sensitized breasts. “This is nice, talking like this during sex.”

Danya’s strained expression said that he was fighting his desire. “Just don’t move. I don’t trust myself with you. The thought of you carrying my child is very, very erotic.”

Sidney allowed herself to be placed aside momentarily and then Danya drew her back astride him, his hands on her hips, urging her into position, moving her gently, rhythmically over him. “You were saying?”

He’d stunned her, the position new and exciting. “I can’t think now. Later,” Sidney managed as she gave herself into the pleasured race and felt her body clenching his—

She was just falling gently when Danya turned her easily, coming over her. “Oh, Sidney,” he singsonged softly against her cheek.

“Mmm. What?” She fought to drag herself up from the warm limp blissful bog. “Oh, yeah, right. There’s your part, huh?”

“Something like that.” Danya took his time, tasting her body, suckling gently at her breasts, nibbling on them, and moving slowly within her. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I can’t think of anything at the moment.” Sidney’s body was already hitting those pleasured peaks again, and she held him with all her strength, her fingers digging into his shoulders. Passion rose hungrily within her, driven by the rough sound of his breathing, the heat of his face against her, his lips burning her flesh, his hand—She tried to capture the need within her, keeping all the pleasure tight and safe and then it came bursting—

That high keening sound was her own, shocking, female, desperate. It echoed around her, even as Danya tensed, his expression fierce as he gave himself to her. He was damp and heavy, and she couldn’t let him move away. “I—I think I bit you. I may have—ah, held you a little too tight. I’m pretty strong, you know.”

Against her throat, he murmured, “You did at the last. That’s why I couldn’t wait any longer.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I—Oh, Danya. I’ve lost all control. I’m loud, too. Oh, I am mortified.”

“Hush,” Danya whispered softly as he kissed her. “Let’s just enjoy the moment, okay? So what are your plans for the day?”

She was thinking that lovemaking a few times would be nice. “I thought I’d call around and see who in your family was available for pictures today. What are you going to do?”

He eased aside and lay facing her. He studied the movement of his hand skimming over her body, resting on her hip. “Work. We’re almost finished with remodeling. We’re starting on another project pretty soon. We could have lunch together.”

“Sounds good.” The dawn was filling the shadows now and
his shoulder gleamed—the place where she’d bitten him darker than his tanned skin.

She smoothed it with her fingertips and wondered how a man could be so beautiful and powerful and exciting as he lay beside quietly her.

Danya’s eyes darkened. “Don’t worry, Sidney. Everything is perfectly normal. You’re a passionate woman. Come here….”

“You’re a cuddler, aren’t you?” she murmured as he held her against him and she listened to the steady beat of his heart.

“You’re perfect for cuddling.”

“You’re awfully big for that. I mean, really big. There’s no way I can return the favor.”

“Mmm. Have I asked?”

In a few moments, Danya eased from the bed and went to take his shower. She could still feel him holding her, his body tight against hers and the scent of their lovemaking settled around her. She held his pillow and sleepily watched him dress for work. Danya came to the bed, studied her and in the silence, his eyes locked with hers. “If I don’t leave now—” His voice was grim before he walked to the door.

He turned suddenly, and she lay quietly as the impact of his hunger slid across the room; then Danya stepped into the bright sunlight, closing the door behind him. Sidney lay in his bed, tangled in her emotions and the bed clothing.

The thought of you carrying my child is very, very erotic.
From a family such as the Stepanovs, Danya was probably in a biological nesting mode. Sidney lay warm and sated and ran her hands over her very sensitive breasts and then lower to press upon her flat stomach. She lingered in the thought of his child growing within her for just a heartbeat before shaking her head. “It would never work.”

Things were working out well, Danya decided two days later in the second week of July. He placed his clothes and Sidney’s into the new washer he’d just installed in his newly
purchased house—a house that had just popped up on the market and that Sidney didn’t know he had purchased.

Her clothing ran to T-shirts, jeans and cargo pants. The morning light coming from the window fell upon the various sports bras hanging to dry above the washer. Danya realized how much he loved to cup her breasts, to feel that delicate weight, to taste those tiny mauve nubs.

He added detergent with the pleased thought that she seemed perfectly settled into Amoteh. She used her laptop to answer e-mail in the manager’s suite at the Amoteh Resort. She had taken pictures of the individual families and of the resort, and had snapped photos of the new Stepanov Furniture designs.

But Sidney had mourned the lack of a dark room where she could develop her film. She’d explained the dream of hers to do her own print work by hand; traveling had made a permanent base for that impossible.

Danya walked out of the laundry room and surveyed his barren, unfinished new home. The family who had contracted Stepanov Building Company had just inherited a rich 150-acre farm in northern Missouri and had moved immediately. Danya had purchased this house at a good price and the Stepanovs had kept his secret from Sidney. She was still nervous of their growing relationship and he didn’t want to damage any progress by adding to her fears.

He moved into the large room overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Brilliant morning sunlight poured into the room, laying a square pattern on the hard wood flooring.

Comfortable in the oceanside cabin now, Sidney would be terrified if she knew that he planned to make it their home, and that in addition to the rose garden he’d started, he’d already begun counters and cabinets in a former walk-in closet; it would make a perfect dark room. Another well-lighted room would be perfect for a business center and her computer and graphic work.