Wicked Obsessions (18 page)

Teri lowered her lashes. "I always have been, but lately..."

He touched her chin to get her to look at him. "Remember, I understand about feelin' smothered."

She shook her head. "It's not that. Although my breathing is definitely being affected." She took a deep breath, as if to prove her claim. "I didn't lie to Selena just to keep her from crowding me. I did it because I wanted to be alone... with you." His narrowed brows made her explain. "I know. It's awful and wicked. My husband of twelve years was just brutally murdered. I spent the whole day looking for his killer and making arrangements to bury him. I should be distraught, overcome by grief, anything but what I'm feeling."

His fingers combed through the hair at the side of her head. "And what is it you're feelin' that's so awful and wicked?"

Could she tell him more than she already had? Would he be shocked to learn that she felt as relieved to have Rico out of her life as she was saddened by his death? She looked into his eyes and saw the same fire that was burning within her soul, and she dared to tell him what she was really feeling. "Need."

He withdrew his hand and leaned his head against the back of the sofa. "I was afraid you were goin' to say that."

Teri felt a rush of embarrassed panic over being so bold. "You don't... want me?"

"Oh, darlin'," he said with a dry laugh, then sat up and took her hands in his. "If I didn't think I'd explode, I'd have you run these talented little hands of yours all over my body to let you find out for yourself just how much I want you. And I'm not only talkin' 'bout the obvious. You can probably see that with your eyes. I'm talkin' 'bout the fact that I'm practically vibratin' with needing you. Problem is, I don't think your need and mine are in synch."

"You're confusing me."

He lifted one of her hands and kissed the fingertips, then her palm. "I want more from you than today. I want more than to be someone you turned to for a quick fix, then felt too guilty about it to go on from there. I can't afford to make the same mistake twice. And you can't afford the guilt right now."

She let his words sink in, she completely understood his concern. How could he be sure of her when she wasn't sure of herself? Barely two weeks ago she had thought she'd never let another man into her life. "You're right. I know in my head you're right. But understanding doesn't make the ache go away. Please, Drew." She raised her hands to his cheeks. "Just a little more than nothing."

He closed the distance between them, but stopped an inch short to say, "I never should have let you know how little willpower I have."

His lips slanted over hers in a mating that spoke of much more than two mouths touching. This time there were no exploring caresses or tentative tastes. They each knew what pleasure the other held and anxiously reached for it. As if their bodies had practiced together for a lifetime, they moved in harmony, without the need for conscious thought, until they were stretched out on the sofa, fitted one to another, as they were meant to be... until each felt the other's arousal as powerfully as each felt his own.

Her hands discovered the resilient strength of his muscled shoulders and back, the ungiving hardness between them, and the vibrating need he had spoken of.

His hands discovered the softness that concealed her strengths, the sensitive places that made her purr, and the damp heat she had so honestly confessed to.

And they both knew they had to stop.

As if they had both heard the same warning sound, their hands stilled and moved to less responsive areas. A moment later the endless eating kiss gentled to one final caress.

Drew grinned at her. "Just a little, huh, darlin'? A little more and I'da been visitin' St. Peter at the gate."

She hid her face in his shoulder. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so carried away."

"We,"
he corrected, making her meet his gaze.
"We
got carried away. But just think what we have to look forward to next month."

She blinked at him. "Next
month?"

"Well, maybe three weeks."

"You're crazy, you know that?" She gave him a peck on the cheek. "But it's a good crazy."

"It's goin' to be a bad crazy if we don't put some air space between us soon. What do you have to do around here that falls into the stimulatin' category?"

They managed to occupy themselves with a board game, a movie and dinner, but the fire between them smoldered and sparked through it all in spite of their pretending it was safely banked.

As they kissed goodnight and fought to keep their desire confined to their lips, Drew voiced the words Teri was thinking.

"I think two weeks will be plenty."

Chapter 11

Drew had work to do the next day, but Teri still had company in the afternoon. Selena had found three dresses and brought them by for Teri to choose, along with an array of accessories.

"You didn't need to bring so much. Whatever you picked would have been fine with me," Teri told her, unable to work up the enthusiasm to match Selena's mood.

"Is that the thanks I get for spending half a day searching for the perfect outfit for today's grieving widow?" she giggled, completely ignoring Teri's disapproving frown, and breezed on by, her arms filled with bags. She glanced back once to make sure Teri was following her to the bedroom. "Well, let's go. The fun doesn't start till you try everything on."

"Do I need to remind you that this is a
funeral
we're going to, and not a social event?" The harshness in Teri's voice made it clear she wasn't amused.

"No," Selena snapped back as she tossed the bags on the bed. "But maybe I need to remind you who you're talking to. I've done my very best to help you through this, but I refuse to pretend we feel something we don't when we're alone."

Teri gritted her teeth against another biting comment and reminded herself one more time that Selena was very young and just trying to help lift her spirits. "You're right, of course. I'm sorry." That put the smile back on Selena's face.

"By the way," Selena added in her sweetest voice, "you look a hundred times better today. You must have had some good rest since Saturday."

Teri felt her face flush and quickly picked up one of the dresses to examine. For a moment she wished she could share the secret of why she had rested so well, but thoughts of their last confidential conversation warned her against it. Feeling bad for not showing Selena sufficient appreciation, when it was really her own conscience bothering her, prompted her to say, "I have you to thank for that, hon. After you left, I poured myself a quart of wine and took a long soak in a sweet-smelling bubble bath. It worked wonders." For this half-truth Selena awarded her with a smile that lit up the room.

"You see? You should listen to me more often. And this is my next bit of advice—try everything on and forget about the real reason you're doing it. Have some fun." She giggled. "Hey, I just realized the first three letters of funeral spell
fun
. How cool is that!"

Teri grimaced and made an effort to do as she was told, if only to keep Selena content. Personally, she thought she owed Rico's memory a little respect after her behavior last night. The problem was, she didn't feel guilty enough to pay her late husband that tribute. It was fretting over that lack of guilt that had sharpened her tongue today, and she determined not to take it out on her young friend again.

Selena eventually made all the choices for Teri. "Now try on the hat."

Teri lifted the smart little hat with its fine black net veil and set it on her head.

"No, no, no," Selena said, taking it from her. "Your hair's all wrong for this hat. Sit down. I'll need your brush and lots of hairpins."

"Really, you don't have to do my hair. I'll figure it out."

Selena laughed. "Right. That's why you wear a ponytail half the time and leave it hanging straight the other half. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I used to do my mother's hair for her all the time."

Teri gave in and got her what she needed before sitting down at her vanity. She wasn't used to all this pampering. First Drew, now Selena. Visits to beauty salons were few and far between since all she ever needed was an occasional trim, and she usually did that herself. But as Selena applied the hairbrush with slow, smooth strokes that massaged her scalp, Teri decided this was something she could easily become accustomed to.

She watched with fascination as Selena brushed and pinned every hair into a severe twist at the back of her head. "Did your mother have long hair?" she asked.

Selena answered through teeth clamped around several hairpins. "About the same as yours. It was almost the same shade of brown too. Someday I'll have to bring the picture of her when she was about your age. I remember thinking how you reminded me of her the first time we met. Though you might guess that she was much taller and heavier than you are. Both my parents were big people, but I got my coloring, or I should say
lack
of coloring, from my father."

Teri caught the wistful tone and her caring heart again felt sympathy for the girl who had lost her parents at such an early age. When Teri's mother died after many years of suffering with cancer, Teri and her father easily consoled each other. But remembering the tremendous loss she'd felt when her father had died the year before, she asked, "Do you still miss them?"

Selena inserted one last pin and met Teri's gaze in the mirror. The haunted look Teri had often tried to capture on canvas seemed more pronounced than ever before.

"Miss them? Not him. He was an abusive, drunken bastard. It was a relief to both my mother and me when he died. You see, that's why I understand how you're feeling about Rico. But her? I didn't think I'd ever get over losing her." Selena's hands absently began massaging Teri's shoulders and neck. "She had a heart attack, you know. So young! She was only a year older than you are now. But I don't miss her as much as I did at first. After all, I have you to care for now, don't I?"

Teri was not nearly as disturbed by the strange statement as she was by the image she saw reflected in her mirror. Selena's eyes gleamed in a way she'd never seen before and, while her thumbs were massaging the base of Teri's neck, Selena's fingers had laced themselves around her throat. Before actual fear set in, however, Selena moved away to fetch the hat.

A moment later Teri told herself that her mind had been playing tricks on her. Selena was smiling and cheerful as she adjusted the headpiece and veil. And a few seconds after that, a new reflection shelved thoughts of the other.

She had told Drew that she was wicked. The woman staring back at her in the mirror truly looked the part of the merry widow. All she needed were diamond studs in her ears and blood-red lipstick and she'd be a true femme fatale.

"Good God! I don't know, Selena. I don't look very grief-stricken, do I?"

"No. But then, you really aren't, are you?"

Teri grimaced. "I won't lie and say I'll miss him. But at the same time, I wouldn't want other people to know that. I can't explain it, exactly, but I still have the feeling Detective Kidder didn't trust me. Now that they found Rico the way they did, I assume he'll leave me alone, but he made me so uncomfortable. I wouldn't put it past him to show up at the burial services to see if I cry."

Selena's eyes narrowed. "You could be right about him. I didn't like him, either. We should be prepared. Can you force tears? For appearance' sake?"

"I don't know. I cry at the dumbest times and can't when I should."

Selena laughed and squeezed Teri's shoulders in response, then began undoing her handiwork. "That's okay. All you need is a pinch of tobacco and an wrinkled hanky that looks like you've been using it all morning. Tobacco can make your eyes tear if you need some help bringing on the waterworks."

Teri didn't promise to go to all that trouble just to make the proper impression, but she did wonder how Selena managed to know so much about the strangest things.

* * *

Kidder could not remember ever being so overjoyed at
not
getting the proof needed to back up a suspicion. He had spent most of the three days since they'd found Gambini's body pumping the old fraternal network of police acquaintances snitches. He'd put out the word that he wanted to confirm a mob hit and find out where an ex-con named Vince Nunzio, who was supposedly working for an Irishman, hung out.