Wings of a Dove (25 page)

    An unconscious groan escaped Delaney's lips as Sarah began rubbing her body erotically against his, increasing the pressure of her mouth until he accepted the full invasion of her tongue. She raked her long fingers through his hair, then slipped her hand between their bodies and opened the buttons of his shirt. Within seconds, she had exposed his chest, but she was not satisfied with that. She quickly unbuttoned her nightgown, and moments later her warm breasts were pressed hotly against him.

    Somewhere in the back of his mind, Delaney heard her sharp intake of breath at the first meeting of their flesh, and his heart pounded anew. Excited to a heated frenzy, Sarah assaulted his lips and chin with sharp, sensuous bites before covering his lips with her open mouth to kiss him fully and deeply once more. Pulling back only when they were both breathless, she looked into his face, and Delaney suppressed his reaction to the power    of her physical beauty. The knowledge that she was shallow, her beauty skin deep, had little effect on his body's spontaneous reaction to the sexual titillation.

    His hands still clenched at his sides, Delaney barely suppressed his growing physical excitement, the urge to crush her body against his and sample all she offered him.

    A low breathy laugh escaped Sarah's lips, her smile increasing her already incredible beauty.

    "You want to hold me, don't you, Delaney? You want to take me in your arms and touch me. You want to feel me under you."

    "Sarah…"

    His voice was a pained whisper, almost unrecognizable to his own ears, and Sarah laughed again. Raising her hands, she stripped her gown off her shoulders, allowing it to fall to her waist. She turned slightly, allowing the shadows to play against the smooth flesh of her shoulders and breasts.

    "All yours, Delaney. I've saved myself for you. Only you. I can give you everything you want. Tell me what you want, Delaney."

    Delaney shook his head. She was wearing him down, and he knew damned well what would happen if she did. Hell, he couldn't hold on much longer.

    "Take me, Delaney. Take me now."

    Stepping forward quickly, Sarah locked her arms around his neck and kissed him hotly, her bare breasts scorching his chest. Despite himself, Delaney felt his arms closing around her, felt her smooth flesh under his hands, felt the swell of her feminine curves. Unable to withdraw from her, yet unwilling to take that final step, he hesitated.

    Pushed into savage frustration, Sarah tore her mouth from his, her breathing ragged. Her eyes were hot pools of passion as they looked up into his face. "You're trying to show me who's master, aren't you? Well, you can be master. You can be anything you want with me. I'll show you. I'll prove to you how I feel."

    Pressing her mouth against his once more, Sarah bit his lower lip painfully before releasing it to rain similar sharp bites on his chin and along the broad, tanned column of his throat. She kissed the hollows at its base, licking the salty flesh there, then laughed as he shuddered, a soft, wild sound, before trailing hot, searching kisses over the mat of fine hair covering his chest. Her smooth    hands spreading his shirt wide, she followed with feverish, salacious bites the fine line of dark hair as it dwindled downward.

    Delaney gasped, his control all but gone as her tongue moved wetly against his midriff. She was struggling with his belt when a soft thumping overhead snapped his glance toward the ceiling. The sound, apparently a branch falling on the roof, brought him sharply back to his senses.

    He must be crazy! The short hour of physical pleasure Sarah offered was not worth the payment he would have to make if they were found out. And he knew with a sixth sense that Sarah would make sure the right people did find out. Well, he wouldn't fall into her trap. No woman, especially Sarah, was worth sacrificing everything he had worked for during the last three years. And no woman was worth sacrificing his future.

    Sarah had succeeded in loosening his belt. Her fingers were working open the closure of his trousers when Delaney clamped his hands roughly on her wrists and pushed her an arm's length from him. She struggled to close the distance between them, but he rasped, "No, Sarah, your price is too high."

    "Price! I want to give myself to you!"

    "No, you don't."

    "Nobody has to know, Delaney. I won't tell! We can"

    "You won't tell anybody because there'll be nothing to tell." His voice growing harder as his control returned full measure, Delaney shook his head. "Things wouldn't even have gone this far if I hadn't been so tired."

    Raising her flushed face to his, Sarah attempted to conceal her fury. "Delaney, you want me, you know you do. I can give you so much. Everything you see, and more. I'm beautiful, Delaney. My body is perfect and untouched. It has so much to offer.
I
have so much to offer."

    "Not enough, Sarah." His voice unexpectedly harsh, Delaney dropped his hands from her wrists and issued a concise command. "Button your gown."

    Sarah's mouth twitched revealingly as she responded in a single word: "No."

    His patience beginning to wane, Delaney took a threatening step forward. "You'll dress yourself, dammit, or I'll throw you out into the hall just as you stand! You can try explaining that to anybody who chances to see you!"

    "Is that what you're afraid of, Delaney? Somebody seeing or hearing us? They won't. We"

    "They won't because there won't be anything to see or hear. Now get dressed, dammit!"

    His eyes narrowing, Delaney watched as Sarah brought her fury under control. Slowly, sensuously, she drew her nightgown up to cover her shoulders. Her gleaming breasts peeked from the gaping bodice and she laughed as his eyes dropped toward them.

    "You've deprived yourself of pleasure tonight for no good reason, Delaney. You could've had it all. I would have given you anything you wanted. You almost gave in, didn't you?" She nodded in silent confirmation of her own statement as her slender, graceful hands went to the buttons on her nightgown. "But you'll have another chance, I'll see to that. I'll give you plenty of time to think about what you've missed, and to wonder if Charles Knots or Bobbie Clark, or one of the other fellows got what you were afraid to take tonight."

    Her gown secured at last, Sarah smoothed her long, dark hair back from her shoulders. Her small pink tongue flicked over her lower lip in a deliberately seductive movement.

    "Next time, Delaney. Next time."

    Slowly and sinuously, Sarah walked to the door and pulled it open. Raising her eyes to hold his for a moment longer, she gave a short laugh and stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind her.

    Rigid, Delaney listened to Sarah's quiet steps as she moved down the hallway and beyond.

    She was gone.

    Releasing a low, shaky breath, Delaney was about to turn to his bed when he had a second thought. Shifting his weight, he gripped the dresser and pushed it across the floor until it blocked the door. He gave a short, self-conscious laugh. Hell, he wasn't going to take the chance of Sarah's coming back. Another few minutes and he would have had her pinned to that bed, and that damned conscienceless part of his anatomy would've been buried deep inside her, just as she wanted.

    No, the price was too high. Nobody was going to get in the way of his ambitions, and nobody was going to make him to  anything that would force him out of this house one minute sooner than he was ready to leave.

    Suddenly exhausted, Delaney shot a glance toward the night sky outside his window. Damn! Was that dawn he saw streaking the darkness? He uttered a low groan and, not bothering to undress, flopped down on his bed.

    He turned his head away from the window and closed his eyes. Sarah's sweet scent rose from the pillow, and he remembered her smooth white flesh. Then he remembered… He groaned again.

    In his fatigued, dispirited state, the thought touched his mind for the first time in many years that maybe there was a higher power after all, for surely the sweet scent even now interfering with his sleep was payment extracted for his past sins. It was a hard penance indeed.

    Allie wasn't certain what had awakened her, but her first instinct had been to glance toward Sarah's bed. It was empty.

    She looked out the window of their room. It was a bright night. A million twinkling stars were visible in the endless dark blanket of the sky, but dawn was already beginning to lighten that blackness. Sarah had been gone a long time.

    Allie turned away from the window and buried her face in the pillow. She did not want to think where Sarah had gone. The answers that crept into her mind caused her too much distress. She did not want to face them, and she had tried to avoid them by falling asleep, but she had found no escape there. Instead, she had remained awake, listening to the sounds of night.

    A sound outside the bedroom door interrupted Allie's thoughts, snapping her head in its direction as it slowly opened and Sarah slipped into the gradually lightening shadows. She remained silent, but Sarah was too alert not to realize that she was awake.

    Advancing slowly to the side of her bed, Sarah stood over her for long silent moments, her face glowing with triumph.

    "Why aren't you asking me where I've been all this time, Allie? Could it possibly be because you don't want to know?"

    Fascinated despite herself by the wildness in Sarah's brilliant eyes, Allie did not immediately reply.

    "What's the matter, cat got your tongue? Or maybe you know the answer already."

    Realizing Sarah would not relent until she replied, Allie said, "I don't know and I don't care where you were, Sarah. It's none of my business. Mother Case"

    Her eyes glittering maliciously, Sarah gave a harsh laugh. "Mother Case! You don't give a damn about Mama right now and you know it. All you've been thinking about is Delaney, and you're wondering if I went visiting tonight. Well, I'm going to tell you. Yes, that's exactly what I did. You see, Delaney and I had a long talk before he left this afternoon, and we made plans. You know I'd never disappoint Delaney, don't you, Allie?"

    Allie stiffened, pain stronger than any she had ever suffered twisting her stomach into tight, hurting knots. No, it wasn't true. Delaney would never do that. He had said he didn't even like Sarah.

    Sarah did not wait for her reply.

    "And Delaney didn't disappoint me, either." With a low, gloating laughter, Sarah turned away and went to her own bed, where she lay down and stretched gracefully.

    "Delaney said I'm beautiful. All of me. He told me that he loves my body, and that he'll never get enough of me. He said"

    "I don't believe you! You weren't with Delaney! He wouldn't"

    "You're a fool, do you know that?" Sarah's voice grew sharper. "Do you really think any man would turn down what
I
have to offer? Never! And it was better than I ever thought it could be."

    "You're lying! I don't want to hear anymore."

    "You don't want to believe me, do you, Allie dear? You want to believe you've turned Delaney against me for good, just like you've turned my own brother against me, but you haven't. He wants me, Allie, and now that he's had me, he'll want me more. When Delaney leaves he's going to take me with him. I'm going to make sure he wants me so much that he won't be able to leave without me."

    "I don't believe you."

    "Yes, you do. You know you believe me." Laughing low in her throat, Sarah stretched languorously. "I don't think I'll    bother to bathe tonight. I like having Delaney's scent on me. It's easier to remember him that way."

    Allie stared in silence as Sarah finally turned her back and pulled the coverlet over her shoulders. She did not see the glow of victory slip from Sarah's face. She did not see the expression of seething jealousy and steadfast determination that replaced it before Sarah, with supreme control, closed her eyes to sleep.

    Allie was still staring at her back minutes later when the low, even sound of Sarah's breathing reached her ears.

    Allied closed her eyes against the burning ache inside her, against the sight of dawn creeping across the night sky. She didn't want to believe Sarah, but she could not truly believe that any man, even Delaney, could resist Sarah's beauty.

    Willing herself to sleep, Allie attempted to dismiss the evil pictures that chased each other across her mind, and the excruciating sadness that overwhelmed her.

    Oh, Delaney…

    Delaney had been in a foul mood for the past week, and it wasn't improving. He lowered the pages to the desk and covered his eyes with his hand for a few silent moments. Damn it all, he had to get himself under control.

    "What's wrong with you, boy? You're more damned irritable than a grizzly with a sore paw."

    Delaney dropped his hand from eyes that were suddenly cold blue ice. "That's my business, isn't it?"

    "The hell it is! I'd say it's my damned business, too, when I gotta sit here and suffer your moods."

    Delaney's hands tightened into fists. "You're mistaken."

    "No, you're the one who's mistaken, boy! Look here, don't you give me any of your threaten in' looks, because I won't put up with them. I want to get somethin' clear, right here and now. You aren't so big that I have to take any of your guff. And if you have somethin' to say, say it! There are only two of us in this here office, and it occurs to me that maybe that's the problem. I admit that we could use some more help, but there's no other help to be had that's worth hirin', if that's what's
eatin
' at you."