Secret Admirer Page 8

  "Looks good." But he wasn't looking at the food as he moved closer.

  She dropped the foil cover and backed swiftly toward the door, her courage deserting her. "Well, I just came by to leave your breakfast," she said. "So, there it is. I - I hope you like it."

  "Why don't you stay and eat with me?”

  “Errands."

  "What are you up to? You got a crush on somebody?" No, I'm in love with you. I'm in love?

  She couldn't very well say that, so she stared at the floor and said something really stupid. "I hear Carol's back in town."

  "I know. She called, and I told her I'd found someone else."

  "You did?"

  He nodded. For a minute more he was silent.

  "Stephanie found your jacket and those pins in the trash yesterday. I just want to know one thing. Did you dress like that this morning for me or some other guy?"

  Her feelings were too powerful to admit. She felt as giddily thrilled as she had after he'd asked her to the Spring Fling all those years ago. If only he hadn't snuck up on her and J.K. hadn't taken those pictures and plastered them all over the locker room walls. What if they'd gone to the Spring Fling and had had fun together? What if they'd fallen in love? But they hadn't.

  Suddenly, Matt, their history, and the power of her feelings for him now were all too much for her. But before she could run out the door, he spanned the distance and slipped a hand around her waist. His fingers seemed to burn her skin. For a long moment all either one of them could do was breathe.

  She told herself she should fight him. When she didn't, he eased her closer.

  "I've really gotta go," she whispered, in a panic now.

  "No, you don't."

  He tilted her face up to his and stared at her a long time before he finally kissed her lips. When he felt her fire, he gripped her tighter. "Don't go. Not when you... Not when I want you more than I've ever wanted anyone." His voice went lower. "I want to hold you and kiss you... and make love to you."

  "Now?"

  "Now. And all the time.”

  “We can't do it now."

  "Who told you that, darlin'? Mornings are the best time." He brushed her soft mouth with his, coaxing her lips open so that his tongue could enter, kissing her with the intensity of a man who had no intention of stopping.

  Not that she wanted him to any more than she wanted to stop the progression of his tanned hands that were gently caressing her breasts and kneading her nipples into hard little berries. When she moaned, he pushed his tongue deeper inside her mouth and snugged her closer against his rock-solid body.

  Many kisses later, her breasts ached and she was damp between her legs as he led her silently toward the couch. He kissed her again, and then his hands slipped behind her back. She was shuddering as he began slowly unzipping her dress.

  Then her hands were fumbling with his belt buckle, when suddenly she heard the sounds of trucks roaring up on the road outside.

  "Damn," he muttered, letting her go.

  Big tires crunched, spitting gravel against the metal sides of the trailer. When more rocks pinged as another truck pulled up, Matt looked out the window.

  "I don't believe this! Jerry Keith won't ever work on my house, and here he and the guys are - on Saturday."

  "Just my luck," she whispered. "Whatever you do, don't let him near your camera."

  Matt turned back to her, and she looked into his eyes and saw desire and frustration, yes, truly maybe something far more profound and lasting.

  She went soft, feeling in that moment that she was completely his. Again he pulled her closer. Cradling her face, he kissed her tenderly. "Come back tonight, darlin'. After they're gone. I'll cook dinner. Something special for just the two of us."

  The feel of his body so hot and strong and hard against hers as he gripped her and stared into her eyes was as intoxicating as the strongest drug. But that wasn't why she wanted to say yes even though she knew she shouldn't.

  "Take a chance on me," he pleaded. "I swear I won't let you down." His mouth clung to hers for a breathless moment.

  "All right," she finally said. "And I'll bring dessert. What's your favorite?"

  "Same as yours. Something sinfully rich and chocolate."

  He hugged her tightly for a long time.

  Something heavy fell off a truck, and Jerry Keith started cussing.

  "Hey, Big Bubba. You gonna sleep all day? We could damn sure use a hand out here!"

  Matt drew a deep breath and said, "You'd better go."

  "They'll know," she whispered as he zipped her dress for her. "Soon as Jerry Keith sees me he'll think - "

  "I don't care," he said, his voice rough and intense with need. "Trust me. This time J.K. isn't going to say one damn word about you and me."

  A big fist banged on the door. "Hey, Bubba, anybody home?"

  Matt got up and opened the door. When Jane stepped up, Jerry Keith grinned and said, "Well, I'll be damned." Then he caught Matt's eye and said, "Morning, ma'am."

  She nodded curtly. Then Matt took her hand and led her to her car. The last thing he said was, "Wear that dress again tonight, darlin'."

  "You like it?"

  "I like you in it. I like the thought of getting you out of it."

  Chapter 10

  Matt and Jane were sitting outside on a blanket he'd thrown down on two flat rocks he used as his patio, licking the last of their chocolate mousse from their finger. The smoke-scented air felt so light and balmy, Jane lay down and stretched. Constellations winked at her through the branches of the live-oak trees. The heat from the golden coals in the chimenea warmed her bare arms and legs.

  "The steaks were delicious," she said, turning toward him.

  "Your chocolate mousse was definitely the high point."

  "I ate too much of everything," she whispered, sitting up again, because lying down beside him suddenly felt too intimate.

  Matt leaned closer to her. "As I once heard a guy say in Italy, we've eaten. We've drunk." He reached out and took her hand. Slowly he traced her palm with his cal-lused fingertips. "And now it's time for love."

  His words made her shiver. "Out here? On these rocks?" She giggled tipsily as she sipped more champagne. Never had she had so much fun with anyone.

  "On these big flat red rocks. Why not? This night was made for it...."

  She met his eyes and was momentarily at a loss for words. He didn't push it. His grip tightened a little on her hand, but he waited, as if leaving the momentous decision up to her.

  A minute stretched into two. This would not be a light affair for her. The urge to get up and run was all-powerful. Quickly, before she lost her nerve, she put her hands on either side of his face and kissed him. It wasn't a perfect kiss. Her mouth didn't meet his at quite the right place or angle. Their noses bumped. She laughed shyly and he went still, as if still waiting.

  She wanted more than an awkward kiss, and her hands slipped around his neck. The second kiss was better. And the third was really something.

  "Hey, you're getting good," he whispered as he began combing his hands through her hair.

  The wind gusted through the trees and cooled her perspiring body. And yet she didn't want to cool off. What she craved was heat. When she moaned, he kissed her even harder, stealing her breath away.

  "Are you sure this is what you want?" he muttered fiercely, lying down on the large, flat rocks and pulling her on top of him.

  "Yes."

  "I won't hurt you this time. I swear it."

  "I believe you." She didn't quite. But she was tired of playing it safe. She hadn't felt so alive or ever had this much fun. It felt good to let herself go for once. Good to take a chance. Even on wild, lonely Matt Harper.

  She was sure he'd written that letter in the Gazette, and he'd sent her those flowers. And he was still afraid to tell her he'd written the letter. Which meant she wasn't the only one in this relationship who was afraid. She was tired of letting her fears stop her. Wasn't that what life was all a
bout - taking chances? Could one really ever count on anything? Like the next breath? Love?

  She wanted this moment, right now, with him, no matter what it cost her. Slowly she sat up and unzipped her green dress so that it fell to her shoulders. His eyes burned her skin.

  "Wow. A black lace bra. For once we're on the same page."

  She licked her lips. "Your turn."

  "What is this - strip poker?"

  "Only without the poker."

  He sat up, too, and unbuttoned his shirt. She leaned closer and slid it off his shoulders. After folding it neatly she placed it on the blanket.

  "Your turn," he said huskily.

  Her hands shook as she unhooked her bra.

  "I'll take it from here," he said, removing it for her. Bringing it to his nose, he inhaled her scent.

  Before he pulled her against his bare chest, she heard the wind in the trees again and remembered that time he'd snuck up on her with that camera, but as his lips plundered hers, she forgot the past. Gradually she was aware only of the exquisitely sensual things his hands and lips were doing to her now. There was the rasp of zippers, the rustle of more clothing being removed and tossed aside, carelessly now. Soon their hot bodies were entwined.

  At first she felt shy and strange and scared, but he was patient and slow and infinitely gentle. She grew accustomed to him. He told her again and again that he thought about her all the time, that he even dreamed about her at night.

  "I never knew," she murmured, "that I was anything to you. "Until - " She stopped herself.

  "Until?"

  "Nothing." Now wasn't the time to discuss the love letter.

  "Since those pictures in the locker room, I never thought I had a chance."

  "But then you kissed me under the mistletoe," she said. "It happened before I knew it was going to. Since then I've tried to put it out of my mind.”

  “Me too."

  He kissed her again, and this time he didn't stop. After a while she was no longer aware of being separate from him at all. It was as if they were one. He touched her and kissed her, and she was filled with delicious, warm feelings, and she wanted to feel like this always, to never be a separate being again.

  He knew just how to stroke her with his lips and his hands, and how to use his body to give her the most pleasure so that her feelings for him built and built into a roaring flame. He sucked and licked and teased and taught her to do the same until they were both incredibly feverish, and she was aching for even more from him. He carried her to explosive heights of delirious passion.

  He crushed her to him, his arms wrapping her tightly, his breathing growing fast and harsh as he whispered tender love words into her hair. Freely, she abandoned herself to him, returning his kisses wantonly, running her hands all over him, urging him, wanting him. When she began to weep, he finally shuddered, and she came too, knowing a fulfilling rapture that until that moment she hadn't imagined.

  Afterward they lay together beneath the stars. Her eyes stung with unshed tears as he held her close and slid his fingers into her hair, curling long strands of it around his hand. At last her eyes opened and she stared into his, feeling a powerful, soul-deep connection.

  She thought of Carol and was tortured by self-doubt and passionate jealousy. Suddenly Jane felt restless, wanting him again, even now when his breaths were still harsh, wanting him like a cat in heat, wanting him more than before.

  "I don't think I can get enough of you," she said, aware that she felt shattered and not quite herself after what they'd shared. More than anything she wanted him to say she was special. "At least not any time soon."

  She felt vulnerable, different. If her mother hadn't gotten sick, she would never have come home, never have gone to work for Fortune TX. She would never have made love to Matt.

  Jane stroked his dark hair as if he was very precious to her. It was probably ridiculous, but she felt that every moment in her life had been charged with some profound purpose leading her to being with Matt like this on this big, flat rock. Maybe she would have told him that more than anything she wanted to belong to him forever, maybe she would have even asked him how he felt. But just as the words began to form in her mind, she saw lights in the trees, and she screamed at him to get up instead.

  "Someone's coming!"

  "Damn it." Swiftly Matt pulled her against him and wrapped them both up in the blanket. "Calm down," he growled, even though he didn't sound the least bit calm himself.

  By the time his brother's big truck roared up to the trailer, and Jerry Keith hopped out of it, yelling for his big brother, Matt and she were covered by the blanket.

  When he saw them, Jerry Keith grinned. Then he laughed. "What the hell?"

  Matt swore. "Get out of here!"

  Jerry Keith's insolent smirk vanished. He didn't say another word. He stumbled over a rock as he ran toward and jumped back into his truck. Gravel spun when he backed out of the driveway.

  No sooner was he gone than Jane threw off the blanket and began to dress hurriedly.

  "You told him I'd be here again, didn't you?" she muttered. "You couldn't resist."

  "No. Hey, sit down. Calm down."

  "And wait for him to bring the whole town back?"

  "You don't have to go, you know," Matt said, but he yanked on his jeans.

  She cringed away from him when he tried to touch her.

  "We could drink coffee, talk," he muttered.

  "Talk? About what?" She felt painfully humiliated. "Your brother is probably on his cell blabbing to everybody he knows right now!"

  "Look, I'm sorry he came here," Matt said.

  "It'll be just like it was back in high school. You're the stud, and I'm...I'm...the... What am I?" She couldn't go on.

  "Is that really what you think?"

  "Did you know he was coming?"

  "Hey. Hey. Listen to me. I didn't know. Of course I didn't know. I'm very sorry he showed up and embarrassed you. I'm so mad I could kill him."

  She hooked her bra and pulled on her dress. "Where's my other shoe?" she begged desperately. "Where is it?"

  He sat down wearily and watched her dig through the high grasses beside the rocks. "I'm not the bad guy this time," he said. Even though he was bare-chested, he didn't reach for his shirt. "Why did you make love to me, Jane?"

  "What difference does that make now?"

  "Was this just part of some game plan to get the director of market research job? I know you're very meticulous."

  She grabbed her shoe and shoved it on her foot. "What? How can you even ask such a question when you and your brother set me up?"

  "Is that why you wrote that letter in the Gazette that got me going?"

  "Me? I didn't write that letter. You wrote it! If anybody set anybody up, you set me up!"

  "Me?" He stared at her. "Sorry, darlin', but your mother called me up and told me you wrote it."

  "What? She told me the same thing - but about you, or rather she told Mindy and Mindy told me. And I believed it was all true after you sent me those flowers."

  He lowered his black head. "I didn't really send them," he said even more gloomily. "Carl sent them to Stephanie. They were delivered to you by mistake. When you liked them so much, I paid him back the other day at the watercooler and told him not to tell you."

  "And you took credit for them? You let me believe - "

  "Like a dope, I thought you'd written the letter. I thought maybe you liked me... at least a little. I wished I'd sent them. I never expected you to believe me. But you did." His voice was stiff and low. "Now I see you've been playing me for a fool the whole time. You've been leading me on just to throw me off course with sex because you want to be the director of market research more than anything." He paused. "Don't you?" When she didn't answer him, he repeated the question. "Don't you?" Beneath his anger, his deep voice sounded bleak and hurt.

  "That's right," she whispered, too embarrassed and furious herself to think clearly. "Believe whatever you want."

&
nbsp; "I want the truth - plain and simple," he said.

  "No! You want the job - just like I do."

  "Blond ambition in action. You're good, darlin'. Re good. You damn sure had me fooled. I thought you were sweet. I thought this was the real thing."

  His words cut into her heart as viciously as a blade.

  "You Snow women are all alike," he muttered. "Not to be trusted."

  "Don't you dare talk about my family. And if it's any consolation, you've got the job. You'll win - like you always do. J.K. will blab, and everybody in town will know that big-breasted Jane Snow was out here making a fool of herself by lying with you naked on these flat red rocks. Oh! I - I can't believe I was so stupid."

  "Neither the hell can I," he yelled, his voice even louder than hers.

  "Were... were you making fun of me even when you said you sent those flowers?" she whispered. "Did you think I was that pathetic?"

  He placed his dark head in his hands. "I never thought you were pathetic. Let's just quit talking. This whole thing is out of hand. Fighting isn't getting us anywhere. Go home. I'll try to track down Jerry Keith. We'll figure it all out later."

  "Jerry Keith? You're calling him first thing?" She laughed a little hysterically. "To make sure he gets all the details straight?"

  "Shh," he whispered.

  Tears ran down her cheeks as she stumbled over the rocks and grasses through the cedar brush country to her car. Matt followed her, but he was barefoot. When he stepped into a patch of sticker burrs and began to hop up and down on one foot, yelping her name, she drove off, leaving him in whorls of dust.

  "Hell!"

  "Get your lousy ass back here," Matt roared into the phone as he opened a beer bottle and took a long pull. Fortunately it had been fairly easy to track down Jerry Keith once he remembered where he'd written the kid's new cell-phone number.

  "Your girlfriend must be long gone," J.K. chortled.

  "If you say one word about her to anybody, I'll kill you - "

  "Is your date with her for the Spring Fling on or off or what?"

  "One Word!"

  "Gotcha."

  "If you so much as hint to anybody - "

  "Gotcha." Jerry's voice shook convincingly.