Yet it worried him too. He at least had the advantage—or was it a disadvantage?—of having been in love once. Granted he had been young and idealistic in those days. Now he knew better. Cara seemed to have learned the lessons he had without having gone through that very particular type of tearing, cutting pain. She had been disillusioned in an entirely different way, but she still had about as many barriers against love as he did.
But here he was, asking her to... what? Have an affair with him. That was all. No big deal. Right?
Wrong! Something was telling Burke that when they finally came together, they would redefine the term love affair. And they would come together—on that he was determined.
He stopped. What were the words he had just used? Love affair! How surprising. He hadn’t meant to use that word. Cara certainly didn’t believe in love and neither did he.
Then again, he reflected, if he didn’t use the word love, he would have to find a word just as extraordinary. An ordinary affair was a case of easy come, easy go. But there was not one thing easy about Cara—not getting her and—No! His mind couldn’t cope with the thought of letting her go.
He pulled himself up short. Damn! He almost laughed aloud. Love! The mighty Burke Delaney was in love! He had fallen so fast and so hard, he hadn’t even known it was happening.
He walked to the side of the bed, and she stirred, as if, even in her sleep, she sensed his presence. He understood. She had been in his dreams since she had first arrived. They were all tangled up together, this beautiful, complex woman and he, and he was never, ever going to let her get away.
Still, he was going to have to tread carefully if he wanted to keep her by his side. The fight at Hell’s Bluff had defused some, but not all, of his aggression and frustration. Today he would take on some tough jobs at the ranch. Hard physical labor never hurt anyone, and maybe in his case it would help.
He wanted to wake her, to tell her he loved her and to tell her that eventually she would come to love him too. But he had learned that while such self-assured tactics might work in other parts of his life, they most definitely wouldn’t work with Cara. Smiling tenderly, he reached out his hand and barely brushed his fingertips across a shining curl. She sighed. Using every ounce of willpower he possessed, Burke cast Cara one last look and quietly left the room.
* * *
Cara dressed for dinner that night—really dressed—in a chiffon and velvet black dress. The dress was totally impractical and suited her mood to perfection. Chiffon embroidered with jet beads veiled, yet didn’t conceal, her shoulders and arms. From there, silk velvet hugged her breasts and midriff, then gathered softly at the waist to flow to the floor.
She made her way out of her room and down the hall. The house was silent. There wasn’t even a sign of a house maid. But Cara knew. Burke was home. She had wandered these very halls during the preceding night. She knew what the great house felt like when Burke was gone. Empty. The energy level of the house was depleted in his absence. Now, however, she could feel the vitality and intensity of his presence. He might not even be in the house, but he was on Killara somewhere.
Burke watched her descend the stairs, wondering how in hell he was supposed to keep his hands off her when she looked so utterly desirable.
“Burke!” As soon as Cara caught sight of him, she hurried down the remaining steps to his side. “What happened to your face?”
He rubbed his cheek gingerly. “Nothing much. Just a friendly fight.”
“If it was so friendly, why did you feel the need to fight at all?”
He laughed. “I think it was one of those cases where you really had to be there to understand.”
“Well, if you’re not going to tell me what happened, at least tell me whether or not you’re all right.” She tentatively extended a finger to brush his bruised cheek. “Does it hurt?”
Her light touch shot through him like an electric jolt. “No.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away. Because her gray eyes expressed such bewilderment at his action, he kept hold of her hand but deliberately changed the subject. “You look absolutely exquisite. That’s not one of the dresses you bought in Tucson, is it?”
She shook her head, pleased with his compliment. “I brought it from Paris, although now I can’t remember why. I was pretty excited the morning I packed, and the dress is not very practical.”
“Neither was the one you wore through four airports.”
She laughed, grateful that his anger and frustration seemed to have dissipated while he had been gone. “No, but you’d be surprised at the service I received.”
“I don’t think I would.” he murmured appreciatively, and lifted her hand to his mouth. “Shall we go into dinner?”
In the baronial dining room tall white candles had been lighted. Their flames glinted in the highly polished silver and danced in the faceted pattern of the cut crystal. Sévres china reigned supreme on the fine Irish lace tablecloth. But for all the formality of the room, the mood between Cara and Burke remained light. Rather than be separated by the long length of the table, they sat close, at right angles to each other.
“What I want to know is, who started the fight?”
“I forget,” Burke answered quite innocently. The devilish sparkle in his green eyes told her he had no intention of telling her what had gone on at Hell’s Bluff.
Bridget, who was clearing the soup course and who was never at a loss for words regarding the Delaneys, chimed in. “I can answer that well enough. These Delaneys are always the first ones into a fray and the last ones out, now aren’t they?”
Burke adopted a wounded look. “Come on, Bridget. You know we have to have more than ample provocation.” Bridget harrumphed, and the sparkle in Burke’s eyes became more pronounced. “Bridget, you know how certain elements can stir a person’s—uh, how shall I put it?—passion.”
Intrigued, Cara sat back, waiting. She didn’t know what was about to happen, but she was sure Burke was up to something.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about, now do I?”
“No, I suppose not.” He glanced at his housekeeper, then down at his wineglass. “By the way, Bridget, I meant to tell you that Cougar called this afternoon, and he’ll be here tomorrow.”
Bridget’s spine stiffened, and she whirled around, facing Burke with an expression akin to horror on her face. “Cougar Jones. Here? Tomorrow?”
He nodded. “I’m not sure how long he’ll be staying, but I know I can count on you to do everything possible to make sure he’ll be comfortable while he’s with us.”
Bridget’s hand pressed her bosom, which was, in Cara’s opinion, heaving alarmingly.
Burke seemed blatantly unconcerned at his housekeeper’s extreme reaction, but Cara eyed her worriedly. “Are you all right, Bridget?”
“She’s fine,” Burke replied for his housekeeper.
“But who is this Cougar person?”
Burke opened his mouth to speak, but Bridget suddenly snapped out of her shocked condition. “I’ll tell you who he is! The man is a heathen!”
“That’s what he is,” Burke corrected gently, “not who he is.”
“And he’s a barbarian!”
Burke took a sip of wine. “Actually, Bridget, savage might be a better word for him.” To Cara he explained, “Cougar’s a full-blooded Apache.”
The housekeeper stalked out of the room, and in the kitchen beyond they heard a terrible crash of dishes.
Cara’s eyebrows arched. “I hope that isn’t your very best china.”
“Wait,” Burke advised, his lips twitching, “she’s not through.”
In a minute Bridget wheeled out a serving cart at top speed, unmindful that the entrees were clattering precariously on top of it. All but slamming the food onto the table between Cara and Burke, she huffed, “The man constantly watches a person.”
“Cougar is president of his own security firm.” Burke said to Cara. “It’s one of the best in the country, and he hand
les the security for all of Delaney Enterprises.”
“Makes a person positively daft, he does! Those eyes of his—black as Lucifer’s own—can make a person feel...” Her voice trailed off, and she began fussing with her hair.
Burke calmly began to carve a succulent slice of roast beef for Cara. “You know, Bridget, I’ve never been able to figure out why Cougar makes you so nervous. I should think it would bother you only if you believe he has a reason for watching you.” He paused while he deposited the slice of roast onto Cara’s plate, then turned his dark green gaze on Bridget. “Now, since he can’t be watching you for security reasons, he must be watching you for some other reason. What do you think it could be?”
Cara didn’t think Bridget even noticed the humor in Burke’s eyes. The woman paled and blushed all at the same time. “I’m sure I don’t know, now do I?” She threw a vague glance around the table. “Are you ready for your dessert yet?”
To Burke’s credit he didn’t burst out laughing. Instead, kindness laced his voice. “Why don’t you take it easy for the rest of the night, Bridget? Cara and I can serve ourselves.”
The older woman’s face wrinkled with a troubled expression. “Well, if you’re sure.”
“We’re sure, aren’t we Cara?”
“What?” She became aware that her mouth had been hanging open. She shut it. “Oh, yes. You go on, Bridget. Have a nice evening.”
Without another word Bridget turned the serving cart around and propelled it out of the room with an excessive amount of energy.
Cara looked at Burke in amazement. “What in the world was that all about? She was so upset she forgot to talk in questions.”
Burke threw back his head and laughed loudly. “Our exceedingly proper Bridget is very much smitten with one Mr. Cougar Jones.”
She clapped her hands together. “That’s great!”
He nodded. “I think so too.”
“So what’s the problem?”
He toyed with the stem of his wineglass. “It’s a funny thing. Cougar turns into an awkward schoolboy when he’s around Bridget, and believe me, there’s normally not an awkward bone in the man’s body. And our usually loquacious Bridget becomes downright reserved.”
“Then Cougar does return her feelings?”
“Absolutely. It’s just that courting her has been difficult because he doesn’t get out here that much... and also because he’s having to go slow with her.”
“Courting. What an old-fashioned term.”
“It fits them. Wait until you see them together tomorrow. They make you want to believe in happily ever after.”
If only I could believe, Cara thought. She propped her elbow on the table, her jaw on her fist, and with the index finger of her free hand began to trace the pattern of the lace tablecloth as she tried to envision what happily ever after with Burke Delaney would be like. If such a thing were possible, she would be able to have love, security, a family—all the things she had never had. If...
“Cara?”
No, she of all people knew that the concept of happily ever after existed only in the minds of people who refused to face reality. But she could have happiness for a while, and she would take it with all the energy and enthusiasm that she was capable of.
“Cara?”
She heard her name being called. “What?”
“Where did you go? You left me there for a minute.”
“No, I didn’t. I was thinking of you the whole time.”
Under the candlelight the jet beads on her dress glittered, playing off the pale honey color of her skin. Against the black chiffon her hair shone like pure silver. Burke couldn’t let himself believe that he was in her thoughts as much as she was in his. If he let himself believe—even for a moment—that her need was as deep as his, he knew he would be lost.
“If you’re through with dinner, we could have coffee in the library if you like,” Burke said.
Abandoning the pattern of the tablecloth, she shook her head. “No, thank you.”
He shoved his chair back and positioned it to face her. “Would you like to go for a walk then?”
“No.”
Puzzled, Burke drew his brows together. “Is there a program on TV you’d like to watch?”
She looked away from him, then back. The time had come. “I’d very much like you to make love to me.”
Burke went still. “What did you say?”
“Would you make love to me? Please?”
His heart was beating very fast, yet he regarded her steadily. “Why?”
“There are all kinds of reasons.”
“Like?”
Before he knew what she was going to do, she had risen from her chair and was sitting in his lap.
“Like I missed you when you went away,” she said softly. “Like I want you more than I can say.”
For two weeks he had waited to hear her say she wanted him to make love to her. But this morning he had learned he loved her, and now he wanted more. He wanted her to love him in return.
“Like I’m sorry I wasted our precious time together while I tried to make up my mind.”
Her fragrance was enveloping him, her silky body was curving into him. Desire wasn’t love, he thought, but it was certainly a part of it. He felt her fingertips gently brush along his jaw.
“Like I can’t wait until I’m naked and in your arms and you’re teaching me all the wonders of lovemaking.”
“Cara.” Because he seemed to have no choice, his hand went to the back of her dress and slowly drew the zipper down.
Her lips pressed into one corner of his mouth. “You haven’t touched me, really touched me, since the first night I spent here. Touch me now, Burke.”
Passion hardened his body. Obediently his hand slid inside the back of her dress, caressing the smoothness.
“It seems as though it’s been so long.” Her lips moved to the opposite corner of his mouth, and her tongue came out to lick at the crease there.
She didn’t love him, he thought, but for now he would accept what she was willing to give.
She was his fantasy. She was his reality. She was everything he had ever wanted. He lifted her into his arms and strode out of the room.
Six
Even before he lay down beside her, she was reaching for him with arms that appeared pale gold through the sheer black chiffon. He would remember this, he thought, for the rest of his life—the first time she reached for him in passion.
But as he was thinking this he had to tell himself to take their lovemaking slowly, because if he didn’t, he would take her with a ruthless hunger. Already he could feel his loins engorged and throbbing with hot anticipation.
“Cara”—his hands went to his belt buckle—“just a minute.”
“Hurry, please,” she whispered. As he twisted and bent, gradually stripping off his clothes, Cara watched, entranced. She thought she had never in her whole life seen anything as beautiful as his body. To her Burke appeared as some ancient sun god standing in a pool of moonlight. Muscles roped his bronzed arms and back. His legs were strong and hard, his buttocks lean and taut. He was all male, all powerful, and soon she would know what it was like to be made love to by him. She trembled at the thought.
And by the time he lay down beside her, he was trembling too.
Immediately her silken arms entwined about his neck and the velvet of her dress wrapped around his naked legs. She had enveloped him in silk and velvet and that exotic, bewitching scent that belonged only to her.
Their lips met, and the two of them clung to each other as though they would never be parted again. It passed through Burke’s fevered mind that this passion of Cara’s and his was a miraculous thing. It had sprung to life full-blown the minute they had seen each other, and it had gathered force during the time they had spent together. Now at last it would be brought to its natural conclusion.
Beneath him Cara’s body was writhing, and his sanity was almost lost. But he mustn’t rush it, he again reminded
himself. He must hold on to his control. Easing the dress down her body, he marveled at the exquisite beauty of her breasts, high and round, their tips erect.
Then she arched against him and whimpered, and her whimper of passion thundered through his brain, hurling his possessiveness to the forefront like a lightning bolt. She was going to be his and only his! She had been made just for him and he for her, and no one would ever be able to convince him differently.
Cara couldn’t stand the torture. His hands were everywhere, softly caressing. His tongue teased, drawing eager response. Shivering with the intense pleasure he was giving her, she raised her hips and pushed her dress down her legs, taking her panties with her as she did. Then the entangling silk and velvet were kicked away, and it was flesh against burning flesh.
Her completely naked form pressed to his pushed him to the very edge of his endurance. His mouth began a tour of her body, wanting to learn her. He circled each breast with tiny licks, taking each nipple into his mouth and drawing on it until Cara cried out. He decided that her cry was the sweetest sound he had ever heard.
Keeping a hand tenderly grasping a breast, he then nibbled his way across her stomach until he was between her thighs and his tongue had found the deliciously vulnerable opening between her legs.
She moaned his name, and her fingers bit into his shoulders. It was all she was capable of doing. She was on fire and burning up inside.
He came back to her. “What is it, Cara?” His voice was rough because he was being so gentle. “Talk to me. Tell me what you want.”
“You. I want you so badly,” she gasped, twisting beneath his searching fingers that had replaced his tongue. “Please don’t wait. I can’t stand it.”
“Yes, you can,” he murmured. A light sheen of perspiration rested on his skin. “Trust me. We’re going to do this together. And when we’re through, you’ll never want another man as long as you live.”
Burke, the Kingpin (The Shamrock Trinity) Page 8