Daniel came across and joined her on the sofa. Putting his arms around her, he rocked her gently against him until her shudders subsided.
‘I could have killed him,’ he snarled. ‘I almost did. Are you sure you’re all right?’
She swallowed hard, blew her nose and nodded. Her fingers rose unconsciously to a sore place on her chest. She tried to speak and failed. It was hard to believe that the ordeal was over. Daniel took her hand gently in his.
‘There’s a scratch there,’ he said. ‘Do you want me to bathe it for you?’
She looked down and realised that Warren’s wristwatch must have grazed her skin. It was nothing serious, but it brought home to her what might have happened. She shuddered again, but shook her head.
‘No,’ she said huskily. ‘I’ll be all right now.’
‘Are you sure? Isn’t there anything I can do for you?’
‘Just hold me,’ she begged.
His arms tightened protectively around her and he drew her against him. She could hear the rapid, uneven beating of his heart, feel the crisp cotton of his shirt against her cheeks, smell the fragrance of wood-smoke. Bit by bit she began to feel calm again and her breathing steadied. It was almost a pleasure to sit there watching the orange flames flare up the chimney, hearing the hiss and crackle of the logs and feeling Daniel’s arms so safely about her. I love him, she thought despairingly. Whatever he’s doing with Sunny, I still can’t stop loving him. But it’s madness to stay here like this with his arms around me. She tried to pull away, but he held her gently imprisoned.
‘Why did you run off like that tonight?’ he demanded.
In the red glow of the firelight his dark eyes glinted down at her with a strange expression. Too flustered for pretence, Beth blurted out the truth.
‘Because I couldn’t bear to see Sunny Martino all over you.’
Daniel groaned.
‘Beth,’ he said, seizing her shoulders and staring at her intently. ‘There is nothing between Sunny and me which should cause you a moment’s pain or unhappiness. I swear it.’
He saw the indecision in her face and slowly released her. Beth gazed back at him, agonisingly conscious of the way her heart was hammering frantically under his touch, of the way her mouth felt dry and her breath was coming in shallow gulps—conscious above all of the insane urge to cast herself back into his arms. Wordlessly she gazed at him and the silence lengthened. She heard a clock ticking in the kitchen, saw a log shift and fall glowing into the embers, smelled the arousing masculine tang of Daniel’s body crouched close to her, and still they both remained motionless. A kind of excitement as potent as a thunderstorm seemed to be brewing ominously between them, but she felt powerless to resist it. Sensations she had never dreamed of were uncoiling deep inside her, sending a fierce pulsating warmth into every corner of her body. All she could do was gaze at him, trying to ignore the aching hunger he woke within her. A muscle twitched sharply in Daniel’s temple and she heard him take a sharp, uneven breath. In that moment she knew without words that he wanted her every bit as badly as she wanted him. Moistening her lips, she tried to speak and failed.
He made as if to rise. ‘I’ll go, then.’
Beth caught his arm. ‘No, don’t!’ she breathed.
‘Sweetheart,’ warned Daniel. ‘If I don’t go now, you know what’s going to happen.’
A tremor passed through Beth’s body. Yes, she knew. Knew, and gloried in the knowledge. The old warnings clamoured faintly in her head. You might get hurt. He doesn’t love you. Men can’t be trusted. But they no longer had any power. All she cared about now was that she loved Daniel, and in a moment’s blinding insight she knew she would take any risk on earth to be with him.
‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘I want it to happen.’
‘Are you sure?’ demanded Daniel in a tormented voice.
Her only response was to lean forward into his arms. With a smothered groan he crushed her against him and pressed urgent, devouring kisses on her throat and hair. Deliberately turning her head, she brought her mouth around to his. For an instant she thought he would refuse her even then. But when her trembling, questing lips met his, madness seized them both. Threading his hand savagely through her tumbled hair, Daniel kissed her with an urgency and passion that left her breathless. The room seemed to spiral around her in a dizzying whirl as he bore her ruthlessly down to the floor. She felt the warm tickle of the sheepskin rug under her shoulders, the heat of the fire dancing on her left side and the coolness and darkness to the right of her. But nothing mattered except Daniel’s hard, masculine warmth crushing her so satisfyingly into the floor, the scrape of his rough chin against her softness, the frantic thudding of his heart and the way he looked at her. Oh, heavens, how he looked at her! Every plane and angle in his rugged face seemed taut with longing and his eyes flared with an unmistakable savage passion as he kissed her again and again in the firelight. Then suddenly he hauled himself up, so that he was kneeling astride her and gazing fiercely down at her.
‘Are you sure you want this?’ he demanded hoarsely.
Thrills of excitement pulsed through her entire body and a delicious, melting weakness seemed to overtake her. Reaching up her hand, she caressed his stubbly cheek. I love you, she thought fervently. Oh, Daniel, I love you. But she didn’t say it. Instead she simply nodded.
‘Yes,’ she whispered.
With a sharp intake of breath he was on his feet and hauling off his clothes, flinging them heaven knew where. For a moment he stood there in nothing but his briefs, the fireglow highlighting every muscle and sinew of his magnificent body. He was superbly built, with the powerful shoulders, narrow waist and tapering hips of an athlete. Beth swallowed convulsively when she saw how the firelight turned his skin to bronze, gilding the dark hair on his chest and belly and showing unmistakably the evidence of his arousal. Then slowly, insinuatingly, he peeled off his briefs and lay down beside her. He said nothing, merely looking down at her with the same hungry impatience in his eyes. Then he kissed her again and she let herself yield to wave after wave of throbbing, insistent eagerness. The spicy masculine scent of his body, the skilful, arousing touch of his hands, the urgent warmth of his kisses were driving her to a level of arousal she had never experienced before. And yet beneath the incredulous rapture she felt an aching sense of longing. If only Daniel loved her this would be pure ecstasy, but without love it came dangerously close to torment. Then suddenly his deft fingers stripped away her blouse and the flimsy remnants of her bra and she forgot everything in a blaze of passion that swept over like a forest fire.
Daniel’s lips moved over her breasts, warm and teasing and totally shameless. A tingling thrill of pleasure shot through her, making her gasp, and suddenly she was moving in rhythm with him, pressing herself against him, sighing and writhing and offering herself to him. Only when she was ready, maddeningly tormentingly ready, did he go further. She heard his low groan of frustration and her eyelids fluttered open as his hands seized the zip on her jeans. For a moment their eyes met. She could feel her breath coming in rapid, shallow gasps. And she could see the question in his eyes.
‘Yes!’ she breathed hoarsely.
He was no longer gentle; her remaining clothes were torn free and flung away in a frenzied passion and he rolled wildly with her, pressing her against him so that she ached and burned and shuddered with need, but there was no longer any need for gentleness; both of them were so inflamed with longing that, when at last he entered her, she welcomed him with a cry of gladness. And when they moved together she soared over some invisible edge and turned her face into his neck, gasping his name. He caught her against him, holding her as if he would never let her go and, when he too reached his climax, he seized her hand and kissed it fiercely. Collapsing on top of her, he buried his face in her neck with a long shuddering sigh.
‘Oh, Beth,’ he groaned.
Her lips twisted in a whimsical smile. Lying there in the firelight, an exalted sense of joy
swept through her. Oh, he hadn’t told her in so many words that he loved her, but for the first time she felt certain that it was true. What else could this ecstatic union mean? Turning her head she kissed him warmly on the cheek.
‘Oh, Daniel,’ she whispered.
* * *
Beth woke slowly the following morning with a drowsy feeling of contentment. For a moment she lay quietly, watching the sunlight on the white wall casting filigree patterns through the lace curtains. Then memory came rushing back and she rolled hastily over to find Daniel lying beside her. He was breathing deeply and his face, relaxed in sleep, looked different from his waking self. Some of the brooding harshness had vanished and the tautness around his mouth was softened. He lay on his side with one arm flung out towards her as if reaching for her.
Beth propped her chin on her hand and gazed down at him, smiling wistfully. There was a special kind of intimacy involved in watching him as he slept and seeing the way the dark blue and white quilt rose and fell with his breathing. Holding her breath, she reached out and stroked the coarse dark hairs on his forearm experimentally. His arm twitched and he made a faint gesture as if he were dashing away a fly. Suppressing a bubble of laughter, Beth leaned forward and dropped a butterfly kiss on his cheek. This time he stirred and reached for her, but still did not wake properly. Beth reached over the edge of the bed, snatched up a couple of lacy pillows and thrust them behind her head. Then she leaned back and resumed the blissful pursuit of watching Daniel. She had been half aware of him sleeping beside her all through the night, of his warmth and hardness and length in the bed, of the deep, regular sound of his breathing, of the drowsy caress of his hands whenever she strayed too close to him. But that was nothing to the happiness she felt now, sitting here wide awake and glorying in his presence.
Memories came hurtling back to her of the previous night. First the jumbled nightmare of Warren’s presence, but that was soon banished by a kaleidoscope of passionate, loving sensations. A feeling that was close to reverence took hold of her as she remembered how Daniel had taken her in the firelight. I love him, she thought. And knew that the bond forged between them would last until the day she died. She took in a deep, shuddering breath, wanting to record every detail of the sensations she felt so that this moment would last forever in her mind. She was acutely conscious of the lavender scent of the sheets mingled with the aroma of spicy cologne and a raw tang of masculinity that emanated from Daniel’s body. Impulsively she leaned forward and kissed him again. This time one eyebrow rose and a dark eye regarded her sleepily. A faint smile curved the edges of his mouth and then, as suddenly as if a gate had slammed shut, a complete change came over him. He swore softly under his breath and hauled himself up against the bedhead.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Beth in dismay.
‘Everything,’ he growled.
Her clenched fist flew up to her mouth and she bit on her knuckles, feeling the pain.
‘What do you mean?’ she stammered. ‘You don’t regret what happened, do you?’
He gave a mirthless sneer of laughter and ran his fingers through his dark wavy hair. In spite of her misgivings Beth noticed how the movement sent a ripple through the muscles of his arm and she felt a renewed flicker of desire. But his next words sent a fresh jolt of dismay through her.
‘Regret it?’ he growled. ‘Of course I regret it.’
She cast him a stricken look. He looked back at her, his eyes smouldering with anger or perhaps something else. Then suddenly his face softened and reaching for her, he seized her hair and framed it in twin bunches on either side of her face.
‘Don’t look like that,’ he ordered hoarsely. ‘I didn’t mean it that way.’
‘Then how did you mean it?’ she demanded with an edge in her voice. ‘Wasn’t I exciting enough for you?’
He gave an impatient snarl and released her.
‘Exciting?’ he retorted. ‘You were too damned exciting for my sanity. That’s the whole trouble!’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Beth in alarm.
Daniel leaned back against the polished cedar bedhead and interlaced his strong fingers, offering no reply.
Beth’s lips quivered angrily.
‘If you don’t want me, I wish you’d just come right out and say so!’ she exclaimed.
‘Want you?’ he grated. ‘I want you. That’s not the problem.’
‘Then what is the problem?’ demanded Beth.
Daniel’s face took on an intense serious look. He caught her by the arms and stared at her with blazing dark eyes.
‘This is the problem,’ he said through clenched teeth. ‘If we continue with this, it may not mean the same thing to both of us.’
Beth felt as sick as if he had suddenly punched her in the stomach. Now I understand, she thought bleakly. He’s warning me that he doesn’t want to take this relationship seriously, that it won’t last forever. For a few seconds she stared at him in anguish and when the words came her voice sounded dry and brittle.
‘I don’t expect it to be the great love-affair of the century, Daniel,’ she said lightly. ‘But you told me once I should take risks and trust my instincts more. Well, I know what my instincts are telling me. I want you, Daniel.’
She wanted to say ‘love’, but the word stuck in her throat. Daniel gave her a bleak, hostile stare.
‘That’s all you want from me?’ he asked.
Beth gave him a tormented look. No, it isn’t, she wanted to cry. I want more, much more than that. I want you to love me and marry me and give me children and stay with me for the rest of my life. But what a fool she would seem if she said these things aloud!
‘Yes, it is,’ she said unsteadily. ‘That’s all I want.’
And reaching forward she touched his cheek and let her hand trail delicately down until it met the rough mat of hair on his chest. Teasingly she let her fingers circle his nipple until she felt the sensitive flesh harden. Then her hand continued down over the hard muscles of his belly, making them clench. Daniel caught his breath and seized her wrist.
‘All right,’ he said stormily. ‘If that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll get.’
His swift movement took her by surprise and a moment later she found herself pinioned against the pillows. His mouth came down on hers in a warm bruising kiss that sent thrills of excitement coursing through her body. Then he drew back and looked into her eyes.
‘But there are to be no pressures, do you understand? No high-flown talk about love or permanence. Let’s just get to know each other and see how we go. Agreed?’
‘Agreed,’ whispered Beth.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE weeks that followed were a bittersweet time for Beth. In some ways she had never been busier or happier. She shared with Daniel many of the headaches and excitements of her expanding business. And there were leisure activities as well. Trail rides up in the hills, kayaking on the off-shore islands near Santa Barbara, picnics and swimming on the white sandy beaches that fringed the coast, and pleasant outdoor lunches in the quaint Danish village of Solvang. Not to mention nights of shared passion when she felt as if the earth had tilted on its axis and would never be the same again.
But, like a discordant counterpoint to all this happiness, Beth felt a growing sense of misgiving. However much shared passion and work and laughter their lives might have, she had the frustrating sense that she was not growing any closer to Daniel. In fact most of the time she felt as if he was deliberately pushing her away. Although they made love with urgent frequency, he never again spent an entire night in her cottage, always prefering to go home to his own house. He never talked to her about his feelings towards her. And, what was worst of all, he seemed to be spending more time than ever in the company of Sunny Martino.
Not that Beth thought Daniel was actually sleeping with the actress. He couldn’t be cynical or callous enough for that, surely? And yet she found her beliefs on this subject swinging wildly between two totally opposite poles. In the m
oments late at night when Daniel gasped her name and crushed her against him in the lamplight, Beth knew she was totally and utterly foolish even to imagine such a thing. Yet in daylight the suspicion refused to die. When Daniel went away for days at a time to Los Angeles or on the two occasions when he brought Sunny back to spend a weekend at the farm, Beth found herself a prey to a jealousy that both shocked and appalled her.
And the trouble was that she didn’t know what to do about it. She thought of tackling Daniel and demanding the truth, but it was an ordeal she didn’t want to face. Perhaps because the pain of learning that he was still Sunny’s lover would be more than she could bear. Or even because she still foolishly cherished the hope that one day Daniel would tell her he loved her and ask her to marry him. The mere notion brought a dry, mirthless laugh to her lips. What a fool she was!
Of course, she could have asked Sunny point-blank what was happening but pride made her shrink from that. It would be far too embarrassing. There were even moments when she felt a certain painful sympathy with the actress. If Sunny loved Daniel, the whole situation must be just as agonising for her as it was for Beth. Yet, on the few occasions when Beth saw her, she didn’t seem in much agony. She was pert, lively and full of studio gossip. And her flirtatious manner towards Daniel seemed as much a part of her as her magnificent bosom or her scarlet fingernails. Even if she is involved with him, thought Beth miserably, I don’t believe it matters to her the way it does to me. I should do something, she told herself despairingly. I shouldn’t just drift like this. In a moment of grim insight she knew she had let herself be caught in exactly the trap that she dreaded. A relationship without trust, without hope, without a future. And her joy in Daniel’s company began to give way to a smouldering resentment. I am not going to put up with this forever, she vowed. One of these days he’ll go too far and he’ll get the shock of his life.
By the end of July, Beth’s winter collection of clothes was completed and ready for the new season’s fashion shows in Los Angeles. A month of hard labour had gone into the preparations and, when Daniel suggested a weekend’s sailing in Santa Barbara, Beth was only too happy to agree. Out in the lazy blue tranquillity of the Pacific Ocean with nothing but the hot sun overhead, the creak of the rigging, the lazy slap of the dark blue sea against the hull, it was easy to believe that everything would come right between her and Daniel. Yet Sunny managed to ruin even this simple pleasure. As they were heading back for home, there was a call on the radiophone.
The Bride of Santa Barbara Page 15