“It hasn’t—yet,” Sunny said.
“But it might. Sunny?”
She turned to look at him as he’d hoped. Their eyes met and held. She was incredibly sexy, her hair slightly mussed from the wind, her lips parted as if in surprise. “You know I want to kiss you,” he said.
“No. You don’t. Let’s go, Malone.”
“Not yet.” He reached out and caught her cheek, holding it gently. Her skin grew warm, warmer, as if the imprints of his fingers were being permanently etched on her face. “Don’t look so stricken, Sunny. I won’t hurt you.”
“But you could,” she whispered. “Everyone says—”
“Everyone says what I want them to. Don’t you understand?”
“And what do you want me to say about you, Malone?”
She was afraid of him but she didn’t turn away. He could almost feel the wild, crazy desire that surged through him transfer to her. “I want you to say that you want me, Sunny Clary.”
“No,” she protested. “I won’t. So you can stop coming at me.”
“But you do,” he insisted and he kissed her, a slow, deep kiss that branded her as surely as the fingertips still holding her face. He let go with one hand and pulled her closer, sliding her legs over his knees and slipping his hand beneath her coat to turn her toward him. He expected her to freeze. She didn’t. Instead she threaded one arm around his neck. Suddenly her coat was open and her breasts were pressed against him and hungry, white-hot passion raced through him. As his fingers found her breasts, she groaned and pushed against him. Then suddenly there was an intrusion, an insistent noise at the window.
Reluctantly, Ryan pulled away and turned, to come nose-to-nose with Lottie peering through the foggy window.
Sunny groaned and scooted to the other side, pulling her coat around her like a shroud.
Lottie knocked again and motioned for him to lower the window.
“What do you want?”
She smiled, looked over at a mortified Sunny and handed him a box wrapped in white paper with a red bow. “It’s your gift. Remember? The one I bought for you. And from the looks of things, I believe you’ve generated enough steam to blow it up.”
7
“YOU GOING TO STAY puffed up like a frog all the way home?” Ryan asked, feeling like a kid caught in the act at lover’s lane. He still had an erection that showed no signs of abating.
“I am not puffed up like a frog!”
“Then what else do you call it?”
“I’m embarrassed,” she confessed. “What must Lottie think about me?”
“The last person you need to worry about is Lottie. I believe she’s showing definite signs of sexual deprivation. In fact, the way she’s been acting, it’s your father you should be concerned about.”
“My father? What does that mean?”
“Never mind. Forget what I said. It’s just that this kind of frustration is something I’m not used to. Look, we’re adults. I know you want me. You know I want to make love to you. What are we going to do about it?”
“Nothing! Absolutely nothing,” Sunny snapped. “I’m not going to be one of your two-week women.”
“Two-week women? What does that mean?”
“One of the first things I heard about Ryan Malone was that you were Atlanta’s most eligible bachelor, that you were seen with every beautiful woman in town for two weeks and then you moved on. Do you deny it?”
“Of course I do…I…” But she was right. He hadn’t played elusive on purpose, he just hadn’t felt strongly enough about any of them to take a chance on the relationship turning serious. Until now.
“See, you can’t deny your reputation. So there won’t be any us. And I’d appreciate it if you’d stop talking about it. In fact, the deal’s off. Forget about helping me with Lord Sin. I’ll…I’ll find him by myself.”
Ryan let out a deep sigh. Just what he didn’t want. “No, you won’t.”
“How do you know? I’m a reporter, remember?”
He didn’t argue because he couldn’t be sure. One thing he did know. Sunny Clary was no two-week woman. “Look, Sunny, we got started off on the wrong foot. If we’d met anywhere other than Lord Sin’s performance, we’d have gotten to know each other and…”
“We’d never have met, Malone. I’m not in your league. You’re the penthouse suite. I’m the garage apartment.”
“I wasn’t always. There was a time I didn’t even have a place to live.”
There was a long silence. He’d confessed something he’d never told another soul. A slash of late afternoon sunlight fell across Sunny’s face. It fired the red in her hair and fed the connection between them. Except this time, it wasn’t just desire he felt, it was understanding.
RYAN DROPPED SUNNY at the television station where she spent the next two hours returning calls from people with news tips and typing up the information for Ted. Then she drove herself back to her apartment.
She didn’t know how she felt about what had happened. She just knew that it had changed. The heated encounter she’d just had with Ryan Malone was still as powerful as before, but she’d gotten a glimpse of the man behind the fire. Homeless? Alone? And he wanted them to be friends? Could friendship survive such desire?
Climbing the steps to her apartment she felt her briefcase bump her leg. It reminded her of the videotape Lottie had given her. Watching Lord Sin after making out with Ryan Malone would be overwhelming. The body could only take so much stimulation. She refused to allow herself to play it until she’d eaten dinner, showered and was ready for bed. Finally, doing her best to close Malone out of her mind, she slipped the tape into the VCR, snapped off the light and started the machine.
The screen was black for the first few feet but the music was there, a kind of new-age fairy music that suggested flutes and pipes in the distance. Then, as the sound grew louder, a faint light appeared in the distance, like a firefly, growing closer and closer. Then the music slowed and the movement of the light stopped. The tiny flame flared for a moment, then turned into a sunburst of light.
Lord Sin suddenly appeared. A luminescent body, like the core of the flame, a spirit that transcended time and space. Every line of his powerful body was outlined in a shimmering, golden glow. He was covered by the same kind of translucent material he’d worn at the fund-raiser. It became an outer skin in the light. His long golden hair was caught in some invisible wind and tousled wildly. Then, as he swayed back and forth, the light changed from golden to a silver as soft as moonlight.
He played to the camera as he had to the women in his audience, moving close enough so that, just for a second, she could see the brilliant blue of his eyes peering out from the mask that covered his face. Then he pulled back, seeking the shadows as he spoke. His voice was the same low, sensual whisper, his words a mental caress. “Come closer, darling. Close your eyes and touch my body with yours. I feel your desire. We’re only strangers in the real world. In your fantasies we’ve met before. Tonight we’ll make love again. Touch me. Let me touch you. Let me give you what you want. You will never be alone again. Let me show you what it means to have a man desire you, make love to you.”
His movements were so fluid and so smooth that he seemed to move from the television screen to the bedroom. It was unbelievable how he stimulated the mind so that the viewer saw what he wanted her to see. And every move was designed to suggest two bodies entwined.
“Feel my mouth on yours, drawing the sweet taste of you into mine. Feel my hands touching you, caressing your nipples. Now my lips leave yours and take those nipples into my mouth, hot, moist, demanding. I’m asking you to want me, to let me give you the dreams you need. Do you want me? Are you ready to take me inside you?”
Incredibly, Sunny felt her own body sing. Oh, yes. She was ready. The moist heat between her legs said yes, even though in some faraway place, her mind still questioned. Not three hours ago she was in lust for Ryan Malone. Now this. Was she turning into some sex-starved woman who craved
every man she met?
“Soon, my darling,” he whispered. “Soon, you’ll welcome me into your bed.”
She swallowed hard. There was more, but for now, she needed sleep, not more stimulation, not being forced to acknowledge her desire. She was already flying on the raw edge of emotion. Tomorrow was the golf tournament and she couldn’t let her incredulous attraction to either Lord Sin or Ryan Malone interfere with the future she could have.
Between the two of them, they’d kindled a fire that never completely disappeared. Instead it remained banked until something, or someone, stimulated it. She punched up her pillow and pulled up the cover. How naive she’d been such a short time ago. She’d fallen in love in college, hot sweet love that lasted until she’d seen him with another girl. Then she’d had a casual fling with her editor until she’d surprised him by investigating the city’s great plans to bring new industry to Martinsville. Until she’d found out about padded expense accounts and payoffs to the same men who’d profited from her father’s alleged crimes. Then her story had been killed, for the good of the town, he’d said. It was time for her to grow up. When she threatened to tell the truth anyway, he’d told her she’d only hurt her father. To protect him in his new church, she’d gone quietly.
A blessing in disguise, that escapade had been, for she’d packed up her belongings and headed for Atlanta. The major television stations hadn’t given her the time of day, thanks to the man she’d thought she cared for. But Ted Fields remembered her freelance work for the station during the flood and he’d listened. Ted had believed her. He’d even urged her to talk to the officials in the governor’s office. But she wasn’t sure she was ready to do that yet. Her father had told the truth and nobody had believed him. If she took on the officials back in Martinsville all that would come up again. She couldn’t do that to him. But she’d resolved never to be silenced again.
RYAN’S FIRST CALL that night was to Lottie. “Why’d you do it, Lottie?”
“Do what?”
“Give her that tape. I thought it had been destroyed.”
“How’d you know? Did she tell you?”
“No, I saw you in the mirror.”
She sounded stricken. “I don’t know, Ryan. I should have destroyed it, but it was like my personal photograph album of you. I couldn’t let it go. Besides, I like her and I think you like her, too. I’ve decided that telling the truth isn’t such a bad idea.”
“But the truth has to be my truth,” he said, his voice rising. “If we give her the story, she has to tell the world Lord Sin is a bastard named Jack Ivy who lives on the Riviera, not Ryan Malone.”
“Hey, calm down. It was your idea, remember? I wasn’t sure you were serious. I thought you were using ‘finding Lord Sin’ to stay close to her. Maybe you’d better make up your mind what you really want.”
Lottie was right. The offer had started as a kind of foolish jest. He’d try to get her to Sin if she’d come to his bed. He hadn’t seen any further than the red curls on his pillow. Now the deal was off and he was still toying with giving her the story, at least the one he wanted told. What he couldn’t honestly say was why.
“Ryan, I think it’s time you stopped backing away from women because you lost your mother. I don’t think it’s burying Lord Sin that’s got you worried. I think you’re just scared she won’t understand.”
“You’re right. She wouldn’t. I suppose that makes it all right that she’s more interested in Sin than she is in me.”
Lottie laughed. “You sound jealous. You are Sin, babe, and if you aren’t careful, sooner or later, she’s going to figure it out. No matter what you do.”
“I don’t know, Lottie. Sometimes I’m not sure who I am. Jack Ivy was a loser. Ryan Malone didn’t exist until he became a wealthy citizen; then it was his money that drew people—people who wanted to benefit from that money. Now Sin is about to disappear. Where does that leave me?”
“Jack was smart enough to create Sin and the women loved Sin for the way he made them feel. Then Jack created Ryan Malone. Think of all the people Ryan’s helped. They love him for his generous heart. And you and I know all those people are one and the same. They’re all you and you’ve built something special. Just like what you’re building with Sunny. Don’t dismiss that.”
“When did you get so smart about relationships, Lottie?”
“I’ve always been smart about other people’s lives, Ryan. It’s just my own that I messed up.”
“Everyone knew Ho was a rascal, Lottie. You could never see that.”
“I knew it,” she admitted, “I just loved him anyway. I knew better than to go with him but I always thought he’d come back. Take my word for it, settling for what might have been makes for a lonely life. Wonder how Sunny’s father deals with that.”
“Lottie, don’t you dare. I think you’re going through mid-life crisis. The man’s a preacher.”
“He is now,” she said with a chuckle he didn’t trust. “What are you going to cook for us?”
“I never said I was going to cook.”
“But you are, aren’t you? Because you want to see her again.”
“You’re right. I’ll cook, but Lottie, you leave her father alone. I don’t want you showing off.”
“Ah, all right. Just seems silly to look a gift horse in the mouth without at least examining his—teeth.”
Two hours later Ryan was at Harry’s, the local gourmet food market, where he filled his basket with greens and fruit and a pork tenderloin.
From what he knew about Sunny, she didn’t do anything halfway. He’d bet Sunny’s father was the same way. He wondered what kind of man produced Sunny Clary. As he stashed his groceries in the car, he knew he was going to find out. He only hoped Lottie didn’t have the same agenda.
WHEN RYAN CALLED, Sunny was wide-eyed and edgy, and she realized that it wasn’t just Sin’s tape that made her restless, she’d been waiting for Ryan’s call.
He went straight to the point. “I’m sorry I was such an…ass,” he said.
“So am I,” she said, ignoring the possibility that he was apologizing for what happened in the car. “The meeting was your idea. Lottie and I were getting along fine. What happened?”
The silence told her he was considering his answer. “I think I was surprised,” he finally said. “Lottie has never been quite so open with anyone before, not even with me.”
“You mean you were jealous?”
He laughed dryly. “You could say that.”
That surprised Sunny. “But you were trusting the people close to Lord Sin to size me up. Apparently, Lottie decided I was okay. Isn’t that what you intended?”
“Yes. And Lottie is hardly ever wrong. So, from now on, I’m a friend. As you said, our deal is off. And I’m following Lottie’s orders. I’m cooking for you and your father and Lottie on Sunday night. That is, unless you think he won’t be comfortable with an ex-showgirl.”
“My father isn’t uncomfortable with anyone.”
“Then I’ll expect you about six.” He hesitated. His voice dropping lower. “I wish it was tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll have to be with shallow people who think they’re important when they’re not. I’d rather spend it with you.”
In his bed, she thought, then felt her heart race. The pounding of her pulse was her constant reaction to the thought of Ryan Malone. If only she could think of him as something other than a potential lover. But it was all tied in together. His kisses and the way they made her feel. Watching him with the children at the banquet and feeling an absurd ache that she couldn’t explain. Odd that she was thinking about what a good father he’d make. And a good husband. Even so, she refused to believe he was serious about being interested in her.
It had started with Lord Sin who’d released all these unfamiliar feelings when he’d reached out to her on stage and, later, in her dreams. But it was Malone who was here in her thoughts, making her crazy.
“And what would we do,” she finally asked, “if we spent
an ordinary, real day together? As friends?”
“We’d go to the mountains, poke around in old antique shops, maybe stop by a mine and shovel up a ruby or two. Do you like to fish?”
“Tried it a few times,” she admitted, “but I decided I like sitting by the water and reading a good book better than catching fish. Are you a fisherman?”
“Never done any,” he admitted. “But I think I’d like the peaceful feeling it seems to give. I have a rough little cabin up in the mountains built over two streams. Bought it from a man who built it himself. In the spring, when the mountain laurel blooms, I go up by myself, open the windows and just listen.”
“You go alone?”
“Why do you sound so skeptical?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I guess I just think of you as a tycoon and a…” she couldn’t say lover, though that’s what she meant and she thought he knew that “…philanthropist who could afford a mansion. Why a rough little cabin?”
He waited a moment before answering. “Because it’s honest. It isn’t expensive and fine. No pretense. It’s just what it is.”
“So what are you doing tomorrow?” she asked, drawing back from the appealing intimacy he was creating. Ryan Malone confused her in ways she didn’t understand.
“Tomorrow I’m playing in a charity golf tournament.”
That news jerked Sunny back to reality. Ted’s “good news” again, no doubt. Was the rest of her television future going to revolve around Ryan Malone? “Are you any good?” she finally asked.
“As good as a few thousand dollars of lessons can buy. But skill isn’t the point here. The match was organized to raise money for Doctor’s Hospital’s new children’s program.”
“If skill doesn’t matter, why didn’t you forget about the lessons and give the money to the fund?”
Baring It All (Mills & Boon Temptation) Page 11