Rain pounded against the windshield of the Jaguar Van-denplas XJ6 parked in front of the Merlton Library. It was Rand’s newest car, his current pride and joy, which he pampered like a pedigreed pet. If anyone had told him three days ago that he’d drive his imported ebony-black beauty to Merlton, of all places, and in a downpour rivaling the one Noah had endured, Rand would have dismissed them as crazy.
But his body was burning with memories of yesterday’s encounter with Jamie Saraceni. He remembered the soft pressure of Jamie’s body against his, the hot passion of their kiss, as well as the alert intelligence shining in her eyes and the appealing warmth of her smile. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, nor could he ignore the emotions his thoughts evoked.
This was so unlike him, he thought grimly. Rand Marshall, aka Brick Lawson, was accustomed to controlling his thoughts the way he controlled his characters’ destinies. He’d always been able to keep his mind aloof from his emotions, in his dealings with his family, in his dealings with women. It was so much easier that way.
In fact, he’d decided long ago that sex was more enjoyable without the threatening entanglements provided by that emotional high some liked to refer to as love. But last night, though he’d been feeling restless and frustrated, he hadn’t sought a willing partner to ease those tensions.
Instead, he’d endured them because Jamie Saraceni was so deeply entrenched in his thoughts that he knew it would be impossible to find satisfaction with anyone else.
He mentally implored some unseen deity for help. He’d been living his life comfortably as a self-centered loner; he had no desire to change things right now. Finding himself actively caring about Jamie was terrifying.
Rand grimaced. There was only one way to handle the situation, he decided. He’d have to take Jamie to bed and satiate himself with her. Then put her out of his mind. Once they were in bed together, he’d find out that she was just like the other women he’d taken and forgotten.
But what if she wasn’t? taunted that persistent observer who lived in his head. What if having her made him want her more, not less?
Nerves jangling, Rand attempted to calm himself. Stop thinking in long-range terms; you’re not used to it, you’re not good at it, he reminded himself. Even when he wrote, it was chapter by chapter, much to the chagrin of his editors who would have liked to have an inkling of what was going to happen in the story. But how did he know what was going to occur in chapter ten when he was only on page three?
And that’s about where he was with Jamie Saraceni. Page three. And it was time to move on to page four. Flinging open the car door, he dashed through the cold, driving rain toward the wide glass doors of the library.
Jamie handed an orange to each of the library latchkey kids gathered in the Merlton Library activity room. She had unofficially appropriated the room when she’d put together this unofficial after-school program for her unofficial charges. A local women’s club generously arranged to donate a fixed sum for daily snacks for the children, which Jamie was responsible for buying and serving.
“Tell Miss Saraceni about the kitten, Scotty,” one little boy urged another.
Jamie smiled encouragingly at him. “Do you have a new kitten at home, Scotty?” she asked.
Scotty shook his head. “But I saw this big boy stuffing a kitten in the library book box today.”
Jamie’s eyes widened. “In the book deposit box?” she repeated incredulously.
The box, located in front of the library, was an old mailbox, which had been removed from use by the local post office and given to the library. It was painted orange and had a sign proclaiming Books Only, Not a Mailbox, but people were forever mailing letters in it anyway. “Someone put a kitten in it?” Letters, yes. A cat was definitely a first.
“Aw, that’s just one of Scotty’s stupid tall tales,” scoffed an older child. “Don’t believe him, Miss Saraceni.”
Scotty did have a habit of embellishing the truth somewhat, Jamie knew. “But if there really is a kitten in the book drop it could be hurt if some heavy books are dropped on it.” She frowned at the notion. She would never call herself a cat lover but she did live with seven of them and felt some loyalty to the species. “It could be hungry.”
“Or it could pee on the library books in the box,” an enthusiastic kindergartner chimed in.
All the children except Scotty laughed. “I’m not telling a tall tale, Miss Saraceni,” he said solemnly. “I saw that kitten get put in there.”
What choice did she have but to look for the cat? Jamie asked herself as she trudged out to the book deposit box. It was raining, hard enough to require an umbrella, which she held with one hand while studying her key ring, trying to pick out the correct key to open the box.
“May I be of some assistance?” inquired a deep male voice.
Jamie whirled around so fast that she nearly lost her balance. She managed to maintain it, but dropped the key ring into a puddle on the sidewalk. “Rand.” Her voice sounded breathless. Her mind plummeted into a morass of chaos and confusion. She wanted to run away, she wanted to stay.
“Mind if I share your umbrella?” he asked and moved closer to stand under it, without waiting for her answer.
The elusive, enticing scent of her perfume wafted into his nostrils, and desire knifed through him. Gingerly, Rand stooped and fished the keys out of the puddle. “I’m looking for a certain book,” he said, placing the keys in her palm.
His hand was strong and warm and almost completely covered her own smaller hand. Jamie quivered with involuntary pleasure at the masculine feel of it surrounding hers.
Rand, too, was deeply affected by this simple touching of hands. Shaken, he drew a deep breath and cleared his throat, trying to regroup his defenses. “I’ve tried the libraries in Haddonfield and Cherry Hill, and neither has it. J thought I may as well try Merlton.”
“If the Cherry Hill Library doesn’t have the book, chances are great that we won’t,” Jamie said, striving for a businesslike tone. “It’s the Cadillac of libraries while Merlton is the—” She paused, trying to come up with a suitable car metaphor. Her mind wasn’t working as keenly as it should.
“Yugo?” suggested Rand.
“Unfortunately, yes.” He laughed and Jamie stared at him, she couldn’t help herself. She liked the deep rich sound of his laughter and the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled. She liked it way too much.
Remembering last night’s solemn vow to keep away from him, she desperately tried to return to the subject of library books. “What’s the name of the book you’re looking for?” she asked, her voice husky. She didn’t sound a bit like her usual crisp, professional self.
“The name of the book,” repeated Rand. What was that old adage about the tangled web and practicing to deceive? He should’ve practiced harder. Well, there were many approaches, and if one failed, the creative contender came up with another.
“I’ll be honest, Jamie, I’m not looking for a book.” Honesty could sometimes backfire and he didn’t often resort to it, but this time he decided to risk it. “The only reason I came here was to see you again.”
The exhilaration that surged through her made her feel giddy and excited. Jamie fought against it, trying to recall every reason she shouldn’t let Rand Marshall into her life. The problem was, they all seemed hazy and unreal in the vital force of his presence. Nevertheless, she persevered. “Rand, this is impossible.”
“Tell me about it.” He gave a slight laugh. “I don’t make a practice of hanging out in front of libraries. But knowing you were here, I couldn’t stay away. All I’ve been able to think about is you from the moment we met.”
“Reel it in,” she said shakily. “I’m not about to fall for that old line.”
“Line? You think that’s a line?” He was indignant. “It happens to be the truth. That’s why it isn’t working. When I want to spin a woman a line, I make damn sure it’s a seductive and irresistible one. If I were feeding you a line, you’d be biting,
baby. And I’d be reeling you in!”
His outrage struck her as funny. Jamie laughed. “I’ve never met anyone with an ego as grandiose as yours.” “Your ego is no small thing, either. You think you’re the cutest little trick in shoe leather.”
“The cutest little trick in shoe leather?” Jamie hooted gleefully. “That’s straight out of the nineties, the eighteen nineties. If your seductive and irresistible lines are on a par with that, then the women who’ve been falling for them have IQs in the single digits.”
The rain continued to beat against the umbrella, but both were oblivious to it. Rand stared at Jamie, watching her thick, dark shiny hair swing around her neck as she tilted her head. The suit she was wearing was feminine and understated and subtly sexy, hinting at the tempting curves of her figure without actually revealing them.
He gazed into her laughing, taunting eyes, and she met his gaze steadily. Challengingly.
A flash of heat rippled through him. He had to have her. “You’re used to calling all the shots, aren’t you?” he drawled lazily. “Those poor suckers you bless with your phone number and approved lunch dates really don’t stand a chance with you at all.”
“And those poor dimwits who fall for your smooth-operator act don’t stand a chance with you, either,” she retorted.
“It’s not an act. I am a smooth operator. One of the smoothest.”
“To be forewarned is to be forearmed, I suppose. But I really don’t need to worry.” Common sense told her to stop this at once. The atmosphere was becoming too sexually charged; the tension between them was tangible and pulsing with sexual excitement. She was deliberately baiting him, pushing him....
But she couldn’t seem to stop herself.,Challenging him was exhilarating, and though she’d lived quite calmly without exhilaration for the past twenty-five years, it was suddenly too enthralling to give up. “I’m completely immune to you and others of your'ilk,” she added in a mocking tone that invited retaliation.
His lips curved into a slow, sexy smile. “Maybe you’re immune to others of my ilk, but you’re far from immune to me. We proved that yesterday.” He cupped her shoulders with his hands and slowly drew her toward him. “But I think you want me to prove it again.”
“I do not!” But tendrils of heat were uncurling in her abdomen, growing hotter and tighter as his eyes held hers.
“I was honest with you,” he said huskily, as he slowly lowered his head to hers. “Despite your mockery and your accusations, I was being honest when I told you that I can’t stop thinking about you. You owe me the same honesty, Jamie.” Coaxingly, he traced the contour of her upper lip with the tip of his tongue. “Tell me you want this. Admit it to yourself, Jamie. And to me.”
Jamie almost moaned. She wanted to seize his head in her hands and press her mouth hotly against his. “No,” she whispered, hanging on to the last shreds of her willpower.
“You’re the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met,” he murmured, biting gently at her mouth. “You’re as strong-willed as I am.” The revelation astonished him.
“And you admire me for it.” His breath was warm against her lips, and the scent of him, a heady combination of soap and spicy after-shave and musky male, filled her nostrils. Pleasure shuddered through her.
“I don’t!” he insisted. He cupped her hips with his hands and lifted her higher and harder against him. “I like women who are compliant and—and....” His voice trailed off, and he drew in a ragged breath.
“Simpleminded?” Jamie suggested. Her hands were on his chest, and when he began to kiss her neck again she re-flexively, unthinkingly, uninhibitedly arched her throat to give him greater access, even as she protested, “Rand, don’t. We can’t. We shouldn’t.”
“We can, we should and we’re going to.”
Four
His mouth came down on hers, hot and hard and hungry. A wild sound vibrated in her throat, and her lips parted for the bold, insistent thrust of his tongue. Shuddering with hunger and need, Jamie’s body melted against his muscular frame. Slowly, her arms glided to his shoulders then curled around his neck in feminine submission.
The stem of the umbrella slid between them, causing the bell-shaped shade to come to rest on top of their heads. Neither noticed. They were kissing deeply, his hands moving over her soft curves, caressing, arousing, learning her as she clung to him, weak with wanting.
Her breasts swelled and pressed against the solid strength of his chest. He attempted to thrust his thigh between her legs, but her straight skirt presented a barrier, keeping him from achieving the intimate posture he sought. A growl of frustration escaped from his throat, a primitive mating sound, low and deep and male. Jamie quivered in response.
Hotly, impetuously, Rand pushed up her skirt with a deft sweep of his hands. Then he slid his leg between hers, molding her to him, his fingers sure and experienced, stroking her bottom, her thighs...
Jamie felt the heat and pressure of his^ provocative caresses and moaned with helpless pleasure. A hot glowing ache radiated from the very core of her, and her whole body throbbed with the piercingly exquisite sensations. Operating on pure instinct, she began to rotate her hips in a subtle erotic rhythm. All sense of time and place was obliterated by the passion raging through her.
The kiss became wilder and deeper and hungrier. It wasn’t until oxygen deprivation threatened that, breathless, they finally broke apart.
Feeling disoriented, Jamie stepped back, but she couldn’t tear her gaze from Rand’s face. His eyes were dilated and heavy-lidded with passion, and his mouth was moist from kissing her. She felt her skirt slide slowly down her legs to its correct length and suddenly full awareness of what they had been doing, what she must have looked like, right here in front of the library, struck her with stunning force.
Her incendiary response to him scared her. He had taken her into his arms, and she’d become a wild thing, sensual and free, governed by the intensity of her emotions. And ungoverned by a whit of sense or propriety.
Tightly clutching the umbrella’s handle, she raised it over her head and squeezed back sudden hot tears of mortification. “If someone had seen us...”
She swallowed hard, picturing herself as she had been, wrapped around Rand Marshall, her skirt hiked high, her eyes tightly closed and her mouth open and hungry. She was appalled by her wanton abandon. “I could lose my job, behaving like that.”
Rand stared at her, feeling dazed and disconcerted. From the moment he touched her, he’d lost control. Even now, he was having difficulty pulling himself together.
His eyes shifted to the rounded softness of her breasts. He remembered how good they’d felt crushed against his chest, and his breath caught raggedly in his throat. He wanted to see them, to cup them in his hands, to taste them. His blood pulsed hotly and heavily, making him grow harder and tighter with every heartbeat.
He felt wired, his whole body an aching force of desire and need. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had turned him on so fast and so hard, unless it was yesterday when he’d kissed Jamie Saraceni for the first time.
A blast of wind pelted rain in his face, and Rand welcomed it, for the cold air and water helped to clear his head. “Jamie, I don’t know what to say.” His voice was gravelly with lingering traces of passion. “You’re right, the time, the place is all wrong. It’s just that when you—when I—” He broke off in confusion. Where was his penchant for dialogue when he really needed it?
It helped that Rand seemed as unhinged by their behavior as she did. Pulling herself together was a conscious act of will but Jamie made herself do it. The icy splash of the raindrops helped. She glanced around, relieved to see that they’d had no witnesses.
“We’re safe, I think,” she murmured. “There’s nobody around.” She shivered. “I guess we have the weather to thank for that. No one in his right mind would be out in this.”
How true, thought Rand. It explained why he was here. He was crazy. His gaze swept over her, focusing on her lips
, still swollen from his kisses. The sight nearly caused him to become unglued all over again. He should get out of here fast, Rand warned himself.
But he didn’t move and he didn’t take his eyes off her. He had the most peculiar feeling of sinking into some kind of psychic quicksand, yet was unable, and unwilling, to try to free himself. No, he was definitely not in his right mind.
At that moment a weak meow sounded from the book deposit box. “Did you hear that?” Jamie murmured shakily. “Scotty said there was a kitten in there, and I came out to check.”
Her voice trailed off, and she bent to unlock the box while Rand held the umbrella over them both.
There were four books, a letter, and a frightened, mewing kitten in the book drop. Jamie quickly scooped the creature up. She and Rand were still sharing the umbrella, so they huddled close together under it, their bodies touching. Once more pleasure shot through Jamie like sweet, golden flames.
Rand was unable to resist putting his arm around her waist. Strictly to keep her and the cat under the protection of the umbrella, he assured himself. But there was no way he could rationalize away the heat torching his body as he touched her.
“Another cat!” Jamie clutched the kitten and tried to ignore the beckoning warmth emanating from Rand’s solid masculine frame.
His fingers tightened on her waist and began to knead with a light, slow pressure, so light and so slow, it was almost unnoticeable. But the effects of his touch were wildly discernible to Jamie. She felt a flow of molten liquid deep within, making her feel languid and weak.
Her nearness evoked a corresponding flame in Rand. He inhaled the clean fragrance of her hair and his body tightened. Two of his fingers slipped lower to the curve of her hip. She was a fascinating combination of curves and angles, both slender and softly rounded. He swallowed with difficulty.
“It seems to be all right,” Jamie said, her voice husky. She cuddled the kitten while Rand continued to gently caress her.
Rule Breaker Page 5