Enthralled
Page 9
Chazz mumbled in his sleep, and the arm tightened.
Suddenly Teel realized that they were both naked. "Oh, no!" She massaged her throbbing forehead. She had slept with him last night! What was the matter with her? She was definitely going to have to see a psychiatrist. Going to bed with a womanizer, knowing full well what that would mean to Chazz: exactly nothing. She had slept with him twice. She must be mad!
When she tried again to free herself, Chazz opened his eyes.
"Good morning, darling," he crooned, folding her closer and kissing her nose, her cheeks, her hair.
"Now listen to me, Chazz—" Before Teel could tell him what she thought of him, his mouth had taken hold of hers. She felt her heart skip out of rhythm, then begin to race.
His mouth gently teased her lips open, his tongue flicking over them before penetrating into her mouth, heat building between them at once. His hands feathered over her body and came to rest on her breasts. "You have beautiful breasts, my love. My hands remember them. Since we made love, my mind has been filled with thoughts of your body." He murmured the words against her skin as his lips slid down her body.
"No, don't," Teel protested. "Have to get to the Garden. The children." But her hands betrayed her and clung to his shoulders.
"Not to worry, angel. I'll take you there," Chazz soothed, his hands exploring her body as though he were a blind man reading Braille. His mouth took hold of one nipple, and her whole being snapped bow-like into his. "Oh yes, my angel, yes," Chazz breathed. "Kiss me, Teel. I need to have you kiss me, love me." Chazz's voice was as fevered as his touch.
Teel hesitated, looking up at him, her hands caught in his hair. Her heart thumped hard against her ribs as she studied his every pore.
"Chazz—I—we—"
His arms convulsed around her, and he buried his face in her neck. "Teel, don't ask me to stop now. I need you so much. Tell me you want me too."
"I want you," she whispered without thinking, then swallowed hard. A picture of burning bridges flashed across her mind, the flames shooting high into the air. She moved restlessly beneath him, and he groaned her name.
"I am going to kiss every inch of your body, woman of mine," he crooned, not taking his mouth from her breasts.
Teel wanted to laugh at such a ridiculous idea, but she was too wrapped in her own pink world to make a sound. When she felt him caressing her instep with his mouth, then feathering each toe with his tongue, she gasped with delight. Slowly, ever so slowly, and with increasing passion, he worked himself up the other leg and over her body. Teel felt as though she were being sectioned with a hot, liquid blade. When at last he reached her face, his features looked carved from stone, blood throbbed at his temples, and his breath came hard, as though he had just run up a mountain. "Darling, I can't— do you feel—" Chazz's mouth crashed into hers, making her already heated body flame out of control.
"Chazz—Chazz—please—" Teel's head rolled wildly on the pillow, and she clasped his body fiercely as he lifted himself over her.
"I have never wanted anyone the way I want you," he panted into her neck.
Her body trembled like a volcano about to erupt, the need that filled her shocking her. She sensed Chazz holding back to pleasure her further and her body writhed against him, telegraphing her readiness to him.
Their coming together awed them both, passion blinding and guiding them to a fulfillment that encompassed only them, in a world that was only for them.
Sometime later Teel opened her eyes and cursed the weakness that had robbed her of the strength to say no to Chazz. At once her headache returned. Her eyes and teeth ached. She had to get away from this man before she began to age prematurely. Already she felt one hundred and nine years old.
Chazz nuzzled her ear. "Stop it," he told her. "You're looking around in that little narrow mind of yours for a reason to call our love-making wrong. You can't do it. It was perfect—for both of us."
"I have to get to Madison Square Garden." Teel pushed the words past wooden lips and tried to edge away from him on the round playing field he called a bed. "I must get back to the hotel. My sweats are there."
"Don't worry, precious. I had Sibley go down to Acme, open the store, and get you more team sweats." Chazz leaned up on one elbow, his index finger tracing imaginary circles around the tip of one breast. He watched the path his finger made as though mesmerized by the movement. "Of course there is plenty of underwear for you to try on in the bedroom connecting to this one. The room is stocked with clothes in your size," Chazz informed her, his voice vague, his eyes still fixed on her breast.
"What did you say?" Teel whispered.
"There are clothes in the connecting room in your size and—"
"That's what I thought you said," she gritted, lifting his arm from her body and shoving him backward.
Surprised, Chazz lay prone on his pillow and stared up at her as she jumped from the bed and turned to face him, her arms akimbo.
"And you thought I would just jump at the chance to wear clothes that belong to your—your women, did you? Well, let me tell you something, buster—"
"Teel, calm down. Come back to bed, angel."
"Don't you call me angel, you—you disgusting Don Juan." She took a deep breath. "And let me tell— What are you laughing at?" Her chin rose higher as her temper reached the boiling point. "Why are you looking like that?"
"Like what?" Chazz asked casually, sitting up and throwing the covers to one side before rising. He yawned and stretched.
"Must you flaunt yourself?" Teel yelped at him, wanting to look away from his beautiful body but unable to do so.
"No more than you, my angel." He chuckled, coming round the bed toward her.
"What?" Teel put up one arm as though to ward him off and looked at the long expanse of her uncovered limb. Her eyes dropped down the front of her. "Oh, no," she groaned, closing her eyes, then opening them at once and sprinting for the bathroom. "You bastard!" she shouted just before slamming the door shut. Even through the thick partition she could hear his laughter.
"I'll get you some fresh underwear, darling," he called out.
"Drop dead," she shouted, turning the gold-handled faucets in the shower on the full blast to drown out anything else he might say.
She stared at the floor-to-ceiling array of shampoos, washing aids, and soaps of every description.
Even after shampooing her hair twice and scrubbing her body until it glowed pink, she stayed under the steam of water as if to wash the previous evening from her mind. Lord, that man should be declared a disaster area by an act of Congress!
Teel would have taken longer drying her hair and lotioning her body, but she happened to look at her watch as she snapped it to her wrist. Eight o'clock! The workers were supposed to gather and be ready to go at nine o'clock sharp. And she had to call the hotel and talk to Nancy first. What she would tell her friend she had no idea, but she must talk to her.
Teel peeked around the door of the bathroom. Chazz wasn't there, but a note was pinned to a small pile of clothes on the vanity.
Teel, these clothes belong only to you. No one else has ever worn them. Love, Chazz.
"Bull." Teel fingered the silken, flesh-colored undies and was tempted to toss them in the trash can, but an aversion to waste instilled in her by her Scottish grandmother and an inordinate love of fine lingerie stayed her hand. "Does he think I was born yesterday?" Teel quizzed her mirror image as she fastened the bra, then sat down in the dresser chair to put on the athletic anklets she would wear with the all-leather running shoes, which she had always wanted and never been able to afford. The color of the sweats was right for the team, but the texture was finer than the outfits the team wore. The sweats fit like a glove and were as comfortable as anything Teel had ever worn.
She looked at her dress draped over a chair and shrugged. She would write it off as a part reckoning for her night of foolishness, What a jackass she was! She gritted her teeth and rubbed her aching temples.
"Very good, my love. We have time for breakfast. I wish I could join you at the Garden today, but duty calls." He put his hand on her arm and escorted her down the stairs and through a series of doors to the morning room where they had lunched the day before.
Mrs. Pritchett smiled at Teel and recited what she would make for breakfast.
Teel didn't hear her. Embarrassment thrummed in her ears, her headache grew worse, and her eyes stung. Chazz must have ordered for her, because Mrs. Pritchett nodded and left.
"Headache, darling?"
Teel glared at him. "Of course I have a headache," she snapped. "I always have a headache when you're around. You make me ill—literally."
"I don't suppose it could be Arthur's Specials that did that?"
"Are you implying that I have a hangover?" Teel lifted her chin defiantly.
"Yes." Chazz smiled at her, then leaned over and topped her cup with fresh coffee from the pot.
"You're a boor." Sunlight shone through the sparkling clean windows, making Teel's eyes hurt.
"I dote on your archaic language, love." Chazz looked up as Mrs. Pritchett entered from the kitchen balancing a heavy tray, which she set down on the sideboard. When she'd served them, Teel stared down at her scrambled eggs in horror.
"I hope you like the centerpiece, ma'am," Mrs. Pritchett said. "Mr. Herman says you'll be doing most of the flower arranging from now on." She smiled, but Teel could hardly focus on her face.
"What? Flowers? Oh yes, I like flowers." Teel heaved a sigh of relief when the housekeeper nodded and disappeared into the kitchen again. "I can't eat breakfast," Teel added weakly.
"Here, have some toast. I'll eat your eggs." Chazz pulled her plate toward him and set a plate of toast triangles in front of her.
"Thank you," Teel said faintly. She was sure she wouldn't be able to eat the toast either, but when she looked again, the plate was empty and she felt a little better. The aches and pains remained, but the queasiness was gone.
"More coffee?" Chazz offered, lifting the silver pot.
"No, thank you. I think I'd like more of that tomato juice, please." Teel ignored his smile as he refilled her glass. Just then something that Mrs. Pritchett had said penetrated Teel's foggy head. "What did Mrs. Pritchett mean about the flowers? Didn't she say something about me arranging them? What did she mean?"
"I told her we'd be getting married soon and that you had definite tastes on everything," Chazz explained, rising from his chair and coming around to help her up. "Time to go if you're not going to be late."
"All right," Teel replied. She was out of her chair when his words hit her. "You told her what?" she cried, turning to face him. Chazz took hold of her arm to steady her. She wrenched free. "What did you tell her? Did I hear right? Are you out of your mind? How dare you say such a thing?" Her voice rose with each question, becoming more and more shrill.
Mrs. Pritchett poked her head through the open door. "Is something wrong with the food, sir?"
"Not at all. Tell Mrs. Pritchett how good you thought it was, Teel darling."
"Good. Good, Mrs. Pritchett." Teel spoke through teeth clenched so tightly she was sure she would have lockjaw. The older woman disappeared, and Teel turned again to face Chazz. He was gone. "Where are you? You—you Svengali." She stormed out of the morning room and down the hall to the foyer, where Chazz stood with her sweat jacket over his arm.
"Ready, darling?" "Don't you 'ready darling' me." Teel slipped one hand into the jacket sleeve that Chazz held out for her. "How dare you tell Mrs. Pritchett that we're getting married, you liar."
"We are getting married." He took hold of her arm and piloted her out the door. "And please don't call me a liar. I don't lie unless I have to, which isn't often. So don't call me a liar."
Teel faced him in the elevator as it took them to the underground garage. "I would never marry you. I'm not masochistic enough to tie myself to a womanizer."
"That's all behind me now. You can keep me happy in bed, just as you did this morning." His eyes roved from her head to her toes, sending a hot flush to her cheeks. "You have a lovely body, my angel, and I loved making love to it and to you."
"Stop that." Teel gasped, feeling her sinuses fill.
"Never. I'll be making love to you when I'm ninety." Chazz looked smug.
"Me—or a reasonable facsimile thereof," Teel snapped, fighting the insidious languor that seeped into her limbs. "There's no way I would spend my life with a dedicated ogler like you."
"Ogler?" Chazz looked pained as he gestured for her to precede him from the elevator.
"Yes—and worse." She thought of him chasing other women down a street, a white beard flowing over one shoulder. "No," she moaned, reaching for a tissue as her nose began to run. "I'm not a masochist. My life would be one long series of colds and flu, headaches and backaches. No, I refuse to live like that. It would be an ordeal."
"It would be beautiful." He drove out of the underground garage into bright sunshine. New York looked magnificent on this beautiful spring morning.
But the sun hurt Teel's eyes, so she closed them and leaned back against the cushioned headrest. "No, no. Don't talk like that. I'll never marry you."
"You will marry me," Chazz promised.
"You're crazy." She made plans to escape to Kenya. He would never find her on the. Serengeti Plain. No, Teel changed her mind, with her luck a lion would eat her— a lion with golden eyes.
"I'd like to have children. Would you?"
His question brought her up short. "No," she said out loud. Of course. I would love your children, she moaned inside. What a beautiful boy they would have—and maybe a little girl. No, she told herself. There she'd be, taking care of their beautiful children, who would be asking where Daddy was and she would have to tell them that he was out that evening with a busty blonde, or a curvaceous redhead, or a lissome brunette—or all three! "Never. I'll never be your wife," she murmured.
"Do you want a large wedding? I'd like a small one."
"Drop dead."
"A small wedding it is then, as long as I'm doing the planning." Chazz eased the car to the curb at a side entrance to the Garden and leaned across to open Teel's door. "I'll say good-bye now, love. I have a meeting in ten minutes. See you tonight."
"Go suck an egg." Teel poked her tongue out at him, then started to get out of the car. Suddenly a muscular arm whipped her body backward and she was looking up into Chazz's face.
"I need to kiss my fiancée good-bye."
"Turn blue," Teel retorted, watching his face come closer until it blotted out the light. She groaned against his open mouth.
When he released her, her body seemed to slide forward out of the car. She almost landed in the gutter, she was so weak with longing, but Chazz's chuckle behind her stiffened her spine. She walked away without looking back.
"Wish the kids good luck for me, darling," he called; then she heard the Ferrari shoot away from the curb.
The day was chaotic, and Teel's headache didn't help. More than once her posting of the medal winners was wrong and, though it wasn't the end of the world to make a mistake, Teel felt Nancy and the others staring at her. She sensed the questions they were dying to ask and knew they could hardly contain their curiosity.
Nancy joined Teel for a lunch break. They sat on folding chairs in the crowded snack area, waving to friends between bites and speaking to acquaintances, officials, and parents. The dry-as-dust sandwich Teel was trying to eat seemed to match the way she felt inside.
"I don't think they can get one more person in here," Nancy said, grimacing as she shifted to a more comfortable position. She was about to take a sip from her milk carton when her
eyes widened. "Good God, what's that? Did someone win the first race at Aqueduct?"
Teel turned to see what had astounded her friend and gasped at the huge spray of white roses coming toward them. It was impossible to see around the mountain of flowers, but Teel assumed someone was carrying them. A weak, grabbing sensation assailed her stomach.
A capped head poked around the spray. "One o' you Miss Barrett?" the red-faced carrier inquired. "Teel Barrett?"
Teel had the strongest desire to say she was Minnie Brown, but Nancy pointed to her without taking her eyes off the roses. "She's Miss Barrett. Those sure are beautiful flowers." "Yep." The sweating attendant set them down and regarded them with pride. Then he whipped out a pad and pen and handed both to Teel. "Sign here, please."
"No," Teel whispered through dry lips.
"Lady." The attendant gave her a long-suffering look. "You can't have the flowers without signing. So sign."
"Give them to a hospital." Teel shook off Nancy's pinching hand.
"Now look, lady, I got a lotta deliveries to make and I don' wanna play games." He cocked his head and shifted his weight to the other hip.
Teel stared at him, then nodded and scrawled her name at the bottom where the x indicated.
"Open the card, Teel," Nancy hissed, trying to smile at the gathering crowd. "Just a little congratulations for the team," she improvised when a curious woman looked from the flowers to the card clutched in Teel's hand. "Open the damn thing, will you?" Nancy muttered out of the side of her mouth. "See who it's from."
"I know who it's from," Teel whispered back, ignoring a man who was trying to ask her about the flowers.