Only This Night (Silhouette Reissued)
Page 10
God, it was too early in the day to deal with questions of life and death! Especially when he knew it would take a hot shower and a shave for him to feel like a living, breathing human being again.
Garrett struggled to his feet and stared down at the afghan he found in his hands. What had Brenna been thinking of last night when she covered him with it? Had she been angry with him for falling asleep on her? Or had she understood that he was exhausted?
At least she hadn’t tried to wake him up and insist that he drive all the way back to Flasmore last night. He supposed that said something.
Garrett slipped out of his shoes and quietly moved through the downstairs of the house. There was only a half-bath off the kitchen. He’d have to take a chance on finding a shower upstairs. He mounted the steps one by one and stopped on the landing. It appeared there were only two bedrooms on the second floor. He turned to the one on the right and approached the half-open door. Giving it a gentle nudge with his hand, he peered inside.
He could tell at a glance it was a woman’s bedroom. If the pale, rose-colored wallpaper hadn’t told him that, the white French furniture surely would have. He silently approached the bed and stood there gazing down at Brenna as she lay fast asleep.
Like a child, she had one arm tucked beneath her as she slept. Her breathing was steady and regular. Her dark brown hair was sprayed across the pillow like a bold slash of color on a canvas, her eyelashes but a velvety shadow against her skin. Her mouth was soft and pink, her lips slightly parted. Except for a wisp of pale blue material, her breasts and shoulders were bare.
God, she was the loveliest thing he’d ever seen!
That was when Garrett Forsyte knew he had to have her. Like a swift kick to the stomach, the realization knocked the wind out of him. His desire for her was agony, sweet agony. It was a razor-sharp blade cutting him to pieces. He sucked in his breath and quickly glanced down at her. But she slept on, unaware of him or of the awful need that possessed him.
He wanted to touch her so badly he could almost taste it. He wanted to bury himself in that cloak of dark hair, in that soft, warm flesh. He wanted to feel his man’s body against the woman she was, the woman she could be in his arms. He wanted to see her lovely face beneath his, awash with passion, wanting only him, desiring only him. He wanted to create a need in her beyond anything she had ever dreamed of and then bring her to the ultimate fulfillment of that need. And Garrett knew then he would do anything, anything he had to, to make her his.
He looked up and saw the bathroom door on the far side of the bedroom. Without a sound he moved away from the bed and across the carpeted floor. If he had any sense at all, came the self-deprecating thought, he’d make that shower a damned cold one!
* * *
Rolling over onto her back, Brenna stretched her long, slim body in a graceful, catlike movement. What was that noise? she puzzled as her eyes slowly opened. It took her a moment to identify the sound as running water. It took her a moment longer to pinpoint where it came from. Someone was in the shower. Someone was in her shower!
Garrett!
Just the thought of him brought the events of the previous evening back to her in a rush of confused memories. Last night she’d found herself in one of those melancholy moods that hit her now and then without warning. Then Garrett had appeared on her doorstep, dark and disturbing and utterly arrogant as only a man could be. And she’d never been so happy to see someone in her entire life!
Perhaps it was time she faced the truth about herself and this man from her past. How long did she think she could go on denying the attraction that existed between them? It was there in every word, every look, every touch they exchanged. She wasn’t a child; she knew Garrett wanted her. And she was very much afraid she wanted him as well.
What did anyone have but today? There were no guarantees of a tomorrow for any of them. Not for Garrett Not for her. Hadn’t she learned that yet? Hadn’t she learned by now to reach out for life without fear, without hesitation? To grasp it in both hands and take whatever it offered? To live like a coward wasn’t living at all.
People lived and they died. They loved and sometimes they stopped loving. Life was a gamble from the first moment to the last. Wasn’t it time she stopped playing the coward and took that gamble? The risks were great, but the rewards were far greater. For, in the end, all anyone had was the hope of love, the hope of a tomorrow.
“Oh Garrett, I am a coward,” she groaned, turning to bury herself back under the covers.
As if the mere mention of his name somehow gave Brenna the power to conjure up the man, the bathroom door opened at that moment and Garrett quietly stalked into the room.
She watched him through half-lidded eyes, not daring to move or even breathe as he came to an abrupt stop at the foot of her bed, his clothes casually draped over his arm. He stood there, legs planted slightly apart, and stared down at her.
He was wearing only a towel hitched around his lean hips, the white terrycloth in sharp contrast to the tanned length of his body. His dark head was still damp from the shower. The mat of black hair on his chest glistened here and there with a random drop of moisture. There was something uncompromisingly masculine about the tapered waistline, the length of muscular leg and thigh, the promise of strength inherent in the powerful build of those arms and shoulders.
The unexpected intimacy of seeing him like this stole Brenna’s breath away. She tried to force the air in and out of her lungs, but it was as though she were suddenly suffocating. A wave of intense desire shot through her unlike any she had ever known. She wanted to learn everything there was to know about this man, about his strength, his warmth, his need. It was as if nothing existed for her beyond the four walls of this room, beyond this moment or this man.
She opened her eyes and looked up at Garrett, sensing the tension that emanated from him as he stood there gazing down at her across the short distance that separated them.
“You’re awake,” he said after a moment.
“Yes, just,” she managed to get out.
“I… ah … made use of your shower. I hope you don’t mind,” he muttered, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“I’d say it’s a little late even if I did,” Brenna pointed out, astonished at how calm she felt considering the circumstances in which she found herself. “And it looks like you made use of more than just my shower.”
Garrett scowled and thrust out his chin, running a hand over the smoothly shaven skin of his face. “I’ll be happy to replace the damned razor, if that’s what you mean.”
“There’s no need for you to do that,” she said. My, my, aren’t we testy this morning. “By the way, how did you sleep last night?” Brenna asked, bestowing a beneficent smile on him.
“I think you know very well how I slept last night,” Garrett told her with an exasperated little growl as he dropped the armload of clothes onto the foot of her bed. Something flickered for a moment in his eyes, and then just as quickly was gone. “Let’s just say that sleeping on your sofa wasn’t how I’d planned to spend the night,” he drawled, all the while moving toward her.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” she asked quickly, her voice cracking on the last word as he proceeded to sit down on the edge of the mattress.
The offer was brushed aside as Garrett leaned toward her, capturing her face in his hands. “You’re very beautiful when you’re asleep. Did you know that, honey?”
“No, no … I didn’t,” she whispered, shivering beneath his touch, struggling against the sudden, unbidden desire to press her lips against the fragrant warmth of his flesh.
“I couldn’t seem to get you out of my mind all week,” he admitted thickly, his hands gliding down to her throat. “When it looked like I could wrap things up early, I grabbed the first plane I could get back to the States. I tried to call you from the airport, but there wasn’t any answer.”
“I… I worked late last night,” she said as his hands found her shoulders. �
��It was nearly ten o’clock before I got home.”
“Do you often work that late on a Friday night?” Garrett murmured, easing the straps of her nightgown down around the curving slope of her arms.
Brenna felt her fingers digging into the bedsheet as his lips brushed against her bare skin. “No, I don’t, but I was running behind schedule all day yesterday. I… I’m afraid I overslept. I haven’t been sleeping very well,” she confessed, telling him more than she had intended.
“You haven’t been sleeping very well?” Garrett raised his head and looked intently into her eyes. “And why is that?” he asked in his softest tone.
She found his question unexpectedly difficult to answer. “Because I can’t seem to get you out of my mind, either,” she brought out at last, unable to break away from the gaze that held her in its spell.
“Brenna, my sweet, darling Brenna…” he whispered just before his mouth covered hers.
What followed was a long, languorous kiss that aroused a bittersweet ache deep down inside of her. She found herself clinging to Garrett as she sensed her passion and his building beneath the surface, threatening to explode at the slightest provocation from either of them.
Her hands reached out to stroke his hair, the smooth expanse of his shoulders, the arms that suddenly swept her into the strength of their embrace. And when he sought to part her lips with his tongue, she willingly, eagerly opened herself to him, wanting to know his possession, wanting to possess in return.
But when she began to move beneath him, her arms tightly encircling his waist, her fingers pressing into the small valley at the base of his spine, a deep groan rose from his chest.
“Brenna, I told you before I’m only human!” he cried out, pulling away from her, his dark eyes ablaze with a fierce hunger he took no pains to conceal.
“I’m only human, too,” she whispered, knowing that same hunger was reflected in her own eyes.
“If I don’t get up and walk out of this room now, you know what will happen as surely as I do,” Garrett ground through his teeth, his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides. “You have to know that you’re driving me crazy, that I can’t seem to control myself when it comes to you.”
“I know. I can’t control myself any more than you can,” she burst out. “I don’t want to. I only want you to kiss me, to touch me.”
“It won’t stop there if I kiss you again. Don’t you understand that?” he warned huskily.
“I do understand,” Brenna declared with the full force of her passion for him. “Please… kiss me, Garrett!”
“Are you sure this is what you want, honey?” he groaned one last time before he brought his mouth down on hers.
“I’m sure! I’m sure!” she repeated over and over again until she fell silent before the force of his kiss.
She met that overwhelming force with her own, running her tongue over his lips, darting between them to strike in sweet ambush, quickly retreating as he sought to capture her with his teeth. It was the ancient ritual of male and female, the thrust and parry of a battle as old as time, a battle in which surrender became a victory in the end.
And then Garrett was there beside her on the bed, pushing the covers away as his hands began to explore the soft contours of her body through the silky nightgown.
“I never knew until now just how much I want you,” he rasped, his hand gliding over her in a light caress. “I want to know, I want to love every sweet inch of you,” he proclaimed as his fingers traced a seductive pattern on the pale blue silk.
“And I want you, but—” Brenna came to a stumbling halt, suddenly loath to explain the shyness she felt at his touch. How could she find the words to tell him, to make him understand?
“But what?” he softly prompted, his hand covering her breast.
“But I… ah—” She broke off and tried again. “You have to understand there hasn’t been anyone in a very long time,” she murmured, looking away.
“Are you trying to tell me I’m the first man since your husband?” Garrett suggested in a gentle tone.
Brenna inhaled a deep, trembling breath. “Yes.” Then she looked back at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone in my whole life. I want to please you, Garrett, but I’m afraid I won’t know how.” Her voice trailed off as Brenna squeezed her eyes tightly shut, burying her face in his shoulder.
“Oh, my dear, darling woman, you will please me just as I will please you,” he soothed in a voice suddenly husky with emotion. “We have nothing to fear, Brenna. The past can’t hurt us, I told you that before. We’ll learn together how to please each other, how to love each other,” he promised.
That promise was sealed with a shower of light, tender kisses on her mouth, her eyes, the sensitive hollow at the base of her throat. They were kisses that soon left her trembling, fearlessly aching for more.
“I’m not afraid, Garrett, not anymore,” she vowed in a low, vehement voice, instinct guiding her hands to the smooth plane of his back, to the corded muscles of his shoulders and chest, to the tension-taut abdomen above the towel riding low on his hips.
With a deep groan, he threw the towel aside and knelt over her. “I need to know everything about you,” he growled, easing the nightgown down around her waist, sucking in his breath as he exposed her to his impassioned gaze.
He devoured her with his eyes, taking in every lovely inch of her—from the wildly beating pulse at her throat to the ivory silk of her breasts down to the valley that delicately dipped to form her navel. Then he bent his head and placed a tender, worshipful kiss on each rosy tip, grunting his masculine satisfaction as they immediately reacted to his touch.
“Oh my God, Garrett!” Brenna moaned, dragging her nails across his vulnerable flesh, urging him closer as she felt her breasts throbbing with an almost painful need for his possession.
“Relax, my sweet lady,” he murmured as his tongue drew a moist circle around first one taut nipple and then the other. “Relax and enjoy what I do to you, what you do to me,” he instructed, gently sinking his teeth into the sensitized peak.
“Relax? How can I?” she cried out as he took her fully into his mouth, drawing her nipple between his lips as he suckled on her breast. And just when she would have cried out again, driven to the very edge of madness itself, he released her from the exquisite torture. “Kiss me,” Brenna whispered hoarsely, trying to catch her breath and finding it impossible to do so.
“Believe me, I intend to,” Garrett muttered, looking down at her, his dark eyes burning into hers.
But it was not as she expected. He reached out and slipped the nightgown free from her body, letting it drop to the carpet in a hushed sound of rustling silk. Then he lowered his head, pressing his lips to the small valley between her breasts, moving on to the smooth, satiny surface of her abdomen; and then lower, to the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.
He cupped her rounded bottom in his palms, gently parting her legs, raising her up to meet his hot, moist kisses in an intimacy that hurled Brenna over the edge, his name a plea on her lips.
She moved her head back and forth on the pillow. “Garrett! Please! I can’t bear any more!”
“You can!” he insisted, coaxing her, soothing her with his words and his caress. “I want everything you have to give, sweetheart Everything!”
“Everything—” she repeated with incredulous wonder.
Then his mouth was on hers, swallowing her mindless whimpers as his hand stroked the core of her feminine response. She reached out for him with an instinctive desire to give pleasure as well as to receive it, caressing the lean line of his thighs, the tensed male buttocks, the hard, unmistakable contours of his body.
Brenna heard his breathing coming hard and fast, felt his response to her touch, sought to give him pleasure and succeeded beyond anything she had ever imagined. She pressed on, knowing he was perilously near the edge, glorying in her power as a woman and in his obvious need for her.
“Yes, Garrett! Yes!” She clung to him then, wrapping her arms about his waist, entwining her legs with his, anchoring herself to him as the storm of their passion swept them along in its mindless force.
“I will love you gently,” he promised, bringing his mouth down on hers, his tongue taking one more sweet plunge into her as his body kept that promise.
Then she knew the wonder of his gentle possession and opened up to him, taking him into her, feeling the depth and fullness of him as her softness enfolded him. There was no fear now, no hesitation, no thought of tomorrow. Nothing existed beyond this moment and this man.
Garrett moved against her, slowly at first and with disarming grace, setting an easy rhythm she could keep pace with. Then there was a subtle change in his movements as they were driven on by their mutual impatience, by the rising passion that held them both in its grasp. His control began to slip away as he drove into her with greater and greater force.
“Brenna?” Her name became a frantic question on his lips.
“Love me, just love me!” she pleaded, arching her hips into him, answering his unspoken question with both words and deed, holding him in her feminine grasp.
Freed from the last, tenuous restraint, he drove them both toward that final moment with increasing frenzy. They sought to give each other the greatest of pleasures and found the ultimate pleasure was indeed in giving. Clinging together, they reached for their fulfillment and found it in each other’s arms. With a cry of mutual surrender and mutual victory, they reached the apex as one mind, one body, one heart.
And then there was nothing to be said, nothing to be done but hold each other in the wondrous aftermath of their loving. To lie there counting each other’s heartbeats as their own, to know they had truly found a new beginning together.