One-Click Buy: February 2010 Harlequin Blaze

by Betina Krahn

  And when his mouth found that sensitive spot, she cried out in surprise. But Alex took his time. He’d always been a considerate lover, but sex had been about his pleasure first. It wasn’t that way with Tenley. He wanted to make it memorable for her.

  After he was gone, Alex needed to know he would be the standard by which other men in her life might be judged. It was silly, but for some strange reason, it made a difference to him. He wanted her to remember what they shared and continue to crave it.

  Her fingers slipped through his hair and he felt her losing control. Alex slowed his pace, determined to make her feel something that she’d never experienced before. Her drew her close, tempting her again and again. She whispered his name in a desperate plea to give her what she wanted.

  The sound of her voice was enough to arouse him and to Alex’s surprise, he found himself dancing near the edge. He shifted, the friction of the quilt causing a delicious frisson of pleasure to race through him. Gathering his resolve, Alex brought her close again. But this time, it was too much for her.

  When he drew back, she couldn’t help herself. Tenley moaned, her body tense. An instant later, her orgasm consumed her, her body trembling and shuddering. It was enough to drive him over the edge. Startled, Alex joined her.

  He rolled over on his back. This was crazy. He felt like a teenager, with nothing more than his imagination and a little friction standing between him and heaven. Throwing his arm over his eyes, he waited for the last of his own spasms to subside.

  “That was a surprise,” he murmured. Alex rolled to his side and kissed her hip.

  “I’ve never really liked surprises, until now.”

  Alex knew how she felt. From the moment she’d rescued him from the snowbank, he’d learned to expect the unexpected from Tenley. He closed his eyes and pressed his face into the soft flesh at her waist. Forget the vacation. Spending time with Tenley was all the adventure he needed.

  TENLEY OPENED her eyes to the early morning light. An incessant beeping penetrated her hazy mind and she pushed up on her elbow to survey the room.

  After making love in front of the fire, they’d wrapped themselves in the quilt and fallen asleep on the floor. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so soundly and for such a long stretch of time.

  She sat up and glanced over her shoulder at Alex. He was a beautiful man, tall and lean and finely muscled. And he knew what he was doing in bed—and on the floor, too. A shiver skittered through her as she remembered the passion they’d shared.

  She’d never experienced anything quite so powerful. Usually she used sex to forget. But she remembered every little detail of what she’d shared with Alex, from the way his hands felt on her skin to the taste of his mouth to the soft sound of his voice whispering her name. She felt safe with him, as if she didn’t need to pretend.

  It had taken so much energy to keep her emotions in check and now, she finally felt as if she might be able to let go, to find a bit of enjoyment in life…in Alex. Tenley didn’t know what it all meant, but she knew it felt right.

  As she studied his features, she wondered about the women he normally dated. A man like Alex Stamos wouldn’t lack for female company. There were probably hundreds of women waiting outside his door, hoping to enjoy exactly what she had last night.

  The beeping continued and she crawled around him to find his watch lying on the hearth. Tenley picked it up and, squinting in the low light, tried to turn off the alarm. But when she couldn’t find the right button, she got to her feet and carried it into the kitchen. With the soft curse, she opened the refrigerator door and put it inside.

  This is exactly why she hated clocks. Simple, inanimate objects in control of a person’s life! Was there anything more obnoxious? Well, maybe television. She didn’t own one of those either. She preferred a good book. Although, there were times when she wished she could watch a movie or check out the weather station.

  Rubbing her arms against the cold, Tenley returned to their makeshift bed, ready to slip back beneath the covers and wake him up slowly. It was so easy to relax around him, to just be herself without any of the baggage that came along with her past. Everyone within a thirty-mile radius of Sawyer Bay knew about her past. She couldn’t walk down the streets of town without someone sending her a pitying look.

  She knew what they were saying about her. That she’d never recovered from the tragedy. That she deliberately pushed people away because she blamed herself. It was all true. Tenley was acutely aware of what she’d become. But that didn’t make it any easier to forget her part in what had happened. Nor did she feel like changing just to make everyone else more comfortable. It was simply easier to keep people at a distance.

  Alex was different. For the first time in her adult life, she wanted to get closer. If Tenley had the power, she’d make the storm go on for another week or two so they could be stranded in this cabin a little longer. There would be quiet afternoons, making love in front of the fire. And then never-ending nights, when sleep could come without dreams.

  There was a way to keep him close, Tenley mused. If she accepted his proposal to publish her graphic novel then they’d have an excuse to see each other every so often. Maybe he’d make regular trips up to Door County to see her and they could enjoy these sexual encounters three or four times a year.

  Tenley smiled to herself. It was the closest she’d ever come to a committed relationship. But in that very same moment, she realized the risk she’d be taking. Cursing softly, she turned away and walked through the cabin to her room.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she muttered to herself as she pulled on her clothes. She and Alex Stamos had absolutely nothing in common, beyond her novel and one night of great sex. What made her think he’d even want a relationship?

  He probably had his choice of women in Chicago. Why would he choose to carry on with her? It was a prescription for heartbreak, Tenley mused. She’d make the mistake of falling in love with him, living for the times they could be together, and one day, he’d tell her it was over.

  She’d learned how to protect herself from that kind of pain and it wouldn’t do to forget those lessons now. Alex was a momentary fling, just like all the other men in her life. She could enjoy him for as long as he stayed, but after that, she’d move on.

  As for her novel, it would be best to put an end to that right away. Though a little extra money might be nice, she certainly didn’t need the pressure to produce another story.

  Tenley tiptoed back out into the great room and found her boots and jacket near the back door. The dogs were waiting and, when she was bundled against the cold, she slipped outside, into the low light of dawn. She bent down and gave them both a rough scratch behind the ears. Pup, the larger of the two, gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek. And Dog pushed his nose beneath her hand, searching for a bit more affection.

  “Go,” she said, motioning them off the porch. They ran down the steps and into the snow, leaping and chasing and wrestling with each other playfully. The wind was still blowing hard, the snow stinging her face. She tipped her head back and looked into the sky, still gray and ominous.

  A memory flashed in her mind and she remembered the sky on the day she and Tommy had set off on their sail. The image was so vivid it was like a photograph. A storm had taken her brother away. And now another storm had brought Alex into her life. The forces of nature were powerful and uncontrollable.

  Was that what this was about? Was nature giving her back what she’d lost all those years ago? She drew a deep breath of the cold air. She’d never believed in fate or karma but she couldn’t help but wonder why Alex had suddenly appeared in her life. A few minutes one way or the other, a different day or time, and they never would have met at all. Another shiver skittered down her spine and she started off across the yard.

  The barn was set fifty yards from the house, a simple wooden structure painted the traditional red. Attached to one corner was a tower that rose nearly three stories off the ground. H
er grandfather had built it as a studio, with four walls made of windows to take in the views of the woods and the bay.

  Tenley slogged through the snow to the barn door and retrieved a shovel. She cleared off the stairs to the studio, then stepped inside to escape the icy wind. The stairwell was as cold as the weather outside, but when she opened the door to the room at the top of the stairs, it was pleasantly cozy.

  Dropping her jacket at the door, she walked to the wall of windows facing the lake. The snow was still coming down so hard, she wasn’t able to see more than a hundred yards beyond the barn.

  With a soft sigh, she sat down at the huge drawing table in the center of the room. Her grandfather’s easels had moved to town with him, but he’d left his drawing table, in hopes she’d find a use for it.

  She and her grandfather had always been close. After Tommy’s death, he’d been the only one she could stand to be around. And after her grandmother had died, Tenley had taken over the duties of running the business end of the gallery, a job her grandmother had done since their wedding day.

  She did most of her business over the phone and, when customers came in the front door, her grandfather usually greeted them. He hated the details of running the gallery and she avoided the customers. It had been a good arrangement. If she weren’t working for him, he’d have to hire someone at a much higher salary. All Tenley needed was enough to buy food and clothes and feed for her animals.

  She sifted through the sketches scattered over the surface. Her work was a mishmash of genres and media. A pen-and-ink drawing of a hummingbird, a pastel landscape, a watercolor self-portrait. She’d never been to art school, so she’d never really discovered what she was good at.

  Grabbing a cup filled with black markers, she sat down at the table. Taking a deep breath, she sketched a scene with her heroine, Cyd. She imagined it as a proper cover for the novel, something that would set the mood for the story inside.

  There was a generous portion of Tenley in her character. She was an outsider, a girl who had known tragedy in her life, one who was graced with an incredible power. But with that power came deep moral dilemmas. Tenley often wondered what it would be like to change the past, to alter the course of history.

  What would her life be like if she hadn’t teased her brother into sailing to the island? Or if the weather hadn’t turned on them? What if they’d stayed home or left earlier? Where would she be today?

  Tenley closed her eyes and tried to picture it. Would she be married, happily in love with a man, surrounded by their children? Or would she be living in some big city, working as an artist or a writer? She’d always thought about becoming an actress.

  Perhaps her parents wouldn’t have divorced and maybe her grandmother wouldn’t have suffered the stroke that killed her. Maybe the townspeople of Sawyer Bay would admire her, rather than pity her. Snatching up the drawing, Tenley crumpled it into a ball and tossed it to the floor.

  She couldn’t change the past. And she didn’t want to change the future. There was a certain security in knowing what her life was, in the sameness of each passing day. “I’m happy,” Tenley said. “So leave well enough alone.”

  She grabbed her jacket and pulled it on, then headed back down to feed the horses. The dogs joined her in the barn, shaking the snow from their thick coats. As she scooped feed into a bucket, the horses peeked over the tops of their stall doors.

  “Sorry, ladies. No riding today. But after breakfast, you can go outside for a bit.” The two mares nuzzled her as they searched for a treat—a carrot or an apple. But Tenley had left so quickly she’d forgotten to bring them something. “I’ll be out later,” she promised.

  On her way back to the house, Tenley decided to walk up to the road and see if it had been plowed. The woods kept the snow from drifting too high, but it was clear they’d had at least sixteen or eighteen inches since it began yesterday morning.

  By the time she reached the end of the driveway, Tenley could see they’d be stuck in the cabin for another day. A huge pile of snow had been dumped across the driveway and beyond it, the road was a wide expanse of bare pavement and three-foot drifts.

  In truth, she was happy to have another day with Alex. If they spent it in the same way they’d spent the night before, then she wouldn’t have reason to grow impatient with the weather. Tenley smiled as the dogs fell into step beside her. “We’ll keep him another day,” she said.

  The cabin was quiet when she let herself back in. She stripped off her jacket and boots, then shimmied out of her snow-covered jeans. The dogs were anxious to eat and they tore through the great room in a noisy tangle of legs and tails.

  “Ow! What the hell!” Tenley looked up to find Pup lying across Alex’s chest, his nose nudging Alex’s chin.

  “No!” she shouted. “Come here!”

  Pup glanced back and forth between the two of them, then decided to follow orders. Alex sat up and wiped his face with the damp quilt. “Funny, I expected someone of an entirely different species to wake me up.”

  “Sorry. If you want to get some more sleep, you should probably go to your room. Once the dogs are up, they’re up.”

  “What time is it?” He glanced at his wrist. “I lost my watch.”

  She opened the refrigerator and pulled it out. “It wouldn’t stop beeping.”

  Alex got to his feet and walked naked to the kitchen, then took the watch from her grasp. He strapped it onto his wrist, silencing the alarm. Then, he looked at the clock on the stove and noticed it was almost noon. “Is that right?” he asked, rechecking his watch.

  She shook her head, trying to avoid staring at his body. “No. I don’t like clocks. There isn’t any need for them here.”

  Alex frowned, raking his hand through his hair. “What about when you have to be somewhere on time?”

  “I never have to be anywhere on time. I get there when I get there.”

  Alex chuckled. “I wish I could live like that,” he murmured.

  She glanced over her shoulder at him. He was so beautiful, all muscle and hard flesh. Her fingers twitched as she held out her hand. “You could. Here, give me your watch.”

  “No. This is an expensive watch.”

  “I was just going to put it back in the refrigerator.”

  He thought about the notion for a second, then smiled and slipped it off his wrist. “When in Rome.”

  She opened the fridge and put it inside the butter compartment. “You’ve been liberated. Doesn’t that feel good?”

  “How do you know when to get up in the morning?”

  “I usually get up when the sun rises,” she explained. “Or when the dogs wake me.”

  “Don’t you have to be to work at a certain time?”

  She shrugged. “I keep my own hours.” She opened a cabinet and pulled out two cans of dog food. “Here, make yourself useful. The can opener is in that drawer.”

  “I thought I had made myself pretty useful last night,” he murmured.

  Tenley felt a warm blush creep up her cheeks. “You want to talk about it?” she asked.

  “You…surprised me. I wasn’t expecting…”

  “Neither was I,” she said. “I was curious.”

  “About me?”

  She nodded. “Sure. You seemed like you were interested.”

  “I was,” he said. “Am. Present tense. But I’m even more curious about something else.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Whether it might happen again?”

  A tiny smile curved the corners of her mouth. “Depends upon how long this storm lasts.” So it wouldn’t be just a one-night stand. Tenley wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She wanted to spend more time with him, even though she knew she shouldn’t. But she liked Alex. And he lived in Chicago, so sooner or later, he’d head back home.

  A brief, but passionate affair, one that wouldn’t be dangerous or complicated. As long as she kept it all in perspective. It wouldn’t last long enough to become a relationship. And if it didn
’t become a relationship, then she couldn’t possibly get hurt. Still, she had to wonder what he was thinking about it all. Why not just ask? “What if it does happen again,” she asked. “And again. What would that mean?”

  He gave her an odd look. “It would probably mean we’d have to go out for condoms?” he teased. Alex paused, then shrugged, realizing that she didn’t find much humor in his joke. “It would mean that we enjoy each other’s company. And that we want to get to know each other better?”

  “Then it wouldn’t be a relationship?” she asked.

  “It could be,” he said slowly.

  “But if we didn’t want it to be?”

  Alex drew a deep breath. “It will be whatever you want it to be,” he replied. He glanced over his shoulder, clearly uneasy with the turn in the conversation. “Maybe we should check out a weather report so we can plan our day,” Alex suggested. “Where’s your television?”

  That was it, Tenley thought. She knew exactly where he stood and she was satisfied. Neither one of them were ready to plan a future together. Still, if she did ever want a man in her life, someone who stayed more than a few nights, Alex would be the kind of guy she’d look for. “I don’t have a television,” she said.

  He stared at her in astonishment. “You don’t own a television? How is that possible? What about sports and the news?”

  “There’s never a need. I have a radio. They do the weather every hour on the station from Fish Creek. It’s over there in the cabinet with the stereo. But you really don’t have to check the weather. The storm is going to last for a while.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “The barometer. Over there, by the door. It hasn’t started going up yet. When it does, the storm will start to clear.”

  “Does that mean you can come back to bed?”

  “Maybe we should try a real bed?” she suggested. Tenley tugged her sweater over her head and let it drop on the floor. Then she turned and walked toward her bedroom, leaving a trail of clothes behind her. The storm wouldn’t last forever, so they’d best put their time to good use.