One-Click Buy: February 2010 Harlequin Blaze

by Betina Krahn

  He was already hard and as he moved against her, his shaft pressed into the soft flesh of her abdomen. This was all she needed in life, this wonderful warm feeling of anticipation. Alex could smooth his hands over her skin and she’d lose herself in a wave of sensation.

  There was more at work here than just physical attraction. She ached for that moment when she felt most vulnerable, when their souls seemed exposed. At that instant, the past melted away and Tenley felt alive and aware. Though she’d had men in her bed, not one of them had ever made her feel a fraction of what Alex did.

  She reached for the box of condoms on the bedside table, surprised to find just one left inside. He smiled as she smoothed it over the length of his shaft, his breath coming in soft, short gasps.

  He rolled her beneath him, then pulled her leg up alongside his hip. Probing gently, he found her entrance and in one sure motion, he slipped inside of her. Tenley groaned at the thrill that raced through her body.

  There was nothing in the world that had ever felt this good. And Tenley knew this was what it was like to want a man so much her body ached for his touch and her soul cried out for his love. If this was all she had in the world, she could be happy forever.

  But happiness didn’t always last. It could be snatched away in the blink of an eye. At least she knew when the end would come. And she’d be prepared.

  THE RINGING WOKE Alex up from a deep sleep. He opened one eye, searching for the source. It wasn’t his watch. That was still in the refrigerator.

  “What is that?” Tenley murmured, turning her face into the pillow. “Turn it off.”

  “I can’t find it. Where’s the clock?”

  “It’s not an alarm clock. I don’t have an alarm clock.”

  Alex sat up and searched the room, then noticed the sound was coming from his pants, which were tossed over a nearby chair. He stumbled out of bed and picked them up, then found the new BlackBerry in his pocket. He pushed the button and put it to his ear.

  “What?”

  “It’s Tess. I’m sorry to call you so early but we have a huge problem. The new press just went down and we’re in the middle of the Marberry project. It’s Saturday and none of the techs are answering their phones. We’re supposed to deliver this job on Monday and we’ve still got to run it through bindery. I need you to come home.”

  “Aw, hell.” Alex rubbed his face with his hand, trying to clear the sleep from his brain. “It’s going to take me a while. I can probably make some calls from the road. I’m going to call Marberry first and see if we can’t push back delivery. How much of a hit can we take on our price?”

  “Five percent at the most. But don’t offer him a discount on this job. Tell him we’ll discount the next one. At least we know we’ll get him back as a customer, then.”

  “Do you have to talk so loud?” Tenley groaned. Alex sat down on the edge of the bed and put his pillow over her head.

  “Who is that?” Tess asked. “Oh, my God. Are you with a woman? Good grief, Alex, send her home, get in your car and point it toward Chicago. I’ll see you in…five hours.”

  “I’ve got to pick up my car from the garage and they won’t open until eight or nine. It’ll take me at least six hours to get back, so schedule a meeting with the production team at three. We’ll get this sorted out.”

  Tess hung up and Alex flopped back down on the bed, the phone still clutched in his hand “I have to go,” he said.

  Tenley pushed up on her elbows, her hair sticking up in unruly spikes. “Go where?”

  “Back to Chicago. We’ve got an emergency with one of our presses at the Elgin plant.”

  “No,” Tenley moaned. “You’re supposed to stay until Monday.”

  Alex rolled over and drew her into his embrace. “I know. Maybe I can come back. I’ll take care of business and if everything’s all right, I can drive back late tonight. I could be back here by midnight.”

  She closed her eyes and for a long time didn’t speak. Alex thought she’d fallen asleep again. But then, she opened her eyes. “You have to go,” she said. “We only had a few days left anyway. It’s all right.”

  “No, I’ll come back,” Alex insisted.

  Tenley shook her head, then pressed her finger to his lips. “No. It’s better this way. You need to get back to work. And I need to work on the novel. I can’t do that with you here.”

  “How about next weekend? I could drive up on Friday night.” All Alex needed was a promise that there would be a next time. He didn’t want to leave without knowing exactly where they stood.

  Tenley reached out and smoothed her hand over his cheek. “Alex, we both knew, going in, how difficult this would be. You’re down there and I’m here. Throw in the whole business thing and it gets too complicated. I’d like to believe we’re both smart enough to see that and save ourselves the pain of trying to make a relationship work.”

  Alex couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’d never been dumped in his life and this sounded suspiciously like the big heave-ho. He brushed the hair out of her eyes and turned her face up to his. But all he saw in her eyes was complete honesty. Had he misread the depth of her feelings for him?

  “So this is it?” he asked.

  “I know you’ve done this before,” Tenley said with a small smile. “A guy like you doesn’t stay single for as long as you have without breaking a few hearts. It’s easy.”

  “This doesn’t seem easy to me,” he said.

  “It will get better.” She leaned forward and brushed a kiss across his lips. “At least I didn’t break your heart and you didn’t break mine. I think we both got out of this feeling pretty good.”

  She was right. Still, he wanted her to want him to stay, so much that she would grasp at any chance to see him again. That was what women did. They got all crazy and clingy and demanding. But then, Tenley hadn’t ever acted like the women he’d dated. So it would make sense she’d just cut him loose without a second thought.

  “You’re sure about this?”

  “Absolutely sure,” she said.

  He frowned. “So, I guess we’ll be talking to each other about the novel. You’ll work on the changes. And when they’re done, we’ll discuss them.”

  “Yes. If I have any questions, I’ll call you.”

  Alex sat up and swung his legs off the bed. Then he ran his hands through his hair. This just didn’t seem right—hell, it didn’t feel right. Every instinct in his body told him not to leave her like this, to make it clear he wanted more than what they’d already shared.

  She slipped her arms around him from behind and rested her chin on his shoulder. “I am going to miss you. I like having you here when I wake up.”

  “That’s a good reason to see each other again, isn’t it?”

  She crawled out of bed and pulled him to his feet. “Come on. Get dressed. I’ll make you something to eat while you pack. And I’ll call the garage and tell them you’re coming for your car.”

  Tenley grabbed her T-shirt from the floor and tugged it over her head. “Wait a second,” Alex said. “Not so fast.” He pulled her against his body and kissed her, smoothing his hands up beneath her shirt until he found the soft flesh of her breasts.

  Tenley giggled. “Wanted to cop one last feel?”

  “Hey, I’m a guy. I have to have something to think about on the ride home.”

  Tenley dragged her T-shirt back over her head and threw it on the bed. “All right. I’ll cook breakfast in the nude. That should give you plenty to think about for the next two or three days.” She gave him a devilish smile, then walked out of the bedroom, a tantalizing sway to her hips.

  Alex poked his head out the door and watched her as she moved down the hallway. Tenley had the most incredible body. And she didn’t even work at it.

  He gathered the clothes he’d left in Tenley’s room and took them back into the guest room, then dug through his duffel for something comfortable to wear. He found a clean T-shirt, pulled it over his head, then stepped in
to his last pair of clean boxers. His missing jeans were mixed in with Tenley’s laundry and he tugged them on, then searched for his socks.

  “Scrambled or fried?” she called from the kitchen.

  “Just toast,” Alex called. “And coffee. Really black.” He might as well get back to his regular routine as soon as possible. Besides, he wouldn’t be spending the day and night with Tenley, so there wasn’t much need for extra energy.

  When he got out to the kitchen, he found Tenley standing at the counter, sipping a cup of coffee, still completely naked. She handed him a mug and then retrieved his toast from the toaster.

  “I like this,” he said, letting his gaze drift down the length of her body. “If a guy had this every day, he’d never get to work in the morning.”

  “It’s a lot better in the summer,” Tenley said. “I’m freezing.”

  Alex gathered her up in his arms and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You are, by far, the most interesting woman I’ve ever met, Tenley Marshall. I’m not going to forget you, even if you do make breakfast with your clothes on. Go get dressed.”

  She ran back to her bedroom and reappeared a minute later in flannel pajamas and slippers. She sat down next to him at the end of the island, sipping her coffee and waiting for him to finish his toast.

  “I did have a wonderful time,” she said with a warm smile. “I’m glad I stopped and rescued you.”

  “I’m glad you did, too.” He reached out and slipped his hand through the hair at her nape. Gently, Alex pulled her forward until their lips met. He knew it might be the last time he kissed her, so he tried to make it as sweet and perfect as possible. When he finally drew back, Alex looked down, taking in all the small details of her face, committing them to memory.

  There was a time when he thought her odd, but now, Alex was certain she was someone so special, so unique that he might never meet another woman like her again. He drew a steadying breath, then stood. The longer he waited, the more difficult this was going to be.

  “I have to go. Now. Or I’m never going to leave.”

  Tenley nodded. “All right.” She hugged him hard, then pushed up on her toes and gave him a quick kiss. “I’ll see you, Alex.”

  He wanted to gather her in his arms and show her what a real goodbye kiss should be. But in the end, Alex took one last look, smiled and turned for the door. “I’ll see you, Tenley.”

  The trek out to his rental car was the longest walk of his life. Every step required enormous willpower. When he looked back, she was standing on the porch in her pajamas, the cold morning wind blowing at her dark hair. He waved as he drove past the house to the driveway. And all the way to town, Alex tried to come up with an excuse to send him back to the cabin.

  Tenley was right. They’d been caught up in a wildly enjoyable affair, but that was all it had been. Passion had turned to infatuation and he’d mistaken it for love. Love didn’t happen in four days or even four weeks. And though his interest in other women had always faded quickly, Alex knew that his feelings for Tenley would be with him for a very long time. He would never, ever forget Tenley Marshall.

  “YOUR PERSPECTIVE is off here.”

  Tenley studied the drawing, then nodded. “You’re right. I always make that mistake.” She cursed softly. “This is why I should have gone to art school. People will see things like that and know I’m an amateur.”

  “No, they won’t. This is highly stylized, Tenley. You can break a lot of rules. In fact, in this kind of work, you can make up your own rules. It’s your universe. I’m just pointing out some areas you might want to consider,” her grandfather said.

  “Right,” she murmured.

  It had been three days since Alex had walked out of her life. He’d called twice, but she’d ignored his calls, knowing it would be easier if they didn’t speak for a while. Still, she’d listened to the sound of his voice on her voice mail over and over again.

  She’d been working on the novel nonstop, but her progress had been cursed with fits and starts. With only her own resources to depend upon, Tenley found herself second-guessing the decisions she made. Her first impulse was to call Alex and discuss her concerns with him. But she realized that if she wanted to be an artist, she’d have to stand on her own. Or fail.

  Though failing had once been a viable option, the more time she spent on the novel, the more Tenley wanted to make it work. This was a great story, a story that was so tightly woven into her own that she had trouble separating herself from Cyd. She’d grown to like the girl. She was strong and resourceful and determined. She was a survivor.

  Yet even with a new story swirling around in her head, Tenley still couldn’t keep her thoughts from wandering to Alex. She hadn’t thought it would be this difficult. Once he was gone, she assumed her life would get back to normal. Sure, she’d think about him occasionally, but thoughts of him would soon fade.

  In reality, she’d become obsessed with remembering. Each night, before she fell asleep, she’d go through each image in her head, lingering over them like a photo album. Yesterday, she’d actually made a drawing of Alex in the perfect state of arousal and she was quite taken with it, until she realized it was bordering on pornography.

  On the floor in front of the fire, in the sauna, in the studio, in his room—everywhere she turned there were reminders of him.

  “Tenley!”

  “What?” She stood up, spinning around to find her grandfather standing behind her, his arms crossed over his chest.

  “How long are you going to be like this?”

  “Like what?”

  “Your young man has been gone for, what, three days?”

  “Yes, three days.”

  “And when is he coming back?”

  “He’s not. And he’s not my young man. He’s just a guy I knew for a while.”

  “I see. And how long do you plan to mope around?”

  “I’m not moping. I’m just distracted. I have a lot of things on my mind and not enough time to think about them all. Speaking of which, if you don’t go through those bills of sale and mark the inventory numbers on them, I’m going to have a lot more to be crabby about than Alex Stamos.”

  “This arrived for you today.” Her grandfather held up a large envelope. The logo for the university in Green Bay was emblazoned on the corner.

  Tenley took it from his hand. “Thanks.”

  “So you’re going to start school?”

  “Yes,” she said firmly. “This summer. I’m going to take a writing class, too.”

  “Why not spread your wings a little further, Tennie? Check out some other schools. The Art Institute in Chicago has a great school. You could go down there and stay for the summer, really immerse yourself in something new.”

  Though the Art Institute might have a fabulous school, Tenley knew why her grandfather was pushing that choice. It would give her the opportunity to rekindle her relationship with Alex. The thought had crossed her mind more than once. But she wanted to simplify her life, not make it more complicated. “I can’t do that. I have responsibilities here. I have my dogs and cats and horses to care for. And I don’t have the money to stay in Chicago for the summer. If I go to Green Bay, I can drive back and forth.”

  “I’ll give you the money,” her grandfather said.

  “No, you won’t. You don’t have the money to give me.”

  “No?” He laughed. “I have a lot of money. Money you don’t even know I have. I’ve put it all in a trust for you. I don’t think you should have to wait for me to kick the bucket before you can use it. So I’m going to give it to you now.”

  “I can’t take your money,” Tenley said. “You should spend it on yourself.”

  “I intend to. In fact, now that you’re planning on attending school, I might just go somewhere warm for the winter.”

  “You hate California,” she said.

  “I was thinking about Greece.”

  Tenley gasped. “Greece? Since when?”

  He picke
d up a paintbrush and examined it closely. “I’ve always wanted to go to Greece. Your grandmother hated to fly, so we couldn’t go. And after she died, I had you to watch out for. But now that you’re moving on, I think I should do the same.”

  Emotion welled up inside of her. She’d never meant to be a burden on her grandfather. She was supposed to care for him, not the other way around. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that you—You should go. Oh, it would be wonderful. Think of all the things you could paint.” With a sob, she threw her arms around her grandfather’s neck. “Thank you for being so patient with me. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure things out.”

  He patted her back. “Not to worry. It all worked out in the end. You found a man and that’s the only thing that matters.”

  “I didn’t find a man,” Tenley said stubbornly. “Alex went back to Chicago. He’s gone.”

  “What difference does that make? If he’s the one you want, then a few hundred miles won’t matter. When I met your grandmother, she was living in the Upper Peninsula. and I was living in Minot, North Dakota. We managed to find a way to make it work.”

  “I don’t want to make it work,” Tenley said. “I’m not ready to be in love.”

  Her grandfather shook his head and chuckled. “It’s not like you can prepare for it. It just happens and when it does, you have to grab it and hang on for dear life. It doesn’t come along that often.”

  Tenley took her drawings and put them back inside her portfolio, then zipped it up. “Well, I don’t want to be in love. Not right now. I have too many other things I have to do. It would just get in the way.”

  He reached out and placed his hand over hers. “Tennie, I really don’t think you have a whole lot of control over that. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always admired your resolve. But on this one you’re wrong.” He tapped her portfolio. “Good work. When you’re done, I think a trip to Chicago might be in order. It’ll give you a chance to check out the school at the Art Institute.”

  “What would you do without me during the summer?”