Sensuous Burgundy

by Barbara Delinsky

  “Come on, baby, I’ve got to call your boss. They still have that pretty decoy to protect.”

  Spent of all resistance, she followed him quietly into the house, huddling into a corner of a plush sofa as he called Northampton and passed on her discovery. Only when he came to sit in the deep armchair opposite her did she recall her present, more soulful dilemma.

  ten

  “ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?” THE CONCERN IN HIS voice was mirrored in his dark brown eyes. He made no move to close the distance between them, merely studied her intently. She avoided his gaze, letting her blue eyes drift randomly about this room which, in its understated elegance, bore the undeniably familiar stamp of the owner.

  She began in a tremulous voice, her senses confused, her composure negligible. “I feel…overwhelmed. These past few months have thrown me…” Some tiny thread of reason reminded her that by all rights she should be angry at this man, not only for what he’d done to her in the past, but for having dragged her away from the center of action this very morning. But all resentment, all bitterness had vanished. He had a knack of doing that to her, each and every time. Yet in so many ways he would have been very good for her, knowing just how to comfort her, to humor her, to exert pressure when pressure was called for. If only…

  “I love you, Laura.” So sure was she that the words had been in her own mind, Laura bowed her head lower, drawing further into herself as the agony of loving flared again. When the words came a second time, they were nearer—soft, intimate, and heartfelt. “I love you.”

  Unable to believe what she’d heard, she raised her head to find Max squatting before her, his eyes level with hers, his hands resting on the cushions on either side of her. “Please hear me, Laura,” he begged in a near whisper. “I love you.”

  Words eluded her. It was another trick, she rued frantically, incredulously, her eyes widening, her gaze searching the ceiling for some shred of reality to which she could cling. It was impossible that he should love her, after all he’d done!

  Sensing her thoughts, Max straightened and walked to the window. “You were right about so very many things. I have been a bastard, and you have every right to despise me. But I’d like a chance to explain before you pass final judgment.” His hands were thrust into his pants pockets as he kept his back to her. Laura was unable to move, her sight dominated by the broad expanse of blue-clothed back that faced her.

  “I had no intention of falling in love,” he began slowly, but with the conviction of having rehearsed the speech repeatedly in his mind. “I had my career, my social life, my celebrity status. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but by the end of that weekend in Rockport, it was a fait accompli. I knew, then, that I loved you. But I had no idea how to handle it. We had the Stallway case coming up, which meant so much to you. I couldn’t bear the thought of your not prosecuting it. I tried to avoid seeing you, but that backfired. Then, when you showed up here…” He paused as they both recalled the time she’d driven to this town house.

  “Those things I said, Laura, they weren’t true. I never thought of you only in the physical sense. You have to believe that.” He turned and came to stand before her, the inherent soul-touch of his chocolate gaze reinforcing his words. Then, as though he felt awkward towering above and talking down, he lowered his long frame to the sofa, careful to leave space between them. There was only earnestness in the eyes that pleaded so uncharacteristically. Laura’s own face had frozen into a mask of pain, wanting to believe him…yet afraid.

  “It was your spirit that first attracted me, your wit, your intelligence. You were so many different women—the ultimate professional, the sophisticate, the do-gooder, the free spirit. You were the most enchanting woman I’d ever met. And you were beautiful. I knew that you excited me physically, but that was not the major thing. Until…” He hesitated, unsure as to how far he could push her composure. “…until you let me make love to you.”

  Burned by the memory of the passion that had raged between them, she averted her eyes from his. But strong fingers gently guided her jaw back. “No, Laura, don’t look away from me. I want you to see what I’m saying.” His eyes captured hers in such a mesmerizing intensity that she was unable to look elsewhere. There was a heartrending tenderness there that held her prisoner. His voice bore an underlying huskiness as he continued.

  “When I made love to you, when you made love to me, it was an experience so far above the purely physical! I guess that’s when I knew that I loved you. I’ve been no celibate, Laura, for the past twenty years. I’ve had my share of women; I’m sure you knew that. But never did I feel anything akin to what we shared. Ours was a physical joining made spiritual.”

  He sighed, coming his fingers roughly through his thick mane of brown hair. “And if you accuse me again of sounding like I’m before a jury, I’ll strangle you.” She blushed then, recalling the hurt that had prompted that vicious accusation. “That’s better,” he crooned, suddenly more relaxed. “I’ve been waiting for that blush. You look better with a little color in your cheeks.” He raised a finger in a light caress of the spot in mention.

  Laura had neither moved nor spoken. Yet she was aware that the horror of these past weeks had begun to recede. For the first time in days she felt a lessening of the pain that had so seized her mind and body.

  But Max had not finished. “I was so proud of you during the trial. You were professional, dignified, quick—all the things I’ve always respected in a fellow lawyer.” His face held that respect, and the pain within Laura eased even more. “Then, after the trial, I simply lost control. I was so pleased that it was over, that we could finally be together again. But when I found that you hated me for everything I’d done, I couldn’t begin to cope.”

  In a moment of self-disgust, he grimaced, then bolted up and stormed back to the window. “I nearly raped you, Laura.” Every bit of pain that she’d harbored over the weeks had settled in Max’s voice. “I nearly raped you!” He put his hands on his hips and looked skyward in a gesture of despair. “I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself for that!”

  To glory in the pain of another was contrary to Laura’s nature, yet it was Max’s very pain that convinced her, once and for all, of the truth of his words and his feelings. Hope met joy in a blessed awakening within her. Slowly and silently, she rose from the sofa and crossed the room to lightly slip her arms through his and lock her slender fingers together, pulling herself gently against him, resting her joy-flushed cheek on the muscled strength of his back. She could hear the loud drumming of his heart, a life-infusing pulse to her, as she unconsciously tightened her grip. There was one last question she wanted to ask, needing only that last bit of reassurance. Her voice was not much more than a whisper.

  “Why did you come out to get me today, Max?”

  His body had begun to relax as she’d embraced him. Now she felt his fingers tentatively cover hers as he took a deep, shuddering breath. “I couldn’t leave you out there, Laura, with that maniac on the loose. I knew that today was to be the day, I just couldn’t let you stay. Frank hinted that he’d planned to get you out, but knowing your streak of hardheadedness, I figured he might have trouble.” Her obvious smile against his back urged him on. “You may have been furious, Laura, but I had no intention of letting the woman I love remain in that kind of danger.”

  Never had Laura heard such beautiful words. Max had to pry her fingers apart in order to turn and face her. There was an infinite silence as they looked at each other, and when he finally spoke, his plea was from the heart, brimming with hope.

  “Once you said you loved me, Laura. Is there enough forgiveness in you to begin to love again?” Her now luminous eyes didn’t flinch under his directness.

  “I never stopped loving you, Max,” she declared softly, as she raised a faintly trembling hand to trace his cheekbone and the line of his jaw, now eased.

  His firm lips kissed the tips of her fingers as they passed by on their wonder-filled journey. “I’ve missed
you so much, baby. You’ll never know!” he murmured with feeling.

  There was a sly twinkle in her own eye when Laura nodded vigorously. “Oh, I know. Why do you think I’ve worked myself ragged, eaten practically nothing, and gotten little sleep?”

  His grin was the one she’d always melted beneath. “I was hoping, in my own perverse way, that that was the reason. But I intend to remedy those problems from here on in.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes!” he growled playfully, tightening the arms which now encircled her waist. “For starters, you’re spending the rest of the week here. I picked up those things at your apartment, and anything else you need we can shop for together.”

  Sudden suspicion stirred her. “How did you manage to get into my apartment? Either you picked the lock or you beguiled Mrs. Daniels.”

  A quiver of excitement passed through her limbs at the beaming smile sent her way. How good it was to see him happy, she mused, knowing that to be the only sunshine she truly needed. Devilment was written over his dark features. “I’m afraid I must plead guilty to the latter. Actually, Mrs. Daniels was a pushover. It only took one good smile.”

  “Hmmm, that’s all it ever takes,” she reflected aloud, blatantly referring to her own susceptibility.

  As though in retaliation of her quip, he did it again. This time her insides quaked with the stirrings of more heady beguilement. Her fingers snaked around the column of his neck to wind into the thickness of his hair, subtly pressing his head forward.

  “Kiss me, Max,” she urged in a bold whisper. “I’ve waited so long.” He needed no further urging, lowering his head until his lips, firm and cool, met hers, soft and warm, in a soul-reaching caress filled with gentleness and love. As his hands molded her pliant body ever closer, she shuddered with desire, a current that flowed from her body to his and back in wordless communion. Max’s eyes were filled with the same smoldering ember as hers, when their lips finally fell apart.

  “I love you,” he rasped against her forehead, crushing her against his body moments before he lifted her off her feet and into his arms.

  “Where are you taking me?” she shrieked in mock rebellion, clinging to his neck with suddenly reborn strength.

  He’d left the living room and had begun to climb the flight of stairs two at a time, her weight but a token in his arms, before he answered. “We’re going to bed. My bed. I’ve dreamed of making fast and furious love to you there for the past three months, and I’m not waiting a minute longer.”

  “Aren’t you going to show me around your home first?” she protested coyly.

  “Later!” He continued climbing.

  “Aren’t you going to feed this poor undernourished woman?” she teased.

  “Later!”

  “Aren’t you even going to see that I make up for all the sleep I’ve lost over you?”

  “Later!”

  Laura’s features were illuminated by the soft light of love. “Thank God!” She exhaled an exaggerated sigh of relief just before she was dropped atop the velours blanket that covered the bed in which she had imagined herself lying beside the man who now joined her in an age-old ritual of passionate delight.

  Among the many realities that ceased to exist during this precious time of rediscovery was the drama that had played itself out in Northampton late that afternoon. It wasn’t until long after dark, when Max finally chose to answer his telephone, that they learned that the man who had unsuccessfully attempted to attack Laura’s judo-trained look-alike was, indeed, the man who had once been declared sexually dangerous by a young, attractive, and very perceptive female prosecutor. Safely and permanently behind bars, this man had no further place in Laura’s thoughts, her every energy devoted to the one who had captured her heart.

  The sun had cascaded in red-orange trickles across the Charles when, much later Max called Laura back to him from her perch. As she returned to the bed, his eyes surveyed the wonder of her femininity, fulfilled at last.

  “So warm and fresh,” he murmured huskily, reaching out to touch the ivory smoothness of a shapely hip as she slid onto the crisp sheets and nestled against his hairy manliness.

  “Spring is finally here,” she mused dreamily. “It’s been a long time coming.” The deeper meaning of her words was clear, Max having shared the rebirth of their oneness. Now as his eyes roamed the gentle curves of her body, she knew of delicate green buds blooming into sun-graced maturity. Ripples of ecstasy surged as his hand paved a gentle trail from shoulder to breast to rib cage, coming to rest in splayed possession of her flat belly.

  “You know,” he began in a worshipful croon, his eyes filled with future imaginings as his words traced the past, “I’d half hoped you were pregnant. The thought of your carrying our child pleases me.”

  Long-suppressed guilt quickly surfaced. “Max, you have to know that I didn’t mean what I said that day on the phone,” she burst out in urgent confession. “I could never have harmed our child. Never!” She drew back and turned her face toward his as she spoke, her rounded eyes proclaiming her honesty. “It would be a very precious experience, to bear your child.”

  He smiled mischievously. “My children.”

  “Your children!”

  With passion-inspired gruffness, he pulled her head back against his shoulder. “I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Will you mind terribly being married to a lawyer? I won’t!”

  “But if I’m going to raise all these children, there will hardly be time for law—”

  “Whoa! You’re jumping the gun again. In the first place, I think we can wait a bit for the little ones. There’s too much I want to do with you alone. Secondly, I will not let you give up your career!” The vehemence in his voice precluded any argument, though he underscored his determination more gently. “You’re too good a lawyer for that, Laura. And looking at the skillful way you do just about everything else, I’ve no doubt that you could very comfortably combine motherhood and a career. After all, what better way to have a totally flexible schedule than to be in partnership with your husband?”

  Admiration intermixed with adoration as she gazed up at his brown-eyed brilliance. “You’ve got it all planned, haven’t you?”

  He grinned. “Not all. I haven’t figured out how I’m going to tell Frank that his best lawyer will be leaving him. I haven’t figured out how we’re going to break the news to those sassy kids of yours. And I haven’t figured out how I’m going to concede to Chatfield that he was right, that I was a fool to risk losing you.”

  “Did Sandy really say that?”

  “Ummm…that and more, and in much more picturesque language, I might add.”

  A triumphant giggle erupted through love-rouged lips. “Good boy, Sandy!”

  Max delivered a playful pat to Laura’s bare bottom before melting into tenderness. Firm lips brushed her forehead, long fingers followed to gently smooth a loose strand of black hair away from her face, then trailed down her cheek to her throat, where lay the small gold heart and its throbbing ruby.

  “How fitting that this should be the only thing you’re wearing. I didn’t think you would have had it on, after all that happened…”

  A mere whisper answered him. “It was all I had of you. Even when I thought I never wanted to see you again, I couldn’t take it off. You were everything I’d always wanted, Max. I knew that you’d always have my love, but I feared this was all I’d ever have of you.” Her fingers met his at the heart they shared.

  Any reminiscent pain was blotted out beneath a soul-reaching kiss, as Max forever stilled those old fears. When he reluctantly released her lips, it was to speak warmly against her forehead. “You were right, you know, when you accused me of being afraid. I’d never been able to see it before. I was afraid of making the ultimate commitment.”

  His moment of self-reproach was broken by Laura’s loving quest. “And now? Are you still afraid?”

  The fierceness of his response thrilled her. “Yes! I’m terrified of facing a li
fe of emptiness such as I had a taste of this past month. Yes.” He gave a nodding confirmation in answer to her stare of wonderment. “I felt the same pain you did.”

  This time it was Laura who stilled his voice with her kiss, sweet and compassionate. “I love you,” she murmured against his lips, moments before he rolled over with a growl to playfully pin her to the bed. His voice was husky with arousal. “You know, Madame Prosecutor, my client got off lightly. I’ve drawn a life sentence.”

  “Some prison you’ve got here,” she drawled, impishly running the sole of her foot the length of a delightfully rough-textured shin.

  Her mischief was contagious, bringing a naughty gleam to his eye. “Hmmm…the nicest thing about it is that conjugal visits are required.”

  Her voice lowered seductively. “Must I be a wife to qualify?”

  “’Fraid so.”

  “Then you’ll just have to marry me, because I’m not leaving!” It was a joyous declaration, a vow before the others.