The Final Seduction

by Sharon Kendrick

  The eyes opened an interested fraction. ‘And why on earth would that bother you, Shelley?’

  She turned on him. ‘Why do you think? Do you want me to spell it out for you?’

  ‘Not really. I want you to say it out loud for me instead.’

  Her eyes were very bright and very clear. ‘That I love you? That I’ve always loved you? Surely you must know that by now?’

  He didn’t answer at first, just eased himself out of the chair as though he found sitting down inhibiting, but the blue eyes were as cold as a winter sea. ‘Then you fall in love very easily, don’t you, Shelley? Last month Marco, this month me.’

  She shook her head, knowing that she needed to tread very carefully here. ‘But I never loved Marco.’

  ‘No?’ He gave a dry laugh. ‘You just lived with him for three years? That’s some kind of devotion!’

  ‘Yes, it is, I agree—but it’s not love.’ Her eyes blazed out the truth at him. ‘And it never was—it was never anybody but you.’

  There was silence and Shelley stared down at her hands, unable to look him in the face.

  ‘Then why didn’t you come back sooner if that was the case? Why stay with a man you claim not to have loved?’

  She knew that she had to have the courage to face him, but she almost flinched from the accusation in the burning blue gaze. ‘Like when?’

  ‘When your mother died.’ His eyes asked a question. ‘I thought you would have needed me then.’

  ‘Needed you?’ She shook her head in despair. ‘Oh, Drew—of course I needed you! If you’d shown the slightest indication that you wanted or needed me—then I would have come back like a shot! But you wouldn’t even speak to me—bar the absolute minimum that you needed to—so how could I tell you anything? I was waiting for you to say something, anything that would have given me the smallest hint that you still wanted me. But you didn’t. Sometimes I used to dream that you would come to Italy to find me, but you never did.’

  ‘Because you were living with another man!’ he ground out incredulously. ‘What the hell did you expect—that I would walk in and drag you from his arms? Sorry, kitten, but that’s just not my style!’

  She opened her mouth to answer, but found herself gazing helplessly at him instead. And the only thing which seemed to matter now was whether or not it was too late for them. ‘Drew?’ she managed eventually.

  She read the look in his eyes which made her dare to hope, and then suddenly she was wrapped in his arms so tightly that she could barely breathe.

  ‘And please don’t ask me if I still love you,’ he whispered harshly, ‘when I never stopped! Though God knows it wasn’t for want of trying!’ And with that he brought his mouth crushing down on hers in a kiss that made her want to melt into him and never be prised apart.

  It took some time for him to tear his mouth away, and when he did he cupped her face tenderly with his hands.

  ‘As for that woman you saw me with at the party—’

  ‘You don’t have to justify anything to me.’

  He carried on as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘I knew you were there,’ he said softly.

  Shelley stilled, still sensitive to the possibility of… betrayal? ‘Y-you saw me?’

  ‘Sure I did. I saw you watching her kiss me.’

  ‘You kissed her back!’ she accused.

  ‘I was a passive participant,’ he argued. ‘Not an active one.’

  ‘And you think that makes it all right?’

  He shook his head. ‘I didn’t stop her—that was the extent of my involvement. But if you’d hung around you’d have discovered that I rejoined the party minutes later and wondered where you’d gone.’

  ‘You must have known damned well where I’d gone! That I couldn’t stay there seeing you with someone else!’

  He nodded. ‘Yes, I knew what you must be thinking. I knew your mind must have been working overtime, as mine once did when I saw you with Marco. Don’t you realise, kitten, just how powerful the imagination can be? And how dangerous? That it can be both weapon and tool? That’s what I wanted to show you. All those times you shrugged your pretty shoulders and said, “Oh, Drew—it was just a kiss!” It’s never just a kiss! You’ve always thought that I completely overreacted all those years ago—but you’re guilty of exactly the same reaction, Shelley!’

  He was right. She looked up at him, slightly shame-faced. ‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘I stormed out and took all that money out of the bank! I didn’t even think of Jamie, I’m ashamed to say. All I could think of was how much it would infuriate you!’

  He nodded. ‘Both kisses were innocent—logic tells us that—but logic doesn’t have much of a role to play when it comes to love. Passion dominates logic.’ He gave her a long, searching stare. ‘And I think it’s about time we gave passion a little room in our lives, don’t you, kitten? It’s been waiting for long enough to come in.’

  She grazed a finger across the rough, dark shadow of his chin. ‘You need a shave,’ she whispered.

  ‘I need more than a shave. I need you like I’ve never needed anything or anyone in my life before. But not here.’ He gave a slow smile that made her cheeks glow pink, then looked around the room. ‘I don’t want to stay here.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Too many…memories. Come on.’ He took her hand and kissed it. ‘Let’s go home to bed.’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE moon rose high in a sky of flawless navy velvet and silver light flooded in through the uncurtained window, illuminating the rumpled sheets and the two tangled bodies which lay amidst them.

  Drew listened to the subsiding beat of her heart before he moved away so that she was at arm’s length. More importantly, so that he could see her.

  ‘So why didn’t you tell me, Shelley?’

  She let her eyelids drift open and yawned. She wasn’t going to pretend not to know what he was talking about. ‘It’s a difficult topic to bring up. I couldn’t think of the right time.’

  ‘You could have told me any time. Especially before I…before we…’ Suddenly he couldn’t wipe the stupid grin off his face ‘…made love.’

  She propped herself up on one elbow and raised her flushed face to his with a sleepy smile. ‘I didn’t want to tell you then.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because it would have made too big a deal of it—’

  ‘Hell, Shelley—it is a big deal—or rather it’s supposed to be! Taking a woman’s virginity is one of the biggest—’ His mouth quirked when he saw her expression. ‘Stop it, will you? I’m trying to be serious! Do you want to tell me…just tell me how you’re still a virgin?’

  ‘You know very well how,’ she retorted. ‘Because I never made love to a man before. I think you mean why.’

  ‘Don’t play word-games with me at a time like this, kitten!’ he pleaded.

  She thought of asking him which games he did want to play at a time like this, but something in the way he was looking at her made her realise how much it meant to him.

  And to her.

  ‘Marco was… No, let me start again… Marco is…’

  ‘For heaven’s sake, Shelley, don’t keep me in suspense, just say it!’

  ‘Gay.’

  ‘Gay?’

  ‘That’s right. He isn’t interested in women—he never has been. That stupid kiss in the car was a thank-you kiss which went on longer than it should have done. It was always more about my fantasy than his. We lived together like brother and sister, until eventually he fell in love.’ She examined his face. ‘Are you shocked?’

  ‘Shocked?’ He gave a slow, easy smile. ‘Shocked? Kitten, I’m ecstatic, if you want the truth.’ He turned onto his back and looked up at the bare ceiling with the wonder of a man who was gazing on the interior of the Sistine Chapel. ‘Ecstatic! More than ecstatic! Good old Marco!’

  He turned over to face her again and placed a possessive hand on her hip and frowned. ‘So what was in it for him?’

  Shelley smil
ed. ‘He was a gorgeous, attractive, eligible and fabulously rich man and he used to get so many come-ons, you wouldn’t believe it. Well, maybe you would! But he was adamantly opposed to sex without love. I scared people away for him, if you like. Men and women. He always said he would find true love one day, and now he has.’

  ‘And if he hadn’t—how much longer would you have stayed there?’

  Shelley shrugged, realising now the danger in her apathy. ‘I kept putting off having to make a decision. This was the only place I wanted to come back to, but I knew how impossible it would be if you’d found someone else.’

  ‘Well, I hadn’t.’ He sighed. ‘A virgin! Shelley, sweetest—you still could have told me first—I would have been a damn sight more gentle with you.’

  ‘But I didn’t want you to be gentle with me,’ she said demurely. ‘And neither did I want you to know I was a virgin before we made love. I needed to know that you would still want me even if I had had a lover before. As you’ve had lovers—’

  ‘Not as many as you seem to imagine. In fact, the actual number—’

  But she shook her head. ‘The number isn’t important, Drew. What is important is that you treat me as your equal. If you’d known I was a virgin, I’d have been back up there on that pedestal—and it got kind of lonely up there.’

  ‘And did I? Treat you equally?’

  ‘You know you did,’ she said softly.

  ‘Well, then, now it’s your turn to hear me out. And on the question of lovers—’

  ‘Drew!’ she warned. ‘I don’t want to hear!’

  ‘Well, you’re going to! I may have had affairs in my life, but there has been no one—’ he saw her incredulous face as she anticipated his words ‘—I repeat, no one—not since you went away to Italy.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s true.’ He gave a long, lazy smile as he stroked a fingertip along the curve of her waist. ‘I was so busy building up the business that I used to just fall into bed every night—alone! But more than that—’ he smiled at the question in her eyes ‘—the simple truth is that there was no one I fancied as much as you, kitten. Not before and certainly not since.’

  But despite the wonder of his words a sudden rush of melancholy swamped her. ‘Oh, Drew—when I think of how much time we’ve wasted.’

  ‘No.’ His blue gaze was very intense as he smoothed the damp hair back from her face. ‘We mustn’t look on it as time spent wasted, but time spent growing. Neither of us was ready. I shouldn’t have teased you and tried to control you, not when you were ripe with need and in love with me. I shouldn’t have tried to control the inevitable. To fight fate. Even though I told myself that my intentions were purely honourable.’

  ‘And I shouldn’t have been so impatient!’

  The gaze which flickered over her moon-washed body was rueful. ‘You were an awesome responsibility when you were younger, you know, Miss Turner. Your mother was terrified of history repeating itself.’

  ‘Was that why you…why we…?’

  He sighed. ‘She trusted me to take care of you, and I didn’t want to abuse that trust. She once asked me not to take advantage of the crush you had on me, you know.’

  ‘Did she?’

  ‘Uh-huh. It was just after I’d caught you topless on the beach and I think she suspected that my feelings might have changed. And she was right of course. I wanted you so badly that it hurt. But I was going away, so I thought I’d forget all about you. You were almost eighteen and I was twenty-five, and so I rather arrogantly gave her my word that I wouldn’t compromise you. And having given my word, kitten, how could I then break it?’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said simply, recognising only now the debt she owed him for his decency and his dependability.

  ‘Then, when the whole understandable Marco thing happened, I was too arrogant and too proud to listen to reason. Arrogant for letting you go in the first place, and too proud to ask you to come back. Your mother always said you would, you know.’

  ‘But you didn’t believe her?’

  ‘A part of me wanted to,’ he sighed. ‘But my pride stood in the way. I convinced myself that I couldn’t care less. How about that for self-delusion?’ He leaned across and brushed his lips against hers and she shivered with pleasure, trickling her fingers down the hair-roughened torso—from neck to belly button. ‘We’ve waited one hell of a long time for this!’ he growled.

  ‘I know. But what we just shared was—’ She couldn’t think of a word which would say it all. ‘For years we’ve had this slow, drugging build-up of the senses, and today…’ She sighed with memory. ‘Oh, Drew—wasn’t it worth waiting for?’

  ‘It was more than that, kitten.’ He moved closer. ‘It was the best thing that’s ever happened to me,’ he told her simply. ‘Want to make it happen again? Right now?’

  She wrapped her arms around his neck. ‘Oh, yes, please,’ she whispered. ‘And now there are no secrets left between us, no barriers left to fall—’

  ‘It’s the final seduction?’ He smiled with delight as he slowly lowered his head. ‘Heart, body and soul…’

  ‘You’ve got it,’ she murmured, opening her lips to greet his. ‘You’ve got it in one!’ But her words were muffled against the sweetness of his kiss.

  They spent the next twenty-four hours in bed and Shelley guessed that they must have slept at some point, only she wasn’t exactly sure when.

  They were sitting facing one another in the bathtub and Drew was showing her how very erotic a toe could be when she plucked up the courage to ask, ‘What’s going to happen with Jamie and Jennie?’

  He scowled. ‘I told Jamie that if he ever hurt my sister he would live to regret it. And that I was giving him a chance to make good.’ He saw the look of bewilderment on Shelley’s face. ‘I’ve loaned him the money myself to buy the boat. The rest is up to him.’ His eyes glittered dangerously. ‘He’d just better not blow it. That’s all.’

  She leaned across the bubbles and kissed his nose tenderly. ‘You’re a bit of a pussy-cat when it boils down to it, aren’t you, Drew Glover? Lending him all that…all that…’ Her eyes widened in horror as she remembered. ‘Drew! All that money! We’ve left all that money lying on the table in the sitting room! Anyone could have broken in and stolen it!’

  ‘Come on!’ He climbed out of the bath and lifted her out. Then he threw over her discarded jeans and a thick navy sweater of his. ‘Put this on!’

  Despite the fact that she might have lost a great deal of money, she couldn’t help smiling as she wriggled it over her head. Because it smelt of him—and now she felt as though he had filled every one of her senses. They jumped into his car and drove as fast as was safe and when they let themselves breathlessly into Shelley’s house they discovered that the money had indeed disappeared from the coffee table.

  ‘It’s gone!’ said Shelley dully.

  ‘Well, it would be, wouldn’t it? We might as well have posted a bloody great notice on the outside of the house. Of all the stupid things to do!’ But his eyes were soft. ‘I guess the only defence we can offer is that we had other things on our mind.’

  ‘Mmm.’ She reached up on tiptoe to kiss him, because—rightly or wrongly—the money didn’t seem to matter a bit right then. She had far more important things to think about. Like love. ‘We certainly did!’

  ‘We’ll have to report it,’ he sighed.

  ‘Maybe there are fingerprints,’ said Shelley hopefully.

  ‘Better not touch anything!’ He looked around and frowned. ‘I wonder how the hell they got in? There’s no sign of a break-in. You’d better see if they’ve taken anything else, kitten.’

  Just then the front doorbell chimed and when Shelley went to answer it she found Jennie and Jamie standing on the doorstep. Jamie was holding Ellie and looking terribly pleased with himself while Jennie looked as though she was just bursting to tell them something.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Drew asked suspiciously.

  ‘Have you l
ost something?’ asked Jamie airily.

  ‘Like…?’

  ‘Like this stash of cash?’ questioned Jamie triumphantly, bringing his spare hand from behind his back and waving the wad of cash in the air.

  ‘Where the hell did you get that?’

  ‘Jamie saw it sitting on your table!’ said Jennie, taking it from Jamie and handing it over to Shelley. ‘And came and told me. We decided that it was too risky to leave it there. So we let ourselves in with the spare key you gave me, and took it home to keep it safe for you.’

  Drew looked at Jamie for a long moment. ‘Thanks, mate,’ he said simply, and held his hand out.

  Jennie began to tut as the two men shook hands. ‘I couldn’t believe it! I thought, Surely not Drew! I mean, what a crazy, irresponsible thing to do—to leave that much money lying around. Whatever were you thinking of?’

  Shelley and Drew looked into each other’s eyes and burst out laughing. ‘Sorry,’ said Drew as he drew her into his arms. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to draw a veil over that! And while we’re on the subject of veils…’

  ‘Yes?’ queried Jennie incredulously.

  ‘Go away, Jennie,’ he grumbled. ‘I’m talking to Shelley.’

  Shelley stared at him, oblivious to the fact that other people were present. ‘Say that again.’

  ‘What, veils?’

  ‘What kind of veils?’

  ‘Well, I’d sort of thought wedding veils.’

  Her eyes were like saucers. ‘You mean…marriage?’

  He grinned. What had he said about passion dominating logic? ‘I do. Oh, I do!’

  And Shelley repeated those same words when they were married the following springtime—when the last of the winter chill had thawed away. The bride wore a pearl-white sheath sent with delight by Marco and his partner, and Shelley felt incandescent with joy as she made her wedding vows to the man she had loved for most of her life.

  For two weeks they honeymooned almost exclusively at the Westward, barely setting foot outside the Lilac Suite—because, as Drew had told her, he had spent long enough imagining what it would be like to seduce her there. ‘And the reality far exceeds the fantasy,’ he had drawled.