Serpent in Paradise

by Jayne Ann Krentz

  “Nothing would have been different and you know it. If I hadn’t been so damned cautious, I’d have wound up just like Melissa. No man is ever going to put me in that position, Ty Murdock. Especially not one who would do what you’ve done to Melissa!”

  His mouth tightened. “You’re really not interested in my side of the mess, are you? Do you know how it feels to wake up one morning and find yourself trapped with a wife and a baby on the way? To see your whole life going down the tubes? Life is too short to waste it stranded in a suburb. I need to be free. I need to be constantly testing myself, finding out how good I am at surviving. My job is like a chess game with an element of real danger thrown in to spice it up. Nothing Melissa offered could match the lifestyle I’ve got now.”

  “I know,” Amy said quietly. “She was offering you a home. Don’t you see, Ty? Things would have been the same if I had accepted your proposal of marriage. Because a home is all I had to offer too.”

  “We could have worked something out.”

  Amy shook her head. “No. If I had given you the son you claimed you wanted, I would have wound up raising him alone. Which is exactly the way Melissa is raising the son you gave her. He’s a beautiful baby, Ty. He looks a lot like you.”

  “Don’t try to pull those particular strings, Amy,” he snapped. “It won’t work. I could never go back and stay. It’s better for both Melissa and Craig if I don’t try.”

  For the first time since he had collected her on the street and brought her into Cromwell’s, Amy managed a tight, sad smile. “I couldn’t agree with you more. I didn’t come out here to find you and drag you home, Ty. We honestly wondered if you were still alive. Melissa needed to know, you see, because someday she’s going to have to explain you to your son.”

  He scowled. “Tell him the truth!”

  “We were trying to avoid having to tell him that his father is a bastard.”

  “Why, you little...!” The fingers around Amy’s wrist tightened painfully for an instant as Ty’s face turned murderous. Amy stifled the instinct to flinch, sitting very still as she waited for whatever came next. Then, in a gesture of disgust, Ty released her, flinging back into his chair. The dark eyes regarded her broodingly. “So what are you going to tell Melissa when you get home?”

  Amy shrugged. “I was thinking of telling her that you were dead.”

  “That could be inconvenient if I ever happened to turn up in San Francisco again,” he pointed out maliciously.

  “If you should make the mistake of showing up on her doorstep, you will find yourself dealing with a man who understands responsibility. Melissa is getting married soon, Ty. One of the responsibilities Adam understands is how to protect his family. He won’t let you over the threshold. He won’t let you hurt her or your son. Why do you think I’m the one who had to come to Saint Clair to find out the truth about that mask and about what became of you? Adam wouldn’t think of letting Melissa come on her own. And to tell you the truth, she didn’t want to come. She’s over you, Ty. The home she once offered to you has been offered to another man who’s had the sense to grab it with both hands. Adam will be formally adopting Craig as soon as possible.”

  “Adopting him!” It was one of the few times, perhaps the only time, when Amy had ever seen Ty Murdock lose his composure. He stared at her, dumbfounded. Then he recovered almost immediately. “Well, maybe that’s the best way to handle it.”

  “I’m inclined to agree,” she said dryly. She got to her feet and reached for the bag of groceries on the chair beside her. “Good-bye, Ty. I won’t say it’s been a pleasure, but it has been enlightening. It would be interesting to see how much you like your free and adventuresome lifestyle twenty years from now, when you’re slowing down physically and the women don’t find you quite so charming. Adam and Melissa’s son will be in college by then. He may turn out to resemble you physically, but you can bet his parents are going to see to it that he doesn’t become another case of arrested development like his biological father! He’ll grow up to be a man, not a boy who wants to play boyish games forever.” She took a step forward to leave and then her eyes fell on Jase, who had just arrived at the entrance. He was staring at her with an expression she couldn’t define. It was somewhere between fury and fear, and there was a good deal of pure, masculine frustration thrown in.

  As she halted beside the table, Ty got up beside her, putting a restraining hand on her shoulder. He hadn’t yet spotted Jase. “Amy, listen to me. Forget about Melissa and Craig and everyone else back in San Francisco. Out here you learn to live only in the present, not the future. And right now there’s only you and me. Let me show you what you missed two years ago. I’ll take you to dinner and then we can spend the night together. It’ll be good, Amy, I promise.”

  Jase was moving forward, crossing the room with his efficient, lithe stride. The fury was now dominating his features.

  “I’m afraid that’s impossible, Ty,” Amy said carefully, her nerves quivering as she faced Jase. She’d had enough excitement for one day, she told herself anxiously. The last thing she needed was another round of male violence. “I’ve already got dinner plans. And I have plans for after dinner as well.”

  Ty’s head swung around to follow the direction of her gaze. His eyes narrowed. “Are you really sleeping with Lassiter?”

  Amy jumped slightly as Jase came down upon them. Her elbow struck the glass of tonic water, which she hadn’t finished, and it teetered precariously on the edge of the table. Instantly, Jase was reaching out to right it, the gesture automatic. His full attention was on Ty Murdock, not the glass of water he’d just rescued.

  “Yes,” he ground out in answer to Ty’s question “She’s sleeping with me. And the groceries in that sack are for the dinner she’s fixing for me tonight. Furthermore I’m the one who saved her life today. All things considered, Murdock, you don’t have any claim on her at all. Come near her again and I’ll break your neck. Let’s go, Amy.”

  He lifted the grocery sack out of her hands, cradling it in the crook of his arm. With his free hand he encircled her wrist and led her out of Cromwell’s.

  Amy didn’t protest as she was hauled unceremoniously along the waterfront. She had to trot in order to keep up with Jase’s long strides, and her wrist ached a little from the tight grip in which he held it. Still, her overwhelming feeling was one of relief. She was putting Ty Murdock behind her forever and the knowledge was pleasant.

  Jase didn’t speak until they had reached the house. As he pushed open the kitchen door and set the grocery sack down on the counter, he released his captive to face her with a hard, narrow stare.

  “You don’t want him, Amy.”

  “No,” she agreed readily, her lips trembling in a gentle smile.

  “He’s an SOB.”

  “Yes.”

  “Your sister and her kid don’t need him either. No one needs a man like that.”

  “Very true,” Amy said, the soft smile widening a little.

  “I don’t want you near him again.”

  “I understand, Jase. Believe me, I don’t want to go near him again.”

  His turquoise eyes were suddenly very brilliant. “I found out what you did at the grotto this morning, Amy. Haley described the way you made a target out of yourself.”

  “Oh,” she gasped.

  “I was furious. I was thinking of beating you, in fact. But Ray talked me out of it.”

  “Did he?” Amy held her breath as he came closer. Desire was shimmering to life between them once more. She thought she would melt beneath the turquoise fire of his eyes.

  “Ray said,” Jase explained carefully, searching her face, “that if I succumbed to the temptation of whaling the living daylights out of you, you might decide Murdock looked good in comparison.”

  Amy lifted her hands to cradle his face. “Ray was wrong. You aren’t at all like Murdock. And nothing
you did could make him look good in comparison to yourself.” She stood on tiptoe and brushed her lips against his. “I would still cook your dinner for you tonight, even if you did decide to beat me.” She smiled.

  “And you’d still spend the night in my bed?” he persisted, his sherry-dark voice flowing over her as he found the clip in her hair.

  “Yes.” Amy wrapped her arms around his neck and tilted her head back as her spice-colored hair fell free. From beneath lowered lashes her eyes teased him lovingly. “But under those circumstances we might have to make a few changes in the normal routine.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, if my backside was sufficiently uncomfortable, I suppose I’d have to be the one on top when we made love, instead of the one on the bottom.”

  “I get the feeling you’re not taking my masculine outrage very seriously,” he groaned, pulling her close to nuzzle her neck.

  “I’m using my feminine wiles to overcome your masculine outrage.”

  “Your wiles seem to be working. I’m feeling less and less outraged.” He tickled the nape of her neck with his lips. “God, Amy, I want you. Right now I feel as if I either have to beat you or make love to you. One way or another I’ve got to put my mark on you.”

  “Do I get to choose which technique you use?” she taunted.

  He bent down abruptly and scooped her up into his arms, his expression taut and hard with desire. “No. No, I don’t think you do. You’ve been driving me crazy all day long, ever since I woke up this morning and found you gone. When I got that message from Haley I nearly went out of my mind with worry. I no sooner get that mess straightened out than Murdock has to show up. One way and another it’s been a very trying sort of day!”

  As he spoke he was carrying her through the kitchen and out into the living room. He sat down with her on the sofa, letting her rest across his thighs to lie cradled in his arms. Jase stared down at her as she nestled against him. He was aware of the high level of his own frustration and knew that it wasn’t merely physical in nature.

  The frustration he was experiencing tonight wasn’t going to be pacified by making Amy his once more.

  What he felt was a far more serious form of dissatisfaction. And it had its roots in plain fear. Amy had accomplished her business on Saint Clair. There was nothing to keep her with him now, and Jase wanted to lash out violently against that knowledge. He had nothing to offer to induce her to stay, and he knew it.

  His hands trembled as he began undressing her. Willingly he let the passion of the moment push the unsettling, hopeless thoughts out of his mind. There was no point thinking about tomorrow. Hadn’t he learned that lesson a long time ago?

  But with Amy he found himself tempted again and again to do exactly that: think about the future. Fantasize about the future would be a better description, he told himself. Amy was right. Men did like to indulge in their fantasies. He had to keep reminding himself that she was from a different world, one he had cut himself off from years ago. Contemplating a future with her was very much a fantasy.

  He could feel her fingertips toying with the buttons of his shirt as he slid off her blouse. Her touch made him groan, and the evidence of his desire seemed to encourage her. She had his shirt off shortly after her own had fallen to the floor. Then he felt the faint sting of her nails as they circled his flat, male nipples and tugged sensuously at the hair of his chest. Her mouth began to wander across the bare skin of his shoulder, and he experienced a sharp tremor as she used her teeth to nip enticingly.

  The delicate curve of her breast filled his palm, and he grazed the budding nipple lightly, fiercely excited when it began to harden beneath his touch. When the tip of each breast had hardened to his satisfaction, Jase settled her back against the end of the sofa, sprawling aggressively on top of her. Then he lowered his head to taste the buds he had cultivated.

  The scent of her invaded his senses as he stabbed at each nipple with the tip of his tongue. He would never forget the fragrance of her, Jase thought distantly. It would be imprinted on him for the nest of his life. That thought made him long to leave her with a memory of himself that she would never be able to evade.

  “I want you to think of me when you go home to San Francisco,” he heard himself rasp. “I want you to see me, feel me, be aware of me every time you look at another man. I want to be in the way every time you think of going to bed with someone else!”

  “Oh, Jase, you’re cruel,” Amy whispered.

  “I know. With you I can’t seem to help it. You do something to me, sweetheart, bring out the part of me that’s been safely buried for a long time.” He slid down along her body, dropping warm, damp kisses on her stomach. Then he plunged his fingers beneath the waistband of her jeans.

  With a quick, impatient yank he unsnapped the fastening and slid down the zipper. Shoving his palms down the full curve of her hips, he tugged off the jeans with a touch of desperation. He knew even as he did it that this wasn’t the way he had envisioned making love to her. He had wanted to make it romantic and civilized, with all the nuances she would remember as sophisticated and exciting.

  But he couldn’t shake the sense of desperation, the almost violent desire to force himself on her. The thought that he would be losing her soon impelled him this afternoon as he made love to her in the airy living room.

  She didn’t resist him, didn’t try to slow him or ask him to go more gently. Her willing acceptance of his mastery increased his restless desire even as it fed his satisfaction. She seemed to be as caught up in the urgent, primitive passion as he was, and that knowledge made his head reel.

  His hands clenched into the rounded globes of her buttocks, and Jase caught his breath as his blood raced. He heard the soft moan at the back of her throat as he buried his lips in the hollow of her shoulder.

  Then she was shakily undoing the fastening of his slacks and he drew himself slightly away so that she could finish undressing him

  “Amy, Amy, I want you so!”

  “Yes, Jase. Oh, yes!”

  He kicked off the slacks and then came back down on her, hungrily parting her thighs so that he could indulge himself fully in the scent and heat of her. When her fingers locked roughly in his hair, Jase gloried in the knowledge that he could make this one woman come so beautifully, excitingly alive. The way she surrendered to his touch was unlike anything he had ever known.

  With infinite wonderment he probed the secrets of her body, searching out the most sensitive places and teasing the welcoming flesh until Amy was writhing and twisting beneath him.

  He raised his head to look at her. Her eyes were shut tightly and her lips were parted and moist as she panted in her excitement. She moaned softly, arching her hips into his hand, pleading with her body for the satisfaction he promised.

  Entranced, Jase fit his hand to the damp, throbbing heart of her desire and marveled at the heat of her. “You’re on fire for me, honey. Molten fire.”

  “Come to me, Jase,” she whispered throatily, pulling at his shoulders. “Come close to me. Please.”

  As he slid slowly up to take what she offered, Jase felt her soft, tender hands move down his waist. When she captured his manhood in her fingers, he growled his need, whispering short, blunt words of encouragement in her ear.

  Her hands teased him, just as he had been teasing her, promising everything, enticing with reckless abandon.

  “Guide me,” he ordered huskily. “Put me inside, honey. Show me where you want me to go.”

  Instead of doing as he commanded, however, Amy held him in exquisite captivity. Her palms cupped him and her fingers explored with gentle excitement.

  “—Amy!”

  Still she teased and provoked and taunted. Her legs shifted languidly alongside his, making him fully aware of the satin softness next to his own hair-roughened thigh. “Sweetheart, you can’t keep me out in the cold any long
er,” he vowed.

  He thrust himself easily through the soft restraint of her hands, finding the waiting promise of her womanhood and plunging deeply into the dark velvet warmth.

  Beneath him Amy gasped as she always did when he made her his. He felt her body accommodating him, closing around him, and in that moment Jase experienced again the overwhelming urge to give her a child. His child. He let the fantasy take hold, just as he had let it take hold the other times he had made love to her. He longed to satisfy her as a woman, to make it possible for her to experience the physical pleasure of lovemaking. But on a deeper level he wanted so much more. He wanted to know that he had left a fertile seed in her as a talisman against the future.

  The fantasy of making Amy pregnant was too strong to resist. The urge to father a child had lain dormant for ten years, and now that it had surged to the surface again, Jase was unable to banish it. When he held Amy in his arms he could think of nothing else.

  But the fantasy was not a sophisticated, civilized one. It was not a languid, jaded thing that could be drawn out and spun into endless nuances that, in turn, extended the lovemaking.

  With Amy beneath him and the fantasy in his head, everything seemed to explode for Jase in a white heat. He took his woman in a storm of need and desire, exulting in her equally explosive response. When he felt the delicious tremors take hold, rippling through her, he knew she had found her own satisfaction. That knowledge unloosed his own.

  Arching heavily against her, Jase gave himself up to the pulsating release, crying out Amy’s name in an agony of fulfillment as he collapsed against her breasts.

  It was a long time before Amy stirred, aware of the masculine weight that was still crushing her into the cushions of the sofa. Slowly her lashes lifted and a soft smile played at the corner of her mouth as she met Jase’s eyes. “Beautiful,” she murmured, stroking the mahogany hair back off his forehead. He looked at her questioningly. “Your eyes,” she whispered. “You have the most beautiful eyes in the whole world. I’ve never seen anything quite like them.”