“Why not?” He circled her breast with one finger. “I seem to recall you like swimming after dark.”
She laughed, a breathless, abbreviated gasp that told him how much she liked the way he was touching her, too. “I’d forgotten about that night in the pool.”
“I hadn’t,” he said. “That was the first time I kissed you.”
“You lied to me, as well. About wearing a swimsuit.”
He was lying to her now, about something a whole hell of a lot more serious than being stark naked, and the knowledge was eating holes in him.
Mistaking his silence for confusion, she reminded him, “You said you were skinny-dipping.”
“Well, this time I will be and so, my dear, will you.”
He sprang to his feet and pulled her up after him. The sight of her, all moon-washed curves and shadows, reminded him again why he’d really brought her to this isolated spot. For crying out loud, he was worse than a randy eighteen-year-old in the back seat of his father’s car with a high school cheerleader!
“Last one in’s a chicken!” he taunted, sprinting to the water’s edge and taking a flat, racing dive into the lake guaranteed to shock the most active libido into submission.
Her laughter chased him and when he surfaced a hundred yards from shore, he found her bobbing beside him, her hair streaming out behind her, her eyes blacker than the night except for the pinpoints of stars reflected in her pupils.
She closed her eyes, and folding her hands behind her head, floated on her back. Her nipples showed just above the surface, tiny islands of temptation just beyond his reach. She sighed blissfully. “The water’s so warm, it’s like a bath in here!”
“Yeah,” he said ruefully, gaining a foothold on the rise of a sand bank in the shallow depths. “Where’s a cold shower when a guy needs one? I’m aching for you again already, Lily.”
The laughter on her face faded. She flipped herself upright and floated closer, sculling gently with her hands. Her legs tangled briefly with his, then drifted away again. Her shoulders looked as if they’d been dipped in silver.
“Why can’t I seem to get enough of you, Sebastian?” she asked seriously, fixing her gaze on his mouth. “Why do I risk getting hurt by letting myself fall under your spell time and again?”
Absently he twirled a lock of her hair around his finger, plagued by another question he wished he dared ask. How can you be so open and honest on the one hand and, on the other, capable of the kind of duplicity that my investigator’s report suggests?
She tipped her head to one side and touched her hand to his jaw. “Sebastian? What’s troubling you suddenly?”
“What makes you think anything is?”
He attempted to laugh off her concern, but she held his gaze. “I can see it in your face.”
He wished he could tell her. Wished he could just come right out and say, Look, I know you’re in some sort of trouble back home, that you could be facing legal action. Come clean with me, and I’ll help you. No one else in the family needs to know. I’m a lawyer, professionally and personally committed to protecting client confidentiality. But as long as you keep this secret, there’s a barrier between us that’s crippling any chance we might have of developing a lasting relationship.
The trouble was, for him to admit he’d gone behind her back in the first place would deal a death blow to what they shared. She’d never forgive him and he could hardly expect she would.
“Rule number one—don’t go looking for problems where they don’t exist, Lily,” he said, looping his arm around her neck. “Just savor the moment.”
She bit her lip and lowered her eyes, and he knew she was hurt by his evasion.
To make up for it, he tugged her close enough to leave no doubt as to how he proposed to make that moment memorable. “You’re beautiful by moonlight, did you know that?”
Her eyes flew up to meet his. She looked almost embarrassed. “You’ve never said anything like that to me before.”
“Then I’ve been very remiss. I should have told you a long time ago.”
“Is that another of your rules—to flatter a woman into submission? Because if it is, you ought to know by now that you don’t have to go to such lengths. I know I’m not beautiful. I’m merely…pleasant looking.” She parted her thighs and trapped him between their soft inner contours. “And very…very…willing…”
He shaped her with his hands, stunned once again by her perfect symmetry: the narrow span of her waist and slender flare of her hips, the sweet, full curve of her buttocks. “Oh, you’re a lot more than that,” he murmured, slipping inside her and exhaling sharply as she closed around him sleek as a glove. “You’re…irresistible.”
Their coming together this time was slow and exquisite, the thrust and retreat in sync with the flow of the water around them. If he could, he’d have loved her like that all night, riding the gentle waves and warding off the climax lurking in the darkness like some predatory beast waiting to destroy him.
But she decided otherwise, wrapping her long, golden legs around his waist, tormenting him with her mouth, whispering in his ear how he pleased her, how she loved the power and drive of him. Begging him in a voice close to a sob to touch her “…right there…like that…oh…yes!”
And he was lost. Shattered. He heard himself cry out her name, his voice a razor-edge of anguish bordered with ecstasy. His seed surged free, and took his soul with it. Depleted him so exhaustively that it was all he could do to remain afloat. Indeed wouldn’t have, if it hadn’t been that the water was no more than five feet deep and he could anchor his feet to the sandy bottom.
She clung to him, her breath winnowing in warm, damp gusts against his neck. “Oh, Sebastian!” she murmured, drenching his name in the aftermath of passion. “I love…how you make me feel!”
She had been on the verge of saying something else. He knew by the subtle stiffening of her body, the way she suddenly reined in the impulsive flow of her words. And he couldn’t begin to decipher his reaction; didn’t have the first idea how to reconcile the chagrin that rolled over him because she hadn’t said it, with the welling relief that she hadn’t forced an issue he wasn’t ready to deal with.
“Know what?” he said, grazing her mouth with his reply. “We’d better get back before someone at the cottage realizes the boat’s gone and they send out a search party to look for us.”
She didn’t have to tell him it wasn’t the response she’d been hoping for. The way she dropped her arms and drifted away from him, then turned and swam quickly ashore, spoke volumes of disappointment.
Following, he caught up with her as she ran up the beach to where they’d left their clothes. “Lily,” he began, searching for a way to soften his rejection without compromising his sense of decency any more than he already had.
She turned to him, a too-bright smile fixed in place. “You should have thought to bring towels. How are we going to explain the fact that our hair’s soaking and our clothing damp?”
If only that was all he had to worry about! “With any luck, everyone will be in bed by the time we get back. If not, I’ll distract them while you sneak in by the back door.”
The cottage was old, built some time in the late nineteenth century. Though constructed to withstand the vicious winters, its floorboards creaked and its interior walls were thin. Even if his room hadn’t been next to hers, she’d probably have been able to hear his every move.
With her window wide-open against the stifling heat of the Ontario summer, though, she knew to the second when he climbed into bed. By turning her head just a fraction, she could see where the glow from his reading lamp illuminated the near branches of the pine tree in the garden.
A moth batted against the screen at her window, then fluttered off in search of the source of light. Just like me, poor fool, she thought miserably. Not happy until it scorches to death on its own folly.
Next door, Sebastian extinguished the light. The mattress squeaked faintly as he turned over.
Would he fall asleep easily, the lovemaking they’d shared already consigned to the past? Or, like her, lie awake in the dark and brood over where their relationship was headed?
She closed her eyes and relived that hour on the island. The first frenzied coming together over too soon, but still magnificent enough to leave her yearning for more. And then the next time…the velvet night, the water plush against her skin…
She felt again his body, sleek, slick, joining with hers and carrying her on a current of passion growing ever more urgent. Sweeping her toward rapids tantalizingly out of reach until, suddenly, with a rush that took her breath away, he hurled her over the edge.
Goose bumps pebbled her skin. Squirming, she pulled the sheet over her. It had been perfect. Perfect! Until, caught up in the emotion of the moment, the words hammering in her brain had burst forth.
Oh, she’d caught herself in time, turned I love you!— an admission he didn’t want to hear—into an innocuous I love how you make me feel, but he’d guessed how close she’d come to slipping up and breaking the rules he’d laid down. Any fool would have known, when her whole heart had revealed itself in the timbre of her voice. And Sebastian was no fool.
That second time they’d made love had been different, though. In the warm water of the lake, they’d merged softly—which was an odd word to use, considering he was all steel and unyielding strength. But she’d sensed a rare gentleness in him, a protectiveness almost. Inured as she’d become to his more abrasive nature, this other side of him had taken her by surprise and stolen past the defenses she’d thought she held so securely in place.
The pity of it was, she hadn’t been content with small gifts. Like a child let loose in a candy store, she’d been greedy for more. When he’d hustled her into the boat and, instead of using the oars, had fired up the small outboard motor and propelled them back to the mainland with what struck her as taciturn haste, she’d said plaintively, “Now that you’ve had your way with me, you seem in an almighty rush to get rid of me. A mistress—and a mistress on your terms—is all I seem to be.”
He’d lifted his head and subjected her to a stare so full of frustration that she could have cut out her tongue. “I know that in all the best movies, this is the moment where the hero’s supposed to announce that his intentions are honorable,” he’d finally said, “but I think we’ve already established we’re a long way from anything remotely approaching that. If you’re looking for some sort of commitment, you’re knocking on the wrong door. The sex between us couldn’t be better, but I thought we agreed that’s as far as it goes right now.”
The worst of it was, he was absolutely right. They were both long past the age where they allowed physical attraction to get in the way of common sense. But logic didn’t carry much weight when feminine intuition was calling a different tune, and every instinct she possessed was sounding a clarion call that Sebastian Caine was the man she was destined to love.
Apparently she wasn’t the only one nurturing such hopes. Just before noon on the Saturday, Penny Stanford showed up at the cottage. “Found your message waiting when I came off shift last night, Sebastian,” she chirped, standing on her cute little tippytoes to kiss him in a way that left no doubt in anyone’s mind that she considered herself at the head of the line for his attention, “and thought I’d invite myself up here for the day since I’ve seen next to nothing of you for the last few weeks.”
“You’re always welcome, Penny, you know that,” Cynthia said.
“Thank you.” Her smile flitted warmly over Hugo and Cynthia, then chilled noticeably as it skimmed over Natalie and then finally came to rest on Lily. “One more in such a crowd hardly makes any difference, does it? And I did pick up treats—those dear little shrimp pies from the deli that we love so much, Sebastian. And our favorite wine.”
She batted her eyelashes in blatant promise of other treats intended just for him. “I was hoping we could slip away for a while, just the two of us, and catch up the news. Maybe go over to that island you once mentioned. I could use a little relaxation and if you don’t mind my saying so, you look a bit peaked, too. Have you been getting enough rest?”
It was all Lily could do not to shriek out, No, he hasn’t! He was up half the night making love to me on that island you’re so anxious to see, and if he takes you there as well, I’ll rip his throat out!
As if she sensed trouble brewing, Natalie poked Lily in the ribs and muttered, “Grab a towel and let’s get out of here before I hurl!”
She waited until they’d cooled off in the lake and were stretched out on the sunbaked boards of the boat jetty before asking, “From the look on your face back there at the cottage, Lily, I’d say I’m not the only one who can’t stand to be in the same room with Penny Stanford for more than five minutes.”
“Oh, dear!” Lily looked up from folding her towel into a makeshift pillow. “Was it that obvious?”
“You practically turned green around the gills.” Natalie giggled. “Not that I blame you! Imagine waking up after an operation and finding her face hanging over you! No wonder so many people get nauseated after an anesthetic. As for the little TLC act she put on for Sebastian’s benefit…!”
Trying to be scrupulously fair, Lily said, “Perhaps she genuinely cares about him.”
“And we don’t?” Natalie shot her a scornful glance. “Anyway, let’s forget about her and talk about something more interesting. I got some news yesterday, just before I left the college, and I’m so excited I can hardly stand myself. Once I’ve written my finals, I’ve been invited to go to India with eight other students to work under the supervision of a team of social workers and medical personnel in Bombay. If I accept—”
“What do you mean, if?” Lily exclaimed. “Natalie, it’s a wonderful opportunity and a great compliment! Of course you’ll accept!”
“I was hoping you’d say that, because I might need some help convincing Mom and Dad. In their eyes, I’m still the baby, barely able to cross the road without supervision. But with you on my side, I think I can talk them into letting me go. I have to give my answer on Tuesday, so maybe we can present the idea this afternoon, while dear old Penny is chasing Sebastian all over Snake Island.”
“Snake Island?”
“That’s not what it’s really called. In fact, I don’t know if it even has an official name, but we’ve always called it that because we used to find so many snakes there when we were kids.” She gave another infectious giggle. “Maybe one’ll bite her!”
“If it does,” Lily said sourly, “I guarantee its name will be Sebastian.”
Selling Hugo and Cynthia on the idea of letting their daughter spend six weeks thousands of miles away in India was no easy task, but in the end, they agreed it was an opportunity not to be missed.
“Thanks, Lily,” Natalie said later, as the two of them drove into the village to pick up a tub of ice cream to go with the strawberry tarts Cynthia had made for dessert. “I’m not sure I could have swung it if I hadn’t had you there to back me up.”
By the time they returned, the afternoon had dwindled away and taken the sunshine with it.
“Looks as if we might be in for a bit of weather,” Hugo observed, scanning the far side of the lake where purple thunderheads were building above the horizon. “The dog’s restless and the wind’s picking up. I hope Sebastian thought to bring the dinghy into the boathouse.”
“You mean he’s here?” Lily looked up from setting the table. “I thought he and his date were still on the island.”
“No, they came back soon after you and Natalie left for the village. Penny headed back to town and Sebastian decided to follow her. It’ll just be the four of us for dinner.”
Wiping her hands on her apron, Cynthia came out of the kitchen. “I think we’d better put the pails out upstairs. I’m afraid we’re in for a downpour and that flashing still hasn’t been fixed around the chimney.”
Sure enough, about nine o’clock, the storm picked up and blew across the l
ake with terrifying speed. One minute, the four of them were playing bridge by lamplight, and the next, Katie was cowering under the dining-room table as thunder rolled in the distance and the first blast of wind hit the house.
While Natalie helped her parents close all the windows and place pails and bowls to catch any water leaking through the ceiling, Lily ran down to the lake to make sure everything there was secured. But her flashlight showed her that although the sleek motor vessel used for waterskiing was secure inside the boathouse, the twelve-foot aluminum dinghy had been left tied to the jetty and was taking a relentless beating as the wind slammed it against the pilings.
Since she didn’t have nearly the strength to haul it to safety onshore, her only choice was to lower herself into it and by hanging on to the rail edging the deck of the little dock, try to steer around to the wide double doors on the water side of the boathouse. A difficult task at the best of times, it was made that much worse by the driving rain that lashed her face and cut the already limited visibility to zero.
Before she’d even managed to cast off, she was soaked to the skin. Freeing the dinghy from its mooring was a monumental undertaking, and only when she’d succeeded did she realize she’d merely compounded her difficulties. With nothing to anchor it, the boat tossed and bobbed like a cork, completely at the mercy of the weather.
Even sitting in the center of the seat, she’d have been hard-pressed to maintain her balance, but trying to stand, hold a flashlight in one hand and grasp the edge of the jetty with the other, was inviting disaster. Before she knew what was happening, a wave caught the side of the boat and flipped it over. In horrible slow motion, she saw the water coming up to meet her, then the dark shadow of the hull rising above her.
The painter attached to the bow snaked around her ankle. A vicious gust of wind sent the upturned boat lumbering forward and threatening to crush her between it and the pilings supporting the jetty. A wave buried her and she realized in stunned disbelief that she was in danger of drowning in ten feet of water, with land less than ten yards away. It shouldn’t have been possible, but it was happening.
Mistress on His Terms Page 12