Nile trembled when his persuasive hands traveled the length of her thighs urging the gown up as they went. Taurus was indeed newly starved for her and took her eagerly and with complete control. Nile was as aroused by the feel of him inside her as she was by the strength he used to hold her. Once he’d finished with her atop the counter, he carried her with him to one of the heavy wooden chairs at the dining table and replayed the act. The table rounded out the interlude and Nile was unable to even raise herself up from its polished surface as she was so thoroughly spent.
No worries were necessary, for Taurus carried her upstairs and put her back to bed shortly after.
“Séjour.” Stay she’d uttered reaching out for him when he would’ve left her to rest. Her heart pounded with a fierceness that almost frightened her when he joined her in bed. She realized then how newly starved she was for his closeness.
CHAPTER NINE
Taurus sat on the edge of Nile’s bed quite content on waiting for her to awaken. As if in awe, he studied her features relaxed in sleep. He knew he’d give anything to know if he had the smallest hope of having her feelings run even slightly parallel to his own. On cue, it seemed, her lashes fluttered and her eyes focused right on his.
“Are you okay?” He asked softly.
She nodded. “I am.”
“Hungry?”
“I…” Her eyes shifted towards the food laden cart at the foot of the bed. Then she looked up at him.
“I owe you.”
Nile laughed at his explanation. “I think you’ve more than made up for it.”
“Nothing makes up like food,” he argued and sent her a playful wink when her expression clearly stated her disagreement. He left the bed and went to fix her a plate of croissants, fruit, cheeses and seasoned hash browns.
“What do you expect will come from all this?” Nile asked as she watched him pour juice.
He shrugged. “You mean besides all this gratification?”
Nile couldn’t help but smile. “But you know that really is all that can come of it.”
Taurus clenched his jaw, but kept his temper in check. “You honestly believe that, I guess?”
“Don’t you?”
He set down the pitcher of orange juice and came to lean over her in bed fisting both hands on either side of her. “You know my last name and yet here you are…I’d say anything’s possible.”
She steeled herself against shivering. “I know your secrets but you don’t know mine.”
“So? Tell me. Why?” He asked when she only shook her head. Sitting then, he took her chin in his hand and made her look at him. “Remember when I asked before if you were afraid of me? Were you lying?” He probed, watching her closely and knowing it would kill him to know that she was.
“No,” she sighed, curving her hand about the one that cupped her chin. “I’m not afraid but…well I…I can’t.”
Taurus wouldn’t press it farther just then and gave her chin a squeeze before he stood. “Eat up and then get dressed. I have something to show you.”
***
“Mon Dieu,” Nile breathed in complete disbelief as she stood in a small storage shed just off from the stables. The shed was filled with an assortment of paints, fillers, canvases, brushes and anything else a starving or well-fed artist could need or want.
“Just look around,” Taurus urged. Effortlessly, he placed a massive stone before the shed’s door to keep it open. “Let me know if you need anything else and we can have it here within a day or two.”
“Why?” She whispered her hands meeting her jean clad thighs with a soft clap. “Why all this? I’d have been happy with an easel and a few brushes.”
Taurus leaned against the heavy wooden door. “I want you to have everything you need.”
“The money you must’ve spent,” Nile breathed, her dark eyes narrowed as she studied the supplies more closely. “And I have so much of this…” she threw him a sly look. “If I’d been allowed to pack I could’ve saved you a few dollars.”
Taurus smiled at the tease and followed her deeper into the shed. When Nile turned and found herself secured between the wall and his body, she felt a chill of anticipation kiss her skin beneath the fuzzy cinnamon brown cardigan she wore.
“I would’ve done this anyway,” he assured her, taking her hand and pressing it to the front of his Tuskegee sweatshirt. “I want to take care of you, at least while we’re here. Humor me, will you?”
“Well…in that case thank you, thank you so very much.” She went on, laying the syrupy sweetness on thick. Smiling saucily, she continued. “I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t come to my rescue.”
“That’s more like it,” he growled approvingly and happily accepted the kiss she offered.
The humor dwindled then as the light kiss easily shimmied into something more provocative. Nile lost her hands in his hair and deepened the kiss when she felt his fingers skirting her skin beneath the cardigan. Her need for him rose that time at a scary pace. Taurus resisted when she took his hand and curled his fingers into the waistband of her jeans. Grinning devilishly at the pure innocence radiating from her lovely gaze, he pulled her from the wall.
“Paint,” he ordered. “I’ll see you for lunch!” He called over his shoulder and left the shed like the devil was at his back.
***
Seattle, Washington
Johari Frazier woke with a yawn and frowned while staring at the blaring red numbers on the clock that read 4:42a.m. Her head fell back to the pillow and she smoothed a hand across the massive bed in search of Moses. Realizing she was alone, her head snapped up and the frown returned. She took a slow scan of the bedroom and could see him standing nude and unmindful of the cold as he leaned against the doors leading to the balcony. She watched him for a while, not caring for the pensive element darkening his striking profile as he looked out over the view. He must’ve felt her watching for he turned then and looked directly at her.
“What’s wrong?” She called, turning to her stomach and bracing her elbows on the pillows.
Moses left the doorway and crossed to the bed. Taking a seat on the edge, he clasped his fingers between hers once she’d turned over to face him.
“Did I wake you?” He asked.
Johari shrugged. “I’m used to having you smother me, so I know when you’re gone.”
“Sorry,” he said, absently fiddling with a few sandy red tendrils that had escaped the loose ball atop her head.
Jo grimaced. “I’d like an explanation instead. You’ve been acting weird since the will reading-after that call you got.”
“Just business.”
She nodded. “Right and I’m your lover not your business partner.”
He squeezed her hand and pressed it to his mouth. “You’re my lover and partner in every way. But this is something I need to keep to myself for a while. Can you understand that?”
“I can, but I’d just feel better if you had someone to talk to.”
“Fern knows.”
Jo sat up a bit more. “So it does have something to do with that trip you took?”
Moses massaged his eyes. “Twig,” he groaned.
“Alright, alright I won’t press.”
He grinned, his gorgeous dark features softening with the love he felt for her. “I like it when you press,” he said letting his fingers trail beneath the sheet sliding off her breasts. “Just don’t press about this.”
Johari nodded and cleared her throat in a playful manner. “I’ll just revert back to lover mode, then.”
Moses’ eyes followed the tail of his fingers about Johari’s breast when he spoke. “What would you say about changing that mode?”
Confused, Jo simply stared and waited for clarification.
Clarification came in the form of Moses leaning close and pressing his mouth to hers. “Be my wife?” he asked.
Johari gasped giving him the chance to kiss her deeply. The kiss practically robbed her breath. “Are you
-are you sure?” She managed while thrusting her tongue against his.
“I’ve always been sure,” he told her then, pulling back to study her face. “Unless I’m too late and you’ve changed your mind.”
“That could never happen. I love you.” She whispered.
“I love you.” Moses reciprocated in spite of the fact that his heart was in his throat.
They sealed the plan with another kiss.
***
Nile was putting the finishing touches to a landscape piece. Her face was a study in concentration as she bit her bottom lip and focused on the cluster of brush she worked on.
She’d received every artist’s dream gift a few days earlier from Taurus. From there, she set out to challenge herself by painting outside her realm of expertise. The highland beauty she gazed upon each day became her inspiration and she found herself trying to capture as much of it on canvas as possible. Part of her wondered if having Taurus in such close proximity had allowed her to focus her talents on other subjects.
An unexpected surge of heat had her tugging at the mauve turtleneck she wore. It was a wonder she could focus on anything non-erotic with all the new heated images he’d put inside her head. The last few days had been like a dream. They talked, made love well into the night and morning. Taurus lived up to his word when he said he wanted to care for her. She had never felt more pampered.
Nile felt him near then, watching her. She didn’t even have to turn her head. When she did, she found him holding a basket in one hand-a gray and black fleece blanket in the other. She watched as the wind whipped his hair lifting it fiercely about his face. His gaze sparkled with a brilliance she’d come to treasure. Nile realized she loved him-loved him body and soul. Before her thoughts went any deeper, she heard him asking if she could take a break.
“Just finishing up!” she called back with a nod.
Taurus’ stare narrowed as he moved closer to observe her work.
“What do you think?” Nile asked in an almost timid voice.
Tilting his head this way and that, Taurus set a quizzical expression in place. “Which way is up?”
Unable to stop her laughter, Nile leaned forward and rapped his calf with her fist.
“I know just the wall in my office where I want to put it.” He said.
“Don’t lie,” Nile urged her expression serious.
“True talent comes through in anything you put your heart into.”
“I wonder…” Nile breathed, turning his words over in her head. “I don’t know how much of my heart is in what I do.”
“I don’t believe that,” Taurus said as he went about setting out lunch. “I can’t believe you even feel that way especially with the way people rave over your work. They love what you do.”
“Sex sells,” she replied while crawling over to claim her spot on the large blanket. She glimpsed the frown he sent her way and smirked. “My…work doesn’t fuel passion in my heart. It clears my head of things I wish I’d never seen.”
“Tell me,” he breathed drawing up jean clad legs to rest his elbows across his knees.
Nile focused on the overcast skies and the beauty rolled out before her. “When I was a child I saw…purely adult things,” she sent him a meaningful look, “on an almost daily basis.” She rolled her eyes away from the view. “There was an excitement in seeing those things that made me…giddy.” She grimaced at the admission. “Somewhere deep inside I knew it was wrong-wrong to see.”
“And seeing was all you ever did?” Taurus asked, rage building inside him as the words left his mouth.
“I was never touched that way as a child,” she assured him her tone as stoic as the look in her dark eyes. I saw others my age… she couldn’t admit that aloud.
“But you felt guilty for what those…images made you feel?” He guessed.
“Painting helps me purge it in a way I guess-in a healthy way.”
“Well I guess making crazy amounts of money from it is about as healthy as you can get.” Taurus teased and smothered her hand in his.
“It shames me to sell it. Darby thinks I’m crazy.” She shared.
“I can understand why you’d feel that way.”
Nile blinked. “You can?” She marveled sitting up a bit straighter as she watched him.
Taurus gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “You hate what you saw because of the way it made you feel,” he speculated warming the back of her hand as he rubbed it across the black knit sweater he wore. “What you saw as a child has given you the ability to create things people will pay obscene amounts of cash to own and that cash allowed you to give kids-who also see things they shouldn’t-something few would even be privy to.”
“And here I thought I’d exchange my erotica brush for a landscape one,” she teased trying to hide how touched and more in love with him his words made her.
“Is there room for both?” He asked.
Nile wrinkled her nose while waving her hands about her. “I fear I may run out of ways to paint trees and hills.”
Taurus’ grip around her hand tightened once more while he drew her close. “Guess I’ll just have to give you a few more examples then.”
Nile was on her back a moment later and being given an exquisite view of yet another landscape subject: the sky. A sweet delicious interlude followed and was completed by a delicious lunch on the windblown hillside.
***
“It’ll be just a minute love.”
Nile rolled her eyes even as a smile curved her mouth. “I completely disagree because the moment I smelled it, I wanted to sit and eat the entire pot.”
“Oh…” Moira Bradenton softly scolded while waving Nile forward and dipping her ladle into a steaming pot.
Whatever the creation, it had Nile craving all of it as she’d expected it would. Moira blew across the surface of the creamy soup and then presented the spoon to Nile.
Bits of onion, mushroom and celery mingled with tiny broccoli and potato chunks and morsels of spinach. The wonderfully seasoned cream concoction slid down Nile’s throat and warmed her tummy with a cozy rush of satisfaction.
“Bowl,” Nile ordered frowning when Moira laughed and ushered her out. “How long?” she inquired refusing to budge past the table.
Moira wiped her hands on the crisp navy apron that covered most of the beige dress she wore beneath it. “Dinner tonight,” she announced.
“Tonight? But it’s practically done.”
“That’s right-practically done. Dinner tonight.”
Nile grimaced but decided against arguing further. Moira Bradenton had tortured both she and Taurus relentlessly for the past several days with her fabulous dishes. In spite of the torture however, Moira and Nile had become surprisingly close. Nile felt the woman had warmth that was clearly evident in spite of her no-nonsense personality.
Of course, much of Moira’s closeness to Nile had to do with the fact that she; like her husband, believed the young man they adored had found a woman who matched his own soft-spoken, reserved yet easily passionate demeanor. Moira saw a sadness-a slight…shame in Nile’s eyes that almost mirrored Taurus’. It was as if they each carried the weight of the world on their shoulders. It was a weight neither deserved to bear.
Moira was setting the big pot to slow cook for two additional hours.
“Who’s that man outside with Taurus?” Nile called out from where she stood near the double glass doors at the rear of the kitchen. “I don’t think I’ve met him yet.”
Moira angled her head to see and then smiled. “No I’m sure you’d certainly recall meeting Kraven DeBurgh.”
“Ah…so that’s him.” Nile noted easing her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “Incredible name,” she added.
Moira was stirring her soup. “Incredible name for an incredible man,” the melodic lilt of her voice tinged with devilment. “One wonders if the rest of him is as incredible as that face of his.”
“Miss Moira!” Nile cried whipping round her head to gaw
k at the woman.
“Oh…” Moira scoffed with a flip wave. “Us old married girls can look just as closely as you young single ones.”
Nile shook her head and turned back to the door. “Well who is he?”
“Close as a brother to Taurus.” Moira shared, while setting a heavy lid in place atop the pot. “They began as…uneasy business associates and then became powerful allies almost from the moment they met face to face.”
“Why uneasy?” Nile asked, tailing her fingers along her jaw as she continued to study the men.
Moira wiped her hands to her apron and smiled. “That’s another story, my girl. But suffice it to say-the nature of Kraven DeBurgh’s business is known to be no less than mysterious at best.”
“Mysterious as in illegal?” Nile probed.
“Mysterious as in if he told you he’d have to kill you.” Moira explained and calmly went about her business.
Nile stared after her with wide eyes and an open mouth.
“I’ll try not to feel too offended that everyone else in the borough has seen her while I, your dearest friend, haven’t even been invited over for tea.”
Taurus chuckled. “Are you done yet?” He asked the man pacing the grounds.
Kraven DeBurgh shrugged. “You could’ve at least let me see her-make sure she’s worthy of you.”
“Worthy hmm?”
Kraven’s fiercely vibrant green gaze narrowed sinfully. “Bollocks, right?”
“Complete and utter bollocks,” Taurus confirmed.
“So what’s going on then?” Kraven inquired his voice and expression turning serious. “In all these years you’ve never brought a woman here. As I have first hand knowledge of all the beauties that traipse in and out of your life, I have to ask what it is about this one?”
Taurus hid his hands in his jean pockets and looked down. “At first I was simply blown away by her looks,” he admitted slanting Kraven a wink when he laughed. “I wanted her in my bed but I tried not to be so obvious about it when we did the conversation thing.” He reminisced with a smile. “We did the conversation thing for three hours that first night. When we finally got around to going to bed together, it was incredible but just another part of it all.” He folded his arms across the hunter green sweatshirt he wore. “Sex had gone from being the only thing I wanted to being one of the many things I wanted from her.” A muscle tightened along his jaw then. “She’s trying to get me to accept that sex is all it was and all it could ever be.”
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