by Sara Orwig
“Thank you. I’ll be happy to do all of these things but I still say I wasn’t meant to be a fund-raiser,” she said, suspecting she wasn’t changing his mind at all.
“You’ll be great. You’ll be fine. You’ve been doing this sort of thing since the storm. I’ve seen your interviews. I even taped one. You’re a natural.”
“Aaron, every cell in your body is filled with self-assurance. You can’t possibly understand having butterflies or qualms.”
“I have to admit, I’m not burdened with being afraid to talk to others about subjects I know.”
Smiling, she shook her head. “I don’t know everything about my subject.”
“You know as much as anybody else in Royal and more about the storm than about ninety-eight percent of the population. You went through it, for heaven’s sake. You were at town hall. You were there for all the nightmarish first hours after the storm and you’ve been there constantly ever since. I heard you crawled under debris and rescued someone. Is that right?”
“Yes. I could hear the cries. She was under a big slab of concrete that was held up by rubble. Not fun, but we got her out. It was a twenty-year-old woman.”
“That’s impressive,” he said, studying her as if he hadn’t ever seen her before. “If you did that, you can talk to people in an interview. After we eat let’s go up to your room or mine and go over ways you can handle the interview.”
When their tossed green salads came, Aaron continued to talk. She realized he was giving her good advice on things to do and she soaked up every word, feeling she would do better the next appearance she made.
Aaron kept up his advice and encouragement throughout the meal, and when they were through dinner, Stella didn’t want him to stop. “Aaron, why don’t we go to my room now and you can continue coaching me?”
“Sure, but a couple of dances first,” he said, standing and taking her hand. In minutes she was in his arms, moving with him on the dance floor, relishing dancing, being in his arms.
Aaron was becoming important to her. She was falling in love with him, but would he ever let go and fall in love with her? She felt he always held himself back and she still had that feeling with him. There couldn’t be any real love between them until all barriers were gone.
Was she making a mistake by rejecting intimacy when Aaron obviously wanted it, as well as wanted to marry her? The question still constantly plagued her.
In the slow dances, their steps were in perfect unison as if they had danced together for years. Sometimes she felt she had known him well and for a long time. Other times she realized what strangers they were to each other. Sometimes when he got that shuttered look and she could feel him withdrawing, she was certain she should tell him goodbye and get him out of her life now. Yet with a baby between them, breaking off from seeing Aaron was impossible.
When the music ended they left and went to her suite. He got the tape of her interview.
“Want something to drink while we watch?” she asked. “Hot chocolate? Beer?”
“Hot chocolate sounds good. Go easy on the chocolate. I’ll help.”
They sat on the sofa and he put on the tape. While they watched, Aaron gave her pointers and when the tape ended, he talked about dealing with the press. Removing pins from her hair, he talked about doing interviews. As the first locks fell, she looked up at him.
“You don’t need to keep your hair up all the time. You surely don’t sleep all night this way.”
“Of course not. It wouldn’t stay thirty minutes.”
“So, we’ll just take it down a little early tonight,” he said. “Now back to the press. Get their cards and get their names, learn their names when you meet them. They have all sorts of contacts and can open doors for you.”
As she listened to him talk, she paid attention, but she was also aware of her hair falling over her back and shoulders, of Aaron’s warm breath on her nape and his fingers brushing lightly against her. Every touch added a flame to the fires burning inside. Desire was hot, growing more intense the longer she sat with him. She wanted his kiss.
She should learn what he was telling her, but Aaron’s kisses seemed more important. When the bun was completely undone, he placed the pins on a nearby table. He parted her hair, placing thick strands of it over each shoulder as he leaned closer to brush light kisses across her nape.
Catching her breath, she inhaled deeply. Desire built, a hungry need to turn and wrap her arms around him, to kiss him.
She felt his tongue on her nape, his kisses trailing on her skin. He picked her up, lifting her to his lap. She gazed into his brown eyes while her heart raced and she could barely get her breath.
“I want you, Aaron. You make me want you,” she whispered. She leaned closer to kiss him, her tongue going deep. Her heartbeat raced as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
His hands slipped lightly beneath her sweater, sliding up to cup her breasts. In minutes he cupped each breast in his hands, caressing her. She moaned with pleasure and need, wanting more of him. She wanted to be alone with him. To make love and shut out the world and the future and just know tonight.
Would that bring him closer to her? Her to him? She couldn’t marry him without love, but intimacy might be a way to love.
She tightened her arms, pressing against his solid warmth, holding him as they kissed. His fingers moved over her, touching lightly, caressing her, unfastening snaps, unfastening her bra.
His fingers trailed down over her ribs, down to her slacks. While they kissed, she felt his fingers twisting free buttons. Without breaking their kiss, he picked her up and carried her into her bedroom. Light spilled through the doorway from the front room, providing enough illumination to see. He stood her on her feet by the bed and continued to kiss her, leaning over her, holding her against him as his hand slipped down to take off her slacks.
She stepped out of them and kicked off her shoes, looking up at him for a moment as she gasped for breath.
Combing his fingers into her hair on either side of her face, he looked down at her. “I want you. I want to make love to you all night long.”
“Aaron—”
He kissed her again, stopping any protest she might have made, but she wasn’t protesting. She wanted him, this strong man who had been at her side for so much now, who was willing to do the honorable thing and marry her. She wanted his love. She wanted him with her, loving her. That might not ever happen if she kept pushing him away.
He tugged her sweater up, pulling it over her head and tossing it aside. Her unfastened bra slipped down and she let it fall to the floor. Cupping her breasts again, he trailed light kisses over her while she clung to him and gasped with pleasure. When he tossed away his sweater, she ran her hands across his chest, stroking his hard muscles, caressing him lightly.
Wanting to steal his heart, she kissed him.
It was an impossible, unreasonable fantasy. Yet she could love him until he found it difficult to resist her and impossible to walk away. Would she ensnare her own heart in trying to win his?
He placed his hands on her waist, stepping back to look at her, his gaze a burning brand. “You’re beautiful, so soft,” he whispered, and leaned forward to trail kisses over her breasts.
Desire continued to build, to be a fire she couldn’t control. She wanted him now and there were no arguments about whether she should or shouldn’t make love with him. She unfastened his slacks, letting them fall, and then removed his briefs. He pulled her close, their bare bodies pressed together, and even that wasn’t enough. Again, he picked her up and turned to place her on the bed, kneeling and then stretching beside her to kiss her while his hands roamed over her to caress her.
She moaned softly, a sound taken by his kisses. Now union seemed necessary, urgent. Her hands drifted over him, down his smooth back, over his hard butt and along a muscled thigh.
He moved, kneeling beside her, looking at her as his hands played over her and then he trailed kisses over her knees, up the ins
ide of her thighs, parting her legs, kissing and stroking her.
Arching beneath his touch, she wanted more of him. Her eyes were shut as he toyed with her, building need. One of his hands was between her thighs, the other tracing her breasts, light touches that drove her wild until she rose to her knees to kiss and stroke him.
His eyes were stormy, dark with desire. Need shook her because of his intensity. His groan was deep in his throat while his fingers locked in her hair and she held and kissed him, her tongue stroking him slowly. He gasped and slipped his hands beneath her arm to raise her.
He kissed her hard, one arm circling her waist, holding her close against him, his other hand running over her, caressing her and building need to a fever pitch.
She clung to him as she kissed him. “Aaron,” she whispered. “Let’s make love—”
They fell on the bed and he moved over her as she spread her legs for him and arched to meet him, wanting him physically as much as she wanted his love.
He entered her slowly, filling her, taking his time while he lowered himself, moving close to kiss her.
When he partially withdrew, she raised her hips, clinging to him to draw him back.
“Aaron, I want you,” she whispered.
He slowly entered her again, and she gasped with pleasure, thrashing beneath him and running her hands over his back. He loved her with slow deliberation, maintaining control, trying to increase her pleasure as she moved beneath him and her need and desire built. Her pulse roared in her ears as his mouth covered hers again in another hungry kiss that increased her need.
Caught in a compelling desire that drove her beyond thought to just react to every stroke and touch and kiss from him, she tugged him closer, moving faster beneath him.
Beaded in sweat, he rocked with her until she reached a pinnacle and burst over it, rapture pouring over her while she moved wildly. When his control ended, he thrust deeply and fast.
Arching against him, she shuddered with another climax. Letting go, she slowed as ecstasy enveloped her.
“Aaron, love,” she cried, without realizing what she had said.
Aaron groaned and finally slowed, his weight coming down partially on her. He turned his head to kiss her lightly.
While each gasped for breath, they lay wrapped in each other’s arms. Gradually, their breathing slowed until it was deep and regular. He rolled to his side, keeping her with him.
She opened her eyes to look at him and he kissed her lightly again.
“I don’t want to let go of you,” he whispered.
“I don’t want you to,” she answered, trailing her fingers over his chest, feeling rock-solid muscles. She kept her mind closed to everything except the present moment and enjoying being in his arms and having made love with him.
“Stella, if you would marry me, we could have this all the time,” he whispered, toying with a lock of her long hair.
She didn’t feel like talking and she didn’t care to argue, so she kept quiet, still stroking him.
They held each other in a silence that was comfortable for her. She suspected it was for him, too. She knew he wasn’t asleep because he continued to play with strands of her hair. He had to know she was awake, because she still ran her fingers lightly over him, touching, caressing, loving him.
“Before I commit to marriage, I will have to be deeply in love and so will you. If that happens, we’ll both know it and the rest of the world will know it. We’re not at that point. We’re not in love with each other,” she said, the words sounding bleak to her.
“I still say it could come in marriage.”
“I don’t want to take that chance,” she whispered, hoping she wasn’t throwing away her future and her baby’s future in a few glib sentences that were easy to say when she was being held close to his heart.
“Think about it. We’re good together, Stella.”
She raised herself slightly on her elbow, propping her head on her hand, and looked down at him. “You think about it. Do you want a marriage without love?”
Again, she got that look from him as if he had closed a door between them. She felt as if he had just gone away from her, almost as if he had left the room even though he was still right here beside her. An ache came to her heart. Aaron had closed himself off. There was a part of his life he wouldn’t share, and with time it could become a wedge between them.
She thought about asking him what made him withdraw into a shell, but she suspected that would only make him do so more and make things worse.
“No, I suppose you’re right. I don’t want that,” he answered, and she heard a note of steel in his voice.
“Maybe things will change if we keep seeing each other.”
“I want to be in my child’s life, so someday we’ll have to work out how we’re going to share our baby,” he said in a different tone of voice. Why had he changed? Only minutes ago he hadn’t been this way. She wondered whether they would ever be truly close, much less truly in love.
She lay down beside him again, her hair spreading on his shoulder as he pulled her close against him, leg against leg, thigh against thigh, her head on the indention between his chest and shoulder. He had proposed. He’d helped her. He wanted to be with her and take her out. What had happened in his life to cause him to let it get between him and someone else he would otherwise be close to in a relationship?
Would he ever feel close enough to her to share whatever he held back from her now?
Six
“Hey, why so solemn?” he asked, nuzzling her neck and making her giggle.
“That’s better. Let’s go shower and see what happens.”
“Evidently you have plans,” she said, amused and forgetting the serious life-changing decisions that loomed for her.
He stepped out of bed, scooped her up and carried her to the large bathroom, to stand her on her feet in the roomy tiled shower.
They played and splashed beneath the warm water until he looked at her and his smile faded, desire surfacing in his eyes. He reached out to caress her breasts and she inhaled, placing her hands on his hips and closing her eyes.
He was aroused, ready to love again, and she wanted him. She stroked him, stepping closer to kiss him and hold him. His lips were wet, his face wet, his body warm and wet against hers.
He turned off the water and moved from the shower, taking her hand as she stepped out. Aaron picked up a thick towel, shaking it out and lightly drying her in sensuous strokes that heightened desire. She picked up another fresh towel to dry him, excited by the look in his eyes that clearly revealed desire.
She rubbed the thick white towel over sculpted muscles, down over his flat belly, lightly drawing it across his thick staff.
He groaned, dropping his towel and grabbing hers to toss it away. He scooped her into his arms and carried her back to bed as he kissed her. Their legs were still wet, but she barely noticed and didn’t care as she clung to him and kissed him.
He shifted between her legs and then rose up slightly, watching her as he entered her again. She cried out, arching to meet him, reaching for him to pull him back down into her embrace.
They made love frantically as if they never had before and she cried out with her climax.
He climaxed soon after, holding her as he pumped, finally lowering his weight and then rolling on his side to hold her against him.
“Fantastic, Aaron,” she whispered, floating in euphoria. “Hot kisses and sexy loving.”
“I’ll have to agree,” he said. “I want to hold you all night.”
“No arguments from me on that one.”
Once again they were silent and she ran her hand over him, thinking she would never tire of touching him. Aaron brought joy, help, fun, excitement, sex into her life. He was giving her his baby. If only he could give her his love.
“This has cut short all your help with giving interviews and dealing with the press.”
“I’m still here and we’ll continue. Besides, you’re a fast le
arner.”
“You don’t really know that, but I’m trying. Aaron, when we fly to Dallas on Tuesday, I want to visit with my mom in Fort Worth. I called her and we made plans to have lunch. She’s meeting me on her lunch hour and my grandmother has gone to Abilene to stay a week with my aunt. You’re welcome to join us for lunch if you want, but you don’t have to do that.”
“I’ll pass because you don’t see her real often, so she may want to talk to you alone. I’ve got a limo for you—”
“A limo? Aaron, that’s ridiculous. I can rent a car at the airport.”
“No need. Cole and I have a limo service we use and two men who regularly drive for us. Sid will drive you Tuesday. He’ll take you to Fort Worth for lunch and the interview and then he’ll drive you back to a shop I recommend in Dallas where you can buy some new dresses. He’ll either wait or give you a number and you can call him when you’re ready to be picked up.”
“I’m beginning to feel like your mistress.”
Aaron laughed. “This is for Royal. I expect you to get a lot of donations for the town. Just keep thinking about the good we can do. Now if you would like to be my mistress—”
“Forget that one,” she said, and he chuckled.
“We’ll get back to talking about business tomorrow. Tonight I have other things on my mind. You don’t have any morning sickness, do you?”
“Not a bit so far. I just can’t eat as much and sometimes I get sleepy about two in the afternoon.”
“Why don’t you catch a few winks. The world won’t stop spinning if you do. You’re vital to Royal, Stella. You’ve done a superb job, but the world will go on without you for the time it takes you to get a good night’s sleep.”
“Thank you, Dr. Nichols. How much do I owe you for that advice?”
“About two dozen kisses,” he said, and she laughed, pushing him on his back and rolling over on top of him.
“I’m going to pay you now.”
“Best collection I’ll ever make,” he said, wrapping his arms around her.