His gaze swept the dance floor and sidelines as he and Angelique glided by. Our eyes touched ever so briefly, and he nodded, his expression tense. Then on a rising crescendo of music, I lost them in the glittering crowd.
Across the room, Mrs. DuPrae stood alone near the buffet tables. Her dress was the color of sea foam, and though her hair was pulled back in its usual severity, she looked younger somehow. Even from this distance, I could see the quiet excitement in her face, the almost infinitesimal movement of her body in time to the music.
It was all very exciting and glamorous. I soon found myself caught up in the festivities, but the gaiety was short lived. Reid danced by, this time with a beautiful blonde. I could feel myself wilting, like a flower too long out of the sun.
“I was hoping to see you tonight.”
The low, furtive-sounding voice spoke at my shoulder.
“You startled me,” I admonished, turning my attention back to the dancers.
“Sorry,” Lawrence Crawford said, extracting a cigarette from a gold case. He offered me one, which I declined, then lit up. When he moved to slip the gold lighter back into his pocket, it fell to the floor. We both stooped to retrieve it, but I reached it first. I straightened, and held out the lighter in my palm.
“That’s a very handsome lighter,” I said. There was an inscription on it, but Lawrence plucked it out of my hand so quickly I had no time to read it.
“Thank you,” he said, carefully stowing it in his pocket. “It was a special gift. I’d hate to lose it.”
We watched the dancers in silence for a moment, then he said, “I was a little surprised to see you here.” His eyes gleamed with open speculation. “Dare I hope your presence here means you’ve heard from Christopher?”
“No, I’m afraid it doesn’t,” I said, sighing. “I almost didn’t come. I didn’t think it would be appropriate, but Reid asked me to attend for…well, for…appearances.”
“I see. Reid usually does manage to get what he wants,” he said, his voice dusky with intrigue. “One way or another.”
“You don’t like each other. Why?”
Lawrence grinned. “Is it that noticeable? Actually, I’ve nothing against Reid. For some reason, he feels threatened by me.”
“Because you represent the party who wants to buy my father’s partnership. He thinks you coerced my father into the agreement.”
“Does he, by God? Christopher came to me. I’m an American, an ex-patriot, an outsider like him. He trusted me. He was feeling desperate, frightened. I told you that. He felt someone was out to get him.”
“So you said. But did he say who?”
Lawrence paused, his gray eyes flickering away from me. “It doesn’t take much to figure out who would lose the most if your father was to sell. Or who would gain the most if he didn’t…for some reason.”
I turned to face him then, weary of the innuendos, the secrecy. “Just say it. If you suspect something…anything…concerning my father, just say so. I’m tired of the subterfuge.”
“Yes, I can imagine you are,” he agreed, frowning. His gaze fixed itself on the dance floor, and I followed his eyes. The music had begun again, and Reid was dancing with Rachel. I felt Lawrence’s hand on my arm and looked back at him in surprise.
“I don’t like accusing someone, not even…not anyone when I don’t have any concrete proof. I may be going away for a while after tonight, but I’ve made arrangements to have something delivered to you tomorrow. I think you’ll find it most enlightening. Read it carefully. Read it—then make up your own mind.”
“What is it?”
“Just read it,” he said, his tone intense. “Then we’ll talk.”
We stared at each other for a long moment of uneasy comprehension until another voice spoke from behind me.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
I turned and gazed up into those smoldering blue eyes. My heart was beating all over the place, and I couldn’t seem to speak. Reid had no such trouble. He said coolly to Lawrence, “I’ve come to claim…my dance.”
Lawrence gave me a sympathetic look. “Remember what I said.”
“What did he say?” Reid asked as he led me toward the dance floor. His arm encircled my waist and drew me toward his body. I had difficulty thinking about anything then, except the fact that I was finally where I wanted to be.
“I…don’t remember,” I said breathlessly.
Reid grinned down at me. “Good, because I want your undivided attention tonight. By the way, did I happen to mention you look beautiful tonight? Breathtaking…”
My thoughts exactly. I couldn’t quit staring at him. In his formal evening clothes, he looked so tall and strong and magnificent.
The orchestra was playing a dreamy sort of tune, the melody hauntingly familiar. We stepped onto the floor, and Reid’s arm tightened around me.
“I’m not a very good dancer,” I apologized.
“Neither am I,” he said. “But we’ll manage, I think.”
He’d lied, of course. He danced as he did everything—very, very well.
“I’ve missed you.” He breathed the words into my ear. “I’ve thought about you all day.”
“Have you?”
I knew people were staring at us, wondering about us. I tried to ignore them, but I saw Lawrence dancing with Rachel and my gaze touched his briefly. I couldn’t help remembering what he’d told me.
“Reid usually does manage to get what he wants—one way or another.”
Don’t, I warned myself. Don’t ruin this time. It seemed as though I’d waited for this night all my life, and I didn’t want my doubts and suspicions to dim my pleasure.
I was entitled to one night, wasn’t I?
And besides, what had Reid really done to encourage my suspicions and my doubts? He’d been himself, nothing more. He’d been attentive to me. He’d shown me his ambition, his single-mindedness, his mysteriousness.
But weren’t those the very qualities about him that fascinated me?
My own insecurities had promoted those doubts. But I didn’t feel particularly insecure tonight. I felt almost…confident, and very, very lucky to be dancing with Reid after so many empty years. If I would let it be, tonight was the kind of night where dreams could come true.
“Relax,” Reid echoed softly. His hand moved ever so lightly against my back. “This should be fun. Pretend we’re the only two people in the room.”
Weren’t we?
When he pulled me tighter, everything else faded away. I was conscious only of his mouth, mere inches from mine; of his fingers, sliding along the sensitive column of my spine; of his eyes, looking so deeply into my own.
The music played on and on, and we danced—forever, it seemed. I never wanted the night to end. I wanted to remain in his arms forever.
“Do you know how much I want to kiss you?”
His voice made me feel shivery all over. “Yes,” I said slowly. “I believe I do.”
He smiled then, a knowing, triumphant curving of his lips. “In that case—”
We were dancing near the wall of French doors that stood open to the fragrant night air. With a breath-stealing series of whirls and steps that left me lightheaded, we were outside, on the terrace.
The evening was cool and scented, the fragrance of jasmine and frangipani heavy as a drug. A light breeze whispered through the palms, carrying the slow drift of the ocean wind. The moon hung low in a navy sky, and there were stars, so many stars—and I knew if I looked behind them tonight, I would surely see heaven.
Reid pulled me from the terrace into the shadows of the garden. My heartbeat thundered in my ears; warmth surged through my veins. Oh, how I wanted him to touch me! How I was dying to have him kiss me, but for an eternity we merely stared into each other’s eyes.
At last he bent and brushed his lips against mine, with a lightness at first that barely tantalized, then with a heated insistence that grew and deepened until my reluctance was replaced by a response so
primitive and powerful, I could scarcely believe it was me.
His tongue parted my lips and drove inside my mouth. He flattened his hands against my back and pressed me more firmly against his body, molded me tightly to his exact shape. His hips moved slowly against mine as the sliding warmth of his tongue set its own rhythm. In and out. Deeper. Faster. Harder. Any second now my heart would surely pound its way out of my chest.
He tore his lips from mine as he tangled his hands in my hair. “Do you know how badly I want you?” His voice was low and hoarse, sexy beyond belief.
“Do you know how badly I want to believe that you do?”
He drew back in surprise. “Why wouldn’t you believe it?”
“Because we’re so different. We hardly know each other.”
I saw his quick smile in the dark. “I’d say we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well over the last few days, not to mention the last few minutes. And don’t forget we have a past.”
“One week hardly constitutes a past,” I argued with half a heart. His hands had slipped to my waist, and he held me lightly, smiling down at me.
“It may have been only a few days, but I never forgot you. The image of the sadness in your eyes the day Christopher and I left haunted me at the oddest moments over the years. I’d think about you and wonder what you were doing, what you looked like, how your life had turned out. I’d wonder if you were finally happy.”
“I never forgot you, either,” I said simply, not quite able to meet his eyes.
“Even when you married someone else?”
It was a casual question, a reasonable question, but I sensed a strange urgency behind it. I looked up at him, and the blue eyes swept me with a look so penetrating, I felt my knees grow weak.
“My marriage was a mistake,” I said, admitting to Reid what I’d hardly dared admit to myself.
“You rushed into it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Because I wanted to forget you. I couldn’t say it, though. I already felt too fragile and vulnerable. Already Reid knew too many of my weaknesses. “I was young,” I said with a shrug.
His eyes flickered in the pale light. “Were you in love with him?”
“Reid…it’s not something I like to talk about.”
His mouth tightened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. It must still be painful for you.” He gave all the proper responses, but I had a feeling there was so much more he wanted to say.
“It’s not that. It’s just…”
“We don’t know each other very well, and it’s none of my business.”
The mood was quickly slipping away, and I wasn’t sure why. I only knew that I was desperate to get it back, to banish the unpleasant memories from this fairy-tale evening.
“I’ll tell you about Danny some other time,” I said. “But not tonight. Please, not tonight.”
He hesitated only slightly. “All right. Tonight will be ours, then. We’ll drink champagne and dance till midnight and then…”
I shivered. “And then?”
His blue eyes gleamed in the moonlight. “Perhaps I should leave that up to you.”
And so we went back inside and danced, and I broke my vow and drank champagne, and then we danced some more. Reid never left my side. Even when we weren’t dancing, his arm remained around me. He seemed oblivious to all the curious stares, the furtive whispers behind gloved hands.
And me? Well, at the moment I was pretty much past caring myself. That kiss in the moonlight had all but sealed my fate.
I wanted Reid to make love to me tonight. I wanted it more than anything, and what’s more, I knew he knew I wanted him to. He’d have to be a fool not to. And Reid St. Pierre was nobody’s fool.
But did I dare believe he wanted me? His kisses told me he did. The way he held me now, looked at me, whispered in my ear, left me little room to wonder, and yet, something held me back. Something that I kept shoving away, but never quite far enough.
Reid watched me as we danced. We were hardly moving now, but somehow the faint rhythm was powerfully seductive. I felt tingly all over, in part from the champagne, but mostly from Reid. His eyes were intense, seductive…smoldering.
He looked formidable, intense and at the same time staggeringly sexy. He appeared very much the way he’d looked in my dream my second night in Columbé, when he’d stood over me, firelight glinting on his naked chest and his eyes gazing down at me just before he—
“Do you know what a fire dance is?”
Lost in my own fantasy, his words startled me. “N-no. Is it what Angelique did at the ceremony the other night?”
“That’s one way.”
“There’s another?”
“There’s another. But the other way is even more magical, Christine. It’s even…hotter.”
“Would I—” I licked my dry lips. “Would I get burned?”
“That’s always a risk you have to take, isn’t it?” He smiled as he tightened his arms around me, pulling me so closely against him that I knew people would be whispering even more.
Over Reid’s shoulder, I saw Mrs. DuPrae standing on the sidelines with Rachel. The older woman was frowning slightly as if she and her daughter had been arguing, but when Mrs. DuPrae’s gaze met mine, I wondered if her disapproval wasn’t aimed at me for some reason.
Angelique glided by in Lawrence Crawford’s arms again, but she was no longer smiling up at him. Her expression was petulant, angry like a spoiled child who couldn’t get her way. As I watched them for a moment, trying to calm my own racing pulse, Lawrence dropped his arms from around her and deliberately turned away. Angelique caught his arm, and he spun around.
The conversation that ensued was brief and, by the looks of it, heated. Lawrence shoved her hand from his arm and exited the dance floor. Angelique stood for a moment, watching his back. Then she lifted her gaze and looked directly at me.
My blood chilled.
I’d never seen such hate, such icy contempt in anyone’s eyes.
But was her animosity leveled at Lawrence Crawford…or at me?
“Are you cold?” Reid murmured.
“A little, I guess.”
“Maybe we should see what we can do about warming you up.”
“The fire dance?” I asked breathlessly.
“You catch on fast,” he said with a smile that made the butterflies somersault in my stomach.
I stumbled, stepped on his toe, and he laughed, that deep, irresistible male sound that sent shivers scurrying up and down my back.
And so the moment of truth was at hand. Every nerve in my body seemed to be at war with one another. Of course, I desperately wanted to be with Reid, I mean, really be with him. How could I not? It would be the culmination of ten years of fantasies. It would be the final fulfillment, my dream come true.
And yet I could still hear that insidious little voice whispering to me, warning me, reminding me that when a man pursued a plain girl like me, he always had an ulterior motive.
Except I wasn’t plain anymore. Maybe I never had been. Maybe my grandmother, for whatever twisted reason, had planted that image in my head, and I’d kept it around because, well, because in some ways I was comfortable with it. It was easier to dream than to live, wasn’t it?
But I wasn’t dreaming anymore. This was reality. And Reid was waiting for my answer.
I’m honestly not sure what I meant to say. I stared up at him, my lips parted to answer, but before I could utter a word, he bent and…he kissed me.
Right there on the dance floor. In front of everyone. With Mrs. DuPrae and Rachel and Angelique and Lawrence Crawford all looking on.
He kissed me while the band continued to play an old, haunting love song. He kissed me while our bodies moved slowly, so very slowly to the music. He kissed me like I was the most beautiful, desirable woman in the world.
He kissed me like he meant it.
“Christine.” He whispered my name against my lips, made it sound as though it was
the most intimate of endearments. One hand was around my waist while his other cupped the back of my neck. We were pressed so closely together we must have looked positively indecent. My grandmother would never have recognized me—her prim and proper granddaughter behaving so brazenly in public. She would have railed against me for days. She would have sent me to my room and locked me in….
That memory made me feel even more daring. Freer.
So I kissed Reid back. Right there on the dance floor.
In front of everyone.
I kissed him like I meant it. I kissed him in a way there could be no mistaking my intentions. I touched my tongue to his, and I felt his immediate reaction. He groaned softly as he tore his mouth from mine.
“Let’s get out of here.” His voice, low and urgent, throbbed in my ear. “Now.”
I don’t think I could have said a word had my life depended on it. The look on my face told him what he needed to know. His arm tightly around my waist, he led me from the dance floor, through the throng of people meandering in and out of the entranceway, and out into the hall.
We stopped at the bank of elevators, and when the doors slid open, two elderly ladies stepped into the car in front of us. I started to follow them, but Reid held me back. “Not that one,” he murmured.
Oh, the meaning one little phrase could convey. We stared at each other, my stomach clenching and unclenching with tension. He reached down and linked his fingers with mine as we waited for the next elevator. Mercifully, it was empty and we stepped inside. No one tried to follow us, but I don’t think Reid would have allowed them inside, anyway.
Very deliberately he removed a key from his pocket and inserted it into the control panel. The doors slid closed, and we were completely alone as we smoothly ascended without interruption.
I looked at the mirrored doors, then at the ceiling, then at my hands.
“Christine.” The soft command compelled my gaze. “Come here.”
I went.
His arms opened to envelope me, then closed around me, pressing me tightly against him. Our mouths fused together in a long, heated, intimate kiss. Our tongues touched, then tangled, and my heart went wild.
The Seventh Night Page 16