Singing a Song...

by Crystal V. Rhodes

  “I suggest that you sit still,” he muttered. His ability to speak was being seriously challenged by his body’s response to her movements. “If not, we both might get more than we’ve bargained for.”

  Feeling the evidence of truth against her bottom, Darnell instantly stopped. Her chest heaved in indignation.

  “You…you…if you ever…”

  Thad pressed a quieting finger to her lips. “I don’t want to fight with you, Darnell.” He dipped the spoon into the chunky liquid. “David said that you have to eat to regain your strength.” He held the spoon close to her lips. “Please, just eat something.”

  Darnell shook her head. “I’m not hungry,” she managed to whisper.

  He wasn’t having it. “You have to eat. Now open.”

  His last words were a seductive whisper that sent tremors up her spine. She wanted to turn away, resist him, but she didn’t. She was too preoccupied by the drumming inside her chest from his closeness.

  His eyes looked tired. Red lined the rims, indicating a lack of sleep. The man had been worried about her. He had proven his concern and continued to do so. The least she could do was be grateful. She opened her mouth and let him slip the spoon inside. Instantly, Thad regretted that she had complied with his request.

  Darnell’s generous mouth wrapped around the spoon, and he watched in fascination as she savored the brew. She slid her tongue from her mouth to lick her lips—slowly, very slowly. His aching groin tightened. Relinquishing the spoon to her, he hoped that might solve the problem. It didn’t. A few more swallows and licks, and he was about to explode.

  It was Darnell who placed the soup bowl on the coffee table in front of them, then looked up at him. Her own control was just as tenuous as she fumbled for something to say.

  “I…I want to let you know that I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me, Thad. We haven’t always been civil to each other, but when I called, you came. I don’t remember if I’ve said it since I’ve been here, but thank you.”

  He looked at her thoughtfully, reading the sincerity in her eyes. “Did you doubt that I would come for you if you called?”

  For a moment, they held each other’s eyes. Darnell knew that her next words could change the course of their relationship—again—but she whispered them anyway.

  “No, I didn’t. I didn’t doubt it at all.”

  Thad leaned forward. He was going to kiss her. She knew it. Her respiration increased. She closed her eyes a split second before Thad slid her from his lap and abruptly stood.

  “I’ll tell you what,” he said, disregarding her look of astonishment. “Since you seem to feel better today, why don’t you get dressed and come downstairs? Maybe we can find something more substantial in the kitchen that might whet your appetite.” Not waiting for a reply, he hurried from the room.

  Outside, Thad leaned against the closed door and took a deep breath. The urge to kiss her had been so strong that he still didn’t know how he fought it. All he could do was run like a scared rabbit. This woman had become much too important to him. He wanted her more than he had ever wanted anyone, but there was a reality that had to be faced. He wasn’t the man that she was in love with.

  Having regained some semblance of self-control, he pushed away from the door and started down the stairway just as David was coming up the stairs. Trailing behind him was his wife, Heather. What was she doing here?

  “David?” Thad gave him a questioning look. The doctor tossed him a sheepish grin.

  “Hey, Thad. Uh, I hope you don’t mind.” He nodded toward the leggy blonde following close on his heels. “I know you said that you didn’t want anyone to know she was here, but Darnell is Heather’s favorite singer, and I

  …uh, well…”

  Thad sighed in annoyance. He understood that David was a newlywed with a younger wife who had him wrapped around his finger, but there were limits. “David, you promised.”

  “Oh, come on, Thad.” Heather spoke up quickly, seeing an opportunity slipping by. “I’m not going to tell anybody.”

  Thad frowned skeptically. Discretion wasn’t one of Heather’s strong points. The last thing that he wanted was a media circus. “Heather…”

  “All I want to do is say hello and maybe get an autograph,” she pleaded.

  “I don’t know if Darnell is well enough.” He turned to David, who looked caught in the middle.

  “I’ll tell you what,” David said, his eyes silently pleading for Thad to go along with his suggestion. “I’ll go in and examine Darnell, and if she’s up to it and says it’s okay, Heather can come in just for a minute and meet her. Let’s make it her decision.”

  Reluctantly, Thad agreed.

  Darnell perked up when Dr. Alan entered. She felt better than she had in days, and a clean bill of health from him would be her ticket out of here.

  “Hello, Doctor.” She greeted him with her brightest smile.

  David returned her friendly greeting. “Hello. You certainly sound chipper today.”

  Darnell sat up in bed as high as she could. “That’s because I feel great. If you ask me, I’m all over the flu.”

  David chuckled. “I think I’ll be the judge of that.”

  After a brief exam, he agreed. “Yes, you do appear to be doing much better.”

  “Which means I can go home, right?”

  “It means that you still need to take it easy for a while…”

  “But I can get up and get out of here, right?” Darnell pulled the covers back, ready to get dressed now.

  Amused, David raised his hands to halt her actions. “Whoa! You still need to rest and gather your strength.”

  Darnell’s face fell. “But you said…”

  “I said that you’re better, but you still need rest.”

  “I can rest at home,” Darnell pouted.

  David raised a brow. “You seem awfully anxious to leave here.”

  “I am.” Darnell didn’t offer any further explanation and the doctor didn’t appear to want one. But there was something that he did want from her. He asked her to greet his wife and to give her an autograph.

  Darnell gave him a sly smile. “I’ll tell you what. You wash my back, and I’ll wash yours.”

  A deal was struck. An hour later, Darnell descended the staircase. The doctor had given her a clean bill of health, with a warning to take it easy for the next couple of days. She had translated that to mean that she was free to do whatever she wanted as long as it was within reason. She had decided to take a short walk along the beach. The day was sunny and warm, and she refused to be cooped up any longer. So, after taking her first leisurely bath in days, she had donned a pair of sweats borrowed from Catina, and she was intent on going outside for the first time in three days. As Darnell approached the front door and reached for the handle, she met an unexpected obstacle.

  “And just where do you think that you’re going?” Thad moved to block her way.

  With those words, the truce that had been declared over the past few days was over. Thad was dead set against her going outside. Darnell was just as insistent about going. The ensuing argument was a loud one. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a bulk of a man appeared in the foyer.

  “What’s going on here?” It was Donald, Thad’s housekeeper-turned-assistant and Catina’s husband. To Darnell’s surprise, he was far from the staid, proper figure that she had envisioned.

  Donald looked like a model for a bodybuilding magazine. Golden brown and bald, he was at least six and a half feet of muscle and biceps. He was a handsome man, but he was also intimidating. He looked dangerous. Remembering what Catina had said about Donald being an ex-con, unconsciously Darnell moved a little closer to Thad as she was introduced to the giant of a man. It was while Thad was preoccupied explaining the reason for the altercation to Donald that Darnell took the opportunity to slip out the front door before Thad could stop her.

  Fifteen minutes later, she stormed along the beach like a soldier doing a goosestep. She was an
gry. Thad had already found a million ways to infuriate her, and he was now on number one million and one. She refused to look behind her as he trailed her like some watchdog. She didn’t need a babysitter, and had told him that when he caught up with her and demanded that she wear his oversized jacket. He insisted that it was too cool on the beach for her not to wear one and that he was afraid of a relapse. She had been touched by his continued concern, but when he refused to let her walk the beach alone she wasn’t amused. She didn’t like how he had dismissed her earlier that day and needed to be away from him. She had to have some time alone to think about why it mattered.

  Darnell’s shoulders drooped as her goosestep slowed to a saunter. She knew that it wasn’t his solicitous behavior that was disturbing her. It was because she wanted him, and she wasn’t sure what to do about it.

  Some distance behind her, Thad strolled along, amused by Darnell’s angry stride. He hadn’t responded to her verbal tirade. He had decided that their sparring was going to stop once and for all. He knew that the tension between them wasn’t spurred by anger. It was sexual tension. They both knew it. It was time for them to lay their cards on the table.

  Remembering the separate sleeping quarters at her home for her and Lance, he wanted to know exactly what was going on between them. Of course she could tell him that it was none of his business, but he had to know. If there was no chance for him, so be it, but hiding his feelings for her was becoming more and more difficult. They were strong, and they were deep.

  A jogger whizzed past him, jolting Thad’s thoughts back to the beach. He looked up in time to see Darnell about to round the corner of the only rock formation on the otherwise flat beach surface. Her stride had slowed, and she appeared to be deep in thought.

  What occurred next seemed to happen in slow motion. The jogger approached Darnell, and in passing unexpectedly bumped into her. Caught by surprise, Darnell made an attempt to keep her balance but failed. She lost her footing, and Thad watched helplessly as she fell against the large jagged rocks, then crumpled to the sand like a rag doll. The jogger continued running.

  Thad rushed to Darnell, fighting the urge to chase the hit-and-run jogger and beat him senseless. She was sitting up rubbing her right arm when he reached her side.

  “Are you all right?” He took her arm and gently examined it.

  “Yes, no thanks to that idiot. If I hadn’t been wearing this ugly coat of yours I could have broken my arm.” She looked at the large rip on the coat sleeve where it had caught against the rocks. “Sorry.”

  “No problem.” Thad helped her up and looked down the beach to where the jogger had disappeared. “If you had hit your head on those rocks instead of your arm, you might not have walked away so easily. On top of that, he didn’t stop to apologize.”

  “The ‘he’ was a she,” Darnell informed him as he rubbed her aching arm, “and she better be glad that she didn’t stop. I would have done her some serious harm.” The look on Darnell’s face confirmed that serious harm would have been inflicted. It seemed that both women had been lucky.

  Returning to the house, Darnell perched on a stool in his bright blue kitchen while they both examined her arm. The skin hadn’t been broken, but there was some discoloration. Thad was still seething about the incident, and it took some convincing from Darnell to keep him from calling the authorities to track the jogger down.

  Neither Catina nor Donald was home, so Thad offered to fix Darnell a meal. By now she was famished, and she readily took him up on the offer. As Darnell sat watching him, she was amazed at the skill with which he prepared broiled chicken breasts, corn on the cob, and spinach salad. He did it with the same meticulous attention to detail that he put into everything he did. Whatever the task, Thad gave it his undivided attention, including being with her. She liked that about him, and she liked him, a lot.

  It was the sound of her sigh that drew Thad’s attention. Sitting on the edge of a kitchen stool with her elbows resting on the island, she looked pensive. He wondered what she was thinking. Could it be about him?

  Cued by his silence, Darnell looked up. The intensity of Thad’s gaze made her uncomfortable. She lowered her gaze and reached across the island to retrieve several tomatoes, a chopping block, and a knife.

  “Here, let me work for my meal.”

  She started chopping as he returned to his own task. For the moment, her gesture stifled the rising tension between them. They worked in silence until Thad spoke.

  “Darnell, I hung the telephone up on Lance because I was jealous.” He made the statement as if answering a question she had just asked.

  She continued slicing, not looking up. “Oh, really?” She didn’t know what else to say.

  Thad glanced at her as he shucked the corn. “Sending that bill to you was immature, and I’m sorry. I should never have done that.”

  Darnell tried to concentrate on her slicing. “No, you shouldn’t have.”

  Thad dropped the corn he had been shucking into a pot. “What I should have done was call you and tell you how much I missed you and how I wanted to see you again.”

  With shaky hands, Darnell placed the tomato slices in the bowl. Then, wiping her hands with a paper towel, she looked up at him steadily. “I missed you, too.”

  Thad picked up the pot of corn and placed it on one of the burners built into the island. His hands trembled as he placed the lid on the pot. Completing his task, he came around the counter to stand within inches of Darnell. She tilted her head expectantly. Fear and doubt laced her dark eyes.

  Taking her chin in his hand, he sought to erase both their doubts and lowered his mouth to hers. She made no move to resist as gently, tenderly, Thad’s lips melded with hers.

  * * *

  The tension in the house was palpable. Each member of the household staff could feel it. Mr. Waters had come back home a few days ago in a very foul mood. Since that time, they had heard him pacing back and forth from the sitting room to the bedroom suite like a caged animal. He took his meals in his room and barely spoke to the staff. They heard the sound of shattering glass one evening. The maid later reported having to clean up shards of broken crystal—remnants of a broken vase. The housekeeper added it to his bill.

  It appeared that the reserved and refined Mr. Waters had another side to his personality—possibly a lethal one. So, unsure as to what had caused this metamorphosis, the staff moved throughout the house like silent shadows, uncertain how to respond to their temporary employer’s behavior or what to expect from him next.

  CHAPTER 14

  A sweep of his tongue across her lips sent shock waves careening through Darnell’s system. She opened her mouth slightly to allow him entrance, and instantly he took control. Deepening the kiss, he stroked her tongue. Darnell groaned with pleasure. By their own volition, her hands snaked upward, encircling his neck, drawing him closer. Only the need for oxygen forced them to part.

  For a moment, neither of them could speak. Thad stood shaken. He had kissed women before, but the magnitude of what had passed between them with this kiss amazed him. Surely, Darnell had felt it. Gently, he pressed her cheek to his heart so that she could feel it beat for her.

  “We shouldn’t have done that,” she whispered, sounding unconvincing even to herself.

  Threading his fingers through her hair, his eyes swept her passion-swollen lips. “Yes, we should have, a long time ago.”

  Darnell shook her head vehemently. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t fall for Thad. They were like fire and ice, day and night.

  Thad lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him. He could almost hear what she was thinking.

  “It’ll be all right,” he pleaded. “Don’t think about anything but us.” Once again he took possession of her mouth with a kiss almost desperate in its intensity.

  Darnell’s knees nearly buckled. Yet, with a halfhearted effort, she tried to release his hold. She couldn’t let this man into her life. “No, Thad,” she implored, trying to pull away.
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br />   “Yes, Darnell.” Thad’s voice was filled with quiet certainty.

  His heart raced like the wind when he was near her, and her very touch caused him to tremble. No woman had ever made him feel this way.

  He loosened his hold on her. “Talk to me, Darnell. Tell me how you feel about what’s happening between us. Tell me how you feel about Lance.”

  Closing her eyes against the hope in his voice, she gave a troubled sigh. Why did he have to bring up Lance’s name? Her head was swimming; her legs were shaking so badly that she doubted if she could remain standing if Thad weren’t holding her. That’s how Thad affected her, in ways that Lance never had.

  “He and I have a special relationship…”

  “Do you love him?”

  “A long relationship…”

  “Do you love him?”

  “He’s easy, familiar…”

  “But do you love him?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  He inhaled the pain of those words.

  She continued. “You and I are too different, Thad. I mean, your impulsiveness, your zest for life is so different from the person I am. I’m reserved. I like order. There has to be a progression for me, step one, step two…”

  Her voice drifted off in her struggle to explain. She looked away. She had never been so confused, so unsure of herself in her life.

  Reluctantly, Thad released her, his hopes sinking. She was in love with Lance, but what was she saying about him, about the two of them—Thad and Darnell?

  “I’m not sure whether I should be flattered or not by your description of me. Could you explain a little bit more, especially about us?”

  Darnell’s legs finally gave away. She sank onto a kitchen stool. At this moment, she wasn’t sure what she meant or how to explain it. All she knew was that in the heat of Thad’s presence, words were at a premium. How ironic.

  She made her living forming words and music that explored the mysteries of passion. Yet here she was in the face of insatiable desire struggling to form a coherent sentence.

  “You’re disrupting my life, Thad, and it’s an orderly life, considering my career.” Darnell threw her hands up in frustration. “I don’t know! I made plans for my life. I used to know where I was headed…”