Fire and Desire (Arabesque)

by Jackson, Brenda

  “No, it won’t. It’s going to rain later.”

  “It looked that way earlier, but the sky is bright now. It cleared up while you were inside that cave. It won’t rain.”

  “Yes, it will. The reason it looks so clear is because you’re up on a high peak. It’s probably raining cats and dogs down below on the lowland. I’d say a thunderstorm will probably hit us hard later today.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Suit yourself. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when later tonight you have to sleep without a blanket.”

  Corinthians glared at him over her shoulder. “Then I’ll just sleep without one. It was almost too hot for a blanket last night anyway.”

  “Up here in the mountains will be different. Be prepared for cooler nights. And after the rain, it just might be downright cold.”

  Corinthians gritted her teeth as she stood and turned around to face him. The man thought he knew everything. “Thanks for the warning. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to finish what I’m doing.”

  With a sigh of relief, she watched as he walked away and went back into the cave.

  It wasn’t just raining cats and dogs—someone had evidently thrown a few cows and horses in the mix, Corinthians thought as she sat huddled in front of the fire. She listened as the hard force of the rain beat down on the top of the cave. That sound, along with the one from the waterfall gushing down at the cave’s opening, was capable of drowning out any other sounds.

  She had just placed her blanket neatly across a huge rock to dry in the sun when suddenly the clouds overhead had begun gathering. Before she had a chance to seek shelter, the torrential rain had come pouring down, nearly knocking her to the ground.

  Corinthians had been surprised when she entered the cave for the first time. The area was the size of a small room, and with the fire Trevor had started in the center of it, the place looked downright cozy and intimate—too cozy and intimate.

  She didn’t have a clue how the cave looked before Trevor had cleaned it out, but now, all she saw was a large, neat space whose rocky floors had been brushed clean.

  Because the rain blotted out whatever light would have filtered through a number of cracks in the rock wall, the area was dark. It was so dark that even with the fire, she could barely see Trevor as he stood leaning against a wall, glaring at her.

  She glared right back at him. Even sitting in front of the fire she was cold. And she didn’t think it was from the dampness of her clothing that was getting dry from the fire’s heat. Trevor had been right. It would be a cold night. Already she felt the temperature dropping. And she didn’t have a blanket!

  Drawing her legs up, she wrapped her arms around them for warmth. Trevor, she noticed, was still standing in the same spot, watching her, but saying nothing. He had not said anything to her since she had entered the cave. She was grateful for that because she could not bear to hear his, “I told you so.” Silence lengthened between them, but she refused to be the one to break it. Evidently, he felt the same way, so they ignored each other.

  At least, Corinthians thought, she tried ignoring him, but she had discovered long ago that ignoring Trevor Grant wasn’t easy. With a will of their own, her eyes followed him whenever he moved around the cave.

  Chills once again touched her body, making her shiver. She would do anything to have her blanket to wrap around her right now. Glancing across the room, she saw the one Trevor had used last night neatly folded and placed on top of his overnight bag. Tempted as she was, she refused to ask him if she could use it for only a little while.

  A little later she knew it had gotten dark outside. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Trevor go to the blanket and spread it on the hard, rocky floor and stretch out on it. She tried to once again ignore him and placed her attention on listening to the sound of the hard rain as it continued to beat against the top of the cave.

  Corinthians jumped when she looked up and saw Trevor standing next to her as he leaned down and placed some more wood on the fire.

  “Do you plan on sitting here all night?” he asked shortly, glaring down at her.

  “What choice do I have? I have to stay warm. It’s cold in here,” she snapped back.

  “I’d be willing to share my heat with you.”

  Corinthians lifted a dark brow. She wondered what heat he was referring to. She didn’t think he meant the fire since she was hoarding that already. She could only assume he meant he would share his blanket with her.

  “You’re willing to give me your blanket?” she asked.

  “No, but I’ll let you share my bed. Together our bodies will generate enough heat to keep us warm through the night.”

  Corinthians gave Trevor a sidelong glance in utter disbelief. He would let her share his bed? He made it sound as if he’d be doing her a favor. Did he for one minute actually think she was that gullible? He had already said he was more than certain that one day they would make love. Did he think he would get her over to his bed with the pretense of keeping her warm?

  Fat chance! She knew exactly what kind of heat their bodies might end up sharing. She glared up at him. “Trevor Grant, you are the last man I’d willingly sleep with. The only way you’ll get me in bed with you is to hog-tie me and force me.”

  Corinthians heard him mutter a few not so nice words before she suddenly felt herself being lifted in his strong arms.

  “Suit yourself, woman, it was your call,” he grumbled in her ear.

  “Put me down this minute! I mean it!” She struggled to get out of his arms, but he was holding on to her tight.

  “Be still before I drop you on the floor. It would be a pity if you broke any bones on this rocky surface,” he said as he carried her over to his blanket. “I refuse to watch you sit your butt over there and freeze to death.”

  He leaned down and placed her on the blanket. Without giving her a chance to scoot away, his strong arms clamped around her as he wrapped their bodies in the blanket.

  The floor was hard, but that wasn’t the only hardness Corinthians felt. Her backside was spooned against Trevor’s front. Even through their clothing, she could feel his body. It was hard and solid all over. Her breath caught when she felt his hand on her arm, urging her closer.

  “Stay still and go to sleep,” he ordered.

  Corinthians didn’t think that she would be able to sleep, given her position in his arms. She doubted if her eyes would be willing to close. Her heart rate had accelerated and blood was gushing fast and furious through her veins. She lay there waiting, dreading the moment when he would try to make a move on her. She had already plotted out in her mind what she would do when he did. She would turn around and knee him real good in the area of his body that men cherished the most. After tonight, he would think twice about ever trying to take advantage of her again.

  She waited for him to come on to her, but he never did. Seconds turned into minutes, and those minutes became a full hour and still he just held her in his arms without trying anything. His strong arms were wrapped tight around her and his hard body was pressed close to her, keeping her warm. His heat seemed to penetrate through his clothing and come straight through to hers. She felt warm, cozy and secure.

  Corinthians tried to fight the sleep she felt descending upon her, but couldn’t. When she felt herself drifting off repeatedly, she knew she had to say something before sleep claimed her.

  “Go ahead and say it,” she said quietly, sleepily. “I know you’re just dying to say it.”

  “Say what?” Trevor’s voice was like a husky whisper against her ear. His breath fanned her skin, making it tingle.

  “Go ahead and say that I was wrong and that you tried to warn me but I was too stubborn to listen. Go ahead and say I brought this all on myself, and that if I had listened to you, I wouldn’t be in this predicament.”

  His body shifted and Corinthians didn’t have to turn around to know he was leaning over, dangerously close to her face. Almost too close. Even his body had shifted and h
e was nearly on top of her. She couldn’t stop looking up at him, gazing up into the darkness of his eyes.

  “You just said everything for me. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Now please be quiet and go to sleep.”

  Corinthians frowned. The last thing she thought when sleep finally claimed her was that Trevor Grant was an infuriating man.

  So much for putting distance between us. I want her now more so than ever before.

  That was the only thing Trevor could think of with Corinthians sleeping with her body so close to his. Even with their clothing still intact, he felt their bodies generating heat. Heaven help it if they had their clothes off. They would probably burn into cinders. He was pretty close to scorching right now. Each and every time she shifted her body, her backside fitted more snug against his lower part, and he would have to inhale a deep breath. His body reacted each time she moved. He wondered what he had done to deserve this torture.

  The sound of rain continued to beat down upon the cave, and thunder rumbled across the mountains. But the woman in his arms was sleeping like a baby. And for a brief moment, knowing she had drifted off to sleep with his protective arms around her, a strange feeling of deep contentment flowed through him.

  He inwardly groaned when Corinthians again shifted in her sleep, wiggling her backside against him. His heart pounded and blood rushed through his veins. He had an impulse to flip her on her back and take off her clothes and have his way with her.

  “Cool it, Grant,” he muttered to himself. “That’s not your style. Besides, you’ll only be asking for trouble.”

  But then, he thought as he lifted his hand from around her waist and let it close warmly over her breasts through the material of her shirt, torture was fair play. And if he was going to be tortured, he may as well gain some benefit from it. He rubbed his hand over the firmness of her breasts.

  Suddenly feeling guilty at taking advantage of a sleeping woman, he removed his hand and tried concentrating on something else. Glancing across the room, he watched as the flickering dance of the fire cast shadows on the rocky wall. When in his mind those shadows turned into images of something sexy and sensual, he felt desire for Corinthians grip his body again. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. Why did she have the ability to make him lose control? How could this woman claim a part of him that he had never offered to any woman before?

  In answering those questions, he knew he could no longer deny one monumental fact: He had fallen in love with her. And although he had tried not to, and although he had tried to fight it every step of the way, he had to finally admit that he was deeply in love with the woman he held in his arms. There was no other reason for him acting the way he’d been acting for the past two years. Corinthians had done more than just get under his skin. The woman was deeply embedded into his heart and the very soul of him. He could no more not love her than he could order it to stop raining.

  He thought back to a conversation he’d had with Clayton Madaris last year while the two of them had been dining at Sisters restaurant. That night Clayton had revealed to him that he had fallen in love. That bit of news had come as a shocker because everyone knew Clayton had always been Houston’s number-one player. The man had a history of having more women than the NBA and NFL had players combined. But that night Clayton had poured his heart out to him, and had told him of the love he felt for this particular woman, who surprisingly had turned out to be Syneda Walters. But on that night at Sisters, Clayton had asked him if he had ever been in love. And without thinking about it, Trevor had immediately thought of Corinthians. Chances were he had loved her even then. He just hadn’t acknowledged it yet in his mind and his heart. All he knew at the time was that he could not get a good night’s sleep without her invading his dreams, without thinking of her at some of the oddest times, and without wanting to make love to her each and every time he saw her. He knew that just like Clayton had had problems with Syneda at first, before she had come around and accepted her love for him, he would have problems with Corinthians.

  He slowly caressed his initials into her arm, branding her his. He acknowledged in his heart and soul that this woman was his. His woman. And he would not share her with anyone, nor would he allow her to share her heart with someone other than him. He wanted all of her, not just the part she could spare him. The thought that she still loved Dex was a weight he would have to bear for now. But he was determined that someday and somehow, he would make her love him just as much as he loved her. That was a startling promise he made to himself, and he would make sure it was one he kept.

  Clayton Madaris took the BlackBerry from his pocket. The device had gotten him in trouble when he’d found himself sending sensuous, explicit messages to his wife throughout the day, resulting in them never getting any work done. To teach him a lesson, Syneda had hidden the mobile phone for several days and had just returned it to him last night. He knew he was probably headed for trouble again, but he punched in a message to his wife. I want you.

  He chuckled when seconds later he received her reply. You always want me, Madaris.

  He punched in his reply to her message. That’s true. By the way, I got news about Trevor.

  Clayton cut off the BlackBerry, replaced it in his pocket and checked his watch. He would give her less than a minute. Bingo! he thought when she breezed into his office and closed the door behind her.

  “What have you heard about Trevor?” she asked, coming over to him. She moved his calendar out of the way to find space to place her rear end on the edge of his desk. Her skirt was short, and when she sat on his desk, a good portion of her thigh was showing. Clayton’s gaze immediately became glued to the sight of it.

  “Clayton, for heaven’s sakes, pay attention. What have you heard about Trevor?”

  Clayton forced himself to stop looking at her thigh. He leaned back in his chair. First, he would tell her what she wanted to know, and then…

  “Dex got a call from Trevor’s father. The State Department contacted him and Mrs. Grant. It appears that Trevor was not taken as a hostage, but escaped into the jungles of South America. Word has it he’s hiding out in the jungle with some woman.”

  “A woman?” Syneda asked, lifting a brow. “Who?”

  “Dex thinks it’s Corinthians Avery.”

  “Corinthians!” Syneda’s eyes lit up. She had recently become friends with the woman who worked as head geologist for her father, S. T. Remington, president and CEO of Remington Oil.

  “How charming,” Syneda said as a smile touched her lips.

  Clayton let out a short, dry laugh. “There’s nothing charming about it. Trevor can’t stand the woman.”

  Syneda frowned. “And how do you know? Did he tell you that?”

  “No, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the two of them don’t jell. Have you even seen them in a room together?”

  Syneda frowned in deep concentration. “Yes, at that Businessman of the Year Awards Banquet for Dex, and then at our wedding. Why?”

  “You wouldn’t believe the daggered looks they give each other. I can’t imagine them being alone anywhere, especially a jungle.” He chuckled. “I guess one advantage is that Trevor can feed her to wild animals if she gets on his nerves. No one would ever know.”

  Syneda didn’t share Clayton’s amusement. In fact, she found his comment downright tacky. “If you recall at our wedding, Trevor caught the garter you tossed out and Corinthians caught my bouquet. Which means, by tradition, they are both next in line to marry. Now isn’t that a coincidence?”

  “I’d call it a bad catch on Trevor’s part,” Clayton said, resting his eyes on his wife’s thigh again.

  Syneda saw where his gaze had wandered. She adjusted her position to pull down her skirt to cover herself from his ravenous eyes. “Well, if you ask me, it means something.”

  Clayton shrugged. “Trust me, for Trevor it doesn’t mean a thing.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I know Trevor.”<
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  Syneda narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, and everyone thought they knew you, too, but look at you now, Clayton Madaris. You’re a happily married man. If you can conform, anyone can.”

  Clayton smiled. “That’s true.” He reached out and pulled Syneda to him. “I want you.”

  Syneda glared at her husband before standing. “I have work to do, Madaris. My client’s due in the office within an hour.”

  “They can wait.”

  Syneda laughed. “Is this the professional Clayton Madaris talking?”

  “This is the Clayton Madaris who wants to make love to his wife. Now.”

  He stood and gave a quick inspection of Syneda’s attire. The two-piece suit was classy, and no doubt was as costly as it was short. The skirt hit her way above the knee. He hoped she wouldn’t have a reason to bend over today. He forced himself not to say anything. He had learned a long time ago not to tell her how to dress. Although he had to admit that whatever she put on her body, she looked absolutely good in it.

  “Stay here and don’t move,” he ordered her before walking over to the door and locking it.

  When he turned around, he noticed Syneda was no longer standing next to his desk, but had gone to a corner of the room and was removing her skirt. He frowned. He had wanted to undress her himself. “I told you not to move, Syneda.”

  She grinned. “I don’t take orders very well, Madaris.” Then she removed her panty hose.

  Clayton rubbed his hand across his beard as he watched her. Her not taking orders very well was an understatement. He walked over to stand in front of her after she had removed her jacket, leaving her clad in a mint-green bra and matching panties. Both were lacy and silky, and looked as soft as the shapely body the lingerie barely covered. “Is there anything that you do take very well, Syneda?”

  A sensuous smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She tilted her head and looked up at him. “Yes, Madaris. I take you very well. All of you.”

  Clayton’s breath caught in his throat. During his bachelor days he’d feared committing himself to a woman would eventually lead to boredom. He’d been married one month and two weeks, and hadn’t experienced a second of boredom with Syneda.