It Happened One Week

by JoAnn Ross

  Amanda nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime.”

  Intent on getting some answers from Dane, as she marched away, Amanda didn’t notice Kelli’s intense, thoughtful look.

  She found Dane at the cave. The place where those long-ago pirates had allegedly stashed their treasure. The place she’d always thought of as their secret sanctuary. He’d lit a fire and was sitting on a piece of driftwood beside it, drinking a beer. The lipstick on the mouth of the empty bottle beside the log told its own story.

  “Hello, contessa.” His smile was as warm as any he’d ever shared with her. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  As confused as Amanda had been about everything else, the one thing she’d thought she could believe for certain was that Dane was an honorable man. To discover otherwise was proving terribly painful.

  “Why don’t you tell that to someone stupid enough to believe you.” She’d tried for frost and ended up with heat. Instead of ice coating her words, a hot temper made them tremble.

  Amanda’s bright gauze skirt was almost transparent in the firelight. Dane found it difficult to concentrate on her anger when his attention was drawn to her long, firm legs.

  He slowly stood. “I think I’m missing something here.”

  “I can’t imagine what.” Amanda sent him a searing look. “Unless it’s your scorecard.” When he gave her another blank look, she twined her fingers together to keep from hitting him as she’d done the other night. “To keep track of all your women.”

  “What women? I don’t—”

  “Don’t lie to me!” When he reached out for her, she gave him a shove. “I passed Kelli on the way down here.” Her voice rose, shaky but determined. “She told me where to find you.”

  “I see.” He nodded.

  She’d hoped he would explain. On her way down the steps to the beach, she’d prayed that he would have some logical reason for being alone on a moonlit beach, or worse yet, in this cozy cave, with a woman like Kelli Kyle.

  Her imagination had tossed up scenario after scenario— perhaps the faucet was dripping in Kelli’s bathroom, or perhaps her shutters had banged during last night’s brief storm. Perhaps…

  Perhaps she’d decided that Dane would make a better lover than Greg Parsons.

  Ignoring the anger that was surrounding Amanda like a force field, Dane put his hands on her shoulders. “I can explain.”

  “That’s not necessary.” She shrugged off his touch and turned away. “Since it’s all perfectly clear. ‘Service With a Smile.’ Isn’t that what you said?”

  He spun her around. “Don’t push it, Amanda.”

  Threats glittered in his dark gaze, frightening her. Thrilling her. “And don’t you touch me.“

  She was still gorgeous. Still stubborn. And so damn wrong. “I’ll touch you whenever I want.”

  “Not after you’ve been with her. But don’t worry, Dane, I understand thoroughly. Kelli was just a fling for you. Like you would have been for me.”

  Temper, need, desire, surged through him. “You still know what buttons to push, don’t you, sweetheart?”

  Before she could answer, his head swooped down. Unlike the other times he’d kissed her over the past few days, this time Dane wasn’t patient.

  His mouth crushed hers with none of his usual tenderness. The hard, savage pressure of his lips and teeth grinding against hers was not a kiss at all, but a branding.

  Fear battered, pleasure surged. She tried to shake her head, to deny both emotions, but his hand cupped the back of her head, holding her to the irresistible assault.

  All the passions Amanda had suppressed, all the longings she’d locked away, burst free in a blazing explosion that turned her avid lips as hungry as his, had her tongue tangling with his, and had her grabbing handfuls of his silky hair as she gave herself up to the dark. To the heat. To Dane.

  He pulled back, viewed himself in her passion-clouded eyes, then took her mouth again.

  This time Amanda dived into the kiss, matching his speed, his power. She’d never known it was possible to feel so much from only a kiss. She’d never known it was possible to need so much from a man.

  Having surrendered to the primitive urges coursing through her blood, she clung to Dane as she went under for the third time, dragging him down with her.

  Somehow—later she would realize that she had no memory of it happening—they were on their knees on the blanket he’d laid on the sand when he’d first arrived at the cave, and his hand was beneath her skirt while she was fumbling desperately with the zipper at the front of his jeans.

  Despite the danger of discovery—or perhaps, she would consider later, because of it—as those clever, wicked fingers slipped beneath the high-cut elastic leg of her panties, seeking out the moist warmth pooling between her legs, Amanda wanted Dane. Desperately.

  There were no soft words. No tender touches. His hands were rough and greedy. And wonderful. As they moved over her body, creating enervating heat, Amanda gasped in painful pleasure, reveling in their strength, even as she demanded more.

  A fever rose, rushing through her blood with a heat that had nothing to do with flames from the nearby fire. Her need was rich and ripe and deep, causing her to tear at his clothing as he was tearing at hers. She wanted—needed—the feel of flesh against flesh. Her skin was already hot and damp. And aching.

  There was a wildness in Dane that thrilled her. A violence that staggered Amanda even as she strained for more. This was what she’d wanted. This mindless passion that she’d known, instinctively, only he could create.

  She hadn’t wanted gentle. Or tender. What she’d sought, what she’d been waiting for all of her life, was this heat. This madness. This glory.

  Dane Cutter knew secrets—dark and dangerous secrets. Tonight, Amanda swore, he would teach them to her.

  She was naked beneath him, her body bombarded by sensations her dazed mind could not fully comprehend. When his harshly curved lips closed over her breast, she locked her fists in his jet hair and pressed him even closer.

  She said his name, over and over. Demands ripped from her throat. “Take me,” she gasped, arching her hips upward as something dark and damning curled painfully inside her. “Now. Before I go mad.”

  She was wet and hot. Her flesh glowed in the flickering orange light from the flames. She looked utterly arousing.

  She was not the only one about to go mad. His long fingers urgently stroked that aching, swollen bud between her quivering thighs with wicked expertise. Within seconds she was racked by a series of violent shudders that left her breathless.

  Trembling, she stared up at Dane, momentarily stunned into silence, but before she could recover, his hands had grasped her hips, lifting her against his mouth. He feasted greedily on the still-tingling flesh. She was pulsing all over, inside and out. Amanda clung to Dane, unable to do anything else as he brought her to another hammering climax.

  Her body was slick and pliant. His was furnace hot. Dane wanted Amanda with a desperation like nothing he’d ever known. There was no thought of control now. For either of them.

  Hunger had them rolling off the blanket and onto the sand, hands grasping, legs entwined, control abandoned. As the blood fired in his veins and hammered in his head, Dane covered her mouth with his and plunged into her, swallowing her ragged cry.

  For a suspended moment as he encountered the unexpected barrier, Dane turned rigid, his burning mind struggling to make sense of the stunning message riveting upward from his pounding loins. But before he could fully decode it, a red haze moved over his eyes and he was moving against her, burying himself deep within her heat.

  Sensations crashed into passion, passion into love, with each driving stroke. It was more than Amanda could have imagined, more than she’d ever dreamed. The pain she’d expected never came. Instead, there was only glorious heat and dazzling pleasure.

  She wrapped her legs around Dane’s lean hips, pressed her mouth against his and hung on for dear li
fe.

  Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, he was flooding into her. Then entire worlds exploded.

  Her mind was numb, her body spent. She lay in his arms, her hair splayed over his chest, her lips pressed over his heart, which seemed to be beating in rhythm with her own.

  Although the stinging pulsating had begun to diminish, Amanda’s entire body remained devastatingly sensitized. His hand, resting lightly at the base of her spine, seemed to be causing her body to glow from inside with a steady, radiant heat.

  “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” Emotions churned uncomfortably inside Dane. Of all the stupid mistakes he’d made concerning this woman, this one definitely took the cake.

  Amanda knew there was no point in pretending ignorance. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Besides, she’d made her decision and had no intention of apologizing for it.

  “I didn’t think it mattered.” She closed her eyes and wished that this conversation could have waited until she was ready to return to the real world. And her real life.

  “She didn’t think it mattered.” He grabbed hold of her hair—not gently—and lifted her composed gaze to his. “My God, Amanda, I practically raped you.”

  The fire was burning down, but there was still enough light for her to see the guilt in his dark eyes.

  “It wasn’t anything near rape.” Amanda refused to let Dane take away what he’d given her. Refused to let him reject what she’d given him.

  “I sure as hell didn’t use any finesse.”

  “I know.” She stretched, enjoying the feel of his muscular legs against her thighs. “And it was wonderful.” Actually, it was better than wonderful. But there were not enough words in all the world to describe what she was feeling.

  “I was too damn rough.” His dark eyes, already laced with chagrin, turned bleak with self-disgust. He frowned as he viewed the bruises already beginning to form on her arms, her hips, her thighs.

  He brushed his knuckles over the tops of her breasts, which were also marred with angry smudges. “A woman’s first time should be special.” He touched the tip of his tongue to a nipple and heard her sigh.

  “It was special.” She lifted her hands to comb them through his hair, but a lovely lethargy had settled over her, infusing her limbs, and she dropped them back to her sides. “The most special thing that ever happened to me.”

  Her softly spoken words could not quite expunge his feelings of guilt. “It was too fast.”

  She laughed at that. The rich, satisfied sound of a woman in love. “Don’t worry,” she murmured against his neck as she pressed her body against his, rekindling cooling sparks. “We can do it again.” She ran her tongue in a provocative swath down his neck. “And this time, you can take all night.”

  It was an offer he was not about to refuse. But having already screwed up what should have been one of the most memorable occasions of her life, Dane intended to do things right.

  Wanting to set a more romantic stage—and on a practical level, wanting to wash off the sand he feared was embedded in every pore—he suggested moving to the house. To his room.

  Amanda immediately agreed. “But I’d rather we make love in the tower room.” Her smile, as she refastened the lacy bra he’d ripped off her, was as warm as any a woman had ever shared with any man. “It already has warm memories for me. I love the idea of making more.”

  He suddenly realized that he definitely wasn’t pleased by the thought that she’d soon be leaving Satan’s Cove. Whatever they did together tonight in the refurbished tower room would simply become another memory that she’d look back on with fondness over the coming years.

  “Dane?” She witnessed the shadow moving across his eyes, watched his lips pull into a taut tine. “Did I say something wrong? If I’m pushing you—”

  “No.” Her hands had begun to flutter like frightened birds. He caught them by the wrists, lifted them to his mouth and kissed them. “I want you, Amanda. I have from the moment you walked in the door. The problem is, I don’t know what you want.”

  “I want you.” The answer was echoed in the sweet warmth of her smile.

  Dane couldn’t help himself. He had to ask. “For how long?”

  He could not have said anything worse. Amanda flinched inwardly even as she vowed not to let him see he’d scored such a direct hit. Obviously, she considered, now that he’d discovered she’d been a virgin, he was concerned she’d take what had happened between them, what was about to happen again, too seriously.

  He’d already professed the belief that he should have done more—as if such a thing was humanly possible—to make her first lovemaking experience special. Now, it appeared he was afraid of becoming trapped in a permanent relationship he hadn’t initially bargained for.

  “If you’re asking if I’m going to call my father and have him show up in Satan’s Cove with a shotgun, you don’t have to worry, Dane.” She withdrew her hands from his and backed away, just a little.

  As he watched her trying to relace the blouse he’d torn open, Dane experienced another pang of regret for having treated her so roughly.

  “Just because I chose to make love with you, doesn’t mean that I’m foolish enough to get all misty-eyed and start smelling orange blossoms and hearing Lohengrin.” Her voice was remarkably calm, given the fact that she was trembling inside.

  Once again he found himself missing the young girl who wanted nothing more from life than to spend her days and nights making babies with him. On the heels of that thought came another.

  “Hell.” This time he dragged both hands through his hair. “I didn’t use anything.”

  He’d put the condoms in his pocket before coming down here, but then he’d gotten sidetracked by Kelli Kyle. Then, when Amanda had arrived, she’d been so busy spitting fire at him and had made him so angry, he’d completely forgotten about protection.

  Smooth move, Cutter, he blasted himself. Even in his horny, hormone-driven teenage days, he’d never behaved so irresponsibly.

  He looked so furious at himself, so frustrated by the situation, that Amanda wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed a brief kiss against his scowling mouth. “It’s okay. It’s a safe time of the month for me.”

  He’d heard that one before. “You know what they call people who use the rhythm method of family planning, don’t you?”

  She tilted her head back and looked up at him. “What?”

  “Parents.” He shook his head again, thinking that tonight was turning out to be just one disaster after another.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I do wish you’d stop saying that,” she said on a soft sigh. “Truly, Dane, it would take a miracle to get me pregnant tonight. And besides, it was only one time.”

  Dane wondered how many pregnant women had ended up reciting that old lament. “Things aren’t the same as they were that summer, Amanda. There’s a lot more to be worried about than pregnancy, as serious as that is.”

  His expression was so somber, Amanda almost laughed. “I don’t need a lecture, Dane. I know the risks. But I also know you. And trust you.”

  “Sure. That’s why you went ballistic when you realized I’d been drinking beer out here with Parsons’s PR manager.”

  She’d been hoping that wouldn’t come up. She still couldn’t believe that she’d behaved like a teenager who’d just caught her date necking with another girl in the parking lot outside the senior prom.

  “I was jealous,” she admitted reluctantly.

  “Join the club.” He smiled and ran the back of his hand down the side of her face in a slow, tender sweep. “When Jimmy was adjusting your bike pedals today, I just about saw red.”

  The Brad Pitt look-alike had been unusually attentive. At the time, Amanda had been flattered by his obvious admiration. Especially when the inn was overrun with young girls who could compete with Mindy for her Miss Satan’s Cove crown.

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I’d already decided that i
f he touched your leg one more time, I’d fire him.”

  Amanda laughed at that, finding Dane’s confession surprising and wonderful. “I suppose having a crush on an older woman is natural at nineteen.”

  “I wouldn’t know.” He gathered her close and kissed her smiling mouth. Lightly. Tenderly. Sweetly. As he’d planned to do all along. “When I was nineteen I was so bewitched by a sexy young siren, I wouldn’t have thought of looking at anyone else.”

  It was exactly what she’d been hoping he’d say. Rising up on her toes, she twined her arms around his neck and clung.

  “By the way,” Dane said when the long, heartfelt kiss finally ended, “I had a life-insurance physical when I bought this place. You don’t have to worry about any diseases.”

  “I wasn’t worried.” She watched him carefully put out the fire. When he crouched down, his jeans pulled tight against his thighs, making her all too aware of how wonderful those strong, firm legs had felt entwined with hers. “May I ask one question without sounding like a jealous bitch?”

  “You could never sound like a bitch.” Satisfied with his efforts, he stood again. “But shoot.”

  “What was Kelli doing down here?”

  Dane shrugged. “Damned if I know.” Seeing the disbelief on her face, he mistook it for another stab of feminine pique. “But if she was trying to lure me into her bed, she sure had a funny way of going about it.”

  “Oh?” Amanda believed that was exactly what Kelli had had in mind. Obviously she’d tired of Greg and was looking for some way to pass the time until returning to Portland. What better diversion than a man for whom the word hunk had been invented?

  “She spent the entire time it took her to drink that beer talking about you,” he revealed.

  “Me?” That was a surprise. “Why on earth would she be interested in me? And what did she say?”

  “It was more what she wanted me to say.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The conversation had seemed strange at the time. Looking back, it didn’t make any more sense.

  Unless, of course, Greg was using her to pump him to discover any flaws he might use against Amanda in their corporate warfare, “She asked a lot of questions about how I thought you were conducting the challenge week. If you’d mentioned your feelings about the value of the games. And whether or not you had discussed individual team members with me.”