by Ann Cristy
"I wanted to." Cubby grimaced. "Because I was going out with a frizzy blonde, who..."
"Cubby!" Lucille hissed, pinching his arm.
"Ouch." Cubby rubbed his arm and kissed his wife. "She wasn't half the woman you are, my treasure!" He ducked his wife again then grinned at Cle. "Besides no one would have told on Dev. He has a crippling right. Took all the ribbons in boxing."
"And here, all this time I just thought you could wrestle." Cle chuckled, making Cubby roar and Dev pull her close to him.
"I've never seen you like this." Cle looked up at him surprised to find that she had spoken out loud.
"I have come to the realization that there is much about me that you don't know and that there is much that you think you know about me that is false. It's time you knew the real me... and all about me." Dev's face was serious, his eyes intent on her.
Cle couldn't read that unfathomable look but she reveled in the warmth. She wished this evening would never end. To hell with work tomorrow. The totally uncharacteristic thought from "dedicated Cle Orwell" made her giggle.
"Share the joke," Dev muttered as he wiped her chin, his eyes only inches from hers. He didn't even look away from her when the waiter came to clear the table.
"I was just thinking that I'll be too tired to move tomorrow... and I don't care."
"Good. Neither do I. We'll take the day off and go to the beach tomorrow, shall we?" Dev's voice was like melting butter, his eyes a liquid green and hot.
"Can't do that." Her voice quavered and she couldn't resist the urge to touch his face with her finger.
Dev took the finger into the side of his mouth. "I'm telling Cubby that we're leaving." He gently bit her finger sending needle sharp rays up her arm.
Cle made her goodnights and was sincere when she said that she would like to see the Willsons again.
The ride home was in silence, a warm, sharing quiet that cocooned them from the outside world. When Dev wasn't shifting the powerful Porsche, his one hand would thread through hers in a remembered gesture.
In the elevator, he caught her close to him, the throbbing pressure of him, evident in his mouth, in the hands that clasped her tight to him. He unlocked the door with one hand, his other arm still around her.
In the hallway he dropped the key on the table and turned her to face him. "Don't say no to me tonight Cle. I have to have you. It's been so long... too long."
Cle looked at him, then let her arms slide around his neck. She felt his heart kick into warp speed as he bent to lift her high into his arms. Long strides carried him to the door of her bedroom while Cle indulged herself by trying to kiss each pore on the face that needed shaving twice each day.
He lowered her onto the bed, his breath ragged as he unbuttoned the dress, the tremor in his hands obviously annoying him.
Cle laughed and pushed him away as she rose to a sitting position. "There. All the buttons are undone." She swung her feet to the floor and stood in front of him, feeling the adrenaline pumping under Dev's fixed stare. "Will you take off my dress?" she whispered, feeling provocative and desperate all at once. Dev was hers, if only for tonight.
He eased the dress from her body, then flung the garment behind him. He wouldn't allow her to unfasten her bra or remove her pantyhose. This he did himself with a glittering absorption that had Cle reeling. He'd always been a gentle, considerate lover. Tonight was no exception, though tonight he seemed to struggle for control.
When Cle almost finished undressing Dev, he finished himself with two violent tugs, then he lifted Cle high in his arms, letting them sink together on the bed.
"You're beautiful and you're mine." His urgent words were guttural as he pressed his face into her neck.
His mouth was everywhere on her body, his hands clenching on her in elemental need.
Cle felt her breasts fill his hands as her whole body reacted to his touch. She ached for him. He was her world. As she felt Dev hang back, she knew a sudden impatience that he didn't realize she was more than ready for him then. Her caresses had a fever in them that ignited him until he gasped.
He lifted himself over her. Their eagerness for each other was unparalleled.
Cle heard her own voice cry out to him and then she was swirled away.
CHAPTER EIGHT
CLE WOKE FEELING REFRESHED, the familiar ache in her relaxed body made her sure that she had been dreaming of Dev again. Strange, she didn't recall the dream, she yawned. It was only when she stirred that she felt the weight on her body. Realization was immediate.
She turned her head to look at Dev and the night they had just spent together flooded her mind. Dev. He was really here in her bed! He held her last night and taught her new meanings of love. It had been a domino syndrome of explosions. Time after time had had woken her, his words and hands caressing, bringing her out of sleep and alert with a passion that blew away all control. They had been nitroglycerine together. Just a tremor, a feather touch, a look set them off.
She felt happy and sad. She knew she loved him more now than she ever had when they were together in New
York. It had taken the separation, her enforced denial of him to clarify what she felt for him. This was no sophisticated liaison that she could walk away from with a tear and a chin up good-bye. This was no "it was good while it lasted but" affair. This was a basic, gut-wrenching love, that was as integral to her as the left ventricle of her heart. She would die without Dev. Oh, she wouldn't end her life, she would survive, but it would be a one dimensional world, a colorless struggle. Cle could feel her throat close. She would be childless. All at once that was important to her. Before now, children had been an unimportant "maybe," something to consider, perhaps in the future...
She turned her head fully on the pillow, watching Dev, his face losing none of its character in the softness of sleep, his lips parted. All at once there was a flickering frown that ran across his face. He grunted, then the arm around Cle flexed hard until she was tighter to his form. He muttered something, seeming satisfied. She smiled and put a hand up to his unruly hair, its springiness delighting her.
She shook her head once as she lay there. No. No one else could give her a child. She wanted one that looked like Dev. If she conceived he would marry her. She knew that with a strong certainty. She closed her eyes on a spasm of pain as she recalled the words spoken by the woman at Clive's house months ago: "If he was ever forced to marry her, he would end up being very bitter." The agony brought by that memory drove her closer to Dev.
He opened his eyes, the blankness fading as he focused on her. "I thought for a moment I was dreaming. Lovely dream.. .but I'm addicted to the reality." His mouth feathered her cheek.
Cle knew she should stop him. After all she had to go to work. They had made love many times in the night. But she lifted her leg and let it slide down his, her eyes only inches away from his.
"Darling, you may be a little late this morning," Dev crooned, his hand coming down to pat her hip and bring her body even closer to him. "Did I tell you that I love making love to you?"
"I think you may have mentioned it last night. Once...or twice...or three times." Cle gasped, her fingernails digging into his shoulders as his mouth homed in on her breast.
"Cle, I would want you if you didn't have a perfect body, but I'm glad you do." Dev had lifted his head looking at her with a glazed smile.
"You told me I'm too skinny again," she pouted, loving the play, welcoming the heat in her body.
He frowned for a moment. "You didn't look as good as you should, but little by little I'll have you back to perfect health again."
"I'm never sick," she muttered, not caring what words she used as Dev's mouth loved her body.
Again the crest was reached as they both strived to please each other, reinforcing what Cle already knew. There could never be anyone for her but Dev. The thought made her clutch him convulsively as they lay there in moist languor, reluctant to rise.
"Hey, what is it, angel?" Dev smiled at h
er, a puzzled light in his eyes.
"Nothing." Cle knew her smile was weak but she couldn't tell him her thoughts. She tried to edge away from him. "It's time I showered or I'll be late."
Dev laughed and scooped her back toward him. Then he lifted her out of the bed and strode toward the bathroom. "We'll shower together. I have missed scrubbing your back, woman."
Cle chuckled, her hands threading through that black crisp hair. "I knew you were good for something. How could I have forgotten it was scrubbing my back." She clung to him and to the moment, storing her mind with Dev.
"So I'm your slave, am I?" He laughed down at her as he let her slide down his body. "All right, your slave decrees that you have a cold shower for being so impertinent."
"Noooo, Dev," Cle squealed, trying to duck away from him. "I hate cold showers. Beast!" she squawked, trying to use him as shield in the spray.
Still laughing, he adjusted the faucet so that a warm spray ran over their skin. Dev lifted the loofah sponge and washed her in soft whirling motions which cleaned her and also excited her.
It took ages to dress because Dev kept stopping her to kiss her every other moment.
"I'd forgotten how much fun it was to dress with you." His eyes had a sensual softness that liquefied Cle's legs. His smile widened as he noted her reaction to his stare. "Your legs look so sexy in those slings... with just your panties and bra. My very own centerfold... but of course I would never let anyone photograph you like that."
"Dev, stop it," Cle wailed. "I'll never get to work."
"It's time you stopped working." He leaned down to give her a kiss, patting her derriere at the same time. "Now get dressed. I'll put out some juice."
She was so busy hurrying that she forgot to ask him what he meant when he said that about stopping work. By the time he insisted on a last kiss before they left— he to his car, she to try and catch Max who would be waiting for her in front of the building—nothing was in her mind but rushing.
Work went smoothly. She and Max huddled over some sketches she had done for the show he was having. Even though it was months away, he had wanted to see what Cle's ideas were.
"These are good Cle. I like the idea of using Alice
Springs as a background. The coolness of design in the driest spot in Australia. Nice touch." Max had patted her on the back, literally and figuratively and Cle was pleased.
They worked through the day without stopping and when Alistair Nivens came to tell her that Dev was there to pick her up, she could only stare at him. Feeling giddy with happiness because Dev was waiting for her, she tried to hurry and succeeded in only smearing her makeup. Finally she was ready.
Taking a deep breath she pushed through the double doors leading to the showroom of the salon, where Dev was waiting for her.
He had been watching the doors, lounging back against a desk. As she came through he didn't change his stance but she saw the electricity in the gaze that roved her body. There was a possessive, satisfied look there. The warm look widened into a smile that heated her body like a hot poker. Cle had the distinct feeling that her blood had indeed begun to sizzle.
"Hello." He straightened and came toward her, bending down to take her mouth with his, his reluctance to end the kiss very obvious. "Max says that you have been working like a Trojan all day." He leaned back to look at her. "I've ordered Chinese food for us. We'll have a little music, a little bird's nest soup and we'll relax. How does that sound?"
"Wonderful," Cle breathed, knowing that if he had suggested sky diving without a parachute her answer would have been the same. She was going to be alone with Dev!
Dev had to stop to pick up the food which didn't surprise Cle but when he insisted on stopping for champagne, she laughed.
"Champagne and chow mein. Lovely."
"I thought we agreed that champagne went with everything." He grinned at her as he started the car again.
"I don't remember that.. .but, still it sounds nice." She was so happy she could have floated over Sydney without benefit of balloon.
When they parked the car and began to unload, Cle protested when Dev piled the boxes higher. They weren't heavy, but she argued that she couldn't see where she was going.
"Stop complaining, love. Didn't you know with us it has to be fifty-fifty all the way?" Dev's lopsided grin made her heart thump erratically.
"It seems to me it's more like sixty-forty at the moment." She frowned at him as he added a carton of noodles to her load, then laughed as he struggled for his key and tried to juggle the parcels at the same time.
"You'll be punished, my darling jester," Dev threatened. He set the packages down with a thump. Cle stuck out her tongue, then streaked for the bedroom, laughing.
She didn't even have to decide what to wear. She had known from the moment that Dev said he had bought the food and they would be alone that she would wear the Punjabis in turquoise and blue that he loved to see on her.
What imp prompted her, she would never know, but she brushed her hair until it shone then twisted it in the Oriental chignon of Madame Butterfly. Then she proceeded to take great pains with her makeup. Not even for shows had she ever donned quite as much but she was striving for an effect. Slowly the face she knew changed... oh, not so that it was unrecognizable but so that now it had an Eastern look to the features. The eyes had an alluring almond shape to them, the black eye liner making them tilt upward. The cheekbones seemed to be more defined, yet more doll like.
Satisfied, Cle nodded, and slipped into the punjabis. She had to gasp when she looked in the mirror again. She did look Oriental.
When she went out into the lounge area Dev was bent over the coffee table between the two couches. He was dressed in one of the loose silk shirts that he enjoyed for leisure. They had no buttons but were wrapped around the body and tied to one side with sleeves that were full and cuffed at the wrist. This one was in a sea green that would compliment her punjabis, Cle thought gleefully as she watched him, waiting for him to notice her. His slacks were a thin silky cotton that delineated his strong lower torso, emphasizing his narrow waist and hips, his muscled thighs. He had cotton clogs on his feet and looked totally relaxed, at ease. All at once he straightened and turned toward her, a glass in his hand.
It looked as though he were going to offer the glass to her—but he didn't. For milliseconds it was as though neither of them breathed. Then he exhaled sharply, placed the glass on the table and looked back at her.
The song on the stereo seemed loud all at once. The throbbing voice seemed to come from a personal chanteuse they had hired just for the evening. And her love song was "Why Did I Choose You?"
Dev walked toward her, stopped a foot away and bowed from the waist. "You honor me, beautiful lady." His voice had a richness that made Cle's pulses throb. "Will you dance with me?"
Cle nodded, her hands still folded in front of her in the Oriental gesture of obeisance.
Dev opened her fingers one by one, kissing them.
She could not take her eyes from him as he pulled her into his arms. She knew the song changed but she had no idea what the music was as she swayed in his arms. As Dev pressed his lips to her forehead and she closed her eyes, she thought her happiness was butterfly-like— beautiful, glorious, but short lived. She shut out the future, determined to live only for the moment.
"We had better eat dinner, my lotus blossom, or we won't eat at all." His voice was a low growl in her ear.
Cle giggled and let him lead her up a step to the dining alcove with the angled windows and beautiful view of Sydney at night. Before they sat down, they looked out the window at the traffic, at the buildings. Cle had never felt more happy.
Dev kissed her cheek. "You set the table and I'll put the food in dishes."
Cle shook her head at him, knowing she was glowing. "I'll never get used to the domestic you."
"Well, you'd better. I intend to take over the kitchen at least once a week when we're back home again." Dev patted her rear, not seein
g the shadow cross her face. "Now get those place settings ready and I'll get the food." He called the last over his shoulder as he went into the kitchen.
Moving like a robot, Cle got the cutlery, glasses, and plates. Dev must have known that she was committed to staying here for two years. Surely she had mentioned it. She felt dejected. After all, what difference did it make? She was not going back to the States with Dev. It would be too hard. Misery overwhelmed her. How could she live without him? Or under these tentative conditions with him?
Dev brought in the food and she forced a smile. She would enjoy every second with him! She would! He opened the champagne with a minimal pop, and filled two glasses.
"To us." Dev toasted her.
"To us," Cle responded, striving to keep her mouth from wobbling.
The food was good and very fresh and they helped each other to vegetables, noodles, pork, assorted fruits. They ate .slowly, often pausing to smile at each other.
"We are not having dessert, my lady. We're having Irish coffee," Dev announced saluting her with his champagne glass.
"I thought you always told me to be careful with booze." Cle leaned both elbows on the table, placing her chin on her clasped hands. "If I have an Irish coffee after this champagne, I'm liable to fly out the window." She grinned at him. "Besides, Englishmen don't drink Irish coffee."
"That's a base lie." Dev caught her hand and placed his mouth on the back of it.
The courtly gesture had her gasping. "Will you be my lady, Cle?" Dev asked, his lips just above her hand, his eyes fixed on her.
"I will be your lady tonight, good sir," she murmured.
"Good. I also want you to be my lady for all my life." Dev's smile had a lazy power. "Will you do that, too?"
"Don't be silly. We always said that marriage was not for us. Don't you remember?" She felt a bubble of hurt float through her body. "Now where were we?"