by Sandra Brown
"Why?" she asked on a near sob.
He lowered his head until his words fell as soft, emphatic puffs of air against her lips. "Because I want to make love to you. You've resisted me at every turn. I want to know what made you step out of yourself that night. What made you live only for the moment? What did your lover do that made you shed those inhibitions and lift the restrictions you normally impose on yourself? What made you purely carnal? In short, Jenny, what turned you on?"
In spite of herself, she was aroused by his demanding tone and the hard strength of his body as it stretched across hers. Her chest was rising and falling with accelerated breathing. Her eyes were incapable of leaving the magnetic field of his.
"Was it the setting that broke through your reserve?" he asked. "Did he set such a romantic scene you couldn't restrain yourself?"
She shook her head and heard herself answer. "It happened in my room."
"God knows that wasn't sexy."
"It was dark."
Cage reached above and behind her, almost covering her, and switched off the lamp on the end table. She hadn't noticed until now that he had turned off the lights in the kitchen and dining alcove as they left them. They were plunged into darkness, save for the incandescent glow of the candles. They cast long, wavering shadows on the walls and highlighted the rugged planes of his face. "Like that?"
"No. Totally dark. I couldn't see anything."
"Nothing?" His strong fingers delved in her hair and held her head steady, forcing her eyes to do battle with his.
"No."
"You couldn't see your lover's face?"
"No."
"Didn't you want to?"
"Yes, yes, yes," she moaned and tried to turn her head away. He wouldn't let her.
"Then this is better. Look at your lover's face this time, Jenny. For godsake look at all of me."
His mouth came down hard on hers and she was ready for it. Her lips responded to the possessive fury of his and parted to receive the thrilling thrust of his tongue. Her arms slid under his and around his back. She kneaded the rippling muscles beneath his shirt.
"What did he say to you, Jenny?" He breathed kisses across her cheeks and mouth. "Did he tell you all the things you wanted and needed to hear?"
While his lips toyed with hers, her mind went on a probing search into her memory. "He said…" She drew a blank. "He didn't say anything."
"Nothing?"
"No. I think he sighed my name … once."
"He didn't tell you how beautiful and desirable you are?"
"I'm not."
"You are, my love, you are. So beautiful." His breath was warm and moist as he whispered directly into her ear. "You can feel how hard I am, Jenny. How can you think you're not desirable? I desire you. I want you more than I've ever wanted any woman."
"Cage," she whimpered when he finally released her mouth from an inflaming kiss. He licked her lips gently, flicking at the corners teasingly.
His hand slid to her waist and untied her belt. He touched her throat and caressed her chest with his callused fingertips. "Did he tell you that your skin is as soft as silk?"
His head dipped lower to nuzzle her neck with his nose and mouth. "And that you smell heavenly?" He planted a hot kiss in the hollow of her throat, applying his tongue.
She was unmindful of the buttons on her blouse being undone until she felt him moving it aside. His harsh whisper could have been a curse but might have been a prayer. He groaned. He touched her lovingly. Jenny closed her eyes and reveled in the sensations his stroking fingers and soothing palms elicited.
"He should have told you that your breasts are beautiful." He kissed her through her brassiere. "That your nipples are delicate and sweet and perfect. He should have said all that. Because it's true." Deftly he unhooked the fastener and peeled away the veil-sheer cups. "Ah, Jenny, let me love you."
And, holding her cupped in his hands, he did.
Jenny hadn't known kisses could be so adoring and yet so hedonistic, that lips could suckle so ardently without causing pain, or that a tongue could be so nimble but still unhurried.
His caresses went on and on until she was swirling in an effervescent ocean of feeling. Geysers of sensation sprung up along her nerve endings. She knew it was wrong to relive her night of loving Hal with his brother.
But she had stepped through the boundaries of common sense long ago and there was no retreating now. She had fallen victim to Cage's legendary charm. Jenny Fletcher would now be listed on the roster of his lovers, but somehow she couldn't help but believe that tonight was different for Cage, too.
"Did you like the feel of his body against yours, Jenny?"
"Yes."
"The touch of his skin?"
"He didn't undress," she confessed breathlessly as his mouth continued to play upon her breasts.
"And you?"
"Yes, I was…"
"Naked?"
"Yes."
"And how did you feel about that?"
She thought back to that moment when her nightgown had been stripped from her body and she had lain naked and vulnerable beneath her lover. "I felt no shame. I only wanted…"
"What?"
"Never mind."
"What?" he pressed.
"To feel him against me."
He levered himself up and penetrated her eyes with his. "Unbutton my shirt."
She hesitated only a moment before she lowered her eyes from his and looked at the first fastened button on his shirt. She watched her fingers move toward it mindlessly, as though obeying an unspoken command. The button slipped through its hole. All the others followed.
She sighed a soft yearning sound deep in her throat when his chest was revealed. The sun-kissed brown hair spread over the sculpted muscles like a wide golden fan. His nipples were dark in the dim light.
Tears gathered in Jenny's eyes. His masculine perfection made her want to weep. He was beautiful. She caught the fabric of his shirt in her hands and peeled it back over his shoulders and down his arms as far as it would go. Her hands smoothed over him. His skin was tan and sleek, spattered with coppery freckles on the tops of his shoulders. Her fingertips traced the faint blue lines of veins in the bulging biceps.
Gradually he lowered himself over her until they were chest to breast, hair-roughened skin to smooth, masculine muscle to feminine softness.
"Jenny, Jenny, Jenny."
Their mouths meshed as surely as their bodies did. He settled against her carefully, rolling slightly to his side, so she wouldn't absorb all of his weight. He felt the pounding of her heart against his. The tips of her breasts felt achingly sweet against his furred skin.
He loved her. God he loved her. And he couldn't believe that she was finally going to be his.
"Aren't you glad we got the soft couch?"
"Hm. Is this what you had in mind when you persuaded me to buy it?"
"This and more."
They kissed. Eternally. Erotically.
"Jenny, let's go to bed."
"Cage—"
"I won't hurt you. I swear it."
"It's not that."
"Then what?"
"Oh, please don't touch me there," she gasped.
"Isn't it good?"
"Oh, Lord. Too good. Cage, please—"
"Like that? There?"
"Yes."
Their mouths dissolved together.
"Touch me," he pleaded.
"Where?"
"Anywhere."
She laid her hand on his breast. His nipple shrank to a tiny tight pebble against her fingertips.
"Oh, God, I'm dying. Come to bed with me, Jenny."
"I can't."
"Don't you want me?"
She answered with an arching thrust against his hardness. He took it to mean yes. Easing up, he offered her his hand. She placed hers in his palm and rose off the couch willingly. They headed toward the bedroom.
The front door vibrated with a resounding knock, which was followed by
a blistering curse from Cage.
"What the hell!"
Jenny dove for the sofa, yanked up her blouse, shoved her arms in the sleeves, and fumbled with the buttons. She stuffed her discarded brassiere beneath the nearest cushion.
Apparently Cage wasn't worried about his give-away dishevelment. He stormed to the front door with his shirttails flapping and hauled it open with a vicious jerk.
Roxy and Gary were standing on the threshold.
"Is the building on fire?" Cage snarled.
"No."
"Then good night."
He tried to slam the door in their faces, but Roxy caught it just in time. "It is, however, a matter of life and death. If Gary and I don't get married tonight, I'm going to kill myself."
* * *
Chapter 11
«^»
"Married!" Jenny exclaimed, stepping around Cage. Astonishment had overriden modesty. She had forgotten her mussed condition until Roxy's eyes lit up with amusement.
"Did we interrupt something important?" Roxy asked, batting her eyelashes with comic innocence. Cage's scowl deepened.
"Sorry about that, pal," Gary mumbled apologetically.
"Then make this quick and leave."
"Cage, didn't you hear what Roxy said? They're getting married."
"That's right." Roxy looped her arm through Gary's and squeezed it against her voluptuous breast. "That is if you'll go with us to El Paso and drive Gary's car back."
"You're serious, aren't you?" Cage asked, his eyes going back and forth between the two of them. He was just now recovering from his frustration. "You're really getting married?"
"Yes!" Roxy said, beaming.
"Well, hey, that's great!" Cage pumped Gary's hand, then gave Roxy a bear hug.
"Congratulations, Gary," Jenny said. Getting into the spirit of the occasion, she gave him a big hug, which made the tops of his large ears turn beet red. She clasped Roxy to her. "I'm so happy for you."
"Me, too, kid, me, too. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I don't deserve him."
"Yes, you do." Jenny smiled at her and they hugged again.
"Now, what's this about driving to El Paso?" Cage asked when the two women fell apart, dabbing at their moist eyes.
"We've got reservations on a noon flight from there to Acapulco tomorrow. Gary's so conventional," Roxy teased, "he thinks we should get married before the honeymoon.
"So we're driving to El Paso tonight to a justice of the peace. We want you to go along so you can bring Gary's car back, if you don't mind picking us up in a week and bringing us home. Besides, it'll be more fun having you there with us when we tie the knot."
Gary stood by, wearing a silly grin and nodding his head in agreement to Roxy's explanation.
Cage flashed his notorious grin. "I'm game. Jenny?"
It was after ten o'clock. She couldn't imagine striking out on such a trip in the middle of the night. Between here and El Paso there was nothing but sand, tumbleweeds, and jack-rabbits.
But the idea of such an impetuous trip was exciting and unlike anything she'd ever done before. She had come to like Roxy and Gary tremendously and wanted to be a witness to their marriage.
"It sounds great to me!"
Everyone went into a flurry of motion and decision-making that finally culminated at Roxy's front door twenty minutes later.
"I think we got everything," Roxy cried, waving a bottle of champagne high over her head. She locked her door behind her after having made sure the apartment was secure for a week. Her and Gary's luggage had been stored in the trunk of the car. "The assistant manager, Mrs. Burton, is going to keep an eye on things while I'm gone, Cage," she explained as she climbed in the front seat beside Gary.
"No problem. Jenny and I will be around, so don't worry. You just concentrate on having a fantastic honeymoon."
"I intend to," Roxy said, snuggling next to Gary. She touched him in a place intimate enough to make him jump. The car lurched when he momentarily lost control.
"This is no good," Cage said. "Gary can't drive and neck with Roxy at the same time. Let's stop at my house and get my Lincoln. Then you two can have the backseat all the way to El Paso."
"I like that idea even better!" Roxy agreed enthusiastically. "Honey, is that all right with you?"
Gary bobbed his head.
"Besides," Jenny added dryly, "if Cage is driving, we'll get there in half the time."
"You know, woman, if you don't stop smarting off like that, I'm gonna have to take drastic measures to shut you up." Cage drew her into an unyielding embrace and sealed her mouth in a hot kiss that didn't end until they pulled up to his garage.
"Time!" Roxy called out like a referee in a wrestling match.
Cage cursed softly as Jenny disentangled her limbs from his. "I had to come up for air anyway, Cage," Jenny whispered as she self-consciously straightened her clothes and smoothed down her hair.
Everybody thought that comment was hysterically funny and they were laughing as they transferred the luggage from Gary's car to Cage's. The Lincoln was as vintage as the Corvette, and had been restored to the same mint condition. It seemed half a block long and was as silver and shiny as the Lone Ranger's bullets.
"Make yourselves at home." Cage grinned over his shoulder at the passengers in the backseat.
"We intend to," Roxy answered. She fell back into the corner, dragging an unsuspecting, but certainly willing, Gary with her.
Cage laughed as he steered the car onto the highway. "That's the last we'll hear from them until we get to El Paso." Just then a contented groan rose from the shadows of the backseat. "Well, maybe not," he corrected himself, chuckling.
The Lincoln straddled the center stripe of the two-lane highway as it ate up the miles. Cage had it cranked up to ninety or better, but Jenny felt safe. They could see the headlights of other vehicles for miles before they met them. There was nothing on the landscape to block them from sight.
"Comfy?" Cage asked her after several moments of silence. He had tuned to a soft FM station on the radio. The stereo mood music was interrupted infrequently by a modulated, disembodied voice that kept the listeners apprised of the time and weather conditions.
"Hm, yes," Jenny sighed.
"Sleepy?"
"Not particularly."
"You're awfully quiet."
"Just thinking."
"You know, even though this car is monstrous by modern standards, we're not required to use the entire front seat."
"What does that mean?"
"To put it in the vernacular, haul your buns over here."
She smiled and slid over to sit hip to hip beside him. "That's better." He draped his right arm over her shoulders and immediately covered her breast with his hand.
"Cage!" She flung his hand off.
"I developed and perfected that move in junior high school. Don't tell me that after all these years it doesn't work."
"It doesn't work with me," she retorted primly.
"It never did work with the nice girls," he grumbled. "But you can't blame a guy for trying." He crooked his elbow and drew his hand back so that his fingers were free to strum her neck. "What were you thinking about?"
Quite naturally she let her head fall back onto his shoulder. Her hand landed on his thigh and she left it there. "That this is really fun. I've never done anything this wild and reckless before."
"This is wild and reckless? We're merely driving down the highway. Of course, there's a little harmless petting going on between two people who are obviously in love with each other and are soon to be married."
"I haven't said I'll marry you."
His pause was brief but significant. "I was referring to Roxy and Gary."
Mortification swept through Jenny like a tidal wave. She yanked her hand off his thigh and tried to put space between them. Cage would have none of it. He held her against him, though she strained away.
"Come back here," he whispered fiercely. "And
you can stop that wiggling because I'm not going to let you go." When her struggles subsided, he said, "I'm thrilled that you thought I was talking about us. You took it to mean that we are two people obviously in love with each other. Are we two people in love, Jenny?"
"I don't know," she mumbled, her head bowed.
"I can only speak for myself, of course." His eyes left the highway. "I love you, Jenny."
She raised her head and became captivated by the eloquent expression in his eyes. They stared at each other for long moments as the car roared down the highway. Finally he returned his attention to the road.
"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I've said those words to dozens of women. Well, I have. I've said whatever was necessary at the time to get them into bed with me. I've made love because I was drunk, or horny, or angry, or blue, or happy. For just about every reason you can think of.
"And sometimes I did it even when I didn't want to, but because I felt sorry for the woman and knew she needed a man. I've been with beautiful women and some not so beautiful. I haven't been discreet or discriminating.
"But I swear to you, Jenny," he said earnestly, turning his head toward her again, "that I've never been in love. Until now. You're the only woman I've ever loved. It started a long time ago. Years ago.
"But I didn't see any sense in pursuing it. Everyone would have thought I was wrong for you. You would have run in terror if I'd approached you seriously. Mother and Dad would have had conniption fits. And besides all that, there was Hal, and I didn't want to hurt him."
Tears were rolling down the cheek she pressed against his shoulder. "Why are you telling me this now?"
"Don't you think it's time you knew?" His arm hugged her possessively and he pressed a kiss to her temple. "Do you love me, Jenny?"
"Yes, I think so. I mean, I do, I know I do. It's just that I'm confused."
"Confused?"
"My life was so well planned and organized, so carefully controlled, until a few months ago. Since the night Hal left for Central America nothing has been as it was before. That night changed me. I'm different. I can't explain it."
Cage squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. He wanted to tell her then. He wanted to say, "You're changed because we made love and it was beautiful and our bodies told us something we had secretly known but had ignored for years—you were involved with the wrong brother."