by Penny Jordan
It was, and it was still raining, Susannah realised when she got up to go and look through the window.
‘We could light a fire in the sitting-room, if you like,’ she suggested. ‘There are some books in there, and Emma did tell us to make ourselves at home.’
‘No, we might as well stay in here, unless you…’
Susannah shook her head. She liked the homely, comfortable kitchen.
They washed up together in a companionable silence and, while Susannah started to make the chicken soup, Hazard went out to get more fuel for the boiler.
When he came back, he was soaked.
‘The wind,’ he told her. ‘It’s practically blowing a gale out there!’
‘I’ll go upstairs and get you a towel,’ Susannah offered, but Hazard shook his head.
‘I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t I go up and have that shower now?’
‘Fine. By the time you come back, this should be finished, then I can take a tray up to Emma.’
‘What a pity we don’t know one another better,’ he teased as he turned towards the stairs. ‘Then I could have asked you to join me.’
Laughing at her pink cheeks, he went upstairs.
Share a shower with him! Susannah’s stomach muscles contracted, a hot, sweet lethargy sweeping over her. If she closed her eyes, she could almost picture his naked body, almost feel the satin dampness of his skin, almost taste the male freshness of it…
She shuddered, opening her eyes, shocked by the sensuality of her thoughts. She had just lifted the soup from the hotplate when she heard him call her name.
As she rushed to the bottom of the stairs, Hazard was standing at the top looking down at her, naked apart from the very brief towel he had wrapped around his hips.
For an aeon of time, she could do nothing other than stare at him, hungrily absorbing the male perfection of him, as though every one of her senses had fasted on purpose for this moment.
Rivulets of moisture ran down his bare chest, glinting under the lamplight in the sleek darkness of his body hair.
‘Bath towels,’ he asked her huskily. ‘I can’t seem to find them.’
Towels! Of course, she had forgotten to tell him they were in the airing cupboard and that was in her room. Thoroughly flustered, she hurried into it.
‘They’re here.’
She only realised he had followed her when she saw him standing in the doorway, holding up the lantern he was carrying.
‘Here you are.’
She put the towels down on her bed, not trusting herself to so much as touch him. She had never known there could be a physical wanting like this. It shocked her. It excited her too, she acknowledged, turning her burning face away from him.
‘Don’t do that.’
He had moved so quietly she hadn’t heard him, and she tensed as he turned her round, tilting her face so that he could look down into it.
‘Why are you embarrassed? Don’t you know what it does to me to see that you want me?’
‘I…’
The denial which years of Aunt Emily’s upbringing told her she should make stuck in her throat.
‘You want me,’ Hazard repeated. ‘I can see it here.’ His thumb brushed the corners of her eyes. ‘And here.’ His hands slid down until they cupped the fullness of her breasts. ‘Oh God, Susannah!’
‘Emma…’ she protested weakly as Hazard put down the lamp and drew her trembling body into his arms.
‘Still asleep. I looked in on her earlier. Let me love you, Susannah,’ he whispered thickly against her mouth. ‘Let me love you the way I’ve been wanting to from the first time I saw you.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
SUSANNAH COULD HAVE stopped him. She could have drawn back, but she had no thought of doing either.
The moment Hazard’s mouth touched hers, everything else was forgotten. Her lips crushed against his in the heat of his kiss. She was melting, dissolving into a whirlpool of pure pleasure, her mouth opening eagerly at the fierce probe of his tongue. Tiny shudders of pleasure ran through her as his tongue-tip sought the soft moistness of her mouth, and then caressed her tongue itself, coaxing it into making seductive forays of its own.
She felt his shudder as she shyly probed the unknown masculinity of his mouth, and then before she could retreat he was drawing her tongue deeper into captivity, sucking gently on it in a way that made her whole body tremble with arousal, even after the kiss had ended.
‘Do it to me,’ she heard him saying thickly against her ear. ‘Kiss me. Show me that you want me.’
Blindly, she followed his lead, copying the intimate caress, delighting in the way his muscles tensed beneath her hands.
He pulled away, holding her shoulders, staring down into her flushed face, his breathing rapid and uneven.
‘I want you, and I want you now. What is it that you do to me? You make me lose control and forget.’ He closed his eyes, momentarily hiding their febrile glitter from her, his body arching back slightly to reveal the male line of his throat. He looked like a man caught up in something he could no longer control, and on impulse Susannah pressed her lips against the taut column of his throat, trying to comfort him.
It was the wrong thing to do; she realised it instantly. The salt taste of his skin, its warmth and scent, released emotions inside her that had nothing to do with comfort. Beneath her lips she felt his throat move, and her mouth opened, unable to resist the temptation.
She heard him groan, and her heart beat wildly as she recognised the uncontrollable need in the sound.
Hazard picked her up and she clung to him, wordlessly. He undressed her quickly, but not roughly; sensing his impatience, Susannah struggled to help him, her love for him overwhelming her as he paused for a moment to gently trace the fullness of her breasts.
‘Beautiful,’ he told her reverently, ‘so very beautiful.’
He looked like a pagan god, outlined in the thin light of the lantern: his skin dark, his hair unruly, his classic, sculptured profile thrown into relief. He looked like the kind of lover every woman dreams of having, she admitted, her heart skipping a beat as he knelt beside her, wrenching off the damp towel.
His body was shadowed with dark hair. She wondered if it felt as silky as it looked, and reached out tentatively to touch him.
The heat coming off his skin shocked her. She would have drawn back, but Hazard caught hold of her hand, lifting it to his lips, kissing the palm, and then… Susannah’s heart leapt in her throat as he started sucking her fingers. It was the most erotic sensation she had ever experienced! She made a sound of protest in her throat, her eyes huge and glazed as they stared dazedly into his.
‘You like that? You’re so responsive, so feminine. I want to taste all of you. Every centimetre of your skin. Touch me, Susannah,’ he commanded fiercely, releasing her hand to place it against his breastbone. Feel what you do to me.’
Beneath her hand, his flesh burned with heat. She could feel the fierce thud of his heart, and her own raced frantically in time. She moved her hand and felt the soft scrape of body hair against the delicate pads of her fingers. It arrowed downwards over his flat belly, and she traced its descent, wonderingly, her senses registering the harsh charged change in his breathing as she touched.
She wanted to explore all of him. She wanted… She shuddered mindlessly as he suddenly caught hold of her, dragging her against his body so that she could feel the strength of his arousal.
‘Stop torturing me,’ he demanded against her ear. ‘I want you to love me, Susannah. Oh God, you don’t know how much I want that!’
The last few words were muffled against her throat as he moved his head and started caressing her skin with an open-mouthed hunger that drove the last vestiges of hesitation from her mind.
Her hands found his shoulders and she clung to him, her nails digging into his skin. His mouth moved downwards, its descent tormentingly slow.
His tongue teased the areola of her nipple, while she arched against him in fran
tic supplication, small feminine noises of frustration clogging her throat.
In the faint light, her skin gleamed pearl white, rose-tipped with the darkness of her nipples. His mouth hovered. With a frantic, wordless plea, Susannah arched higher and then cried out sharply in pleasure as she felt the fierce possession of his mouth against her breast.
The sweep of his hands down over her belly, shaping the line of her thighs, and the knowledge that there could be only one outcome to their lovemaking only aroused her even more. The sensation of his skin beneath her fingertips, the fierce contraction of his muscles, the musky man-scent of him, all these were things that delighted her senses.
As she touched him, Hazard trembled and groaned, closing his eyes, his throat arched. He muttered something she couldn’t catch, and then caught hold of her, pushing her down against the bed, his mouth hot and demanding as his tongue thrust fiercely against hers. His body moved against her own, taut and restless with passion. She traced the indentation of his spine, her fingers smoothing the flat plain of his buttocks.
‘I want you. I want you…’ murmured Hazard.
Her body adapted itself to the weight of his, her thighs parting, instinct showing her the way, and then abruptly Hazard tensed.
‘What is it?’ she whispered. His withdrawal from her shocked and frightened her.
‘I thought I heard Emma cry out. We’d better go and check up on her. We oughtn’t to be doing this, anyway. I promised you I wouldn’t, didn’t I?’
Susannah bit her lip and admitted huskily, ‘I wanted you as well.’
She saw him swallow as though he was in pain.
‘Yes. Yes, I know.’ His voice was raw and slightly hoarse. ‘We’re behaving more like a couple of teenagers than two supposedly mature adults. You seem to have that effect on me.’
‘And you on me,’ Susannah admitted.
She ached to be back in his arms, but he was right, this was neither the time nor the place. They were here primarily to look after Emma, not to make love. And, besides, when Hazard realised the truth about her… Well, he was right, this was not the place.
‘I’ll get dressed and go and check on Emma.’
‘Come here,’ he demanded softly.
She went willingly into his arms, quivering as her breasts brushed against the hardness of his chest. His skin was merely warm now, lacking its earlier heat, their mutual passion subdued as they kissed lingeringly.
‘You’d better get dressed.’ He released her reluctantly.
* * *
Emma wasn’t awake, but she was very restless. Restless enough, in fact, for Susannah to call for Hazard to come and look at her as well.
‘I think she’s running a slight fever. Dr Barnes said that she might, as a result of the exposure.’
‘What can we do?’
‘Nothing for the moment. Dr Barnes promised to call in the morning to check on her. The best thing we can do now is to let her sleep and keep an eye on her.’
It took a great deal of persuasion before Hazard agreed that he would sleep while Susannah sat up in the chair in Emma’s room, keeping an eye on the older woman, and it was only after Susannah promised faithfully to wake him if she was at all worried that he finally agreed.
At four o’clock in the morning, he got up and told Susannah that it was her turn to rest. Emma had woken once, and very groggily asked what was going on. At first, Susannah had been concerned that her fever might have robbed her of all memory of what had happened, but then Emma had quickly put her fears at rest by saying huskily, ‘Of course, I remember now. I fell, and you and Hazard are being my Good Samaritans. What time is it? It feels like the middle of the night.’ She glanced at her alarm clock. ‘It is the middle of the night! My dear, you should be in bed…’
‘You were a little feverish, and we thought one of us should sit with you. I’ve made some chicken soup. Would you like some?’ Susannah asked, mindful of the fact that Emma had not eaten with them earlier.
‘Oh, I couldn’t put you to that trouble.’
‘It’s no trouble at all,’ Susannah assured her, and before Emma could demur any further she went downstairs to heat up the soup and make a hot drink.
Emma had just fallen asleep again when Hazard came in and announced that it was Susannah’s turn to have some rest.
‘I promise you, I’ll wake you if I need you,’ he told her, propelling her firmly towards the door.
She was tired, the day had been so eventful. Most importantly because of the complete turnaround in her relationship with Hazard, but also because of Emma’s accident.
Who would have thought that, less than twenty-four hours ago, she had been dreading the thought of spending a full day with Hazard?
She ought to tell him the truth about herself, but she hated raising the subject, knowing how much he disapproved of her affair with David. Every time the subject cropped up, his face darkened and a frown appeared. He seemed to withdraw slightly from her, and the discovery of her love was too new and precious to be exposed to any harsh winds. And yet the knowledge of her deception worried her conscience like a thorn in tender skin. Soon, she would tell him soon, she promised herself as sleep claimed her.
* * *
The sound of voices outside her door woke her. Susannah sat up in bed, disorientated and muzzy-headed, and then realised to her horror how long she had slept. It was almost ten o’clock!
‘She’s been awake for some time,’ she heard Hazard saying. ‘She was a little feverish last night, but she seems fine this morning.’
A woman’s voice responded. Dr Barnes, Susannah realised, waiting until they had gone into Emma’s room before leaping out of bed and hurrying into the bedroom.
She had washed her underwear through the previous night, and it had dried in the heat of the airing cupboard. Even so, she grimaced a little distastefully at the thought of wearing yesterday’s shirt.
Emma had told her where to find a new toothbrush. They would have to share, Hazard had suggested. Hazard… Her insides melted with love, her body wantonly weak with longing. If Emma hadn’t cried out last night, by now they would be lovers. She shivered sensually, a ripple of sensation stroking over her skin at the memory of his body against her own.
Only the realisation of how cold the bathroom was brought her out of her dreamy state. The boiler must have gone out.
She paused briefly outside Emma’s door, and then decided not to go in.
Downstairs, in the kitchen, she saw that Hazard had cleaned out and attempted to light the boiler, apparently unsuccessfully. She looked for and found the flue adjustment, tutting a little as she carefully reconstructed Hazard’s rather haphazard fire. With the flue correctly adjusted and the door closed, the fire began to draw properly. Satisfied that it would stay in, she went outside to get more fuel.
When she came back, Hazard and Dr Barnes were standing in the kitchen.
‘How on earth did you manage to do that?’ Hazard demanded, mock-aggrieved, relieving her of the bucket of fuel. ‘I’ve been trying to get it lit for the past hour.’
‘Technique,’ she told him with a grin. The look they exchanged was long and explicit. Her face flushed as she knew that, like her, he was remembering last night and how his expertise had set them both on fire.
‘Filthy things,’ Dr Barnes condemned. ‘Give me clean electricity any day.’ Ignoring Susannah, she turned to Hazard, placing immaculate pearl-polished fingertips on his arm in a gesture that immediately aroused all Susannah’s feminine instincts.
‘You really have been marvellous to Emma. Lucy, her niece, is due back later this afternoon. I’ll give her a ring and let her know the situation. Look… I’m having a few friends for lunch today, why don’t you join us?’
She didn’t look at Susannah or include her in the invitation, and Susannah held her breath, wondering what Hazard’s response would be.
‘Thank you, you’re very kind,’ he replied pleasantly. ‘But I can’t really leave Susannah to cope on her ow
n.’
A disparaging, dismissing glance from Dr Barnes’s ice-cold blue eyes swept Susannah from head to toe and then dismissed her.
‘Why not? She seems extremely capable…’
‘Oh, she is,’ Hazard agreed smoothly, his voice cooling slightly. ‘Very capable.’ As he spoke, he reached out and gently tugged Susannah close to his side, holding her there with his arm. The smile he gave her made her insides clench, Dr Barnes forgotten as she turned her face up to his, her eyes radiant with her love.
‘Well, if you’ll excuse me…’ Dr Barnes’s voice was touched with frost, her smile taut and not at all pleased. Susannah could even feel it in her heart to feel sorry for her; after all, she was not to blame for being attracted to Hazard. What woman in her right mind would not be?
‘That wasn’t very kind of you,’ Susannah chided him when she had gone.
‘What did you want me to do? Accept her invitation?’ His eyes teased, knowing her response. ‘Mmm…you smell nice.’
‘Only of soap.’
‘That as well,’ he agreed obliquely, bending to murmur in her ear as she frowned her lack of understanding. ‘You have a scent that is uniquely your own, a special fragrance that I personally find extremely erotic. Extremely erotic,’ he repeated huskily, his voice dropping, his hands sliding up over her body to pull her into the strength of his own. ‘I hope you dreamed about me last night.’
She had done, shockingly erotic dreams in which she had done and said things she had never imagined herself saying or doing before, and she flushed wildly, instinctively dropping her lashes to cover her eyes, in case he read her thoughts. There were times when she still felt awkward and unsure with him; times when her lack of experience made her feel shy and uncertain.
‘I dreamed about you.’ Hazard’s body moved, hardening into arousal, making her quiver and ache. His hand slid inside her blouse, releasing her breast from the confinement of her bra. She shuddered tensely as his thumb rubbed across her taut nipple. ‘Susannah.’
Her name was torn from his lips, the sound smothered against her creamy flesh as he bent his head to savour the tantalising arousal of her body.