Barrett Waverly’s voice was next to ring out over the table. “I was wondering how long it’d take for her to start matchmaking.”
Davia looked up, prepared to join in with Barrett’s resulting laughter. Her breath caught when she saw that he hadn’t arrived at the table alone, but with Kale.
“Look who I found!” Barrett raved.
“Hey, Kale.” Estelle beamed. “We were just talking about you.”
Barry squeezed his wife’s shoulder. “We got that, Este.”
“Hush, Barry.”
“So what’s with the folder, Kale?” Davia was desperate to move the conversation along. Her breath caught when he simply stared at her for an extended moment. Then he smiled a rakish smile and followed the gesture up with an even more rakish one before taking his seat at the cozy round table.
“You were onto something earlier,” Kale told her. “Using the photos to decorate a theater lobby,” he clarified when she gave him a befuddled expression.
“Oh, that’s a terrific idea!” Estelle clasped her hands and settled back against her chair.
“I thought so, too.” Kale’s smile dimmed after a moment. “Unfortunately, all our planning won’t mean much if we don’t have the support of the council, isn’t that right, B?” He’d taken to calling his host by his initial.
“Yeah...they could definitely put the kibosh on the whole thing.” Barry’s earlier glee now showed signs of failing.
“But it’s our land, right?” Davia noted.
“It’s still zoned commercial, Davia,” Barrett said. “That means we’d still need the blessings of a few town officials before we could move forward with any projects.”
“Which means permits,” Kale shared.
“But you’ve got a way around it?” Davia’s tone was hopeful. She smiled obligingly when Kale gestured toward her wineglass, taking a sip when she nodded.
Looking to Barry and Estelle, Kale slid two photos across the table. He’d taken them from the folder he’d arrived with. “What do you see?” he asked the couple.
The Waverlys studied their respective photos for a while.
“Well, this looks like Lucille Clancy—a younger version.” Estelle referred to the town council chairwoman. She showed the photo to her husband.
Barry observed the snapshot for a moment and then shook his head. “No...that’s her mom, Rosetta McClure.”
Estelle whistled. “Wow, I never would’ve guessed such a proper lady owned a pair of roller skates, let alone used them.” She marveled. “I bet Lucille would get a kick out of seeing this.”
“Not sure her mom would.” Barry chuckled and looked over at Kale with a curious smile. “What’s your plan?”
Chapter 12
Davia turned from the tall, guest lounge windows when she heard Kale walk into the room.
“How was your dinner?” she asked. They had just returned with the Waverlys from the steakhouse an hour earlier, with Kale’s dinner.
Kale closed his eyes as though he were savoring the memory of the food. “I don’t know if it’d be a better idea to move here for dinner at Luella’s every night or to just hire her husband as my personal chef.”
Talk of relocation, no matter how playful, took Davia’s thoughts back to their post lovemaking conversation that morning. Davia rested back against the windows and ignored the chill penetrating the glass.
“That was a good idea tonight, very commendable.”
Kale shrugged, recalling what he’d suggested while they were all still at the restaurant. “It’s only commendable if it works.”
“Why wouldn’t it work? People love old pictures and reminiscing about back in the day.”
“I just wonder if it’ll be enough.”
“Time will tell.”
Kale’s expression soured over the remark. “If we only had more of that, right?”
“Kale—”
“Save it.”
“We shouldn’t be fighting.”
“We shouldn’t?” Kale put on a look of phony confusion. “What should we be doing? I know...” he added before Davia could summon a response. “We should be picking up where we left off before dawn.”
Intrigue shone in her eyes. “I didn’t think you were interested in that.”
Kale moved deeper into the lounge. “That’d be true if we were picking up from where we left off just after dawn, but since you’re not interested in that—”
“Kale—” Davia interrupted again, but had even less time to continue than she had before.
Kale didn’t interrupt her with more words, though. Instead he was backing her securely against the windows and taking her mouth beneath his.
Davia was happy to let herself forget whatever she’d wanted to say and take part in his plan that was more suited to her desires then anyway.
Kale used his thumbs to make slow circles along her jaw and then he stroked the back of his hands across her high cheekbones.
Davia’s soft, pleading moans heated the desire already burning his veins.
Her slate-blue jumper was a warm and alluring fit to her svelte frame. Secure as the fit was, however, it couldn’t match Kale’s determination. With an expert touch he easily undid the intricate row of snaps winding down along the zipper.
Next, Kale started on the buttons lining the cashmere sweater she wore beneath the jumper. He might’ve freed her of her clothing faster had he spent more time with the fastenings and less time nipping and gnawing his way along her neck.
Davia, almost completely absorbed in Kale’s touch, could still hear his voice near her ear.
“Is this all you want from me?”
Davia decided she wouldn’t risk him stopping by giving him an answer. Her legs went weak when he suckled her earlobe while continuing to remove her sweater.
Needy for the feel of his skin on hers, Davia turned her focus to the denim shirt that he wore beneath the sweater he’d already shed. She undid the first three buttons and then shrieked when the crisp cold permeating the lounge windows met her bare back.
The top of the jumper hung at her waist. Kale’s sole focus was in undoing her bra, the final barrier between him and what he wanted.
Davia rolled her head across the glass, arching into Kale while he cupped and nuzzled her breasts in pursuit of freeing them. Her fingers mingled with the velvet curls at the back of his neck and she arched her body with greater insistence. She was hungry to feel his mouth on her breasts. Kale didn’t disappoint, but saw to one nipple with his lips and tongue while tending the other with his fingers.
Davia’s hands trembled as she attempted to finish undoing his shirt. She was unsuccessful, especially when Kale traded the petal-soft kisses to the tip of her nipple for a suckling that skirted this side of harsh. Davia winced as pain and pleasure overtook her on a strangely balanced wave. She bit her lip, only mildly stunned that she was on the verge of climax from the sensation. He was too good at this.
Then, suddenly, he was gone. It took Davia a second or two to process his departure; she was still basking in mounting orgasmic waves. Lashes fluttering, she forced her eyes open and took a moment to collect herself and regret the solitude.
Slowly she tugged the sweater and dress just over her elbows and turned back to enjoy the snowy view of the night. Craving the cool on her heated skin, she rolled her forehead on the frosted windowpane, sighed and prayed for the chill to reduce the fever Kale had fanned inside her.
Such was not to be and Davia decided to turn in for the night. Hopefully, sleep would prove effective in reducing her intimate fever as well as her lurking confusion.
She was tugging her clothes into place when she felt herself being jerked out of them again. Kale had returned. Davia was still facing the window, but she could feel his bare skin against hers. H
e’d removed his shirt during his absence.
Soon her jumper and tights were pooling the low heels of her gray riding boots. He hadn’t removed his pants and she could feel his belt buckle boring into the small of her back when he leaned in closer. Her bra was next to fall and Davia gasped as the cold glass met her hot breasts. The shock didn’t last for long; Kale cupped one mound in his palm. His free hand skimmed her torso, until his fingers were toying with the lacy stitching along the waistband of her panties.
Davia let her head fall back to his shoulder, her fingers raking at the glass pane in a desperate, seeking manner. She so wanted to touch him, but it was clear he wasn’t in the mood for tenderness.
His breathing held a labored sound, as though he were being tortured. He pressed kisses behind her ear and along her nape, tasting her with quick, probing laps from his tongue. Her heart rattled beneath her rib cage with its jarring beat and sent the blood roaring against her eardrums. She heard the clink of his belt buckle as he undid it, then the rasp of his zipper.
With the fingers of his free hand he skimmed her only remaining scrap of clothing for just a few seconds more. Then they dipped inside the silky material and smoothed across the feather-soft mound of curls above her sex.
One brush, then another, and then those fingers were staking their claim. Middle and ring finger speared high into her heat and moisture. Davia cried out her pleasure into the glass. Her eyes were almost closed, but she could still glimpse the sight of her own breath fogging the cold window. She sobbed his name in tortured response to the sensuously slow assault at her core. His thrusting fingers roused tremulous moans from her throat as she quivered between his hard, heated body and the hard, frosty glass.
Kale took a condom from a side pocket of his jeans. He’d left Davia earlier to go and collect a few. The jeans eased down his powerful thighs and calves as he held on to a quivering, aroused Davia. He tore into the packaging while purposely slowing the thrusting rotations of his fingers inside her body.
Arrogance curved his mouth with a smile while he relished the sound of his name uttered from her X-rated mouth. His erection was almost painful to touch, he was so starved to have it surrounded by her. He endured, slipping the protective sheeting in place with an impressive finesse given the circumstances.
His arrogant smile mingled with something akin to possession. How had that happened? he wondered. Her existence wasn’t even a blip on his radar before a few days ago and now... Now her existence was practically everything to him.
He nipped and sucked at her earlobe while he claimed her. His hands smothered her hips, lifting her slightly and then setting her down to blissfully envelop his broad length. He contemplated taunting her again as he had earlier—asking if this was all she wanted. He didn’t care that it was. The arrogant side of his demeanor, which he’d only privately admit was more potent than he cared for, promised she’d be wanting more before all was said and done.
Kale took pleasure in the way Davia honored him with her throaty cries—loud and unabashed. She met his thrusts and reached back to rake her nails across his thighs as he took her with greater ferocity. When it occurred to him that he might be a bit rough with her, her fingernails dug into his thighs, ordering him not to think about stopping. He didn’t, and their time together passed in a hypnotic blur of ecstasy.
* * *
“Come back with me,” he told her much later.
They’d collapsed to the lounge floor. Outside, the snow was coming down in blinding sheets that blanketed the land in a thick, untouched wave of white.
Kale lay on his stomach on the rug in front of the fire where they’d catnapped after crawling there from the window. Davia rested on his back, her body a seductive covering for his.
His slurred tone brought a smile to her face and made her want to tease him. “Well, I’m not a mogul like you and can’t afford to take too much time off, so...it makes more sense for you to just come on back with me.”
“All right.”
He spoke without hesitation. His tone instantly telling Davia that he hadn’t been teasing at all.
Kale laughed when she remained unresponsive to his decision. “Are we done playing now?” he asked.
“Don’t you mean am I done playing now?”
“All right.” Again his reply came without hesitation.
Davia pressed her face between his shoulder blades and inhaled. The scent of soap and sweat made for an intoxicating aroma she wished to commit to memory. She looked up when Kale’s voice began to vibrate through his body.
“Do you remember what I said to you in your office about women always giving me what I want without me having to do anything?”
“Yeah.” Davia offered her response quietly.
“Remember me saying that somewhere along the way I guessed I started having a problem with it?”
“Yes.” Her response was even softer that time.
“Would it surprise you to know I didn’t realize how big a problem I had with it until I talked to you in your office that day?”
Her teasing manner then revisited. “So you had two epiphanies that day. Deciding I was the only one you could sell to and now this.”
Kale had to grin. “Those thoughtful listening skills again.” He sighed and then turned to stare at the calming fire. “I think that happened because I’d never been surprised before. Not like that.”
Davia didn’t know if he could tell how rigid she’d become, and she didn’t argue when he changed their resting positions, putting her beneath him to look down at her.
“I came to your office to see if you were as gorgeous as I thought you were in that picture and for all the reasons I told you I had, but I didn’t tell you how much you surprised me.” He reached out to smooth back a few of the clipped tendrils from her forehead and then rested his fist back against his cheek.
“I’m sure there was a lot more than met the eye to so many of the women I’ve known,” he said as he shrugged. “I just never bothered or wanted to bother to take a look. And then you came in handling business on your headset and I was... I was hooked.” His brows joined in a bewildered frown. “How is that possible?”
Davia emerged from her rigid state. “There was a lot more going on between us before we ever even met—with your uncle, my aunt, Tella. Maybe you’re getting all that mixed up into thinking we were...meant to be something more.” She resisted biting her lip as she studied him, wondering how he’d react to her claim.
He nodded for a moment, as if to consider her words. “Is that why you slept with me? Just giving in to drama already at work between us and getting it...mixed up with meaning we were meant to be...this?” For emphasis, he scanned the length of her body lying alongside his.
She didn’t follow his gaze. Rather, kept her eyes fixed on his stunning face. “I slept with you because I wanted to give in to what I wanted. I guess I’m no different than any of the other women who fall at your feet, Kale. There’s nothing surprising here.”
He gave a smile that didn’t reach his dazzling eyes by a long shot. Offering no counter or confirmation to her opinion, he merely pushed to his feet and offered her his hand.
“We won’t be able to walk if we stay on this floor much longer. Come on, I’ll take you back to your room.”
Davia accepted his extended hand, but hesitantly. She had no problem with spending the night on the floor if he was there with her. Sadly, that time had passed. Quietly, they collected their things. Davia slipped into her jumper and opted to carry the rest of her things. In minutes they were at her door.
“Good night, Davi,” he was saying just as she crossed into the suite.
He walked away and she followed his departure with sad eyes before she closed the door. Resting back against it, Davia let her belongings drop to the floor and hid her face in her hands.
Chapter 13
The next several days were like a storm cloud of activity. Kale and Davia tended to matters pertaining to their own personal businesses. All this, while everyone worked diligently to put into action Kale’s idea for moving forward with the hoped-for land development plans.
The Waverlys devoted half of Barrett’s large study into a workspace for their guests.
Kale and Davia were most grateful as the guest lounge had proved to be too tempting a space to keep their minds on work.
Work consisted of scouring through the old news clippings and photos the innkeepers had collected. It seemed that almost every town resident who could trace their families back three generations or more was represented in the Mullins history stuffing the big accordion folders.
Kale spent his time getting to know town officials who could be responsible for green-lighting the hoped-for building permits. Meanwhile, Davia and Estelle took it upon themselves to have the photos scanned for copies.
Thanks to bar owners Troy and Rich Ayers, Davia and Estelle were able to share many of those photos with the town residents. The Ayers brothers had confirmed Estelle’s selections of who would be most open to receiving the pictures of their parents at work on Chase Waverly’s dream of bringing the movies to Mullins.
Barry took charge of dispersing the photos to his fellow council members. He didn’t use as much tact as Davia and Estelle, but shared the photos with everyone who was represented among his council colleagues. He did this regardless of their stance on the theater project.
This included Mitchell Barns. Barry regaled his wife and their inn guests with the story of how speechless Mitch Barns was upon receiving the photo of his father as a boy. Shepard Barns Jr. stood high atop a ladder being supported by Kale’s uncle Bryant. The boy grinned wildly while affixing the letters to a giant marquee that proclaimed the theater would be coming that summer.
* * *
Davia decided to enjoy her breakfast that morning in Barrett’s study, reviewing more of the photos and clippings. She was about to break off another chunk of the soft wheat bagel when she saw there were more than photos among the news clippings. There were also blueprints.
Silver Screen Romance Page 10