“Then by all means join me,” he said with a sweeping gesture.
“Oh, no, I didn’t....” she began even as his fingers closed around her wrist. With a firm tug he pulled her into the cubicle. “Nick, I’m dressed and....” The sentence drowned as he pushed her beneath the full force of the water. In a matter of seconds the caftan was plastered uselessly against her every curve.
Well, perhaps not so uselessly, she decided as she caught the subtle change in Nick’s expression. Pushing the dripping hair from her eyes, she tried to turn her reproachful glare into a provocative look. “I only wanted to talk, Nick.”
“I’m your captive audience.” He reached past her for the soap, his forearm brushing against her breasts in the process. Her gasp was soft, but she knew by his sly smile that he had heard and correctly interpreted her reaction. His hands cupped the roundness of her shoulders and maneuvered her away from the direct spray and himself beneath it. “Here,” he said, placing the bar of soap in her hand. “While you talk make yourself useful. Wash my back.” Then he turned so she could obey the command.
Kylie wanted to protest. In fact, she fully intended to protest, but at the sight of the unlimited opportunity before her, she forgot what she had intended to say. She rubbed the soap until her palms were frothy with lather. Then she reached past him to replace the soap, letting her arms imitate his action and brush seductively over his taut stomach before sliding around to his back and upward to his neck.
Her thumbs found the corded muscles at his nape and began a rhythmic massage. The ripple of pleasure he felt and resisted communicated itself to her through the sudden tension beneath her fingertips. Her lips curved with satisfaction and the temptation to test the limits of his resistance.
Slowly her hands massaged the lather onto his shoulders and down his back. The stinging spray washed the soap from him almost as quickly as she rubbed it on, leaving his skin satiny slick to the touch. With tiny, circling strokes she washed him until her fingers discovered the curve of his waist and moved lower to his hips. Unable to resist, Kylie stepped forward and pressed a moist kiss on the center of his back.
But when she tried to reinstate the distance between them, the saturated material of her caftan clung to Nick, rubbing sensuously against her breasts and refusing to release its damp bond on either side. Deciding that it was too much trouble to disentangle herself, she cupped her body to his and let her arms slide around his waist.
This time Kylie couldn’t be sure whether the shiver of pleasure emanated from Nick or from within her. Her cheek tingled where it touched his skin, and the clean, wet taste of him was warm in her mouth.
The cascading water enveloped them in a steamy embrace, and the rapid beating of her heart duplicated the uneven pattern of his breathing. For several long seconds he stood passive, his hands covering hers, and then he turned in her arms and cradled her close.
Her lips investigated the wiry tendrils of hair on his chest and discovered first one male nipple and then the other. She heard his quickly drawn breath and felt it echo in her throat as his fingers moved against the wet fabric covering her breast and began a stimulating massage.
Kylie sent her hands on a lingering exploration from his hips to the backs of his legs and around to the sensitive skin of his inner thighs. Tilting her head so she could look into his eyes, she allowed her fingers to touch him intimately, caressingly.
A groan rumbled in his throat. “I thought you wanted to talk,” he said thickly.
“And I thought I was communicating rather well.” Kylie smiled, reveling in the knowledge that he wanted her. “Nick, has anyone ever made love to you in the shower?” She paused. “On second thought, don’t answer that.”
He twisted a finger in the dripping curls at her temple. “I’ve never before been seduced by a water sprite in a sopping wet gown. I thought they wore only drip-dry.”
“Actually,” Kylie said, sliding her hands up the deep vee of dark chest hair to his shoulders. “Water sprites wear nothing at all.”
“Ahhh.” He arched his brows knowingly. “Then let’s dispense with your disguise.”
Obediently her hands found the fastener of the caftan, but the material clung stubbornly to her skin. With a slow smile Nick slipped his fingers under the fabric and eased it down and over her shoulders. Kylie freed her arms while he took his time in the sensuously slow process of lifting the covering from her breasts. The stroking caress of his knuckles sent delicate tremors of longing through her.
Unable to remain still beneath his appreciative touch, she ran her fingertips the length of his arms and let them drop to the slight indentation above his hips. The caftan slithered downward and tangled around her legs. She twisted in an effort to be rid of the nuisance, but Nick stayed her struggle and bent to strip the material from her legs.
Heat spiraled through her as his hand encircled her ankle, lifting her foot and pulling the garment aside before repeating the action with the other foot. Then Nick began the lingering ascent, exploring every naked inch of her as he straightened. Cupping her breast in his palm, he breathed a caress at the corner of her mouth.
“You weren’t wearing anything under that,” he said huskily. “That shows definite premeditation, Kylie. No one would ever believe you came in here to talk.”
The need to feel his lips on hers ached in her throat, and she lifted her hands to his face. “Don’t you ever shut up, Nick?”
He answered with a forceful kiss that demanded her complete cooperation. And Kylie gave it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and parted her lips, letting her tongue initiate a more intimate union. Her damp skin bonded naturally to his, allying thigh to thigh and feminine curves to masculine angles.
Passion altered the atmosphere around her until Kylie thought that the steamy heat must be radiating from within her. When Nick moved, she moved with him, and it wasn’t until the cool air struck her bare toes that she realized he had turned off the water and was carrying her from the shower.
Moisture began to evaporate from her skin, and she snuggled into his hold for warmth. She pressed a kiss in the hollow of his shoulder, liking the taste of the water droplets that rewarded her effort. Discovering the pleasure in this activity, her mouth returned for another sip, seeking out the tantalizing curves of his neck and the sensitive spot below his ear.
Kylie became entranced with the cadence of his pulse beneath her lips. The rhythm throbbed into the depths of her emotions and returned to him in shimmering vibrations of desire. It felt good, so good that she wondered how she had survived before Nick’s touch had awakened her and she had discovered how perfectly she fit into his embrace. Before her heart had found its missing piece.
Her arms tightened around his neck as he arrived at the bed and lowered her onto the mattress, but he pulled free of her touch and reached over her to shove the suitcase out of the way. Silky lashes drifted down to shield her from the reminder of imminent separation. She wouldn’t think of empty days and nights. She couldn’t bear to think of empty arms.
Not now. Not when she could feel the warmth of him so close. Not when his scent was so deliciously near. Not when she could open her eyes and drink in the sight of him. Her hands lifted to him in silent supplication.
And then he was beside her, his body a shelter for her uncertainties, his lips a soothing draught of forgetfulness. Her senses swelled with wanting him, and her fingertips traced damp patterns across his shoulders.
When his mouth closed over the rosy invitation of her breast, Kylie shivered beneath the caress. As she moved her head back and forth against the satin coverlet, her hair splayed across the bed in silky wet strands. In some vague mist of awareness she realized that she and Nick hadn’t bothered with even the thought of drying the moisture that clung to them.
“Nick,” she whispered huskily, “the spread is getting all wet.”
With a total lack of concern for the state of the spread, Nick etched tiny spirals with his tongue over the slope of her brea
sts to the softly shadowed cleft between. His lips sent tender yearnings flooding through her mind as he worked his way up to the hollow of her throat and then hovered only a breath away from her mouth. “Just pretend you’re in the middle of a mountain stream ... with me.”
He sealed the image with a kiss, but Kylie knew there was no need for pretense. The reality was too beautiful, too wonderfully right for imaginings.
His breath mingled with hers as he claimed possession of her, and she gave herself completely to the wild winds of heaven that whirled through her. Her body was his to command, just as her heart was his to keep. For all her hard-won independence she needed Nick, would always need him.
With a final, willing sigh of surrender she released her love for him and felt it soar, free of doubt, into a realm of promise.
Chapter Nine
Morning came in varied segments of dreamy sensation. Kylie savored the slow awakening in Nick’s arms, absorbing the warm, sleepy scent of him and the delicious roughness of his body curled drowsily around hers. The travel clock beside the bed ticked mercilessly, counting off the seconds.
A sigh built in her throat, but Kylie held it in check. She didn’t want to disturb Nick’s rest by even the slightest alteration of her breathing. In an hour he would be on his way to San Francisco, and she wanted this time just for herself.
Wrapped in the intimacy of the silent house, she felt a secret delight in watching him. Sleep-tumbled dark hair lay across his forehead, and his chiseled features were relaxed and gentled. Her fingertip tingled with the desire to touch the laugh lines at the outer corners of his eyes. But she denied herself the tactile satisfaction, letting her gaze trace the lines instead and imprint them for all time on her memory.
She wanted to be able to remember how it felt to be so near to him, to summon at will the sweet seduction of her senses that even now suffused her with longing. How could she bear to remain in this empty house without him, separated by miles and the unresolved situation between them?
It would be wonderful if he asked her to accompany him, asked her to come home with him and meet his family. Kylie smiled softly at the old-fashioned thought. But even if he asked, she knew she couldn’t go. She had to complete the seminar.
The silence was shattered by a high-pitched alarm, and Kylie watched with tender amusement as Nick struggled awake. He groped for the clock and in a matter of seconds restored quiet. “Damn,” he muttered thickly. “It’s morning.”
“A very beautiful morning.” She leaned toward him and greeted his lips with a butterfly touch.
His hand curved at her nape and insisted on a more thorough kiss. “I see what you mean,” he said as he drew back from her mouth.
Kylie smiled into his gray eyes cloudy with dreams. “Good morning.”
“Hmmm. Good morning.” He punctuated the words with another kiss, a deeper, more demanding kiss, which invaded her senses.
She pressed into him with the faint hope of postponing the impending separation. A slow shudder ran the length of the arm that embraced her, and then Nick reluctantly, regretfully released her. “I’m already dreading tomorrow, when you won’t be there to wake me.”
“There’s a simple solution,” Kylie said. “I’ll just phone you first thing in the morning.”
His deep sigh reflected her own lack of enthusiasm for the idea. “Somehow I don’t think it will be a very satisfying substitute, but I suppose it’s my only choice.” He turned to look at the time and groaned. “Did I set that blasted alarm or did you?”
Kylie nestled in the curve of his arm, hungry for just a few more minutes of his undivided attention. “Yes,” she said simply.
“Yes, what?” he asked, his breath stirring her disheveled curls.
“Yes, you set it, and yes, I reset it. I thought you needed an extra hour’s rest more than you needed breakfast.”
“That was a damned impertinent thing to do, Kylie. Especially since I needed an extra hour with you more than I needed either rest or breakfast.”
“Considering your rather unpleasant disposition this morning, perhaps you need a cold shower.”
“Only if you’ll heat the water for me as you did last night.” He placed a provocative kiss at the arch of her brow and then made a smooth foray down the bridge of her nose until he could capture her lips.
Suddenly Nick’s manner was no longer teasing, and Kylie shifted to curve her arms around him and return his caress with an urgency born of loving. Never had she thought she would ache with the mere idea of being apart from someone.
His hands moved over her in long, searching strokes, as if trying to soften the almost desperate intensity of their embrace. She felt him struggle to regain control and tried to master her own runaway desire.
“Kylie,” he whispered at last, his voice husky with emotion. “I don’t want to leave you. I wish….” He rolled to the edge of the bed and swung his feet to the floor. He stood, the muscles of his back displaying his tension. “I can’t miss that plane, Kylie.”
He made a slow turn, and she felt the heat of his gaze on her, felt the strength of his desire and the tremendous effort of will he exercised in not physically touching her. “Maybe I’ll try that cold shower after all.”
She watched him walk from the room, heard the bathroom door close, and lay back against the tousled sheets. A cold shower wouldn’t be a bad idea for her either, she thought with a sigh. Why on earth had she reset the alarm? Had she really been so satiated with loving that she hadn’t realized desire would be born anew with the dawn?
Maybe subconsciously she had wanted this first goodbye to be brief and dissatisfying in the hopes it would speed his return. But it was too late for regrets. There just wasn’t time. And now she had no choice but to be glad for these few minutes alone to compose herself. At least Nick wouldn’t carry the image of a love-sick, sad-eyed woman with him to San Francisco. She would make sure of that.
In the bathroom Nick eyed his reflection in disgust. He was acting like some love-sick kid going off to college and leaving his high school sweetheart behind. And he hadn’t experienced such a failure of self-restraint in years. Of course he’d never before experienced anything close to the feelings Kylie aroused in him.
Kylie. The thought of her was a quiet ache inside him.
Nick gave the faucet a frustrated twist and bent to splash the cool water on his face. Rubbing the moisture away, he frowned into the mirror. “You can’t take her with you, Braden,” he said aloud. “You know you can’t take her with you.”
He knew it was true. The next few days would leave little time to spend with her in any case. He would be thoroughly immersed in the battle that was probably raging at this very moment. Not exactly a great time to introduce Kylie to the family. What would she think of his grandfather’s authoritarian approach to any argument? he wondered. And would she be as overwhelmed by his aunt as most people were?
Nick allowed himself the luxury of imagining Kylie’s reaction. With her assertiveness principles and progressive theories she would probably stir up more controversy than he could handle. He felt relatively certain that neither his grandfather nor his aunt would be open-minded and understanding about Kylie’s spirit at this particular time.
He could depend on his mother to welcome her, of course, but what Kylie’s reaction to such a gentle, unassertive woman would be Nick couldn’t predict. No. He stopped the speculation cold. This was simply the wrong time to take Kylie home. Besides, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to convince her to leave Santa Fe, and they still hadn’t settled the issue of that damn seminar. It was better for all concerned to wait until the situation was resolved.
By the time he’d dressed and finished packing, Nick had reluctantly convinced himself of the wisdom of his decision. At least he was convinced right up to the minute he put his luggage into the car and turned to say good-bye.
Kylie slipped into his arms with a determined smile. “Don’t forget to write,” she quipped.
“I
hope to be back before the pony express could deliver a letter.” His voice was as resolutely cheerful as her own. “Don’t cause any trouble while I’m gone, okay?”
“Is that an order or a request?”
“Just a heartfelt wish.” Nick tightened his hold on her. “Kylie,” he began almost hesitantly, “put the seminar on hold for now. Please. I know you’re going to stay here. But do some sight-seeing. Relax and enjoy a vacation. As soon as this mess with Alex is straightened out, we’ll talk.”
“Nick, I know you’re worried about the situation here, but you don’t have to be. I can help, really I can. By continuing the training course I can help to keep the employees communicating with management. You don’t have to fight on two fronts. You handle the home office and let me handle things here. Don’t ask me to stop the seminar now.” Kylie had used all her powers of persuasion, and now she willed him to agree, but she knew by the look in his eyes that he still didn’t believe her.
His thumb stroked her cheek, and his mouth formed a wistful line. “I am asking, Kylie. Please don’t refuse.”
She couldn’t in good conscience agree, but she simply couldn’t find the words to refuse either. Finally her desire for a harmonious parting won out, and with a sigh she nodded. “All right, Nick. But only for a while.”
He accepted the compromise by brushing a finger across her lips. His farewell kiss was tender. His good-bye was a throaty whisper that Kylie knew would echo hauntingly in her every dream. She watched until the car was out of sight before returning to the house and the prospect of a totally unappealing vacation.
* * * *
During the next few days Kylie saw more of Santa Fe and the surrounding area than she really wanted to see. She had lunch with Stephanie and heard more than she wanted to hear about Alex. She had dinner with a very subdued Alex and discovered more than she wanted to know about his sudden, inexplicable attraction to brunettes.
Winds of Heaven Page 14