by Sandra Brown
Briefly, Kathleen recounted Jaimie’s disappearance to B. J. and Edna when they asked about her bleak expression and pale face. They agreed that she had handled it correctly in not scolding him, but they also thought that B. J. should talk to him and caution him again about the dangers of separating himself from the others.
Under Erik’s stern and watchful eye, Kathleen managed to choke down some of her dinner, but she was still too upset by the day’s frightful incident to enjoy it. Never was she so glad to hear the evening bell as she was that night.
As she trudged down the steps of the dining hall, planning to go directly to her cabin, her upper arm was gripped firmly. “Come on, you’re going with me,” Erik said decisively.
“What?” She tried to release her arm, but it was a futile effort. “I’m going to bed.”
“Yes, you should. But first you’re going to unwind a little bit. If you try to sleep now, you’ll only have nightmares about what could have happened today.”
No doubt he was right about that, but she still didn’t give in too easily, especially since they were trekking in the direction of his cabin. “Where are you taking me?” Kathleen asked.
“For a drive.”
That wasn’t the answer she had expected to hear, but when had Erik Gudjonsen done anything she had expected him to? “A drive?” she asked weakly. “Where?”
He smiled down at her, and his teeth gleamed in the tanned face. “Wait and see,” he taunted, and slung his arm across her shoulder, pulling her closer.
Obediently, she went with him, lacking the will and the strength to argue, and at the same time, glad to relinquish decision-making control to him. She had been solely responsible for her life for so many years, forced by necessity to make each decision. It was a relief to submit to someone else for a while.
He helped her into the Blazer before climbing in himself. He drove toward the compound and then out the main gate.
“This is the way to the swimming area,” she remarked when he took the turn.
“Yeah, but we’ll have to walk a little way to get where we’re going. I want to show you something.”
Again she didn’t argue. The night was cool and there was the merest hint of rain in the air. Erik had left the windows down, and Kathleen leaned her head against the seat and closed her eyes, letting the cool breeze blow across her face.
When the Blazer stopped, she opened her eyes and saw that they were indeed parked at the swimming area. “It’s lovely, but I’ve seen it,” she said dryly.
Erik laughed. “You’re feeling better. Your glib tongue has been restored to full power.” He opened the passenger door and hauled her out. “Come on, smart aleck. You have to walk from here.”
Instead of going toward the river as she had expected him to, he traipsed off into the woods, dragging her behind him.
“Erik,” she said worriedly. “Are you sure—”
“I know where I’m going?” he finished for her. Even the faint moonlight couldn’t penetrate the thick branches of the trees that umbrellaed them. “Yes, I know where I am. I found this place the other night when I was rather… agitated… and needed a place to cool off.” He squeezed her hand tightly and she blushed.
They walked for a few more minutes in silence. He did seem acquainted with the surroundings, for he helped her avoid vines and boulders. “Where are—”
“Listen,” he interrupted her. “Can’t you hear the river?” They stopped and she listened. She could hear the sound of rushing water.
They walked through the last barrier of trees, and the moonlight revealed Erik’s destination. There, beside the river, was an expanse of white sand finer than sugar. It led directly into the pebble-lined riverbed. There were some large rocks about a hundred feet upstream that caused the gentle rapids. At the sandy beach, the water was quite swift. Huge oak and elm trees spread their limbs like natural canopies over the river, which was narrow at this point, creating a feeling of intimacy and privacy. It was beautiful.
“How did you find it?” Kathleen asked in awe. She was amazed that in all her years of coming to the camp she had failed to find this spot herself. But then, it was off the beaten path and in an area too dangerous for nature hikes with curious children.
“I told you I was walking out my frustration.” He smiled. “Come on.”
They ran toward the water’s edge. Erik had brought a blanket from the Blazer and he spread it on the sand. Kathleen paused long enough to whip off the clothes she had worn home from the tubing trip. Earlier in the day, she had untied the neck strap of her bikini in order to get full benefit of the sun and tied it in a bow between her breasts. It was designed to be worn either with the strap or without, so she went into the water unselfconsciously.
“Oh! It’s cold!” she cried as the water gurgled over her ankles.
“Not when you get used to it,” Erik assured her.
He waded out a little farther, but the water never got any deeper than his knees. He squatted down on his haunches, fighting the current, and then sat down on the pebbly bottom, putting his back to the rapids. “It’s like a whirlpool,” he said.
The swift water threatened to unbalance her at any moment as she timorously made her way out into midstream to join Erik. She put her hand on his solid shoulder when she reached him and eased down into the water. Its numbing frigidity almost took her breath away.
“How can you stand this?” she asked as her bottom finally touched the riverbed and she stretched her feet out in front of her.
“You’ll get used to it,” he said. “It’s great, isn’t it?”
After a moment, she was willing to concede that it was. The swirling water, with its bubbling lullaby, was soothing, whisking away her tension as it rushed past her. She supported her torso on her hands and leaned back, lifting her hips and allowing her legs to float in the current. As delicious as it was, her position caused a problem. The water was so swift that it gushed under the cups of her bikini bra.
“I think I might be in danger of losing my bikini.” She laughed nervously.
“Well, I can fix that,” Erik said.
Chapter Seven
Before she knew what had happened, her bra had been whipped from her body and was bobbing away in the swirling water.
“Erik!” she shrieked, and covered herself with crossed arms. “What did you do?”
“I saved you from worrying about losing your top. Now that it’s lost, you’ve nothing to worry about.” He shrugged happily. His smile was dazzling… and dangerous.
“You unhooked it on purpose!”
“Guilty,” he said easily. “Now relax and enjoy the water.” He tilted his head back and raised his face to the sky like some of his pagan ancestors who worshiped the heavens. His eyes were closed.
Kathleen’s main concern wasn’t the swift water, but the rapid beating of her heart. She was here in the wilderness, in the middle of the night, with this virile and arrogant man, sitting virtually naked within inches of him.
In spite of the growing uneasiness, she felt a twinge of pique and annoyance when he didn’t even look at her. He seemed totally detached, disinterested. Gradually, she began to relax and resumed her previous position by leaning back on her hands, making sure that the crests of her breasts, which were contracted to hardness by the cold water, were under the surface. For long moments, Kathleen and Erik were quiet, with only the sound of water around them. When his voice caressed her ear, she jumped in alarm.
“Did you hear that?”
She could hear nothing over the thudding of her pulse in her ears. “What?”
“See that owl on the outer branch of that tree?” He pointed toward one of the oaks, but she couldn’t see anything. “No. Where?”
“There. See that branch… Wait a minute. This is no good.” He moved behind her and placed his muscled thighs on either side of her hips. Her back knew the sturdy support of his chest. One of his arms extended past her head as he pointed to the designated tree. “See him
? On that lowest branch over the water.”
She strained her eyes in the darkness, but she could see no sign of an owl or anything else. “I can’t see him,” she sighed.
“I’m not surprised. There’s nothing there.” His lips settled against her ear as his arm came firmly around her waist, imprisoning her against him. “I lied. I had to get you close to me.”
Halfheartedly, she squirmed away from him, but he was sensitive enough to know that she really didn’t want to be released. “You’re going to get in trouble doing that someday,” she warned him in a soft, ragged voice. “That’s the second time you’ve tricked me.”
“Mm-hm. And it’s worked both times.” His breath was warm as he made the admission against the back of her neck. He held up her hair in a gentle fist while he kissed the scented skin beneath it. But the hand didn’t remain idle when he dropped her hair back to her shoulders.
He massaged her neck with magic fingers, then moved his hand down her spine slowly, as if counting each vertebra. Tantalizingly, he slid his hand, palm opened and fingers wide, around her rib cage until he flattened it against the smoothness of her abdomen. His fingers brushed her lightly, though his palm remained stationary. Kathleen wanted that hand to move. His fingers teased her, slipping periodically under the elastic band of her bikini but refraining from touching her.
“Your skin is like wet silk,” he murmured into her ear. His tongue became involved with the velvet texture of her skin directly behind her lobe. Imperceptibly, his hand moved upward.
He cupped the underside of her left breast gently. “Your heart is pounding, Kathleen. Is that for me?”
She purred as his fingers lightly stroked the undercurve. “Yes.”
“Kathleen.”
Then both his hands covered her, alternately flattening her, pressing his palms against her, then kneading her carefully, lifting her, teasing the aching tips of her swollen breasts with his fingertips. Reluctantly, he sacrificed the pleasure of one breast to cradle her jaw and turn her head toward him. He pulled her back, leaning her across his thigh to meet the fervent kiss he offered her.
Their mouths melded together. They tasted, savored while they sipped each other, then delighted again in a deep kiss. Never had she kissed with such abandon and such promise. Her hands went unrestrained as she tangled her fingers in his hair.
His hands moved over her with exquisite precision, examining each hollow, each curve, each plane. They moved down her sides, over the firm belly to glory again in her breasts. Those inquisitive hands and his masterful mouth brought her a pleasure she had never known before. And a seed of desire was planted deep inside her and began to grow until it flowered into full bloom.
Lost in their kiss, she moved against him. It was his tortured gasp against her cheek that brought her out of that euphoric silken web he had spun around her. She realized that her hip was rubbing against his erection.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she leaned her head against the wall of his chest.
“No apology is necessary.” His voice wasn’t quite normal. “You’re going to be frozen solid if we don’t get you out of here.” Disengaging their limbs, he rose to his feet and extended his hand for her. Modestly, she came up out of the water, and as hurriedly as the current would allow, she waded past him toward the shore.
Scrambling onto the sand that was still warm from having absorbed the sun’s rays all day, she moved away from him, keeping her back to him and primly crossing her arms over her chest. Somehow, as tenuous a protection as the water was, without it, she felt totally exposed.
She heard the wet rustling of cloth and knew that he had peeled off his swimming trunks. Quiet footpads brought him to stand close behind her. “Kathleen.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face him. Her chin was buried in her chest and her eyes were squeezed tightly shut.
“You’ve never been with a man, have you?” When she didn’t answer, he placed his index finger under her chin and lifted it, forcing her to look at him. “Have you?” he repeated as she opened her eyes to his penetrating gaze.
She could only shake her head “no.”
He gathered her to him tenderly, wrapping his arms around her but allowing her own shielding arms to remain between them. He rested his forehead against hers and his breath fanned her face as he whispered, “B. J. intimated as much. My poor, dear girl. I’m sorry. How could I have known that you were a virgin? Though I should have realized it from the first.” He chuckled softly, and the vibrations that emanated from his body were transmitted to hers.
Her hands, which she had clasped protectively to her own shoulders, began to relax and finally settled on his chest. “A virgin is such a rare thing, I didn’t even recognize one when I met her.” His comment was self-deprecating. He sighed deeply, in regret, and said, “No wonder you were afraid of me.”
Her head came up quickly. “No, Erik. I was afraid of what was happening, but I was never afraid of you,” she said earnestly.
“And now?”
Now? she asked herself. Now? Now she knew that she loved him. This morning when he had taken the old couple’s picture, she had known it. When he had kissed the lady’s hand as if she were a countess, Kathleen had felt an unfamiliar tug at her heart. His concern for Jaimie and the calm, steady way he had handled the crisis only emphasized how vital he had become to her life.
Yes, she loved him. She wanted him to know the full extent of her love. She wanted to express it. Shyly, she placed her hands on his shoulders and looked up into the fathomless eyes. “I’m not afraid now, either.”
His breath was strained through clamped teeth as she moved half a step closer and her breasts were molded against his bare chest. Carefully, treating her as if she were a precious piece of porcelain that might shatter at any moment, he put his arms around her waist and drew her closer. The contact was electric and jolted them both.
“Kathleen,” he rasped into her hair. “Come lie down with me.” Compelling. Urgent. Soft.
As one unit, they moved toward the blanket he had spread out on the sand. He sat down and looked up at her, again offering her his hand. She hooked her thumbs under the sides of her bikini and eased it down her thighs, past her knees, and then daintily stepped out of it.
He reached for her as she sat beside him. Then, slowly, he lay down, bringing her with him. He rolled onto his side and pulled her against him until they lay face to face.
“If I hurt you in any way, I want you to stop me.”
“You won’t,” she said, brushing back a lock of silver-gilded hair from his creased forehead.
“Yes, I will. I wish I didn’t have to.”
“Then I want you to hurt me. I want this.”
He spoke her name softly before it was trapped by his lips as they captured hers. His tongue outlined her mouth, taking in each nuance, memorizing her unique taste, painting her lips with the nectar of his own mouth. Reaching for her hand, he planted an ardent kiss into its palm and then settled it on his chest.
“I want you to know me, Kathleen. Touch me. I won’t do anything until I know you want me as much as I want you.”
She watched his eyes as her hand began to explore the wonders of his chest. Her fingers waved over the crinkly hair and massaged the hard muscles under the surface. She grew shy when she accidentally touched one of the hard brown nipples nestled in the mat of tawny hair. Erik drew in a sharp gasp, then ceased to breathe altogether, as if in anticipation of her touching him again. Putting down maidenly shyness, her fingers returned to that turgid bud of flesh and examined it with curious fingers.
His swallow was audible. “Am I allowed the same privileges?”
She laughed softly. “By all means.”
She adjusted her position to make her breasts more accessible to him. His hands cupped her, lifted her. The crests knew the sweet aggravation of his thumbs before he lowered his head. She was amazed how hot his mouth felt against her cool skin. What he did with her was so subtle tha
t Kathleen couldn’t describe it. All she knew was that she felt that finessing at her breast deep within her womb, and cried out for him never to stop.
Arching against him, she felt his male heat against her belly. Why had she been frightened of him before? His manhood wasn’t a thing separate and of itself. It was Erik. His essence.
Her hand worked its way down the taut, flat stomach, followed the trail of silken hair on his abdomen until it blended into a thicker, rougher thatch. Then her fingers closed around him.
“Oh, my God, Kathleen. Sweet… yes, yes.” The words were unimportant. The tone of his voice, the urgency underlying the words, said more, told her in a language more forceful than the spoken word that she was pleasing him. His reaction gave her confidence and she grew bolder.
His palm settled on the delta at the top of her thighs and massaged circles over her. Slowly, his fingers traced down that feminine curve until he found her soft and pliant and moist. He moved carefully, slowly, until he lay between her thighs.
Then she felt him gently enter the threshold of that secret place. “I’ll make it as easy as I can. I swear it,” he vowed in a whisper, then gave her all of himself.
Despite her determination not to, she cried out. Her heels dug little cups in the sand underneath the blanket, and her nails made crescent-shaped impressions on the skin of Erik’s back.
“My love,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. Relax, relax.” For long moments, they lay locked in that most intimate of embraces. Timeless. Eternal. He kissed her, lifted the unwanted tears from her cheeks with solicitous lips. His hands smoothed her hair from her face and then threaded the heavy strands through his fingers before burying his face in its radiance and breathing deeply of its scent.
Unknowingly, Kathleen moved, tightening her muscles around him. His quick, shuddering intake of breath sounded like a miniature hurricane in her ear. Realizing she had stirred him, she tried the internal movement deliberately, and this time his response was less subtle.