Читать книгу The Blind-Date Bride - Emma Darcy, Emma Darcy - Страница 7

SHE had ordered the three scoops of different ice-creams for dessert and was tasting them each in turn, sliding the loaded spoon between her lips, consciously testing the flavour on her tongue. Zack found the action so sensual, his whole body was tightening up. Catherine Trent was one hell of a sexy woman and the urge to race her off into the night and ravage her from head to toe had a powerful grip on him.

He wrenched his gaze away from her mouth and turned it out to sea. Their table was on the open veranda that ran the length of the restaurant and he’d taken refuge in the view several times tonight, needing to cool the desire that kept plaguing him. Was she as hot for him as he was for her? Would she go for it, given the limitation he’d stipulated?

One night…

Problem was, he might end up wanting more and that would mess him up. She was like a fever in his blood and he needed a cool head once he hit Los Angeles. It was the wrong time to meet a woman like Catherine Trent. She appealed to him on too many levels. He liked the way her mind worked, liked talking with her, liked having her across the table from him, watching her face, the expressions in her fascinating eyes, her body language.

She wasn’t a stranger anymore, though he’d deliberately refrained from asking about her life, keeping their dinner conversation to very general topics. She’d still got to him, more than he recalled any other woman ever doing.

Better to let her go, he told himself. What had she said…win some, lose some? He’d never liked losing, but he had a lot at stake right now. Winning what he planned to win in L.A. was more important than losing out on a night of sex which could get him too involved with this woman.

‘Do you think a full moon really does affect people?’

There was a full moon tonight, big and white, hanging in the sky where he had turned his gaze, but he hadn’t been looking at it. Catherine’s question drew an instant reply from Livvy who’d been bubbling with high spirits all evening.

‘Course it does. The word, lunatic didn’t evolve from nothing.’

‘Historically it is associated with madness. And romance,’ Pete chimed in.

‘Which could be considered a form of madness,’ Zack observed dryly, looking back at Catherine, hoping she wasn’t nursing romantic thoughts about him.

It simply wasn’t on.

Yet the pull of her attraction was very strong.

‘I was just wondering…’ The musing little smile on her lips had his gut contracting with the desire to kiss her. ‘…how connected are we to the physical world? We get irritated when it’s windy. Sunshine tends to make us smile. The moon regulates the tides, so when it’s at full strength like this, does it tug at things in us, too?’

Was she wanting an explanation for what she felt with him?

An excuse for it?

Something outside herself so she couldn’t be blamed for wanting what he wanted, too?

‘You mean like amplifying the feelings we have,’ Livvy said speculatively. ‘Making mad people even madder.’

‘Swelling the tides of passion,’ Pete rolled out, relishing that idea and proceeding to banter with Livvy about possible lunar effects on human behaviour.

‘Don’t forget animals,’ Zack inserted after a while. ‘Why do wolves howl at a full moon?’

‘Because they prefer dark nights?’ Catherine suggested, looking at him with her head on a tilt as though mentally likening him to a wolf who prowled dark places.

‘Or maybe it’s part of the mating game,’ he couldn’t resist saying.

Her thick lashes lowered, veiling the expression in her eyes, though not before he glimpsed a vulnerability to the mating they could share.

Temptation bit into his resolution to let her go.

She wanted him. He wanted her. Where was the harm in a one-night stand? It wasn’t as though she was an inexperienced woman. Late twenties, he guessed, and given her face and figure, had probably been fending off or taking on guys since her mid-teens.

Her long throat moved in a convulsive little swallow. Dry-mouthed from the heat coursing through her? The low V-neckline of her dress pointed into the valley between her breasts, shadowed by the soft swell of lush feminine flesh on either side. He wanted to fill his hands with her, wanted to…

‘Coffee, anyone?’

The waiter deftly removed the emptied dessert plates as choices were made around the table.

‘Short black,’ Catherine said,

Strong and dark, Zack thought, which was how he wanted it, too. ‘The same for me.’

He didn’t hear what the others ordered. The waiter departed. Pete suggested they walk on down the hill to the Crowne Plaza after they’d finished their coffee, disco the rest of the night away. Livvy applauded the idea. Catherine smiled at her sister but said nothing, waiting for Zack’s reaction with no persuasion from her either way.

Hours of ear-blasting music and hot, sweaty dancing didn’t appeal to Zack. Nor did a long sexual tease with Catherine that promised without delivering. She had burned him enough tonight. If there was to be any action between them, it was now or never, he decided.

Her choice.

‘I hope you’ll all excuse me—you, particularly, Catherine…’ He offered her a rueful smile. ‘I wasn’t planning on a late night tonight. I have a car calling at seven-thirty in the morning to take me to the airport. I’ve enjoyed the evening very much but…’

‘You don’t want to be a total wreck tomorrow,’ she finished for him, smiling her understanding and with more than a hint of relief in her eyes.

Off the hook?

‘I won’t cut into your plan of action, Pete,’ he directed to his old friend. ‘I can call a taxi from here and the three of you can…’

‘No need for a taxi,’ Catherine cut in. ‘I can drive you back to Forresters Beach on my way home.’

Excitement zipped through his veins. Opportunity had just been opened up. Was it deliberate, decisive, or merely flirting with a chance she might take? ‘Thank you,’ he said, anticipation surging into a storm of desire at the thought of being alone with her.

She looked at her sister. ‘That’s okay with you, isn’t it, Livvy? Pete will bring you home after the disco?’

‘Absolutely,’ Pete agreed, happy to have Livvy to himself.

Her sister heaved a sigh and looked from Catherine to Zack, clearly exasperated by this abrupt end to their foursome. It wasn’t what she’d planned but the decision had already been taken out of her hands.

Zack smiled at her. ‘May I say it’s been a delight to meet you, Livvy. You and Pete have yourself a ball tonight.’

‘Hey! And wake me for a coffee with you before you leave in the morning, Zack,’ Pete demanded.

‘Will do.’

‘You don’t have to go home this early, Catherine,’ Livvy pressed, frowning at her sister. ‘It will only take ten minutes to drop Zack off at Forresters Beach…’

‘I don’t want you watching out for me at a disco,’ she stated firmly. ‘You and Pete should feel free to have fun together. It’s your birthday.’

And that might be the straight truth of it, Zack cautioned himself. Being at a disco without a partner, guys on a high trying to pick her up…he could well imagine a fight breaking out over Catherine Trent…and that could be extremely tiresome if she wasn’t in the mood to play. With anyone else but him.

Conviction fizzed through his mind. She need not have made the offer to drive him home. She could have waited until he’d left in a taxi, then made the decision not to go to the disco. This was not a safe play. The chance was on.

Catherine beamed her sister a flinty look that said enough was enough and there’d be no forcing her to circulate in a crowded disco where she might or might not hit it off with some guy. Impossible anyway after being with Zack Freeman all evening. Though her impulsive offer to drive him to Pete’s place now had her stomach churning.

The move protected her from being thrown at more men, which Livvy had obviously intended once Zack removed himself from the field of play. It also protected her from any argument over her decision to leave since giving her blind date a lift home was a perfectly reasonable and polite thing to do in return for his company tonight. But it did mean she’d be alone with him in her car and when they reached Forresters Beach.

Would she be safe with him?

Did she want to be safe with him?

Livvy’s resigned grimace set her free to do whatever she liked and Pete was obviously not troubled by their party being cut in half. He’d done what had been requested of him, supplying Zack for Livvy’s sister, and if the two of them went off together, that was fine by him. He had the woman he wanted still at his side.

The coffee arrived.

She hoped its hot bitterness would sober her up. Not from alcohol. She’d only drunk one glass of champagne. It was Zack Freeman’s affect on her that needed diluting down to something manageable. He was like a magnet, playing a tug-of-war with every female hormone in her body. Never in her life had she been made to feel so aware of her own sexuality, as well as a chaotic craving to experience his.

He had the most sinfully sexy eyes, teasing, challenging, flirting, knowing and constantly evaluating the response he drew from her. He made her laugh. He made her smile. He made her tingle all over. He was the intoxicant and not even the knowledge that he’d be gone tomorrow lessened the addictive power of his attraction.

‘So I get to have a ride in your car.’

She stopped sipping the coffee and looked up to answer him, her heart squeezing tight at the warm pleasure in his eyes. ‘A short ride,’ she said, reminding herself again of the brevity of this encounter.

One night…which was fast coming to an end.

‘An impractical self-indulgence,’ he drawled softly.

For a stomach-clenching moment, she thought he was referring to her decision to ride with him, whatever that might lead to between them. Then she realised he was repeating her own words about owning such a car.

‘You get wet if it rains before you can stop to get the hood on,’ she explained with a shrug.

‘But you don’t mind the wind in your hair.’

She smiled. ‘Nor the sun on my face.’

‘You like the feel of nature.’

‘Yes.’

He smiled. ‘An elemental woman.’

He made it sound intensely sensual, made her feel intensely sensual. She took refuge in sipping coffee again, trying not to wonder just how elemental he was and how he would look as nature had fashioned him.

The open-necked shirt had been tantalising her all throughout dinner, giving her a glimpse of tight black curls arrowing down his chest. His forearms weren’t hairy, their darkly tanned skin gleaming like oiled teak. She imagined his whole body would be mainly like that with a sprinkle of black springy curls in the most masculine places. The desire to know, to touch, conflicted terribly with the sensible course of simply wishing him well and waving him goodbye.

He wasn’t going to be in her life.

Except for this one night.

Pete paid the restaurant bill, insisting it was his party treat for Livvy. Everyone had drunk their coffee. It was time to go. Nervous tension gripped Catherine as Zack moved to hold her chair back for an easy rise from the table. She looked at the full moon as she stood up. Was this lust for him a madness that she would shake her head over tomorrow?

She didn’t understand it.

Was she raw and needful from Stuart’s most recent dalliance with another woman? But she wasn’t feeling any bitter hurt right now. It was as though all that was in a far distant place. Zack Freeman generated a physical immediacy that completely clouded anything else.

She was super aware of her legs moving in step with his as they followed Pete and Livvy out of the restaurant, aware that the top of her head was level with his chin, aware of the strength of the man and the weak little quivers running down her thighs, aware of her breasts straining against the stretch fabric of Livvy’s dress, aware of the flutters in her stomach where the yearning to experience Zack Freeman was strong and deep and beyond any mental control.

Pete decided to drive down to The Crowne Plaza and have his car parked at the hotel for an easy pickup when he and Livvy had had enough of the disco. They said their goodnights at his BMW and Catherine and Zack watched them drive off before moving on to the end of the car park where her red convertible was waiting for them.

‘Do you like to dance?’ Zack asked as they strolled along.

He wasn’t touching her, merely walking beside her, but Catherine barely found breath enough to answer, ‘Yes.’

‘I’m sorry if you feel you’re missing out.’

She shook her head.

‘For me it would have been more of a torture than a pleasure.’

The wry statement drew her into glancing at him.

His eyes caught hers and delivered their own searing meaning as he elaborated. ‘I would have wanted more than the touching permissable on a public dance floor, Catherine.’

She wrenched her gaze from his as heat whooshed through her entire body. The direct acknowledgment of the desire he was feeling for her left no way of dismissing it as possible fantasy. It was real. And it was vibrantly alive, pulsing through her, arousing eager responses that clamoured for expression.

Her mind tried to over-ride them. She didn’t do one-night stands. She believed that casual sex diminished what should be really special to a relationship that shared far more than just sex. Men were different, she’d told herself, having excused Stuart’s infidelities as meaningless rushes of testosterone. But she’d never felt so sexually connected to a man before, not even with Stuart at his charismatic best.

She fumbled in her evening bag for the car keys. Just a short ride and this…this raging temptation…would be over. Unlock the car, get in and drive Zack Freeman to Forresters Beach. He would fly away tomorrow and she’d come down to earth with a big thump if she strayed from what she believed in tonight.

But what if she never felt like this again?

Was she passing up a once-in-a-lifetime experience?

Would she always wonder?

Her fingers found the car key, curled around it, brought it out. Her hand trembled as she pointed the key at her car and pressed the remote control button to unlock the doors. Zack accompanied her to the driver’s side, intent on doing the courtesy of seeing her settled on her seat. She waited by the door for him to reach out and open it. He stepped forward, then turned to face her instead.

‘Have I embarrassed you?’

His eyes scanned hers with probing intensity, driving her out of her tongue-tied state.

‘No.’ She tried to smile but her mouth felt as wobbly as the rest of her. ‘I think the wolf in you was howling just then.’

‘And you didn’t want to answer?’

‘Wolves tend to keep to their own territory.’

‘They have been known to cross boundaries if the call is strong enough.’

He reached up and touched the silk flower in her hair.

‘It’s not real.’ Her voice emerged as a husky whisper.

‘No. But this is, Catherine.’ His fingers feathered her earlobe before sliding under the fall of her hair to the nape of her neck. ‘This is,’ he repeated, his voice a low erotic burr as he moved closer and bent his head to hers.

The drumming of her heart filled her ears, blocking out any last second denial her mind might have dictated. A light tug of her hair tilted her face up. She was beyond fighting this moment which shimmered with the promise of answers she craved. His lips brushed hers, stirring a host of electric tingles. Then came the tasting, a feast of sensual pleasure that was more seductive than any kissing Catherine remembered.

Her arms lifted and wound around his neck, her own hands thrusting into his hair, fingers driving through the thick mat of curls, pressing for a continuation, wanting to know and feel more. He scooped her body firmly against his and the hard, heated strength of him was imprinted on her, the muscular wall of his chest, rock-hard thighs, and an erection that instantly set a wave of desire rolling through her, inciting a wild, questing passion for satisfaction when his mouth invaded hers. Long, fierce, ravishing kisses…kisses in her hair, on her throat, shoulders, her breasts yearning to be touched, taken, her stomach revelling in the feel of his urgent wanting.

A burst of laughter jolted them both out of the wild compulsion to pursue more and more sensation. It came from another group of people emerging from the restaurant and heading for their cars. Zack sucked in a deep breath, one hand lifting to cup her cheek, fingers stroking soft reassurance.

‘I know a private place. I’ll drive us there.’

Her mind was too shattered to think. With quick, purposeful strides, he bundled her around to the passenger side, all his energy focused now on taking her with him. Catherine was still too tremulous to take any positive action herself. He’d already guided her into the car and fastened her seat belt before she remembered…

‘The key…’ It wasn’t in her hand anymore. ‘I must have dropped it.’

‘I’ll find it.’

He bent and kissed her, stoking the need that had been left hanging. She sat dazed by the whole tumultuous eruption of passion. It didn’t even occur to her that she hadn’t given him permission to take control of her car. He settled behind the driving wheel, flashed her a dazzling grin as he fastened his seat belt, switched on the engine, and they were off.

‘Where are we going?’ she finally found wits enough to ask.

Another white grin—the grin of a man on a winning streak that couldn’t be stopped. ‘To a place that was made for us, Catherine Trent…a place that will give us a night to remember.’