Cade brought the slender cigar briefly to his lips before answering. I needed some air, he said abruptly, and there was a certain harshness in his voice now. They had stepped onto the terrace that overlooked the sea. He made a gesture toward the emptiness beyond the marble balustrade. Some space.
A breeze from the sea lifted tendrils of hair on Leilas neck. She felt a shivering deep inside her chest. Space
Yes, she whispered, forgetting to flirt, for all at once her throat ached and she no longer felt like smiling.
They stood together at the balustrade in silence, shoulders not quite touching, and she felt the ache inside her grow. I shouldnt have done this, she thought in sudden and unfamiliar panic. This is terrifying. Perhaps I am notcut out to be a pushy woman.
Far below, waves collided gently with the rocky cliff, sending up joyful little bursts of spray. The rhythmic shusshing sound they made was familiar and soothing to her soul. She listened to it for several more seconds, then lifted her eyes to the almost invisible horizon.
I understand, I think, she said quietly, leaning a little on her hands. I come here often when I am feeling
At a loss for the word, she gave a little grimace and shook her head.
Cooped up? Cade softly suggested, watching the horizon as she did. She looked him a question, not being familiar with the expression. He glanced down at her. Walled upfenced in
Oh, yes! She turned toward him, her breath escaping in a grateful rush. That is it exactlywalled up and fenced in. But what is thiscoop? I do not know
He shrugged and turned his gaze back to the sea. Its an expression they use where I come from. A coop is a kind of pen. They keep chickens in it.
In Texas?
Yeah He said it on a sigh. In Texas. After a curiously vibrant pause, one that fairly sang with unspoken communion, he jerked himself upright and away from the silence with a loud and raggedy attempt to clear his throat. Other places, too. Pretty much any place they have chickens.
He couldnt believe he was having this conversation with a princess. One that, even in a designer gown, really did look like something out of The Arabian Nights. But talking about chicken coops, dopey as it was, seemed infinitely safer than that terrifying sense ofwhat in the world had it been? Affinity, concordnone of those words seemed adequate to describe what had just happened between them, between himself and this woman from an alien culturea kind of oneness hed never experienced before with another human being. As if, he thought with a shudder, shed somehow found, and for that one brief moment touched, his innermost self. His soul.
Texas. Her sigh was an echo of his. It must be very wonderful. Hearing a new lightness in her voice, he looked at her warily. Torchlight played mischievously with her dimples.
Shes flirting with you, Cade. The thought made him almost giddy with relief. This was familiar territory, something he was pretty sure he knew how to handle.
He turned toward her and leaned an elbow on the balustrade, relaxed now, and casually smoking. Some parts of it are, he drawled, and some arent. He was thinking about the West Texas oil country, and parts of the Panhandle that were so flat you had the feeling if you got to running too fast youd run right off the edge of the world. Even such a thing as wide open spaces could be carried too far.
Maybe because his thoughts were back home in Texas and he was feeling a little bit overconfident, it was a few seconds before he noticed the intensity of Leilas silence. By the time he did, and snapped his attention back into focus on her, it was too late. He thought it must feel something like this, the first moment after stepping into quicksanda disquieting, sinking sensation, but not yet sure whether he ought to panic or not.
When had she come to be standing so close to him? The sea breeze carried her scent to him, sweet and faintly spicy. The word exotic came to his mind. But then, everything about her was exotic. Was that why she seemed so exciting to him? The fact that she was different from every other woman hed ever met?
Dont even think about it. Shes absolutely off-limits.
Or was it simply that she was forbidden fruit? Off-limits. Inaccessible. Except that, at this moment, at least, he knew she was entirely accessibleto him.
To think like that was insane. And insanely dangerous. He was dealing with a tiger out of her cage, nothing less.
Except that she didnt look much like a tiger at the moment, or anything even remotely dangerous. She looked soft and warm and sweet, more like ripe summer than forbidden fruit. Torchlight touched off golden sparks in the ornaments in her hair and in her eyes. Gazing into them, he felt again the peculiar sensation of not-quite-dizziness, as if his world, his center of gravity, had tilted on its axis. Clutching for something commonplace and familiar, he took a quick, desperate puff of his all-but-forgotten cheroot.
Her whisper came like an extension of the breezeor his own sigh. For one brief moment he wasnt certain whether it was her voice he was hearing, or merely the echoes of his own thoughts.
Do you want to kiss me, Mr. Gallagher?
Cade almost swallowed his cigar. Do you want to kissme?
What on Gods green earth could he say to that? Jolted cruelly back to reality, his mind whirred like a computer through countless impossibilities, distilled finally down to two: Lie and tell her he didnt, which would be unconscionably cruel; or tell her the truth, which would most likely land him in more trouble than he cared to think about.
It was probably gut instinct that made him do neither of those things, but instead try to laugh his way out of it. To make light of it. A joke.
Tossing his cigar over the balustrade with an exaggerated, almost violent motion, he snaked one arm around her waist. The other he hooked across her back at shoulder-blade height, and laying her against it, arched his body over hers in broad parody of some old silent movie clip hed seen recently, he couldnt recall exactly whereThe Academy Awards, maybe?about an Arab sheik in flowing robes and headdress seducing a wild-eyed maiden in a tassel-draped tent.
Kees you? he intoned in a ludicrous and excruciatingly awful mishmash of several different accentshe had no idea where hed gotten that from. Oh-ho-ho, mademoiselle
Startled eyes gazed up at him. He felt a sensation of falling, as if the ground beneath his feet had dropped away.
What mow? He had no idea what he was supposed to say next. That was the trouble with those silent movies, he thought. They were silent. Short on dialogue, long on action. And he was pretty sure he did know what action was supposed to come next.
Dont do that. You cant. Youd be crazy to do that.
Then came the smallest of soundsthe soft rush of an exhalation. Her breath was sweet and faintly wine-scented, so close he felt the stirring of it on his own skin. So near to hisher lips parted. Slowly, slowly her eyes closed.
Lord help me, he thought, and lowered his mouth to hers.
He had an impression of warmth and softness, of sweetness and innocence. Of purity. It occurred to him to wonder whether his might even be the first lips to ever have touched hers, and the thought both excited and shamed him. Is that what its all about? he wondered. Is that why I want her so much? Nothing to do with exotic beauty and forbidden fruit, only the thirst of the conqueror for undefiled lands to claim as his own.
He had an impression of warmth and softness, of sweetness and innocence. Of purity. It occurred to him to wonder whether his might even be the first lips to ever have touched hers, and the thought both excited and shamed him. Is that what its all about? he wondered. Is that why I want her so much? Nothing to do with exotic beauty and forbidden fruit, only the thirst of the conqueror for undefiled lands to claim as his own.
His thirst was in danger of blossoming into fullblown lust.
He felt the flutterings of her instinctive resistance. If only he hadnt! If only shed responded openly, brazenly to his kiss, he might have been able to keep it as hed intended it to beblatantly mockingand end it there. But that tiny faltering, that faint gasp of virginal hesitation It stirred some primitive masculine response deep within him, so that her hesitation affected him not as a warning, but as a challenge. And an embrace meant only to lighten the mood and diffuse dangerous emotions became instead a seduction.
Instead of releasing her, his fingers stroked sensuous circles over the tightened muscles in her back and waist. Instead of pulling away from her, he gently absorbed her lips quiverings and delicately soothed them with the warmth of his own mouth. And felt her relaxmelt into his embrace as hed somehow known she would.
He shifted her slightly, to a more comfortable, more natural position, and felt her body align with his as if it had been custom-made for that purpose, a soft and supple warmth. He lightly sipped her wine-flavored mouth, and only then discoveredtoo latethat he was famished for the unique taste of her, that he craved her with every fiber of his being.
Tiny lightbursts of warning exploded inside his brain. Reserves of strength summoned from God knew where made it possible for him to tear his mouth from hersfor a moment, no more. He released a sound like the moaning of wind in old trees and buried his face in the graceful curve of her neck. Thengently, carefully at first, he brushed his lips against the skin there, velvety soft and sweetly scented as rose petals.
The sound she made was breathy and frightened, but he felt the uniquely feminine, seeking arch of her body, and the hot rush of blood through his in automatic masculine response. With a growl of triumph, unthinking he brought his mouth back to hers. Still gently but inexorably now as water finding its own course, his mouth began to follow the shapes and contours of hershis tongue found its way to the soft inside. She whimpered.
How can this be? Leila thought. I cannot breathe, myheart is racing so. I feel as if I am drowningdyingandyet I cannot stop myselfdont want to stop myselforhim. If I am dying, then this must be heaven, because Idont want it to stopever.
Her skin felt hot and prickly all over, from the roots of her hair to the soles of her feet. And yetshe shivered. Her headher heartfelt light as air, lighter than butterflies and wind-carried chaff, yet her body felt weighted, too heavy to move.
His body was a hard, unyielding weight against her breasts, breasts that had become so sensitive she could feel every ridge and fold of his jacket, the warp and woof of the cloth. Even the rub of her own clothing seemed an intolerable abrasion.
Panting, she tore her mouth free of his and arched her throat, offering that to him instead. And how had she known to do such a thing? Even as she wondered, she felt the press of his lips against the pounding of her pulse, and mounting pressureand terrifying weakness.
And then the pressure was gone. From a great distance came a raw, anguished sound, and the weight lifted from her breasts. Her throat and lips felt cold, and throbbed with her racing pulse. Swamped with dizziness, afraid she might fall, she clung with desperate fingers to the arms that held her and fearfully opened her eyes. Eyes stared down into herseyes that burned with a golden gleameyes that burned her soul like fire.
What She meant to whisper, but it was a tiny squeak, like the mew of a kitten.
His voice was so ragged she could hardly understand him. PrincessIm sorry. I cant do this. I cant
When she felt his arms shift, depriving her of their support, she gasped and caught at his sleeves. His fingers bit into the flesh of her arms as, grim-faced, he held her away from him, then with great care stood her upright and steadied her like a precariously balanced statue. Once more his eyes lashed across her, and she flinched as though from the sting of a whip.
Dammit, he fiercely muttered, and then, as he turned, added with soft regret, Another time, maybeanother place.
And he was gone.
Left alone, Leila stood where she was, trembling, hardly daring to move, until the scrape of footsteps on stone had been swallowed up in the shusshing of waves and the whisper of wind.
FoolishfoolishThe whispers mocked her. Servesyou right. This is what happens to pushy women.
Butwhat had happened, exactly?
Hugging herself, Leila whirled to face the glittering indigo vastness of sky and sea. She was shivering still, no longer with shock, but a strange, fierce excitement. Cade Gallagher had kissed her! Kissed her in a way she was quite certain no man should ever kiss a woman who was not his wife.
And that she had allowed it? Fear and guilt added layers to her excitement, but did not banish it. That she had allowed such a thing to happen was unpardonable.
She knew she should feel frightened, terrified, ashamed. So why was she smiling? Smiling, lightheaded, and absolutely giddy with excitement?
Another timeanother place.
That was what he had said. She remembered his exact words. Understanding came; certainty settled around her, comforting as a cashmere shawl.
Back in his own room at last, Cade slipped out of his tux jacket with a grateful sigh. One helluva day, he thought as he tossed the jacket onto the cushions of the surprisingly trendy brown-and-white striped sofa. And thank God it was over. Tomorrow hed be back in familiar territory, home country. The world of business was where he belonged, where he felt comfortable. It was what he was good atdoing deals, making plans, working out compromises. All this formal socializing, rubbing elbows with royaltythat wasnt his style. Oh, he knew a certain amount of that stuff was unavoidable from time to time, but he was always glad when it was time to roll up his sleeves and get down to the real work, down and dirty sometimes, rough as a bare-knuckle brawl, but that was what he liked about itthe excitement of the game. That, and the satisfaction that came with winning.
Anyway, for sheer stress, all that was a piece of cake compared to what hed just been through. Hed rather spend three days in cutthroat negotiations than three hours at a formal receptionand in this case, formal was putting it mildly. Not that it hadnt been impressive as hell, the palace ballroom lit up like Christmas, the food delicious, the music tolerable, if you went in for that sort of thing. And hed never seen so many purple sashes and gold medals in one place in all his life, or so many beautiful peopleespecially the women. Everywhere he looked was a feast for a mans eyes. But there was something about it he couldnt quite put his finger on. Undercurrents.