Deceptive Love (19 page)

"Fortunately we're both saved from that fate," he retorted. "My housekeeper had instructions to leave a meal ready for us. All we have to do is punch the appropriate buttons on the microwave and carry in the other food from the refrigerator. That is well within my capabilities," he announced with pride.

"My, my. How domesticated you are. I would never have suspected it," she enthused admiringly.

"Woman," he growled threateningly, "I am dangerous when I'm hungry. Get up and feed me."

Keri must not have been overly impressed because she didn't scramble up immediately and race into the kitchen. She got in one final word. "The way to your heart must be a superhighway, darling. You're always hungry. I thought love was supposed to make you pine and lose your appetite."

He leered at her and advanced toward the couch. "You, my proud beauty, give me appetites I didn't know I had!"

At those words Keri was off the couch in a flash, but she wasn't scuttling toward the kitchen. Instead she threw herself directly into Dain's arms. He lifted her and swung her exultantly around in a circle. When she came back to earth, they both went into the kitchen to see what Dain's Mrs. Babcock had left for them.

After a delicious meal Keri loaded the dishwasher. Dain protested, telling her to leave them for Mrs. Babcock, but Keri had elicited the information that the inestimable housekeeper didn't work on Sunday. Dain might be prepared to let the dishes sit in the sink until Monday morning, but Keri wasn't. She came to a clean kitchen. She'd leave one behind.

The apartment didn't have an open fireplace, but soft lights and even softer music set the mood well enough.

Keri curled up against Dain on the big comfortable couch, her glass of Amaretto and soda held lightly in her hand. Dain was sipping on a brandy, his feet propped on the wood and slate coffee table.

They talked about nothing in particular, pausing to listen whenever a snatch of music caught their attention. It seemed merely a natural extension of the peaceful rapport when Dain gently lifted Keri's half empty glass from her lax fingers and placed it beside his own on a side table.

He gathered her against himself and began to kiss her in a leisurely fashion, not aggressively, but quietly leading her into a mutual exploration of the sensory pleasures. She shared the taste of brandy from his breath and their tongues met and stroked in the soft duel for dominance which she gladly lost.

His hands were gentle but firm, sweeping down over her shoulders and back, to glide beneath her knitted top seeking the warm, smooth skin. The top was in the way, Keri thought lazily, and she never considered objecting when Dain lifted it over her head. He dealt with the front closure of her bra impatiently, fumbling only momentarily until he had mastered the mystery of the pressure needed to release the slide fastening.

He made a sound deep from the back of his throat and his hands came up to gently cup the rich flesh thus exposed to his pleasure. His fingers had a life of their own as they stroked and gently kneaded the firm curves, while his mouth nibbled and nipped its way from her lips, down the arch of her throat and onto the swollen mound his fingers lifted.

Keri was nearly frenzied from the sensations Dain caused. Her own hands were busy exploring the muscular roughness of his chest beneath his shirt. His body gave off heat like a furnace, burning against her flattened palms and stroking fingers wherever they touched the skin beneath the silky fur on his chest.

A shock, almost like a dart of pain, but without the sharp overtones, shot through Keri's body, radiating from the nipple Dain had captured in his lips. She felt his tongue rolling over and around the tip, felt the nipple swell into throbbing hardness. She couldn't suppress the low moan that rippled in the back of her throat, and when he began to suckle gently, drawing pleasure, giving pleasure such as she had never experienced, she whimpered.

"Honey, sweet honey," he murmured into the valley between the soft hills of her breasts. He lifted his head away from her enticing skin and pulled his own shirt off in one swift motion before he took her back in his arms and whispered, "I want you now, Keri. I want to taste and touch and know every inch of your lovely body. I want to place the seal of my body on yours as well as my ring on your finger. I need to know that you're mine alone now. I love you, Keri. Come to me."

The words were interspersed between drugging kisses and caresses, but Keri heard every word. He only put into audible words what Keri's body demanded of her. She pulled his head up to meet her avid mouth, giving him the answer he sought by the fervor of her kiss.

He said no more. He lifted her in his arms and carried her steadily out of the living room, through a dimly lit hall, and into his bedroom. With one hand he swept back the spread and upper sheet before lowering her onto the waiting bed. He gently removed the rest of her clothes before removing his own.

The kisses and caresses he had given her before were exciting, but now that he had the freedom of her body, he quickly enticed her onto a slow spiral upward to ecstasy. His mouth was fiery and as he sipped and feasted on the peaks of her breasts, she began to moan and writhe, pleading wordlessly for the final holocaust which would quench the flames racing through her body, in one final, splendorous immolation.

Dain worshiped her body with his mouth and hands, and when he covered her, spreading her thighs gently with his hands to take what was his alone, she clung to him desperately, her hands splayed over the bunched muscles of his back, digging in for purchase as he lifted her into his possession.

She muffled her cry against the smooth swell of his shoulder as the short, sharp pain ripped through her, an
d she felt him falter, hesitate
. ... She began to kiss his neck and throat and it was too late for his questions, too late for anything but the needs of their bodies.

When he could speak again, Dain lifted himself up on one elbow and switched on a shaded light. He turned back and looked down at Keri as she lay curled against his side. He gently brushed a rich tendril of hair back from her face, smoothing down the soft line of her cheek. Her eyes opened slowly, the pupils still dark and unfocused in the aftermath of her experience. She smiled, slowly, lovingly.

"My God, Keri," he said harshly. "You were a virgin." He sounded appalled.

Her smile deepened. "Yes, I
was,
" she purred, her voice throaty with satisfaction. She stretched and ran a hand lovingly through the hair on his chest.

He shot up in bed as though she had sunk claws into his skin. "Damn it, Keri, don't you understand? You were a
virgin!"

"I know that, Dain. I always knew it," Keri said patiently. "What I don't understand is why it upsets you. I thought you'd be glad.

"Of course I'm glad," he nearly shouted. "I ... I just didn't
expect ..."
Concern darkened his face. "Did I . . . hurt you, sweetheart? I would have been gentler if I'd suspected, if I'd known . . ." He was floundering badly.

Keri was amused. The assured, sophisticated Dain Randolph at such a loss. She touched his face, his mouth, gently with her fingertips. "I love you, darling. You made me very happy. Are you sorry now?" she said softly.

"Sorry? God, no!" He gathered her into his arms fiercely. "I wanted you. I want you now. It's just
that...
well," he said awkwardly, "perhaps you would rather have waited until after we were married."

"Do you think we
could
have waited?" she asked wryly, her mouth curving into a wicked, woman-wise smile.

"No..."
he groaned and began to kiss her desperately, hungrily, confirming his possession of her body again.

The next morning Keri wandered into the kitchen, wrapped in a short terrycloth robe of Dain's, to investigate the possibilities for breakfast. They had showered together, an exhilarating experience for Keri at least, and she had left Dain in the steamy bathroom trying to clear the mist from the mirror so that he could shave. She felt pleasantly domestic and just a bit stiff and sore as well They hadn't slept much, but for a wedding night, as Keri considered it, it hadn't been bad at all. She stretched sinuously and the robe fell open . . . not bad at all!

She tied the robe again and started the coffee perking. She was very glad that she'd done the dishes the night before. How depressing to wake up to a sinkful of crusted plates after such a night.

She found bread, sausages, and eggs and laid them on the countertop while she searched through the orderly ranks of pans for a skillet and the toaster. She had just found both items when she heard a sound from the direction of the living room. With a smile tilting the corners of her mouth she pulled the robe together again and walked into the living room, expecting to see Dain.

He wasn't there. She looked around in bewilderment. She was
sure ...
she heard the sound again. Someone was rattling the doorknob and then she heard a key turning in the lock. The door started to open.

"Now, now you'll see!" There was a strident, vicious bite to the tones of the woman's voice.

Keri stood frozen, filled with a sense of horrible premonition as she automatically clutched the lapels of the robe together at the neck and stared toward the front door. Denise stepped out of the entry hall, into the living room, followed by . . . Schyler.

Denise caught sight of
Keri at once and she said, jeer
ingly triumphant, throwing out an accusing hand toward Keri, "There, didn't I tell you? There she is, your precious Miss Dalton. She's my brother's mistress! I told him about her, and he came back from Europe especially, just to make sure she wouldn't be interested in marrying you, Schyler." She clutched at his arm possessively. "You're mine and Dain always gives me what I want." She laughed shrilly and said crudely, "Though this time it looks as though Brother Dear has gotten something for himself out of the deal as well. Play your cards right, Miss Dalton, and you might get some nice pieces of jewelry for yourself. Dain is very generous to his women. Something for everyone . . ."

Schyler's face was gray. He looked at Keri with anguished eyes and said painfully, "Oh, Keri, how could you? I wanted to marry you! You knew that. How could you do this?"

His face twisted into a mask of rage as he looked to the right of Keri. "Damn you, Randolph. She was
my
woman. I’ll kill you for this." In spite of Denise's frantic clutch at his arm, Schyler lunged at Dain, who had come into the living room, unnoticed by Keri.

Dain was dressed only in slacks and there was a towel still draped around his neck. Traces of lather at the angle of his jaw indicated that he had heard the commotion as he finished shaving and had come to investigate.

When Schyler launched himself at Dain, Keri saw the whole sequence of events through a slow-motion haze of pain. Dain just had time to brace himself to take the shock of Schyler's assault. He slowed Schyler's charge with his left hand and drew back a strongly muscled right arm, cocked it behind his ear and unleashed the driving fist directly on the point of Schyler's jaw. Schyler dropped like a poleaxed steer. Dain sucked his knuckles and then shook his hand to resettle the bones into place.

"Now, would someone tell me what the bloody hell is going on?" he growled fiercely. "Denise," he said dangerously to his sister as she knelt by the prostrate Schyler, who was groggily rubbing his jaw, "just what the devil are you doing here in my apartment?" He nudged the recumbent Schyler with a disdainful toe. "And why did you bring him along?"

"I brought him to prove to him that Keri Dalton had no further use for him so that he'd agree to go ahead with our marriage." Her mouth quivered. "I think I'm pregnant and Schyler said he didn't care, that he was going to marry her anyway." Denise glared viciously at a white- faced Keri. "I told Schyler that she was your mistress, but he wouldn't believe me, so I had to prove it to him. And I did!" she finished triumphantly.

Dain took a step toward Keri but stopped when she backed away from him, horror in her eyes. A muscle twitched and jumped along his jaw line and his mouth set in a cruel, hard slash.

Keri felt sick to her stomach, nausea rising in a bitter tide up her throat. She swallowed desperately. It was all horribly clear now. She had been conditioned by her godfather's expressed disbelief in her ability to carry off her masquerade of unattractiveness for any length of time, and by Schyler's easy recognition of her, so that Dain's seeming ability to pierce her absurd facade hadn't seemed suspicious.

Vanity had played its part as well. Because she had been so violently attracted to Dain from the beginning, she had been all too willing to accept the possibility that he could be attracted to her, despite her initial unprepossessing exterior and manner.

Keri clamped her teeth shut over bitter laughter. She was well served for any vanity now. Dain
hadn't
seen beneath her makeup and her frosty manner. He had known beforehand that she was not what she seemed. He had pursued her in a deliberate campaign because he saw her as a threat to Denise's happiness. The black irony must have all the old gods laughing now. Hubris in the best dramatic tradition, and her fall was going to be long and very, very painful. Something for everyone, indeed. The bill for her lessons in life was now due and payable and she was finding herself bankrupt.

She wasn't guarding her expression and Dain could read every painful thought. "Keri." He didn't appeal. He ordered and held out his hand toward her to enforce the order.

She looked at him and his demanding hand. Her face twisted, mirroring her bewilderment and sense of betrayal, her green eyes glittering with brimming tears. Keri was bleeding to death internally, lacerated by the glass-sharp words Denise had hurled at her unprotected heart.

"Dain?" she questioned him wretchedly, still hoping for a miraculous denial. "Is it true? You . . . you made me your secretary because of Schyler?"

'I’l
l explain later, Keri," he responded, neither affirming nor denying anything. His face was shuttered and she could read nothing except a proud demand that she trust him.

Dain's hand remained extended to her, rock steady, insistent, somehow pulling her toward his side with invisible ropes. He expected her to disregard Denise's words, to trust him before any explanation was made.

She had given him the gift of her body. Did that mean, on a cellular, bone, and blood-deep level, that she had also given him unwavering trust? She acted on instinct alone, because logic gave her no guidance. Almost beyond her conscious volition, she took an unsteady step toward him, impelled by the irresistible demand in his green eyes and by some faint, gasping hope she could not put a name to.

When Keri took that first step toward him, some invisible tension relaxed in Dain. The bunched muscle in his jaw smoothed. He watched her take two more hesitant steps and then he moved the rest of the way.to her side. He lifted up her left hand, turned it over and laid a kiss in the palm.

He tilted up her chin and said softly, "Thank you, sweetheart. It will be all right. I promise you."

Schyler had climbed unsteadily to his feet and stood swaying, a dark bruise already puffing his jaw. Denise tried to slip his arm over her shoulders but he shrugged her aside. "Keri," he said hoarsely, though it was obviously painful for him to form words, "Keri, I'll marry you still. I won't care about him. Don't you understand? You're my woman."

"Shut up, Van Metre," Dain snarled savagely. "She's not your woman. She was
never
your woman." He lifted Keri's hand and the blazing diamond scintillated with a life of its own. "She is
my
woman and she'll be my wife as soon as her parents arrive, or before then if she doesn't want to wait for them. If I ever catch you anywhere near Keri again, I'll break your neck. Now get out of here and take my bitch of a sister with you. What you do with her afterward is your business, but I want you both out of my apartment. Now!"

"But,
Dain ..."
Denise wailed, no longer the haughty, beautiful woman. She was a scared, haggard woman whose spite had rebounded violently upon her own head. Dain watched her with implacable eyes, no mercy or liking visible on the closed mask of his face.

"Get out, Denise. I'll deal with you later." His voice was hard and unforgiving. He slid his arm around Keri's shaking shoulders, pulling her warmly against the strength of his body. He could feel her trembling violently, constant shudders rippling over her skin.

He turned her fully into his arms and bent protectively above her, holding her sheltered from sight of the other two as they departed. When they heard the sound of the door closing violently, Keri sagged limply against Dain. He caught her behind the shoulders and knees and lifted her into his arms. Her hand came up to touch the side of his neck as he walked over to the couch, where he sat down.