Authors: Mary Margret Daughtridge

SEALed with a Ring (27 page)

He cocked his head at her silence. "What?"

"I wanted to see you. I wanted to know you. What time is it?" He changed the subject abruptly.

JJ glanced at her watch. "Seven-twenty."

"I need to take Snatch outside." He gave her the to tally bland, completely straight-faced look she had come to profoundly mistrust. It was exactly how he looked when he had suggested Snatch as a dog's name. He reached for the simple loop leash they were using until the dog could wear a collar.

He disarmed the security system and opened the patio door. Then he said, "Did I mention that Ham has prom ised to keep your grandfather busy until nine-thirty?"

A man could accomplish a lot in an hour and… David slammed into one of the concrete barriers in his mind. He shouldn't have to think about how many minutes lay between seven-twenty-five and nine-thirty. He should know, and the crazy thing was he
did
know, but he reached for it… and whammo! Concrete wall.

He clinched his teeth, fighting the mind-bending, skull-tightening, stomach-knotting frustration. The biggest single difference between those who made it as SEALs and those who didn't was that SEALs didn't quit. Confronted with a challenge, they had an almost overwhelming drive to keep trying, to push harder. But trying would only push the goal further away.

Let it go.
With a conscious act of will, he wrested his attention back to his task. There was
enough
time. That was all that mattered.

He tugged Snatch's leash. Snatch obligingly stopped sniffing the tires of the Land Rover and followed him to the Lexus he'd parked minutes before. David retrieved JJ's dancing tote from the trunk.

He had followed her to the dance studio tonight be cause he wanted to get to know her. Dancing was the only thing she had ever mentioned that seemed to be about her. Something she did for herself, because she was herself, not the head of Caruthers, not the charity or civic leader. Just herself.

Back in the kitchen, Snatch went to his bowl and lapped a bit, then collapsed with a deep, grateful sounding sigh onto his bed. He'd been much more willing to go outside tonight, but movement was still painful for the guy.

To make sure it wasn't time for more pain meds, David slipped the medication schedule he'd made from his pocket, although JJ had written out a schedule and taped it on the inside of a cabinet door. Numbers could be slippery. On the schedule he'd made, drawn clock faces showed each dose. Needing pictures embarrassed him. It looked kindergarten-ish. Looked… hell, it was. He unfolded it and compared his drawing to the kitchen wall clock—which had flowers instead of numbers anyway. A corner of his mouth quirked in philosophical humor. At least in this place, pictures made as much sense as numbers.

He listened for JJ, not that he expected to hear her if she was upstairs. This house made silence into an art form. Even the refrigerator motor kept its workings to it self. Some intuition sent him into the dark family room.

She perched on the arm of a sofa, head tilted as if she was listening to something.

JJ, sitting still, doing nothing. Something he'd never seen before. He paused on the threshold. "Am I inter rupting anything?"

JJ leaned over to switch on a lamp. She was smiling. He'd seen her smile before, but not like this. JJ kept her beautiful features composed most of the time, giving away little of what she thought or felt. Now her whole face was softened. In the lamplight, her green eyes twinkled, and her disbelieving smile held affection. She quirked an eyebrow. "Since when do you mind inter rupting me?"

He shrugged. "Bothering you when you're rushing around, already ten minutes into the future—that's one thing. Breaking in when you've found something important enough to bring you to a full stop—that's something else." He sat on the couch and hauled her down beside him.

She swiveled her hips so that she landed perfectly in his lap. God, he loved the way she could take care of herself. Around her, he could get physical with a spon taneity that had rarely been possible since he couldn't take a chance on hurting a woman. He couldn't wait to see what else was possible. "So, what made you hit the pause button?"

"You wanted to watch me dance—that's what you said."

"Watching you do almost anything would be worth while. Watching you dance? It was beautiful. Anyone would want to."

"Do you think Lucas would?"

"You think he wouldn't? Is that why you don't want him to know?"

"I've been thinking he would say it was a waste of time. One time I asked my grandmother for ballet lessons. She said okay. The next morning at breakfast, she mentioned to Lucas she was looking around for a ballet teacher. He said, 'All right, Beth. You know how to raise a girl. Me, I'd rather see her spend her time learning something that'll make a difference.' So I told her I'd changed my mind, I didn't want to. But he didn't say I couldn't take lessons. He just wasn't interested. Now I wonder how many opportuni ties I've missed because of what I thought he wanted."

David struggled to see the connection. He understood enough about women to know that they weren't talking about nothing when their logical leaps baffled him. He went back to the part he understood. She liked that he wanted to watch her dance. And he had known watching her dance would be a way to get to know her.

"JJ. Tell me about dancing."

"When I'm dancing, I think of nothing. I'm dancing, and that's all I'm doing."

"Is it like focus?"

"Like on a video game? No."

"Like intense concentration?"

"No, it's like the
opposite
of concentration. But it isn't spaciness. That implies an out-of-it, out-of-touch condition. I would have to say space-fullness. I am there, and what I'm doing is dancing. If this is how athletes feel about their sport, then I understand how they can dedicate their lives to it."

Again, though he might not have understood all she meant by her words, he understood the arms spread wide to encompass and embrace the totality of all that-there-is.

People thought SEALs were adrenaline junkies in constant need for excitement. To an extent that was true. But there was something else. Something harder to talk about because there weren't any words and the experience was rare. SEALs practiced various move ment sequences until anywhere, under any conditions, their bodies would respond flawlessly. At the same time, they practiced what JJ had called space-fullness—it was as good a word as any. Every iota of their being was in whatever space they were in.

He looked into her face. "Dance with me. Do it. Put your dancing clothes back on."

"My clothes are out in the car."

"I brought them in."

"You planned this?"

"I plan for what I want."

He understood what he had to give her. Freedom. Freedom of her body.

In her bedroom, JJ trailed her fingers over the dress's glistening white satin jersey.

As well as being too short, the skirt had an off-center sarong drape that allowed way too much thigh. The hal ter top plunged way too deep between her breasts in the front and exposed all of her back to a couple of inches below her waist. Only ingenious internal construction and the miracle of Lycra would keep the top on.

The dress might have done for Hollywood, but it was too extreme in every way for Wilmington society. It was a dancing dress. Expressly designed to display a female body. When she bought it, she had doubted she'd ever wear it, but she'd had to have it.

She finished buckling the collection of straps that made dancing in five-inch heels possible and quickly checked herself in the mirror. Oh yeah. The dress looked like it would go gliding off at any moment. And since there wasn't a man in the world who didn't think makeup on a woman was sexy, whether he approved of makeup or not, she had added lots of dramatic eyeliner and smoky shadow and Carmen red lipstick.

Downstairs, David quickly confirmed for himself that the front entry had the most clear floor space. He ruth lessly rolled up the undoubtedly irreplaceable oriental rug and dragged it into the hall of Lucas's wing. The wide polished boards gleamed bare and ready.

He had just finished when he heard soft footfalls on the stairs. His heartbeat faltered. Then it chugged into a deeper, stronger rhythm while he took in long, long legs, and bare shoulders and arms. The white dress displayed the rosy apricot swells of her breasts in mouthwatering lusciousness. It flowed over them to the deep curve of her waist. It swirled around her hips as if it were made of white water and depended on magic to keep it on, which of course riveted him on the possibility that at any moment it would let go.

She'd made her eyes look huge and mysterious, her mouth—oh well, her lips were x-rated.

He had once said she was a goddess. Now she came down the stairs without hurry, a woman fully aware of her feminine power and ready to wield it.

His.

Lest the harsh, atavistic, triumphant, totally retro thought show on his face, he inclined his head in grave obeisance. He lifted his hand to her. "Would you like to dance?"

She moved down another step and bestowed her hand in his. "I would," she answered, gracious acceptance curving those hot, hot lips.

"There's the question of music." He handed her the remote to the 800-channel satellite system. "I thought you would know which channels have the best dance music."

"Actually, I don't." She clicked through the menu. "I've never done this before." She paused to smile warmly into his eyes. "Okay, here's Latin. Do you want to rumba?"

"Sorta got to. It's all I know."

He raised his left palm. There was the tiniest tremor, the slightest coolness in her fingertips as she fitted her palm to his. The trust and faith she was showing humbled him.

He stepped into the music.

Chapter 39

JJ WAS DETERMINED TO LET HIM LEAD, NO MATTER what. IN those two minutes Illarion had allowed them to dance together, David had shown amazing profi ciency, but he was, after all, a beginner. Even a danc ing genius could learn only so many steps in a half hour. Still, the heart of ballroom was not fancy foot work. It was synergy of partnership.

For the first half of the song, he kept to a simple box step. He adjusted the size of his step to hers. His timing was flawless. With the simplicity of the steps, JJ relaxed into a deeper, smoother swivel of her hips. Felt him feel it happen.

So smoothly she hardly knew he had done it, he led her into an underarm turn. She rewarded him with a flir tatious glance over her shoulder.

The underarm turn in the rumba is slow, taken through four steps to return to the partner. He took his time to play his eyes over her, letting his gaze linger on her breasts and hips in frank, masculine greed.

She returned the look with a knowing smile and one eyebrow lifted in challenge.

After that, who knew if they danced steps ever seen be fore on a ballroom floor? With his lead so sure, so indis putable, so perfectly timed, her response was instinctual.

They danced.

Quick-quick-slow.

The music throbbed in leisurely undulations.

Quick-quick-slow.

Golden droplets of light sprinkled by the chandelier trickled over the rosy apricot of her cheeks. He took his hand from beneath her shoulder blade and stroked down her arm to signal open position so that he could better view the light slipping across the swells of her breasts. The skin between them gleamed from the heat of lazily relentless
quick-quick-slow.

"Oksanna told me this step says I am dancing with the most beautiful woman in the room. I am showing her off to make all the men envy me."

Quick-quick-slow.

JJ peeped from the corner of her eyes. "I am the only woman in the room."

Quick-quick-slow.

"You are the most beautiful woman in this room or in any room in the world. And you
—"

Quick-quick-slow.

"Are the only woman—"

Quick-quick-slow.

"In the world."

Quick-quick-slow.

"When I think the other men have admired her enough," he gave the authoritative snap that would cause her to pivot on the ball of her foot. He loved doing that. "I bring her back."

Her eyes were dark with desire. He drew her closer. With every sway of their torsos, her breasts brushed his chest. His erection brushed her mound. His lips found hers. Took.

After a good bit of reconnaissance, he had spot ted the tiny hooks that restrained the halter top of her dress. Never letting the rhythm falter, never yielding his claim to her mouth, he brought his hands to her nape and released them.

Their steps faltered as they sought to get closer. He relished the fluid feel of her breasts against his chest. He filled his hands with her buttocks pressing her closer. She twined one leg around his.

"I want skin." Her hands tugged at his polo shirt.

What the lady wanted, the lady got. He pulled it over his head and sent it flying. It landed on the newel post, not that he knew it at the time.

"Hang on." He grasped her waist and lifted. She in stantly clasped her legs around his middle. With them in better line with his mouth, he nuzzled her breasts.

"Oh yes!" She arched her back to give him better access.

She clung to his neck with one hand while, with the other, she offered her breast like luscious fruit. Her core was hot against his abdomen. He suckled hard. Her pas sion ratcheted up another notch. With each climb, her torso undulated, her legs tightened. The heels of her shoes dug into his buttocks.

Knowing each exact moment her arousal surged filled him with a heady rush of power, as arousing as anything he'd ever experienced. His forearms supporting her thighs, he dug his fingers into her hot, wet center. A silky barrier blocked his way. He ruthlessly found the seam and ripped it.

He pushed one finger, two, into her tight, wet heat. He experimented until he found the rhythm she was looking for.

She could come like this. She would.

JJ had, once before in her life, yielded to desire; this time she exulted in wild, unfettered freedom. She felt him tear through the sewn-in panty of the dress, and then his hand was there.
There
. With the same perfectly timed rhythm as his ministrations at her breasts.

His hard arms secure under her thighs, her hair brush ing her bare back, the chandelier with its hundred glit tering prisms above her, sinuous, seductive music—this moment filled her entire world. She heard herself crying "Good, good," in laughing sobs.

He urged her to climb to the peak with triumphant resolution. And then she shattered. She clung to his shoulders, pulling his wild, hot, male scent deep into her lungs as wave after wave gripped then released her.

He gently set her on her feet, continuing to support most of her weight. While she rested her head on his shoulder, he murmured praise and printed kisses on her throat.

As her breathing evened out, his kisses became more insistent, as did the fierce urgency with which he kneaded her back and molded her closer to him. He claimed her mouth in hot, hard demand, gripped the back of her head to keep her exactly where he wanted her and, with his other hand, pushed her against his arousal.

Not to her surprise, the searing throb at her core was already back. In fact, it had never faded. It had simply found a plateau and rested there. She insinuated a hand between his ridged belly and slacks, seeking him. She caught his gaze, letting him read her intention that she
would
have him.

He opened his slacks for her explorations, toeing off his loafers.

She hooked one leg around his to bring him to her. She had never pushed the bottom half of her dress the rest of the way off, but after what he'd done to it, it offered no impediment. The fine tremor in the leg bear ing her weight increased, but she denied it. He gently pushed the leg she'd wrapped around him back down. "No, I want—"

"I know what you want. Your legs are too tired."

She would have protested except it was the truth. "What then? The floor's too hard. And cold. The stairs are worse."

"Now I get what I want." He stepped out of his slacks.

He looked a little scary all of a sudden. All powerful muscle and hard intent. Not bad scary. More big male an imal scary. Make that big, male,
aroused animal scary
.

Reflexively, JJ backed away, half-laughing, half nervous. "Um, let's talk this over."

"No talking." He came after her, stalking her step for step. As if it were a new dance. Rumba music still played, but their moves had the edgy tension of a tango.

She backed into the umbrella stand, which didn't contain umbrellas but a collection of walking canes acquired over the generations. JJ grabbed for it, but it went over. Wooden canes spilled everywhere, their clatter loud.

"See what you did," he chided, nimbly stepping over the small obstacles.

JJ backed around a corner and, not looking where she was going, caught her heel in the rolled-up rug. One hand flew out and knocked a painting askew. Going down, she grabbed for anything and found his hands already on her waist, already setting her on her feet.

"Failure to watch your six," he tsked. "You are not practicing proper safety awareness," he told her sternly. "There will be penalties." Not giving her time to think, he scooped her into his arms. He headed down the hall toward Lucas's suite.

He turned into the much narrower hall where the door to the pool was. One of JJ's feet, still shod in her danc ing heels, collided with a wall sconce. Its bulb went out, plunging them into shadows.

"All right." He put her on her feet. "Better take it single file from here. But first, now that it has served its purpose, we need to get you out of this." He pushed the bottom half of her dress off her hips. "Will you wear it for me again sometime?"

He stripped her efficiently. JJ couldn't get a reading on his half-joking, wholly intense mien, the feral light in his eyes, the low, growly, uninflected voice. She could feel her eyes get wider. Her heart kept skipping little beats. Her breath exploded in sharp pants.

He paused, one hand firmly gripping her upper arm, one hand on the doorknob. "Do exactly as I say, and nobody gets hurt."

He sounded so serious. Her heart stumbled, badly, before it found its beat again. "Come off it. Nobody's going to get hurt."

His implacable, graven look said more clearly than any words that she was in his power, they both knew it, and whether anyone got hurt was totally up to him. "Will you do as I say?"

Then she saw—even in the shadowy hall with only a vague luminance coming through the glass pool door— the glint of teasing deadpan humor. He was playing. And making it just real enough to be thoroughly thrill ing. Something like a warm spring from deep within the earth bubbled to the surface, moistening and heating all the cold dry places in her soul.

As clearly as if he'd spoken aloud, she heard, "Trust me." It really was that simple. She could do what he said, and nobody would get hurt.

Trusting was a huge leap for her. It wasn't about ad mitting him access to her body. This was about stepping away from the control she sought to maintain over her world, the boundaries she stayed in charge of so that she always knew where they were. This was about learning to swim with the chaos of life instead of erecting barri ers against it. This was about letting go of the anchors, moving away from all that tied her in one place.

This was about not managing life but participating in it.

She raised her hand, schoolgirl polite. "May I ask a question?"

"What is it?" He growled. He opened the door. One hand on the small of her back urged her into the thick, humid atmosphere of the pool.

She tossed him a smile over her shoulder. "If you're going to throw me in the pool, do you mind if I take off my shoes first?"

"I like the shoes." God, he did. He flipped on the un derwater lights. The shimmering light licked over every perfect, soft curve of breasts and hips and graceful line of long, long leg. Whatever you called the peachy color of the shoes, it almost perfectly matched her skin tone, making her look even more naked than if her feet were bare. "The shoes come off when I take them off."

His groin hardened even more. His heart thudded. Reluctantly he admitted he was never going to last through the love play he had planned. Meticulous plan ning and attention to detail were the keys to success. He had stored a selection of floats as well as silicone gel that maximized sensual water play. But they would have to wait for another time.

She was enjoying their little game of domination. A SEAL stayed flexible and took advantage of opportunities.

The thing was, he wasn't playing now. It no longer mattered how many other women there were in the world. He finally had her complete attention, and he wanted her. He wanted to master her. He wanted to take her into the fire and let it consume them both.

"Do you understand that I have you in my power?"

"Yes."

"And that I can do anything I want to with you?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to stop with the smart mouth?"

"No."

"So you're going to need a demonstration of just what I can do to you?"

"Probably." She let a dark tress fall over one eye. "I am bad, and I am thoroughly out of control."

"Are you saying I might need to restrain you?"

"You might."

"I'd better search you first. Up against the wall."

"Aren't you supposed to say, 'On the ground! Get on the ground!'"

"The wall."

She sauntered to one of the tiled walls, hips moving in slow undulation. He had to fight not to laugh aloud at the amount of sexy insolence she managed to put into it.

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