THE CRITIC (13 page)

Toreas listened to Jared’s husky voice reading her words.  “
He kissed her and she melted
.”

Jared laid the paper back on the table and looked into the brown eyes that faced him. “You’re right. You do need help.” He saw her flush with embarrassment.

“Toreas, let me ask you a question. Have you ever melted from a man’s kisses?”

“Why are you asking me that, Jared?  It’s none of your business. I thought you came here because you wanted my help.”

“I do.  I’m not trying to insult you, but you’ll have to admit, that scene is kind of boring. It shows no passion. You can’t relay what you’ve never felt.”

“You don’t know what I’ve experienced,” Toreas snapped at him. “Besides, my work is fiction.”

Jared noticed her haughty tone. If she thought she was putting him in his place, she had another thought coming. “At least what I wrote, I’ve experienced and I’ve only been a romance writer since last night.”

Strangle him, that’s what she’d do. Then she’d hide the body.
ARW would never have to find out. She could say that she didn’t believe in violence. Jared would be dead. He would not be able to dispute her.

Jared noticed that strange gleam in Toreas’s eyes and put his hands up playfully.  ”I’m willing to help you, so calm down and stop looking at me like that.”

“Just how are you willing to help me?”

He stood and walked away from her, a safe distance, she noticed. “How are you planning to help me, Jared?” The mischievous smile on his face indicated his help would be of a sexual nature.

This time she would not blush. “If you’re talking about what I said, forget it.”

“I’m not offering to sleep with you. As I said, I’m not a whore.  Besides, that contract you talked about, well, it would be of no interest now. I no longer have a job.”

“And you have no interest in me,” she said quietly. “I remember.”

Jared stared at her for a long moment. “And you have no interest in me. Right?  If I’m not mistaken, you loathe me.”  He tilted his head to the side and studied her briefly.  “Are those your feelings?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”  He smiled at her again.  “Then we shouldn’t have any problems.  I was proposing to help you with the kiss. Come here, Toreas.”  When she didn’t move he speared her with a look.

“Come here, To…re…as,” he called, once again caressing her name.  He waited, wanting to run to her but he wouldn’t.  She would come to him.

“Now,” he commanded, and in utter disbelief he watched her come to him.

“I’m going to kiss you and you’re going to record the sensations.  Take note.”  She turned slightly from him, her eyes landing on the pad and pen on the table and he put out an arm to stop her.  “Mental notes, Toreas.  Just remember this is only for your research and we’ll only do it one time.”

She was watching him intently.  “Close your eyes and feel what I’m doing, what I’m going to do,” he commanded her. Once more he was stunned to see her obey.

He kept his own eyes open.  He wanted to see what his touches did to her.  First he placed the palms of both hands on the soft skin of her cheeks.  Then he bent his massive frame over her and kissed her softly on the lips.

Hmmm
, he thought.  He was not going to rush this.  He’d been waiting too long.  He ran his tongue slowly across her lips, back and forth, back and forth, touching her chin, tickling the soft flesh of her cheeks peeking out between the pads of his fingers.

“What do you feel, Toreas?”

She didn’t answer but he could feel her trembling in his arms. 
Like hell she doesn’t want me,
he thought and began lightly nipping at her lips, moving to her neck, pushing away the heavy material of her sweater.

Her smell was clean and feminine.  Nothing to tickle his nose like the scent of perfume that he’d thought she should wear.  She smelled natural.  The scent was all Toreas Rose, and it tantalized his senses.

He used his tongue like a battering ram, gently of course, to force her lips apart.  He found her tongue and began a gentle sucking which he abandoned only to examine the interior of her mouth.

The taste of her was magnificent.  He lingered, taking his time, pulling her in closer, noticing her arms remained slack at her side, her own tongue inactive.

She was determined to show no emotion.  Did she not know he could feel the need rising in her as it was in him?  The heat from her mouth was because of him.  He knew it.

He sucked gently on her tongue again, then without warning plunged deeper and deeper, reveling in the taste of Toreas Rose.

In the instant when he knew for sure that if he kissed her a second longer he would be willing to fill out her silly papers, Jared drew away and gently pushed her from him.

As Toreas opened her eyes he looked at her with amusement.  “Just imagine what it would be like if we were attracted to each other.”

Chapter
Eleven

Toreas stood with her back to Jared trying to compose herself.  There were as many things happening inside her head as there were in her body.

For the first time in her entire life, guilt was being shoved out by a stronger emotion.  Desire.  She’d never felt anything this strongly before, but knew it for what it surely had to be.

Her father’s voice was quelled to a slight whisper.  She could barely hear the choir.  Toreas stood for a long moment enjoying the sensations coursing through her body.

One kiss?  Was Jared mad?  She had to have another, even at the risk of him rejecting her again.  If necessary, she would use the same lame excuse that he had, for the good of her writing.  If that didn’t work, she’d remind him that they were sisters, sort of.

“Jared.” She spoke to him without turning.  It would be easier to take a no that way.

“Yes, Toreas?”

“I don’t think you got that kiss quite right. I can’t visualize it well enough to recreate it on paper. You must have done something wrong.”

She smiled to herself when she heard the scrape of the chair and his footsteps coming toward her.

“Then by all means let’s do it again.”

He turned her to face him before she could even blink. She took a long look at him. He wasn’t even trying to mask his desire. That knowledge pleased her.

He was smiling at her and she wanted so much to believe his smile. Even if the smile was insincere she would accept the kiss.

“Why don’t you participate this time?” Jared asked. “It might make the kiss work a little bit better.”

Before she could answer or protest, he was kissing her and she was drowning in him, wanting him for her very own. The heat of his body penetrated through her thick sweater and she worried that she would faint of heat exhaustion.

Toreas gave herself over completely to his kiss, her tongue battling his.  She was hungry, so very hungry for him.  She gave herself permission to enjoy him, to explore the texture of his mouth, the feelings he produced in her body.

Like magic her head was cleared of all the past intrusions.  The only voice screaming out in her brain was his. With one, no, two kisses he’d done it.  He’d pushed all of the guilt aside and she was reveling in the wonder when she felt herself floating upward.

Oh my God
, she thought to herself.
This can’t be happening.  I can’t possibly be floating.
But she was. She kicked her feet and sure enough they were not on the ground. She circled her arms around his broad shoulders, pulling him tighter, not wondering how she could reach him.

It didn’t matter, she’d floated right into his arms and that’s where she wanted to be.  She heard the sound of bells so clearly that she opened her eyes to look around.

Jared was holding her up off the ground, a good two feet in the air.  She hadn’t floated at all. He’d merely lifted her up.  She looked into his eyes, wondering when he’d done it. She hadn’t felt him lift her, just that wonderful floating sensation.

“Was that better?” he asked.  She did notice that his voice was thick and he was still holding onto her.

“I think that should do it,” Toreas managed to squeak as she kept her attention on Jared.  He slid her body slowly downward, keeping her in contact with him.  She wanted to groan, to wrap her legs around him and refuse to move as she felt his hardness pressing into her belly.

He sat her down.  Her feet now on the floor, she was fighting to hold on to her dignity and not grovel for yet another kiss.  She turned her head toward the table, then back toward him, bringing her eyes to his.

“You were right, Jared. That was pretty good for two people who aren’t attracted to each other.” She walked away from him this time as he had done to her after the last kiss.

For several hours they worked together, mostly on his story. Toreas couldn’t help noticing it seemed to be about her.  But she didn’t ask and he didn’t say.

They worked that way until a grumble from Jared’s stomach forced Toreas to look at the clock.  He was probably hungry.  She knew she was. She hadn’t eaten breakfast and now it was time to eat again.

“It’s lunch time,” she said to Jared, but didn’t bother offering him anything.  She wanted to, but the way he was watching her, she felt suddenly afraid of what she really wanted to offer him.

They had been together long enough.  She might not be the most experienced person in the world, but she knew sometimes things could happen when people were confined together.  Feelings they didn’t really have could confuse things.  She couldn’t let that happen.

“I suppose I should leave.” He spoke softly as though his statement were meant to be taken as a question. His eyes riveted her in place.

Toreas barely heard Jared. She was too busy looking at him and wondering how she had the strength to let him go.

“I could go out and get us some lunch,” Jared offered,   “unless of course you’re too busy and have other things to do.”  He was looking hopeful.  That she hadn’t missed.  But he’d given her an out and she needed to take it.  She needed to return to reality.

She’d gotten caught up in what they were creating.  None of it was real, not the kiss and not the feelings she was beginning to have.

They were playing a game, both wanting to win.  The lines were blurring and Toreas was no longer sure just how much she still loathed him, if at all.

But she had to resist him and keep her defenses up partially or she would become consumed by him as she never had been by another living soul.  When a man like Jared decided to walk out of her life, she knew without a doubt he would break her heart. 

Toreas mentally calculated what she had in her fridge to make lunch. She had enough for two. She sighed and shook her head to clear her emotions. She couldn’t make Jared lunch, and she couldn’t allow him to bring it back, not yet anyway.

“Yeah, you’re right, I am busy.  I almost forgot that I have an appointment.”  Toreas’s voice was unconvincing but she’d be darned if she’d admit the truth.  She couldn’t bring her eyes up to meet his.

She’d done that once too often already, and each time he’d been staring at her with some look she couldn’t quite explain.  All she knew for sure was that his look was making her melt. She remembered Jared’s earlier question to her asking if a man’s kisses had ever made her melt and the answer was yes, yes. His kisses had made her melt. His kisses had given her the ability to float.

“Jared, are you going to be okay?”

His eyebrow quirked upward and it was plain to see he had no idea what she was talking about.

“I mean your job, Jared.  I didn’t want you to lose your job.”  He stared at her until she felt the heat coming to her cheeks. “Well, it’s not something I should have wanted, and I’m sorry about that.  So are you going to be okay financially?”

He smiled then.  “I’ll be okay, Toreas.”

“If you’d like, until you find another job, I could make dinner for you.  I always cook enough for two.”

She slapped her left hand over her open mouth, then her right hand over her left, shocked. She couldn’t make him lunch, but she could offer to make him dinner every night. Jared was laughing at her reaction. Then he was a gentleman about her offer. 

“Would you like to take your offer back?”

He grinned that darn sexy grin of his and Toreas felt wetness in her panties. Before she could take another breath, she felt the liquid cascading down her thigh, making her doubly glad she’d thrown on the worn pair of jeans. At least her embarrassment would be kept private.

“I can see that you spoke without thinking.” Jared grinned again.

Here was her opportunity, she could pull back.  Toreas was arranging the words in her head to tell Jared she was sorry, but what she heard coming out of her mouth was something entirely different.

“You’re more than welcome to come for dinner, Jared.  That is what our chapter is all about.  We’re there for each other.”

“So this is just a writers’ thing?”

“Yes,” she lied.

He was smiling down at her. “Then tell me what time and I’ll be back.”  He waited, watching her.

“Six,” Toreas whispered, then cleared her throat. “Come back at six. I always eat at that time.”

“One more thing. We’re not romantically attracted to each other, so do you think it would be possible to be friends?”

“We can try.”  She stepped back from him.  What had she been expecting, for him to kiss her goodbye?  He’d just repeated he didn’t want her.  She wrapped her arms around her waist to keep her body from shaking. Then he decided to speak again.

“I was wondering how it was that you first came to be watching my program?”

“I watched you for weeks.”  Too late Toreas realized what she’d said.  She was pinching her hand trying her best not to allow the telltale flush of color to give her away.

“So, you were my fourth fan.”  Jared smiled, then headed for the door.  “I’ll see you at six,” he said without even turning around.

He was gone and Toreas was left to ponder what she’d admitted to him.  He didn’t know that she’d started watching him with the sound muted because she found him so darn handsome and his eyes had called to her.

No one must ever know she’d had a secret crush on Jared.  That is, until she’d un-muted the television and started listening to the nonsense he spouted.

After his attack on the romance genre and its readers, her little infatuation had quickly turned to loathing.  And now what was it between them?  She was at a loss to explain it.

But whatever it was, Toreas was grateful to Jared for ridding her of her unwanted feelings of guilt.  She owed him a few dinners for lifting that monumental weight from her.

Jared left Toreas’s apartment thinking he shouldn’t return.  There was something happening between them that he didn’t want and didn’t need.

What had started out as a little innocent revenge and harmless fun had escalated into…  What?  He wasn’t sure.  What he was sure of was that he liked kissing her.  He really, really liked
it. So much that he wished he were back in her apartment.  If he wasn’t kissing her, he could look at her lips and remember as he’d done all morning.

He could make her blush when she caught him looking, and he could write his feelings down on paper.  He knew what he was writing wasn’t good, but it was making her smile, and her smile was making him write.

He had to stop thinking so much about kissing her and seriously think how he was going to support himself.  He’d been touched by her asking about his finances.

In truth, he hadn’t given it much thought.  He supposed he could always return to
California and resume his old job but he wasn’t of a mind to.  And it had nothing to do with Gina or her model boyfriend.

It had more to do with a short feisty woman with dripping wet hair that dried naturally, framing her face in a rapidly expanding afro. The style suited her.  And like it or not, Jared was forced to admit that his not wanting to return to his job at either the advertising agency or the PR firm had to do with the way Toreas had responded to his kisses.

No woman had ever so opened herself up to him.  He had felt her vulnerability and her fear.  Both made him want to protect her, to claim her.  He never wanted her to let go like that with anyone else.

He would feel like a pig to say it, but it was what he was feeling so he saw no harm in thinking it. Jared could tell from the feel of her body in his arms that no man had ever made her feel the things he had.

He was proud of that.  He had been right about him having to teach her.  But he’d been wrong about her being a prude.  He’d sensed the sensuous woman she’d done her best to bury under mountains of ugly, baggy clothes, and a quiet demeanor.

There was a raging fire inside Toreas and if his guess was right, he’d lit the match.  He couldn’t help wondering why she attempted to kill that side of herself.  It didn’t matter.  He’d resurrected it.

Jared was aware he was taking too much credit for Toreas’s strength.  He smiled, remembering when she’d asked him to sleep with her.  That had taken a lot of courage. 

Even last night, he thought, she’d faced him and had not backed down.  It was mean of him to throw her offer in her face, but she’d taken it and answered him.

Oh yes, there was indeed something about the lovely Ms. Toreas Rose that had Jared wanting to peel away her layers until he found the woman she was meant to be.

For a moment his chest puffed with pride.  He was the one who’d discovered the treasure long buried.  And he would be the one to taste the fruits.

An unexpected tinge of jealousy hit him as he imagined  another man with his arms around her.  He had never felt jealous of Gina’s new lover, just angry at her and hurt that she thought she needed to turn to books.

He’d make sure that Toreas wouldn’t turn to books unless it was his loving that gave her inspiration.

Jared was brought up short. 
Wow,
he thought to himself.
I’m beginning to sound as if I’m falling in love with her
.