Authors: Samantha James
There was a dawning look in Jason's eyes, as
if he was just beginning to understand what she was trying to say.
His hand tightened around hers.
"I found that I was right after all," she
said with a note of wonderment in her voice. "That a good writer
puts a part of herself—" she smiled and glanced down at where their
fingers were entwined in her lap "—I guess I should say himself,
into everything he does." Her smile was both sweet and a trifle
impish as her eyes lifted. "My guess is that every romance you've
ever written has been a little fantasy of your own."
Jason shook his head, his smile playfully
rueful. "How could I have ever accused such a down-to-earth woman
of being a dreamer?" Something flickered in the back of his eyes,
and the teasing light faded. "I tried to tell you how I felt about
you," he said huskily. "Especially the day I asked you to marry
me."
"I know that now," she admitted. "I heard,
but I didn't listen. I didn't listen here—" she laid her free hand
on her heart, and her voice dropped tremulously "—where I should
have. And you said everything I wanted to hear, everything but the
one thing I needed to hear."
"Everything but I love you."
The placid statement was maddening. There was
a heartbeat of silence while Samantha's heart throbbed fearfully.
She knew, and there was a part of her that still needed to hear the
words, wanted it with every fiber of her body. Her body tensed as
she waited...
"I do, you know."
His tone was chiding, almost amused. She
drew a shallow breath, her eyes two huge pools of longing as they
rested on Jason's face. For once his smile was almost
imperceptible. "You do . . . what?"
"I do love you." This time the words were as
husky and shaky as she felt inside. Samantha knew a brief wild joy
and then she was being dragged across Jason's lap, cradled in his
arms as if he would never let her go. "God, how I love you," he
ground out against her mouth, her hair, her cheeks, over and over
again. He allowed himself one long searing kiss and then eased back
from her gently. "I would have told you then if I thought you'd
have believed me," he said. "Instead I tried to let you know every
other way I knew how—-the night we made love, when I asked you to
marry me."
Samantha shook her head, still rather dazed.
She had finally realized it last night, but hearing the hunger in
his words, seeing the tenderness in his eyes... "I wish you'd told
me then," she choked out.
He drew back from her slightly so he could
see her face. "You had to find out for yourself," he said
gently.
"Jason," she said, hesitating, "I was so
mixed up."
"Shhh." He kissed her lips tenderly. "You
don't have to explain. I understand, I really do." He gave a shaky
laugh. "It sure took you long enough to sort it all through. This
last week has been hell!"
"For me, too," she admitted. Her eyes grew
misty. "I was afraid to read too much into everything you said. I
thought you were teasing me, that it was just a game."
"Sweetheart, it stopped being a game almost
from the minute I pulled you up from the sand and gazed into those
beautiful blue eyes of yours." He laughed as shakily as she. "You
looked at me as if you were star struck and I felt like I'd been
hit on the head with a ten-pound mallet." His hand trespassed
beneath the hem of her skirt. "Are you a one-man woman?" he asked
huskily.
She shivered beneath the magic his fingers
were making as they traced a languorous path up her thigh. "Are you
a one-woman man?"
"You have to ask that after reading all of
my books?" He gave her an admonishing grin. "And you still haven't
given me an answer. Are you or are you not going to marry me?"
She tightened her arms around his neck, her
eyes shining. "Somehow I just can't seem to say no to you."
"Is that a yes?"
She laughed softly, seductively, and eased
back so that he followed her down. The sand was soft and cushiony
beneath her back, the weight of his body on hers warm and secure.
She closed her eyes and arched her body sinuously against his,
feeling the heat rising in his body and responding to it
instinctively.
"Hey! Hey, Miss Monroe!"
The piping little voice came from directly
behind them. Jason buried his face in her throat and muttered,
"This is beginning to become a habit. That young man had better
learn a few things about timing or he may never reach an age where
he's able to make use of it!"
Samantha suppressed a smile and slipped from
beneath Jason's body. Kevin was still apparently impervious to
the scene he had interrupted—again. Wearing an ear-splitting grin,
he hopped up and down in excitement.
"Guess what, Miss Monroe, Mr. Monroe." He
bobbed his head in a greeting as Jason sat up and ran a hand
through his rumpled dark hair. "Me and my little sister get to go
camping with my uncle next week! We get to help put up the tent,
and take our own sleeping bags... ain't that neat?"
"That sounds exciting," she assured him,
resisting the bubble of laughter that threatened to erupt at
Jason's disgruntled expression. "You can tell the class about it
next year during show-and-tell." She nodded over at Jason. "By the
way, Kevin, I think you should know that this isn't Mr. Monroe, his
name is Mr. Armstrong—"
"And in a very short time—" Jason's lean
features had suddenly transformed into a grin "—Miss Monroe is
going to become Mrs. Armstrong. Spread the word among your buddies
so they know when September rolls around, will you, pal?"
Samantha's eyes sparkled as they met his.
"You took the words right out of my mouth. And I do so love a
masterful man," she teased. Brushing the sand off her skirt, she
got up and held out a hand to him. "How would you feel about a
little show-and-tell of our own?"
He was on his feet in the blink of an eye.
"And I do so love an aggressive woman," he crooned tenderly.
They had a hard time keeping their eyes, as
well as their hands, off each other during the short trek back to
the house. Always before with Jason, she had felt as if she had
been on the outside looking in with a faint gray film between them,
afraid to let herself see him for the man he really was. But for
the first time, she recognized the glow in his eyes for what it
was. Love, a love so tender and sweet it made her ache inside.
The feeling was as thrilling as it was
arousing. They had no sooner entered the bedroom than Samantha
turned in his arms and lifted her face to his, pressing her body
urgently into his as she tangled her fingers in the crisp hair at
his nape.
Jason laughed delightedly at her eagerness.
"Is this a preview of nights to come?"
His hands had already wandered to the buttons
of her short linen shirt. She shivered as he undid the clasp of her
bra and her breasts spilled free, the budding tips already hard and
erect. Her skirt was the next to go, dropped in a careless pool at
her feet. She pressed herself boldly against his naked chest in a
sinuous motion that sent Jason's breath rattling in his throat.
"You bring out the wild and wanton in me," she said with a
seductive laugh.
His eyes glittered fiercely as he threaded
his hands in her hair and brought her face to his. He took her
mouth in a hotly passionate kiss.
Her head was spinning when he released her.
His breath fanned hotly against her cheek. His desire pressed
urgently against the fluid lines of her belly and she thrilled that
she was able to arouse him to such an extent. Emboldened by the
knowledge, she let the sensitive tips of her fingers wander down
the fabric of his shorts, tracing the stunning male shape of him in
a blatantly sensual caress.
"What about you?" she taunted softly. "What
do I bring out in you?"
Jason stepped out of his shorts and grasped
her hips to bring her in line with his body in one fluid movement.
"The savage beast unleashed?" he suggested with a soft rumble of
laughter in his chest.
"An apt analogy," he agreed with a
meaningful glance down his body. But the laughter lurking in her
voice faded as her eyes made their way lingeringly up the taut
lines of his body. Dappled sunlight glinted through the windows and
shimmered on the copper-hued flesh, bringing to vivid life the
sheer latent power beneath the smoothly flowing muscles.
Desire rose hotly in Samantha's veins, but
she had a need far more intense, far more lasting, and much more
powerful.
Ho- hands lifted to tangle in the crisp dark
hair at his nape. "Make love to me, Jason," she said simply. "Make
love to me."
He bent to lift her gently in his arms. "With
pleasure," he groaned in her sweet-smelling hair. "With
pleasure...."
And the wild union that followed was like
nothing Samantha had ever dreamed of, or even imagined. He touched,
be stroked, he tasted and caressed every part of her body as if to
imprint the image of it on his brain forever. Then he allowed her
the same intimate knowledge of his supple male strength, until at
last he moved over her trembling body. Then at the last moment, he
rolled so that she was poised over him.
"Your trusty steed awaits, m'lady," he said
hoarsely, his eyes locked with hers endlessly. Awed by the golden
glow in his eyes and the boundless sweetness of his tormenting
fingers, she couldn't look away as he guided her yielding body
downward. She moaned deliriously as her softness closed over his
thrusting hardness.
A tormented groan of pure pleasure tore from
Jason's throat, and Samantha found herself caught up in the sheer
joy of it. At first he rocked against her gently, his hands on her
hips, as if to savor and prolong the moment, until neither one
could stand the sweetly restrained pace. Their bodies surged and
met with an increasing power and driving urgency that sent them
stealing out and away to the heavens and beyond.
They reached that pinnacle of feeling at one
and the same moment, each crying the other's name until it receded
into a breathless whisper of sound. Their breath intertwined, they
lay basking in a warmth that went far beyond the immense physical
satisfaction they had just known.
Curled up in the haven of his arms, Samantha
turned her face and pressed a kiss against his collarbone. "I love
you," she whispered softly.
Jason looked down at her. "Lady, I was
beginning to wonder," he drawled with a grin. It faded to a smile,
and the light in his eyes grew softer yet. "I've been waiting a
lifetime for a woman like you." He bent and brushed her lips. "By
the way, I have something to tell you."
Samantha snuggled closer against him.
"What?"
"I bought this house."
"You what?" Disbelief edged her voice, and
her hand stilled its restless roaming against his chest.
"When?"
Jason grinned. "Why do you think David came
down last week?"
She propped herself on an elbow and stared at
him in amazement. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"You left that day before I even had a
chance. And today I had other things on my mind, and my hands—" a
wicked glint appeared in his eyes "—my hands were rather busy as
well." As if his meaning wasn't clear enough, a large hand stole
out to stroke the rounded flesh that peeped above the rumpled
sheet.
Samantha's heart was suddenly so full she
could hardly speak. "You bought this house... because of me?
Jason..." Her hand touched his arm tentatively. "I wasn't expecting
you to give up everything for me. I..." She took a deep breath, her
eyes never leaving his. "I'd get used to living in Los
Angeles."
"Samantha, this is your
home." His quiet tone touched something inside her. "Your job is
here. And as a writer, I'm flexible. I can work here as well as
anywhere,
better
than anywhere since you're here."
"But your research--"
His lips touched hers lightly, possessively.
"You're lucky enough to have an entire summer free. If we want to
travel, fine. If not, then that's fine, too." He paused. "I've
grown to like this little stretch of beach," he said lightly. "And
the roof doesn't leak." His eyes caught and held hers before he
grinned. "I could always use your house as an office."
Once again her heart began to sing. She
climbed out of bed, dug in her purse for a second, and came up with
a small rectangular object. The beautiful smile on her face
deepened as she slipped beneath the sheets and dropped it into
Jason's lap.
"I have a surprise for you, too."
"What's this?" He stared at the tiny package
wrapped with a frilly red bow.
"You gave me Valentine's Day in June. Now
it's your turn."
"Well, I'll be damned—just like yours!" He
grinned and held up a pair of men's boxer shorts. They were white
and dotted with bright red hearts. "Where did you ever find
these?"
"That's why I was so late getting here," she
said dryly. "It wasn't easy trying to find a store that carried a
gift like this during the summer."
"Think we'll ever wear them?"
She chuckled and ran her fingers down the
length of one strong arm. "Not for long, I hope." A dimple appeared
in one cheek. "My mother wants to know when the wedding is."
His hand closed over hers. His fingers
circled the wedding finger of her left hand. "We could fly to Reno
or Las Vegas tomorrow. Hell, why not tonight?"
Samantha laughed. "You are determined to make
a gambling woman out of me yet. I think I should warn you, though,
I only bet on a sure thing."
"Don't I know it!" he groaned, then his eyes
darkened a little as they searched hers. "I can't promise you
paradise, Samantha. I can only promise I'll love you for the rest
of my life."
"Forever," she interrupted with a smile.
Jason relented with a kiss. "Forever," he
murmured against her mouth.