Authors: Janet Dailey
"I'd like to leave," Andrea replied quickly.
"Because of what I said?" He tipped his head to the side in regret.
"Partly," she admitted. Her gaze fell away from his tanned face, knowing the other reason was the steadily gnawing fear that had begun the night before. But she tried to make light of it. "And partly because the noise is getting to me and my head."
He nodded an understanding agreement and turned toward the exit door.
They didn't speak again until they had left behind the lights of the motel and residential district on the south shore. Then Tell reached over and took her hand, clasping it warmly in his.
"You're much too far away," he sighed. "Remind me not to buy another car with bucket seats."
Andrea bit at the side of her lip to stop the poignant sob from escaping. "I'll remember," she agreed with pseudo brightness.
"My mother called me before we left tonight about a directors' meeting that had been changed."
"You…you don't have to leave sooner, do you?" She held her breath.
"Mother wanted me to come back tomorrow so I could be prepared for the new Wednesday meeting, but I told her that it was out of the question." There was a sliding smile in her direction before he returned his attention to the road. "She wanted to know if you were very beautiful. Of course, I quickly corrected that statement." The dimpling clefts in his cheek deepened with concealed amusement.
"Thanks a lot," Andrea said, laughing, a warm glow spreading through her once more.
"I told her you were the most beautiful woman in the world," Tell informed her in a frighteningly serious voice.
"Tell!" she whispered, stunned by the vibrancy of his statement.
"Are you going to argue with me?" His challenge was issued in a laughing voice.
"I wouldn't dream of it," she said, her voice trembling.
A car came sweeping around the bend in front of them, taking the curve too wide and forcing Tell onto the shoulder to avoid being sideswiped. The snowplows had mounded the snow on the sides of the road. For several yards their car skimmed the side of the snowbanks before the rear tires hit a soft patch and they were stuck.
"Are you all right?" His mouth was forbiddingly grim and anger burned in his eyes.
"I'm fine,"
Andrea breathed, a weak smile of reassurance curving her full mouth.
Tell nodded thankfully and shifted the car into gear again, but the rear wheels spun uselessly, unable to get any traction in the snow. A hard smile lifted one corner of his mouth.
"Thanks to that imbecilic driver we seem to be stuck in the snow!" he snapped, slipping the gear into neutral and reaching for his door handle.
"I wouldn't mind being stuck in a snowbank with you forever." What had been meant as a flippant remark came out as a throbbing pledge of love.
The dark head jerked around toward her. "You picked a damned awkward time to say something like that," Tell muttered savagely, but despite the harshness of his low voice, she knew it was without anger.
He seemed to release her gaze reluctantly as he opened the car door, cold mountain air rushing in before the door was slammed shut. The rear trunk was opened, followed shortly by sounds of a shovel digging away the snow near the rear tires. The trunk lid was closed and Tell was sliding behind the wheel again. After rocking back and forth a few times, the tires found a grip and the car pulled onto the road.
Chapter Three
SEVERAL MILES from the spot where they had been forced off the road, Tell turned the car into a side road and switched off the engine. Andrea's heart was doing somersaults as she watched him remove his winter coat and toss it into the back seat. With deliberation marking his movements, he turned in the seat towards her and began slowly unbuttoning her winter coat. In a few seconds, her coat had joined his in the rear seat.
Andrea didn't resist the pressure of his hands burning through the black chiffon sleeves of her dress as he pulled her across his lap and cradled her against his chest. The fingers of one hand lightly caressed her cheek.
"Now, tell me again what you said earlier," he commanded arrogantly.
"I said," she whispered lovingly, "that I would willingly be stuck in a snowbank with you forever."
Kissing first the corner of her eye, then her nose and cheek, he finally reached her lips. "Now, tell me what you really meant by that," he ordered.
"Darling," Andrea moaned softly, pressing her throbbing mouth against the resistance of his. Still he refused to let her feel the fire of his kiss.
"Say it," he growled huskily. "I have to know that you love me as much as I love you."
Breathing in sharply, she was no longer afraid to put her feelings into words. "I love you, Tell. I love you."
His mouth closed fiercely possessive over hers. It was a kiss more wild and glorious than any they had ever shared. The blood pounded through her veins with the wonder of it. His hands were roughly caressing her, crushing her against him, unaware of the strength he was using, and Andrea was oblivious to the pain of her bruised flesh. With a supreme effort, Tell dragged his mouth away from hers, his lean fingers burying her face against his chest, his heart pounding, his breathing ragged and uneven.
"The first time I saw you registering at the desk, I thought you were a beautiful woman and nothing more," he muttered against the silken curtain of her hair. "When you were there at the restaurant, I thought you'd followed me to attract my attention. The desk clerk had made my reservation and it would have been easy for you to bribe him to find out where I would be. I asked you to dine with me only to find out what other tricks you would use. Each time I led the conversation down a personal channel, you shied away and I began to doubt for the first time. When I suddenly realized that it was another man who had made you so wary, a black rage swept over me. I convinced myself it was self-pity and you would get over the hurt in time."
"I was over it." Her hands caressed the strong column of his neck. "I was simply afraid."
"I didn't intend to seek you out again," he sighed. "Then I saw you coming down Bailey's Beach. You were so graceful, like a gazelle," a hand ran caressingly down the length of her thigh, "with those long, shapely legs and that fawn-colored hair and large hazel eyes. I don't know if it was the white backdrop of snow or what, but I suddenly pictured you against white sheets lying naked in my arms. I never wanted any woman as much as I wanted you at that moment. Coldly, I decided to seduce you. Once I had possessed you, I was certain the physical attraction would fade just as it had done all the other times."
"But you didn't." Andrea frowned into his shirt collar. The hand holding the back of her head refused to let her draw away from his chest to look into his face.
He burned a kiss against her temple. "I didn't, but I had it all planned. Then Chris showed up at the bar and everything went wrong from there. I've never been jealous in my life, but if he'd touched you, however innocently, I would have gladly bashed his handsome Adonis face in."
"Was he handsome?" She smiled and nuzzled his throat.
"You know damned well he was," Tell said, laughing, lifting his head to gaze into her face, soft and radiant with her love. "I still don't know why I let you say 'no' to me that night. I knew I could have persuaded you to change your mind, but I didn't try. Maybe because I wanted it to mean as much to you as it would to me. I think that's when I silently admitted that there was a very good possibility that I was falling in love with you. Andrea—" his expression grew serious "—in the past, I've thought I was on the brink of loving a woman and I've made love to many, but I've never told anyone that I loved them. You do believe me, don't you?"
"I believe you," she murmured with a throbbing ache. "But I wouldn't have cared if you'd loved a hundred women before me as long as you love me now."
"Andrea? It means a dream called woman," he said huskily. "That's what you are to me, a heavenly dream that I'd given up hope of ever coming true."
"Darling," her voice caught on a sob, "I love you more than my life—and I never thought I'd ever be able to say that again."
"What a fool that man was to leave you for someone else," he spoke against her lips. "But I'm glad he was a fool."
"I can't compare what I felt for Dale with the way I feel for you, Tell," Andrea declared throatily. "I was a girl and I loved a boy. Now I'm a woman and I love a man. I love—"
His mouth absorbed the rest of her words, bringing an end to the talking. Her lips parted readily under his passionately exploring kiss, and rippling muscles beneath his dark evening suit crushed and molded her ever closer to the hardness of his body. The flames of desire that raged through her veins were an awesome and splendored thing; pagan and primitive, yet seeming to be blessed by some heavenly deity.
The expertise and mastery of his touch made the impact of the experience all the more shattering. Love made the hunger for each other insatiable as they strained at the physical restrictions that kept them apart. His tie had been torn off and the collar of his shirt opened. Beneath her hands
,
his naked chest burned from the heat radiating within and the hammer of his heartbeat pounded against her fingers.
"I want you," Tell muttered thickly, bruising her lips.
Andrea shuddered. "Yes." The answer was an acknowledgement of his need and her own.
"You're trembling." The low pitch of his voice vibrated over her, increasing the tremors.
"I'm afraid," she breathed shakily.
His dark head raised a fraction of an inch, a frown knitting his smooth forehead. "Of me?" he questioned in mocking disbelief.
"I've never been with a man before. I don't want to disappoint you, Tell."
The contents of her whispered statement took a few seconds to sink in. When it did, he became rigidly still, then his fingers curled into the tender flesh of her upper arm and she was lifted and pushed roughly out of his embrace.
"Tell, I love you." She reached out hesitantly to touch him, balanced and swaying toward him in the passenger seat.
The knuckles of his brown fingers were turning white as he gripped the steering wheel, head bowed. "I know." He breathed in deeply. "I love you and I want you. But not in a car. Not for you. It's too sordid and…Just stay there," he ordered crisply, holding up a warning hand as she leaned towards him.
The harshly forbidding set of his features kept Andrea in her seat, a glow of happiness shining through her own throbbing need that his concern was first for her pleasure and not his own. The incredible love in her heart let not one word of persuasion pass from her lips as Tell started the car and returned to the main road. The silence during the rest of the drive to the lodge was emotionally charged and razor-thin, yet infinitely satisfying because of its cause.
When Tell unlocked the door to her room, his fingers closed over the key for an instant. Then he suddenly handed it to her. Tense, slightly trembling masculine fingers touched her cheek as Andrea stared at him.
Leaning down, he lightly brushed her lips. "Good night, my love." Then he was striding down the hall away from her.
In a dreamlike state, Andrea changed into her nightclothes. She was filled with the rapturous blessing of shared love and had never felt more loved and wanted in her life. And Tell loved her with and unselfishness that she had not believed a man was capable of feeling. It made him all the more precious to her.
When her head touched the pillow, an ugly voice jeered, "You didn't tell him. How much is he going to love you when he finds out the truth about you?"
"I'll tell him in the morning," Andrea whispered her promise aloud "He loves me. He'll understand, I know he will. We love each other too much. It can't be any other way."
The security of knowing she possessed his love wrapped warm arms about Andrea. The peace and contentment she had in her sleep had not been experienced in a very long time. It was late mid-morning before she finally opened her eyes. The heady memory of the night before made her hug her arms around her to keep the wild joy from bursting her heart.
Since Tell hadn't called, Andrea decided he was probably waiting in the lobby for her, thoughtfully letting her sleep late. Laying out a tan sweater with an olive leaf design and a pair of matching olive green slacks on the bed, she quickly stepped under the stinging shower spray to wash the grains of sleep from her face. After the hurried shower, she pulled on a short terry-cloth robe, forsaking her regular makeup in favor of moisturizing cream, a little eyeshadow and lipstick.
Running a quick brush over her windblown hairstyle, she noticed the ends of her dark blond hair were tipped with gold from the hours spent in the snow and the sun. It was a nice effect, she decided, and wondered if Tell liked it. The knock on the door sent her floating to answer it. Her heart was already saying that Tell was on the other side.
"Good morning." He was leaning against the door frame, his dark eyes raking her from head to bare toe.
"Good morning," she answered breathlessly.
Then Tell was laughing softly, stepping into the room, closing the door behind him and sweeping her into his arms. With hard, demanding kisses he again staked his ownership of her love and she acknowledged his claim readily.