Trouble In Triplicate (11 page)

"I'm quite serious, Juliet."

"But I thought—" She paused, caught her breath, and swallowed hard. "Don't you . . . want me, Caine?"

"I want you very much, Juliet." His voice was low and lilting in the darkness. "But when we make love—and we will make love, Juliet, I have no doubt of that—it will be because you want me as much as I want you."

"But I do!"

"You want to lose your virginity, sweetheart," he said a little roughly. "This seems to be the year for it. After all, both your sisters have. You've always been the leader, done things first, but this time your sisters beat you to it, didn't they? And now you're presented with a convenient time, place, and man, and you've decided to play catchup."

"Oh! That's not true at all, Caine Saxon!" She leaned across him to switch the lamp back on, then sat up and glared at him indignantly.

He sat up too. "Think about it, Juliet. You and your sisters have observed all the milestones together over the years. Some didn't involve a choice. You probably walked and talked around the same time, you got and lost your teeth about the same time, you graduated from school at the same time. But you've done everything that involved a choice around the same times too. Like getting your ears pierced and having your hair cut. And now you're determined to follow your sisters' lead and sleep with a man."

Juliet flushed with anger. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! You couldn't be more wrong, Caine Saxon! I'm insulted that you think I'd hop into bed with any available male simply to—to equal some nonexistent record with my sisters."

"Are you saying that I'm the only man you want? The only man you would allow to make love to you, Juliet?" He studied her with piercing dark eyes.

He knew what answer he wanted to hear, of course. Somewhere during the course of the evening his feelings about Juliet had crystallized. He wanted her physically, yes, but he wanted something more from her as well. Something much more. Being her first lover wasn't enough for him. He wanted to be her only lover.

"I—I—" Juliet stammered then lapsed into silence. She hadn't fully realized it until Caine himself had put it into words. He ujcis the only man she wanted, the only man she could ever conceive making love to her. But to blatantly admit it to him? She felt the hypnotizing pull of his gaze, drawing her to him, making her feel helpless in his power. And if she were to admit how much she wanted him, that he was the only man she wanted . . .

"Not going to answer?" he asked, then shrugged. "Then I'll answer for you, Juliet. I am the only man for you and you do want me, but nevertheless, I intend to wait."

The arrogance of the man! she thought, incensed. If Caine Saxon believed he could dictate to her and expect docile submission, he was in for quite a surprise!

"Oh, do you?" Her temper ignited like a match-stick on flint. "Well, you're going to have a long wait, Caine Saxon. A lifetime wait, because if you think that I'm ever going to let an—an arrogant beast like you touch me, you're sadly deluded!"

His lips curved into a wry smile. "Let me get this straight, Juliet. If I don't perform on demand tonight, you'll never grant me another opportunity."

Put like that, it sounded so crass, so . . . unfair, she thought. But he was the one who was unfair. She felt confused and disappointed and more than a little embarrassed. And wildly, passionately angry.
And it was all his fault
! "You'll never have another chance with me, Caine Saxon, because after tonight I'm never going to see you again!" She flung the words at him.

"You'll see me."

The calm assertion enraged her further. "I won't. And don't think you can drag me into any more of your stupid reconciliation plots for Randi and Grant. She's moved into a new militant phase. My sister doesn't want or need your brother anymore, and I don't want or need you!"

"Are you challenging me to prove you wrong, Juliet?" Caine's voice was so calm that she failed to note the fire in his eyes.

"I don't care to talk to you anymore." Juliet flipped dramatically over on her side and pulled all the covers around her. "Turn out the light, please. I'm going to sleep now."

"You're used to calling all the shots, aren't you, Juliet?" He sounded amused. "If you're tired of talking, the talking has to stop. I'll bet your sisters would obediently turn out the light and go to sleep, just like you told them to." With one easy movement, he lifted her out of her cocoon of covers and laid her on her back, anchoring her in place with one incredibly strong leg. A leg that was encased in blue jeans. So that's what all the thrashing about had been, she realized. He had been getting dressed! "Let me go!" Her eyes were glittering with fury.

"I thought you wanted me to make love to you. In fact, you ordered me to do it."

"I did not! Anyway, I've changed my mind. You can just take your magic hands off me, Caine Saxon!"

She'd meant to annihilate him with her sarcasm, but Caine wasn't annihilated. He laughed instead. "Sorry, honey, your days of ruling the roost are over. I don't take orders very well." His lips caressed the curve of her ear and moved tenderly along her jawline, her throat. "But I'm very good at giving lessons." One large hand traveled over her rib cage to rest just below her breast. "And there are a few that you need to learn."

Juliet swallowed. She was suddenly very aware of the acute vulnerability of her position. Caine Saxon was big and strong. Perhaps it had been a mistake to antagonize him.

"Lesson number one." His hand slid over her stomach and down to her bare thighs. "You're not in command any longer. I'll never blindly follow your lead like your sisters have done in the past."

"I never expected you to!" she insisted, but her voice was weak. His hand slipped under the camisole and stroked her abdomen. His fingertips stretched higher to brush the undersides of her breasts with tantalizing, feather-light caresses.

Juliet felt an almost overwhelming urge to press herself into his hands. She arched a little and tried to stifle the moan welling up in her throat.

"Good," he said. "I'm glad we've straightened that out. Now, on to lesson number two." His hands curved over her breasts and he began to fondle the milky white softness until both sensitive mounds swelled and tautened under his touch. "You're going to belong to me," he said huskily. "Only to me."

He continued to caress her with maddening, rhythmic urgency, and Juliet drew in her breath as waves of heat stormed through her body. "Do you understand, Juliet?" He leaned over her, watching her mindless response to his sensual touch. "You're mine."

She closed her eyes, filled with a previously unknown hunger. The whole world had narrowed to this room, this bed. She twisted restlessly beneath his hands, still confined by the powerful strength of his thigh. "Caine." She whimpered his name in a wild little cry of need.

"It's all right, baby," he said soothingly, slipping the camisole from her with one deft motion. "I just want to see you, to look at you. ..." His voice trailed off as he gazed down at her bare breasts. "You're beautiful, Juliet," he breathed. One long finger traced the outline of her taut nipple. "So pink and white, so hard and tight. And ... all for me?"

She trembled with the force of the emotion rushing through her. "Yes, Caine," she whispered. "Yes." She reached out her arms and he crushed her to him. His mouth covered hers, demanding an impassioned response that she was only too eager to give. She wanted to give everything to him, to please him, to bind him to her with a kind of primitive, elemental pleasure that he would never find with anyone else.

When he lifted his mouth from hers she felt bereft. Then his lips closed over her nipple and sent shock waves of sensuous delight rolling over her. "So sweet," he murmured. "My lovely Juliet."

She couldn't suppress a moan.

"Yes, darling," he whispered. "Let me hear what I'm making you feel." He nibbled and sucked on the rosy peaks until her whole body was one aching throb.

"Do you want me, Juliet?" His voice was low and deep against her ear. He inserted his tongue inside the delicate pink shell, and she squirmed as a piercing dart of sexual excitement hit its target in her very core.

"Do you need me, Juliet?" he continued softly. "I want to hear you say it, love. I want to hear the words from you." His hands left her breasts to caress her stomach, her hips and thighs. They moved slowly, methodically, with mind-shattering sensual pressure. Up and down, over and over again.

"Yes, Caine," she cried. She felt as if every single inch of her body was sensitized and aching for him. When his hand slipped inside her panties she held her breath, and a hot flood of anticipation swept through her. "I want you. I need you!"

Her words seemed to reverberate in her head. Her blood was pounding so loudly in her ears that she could hear nothing but the primitive rhythm that was echoing in her brain..The intensity of the sensations sweeping through her was unlike anything she'd ever felt, ever imagined.

He slipped off her panties and she arched toward his hand. His magic hands, she thought dizzily, which were introducing her to a heady world of sensuous, magical delight. She uttered a wild cry as the tension built and built within her.

"It's all right, sweetheart." Caine's voice penetrated the sensual fog that enveloped her. "Just let go, love. Don't fight it, just go with it."

She did, and waves of the sweetest sort engulfed her, making her feel as if her whole body had turned to warm honey. Caine picked her up in his arms and held her against his chest, murmuring things to her, sexy words, love words, and she snuggled against him, filled with a delicious contentment.

Slowly, gradually, she began to surface. She cast a quick peek up at Caine and found his amber eyes upon her, watching her. He always seemed to be watching her, she thought dimly. He smiled at her, and she blushed. She nestled closer, turning her face into the curve of his shoulder.

"Juliet?" He cupped her chin with his fingers and tilted her head up, forcing her to meet his steady gaze. "There's no reason to feel shy with me, honey."

She stirred a little and was suddenly very aware that he was still wearing his jeans. And the undeniable evidence of his arousal was hard against her. "Aren't you—" She paused and blushed again. "You're still dressed."

"Which is the way I intend to stay. I don't dare spend a night in the same bed with you any other way. And before you ask me if I want you"—he caught her hand and pressed it against him— "here's your answer."

She felt the virile force of him and stared up into his eyes. "Then why—"

"You ask too many questions, lady." he interrupted in a mock-tough tone.

"Then why not shut me up?" she suggested, and he obliged by kissing her passionately. "Now put these on," he ordered, handing her her chemise and panties. "And don't ask me why!"

She was asking him to explain what he scarcely understood himself, he thought wryly. It was all tied up in his feelings for her, and those were evoking strange new emotions within him. He felt possessive and protective. She was so special to him that he was willing to sacrifice his own physical release until he knew that she was emotionally ready for him. He wanted to be more to her than a convenient relief of her virginity, he realized. He was hooked. He realized that too.

If his old teammates could see him now!
Caine Saxon, that carefree bachelor who had so jovially teased all his friends who'd fallen into the commitment-and-monogamy trap, who'd once thrown a wake instead of the traditional stag party the night before a drinking buddy's wedding, that same Caine Saxon had tumbled into the same trap. And even more ironic, it didn't feel like a trap at all! The future—the present!—had never looked brighter.

Juliet struggled into her underwear, keenly aware of Caine's scrutiny. She was fighting a self-conscious confusion that threatened to undermine the delicious languor that had seeped throughout her body. Her thoughts bounced back and forth in a continuous interior dialogue.

Caine wanted her
, she assured herself. He'd told her so and made sure she was aware of the unmistakable physical evidence of his desire. But for reasons which he did not care to share with her, he had decided against taking . . .

She blushed, and forced herself to complete the thought. Caine had decided- against taking her, against taking his own fulfillment. How had he stopped himself? An unsettling little voice inside her head nagged. He had maintained his self-control while every trace of her own had been swept away. She couldn't have held back as Caine had. Even if she'd wanted to, even if she'd tried. The sudden realization jarred her.

She cast a quick glance at Caine. "What are you thinking, little Juliet?" he asked quietly, and she felt herself being pulled into his intense amber gaze.

Her body was his for the taking—he knew it, they both did—and now he was asking for her thoughts too. She closed her eyes and looked away, aware of her body's instant, electric response to the demand in his steady, catlike stare.

"Juliet?" One of his hands caressed the soft swell of her belly through the apricot silk. His fingers, long and strong and sure, seemed to burn through the light material that lay between them, and her body arched involuntarily. Every inch of her was beginning to burn, as if heat from a fire were flooding through her.

His hand moved higher to trace the sensitive peaks of her nipples with teasing, tantalizing slowness. They strained against the soft cloth, and Juliet remembered the warm wet feel of his mouth upon them. Her breathing quickened.