Can't Say No (20 page)

“I wasn't aware that I was accountable to you,” she said.

“You are if you're going to go flying off in my plane.”

“Is that what you're upset about? Because I borrowed you plane?”

Blake sighed. “Don't be ridiculous. You know damn well it's more than that. I thought you were someone I could count on.”

“I beg your pardon,” Audrey said, her tone ominous. “Are you implying that I'm not reliable?”

“You heard me. For the second day in a row I'm sitting in an empty hotel room, trying to figure out where the hell you've disappeared to. I thought we had an understanding. I expected you to be here when the race was over.”

“And I would have been if something hadn't come up.”

“Something more important than us?”

“Yes, in this instance, it was.” Her voice was cool, but she was seething inside at Blake's quick judgment, his attempt to pit their relationship against the very real needs of a friend. Blake was the man who'd said caring for friends was important. Apparently that only counted when it didn't inconvenience him. “For your information, I flew back because Kelly Marie nearly lost the baby last night and Joe needed me here. Now, if you don't mind, I am very tired and I think I'd better hang up before we both say some things we're going to regret.”

“Audrey, dammit...”

She didn't wait to see if he minded. She slammed the phone down in his ear. It took less than thirty seconds for it to ring again. She yanked the plug out of the wall. When she could still hear the extension ringing in the living room, she buried her head under the pillow. Finally it stopped.

Furious and wide awake now, she lay on her back and stared at the ceiling. Of all the arrogant, overbearing, pompous, selfish... She finally ran out of adjectives suitable for describing what she thought of Blake's attitude. How could she have been so stupid? She had honestly believed all that stuff he'd said about admiring her loyalty and generosity. Sure he admired it. As long as it didn't disrupt his plans. Well, she'd be damned if she was going to feel guilty for coming back here to help out a friend.

She was still seething three hours later, when the pounding started at the front door. Recalling the broken door on her motel room back in Aspen, she jumped out of bed and threw on her robe as she hurried into the living room.

“Don't you dare break down my door,” she shouted as she flung it open, just in time to see a blur as Blake stormed past. She glared at him. He glowered back.

“I wouldn't have had to touch the door, if you'd answered your phone.”

“There was no one I cared to talk to.”

“Fine. Then you can listen to me.”

Bare toes curled into the carpet and she clenched her fists at her sides in a losing fight for control. Finally, she snapped, “Not on your life, buster.”

Hands on hips she faced him down. “If you think you can call up here and berate me for caring about a friend, then you've got another think coming. I'm terribly sorry, if you were worried, but did it ever occur to you to ask Harvey where I'd gone? I assumed he'd tell you, especially since I took your plane, but you probably just barged into the motel room again, blew your top and took off like a crazy man.”

She thought she caught a flicker of guilt in the depths of his eyes. He was either toying with an apology or an explosion. She forestalled either one, by plunging on, “Maybe I should have left a note, but I had this crazy idea you'd understand. I thought getting back here to help Joe out in a real crisis was more important than worrying about whether or not you might get a little miffed when you couldn't find me.”

“
A little miffed!
Is that what you think this is all about? I was worried sick about you. After the story broke in the paper...”

Audrey looked at him in confusion. “What story?”

“The one about us. Jake Brunetti apparently did some adding without his calculator. He strung together a few facts into a torrid little affair. I'm sure you'll be able to catch it next time you shop for groceries.”

“Oh, hell.”

“Indeed.” There was a wry tone to his voice. “I thought it might have frightened you off. Harvey was already on a commercial flight back by the time I started looking for him. When my pilot said he'd flown you back here earlier, I was convinced you'd decided that you and I were through. It would be just like you to go off in my plane just to make a statement.”

She waved aside his fears with a gesture of incredulity. “Because of a little publicity? I'm tougher than that and I don't go around stealing planes. I merely borrowed it for a few hours. Obviously you got it back, since you're here now.”

“All right. We'll forget about the plane. And I know how tough you are. I wasn't sure you did. It still astonishes me how a woman with your temper could ever have imagined herself as weak. And I'm sorry for coming down on you so hard.” He hesitated. “I was scared,” he finally admitted softly. “That's all.”

Audrey stared at him in surprise. “Scared? You?”

“I don't want to lose you. Don't you know that by now?”

“You aren't going to lose me that easily.”

Their eyes clashed, but neither of them moved to close the distance between them.

“Now what's all this about Kelly Marie?” Blake asked. “Is she okay?”

The tenor of the conversation had switched so fast, Audrey's head was reeling. “She's fine and the baby should make it.”

“She had the baby?”

“A boy. He's tiny, but he's fighting.”

Blake held out his arms, but Audrey waited. “I'm glad you were here for Joe,” he said softly and then she moved into his embrace. “Really.”

“Me, too,” she said, her voice muffled against Blake's chest. Having his arms around her made her feel astonishingly safe and secure. In some ways that worried her, but mostly it reassured her. “Joe needed someone. It was a very frightening experience.”

His arms held her more tightly. “I need someone, too.”

“I could call Harvey,” she suggested lightly.

“He's not the person I had in mind.”

“Who, then?”

“You.” He breathed a heavy sigh. “You have no idea how I felt when I thought I might have lost you.” His lips touched hers hungrily, before moving on to the pulse at the base of her throat.

“The race, Blake,” she said breathlessly. “What happened?”

“I don't want to talk about the race.” He slipped her robe off one shoulder and blazed a trail of kisses along the bare flesh, setting off fireworks.

“Then you must have won,” she said with confidence.

“Actually, I lost. Now would you be quiet for a minute.” He did his best to silence her with another breath-stealing kiss. The robe fell away and she stood before him in the muted light, naked once again, but no longer vulnerable. This time she felt totally sure of herself. More important, she felt sure of Blake. If there were decisions to be made, her heart seemed to have made them for her.

“You are so incredibly lovely,” he whispered. “How did I ever get to be so lucky?”

The heat in Blake's eyes told her he desired her, but more than that, his voice told her of his love. She wanted to share that love in the most important way possible between a man and a woman. She wanted it now, before she lost her courage.

“And you have far too many clothes on,” she said softly, reaching for the buttons on his shirt. When the shirt fell open, she raked her nails along his bare chest, feeling the tensing of his muscles as she reached the waistband of his pants. Her fingers fumbled with his belt buckle and when it was free, she moved on, the teasing torment making his breathing ragged. The soft rasp of his zipper sent a shiver racing down her spine.

Then Blake's impatient fingers replaced hers and his clothes were stripped away. They flew in all directions with untidy abandon. Anxious arms pulled her tight against him, the heat of their flesh setting off a wild pounding of her heart. His warm, musky scent was intoxicating. And at the hard thrust of his manhood against the softness of her inner thigh, Audrey felt a stirring of incredible excitement. She moved to readjust her position to an even more intimate one, but Blake stilled her.

“Slowly, love. This time we're going to take it very slowly and enjoy every sweet second of it.”

As he spoke, his eyes were bold in their survey, then smoky with a provocative sensuality. He kissed her throat, her shoulders and then circled her nipples with his tongue until they were full and throbbing. His deft fingers massaged slowly, then swept over bare flesh with lightning speed creating a pattern of exquisite torture that set her blood on fire and filled her with an urgent, desperate longing.

Audrey's gaze never left Blake's face, searching his eyes for the intensity of feeling that matched her own. When at long last he held out his hand, she took it without hesitation. The walk to the bedroom had never seemed longer, her knees never weaker, her pulse never faster. At the sight of her bed, its sheets still rumpled from her tossing and turning, Blake's patience and incredible willpower failed him at last. He scooped her into his arms and knelt with her on the edge of the bed. When she nipped at a masculine nipple, a violent shudder ripped through him and they suddenly tumbled onto the bed in a tangle of arms and legs, laughing at themselves and their haste.

Then Blake's kisses were everywhere, his touch so intimate that at first she was shocked, then thrilled by the wildness of the sensations. As the play of his fingers went on, tension coiled within her, tightening to an unbearable level of excitement. If this was anticipation as Blake meant it always to be, she would live for the joy of it. She saw the peak just ahead, felt its pull and knew an instant's fear that this time would be like before, that instead of a shattering explosion, there would be only a slow descent, then nothing.

But Blake gave her no time to dwell on the fear and allow it to become panic. His caresses were insistent, a slow, sweet torture that never once let up until she was twisting and turning, arching toward fingers that seemed possessed of the devil because they stirred such incredible feelings in her.

“Hold me, Blake. I need you with me.”

“Not yet, sweetheart. This time is just for you.”

His tongue found the moist heat at her core and set off a violent trembling. Her muscles tensed, fighting against going on alone, but then with another flick of Blake's tongue, she was free, spinning out of control, great waves washing over her.

Her body, glistening with a sheen of perspiration, stilled slowly, and she was filled with a sensation of such incredible joy that she thought it might never be matched again no matter how many times Blake held her in his arms. Blake had taken her to the heights, overcome her fears and taught her to fly again. He had given her back the ability to love and with tears rolling down her cheeks, she embraced him.

“That was the most wonderful gift any man has ever given a woman,” she murmured. “Thank you.”

“We're not finished yet,” he said, his mouth seeking her breast.

To her delight and astonishment, ripples of excitement began all over again, building with even greater intensity. When Blake joined her at last, she felt complete and they moved together in the timeless, perfect rhythm of eternal lovers. Together, they traveled farther and faster to a world beyond her previous imagination, a world of bright colors, spectacular sounds and incomparably intense sensations.

Together, they found a little piece of heaven right here on earth.

When their moment out of time ended and the real world invaded their sense of isolation, Blake felt utterly at peace. He had seen the future and Audrey was there. All that remained was to convince her of that. He saw the joy and contentment on her face and thought the time was right.

“We have plans to make,” he said.

“What plans?” she muttered sleepily.

“Don't fade out on me here. I know you're not good in the morning, but I thought that only counted when you'd been asleep.”

“If I'm incoherent now, it's because of you. What exactly is it you want to discuss?”

“Our wedding, unless of course you're prepared to have it in one of those awful Las Vegas chapels with strangers around and a rental bouquet. It would make Jake Brunetti very happy to be proved right, of course.”

“Don't you think you're being a little impulsive? We hardly know each other.”

“I don't think that's true. You learn a lot about a person when you're stranded together.”

“We were hardly lost in the jungle for weeks on end.”

“There were dangers,” he countered. “Have you forgotten the lightning?”

“Hardly, but suppose I accept your theory. In a time of danger emotions are also heightened. You can't trust them.”

“I do. I know what I feel for you, but if you need to wait awhile, I'll go through the whole courtship routine. We'll just be postponing the inevitable, though. Sometimes fate takes matters into its own hands.”

“I don't think fate had anything to do with hauling me into that balloon.”

“Whatever.”

“Besides, I thought you were convinced I needed time to trust you, to really know the kind of man you are.”

“That's true,” he said agreeably. “I just don't see any reason why you can't figure all that out after we're married, say over the next fifty years or so.”

Suddenly Audrey was out of his arms, kneeling beside him. She grabbed a pillow and began hitting him with it. “Blast you, Blake Marshall!”

“What did I do now?” he said, laughing as he tried to ward off the ineffectual blows. For all her pretense of fury, he sensed she wasn't really angry, only frustrated. He could hardly wait to hear why.

“You have made it virtually impossible for me to say no.”

“That was the idea,” he said, ducking another swing.