Elusive Dawn (2 page)

Robyn wondered briefly at the endearments,
then
decided that they fit her dream very well. Eagerly, she explored his body, entranced by the strength and heat of his desire. She moaned raggedly as
his own
fingers searched and probed, finding at last the heart of her quivering need and causing her body to arch almost convulsively against him.

She gasped aloud, dizzily aware of his erotic touch, of the exquisite tension filling her body, her consciousness.
"Oh, please,
Sh
-Shane!" The name rose to her lips uncertainly, her voice trembling with intolerable desire.

With a low growl of answering male need, Shane rose above her, slipping between her trembling thighs and allowing her to feel his heavy weight for the first time. He came to her then. Came to her as though he intended to make her his for all time.

Robyn clung to him, moving with him, staggered by the feelings ripping through her body. The tension built higher and higher, an avid, primitive craving for satisfaction. She was keenly aware of his taut face above her, of digging her nails into his shoulders, and of pleading with him in an unfamiliar, drugged voice.

Then there was an eternal moment of shattering rapture, and she heard him groan her name hoarsely even as she cried out with the force of her release.

Silence reigned in the room for a long time as they lay in an exhausted tangle of arms and legs, hearts gradually returning to normal and breathing losing its ragged edge. It was Shane who finally broke the silence, and there was an unexpected spark of humor in his deep voice.

"Shall we get under the covers, or would you rather freeze in the air-conditioning?"

Robyn giggled sleepily. She was still firmly enmeshed in her dream, and she welcomed the humor that allowed her to resist reality a while longer.

"I gather that means you're leaving it up to me!" He gave a smothered laugh and then went through a series of complicated maneuvers designed to get them both under the covers without his losing his possessive hold on her.

By the time the feat was accomplished, Robyn was giggling even more. Shane drew her firmly into his arms, pulling the covers up around them and then reaching to turn off the lamp. "Don't laugh, witch- next time, I'll make
you
get the covers!" he warned with a deep chuckle.

Robyn snuggled up to him contentedly, feeling his hands stroking her long hair gently, his arms holding her tightly. Oh, God, it had been so long since she'd gone to sleep in a man's arms! If she pushed the dream a bit farther, she could almost believe...

"Robyn?"

"
Ummm
?" she murmured, her voice muffled against the warm flesh of his throat.

"We've skipped a few stops along the way; you realize that, don't you? We're going to have to talk in the morning."

"
Ummm
," she responded, determined to keep reality at bay just a bit longer.

He laughed softly and drew her even closer. "Go to sleep, honey," he murmured.

Robyn did just that, lulled by the steady sound of his heart beating, the curiously familiar warmth of his hard body against the softness of hers.

She woke in the gray morning hours, immediately aware of what had happened the night before and still reluctant to end her dream. But she had no choice.
If she remained with this man...
She moved cautiously to free herself from his loosened embrace, holding her breath when he muttered something and then turned his face into her pillow. Still cautious, she eased from the bed and dressed quickly in the aqua dress, her gaze turning again and again to the man sleeping in the huge bed.

Dressed, and aware of the lightening sky over the ocean, she still hesitated, staring at Shane. "Thank you," she breathed to the sleeping man. "You made me feel alive again. But I can't stay. It's better this way... a beautiful night to remember."

She didn't feel the least bit odd in standing there speaking softly to a sleeping man in a room filling with dawn light. She felt that she had to voice her thoughts. It seemed a fitting ending, somehow, to her dream.

"I only wish..."

The wistful whisper died away before she could form the thought fully in her own mind, and she was glad. Wishes too often didn't come true, and she wanted nothing to spoil the memory of her dream.

She slipped silently from the bedroom after a last, lingering glance at the man in the bed, retrieved her purse from the living room, and then left the suite. Her dress whispered softly around her ankles as she walked briskly to the elevator.

She found a cab outside the hotel and climbed in, giving the driver her address and then sitting back for the long ride across the bay. She realized absently that her hair was still loose, mussed from Shane's fingers, but she didn't bother doing anything about it.

The sun was hanging low in the eastern sky when her cab at last drew into the drive of her secluded home a few miles south of Miami. She paid the driver and watched him leave, then turned her gaze to the sprawling, Spanish-style house with its tile roof and mellow, sand-colored stucco finish. High hedges provided privacy, and tropical plants gave the place the look of someone's idea of paradise.

Abruptly, Robyn realized that the place was far too large for just one person-well, two, counting Marty. And, really, it wasn't as if it contained a lot of memories. She and Brian had traveled so much during that year; they had rarely been home, and never for very long.

She slowly moved up the walk, fishing her keys from her purse and silently questioning her decision to keep the house. Why not sell it and move somewhere else? Somewhere with definite seasons-snow up to her eyebrows in the winter!
If it weren't for her store...
Well, she could have another store, couldn't she?

Still arguing with herself, Robyn aimed the key at the lock, but it never quite connected. The door was pulled open suddenly, and a middle-aged woman with graying hair and a fierce frown on her face regarded Robyn sternly.

"So, you're finally home," she announced with awful politeness. "And just where have you
been
all night, Miss Robyn? Miss Kristina came by after that party last night and waited here for three hours; she was very upset with you!"

"And you aren't?" Robyn murmured dryly, stepping inside and closing the door firmly behind
herself
.

The older woman gave a sniff of disdain as she stared at Robyn's rumpled dress and loose hair. "Coming in with the sun and looking like something the cat dragged in!"

"That's enough, Marty," Robyn said mildly.

She was ignored. The older woman followed her into the bright, sunny den, still scolding. "Leaving the party like that and causing poor Miss Kristina to worry! Not to mention me!"

"Let's do mention you!" Robyn dropped her purse onto the couch and turned with a militant lift of her chin. "I seem to remember someone pestering me to get out of this house once in a while. I even remember at least one distinctly pious wish that I
would
come in with the morning sun!" She glared at the woman who had practically raised her, a challenge in her stance.

Marty maintained her affronted expression for a full minute,
then
smiled suddenly, her face assuming its usual cheerful look. "So I did," she chuckled. "And it's about time, too! You've been brooding too long, Miss Robyn. There's a time when grieving has to stop. You're too young to bury yourself with Mr. Brian."

Robyn smiled slightly. "I finally let him go, Marty," she confided quietly. "Last night. Even the guilt is gone."

Marty shook her head. "You should never have felt guilt, anyway! You couldn't have stopped Mr. Brian- that day or any other. He was a reckless man; you knew that when you married him."

Robyn shrugged vaguely. "I knew.
But...
Oh, never mind! If you're through fussing, I'd like to have breakfast. I'm starving!"

Her housekeeper and general mother-hen opened her mouth to comment,
then
apparently thought better of it. Muttering to herself, Marty headed for the kitchen.

Two hours later, refreshed by a shower and breakfast, Robyn lounged by her pool in a brief bikini and blinked like a contented cat at the shimmering blue water. Her thoughts turned to the night before, and she wondered dimly if Shane would be disappointed to wake and find her gone.
Probably not.
From the look of him, he could certainly have any woman he wanted-and he probably had! One more or less wouldn't matter to him.

Oddly enough, that thought hurt.

"Robyn!"

She turned her head, staring at her cousin who was approaching with a strange look on her face. Robyn felt a flicker of amusement at that look, wondering if Kris would scold her or commend her.

"I nearly died!" Kris exclaimed, her long, graceful body collapsing onto the twin lounge beside Robyn's. "For you to just leave like that-and with Shane Justice, of all people!"

Something tapped at the back of Robyn's mind when she heard his last name, but she ignored it. "Something special about Shane Justice?" she inquired, putting on her sunglasses to hide the intense curiosity she felt. "What... is he married?" Sudden dread gripped her even as she haltingly voiced the thought.

"Not that I know of."
Kris waved a hand in a vague, bewildered gesture.
"But, Robyn-
Shane Justice!"

Robyn pulled the sunglasses down her nose and peered at her cousin over the top of them. "So?" she questioned blankly.

"You really don't know, do you?" Kris took a deep breath,
then
said carefully, "Robyn... Shane Justice races.
Stock cars.
Like Brian did."

For an eternal moment, Robyn continued to stare blankly at her cousin. Then she laughed, a strained laugh, just a whisper away from hysteria. "Isn't that ironic," she said very quietly, a statement rather than a question.

"You really didn't know." It wasn't a question either.

"Do you think I would have left with him if I had?" Robyn tossed the sunglasses onto a table between the lounges. "I swore-
swore
-after Brian was killed that I'd never have anything to do with a man who raced! I must have built-in radar where they're concerned," she went on bitterly. "I'll bet he was the only man there who raced, so of course I had to pick him to
- "

"To?"
Kris prompted when her cousin broke off abruptly. "Robyn... did you
... ?"

"I did," Robyn confirmed dully, her earlier contentment vanishing as though it had never been. "There was just something about him. I guess he reminded me of Brian, and I thought... oh, hell, I don't know what I thought!
Nothing intelligent, obviously."

Kris smiled suddenly, her blue eyes showing an unexpected flash of humor. "Oh, I don't know about that! You're certainly looking better than you did this time yesterday. It was just
an
...
unusual
thing for you to do. Going off with a virtual stranger, I mean. Why, Brian courted you for six months before you were engaged, and I'm willing to bet you didn't sleep with him the whole time!"

Accustomed to her cousin's cheerfully blunt manner, Robyn only smiled wryly. "Maybe I'd had too much to drink," she murmured, trying to rationalize her behavior of the night before.

"Not a chance! You had one drink-a screwdriver, if I remember correctly-and nursed it for nearly an hour. You'll have to come up with a better excuse than that!" She lifted a questioning brow. "Couldn't be love at first sight, could it? It's hardly in character for you to tumble after a single glance!"

"Hardly," Robyn agreed, staring out over the water. "I don't want to fall in love, Kris!" she blurted.
"Especially not with a man who races.
Life's too short to watch someone you love risk death on a whim."

Kris was silent for a moment,
then
said dryly, "My feminist friends would kill me for saying this, but you need a man, Robyn. You're the type of woman who'll never be happy living alone. You should have a husband.
And kids."

"Maybe I will one day." Determined to change the subject, Robyn spoke in a light voice. "But that husband definitely will
not
be Shane Justice, or anyone like him! He'll be a comfortable, sedate man, with a nine-to-five job and a safe hobby-collecting stamps or something."

Kris gave a crow of laughter. "You'd be bored to tears in a month!" she announced. "Robyn, sweetie, you're just not a comfortable sort of woman!"

"Thanks!" Robyn muttered tartly.

"Well, it's true. You've been in limbo for the past year, ever since Brian was killed. And heaven knows you were nearly out of your mind with terror for him during the year you were married. But your personality is a far cry from 'sedate and comfortable'! You have a temper, for one thing, and you're too damn impulsive for your own good!"

"I am
not
too impulsive!" Robyn defended herself irritably.

"Oh, no?"
Kris lifted a mocking brow. "And I suppose last night's decision to leave a party with a man you'd just met, and subsequently spend the night with him,
was
a carefully thought-out plan?"

A flush crept up into Robyn's cheeks. "I'm twenty-seven years old," she snapped, "and certainly entitled to do whatever I like! If I wanted to spend the night with Shane Justice, then it's my own business."

"Sweetie, I'm not arguing with that." Kris's lovely face brightened suddenly. "In fact, I'm glad you met him! You need the strong, masterful type, and, from what I hear, he's certainly that! But if you're going to see him again-"

"I'm not," Robyn interrupted firmly. She thought again of the night before and shivered slightly. "I'll admit to a certain amount of
.. .
attraction, but I'm not about to get involved with a man who's so utterly careless with his own life that he looks for ways to risk it! Shane doesn't even know my last name,

"Maybe not," Kris interjected, a certain satisfaction in her voice, "but he's trying his best to find out."