His Girl Friday (18 page)

He felt her tears against his neck and was too total y exhausted to even kis them away. He held her closer while he 11 n-d to breathe. A long time later, his lips touched her face with delicate wonder while he tried to cope with the most exquisite pleasure he'd ever known.

She started to pull back, but his hands caught her hips and held them against his.

He lifted his head, his sweaty dark hair curling onto his forehead as he met her shy, embarras ed eyes. "Don't pull away yet," he whispered roughly. "I'l die if you unlock your body from mine."

He sounded serious and she subsided, her eyes staring into his as she lay back down, red faced and trembling.

"You love me," he said gruffly. "No way on earth you would have let me do that if you didn't." She swal owed. "It might have been an uncontrollable urge."

"But it wasn't." He drew his chest back just enough so that he could look down the length of their bodies, his eyes smoldering and intent, his jaw clenched. "My God, look.. !" She couldn't. Her face buried itself hotly in his throat.

"Don't be embarras ed," he whispered achingly. "Sweetheart, don't be, it's so beautiful." She trembled at the emotion in his deep voice. "You've done it before," she whimpered.

"No!" He kis ed her eyes shut. "Not like this, not ever. This is reverent," he breathed. "Creation. Rebirth." His arms contracted hungrily. "I want this again, endles ly, for the rest of my life."

Her breath caught in her throat as the words got through to her. It sounded as if he was tel ing her he loved her. Was he?

She drew her head away from his throat and looked into his pale blue eyes, her own uncertain, hesitant.

He brushed back her damp, curly hair with hands that shook slightly. "Did I satisfy you?" he asked huskily. She hid her face again, shivering.

"Because If I didn't," he whispered shakily, his hands moving her in an impossibly sensuous arc against him, "I can now." She shuddered, because she could feel that. Her hands gripped him. She wanted to say no, to ask him to tel her what he felt, but his mouth was on hers and he was shifting her gently onto her back, his body stil joined to hers, and it was happening al over again. He shuddered uncontrollably as he made love to her, his voice shaking as he took her into realms they hadn't discovered before. At the last, his voice broke as he lifted her up to him and fulfil ed her with a tendernes that she knew she'd never forget for as long as she lived.

When he final y moved away from her, he was pale and utterly exhausted, his face harder than she'd ever seen it. He got up and reached for his robe, slipping into it without looking at her. He couldn't. She probably didn't realize that he'd just given her his soul. But he did, and he was scared to death. She owned him now. He'd do anything for her.

She got back into her own things, feeling a lit le ashamed and nervous. "Are you. .are you al right?" she asked hesitantly.

"That's my line, isn't it?" He was smoking a cigaret e. He turned, and looked down at her, his eyes quiet and intent on her wan face. "Yes, I'm al right. If you can cal being shaken to the core of my soul being al right. Are you?"

She nodded, lowering her eyes to the floor. Her body tingled with new knowledge, with the faint sorenes his hunger had expres ed physical y. She pleated her gown. "Arc you sorry?" she whispered.

He wasn't sure if he was or not. He was too shaken to think about it. He hadn't realized that he was capable of so much emotion, of such a deep, aching hunger for only one woman. "I don't suppose so," he said noncommit al y. He look a long draw from the cigaret e, unaware of the faint panic on Danet a's face because of his remotenes . "We'd bet er go inside."

She started toward the door. What had begun as sweet mid sensual and earthshaking had turned into cold, stark reality. She'd just given herself to a man who was a self-pro fes ed bachelor. A man who didn't real y believe in marriage or commitment, despite his uncontrollable hunger for her minutes before. He'd satisfied his hunger, now he was probably regret ing the whole thing. He knew that she didn't sleep around. Probably he hadn't meant a word he'd said to her, because he'd been too aroused to think. She wanted to die. She was so ashamed of herself, and what in the world would she do if she got pregnant? Her careles nes was going to give her hel . She went out the door ahead of him, her eyes downcast, her face pale and miserable. She didn't look at him, not once. He hadn't noticed the effect his coolnes was having on her. He was too shaken by his own discoveries to notice much at al . He smoked his cigaret e in silence al the way to the house without saying a word.

It was only when they got to the door of the room Danet a was staying in that he saw the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Here, now," he exclaimed softly, catching her arm.

She shook off his hand. "Good night," she said on a broken sob. She slammed into her room, catching him off guard, and locked it. He stood there feeling like ten kinds of a fool. "Oh, my God," he breathed huskily. "Danet a!" But she didn't answer him, not even when he tapped on the door. With a heavy sigh, he went back to bis own room and closed the door. He'd been so wrapped up in bis own shock that he hadn't realized how cold he must have seemed to her. She'd given him her chastity, and he'd taken it without a single word afterward about how he felt or how commit ed he was. She was crying and it was his fault.

The look on her face would haunt him until morning. He only hoped he could straighten things out in time. It was bad enough that she was going to spend the night hating herself and him for what she'd be sure to think was premeditated seduction. Especial y after the hurtful things he'd said to her on the pier. He tossed and turned miserably. His conscience was kil ing him. Of course he wanted commitment! After an experience like that, only an idiot wouldn't realize that love was at the bottom of it.

Final y he closed his eyes and forced himself not to worry about the damage he'd done. He'd talk to her in the morning. Somehow he'd make her understand how he felt. He got up earlier than usual and rushed downstairs, stil tucking his blue chambray shirt into his jeans, when he noticed that Eugene and Cynthia and Nicky were at the table and Danet a wasn't.

"Where's Danet a?" Cabe asked curtly.

Eugene grimaced. "Wel , son, she came downstairs al picked and ready to go, picked up Norman and got a cab back to Tulsa before any of us were up. She left this note." He handed it to Cabe. It was brief and to the point. Had to go home. Thanks for your hospitality. Danet a Marist. Cabe sat down heavily at the table. He'd sure fouled everything up now!

Ten

Danet a rode back to Tulsa in a daze, trying not to think about what the fare was going to be. She'd already asked the driver if he'd take a check, and because she looked so distraught and miserable, the driver had broken a lifelong rule and agreed. Thank God she had her checkbook with her. She didn't want to think about what had happened to her in the garage with Cabe. A lifetime of honorable living, and she'd blown it al in one night because she'd let her body dictate to her mind. She cringed trying to imagine how she was going to tel her parents if she became pregnant. She wondered how Cabe was feeling, and decided that her impulsive action had probably saved him a lot of embarras ment. He'd shown last night how he regret ed what he'd done, even if he hadn't cared enough to at least apologize for it. Probably he thought she'd gotten what she deserved for let ing him go that far, and she couldn't put al the blame on him. She could have said no.

Hie cab pulled up at her apartment building. She wrote him a check, smiling wanly as she thanked him and handed it to him. He carried her suitcase and Norman's carrying case to the door for her, a kindnes that had her in tears. He even looked reluctant to leave her there, although he hadn't been reluctant to leave the iguana. Creepy kind of pet, he thought as he went back to the elevator. But a real nice young lady.

She unlocked the door and walked in, and came face-to-fuce with Cousin Jenny.

"Surprise, it's me!" Jenny grinned, and then stopped dead at Danet a's expres ion. "Why, honey, what's wrong?" she asked in a gentler tone. Danet a put Norman and the suitcase down and closed the door before she collapsed against the wal in tears. Jenny hugged her, without asking questions, and then made her sit down in the kitchen while she made coffee.

"Norman.. " Danet a began brokenly, wiping at tears with a hem of her blouse.

"I'l let him out," Jenny said, swal owing hard. She Hipped the catch and opened the door, quickly standing back. Norman, always happy to intimidate people who were afraid of him, almost seemed to have a grin on his lizardy mouth as he sauntered out of the cage and fixed Jenny with mi oddly birdlike upward stare.

"Now, Norman," Jenny coaxed, backing away, "let's not look at me that way."

"He's a. ." Danet a began.

". .vegetarian," Jenny finished for her. "Explain to him what a vegetarian is while I pour the coffee." They drank black coffee and Danet a said nothing for several minutes.

"Why are you back?" she asked Jenny. "And what kind of plan do Eugene and.. and Cabe—" she almost chokedf on his name "—have in mind?"

"A real y good one, pet," Jenny told her, leaning forward, her soft blond hair dancing around her shoulders as she moved. "We're going to plant some information and let the bad guys act on it. You see, what we think they wanted in here when they tore the place up was my map of the strategic metals vein we think we've found."

"The map!" Danet a sat straight up. "But how did they know about it?"

"You told them."

"Now wait a minute, I only mentioned it to Ben," the younger woman began, and then flushed. "Oh, no, he wouldn't!"

"Oh, yes, he would," she was as ured. "Haven't you noticed that he drives a Jaguar? Think about it, you must know what Cabe's executives get paid."

"I never connected it. Ben, mixed up in theft?"

"Ben didn't do it," Jenny told her. "He doesn't even real y know what he's into. He's been told that he's helping to find a new oil field, and he's being wel paid for dig-; ging out information about it. He has no idea that foreign agents are involved."

' 'How can foreign agents get their hands on metals in this country?" Danet a wanted to know.

"Pet, you can't be that naive," Jenny said gently. "Haven't you ever heard of foreign investors? Al they have to do is quickly buy up the land we're prospecting on."

"Can't you do it first?"

"It's not profitable to buy land on speculation, especial y this kind of land. Even to bid on it would arouse-comment, because it's apparently just scrub. People might not catch on that we had mining interests in it, but they might suspect that we wanted it for a nuclear waste dump in something, and we'd be backed against the wal overnight."

"Now I understand," Danet a replied. "Wel , what are we going to do about Ben?"

" You're going to give him some information when he comes back next Friday from his sales trip." Dannet a hadn't even thought about the long week ahead, When she'd have to see Cabe every day, have to face him hi in what they'd done together. Her hands gripped the

.coffee cup like a lifeline. How was she going to bear it?

"Then what, after I tel Ben?" she asked Jenny.

"We wait for results," Jenny replied. "Remember hearing. Eugene talk about Mr. Hunter?"

" I get cold chil s remembering what Eugene mentioned about Mr. Hunter," Danet a replied. "He's some sort of lop level troubleshooter in the organization. He actual y mounted a commando raid on one of their offshore rigs in the North Atlantic when it was at acked by terrorists." Jenny nodded. "He came back with some nasty scars, but he's a hard man to kil . Anyway, he's going to be on the frontl line when we set this up."

"Do we get to meet him?" Danet a asked, al eyes.

Jenny shifted restles ly. "I've already met him," she said with uncharacteristic discomfort. "He hates me, in fact."

•' What did you do to him?"

"'Nothing, that's the puzzling thing. I gues I remind him of somebody, or maybe he just hates blondes. He seems to be the soul of courtesy with everybody else. You'l probably like him."

"I like most people," Danet a sighed. She sipped her coffee.

"Why are you home alone? I thought you were staying with the Rit ers." Danet a blushed furiously.

"Another run-in with the boss?" Jenny asked wit pursed lips. "Oh, Dina, what am I going to do with you?'

"Help me find a new job," Danet a said. "Because I'm going to need one. I can't work for that. . that womanize another day!"

"So he final y made a pas , huh?" Jenny grinned at tn other girl's discomfort, blis fully ignorant of what ha real y happened. "You can't blame him. He's ruggedly masculine and you're a pret y lit le thing. I expect your innocence was like a breath of spring to him."

That was very likely true, but it hurt to hear it.

"What's that?" Jenny asked, frowning as she listened!

Danet a heard it, too. Loud, furious footsteps that came to a sudden stop just outside the apartment, followed by angry muttering and a fierce knock on the door.

"I'l give you two gues es who that is," Jenny said sweetly and got up to answer it.

Cabe didn't even bother with a formal greeting. His blue eyes were shooting sparks. He looked very Western in jeans and a freshly pres ed chambray shirt, and a black Stetson on his thick hair. "Where is she?" he asked hotly.

Jenny had good instincts. She stepped aside. "She's in the kitchen with the giant lizard," she informed him. He stormed in, his footsteps as furious as the expres io4 on his broad, dark face. And for once, he didn't even notice Norman, who was doing his spit ing-cat imitation wit great fines e. Cabe walked right past him without a down ward glance. So Norman relaxed his dewlap and went to sleep. Danet a resisted the urge to jump up and run. She sat very stil , gripping her coffee cup, her soft gray eyes looking up at Cabe with pure anguish. He started to demand an explanation. Then he saw that tearful expres ion, that wounded look, and every last bit of anger went out of him in one long sigh.