Magic in Our Hearts (12 page)

Taylor glanced Brett’s way and saw her struggle. Her face was a mask of pain and heartbreak illuminated every time a car’s headlights flashed by them. Reaching across the seat, she gathered Brett’s hand in her own and held on as Brett worked to compose herself.

“I’m sorry that you got roped into attending the charity ball. If you really don’t want to do it, I can get you out of it.” Taylor felt this as a rejection and tried to ignore the pain that welled up inside her chest. “If you don’t want me to go with you, I won’t, Brett.”

“No, that’s not what I meant!” Brett burst out. “I want you there.” The words were out before Brett could stop them, and she held her breath waiting for Taylor’s response. “Brett, I want to go with you.”

“Good,” Brett sighed loudly in the darkening night and relaxed back in her seat.

Yes, thought Taylor, that’s very good, and she smiled in the dark, her heart daring to hope again.

CHAPTER 13

Taylor was soundly asleep in her bedroom when insistent knocking penetrated her unconscious mind and awakened her. She was in her fifth week in Boulder, and Brett was showing definite signs of improvement. Her stamina had improved and her body was beginning to show signs of muscle tone. Most importantly, Brett seemed to have found her motivation because she worked tirelessly to gain her strength back.

Taylor glanced at the clock on the bedside table and groaned. It was four in the morning. She had just fallen asleep a little after three. Being around Brett all day long and most evenings was killing her. She went to bed every night aching and longing to touch her.

“Yes?”

“It’s Helen, Taylor.”

Helen stayed in a suite on the east side of the house and most nights would disappear into her rooms to read or watch television before going to bed. She wouldn’t emerge until it was time to prepare the first meal of the day. Something was wrong, and Taylor leaped out of bed and swung open the door startling Helen.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Brett.”

“Brett!” Taylor took off down the stairs with Helen trailing behind her.

“She’s crying. I heard her when I got up to get a glass of water.” Helen’s voice was full of concern. She had reserved a special place in her heart for Brett. Now that Brett was on the road to recovery, Helen was worried about any stumbling blocks that might be thrown up along the way. 

Taylor approached Brett’s room. The door was closed, and she could hear the crying and moaning from within. She didn’t hesitate but went straight through the door and looked around. Brett was crumpled up in her bed, curled into a fetal position as she cried softly in the dark. Taylor was by her side in an instant.

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

“Cramping, my legs are cramping up,” Brett gasped as tears ran down her face. “I took a muscle relaxer and some Percocet but they’re not working.”

“Helen, could you get some bath towels and soak them in hot water? I’m going to massage your legs, Brett. It’s going to hurt when I first start, but it will help you to relax in a few minutes.”

“Okay.” Brett buried her face in her pillow as Taylor pulled the sheet and blankets back. Brett was wearing a tee shirt and briefs. Her legs were pulled up tight against her thighs, the muscles of her calves straining against her skin.

“Oh God,” Brett cried out as Taylor started to massage her right leg, working the knots out of her calf. “Jesus.”

“I’m sorry, honey,” Taylor whispered as she worked on the knots. “Maybe we should put you in a hot tub and see if you can’t relax a little.

“Please. I’m willing to try anything.”

Helen entered the room and saw Taylor rush toward the bathroom, her eyes wild with worry. “Helen, we need to get her into a hot tub. Both of her calves are seriously knotted up.”

“Here, let me start the hot water. Go help her to the bathroom.” Taylor ran back to Brett and knelt down so that her face was level with Brett’s.

“Come on, honey. Let me help you into the bathroom.”

“I don’t know if I can walk,” Brett gasped, as she attempted to swing her feet around and down to the floor.

“I’ll help you.” Taylor placed her arm around Brett’s waist and lifted her off of the bed onto her feet.

Brett groaned, and her tight calves refused to release as she hobbled to the bathroom. Helen had gotten about four inches of hot water into the bathtub and was testing it when Brett stumbled through the door, her face drawn and sweaty.

“Thanks, Helen. I’ll take it from here,” Taylor announced.

“Call me if you need anything else.” Helen backed out of the bathroom taking the wet towels with her.

“Come on, honey, let’s get you into the tub.” Taylor pulled the tee shirt off over Brett’s head and then holding Brett tightly, she remained steady as Brett lifted one leg and then the other into the hot water. She gasped at the heat but immediately got some relief from the cramping as she slowly slid under the water. 

Taylor knelt next to the tub, reached under the water and began to massage Brett’s calf muscles, first one leg and then the other. It took several minutes, but the combined heat and massage provided a good measure of relief, and Brett lay back against the slope of the bathtub with much less pain than she had been experiencing.

Taylor leaned back watching Brett’s face. Brett’s eyes were closed and her breath came more regularly as she experienced some relief from her cramping.

Taylor was standing up when Brett reached over and clasped her hand.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Are you feeling better?” Brett couldn’t keep her eyes from traveling over Taylor’s body. She was wearing a blue camisole and matching panties, and she looked so sexy that Brett felt her nipples harden in response, her thighs clenching. She couldn’t fail to see the hard, protruding nipples of Taylor’s breasts. Taylor grew nervous as Brett stared at her, her eyes dark and locked on Taylor. Taylor’s tongue lightly slid across her lips as she watched Brett watch her. She knew that look, many a night she had looked up into those same eyes while they made love. She would never forget how Brett looked when she made love to her; that look was etched in her soul.

Taylor stumbled to her feet, her eyes still unable to look away from Brett’s.

“I’ll go straighten the sheets on your bed.” Brett watched as Taylor turned and fled the bathroom, feeling the loss. Taylor had all but run from the room. Brett knew Taylor had been physically reacting to her, and she didn’t understand why she looked so terrified when she turned and left the room. Could it be that seeing Brett’s badly mangled body had turned her away? Brett’s heart and mind grew heavy as she stared down at her scarred torso.

She hated the way she looked. She hated the fact that she had done this to herself.

She had destroyed her own body with one stupid decision. She had to live with the results but obviously Taylor found her body disgusting. She couldn’t prevent the tears that tracked down her cheeks.

Brett lay quietly for almost twenty minutes before standing up and drying off.

The water in the tub had grown cool. She didn’t know if Taylor was still downstairs. She hadn’t come back into the bathroom. Brett slipped her tee shirt back on and tossed her wet panties into the clothes hamper. Toweling her hair, she entered her bedroom and found Taylor sitting on the side of her bed. She’d put on a silk dressing gown, and her eyes followed Brett as she came out of the bathroom and turned the lights off. Taylor had lit the reading lamp next to the bed, and it filled the room with a soft glow that made her look even more appealing.

Brett’s body raged with renewed attraction as she moved closer to the bed. 

Taylor stood up as Brett approached and stepped away from the bed. “How’s the cramping?”

“Gone for now, thanks. The hot bath helped a lot.” Brett needed to tell Taylor it was okay to be repulsed by her injuries. She found it hard to look at her own body. She understood Taylor’s feelings, or at least she accepted them.

“I’ll leave you, then, to get some sleep.”

“Taylor …”

As she turned to leave, she felt Brett’s hand lightly touch her shoulder. The gesture was Taylor’s undoing. She whirled around and threw her arms around Brett’s neck, burying her face against Brett’s skin. “I hate it when you hurt.” The furnace that erupted when Taylor’s body collided with hers stunned Brett. She was completely overwhelmed and unable to do anything except to wrap her arms around Taylor’s slender back and hold her tightly. She would be content to stand there for hours if it meant she got to keep on holding Taylor.

Brett breathed in the scent she knew by heart as she buried her nose in Taylor’s hair. She had missed Taylor so much for so many years. Memories flooded through her mind as her body recognized the one woman Brett had loved completely.

Taylor’s lips moved of their own volition tasting the skin along Brett’s neck and jaw—soft, fragrant skin that she had memorized long ago—drawing her closer and closer to Brett’s wonderful lips, lips that had once kissed her into complete submission. The single thing she had loved most about Brett was that she had kissed Taylor like she was the only person in the world that mattered. Brett sucked in her breath as Taylor’s mouth covered hers in a kiss that tore through her senses. Both women groaned as their mouths met and memory took over.

Lips and tongues mated, and they tasted each other, intent on making up for lost time. Long, deep kisses, lips full and wet, Brett’s tongue entered Taylor’s mouth drawing a moan from her. Taylor felt Brett’s naked thigh push between her legs and slide long and hard against Taylor’s wet center. Her hips jerked at the pres-sure. The robe slid open, and it was Brett’s wetness on her thigh that made Taylor move her hand down under the tee shirt and across Brett’s backside, pulling her hips tight against Taylor’s thigh. She wanted to give Brett pleasure, the feel of her almost too much to bear.

“Oh God!” Brett stumbled away from Taylor, her eyes closed as she realized how close they were to making love. “I’m sorry.” Taylor wasn’t sure what to expect from Brett, but an apology wasn’t it. She was hurt and she blindly turned toward the bedroom door, trying to flee to her room. 

“Taylor, wait, please?” If Brett’s voice hadn’t trembled when she spoke, she wouldn’t have turned around.

“What?” Taylor’s eyes were full of pain, and Brett knew it was her fault. She hadn’t meant to hurt Taylor and she needed to make her understand.

Brett stepped closer to Taylor and reached up, placing her hand softly against Taylor’s face. “I want you so much and I don’t know why you would want me.” Taylor jerked in surprise as she heard the self-deprecation in Brett’s voice. She stepped close to Brett, wanting so badly to touch her, but she didn’t. “I love you, Brett. I’ve always loved you.”

Brett’s eyes filled with tears as she absorbed the words. “You love me?”

“Very much.”

“But I’m a mess. I have a deformed body and no job, and I’m an alcoholic.” Taylor’s eyes signaled anger and she stepped away from Brett, furious with her. “You’re not deformed, and yes, you are an alcoholic. But you’re recovering.

If you don’t have faith in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to have any?” Taylor started to leave Brett’s room, but Brett stopped her again with a quietly spoken comment. “I have faith in you.”

“Oh, Brett, I have faith in you, too.”

“Don’t give up on me, please?” Brett reached for Taylor’s hand.

“I won’t, honey.” Taylor smiled. “Go back to bed and get some sleep.”

“You won’t leave?” Brett couldn’t keep the panic from entering her voice.

“No honey, I’m not leaving,” Taylor promised. Leaving was the farthest thing from Taylor’s mind.

“Good.”

“Goodnight,” Taylor called softly. She left the room and climbed the stairs to her own bedroom, her mind in a jumble after hearing that Brett was still in love with her.

Brett crawled under the covers and laid quietly, her fingers gliding across her lips. She couldn’t believe that Taylor loved her. Her body still vibrated with attraction for Taylor.

From an early age Brett had known she loved women, in particular women’s bodies. By the time she graduated from college with a degree in Business Admin-istration, she knew making love to women was something she enjoyed very much. She was fascinated by breasts and thoroughly enjoyed kissing a woman’s body from head to toe. There was nothing like the taste and scent of a woman when she covered her clitoris with her mouth and drove her to an orgasm. Brett prided herself on her lovemaking. She never left a woman’s bed without giving her complete pleasure. Rarely did she allow another woman to touch her, however. Somehow, not loving someone made it impossible to want another woman touching her that intimately. That’s how she had known she was madly in love with Taylor. She craved her touch almost as much as she wanted to make love to Taylor, and the hunger never went away.

She had tried to bury that hunger by playing harder and drinking more after Taylor had broken up with her. It hadn’t worked, and she had grown increasingly dissatisfied with casual sex of any kind. It had been over a year before her accident that she had touched another woman. And that had been part of the problem.

Juliet Hart had pursued Brett for months, wanting to tame the wild, untouch-able skier. Brett lived her life wildly, yet remained aloof, detached, and some women found this very appealing. Juliet was one of those women. And Brett was not immune to Juliet’s considerable charms. Juliet had been a model for several years before becoming a representative of a large public relations firm in Los Angeles. Brett met her when Juliet’s firm was representing the U.S. Ski Team and planning all of their events. Juliet was petite, feminine, and a stunning blond woman who was not shy about making her feelings known. Juliet wore the most fashionable clothes, she ate at the most famous restaurants, and she drove a fire engine red Jaguar convertible. There wasn’t a gay woman in Los Angeles that wouldn’t find her sexy and very appealing. She was financially set due to her high salary and astute investing, and nothing was off limits to Juliet. She pursued many women, sometimes more than one at the same time, and she usually got what she wanted. She had wanted Brett and had gone after her with a vengeance.