Someone Irresistible (21 page)

Suddenly she felt his fingers on her thighs, over one layer of silk petticoats, and then he pinned her tightly to the door again, an arm lying across her chest, above her breasts, a hand holding her shoulder.

Abruptly, he released her mouth, and after a second she raised heavy

lashes to look into his eyes.

They were heady with desire, and a marvelous intensity, probing hers.

He touched her intimately between her legs, covering her mouth with his free hand to keep her from crying out with pleasure, or shock.

He watched her blatantly as he rubbed her over thin silk, the tip of one finger quickly probing the tiny slit where she grew slick and hot with need.

She whimpered softly as the tiny thrusting action of his fingers, the fast flicking of the tips, brought her quickly to the edge.

It scared her, captivated her, and made her move her hips against him in total abandonment. It had never been so fast, so sharply pleasurable, so consuming before.

She felt herself coming. So did he.

“Give it to me, Mimi,” he whispered in a hot, thick breath against her cheek. “Make me feel it.”

In a blind wave of ecstasy, she climaxed from his touch. Her head jerked back against the door, her throat tightened, and she bucked against his hand, holding the scream inside, clutching him against her, as the throbbing continued to pulse, and then gradually subsided between her legs.

He moved his hand from her mouth and kissed her again, hungrily, as he slowed the rhythm of his fingers. Then he grazed her cheek and jaw and temple with tender kisses as he breathed heavily from his own unfulfilled lust, pushing his fingers through the soft hair between her thighs, cupping her a final time before pulling back and allowing her skirts to drop to the floor once more. He grabbed her shoulders with both hands and forcefully held her to the garden door, sucking her earlobe, making her shiver.

“Is this what you wanted, Mimi?” he whispered in a thick breath of his own desire. “A moment of pleasure? A man to satisfy you physically?

You think I can give you what you need?”

Her breathing came fast and heavy and she couldn’t speak. Or he didn’t let her have the chance.

He shoved her shoulders hard against the wood then pressed his hot forehead against hers. “Do you have any idea how much I dream of being inside you? How difficult it is for me to resist you every day? How I crave to take you to bed, to explore your body with my own, to get physical pleasure from you?”

“Nathan,” she breathed on a sigh, but she couldn’t open her eyes.

“Now I carry your scent on my fingers, teasing me, torturing me, making me crazy. All night it will be there, with the memory of how warm and wet you were where I stroked you, how hot I made you. All goddamn
night
.” He squeezed her arms to the point of pain. “Are you going to take care of my needs, too, Mimi?”

“I want to,” she heard herself say in a far off voice. “I want to feel you so much.”

“And then what?” he pressed. ”
Then
what?”

She couldn’t answer him, and he knew it.

Suddenly he released her and took a step back, wiping a shaking hand across his brow.

“This can’t go on.”

He stepped to her side, unbolted the garden door, and walked out into the cold night.

Mimi stood where she was for minutes, eyes squeezed shut, legs trembling. She shouldn’t have allowed that to happen, not without giving him something in return. He couldn’t possibly know what he did to her, how crazy he made her, how she, too, wanted to feel him inside her. It couldn’t go on like this for her, either.

Lifting her lashes at last, she slowly straightened with grace, and moved with a marvelous dignity out of her studio and toward the front of her home, to her small parlor where her desk sat, cluttered with household lists and various papers that she completely ignored.

Her note to Justin remained simple but to the point.

Hurry.

« ^ »

S
he hated the fact that he kept
leaving
her. What on earth made him do that? She couldn’t understand his actions, except to assume it had something to do with his masculinity, his inability to confront his feelings and then respond to them. Mimi knew gentlemen sometimes

had trouble with that. Of course there was always the possibility that his rapid departures—when the conversation turned personal or the intimacy intensified—had something to do with her, but on the whole she disregarded that notion. She was certain he wanted her physically, yet if he felt such longing and walked out on her one more time, she was also quite certain she’d go mad.

Mimi stood in front of the fountain at the edge of the brick path that meandered through her garden, in the morning air that was more damp than cold, trying to keep her mind focused on the various bushes and dead flowers and leaves in front of her that she needed desperately to cut back, rake, and clear for the coming winter frost and spring planting. Yet today she felt too jittery to care about the approaching season, or the condition of her backyard.

It had been a week since the night of Nathan’s quick departure, since the night she’d been held by him, felt his lips on hers, reveled in his hands caressing her body, seen him last. It seemed like years. Every day she missed him more, spent indefinite periods of time thinking about him, and the uncertainty ahead of him. Their situation together was precarious, and it worried her tremendously, especially as the weeks progressed toward the banquet on New Year’s Eve.

She had yet to hear from Justin regarding any arrangement he might have made, and as the days passed without word, she grew increasingly agitated. She expected a note of confirmation soon, but until that time, she would simply have to make due with all the unknowns nagging at her conscience and floating through her mind. And the loneliness created by Nathan’s intentional absence.

“Well, I didn’t expect to find you outside on such a bleak day,” came Mary’s lighthearted voice from behind her.

Mimi twirled around in surprise as her sister approached with a breezy smile on her lips, her hair parted in the middle and set with ringed curls at her ears, her peach satin morning gown cut conservatively but enhancing a trim figure. What she wouldn’t give to be able to wear such tasteful, elegant clothing in such an utterly appealing color.

“Good morning, Mary,” she replied affably, running her palms up and down her upper arms to stay a shiver. She nodded briefly toward a brown spot beyond the fountain. “I was just having a look at my overgrown and shameful garden.”

Mary chuckled and strolled to her side. “I really expected to find you laboring ambitiously on one project or another. Only you would actually want to openly experience an ugly, gray December morning.” She looked up and squinted at the sky. “It’s freezing out here.”

It was Mimi’s turn to smile. “Where’s your cloak, or did you give it to Stella?”

“I gave it to Stella. I never expected to be out here. There’s no reason on earth a lady in her right mind would be wandering about in the open air under such nasty conditions.”

Typical of Mary to scold her in such a loving, sisterly way, and she didn’t take a word of it critically.

Mimi looked back to the dry fountain. “I find it rather refreshing.”

“And yet you’re shivering,” her sister pointed out, amusement coloring her tone.

“I’ll move indoors in a minute.”

“I’m sure you’re not looking at me,” Mary returned without pause,

“but I’m rolling my eyes at your ridiculous argument, dear sister.”

That made her smile brighten. “I know that, of course.”

Mary stood silently next to her for a second or two, arms crossed over her breasts, then sighed. “I noticed the jawbone sculpture sitting on the table as I came through your studio. Naturally I would never see such beauty in a thing. It’s rather rigid and grotesque, I think. But the attempt at duplication in this case is exquisite.”

Mimi wanted to laugh at such a qualifying comment about her work, but she restrained herself. “Thank you,” she said humbly, glancing sideways at her sister. “I’m very happy with it myself.”

Mary stared at the brickwork at her feet, shuffling the sole of her shoe along loose pebbles. “Is it complete?”

Mimi glanced down at the dry marble in front of her, her forehead crinkling in thought. “Essentially. It took me all of last week to decide where to place the neck. Nobody is certain what the beast looked like, so I had to guess at its location and dimensions from Nathan’s drawings.

But I think he’ll approve.”

Mimi realized immediately that she shouldn’t have used Nathan’s given name. That was a mistake. But she wouldn’t comment on her blunder for now.

Mary walked away from her a yard or two, stopping directly in front of the stone bench, running her fingertips across its smooth back. “So Professor Price hasn’t yet seen the results?”

After a few seconds of continued silence, Mimi turned her body to face her sister directly, feeling warmth creep into her cheeks that would likely tell a world of indelicate tales, or perhaps just fantasies, to Mary as it would no one else. But she refused to hide under false accusations or mere insinuations.

“No, not the completed beast,” she answered evenly. “He hasn’t been here in more than a week, though he seemed pleased with the results he saw at his last visit.”

“I see.” Mary crossed her arms over her chest again, nervously massaging her elbows with her fingertips. “How pleased?”

Mimi knew that was coming, but indignation flooded her nonetheless. She stood erect, lips thinning to a hard line. “What exactly are you asking, Mary?”

“Nothing. I just don’t want to see you hurt by him.”

“I’m not hurting in the least,” she shot back.

Mary didn’t believe that for a second, she realized. Her sister’s expression conveyed concern as she gently bit her bottom lip, her eyes narrowed with troubled thoughts and conjectures that had no grounding in fact. It made her fiercely mad but she held her tongue.

“I’m sure you and Professor Price have been quite proper in your business association,” Mary muttered cautiously, voice lowered. “But he is a man you are attracted to physically. Men will be men, and not all of them are gentlemen when alone with a lovely woman who expresses that attraction, even in her innocence.”

“I haven’t expressed an attraction.”

“Haven’t you?”

Mimi said nothing to that.

“He
has
been a gentleman, hasn’t he?”

“Of course he has.”

Mary sighed, softening her voice to add, “Still, it’s altogether possible that he’s using you—”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Mary, he’s not using me,” she interjected with exasperation, tossing her palms in the air and rolling her eyes. “Don’t be so
dramatic
.”

Mimi watched her sister press her lips together to suppress a laugh.

Mary had never been accused of being too dramatic, whereas she lived and breathed drama in everything about her, and everybody knew it.

Her outburst embarrassed her now, but thankfully Mary brushed over it.

“He
is
using you if he still thinks Papa had anything to do with his professional disgrace.”

Mimi stood her ground. “You and I both know he didn’t do anything of the kind, so I don’t see how helping the man regain some of his stolen dignity could be detrimental to Papa’s reputation. We just have to be

very careful in how we go about it.”

She’d said that softly, but with conviction, and it had its effect.

Mary’s eyes ignited with an anger she rarely expressed as she began to pace.

“I just don’t understand how he can possibly be so bold as to ask
you
to help him, the daughter of the man he accuses.” She shook her head sharply. “It’s rather insulting.”

Mimi knew her sister meant well, but the words ground into her like gravel on skin. She’d spent the last week, since the night Nathan brought those wonderful feelings front and center, thinking the same thing, having the very same worries Mary did.

“He needs me,” she replied softly, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.

A gust of cold wind made the leaves rustle and swirl on the ground, around their skirts. Mary stopped pacing and hugged herself against the chill again, then sauntered to her side. “Tell me what’s bothering you, really,” she insisted, gently.

“Nothing is particularly bothering me,” Mimi replied after a moment.

“Though I am worried about Nathan Price and the outcome of his showing at Professor Owen’s banquet in three weeks’ time.”

Mary shook her head again and briefly closed her eyes. ”
Why
, for goodness’ sake? That man and his professional problems are not your first consideration, I assure you.”

Mimi whirled around to face her squarely, hands on hips, her eyes dark and hard with frank stubbornness. “Then what
is
my first consideration, Mary? What would you have me do with my time?

Needlepoint? Write letters to those I’m not supposed to visit?” She lifted her skirts and brushed by her sister to begin her own pacing around the fountain. “I’d grow bored from such trivialities, and you know it. It is in my nature to be sociable and to help and care for those in need. Professor Price needs my help, and I want to help him.”

Mary sighed audibly, not in the least daunted by that outburst as she attempted to remain matter-of-fact. “I simply think it would be best if you carried on your life with a fair showing of ladylike discipline—”

“Ladylike discipline?” Mimi repeated incredulously, coming to an abrupt halt. “In what manner am I not being ladylike, Mary? You’ve never been married, or widowed, therefore you are allowed to wear a lovely gown in peach or sunny yellow on any day you choose. You are allowed to go to the opera, or travel, without thought to what others will think. You are allowed to make social calls on any acquaintance or friend of your choice. Social restrictions forbid these things of me.”

She clutched her hands in front of her chest and lowered her voice with intensity. “Do you have any idea how I envy you, Mary? That you could choose a husband of your own if you wanted? That you can accept invitations to parties and openly laugh and dance at a ball in a bright pink dress? Can you not understand that I need just a little conversation right now?” She straightened, raising her chin a fraction. “I find a certain companionship with Nathan. I do my best to be properly disciplined where he is concerned, and I haven’t done a thing to be ashamed of.”