Heaven's Price Part 14

Did he truly expect her to respond normally to this bizarre introduction as though they were at a c.o.c.ktail party and not standing in a very compromising position? "How . .." She cleared her throat and tried again. "How do you do?" She glared into Sean's smug face.

"h.e.l.lo. Hi," the two men greeted her simultaneously.

"Blair and I have finished off this room, so it's all yours. We were going out for a bite of lunch. Can we bring you back anything?"

Blair squirmed against him, trying to get down. He held her fast.

"Uh, no. No, sir. We just ate before we came," one of them answered.

Larry, she thought.

"We'll be back in a while then to help you. Bye."

"See ya, Mr. Garrett. Miss Simpson."

Sean carried her as they were past the gaping men and out to the truck.

"I'm going to murder you," she said through stiff lips.

"No you're not," he said with breezy confidence. "You're going to kiss me again as soon as we get to the truck and between bites all through lunch and then some more.

He was right. That's exactly what she did.

"This is totally decadent," Blair said, scooping another handful of sea water over Sean's leg.

"Yeah, but a terrific way to wash off paint."

"But I don't have any paint where you're washing."

"See? It works."

Laughing, she leaned forward to kiss him.

By nightfall everyone in town knew that Sean Garrett had taken a woman to one of his houses to "help," something that had never happened before. Indeed, it had always been a bone of contention to avid matchmakers that Sean never mixed business with pleasure.

They had helped the Morris brothers, who were responsible for informing a gossip-hungry townsfolk, with the clean-up after returning from a sandwich lunch. Sean had invented jobs to keep them busy until the brothers finally left at sundown. Then he had rushed her to the private beach. His nude cavorting in the surf was no longer a one-man show.

Now they were sitting in the shallow water, the gentle waves washing over them. Blair sat facing him, her legs draped over his.

He bent his head to taste the flesh of her breast. He took a gentle bite, then raised his head and mimed energetic chewing. "Needs more salt," he said, ladling a handful of water over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s just to see the nipples contract.

"You idiot," Blair said, shoving his shoulder.

"I love you, Blair."

The words were spoken with such seriousness and the hands gripping her upper arms were so strong that she didn't doubt he meant what he said.

She stared at him a moment, his sudden announcement taking her by surprise, then she dropped her eyes to a point on the middle of his chest.

"You . . . said that last night." Her voice was so low that the ocean breeze nearly ripped the words away before he could hear them.

He lifted her chin with his index finger. "Yes, I did. But I was in the throes of pa.s.sion. I wanted to tell you now, when we weren't making love, so you'd know that I meant it. I didn't plan on falling in love at the ripe old age of thirty-eight, but I'm head over heels and eaten up with it. I do love you, Blair."

"Sean," He placed his finger over her lips to silence her. "You don't have to say anything. I just wanted you to know.

The moon rising over the horizon cast a shimmering beam on the water that pointed to them like a spotlight. Its glowing light shone on Sean's blond hair, touching his eyebrows with gold, and making his eyes sparkle. She outlined his face with her fingertips, touching the bushy brows, tracing the length of his nose, following the strength of his jaw to the vertical cleft of his chin.

"It's not easy for you to believe that I love you, is it?"

"Why do you ask that?" High emotion twisted her throat into a tight knot.

"Will you indulge me in a little amateur a.n.a.lysis?" She nodded.

"You didn't fit the mold when you were growing up. Because you weren't accepted by your peers, you separated yourself from them, making yourself even more unapproachable than you already were. Your parents didn't understand your artistic obsession with dance. They wanted you to be normal." You've never gotten over the rejection you felt in your youth. Even now that you're a success, you're still constantly seeking approval, acceptance. That's why your friends upset you so much the other night. Their opinions count."

Tears clouded her eyes. How could he see through her so well? How could he speak aloud the things she'd never been able to admit to herself? How had he known exactly how she felt about herself, her life?

Before she weighed the risks, she heard herself speaking. "I was never one of the crowd." I was different. My parents, instead of giving me free rein to pursue my interests, saw my interest in dance and theater as a perversity. Why couldn't I be more like my brothers and sisters?

I left for New York with an I'll-show-them att.i.tude."

She tossed her head back defiantly and her harsh laugh was without humor. "I still don't meet with their approval.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I know that hurts you. Parental opinions matter, but no one else's should, Blair. Don't you see that you're seeking approval for accomplishments when what you really want is acceptance for being the person you are?"

He lifted her face between his palms. "You're a worthy human being whether you ever dance again or not. Your talent is a gift, and if G.o.d saw fit to bless you with it, why should it matter to you what other people think about it? About you? I love you, Blair, but I know you're terrified of that. You've built a wall around yourself that I'm afraid you'll never let me tear down. Will you? Can you? Can you let me love you? Can you love me back?"

Yes. It was possible, just possible, that she might be falling in love with him. The idea of life without him was desolate and dark. He had filled her days with light, laughter, simplicity. Still she was afraid to make a commitment. Love had been too long in coming. The thought of accepting his love terrified her because he might decide somewhere along the line to throw her back and she'd be alone again.

But he had said he loved her. Could she love him?

She would ponder that idea, take it out and examine it when he wasn't so close, so overwhelming, so . . . naked.

She placed her fingertip on his lips. Her eyes penetrated the depths of his in a communication of the spirits. She made him the only promise she could. "If I ever let myself love anyone, it will be you."

"What in the world!" Pam exclaimed, having thrown open the front door to greet her guests for Sunday dinner.

"He insists on carrying me whenever possible," Blair explained. "I can't convince him that my legs are practically well."

"We're not sure after Friday night. You might have hurt them," Sean said to Blair, looking directly into her face, wondering why he hadn't missed her before she came into his life. She was such a part of it now, he couldn't imagine having lived all these years not even knowing her.

He had loved waking up the last two mornings with her curled against him, barely making a dent in the mattress she was so small.

He couldn't quite believe how soft her skin was, or how shining and silky her hair felt sliding between his fingers. Watching her apply her make-up in his bathroom mirror, he was amazed as she wielded brushes and wands and pencils that highlighted her complexion and eyes.

He drove her to distraction with his questions about the contents of each bottle and jar.

He sampled each of her fragrances on a different part of her body, a research project that had eventually concluded on the wide bed with no definite results doc.u.mented. He decided that her hair, her breath, her skin all exuded a combination of intoxicating essences that no perfume could champion.

As a collection of toiletries and garments began to litter his bathroom and bedroom, he was made aware of how colorless his life had been without these testimonies of a feminine presence. It was a void he hadn't even known was there. But not just anyone could have filled it.

Only this tiny creature who had an iron will, but who, he knew, also was frightened and vulnerable at this point in her life. What she had said as the tide surged around them, he had taken as a vow. She could love him. He'd see to it.

Looking down at her now, he saw her face soften at his reminder of that momentous Friday night. "But you were there to help me. I couldn't have done it without you.

His mouth settled on her ear and he whispered, "There are a few other things you've done lately that you couldn't have done without me."

She giggled.

"Don't mind me, please," Pam said sarcastically. "The two of you go right ahead with your private conversation and little jokes and when you decide to include me, I'll be standing by."

They laughed at her piqued expression as she moved aside to allow Sean to carry Blair inside. Sean's phone had been ringing when he had stepped out of the shower late that morning, leaving Blair to rinse her hair one more time. The call had been from Pam who extended him an invitation for dinner and cards.

"By the way, I haven't been able to reach Blair. Have you seen her?"

He looked in the doorway where Blair was standing. Only a wispy excuse for panties covered her. She was towel drying her hair. "Yeah," he had drawled. "I've seen her."

"Well, tell her she's invited, too."

"I'll do it." A half hour later, the telephone receiver was still off the hook where he had dropped it.

"As usual this house is bedlam," Pam announced to Blair and Sean as she stepped back from the door. "The baby's taking a nap, but Angela and Mandy have been fighting since they got out of Sunday school and I'm sure they'll wake him at any moment. The boys are the proud owners of a new soccer ball and a few minutes ago it crashed into my new lampshade.

They've been banished to the backyard for the time being. Sit down."

Sean and Blair laughed again at her harangue which seemed to have been delivered in one breath. Sean made no apologies for taking a seat on one of the Delgados' well-used sofas. He dragged Blair down beside him and tucked her under his protective arm.

A few minutes later Pam carried in a tray with four gla.s.ses, a carafe of wine, and a platter of cheese and crackers. "We can nibble on these while the lasagna is baking," she said.

"I can think of a couple of things I'd rather nibble on," Sean murmured in Blair's ear and looked significantly at her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Joe, who had overheard Sean, choked on his wine. Pam, who hadn't, demanded, "What's so funny? What did he say? What's going on?

Somebody please tell me." To her increasing irritation, none of them would satisfy her frustrated curiosity.

Dinner was a rambunctious circus with five noisy, hungry Delgado children as the featured performers. It was still enjoyable due to Pam's good cooking and the loving atmosphere interspersed with laughter and bantering and scolding. After Blair helped Pam with the dishes, they joined the men in the living room for a game of cards.

"Just think, in a few weeks, we can play cards in the hame room," Pam said, waiting as Joe dealt.

"I thought I was building that hame room for the kids."

"Well, they have to sleep sometime," Joe said dryly.

Two of the card players found their attention wandering. Sean's hand had a habit of finding Blair's thigh under the table and roaming at will, until once she dropped her whole hand of cards on the table.

Pam stared at them both with open-mouthed confusion as they simultaneously burst out laughing. When the wine bottle was pa.s.sed around, they toasted each other and then had to be nudged back into consciousness when they found they couldn't break their eye contact over the tops of their gla.s.ses.

Finally, when everyone had waited for several minutes for Blair to bid while she stared transfixed at Sean's hand lying relaxed near her own, Pam said in exasperation, "For goodness sake, would you two like to adjourn to our bedroom for awhile?"

Sean and Blair looked up in surprise. Had they been that transparent?

Joe chuckled. "Like h.e.l.l they will. If anyone adjourns to our bedroom, it'll be us. And I'm not into group s.e.x. Besides, you're taking a lot for granted to even suggest such a naughty thing," he said righteously.

"I'm sure the idea of a nice, comfy bed never crossed their minds."

Pam grumbled, "I wouldn't bet next month's supply of birth control pills on it."

"Birth contro . .." Blair's high squeak dwindled to astonished silence as her wide eyes flew to Sean.

He met her own flabbergasted stare with one of his own. Then he shrugged and smiled guiltily.

"My G.o.d, I can't believe it," Pam cried, slapping her hands over her mouth. "The two of you . . . without words until she was able to sputter, "You'd better be careful or you'll wind up with as many children as we have."

"Sean, we can't. Really. I mean it now." Her hands were spread wide on his chest, staving off his ardent kisses.

"I've told you a thousand times," he said, flopping onto his back on the bed and thumping his fists into the mattress. "Whatever damage could be done has been done. One more time before you see a doctor isn't going to hurt."

"And that's baloney. Every high school boy since Adam has used that line."

"Did Adam go to high school? Garden of Eden High?"

Biting back her laughter she said sternly, "Stop changing the subject and don't . . . ah, Sean, please." She took his hand away from her breast and pushed it away. "I agreed to sleep with you if you would behave. I'll leave if you don't stop."

He had the grace to look contrite. Folding his hands behind his head, he said, "All right. I'll keep my hands to myself if you'll take off that nightshirt."

Her look was one of total disbelief. "If you can't refrain from touching me with my clothes on, how do you expect me to believe you'll refrain with them off?"

"You'll take my word as a trusted friend," he said gravely.

"Oh, sure. Just like I'll take your word that one more time wouldn't matter. I know more biology than that, Mr. Garrett."

"Please, Blair," he whined. "I'm naked and since you're not it's making me self-conscious."

She laughed, propping herself up on one elbow to look at him.

"You've never known a self-conscious moment in your brazen life." It was a test of her self-discipline not to reach out and touch him. Ever since Pam had inadvertently reminded her that she was running the risk of pregnancy, she had sworn not to let anything happen between them until she could see a gynecologist. She was only getting used to the idea of loving a man. Motherhood was something else again.

"Please. Truly, all I want to do is look."

She sighed wearily in surrender. "All right. But remember, you gave your word." She peeled the nightshirt over her head. "There. Are you happy now?"

"Immensely," he snarled, lunging toward her and pinning her to the bed with his weight.

"Sean, you.." "Never take the word of a s.e.x-starved man with a naked lady in his bed.

That's lesson number one." In between words, he was scouring her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with kisses.

"What's . . . lesson number two?" Blair asked, writhing up to offer him better access to her nipples that were distended with awakened sensations. Her earlier resolve was being defeated by the delicious languor that stole through her body under the dictatorship of his hands, his mouth, his knee between her thighs.