Fit for a King (10 page)

76

Diana
Palmer

Fit for a
King

77

haste in rushing to
her cottage, had, upon assessing
that nothing was wrong, laughed at her indulgently
and cradled her like a child. Even then, she
reflected,
sitting on the edge of her
bed and holding her, he
hadn't
seemed to notice her as a woman. There had
been nothing remotely sexual about the comfort he'd
given her. And yet now, after last night, it was
im
possible to think of him in a
nonsexual way.

She
stepped down onto the beach and saw that
King's car was gone.
Where was he? she wondered briefly. Deciding it was really none of her
business, she brushed back her hair and turned once again to
watch the
big passenger ship in the distance wend its
way seaward. Her
cottage was too far off the beaten
track for much contact with city life,
and she liked it
that way. All the same, it must be fascinating to live
in Mo' Bay,
as everyone called Montego Bay, and
see the people who visited the island
from those grand
oceangoing hotels.

With her
coffee cup in her hands, she sat down on
the warm sand and watched the graceful
casuarina
pines blow in the wind. It was
heaven here. So peace
ful and quiet
and exquisitely unpolluted.

Her eyes
drifted closed, and suddenly she envi
sioned herself on the beach with King,
in the moon
light,
making wild, passionate love, with the surf crashing around them....

Her eyes
popped open, and she jumped to her feet
so quickly that she
almost upended her coffee all over

herself. Dazed by
her wayward thoughts, she stum
bled back inside and went straight to work.
And this time she did three designs that satisfied her creative
instincts.

It was
the longest day she could remember. At dusk
she heard Warchief go
off like an air-raid siren and
wished that she could get him and bring him home,
but it was misting rain and he was better off where
he was for the time being. She was
feeling unaccount
ably lonely, and
she missed having him on his big
T-stand
perch in the living room, chattering away and
begging scraps when she
broke off work for a snack
or a meal. She
almost always ended up sharing fresh
fruits
and vegetables and bread, which he ate with
evident enjoyment.

She
sighed, turning away from the window. She
missed her bird. She was going to miss
King even
more. After last night, she was
sure he wouldn't have
anything else
to do with her. She still found it amaz
ing that he'd wanted to take her to bed. She was glad
she'd had
the sense to refuse, but she still flushed
thinking
about what she'd let him do to her by those sliding glass doors. Best to put
such errant thoughts
out of her mind,
she chided herself.

Just after
dark, she was puttering around the
kitchen in shorts and a long-sleeved
man's shirt when she saw King drive up to his villa, accompanied by
Bobby and
Bess. She frowned. Weren't they sup
posed to have left that morning?

78

Diana
Palmer

Fitfor a
King

79

Minutes later, her phone rang.

"I'm
home," King said in a deep, sexy tone that
she knew instantly
was a ruse. "Why don't you come
over and have a drink? Bess and Bobby
are staying
the night with me."

She
fished for excuses. "I have to feed the hermit
crabs and put out
lobster pots...."

“I’ll see you in five
minutes," he said, ignoring
her feeble
attempt at humor, and hung up.

She
glared at the telephone. She wanted to call him
back and tell him
what he could do with his overbearing attitude, but now that she'd begun this
horrible charade, she felt obliged to go through with it.
Why, she
didn't know.

After
changing into a strappy little black dress,
hose and high heels,
she tramped across to King's
house.

Warchief
went into raucous ecstasies of welcome at her arrival. "Quiet, sweet
thing," Elissa scolded
playfully, nodding to Bobby and a subdued Bess
as
she went to pet her parrot.

Evidently
he'd lost his inclination to bite. He
blazed his eyes, docilely bent his
head for her to scratch and cooed, "Hello, pretty thing."

"I've
missed you, too, you horrible bird," she mur
mured, nuzzling her
nose against his head.

"I
wouldn't put
my
nose that close to him," Bess
gasped.

"Wise decision," King remarked easily.
"He's to-

tally unpredictable.
He won't let anyone except Elissa
that close."

"Now
go to sleep," Elissa whispered when she'd
scratched his green
head enough to satisfy Warchief
and his eyes were nearly closed.

She busied
herself covering his cage, uneasier
around King than she'd ever been in
the two years
she'd known him. She couldn't even manage to meet
his eyes,
she was so confused.

"I
expected to find you already over here," Bess
remarked. Dressed in
flowing yellow lounging pajamas that suited her blondness, she leaned back on
the
big white sofa.

"I had some designs to work on," Elissa
replied.

"She
works better at her own cottage, where there are fewer distractions," King
remarked, his dark eyes
narrow on her averted face.

Bobby
hadn't said a word, except to greet Elissa
warmly. He was bent
over financial reports spread all
over the coffee table, seemingly
oblivious to the
world around him.

Bess gave
him a weary glance before she turned
back to study Elissa and King.
"So what's with you
two? You barely seem to be speaking,"
she observed.
Her eyes openly flirted with King.

King
cleared his throat and stared hard at Elissa. "How astute of you to notice,
Bess. Actually, Elissa
and I had a little tiff, but it's nothing,
really."

"Yes," Elissa began, glaring at him. "I
simply lost

80

Diana
Palmer

Fitfor a
King

81

control and threw
myself at—" Suddenly she found
herself being grabbed by the hand and
dragged into
a bedroom.

"Rape!"
she yelled, and Bobby surprised everyone
by bursting out with laughter.

King closed the door behind
them, his face livid.
He leaned back against
the door, watching her retreat
to
the window.

"Stop
that," he growled. "You're slitting my
throat!"

"Good.
I'll bet you bleed ice water," she returned,
her eyes wide and accusing.

"I shouldn't have said
what I said last night," he
began
slowly. "I'm sorry. I can't begin to explain why I did it."

"You
were drunk and so was I," she replied to
save face.

His eyebrow made an arch. "On three drinks?"

"I'm
not used to liquor of any sort," she defended herself. "And unless
I'm mistaken, you don't drink
much, either."

His
powerful shoulders rose and fell. In his white slacks and a red-and-white knit
shirt, he looked impossibly handsome. His dark eyes ran up and down
her body,
and she knew he was remembering, as she
had, how it had been
between them. Her heart
pounded once again at the sheer impact of
that mem
ory.

"Bobby postponed
his flight until tomorrow morn-

ing," he said a
few moments later. "He thought it
would be fun if the
four of us flew back to the States
together."

"I can't," she protested. "Warchief—"

"I've
got a sitter, as usual," he returned. "I can't
stay here or Bess will get a
migraine or find some excuse to stay with me. Bobby, as you can see, is
immersed in his work. He doesn't even realize
what's
happening."

"You poor man," she said coolly.

He glared at her. "Do you think I can help it?"

"No," she sighed,
turning away. "I don't suppose
she can
help it, either."

He came up behind her, his
warm, strong hands
clasping her arms. She
trembled at their touch, so aware of him physically that it made her ache.

His
fingers contracted rhythmically, as if he liked
the silky feel of her skin. His breath in
her hair was warm and not quite steady.

"We
can fly to Miami, and then I can drive you to
your parents' house.
That will accomplish two things:
satisfy my sense of honesty and get Bess out
of my
hair."

So he
wasn't planning to stay, thank God. But what
would her parents
say at this unexpected visit? They
were bound to wonder why she'd cut her
vacation
short and why King was with her. This entire situation
was
totally ludicrous. Yet, despite herself, her heart
went out to King in
his predicament, and she reasoned

82

Diana
Palmer

Fit for a
King

83

it wouldn't hurt her
work any to touch base in Florida.
Maybe her parents wouldn't have to
see King, and
they'd never know that anything was amiss.

"All right," she agreed. "I'll go."

"Good girl."

She turned
and looked up at him. "Yes, I am," she
said quietly.
"Try to remember that the next time you
decide to make a pass
at me."

He
searched her soft blue eyes. "You and I are an
explosive mixture,
aren't we?" he asked, his voice
deep and measured.

Her nails
were making quiet patterns on his shirt-
front while she looked
at him. "Until last night, I
never really understood why women
couldn't stop
men from making love to them," she confessed.
"It's
very hard to stop, isn't it?"

He smiled indulgently.
"Well, a woman
can
tease
a man
until he's desperate to have her."

"I
tease sometimes," she admitted slowly, search
ing his darkening
eyes, "but I don't really mean it.
Not as a
come-on." She lowered her gaze to his
throat. "I've
always wanted to be more like Bess,"
she said.
"Sophisticated and worldly and very desirable. But the minute a man comes
too close, I freeze.
All those old inhibitions rear up, and I
run. But I don't
mean to be cruel. It's...like a fantasy."

He tilted
her face up to his. "I think I've always
known that,
Elissa," he said quietly. "And I know
you weren't teasing
me. Not deliberately, anyway,"

he added with a
smile. "Though you did get a little
wild."

She blushed feverishly.

"What
I'm trying to explain," he continued, trac
ing her cheek, "is that I was
frustrated and I couldn't
do anything about
it. I ended up saying a lot of things
I
didn't mean."

"So did I," she replied. "I—I ached."

"Not
half as much as I did," he said with a mock
groan. He pushed her long hair away from
her face.
"I lay awake half the night,
picturing you nude, on the beach, your arms open for me," he said huskily.

"Why,
that's just what I—!" She stopped, her
mouth open, horrified
at what she'd admitted.

"There's
nothing to be ashamed of," he said
gently. "You're human. So am I. We
had a little too
much to drink, we
quarreled—that's all."

"King,
you—you won't try to seduce me?" she
asked, afraid that he
might out of frustration over
Bess and knowing from last night's experience
that
he wouldn't meet much resistance.

"Could I?" he asked
in a smooth, sensuous tone,
searching her
wide eyes.

"Yes," she admitted, lowering her gaze.

His own
reaction startled him; it was instantaneous
and overwhelming, and he caught his breath
as his
body tautened. He saw her blush
scarlet at the aware
ness of what
was happening to him, and he muttered
unsteadily,
"This is absurd."