Chain of Love (12 page)

“Why not?” He was inexorable. “It won’t help you to block things out. The sooner you remember and face it, the sooner you’ll
get past it.”

“It’s not that—that I’ve forgotten the night,” she confessed. “It’s just that... it could have been one of
several.”

The soothing fingers stopped for a moment, then continued in their circular, gentling motion. “He used to hurt you a lot?” There was a grimness
in his voice.

“Only when he got so frustrated with me that he couldn’t help himself. He was always miserable afterward.” Cathy’s voice was urgent
with the need to find excuses. “Or at least, that’s what he said,” she added lamely.

“And how long did you put up with this?”

She bit her lip, stealing a hesitant glance up at his moonlit profile. She could read no condemnation in his shadowed features, only dark concern. She took
a deep breath. The worst was over anyway—there was little more he could find out to disgust him. “Until the day I came home and found him in
bed with a strange woman. In my apartment. In my bed. I never went back. I found another place to live and bought all new things and I haven’t seen
him since. So I suppose I’m not the abjectly miserable coward I thought I was. I did finally say no.”

There was a long silence. And then his hand slid around from behind her neck and caught the side of her face in a gentle hold. “Cathy,” he said
softly, “did it ever occur to you that Greg did more than abuse you physically? That his lies about your sexuality were just that, lies to cover up
his own inadequacy.” His eyes were glittering down into hers in the moonlit night, and there was sadness and a great tenderness in them.

“But then why am I still so frightened of men?” she cried. “And why do I freeze when anyone gets close? The very idea of making love
makes me break out in a cold sweat, and...” Her voice trailed off before the faint smile that lit his eyes and played on his face.

“It’ll pass,” he said softly, and bent his head down to hers, blocking out the moonlight. His mouth caught hers, gently, sweetly, his
lips teasing hers with little nibbles, refusing to let her escape, until she opened her mouth beneath his to let him deepen the kiss, his tongue searching
every corner of her mouth until she was over-come by a longing she had never felt before, except for a few moments in her hallway two short weeks ago. He
was seducing her with his mouth, enticing her, and all this time his hands stayed decorously in place, one cupping her face and the other her shoulders,
holding her slender body close to his. When she started to slide her arms up around his neck, to pull him closer, he suddenly broke off the kiss.

“That’s enough of that,” he said with a slight shake in his voice. “I think I’ve proved my point.”

“You kissed me to prove a point?” Cathy asked in a dangerously low voice, her heart still pounding.

His smile broadened. “I kissed you because you’re a delectably beautiful, incredibly desirable woman with a wonderfully kissable mouth, and
because we’re both sitting here in the moonlight with the Caribbean all around us. And to prove a point.” He kissed the tip of her nose
lightly. “Does that mollify you?”

“I suppose so,” she said, not quite certain if she was telling the truth. “Shouldn’t you be heading toward the casino? Are Charles
and Meg waiting for you?”

“I’ve been dismissed, eh?” he inquired with a trace of mockery. “Very well, Catherine Whiteheart.” He rose in one fluid
motion, pulling her to her feet beside him. “I’ll take off, after I make sure you’re headed back to the room. I don’t know that
it’s perfectly safe for you to wander alone on the beach.”

“Especially with such a kissable mouth,” she shot back.

“You’ve become a saucy wench all of a sudden,” he laughed. “I told Charles and Meg to go on ahead. I’ll follow them as soon
as I put you in the elevator.” Taking her arm in his loose grip, he led her back along the beach to the hotel entrance. “So tell me,
Cathy.” His voice was studiedly casual. “Have you heard from Greg Danville since you found him with your friend?”

A sudden, unformed suspicion caught Cathy off guard. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious,” he said easily. “Did he accept his dismissal without a fight?”

She hesitated for only a moment. “No, of course not. There was too much money at stake. He kept calling me, trying to explain. And when I refused to
receive his phone calls or answer his letters, he sent me the most awful, vicious letter... telling me just how useless and pathetic I was. I burned it, of
course.”

“Did you memorize it?” His arm slid around her waist protectively.

She looked up at him, managing a wry smile. “You know me surprisingly well for such a short time. I know parts of it by heart, quite against my will.
Memory is a very stubborn thing on occasion.” They were outside the elevator, the hallway deserted at that late hour.

“You need something new to replace those memories. New words, such as”—his lips brushed her forehead—”you have the eyes of a
sea nymph, all blue and green mysterious depths. Or”—and his lips brushed her cheekbone—”your hair is like a curtain of silver
rain. Or”—and his lips caught hers for a brief, lingering moment—”or...but maybe I’ll finish that later. Sweet dreams.”

Before she realized what had happened he had placed her in the elevator, smiling at her as the door slid shut, a disturbingly tender, maddeningly
possessive grin. And then the elevator moved up, carrying her away from him.

She slept very lightly that night, a part of her always alert for the sound of his footsteps, the opening of the door, the feel of his presence in the
room. But time after time she’d sat up, wide awake, to find the bedroom still deserted. It was past four when she finally fell into a deep sleep, and
when she first heard a quiet rustle of clothing her sleep-fogged mind insisted it was another false alarm. She turned over lazily, stretching her arms out
into the darkness. And saw Sin towering above her dressed, no doubt in deference to her, in a brief pair of cotton running shorts. Her defenses momentarily
abandoned, she smiled sleepily up at him.

“Are you still awake?” he demanded in mock severity. “It’s five o’clock in the morning.”

“Five?” she echoed hazily. “You must have had a good night.”

He squatted down beside her bed, bringing his face level with hers. “I had an excellent night,” he said lightly. “I won absurd amounts of
money. The only way it would have been better was if you’d been there.” He reached a tentative hand to brush a stray lock of hair out of her
eyes, and she rubbed against him like a contented cat. He pulled his hand back as if burned. “Don’t do that,” he ordered sharply, not
moving from his position by her bed.

Cathy burrowed deeper into the soft, comfortable bed, deciding not to question his irrational behavior. “Aren’t you going to get in bed?”
she questioned sleepily.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment. “Yes,” he said, as Cathy felt the mattress sag beside her.

She sat bolt upright in outrage, but a moment later he had yanked her back against his body, fitting her against him, spoon-style, his long arms around
her, holding her in place. “Go to sleep,” he murmured in her hair.

“How dare you!” she fumed, fighting the delicious lassitude that washed over her. “You must be drunk. Get out of my bed!”

In answer he pulled her closer still into his warmth, and against her will she felt her body melt against his. He must have sensed her weakening, for he
gave her a gentle, approving kiss on one bare shoulder. “That’s right,” he whispered, his breath hot on her skin. “All we’re
going to do is sleep together. For now.” A moment later he was, to Cathy’s mingled outrage, relief, and amazement, sound asleep.

She knew afterward that she was partly to blame for what happened. Still, he had insisted on getting in bed with her, against her vociferous protests. So
was it her fault that hours later, half waking, half asleep, she had snuggled deeper against the long, warm body wrapped around her? That she had, sighing
peacefully, turned in his arms and rested her sleepy head on his hair-roughened chest, had slid her arm around his lean waist and pressed her slender,
unconsciously yearning body to his. One of his hands had moved down her back, to urge her slender hips against his, while the other gently cupped her chin.
Opening her sleep-filled eyes, she gazed into Sin’s probing hazel stare. He gave her more than enough time to turn her head, to elude his slowly
descending mouth. Her arms tightened around his waist, her fingers splayed out across his leanly muscled back, as she willingly drew him closer. With a
muffled groan his mouth met hers.

There was nothing tentative about this kiss, none of the reassuring gentleness of the night before. He kissed her long and deep and hard, with a kind of
savage tenderness that was inexplicably arousing. Pressing her back into the soft mattress, he half covered her body with his, his long, bare legs holding
the lower part of her body captive, as he plundered her willing mouth. His hand, which had been stroking her neck with long, sure strokes, moved down to
caress one full, straining breast, his thumb rubbing gently until the tip hardened in fevered response beneath the silk gown. All her free will seemed
drained away, leaving her a grateful captive of his knowing hands.

“Oh, God,” he muttered against her soft mouth. “I want you so much.” The hoarse words warmed her fluttering heart as she pressed
closer.

Trailing fiery kisses down her jaw and the slender column of her neck, his mouth caught her breast, his tongue flicking over the rosy-tipped peak. Her
nightgown had somehow gotten pushed down to her waist, leaving both breasts free for his sensuous attention, and as he moved his mouth to the other nipple
she moaned deep in her throat. His hand trailed along one slender thigh, moving upward with inexorable determination, until he reached the innermost center
of her being. She stiffened for a moment, then arched her back, reaching blindly for the waves of pleasure he was coaxing from her.

She slid her hands lower on his firm, muscled back, reaching the waistband of his shorts, and then stopped, confused. Greg hadn’t liked her to be too
bold—he wanted her lying there, passive, accepting his orders. She tried to blot out the memory, concentrating on Sin’s wickedly clever hands
and mouth, and a small moan of pleasure escaped from the back of her throat.

“That’s it,” he whispered against her silken skin. “Let me love you. I could make it so good for you, if you’ll let me love
you. Please, Cathy.”

Through the sinking, swirling mass of sensations and emotions his enticing voice filtered through. “Let me love you,” he’d said. Greg had
another word for it. Many other words, all obscene, all necessary to him, the constant litany of filth as he hurt her.

“No!” she cried, yanking herself out of his arms and stumbling from the bed. “No, no, no, no!” she wept, shaking with panic and
something else as she huddled on the floor, her arms wrapped around her shivering body. Pressing her face against the rough cotton bedspread, she sobbed in
frustration and despair.

There was nothing but silence from the man in the bed for a long, breathless moment. Cathy was too miserable to look, certain he hated her, certain he was
in a towering rage, so that when she felt gentle hands on her bare shoulder she flinched away in panic.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Cathy,” Sin said gently, reaching down and lifting her shaking body into his arms, holding her against his
broad, bare chest. Carefully skirting the bed, he moved to the upholstered loveseat on the far side of the room, sitting down very carefully so as not to
disturb his comforting hold on her.

Cathy knew she had no right to accept his comfort when she had led him on so shamelessly. “I’m so sorry,” she wept into his warm, bare
shoulder, awash with guilt, fear, and frustration. “But I can’t. I just can’t.”

“Shhh,” he soothed, stroking her back with long, sure, calming strokes. “I know you can’t. Not right now. It’s my fault
anyway. I didn’t mean to rush you—I thought I had more control. It’s just that you’re so damned enticing.” He reached a hand
under her chin, forcing her tear-drenched face up to meet his. “Come on, Cathy. It’s not so bad, is it? The big bad wolf stopped in time,
didn’t he?” He smiled down at her, a dazzling smile that melted the last of her panic.

“I guess so,” she whispered, managing a shaky smile in return. He stared at her for a long, breathless moment, and Cathy wondered if he was
going to kiss her again. If he did, if he took her back to that bed, she didn’t think she’d be able to stop him.

Gently but determinedly he put her to one side, standing up and stretching, moving quite definitely out of her reach. “Why don’t you get a
shower while I go for my run?” he suggested, grabbing a sweatshirt out of the closet. “I’ll see you at breakfast.” He disappeared
into the bathroom and emerged with a towel.

Cathy watched him from her perch on the love seat. “How much do you usually run?” she questioned, striving to put a casual note in things.

“Usually a couple of miles. This morning, however, I think I’m going to need to run twice that much, and take a nice, long swim. I’m
afraid I have a lot of excess energy to work off.” He bent over her, brushing a stray lock of hair out of her troubled eyes. “See you at
breakfast?” His voice and touch were incredibly gentle.

“I...I guess so.”

“Good. I’ll be hungry,” he announced with a grin that bordered just slightly on a leer, and left. Cathy watched him go with mixed
emotions, foremost among them regret. And a stubbornly optimistic sense of promise.

To Cathy’s immense relief Meg and Charles joined them for breakfast. To have had to make casual conversation facing Sin’s tender, all too
knowing eyes would have been a bit more than she was up to just then. Fortunately, the other three were all in excellent spirits, with more than enough to
chatter about. Cathy would have thought her abstraction had gone unnoticed, had it not been for the small attentions Sin paid her. A soft touch on her arm
as he offered her muffins, the reassuring momentary press of his knee against hers, the lingering of his fingers as he handed her the salt.