Double trouble (14 page)

"The guy was nuts to give you up," Matt growled. ''He wasn't grounded in reality. Now it's time to stop talking

about him. I don't want anyone else in bed with us, Kayla. There's only you and me here. No ghosts, no specters from the past. Just the two of us."

'There are three of us here now," Kayla whispered, catching his hand and placing it on her abdomen. An evocative, provocative action, to be sure, and she felt vaguely guilty for using their baby to further incite him, to bind him to her.

Why had she done such a thing when she'd been so adamant about his not even knowing about their child? If she ever came up with the answer to that, she could ponder an even more difficult question: Why was she making passionate love with a man she claimed she never wanted to see again?

"Oh, God, Kayla. I didn't think it was possible to want you more than before, but I do." His voice was thick with passion. 'Tve never wanted anyone more than I want you right now."

He swiftly, deftly pulled her dress over her hips and down her thighs, tossing it off with one smooth sweep. Remaining were her yellow bikini panties, which matched her bra and yellow-tinted stockings that ended at the top of her thighs.

Kayla's cheeks burned as Matt gazed at her appreciatively. ''You look like one of those models in a lingerie catalog." He ran his finger around the yellow lace top of her right stocking. "How do you keep these things up, anyway?"

She explained that the lacy tops were elasticized and he slipped his fingers underneath to test. When they strayed to the soft skin of her inner thigh, Kayla felt electric tingles all through her. She caught her breath and shifted her legs. "How do you happen to be so familiar with lingerie catalogs, anyway?"

"I saw one at my sister's place," Matt confessed rather sheepishly. "I glanced through it and wow! it was as sexy as

Playboy, I wondered how I could get my name on the mailing list."

She gave him a playful pinch. ''Are you one of those maniacs who slobbers over racy pictures?"

''Nope." He rolled over on top of her, letting her feel the full warm weight of him. "Just a normal, red-blooded male who knows a good thing when he sees it." He buried his lips in the curve of her neck, tasting her skin. InhaHng, he smelled the sexy, womanly scent of her.

He knew a good thing and she was it, Matt thought, his head spinning. He was truly under her spell, but he couldn't seem to get alarmed about it. He knew he should, for her sensual power over him was intense and extreme. Yet at this moment, he couldn't even remember why he'd been determined to keep away from her.

Matt kissed her neck, then along her jawline until he reached her mouth. He took it hungrily, with unrestrained mastery.

Kay la lay beneath him, her arms wrapped tightly around him, her legs entangled with his, responding to his kiss with every fiber of her being. In a fog of sensuality, she vaguely recalled her resolute vow not to succumb to the chemistry between them again. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, and she'd had every intention of keeping him out of her Ufe.

So much for vows and intentions, it seemed. Where were her much-heralded wits when she needed them? Her mind was as blurred as it had been during their first night together, but she had no alcohol-spiked excuse for it nov/, except that she wanted Matt Minteer with a fervid desperation that could not be denied.

They were kissing deeply as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of her panties and stripped them from her. Her stockings were next; he smoothed them down along the shapely, silky length of her legs. Kayla shivered a little as she

lay naked under his ardent gaze, not from cold but from the heat of his hungry, intense blue eyes.

"This is the first time Tve really seen you," he marveled, almost to himself. **Last time it was so dark in that hotel room..." He stroked her skin, savoring its smooth softness as his eyes feasted on her generous curves. ''I don't know how I managed to stay away from you for so long, Kayla."

"It's easy to stay away from someone you detest," Kayla said huskily, reaching up to caress the enticingly sensual lines of his mouth.

"I don't detest you, Kayla."

"Not at this particular moment anyway," Kayla murmured, drawing him down to her. She didn't want to argue the point or press the issue. Not now. Right now she needed to believe that he really didn't detest her, that he actually meant all the seductive things he was saying to her.

He slipped his hand between her thighs, seeking the throbbing feminine heat of her. His long, deft fingers caressed her, evoking spiraling waves of intimate, wonderful sensation. Kayla nearly sobbed as pleasure flooded through her; the remaining shreds of her control dissolved and she cried out his name, clinging to him.

Matt thought he might explode with raw desire. It took every bit of willpower he possessed to leave her long enough to pull off his clothes, but he couldn't keep away from her a second longer. He had to be inside her! With one powerful, deliberate thrust, he entered her. Locked together, they lay still for a few silent, sensuous moments.

He moved slowly, deeply, possessing her with a fierce passion that she returned in full measure. She moved with him and for him in erotic tandem, until they were both panting and breathless, their skin slick with sweat. Kayla gave herself to him completely; there were no reservations or inhibitions between them, no holding back. But even as

they took, they gave to each other, their surrender as mutual as their sensuous demands.

And though they tried to prolong it, the wild, hot pleasure finally flared to flash point and the sweet flames engulfed them into a tumultuous, simultaneous climax.

Afterward, they lay in each other's arms, silent and replete in the afterglow. Kay la's eyehds began to feel heavy; it was an effort to keep them open. She shifted to her left side, her favorite position for falling asleep. Matt reached over to turn off the lamp, then tucked her into him, spoon-fashion, and draped a possessive arm around her. The lights in the living room, still on, shone dimly into the room. Matt considered getting up to turn them off, then reconsidered and didn't.

**Are you falling asleep on me?" he asked, stroking her hair lightly.

''I guess I am," she murmured drowsily. She didn't want to talk or think. She just wanted to float away on this sweet cloud engulfing her.

*'Then now is probably a good time to ask if I can spend the night here."

"It probably is because Fm too tired to say no and face the argument you'll put up if I do."

"I left an overnight bag in my car." Matt pulled her closer. *'But I'll get it later." He heaved a contented sigh. ''This is great, isn't it? Not having to worry about birth control and protection and all that. I've always hated condoms and—"

"Don't press your luck, Matthew." She cut in sharply. "I said you could stay here tonight but I don't want an analysis of what is undoubtedly going to turn out to be a huge mistake on my part."

"It's not a mistake, but there'll be no analyses." He kissed her temple. "See how easy to get along with I can be?"

She had to laugh at that. "Oh, you're the soul of amiability, I'm sure."

This was, Kayla realized thoughtfully, the longest conversation they'd had without an exchange of angry words since their first night together. Did it mean anything other than the fact that they were good together in bed? There were lots of couples whose sexual relationship was dynamite but who were totally incompatible out of bed.

Penny immediately came to mind. Why, every relationship Penny had had, including her marriage to the twins* father, had been like that. Penny had warned her stepdaughters to beware of good sex: "It's merely a temporary smoke screen, not a solution to your problems. In fact, it can become your major problem."

Kayla could hear her stepmother's dire warnings as clearly as if she were in the room with them. She tried to put the troubling thoughts from her mind. She wanted to go to sleep, to forget everything for just a little while. Her eyelids closed heavily.

A moment later Matt's hand moved over the curve of her hip, then slipped to the dark springy delta between her thighs. Kayla's eyes flew open. She was suddenly wide awake again. And though she'd been limp with satisfaction from their earlier loving, she felt a fierce stab of response tightening in her groin, felt the moistness gathering there...

"Say you'll marry me," Matt said softly. Slowly, carefully, he turned her in his arms so she was facing him.

Kayla's eyes met his. Though the light in the room was dim, she was so close she could see his every feature—the intensity shining in his dark blue eyes, the unswerving determination that tightened his mouth. She swallowed. Instinct told her that a certain levity was definitely required. "Are you using sex to get your way?" she asked in what she hoped was a casually playful tone.

"I'll do whatever it takes, Kayla."

"Women are always being accused of controlling men with sex. It's considered unfair and manipulative, and now you're trying to do it to me."

Matt grinned rakishly, his blue eyes gleaming. "I already did it to you, sweetheart. But I'll be more than happy to do it again."

''If that's a double entendre, it's a dumb one," she began weakly.

''It's a promise, Kayla. Now tell me what I want to hear."

"What you want to hear," she repeated, closing her eyes. "That would undoubtedly be that I'm not pregnant, after all. Or that you're not the father. Or that I'm planning to have an abortion. You choose the one that most applies—a, Z>, ore."

"How about none of the above? Marry me, Kayla."

She opened her eyes and looked into his. He had propped himself up on his elbow and was leaning over her, his expression intense.

"Why are you doing this, Matt?" she whispered, genuinely confused. "Why haven't you denied that you're the father? Why haven't you accused me of trying to stick you with some other man's mistake? At the very least, why haven't you offered to pay for an abortion?"

Matt laid his hand on her abdomen. "Jeez, Kayla, what kind of a man do you think I am? I was with you that night, remember? I know this baby is mine and we're going to get married and raise it, along with a few others." He smiled. "I like kids and I've always wanted them. I'm basically a family man, Kayla. I've stayed a bachelor for this long more by chance than by choice."

Kayla was flummoxed. This was far too easy; it was simply too good to be true. She was well aware that most single women did not get marriage proposals when they announced that they were pregnant. She knew from studying statistical analyses for various issue-oriented campaigns that there were many, many single mothers out there without men offering to take responsibility for the children they'd fathered. How many women became pregnant—either by accident or even deliberately in an attempt to push a reluc-

tant boyfriend into marriage—oniy to be deserted and left to face the uncertain future alone? Far too many!

'*A man doesn't propose to a woman he accidentally got pregnant," Kay la felt obliged to point out to him. **That sort of thing only happ)ens in fairy tales—or romance novels."

Matt shrugged. '*Well, I'm here and I'm proposing to you, and I've never seen myself as a Prince Charming or a romance-hero type. Say yes, Kayla."

''And if I do?" she asked warily.

''Then we get married and live happily ever after, of course."

"Just like a fairy tale." Kayla frowned. She felt as if she were trapped in a fractured fairy tale. Men and women didn't resolve their problems so swiftly; most of the time they didn't resolve them at all. She knew that from observing Penny and her men and from her own dismal experience with Scott Ceres.

She sat up abruptly. "My stepmother got pregnant by Don Felton, the man she married after my father. First, Don claimed that it couldn't be his child, then he offered her five thousand dollars to get rid of it."

Matt swore softly. "What did she do?"

"She took the money, used some of it to become a real estate agent and banked the rest. Don filed for divorce, relieved he wouldn't be stuck with a baby. She worked hard and eventually was quite successful. Owns her own agency now in southern California where she sells humongous mansions to the stars."

"With that incident in your past, I can see why you were apprehensive about telling me about the baby." Matt was silent for a long moment. "It occurs to m.e that I don't know anything about you, other than the fact that you have a twin sister who's a lobbyist and—"

"A career you consider odious," Kay la finished for him. "That's what I've been trying to tell you, Matt. We can't get married. We're strangers who—"

*'Are going to get to know each other very well indeed. Except we'll do it after we're married rather than before, like one of those old-time arranged marriages. We'll make it work, Kayla. We can do it."

''You make me ahnost believe it can happen," Kayla said wryly. ''With that kind of ability to sell yourself, I predict a long political career for you."

"I'll stay in politics as long as I can be an effective advocate for my constituents, but I'm not in it for lifetime job security. If I ever feel that I have to compromise my principles and beliefs, I'll resign from office."

"I feel Hke I'm listening to a sound bite I've written." Kayla slipped away from him and got out of bed. Her flowered silk robe was lying over the back of a nearby chair and she quickly pulled it on.

"A sound bite," Matt echoed flatly.

"Yes, you know, one of those short, catchy recorded statements that are short enough and catchy enough to fit into a twenty-second spot on the network news."

"I know exactly what a sound bite is and I also know that you're—"

"Your delivery is very good, and you get extra marks for that ring of sincerity in your voice," she cut in coolly.

"Nice try, baby, but it's not going to work."

She glanced at him. "What isn't?"

"I know you're trying to rile me with that cynical veneer. You sound like the political handler from hell. But I'm not buying the act, Kayla. I know how much you want me—you showed me everything I needed to know tonight in bed."