Fit for a King (14 page)

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Diana
Palmer

Fit for a
King

109

"You've
seen me without my clothes,” he said
softly, searching her eyes.

"Yes."
Her lips parted as she looked at him. "I
wish we were alone.
Totally alone."

"Stop
tempting me," he whispered. After a min
ute, he reluctantly
fastened the dress again and, with
a heavy sigh, picked her up. His arms
were strong
and comforting against the night breezes. She snug
gled
closer, feeling unutterably cared for, and he bent
to kiss her gently as
he carried her up the beach.
"You need to change and get some sleep.
And in case
you want to know, I'm leaving you at the door."

"Why?" she moaned against his lips.

"Sex
makes babies," he whispered back. "I don't
have anything to
protect you."

She moaned again. "I don't care," she wailed.

"You
would in the morning." He carried her to
the door and set her
slowly on her feet, taking a min
ute to run his hands over her and make her
tremble
with wanting.

"Sexy,"
he murmured. "Sexy and sweet, and I
want to bury myself
in you. Now you'd better get inside and try to sleep."

"Don't
go," she whispered. "You're soaking wet,
too."

"I
can't very well walk home without my clothes."
He chuckled. "Go
to bed."

She shivered. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"My
house key is in my pocketbook. Inside," she
added with a faint
flush. "Well, I forgot when I
locked the door..."

He looked
heavenward. "Women!" He searched
until he found the spare key she hid under
the hibiscus
bush. "Here. I remembered,
even if you didn't."

She looked
up at him, her heart shaking her. He
was so much man. So big and capable
and strong,
and just for once she liked being dependent, letting
him take
care of her. She thought about how it would
be, having him beside
her in the darkness, holding
him through the night. Just holding him would
be enough, she realized suddenly. What she felt was
overpowering but not
entirely physical. It was so
tender, so sweet and new. If only he could
feel it for
her.

He unlocked
the door and opened it, glancing down
at her expression curiously.
"What's wrong?" he
asked, pressing the key into her palm.

"Nothing, really."

He reached
in and switched on the light, then
looked at her, drinking in the
contours of her body
now clearly visible through the dress
plastered wetly
to her skin. He shook his head. "You'll be the death
of me one day. I'll have a heart attack trying to be
noble."

"I won't take the blame," she said pertly.

"I won't take
you"
he whispered, bending
to

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Palmer

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King

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brush a chaste kiss
on her forehead. "Now go to bed,
siren. We've got an early flight."

"All right."

He handed
her a shawl from the hat rack, watching
her wrap herself in
it. "Why do you want me all of
a sudden?" he asked gently.
"You've spent two years
keeping me at arm's length. What's
changed?"

"I never knew how
devastating it could be," she
said
shyly.

"It
shocks me a little, too," he said honestly.
"You're not
exactly my usual kind of woman."

"Maybe that's why you want me," she essayed.

He sighed.
"I don't know. All I know is that for
the past twenty-four
hours, you're all I've thought
about. But I can't afford to lose my head.
Your con
science would torment you to death."

"But I don't want to lose
you. You're my friend." Her eyes filled with unshed tears at the thought.

"Don't cry," he ground out. "I can't stand
it."

She lifted her face.
"Sorry. I was looking ahead.
One of us
will eventually marry, I guess," she added,
thinking that it would
probably be King. "And that
will be the
end of us, anyway."

He studied
her, scowling. It hadn't occurred to him
that he might ever
have to lose her. But she was right:
she would probably marry eventually,
and her hus
band
might not take kindly to their unusual friend
ship.
There would be no more long walks along a
Jamaican beach, no more phone calls at two in the

morning just because he needed someone to
talk to, no more laughing Elissa leaving him notes under
rocks....

"I'll
miss having you to talk to," she confessed
softly.

He shifted
restlessly. "I was thinking the same
thing," he said quietly. "I'm
alone except for you."
Before she could
reply, he turned and opened the
door.
"I'll see you in the morning."

He closed it and left her standing there.

Alone, in
the harsh light of reality, she was
astounded at her behavior. Letting
fantasies take over,
she had offered to... Her face flamed, and
she caught
her breath. She'd acted like a total wanton with King.

She got out of her wet things,
put on a caftan and
dried her hair,
troubled by the direction her life was
taking.
If she truly became King's lover, would she
be discarded when he tired of her? She loved him,
but she knew he merely wanted her. She had to get
her perspective back, and she couldn't do that
around King. All in all, it was best that she was going home.

Unbidden,
the memory of what King had said be
fore leaving came back to her: "I'm alone except for
you." What had he meant by the statement?

She was
still puzzling over it when she went to
bed.

Fitfor a
King

113

Riding to the airport
was an ordeal. Although Elissa
sat in the front seat with King, his eyes kept darting
to the rearview mirror. He talked to Bobby, but
it was
Bess he was exchanging eloquent looks with.

The one
thing it did accomplish was to make Elissa
see clearly what a
fool she'd been to daydream over
his exquisite lovemaking. He'd only been
toying with her; there hadn't been anything serious about it on his
part.
Probably he'd made love to dozens of women
without feeling the need to commit
himself. Men
weren't like women, she told
herself; they didn't need
emotional
involvement to find fulfillment. But it sad
dened her all the same. She'd just begun to realize
how much she cared about him, how much a part of
her life he'd become. She'd looked forward to
coming
to Jamaica, not because of the
island itself but be-

cause of the man who lived next door. And
she felt
possessive about him.

That
possessiveness had reared its ugly head the
instant she saw Bess. It hadn't taken much
effort to
realize how appealing King's
sister-in-law must be to
him. She
wasn't a shallow flirt just out for a good
time. She was beautiful and vulnerable and unhappy, tied to a man she
cared about who never paid her any attention. How terrible that must feel, and
how much King must want to comfort and protect her. But how terrible, too, for
King to be torn between his feelings
for
Bess and for Bobby and his sense of what was
right. What a mess.

And what a pity,
Elissa thought, that she herself
couldn't be one of those superficial people who enjoyed life
without really considering consequences.
But
she knew herself too well to think she could sur
vive a casual affair with King. Her principles were
too firmly embedded in her personality, and
despite
her abandon when she was with
him, he was right
that her conscience would kill her if she fell into
his
bed. Besides, she thought miserably,
would he still
feel the same about
her once he'd been intimate with
her?
She didn't think she could stand to have him and
then lose him.

And what
about Bess? Did she really want King,
or was she attracted to him because
he was safely
unattainable and no real threat to her marriage? Elissa
sighed, staring at the passing
sea-grape trees and tall

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Palmer

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King

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casuarina pines that
partially veiled the blinding white
beach and the incredible blues and
greens of the Car
ibbean.
What a ridiculous question. Her eyes turned
to
King, adoring his profile. He was handsome and rich, and what he didn't know
about women wasn't
worth knowing. Who
wouldn't want him for keeps?
She looked away quickly and closed her eyes
on a
wave of pain. If he and Bess wound up
together, they
would undoubtedly marry and have children. How
that thought hurt!

Time
crawled while they got through the long line
of customs and
immigration before boarding the
plane. Bess eased into the seat next to
King's on the
enormous jumbo jet, and Elissa, on his other side,
couldn't help but notice the
way Bess clutched his hand as the plane prepared for takeoff.

"Frightened?"
King asked his sister-in-law in a
tone so tender that it hurt Elissa.

"Not now," Bess whispered, her heart in her
eyes.

Elissa
looked away, unable to bear the tender smiles they were exchanging. Across the
aisle,
Bobby, once
more buried in his paperwork, hadn't
even
noticed.

When they
touched down in Miami, Elissa breathed
a sigh of relief.
Sitting next to King and Bess had
been utter torment, but now she could escape. She
could go home to her parents and try to forget all
about this. She didn't ever want to see the two of
them together again. If that meant
selling her cottage,

well... The thought
was horrifying. She couldn't bear
it if she never saw King again! Her eyes filled with
hot tears, and she swallowed them down before he
could see them. How had this happened? They'd been
friends. She almost wished he'd never touched her. She could almost hate
him for making her so aware
of him, of her
feelings for him.

They
cleared customs and immigration again, and
Elissa stood a little
apart while King said goodbye to
Bobby and Bess.

"We
need to get going," he told them, "so we
won't wait to wave
you off. I'll be back to the ranch
in a week or so. Check with Blake
Donavan and make
sure
everything's all right. He's supposed to be look
ing out for me while my foreman's on vacation."

"Imagine
Donavan having time to do that," Bobby
said with a laugh.
"The last I heard, he was up to his ears trying to hold on to his own
place after his uncle
died. All those greedy cousins of his, filing
law
suits..."

King chuckled. "Donavan
won, didn't you hear?
Hell of a
businessman."

"And
a dish," Bess said playfully, glancing sur
reptitiously at Bobby. "He's never
married, either. I
wonder why not. Do you
suppose he's nursing some
hopeless
passion for someone?"

No one responded
to Bess's musings, but Elissa
saw King's face harden. Then he forced a
smile as he