Just Kate: His Only Wife (Bestselling Author Collection) (8 page)

Sean turned his wineglass in one hand. “Have you let them know you’re here?” he asked.

“I called the hotel and left word at the desk,” she answered, yawning. “If any messages come in, they’ll call me.”

“You’re still not over the jet lag,” Sean remarked. “You’d better get some sleep.”

“Will I see you tomorrow?”

Sean shook his head. “Not until late. I’ve got business meetings all day.”

And Gil would be in school. A feeling of loneliness swept over Kate, and she lowered her eyes.

Unexpectedly Sean put his hand under her chin and raised her face. “Come away with me, Kate,” he said hoarsely, getting to his feet and drawing her to him. “I’ll show you the adventure of a lifetime.”

Despite all her fine resolutions, Kate was powerless in his arms. Something melted deep inside her at the memory of that afternoon’s erotic dream. “What kind of adventure?” she asked, her eyes wide as she looked up at him.

“I’ve got a little plane. I could show you some of the outback.”

The idea intrigued Kate more than she would have dared to admit. “What about Gil?” she asked. “Would he go along, too?”

Sean shook his head. “He’s got a school trip coming up. We could go then.”

“When?” Kate wanted to know. She felt herself melting like a candle as Sean gently caressed her breasts.

“Day after tomorrow,” he answered on a long, weary breath.

Kate closed her eyes. She wanted Sean to bare her as he had that other time on her bed at home, but she knew he wouldn’t. He was only torturing her, and himself. “Just the two of us,” she mused aloud. “Interesting.”

Sean bent his head and nibbled the covered peak of one breast. It went taut between his lips. “It’ll be very interesting,” he promised.

Kate was burning inside. The guilt she’d felt earlier was fading. Sean had a right to happiness, and so did she. No law, moral or civil, said the two of them had to stay apart for fear of defaming Abby’s memory. “I think I should go back to my hotel,” she said.

Sean lifted his head quickly, his green eyes full of questions. He voiced only one. “Why?”

“Because there I wouldn’t feel as though Abby’s watching me from beyond the veil,” she answered.

“Gil won’t understand,” Sean reasoned.

Kate didn’t want to do anything to hurt her nephew, especially when she was just getting to know him. “You’re right,” she conceded, deflated.

“There’s another place we could go,” Sean said thoughtfully. “Wait here.”

Kate sat watching the fire and willing her agitated body to calm itself. Presently Sean returned, his hair sparkling with droplets of rainwater, accompanied by a teenage girl.

“This is Angie,” he said to Kate. “She lives across the way, and she’s Gil’s favorite babysitter. Angie, this is my good friend, Kate Blake.”

The pretty blond girl smiled at Kate. “That I am,” she said. “Gil’s favorite babysitter, I mean. Pleased to meet you, Miss Blake.”

Kate nodded to the girl, but she was looking at Sean.

He beckoned to her with one hand, and against her better judgment, she stood and took his hand.

They were inside his car, a British sports model with a convertible top, and speeding down the driveway before Kate could catch her breath. She certainly hoped Sean didn’t fly the way he drove.

“Where are we going?” she finally asked when it was clear that no explanation was forthcoming.

“You’ll see,” Sean answered.

A few minutes later they pulled into the parking garage of a towering building overlooking Sydney Harbour and the Opera House. Kate looked at Sean questioningly as he hauled her out of the car and strode off toward a bank of elevators, still gripping her hand.

“Sean!” she protested.

Inside, he pulled her close and kissed her so thoroughly that when he drew back, she was momentarily disoriented. He chuckled and kissed her again.

“Where are you taking me?” she demanded when she could gather the breath to speak.

The elevators whisked open on a small, beautifully decorated lobby. “This is the penthouse,” Sean explained at last. “My company keeps it for visiting dignitaries.”

Kate lifted an eyebrow as he unlocked the door. “Is that what I am?” she teased.

Sean winked. “Austra-Air wants to make sure your stay in Oz is memorable,” he assured her. Then he opened the door, and Kate stepped into the penthouse, instantly bedazzled.

The outside walls were all glass, and Kate could see, through the rain, the lights of the bridge and the Opera House and the ferry boats crossing the water. All around them, in fact, lay the city like a kingdom made of colorful jewels.

“Oh, Sean, it’s magnificent,” Kate whispered.

He closed and locked the door. “So are you,” he whispered, drawing her close again.

She reveled in the muscular hardness of his body as he bent and nibbled softly at her neck. When she was nearly too weak to stand, he led her into the darkened living room, where huge couches and chaise longues sat in the shadows. He removed her dress with a minimum of trouble, pleased to find she was wearing only panties beneath it.

Kate groaned as he laid her out on one of the large chaises, the city spread before her like a gift, and eased her panties down over her hips. Something nagged at her—the realization that she’d been so wrong about another man in what seemed to be another lifetime—but she couldn’t break free of Sean’s spell. It was entirely too powerful.

“Do you want me to love you, Kate?” he asked.

“Yes,” Kate managed to whisper. “Oh, yes.”

Gently he lifted her legs so that they rested over his shoulders. His hands caressed her inner thighs. “Prepare for some slight turbulence,” he teased.

Chapter 5

A
fter a few minutes of Sean’s loving, Kate was frantic for fulfillment. A delirium of pleasure caused her to writhe and toss her head from side to side even as she pleaded, “Sean—I don’t want to—not without you...”

Breathing very hard, he stripped off his sweater and tossed it away, then got to his feet. He lifted Kate into his arms and carried her into a nearby bedroom.

Her skin, covered with a fine film of perspiration from her exertions, felt deliciously cool. She watched her man as he removed the rest of his clothes and then came to her.

“Kate,” he whispered hoarsely, just before his lips covered hers in a masterful kiss.

She responded with her whole being, her doubts falling away behind her like the tail of a comet. The throbbing heat in her body was building toward a crescendo again, and she began to twist and thrash beneath Sean. She was wildly impatient.

He buried his face in her neck, chuckling. “So it’s like that, is it?” he teased in a husky rasp.

Kate arched her back, and in that moment, Sean’s control snapped. He found and entered her in one fiery stroke.

For Kate, for that instant, all of creation froze like the slides in a broken kaleidoscope. In the next, the universe splintered into colorful pieces, for she had been too greatly aroused and too long denied. Her body bonded itself to Sean’s, and with a primitive cry, she gave of herself, body and soul.

Her triumph excited Sean, and with a groan, he began increasing his pace. Kate urged him on with soft, breathless words and the motions of her hands. She met each thrust with a swift rise of her hips, taking him far inside her.

He muttered something that might have been either a prayer or a curse when the quest became urgent, and then, with a hoarse shout, he stiffened, gasping her name.

Her hands soothed the moist, muscle-corded expanse of his back. “I’m here,” she whispered.

Sean trembled violently as he surrendered, then sank down beside Kate on the bed of shadows. “God,” he muttered. “My God.”

They lay still and silent for a long time, and then Kate started to rise from the bed. Sean immediately pressed her back down.

“I’m not through with you yet, love,” he told her. “Not nearly.”

Kate gave an involuntary groan as he found her breast in the darkness and weighed it in the palm of his hand. His thumb moved over the responsive nipple, shaping it. Preparing it.

She twisted onto her stomach, gasping, knowing she needed a few minutes to rest. But Sean was granting no quarter; he reached beneath her, and she flung back her head like a wild mare when he found what he sought.

“Stop,” Kate murmured, even as she ground her hips in an involuntary response.

“Not until you’re satisfied,” Sean replied.

Kate could not turn onto her back again, for she was trapped by her own needs. “Oh, Sean—Sean—”

“Almost there,” he told her, intensifying his efforts to drive her mad. “Almost there...”

Kate was damp with perspiration from her head to her feet. Her legs were stiff and wide apart, and her toes curled into the bedspread, seeking purchase. Her hands were pressed against the mattress, raising her upper body from the bed. “Oh,” she cried, lifting her eyes to a ceiling she couldn’t see. “Oh—
oh
...”

“It’s going to be a long night, love,” she heard Sean say gently from somewhere beyond the exploding lights and shooting flares of her climax. “A long, sweet night.”

* * *

Kate awakened feeling as though she were lying in the light of a gentle sun, her sated body wrapped in the softest silk. Expertly Sean had put her through her paces, draining away all her tensions.

He bent and kissed her. “We’d better go, love. Mrs. Manchester will get the idea we’re up to something.”

Kate laughed and then stretched. “I don’t think I can move from this bed,” she said.

“That’s fine, too,” Sean answered. He was fully dressed again, but he pretended he was about to take off his sweater.

Kate bounded out of bed and hurried into the bathroom. One more session of Sean’s singular brand of loving would turn her into a madwoman for sure.

She took a hasty shower and got back into her panties and dress, which Sean had thoughtfully brought from the living room. He was there when she came to him, looking out at the city lights and sipping from a crystal glass.

“What’s that?” Kate asked.

“Vodka,” he answered.

Kate wrinkled her nose. “Bad for you,” she said.

“We’re fresh out of carrot juice,” Sean explained. “Let’s go, love.”

They took the elevator down to the parking garage and walked to Sean’s car. When Kate was seated in the passenger seat, Sean walked around to the driver’s side and got in. The engine roared to life and Kate felt sad to be leaving a place that had been hers and Sean’s for a house that had been Abby’s.

“I’ll sell the house,” Sean said, and Kate was convinced he’d been reading her mind. “It’s that simple.”

“It isn’t, and you know it,” Kate argued. “You have a child—my sister’s child. I live in one hemisphere, and you live in another. There are just too many differences.”

“What about tonight?” Sean argued. “Was that a difference?”

Kate swallowed. “A few more nights like tonight and I’ll be a candidate for a nursing home. I must have had six...” Her cheeks went hot as she fell silent.

“Seven,” Sean replied, “but who’s counting?”

“That was only physical,” she said. “You can’t build a relationship on that.” She prayed Sean would say he loved her, so she could tell him her real feelings for him.

“Come on, Kate. Men and women have been building ‘relationships’—I hate that word—on
that
for a few million years.” He shifted gears as they began moving uphill. “Beware of me, Katie-did—now I know how to bring you right into line.”

Kate’s face throbbed with renewed heat, and she was grateful for the darkness. “That was a chauvinistic thing to say!”

“Nevertheless,” Sean replied with a shrug, “it’s true.”

And it was, although Kate would have died before admitting it. All Sean had to do was maneuver her into certain positions, touch her in certain ways, and she was lost.

“The way it is with us,” he began after a long silence. “Was it like that with Brad?”

Kate knew he was really asking if what they had was new to her, so she didn’t resent the question. “Brad and I never made love,” she admitted, “so I wouldn’t know.”

Sean pulled the car over to the side of the street and stopped so suddenly that Kate was stunned. “What?” he demanded.

“I said, Brad and I never made love—”

“How the hell did you manage that? You were engaged to the man!”

Kate’s eyes were very wide. “You sound angry.”

A closer look proved that he was more indignant than angry. “I feel so cheap,” he said.

Kate couldn’t help laughing. “I think that’s supposed to be my line,” she told him.

“You were saving yourself for marriage with him,” Sean pointed out. “With me, it’s a fast roll in the straw and ‘thank you very much I’ve got a plane to catch’!”

Kate only shook her head, baffled.

Sean wrenched the car back into gear and pulled onto the road again, muttering a swear word.

Kate squinted at him in the darkness. “Did I miss something here? I haven’t been to bed with anyone since college, and you’re upset because you’re the first?”

“Who was he?” Sean barked.

“Who?” Kate countered, getting angry herself now.

“The guy in college!”

Kate laughed again. “My God, I don’t believe this!”

Sean’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, then relaxed again. “Were you in love with him?”

Kate sighed, turning her eyes to the rain-misted view. Even in that weather, at that hour of the night, it was magnificent. “I thought so. His name was Ryan Fletcher, and we were going to be married.”

“What stopped you?”

“Abby brought you home, and I realized what love really was.”

Sean was quiet for a moment, then he said something that surprised Kate to the core of her being. “I married the wrong sister, I think.”

Kate reached out and laid a hand on his thigh. She felt the muscles tighten to a granite hardness beneath her palm. “What went wrong between you and Abby?” she asked. “You were so happy once.”

“Maybe I was. Abby changed her mind about life with me about five minutes after our plane took off from Seattle. She didn’t like being married to a pilot, she didn’t like sex, she didn’t like Australia.”