McKnight in Shining Armor (16 page)

Giving herself over to the tidal wave of sensation that engulfed her, Kelsie lay back on the desk, writhing and moaning until she didn’t think she could stand much more pleasure. She tugged on Alec’s hair, dragging his head up. Her breasts were gleaning, her nipples swollen and red.

“Alec,” she said with a gasp, her pulse racing.

He pulled her up, claiming her mouth once again as Kelsie’s hands went to the waistband of his pants. They groaned into each other’s mouths as her hand closed around him. Alec’s hand settled over her and silently taught her how he liked to be stroked, a lesson that was short-lived as his need raced out of control.

They raced toward fulfillment, reaching it together. Alec caught Kelsie’s soft, wild cries of completion in his mouth. He strained against her, her body holding him deep inside as wave after wave of unbelievable pleasure tightened her around him.

Finally Kelsie relaxed, laying on the desk. She smiled up at him as he leaned over her. They were both panting as if they’d just run the New York marathon. Alec smiled back. She looked like a centerfold model, sprawled on his desk with her dress still belted around her waist, her breasts beautifully bare.

His desk looked as if it had been ransacked. There were papers everywhere, the mug that held pens and pencils had overturned, as had his coffee cups. Now there was a small puddle of coffee soaking into yesterday’s
Wall Street Journal
, and his lamp was dangling over the edge of the desk by its cord. It was the kind of mess that normally would have made him nauseated. At the moment he couldn’t have cared less.

“I love you,” he whispered as he unbuckled the wide leather belt at Kelsie’s waist. He unbuttoned the two buttons that held her dress together and opened the garment wide, bending over to press soft kisses to her tummy.

“I love you,” he whispered again, gathering her into his arms to kiss her mouth.

“I love you,” she whispered back.

With the initial urgency past, she closed her eyes and simply enjoyed the feel of his body against hers as he held her to him. But as it had their first night together, their desire returned in a hurry. Kisses grew hungrier, touches more demanding. Kelsie couldn’t stop thinking how wonderfully erotic it was to be totally naked in Alec’s office.

“Alec,” she cried, her body moving against his in a subtle caress. “I’ve never needed like this before.”

“Me either,” he said, his body clearly demonstrating just how much he needed her. He held Kelsie close, one hand stroking down the smooth, beautiful curve of her back. “This is special, honey. Most people never find what we have together.”

He stood back and methodically shucked shoes, socks, and slacks, then took Kelsie by the hand and led her away from the desk. They stretched out on the soft, thick carpet in front of the cordovan leather sofa, kissing and touching. Alec moved to kneel between Kelsie’s thighs, lifting
her hips and joining their bodies once again. They made love slowly, taking each other to the edge, but always pulling back, prolonging the pleasure.

In the end, Alec took control. With one hand he parted the soft, swollen petals of feminine flesh and stroked her with the lightest of touches, setting off an avalanche of feelings. With eyes full of love and the shadows of desperation, he watched her face as ecstasy claimed her. When she had stilled beneath him, he held her tenderly and found his own completion.

They helped each other dress—a curiously sweet, quiet endeavor.

Kelsie still felt naked, even with all her clothes on. Her body was humming with awareness. Every nerve ending had become hypersensitive. She had a business meeting in less than an hour, and all she could think of was curling up in bed beside Alec for the rest of the day.

Dangerous
. The word was like a thin cloud of smoke ribboning through the corridors of her mind. It appeared out of nowhere to send a sharp stab of fright through her but vanished when she
tried to examine it and find its origin. It was never far from her mind, but she could never get hold of it. All she knew for certain was the more she loved Alec, the more that word came to mind, and the more frightened she became.

“W
HAT NOW
?” A
LEC
muttered to himself as he drove past Kelsie’s house. The place was ablaze with lights. He had to go halfway down the block before he could find a parking spot. If this was some kind of party, he wasn’t in the mood. He was beat. On top of putting in extra hours at the office trying to get everything ready to shoot the first series of ads for Van Bryant’s, he’d been spending as much time as he could insinuating himself into Kelsie’s life.

His plan was to show her A: that he was truly
interested in her life, and B: that all her little clubs and causes were not going to provide her with excuses to escape the serious relationship they were building—or would be building as soon as she decided the world could run without her constant supervision.

He hadn’t missed one of Jeffrey’s youth hockey games. He had watched Elizabeth master a double-toe loop in skating class. He had bravely volunteered to take a sick cat to the vet—he still had the claw marks to prove it. He had joined the Humane Society and had volunteered to speak at a Junior Achievers meeting. Still he wasn’t seeing more of Kelsie, not in the way he wanted to.

It didn’t make any sense at all. Since they had admitted their love for each other it seemed as though she had been avoiding him. She said she wanted to spend more time with him, but it wasn’t happening. Of course it was the Christmas season, which complicated everyone’s schedule. Maybe that was the problem.

Alec had tried taking his own advice, and his father’s, about biding his time with Kelsie. The trouble was, he wasn’t by nature a patient man.
He was used to setting a goal, then bulldozing over whatever he had to to reach that goal. He didn’t seem to be making any headway in this situation, and he was beginning to feel frustrated and a little desperate.

The time for patience was over. If he had to drag her kicking and screaming, he was going to get Kelsie away from her thousand and one responsibilities for a couple of days of peace and quiet. They would go somewhere out of the way, have a serious discussion about their future together, and spend the rest of the time making love.

Jeffrey answered the door wearing his Cub Scout uniform and a paper-maché hat shaped like a brontosaurus. “Hi, Alec. We’re making gingerbread men. Mine looks like Pee Wee Herman.”

“That’s great, sport. Is your mom around?”

“Sure.”

Kelsie stepped into the open doorway, and Jeff ducked under her arm to return to the scout project in the kitchen. “Alec, what are you doing here?”

“What’s going on?” he demanded, ignoring her question, annoyed that they obviously weren’t going to be alone.

“The Cub Scouts’ Christmas party. Didn’t I tell you it was tonight?”

“Who knows,” he grumbled. “I’d need to hire another secretary if I were going to keep track of every blessed meeting and party of yours.”

Kelsie had just about had it with his little digs about her schedule. She’d
warned
him. She reached for the door as if she meant to close it in his face. “I’m busy right now, Alec. Maybe you could come back later to be rude and obnoxious.”

Alec closed his eyes and forced a sigh. His attitude was getting him nowhere. He stuck an arm out to hold the door back. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day. Honey, if we can just talk for five minutes—”

“Alec, I don’t have five minutes right now,” Kelsie said, wincing as a crash sounded behind her. “Mothers are outnumbered twelve to two in the kitchen.”

“Please, sweetheart.” He tried to give her his best sincere look, but she was glancing over her shoulder at the little boys running around the dining room. “Kelsie, it’s important,” he said, exasperated by all the interruptions. “We need to talk.”

“Will it still be important in three hours, when everyone is gone?” she asked, irritated by his impatience.

Alec knew he was being unreasonable, but for some reason it was important to him that they talk now, right now. He wanted her to drop everything so he could beg her to run away with him for the weekend. Maybe he was losing his mind, he reflected as he pushed past her into the living room. He clamped a cold hand around her wrist and started leading her down the hallway away from the sounds of imminent disaster in the kitchen. Maybe he was having an early mid life crisis. Next he’d be dying his hair and taking hang gliding lessons.

“Alec!” Kelsie protested, trying to dig her heels into the carpet. “I have guests.”

“They can wait five minutes. I can’t.”

He steered her into her bedroom. Without even letting go of Kelsie, he shut the door and backed her against it. Her eyes were as big as moons as she stared at the fierce, determined expression on his face.

He looked a little wild, not at all like the cool-headed young executive. His usually neat hair
spilled across his forehead. His dark, straight brows were lowered ominously over blazing blue eyes. Without the smile Kelsie had come to know and love, his finely chiseled mouth had an almost cynical twist to it. It struck her again what a contrast there was in Alec. He wasn’t always the easygoing charmer. He could be formidable.

She had to wonder if he had finally realized she’d been right all along—that there just wasn’t any way for them to have a normal relationship. She’d been waiting for this moment, but she was hardly ready. Her heart ached so, she wanted to turn away from him, but the intensity of his stare held her in place.

After a tense, itchy moment of silence, Alec took a deep breath and said, “Run away with me.”

“What?” Kelsie laughed, relief leaving her so weak she couldn’t have moved away from the door because she would have folded up like an accordion.

“I mean it, Kelsie. Run away with me this weekend. I’ve got a nice secluded little spot all picked out. It’s a place we can go to and relax. We need some time alone together, honey.”

A whole weekend with no interruptions for them to get their relationship on firmer footing? Kelsie found the prospect dangerously inviting. They were in love. They deserved a little quality time with each other, but… But what, Kelsie, she asked herself as warning tremors ran through her. Something about it scared her.

“I agree, we do need to get away,” she said, stalling for time. “But this weekend is the Christmas bazaar for the Humane Society.”

“So?” he asked.

“So I should be there. I’m the vice-president. I had to line up the horses for the sleigh rides and the animals for the live nativity scene—”

“Which you’ve done,” Alec pointed out. “Your job is finished. There’s no reason you have to be there.”

“But someone should be there to make sure everything goes all right—”

“Call the chairperson and delegate it.”

“But—”

“Kelsie, why are you trying so damn hard to find an excuse? If you’d rather spend the weekend with the Humane Society than with me, then
maybe we don’t need to discuss our relationship any further. I was under the mistaken impression that we were both in love—”

“We are!” she insisted, flustered. “I mean, I am—I mean, I do love you, Alec. It’s just that this weekend is a bad time—”

He had a very explicit opinion of the Humane Society’s claim on their weekend, which he muttered half under his breath.

“What about you?” she questioned, trying to turn the tables. “You’ve been swamped trying to get everything lined up for next week. How can you get away?”

“
I
delegated. They gave a great class on it at college—Delegating 101. Maybe you could audit it next semester, if you can handle the idea that the world can run without you being in charge of every blasted committee.”

“What kind of crack is that?” she asked, planting her hands on her hips.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said sarcastically as his shoulders moved in an exaggerated shrug. “I guess it’s the kind I usually make when the woman I love
is doing everything she can to sabotage our relationship.”

“I am not!” Kelsie denied vehemently, wondering in the back of her mind why she felt she should have crossed her fingers before saying that.

“Then tell the Humane Society to take a flying leap, and say you’ll come away with me this weekend.” Both his tone and his look softened as he gazed down at her. He raised a hand to her cheek, stroking the downy softness with the backs of his fingers. “Please, honey. We have to make time for what’s important. The Humane Society is a worthy cause, but so are we—you and I. We deserve this. We need it. I need you.”

He was vulnerable. She could see it. He made no attempt to hide it. Way down deep in those ocean-blue eyes he looked as scared as she felt. It made her love him even more than she already did.

She needed him, too, but she couldn’t say it. When her marriage had ended, Kelsie had vowed she would never let herself fall into the trap of being dependent on a man again. She couldn’t need Alec, but she did, and part of her wanted to.
She loved him. Could need and dependence be separated from love?

“We do need this, don’t we?” she said, looking down at her feet. Maybe she could sort out some of her own feelings while they were away. “What about the kids? I’m not sure I can find someone to stay with them for a whole weekend.”

“I’ve already talked to my cousin Natalie. She’s got no problem with staying the whole weekend. Her husband is an intern; he’s going to be at the hospital.”

“She’s a law student and he’s a doctor? That must be a rough schedule.”

“Yeah,” Alec agreed, his gaze holding hers. “And they’re making it.” He watched Kelsie shift uncomfortably, and swiftly lightened his mood. He was lucky his strong-arm tactics hadn’t gotten him tossed out in the snow on his keister. He gave her a wily, bedimpled grin. “I can’t wait to get you all to myself for a whole weekend.”

It was remarkable. She was a grown woman with two children, she was this man’s lover, for heaven’s sake, and still he could make her blush. Hollywood would have laid the world at his feet
for the chance to put his brand of sexual magnetism on the silver screen. There was no getting around it, Alec McKnight had a reservoir of charm as deep as Lake Superior, and eyes as blue, and Kelsie could scarcely look at him without feeling as if she were drowning.