Strapless (6 page)

His low tone sent flame along her already singed nerve ends.

“I imagine you can do anything you set your mind to.”

She paused, remembering Walt. “My boss is sleeping,” she informed him.

“With you?”

“Next door. In his own room.”

He drew back to smile at her. “You're
drongo.
Funny, that is.”

Or did the slang mean
idiot?
Her stomach sank another notch. Men and hotel rooms were becoming a habit. And who wanted a comedienne—as Merrick said? Now, the Aussie would laugh at her, pat her on the head—smashing his own Akubra hat with the motion—then send her to her room. Darcie's Big Night in Sydney Goes Belly Up.

“Funny in a good way,” he added.

“Let's see.” She watched him move in again, felt his lips trail along the column of her neck to the first button on her white silk blouse. “I'm cute. I'm a laugh riot. I'm—”

“You're—” A big, pathetic joke with jet lag, PMS and no chance now of getting “close” tonight. “Sexy as hell,” he finished. With his low words of reprieve, Darcie's legs went weak. She leaned her head back farther to give him access to her throat. His tongue swept across the hollow there, down to her breasts, into the slight cleft that passed for cleavage—when she wore the right bra. She wasn't.

And for a moment Darcie's sensible side prevailed. Walt was upstairs. They were here to work. In any case she shouldn't take a stranger to her room. Was she nuts? Forget Merrick Lowell. Not only were hotels becoming her second home, a bad habit, but this seemed risky. Possibly dangerous, Darcie cautioned herself. Certainly the rash notion showed a lack of common sense on her part. She couldn't help asking.

“You're not a serial killer, are you?”

His tongue whisked along the valley of her breasts.

“Like I'd tell you.” At the droll statement she could feel him smile against her skin. He lifted his head, his dark eyes meeting hers. “Which floor are you on?”

“Uh, thirty-three.”

He took her mouth, sent the words inside. His tongue, too. His husky tone.

“I'm on thirty-one. Let's go there. It's closer.”

Her pulse soared like the rising elevator and Darcie stopped finding reasons to resist. Hell, take a chance—like Annie. By the time the doors opened onto the quiet hall, his hat had flopped over her left eye. By then, Darcie supposed the hotel security staff had had their fill of elevator foreplay, verbal and physical, on the video monitors. He took her hand, led her to the corner room on the corridor, and, while kissing her again, slipped his key card into the chrome slot beside the door that flashed red when no visitors were wanted. The light turned green—
go, Darcie
—and they tumbled inside.

Darcie had a quick impression of light wood, butter-cream walls, the frosted celadon-green glass door of the bathroom—like her own room. Before she breathed again, he had her up against the mirrored closet doors in the entryway. Still kissing, he caught her hips in his hands and bumped up against her, better than Gran had said.

Darcie wound her arms around his sturdy neck. With her head tipped back, the Akubra smashed against the glass, she hung on tight. Oh, God, he could kiss. God, he could…

In about five seconds, with his hand flicking open buttons like this down the front of her blouse, then his chambray shirt (he obviously didn't need practice) Darcie wouldn't even be breathing.

His hand dropped to his buckle. The belt snapped from the loops. It clanked onto the marble floor. Outside, through the plate glass window wall on the opposite side of the room, the stars—those unidentified constellations—sparkled in the black nighttime sky. Blocks away, down the long slope of King Street, which Darcie couldn't see from here, at Darling Harbour people danced and drank. It didn't matter. With his shirt open, her blouse undone, he pressed his chest to her breasts and Darcie whimpered at the low-down ache in her abdomen. They'd never reach the bed.

“Feel good?” He dragged down his zipper. She heard a foil packet tear before he sheathed himself. “I'll make it better. I promise.”

“Don't let me down.”

With her request, he whisked her panties off so fast Darcie never felt them fall. He cupped her bottom in both hands. That aching spot down low needed his attention so badly she couldn't speak—comedy was the last thing on her mind now—and his hardness pushed at the ready opening of her body. He raised his head.

“You're clean, right?”

She gasped. “I'm clean.”

“Me, too. So let me…show you…my
billabong,
” he whispered hotly.

Then he slid inside. Deep. Hard. Full. Heaven. Her breath rushed out.

“Ohhh.”

“Unhhh.”

The stars twinkled. The moon shone. The cold beige marble floor made her toes curl—or was that him? His arousal felt velvety hot. The mirror felt slick and cool against her bare bottom. If he opened his eyes, would he see her big behind squashed flatter than his hat to the glass? When his heat engulfed her, Darcie no longer cared about her exposed rear end, about hotel rooms with men who didn't love her.

His tempo increased. He stroked her, in, out, in, out until they both seemed to lose their minds from the very motion, like the lilting strains of the song she only half remembered.

“You little
swag…woman…
” he gasped.

“You…big
tucker…man…
”

She didn't know how long they lasted. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Not long enough. At some point while the moon still gleamed and the stars still shone and Darcie still wore the Akubra, the climax caught her, swift and shattering.

With one last hard thrust, on a groan he came, too.

When he stopped shuddering and she finally stopped shaking, her head fell back against the mirrored closet. She didn't mind if he saw her rear now, plastered to the glass, reflected in all its formless, naked glory. When his head dropped to the juncture of her neck, his mouth hot and open on her damp skin, Darcie peeled herself away from the mirror. And the Akubra hat thumped onto the marble floor. She couldn't tell which of them was breathing in the most ragged rhythm. Or a complete lack of one.

Her heart beat like fury. His thicker, stronger pulse thudded against her breast.

He whispered a low, erotic word, and Darcie cried out, ready to begin all over again what they had just finished…but, like him, not quite finished. When he kissed
her, long and sweet and silky, she hoped this one night would never end.

“‘Waltzing Matilda,'” Darcie breathed into his mouth like a prayer.

 

“Want another beer?” Like a pagan god, hours later he stood naked at the minibar, a perfect sight in the open fridge door that shafted light over his loins, upward along his taut belly to his muscled chest and shoulders, to the renewed glitter in his dark eyes. Darcie wanted him, again, too.

Swathed in the white cotton duvet, she lay on the king-size bed amid big goose down pillows and grinned at him. Even though she didn't like beer, she said yes.

“And after that…?” she added, hoping for more.

“We'll rehydrate, then negotiate.”

Like Scarlett O'Hara the morning after Rhett, she couldn't seem to stop smiling.

I'll make it better.
“I won't give you a fight.”

“I hoped you wouldn't.”

“I have to say, I like a man who keeps his promise.”

With a wolfish smile of his own, he slammed the fridge door and walked—strolled in all his male splendor, which Darcie suspected he did on purpose—across the room to her. Darcie lifted the duvet to invite him in. Now the city lights coming through the wide windows illuminated him, too. Gilded his sunbrowned skin. Deepened the interesting creases in his cheeks, the smile lines around his mouth.

“How old are you?” she asked idly, reaching for the beer he held out.

“Thirty-four.” He didn't ask her the same question. “Why?”

“You're well preserved.” She trailed a hand over his shoulder. “I'm twenty-nine.”

“Thanks. We're both old enough.” For what, he didn't say. He rubbed his bare chest. “Most women don't like telling, though.”

“Are you always this polite?”

“My mum hopes so.” Oh Lord, a chink in the walls of
pleasure. His mother. He had one, maybe just like Janet. He fell onto the bed, held his beer can to one side, and lowered his head to kiss her open mouth. “But no, ma'am. I'm not
that
polite. Now.”

“I'm glad to hear that.” She repeated her earlier words.

He frowned. “Hey. I didn't really think you were a working girl.”

“Yes, you did.”

He seemed to take most things literally, which Darcie tried not to mind, either. After all, she'd taken Merrick at face value. There was a lesson there but right now she wouldn't give it any credence.

“Well, I didn't want to think so,” he said.

“Why not? Other than the fact you don't pay for sex?”

“I'd
never
pay for it. Even if I was ugly as a fence post.”

Her gaze wandered over him. “Believe me. You have nothing to worry about.”

“No worries, darling,” he corrected her. “We're behind on our lessons here.”

“No worries.” Repeating the mantra, Darcie folded him close.
Darling.
“But on second thought, isn't this subject too personal for our first date?”

“What, sex? Have another beer,” he said. “Then you won't care.” He paused. “Is that what this is?” He glanced at the duvet, the pillows, Darcie. “A
date?
”

“Well. I guess not.” She murmured, “No strings.”

Warm and scented with sex, with each other, they lay close under the covers, drinking tall cans of Foster's lager. Another, then another. Ugh. Still, beer didn't taste so bad by the third bottle. Or was it fourth? At some point he'd called room service after they finished the minibar supply to have it restocked.

“For a woman who hates beer,” he finally said, “you're holding your own here.”

The room spun a little. “It's cheaper than the hard stuff.”

He kissed her again, tasting of beer and man. “You live where?”

She hadn't told him. “New York.”

“City?”

He sounded horrified. She took another swallow. “Uh-huh. Right outside of Manhattan. You know, the island the Native Americans sold to the Dutch.”

“By yourself?”

No, with my grandmother.
She couldn't say that, either. Didn't want him to know too much about her. Darcie pushed away the memory of home, even of Gran, who would appreciate more than anyone else this little tryst, and of course banished any thought of her mother. Tonight was tonight. Her one-time, one-night stand. Tomorrow was…

“No way. I have a roommate.”

“Male or female?”

“Uh…female.” Two actually. Eden Baxter and Sweet Baby Jane, the devil's spawn. Nearly a week later Darcie's punctured calf still hurt. She tried to recall her last tetanus shot but couldn't.

He frowned again. It made him look totally endearing, even if he did show signs—serious ones—of being too much like her family. “If I was your father,” he said, proving the point, “I wouldn't let you live in such a big city. Too dangerous.”

“Let me? You're not my father.” Darcie ran one finger down his belly, then lower. “
This
is too dangerous.”

That distracted him. All over again. Just as she hoped, he reached for another packet on the night table. “What happens when I run out of condoms?”

“We'll…renegotiate.” She took him in her hand to help. Silk and velvet, strength and vulnerability. “We'll improvise.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

He made it sound like a question, but Darcie agreed. All she would let herself think about was this: lovemaking, long and lazy, to be relished, the likes of which she'd never known before—take that, Merrick—or perhaps ever would again. They shared the last of the beer…five, or was it six? And over and over Darcie indulged herself, her
fantasies, the tug of need low inside, for the rest of the night.

In his arms, she dreaded the dawn—and ignored the first flutters of nausea.

Until a few faint fingers of light finally penetrated the wall of windows in room 3101 of the upscale Westin Sydney. Then Darcie Elizabeth Baxter startled awake, hot bile in her throat—and bolted for the bathroom.

 

Darcie gave one last gasp, swallowed twice, and straightened. Resting back on her heels on the marble floor, in the doorway of the toilet stall, she swiped the moistened washcloth over her face again, her parched lips, then drew long, deep breaths to steady her stomach.

There. She would live now. Worse luck.

Then she realized she was no longer alone.

Without looking up, Darcie knew he was there, leaning a strong, broad shoulder against the green frosted glass of the bathroom door—and shirtless of course. A quick glance in the vanity mirror confirmed his naked chest. Darcie shuddered while her heart did a little tap dance of appreciation. All that expanse of sunbrowned skin over sleek muscle, warm and smooth under her fingers during the only half-remembered night of casual sex and talk…the feel of the silky dark hair that swept across his breast-bone…the lure of tight, dark twin male nipples…

“Hi. How's it going?” he said.

Deep, throaty morning voice. Hint of amusement.

“It's not. I hope.”

He laughed, low and intimate, reminding Darcie not only of her illness—wretched, so wretched to be sick away from home, sick in a strange man's company—well, not exactly a stranger now, she had to admit—reminding her of the intimacies they'd shared. Now this…she heard the familiar chink of a can against the gold signet ring on his little finger. Darcie's nose wrinkled at the smell of hops, malt and yeast.