The Man at Key West (6 page)

He was taking her home when he said carelessly, ‘Care to come to my place for a nightcap?’

Sue giggled deliciously. ‘Oh, Jay,’ she protested, ‘not after what we’ve had this evening!’

He grinned at her, his teeth white in the dimness of the car.

‘Not even a warm drink to go to bed on?’ he persisted.

‘I wouldn’t need it if I shared your bed, would I?’ she asked.

‘You certainly wouldn’t. So you see there’s no harm in coming with me if we’re to have a nightcap.’

‘I believe you,’ she gurgled. ‘It’s those behind. I’ve had a lovely evening and I’m going to work tomorrow.’

‘You’re spending the day with me tomorrow,’ he said.

‘I can’t. I have to take some photographs to Bob Lilley—I told you.’

‘You can drop them in before we go out for the y day.’

‘I’m a working woman, in case you haven’t noticed.’

‘Which is why you’re going out with me tomorrow. Bring your camera and combine business with pleasure.’

Sue laughed softly and the face she turned to him was more seductive than she knew. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes clear and shining, and her lips parted, showing small pearly teeth.

Jay tossed her a glance and lifted a dark brow. ‘Maybe it’s as well that you aren’t coming for a nightcap. You’re looking far too seductive for my peace of mind.’

He braked at the entrance to the Villa Repose, pulled her to him and kissed her hair. ‘You have beautiful hair and the fairies have sprinkled it with gold dust. It’s a most unusual colour,’ he said rather thickly.

‘I’m an unusual girl,’ she said.

‘You can say that again,’ he growled. ‘Be off with you before I change my mind and take you home with me. Pick you up nine o’clock in the morning.’ ‘Nine o’clock? Isn’t that a little early?’

‘I said the day, and you have to drop off your photographs at the office. Don’t forget to bring your camera, and a thick sweater. We’re going sailing.’

CHAPTER FIVE

Jay lifted Sue aboard his yacht with a grin of appraisal at her sleeveless sailor top and Bermuda shorts exposing long golden legs. His arm was around her shoulders as he showed her the route they were taking on the map.

Skirting the Everglades, they were going to coast along the Venetian waterways to a steamy creek where buzzards and eagles abounded. Jay told her it would take all of three hours to reach Fort Lauderdale.

He was wearing shorts and no shirt, showing a gleaming golden torso. It made Sue feel weak just looking at his muscular body and hirsute chest. She tried to ignore his splendid physique, but she could not avoid seeing the rippling muscles beneath a skin of bronze satin as he moved with masculine grace.

Then she was using her camera to photograph a raccoon who was burrowing in the roots of a mangrove tree as they cruised along.

‘Look out for mermaids,’ Jay teased. ‘You can do a story on them for your magazine.’

They were leaning against the rail of the yacht and he flicked a curl blowing against her glowing face.

‘Do you think there are really mermaids?’ she asked.

He said, ‘It’s believed that a small bright-eyed sea manatee about the size of a walrus has been mistaken by ancient mariners for a mermaid. You never know—anything can hap
pen when you least expect it.’

He ruffled her hair and his touch was doing strange things to her peace of mind. She was enjoying every minute of the trip and the time was I going all too quickly. They had a meal on the return journey and Jay sat beside her while they had coffee.

‘We must do this again,’ he said lazily, one hand holding his coffee cup and the other caressing her neck beneath the bright hair.

To Sue his touch had a magic about it and the whole yacht seemed filled with his personality. Conversation petered out and she found she longed for his arms around her. She could no longer imagine life without him. She lingered over her coffee with Jay waiting patiently for her to hand him her empty cup which he put down beside his own.

When he took her in his arms Sue, replete with food and wine, did not resist him. His arms were like bands of steel and when his kisses became more urgent her arms went around his neck regardless of their half-naked bodies. She was carried away on the tide of her own emotions.

Her parted lips became a sweet seduction without her being aware of it, and it was not until she felt her body responding treacherously to his demands that Sue realised what she was about to do.

‘Sue, you’re so sweet, soft and feminine, I’m ' crazy about you,’ he murmured hoarsely as his lips moved slowly over hers.

His hands had moved down to her hips and she stayed them there with shaking fingers.

‘No, Jay,’ she said quickly, trying to keep a measure of calm.

It frightened her to see how affected he was and the thickness of his voice, his possessive hands terrified her. What chance had she of ever forgetting him if she gave in to him now?

‘What do you mean, no?’ he muttered, working his mouth down into the soft flesh of her breast. ‘Don’t you know what you’re doing to me?’

‘No less than you’re doing to me,’ she said in a voice trembling more from the fear of her own weakness than of him. ‘Of course, if you regard this kind of thing as payment for bringing me out, you put me in a very embarrassing position. I know the days of good turns without payment are gone, but you do place a high price for your services—at least in my opinion, that is.’

Suddenly he went very still, then obviously with great effort released her enough to stare down into her face. Sue had never known a more painful situation as she lowered her eyes from his intent gaze.

‘I ought to punish you for that last offensive remark,’ he said softly, dangerously. ‘If there’s anything I hate it’s for anyone to give me anything because it’s my due. I want nothing from you, little one, that you’re not prepared to give. And I certainly never want paying for anything I do for anybody at any
time ...
ever. You understand?’ She nodded and his thumbs moved caressingly over the corners of her mouth. The smile on his face was almost satanic as he added, ‘We have some unfinished business to attend to, you and I.’

‘We haven’t, you know,’ Sue retorted. ‘I’m wasting precious time when I should be taking photographs of those mermaids you mentioned earlier.’ She pushed her hands against his chest and quelled a desire to lift them to caress his powerful shoulders. He let her go.

‘Coward,’ he scoffed.

Sue deliberately misunderstood him. ‘Yes, I am. ’ I don’t want to lose my job before I’ve really started on it. Besides, it was you who gave me the idea to make this trip into an idea for a magazine article. Which reminds me,’ she jumped to her feet,

‘I hope you aren’t after a bonus for helping me in that direction too.’

She had to run from him then on to the deck where he chased her until he caught her palpitating against him. The kiss he gave her was a punishing one and they clung together in a passionate embrace that shook Sue to the depths of her being. Jay’s hand moved expertly over her back and down to her hips, hugging her against him with Sue floating on a pink cloud of ecstasy.

Jay was the first one to pull away. ‘You are coming back with me for dinner this evening, aren’t you?’ he asked with a twinkling smile. ‘Now, come on,’ he went on as he saw her hesitate, ‘don’t spoil a perfect day.’

Sue smiled a little warily. Her face glowed from his kisses and she longed to return to the strength of his arms.

‘It depends on what you regard as a perfect day,’ she said with an impish smile. ‘I’m aware that it isn’t over yet and there might be a climax of some kind.’

‘There might,’ he murmured, kissing the tip of her nose. ‘Why not come and see?’

‘I want to develop my photographs. I’m aching to see what they’re like. I must make a success of my job, you see. Daddy is so happy about it. He’s worried about his marriage altering my life so much.’

Jay said crisply, ‘I fail to see why he would feel in the least conscience stricken about his marriage.
After all, he’s not old by a long chalk, and you are over twenty-one. In fact, you ought to have taken the initiative and married yourself before this. Either that or lived with some man for a while.’

Sue stiffened, still within his loosely held embrace.

‘Now it’s coming,’ she said caustically. ‘Are you proposing that I should move in with you in order to further my education in life?’

He laughed. ‘I can further your education without that,’ he answered darkly. ‘What about starting now?’

Her hands were pressed against his chest and the contact with his strong, virile form was not conducive to keeping on an even keel.

‘Why not?’ she said, hoping he would not hear the wild beating of her heart. ‘As long as we start in the right way by understanding that I’m no cheap lady whose only desire is to move in with some man to give him pleasure. Promiscuity isn’t my line. I want to keep healthy, and you can’t do that without keeping your body clean and refusing to sleep around.’

Jay grinned. ‘Point taken,’ he said audaciously. ‘You will be coming back with me? I learn quickly.’

‘So do I,’ was the swift rejoinder, and he kissed her before she could reply.

Sue went with him to dinner that evening at his villa dressed in her shorts and halter top. Jay obliged by wearing well cut slacks and no top. They laughed a lot during the meal and later they danced to records.

As the evening wore on both seemed reluctant for it to end. All restraint between them had gone and when Jay suggested a stroll in the grounds before taking her home Sue agreed. Although the evening was warm Jay draped a jacket around her shoulders. Sue loved the feel of it around her, knowing that it belonged to Jay.

There were acres of beautifully laid out gardens surrounding the kidney-shaped swimming pool and they strolled along paths breathing in the subtle aroma of plants and flowers. Sue never could remember what they talked about, but she never forgot how much she laughed at his innuendoes and how his deep voice along with his personality held her, enthralled.

They walked and talked for much longer than she realised and when they neared the swimming pool she said reluctantly,

‘I think I’d better go. Daddy will be wondering what’s happened if I’m late going back.’

By now Jay’s arm had stolen around her beneath the folds of his jacket draped around her shoulders, and she could feel the warmth of him seeping into her. His arm tightened.

‘Must you go, my sweet?’ he whispered against her ear.

‘I must,’ she answered, and looked up at him to I find that he was looking down at her intently. Suddenly their eyes collided and locked. So intent '' were they upon each other that they failed to see how near the pool they were, and the next moment they had stepped over the side into the water. The sudden immersion took Sue’s breath away as the water shot up around them like a fountain.

She heard Jay’s chuckle as he flung an arm around her to swim to the side of the pool. They were both convulsed with helpless laughter when he hauled her out beside him. The jacket she had been wearing draped around her shoulders had fallen on the side of the water and Jay picked it up.

‘Come on inside,’ he said urgently, draping it around her shoulders. ‘You mustn’t catch a chill.’ Before Sue could recover from laughing he had scooped her up into his arms and carried her indoors to the nearest bathroom.

‘Take off your wet things,’ he told her. ‘One of the staff will dry them out for you. I’ll find you a dressing wrap.’

In a remarkable short time, without giving himself time to change his soaked trousers, Jay was back at the bathroom door with a wrap. He rapped sharply on the door.

‘May
I
come in? Are you decent?’ He tapped peremptorily on the door. When a chuckle answered him he opened the door to see Sue standing with her back to him looking at herself in the mirror. She had wrapped a bath towel around her body and tucking it under her arms, leaving her shoulders bare.

She said with a laugh, ‘All I need is a flower in my hair like a South Sea maiden.’

Sue turned to shine up at him her tawny hair falling on her shoulders and her face lighted in a soft luminous beauty. His dark eyes travelled from her gleaming shoulders to the slim beautiful legs visible beneath the towel, then he tu
rned around and left the room.

He was back within seconds with a flower in his hand to thread through her hair, tossing the wrap he had brought for her on the back of a chair and lifting up her face to set the flower in the tawny hair.

He stood for an interminable time looking down at her, then as though he could not stop himself his arms went round her and his mouth closed on hers. Ardent moments passed and it was Sue who drew away with a laugh. Her towel had absorbed his wetness. ‘Jay, you haven’t changed your wet clothes. You’ll catch a chill,’ she protested, and pushed him from the room.

The wrap she put on would have gone around her several times, and she hugged herself in it, knowing it was one of Jay’s.

Her clothes had been taken away to be laundered and quickly dried as Sue made her way from the bathroom to the lounge. She looked around at the expensive furnishings, all in good taste. The room seemed to be filled with Jay’s nonchalant presence and Sue knew she had to stop thinking about him. The mere thought of putting him out of her life filled her with a desolation which was shattering.

She pressed her fingers against her lips still burning from his kisses and remembered the magic of his caressing hands. It was better this way. It had to be, otherwise they would have no respect for each other ever again had she given in to his demands and slept with him. To go away eventually and never see him again—could she do it?

It would be easier with an assignment on the magazine; that way work would fill her empty existence. She had only to tell him that she never wanted to see him again for reasons of her own and he would send her away. That was the best way, a clean break and away. Yet even while Sue turned this over in her mind she knew that she would cling to every opportunity to be with him. And why not? The rest of her life would be barren enough without him with only memories to fall back on, and those memories were too precious to throw away.

The warm blood rushed to her cheeks when he entered the room, and she turned from staring at a beautiful flower arrangement on a low marble-topped table. Jay was looking big and vital, his tanned face glowing from his recent shower. He had donned cream lightweight trousers with a matching cream silk shirt. Three buttons were left undone showing the powerful chest for coolness. She could imagine he was one of those extremely fit people who disregarded the weather of the moment with the arrogance he applied to most problems.

‘Your clothes won’t be long. They’re being taken care of,’ he said, striding across the deep pile carpet to her and placing his hands on her arms. He grinned as he saw how lost she was in the outsize wrap. ‘Too bad that I don’t happen to possess any feminine garments to loan you. You’re almost lost in that wrap.’

Sue was silent and he put a finger beneath her chin. ‘Like a drink? You’ve gone very quiet. Are you all right?’

She managed a smile. ‘Of course I am. No, thanks, I don’t want a drink. Don’t let me stop you from having one, though.’

He smiled and moved the back of his fingers over the smoothness of her flushed cheek.

‘I’m not that fond of it, especially when there are more exciting things to do. You aren’t worried about anything, are you?’ he added. ‘Like deciding to spend the night here with me?’

Sue bit her lip and moved away from his hand against her cheek. It was quite an effort to do so. The pleasing aroma of aftershave lotion he used plus the overwhelming magic of his nearness was playing havoc with her cool front.

‘I thought we’d discussed all that when I told you my own views on the subject of playing with fire. It’s the woman who eventually gets burnt, never the man,’ she said evenly.

He laughed at her seriousness, then he suddenly sobered, eyeing her like some mathematical problem which he meant to solve in the end.

‘Don’t you realise what you’re doing, my sweet?’ he said roughly. ‘You’re trying to convince yourself and me that the difference between the sexes doesn’t exist. It does, and no amount of arguing or hiding your head in the sand will make it any different.’ He reached out to draw her into his arms. ‘And I love you for your convictions.’ He spoke into her hair. ‘I can’t believe after spending the day with you that you have no spontaneous responses in that beautiful body of yours. You wouldn’t be human if you hadn’t.’

‘Jay, stop it! This is crazy,’ she protested, trying to push him away.

As she did so her hand pressed against the dark hair on his chest. Both of them were within one movement of being without clothes, and the knowledge was frightening to her in a possible moment of weakness.

Jay took her hand and kissed
the palm, warm from contact with his chest.

‘My sweet Sue,’ he murmured. ‘Don’t you feel you’re missing something by being so dogmatic?’

‘No, I don’t!’ She snatched her hand away, feeling bemused and almost hysterical as the desire for self-preservation was slipping away from her.

She had never slept with a man, simply because it was not in her opinion the sensible thing to do. But the real reason was now only too clear. She had never before met a man like Jay. Her heart behaved as if it would dearly love a transplant beside his. It was behaving now in the most alarming way and threatening to knock a hole in her ribs.

But Jay’s patience was already exhausted. He hauled her into his arms and proceeded to show her how fed up he was with her behaviour. His kisses burned her mouth and throat. The wrap was pulled away from her shoulder and he was running kisses along it in the manner of a small flame ready to ignite the moment their bodies fused together.

While his mouth fastened again on her trembling one, drawing out her very soul, Sue was palpitatingly aware of his hand moving down to fondle her firm round breast. Feverishly trying to hang on to her own convictions, she stiffened against him.

‘Darling,’ he murmured. ‘Your skin is like silk...’

‘Let me go,’ she panted.

She knew that this was the time to tell him about her true feelings, that the revelation of how wonderful it was to be made love to by the man of her heart had come too soon for her to even begin to think about it. She knew she loved him and that this was not the time to let her feelings run riot. She could not bear it if her easy capitulation to his charms culminated in losing his respect. She would just be another of his affairs. If she did not
have his love at least she would have his respect.

But Jay continued to hold her tight, and during her violent struggle the tie belt on her wrap became undone. As she tore herself away the wrap swung open to reveal her nakedness.

A hot feeling of deep embarrassment flooded over her, but Jay did not even look as she hastily grabbed the belt with fumbling fingers to tie it as quickly as she could.

Fastening the belt around her trim waist with utter despair, she wanted to tell him, to let the truth spill out, but no words would come. But Jay’s admirable self-restraint carried them through an awkward situation.

‘Suppose we have a drink until your clothes are dry?’ he suggested suavely. Suddenly his well-cut mouth curved devilishly. ‘Unless you prefer a cup of tea? They say it’s good for shock.’

Thank heaven for a sense of humour, thought Sue, and she laughed away her embarrassment. He was being very decent about it and the least she could do was to play along with him. There would be nothing worse than to sit sulking until her dry clothes were brought in.

Aware that her legs were trembling, she sank down into a chair, drawing the wrap around her.

‘I would say you’re in more need of the tea for shock than I am,’ she said as he strode to pour out drinks.

‘You mean seeing you undressed?’ He lifted wide shoulders. ‘I’ve seen you in the briefest of lace panties and bra. Why should I be shocked by seeing you without them? At Key West, which is less than a three-hour drive from here, some women swim topless. I really don’t see what you have to be embarrassed about.’

She accepted her drink with a further blush. ‘I wonder if you would have felt so cosy if it had been you instead of me?’ she said, then wished she had not.

He laughed, and the deep music of his laughter
brushed over her heart like caressing hands.

‘Want me to demonstrate?’ he asked her wickedly as he approached a chair near to where she was sitting.

‘You are determined to embarrass me, aren’t you?’ Sue accused.

He said crisply, ‘There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s all perfectly natural, and I’m sure we were not meant to be ashamed of our own bodies.’ His wicked smile was meant to shock her. ‘Personally I prefer a lady to be covered in a very attractive dress and looking provocative enough to set me yearning to explore her hidden charms later in bed.’

Sue blushed furiously and sipped her drink to hide her embarrassment. Then she was unpleasantly surprised to discover how terribly jealous she was of all those women he had done that with. Well, at least she would not be one of them.

‘Tell me about Key West,’ she said.