Total Package (10 page)

“Do tell. That we are lovers and I want to act like it and expect some small courtesy from you to acknowledge that we
did make love—not sex, dear heart—is something you can’t understand?”

“You’re definitely not getting the picture here, Stepanov. We don’t fit, get it? You, traditional and romantic…me, a woman on the move. I feel like I’m being netted into something that scares the holy hell out of me. And I think I’m really mad about you leading me on that first bit, when I thought you might really want to dive over that cliff. Now that wasn’t nice, was it? Not that I want you to be a jumper.”

She was pacing and waving her hands now, turning to periodically glare at him. His anger cooling at the sight, Danya considered the emotional woman in front of him. Sidney was definitely a passionate woman, despite her claims of being an “observer of life.” She was definitely involved in their relationship, or she wouldn’t be all flushed and furious. Sidney was fighting mad, but was it at him alone? Was a part of it because she loved him and didn’t know how to handle their love? “So my kiss can stop your mind. It’s like the rest of you, very agile and very fast. Hmm, now I wonder what that means?” he asked quietly, thoughtfully.

“Oh, darn,” she said as the impact of his statement hit her. Her anger melted into that soft feeling that needed to be wrapped up in Danya’s strong arms. Her eyes burned and she sniffed, a sign that her tears weren’t far away. That dreaded weakness hadn’t occurred until she’d met Danya, over two weeks ago. “Okay, we’re sexually attracted. Like magnets, or something. I don’t know why. But I do know that you seemed easygoing and friendly and now you’re all different.”

“Because I have the status of being your lover, my darling.”

“Lover?” The word hit Sidney broadside.

“And you are mine. But there is more than sex involved here, dear heart.”

“There is?”

But then Danya moved slowly toward her and she didn’t have time to mull all the reasons why Danya shouldn’t love her, and why they weren’t suited, and why a relationship between them
wouldn’t work. Well, okay. A sexual relationship would work, but other than an infrequent hit-and-run, it would be disastrous.

She backed away one step, then another, and extended her hand out protectively in front of her. Danya’s chest came against her palm and she backed away another step. Those dark blue eyes had locked onto her face, lowered to her lips, and then slid to study her breasts. That intent, purposeful look took her breath away, started her body simmering and aching, and she fought the quiver running through her as she stared at the lips she wanted to kiss—

“Oh, Sidney,” Danya whispered as his finger stroked her cheek. “You’re blushing again.”

“I’m just out of breath. Being hauled around like a bag of—”

Her back came against the door and Danya’s big hands flattened on the wood beside her head. His thumbs caressed her earlobes and her senses started vibrating warily, telling her that in one heartbeat, she could be on him and feasting on that gorgeous mouth—

He was an intent sort of guy, Sidney reminded herself, and set on a course, Danya was very thorough. He was watching her now, as if he could see all the little hot impulses, the fear inside her. “So you came back to take pictures of my family and the resort. And that’s all? Or did you come back to finish it between us?” he asked too softly.

“You’re yelling again,” she whispered, because she sensed just how dangerous he could be when aroused to anger. “Okay, I’m sorry about the earrings-for-sex remark. Back off, will you? You’re crowding me.”

“I’ve crowded you before. You didn’t mind it then. Can’t you deal with this, Sidney? A discussion of our relationship?”

Both of her hands were on his broad powerful chest now, and Danya was leaning very close, his head tilted so that he could nuzzle the side of her throat. “Tell me, Sidney. You came back just for the pictures, right? And how is good old Ben?”

His lips were near hers, playing at the sensitive corners now. Sidney was trying desperately to concentrate on what he had just asked when all she wanted to do was to dive into his kiss and devour him. “Are you going to kiss me or not?”

His lips smoothed hers, rubbing slightly. “You’re very hot, Sidney. Could it be that you’re aroused by me? Did you miss me?”

She gave him that. “Maybe. Just maybe I did.”

His tongue flicked at her lips, his body pressing close to hers, and she wanted to inhale him. “So then, just maybe—just maybe you came back to see me, too?”

“You scare me….”

“I know.” His light kisses were tempting her now, roaming over her lips, never stopping, never letting her take what she wanted….

Sidney opened her lips, met his tongue with hers and let the taste of him flow warmly, sensuously through her. “Okay, I missed you.”

“How? As a friend? As a lover?”

“Just you. I missed you.”

“Good. That’s all I wanted to know—” Then Danya pushed away and walked from her into the bathroom. “I’m going to Uncle Fadey and Aunt Mary Jo’s for dinner. My family will all be there. You can come, if you want. The food is good.”

Sidney caught her breath. One minute Danya was so close and sensual and the next he was treating her as if she was a casual acquaintance—and she wasn’t! They’d made love after all, very satisfying love. On unsteady legs, she walked to the bathroom and studied Danya, who was shaving. He’d removed his shirt and his tanned bare chest gleamed in the room’s bald light. The white foam on his jaw did not soften the hard set of it, that muscle contracting in his throat.

“You’re really, really mad, aren’t you?” she asked.

In the mirror, those hard blue eyes slashed at her as he took a brief stroke with his straight razor. “Of course. It never should have happened that way between us.”

The hair on Sidney’s nape lifted warningly. “What do you mean?”

“I took you too soon. You deserved more. And so did I.”

“You mean you regret having sex with me?”

He swished his straight razor in the basin of water. “Yes, I do. I’m not made for a one-night stand and neither are you.”

He had qualms about their lovemaking! Stunned that he would regret something so lovely, Sidney considered her options. Danya had asked if she would run and accused her of being afraid. He seemed engrossed in shaving and she needed his full attention. Small and agile had its advantages she decided, as she wiggled to stand in front of him. Those blue eyes glanced down at her and then looked over her head to the mirror as he continued to shave.

“Sure, I’d love to come to dinner. Thanks. Let’s get back to the part about you and I shouldn’t have had sex.”

Danya nodded just once and reached around her to swish his straight razor again. He looked down at her briefly, then straightened. “I should have had more control than to take you so quickly. But then, you were missing dear old Ben, weren’t you? Or were you playing at revenge? Getting back at him by having me?”

Sidney tensed; she now suspected that she’d hurt Danya even more deeply than she’d realized. “Look, I wanted you. I nailed you. It’s just that simple. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I guess at the time, I was just feeling the moment and greedy and maybe wanting—I’m used to moving fast in situations and well, there you were, all warmed up and ready.”

“You think you can just ‘nail’ a man and run away the next morning?”

“I did not ‘run away,’ you caught me on the beach. You were naked, remember? And I had a job to do back in New York. I came back to return those earrings in person, didn’t I?”

“They were a gift with no strings attached. Where are they?”

This truthful conversation was getting rougher and more intricate by the moment. She hadn’t realized that Danya would
be so sensitive, so vulnerable. Or so—tough and cold. She dug down into her cargo pants pocket and extracted a small box with a rubber band wrapped around it. She had to give the earrings back—they were a family heirloom and she had no right to them. But they were so beautiful—Sidney took a deep steadying breath and placed them on a shelf with his shaving kit. “Here they are. Now we’re even.”

His “Are we?” was too tight as he continued shaving.

“Yes, I think so. I think we’re about as even as we can get.”

His jaw tightened at that, but he kept stroking the razor across his skin. The slight scraping sound raised the hair on her nape again. “Get out of here, Sidney.”

“I’m not budging until you admit that I am not a coward and—”

“Have you ever made love in a bathroom yet? You’re shocked, aren’t you? I guess that means you haven’t. So unless you want to—now—leave.”

“Boy, you’re cranky,” Sidney stated as she eased away and Danya’s narrowed eyes followed her. She glanced down to the bulge in his jeans and decided that he was perfectly capable of making love whenever he wanted.

His look was dark and fierce as he reached to close the door in her face.

“You’re sure not sweet,” she stated to the closed door. She couldn’t let Danya treat her so lightly and opened the door, entering the bathroom. “Give me those earrings. I wouldn’t insult something so precious by leaving them with you.”

Danya tossed the small box to her. “Is there anything else you want, dearest?”

For a moment, the response that she wanted to make love to him in any room, on any flat plane available, lingered on her lips. Then she decided a retreat was wiser at the moment, until they both had time to reason and chose their words. “Nope, not a thing.”

She closed the bathroom door behind her, and with shaking hands attached the earrings. Then because the shower
was running and she could only think of the naked body in the spray of water, all hard and thrusting and hot and full and—Sidney stepped out into the cool salty Pacific night. On the porch were her sleeping and camera bags; in the distance, Alexi turned and waved.

“Thanks,” she called and laden with her things, stepped back into the cabin. Sidney unrolled her sleeping bag to remove her clothing within and her small traveling bag. She stood and noted the gown she’d worn at the soiree; it hung against the wall, looking sleek and feminine and unlike anything she would wear. Sidney moved to it and smoothed the soft black fabric with her fingers; she remembered how tenderly and carefully Danya had touched her, wooed her until they moved together naturally….

She hadn’t “nailed him.” They’d made love together, and just maybe he had a right to be angry. Men were very complicated, Sidney decided; they had funny little vulnerable pieces that needed soothing.

She slowly unlaced her boots, removed them and her socks, and then stripped away her shirt, preparing to change into clean clothing for dinner. She had removed her sports bra and was just sliding away her pants when Danya stepped into the room wearing only the towel around his hips.

His dark stare instantly pinned and held her, poised just so with her hands gripping her pants at her knees. She refused to be intimidated by that hot hungry look, by the ripples it sent through her body. She wasn’t a coward and she wouldn’t run. She released her pants to the floor, stepped out of them and straightened bravely to face him.

“Do you think I could be aroused by just any woman?” he asked softly, sensuously, dangerously as he took in the sight of her rigid body. “Was it that easy for you to have me and walk away?”

“I thought you were a friend and a nice guy. I was having a moment, okay? Do you really regret that night? With me?”

Danya was too close now and his finger rose to gently flip
the earring. “That I claimed you for my own? No. I took you to the display room to cool you down, dear heart, and then—”

“Wait a minute. Repeat that: You ‘claimed’ me?”

Danya’s hand slid slowly down her throat, over her chest and smoothed her breasts. Her reaction was automatic, her hands locking on his arms; he wasn’t going anywhere. His gaze was lowering, skimming her body, those blue eyes flickering, and the tense hot moments sprung between them. “I want you,” Danya admitted. “But I also want more. I almost came after you. If I had, the result wouldn’t have been nice and it wouldn’t have settled anything.”

Sidney shook her head, trying to understand. “Why would you come after me?”

His thumbs caressed her nipples and he moved close and tight, bending to kiss her hard and hot. Sidney stood on tiptoe, wrapped her arms around his neck and held tight, diving into the kiss, meeting him. Skin against skin, she met the blunt nudge of his sex with her hips and then Danya’s hands were beneath her bottom, lifting her. Sidney couldn’t wait, agilely raising herself and wrapping her legs around him, fastening her lips to his, taking in the heat from his body. “Sidney….” Danya cautioned roughly. “We’re not protected.”

She moved to taste his ear and nibble on his jaw. Danya was so tastable. “You should buy a big carton.”

His smile slid against her cheek. “Why? Is this going to happen often?”

“Do you have to talk now?” Sidney wanted to move into the real action.

“No, but I do like you talking when we’re like this. It’s very…erotic.”

She stopped tasting him and leaned back to study his expression. “Me? Erotic?”

“Sexy.”

She traced his lashes, the silky feel in contrast to the hard bones of his face. He was sweet and boyish in his way, despite the all male feel of him against her, almost within her.
She kissed him once, just lightly, tasting the new tenderness between them, and Danya lowered her to her feet.

He still held her as she considered this new sensation, sweet and soft and slow. Sidney lay against him, placing her head upon his shoulder. She felt so safe in his arms, and well—feminine and new. “This is a good feeling. But I like sex with you, too.”

“That’s good.”

“Just so you know—I’m not a girly-girly kind of woman. I’m not going to hold you to anything, or throw a fit if you see someone you—”

Danya placed his hand over her lips. “Let’s just go to dinner, okay?”

“Put me down,” Sidney ordered as Danya carried her up the steps to Fadey and Mary Jo Stepanov’s home.

Danya seemed determined to hold her, despite her wriggling in his arms, and he grimly ignored her as he stood in front of the double wide wooden doors of the sprawling Stepanov home. Sidney gave up trying to free herself and asked, “Do I look all right? I mean, the last time your brother and cousins and uncle saw me, they saw me being packed out of the shop by you. I’d like to make a better impression on them.”