A Physical Affair Page 14

  ‘I’ll be in touch after I find out just how serious the situation is.’

  Keira nodded and his eyes held hers for a fraction of a second before he turned and made his way through the crowd. A few minutes later he left with Denver Clarkson and he hadn’t returned before the party eventually broke up, the guests unaware of the behind-the-scenes drama.

  When Roxie finally dropped Keira home she sighed with relief. Her fluctuating emotions had physically drained her. One moment she knew the excitement, the exhilaration of imagining herself surrendering to something she suspected was predestined, drowning in the promise of Eden Cassidy’s so compelling charisma. The next moment she would be valiantly standing her ground, set stubbornly on not allowing herself to deviate from her decision not to succumb to his so tempting overtures.

  The night had been never-ending, far more so than she could have imagined it was going to be, and then topped off by the threatened strike. All she wanted was to crawl into the sanctuary of her bed and know the oblivion of sleep. She felt as though she’d been awake for weeks and that her body had been on unalleviated alert for just as long. As long as she’d known Eden Cassidy.

  After all the work that had gone into the first issue, and was going into the second issue of Natural Life, she knew she should be concerned about the strike delaying the magazine’s release, but she felt completely numb. It was as though her awareness of Eden Cassidy and her confusion over her feelings precluded any other emotional perception.

  As the tail-lights of Roxie’s car disappeared down the road she swung open the gate in her high wooden fence and Roger wound himself around her legs in greeting. She closed the gate and picked him up.

  ‘If you’re wondering what sort of evening I had, then it couldn’t have been worse. I’m simply exhausted and can’t wait to get to bed.’

  And although she expected she’d lie tossing and turning, mulling over the turmoil within her, she was asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow. It seemed only moments later that she was woken by the birds greeting the morning sun and she reluctantly climbed out of bed and pulled on her short-sleeved robe. With a yawn she set the coffee-pot bubbling and went out to collect her morning newspaper.

  Keira opened the gate just as Daniel’s red sports car pulled into the kerb.

  ‘Morning,’ he greeted her tiredly. ‘I’ve been staying at Cat’s and her father just arrived home. I thought you’d like to know the strike is off.’

  ‘Oh. That’s good news. Thanks, Daniel. Do you want some coffee?’

  Daniel shook his head. ‘No. I’m bushed. I’m off home to catch up on some sleep. See you.’

  Keira waved as he drove off, and picked up her newspaper, only to step back in alarm when the bonnet of a dark blue Jaguar nosed into the driveway, wide tyres crunching on the gravel, passing her to draw to a stop in front of her carport.

  Her hand still resting on the gate, Keira stared openmouthed as Eden Cassidy’s tall body climbed from behind the wheel and turned to face her.

  He closed the car door behind him with a restrained click and leaned back against the shiny duco. ‘Did you manage to get any sleep last night?’ he asked without inflection, his eyes running over the curve of her body beneath her towelling robe.

  Keira’s hand dropped from the gate to clutch together the opened V of her gown. She wore her short nightshirt beneath her robe and even though it was really quite circumspect as night attire went she felt almost naked beneath his hooded gaze.

  ‘A little,’ she replied at last, taking a couple of steps toward him before stopping in confusion.

  Something warned her to keep a measured distance between herself and that tall masculine body.

  Yet of their own accord her eyes wandered lingeringly over him, took in his slightly dishevelled appearance. He’d shed his suit jacket and his tie, and his immaculate white shirt was open at the collar.

  Her gaze met his and she swallowed, her heartbeats accelerating wildly. He’d seen her open scrutiny and she flushed disconcertedly, but he refrained from making his usual provocative comment. Instead he raised his hand to massage the back of his neck, as though to ease the tension there.

  ‘Any chance of a cup of coffee?’ he asked tiredly, and Keira almost laughed at the prosaicness of the question. Yet she paused just slightly before nodding.

  Reluctantly she led the way into the house, her pulse jumping about as his footsteps followed her. Up on to the veranda. Along the seemingly mile-long hallway. Into the kitchen.

  Roger stirred on the sofa and gave Eden a measuring stare, but whatever he saw must have reassured him because he tucked his nose back between his paws and resumed his snooze.

  ‘I’ve just put on some coffee,’ she said a little breathily as she walked behind the breakfast bar. ‘Would you like something to eat?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, thanks. Coffee will be fine.’ A strand of dark hair had fallen forward on his brow and he irritatedly brushed it back. ‘I thought you’d like to know we’ve averted the threatened strike. I have a few negotiations to work out later this afternoon but we seem to have sorted it all out once and for all.’

  ‘Yes, I know.’ Keira’s brain was spinning tantalisingly around a number of far more erotic reasons for his presence. ‘Daniel told me.’

  ‘Daniel!’ he repeated in surprise. ‘Daniel?’ His tone had sharpened, edged with suppressed anger, and alarmed at his tone Keira swung back to face him. Their eyes locked. He’d pushed himself away from the support of the breakfast bar and Keira’s complete nervous system tensed, poised for flight.

  ‘Yes.’ Keira’s throat dried on the word. ‘Daniel called in just—’ she started to explain but Eden broke in on her and her hand went uneasily to the base of her throat.

  ‘Daniel was here?’

  ‘Yes, he—’

  ‘He was here in the middle of the night?’ he barked at her, and Keira drew herself together as his meaning became abundantly clear.

  ‘Yes. No!’

  ‘Either he was or he wasn’t,’ Eden said sarcastically and Keira’s anger rose at his mocking tone.

  Recklessly she took the two steps towards him that put her up against the breakfast bar that separated them.

  ‘If you’d let me finish a sentence I’d explain—’ she began again, holding up her hand when he opened his mouth to interrupt her again. ‘Will you be quiet for just a moment. For heaven’s sake, there’s no need to rehash all that leave-my-nephew-alone rubbish. Believe me, Daniel’s honour was perfectly safe from me. He spent the night with Cat’s family and called in to tell me about the averted strike a few minutes before you arrived.’

  Eden’s hooded gaze held hers.

  ‘In fact you just missed him.’ Keira angrily brushed her hair back from her face. ‘Now—’ she strode around the breakfast bar and turned to look pointedly at Eden and then at the door ‘—I’ve had a late night and I’m too tired for all this.’

  He regarded her enigmatically and then gave a soft, bitter laugh. ‘Tired,’ he repeated throatily, and Keira’s gaze snapped back to him in sudden apprehension. ‘That makes two of us. I pretty well came straight here as soon as I could get away from the meeting,’ he added in that same low, inciting tone. ‘But, quite frankly, right now I couldn’t give a damn if the whole country went on strike.’

  He took two measured steps towards her and she tensed, but willed herself to hold her ground.

  ‘And I’m not sure the outcome of the meeting was even the reason why I came. More of an excuse.’ His deep blue eyes burned into hers, fanned that ever-glowing ember of purely physical desire, and Keira gave a negating shake of her head.

  ‘I… We… You should go, Eden,’ she said through dry lips that trembled in fear, fear of the depth of longing that rose in her to beg him to stay.

  He ran one hand along the line of his jaw and his mouth twisted self-derisively. ‘I should do a lot of things.’

  His gaze never wavered as he moved forward again, and Keira retreat
ed until her back came up against the wall. She swallowed, but her throat was paralysed and she had to tear her eyes from his in a valiant effort to shield the wanting she knew raged so blatantly in their smoky depths.

  One strong hand came up to touch her cheek gently, moved to settle for long, sensuous seconds on the curve of her lips before continuing down to rest lightly on the base of her throat where her pulse raced wildly. And he rested his other elbow on the wall beside her head as his mouth hovered tortuously above her.

  The cold timber wall seemed to chill her through the thickness of her nightshirt and robe as he lowered his body until it was a tantalising hair’s breadth from hers.

  And her own body was betraying her, every nerve tingling, each muscle tensing, straining to close that minute but measureless chasm between them. That she wanted to yield, to mould herself to him, was a battle she was having to fight with all the willpower she possessed.

  She knew she had to repel him and do it quickly because she was rapidly losing the skirmish with each passing second.

  ‘Let me go!’ she got out through her tensed jaw, but of course he gave no sign he’d heard her words, let alone obeyed her demand.

  She made to push her hands against the hard wall of his chest but his strong hands clasped hers, held her arms above her head, leaving her body vulnerable to the still hovering hardness of his.

  Keira desperately changed her tactics, turning on him the anger she felt at herself for her own weakness, lifting her chin to confront him. ‘This must give you great satisfaction, knowing you have to overcome a woman with blatant superior strength,’ she said scathingly, and he gave a softly incredulous laugh.

  ‘About as much satisfaction as knowing that the way I feel about you, what you do to me, takes away my strength to resist you.’

  ‘Resist me?’ Keira repeated disconcertedly.

  ‘Resist you. And that’s just it, Keira. I can’t.’

  Her mouth was suddenly parched again and she tried desperately to dampen her dry lips with her tongue tip.

  His eyes, blue-black coals now in the slightly muted light, focused on the furtive movement, and he groaned deep in his throat. It was a potently primitive sound that struck an untouched chord concealed in hidden recesses way within her and it fanned a reciprocal fire.

  Their eyes met, held, as they sank deeply into each other’s souls. And he allowed his hard body to make the yearned-for contact with hers at last.

  That charged tension that held them changed too, intensified, until Keira could almost feel the electricity in the air about them. The timbre of his hold on her shifted, their bodies seeming to melt into one as he slowly released her hands, his fingertips burning a trail of fire down her bare arms.

  ‘You want me as much as I want you, don’t you?’ His deep voice vibrated through every inch of her body. ‘Say it, Keira.’

  She began to shake her head and then stopped, knowing without a doubt that the transparent expression in her eyes was betraying her. ‘Yes,’ she heard herself say honestly.

  CHAPTER TEN

  HE held her fast for long seconds, then he gave a shuddering sigh and released her, his hands sliding over her shoulders to settle on her waist.

  ‘Yes,’ he repeated thickly. ‘Oh, yes.’

  With infinite slowness he lowered his head and softly kissed one corner of her mouth.

  Then eons later his tongue-tip teased lingeringly across her top lip and he kissed the other corner of her mouth.

  He took her full bottom lip gently between his teeth, released it, nibbled again.

  Somewhere in the depths of her something began to grow, expand, until Keira thought she’d die with the desire for release. And when his lips covered hers at last a million shards of colour exploded in a starburst within her. Her arms wound themselves around his neck, her fingers sliding sensually over the silky material of his shirt, probing the play of muscles in his back.

  With expert ease he untied the cord of her robe, pushed it open, his fingers splayed out now on her midriff, his thumbs resting on the beginning of the swell of her full breasts. Without Keira being conscious of their movements her own hands had slid upwards, over his broad shoulders, her fingers burying themselves in the rich thickness of his dark hair.

  His lips touched her eyelids, her nose, every section of her face until her mouth burned irrepressibly for him to kiss her once more. Keira moaned, lips seeking his again. And when she found them she slid her tongue inside to taste the nectar waiting within.

  As they drank deeply of each other Eden’s hands moved upwards, cupping the curve of her breasts, his fingers not quite touching her throbbing nipples. When at last his palms slid over them as they strained against the soft material of her nightshirt Keira’s knees almost gave out on her. She shifted her weight, moving her legs against his taut thighs, and she felt him draw a sharp breath.

  ‘Do you know what you’re doing to me?’ he whispered hoarsely into her throat, and Keira’s teeth teased his earlobe.

  ‘Something like what you’re doing to me, I should imagine,’ she said breathlessly, and he gave a soft, intimately erotic laugh.

  His hands slid downwards over her rounded hips to cup her buttocks, holding her firmly against him, leaving her in no doubt of his arousal. Then he kissed her again and they strained, melted against each other, thigh to thigh, stomach to stomach, breast to breast, lips locked in heated desire.

  Somehow they were in Keira’s bedroom and her robe was slipping from her shoulders. His hands then lifted her nightshirt over her head. Not that she noticed that particularly. The feel of the material being pulled gently from her body was only a peripheral sensation. She was more intent on unbuttoning his shirt, luxuriating in the intoxicating texture of the fine silky hair on his chest, his hard hot skin beneath her hands.

  She fumbled with his belt buckle, undid his zip, the sound rasping into the tense stillness around them. Her fingers were shaking so badly she couldn’t seem to summon enough strength to remove his trousers.

  ‘Help me,’ she implored unsteadily, and in one swift movement he stood naked before her.

  His hands gently cupped her face and he looked into her eyes. ‘You’re just as beautiful as I’ve imagined thousands of times that you would be,’ he said huskily, and Keira drew a shallow breath.

  ‘You’re beautiful, too,’ she managed, her hands sliding over the expanse of his chest, to the curve of his hips, her fingers settling in the indentation of his backbone as he slowly, excruciatingly slowly, drew her against him.

  Her breasts slid against the light mat of fine dark hair on his chest and her nipples contracted, aching where they touched him, and she caught her breath as her body seemed to drown in the tide of craving desire that gripped her.

  Eden pulled back the duvet and laid her on the bed, stretching his long body beside her.

  Only then did Keira tense slightly as reality took over, bringing the realisation that there was no going back now. She had committed herself to their lovemaking. And she knew a moment of chilling apprehension. Would she freeze up as she always had when Dennis made love to her? But Dennis had never made her feel the way Eden did, filled her with this compelling intense impatience for physical gratification.

  Her eyes rose to meet Eden’s and he smiled just slightly, lifting her hand to his lips, placing a smouldering kiss in her soft palm, then slowly taking each fingertip in turn into his mouth.

  His burning gaze seduced her, tempted her, pushed her momentary doubts out of her mind and replaced them with that same overwhelming hunger, that thirst for fulfilment.

  They kissed again, fingers exploring each other’s bodies, lingering lightly over each contour, seeking and finding each erotic place, murmuring to each other as their passion rose. When he took her nipple in his mouth Keira gasped, her head going back as she arched towards him.

  His mouth slid up to the base of her throat where her pulse beat an erratic tattoo, then returned to caress her other breast, teasing her until
she thought she’d go mad with wanting him.

  ‘Eden, please,’ she heard someone plead in a voice raw with heightened passion, and some small part of her was shocked to recognise that voice as her own.

  But he allowed her no time for recriminatory thoughts as his fingers moved downwards, intimately caressing her, setting her on fire, so that she writhed against him, crying out his name as waves of pleasure clutched her, wrapped themselves about her, rippled along every inch of her body.

  Only then did he move over her, entering her, lifting her senses again until the world exploded once more.

  Keira gradually floated back to earth, feeling the coolness of tears on her cheeks, and she turned to him.

  ‘Eden?’ she said softly and he kissed her forehead.

  ‘Mmm.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she murmured against him as she snuggled contentedly into the curve of his arm, and she was immediately asleep.

  When she awoke it was well into the morning and Eden had gone. As she struggled into a sitting position she saw that he had carefully folded her discarded clothing over the chair by her wardrobe.

  Keira clutched the duvet to her nakedness, momentarily embarrassed by her memories, and then she smiled as her skin tingled at her sensual recollections. She climbed from the bed, stretched languidly and crossed to the shower, humming as she washed and dressed in faded denims and a loose sweatshirt.

  In the kitchen she found her telephone notepad propped against the toaster, and written in bold black script was the message, ‘No. I, thank you.’

  Keira’s mouth curved into an inane smile and only the insistent push of the cat against her legs brought her out of her reverie.

  ‘Isn’t it a wonderful day, Roger?’ She beamed down at him and he strolled over to his empty food bowl and looked eloquently from it to Keira.

  There was a fresh, opened tin of cat food on the bench so Eden had obviously fed the cat before he left not long ago, and Keira put her hands on her hips.