Seven Nights (10 page)

Leah didn’t answer, just stared at him with eyes so wide that he could almost lose himself in the green forever. Finally, she cleared her throat.

“You kept everything I’ve done?” she whispered, breaking her gaze away from his face and back down to the pile of magazine and newspaper pages that rustled in the soft breeze.

“Yes. There are even things in that file that were never published. Stories you wrote for me. Things you tossed in the garbage because you convinced yourself they weren’t good enough.” He dared to lean forward and brush his hand across hers. “I kept everything.”

She shook his hand away with a soft cry of pain that surprised Sean. He knew his revelation caught her off guard, but why would it hurt her?

“And you keep them in your car and just coincidentally sent me up there to get utensils from your glove compartment? Do you really think I’m that stupid?” she snapped as she stood up and paced to the edge of the water.

Sean stared at her. “You think this is some kind of a set up?”

“Yeah!” She laughed, but there was no humor to the sound, only pain. Betrayal. “For some unfathomable reason you want me again. Or more specifically, you want me to want you. And you know my work means something to me so you use it to get what you want. You always do, right?”

Jumping to his feet, Sean crossed the sand to her side. He touched her arm, but she flinched away. In fact, she refused to acknowledge him at all as she stood in a ramrod straight position that barely masked her body’s trembling.

“Wait a minute-”

She turned on him, her face dark with anger. “No, I won’t wait. I don’t like being manipulated, Sean. And that’s what this whole seduction is all about. You trap me here, you take away my friends and my way out, you tempt me with things I can’t ever have and then, to top it all off, you try to make me believe that you’ve kept me in your heart and your mind all these years. And like an idiot, I fell for it.”

She started to stalk away, but he caught both her upper arms and spun her around to face him. “No, that’s not how it is, Leah! I really have kept all your work since the first moment I met you. It was the only thing I took with me when I left our apartment three years ago. I kept that file, and I added to it over the years as I watched your career grow and your writing change.”

She motioned wildly up the hill in the direction of his vehicle. “And why was it in your jeep of all places?”

Sean shook his head. He could only pray she’d understand. “When I confirmed you were coming down here, I took the jeep and your articles and I just drove. I stayed out on the beach for two days trying to figure out how I could reconnect with you. I realized I had no idea who you were anymore, no idea what you’d gone through or done beyond what you’ve made public through your work and the occasional society page blurb I’m sure your mother arranges.”

The harsh line of her mouth softened slightly. “Go on.”

“Your writing was the only personal thing I had left from you. So I read everything you’ve ever published from beginning to end. I looked at how your style changed. At how your voice changed.”

Her eyes had filled with tears, but Sean wasn’t sure if they were tears of happiness or pain. “A-And what did you find by reading all my work, Sean?”

He smiled as he brushed a tear from her cheek. “That underneath it all, Leah, you’re still you. You’re still the woman I wanted to marry all those years ago.”

Her lips parted in an expression of surprise. For a moment, she only stared at him in disbelief and confusion, but then she slowly shook her head.

“No. I’m not that same woman. I’ve changed over the time we’ve been apart. Like you said, you don’t know anything about me anymore.”

He laughed even though her pointed words cut him as deeply as any knife. “I know you’ve changed, but the core part of you is the same. I see it in the passionate way you’ve written about poverty in some of your sidebars. Your father wouldn’t have included anything so pointed and honest if you hadn’t pushed him.”

Leah hesitated. “Yes, I did have to fight to include the sidebar on the shanty towns of Rio de Janeiro and the slums in Bali.”

“And I felt you in the article you wrote about fantasy resorts like mine.” He shrugged one shoulder slightly. “You’re right, you know.”

“What?” Her eyes widened with disbelief.

“About what you said. A lot of couples think place like this are going to be a panacea for their broken marriages. They might do better to invest that travel budget in therapy.”

“Wait, so you, the co-owner of
Escapades
, one of the newest and hottest resorts, are admitting your place isn’t a fantasy for a lot of people?” She let out a loud laugh. “Can I quote you on that, Mr. Dalton?”

“No.” He was rewarded with a wide smile and a shake of her head. “But you
could
say that the staff in this resort does its best to create a romantic, relaxed atmosphere for its guests. Perhaps in that kind of environment couples might actually have conversations about things they hadn’t discussed in years. They might move past the arguments about their children or work schedules and actually get to the heart of their issues. Maybe it’s not as good as marriage counseling, but it’s better than nothing.”

Leah wrinkled her brow. “I’d never considered that.” She chewed her lower lip. “Okay, I admit that might be true.”

“Oh?” He leaned closer and took a deep whiff of the lily scent of her hair. “Can I quote
you
on that, Miss Prescott?” He sighed. “I really didn’t put your articles in the glove compartment with any forethought about today or manipulation in mind. I swear to you.”

She studied his face for a long moment, then nodded. “I believe you.”

“Good.”

He sighed with relief as he slowly let go of her. But instead of walking away, Leah stayed where she was, standing just inches from his body, her face tilted up to his in what was almost an invitation to a kiss. One he was having a hard time resisting.

“You know, even I haven’t kept all my clippings.”

“Why? You should be proud of your work,” he answered, barely keeping his breathing at a normal level. He had to maintain an outward appearance of calm, even as his stomach did back flips and all the blood in his body rushed in the opposite direction of his brain.

She shook her head. “Oh, I am. I just haven’t kept much of it. There are only a few things.”

“Like what?” he asked, slowly mastering his lust enough that her words really began to sink in. Leah was confiding in him.
Him
!

“Um, those sidebars you mentioned. A few short stories from our college days. And… and…” She cleared her throat with a blush. “The notes for my novel even though I know I’ll probably never write it.”

“Why?” Sean barely resisted the urge to push a lock of blonde hair away from her face. “You talked about it so often in college. Honestly, I’m often surprised I don’t see you in the bookstores.”

“Oh, writing a book is a dream. Writing the articles, being the travel editor for my Dad’s magazine, that’s reality. That pays the bills. Writing a book is dangerous.” She shrugged her comment off, but Sean could see there was a lot more to it than that.

“I’ve never known you to be a coward.” He grinned as his inflammatory comment hit its mark. Leah let out a gasp of derision.

“Hey, I’m not! If I were, the moment you came into that office yesterday, I would have swum to Jamaica and caught the first plane home.”

Sean paused, searching her face for what emotions she felt when she said that. To his surprise, he found desire and a healthy measure of apprehension. Slowly, he moved closer.

“Am I so scary? So dangerous?”

Leah swallowed hard and tilted her face up and up until she met his eyes. Suddenly it became very clear that she was going to kiss him, and the knowledge took Sean completely off guard.

“You’re more dangerous than you know,” she whispered before she leaned up and pressed her lips against his.

Sean certainly wasn’t going to argue with her. All he’d wanted to do since they’d been alone was kiss her. More than kiss her. So he pulled her closer and let his instincts take over. Instincts that roared at him to go faster, to take the encounter to a more intimate level.

Unlike the other times they’d come together, he found no shyness or resistance coming from Leah. In fact, when he deepened the kiss, she responded with a soft moan and delved even further. Her hands crept around his back and pulled him closer while her hips rose up to brush softly against his own.

“You’re killing me,” he whispered against her lips before he trailed his own down the slope of her neck and found the spot behind her ear that had always driven her wild.

“Well, I never said I wasn’t dangerous, too,” she laughed even as her nails grazed his back and her breath hitched.

With a grin, Sean slowly lowered her back onto their picnic blanket, sending plastic plates and food flying out the way as he did so. Leah gripped at the hem of his t-shirt, easing it up over his stomach and shoving it around his armpits. He stopped kissing her long enough to oblige her silent order and yank it off.

“Wow,” she breathed as her fingers skimmed down the lines of his bare chest. “You’ve been working out since we broke up.”

“Helps relieve tension,” he muttered as he slipped his own hands under her t-shirt and found the edge of her bra.

Leah hissed in a breath as his fingertips brushed the lacy edging, then trailed underneath to trace the curve of her breast.

“There are lots of ways to relieve tension,” she whispered near his ear before she caught the lobe between her teeth and tugged gently.

Half-erect went to fully erect as light exploded in front of Sean’s eyes. Suddenly the only thing he was aware of was Leah. Her scent, her touch, the feel of her rising up beneath him as he fumbled with the clasp of her bra.

He wanted nothing more than to touch her, claim her, stroke her to a brilliant climax that would burn into her memory forever. He wanted her to think of this moment whether or not this stolen week in paradise led to a rekindling of their relationship. He wanted more than just a faint memory, a dream of what moving within her had been like. He wanted stunning, sensual reality.

And he wanted it all right now.

“Stop staring and touch me,” she demanded with a husky chuckle before she grasped the nape of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss so hot that he felt his insides melting.

“You asked for it,” he managed to say between kisses as he pulled her to a sitting position just long enough to yank off her t-shirt and twisted bra.

When the hot, humid air stirred against her now bare breasts, Leah let out a hiss of pleasure. One that swiftly turned to a moan when Sean laid her back down on the blanket and pressed his mouth down against her nipple. He stroked his tongue slowly, enjoying every little gasp and cry she made as he teased her, tasted her, taunted her. And taunted himself just as much in the process.

“Hurry.” She squirmed to unbutton the fly of his khaki shorts.

Arching an eyebrow, Sean gazed down at her. Suddenly the reality of what they were about to do hit him with full force. This would be the first time they made love in years. And he had all afternoon to do it right.

“No.” He caught her hands and pinned them down against the blanket. “No hurrying.”

Her whimper of protest was lost in his mouth as he kissed her again, deeply. He released her wrists and unzipped her shorts. Leah writhed beneath his hands, glaring at him even as she gasped out approval when his fingers brushed her thigh, the back of her knees.

“You were not this mean before,” she said, reaching out for him.

He barely dodged her grasping hands with a laugh. “I was just a boy before. Now hold still and let me do what I’m going to do.”

Her eyes widened as he positioned himself between her legs and glided her silky underwear down and off.

“What are you going to-” She broke off with a ragged cry when he pressed his lips against the inside of her upper thigh, tracing the soft flesh there with a probing tongue.

That cry increased when he gripped her legs with each hand and spread her open, draping each knee over his shoulders. Cupping her rear end, he held her steady as he dropped his head and pressed a soft kiss against her pussy.

She surged up to meet the next tortuous swipe of his tongue, her hands grasping at the edge of the blanket, gripping handfuls of sand as she let out a long, keening cry. Despite the throbbing of his cock, the need to fill her, Sean continued to torture her. Even though she bucked her hips up in a rough, demanding rhythm, he kept his tongue gentle, teasing as he dipped into her sheath.

He sucked the aroused nub of her clit, loving the way her body twitched when he nibbled gently.

“Oh God, Sean,” she panted as she arched up. “I’m so close already.”

He smiled against her clenching pussy. “Closer,” he breathed into her slit and she screamed out a mixture of pleasure and frustration.

“You taste so good,” he murmured as he traced a finger along her outer lips between licks. “I can taste how much you need me.”

“I need you,” she whimpered.

He spread her wide and dipped a finger inside. One, then two. She gripped at him with her tight sheath and quivered when he lowered his tongue back to her clit.