Always Friday (12 page)

His feet were bare and only a patch of light brown hair
curled over the muscles on his chest. His hair on his head looked damp and
slightly mussed, as if he’d run his fingers through it a few times while he
waited for her.

A slow smile lifted the corners of his lips, and his eyes
flashed silver in the soft light as they flicked over her. “I thought you’d
never get here, love.” His words were a deep, rumbling caress.

“How did you know I was coming?”

His smile widened and he reached for the side of her neck
and pulled her toward him. “I’m beginning to understand how your mind works.”
He bent and brushed his lips against hers.

“I brought the map and journal to show you.”

His eyes never leaving hers, his hand still stroking her
neck, he took the documents that she clutched against her breasts and laid them
on a table. “The only treasure I’m interested in now is you.”

He pulled her into the room and closed the door. Both arms
went around her, one across her back, the other, lower to pull her hips against
him. Tess almost purred as he nuzzled and nibbled the side of her throat. His
hands slid over the soft silk of her robe as he rubbed his chest against hers
and made soft, sensual sounds deep in his throat. Shivers rippled over her
skin.

“What do you have on under this, love?”

She laughed a deep, husky laugh. “Only perfume and me.”

His mouth opened over hers with a low growl, and staid
Daniel Friday went wild. Her knees buckled as he thrust his tongue between her
lips, retreated and thrust again. His kiss was wet and hot and hard and his
hands roved all over her. It was like standing in a summer storm of sensual
fury. She whimpered and he went wilder.

His broad hand slid between their bodies and pressed upward
in a slow, firm stroke until he reached the swell of her breast. He tested and
explored and teased its sensitive fullness until her spine undulated like a
serpent’s as she strained toward the delicious sensations his fingers created.

A hiss of the zipper and his hand was against her bare
flesh. He moaned; she moaned. And his tongue went deeper.

He tore his mouth away and looked down to the deep V where
his hand cupped her breast and brushed its hardened tip back and forth against
his chest. Her eyes followed his and she watched as he pushed the silk from her
other breast and cupped and stroked it as well. She trembled as an aching need
began to blossom in her body.

She raised her eyes to his. The silvery blue band had
narrowed around a dark core.

“God, but you’re beautiful,” he murmured. “I never dreamed
that any woman could be so perfect. I want to see all of you. Now.”

The zipper hissed again and he stepped back. Tess shrugged
her shoulders and the silk slithered down her body and draped itself into a
purple pool at her feet. She could almost feel the heat on her skin as his gaze
caressed the length of her.

“Oh, my Lord.” She could see his chest heave as he sucked in
great gulps of air.

“Dan?” she whispered. “Is something wrong?”

“Wrong?” He gave a wry half laugh and his gaze slid over her
again. Not one dip or curve did he miss. Her breasts swelled and her belly
contracted under his hot scrutiny. “Sweetheart, you’re beyond my sweetest
fantasy. One look at you and I’m about to go up in smoke.”

“So?” She licked her lips, smiled, and, with a provocative
little rotation of her torso, she stepped toward him.

“I want you so badly that I’m about to explode, and I don’t
want to hurry. First I want my hands and my mouth on every inch of your
luscious body. I want to taste and tongue and feel and smell. I don’t want to
miss a single spot.”

His words flashed sparks that raced through her blood and
ignited a flame deep inside her. Never in her life had she wanted a man the way
she wanted Dan. Never had she felt so wanton or uninhibited. It was as if they
had been born for one another, and she’d been waiting for him her whole life.

Her back arched and she breathed a low, sexy laugh. “I want
you to be able to take all the time you need. I don’t want to miss a minute of
it.” She smiled, took another step forward, and reached for him.

“Tess!” He groaned and, shuddering, clutched her to him like
a dying man.

Tess was a writhing mass of nerve endings as she lay on the
big bed. Dan had kissed and licked and nuzzled his way from her toes to her
forehead, then turned her on her stomach and started over again. Her body had
yielded all its secrets to him. In his slow, sensuous quest he had explored
every square millimeter of her, and he’d found erogenous zones she hadn’t
dreamed existed. It was exquisite torment.

“Dan,” she pleaded, breathless with longing. “I can’t take
much more of this.”

He chuckled as his tongue did lovely things to her back. “You
should never have let me get my second wind.” His arm and leg held her immobile
while his free hand teased the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh.

“Please, I’m dying.”

Gently, he rolled her onto her back. His eyes were bright
with tender ardor as he smoothed the dark waves from her brow. “Then let’s die
together.”

“Dan,” she whimpered, reaching for his hips to pull him to
her.

His control was about to blow all to hell as he looked into
her magical eyes, heavy with the passion he’d stirred in them, and saw her lips
ripe and swollen from his kisses. He loved Tess Cameron with every cell of his
being. He didn’t give a damn if he was nothing more to her than a stray she’d
brought home. He ached to bury himself in her beautiful soul.

Sweat popped out on his forehead as he knelt between those
gorgeous long legs. Her skin shone with the damp fever his mouth and hands had
kindled, and it felt like warm satin under his fingers as they slid over the
curve of her hips to cup and lift the shapely swell of her buttocks. He tried
to enter her slowly, to take her tenderly, but the moment he felt the hot
wetness of her, when her legs clamped around his waist, he was lost.

Their joining was a primitive, frenzied dance of hard
thrusts and grinding hips and clutching hands and reaching, straining,
straining.

She arched her back, cried his name, and convulsed with such
a sweet throbbing that he was carried over the edge.

She pulled him against her sweat-slicked breasts and they
lay silent, sated, for long moments.

“Oh, Tess. My Tess.” He stroked her and murmured soft
endearments as their breathing gradually slowed. He started to roll away, to
take his weight from her, but she held him fast.

“Stay,” she whispered. “Stay.”

*    *    *

Sometime near dawn Dan awoke. “What are you doing?”

Tess giggled. “I’m nibbling your toes.”

He laughed. “Come here.”

*    *    *

Tess nearly had a stroke when she saw the sun streaming between
the blinds. She glanced at the bedside clock. It was almost nine! She’d meant
to leave and be back in her room before dawn. Throwing back the covers, she
tried to get out of bed, but Dan had both arms around her and one leg thrown
over hers. He tightened his hold when she moved.

“Where are you going?” he mumbled, half awake.

“It’s almost nine o’clock. I’ve got to get out of here.”

“No, you don’t.” He nuzzled her neck and trailed the tip of
his tongue along her shoulder. “I have a better idea.”

“Dan, please don’t.” She wiggled under the taunting
ministrations of his mouth. “I’ve got to go. What about your grandmother?”

“She can get her own fellow.” His tongue snaked a shivering
path down her spine.

“Dannnn!” she squealed as his hand slipped between her thighs.

*    *    *

It was ten o’clock before she tried to sneak in the back
door of the big house. Ivan called to her from the kitchen. He was grinning
from ear to ear and he wiggled one bushy eyebrow. It was obvious that he’d seen
her come from the guest cottage. The kitchen window provided an unobstructed
view of Dan’s front door. He’d probably seen the steamy kiss that Dan had
planted on her as well.

“You want some breakfast? Shall I make French toast?”

Tess gathered her dignity and clutched the front of her
rumpled silk robe. “Not right now, thanks. When did you get home?”

“Only a moment ago. My seminar was a great success!”

“Great,” Tess said distractedly. “Where are Aunt Olivia and
Aunt Martha?”

He shrugged. “They’re not here. I thought they were with you,
but—” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows again.

“Hook probably took them shopping for an RV.” Relieved at
her reprieve, Tess started to make a hasty exit to her room, then stopped. “Ivan,
not a word of this to anybody.”

He put his hand on his chest. “My lips are sealed.”

Tess was dressed and coming down the stairs when Olivia,
Martha, and Hook came in the door. Hook was carrying Martha, whose left foot
and ankle were swathed in an elastic bandage.

“What happened?” Tess asked, concerned when she saw the
wrapping.

“Oh, nothing to be alarmed about,” Olivia said, waving a
dismissing hand. “Martha twisted her ankle. The doctor said it’s just a sprain,
but she must stay off of it for a week or two.” She heaved a sigh. “Of course
this means that we can’t go with you on the treasure hunt. Martha must rest and
keep her foot up, and I must nurse her.”

“I feel simply terrible about it,” Martha said, heaving a
sigh of her own. “I suppose we won’t need the RV for a while yet if Olivia and
I aren’t going. But Tess, this mustn’t stop you. I know you haven’t much longer
on the option for your house. I’m sure Danny would go with you and help.”

“That’s a wonderful idea,” Olivia said. “This afternoon Hook
can gather everything you’ll need, and the two of you could start first thing
tomorrow morning.” Hook grinned and his gold tooth sparkled. “No problem. I’ll
even loan you my truck.”

*    *    *

Early the next morning, as they drove Hook’s big SUV across
the long causeway spanning the bay, Tess said, “Are you sure you want to do
this?”

Dan laughed. “Is the pope Catholic?”

She smiled. “Where have I heard that before? Seriously, Dan,
I know how you feel about the treasure.”

“That was before I read your great-great-grandmother’s
journal. After studying her account, I believe that there was once something
there. Whether it’s there now—” He shrugged. “In any case, I couldn’t let you
go anywhere without me.” Taking one hand from the steering wheel, he reached
across the seat and gave Tess’s hand a squeeze. “Having you all to myself for a
few days is like a gift from heaven.”

“I feel awful about leaving Aunt Olivia and your
grandmother. They’d counted on coming along to find the treasure. It was to
have been a great adventure for them. They were terribly disappointed. We’d
been planning our trek for weeks. Maybe we should wait until Aunt Martha’s
ankle is healed. I felt so sorry for her standing on the porch with her cane
and waving her handkerchief good-bye to us that I almost cried.”

Dan chortled. “Don’t feel sorry for that cotton-topped
scamp. Or for her red-haired cohort.”

Tess was shocked by Dan’s insensitivity to his grandmother’s
pain and told him so.

Dan merely chuckled. “Did you notice which ankle she had
bandaged this morning as she hobbled around so pathetically?”

Frowning, she pondered for a minute. “The right one, I
think.”

He nodded. “It was. Yesterday it was the left.”

Tess sat up straight. “That old faker! Why would she do a
thing like that?”

Amused, he said, “I think our relatives are playing Cupid.
They’re giving us a few days alone.” He wiggled her fingers playfully and
winked at her. “Mind?”

Tess grinned and looked him up and down lasciviously. “I’ll
bite the bullet.”

Dan threw back his head and laughed.

Soon they turned off the interstate and on to another
highway which would lead them north through LaPorte and Baytown to east Texas.
While Dan drove, Tess read the road map spread out over the knees of her jeans
and acted as navigator, pointing out various sights along the way. The original
map and journal had been left in Galveston, but photocopies of those documents
lay in the seat beside her.

“Where to first?” Dan asked.

Tess picked up the copy of her treasure map with the seven
spots marked in red. Tapping the eraser of her pencil against her chin, she
said, “Casey and Marsh Prophet found the seventh one near San Augustine.” She
crossed it off. “And we now that the first cache was buried on the property
where the house is now.” She made an X through the first spot and chuckled. “Wouldn’t
the town’s founding fathers have had a fit if they’d known what was buried on
the lot they sold in 1838 for four hundred dollars?”

“Was that the property Violet’s father deeded to her when
she married?”

“Yes. Actually there were two pieces. The other was a
waterfront property where Violet’s husband, James Kirby, built a warehouse for
his shipping business.” She marked out another spot. “According to Casey’s
journal, her grandparents, Violet and James, recovered the second stash after
the Civil War. It was buried on the site of Champ d’Asile, a French settlement
on the Trinity River. From what I can find out, Laffite gave the group some
assistance and was friendly with the leaders, who were generals exiled after
Waterloo, but the settlement wasn’t successful and they abandoned the site a year
or two before Laffite left Galveston. Now nobody’s exactly sure where the
colony once was.” She looked up and grinned. “Think we should tell them?”

Dan laughed. “I think it would be wise to leave it alone.
Which one is next?”

“The Cherry Cemetery at Atascosito, near the town of Liberty.”

“The one where a gravedigger suddenly disappeared and later
turned up in San Francisco as a millionaire?” Dan chuckled. “Like your granny
Mrs. Prophet, I think we can safely assume that he dug up more than dirt. I
wonder who he was digging the grave for?”