Follow the Sun (8 page)

The coldness in it startled her so much that her hands rose to her mouth in alarm. He looked just as he had the other day when he was chasing an unknown intruder on his boat. He looked incapable of emotion.

“What is it?” she murmured. “What’s wrong? Do I remind you of someone?”

He blinked in shock. Suddenly his expression was alive again. “My Lord, Tess, did I scare you?”

“Yes.”

She cupped her hands over her exposed breasts and turned to face him. He came quickly to her and took her in his arms, cursing himself viciously under his breath.

“I’m sorry,” he told her. He shook his head. “I don’t blame you for being afraid of that face, Tess. But I swear it doesn’t mean anything. It’s an old habit from my military training. A bad habit. Don’t let it unnerve you.”

She chuckled ruefully, but felt herself relaxing because of his sincerity. “If all our troops could be trained to look at the enemy that way, we wouldn’t need any other weapons.”

He stroked her dark hair gently. “You’re not my enemy, Tess.”

“For a second, there, I wasn’t sure.”

His voice was practically an aphrodisiac. “Honey, that’s the last way I’d ever feel about you.”

Honey
. With a low moan, Tess leaned against his chest. She laughed. “You might be descended from some Wild West Indian fighter. Those Indian-fighting genes could be hard to ignore.”

“No, I’m descended from a Frenchman, remember? In fact, a French pirate who retired to Florida about 1835. He may have fought a few Seminole Indians, though, I admit.”

“I forgive him,” she said solemnly. “I’m sure the Cherokees fought a few Frenchmen along the way.”

Jeopard’s laugh was cut short when she raised her mouth to his and kissed him intimately. He shuddered, picked her up, and carried her to his bed.

Tess was overwhelmed by the quickness with which he undressed her and himself.

“Tess,” he whispered, drawing the backs of his fingers over her full, firm breasts. “You’re fantastic.”

Whimpering softly at his words, she raised a hand to stroke his chest. He intercepted it, kissed the palm, then pressed it down beside her on the bed.

“My treat,” he murmured hoarsely. “Lie still and let me touch you.”

She ached to run her hands over his body, but she was lost in such a daze of emotion and desire that she did as he told her.

He made it worth her while.

His expert touch mesmerized her. He squeezed her breasts rhythmically, raising the nipples so that his incredible mouth could do things to them that made her back arch. He smoothed his hand up and down her stomach, teasing her by almost but not quite reaching the apex of her thighs.

When she was panting and a fine mist of dusky pink colored her skin, he finally slid his fingers into the dark hair between her legs.

“You fit my hand perfectly,” he murmured into her ear, then bent his head to nibble her neck.

The sound she made was almost a wail of pleasure. Tess grasped his forearm and stroked the corded muscles quickly, lightly, her touch conveying gratitude for the unforgettable sensations he gave her.

“Sssh, lie still now,” he reminded her. He put her hand back on the bed.

“But I want to touch you so much,” she murmured plaintively. Tess raised her head and tried to catch his mouth in a kiss.

He drew back, smiling tightly. She read the control in every line of his face. Oh, he was so dear, to give her pleasure this way when she felt the throbbing, hard evidence of his own need against her thigh.

“Now, honey, give me a chance,” he said in a low, teasing tone. “I’m not an overanxious kid. I know the value of holding back.”

Tess smiled quizzically at his odd words, then shut her eyes and sighed, the sound ragged. “Do with me what you want,” she said in an airy, dramatic voice. “I’m yours.”

He put his mouth against her quivering stomach and sucked for a moment. As she rose under him, crying out with delight, he murmured, “Good.” He moved his magnificently tormenting mouth to another spot. “Mine.”

As he placed slow, sucking kisses up her torso he reached for a shelf above the bed and retrieved something.

Tess made a small sound of protest when he stopped kissing her and edged away from her. He held up a small package that she recognized immediately.

He winked at her. “You won’t have to worry about anything when you’re with me. I believe in responsibility.”

She reached out. Her voice was hoarse with desire. “Please. Let me. Just let me do that much for you.”

He hesitated, and she watched with dismay as his
jaw tightened. “Jeopard? Do you not want me to touch you?”

Quickly his expression softened. “Honey, of course I do.” He laughed low in his throat, but it was a strained sound.

Tess propped herself on one elbow. “What is it?” she said wistfully. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head in mild rebuke. “This couldn’t be the first time you’ve driven a man too close to the edge too soon.”

“I … oh, I see.”

Jeopard kissed her forehead. “Not to worry. I won’t let you down.”

“Jep, I’m not worried about
that
You just seem so intense.… ”

He pressed her down on the bed and kissed her until she couldn’t even think about talking anymore. By then he’d finished his preparations, and he slipped his hand between her legs again, stroking first one thigh, then the other.

“Spread your legs for me, Tess,” he whispered.

She burrowed her head into the warm hollow of his shoulder and moaned. “Your wish is my command.”

“That’s it, Tess. You feel so hot and smooth.”

He slid his fingers inside her, and Tess’s world exploded in response. Everything she felt, everything she was, centered around the sweet destruction he brought to her restraint. She arched her hips and opened her mouth against his throat, calling his name.

Jeopard stroked her harder, adding ecstasy to ecstasy, and she squirmed desperately. Tess began to lick his throat with fervent movements of her tongue, like a wild, loving animal.

He shuddered from head to foot and immediately rolled on top of her. Tess slid her arms around his neck and cried out at the feel of his strong, hard body pressing her down into the mattress and angling between her thighs.

He cupped the back of her head to his shoulder and
slid one muscular arm under her. Holding her almost fiercely, he nuzzled his face against her neck and thrust into her wetness with one smooth stroke.

Tess felt as if he had consumed her totally. She was so deeply wrapped in his embrace that she rocked with every quick, forceful movement he made.

His breath shattered against her neck, harsh and fast. She tried to turn her face to kiss him, but his grip kept her from it.

His embrace was overwhelming. It controlled her; it put her at his mercy. Something about his fierceness touched a small chord of distress inside her, and she kissed his shoulder tenderly, wishing that she understood what provoked him.

Her kiss drew a long shudder through him. He raised his head and gazed down at her with hooded, passion-filled eyes. Tess forgot everything except the raw sensation his gaze ignited in her body.

It amazed her—one look from those searing blue eyes and she rose under him like a magnet drawn to steel. She called his name again and dug her fingers into his lower back.
Jep. Oh, Jep
.

She shut her eyes. The blood rushing in her ears so harshly that she felt deaf. Tess dimly heard him groan and knew that he was watching the uninhibited expressions of pleasure on her face.

He was waiting for her pleasure to crest. She could only imagine what the wild contractions inside her must be doing to him. A second later she knew.

As she clung to him, trembling, he put his head on her shoulder and arched into her so deeply that he seemed to be entering her womb. Again and again he drove into her, then shuddered to a stop, holding her to him as if he’d never let go.

His release was so powerful and erotic that tears of awe came to her eyes. He dragged his head up slowly, like a man just roused from a deep trance and still groggy.

When Jeopard saw her glittering eyes he leaned his forehead against hers and laid his hand against her
cheek. His thumb brushed over the moisture on her lower lashes.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked.

“No. Oh, no.” Tess stroked his head, raking her fingers through the thick blond hair. “You were wonderful.” She hesitated, smiling while a big tear ran under his thumb. “You make me feel so incredibly
lucky.
”

After a second he put his arms around her and rested his cheek on her head. She laughed gently.

“Jep, I’m not an oyster. You can’t pop me out of my shell.”

“Too tight?” His arms relaxed little.

“There. That’s perfect, Sundance.”

Tess relaxed inside his warm, possessive embrace. It might be more difficult to understand Jeopard Surprise than she’d originally thought, but she didn’t doubt that he’d be worth the effort.

CHAPTER 5

T
ESS STOPPED READING
out loud for a moment and looked at Jeopard with amused disgust. Resting in a white lounge chair on the yacht’s upper deck, he reminded her of a lazy cougar. His eyes were shut, and even in relaxation his face was very private. She suspected that he was asleep.

He lay on his back with his hands behind his head, his feet crossed at the ankles. He wore nothing but a pair of low-slung white swim trunks. The sky behind him was as blue as his eyes.

If he’d had his eyes open.

“Sundance, are you listening?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Then why do you have your eyes shut?”

“That black temptation you call a swimsuit distracts me. And I enjoy meditating on the sound of your voice—makes me think of English gardens and tea with crumpets. It’s hard to concentrate on Cherokee history.”

“Oh.” Smiling, she pulled her sunglasses down and
eyed him rakishly. “I don’t feel the least bit guilty for distracting a man who cheats at cards the way you did this morning.”

“I got you flustered and you made a mistake. That’s a legitimate tactic.”

“Rubbing your bare toes over my thighs is not a legitimate tactic.”

He laughed, the sound low and rich. Tess shifted on her lounge chair, rearranged her history book on her knees, and bit her lip to keep from smiling at him.

As usual he made her feel languid and warm inside, like a flower just waiting for the sun to open it again. More important than that, he had won her trust and friendship completely.

He took pleasure in everything she did, even trivia such as the prim-and-proper way she brushed her teeth—a boarding-school regimen, she informed him. He wanted to know her favorite foods, her favorite books, her favorite
everything
. He was as fascinated with her as she was with him.

As a result, during the past few days the world had shrunk until only she and he were left in a cocoon filled with shared sensation and experience. Lord, she wasn’t certain what she and Jeopard indulged in more—long conversations or making love. He was wonderful in both areas.

But Tess noted sadly that his view of the world was as dark as her view was light. That realization had become clear to her the previous night, when they’d discussed Paris. They’d both visited the city several times. Jeopard recalled only terrorist bombings and leftist politics; she recalled the restaurants, the architecture, and the art.

Tess sighed and shook her head. She was working on his cynical attitude and already making progress. Today he seemed almost jovial, and the guarded contentment in his face enchanted her. She smiled to herself. If she hadn’t known him for an entire week—and thus gotten a bit accustomed to being enthralled—she
would have thrown her history book down and pounced on him.

How could she help it? The man provoked her with tender kisses, affectionate smiles, and a husky way of saying her name.

“I was listening to you read,” he assured her again. “Don’t stop.”

“Ahem. If you’ve been listening to me, sir, then summarize what I’ve just read.”

He retaliated with a parrotlike recitation. “In 1838 the Cherokees who didn’t want to be driven from the Sun Land, as they called their ancestral territory in the southeast, ran to the mountains of North Carolina and hid in caves there.” He paused. “Where they developed a subculture of bat people.”