Harvest Moon (12 page)

Regina had tried many times to imagine a man actually making love to her, and failed miserably. When she had executed her love scenes in
Silent Witness
, Oscar had outlined explicitly what he wanted from her and her costar. She had enacted the scenes like the professional she had been trained to be, but she had felt none of the responses Aaron now wrung from her.

The heat from his mouth swept from her own mouth to her core. Waves of passion shook her until she could not stop her legs from shaking. He suckled her breasts, worshiping them, and the moans she sought to suppress escaped her parted lips.

His tongue circled her nipples, leaving them hard, erect, and throbbing. His teeth tightened on the turgid tips, and she felt a violent spasm grip her womb.

Her fingers were entwined in the cotton sheets, tightening and ripping them from their fastenings at the same time she arched up off the mattress.

“Aaron!” His name exploded from her mouth as he inched down her body, holding her hips to still their thrashing. Shame replaced her passion when she realized where he had buried his face. “Stop! Please!”

But he did not stop. His hot breath seared the tangled curls between her thighs and she went limp, unable to protest or think
of anything except the pleasure her lover offered her. She registered a series of breathless sighs, not realizing they were her own moans of physical satisfaction. Eyes closed, head thrown back, lips parted, back arched, she reveled in the sensations that took her beyond herself.

Then it began, rippling little tremors increasing and shaking her uncontrollably and becoming more volatile when it sought a route of escape.

Aaron heard her breath come in long, surrendering moans, and he moved quickly up her trembling limbs and eased his sex into her body. He was met with a resistance he hadn’t expected. Gritting his teeth, he feared spilling his passion onto the sheets. He drew back, and with a strong, sure thrust of his hips buried his hardness in the hot, moist, tight flesh pulsing around his own.

Regina caught and held her breath, feeling if she had been impaled on a red-hot piece of steel when Aaron penetrated her virginal flesh, but the burning subsided the moment he began moving in a slow, measured rhythm, quickly renewing her passion.

Her arms curved around his waist as rivulets of moisture bathed his back and dotted her hands. She could not think of anything or anyone except the hard body atop hers as their bodies found and set a rhythm where they were in perfect harmony with each other.

Reaching down, Aaron cupped her hips in his hands, lifting her higher and permitting deeper penetration; he quickened his movements. Regina assisted him, increasing her own pleasure as she wound her legs around his waist.

Aaron’s heat, hardness, and carnal sensuality had awakened the dormant sexuality of her body, and she responded to the seduction of his passion as hers rose higher and higher until it exploded in an awesome, vibrating liquid fire that scorched her mind and left her convulsing in ecstasy.

She hadn’t quite returned from her own free-fall flight when she heard Aaron’s groan of satisfaction against her ear as he quickened his movements and then collapsed heavily on her sated form. There was only the sound of their labored breathing in the stillness of the bedroom as they lay motionless, savoring the aftermath of a shared, sweet fulfillment.

He reversed their positions, bringing her with him until she lay sprawled over his body, her legs resting between his. “Did I hurt you,
Princesa?
”

“No,” she drawled, placing tiny kisses on his throat and over his shoulder. There had been pain, but it was offset by the pleasure he had offered her.

“I hadn’t expected you to be so small,” he murmured in the cloud of curly hair flowing over his face. “I—”

She stopped his words when she placed her fingertips over his lips. “I’m all right, Aaron.”

His right hand moved over her bare hip, caressing the silken flesh. She had no idea how sensuous her voice sounded in the dark. He drew in a deep breath, luxuriating in the intoxicating fragrance of her perfume mingling with the lingering scent of their lovemaking.

He could not believe the passion she had aroused in him; if possible, he had wanted to make love to her all through the night. Inhaling her scent, tasting her flesh, caressing her silken body, had tested the limits of his control. He smiled, knowing there was the possibility that he would make love to her many more times before they left Mexico. He did not want to think about her leaving, even though she had promised to come to Bahia.

If she did not come to him, then he would come for her. Now that Regina Cole-Spencer had become a part of his existence, he had no intention of letting her walk out of his life.

R
egina turned over, encountering an immovable bulk, and woke up. Realization dawned as she stared up at Aaron staring down at her. A gentle smile softened her lush mouth.

“¡Buenos dias!”
she whispered shyly.

Slanting eyes crinkling attractively, he returned her smile.
“Bom dia,”
he replied in Portuguese. Shifting to his side, he placed an arm over her flat middle, pulling her closer. “How do you feel?” he continued in English.

She shrugged a slender shoulder. “Okay.”

He arched a sweeping eyebrow. “Just okay?”

“Yes. Why?”

His expression sobered as he glared at her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?”

When he awoke earlier that morning he had noticed the dark-red stains on the sheet. He had felt as if someone had punched him in his gut once he realized the woman sharing his bed had given him the most precious gift any woman could offer a man.
His eyes clung to hers, analyzing her reaction to his accusation. He should not have been surprised when she did not flinch or glance away.

“I tried to tell you,” she argued softly.

He frowned. “You didn’t try hard enough.”

“But I did. I asked for your help.”

“Asking for help is not the same as saying that you’d never slept with a man.” She lowered her gaze and stared at his smooth, bare chest. “You were married for eight years,
Princesa
.”

“Oscar and I never shared a bed. Our marriage was in name only.”

Anchoring his hand under her chin, he raised her face to his. “Why couldn’t you have told me that?”

A slight frown furrowed her smooth forehead. “I told you everything I wanted you to know. What did or did not occur between Oscar and me in the bedroom was of too personal a nature to discuss with anyone. Even you.”

“You’re right—as usual,” he conceded.

Curving her arms around his neck, she pressed her breasts against the solid wall of his broad chest, smiling when he gasped audibly.

“I’m going back to my bedroom to shower,” she said quietly. “I’ll see you later.”

Aaron wanted to beg her to stay, stay with him until thirst, hunger, or the need to relieve himself drove him from her scented arms, but didn’t. He knew it would be several days before they would make love again. He would wait for her tender flesh to heal before losing himself once again in the passion she evoked just by them sharing the same space.

Three weeks sped by as quickly as in a blink of the eye for Regina.

She and Aaron waited two nights after their initial passionate
joining before sharing a bed again, while at the same time dreading the moment when they would be forced to part.

The courier her father had promised to send arrived in Mexico and escorted the fourteen paintings back to the States for safekeeping within days of their telephone conversation; the documents setting up the accounts for the Oscar and Arlene Spencer Foundation for Medical Research and
El Cielo’s
employees were finalized; all of her valuables and personal heirloom pieces were packed and shipped to her parents’ home to await her arrival.

She spent her last night in Mexico in her garden, sitting on the stone bench facing Oscar’s grave. Closing her eyes, she fought back tears. She was leaving her husband, not knowing when or if she would ever return.

“I’m leaving tomorrow morning, Oscar,” she whispered. “I’m finally going home.” Biting down on her lower lip, she forced a trembling smile.
I love you
, she added silently. She loved him, and she also had fallen in love with his son, and she was mature enough to realize her love for Aaron had nothing to do with their sexual encounters.

The days and nights when they did not make love offered her a modicum of objectivity. She craved his passion, that she would not deny, but she also treasured his companionship. But even more than passion or companionship, it was his protection she desired. She was able to sleep alongside him in an unlit room without waking up drenched in sweat or with tortured screams exploding from the back of her throat. The few times she whimpered in her sleep, he woke her with a gentle caress and whispered soothing, gentle words to reassure her that she had nothing to fear.

She would leave Mexico in the morning, reunite with her family, remain in Florida through the end of the year, and then perhaps take Aaron up on his offer to visit with him in Brazil.

* * *

Aaron stood on the second-story veranda outside his bedroom, staring down at the slender figure sitting by his father’s grave. It was a sight he had grown accustomed to since he had come to
El Cielo
, and it was a sight that wrang a gamut of emotions from him. It saddened him to know he would never see, touch, or speak to Oscar again. The sight also rankled him, because for the second time in his life a woman he had fallen in love with also loved his father.

He lost track of time as he rested his arms on the wrought-iron railing, reliving the events of the past month. The past five weeks had changed him. Since he had become involved with the
São Tomé Instituto de Médico Pesquisa
he had never been away from his research for more than three weeks. Since becoming the director he had found himself traveling throughout the world at least twice each year to attend medical symposiums to share the institute’s theories with others in his field of study. Medical research had been his passion for more than twelve years—until now.

Now his passion was Regina Spencer.

Regina said her final goodbye to Oscar and returned to the house to prepare for her last night on Mexican soil. The household was quiet, and all of the permanent household staff conspicuously absent. They had said their final farewells after the evening meal. The driver was scheduled to drive her and Aaron to the airport in Mexico City. He would board an early morning flight for Salvador, Brazil, while she awaited the arrival of the ColeDiz Gulfstream jet from the West Palm Beach airport.

Her footsteps were slow and sure as she climbed the staircase. She felt a heaviness in her chest which would not permit her to breathe normally. Swallowing back a wave of anxiety, she drew herself up straighter and visually examined everything around her, committing it to memory.

She would miss
El Cielo
, her garden, and the employees who had become her extended family. She refused to think of missing Aaron, because she had become too dependent on him. They had agreed not to spend their last night together.

Pushing open the door to her bedroom, she walked in and stopped abruptly as Aaron rose from the chair beside her bed. Her eyes widened when she saw an emotion in his dark gaze that was indefinable.

“What are you doing here?” Her voice was a low, breathless whisper. “We agreed not to see each other until—”

“
You
agreed,” he interrupted, visibly annoyed that he had gone along with her plea. “Do you think it would make it any easier to say goodbye at the airport?”

“Yes, Aaron, it would.” She threw up her hands in a gesture signaling hopelessness. “Why do you think I suggested it?”

His gaze narrowed as he moved toward her with the slow, stalking walk she had come to love. There were so many things about Aaron that she loved that she had lost count.

Reaching for her, he held her upper arms and pulled her to his chest. “I think you suggested it because you want to avoid what is going to happen right now.”

She tilted her chin, giving him a direct stare. “And that is?”

“Not wanting to hear the truth.”

“And what is the truth, Aaron?”

He studied her thoughtfully, his eyes betraying his innermost feelings and telling her what she knew before he uttered the words. “I love you.”

Closing her eyes, she swayed slightly at the same time he tightened his grip. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Don’t love you? I’m sorry,
Princesa
, but I can’t turn my feelings on and off the way you’re able to.”

She opened her eyes and glared at him. “Go away! Please,” she continued in a softer tone.

He shook his head slowly. “No, Regina. Any other time I would oblige you, but not tonight.”

Pulling out of his loose grip, she turned and walked out of the bedroom. She hadn’t gone more than ten feet when he caught up with her.

“Why are you running away?”

She turned to face him. “I’m not running away. I just need to be alone.”

The flash of anger in his dark eyes vanished, replaced by a tenderness that twisted her insides into knots. He loved her, while she was too much of a coward to let him know that she loved him.

She laid her hand alongside his jaw, feeling the throbbing muscles under her fingertips. “I’ll come to you later.”

Grasping her hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed each finger, his gaze never leaving hers. Bending over, he brushed his lips over hers. “I’ll be waiting.”

He released her hand, turning and walking down the hallway in the direction of his bedroom.

Aaron lay on the bed, arms folded under his head. He hadn’t turned on the lamp because the eerie, silvered light of a full moon lit up the bedroom. He had told Regina he would wait for her, and now he had lost track of time, and still she had not come.

Closing his eyes, he felt a lump form in his throat. He had told her he loved her, and she recoiled as if he had struck her.
Fool!
He had been a fool to let her know how he felt. What was the matter with him when it came to affairs of the heart? Why was it he couldn’t select a woman who would love him as much as he loved her? The whys attacked him relentlessly until he relaxed enough to fall asleep.

Within seconds something shook him into awareness. He detected the familiar, rain-washed fragrance, then the silken touch
of her body as she moved beside him on the bed. Regina had come to him, as promised. She would spend the night with him.

“Please love me, Aaron.” Her husky plea broke the pregnant silence.

And he would love her. He would make their last night together special. Moving over her naked form and supporting his greater weight on his arms, he cradled her face between his hands.

“This is not goodbye,” he crooned seconds before he covered her mouth in a hungry, soul-searching kiss that indicated they would not be satisfied with a prolonged session of foreplay.

Aaron was relentless when he branded her throat, breasts, and her inner thighs with a passion which would linger in her memory during their separation. His rapacious mouth charted a path from her lips to her feet. Just when she recovered from one shock, she was assailed with another.

Her soft moans of pleasure escalated into long, surrendering groans, with a rising heat rippling under her skin. Her whole being was flooded with a desire that sucked her into an abyss of abandoned ecstasy.

She reached for him, hoping to capture the source which would end her erotic torment. She wanted his hardness in her; she needed him to relieve the burning ache which threatened to shatter her into pieces so that she would never be whole again.

Aaron felt her fingers close around his engorged sex, and groaned aloud. Pulling away from her, he picked up the packet on the bedside table. Making certain to protect her, he eased himself into her wet, hot body.

It became a battle of wills, neither willing to succumb to the explosive passion sweeping them beyond themselves. Tightening his grip on her waist, he reversed their positions, hoping to prolong his ecstasy. But it was not to be. The caress of her distended nipples on his chest, and the vision of her perfectly formed breasts in the full moonlight weakened his resolve, and
he surrendered to the explosive passions sweeping him to a place where he had never been.

The triumphant growl of fulfillment floating up from Aaron’s throat sent a shiver of chills down Regina’s spine, and within seconds she, too, gave in to the hot tide of passion buffeting her up, down, and around until she collapsed on his body, weeping uncontrollably.

He reversed their positions again, withdrawing from her trembling body. Gathering her to his chest, he held her until her sobs subsided, then buried his face in her hair. A pain he had never known assailed him when he realized he had deluded himself. He could not leave her; he would not leave her.

Aaron woke up two hours before dawn reaching for Regina, but encountered an empty space where she had been. Sitting up, he reached for the lamp. Light flooded the room, revealing an envelope on the pillow where her head had lain only hours before. His hand was steady when he picked up the envelope and withdrew its contents. A check for his research institute was nestled between the folds of a single sheet of pale-blue parchment stationery.

He ignored the check as his gaze raced quickly over the neatly slanting script on the page embossed with her monogram.
Do not try to contact me. Please be patient. I will come to you. Regina
.

Closing his eyes, he slumped back against the pillows cradling his broad shoulders. She had ended it with three sentences, and her name. He opened his eyes, and the lethal calmness flowing from their depths matched the hardness of his unreadable expression.

He would not contact her. Not now. Not ever.