Indigo Spell (5 page)

“There’s no need to apologize. The time was well worth the wait.” He held out his hand, taking hers. “You’re a stunning woman, Ms. Montgomery.” His eyes swept over her classically simple, black dress in a manner that made Tess want to run for the nearest closet.

“You have a magnificent house.” His deep voice, a low, intoxicating growl, said otherwise. He thought it was a showcase to her wealth, Tess could read it in his eyes. Well, she refused to be embarrassed because she had more money than he did.

“Thank you.” Head tilted high, she swept a hand regally toward the small alcove just off the kitchen. “I’ve had the chef prepare a light meal for the patio. September is the perfect time of the year to enjoy the grounds.” She followed the sweep of her own hand with a glide, feet barely touching the floor.

The doors were open to the patio overlooking the garden, jasmine and honeysuckle scented the air. The candles were already lit although night had not yet fallen. With the birds chirping and the crickets just beginning their nightly serenade, the scene was set for seduction. Tess hadn’t considered that possibility. But then she hadn’t really had a part in the setting. Apparently certain members of her staff were playing matchmaker. She hated to disillusion them but…

Her pace quickening toward the table, she bent low to extinguish the candles. Jaxon’s voice caught her. “Don’t.”

She straightened, looked at him over her shoulder. “Excuse me?”

“Leave the candles.”

The imperious tone of his voice made her pause. Ordinarily she would have reacted immediately, standing up for herself. But this time was different. The voice held a command but his eyes were smiling at her and she felt her hand drop to her sides.

“As you are the guest, I’ll be happy to leave the candles lit. I’m afraid my staff took it upon themselves to—” she broke off, uncertain as to how she should continue this vein of the conversation. Instinct was telling her to let him know that after this dinner, they would go their separate ways and that was that.

After watching her mother parade a long line of lovers through their house after her father’s hasty departure, Tess had no interest in playing the role of a society wife while her husband enjoyed his hour-long lunches at the country club. Colleen Montgomery hadn’t been the only woman glad to see her husband take off with his secretary.

Jaxon’s laugh sent tingles down her spine. “You can relax, Tess. I didn’t think for one minute you had played a part in arranging this atmosphere.”

Tess wasn’t sure whether or not she should be insulted. It would seem the man was a master at that. “You don’t think I’d have the ability to arrange something like this?” And when had he started calling her Tess?

He moved around her and pulled out one of the cushioned wrought iron chairs. “Ability, yes. Inclination, no.” He indicated the chair with his hand and she allowed her shoulders to relax a little as she settled herself into the plush cushion. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

As long as he continued to talk to her in that velvety tone of voice, he could ask her anything. “By all means.”

“Why did you bid on me if you were so uncomfortable with the prospect of spending an evening with me?”

Tess wasn’t quite ready to reveal the truth just yet. For now it gave her the upper hand. “What makes you think I’m uncomfortable?”

“Your hands are shaking and your eyes haven’t met mine since the moment I walked in the door.”

“Oh that.” She dismissed her behavior with a slight laugh. “I’ve just never been relaxed around men I don’t know. Surely in this day and age that would be understandable to you.”

Jaxon relaxed his forearms on the glass-topped table. “You’ve been sheltered.”

Tess bristled immediately. “Wealth isn’t an automatic indication of barriers, Mr. Richards. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m naive.”

“And sensitive.” He smiled, a bright flash of white teeth. “And my name is Jaxon. Since I’ve already taken the liberty of calling you by your first name.”

She looked down at her folded napkin, took her time, shaking out the folds and placing it carefully in her lap. “To be honest, I didn’t bid on you. My friend did.” She glanced up, saw she had caught his attention. Good. It was time for him to be at the disadvantage for a while.

“So why am I with you and not with your friend?”

“Because she bid for me. On my behalf.” Tess felt herself beginning to fumble, her perfect manners escaping her. “That is, on my behalf but without my knowledge or consent. Belinda thought she was helping.” When had she gotten so nervous? And why was it so hot out here all of a sudden?

“Helping how?” His voice dipped low, a sexy accent to the evening. The lights from the candles played across the hard lines of his face and she felt the perspiration slide down her back, between her shoulder blades. The man was dangerously sexy. Tess tried to focus on their differences, how far apart their worlds were, but there was something about Jaxon Richards, something different. When she looked at him, she didn’t see a common laborer. She saw a man who was comfortably fitting into her world, a man who wasn’t awed by the trappings of wealth. That, more than anything, was starting to unnerve her.

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter.” Tess shot a glance toward the kitchen and wondered what was taking the housekeeper so long to bring the food. Surely the woman could hear her silent desperation. She needed a distraction, a way to escape.

Jaxon relaxed back against the iron contours of the chair, smiling. “Your friend thinks you need to get out more.”

She lifted her gaze. Had she spoken aloud? How could he possibly know that? It didn’t matter. She wasn’t about to admit to anything. “I date as much as I want to, Mr. Richards. I stay busy and have little time for a social life.”

“Are you determined not to call me by my first name?”

“What’s the point? After tonight, we won’t see one another again.”

“And you’re sure of that?”

Her mouth went dry. “Aren’t you?”

The slow shake of his head unnerved her. “No.”

Butterflies were mating in her stomach. “Well, you should be. This is for one night only.”

“A lot can happen in a night.”

Didn’t she know it? Already, her mind was busily conjuring up images of his long frame sprawled across her bed, the candlelight fluttering beneath the whirl of the ceiling fan. “Not this night.”

One eyebrow lifted. “You sound scared.”

Her spine stiffened. “I’m not now, nor have I ever been, scared of a man.”

“What about being scared of how I make you feel? Isn’t that different?”

Jesus
. She crossed her legs and scooted further back in the chair. “You like to make assumptions about people, don’t you? Is that a hobby?”

“You might be surprised to find out my hobbies, Tess.” His long fingers curled around the stem of the wine glass.

“I think, perhaps, we should change the subject, talk about something innocuous.”

He smiled at her, a breathtaking curl of his lips that made her nipples harden. “Why? Does intimate conversation bother you?”

“Arrogant men bother me more.”

“Is that what I am then? Arrogant?” His laughter filtered into the night air and for a brief moment the crickets ceased their chirping.

“That and a few other adjectives, I’d imagine.”

“Why don’t you share a few?”

She watched him as he poured a glass of wine and her spine tingled. He made such a simple task sexy. Releasing a breath, she leaned back in the chair and came to terms with what she was feeling at the moment. Jaxon Richards had managed to do something that few men in the past ten years had been able to do. He had intrigued her.

“Because not all of them will be as nice as arrogant.”

Surprising her, he reached his hand across the table and captured her fingers. “I wasn’t the only one up on that stage when the flames ignited.”

Her breath whooshed out of her lungs. He’d felt it too. Damn. “Undoubtedly it’s not the first time you’ve ever been attracted to a woman. I know it certainly isn’t the first time I’ve been attracted to a man.” Although never one quite like this one.

His thumb caressed her knuckles. “Is that all you think it is? Attraction?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Mr. Richards, are you trying to seduce me?”

“And if I am?”

“You’re wasting your breath.”

Those silver orbs blinked at her, enticing her. “So sit there and tell me you don’t feel a thing, Tess.” He pushed the chair back and stood. “Tell me you didn’t feel it when I kissed you the first time.”

She couldn’t breathe. Had she forgotten how? He was coming around to her side of the table. “Look, I think you must have gotten the wrong impression…”

He captured her hand and gently eased her to her feet. “I’m not very hungry right now. Are you?”

She should say she was starved, demand that he release her and return to his seat. But for some reason, one she couldn’t possibly fathom, her head began to shake in negative gesture.

“Then perhaps we should wait.”

The deep timbre of his voice made her pussy clench. A sharp thrust of need climbed upward and settled around her heart. How long had it been since she’d been with a man, allowed herself the luxury of breathing in his scent, feeling his arms close around her body? Would it be so terribly wrong to allow this man to be the one who finally broke her long sojourn from sex?

He began to guide her away from the table and toward the patio doors and she had the answer to her question.

Chapter Two

“Dance with me.” His voice reached out to her the moment they reached the den, a command wrapped in velvet. Once more, Tess found herself obeying, slipping into his arms and the role of the protected woman as easily as she turned on a light switch.

“How do you do that?” she whispered.

“Do what?” Jaxon’s hand slipped to the small of her back. His fingers splayed across the bare skin uncovered by the open material of her dress.

She shivered in spite of the warmth their bodies generated. Could a person really burn from the inside out? When had she felt so alive…so uninhibited? “I’m not sure I even remember what I was saying.”

“Just relax and allow yourself to feel the music. It’ll become part of you.” He moved around the room, his steps sure, accustomed to the nuances of the dance. He pressed her hand against his chest, allowed her to feel the beat of his heart beneath her palm.

“This makes me nervous.” The words slipped out before she could stop them and Jaxon tipped her head back to smile down into her upturned face.

“There’s no need to be nervous.”

“I think there is.”

The smile broadened. “You don’t like to remain quiet, do you?” Without giving her a chance to respond, he tucked her head against his shoulder and continued the dance, moving in intimate combination with her body.

Tess felt her breasts brush his chest and a warm glow started in her abdomen. His warm breath bathed her cheeks, whispered close to her ear and she closed her eyes before she could betray her emotions. How long had it been since she’d been this close to a man and actually felt something? Something like this. She wasn’t even sure what “this” was. She couldn’t remember and with Jaxon’s hand settling on her hip, she couldn’t think.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.” She needed distance to clear her head. His spell surrounded her, held her in a web she couldn’t break in his arms. And the longer she stayed in his embrace, the easier it would be to give into that inner voice telling her it was okay to give in, okay to just allow herself one night—with no strings attached.

But could she really do that? She’d never had a one-night stand before. They just weren’t her style but now, with this man so close she could breathe in the scent of his skin, she desperately wanted to.

Jaxon pulled back enough to place a finger against her lips. “Don’t talk. Just feel.”

He didn’t need to instruct her there. She was doing plenty of feeling. Too much feeling as a matter of fact. And feeling was where danger set in. She tried to pull back away from him but Jaxon’s hold was too powerful. And it was more than just his arms. It was his essence. With just the whisper of his voice, he held her. How could he know she didn’t really want to leave, that any effort she made to leave his embrace was just a token response to her fears?

The soothing strains of the love song enveloped them, wrapping them in a potent intimacy. Then, with two fingers, Jaxon tipped her face upward and Tess lost the battle even before war was declared. His lips brushed hers once, twice and her knees went weak.

Jaxon held her face in his hands, raised his lips to her forehead and kissed her gently. “Do you know how beautiful you are?”

Her eyes went wide. Beautiful? The one word caressed her more than a touch. She couldn’t speak.

He cleared his throat. “I’d better leave.”

“It’s only nine o’clock.” She didn’t know what had sparked the protest.

“If I stay, we won’t dance.” The warning came through loud and clear.

The moment of truth. Common sense told her to escort him to the door but listening to that always sent her to bed alone. Tonight would be different. She only had to say the words. “Stay anyway,” she whispered, her heart beating loudly against her breastbone.

One hand tangled in her hair. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” His eyes burned into hers and excitement leapfrogged up and down her spine.

Was there any way she couldn’t understand? She saw everything in his eyes, read the heat that matched her own and the dark promise that made her stomach quiver. “Yes.”

He yanked her closer, pulling her hard against his body, allowing her to feel the thick ridge of his cock pressing against her abdomen. “If I stay with you now, there will be no further conversation. No wine. No soft music and candlelight. I want to feel every inch of your body, to taste the sweetness of your skin and hear you come again and again until you’re too exhausted to move. And then I want to start all over.”

If he said the words to shock her, he was sadly mistaken. Instead the declaration set off an explosive inferno inside her. Every nerve ending tingled. Her panties were soaked just from his nearness and when his hands climbed up the base of her spine to splay across her back, her nipples peaked against his chest.

“Then do it,” she commanded, convincing herself she was ready for anything.

Perhaps she’d been wrong. For her words caused a look of such raw hunger in Jaxon’s eyes that for a brief moment she was certain she’d unleashed a wild animal. But it was too late to cage him.

He didn’t give her a chance to change her mind. One arm became a steel band that held her securely against his body. His hand cupped the back of her head. He leaned in close to her for a long moment, his lips hovering over hers as if to give her time to absorb the impact of the moment.

But Tess didn’t want time. Standing on tiptoe, she closed the distance, fisting her hands in the softness of his shirt. “Come with me.” Backing away, she took hold of his hands and began to lead him down the hallway, away from the seduction of the living room and into the darkness of her bedroom.

Heat swarmed, growing from within, engulfing them in its feverish walls. Was Jaxon drawing her to him in some way? Was this some type of hypnosis? She tried to explain away the magnetism but there was a strong connection she couldn’t decipher. She felt herself swaying toward him, sinking under his spell.

Jaxon backed her toward the bed, his fingers lightly grasping her hips and she didn’t think about pushing him away or stopping him. Everything seemed magical. Powerful. Every sound was enhanced, every scent more exotic, each touch more intense.

Her hand glided over his cheek. “We may regret this in the morning.”

“I don’t regret anything I do, Tess.” His hands came up to frame her face. “And there’s no way in hell I’ll regret this.”

Her pussy began to throb, beating in unison with her heart. And in that moment she was lost. She didn’t think about the repercussions or what would happen once they’d made love. She only saw the promise of tonight in Jaxon’s eyes and for now that would have to be enough.

“If you want to stop, Tess, you need to tell me now.” The heat of his hands burned her skin and his head dipped lower, his lips caressing her cheek. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes.” The whisper was barely audible but it was all the compliance Jaxon needed. He guided her one more step toward the bed, his eyes holding hers and in those silver-gold depths, Tess began to drown. His hand swept over her face. “Close your eyes. Enjoy each sensation.”

She did as instructed, her teeth nibbling her lower lips. Her nipples peaked, pushing against the slinky black dress. The rustle of his black slacks as he moved made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and the woodsy male scent of his skin intoxicated her. Then she felt the mattress against the back of her legs before Jaxon slowly lowered her.

She caught her breath and held it but didn’t open her eyes, not even when the dress slid off her body. The cool air washed over her skin, pebbling her nipples further. And for a long, agonizing moment, nothing happened. Her heart began to rap against the wall of her chest.

Then he touched her. His fingertips stroked the line of her jaw, the length of her neck and she began to draw shallow breaths. Those wicked fingers crawled down between her breasts, tiptoed down to her abdomen and tickled her bikini line, just above the lacy top of her panties.

Drowning, she clenched her hands atop the comforter. The wispy material covering her pussy gave way beneath the tug of his hand and Tess felt exposed and deliciously sexy. This was crazy. Unimaginable. Decadent. And she didn’t want it to stop.

“Do you know how beautiful you are?” The heated words spilled over her and for a moment her eyes flickered. “Uh-uh-uh. Closed, remember? It enhances the pleasure.”

That she could believe. The lips of her pussy quivered and a drop of moisture seeped out of the crease.

“So perfect,” Jaxon began to caress the fullness of her lips, absorbing the slickness of her juices. “I’ve never wanted to make love to a woman as much as I do you.”

She moaned. The man was pure sex, each word a seduction, each move intended to send her spiraling into the sweet oblivion of orgasm. His warmth left her for a brief moment but she kept her eyes shut while he undressed, hearing every sound, using her imagination to paint a vivid picture of his perfection.

His palm swept over her from her neck to just below her bellybutton and she quivered, anticipation building to a pounding crescendo. For a second, he left her again and she resisted the urge to open her eyes. She heard the clink of his belt as it hit the floor and the whoosh of his slacks. Her heartbeat accelerated.

He would be naked now, all corded muscle and perfect skin. His knee dipped the mattress as he returned to her, brushing butterfly kisses over her neck and collarbone. With her eyes closed, she was awash in a sea of sensations. His fingertips lightly pinched her nipples before his lips soothed away the sting. She felt the rasp of his cheek against the side of her breast.

And then a different kind of touch. The breath snagged in her throat as she recognized the warm strokes. He rubbed her thighs with the head of his cock, circling the skin in tantalizing spirals. Working his way up, he straddled her thighs and caressed her bellybutton with his thickness.

Tess bit her lower lip to keep from screaming. The heat and hardness of his cock came closer, sliding in between her breasts. She plumped the mounds and Jaxon began to rock, pumping in and out of the valley.

“Now open your eyes,” he commanded in a guttural voice. “See what you do to me.”

Following the dictate, she caught sight of the beauty of his cock, thick veins, smooth skin with a drop of moisture clinging to the slit which seemed to grow wider before her eyes.

She opened her mouth to speak but he pressed his finger against her lips. “No words,” he whispered, beginning to slide back down her body, rubbing his cock over every inch of her skin, taking his time.

“Are you wet for me?”

The erotic words made her heart skip a beat and she couldn’t answer, but then she didn’t need to. For his fingers slipped between the lips of her pussy to check for himself.

“Oh yeah. You’re wet.”

The feel of his hard fingers sinking deep into her channel, stretching her flesh made her hips arch off the bed. Her body begged for his, her pussy weeping with need.

The moon lit the room with a gentle glow, allowing Jaxon to see every inch of her glorious body. When had he last seen such a treasure? Her beauty as perfect as the most exquisite of statues. He’d traveled the world but had never been so enraptured by one woman and never so quickly. His cock hardened even more, testing his control.

“I want to taste you,” he whispered. She swallowed and the delicate skin at the base of her throat drew his gaze.

She couldn’t move, didn’t want to move. His fingers were a gentle brush, gliding over her skin, her abdomen, drifting lower to the slim line of hair covering her cleft. She shivered and her breath soughed out of her lungs in a desperate bid for release.