Seaspun Magic (10 page)

"A... a... "

"Um-hm?"

"A crystal ball like mine."

"I should think they would be very expensive."

"They are, but the man who makes them, makes them in exchange for..."

"I'm too interested for you to stop now."

"Well, for me to tell his fortune."

"Over and over?"

"It's more involved than that, Leo. It's detailed-things like, should he be buying more stock this week, or should he be upgrading his plastics plant in Illinois.

A lot rides on my advice. I don't take it lightly, and I can tell you, neither does he."

"Arianne, honey, you're a little scary sometimes...."

The screen door banged shut behind him.

Somehow Arianne made it through Wednesday and Thursday, denying herself another kiss the whole time. Her abstinence in the face of such temptation was beginning to make her feel virtuous. But living under the same roof provided too many opportunities for chance encounters. Playing with the baby on the floor, for instance, was inviting trouble. Just reaching for a heavy book from a high shelf had Leo reaching up behind her for it to give it to her. The air inside sparkled perpetually with sensual tension while frost sparkled outside.

If Arianne's self-control was immense, then Leo's willpower, too, was laudable—that is, if he really did want her as much as she thought he did. He might not, of course—she could have read things wrong. But while it was one thing not to reach out, it was quite another not to look, and if the way he sometimes looked at her was any indication of his feelings, then he wanted her. It was driving her crazy.

And it was all made worse because he was spending more time at home. He would go off a little later and come back a little earlier every day. And gradually the original idea of not touching each other, let alone kissing under any circumstances, became a little fuzzy. The whole network of reasons why they shouldn't get close became indistinct. It seemed more important to feel the sun on her face and know that behind her in the wet packed sand were two pair of footprints, his and hers....

On walks along the beach Rae always made a beeline for the water. Friday morning, walking to work because it was such a beautiful sunny day and accompanied by her guest, who had business in town, Arianne found herself having to dash to catch Rae before he plunged right into the Pacific Ocean. She scooped him up in the very nick of time and, while he voiced his annoyance, ran with him a few yards farther and unloaded him on a low ledge of rock where he could get right to the water's edge without getting all wet himself.

Panting from exertion, she knelt to roll up one of Rae's sleeves and Leo bent to roll up the other and, this done, they looked up into each other's eyes. Since they were both bent over the boy, they were practically nose to nose. Soft smoky black met a clear-water green. Their gaze held a moment longer, and Arianne smiled into his eyes, lowering her lashes against the dazzle of sunshine that seemed to radiate between them. Only a few inches separated a kiss.

He bent farther; Arianne didn't move. Putting out a hand on the rock for balance, he bent just that little bit farther. "Arianne...?" he murmured against her parted lips.

With a mighty splash Rae leaned too far over and fell, splat, into the sea. Which of course meant the boy had to be carried home in all haste. And was it ever nice to have a man around to help with that! No matter how much Arianne might want to, she simply wasn't strong enough to carry soggy, sandy, solid pounds of squirming boy a half a mile uphill without showing signs of wearing down.

The remainder of the day presented no occasion for lovemaking as grand as that one, so timely interrupted by her son. As Arianne prepared for bed that night, she wondered about tomorrow morning,
Saturday
morning. Would there be another envelope waiting for her?

There was…The money she was making was fantastic, a windfall. It was nice to see it piling up in the bank, her cushion against disaster. And since her car needed new tires… But while Arianne liked the money well enough, she wasn't sure she liked the dependence it promoted. She was always thinking that if she could manage just one more week, she could afford to do this and that, and the list was long. She fed her guest well; on her own she didn't often buy such luxuries as fine old calvados, or fresh strawberries in November. But still, when she counted what was left over after these expenses, there was a lot. There was on average one hundred dollars per day.

If anything amorous happened between them, she would have to stop taking his money. But there was yet another reason for not getting involved. She added it to all the others. If he was staying another week, how would she bear it?

If he said Arianne in that come-here tone of voice one more time, she was afraid she would run gladly to him and cover him with eager kisses. She had a bad case of whatever it was.

She stepped out of the tub, began to towel herself dry and was just finishing when the light bulb overhead made a tiny ping sound and went out.

"Damn!" she muttered in the pitch black. This had happened before. She knew the rigmarole entailed in changing that light bulb. The ceilings in the old house were very high and she was on the short side.

Holding her hands out in front, she made it to the door and opened it to let in the light from the hall. But the bathroom was so big and the night lamp so far away that only a very little light shone in. Tucking a bath towel around herself, she ventured out into the hall to the linen closet. Glancing quickly at Leo's closed door, she extricated a new light bulb and reached for her flashlight, kept there for emergencies such as this one.

It wasn't there. In the semidarkness her hands searched the sheets, the towels; where in the dickens had her flashlight got to? Rae certainly wasn't big enough to have moved it and— Oh, but she knew somebody who was! Leo must have used it and not put it back. The realization that she was sharing her house and everything in it hit her afresh.

Dammit, though, without a flashlight the job was not going to be fun. It would serve him right if she got him out of bed and made him change it, but she certainly wasn't going to risk such potential danger. She took the light bulb and padded quickly back into the bathroom.

First she put the bulb in the sink so that I wouldn't roll off the vanity and smash on the floor. Then she moved the bathroom chair underneath the light fixture. All she had to do next was get up onto the chair and on tiptoe loosen the screw that held the glass shade, take off the shade and unscrew the old light bulb. She then had to get down off the chair, throw the old bulb in the waste basket, fish the new one out of the sink and climb back onto the chair once more.

She arrived at that final stage and reached to put in the new bulb, but with only the faint glow at the door, she could see nothing, much less the socket. She had had that flashlight stationed in the hall because she'd had exactly this unpleasant experience before.

On highest tiptoe, feeling the towel tucked around her beginning to slide, she reached up with one hand to feel for the socket while the other held the bulb ready. At last the threads of bulb and socket locked, and as the towel slid right off and down her legs the light bulb hit home, flashing radiance everywhere. Blinking, Arianne turned her face away and saw that Leo was leaning in the open bathroom door.

And then she looked at the towel around her feet, and gradually sank off tiptoe to her regular height. There was no point in trying to hide her whole body with only two hands; she didn't try.

"H-hello." What else could she say?

"Hello!"

It wasn't fair; the odds seemed to be against her, no matter what she did. To have this little chance encounter dropped into her lap was too much.

"Um..." She bent to pick up her towel and stepped quickly down off the chair.

"Uh-huh?"

He was dressed, of course—if pajama bottoms counted, ones that were carelessly tied and clung to lean hips. Arianne took a deep breath when he started coming toward her.

"Arianne..."

"Please don't say that!" she begged, as Leo began to pull her into his arms. Then, as their bodies glided together and touched, she changed her mind. "Oh, please do!" she whispered.

His arms went right around her and tightened. As his body heat burned into her silken flesh her hands traveled along the sun-darkened width of his shoulders and joined around his neck. Their lips met on an eager sweeping tide of passion.

What a blessed relief it was to be crushed against him, to feel the hard length of his male body pressed ardently against her. What a shock it was to her starved system to intimately know his shape, every line of it. His mouth evoked the same wildfire response. It was as if she had been dropped head over heels into a fiery crucible. She was burning up in Leo's desire.

She simply melted into him, the softness of her body molding the contour of his, and the long thirsty kiss plumbed new depths. Heavenly rapture had nothing on this; this was joy, a joy of all the senses....

It did come to an end eventually. Slowly he raised his head and, considering the dreamy, drowsy hunger in the black eyes, shifted his hold. One of his hands spread on the small of her back to keep her snugly against him, while the other rose to slide around her neck and into the black luxury of her hair. His fingers wound into the thick curls in wondrous possession; his eyes caressed the soft fullness of her mouth, raspberry red from their passion.

Remembering how all this had come about, she accused him suddenly, "What did you do with my flashlight?"

Looking slightly confused, he ran his thumb along the generous curve of her bottom lip, his mind bent on something other than a flashlight and its unknown fate. "Uh..." He gave her a closer look. "Are you trying to change the subject?"

"You mean you didn't use it?"

"What?"

"My flashlight!"

"Are we on the same planet?"

She laughed faintly, her fingers flexing on the smooth warm skin beneath her hands, and she wondered why she was bothering about something like a flashlight at a time like this!

"Leo..." Her voice was suddenly husky, a beguiling invitation.

As the touch of his fingers tantalized her throat, his thumb lightly indented her bottom lip, opening her mouth to his quick, searing promise of joy.

"Since you're not much bigger than Rae, I think I'll just... sweep you off your feet.'' And with those words, he indeed swept her up into his arms.

At the bathroom door, since his hands were full, Leo paused for the flick of a feminine foot to switch off the light, plunging them into darkness. Then he carried her across the hall into his room and onto his bed.

Against the coolness of the sheets Arianne shivered in heart-stopping anticipation, watching his pajama bottoms slide off, but only for a second, for his weight covered her the next. A reading lamp with a pink shade cast a pool of light on the table and over some books piled there, but the rest of the room was a mere rosy glow.

Arianne touched his cheek with careful fingertips, and then Leo's eager lips were covering hers. The storm of long-awaited passion broke around them in an instant. She quivered under the hot searching caress of his hands, her lissome body undulating with the pagan cravings he aroused. The exploratory forays of his tongue in her mouth incited an even deeper longing that demanded his immediate attention.

His hands slid beneath her, lifting her hips for a perfect fit against his. As their bodies joined, Arianne moaned softly, almost inaudibly, and white pointed fingernails scored into the firm skin of his back, inflaming the taut muscles beneath.

Locked against him, burning up in the sweet fire raging between them, she clasped him as tightly as she could and kissed him back wantonly. In the ecstasy of being together, of being loved with a branding desire, which in turn was laced with slow tenderness, she was ravished completely. The first earthshaking explosion was only the first; there were others that carried on into the long night…

***

In the morning when she awoke, Arianne found herself enveloped in Leo's arms, her head nestled on his shoulder, her body aligned with his. Now she not only had a man in the house but one in her bed! She smiled contentedly. His honey-colored hair was ruffled in sleep, and he looked so incredibly handsome to her that her heart constricted with a twinge of almost painful happiness.

Perhaps her staring awakened him, for his eyes drifted open under her gaze. They focused on her, lingered on her face in sleepy surprise, while his loose clasp tightened, as if to prevent her from leaving in case she was real. "Arianne..."

"Oh, Leo," she said, laughing. "It's morning!"

"What's the matter with morning?"

With a few deft moves he had her lying on his chest. Her black tresses, a wild tangle after the night, spilled down over them both.

"Well, I don't know exactly... I guess nothing." Leo's tiny kisses meandered up her throat. "Do you always wake up this quickly?" she teased.

"Only when I wake up to find you smiling at me, Arianne."

***

Rae was especially obliging that morning. He slept late. At breakfast he giggled and chortled and was happy enough to entertain himself while Leo prepared the bacon and eggs for a change and Arianne sat with her feet up on another chair, loafing and talking to the cook. Curled in her lap, Jinx was purring like a farm tractor.

This morning there was no sun. Heavy mist softened the landscape; the ocean had all but disappeared beneath the shroud. It was bitterly cold and damp, not like the sunshine of yesterday. Arianne rather wished she didn't have to go outside at all. As usual, though, there was work; Orly and the shop awaited her.

How cozy the warm kitchen felt in comparison to the wintry gloom outside! How lovely it was to be safe and comfortable.. .and to have Leo ask how she'd like her eggs, easy over or sunny-side up. He made her as happy as she could ever remember being, she thought, as he flashed her a grin from across the room.

Just thinking of last night—and earlier this morning—had her drawing in a long soft breath to ease the tight band of excitement that encircled her breasts. They were lovers now. The calamity had finally struck, and yet she felt dizzy with sheer, unadultered happiness. God only knew what would happen next. The future had become one gigantic question mark, but her dark eyes sparkled with glad anticipation.