The green and apricot color scheme had been reversed in this room; the apricot in the carpet, the verdant green in the bedspread and chair. In her red and gold and peacock blue silk, Kalinda was a splash of vibrant color as she lay on the green spread.
„You look like some exotic creature from a harem lying there waiting for me.“ Rand stood beside the bed, pulling free the satin bow tie and dropping it onto the carpet.
„Your harem?“ she asked throatily, her gaze trapped by his.
„Definitely,“ he smiled, his fingers on the buttons of his white shirt „But it’s a harem of one.“
Kalinda felt herself melting beneath the heat of his gaze and when he had finished undressing himself and reached for her, she shivered violently with the emotion his touch aroused.
„Kalinda, my gentle, passionate Kalinda,“ he rasped, pulling her into his arms and finding the fastenings of her dress with fingers that shook ever so slightly. „I couldn’t believe you had left me when I awoke that morning. 1 couldn’t believe you hadn’t found in my arms what I had found in yours. You credited me with good perception but you were wrong. I would never have guessed you would have left like that…“
„I saw so little future for us.“ She stirred as the coolness in the room bathed her skin. He removed her dress with deftness and a sensual touch that was a caress in itself. She lifted appealing eyes to his intent face. „And I’m not sure there’s any more of a future now than there was before. Why did you follow me, Rand?“
„Hush, darling,“ he whispered, bending to kiss the nipple of her breast as it hardened beneath his hand. „Stop trying to put obstacles in our path, We need each other tonight Let that be enough for the time being.“
Under his possessive, exploring touch, Kalinda had no choice but to put the doubts and fears aside. What he offered at that moment was too important, too wonderful to turn down. And he knew it He was using that fact to seduce her as surely as he used his lips and fingers and the strength of his hard, lean body.
Cradling her against him, Rand rested on one elbow, his free hand trailing exciting patterns down the length of her side to her thighs. He felt her response and slowly built the tempo of the random patterns until she moaned and turned her mouth into his chest.
Finding the male nipples with her quick, gentle teeth, Kalinda returned the mounting excitement, glorying in his reaction. She felt him shift his legs, inserting one foot between her own. Then his circling, feathering hand went to the inside of her thighs.
„Oh!“ The sob of desire was muffled against his skin but he heard it and growled her name against her shoulder.
„My God, Kalinda, you make me wonder how I ever got along without you in my bed!“
She raked her nails convulsively but lightly along his back, down to the sensitive point at the base of his spine and beyond. He arched into her, his hand moving exquisitely at the point where her thighs joined her body.
She felt the arousing, passionate sensations take her beyond the edge of reasoning thought All that mattered was Rand. She wondered how she could ever have survived without knowing this powerful emotion again. In the back of her mind, Kalinda acknowledged the truth. She would have eventually gone back to the mountains looking for him.
„I would have come back, Rand,“ she confessed huskily. „I told myself I had to get over you, that there was no future for us. But I know now I would have come back.“
Gently he turned her on her back, his leg thrown heavily across hers. „I couldn’t wait, sweetheart I had to follow you. I had to know if I could make you need me as badly as I needed you!“
He strung fiery little kisses all down her throat, across her soft breasts and along the curve of her stomach. She surged beneath his questing hands, unable to hide her desire.
„Do you have any idea what it does to me when you ignite like this in my arms? I couldn’t stand the thought of you coming back to Denver and finding someone else! You’re mine, Kalinda. I made you mine last weekend. I swear you’ll find me worthy of your sweet surrender.“
Kalinda gasped at his progressively intimate demands, her eyes tightly shut as her head fell back over his outstretched arm. „Such a risk, it’s such a risk--“
„No,“ he whispered forcefully. „I’ll take care of everything. You don’t have to worry about getting pregnant!“
And Kalinda, who had been too far gone in the dazzling world of sensation he had created to even think about that particular risk, gave up trying to tell him her real fears.
He soothed her body with his hands and lips, finding the secret places he had discovered once before and reforging the bond he’d created then. Even as he made love to her, tuning her body to his, Kalinda realized the strength of the link he had bound her with that morning in the mountains.
He knew her so well, she thought wonderingly. She had called him perceptive, but even she hadn’t realized the depths of that perception. He had known he could show up on her doorstep tonight and reweave the magic they had found once before.
Her own instincts had been more confused on the issue but under the impact of his desire they homed in on the truth.
When she thought she could stand no more of the teasing, exhilarating lovemaking, when she thought it must surely drive her insane if he didn’t stake the final claim, Rand came to her with a fierce and gentle power that left her no option but to respond in kind.
In the darkness she clung to him as she had that morning by the lake, knowing an almost violent satisfaction at the knowledge that this time she couldn’t run away when it was over.
The driving force of his need took them both into a timeless world of sensuality that left no room for the unbidden questions a portion of Kalinda’s mind still asked.
7
Kalinda awoke the next morning with a curious sense of expectancy. She sensed the missing weight beside her in the bed and turned her tousled head on the pillow. At the same moment that she registered the empty place where Rand had been she realized the shower was going full blast.
She lay perfectly still for a moment, letting the memories of last night’s passion and intimacy wash over her. Again and again in the darkness Rand had reached for her, pulling her close, telling her of his need.
And she had gone to him, refusing to think of the future, allowing only her woman’s need to satisfy and be satisfied to guide her.
In the morning light, Kalinda lay gazing across the expanse of apricot carpet and asked herself the question she hadn’t wanted to ask during the night.
Why had Rand followed her back to Denver? It was hard to believe that he wanted an affair so badly he felt obliged to „prove“ himself worthy of her regard. He didn’t strike her as the sort of man who had ever felt it necessary to prove himself to anyone.
He must have met and probably seduced any number of tourists, she thought wretchedly, flinging back the covers. But how many had he followed back to Denver, seeking an affair?
But if it was routine for him, it was not routine for her. Kalinda had not been seriously interested in anyone after David Hutton had taken back his ring. There had been two reasons for maintaining the most casual of relationships. One had been the necessity for almost complete attention to Brady Data Processing. She had always been a hard worker, but the effort to save the company had required a ceaseless effort for the first couple of years. And memories of the fool she had been for trusting in David had constituted the second reason for extreme caution in her associations with men.