Ann Major - Silhouette Christmas Stories

"The boys will be Darius and Homer. The girls Galatea and Electra."

Grant laughed. Her fingers were toying with the tips of her silverware, and his hand brushed against them accidentally. He felt a warm tingle at the touch of her flesh. She drew her hand away and looked at him, her beautiful face still and silent and tender.

"I-I got those names out of books," she said in a rush. "I always loved to read, even as a child. Especially after Mother and Daddy died. I have a master's in English, and I've taught for three years. I'm studying to be a librarian. And now… I really do need to get home. That test… "

She was lovely, lovelier than any woman he had ever known.

She drove. Because she knew Austin better, and because she hadn't drunk any alcohol. On the way back into town, he was grimly silent.

She parked in the dark in front of her apartment building.

"I had a wonderful time," she whispered. Her face lit with a guileless, naive happiness. Her eyes were sparkling in the darkness.

"So did I." Grant ran his hand up the pale smoothness of her bare arm.

"You're not like Larry."

At her mention of his brother, Grant's mood turned grim. "No?"

"Not at all."

"I came because Larry wrote that he was serious about you."

"What?"

"Don't pretend you don't know," Grant murmured in a coaxing, cynical rasp.

"I'm not pretending. He's just a good friend."

The wine and the hard liquor Grant had consumed made his thoughts swim. She was so soft and lovely, this gypsy girl, so totally different, she mesmerized him. His emotions were in turmoil. "You're poor. He's rich."

"I had no idea." Her voice was a tender whisper. "He seemed so young and so mixed-up. I felt sorry for him."

"I told you not to pretend with me."

"Grant… " She looked lost.

He swore under his breath. "You're good, girl. Very good. Maybe you can fool Larry with your angel face and your innocent, sweet Bohemian act, but you can't fool me. All night you've tantalized me, smiled at me, beckoned me with your beauty. You don't love my brother."

"No, I don't."

Silver bracelets jingled. She reached for the door handle, but his larger hand closed over hers. The minute he touched her, he was lost.

She was warm satin flesh. Her pulse raced beneath his fingertips. He was on fire. His gaze rested on her soft lush red mouth for one second only. Then his lips covered hers. He circled her with his arms. She tried to cry out, but his hot, ravaging mouth stifled all utterance. She was trembling with fear, and with some other emotion that more than matched the power of his own blind passion.

She was warm and sweet like heated honey. An angel who was erotic as no wanton could ever be. Shock waves of desire surged through every aching nerve in his body. He wanted her, as he had never wanted another. This funny, seemingly innocent woman-child who was poor, who was a gypsy girl.

Her slim body was crushed beneath the power of his weight, and the hands that had been pushing against his chest stopped pushing. He felt them curl weakly around his neck, and she pulled him closer, returning his kisses with guiltless wonder, sighing softly in rapture. So there was fire in her, too. Fire for him as well as for his brother.

At last Grant let her go.

"I want you," he said. "I'll give you everything Larry would have given you and more. Except a wedding ring. Like I told you, I made that mistake once before."

Her lovely face changed subtly, quickly, from the soft glowing expression of a woman newly in love to that of a woman who'd lost everything.

"You really think that I… " A sob caught in her throat.

His expression was harsh.

Her luscious, passionate mouth, swollen from his kisses, quivered. Her face was very pale. He saw the sparkle of new tears spill over her long lashes. Her beautiful neck was taut, her head proudly poised and erect.

"I've made mistakes, too," she said softly in a small, brave voice that didn't quite mask her utter de-spair. "And tonight… you, Grant Hale, were one of them."

He tried to stop her when she tried to go.

"I'm not what you think," she whispered. "And you're not what I thought."

He was forcibly struck by the sorrow in her pain-glazed eyes. She got out of the car and ran all the way to her door where she dropped her keys and struggled with the lock for a long time. He knew she was weeping so hard she couldn't see.

Flushed with anger and frustrated desire, he watched her fumble about, thinking he should help her, thinking he should go, thinking he would forget her, and knowing deep down he never could. When she vanished into the gloom of her apartment building, he started the car and burned rubber in his wildness to get away.

But he'd never forgotten her stricken, tear-streaked face. Not even after she'd married his brother on the rebound. Not in the five years since Larry's death.

There was a whisper from the doorway that had nothing to do with the wind.

Grant opened his eyes and saw Norie standing there, holding a plastic tray with two cups of steaming hot tea, milk, and Christmas cookies. She'd removed her poncho and was wearing a white sweater that clung to her slender body, and a soft woolen skirt. She seemed to hesitate on the threshold, as if she had doubts about the wisdom of joining him in his bedroom.

Her hair fell in dark spirals, framing her lovely face and neck. Her dark eyes were immense and luminous. Just the sight of her looking so gently innocent and vulnerable made his own body feel hard and hot with wild ravening need.

The wind whistled, and the house shuddered from a particularly strong blast.

"Come in," he murmured.

"I was afraid I'd wake you," she replied breathlessly.

He watched her set the tray down on the table by the bed. She handed him a cup of tea and a plate of homemade cookies. Neither spoke for a while, and the silence seemed awkward and heavy to both of them.

"It seems funny… you being here… in this house," she said at last.

"What do you mean?"

"You're used to more glamorous settings-New York, Europe. You've been all over the world."

"I feel at home here… with you."

She stared into her teacup. "We're nothing alike."

"In a way that's true. But there's an old cliche. Opposites attract."

"You never liked me." Her voice was low, whispery.

The knowledge that she had run away and hidden from him for five years weighed heavily on his heart. "I liked you too much," he said through gritted teeth.

Her teacup rattled precariously in its saucer, and she looked up. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Fine. What?"

"I-I don't know. What can two people as different as we are find to talk about?"

Hard pellets of ice pinged on a piece of tin nailed to the roof.

"Maybe the weather." His tone was derisive. "Bad night."

"Yes, it is."

That was all either of them could think of for a very long time. He was too aware of her beauty, too conscious of his need to run his hands through her black hair, to kiss her lush red lips. He felt white-hot with need. There was an awful, passionate, unbreakable tension in that silent room that was tearing them both to pieces. What was going on here? Suave, sophisticated Grant Hale never had trouble talking to a woman.

Desperate for distraction, he forced himself to remember the past. Norie had always been different, unconventional. She'd been an enormous amount of trouble to him. First he'd tried to stop her from marrying his brother. The problem was, she hadn't even known Larry was that interested in her until Grant had told her. Larry had written that letter to his mother when he'd been drunk, in the hopes of stirring her up. Hales were like that. Stirring was in their blood. Larry liked to be the center of a family drama.