Part 11 (2/2)

”Not much,” she answered. With characteristic bluntness, he slid his hands inside her robe, from neck to hip, until the tie fell open and the robe parted. With similar bluntness he looked at her, and in that instant Chelsea felt threads of doubt. She wanted Judd to find her beautiful, but her body was far from perfect. Particularly now. There was no evidence of a baby at her waist or belly, but her b.r.e.a.s.t.s had swelled, and she had just begun to notice the tracings of tiny blue veins. If he saw them, he wasn't bothered, because without a word he lowered his head and, splaying his hands on her bare back to draw her close, opened his mouth on one of those b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Ultrasensitive there, she bit her lip, but she wouldn't have pulled 257 away for the world.

He suckled her, teased her nipple with his tongue, finally plumped up both b.r.e.a.s.t.s with his hands and turned his mouth to the other one. She did cry out then. She couldn't help it. What he was doing was burning her up. Her insides were shaking, so were her knees. She clutched his back, still she was sure she would fall. He lifted her then and, knowing the way, carried her up the stairs to her bedroom. Though the light was low, she felt a moment's self-consciousness when he laid her on the bed.

Then he began to undress, and she blessed the light. His body was incredible. A spattering of dark hair covered his chest, tapered down his front, flared again. His thighs were beautifully sculpted. Between them, he was heavy and hard. He put on a condom. She wanted to tell him not to, that pregnancy wasn't a problem, that she trusted he was free of disease. But before she could air the words, he was crawling up the bed and straddling her. He spread the robe wide, ran his hand down between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, over her belly, to the throbbing spot between her legs. She caught her breath when he touched her there, then again when his touch deepened, then again and with an audible click when he removed his hand, braced himself, and entered her. She burst out of herself. That was the only way she could explain the sense of blooming she felt at the moment of his penetration. She had never been so filled, so heated,-so high.

One stroke, and she nearly exploded. Two strokes, and she did. Her body became one endless ripple of pleasure. Her mind went blindingly white.

She heard a vague guttural sound but had no idea what it was until the 258 The Faswons of Cbelsea ALme ripples finally eased and she realized that Judd was breathing as harshly as she. Simultaneous o.r.g.a.s.m. She couldn't believe it. o.r.g.a.s.m, period. She was stunned. Not that she was frigid, but she'd always had to work so hard to come, until now. Judd pressed his pelvis to hers, savoring the last of his pleasure, but when he made to leave her, she locked her legs. ”Wait,” she gasped. Even his last movement had touched something warm and still sensitive. She didn't want it to end. Then she realized that he probably wouldn't be feeling what she was, so she unlocked her legs and whispered, ”Sorry.” He stayed over her for a minute, the muscles of his arms still quaking faintly.

She was thinking that maybe he didn't want to leave, either, when he slipped away, rolled off the bed, and went into the bathroom.. Chelsea pulled up the sheet. She refused to think to agonize or antic.i.p.ate.

Instead she concentrated on the satisfied lull in her body and kept her eyes on the bathroom door. After a minute he was back, walking slowly toward her. Another man as virile might have been arrogant, but not Judd. Nor was he self-conscious. He was at ease with his body, with his s.e.xuality, and, apparently, with what they'd just done. He stopped at the side of the bed, his eyes dark and direct, his voice low. ”Should I go?” She shook her head. She wanted to touch him again, desperately.

s.h.i.+fting a pillow to the headboard, he climbed into bed. She held her breath until he opened an 259 narbam Deffnghy arm. That was all the invitation she needed to curl against him. Her cheek came to rest on his chest, her thigh fell between his. She breathed In his scent, breathed out a contented sigh. ”Okay?” he asked. She nodded. She was more than okay. She was in heaven. She moved a hand lightly over his skin, over the hair on his chest, over the hard nipple nesting there. Unable to resist, she went lower, over the smoother skin at his waist and hip, looking at all she touched with fascination. She couldn't remember ever seeing a man as well made, not that she'd seen scores of naked men. But those she had seen couldn't hold a candle to Judd. He tightened his arm around her. She looked up. In the low light she could see in his eyes what she had just seen at his groin. She was mesmerized by its warmth, its strength, the effect it had on her. The slightest nudge of his hand brought her close enough for a kiss. He explored her mouth, intrigued but unrushed. Then he s.h.i.+fted them so that they faced one another and touched her body as he looked on, much as she had done. Their joining was more leisurely this time, but no less hot. If anything, the effort spent in the build up, the slow stroking, the deeper caress, the eventual driving thrusts, made the climax more powerful. Judd didn't leave the bed as quickly this time but stayed to hold her a while, and the holding was wonderful. He had no way of knowing it, since he didn't know her well, but Chelsea found the sense of being with someone nearly as pleasurable as the s.e.x itself. She wanted to tell him that. She wanted to tell him lots of things. She wanted to ask him lots of things.

260 Ike Pa.s.sions Of Cindwa Kam But he didn't seem inclined to talk, so she was quiet. At some point she dozed off and woke to find his hands on her again. He seemed enthralled by her body-which was only fair, Chelsea decided, since she was similarly inflicted. She came once with his fingers between her legs, then again when he rose over her, bowed his back, and began a deep pumping. As when they'd danced, he found just the right rhythm. Following his lead was as natural to Chelsea as breathing.

Shortly before dawn, he rose and dressed. Leaning over her, he touched her mouth with his finger in a wordless good bye and left. She climbed from bed, put on the robe that was pathetically wrinkled but wonderfully redolent of the scent of their pa.s.sion, and went downstairs to the living room window, just as the Blazer's taillights disappeared down the road. For a timeshe stood there wondering what she'd done and what it would mean. She didn't regret the pleasure for a minute. Her body still hummed in a soft, silent way, her insides were tender, still full. She did regret the dishonesty-she should have told Judd she was pregnant-but that could be remedied. She would tell him. If they were together again, she would definitely tell him. Just as she would tell Kevin. And Carl.

She was about to turn away from the window when a flicker of light caught her eye. It was little more than the reflection of dawn, coming and going as the breeze ruffled the trees on the knoll above the farmhouse. She stared at it, waiting for it to come again. When it did, she felt a iudden confusion. On that knoll was Hunter Love's motorcycle.

As she watched, he kicked off and rolled down the incline to the road, gaining momentum enough 261 B”bam Definsw so that he didn't have to rev the engine until he was nearly out of sight. The sound was so faint then that she might not have heard it if she hadn't been listening. She followed the single taillight until it was gone, stood looking out the window, trying to sort out her thoughts, for another little while, before slowly, broodingly, climbing the stairs. 262 thirteen HELSEA WASN'T THE ONLY ONE TO BROOD. Two hours later, shortly before seven in the morning, Judd sat over a mug of muddy black coffee in his regular booth at Crocker's. The place smelled of bacon grease and sweet rolls and was packed with quarrymen communicating in their usual indistinct rumble amid the clink of forks and knives. Judd found the sameness of it a comfort after the night he'd spent. The screen door swung open and slapped shut. Hunter came down the aisle and slid in across from him.

Settling sideways into the corner between the back of the booth and the wall, he peeled off his sungla.s.ses and dropped. them on the table. He looked around at the other men, looked up when Debbie Pepper brought his coffee, stared at the coffee, taking occasional drinks, until Debbie returned with his scrambled eggs. He was halfway through the eggs when, in a voice that wouldn't carry beyond their booth, he said, ”I gotta hand it to you. You're a fast worker.” Judd had known something was on his mind, but 263 Barbara Defikmw he hadn't expected the something to be this. On the vague chance he was wrong, he asked, ”Want to elaborate?” After another mouthful Hunter said, ”You spent the night with Chelsea Kane.” Judd took a swallow of coffee. He wasn't ready to discuss the night with himself, let alone with someone else. ”Who told you that?” ”No one told me. I saw.”

”Saw.”

”Sat on the hill right outside.” Judd wondered how much he had seen. There were no curtains on Chelsea's windows, and for a good part of the night the light had been on, which meant that they had been in a goldfish bowl of sorts. He felt a flash of raw anger, a sense of violation, but he kept his voice low.

”That how you get your jollies, playing voyeur?”

”I didn't see anything.

Just the light in the bedroom on and the Blazer sitting outside all night.” He jabbed at a piece of egg. ”Was she good?”

”That's none of your G.o.dd.a.m.ned business,” Judd muttered, and tightened his fingers around his mug. Was she good? She was unbelievably good, and that infuriated him nearly as much as Hunter's nosiness. ”You don't usually stay with them all night,” Hunter said. ”For Christ's sake, what kind of comment is that?” Hunter shrugged. ”You've followed me before?”

”Didn't follow you this time. Just went there and saw the Blazer.”

”So you stayed to watch.” He shrugged again. ”It was a nice night. I had 264 nm PASWOXIS or CAWMW Kow nothing better to do.” He pushed the egg around.

”I didn't think she'd be so easy.” Easy had nothing to do with it, Judd knew. There hadn't been conscious volition involved. What had happened had been inevitable. Maybe if he hadn't danced with her, hadn't held her so close, hadn't touched her skin or smelled her hair, he might have been able to wait longer. But the chemistry was right. It had only been a matter of time. ”What does she want?” Hunter asked, seeming more serious now. ”How the h.e.l.l do I know,” Judd grumbled, and glared at his coffee. He had thought he knew Chelsea, thought she was a typical city woman, thought she was just like Janine. But she hadn't been at all like Janine in his arms. She had been honest and open and hungry. Janine would have been up the minute it was done, lighting a cigarette, then bounding out of bed to use the phone or write a brief or shampoo her hair. Not Chelsea. Chelsea had curled up next to him as though that closeness were the only thing in the world that mattered. He never would have expected it. But what did he know? Chelsea was a mystery. He knew very little about her-except that she was the last woman he wanted to have an affair with. ”She must be after something,” Hunter said, frowning now. Judd was open to suggestions. ”Like what?”

”I don't know.

But something. Why else'd she be here? She could be doing the same stuff back in Baltimore.” When Judd had hit her with that, she mentioned 265 having lost three people. One was her mother. He wondered about the other two. ”How long's she staying?” Hunter asked. ”How the h.e.l.l would I know?”

”Because you're the one screwin' her.” The word drilled Judd, sounding harsh and dirty and cheap. It wasn't like there was anything more than a physical attraction between Chelsea and him. Still, that word was wrong. Chelsea Kane was a cla.s.sy lady. She wasn't harsh or dirty or cheap. She made love to him like a soft, warm woman with a whole lot to give-either that, or she was one h.e.l.l of an actress. He wished he knew which it was. Torn and annoyed and tight in the gut just thinking about Chelsea under him, Judd, looked hard at Hunter. His hands gripped his mug. His voice was a hoa.r.s.e whisper. ”I'm gonna tell you something, pal, and I want you to listen good. I've gone out on a limb for you more'n once, and nof ' anyone told me to. If I'd listened to the old man, you'dq been driving the fork lift. But I thought you deserved better. I covered for you over the years when you did dumb-a.s.s things, so the old man wouldn't get wind of it. Well, I don't want the old man-or anyone else-getting wind of what you saw up on that hill last night. It's no one's G.o.dd.a.m.ned business. What I do on my time is my affair. What she does on her time is her affair.” Still gripping the mug, he straightened a warning forefinger at Hunter. ”You open your mouth, and that's it. I'm done. It'll be you and the old man with no buffer. Got that?” Hunter lounged in the booth corner, looking peeved.

266 nm PAWWOng of Cbeagen JLMM ”Good,” Judd said. He tossed back the last of his coffee. ”You gonna keep seeing her?” Judd set the mug down with a thud. He didn't know that. He wanted to scream. ”s it to you?-Hunter shrugged. ”Are you interested m her after all?” Judd asked.

He was prepared to fight if Hunter was. He'd gotten there fkst. Besides, he couldn't imagine the same chemistry existed between Chelsea and Hunter. Something did emst. He remembered the way the two of them looked roaring off on the motorcycle that day, like they were both perfectly comfortable, two peas in a pod. But there hadn't been anything s.e.xual in it. ”Not that way,” Hunter was truthful enough to admit. ”Then what way?” Hunter looked idly at the men sitting at the counter. He watched B. J., the counter waitress, working behind it, then watched Debbie coming down the row of booths, topping off coffee. The longer he waited and the more idly he watched the goings-on, the more Judd wanted to know the nature of his interest. ”What way?” he repeated. ”Beats me,” Hunter said. Judd swore in frustration. ”Well, what do you want me to say?” Hunter asked, annoyed. ”There's something about her. I don't know what it is, but there's something. I want her to be b.i.t.c.hy, but she isn't.

She's nice-”Ee broke off, leaving the word nice hanging in the air like an evil thing. As he had once before, Judd thought of the siren who lur6d men to destruction. Janine had almost 267 B&rbwa Dchnsw destroyed him. He wasn't letting that happen again. The obvious solution was getting Chelsea Kane out of the Notch as soon as possible. With that in mind he asked, ”How much longer to finish her house?”

”Four, maybe five weeks.”

”The cutting shed'll be operational by then, too. I've already hired three men to work it, but we need six more. I was thinking of putting Boggs and Deagan on the saws. They've got good eyes and good hands, and they need the steady money.” Both men had large families, which made them reliable when it came to work. The cutting shed would be a step up for them. That made Judd feel good. ”There are ten other men on my list. Most of them have been with other operations that closed. A couple are smallscale stone cutters-artists, really-but they're critical to the operation. I want you to interview them this week. You know the kind of man I want.”

”I'm busy at Boulderbrook.”

”Make time for this.”

”Trying to get me away from her?” Hunter asked. ”No,” Judd said slowly and distinctly, ”I'm trying. to get good people hired at our end so we can win that bet she made and get her the h.e.l.l out of Norwich Notch. You can save me time by making the preliminary cuts. Are you up for it or not?” What bothered Chelsea most was Carl-not his finding out that she'd been with Judd, or her carrying his child while she'd been with Judd, but the fact that Carl stood for the way s.e.x was supposed to happen. A woman was supposed to get to know a man first, then, if she was so inclined, sleep with 268 The Pa.s.sions of Chelsea Kane him. It had been that way with the few other men she had been with over the years, and it had been that way to the extreme with Carl. She had never fallen into bed with a man she barely knew. Not even during the wildest periods of her life. Not until Judd. And it had been good. So good. Where to go from here was the question. It haunted her as she worked in the attic office that day, even though there was plenty to divert her mind. She was getting bites from many of the architects she had contacted, but none were coming up with the large projects that she'd hoped for. It was early, she knew. She couldn't do much by way of the hard sell until she had a product to show, and that wouldn't happen until after the cutting shed was in full operation. But she wanted people champing at the bit to see her wares. She wanted a large project on the drawing board, pending satisfactory exami- . of the'granite. So she made more calls-an exercise in futility, with everyone turning the holiday into a long- weekend, she realized-and. wrote more letters, and between that she polished up the schematic design for an estate-size summer home she was dealgning for a client on Nantucket. She should have been totally immersed in her work, yet eath time she heard footsteps on the spiral stairs, she held her breath. It was the same each time she brought something down to Fern, or when she walked down the street to talk with Donna at Farr's, or *hen she stopped at the bakery for a fresh croisant.

She kept hoping to catch sight of Judd. She kept thinking he would come.

But he was nowhere around. , Hunter @vas. He stopped in at midafternoon and waydered around the room a while, studying the 269 Marbam Definsky prints on the wall of projects she had done, the framed awards. Finally he perched on the edge of her computer table and gave her an indolent once-over. She knew what he was thinking. Beating him to the punch, she said, ”Care to clue me in as to why you were up on my knoll last night?”

If he was surprised that she knew, he didn't let on. Rather, he gave a negligent shrug. ”I was riding around and ended up there. Have to say I was surprised to see the Blazer at two in the morning.” She ignored the invitation to explain it and said instead, ”Why were you riding around at that hour?”

”I don't sleep well. Riding relaxes me.”

”The people in town must love that.” He gave a crooked grin. ”Yup.”

”But I'm surprised you'd come to my place, what with things that go b.u.mp in the night, and all.” His grin faded. ”You're the one in the house. was just up on the knoll.”

”So what did you think when you saw Judd, s Blazer?”

”That you'd been away from the city too long and needed a quick fix.

Only it wasn't quick, was it?” She thought of how many times she and Judd had made love and felt a warmth on her face. ”It's pretty gauche of you to say that, Hunter.” He shrugged and looked away. ”You asked.” She supposed he was right. She had invited Ple comment-probably because she wanted eo know what the rest of the town would think if they found out what had happened. ”You're wrong, though. I don't need fixes that way. What happened happened. I don't make a habit of playing around with men I barely know.” She didn't know why she was defending herself to Hunter, but it made her feel 270 nm ra.s.shms Of UWAM KMW better to do it.

For the same reason she said, ”There's a strong attraction.” Then, ”Hasn't that ever happened to you?” ”I'm a man,” he said in the affirmative. ”s.e.xist comment,” she chided. ”Physical attraction can be just as strong or sudden in a woman as in a man.”

”But a man is satisfied just to get it off. A woman needs mor ”

”Sometikes,” Chelsea said, and thought about it for a second, then admitted, ”Usually. But not always. He studied her then, looking in rather than at. ”How do you feel about Judd?”

”I don't know him well enough to say.”

”I know him.

I'l? tell you what you want to know.” She searched his face for mockery or smugness, even treachery, but found none. He looked sincere in his offer. More than that, he looked as though he really wanted to tell her.

It reminded her of how he'd been the afternoon before, telling her things she doubted he told many people. She imagined now that he 6nuinely wanted to share this confidence. Feeftg gocwd about that, she looked him in the eye and said, ”I want to know what he does with his free time, who he dates, and why he isn't married.”

<script>