“Thanks.” Her voice betrayed she meant none of the gratitude that word meant. “Just what every girl wants to hear.”
That feeling of unease spread precariously close to his cold heart.
“Sibyl,” he called.
She didn’t turn to him and sighed before asking, “Can’t we just go to sleep?”
“No,” he answered honestly. Sibyl Godwin, Colin had long since decided, would not get very much rest that night.
Nor, likely, for the next two months.
She rolled, dislodging his hand and lay on her side, up on her elbow. He settled on his elbow facing her while she pulled the covers over her breasts. He noticed her eyes were no longer sherry, they were back to emerald. The effect of the colour change was extraordinary.
“Well, of course, you have to get your money’s worth,” she snapped tartly after she caught his eyes.
“I’ve already had it,” he replied truthfully.
At his remark, her eyes rounded and he watched in fascination as she pulled her lips between her teeth for a moment as if literally biting back words she wanted desperately to say.
And her eyes melted back to sherry.
That’s when he knew he could kiss her.
Much later, when he lifted his head and she followed it with hers to keep in contact with his mouth, he finished what he meant to say.
Smoothly, in one fluid movement, he slid inside her magnificent, tight wetness and, while he did, she exposed her throat to him as she arched her back and neck in an open demonstration of the pleasure she felt at allowing him inside.
Her legs lifted up, her knees at his sides so high they were nearly tucked into the pits of his arms, and her thighs tightened against him. This action drew him exquisitely deeper into her.
“Sibyl,” he called her name as he settled inside her, not moving and practically gritting his teeth with the effort, she was so splendid.
Her head righted, hair wildly tumbled on the pillows framing her passion-filled face.
“Colin,” she whispered, his name from her lips, said in that husky tone of sex, caused his body to twitch involuntarily.
He fought back his response and warned, “I may have had my money’s worth but you still owe me two months and I’m going to have them.”
Her eyes rounded again but her hips moved, inviting the movement of his.
“Sibyl –” he started but her hands were urgent on his waist, her nails digging into him.
“Yes, Colin, yes,” she breathed, impatient. “Two months. Now, will you just please move?”
Colin grinned.
Then he did as Sibyl asked.
Chapter Nine
Danger
The phone was ringing.
Sibyl decided to ignore it, her answerphone would get it. She was too deliciously tired to bother.
When it stopped ringing, abruptly, she smiled sleepily but her smile was short-lived.
“Hullo?”
She heard this said in a husky, baritone voice.
Instantly awake, she twisted violently in the bed, pulling the covers over her breasts, just in time to hear Colin say, “She’s right here.” His clay-coloured eyes, rimmed with their lush lashes, slid to her. “It’s for you.”
Ignoring the rush of warmth in her belly at the sight of his eyes and him in her bed, she snatched the phone out of his hand and covered the mouthpiece. “Of course it’s for me, who would it be for? Mallory?”
He smiled.
This smile was again lethal but not with danger, instead with the heady, pleasant aftermath of sex.
A lot of sex.
A lot of really, really good sex.
She ignored that too (and what it did to her belly, namely, making it flutter) and lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Who was that?” her mother asked.
Sibyl sat bolt upright in bed, still holding the sheets to her chest.
“Mom?”
“Yes, baby, it’s your mother. Your sister phoned and told me you had a sure thing so I had to call.”
Sibyl dropped her forehead into her hand, rested her elbow on her thigh and closed her eyes in despair.
Her bloody, bloody sister.
Her bloody, bloody mother.
Who else on earth had two relatives that were so interested in their daughter/sibling’s sex life?
“It appears she was right!” her mother crowed ecstatically.
“What time is it there? It has to be…” Sibyl twisted around to look at the clock on the bedside table.
What she saw was Colin on his side, resting with his head in his hand and watching her, his eyes soft with interest.
And his eyes looked good soft with interest.
She twisted back so fast she was pretty certain she pulled something.
“It’s midnight, baby, and I’m about to go out and commune with nature,” her mother answered. “I thought I’d give you a buzz before I draw down the moon to see how your night went but I guess I don’t have to ask.”
“Mom –”
“Is he cute?”
“Mom –”
“Did you have an orgasm?”
“Mom!”
“What? Oh, yes, you probably can’t talk now, since he’s there. And if I take up your time, you might miss a morning quickie.”
Sibyl returned to her defeated position of head in hand and she expelled a frustrated sigh. She loved her mother, she’d lay down her life for her but sometimes she was just too much. And now was definitely one of those times.
Her mother continued. “Just know I’m glad your dry spell is over and I hope your father and I meet him in April. Will we meet him in April?”
Sibyl’s body went rigid.
In all the emotional drama, she’d forgotten about her parent’s visit in April. Their visit was smack in the middle of Colin’s two months. Two months where he was to have her when he said, where he said.
The very thought of those words made her shiver and, she had to admit, this shiver had not a thing to do with fear or gloom.
Sibyl powered through the shiver and began, “Mom –”
“I know, it’s too soon. I hope to meet him though. He must be something special to catch your fancy. See you soon, baby.”
Then she rang off without giving Sibyl a chance to say good-bye.
Sibyl pressed the phone off with her thumb and sat staring at it, thinking maybe she should throw it through the window.
Sibyl was not a morning person and this morning was no exception. Her mother only exacerbated the problem.
Before she could engage in her violent act against the phone, Colin slid it out of her hand.
She didn’t watch him replace it in the receiver; she just plopped back on the pillows with a heavy sigh.
Her life was completely out-of-control and she only had herself to blame.
“That sounded like an interesting conversation,” Colin remarked.
Considering the fact that she’d only uttered a handful of words, and most of them were “Mom”, she threw him a killing look where only her eyes moved sideways but she didn’t speak.
When she didn’t, he did. “I imagine she wasn’t too thrilled when a man answered the phone first thing in the morning.”
“Oh no,” Sibyl replied, slowly closing her eyes. “One could say she was beside herself with glee.”
No response.
Sibyl opened her eyes again.
He was back to resting on his elbow, watching her with warm, inquisitive eyes.
She decided to ignore the warm, inquisitive eyes too. She didn’t want to think of a warm, inquisitive Colin. If she did, she might shiver again.
“My mother is…” How could she put it? “Odd.”
He decided that the conversation was finished and she knew this because his head began to descend.