“Where are you going?” Ann asked, her voice muffled by Heath’s shirt.
“Over to Carol’s, she’s back from North Carolina.”
“Okay to give us till around midnight?” Heath asked.
“Fine. See you then.”
Amy slipped out through the patio doors and Heath held Ann off to look at her.
“You’ve lost weight,” he said sternly.
“Just a couple of pounds. What did you expect, Heath? It was hell not being able to see you or even talk to you.” She flung her arms around his neck again and he kissed her forehead.
“How did you get in here?” Ann asked him. “Are you sure nobody saw you?”
“Princess, knock off the KGB stuff, will you, please? Your dad is not Big Brother, he can’t be watching everybody.”
“He was watching me. How do you think he found out about us?” Ann countered.
“I know, Amy told me, but I refuse to sneak around like a burglar just because your father has gone nuts.”
“Don’t underestimate him, Heath, he can hurt us if he wants to—he already has. We haven’t seen each other for a week!”
“Yeah, well I’m planning to do something about that,” Heath said grimly.
“What do you mean, Heath?” Ann asked, alarm in her tone. “You’re not going to do something stupid, are you?”
“Never mind. We’re together now, let’s enjoy it. Come on over here and sit down with me.” He took her by the hand and led her out to the ornate living room, where he sat on the sofa and Ann curled up in his lap.
“Spiffy place,” he said, looking around curiously. “Must be nice to have the bucks. Does your house look like this?”
“I guess so. Not quite. My mother’s taste is not as... well, gaudy.”
“What, no gold-fringed lampshades?”
“No.” Ann buried her nose under his collarbone and inhaled deeply of his scent. “I missed you so much,” she said as his arms came around her again. “Heath, what are we going to do? When will we see each other again?”
“Come on, Princess. We just got here and you’re worrying about that already?”
“Yes, I’m worrying about that already. I can’t think about anything else. I’m going back to school in ten days or so. What will happen then?”
“I’ll come and visit you at school.”
“Heath, don’t be ridiculous, that place is like Fort Knox. You practically have to take a blood test to show you’re a relative to get on the visitors list. I won’t be able to see you there.”
“Can’t you sneak off campus or something?”
“I can try. But if my father warns them, as he surely will, they’ll be watching me, supervising my every move. Oh, it’s all so complicated I can’t stand it.”
“We’ll work it out.”
“How? I don’t know what to do, and I’m afraid—” She stopped suddenly.
“What?” Heath said, stroking her hair.
“I’m afraid that you’ll get tired of this cloak-and-dagger routine, decide that I’m not worth it. After all, there are plenty of willing girls around and none of them have Henry Talbot for a father.”
“Oh, baby, no. Don’t think that. You’ll always be worth it, and your father isn’t going to keep us apart. I promise you that.” He turned her face up for his kiss, and it wasn’t long before they were prone on the sofa, the deprivation of the past week escalating into a hunger that neither one of than seemed able to control. Finally Heath tore himself away and sat up, pulling Ann’s clinging arms from his neck.
“Baby, we can’t do this,” he said breathlessly. “It’s not right, you’re just a kid...”
“Oh, and you’re Methuselah?”
“I know a lot more about life than you do, and I know you’re not ready for this.”
“Why?” Ann said, crawling into his lap again. “Am I such a baby? Do I feel like a baby?” She took his hand and placed it on her breast, leaning forward to kiss his neck inside the collar of his shirt.
He groaned and closed his eyes.
“Love me,” Ann whispered. “I need you so much. Love me now, please.”
He didn’t move.
Ann slipped her hand inside the waistband of his jeans and caressed him.
Heath moaned in response and let his head fall back in abandon. Ann worked on him, teasing him into a reaction he knew was reckless but could no longer avoid. In seconds Ann was pinned under him as he became the aggressor, taking the lead in a strong-arm instant that frightened but also thrilled her. He pulled her summer T-shirt over her head and tossed it onto the floor, disposing of her scrap of a bra moments later. He kissed the tanned skin of her bare throat, then moved lower, settling on the pink bud of her nipple. Ann sighed with pleasure and arched her back as he sucked gently, then she gasped as he increased the pressure. She tossed her head from side to side as his lips left her breast and traveled down to her navel, bared by the low waistband of her shorts. His tongue was hot, wet, and her whole being seemed concentrated in the nerve endings he was stimulating. She was flooded with warmth and desire. When he sat up abruptly she tried to hold him, but he slipped out of her grasp and tore off his shirt, then stepped out of his jeans. She averted her gaze as he undressed, then looked up as he moved to join her.
He was beautiful, his skin a smooth, even shade of light copper, a combination of his heritage and long hours spent in the sun. He was lean but not thin, his arms defined by long, ropy muscles, his abdomen flat, his legs long and trim.
She shuddered with skittish anticipation as he lowered himself to her again. Ann had never known a naked man’s full arousal, and she stiffened in shock as he embraced her and ran his hands down the length of her body.
He felt her reaction and said, “Easy, easy,” into her ear. Then he kissed her gently. The surprising softness of his mouth, his muscular arms binding her to him, lulled her back into his spell again. She relaxed as he twined his limbs with hers, turning her toward him and caressing her until she was eager and receptive once more. When she shifted instinctively and felt him ready against her, she pressed into him with an eager innocence that inflamed him. As he unzipped her shorts, she lifted her hips to help him remove her clothes, and then moaned with satisfaction when he slipped his hand between her legs.
“So sweet,” he murmured, and she sighed, her face flushed, her brow dewed with perspiration. He stroked her until she wound her legs around his hips, begging for the bliss of total union.
“Are you sure?” he muttered, and Ann looked up at him in a daze of passion, at the ruddy undertone of his amber-hued skin, the sweeping dark lashes shading his eyes. His mouth was moist and swollen from her kisses, parted to show a glimpse of white teeth. She leached up and sank her fingers into his lush hair.
“I love you, Heath. I’m sure.”
He pulled her to him tightly, then gasped as she touched him tentatively, encircling him with her fingers. He bit his lip as she trailed the fingers of her free hand over his abdomen, then stroked his thighs, sculpted with muscle. Her touch, light but probing, finally brought him to the limit of his endurance. With one swift movement he positioned her under him, looming above her, his skin hot to the touch and his body taut with tension.
“I want you,” he said hoarsely.
“I want you, too,” she whimpered, and he took her at her word, entering her in that moment.
Ann froze at the sudden pain, and Heath paused, then pulled back, enfolding her tenderly.
“Are you all right?” he gasped, fighting the overpowering urge to sink into her again.
“I don’t know,” she said in a small voice.
He rocked her until he felt the tension seep from her body and then began to caress her again, bringing her slowly back to the peak they had approached before. When he entered her the second time she went rigid, then sighed deeply, making a sound of fulfillment that echoed his own.
“Yes?” he said hoarsely, his face buried in the damp curve of her shoulder.
“Oh, yes,” she breathed in reply.
He took her at her word.
* * * *
“Are you awake?” Heath said softly.