The Millionaires' Club: David, Clint & Travis
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“Thanks, but loads of pretty women stay single. I think you date some of them.”
“True. But you look like the marrying kind. You love babies, for one thing. You like guys, for another.”
“I’m not touching that one. We really should keep things impersonal, sort of always on an employer-employee basis.”
His eyes gleamed. “I thought that when you arrived, but now I don’t know why we have to remain so businesslike. This may be a short-term employment.”
She shook her head. “There’s a good reason to keep our dealings with each other businesslike. I don’t want another relationship. No, impersonal is much better. So what are your hobbies, David?” she asked, growing hot beneath his blatant scrutiny and trying to get the conversation back to impersonal grounds, still too aware that he had just told her that she was attractive.
He smiled as if fully aware of her abrupt change in topic. “I like to jog and swim and ski and do calf roping and go dancing with pretty women. You like to go dancing, Marissa?”
“Yes, with a saint,” she replied, and his brow arched.
“A mere mortal won’t do? Dancing’s a pleasure. It doesn’t have to lead to binding entanglements.”
“You know the old adage about playing with fire,” she said.
“I think maybe you’re missing out on some enjoyment in life.”
“And you’re ready to fill in what’s missing?” she teased, unable to resist.
He grinned. “Saturday night. Let me take you dancing.”
“Whoa, cowboy! You’re going way to fast. Like you did this morning. No dancing Saturday night, thank you,” she replied, shaking her head but wanting to say yes instead. “David, I’ve been burned badly and I don’t want any kind of relationship.”
“I promise. Just a few hours of dancing. Think about it and I’ll ask you again later,” he said.
“Why do I get the feeling that you’re very accustomed to getting what you want?”
“Sometimes,” he said, giving her a level look, and she wondered when he hadn’t gotten his way.
“For now, we’re better off if we keep this situation very businesslike,” she repeated firmly.
“Whatever keeps my nanny happy is fine with me.” He shifted, placing one foot on his other knee. “What do your parents do?”
“They have a ranch near here for abandoned and mistreated animals.”
“Wow! That’s charitable. Is it a nonprofit business?”
“Yes. They have someone who runs the ranch for them. Actually, a staff of people. My parents spend most of their time either lobbying in Washington or on the lecture circuit.”
“How did they get into saving animals?”
“Dad is a veterinarian. Also, he had some patents that caught on and that gave them the income to start the ranch. The ranch has taken most of their income. Because it’s nonprofit, it’s cost them a lot.”
“That’s commendable, I suppose,” he said, and lapsed into silence.
“Want me to take Autumn now so you can go to bed and get some sleep?” she asked.
“That’s not a bad idea,” he said, coming up out of his chair with a fluid movement. She stood to take Autumn from him. He stood very close, gazing down at her.
“Good night, David,” she said emphatically, and took Autumn, walking quickly away from him to the rocker.
“’Night, Marissa. Holler if you want me, but holler loudly.” When he left the room, she wanted to wipe her hot brow. He was already flirting, and she could imagine that he saw her as an easy conquest and an easy way to pass the time and then go on his way and forget her. Too much like her ex-husband. David had said he had no intentions of ever marrying. No interest in commitment.
She did not stir the heart, soul and passion of men like Reed and David Sorrenson. She looked at the baby in her arms. No, she was the practical, somebody-to-rely-on-for-necessary-jobs person.
“Heart, stop beating so fast,” she whispered. She had to summon more resistance to David Sorrenson. Especially if he hung around the house and flirted, because she knew he meant nothing by it except the most casual fling. Why had she told him about the sperm bank and opened herself up to suggestions? He hadn’t come on so strong until after that tidbit of information.
She looked down at Autumn, who was blissfully sleeping. “Sweet baby, you’ve complicated my life, but I love you, anyway.” For the first time she realized that she might have a double heartbreak. If she had this job very long, she would suffer when she had to give Autumn up, even though she wanted the little baby to be with her mother.
They fell into a routine, with David leaving early in the morning to work on his ranch and coming in at night. But as the days of the first week in November passed and moved into the second week, he began staying at home more, coming in earlier, leaving later in the morning, spending time with Marissa and Autumn.
Under the same roof with David, spending increasing time each day and evening with him, Marissa knew she was attracted more than ever to him. Moments together, casual contacts, all were building banked fires of longing in her that she tried to ignore, yet failed miserably. She found his smoldering gaze on her often and wondered what was running through his thoughts. He flirted, he charmed, he entertained her, and he was becoming more irresistible than ever. Yet she knew she needed to guard her heart against all that sexy charm and appeal, or she’d suffer the same hurt she had before.
Dodging sniper’s bullets, David gritted his teeth and ran through the darkness across the uneven ground, away from the burning house that was a death trap. Even with the firefight going on, he heard the pistol shot ring out. Pain stabbed through him. He couldn’t move his feet, couldn’t breathe. He gasped for breath, wanting to scream, instead just gulping for air.
With a jerk, David sat up in his bed, disoriented for only a second, and then knowing he was in his room at the ranch, not halfway across the world, running for his life, having his heart torn out by the violent death of his best friend. He was sweating, the covers tangled where he had thrashed around during the familiar nightmare. He raked his fingers through his hair and studied the surroundings of his room, trying to get back to the world he was living in now and away from that hell that he couldn’t shake out of his memory. Would the nightmares ever end? he wondered. Then he became aware of a baby crying.
He listened, stretching out again and putting his hands behind his head. Finally silence settled, but images of Marissa, only a room away, scantily clad in a see-through nightie, danced in his mind. Sperm bank. It was more than a week ago that she had told him about her secret wish, but he couldn’t get it out of his mind. She shouldn’t have to go that route at all. Not with her looks.
“Yeah, right,” he said aloud in the dark. “Ready to volunteer?” he said to himself. He’d volunteer in a flash. She was sexy and appealing, and he knew there were times that he’d come on too strong, but he couldn’t resist flirting with her. Yet he had better curb that flirting. If he overcame her reluctance and they started dating, Marissa was looking for a long-term relationship. And he would never marry. He didn’t know how to deal with a family—except the way he was raised—and he would never do that to a wife or child. Some years he had rarely seen his father. That, and his dangerous lifestyle was still too close, too real. He was definitely not marriage material and Marissa definitely was.
Sperm bank—that was ridiculous. More images of Marissa in a nightie in bed in the adjoining room taunted him, and he turned on his side and closed his eyes and willed sleep to come.
After thirty minutes of tossing and turning he heard Autumn crying again and remembered what a time he’d had with the little baby the first night. He was tempted to go see if he could help, but he didn’t want to set a precedent that he would regret later.
Why couldn’t he sleep this past week when that first night all he had dreamed of was sleeping? And why had he put the baby bed in Marissa’s room? Now if he went to see about Autumn in the night, he’d be in Marissa’s bedroom. The thought made him hot.
Then the baby got quiet. Relieved, David stared at the ceiling while visions of Marissa in a nightie, rocking Autumn, plagued him. He tossed and turned for the next hour, finally falling into a fitful sleep. He stirred long before dawn, showered, dressed and left the house to pour himself into work.
Before going, he wrote a note for Marissa that he would return about six for supper.
“Get her out of your mind,” he said, striding across his yard through the early morning darkness.
During the morning and early afternoon, he managed to get her out of his thoughts for a few minutes at a time and finally decided he was going home at three.
He made all sorts of excuses to himself, but deep down, he knew he wanted to see Marissa.
When he entered the kitchen, Gertie had supper in the oven, the table set and she had gone home.
“I’m home!” he yelled, hanging up his hat and coat and feeling his eagerness grow to see Marissa and Autumn. There was no answer, so he went to the family room. Finding it empty, he walked through other rooms.
He climbed the stairs and at the top of the staircase called to her again, “Marissa.”
Wondering where Marissa and Autumn could be, he strolled down the hall. He was dusty from work and as he headed for a shower, he yanked off his T-shirt while he glanced into empty bedrooms.
Marissa’s door stood wide-open and David knocked lightly.
“Marissa?” he called. When no one answered, he stepped inside. Autumn lay on her back in the crib, sleeping, her tiny hands doubled into fists. Marissa was nowhere in sight. He crossed to the crib to look down at the sleeping baby.
“Hey, sweetie,” he said softly, and heard a gasp behind him.
He turned and froze as he faced Marissa.
Four
He had been hot before thinking about Marissa. Now he was on fire. With her hair in a towel, Marissa stood wrapped in a large, navy bath towel, and his imagination ran rampant. The only thing beneath that towel was Marissa’s warm, luscious body.
“You said you wouldn’t be home until six,” she said, the words little more than a whisper. She gazed back wide eyed at him. Under his steady, green-eyed scrutiny, Marissa was uncomfortably conscious of her state of undress.
“I didn’t know you were in the house,” she added, realizing she should move, get some clothes, do something except what she was doing—staring at him.
“I called and knocked on your door,” he said, but she was barely aware of his words.
He was shirtless and she couldn’t keep from staring at his muscled chest, which was sprinkled with curly black hair that tapered in a line to disappear into his jeans that still had the top button unfastened. The man was all solid muscles and tanned skin and sexy, male perfection. Her mouth went dry and her heart pounded. He was sinfully appealing.
As he crossed the room to her, she looked up to meet his gaze, which had unmistakable flames dancing in it. He stopped only inches from her.
She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow, couldn’t talk. Why had she taken this job? She hadn’t been here long and already she was turning to mush. Worse, he hadn’t touched her and she was melting. But the way he was looking at her would make any woman melt.
“Autumn’s asleep now,” he said in a soft, husky tone.
“Yes, she is,” Marissa whispered as his gaze dropped to her mouth. “I have to get dressed—”
“Marissa,” he interrupted, his voice dropping a notch deeper. Stepping closer, he slipped his hand behind her head, pulling away the towel that was around her hair. Thick locks of her dark blond hair spilled over her shoulders while his fingers wound in them and every touch stirred tingles.
With David’s hands on her, she couldn’t move away from him. All she could do was look into his eyes and see desire, a need for her that overwhelmed her.
“Move back, David,” she whispered finally, certain he could hear her heart drumming.
“Why? A kiss is inevitable.”
“No, it’s not,” she argued while her pulse raced. “Not while I’m standing here in a towel.”
“We could remedy that,” he said, and she clutched the towel she had knotted around her.
He hadn’t moved and stood looking at her with that hot, hungry gaze that immobilized her. He leaned down, and his lips brushed hers so lightly, a feathery touch, yet it was a flame. “David, we shouldn’t…” she whispered, trying again to find some resistance to him.
“Why the hell not?” he asked. “Don’t tell me no when you want to. I can see desire in your brown eyes. Ah, Marissa,” he drawled softly, “we’ve been headed this way since I opened my door to you.”
I’ve been headed this way since I was eleven years old, she thought, unable to put up any more argument.
He leaned close again, his mouth settling on hers, and Marissa knew she was lost. And for a few minutes she didn’t care. Stop him in a while, she thought. But for now, she was going to satisfy a lifetime of curiosity about the man. How many times she had dreamed of this moment! How many times she had imagined his kiss, fantasized that he noticed her, wanted her. This was something she had wanted too long, too badly to say no to instantly. Enjoy the moment, she told herself, and then the thought dissolved, replaced by feeling.
David slipped his arm around Marissa’s waist, moving closer, his tongue touching her lips and then sliding into her mouth, stroking her tongue. She tasted sweet, hot, a golden torment, and a satisfaction that settled in his heart in a way he could never have imagined would be possible. She was a softness in his life that had been hard and harsh and on an edge. Yet here was sunlight, warmth, a woman to savor.
He tightened his arms, his kiss trying to devour his discovery, a blinding moment that transformed and shook him to the foundation of his being. Her softness was a promise of warmth that he had searched for as far back as memory stretched.
Marissa slid her hands across his sculpted chest, which was hard with muscles, coarse chest hair tickling her palms. Her hands went over his strong shoulders, feeling the slight ridge of scar tissue along his left shoulder, and then she wrapped her arms around his neck. Her toes curled, her heart pounded and her willpower crumbled.
When she wound her arms around his neck, his arms tightened around her and his kiss deepened. She kissed him in return, the roaring of her pulse drowning out all sounds, fiery tingles spinning inside, her world and her senses turning upside down.
She stood on tiptoe, past fantasies firing her kiss. David’s kiss was all she had dreamed of and so much more! She had opened Pandora’s box today and trouble of every kind was cascading down on her, yet what delicious trouble for the moment!
Feeling his reaction to her body and her kiss, she trembled, clinging to him.
This was David Sorrenson kissing her. David—man of dreams, girlish and otherwise.
He raised his head slightly. “Marissa,” he whispered, and then he ducked down again, his mouth covering hers, his kiss as hot and passionate as the one before.
He bent over her, his fingers winding in her hair, his one arm still tightly banding her waist. She continued to return his kiss as need escalated, a sweet torment. She knew she should stop, yet she knew she couldn’t stop. She had waited a lifetime for this moment and it had been worth the wait. Dreams burst into spectacular life.
Never had a kiss been like this. Never before had a kiss made her tremble, turned her insides instantly to jelly.
He had brought her into a world of fireworks and thrills. She tangled her fingers in his thick, soft hair, felt the warm column of his neck. She wanted to run her fingers across his marvelous chest, to make him react to her the way she was reacting to him.
As she stood on tiptoe and held him, she kissed him back, putting all she could into her kiss. And then, as if coming out of a fog, she realized what she was doing. This was the rush to heartbreak, to falling for another man who didn’t take relationships seriously.
Clutching the towel around her, she pushed lightly against his chest, feeling his rock-hard muscles, wanting just the opposite of what she was doing.
Gazing intently at her, he backed away. The hunger in his green eyes made clear how much he wanted her, and his breathing was as ragged as hers. He ran his hand from her neck, down her back to her waist, and she was too aware that she wore only a bath towel.
“We have to stop now,” she whispered.
“Maybe,” he answered, stroking her cheek. He picked up tendrils of her hair and wound them in his fingers, and her scalp tingled from the faint touch. “It’s just kisses, Marissa,” he said. “It’s exciting to get to know each other.”
“It’s safer to avoid getting to know each other very well.”
“Safer?” His brows arched. “Don’t take life so seriously. You liked being kissed and I liked it. Deny that one.”
“I can’t. But I don’t want to get all involved,” she said, too aware she was standing arguing with him when she was almost naked.
“How about I promise that we won’t. Just kisses, some good companionship. Where’s the harm in that?”
“The harm is wanting more. Your kisses might be addictive.” She was becoming annoyed with him now. “You think there’s no danger of either of us getting hurt or falling in love or anything that complicates life?”
“Absolutely not. Remember, you want a saint. I’m no saint,” he answered lightly.
“Somehow that doesn’t reassure me.” She stepped back, sliding her hand down to his forearm. His hands dropped to her waist as they stood gazing at each other. “You’re so sure you won’t get hurt when I leave?”
“Past history tells me I’m sure,” he said, his expression becoming solemn. “The last years of my life, I’ve avoided commitment because of the dangers I’ve faced. I’ve done that until it’s a habit. I don’t want commitment. You don’t want commitment. So let’s relax and enjoy each other’s company and have a little pleasure in our lives.”
“David Sorrenson,” Marissa began, her temper spiking, “someday, whether you want to or not, you’re going to fall in love. You can’t always go through life starting relationships and then waltzing out of them. Sometime, somewhere, you’re going to get your heartstrings snagged and then you’ll see why I’m wary, why it hurts so much.”
He traced his fingers along the top edge of the towel, across the soft rise of her breasts, and she inhaled, gasping for air as if the walls were closing in on her. “You’re way too solemn. Lighten up,” he said quietly while his caresses were stirring her again and making her want to step right back into his arms.
She ran her fingers lightly over the jagged scar on his left shoulder. “How’d you get this?”
When his expression changed, she knew he had just shut part of himself off from her. “In the military. I was shot,” he said brusquely.
She inhaled sharply, realizing how tough he could be and what risks he had probably taken. His terse answer led her to believe he didn’t want to talk about what had caused his wound. It had broken through the spell he had wrapped around her in the past few minutes.
“I have to get dressed,” she declared. “You need to go.”
“Ah, give me one more minute,” he said softly, and she knew he was going blithely on with his intentions just as he had the morning when he had hired her on the spot and gotten everything he wanted.
Slipping his arm around her waist again, he lifted her curtain of long hair and moved it to one side. When he trailed kisses across her nape, she closed her eyes. Her breasts tingled, an ache deep inside her increased, and she had a fiery need to turn into his arms.
With deliberation she stepped back and pointed at the door.
“Now, leave my room.”
His gaze drifted slowly over her, taking in every inch and setting every nerve in her body quivering. “If you insist,” he said. When he kissed her, he had dropped the T-shirt he had been carrying. He scooped it up and gave her another lingering, hot look. “I’m going to shower. Looks and smells like you just did. We could have done it together,” he added with a twinkle in his eyes.
“You’re wicked, David.”
With a cocky grin, he turned to saunter out of her room.
She rushed to close the door behind him as if demons were after her and felt as though her own little demon of desire was threatening to catch her.
Marissa moved around the room, getting dressed in fresh jeans and a blue shirt, thinking about the past few minutes, remembering the most fabulous kisses she had ever experienced, wondering what David was thinking.
Breathtaking kisses or not, she had no intention of falling in love with him. He would be another heartbreak. He had made it painfully clear that he wasn’t into commitment. She wanted a relationship and she knew she wasn’t going to change. But what kisses! Her heart pounded as she remembered them. He was sexy and charming and he cared about Autumn, a baby he barely knew.
Could she do what he had suggested—lighten up on life? Go dancing, kiss, walk away in a week or whenever the time came and not care? She knew she couldn’t. She sighed. He probably saw her as stiff-necked, fearful, holding out for a commitment. She didn’t know how he saw her, but she couldn’t stop being the way she was.
If they parted tomorrow, how long would it take for him to forget her—a day, two days, a week? On the other hand, now that they had kissed, how long would it take her to forget him? A lifetime, she suspected.
Marissa shook her head. Life wasn’t fair. But it would be a lot more fair to her if she took care to guard her heart the way David did his. His was locked in the deep freeze and no one woman was going to get close to it.
In the past few minutes he had fixed it so she was in knots, and tonight would probably be dreadful. This past year she had been sleeping soundly night after night because she had gotten over the trauma of her divorce. And now she would have to do something to shut out memories of David’s kisses. But not quite yet. For a little while she could enjoy the moment and remember. They weren’t in love, and she wasn’t in any danger yet.
“David,” she whispered, pulling on her clothes and turning to comb her hair.
In the shower David washed his hair, letting his thoughts run free. He was going to talk Marissa into going out with him this Saturday night. He couldn’t wait to get her all to himself.
“Slow it down, buddy,” he told himself beneath the splashing water. He knew Marissa’s whole intent would be marriage and he didn’t want that. Why couldn’t the woman just go out for a few dates? That’s all.
The thought conjured up memories of her kisses, and the nether regions below his waist grew hot again, desire tormenting him as he remembered her soft body in his arms. The bath towel was too slight a covering, he had felt her warmth through it. When he had let his hand drift down to her waist, he had wanted to slide his hand beneath the towel, down over her bottom and back up. Just thinking about her, he was getting all hot and bothered again. David tried to shift his thoughts elsewhere to chores he needed to do on the ranch. Thoughts of cattle lasted about ten seconds until memories of Marissa nudged them away again.
She was so scared of getting hurt that she had shut herself away from the world. Her divorce was two years ago—that was plenty of time for her to get on with life. David sighed and shook his head. Why was he having such a reaction to her? He had dated dozens of beautiful women and he hadn’t been all tied in knots by them.
Marissa was different from all those women. There was a down-to-earth manner about her, a deep sense of nurturing where Autumn was concerned, a practical, no-nonsense approach to life. And there were her kisses that had all but melted him into a puddle. He couldn’t recall having as intense a reaction to any woman’s kiss as he’d had to Marissa’s.