Total Package, page 16
“How dare you capture my family!”
Now, he’d really enjoyed that. And the knowledge that eventually, Sidney would come hunting them, the woman who had caused him to lose his temper, his patience and could cause him to argue. “They seem to like it. Roy is enjoying himself. You must really bully them, or else they would have told you where they were.”
“I never—Okay, sometimes I have to keep them from running over me, because I’m the youngest. My dad’s name is Bulldog, and you shouldn’t pick on an old man…. I—”
She was staring at him and in that instant, Danya felt the air between them still, then heat slowly and swirl, binding him to her. Oh, no, he thought helplessly, as he picked up the pace. He wasn’t getting all caught up in his passion for her, for the tenderness she could wrap around his heart—not this time, not without settling what brewed between them. He couldn’t let her take even more of his pride—“nailing” him on the spot without some kind of admission that she really did love him—
“Where are we going?”
He wasn’t going to let her take him so quickly this time, Danya promised himself firmly, not before they had settled that he loved her and he’d asked her to marry him, and she’d walked out after giving him a whole lot of herself in every way…. He’d awakened during the nights since then, dreaming about her welcoming body, that tight moist pulse of her, the sweet way she’d given herself to him—several times. No woman should ever make love to a man like that, then walk off and leave him, he decided darkly. “Someplace private to talk.”
“There’s plenty of beach right here.”
Danya glanced at the tall beach grass that could provide privacy for lovemaking. “I don’t think so. If you’re going to yell at me, the wind would carry it. It just could speed up the game your sisters are already losing.”
“Fine, then.”
“Fine.”
At his house, Sidney steamed up the steps leading from the beach. In her wake, Danya was left to admire the sway of her bottom, the long, slender strength of her legs. On his deck now, a wooden expanse with a view of Strawberry Hill from huge lawn chairs, she noted the checkerboard on the table between them. Sidney paused at the doorway leading into the house and stared at the newly installed hot tub.
“What’s that? That wasn’t here last time.”
“Things change. Or most things do,” he added curtly. The hot tub overlooking the ocean and Amoteh was where he’d treated his abused muscles after trying to work Sidney out of his system, the need to go after her…where he’d sat for two weeks and brooded about her and listened for the call she should have made…. Danya opened the sliding door for her, gesturing her inside with that gallant sweep of his hand—
His hand hesitated in mid air just above that delectable curved bottom and just then, inside his home, Sidney pivoted to him. She glanced at his open hand and at his expression, and backed away. “You wouldn’t dare. Don’t you dare.”
“Do what?” he asked with a touch of the nastiness he felt as he took a step toward her and once inside, slid the door closed behind him. Since Sidney was backing up, he decided he might as well press his advantage—he moved toward her and watched her eyes widen as she backed away a few more feet.
“Never mind. I thought for a minute you were—”
“Going to spank you? Never crossed my mind, Sid,” he stated honestly. He didn’t like the dark primitive urge within him to take her now, to wipe away any other man, to let her know that she was a part of him now. New to jealousy, Danya didn’t like how he was feeling. Great, just great…offer a woman a home and love and she runs to a former lover.
“Um…okay then.” She continued backing nervously away from him into the center of the living room. “Who plays checkers? I saw the board outside.”
“Roy does. He likes to sit in the evening and play checkers. Sometimes Fadey or my father comes over and they like to watch the sun go down together. Some of the boys Roy has met on the beach like to come over, too. Leigh’s younger brother, Ryan, has a crush on your sisters—he can’t make up his mind which one—but he’s here a lot, talking about surfing—which apparently they like, too.”
“I imagine your cousins know how to surf, too?”
Danya smiled at that. Sergei and Kiril frequently took breaks from their Montana ranch and had won a few amateur trophies in Hawaii and Australia. “A little.”
Sidney was furious now, turning on him. “You can’t set up my family like this, Danya, just to get at me.”
“I just told them that they were welcome here. They seemed to like it. I’ve got plenty of room, you know.” He thought of Sidney in that big bed in his bedroom, of how much he wanted her there, snuggled close to him.
Or here. Or with him, in any way she wanted him.
Her next question startled him. “So where do I bunk?”
With me. At least you need me there and there’s no denying that… Instead Danya said, “Anywhere you want.”
In bed, they were compatible—it was the other times that Danya intended to smooth out—but pride demanded that Sidney meet him halfway….
Sidney noted the new pool table standing alongside one wall, the cue sticks standing in the rack nearby. She studied the new living room furniture, heavy dark wood with subtle melon and brown fabric cushions. Two large Stepanov-styled chairs with cushions and footstools sat in front of the panel with the big screen television, a checkerboard table sat between them. She sniffed delicately, then trailed her hand over the new pool table on her way into the kitchen where Danya was cooking the family’s pot roast dinner in his slow cooker.
When she came out, Danya said, “You’re welcome to stay for dinner, if you want.”
Sidney looked as if she hadn’t eaten a decent meal; she looked terrified, as if her world was slipping away and she was all alone and vulnerable. He wouldn’t beg—Stay. Work this out. I know you’re scared and doubting, but just give us a chance…and don’t run away again, or this time, I just might come after you….
Danya wiped the Seagull Perch’s gleaming bar. At ten o’clock in the evening, he’d given Sam, the bartender, the rest of the night off. Throughout dinner, the Blakelys had been too quiet; the sisters and Bulldog had seemed uneasy. Sidney wasn’t making things easy, sending dark accusing looks as she ate at the table with them. Deciding that the whole family could vent much easier without his presence, Danya had excused himself to let the Blakelys’ tense, brewing argument ripen fully.
Clearly, Sidney considered them to be deserters: “You should have let me know where you were at—if you just had to stay here. Touch-points, remember? One of the Blakely family rules? Everybody knows where everybody else is?” she’d demanded darkly.
Clearly the sisters weren’t relenting and after losing the volleyball games with Sergei and Kiril, they were feeling nasty: “Lay off, Sid. Bulldog likes it here, the whole baby and kid thing. We couldn’t just desert him…he’d be all alone. He needed our support, because we’re team players. And babysitting isn’t that bad.”
Sidney had done that blinking, take-two thing she did when she was stunned. “Huh? You baby-sit?”
“Danya does. If a man does it, why can’t we? And by the way, sister dear, in order to get you by himself, he promised his cousins that he’d baby-sit for a week if they’d keep their wives from moving in on you.”
Sidney had turned to Danya. “You did that?”
“Hey, I like to baby-sit,” he’d said, defending himself.
“So you planned even that—”
He’d left at that point and Bulldog had followed him out onto the deck. “This could get nasty,” Bulldog stated uneasily. “Think I’ll just go over to Fadey and Mary Jo’s and see if I can rummage up a checker game. I’d advise you to go somewhere safe since Sidney’s on the warpath. She’s a scrappy little thing, like her mother, and can hold her own against both Stretch and Junior if it comes to that. Better let my girls settle their own hash.”
Danya placed the glasses he’d just washed onto the Seagull Perch’s bar just as the door opened and Sidney entered. Her eyes locked instantly, defiantly with Danya’s. Every man in the bar turned to watch her.
But then, any man would notice a curvy woman wearing a black spandex sports bra and snug black tights and worn work boots. The men who looked too long met Sidney’s fierce What Are You Looking At, Bozo? glare.
She walked to the pool table, chalked up a cue stick, and began shooting. When she took her shots, bending over the table, the tight sports bra did little but enhance the swell of her breasts and men stared at that soft rounded backside, the sleek feminine legs below it.
Every man in the place stared at that soft bottom as she bent over the table and the women with them were irritated at the distraction.
Danya remembered that she hadn’t worn any underclothing at the social—
“Bar is closed,” he announced loudly as he whipped the bar towel over his shoulder and walked to the door, opening it. “Everyone out.”
Sidney continued to shoot expertly, smoothly, ignoring the people who were grumbling and emptying the bar.
Danya closed the door and came to lean against the wall, watching her shoot pool. Over her shoulder, Sidney said, “I thought I’d walk you home.”
Danya took in the curved line of her body as she lined up a shot, legs braced, elbow up as her hand gripped the cue stick, other arm extended, finger hooked to form a bridge around the stick, hand flattened to the pool tables green cloth. “Nice getup.”
“Thanks. My usual when playing seriously—nothing to get in the way.”
“You smell like lemon.”
“Polished the vanity in your room. That beeswax-and-lemon stuff of Mary Jo’s is really good. While we were at it, Stretch and Junior and I polished all the furniture in the house. Odd house—the walls are totally bare, not that much furniture either.”
“You came here to tell me I need a decorator?”
“No, I came to tell you that your cousins have got my sisters in a snit. They hate losing. I just hope you’re enjoying it.”
Bulldog had been right—when the sisters got into an argument, it was better to hole up, away from the flurry. “So how did that go? Your sisters and you?”
“We worked out a few kinks.” She chalked her cue stick and looked at him. “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? For Stretch and Junior and Bulldog to like it here? You seduced them, didn’t you? Now was that fair?”
“Seemed like a good idea. You’re mad about that, are you?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Too bad. They’re enjoying themselves and I like having them around.”
“Sure. Nightly poker and checker games, fantastic dinners, a hot tub, sailing—it’s a regular playground around here. At this rate, they’ll never get back to their careers. That was underhanded, Stepanov.”
“That’s their choice. So how is your work going?”
She angled a shot, bounced the ball off the cushioned rim to nudge another ball into the pocket. “Haven’t been. Seems I’m out of focus. That hasn’t happened to me before.”
Danya sat to watch and placed his boots up on the table nearby. He considered her bottom as she took a shot. “Wearing anything under that?”
Sidney stopped to look at him. “Not a thing.”
Danya decided to go straight for the problem between them. “If you think that getup is going to make me forget that you walked off and left me, didn’t call, or send me flowers, you’re dead wrong. You came at me too fast last time, and I wasn’t prepared for that, but now I am.”
“I wasn’t exactly expecting that first time, either. I was feeling—unusual. And you bought a house, and everyone knew that you had someone in mind to live in it with you.”
“You came here, in that getup to have it out, didn’t you? I explained that to you before: it was a good price and a good time. I’m a house sort of guy, whether anyone lives in it with me, or not. Maybe I did have big ideas about you. Maybe they’re gone now.”
“You’re bristling, Stepanov. You’re usually Mr. Cool and Easy.”
“You’ve changed things, brought out the worst in me.” Danya thought of how Sidney had been, coming at him full speed on the dance floor; he shouldn’t have taken her that night, but he did and now the relationship-road was bumpy and filled with potential hazards. In fact, Sidney was a real hazard—unpredictable and very fast, once she’d made up her mind.
He stood and moved around the tavern, closing it for the night, leaving only the light above the pool table.
She watched him chose a cue stick from the rack and chalk it. “It seems like a hundred years ago.”
“Maybe to you. You’ve been on the move. Running scared, I’d say.”
In the shadows, Sidney’s face caught the red light blinking from the window’s neon sign. “My family has changed. We’ve never been together in a house before. It’s usually a hotel, or a suite or camping.”
“Maybe you’re the one who’s changed. Eight ball?” Danya racked the balls, the eight ball in the center of the triangle. “Take the break,” he said, indicating the cue ball which would be shot into the triangle of solid and striped balls. “Solids or stripes?”
Sidney turned to him and placed her cue stick aside. “You,” she said simply. “I want you. A rematch where you get that romance you need.”
Because Danya was off balance, feeling delicate after being poleaxed by Sidney once again, he needed to think through his reaction to her “rematch.” Danya lined up the cue ball and shot forcefully into the triangle. The balls spread across the green baize surface of the table. He circled the table, angled for a shot and pocketed two balls. “Just like that. You want me. Drop into Amoteh, visit with your family, and then have me. Now that is really interesting. I’ll tell you what I want—you to stick around long enough to go to my aunt and uncle’s wedding anniversary at the end of the week. They like you, the whole family does. Think of it as a—”
He looked directly at her before taking another shot and took a leap that could frighten her. “As a date. Just a family get-together, food, fun and folk dancing. It would mean a lot to my father to see you there.”
“But would it mean a lot to you?” Sidney asked hesitantly and moved to place her hands on his chest, looking up at him, her eyes filling with him.
Cautious of his reaction to her closeness, that unique woman-scent arousing him, Danya moved away from her to pocket more balls, shooting both solids and stripes because he was afraid he’d move too fast with her…and because he was frustrated, two emotions that he rarely had known before Sidney. He pocketed the eight ball last and then turned to her. “I’m not asking for a thing. Everything is your decision. But here’s how I see it: We moved too fast, sex was good, but the foundation was poor. For my part, I said once that I’d take what I could get, and I still mean that.”
Danya tossed his cue stick to the pool table on his way to Sidney, and tugged her into his arms.
She met his hunger with her own, her lips feasting on his, parted for him, slanted to fit, her arms locked around his neck. Danya cupped the back of her head with one hand, holding her tight against him with his other arm, his hand open and digging in possessively. It had been too long…and Sidney was everything, soft and fragrant and hungry, making those sweet little noises at the back of her throat. When his arms went around her waist, lifting her off the floor, Sidney held him tight.
Then she pushed him slightly away, and her hands framed his face. “This isn’t right,” she whispered unevenly.
Danya caressed her bottom, drawing her tight against his need. “It feels right.”
“When we first met, you said you needed romance. Foreplay, after play, all that stuff. And you like lovemaking, not just hurried sex. You’re very thorough in everything you do. I’m not. I’m more of an—an observer, not moving into life, rather hurrying along the perimeter, taking what I can get.”
Her earnest expression caught him and he sensed that Sidney was on the brink of some new plan—and that made him uneasy. Was she getting ready to leave already? “So?”
“So, I’d like to try getting into the stream of things, explore opportunities, yada, yada. In spite of you nabbing my family and changing them, you deserve more than a hit and run affair—that’s what I’m geared for, or was. This time, I’d like a little more time to—smell those roses. I’m sure not on the rebound from Ben now, and I’d like a rematch, Stepanov. If my family can live with you, I guess I can, too—just to see what happens. Is it a deal?”
“You living with me? I can handle that,” he agreed slowly as he lowered her to the floor. Sidney seemed uneasy and he pressed—“And? What else?”
She lay close to him, her head resting on his chest, as if she’d come home from a very long journey. Danya closed his arms around her, nuzzled her hair, and got a little dizzy with pleasure. “Whatever is bothering you, sweetheart, we’ll work through it.”
“What if I—what if I can’t make it here? What if I don’t fit in?”
“Then I’ll love you.”
“No promises, Danya. All I can do is to try. But I—I guess I just might love you, too.”
His throat tightened with emotion, but he managed a rough, “Good enough.”
“I’d sure like to make love now, Danya,” she whispered unevenly.
“Oh, you would, would you?” he asked as he picked Sidney up in his arms and started up the stairs leading to the area above the tavern.
“Just to—you know to cement the deal, me living with you. You love this, don’t you? Playing macho man when I’m perfectly able to—”
In the barren spacious area above the bar, Danya placed her on her feet, letting her choose the moment to come to him. Sidney walked slowly around the room, passing the huge Stepanov bed sometimes used for guests. Then her silhouette crossed in front of the massive windows and her booted feet walked across the squares of moonlight painted on the bare wooden boards. She stopped and braced one boot on a chair, unlacing it and then doing the same with the other, dropping them to the floor in turn. Moving gracefully, she removed her clothing and slowly crossed the distance of the night’s shadows to Danya. “I missed you so much—”
