begun to drift away when he reached out and shook her.
“Kerry, for goodness sake! You can’t sleep here,” he groaned, pulling her to her feet. “Come on, concentrate for a bit longer until I get you to a day bed.”
He pushed the door open as he spoke and led her through to the relaxation area. It was empty. She looked around dazedly.
“Is Maggie still sorting out her deliveries?”
“No. She’s having a well-deserved coffee break,” he stripped off her damp towels as he spoke and wrapped her in a long toweling robe as if she were a parcel to be posted, seemingly unaware of the intimacy of his actions.
“I offered to take over because we never leave the Spa unattended and besides I wanted a chance to talk to you uninterrupted.” He tightened the sash at her waist and then kept hold of the ends and pulled her to him.
The inflection in his voice combined with the hardening of his body as he pressed against her made her heart jump. Things hadn’t changed after all. He still wanted her, still loved her. Tentatively she wound her arms about his neck feeling the muscles across his shoulders ripple as he bent towards her, and when his mouth found hers, she was waiting.
His skin was hot from the sauna and his hair slicked into damp curls as she raked it with suddenly impatient fingers, her kisses wild from three years of hunger. Passion fizzed between them, fusing his mouth to hers as his tongue darted and danced across the line of her teeth before plunging deeper. Then he plucked at the sash he’d fastened so carefully a few moments earlier, and the touch of his hands on her bare skin drove her beyond the barriers of commonsense to the point where the sensations firing her body were the only reality. With a low cry she rubbed herself against him, her hardened nipples brushing the damp whorls of hair that covered his chest. With a sharp intake of breath he pushed the robe away from her shoulders and printed kisses on the soft curves of her skin.
She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on the pinpoints of fire that began to blaze across her body as his mouth travelled lower, the rasp of his cheek against the velvet softness of her breast creating a whole new range of sensations that set her fingers exploring an achingly familiar path.
With a sound that was half anger and half despair, Pierce scooped her up and pressed her tightly to him. Then he set her down on the day bed, pulled her robe together and covered her with towels.
“I must be totally mad! Why the hell do you always have this effect on me?” His face was flushed and furious as he reached for another robe from the pile beside the door and thrust his arms into its sleeves. He was only just in time. He was still knotting the sash when Maggie burst in through the door with a smile that quickly faded into embarrassed disbelief. Pierce took command of the situation with commendable mastery although Kerry could still hear the note of frustration in his voice.
“I’ve just been practicing my life saving skills because Kerry was doing a very good imitation of drowning when I found her.”
It worked like a charm, instantly distracting Maggie from the tense atmosphere and turning her into a concerned professional. “Whatever happened? Did you faint or something?”
“I think she’s just over-tired. She’s been under a lot of strain recently,” Pierce answered for Kerry as if she were a particularly dim-witted child. He sounded bored and disinterested now that he could hand her over and by the time he’d retrieved his wet clothes from the sauna Maggie was fussing over Kerry as if she were an invalid.
* * *
Kerry drifted in and out of sleep, listening to the sounds from the next room with a detached sense of reality. She could hear the monotonous undertone of the television news, the clink of a glass as someone poured a drink, and there were muffled voices too. Was one of them Pierce? She couldn’t tell and anyway she didn’t care,
“Kerry, for goodness sake! You can’t sleep here,” he groaned, pulling her to her feet. “Come on, concentrate for a bit longer until I get you to a day bed.”
He pushed the door open as he spoke and led her through to the relaxation area. It was empty. She looked around dazedly.
“Is Maggie still sorting out her deliveries?”
“No. She’s having a well-deserved coffee break,” he stripped off her damp towels as he spoke and wrapped her in a long toweling robe as if she were a parcel to be posted, seemingly unaware of the intimacy of his actions.
“I offered to take over because we never leave the Spa unattended and besides I wanted a chance to talk to you uninterrupted.” He tightened the sash at her waist and then kept hold of the ends and pulled her to him.
The inflection in his voice combined with the hardening of his body as he pressed against her made her heart jump. Things hadn’t changed after all. He still wanted her, still loved her. Tentatively she wound her arms about his neck feeling the muscles across his shoulders ripple as he bent towards her, and when his mouth found hers, she was waiting.
His skin was hot from the sauna and his hair slicked into damp curls as she raked it with suddenly impatient fingers, her kisses wild from three years of hunger. Passion fizzed between them, fusing his mouth to hers as his tongue darted and danced across the line of her teeth before plunging deeper. Then he plucked at the sash he’d fastened so carefully a few moments earlier, and the touch of his hands on her bare skin drove her beyond the barriers of commonsense to the point where the sensations firing her body were the only reality. With a low cry she rubbed herself against him, her hardened nipples brushing the damp whorls of hair that covered his chest. With a sharp intake of breath he pushed the robe away from her shoulders and printed kisses on the soft curves of her skin.
She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on the pinpoints of fire that began to blaze across her body as his mouth travelled lower, the rasp of his cheek against the velvet softness of her breast creating a whole new range of sensations that set her fingers exploring an achingly familiar path.
With a sound that was half anger and half despair, Pierce scooped her up and pressed her tightly to him. Then he set her down on the day bed, pulled her robe together and covered her with towels.
“I must be totally mad! Why the hell do you always have this effect on me?” His face was flushed and furious as he reached for another robe from the pile beside the door and thrust his arms into its sleeves. He was only just in time. He was still knotting the sash when Maggie burst in through the door with a smile that quickly faded into embarrassed disbelief. Pierce took command of the situation with commendable mastery although Kerry could still hear the note of frustration in his voice.
“I’ve just been practicing my life saving skills because Kerry was doing a very good imitation of drowning when I found her.”
It worked like a charm, instantly distracting Maggie from the tense atmosphere and turning her into a concerned professional. “Whatever happened? Did you faint or something?”
“I think she’s just over-tired. She’s been under a lot of strain recently,” Pierce answered for Kerry as if she were a particularly dim-witted child. He sounded bored and disinterested now that he could hand her over and by the time he’d retrieved his wet clothes from the sauna Maggie was fussing over Kerry as if she were an invalid.
* * *
Kerry drifted in and out of sleep, listening to the sounds from the next room with a detached sense of reality. She could hear the monotonous undertone of the television news, the clink of a glass as someone poured a drink, and there were muffled voices too. Was one of them Pierce? She couldn’t tell and anyway she didn’t care,
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