Lotus Blossom by Hayton Monteith Page B

as she faced him across the large master bedroom with the mammoth square bed between them. She saw his eyes go over the bed, then raise to her face. She could feel the heat in his face as he continued to watch her. “You’re not an Oriental . . .” she told him, feeling out of breath, “. . . but you are pretty inscrutable yourself.”
    Dash swallowed, feeling the corners of his mouth lift. “You know where I want you to stay. It’s up to you. It will always be up to you. For the rest of our lives, if that’s what you want, where you sleep, my sweet, will be up to you, but I won’t want you to sleep alone . . . without me.”
    That had been a long speech for Dash and one which had rocked her to her toe nails. “Well, I’ll look ... at the other rooms . . . and make up my mind.” She watched him, not even aware that she had been holding her breath until he nodded, and she exhaled a gust of air.
    He held out his hand to her. “Let’s look at the others, then, shall we?”
    Lotus watched him come around the bed toward her, her hand coming up and fitting with his. “Let’s.” She felt warm and comfortable as she walked with him out of the bedroom, down a long hall of the suite to a wider corridor that led to another section of the apartment.
    Dash held her small hand in his, feeling his pulse accelerate each time her flesh pressed to his. He felt like an adolescent with her! She aroused him just by holding his hand. He barely took note of the rooms they passed in and out of, his whole being on alert, waiting to hear her say that she was staying in the Rose Room or the Sapphire Room or . . .
    She stopped in front of him at the top of the curving staircase that would take them down to the foyer. “All in all, I would judge your bedroom, with its sitting room, dressing room, oversized shower, hot tub et al. to be the best room, so I’ll stay there.” She could feel her lips part in surprise as red slashed his face, the bones pushing out the flesh as though they would come through the skin, his mouth moving harshly against his teeth.
    "Will you now?” His voice was soft as he leaned down to her and clasped his hands under her buttocks and lifted her up his body.
    “Yes.” Lotus felt reckless as she reached one finger to trace his eyebrows and down his nose. “What do you think of that?”
    “I approve . . . just because the suite has a hot tub, an oversized shower, a sitting room, and a dressing room,” Dash said, imitating her and struggling to keep his blood pressure from going through the top of his head.
    “Naturally,” Lotus said and smiled, then leaned forward two inches and placed her mouth on his. “Have I told you that your lips surprise me?” “No,” Dash mumbled.
    “They do. You really have a very tough mouth, but your lips are silky. I like that,” Lotus told him, placing her mouth on his again, feeling his move against hers. “Nice.”
    “Thank you,” he said and groaned. “I want to please you.” His arms tightened on her, his one hand still remaining under her backside, his other hand roving from her shoulder to her coccyx.
    “Do I please you?” It shocked Lotus that she would ever be coy. It was not her nature. She had always been straightforward and had shunned artifice. Even when she had been a little girl, she had bluntly told her mother that she wouldn’t wear ruffles, that she preferred a T-shirt and baseball hat. Though her mother had bitten her lip over this, Lotus was allowed to play baseball and basketball with her brothers and bike all over town in jeans. With Dash she wanted to bat her eyelashes, slather her body with perfume, and dance an exotic dance of the East just for him!
    “Very much, my sweet.” He carried her along the hall and made the turn into the smaller corridor that led to his suite.
    Lotus sighed and settled her head on his shoulder. A thought struck her and she glanced at her watch. “Lord, I forgot to call my brothers.” She wriggled against