Love by Proxy by Diana Palmer

chest.
    “Just stand still,” he murmured softly. He eased the gown down to her waist while she trembled at the newness of a man’s eyes on her body, and then he moved away and looked until she blushed.
    “If I didn’t have to see Terie,” he said softly, “I’d carry you to the bed and strip you, and I’d let you feel my mouth on every inch of your body.”
    Her lips trembled. Her body trembled. She was being burned by a fever she’d never experienced in her life, at the mercy of unfamiliar hungers. “H…here, too?” she whispered, and brushed her fingers against her breast.
    “Especially, there,” he said. He caught her waist and lifted her up, so that her breasts were within a breath of his mouth. His lips parted and he brought her close, swallowing one taut, trembling nipple in the moist warmth of his mouth, savoring it.
    She arched backward, her hands holding his thick, dark hair, holding his mouth over her, and she moaned.
    His breath quickened, as if the sound aroused him. Blind, deaf and dumb, she felt him lift her, carry her, toss her onto the bed. And she suddenly felt cold and alone.
    Her eyes opened, to find him standing over her with dark, unreadable eyes in a face like stone as he looked down at her partial nudity.
    “That,” he said quietly, “is highly addictive and leads to a kind of exercise you haven’t experienced yet. I’m not in the market for a sensual virgin, Amy, although I’m flattered by the offer.”
    With tremendous dignity, she sat up and replaced her bodice, trying not to let him see the tears that were welling in her eyes.
    She even smiled, although she didn’t look at him. “Oh, well, you can’t blame a girl for trying,” she said lightly. “We old maids have to get our experience where we can.”
    “You’re no old maid. You’re a beautiful, compassionate, sexy woman. And I want you like hell. But not tonight.”
    “No, you have work to do,” she said for him.
    He started to say something, scowled blackly, and turned away. “Yes. I have work to do. Listen for the phone, please.”
    He went out without looking back and slammed the door behind him.
    She lay awake until the early hours of the morning, when she finally heard him come back. Well, maybe he’d worn himself out enough to sleep, she thought drowsily. She only hoped the angiogram wouldn’t show any need for Mrs. Carson to have open heart surgery. Since his grandmother was the only person Worth loved, it would be horrible for him.
    Amelia would have to stay with him, for the time being. He might not want her body enough to risk commitment, but he did need someone, and who else was there? As odd as it sounded, she was probably closer to him than anyone except his grandmother. They’d talked a lot over the weeks and she felt that she understood him. She could give him comfort, she thought bitterly, if nothing else. She could give him that, even if he didn’t want her to love him.
    The next morning, she went with him to the hospital. The angiogram was run, and much later that afternoon, the doctor told Worth that his grandmother’s need for a bypass was imperative, and urgent. The surgery was scheduled for early the next morning.
    Worth went in to see his grandmother and came out looking wild and restless. Amelia tried to get him to eat something, but he wouldn’t. She went back home finally to tell the staff what was happening and answer the mail.
    She hadn’t gone in to see Jeanette, because Worth was reluctant to let her. He seemed to feel that it might be upsetting for the older woman. Amelia didn’t agree, but she wouldn’t have argued with him for the world. Any kind of major surgery had its risk factor, and she knew even if Worth didn’t that the seventy-two hours following that surgery were very precarious. The elderly woman could die. He had to know that, though, and was hoarding these last few visits with her. Amelia didn’t want to deprive him of a single minute. So she sent her love