"Hush." He put a finger to her lips. "I said no pres sure. Come on over here. I've got champagne on ice."
He settled her into a brocaded love seat and opened the tall, golden bottle in the silver ice bucket, pouring out sparkling liquid into crystal glasses. She watched him, his face boyishly intent on what he was doing, and she melted inside.
"We've got wine," he said as he handed out the cham pagne, then nodded to acknowledge her, "woman and..." He pulled the drapes wide so that they could look out over the silver-gray ocean. "A magnificent view."
"Lovely," she murmured, laughing at his enthusiasm.
He sat beside her, and then they lifted glasses in a silent toast. The chime of clashing crystal glittered through the air. They each sipped, gazes still entangled.
Ross was nervous. He hadn't been nervous in a situa tion like this in years. An urge was growing inside him, an impulse to tell her that she was special, that this was dif ferent from any other encounter he'd ever had with a woman. But the words wouldn't come, and the more he struggled with them, the more convinced he became that she wouldn't really want to hear something like that. She didn't want to hear about other women in his past. He would just be unburdening himself to cleanse his own conscience. The past had nothing to do with her.
He looked at her again. Her hair was tumbling about her face. The white gardenia gave her a pristine look, tender, vulnerable. Her eyes were dark and mysterious. Her lips looked soft, pink and inviting.
"Charity," he said, his voice shaking. He reached out to put down his glass, not noticing as half the liquid spilled out. Then she was in his arms, her own glass discarded, too. She was like soft, dark velvet, sliding across his skin like a ripple through water. He couldn't talk, couldn't think. All he knew was her smell, her touch, the sound of her.
"Oh, Ross," she groaned, in a plea for reassurance, a demand for fulfillment and a sigh of satisfaction.
He pushed away her clothing like a man starving for sustenance, starting with her blouse and ending with her lacy underwear. She shivered as he lifted her and carried her to the bed, placing her gently in the middle of the soft blue spread, then leaning back to take in the whole of her. Afternoon sunlight streamed in and caressed her pink- tipped breasts, her rounded hips, her long, satiny legs. His hands shook as he reached out to touch her. Nothing he'd ever done before had grabbed him inside like this. He'd never felt this reverence mixed with such need.