Adventures in Reading

Sunbeam

Theo Savakis had his feet on the ground when he saw her. He needed solid ground to keep them there.

 She moved like a dancer, was model tall, but not model thin.

A bright sundress fell loosely over lush curves, but was kind enough to leave bare her elegantly constructed calves. A top knot of coppery gold showed off the graceful curve of her neck and skin like cream glistened faintly from the combination of heat and humidity.

She was like a ray of light, a sunbeam lighting up a world he didn’t know was dark.

He’d looked at women and felt desire, but he’d never felt like this and he hadn’t even seen her face.

He willed her to look at him, instead of the bistro’s façade, and as if she felt him as clearly as he felt her, she glanced back, giving him a brief look at a face that was as beautifully formed as her body, but left too much he didn’t know.

The color of her eyes.

The curve of her mouth when she smiled.

Her name.

How she would taste when he kissed her.

She turned away too soon and entered the bistro.

He was going there too, but even if he hadn’t, he would have followed her in. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust from bright to dim, long enough to know she wasn’t meeting anyone.

The hostess looked past her, her haughty look softening when she saw him approaching. He slid his arms around his sunbeam, pulling her against him, while his mouth dipped to take a taste of her neck. Sweet…

She inhaled sharply, tensing in his hold.

“Sorry I’m late, my sweet.” She smelled like the sun and flowers and that something that was only her. He looked at the hostess. “Is my usual table available, Caroline?”

“Of course, Mr. Savakis.”

She twisted to stare at him. Theo didn’t mind. It gave him access to her mouth. Her gasp left her lips open for him and he took full advantage.

He didn’t expect her response. Or his own.

There was desire there, like thick, sweet honey, but something more. Something he didn’t recognize. He broke the kiss, his heart pounding as his gaze clashed with her shocked—and bemused—one. Fire flickered in the gold depths, her eyes almost the same color as her hair.

He stroked her cheek with a finger that shook…

Before she could react, he turned, steering her into following the hostess, with a hold that was light, but firm. He managed to get her seated on the bench and slid in next to her before she could protest.

He wanted to slide up against her, press her against the wall and kiss her again. He didn’t, though his body cried out in protest.

She took her menu and setting it on the white tablecloth without opening it, her fingers silently tapping the top while she waited for them to be left alone.

Only then did she finally look at him, a mocking light in her sunbeam eyes.

“Please don’t tell me you’re an agent whose life depends on me pretending we know each other.”

Her voice was cool, but with an under current of amusement—a perfect contrast for her amazing eyes.

He arched his brows, angling his body to the side and resting his arm on the bench back. “Someone actually tried that?”

A slight nod, a bit of a shrug.

“Did it work?”

Her brows shot up. “No.” A pause he knew she wanted him to fill. When he didn’t  she asked, “So what’s your story?”

He smiled. “I wanted to have lunch with you.”

Her jaw dropped a tiny bit, enough to make his gaze home in on the gap like a heat seeking missile. He stroked her lower lip with the tip of his finger.

“If you lick that, I’m going to have to kiss you again.” Just thinking about it had heat flaring bright and hot between them again, but he was no more ready to kiss her again than she was. Hard to admit, but he still felt…shaken from the first kiss.

Her tempting mouth closed and firmed. He eased back, but kept his arm along the back behind her. His brain was telling him to back off, but the rest of him needed to stay close. He remembered trying to catch sunbeams in his hands when he was too small to understand that sunbeams couldn’t be caught. They had to come to you.

“I’ll have to pass on lunch, Mr. Savakis.”

That she remembered his name shouldn’t have pleased him so much. Her look meant to put him in his place.

“My school teacher used to look at me like that.”

Her chin lifted. “I teach high school—”

“What principal lets you near teenage boys?” He leaned toward her, almost whispering the question, “Are they all in love with you?”

Her lips twitched before she could stop them. He ached to taste her again.

“I try not to notice. It’s not easy to be sixteen.”

“It’s not easy to be thirty-five.” The words were wry, a bit too heartfelt.

She chuckled, the sound rich and husky. The sound trailed across his skin like a touch.

“Yes, I can see you’ve suffered. Now if you’ll excuse me…”

She trailed politely off. He was, he guessed, supposed to slide back and let her out. Instead he leaned in some more, studying the soft angles and planes of her face.

“You don’t look old enough to be out of college.”

If he looked really hard he could see tiny lines just starting to dig around her eyes. Her gaze was cool, but a tiny pulse pounded the soft skin of her neck, just below a softly stubborn jaw line.

He touched the spot, then slid his hand along satin skin lightly kissed by the sun until his fingers curved around the back of her neck. Silken tendrils of her hair stroked his skin as he bent his head. He stopped just before his lips could cover hers, inhaling her, feeling her frantic breaths puffing against his face.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

Your future, he almost said. “Theo. Theo Savakis.” He brushed his mouth across hers. “Tell me your name.”

“Lily.” Two frantic breaths, before she could finish. “Lily Stanton.”

“Lily.” His mouth curved up as he angled her head so his mouth could fit over hers...so perfectly fit…

It was still there, that something different, something deep and sweet, something much more than desire. He didn’t recognize it, but there was need swirled through it.

He’d wanted women. He’d never needed them.

Until now…

* * * * *

Lily was lost. Adrift on an unknown sea.

It should have felt wrong.

It didn’t.

It felt wonderful.

His mouth was confident and he knew what buttons to push to light her up. Buttons she didn’t know she had. Her eyes almost crossed beneath her lowered lids as heat scorched through her. Her heart pounded. Her thoughts danced and spun and dipped. She felt light, marvelously light and soft and warm and…safe.

Her head was spinning so fast it took her a few moments to realize he’d stopped kissing her. She rubbed her face with her hands and he grabbed her left and studied the ring there.

“You’re engaged.” His voice was flat, but when she opened her eyes, there was a look in his eyes that was…predatory.

“Engaged?” She felt slow and stupid. The word had no meaning… engaged. Engaged to what, no, who? There was a ring there… “I…yes.”

She tried to bring a face into her head to clear it but he was gone, lost to her…

“We’ll have to do something about that.”

Lily straightened, trying to pull back from him, but there wasn’t a lot of pulling back room left. The wall at her back was less hard than his body as she tried to push him away. Only her hands lost their will as they made contact with his powerful chest…

She jerked back, pointedly ignoring his delighted smile. It was a great smile. Attached to a great body. He was big and broad and strong. Dark hair and night dark eyes in face that was too pretty for its own good—without losing anything in the masculine stakes.

She should have been outraged. She should have made a scene. She should have slapped his pretty face. She should have been scared…or something.

She looked down at the table, at hands gripping the menu. She’d been engaged to…his name was somewhere inside her head, it just kept floating out of reach…and had never felt like this. Not even close.

She should go.

It was the smart thing to do. Also sensible. Logical…impossible…

She picked up the menu. “What would you recommend?”

Through her lashes she saw his eyes widen. Dang, the man was unfairly loaded with charm. How could…her fiancé compete with that?

“Will you trust me to order for you?”

His voice was deep and as dark as his eyes. The sound of it sent chills down her back. She handed him the menu.

“I trust you to…order for me.”

His mouth quirked at the edge. That mouth had pressed against hers. All she had to do was close her eyes and remember…

She kept them open and raised her chin. She wasn’t being sensible, but that didn’t mean she had to roll over like a puppy.

Her heart pounded in her chest and her body liquefied. But the real shocker, she felt…her mind searched for the right word…and then rejected it.

She’d heard of yin and yang, read about it, hoped to find it, and when she hadn’t, she’d put it on the shelf with all the other myths of childhood. People didn’t have soul mates. They were lucky to find compatible.

She didn’t know this man. She wasn’t connected to him. She was engaged…and when this lunch was over, she’d go home to…her fiancé.

Hopefully by the time she got there she could remember his name.

She was aware Theo Savakis ordered for them both. She assumed that’s what his mouth was doing. She couldn’t stop staring at the sculpted line and remembering how it felt…

Did he feel it? He couldn’t…

“I feel it.”

His voice was soft, seductive, a bit wry.

She swallowed dryly. “Feel what?”

“The…connection between us.”

It was a line, a good one, but just a line, she tried to say, but the words lodged in her throat, refusing to emerge. It didn’t feel like a line. It felt like the truth.

His hand covered hers, his fingers sliding between hers. He lifted her left hand, studying the ring again.

“Football coach?”

She made the mistake of looking at him. His gaze caught hers, holding it hostage.

“Basketball.” Her small smile was edged with wry. It was a cliché. Well, not totally. She wasn’t the home ec teacher.

His lips brushed the back of her hand. “Were you a cheerleader, he the star player?”

“No…and yes.” She wanted to touch his hair, smooth it back from his face. Just because it felt she had the right, didn’t mean she did.

As if he felt her thought, his captured her right hand and brought it to the side of his face. His man skin was a heady, enticing contrast between the rough where his beard pushed through and the soft near his eyes. Her fingers spread, touched, felt…

“Not…a…cheerleader, but he was…the star.” Thinking about anything except Theo took an effort. She couldn’t remember why she needed to try. Her head wanted to slide in against his shoulder. All of her was sure she’d fit in there perfectly.

She loved…her fiancé. They’d grown up together, grown into love. But this, this was falling. She’d never felt it before, but she knew it. Her heart leapt in her chest. It knew it, too. There was joy and a touch of fear. This man could hurt her. Already he had that power.

As if he felt that flutter of unease, his mouth stroked the back of her hand, soothing…tasting…sweetly tormenting…

She sighed and did the unthinkable. She subsided against him. It felt right and safe when his arms closed around her. Up close like this she could smell him, spicy and essentially, completely male.

Even as the tiny, very tiny sane part of her expressed shock and outrage at her behavior, the rest of her stayed there, feeling the rough texture of his suit against her cheek.

Slowly she assembled the facts against him, gathering enough strength to push against his exquisitely gentle hold—which promptly tightened.

“No.” His soft protested puffed against her ear, ruffling her hair. “Stay.”

“This is crazy.”

“Yes.”

“It makes no sense.”

“I agree.”

“Then let me go.”

“No.”

Amusement—and something else—added a rich texture to the single word.

“I’m engaged.” The reminder was as much for herself as for him.

“You’re not in love with him.”

His confidence should have annoyed her. That it didn’t did annoy her.

“I need some space.”

His grip eased and she moved back, then wished she hadn’t.

Clearly, she was a mess.

“I don’t even know you,” she said the words, but part of her didn’t believe them. Part of her did know him. It was more than crazy. It was insane.

“You can’t marry him.”

It was true. Even if…she didn’t know what she thought might happen with Theo, but if she never saw him again after lunch, she couldn’t marry…Kavin. It was as if knowing she needed to let him go, brought him back into her mind.

They’d played together as babies, walked to school together, fought and played and grown up together. He was the boy next door.

She didn’t think she was going to break his heart, but she was going to hurt his pride.

“I tried to tell him that,” she murmured.

Fingers touched her face, smoothing her hair back.

“Why did you give in?”

How did he know she had?

She shrugged. “I guess my biological clock got louder than my common sense. And I thought we could make it work.” They might have, if she hadn’t met Theo, if she hadn’t found out she could feel more, be more.

For a moment the white picket fence, with kid stuff in the yard and Kavin coming home from work was sharp and clear. But even as she focused on it, it began to fade…leaving only uncertainty to replace it.

She’d known Kavin all her life, Theo for maybe half an hour. Fear wound into her heart, into her soul…

Theo leaned in. “I’m not going to let you run from this, Lily.”

“From what?” The words were low, squeezing out past rising panic. “Just what is this?”

Something flickered in his eyes, too quick to identify. On a deeper level, she felt his sudden unease.

It was weird, but it helped her find her balance again. He might be amazing, but he was still a guy.

Lily drank some water while she let him think, using the time to sort through her own scattered thoughts. She might have succeeded, but…

“Lily?”

Her body jerked, spilling the chilly water over her hands. Some dripped onto her legs. Lily knew that voice. She should. She’d lived next door to him her whole life.

“Hi, Kav.”

Without asking, he slid onto the seat opposite them, his gray gaze studying her, then Theo, then returning to her.

One brow quirked. “Old friend?”

Lily shook her head. “A pickup.”

Kav’s other brow popped up now. “Who did the picking?”

“I did.” Theo’s voice was calm, but there was something in there, maybe even several somethings.

“Interesting.”

Lily chuckled. It was impossible to feel uncomfortable with Kavin. He was her best friend. He knew where all her bodies were buried and most of her secrets.

He grinned. “I can’t let you out of my sight for a minute.”

If she had a dollar for every time he’d said that, well, she wouldn’t need to be a school teacher.

His attention shifted to Theo.

Lily felt a change in the air. Not exactly hostile, at least not yet.

“You aren’t first guy to notice Lily’s…many attractions.”

“I would be surprised if I were.” A pause. “But I am the first she’s…noticed back.”

It was meant to provoke, probably would have if their relationship were like that. Kav was protective, not territorial.

Kavin looked at her. “Did you…notice him, Lil?”

Lily looked, did a little noticing again. Felt the heat flush through her, heat and longing and…a sense of wonder. Her gaze connected with Theo’s. He seemed to be feeling the same, with a bit of wry in there.

 “Interesting.”

She couldn’t say Kav was reckless with words. Ever.

Kav leaned forward, just slightly, but it was enough. Kav was a big guy and he knew how to do menacing.

“Let be the first, to ask who you are and what are your intentions towards my fiancé?”

#

Theo felt that odd flicker of panic again. What were his intentions? He hadn’t had time to think, barely time to sort through what he was feeling. He knew it was unthinkable she marry this man. He’d felt territorial when he first sat down, and he still felt jealous that he knew Lily better than he did, but it was clear they shared a mutual affection and no passion for each other.

He was right to be protective of her. Theo respected that. But he wished he would go.

“Theo Savakis. Kavin Hendersen.”

The introduction was remarkably neutral. As this Kavin would say, it was interesting.

“When we’ve had time to discuss it, we’ll let you know,” he said, looking at Kavin, but also speaking to Lily—though he still wasn’t sure what he was trying to say to her.

Kavin leaned back. “So discuss. Just pretend I’m not here.”

He looked at Lily. Her lips twitched.

“Go home, Kav.”

Kavin ignored her. “Look at it this way, if you can convince me, Lil’s dad will be, well, not easy. He’s never easy, but at least you’ll be prepared. They like me a lot. I have the home field advantage.”

“It is natural for a father to be concerned for the daughter.”

“So you’re not worried that he sells guns?”

Theo looked at Lily. She shrugged. And her lips twitched.

Theo slid a hand into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and removed his card case. He extracted a card and handed it to Kavin.

“Look me up on the internet.”

“I will. When I get home.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

Theo looked at Lily.

“Kavin. Go home.”

“I’m not leaving you with him while you’re wearing my ring, Lil.”

Her eyes widened. Color drained from her face like a plug had been pulled. She wasn’t ready. Theo recognized this. For the first time, felt fear. His hand wanted to close over his sunbeam, hold it with him.

He shifted, flexed his fingers, then forced himself to wait.  If she couldn’t trust what she felt, what she felt from him…

“Kav…” There was pain in her voice, entreaty.

Kavin didn’t move, just met her gaze with his steady one.

“Not like this. Not here. Not in front of…” She stopped, her gaze flicking in Theo’s direction, but not staying.

“Do you want him, Lil?”

A hesitation. “I’d like to have…time to find out.”

Theo felt something ease in him, too. Time, that’s what they both needed. Time and space to get where they needed to go…together.

“Then give it to me and I’ll go.”

Theo was close enough to feel the way her breath shuddered in, then out.

“I don’t want…” She bit her lip and looked away. Her hands clenched, then loosened. She slid the ring off her finger and held it out to him, her gaze stricken.

He closed his hands around hers. “We’ll always be friends, Lil.”

Her smile was slow, but as it spread, it lit her face.

Like a sunbeam.

His sunbeam.

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© 2008 Pauline Baird Jones. All rights reserved.