Dark And Dangerous (10 page)

 
"No, of course not. What in 'You matter
to me' would make you think I want you to leave?"

 
"It's not that. It's just that I thought
you might want me to leave, since it's your house, so you can't leave
yourself," she explained, and wished she could just vanish.

 
"Kayley, I don't know what kind of men
you have known before, but I can tell you I'm not them. You're not just a
casual fling to me." He tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at her
seriously. "And I hope you think more of me than that."

 
"I didn't mean it as an offense. I just
wasn't sure how you were going to react."

 
"I know, Kayley." He turned her
face up to his and kissed her gently. "And I know you've been hurt before,
but I'm not like the other people you have known, and you're going to make me
annoyed if you keep comparing me to them."

 
"You're not anything like them,"
Kayley said and meant it. He was nothing like anyone she had ever known.

 
"That's good." He grinned at her.
"And you're not going anywhere. In fact I plan on keeping you very
close."

 
Nathan rolled over again, covering her once
more with his body. "And right now I intend to make love to you
again," he kissed her, making her pulse skip and then race, "and then
I intend to do it all over again," he murmured against her lips.

He did just that, sending
her flying with what seemed like endless pleasure.

After, as their hearts
were still pounding, he rolled over onto his back, drawing her with him. He
tucked the duvet around them, and pulled her close against him. Kayley snuggled
against him and drifted off to sleep in a matter of seconds, listening to the
strong beat of his heart.

Chapter 10

 
Kayley
awoke slowly, feeling relaxed and energized. Stretching luxuriously, she opened
her eyes and found Nathan watching her, his eyes amused. The memory of last
night dawned on her and she blushed deeply, feeling suddenly shy and nervous
again.

 
 
"Hey." He reached out to tuck her
hair behind her ear.

 
"Hey." Realizing that the cover had
fallen down to reveal her breasts, she snatched it up, pulling it all the way
up to her chin.

 
The gesture made him smile. "You
know," he said, reaching out to touch her cheek, "I have already seen
every perfect inch of you, so you might as well give up your modesty."

He took her hand that was
still clutching the cover and lifted it to brush gentle kisses over it. Kissing
her wrist, he felt the frantic beat of her pulse, and gloried in it, before
continuing his rain of kisses up her arm to her shoulder.

 
Pulling down the cover a little, he brushed
kisses up her throat and over her face, before taking her mouth in a deep kiss.

 
Nathan slid his hands under the cover and
over her warm pliant body. He caressed and aroused until they were both on the
verge of exploding, before he finally took her deeply and completely.

 
Getting out of the shower, Kayley sighed. She
couldn't remember any other time that she had ever felt so good. Drying off
quickly, she slathered on lotion before pulling on slacks and a blouse.

Hurrying down the stairs,
she followed the scents of cooking into the kitchen. As she came in Nathan
looked up and smiled.

 
"Hey, you're just in time for
breakfast." He transferred half of a big loaded omelet onto a plate and
the other half onto a second plate, before adding bacon on the side.

 
"It's a good thing too, because I was
just on my way up to come and get you, and God knows our breakfast would have
gotten cold and stale before we were finished." He set the plates on the
table he had already set, and looked up to find her blushing at his words. It made
him smile as they sat down.

 
"I was thinking about what plans you
have today." He dug into the omelet.

 
"I haven't really had time to think
about it. I've been a little busy."

 
"So you have." He smiled.
"I'll just tell you what I had in mind then. I have some work I need to
take care of at the resort, and I thought maybe you would like to come with me.
You could paint the scenery from my balcony, as you talked about, for a couple
of hours."

And he wouldn't have to
let her out of his sight.

 
"I don't have my painting
supplies."

 
"We can swing by your cottage before we
go to the resort, and you can get everything you need. Then later we'll go to
my parents."

 
"Your parents?" She couldn't
prevent her voice from pitching with panic. "But I can't."

 
"Of course you can. I already told mom
you're coming and she's very excited."

Kayley felt the blood
drain from her face and her stomach sink as she realized there was no way out.

 
Reading her perfectly, Nathan reached over
and touched her cheek caressing. "There is nothing to worry about, Kayley.
It's just dinner and they are really looking forward to seeing you again."

 
"But I'm not good with people." She
couldn't suppress the whine in her voice.

 
"That's just a lie. You might not be
outgoing, but that has nothing to do with being bad with people. In fact, I
find you very enjoyable, and so does the rest of my family." He reached
over and took her hand as she nervously pushed the food around on her plate.
"And besides, I want you there."

Her heart stumbled and her
stomach clutched at his words.

 
"Okay," she said, giving in.

He smiled and squeezed her
hand. "Good. Now eat before your food gets cold."

She obeyed, even though
her appetite had completely vanished.

 
"I thought I might call the company your
brother works for as well, although chances of them working in the weekend is
probably non-existent. But you never know."

That got her mind off of
everything else. "You're going to call them?"

 
"Yes. They can tell me if he still works
there, and what his address is."

 
"But if he doesn't work there anymore he
might have moved."

 
"At least we'll know." Nathan stood
up to take their plates over to the dishwasher. "And besides even if he
has left, he might have made some friends there who knows where he lives."

 
"I suppose," Kayley said and got
up. She couldn't explain why she felt so torn about it, not even to herself.
She wanted to find her brother, she really did. But on the other hand she
dreaded it. Dreaded what they would discover when they found him. If they found
him, she thought grimly. He had always been a master at making himself
disappear.

 
Closing the dishwasher, Nathan turned and
looked at her. She was caught up in her own thoughts and they clearly weren't
happy, he noted. Wanting to comfort, he slid his arms around her and drew her
close.

 
"What's wrong, honey?"

Sighing, she rested her
head against his chest and listened to the strong beat of his heart.

 
"I was just thinking about Joe."

 
"
It's
okay,
Kayley. We'll find him." He kissed her hair softly.

 
"It's not just that. I can't help
thinking about what will happen if we find him."

 
"We'll deal with it when the time comes.
Until then it's easiest if we only deal with one step at a time. We'll focus on
the current step at hand, and when that is done we'll focus on the next."

 
"Okay." She sighed deeply against
his chest. She wasn't used to having anyone to tell her troubles to, and she
was surprised at how much it helped.

 
He took her chin, lifting her face up, and
kissed her senseless before pulling her back an inch to look into her eyes.
"We better get going, or I'll forget all my good intentions and spend the
day making love to you."

 
He stepped back and forced himself to release
her, before he changed his mind. "Are you ready?" he asked instead.

 
"Yes," Kayley managed breathlessly.

 
"Okay. We better go then."

He took her arm as they
headed for the car. Kayley watched the landscape when they drove away from his
house.

 
"I would really like to paint the view
from your property." She looked at him. "It's truly
spectacular."

 
"You can paint it anytime you'd
like." He drove along the winding road. "I've noticed that most of
your paintings are of landscapes and seascapes."

 
"Yes. Seascapes are my favorite subjects,
but I love to paint any scenes of nature. Once in a while I'll paint a
portrait, but my first love and fascination will always be the vast and
different beauty of the wild."

 
"How do you choose what you want to
paint?"

 
"It's all a matter of what I feel. It's
a bit difficult to explain. I see something and it grips my heart. My hands
tingle and my breath catches, and I know that I just have to paint it,"
she explained.

 
"So if you don't feel that, you don't
paint it?" He pulled up in front of her cottage and parked.

 
"That's right. If I don't feel it, the
paintings won't turn out the way I like it."

Nathan took her hand as
they walked into the house and looked around the rooms. It looked almost worse
in the daylight. What little furniture she had owned was ruined, and broken
shards of glass and china lay scattered in piles on the floor.

For a moment Kayley simply
stood there staring at the remains.

 
"It will be okay, Kayley." Nathan
squeezed her hand comforting.

 
"I know." She looked up at him.
"At least they didn't have time to ruin all of my paintings. It could have
been much worse."

 
He had to very deliberately control his own
rage at that. It wouldn't do either of them any good, and he wanted her to be
positive. "Yes, it could have been worse." That wasn't a lie.

 
"Okay," she took a deep breath and
squared her shoulders, "we better get everything and get going."

They walked through the
debris into her workroom. Forcing herself not to linger, Kayley quickly
gathered everything she needed and stuffed it into a box.

 
"I'll take that," Nathan said,
snatching it from her.

 
"Okay." She grabbed several
canvases instead.

They stuffed everything
into his car and drove towards the resort.

As they parked and got
out, Nathan hefted the box and looked at her. "How many canvases do you
want?"

 
"I just need that one," Kayley
said, reaching in to take it.

 
"I'll get it." Nathan took it from
her and tucked it under his arm, before locking the car.

They walked into the
resort and back around the front desk to the private elevator. He greeted the
staff easily, apparently oblivious to the
sidewards
glances they send them.

Feeling ridiculously
self aware
, Kayley kept close to Nathan, and felt relieved
when they finally stepped into the elevator and the doors closed.

 
"Is it normal for you to work on
weekends?" she asked curiously.

 
"No. Mostly the resort can take care of
itself when you have as well trained a staff as we do. This is merely because I
have to look at the plans for the new resort, and Damian and I are having a
meeting about the details."

The doors slid open and
they stepped outside.

 
"Where's your secretary?"

 
"He has the weekend off." They
walked into his office and set down her things. His hands freed, he reached out
and pulled her into his arms. "So, it's just you and me until Damian
arrives." He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her long and deep.

 
"Good morning."

Surprised Kayley tore her
mouth from Nathan's and tried to pull away. He simply tightened his grip,
keeping her close and looked over her head at his brother.

 
"Good morning, Damian," he said
unaffected.

 
"I take it you slept well," Damian
said with a grin, making Kayley blush.

 
"Yeah, we did." Nathan kissed her
hair, but still he didn't release her. "Don't you have some work to
do?"

 
"Sure." Damian grinned again.
"Just let me know when you're ready to go over those papers." He
walked off into his own office.

 
Keeping one arm around her, Nathan lifted his
hand and caressed her cheek as he bend down and kissed her gently. "You
need me to help set up your equipment?" He released her reluctantly.

 
"No, that's okay. I'm used to doing it,
so it will only take me a minute."

 
"Okay, I better get to work then."
He walked over and sat behind his desk and turned on the security screens,
giving him a view of most of the resort and its grounds, while Kayley went
about setting up her transportable aisle. It felt so nice, she thought, to go
about her work while Nathan was there as well. She could hear him clicking on
his computer and was surprised at how much she enjoyed his presence. She had
never thought of herself as being very social, and as far back as she could
remember, she had never felt any kind of need to be around others. It had
always been so much easier to be alone. That way she didn't have to deal with
other
peoples
moods, wants and temper. But this was
different.

 
She looked back at him and felt a warm
feeling flood her as she watched him work. He was so handsome, she thought as
her heart gave a sigh.

 
And she wasn't going to get anything done,
she told herself, if she was going to think about him all day.