Enthralled (16 page)

Shivering, wrapped in two
fluffy bath sheets, she rushed out of the bathroom, stalked across her large
bedroom, and yanked open the door. "You hog!" she shouted down the
stairs. "You took all the hot water! Who told you you could use my
shower?" she demanded. "I'll bet you can't fit into the powder room, much
less take a shower in it!" She was still shouting down the stairs, bent
double, when Chazz appeared at the bottom, rubbing his wet hair with a towel.

"Did you want me to
shower up there, darling?" he inquired pleasantly.

"What?" Teel snapped
erect, fumbling with the slipping terry-cloth bath sheets. "Up here? No,
of course I don't want you showering up here."

"Well,
then." He shrugged, staring up at her as if X- raying her through the
towel. "Shall I come up and kiss you good night?"

"Certainly not!"

"Okay, you come down here
and kiss
me
good
night."

"No!"
Teel's voice was frigid. She whirled away, her chin in the air, and stumbled
over the end of the towel. She stubbed her toe on the edge of the door and
staggered into her room on one foot, then slammed her bedroom door closed and
shouted through it, "And don't you dare take all the hot water
again!"

She returned to the bathroom,
rinsed herself quickly, cleaned up after herself and dropped the wet towels
down the laundry chute. As she sprayed the bathroom tiles with cleaner and wiped
around the sink, she muttered imprecations. "No doubt he left my powder
room a mess," she grumbled into the cupboard under the vanity where she
replaced her cleaners and sponges.

Once she was
settled in bed, Teel tried to read. First she tackled some school work that
needed her attention. When she couldn't concentrate on that, she reached for
the novel she'd borrowed from Nancy, who'd told her it was well written, but
steamy. Teel was able to picture the hero quite easily.

Before the first
chapter ended the author had described him as Nordic with blue eyes. Teel saw
him as dark with a slight hook to his nose and expressive gold eyes. She
thought the blonde heroine was rather insipid and, as she read further, she was
happy to see that the heroine's hair was darkening to chestnut.

By the third chapter she was
yawning and blushing, picturing Chazz and herself in the panting corkscrew
positions of the passionate duo in the book. "What am I going to do,"
Teel whispered. "I can't get him out of my mind."

She yawned again, making her
jaw crack. She lay down and couldn't get comfortable. But eventually sleep
overtook her, soothing her. She dreamed she was held close in Chazz's arms. For
once, her inner voice of caution was silent. She felt thoroughly relaxed.

When Teel opened her eyes and
heard birds singing outside her window, she knew at once it was Saturday.
Ahhhhh! She lay back and closed her eyes.

They snapped open again. Chazz
was downstairs! Her body sprung into a sitting position. She listened. Nothing.
Maybe he had left. No doubt he worked on Saturday. That would be a relief. He
would be away all Saturday. She could rest.

She swung her feet out of bed
and stretched, then went to the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth and hair.
She padded back to her room, naked, not bothering with her robe.

Every morning, before she
dressed, Teel ran in place for ten minutes, then slipped on her sweats, took
the pressed clothes that she intended to wear that day with her, and drove to
the local high school. There she would swim forty laps in the Olympic-sized
pool. If the weight room was unoccupied, she worked out on the Universal Weight
Machine before swimming. If the room was crowded, she skipped that portion of
her physical fitness for the day. On weekdays she showered and changed there
and drove directly from the high school to the Mary Dempsey School for Exceptional Children, skipping breakfast. On weekends she treated herself by having
the special at the local Greek diner.

Now, out of breath from
running in place, she made her bed before returning to the bathroom and
splashing her body with cool water, then wiping herself dry and slipping on her
sweats. She put a skirt, vest, blouse, pantyhose and sling backs into her
canvas carryall.

Teel skipped downstairs,
whistling—and stopped dead. Chazz stood there in a pair of slacks, his chest
bare, holding his folded bedding. The bed was back in its original position as
a couch. "What are you doing here?" Teel demanded.

"Did you forget that I
slept here last night, darling? Where are you going?"

"No, I didn't forget. I just thought you
might have left to go to your office."

"Never on Saturday, love, not unless it's
an emergency."

"I'll pray for an emergency," Teel
retorted frostily, grabbing her car keys from the hook near the door and
opening the front door.

"Where are we
going?" Chazz asked behind her.

"I don't know where
you're going.
I'm
going swimming, then for breakfast." She held her nose
high in the air.

"Suits me," Chazz
replied, lifting a leather bag from the floor next to the couch. "Just let
me get into my sweats." He pulled cocoa brown sweats from the bag, slipped
off his slacks, and put on his sweats before she could protest.

Teel gulped and averted her
eyes. "You don't have a swim suit."

"Yes, I do. Sibley always
packs this bag with essentials. I'm ready. Let's go."

Teel discarded
several scathing remarks that came to mind as they headed out the door. None
seemed destructive enough to suit her mood. "I'm sure you won't like the
diner," she said.

"Smug, darling? That's
not like you." Chazz cocked his head at her Chevy Camaro. "Shall I
drive?"

"Certainly not."
Teel felt a ray of hope. "If you don't like being driven by a woman, then
stay here. I like to drive my own car."

"That's fine with
me." Chazz stepped into the carport that Teel had had built onto the
carriage house and held open the door to the driver's side. When she had
slipped behind the wheel, he closed the door and went around to the other side,
then eased into the bucket seat next to her and smiled. "All ready."

Teel gunned the motor and
shifted into reverse. The gears ground. Her annoyance soared. She had always
prided herself on never grinding the gears. She loved to drive a shift car and
knew she was both careful and confident. She ground her teeth as Chazz turned
to look at her. "It may interest you to know," she began, "that
I have never ground the gears on this car before this moment." She spun
the wheel, making the car rock and spew stones.

"Of course," Chazz
agreed, grinning wickedly at her when she threw him a glowering look.

Teel decided her
best course was not to speak to him at all. That way she wouldn't be tempted to
run her car up a tree.

Teel lived only a
mile from the high school, which they reached in short order. She nodded and
waved to the students who had Saturday duty at the door to the pool, then she
and Chazz separated at the locker rooms. Since the weight room was filled with
students, Teel decided to skip it.

There was only one person
other than Chazz in the pool. Teel slipped into a lane next to his, admiring
the slick, clean strokes that carried him rapidly through the water. Soon they
were both creaming up and down the pool. Though Teel put everthing she had into
her swimming in an effort to pull ahead of Chazz, she couldn't keep up with his
powerful strokes. After fifteen laps she was panting. Chazz stopped next to
her, his own breathing scarcely affected by the vigorous exercise.

"Macho man," Teel
breathed as she hoisted herself up on the edge of the pool. She felt rather
than saw Chazz heave himself up next to her.

"I'll see you when you're
dressed," he told her, laughing.

Teel crashed around the locker
room, slamming the door, dropping her key, and nearly scalding herself in the
shower. "Now he's going to burn me to death," she seethed, shampooing
her hair with a vengeance. "Owwww!" Damn, she'd gotten soap in her
eyes. It took a long rinse to relieve the sting.

Teel stalked away from the
shower room muttering to herself, intent on dressing as fast as she could.
Instead of soothing her, as her swim usually did, it had left her more frazzled
than when she'd first arrived. And she hadn't even lifted weights. That man! He
was even attacking her mind. Now, when she went out to the lobby, he'd be
waiting for her—to do more damage. She straightened slowly from in front of her
locker. Why should she hurry out there to him? Let him wait.

Suddenly Teel had an idea. The
sauna! She rarely used the facility, but today she would—if only to keep him
waiting.

Since the school had only one
sauna, which was used by both men and women, the rule was to wear a bathing
suit and shower afterward.

Grimacing at her soggy, cold
suit, Teel pulled it on again and shivered. After grabbing a towel, she slammed
her locker door shut and hurried through a short tunnel that led to where the
sauna was situated, equidistant from the men's and women's locker rooms.

Teel stepped into the wooden
cubicle and immediately felt suffocated, as she always did in it.

"Hello, love," Chazz
said behind her.

Teel jumped in surprise, her heart pounding like a trip
hammer. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"It occurred to me that you might find some excuse to
keep me waiting, so I thought of this. When I saw you run down the tunnel, I
went back and got my own suit," he explained, stretching out beside her on
the upper level.

When she sat erect and put her
feet on the next level down, Chazz moved closer and put his head in her lap.

"Stop that." Teel
tried to lift his head. Ignoring her, he turned his face into her abdomen and
hooked one arm around her body. Teel felt his mouth on her navel. "I— I
don't want to stay in here too long," she said. "Too hot."

"Right." He spoke
into her body. "I'll be ready to leave when you are."

Chazz's hand
burned into her spine. She shook her head to keep the perspiration from running
into her eyes. Her blood pressure was rising, she was sure of it. "I want
to leave now," she announced suddenly, standing up so quickly that Chazz
almost tumbled off the wooden bench.

Good reflexes saved him from a
hard fall, but he clutched at Teel to right himself. "Would you mind
giving me a little warning when you decide to do things like that?" he
suggested, both amused and perturbed.

"Sorry.
Hot." Teel jumped down to ground level and pushed open the wooden door.

"See you in the lobby,
angel," Chazz called.

Teel grumbled continuously as
she sluiced herself with cold water, redried her hair, and brushed it into a
gleaming chestnut fall. After dressing in her panty hose and a denim skirt and
vest with a pale silk blouse, she studied herself in the mirror. She ignored
the fact that the color of her blouse matched her eyes and was a perfect foil
for her hair. She barely noticed her long, shapely legs and trim ankles and
looked instead at her low-heeled sling backs, which were as comfortable as
slippers. Most of all, she studied her face carefully for signs of defeat by
the determined assault of a man called Chazz Herman.

"Don't you
dare think he has defeated you," she admonished her mirror image as she
pouted her mouth to apply lip gloss. "Tell him to go to hell." She
nodded at the image, slapped the lip gloss into her shoulder bag, picked up her
carryall, and left the locker room.

Chazz was waiting
for her in the lobby, his hair still damp and curly from his shower. He wore
beige slacks with a beige shirt in a deeper shade and a tan suede vest that he
had left open. His shoes were beige loafers in finest suede. He looked like
what he was, a modern Croesus, Teel decided grudgingly.

Chazz seemed to sense Teel's
presence, and he looked around, his face lighting up when he saw her.
"Ready, darling?"

Teel had no
intention of smiling at him, but she couldn't help it. She just stood there and
grinned and nodded. Maybe she really was coming down with something!

The change in Chazz was electric.
He snapped erect, his own smile fading as he strode toward her.

Teel almost collapsed when he
leaned down and kissed her mouth—not a light kiss, but a searching, passionate
caress. "That's the first time you've smiled at me since we left the
Deirdre,"
he whispered,
his mouth just above her own.

"Hello, Miss
Barrett." Teel instantly recognized the cold, stiff voice. Miss Daisy
Butler, teacher, spinster and member of the board at Mary Dempsey School, was staring at them in shock and amazement.

"Miss Butler."
At Teel's stricken look, Chazz's eyes narrowed warily. He turned to Miss
Butler, placing an arm around Teel's waist, and smiled at the tight-lipped
woman. "Miss Butler, you are the first to congratulate me," he said.
"Teel has just promised to marry me— next week."

"What?!"
Miss Daisy's cry was louder than Teel's protest. The older woman's eyes darted
to every corner, as if looking for someone to tell. Teel knew Miss Daisy loved
news, yet was rarely the first to hear any.