“Somehow I feel I can’t count on that, Stockton.”
He sensed the dark well of intensity in her, and it was getting to him. Tessa felt a thrill of power. “Trust me, sir.”
“With those tigress eyes?”
She smiled. “He who rides a tiger takes his life in his own hands, sir.” It was a challenge that a man such as Blaize Callagan would never back away from.
His eyes narrowed. “Very profound, Stockton.”
“Thank you, sir.”
He released her hands, then waited, tensely poised, to see what she would do with them. She curled one around his head and gently raked her fingers through his thick black hair, feeling the texture of it, enjoying its soft springiness. She lifted her other hand to his face, obeying an impulse to trace his beautiful bone structure with her fingertips; his brow, his cheeks, his nose, his jawline. It was a curiously exhilarating exploration, almost as though she was touching the inner man under his skin.
She wanted to touch his lips, the finer texture there, the sharp line of definition that outlined them. But he suddenly opened his mouth and sucked her fingers in, biting them a little before releasing them.
He bent and kissed her hard. She responded with a passion that fired even more passion from him. She ran her foot down his calf. He shuddered. She ran her fingernails down his back, very lightly, but he reared up, an inarticulate cry tearing from his throat.
He took her then, the need to smash her control so intense that his possession of her was explosive. Tessa’s response was instant and aggressive, riding the storm of sensation with all the intoxicating elation of a surfer on a rip curl, balancing her body through every rhythmic change, every wild contortion, welding with him in a mad drive for more and more sensation that drove them both to excesses in their fierce desire to exhaust the other.
It ended in peaceful togetherness. She melted around him, he lost himself in her, and their sweat-slicked bodies slid finally to rest.
For a long time, neither moved. They were totally spent, floating mindlessly on a tide that had ebbed but still had them in its grip. Eventually Blaize summoned enough energy to lift himself away from her and roll onto his back. They lay side by side, not talking, not touching, not moving.
Tessa had no idea what he was thinking but the silence didn’t worry her. She was busy with her own thoughts as she reviewed what had just happened with a sense of awe and wonder.
It had been a wild experience. In all her time with Grant, she had never been so... so— She searched for some way to express it, but there simply weren’t words for what had happened with Blaize Callagan. Involved? Crazy? Uninhibited? Intensely focussed? She couldn’t even call what they’d done together lovemaking.
It had nothing to do with love. They hardly knew each other. Yet it had certainly been more intimate than any lovemaking she had experienced with Grant. More physically intimate. It left her feeling she had never really known herself. In hindsight, she was shocked that she was capable of that act of sexual aggression and totally primitive gratification. It was a revelation. A new dimension to herself that she had never suspected.
Even more disturbing—all she had ever felt for Grant Durham seemed weak and insubstantial, as if he wasn’t reality at all. Blaize Callagan, whom she had always thought of as a fantasy, was the raw reality. Which was very confusing.
She wasn’t emotionally involved with Blaize Callagan. Except in a terribly mixed up way. He certainly affected her emotions, her body, her way of thinking, everything.
She didn’t think she affected him in the same way. Obviously he had only had one reason for doing what he’d done. He had wanted to get rid of the tensions stirred by the business of the day. Purely a loosening-up process. He hadn’t pretended anything else. It had nothing to do with her personally. She was just a handy female body to him—a desirable body that he had wanted to use.
With beautiful breasts.
Tessa smiled smugly to herself. She was sure that Blaize Callagan was very discriminating in his taste when it came to women. There was no need for him to have said that unless he meant it. She could rightly hug the compliment he had given her for the rest of her life. It made up for a lot.
She heard him sigh. He turned his head towards hers. “There is more to you than meets the eye, Stockton,” he said.
“I’m an ordinary person, sir. With very simple needs,” Tessa replied. Like a man to love her and stay faithful to her, as she would with him. But failing that, she at least had something exciting to remember.
In some perverse way—totally against all she had ever lived by—she was feeling an intensely primitive satisfaction in casting all her principles aside with Blaize Callagan. She wondered if there was an untamed beast in everyone underneath the skin of social strictures that ruled ordinary everyday life.
“Not at all, Stockton. I can’t agree. You’re complex,” he said consideringly. “Very complex.”
“If you say so, sir.”
“Thank you for agreeing with me, Stockton.” A touch of dry amusement there.
“My pleasure, sir,” she answered sweetly.
His head turned away again and he lapsed into silence.
Tessa smiled. At least she had forced Blaize Callagan into a reassessment of her. She had surprised him. He hadn’t expected her to be like that at all. She didn’t imagine Blaize Callagan was presented with the unexpected very often. It had certainly got to him. He hadn’t been able to switch his mind straight back to business. That was definitely a positive score for her. Not his way! Not all his way, anyhow.
However, no matter what had happened and how she felt, it behove her to keep things in perspective. When this conference was over, the parting of the ways would come. What she had just experienced with Blaize Callagan was memory material. No more than that. Something to tuck away in her mind and bring out with wonder occasionally. She mustn’t get serious about it. The only serious thing to Blaize Callagan was business.
He heaved another sigh. “I don’t know how you feel, Stockton, but I’m feeling very good. Very relaxed.” His voice purred with satisfaction.
“Oh, limber, sir,” she said airily. “I’m feeling very limber.”
“Limber,” he repeated appreciatively. “Your vocabulary is improving, Stockton.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I think I’ll go and look at that memo again.”
Yes, it was back to business, all right. Tessa resigned herself to the inevitable, glad that she hadn’t started fooling herself into hoping for any more from him. “Do you require any help from me, sir?”