"Oh." Carolyn stared after the departing van with alarm.
"I told the driver I'd walk back. It's good for me," Jack said with an easy smile. "Besides, I didn't want him sitting there watching when I try for my good-night kiss."
Carolyn flushed and turned quickly away to hurry to her door, suddenly a bundle of nerves as she tried to come up with ways to avoid that kiss. She paused halfway there though when he started to chuckle. Turning back, she peered at him uncertainly. "What's so funny?"
"You're running again," he said with amusement.
"Even though you know I like the chase."
Her eyes widened. "No, I-"
Pausing in front of her, Jack slid his arms around her waist. He peered down at her silently for a moment and then said, "You're a beautiful woman, Caro. Did Christian kiss you after he told you he wasn't gay?"
Carolyn's eyes widened and she started to duck her head, but he simply caught her chin and lifted her face back up, saying wryly, "That would be a yes."
Sighing, she nodded.
"Right. But he's too young. So," he suggested, drawing her a little closer. "How about you let me kiss you? If I'm as good or better than he is... " He grinned. "Then you don't need to worry about him or his age anymore and can start worrying about me."
Carolyn was silent for a minute, her mind racing. She liked Jack, not as much as Christian, but maybe with a little time... He was also handsome, and close to her own age. It certainly wouldn't be a bad thing if she enjoyed his kisses as much as Christian's.
Maybe it would be like that with a lot of men and she was losing her head and falling in love out of sheer lack of experience.
Carolyn blinked as that thought slid through her head.
Losing her head and falling in love? What the-Unwilling even to think about something as ridiculous as that, she forced herself to relax, reached her hand up around Jack's neck, and drew his head down for a kiss.
Carolyn was braced for fireworks. After all, she liked him, thought he was attractive, and he was apparently pretty experienced so no doubt knew what he was doing.
She really thought this would solve all her problems.
But instead of fireworks she got sparklers. Oh, a slow, lazy warmth stole through her when his lips moved over hers, and it gained heat as he urged her lips open to allow his tongue entrance. She even sighed and moved a little closer when his hands urged her to. But it wasn't rockets and fireworks like it was with Christian, and she felt a deep disappointment when he broke the kiss and raised his head to peer at her.
"Well?" he asked, his voice rough.
Carolyn smiled. "It was nice."
"Nice?" he asked with disbelief. "Sweetheart, that about knocked my socks off."
"It did?" Carolyn asked with surprise.
"Well, that's not a rocket in my pocket pressing on you," he said dryly. "And I don't generally respond so eagerly to a kiss."
"Sorry," she muttered, suddenly aware of the not-rocket pressing against her.
Jack frowned and looked her over slowly. "Your eyes are dilated, your breathing heavier, and your nipples are erect. You liked it too."
Carolyn flushed at the frank assessment, but assured him quickly, "I did like it. It was-"
"Nice," he finished with a grimace when she cut herself off. Dissatisfaction crossed his face, and then he shook his head, released her, and turned to leave, only to immediately swing back. "On a scale of one to ten, what would you have rated that kiss?"
"Ten," Carolyn answered honestly, because really it had been nice. She'd been kissed by more than just Robert, although not by scads of men. But there had been the occasional flirtation at office Christmas parties or such. On that scale, Robert had been a one, but some of the others had reached maybe five or so. Jack was definitely a ten in comparison to them.
He nodded as if she'd verified something, and then asked, "And band boy's kisses rate where?"
Carolyn sighed. "I can't compare his, they're... " She shook her head helplessly and admitted, "When he kisses me the world slips away. I can't hear or breathe or see anything but him, and my body just explodes with a pleasure so overwhelming I-"
"Jesus, look at you," he muttered with fascination, moving back to examine her more closely. "You're on fire just thinking about it... and you're trembling."
Carolyn swallowed and lowered her head, then raised it again and blurted out, "He did more than kiss me last night."
"He bedded you." Jack didn't seem at all surprised.
"Six times," Carolyn admitted shakily. "And each time I fainted at the end. It was just too overwhelming and I passed right out every single-What are you doing?" she asked with surprise when he grabbed her hand and suddenly turned to drag her up the walk.
"Doing you a favor," he said grimly. "Where's he staying?"
"Why?" she asked warily.
"It's the villa above yours, isn't it?" Jack asked tugging her up the road.
"How did you know?" she gasped with surprise.
"Because you kept looking up there before and after I kissed you," he said dryly.
Carolyn grimaced. She had looked several times, but there had been nothing to see. The villa was dark.
"He's not there. And I don't understand what you're doing anyway."
"Like I said, doing you a favor."
"What favor?" she cried, stumbling along behind him.
Pausing, he turned abruptly, catching her arms to steady her when she nearly crashed into him. Staring down at her solemnly, Jack said, "Sweetheart, I've been with more women than I can count and have never come close to what you just described. In fact, your kiss was about the hottest I've ever enjoyed and it was nothing like that. And," he added heavily, "I have never, ever heard of sex so powerful the woman passes out or faints. If you have that with him, then you should be with him no matter who, what or how old he is."
"He passes out too," Carolyn muttered with disgruntlement and glanced up with surprise when he cursed and growled, "Lucky son of a bitch," as he turned to continue dragging her along.
"But he's not there," she protested again as they hit the turnaround and started up Christian's road.
"Oh, he's there," Jack assured her. "I'm pretty sure it was him standing up there with a bunch of others watching from the windows as I helped you into the van when we left earlier."
"He saw us?" she asked with dismay.
"Yes. He's probably been sitting up there stewing and waiting for you to return ever since," he said. "Besides, I could feel his scowl scorching the back of my neck while I kissed you."
Carolyn bit her lip, but asked, "A kind of prickly heat up the back of your-?"
"Yeah. That's it. Felt it every time I touched you on the boat too. That's why I recognized it."
"Damn," Carolyn breathed, and then began to tug at her hand in earnest. If Christian had seen them kissing...
"I can't go there."
"Woman, this is no time to be a coward," Jack said firmly, dragging her forward. "What you have here is a once in a lifetime thing, maybe a once in a thousand lifetimes thing. And I guarantee you will never find it again."
"But what if he doesn't want me?"
"Oh trust me, he wants you," he assured her. "A woman who makes you faint? It's enough to make a grown man weep with envy."
"But if he saw us kiss-"
"He did. And he no doubt saw me dragging you up here too. It'll be all right."
"But-"
"Shut up, Caro," Jack said grimly. "I'd rather drag you back to my place and enjoy some of that passion I tasted just a few minutes ago. Maybe for a lifetime it was that good. But I'd always know I couldn't compete with what he could give you. I'm doing this for you, you idiot."
Her mouth snapped closed as they reached the walk to Christian's villa and he tugged her up that. Pausing, he rang the bell, pushed her in front of the door and turned to walk away.
"You're just leaving me?" Carolyn cried, whirling to gape after him. "On the doorstep like an abandoned baby?"
Jack paused halfway up the walk and turned back. "I like you sweetheart, and I'm doing this for you. But I like me too and wouldn't mind seeing dawn, so-oh crap."
Carolyn stilled, sure without turning that the door had opened behind her and Christian was there. She could feel his heat.
"She wants you not me," Jack said abruptly. "I can't make her feel like you do and she made that obvious. But she's got a problem with your age difference so you'll have to-"
Jack paused and Carolyn gasped as her hand was suddenly grabbed and she was jerked around into Christian's arms. His mouth was on hers at once, devouring her and setting off those rockets she'd missed when Jack had kissed her.
Carolyn thought she heard Jack finish with a wry, "work it out," but Christian's hands were moving over her now, molding her to his body and then dropping to cup her behind and raise her off the ground. Carolyn moaned into his mouth even as he did when their bodies slid together.
She thought she heard Jack mutter, "It's like a fricking forest fire," as she let her purse slip to the ground and wrapped her arms around Christian's neck and her legs around his waist. She held on as he turned to carry her away from the door.
"Uh... I'll just get the door for you, shall I?" Jack called out. "And put her purse on the floor here?"
At least she thought he said that. It was hard to care much with one of Christian's hands cupping and squeezing her behind, pressing her more tightly against him, while the other found one of her breasts and squeezed as he mounted the stairs.
His hand left her breast as they reached the top of the stairs, and Carolyn shivered as she felt the zipper of her dress slide down her back, and then he was carrying her into and through the bedroom, straight to the bathroom.
She felt cold tile under her feet when he set her down, and when he broke their kiss she glanced around, confusion rising up through her when she saw they were in the shower.
"What-?" she began uncertainly and then gasped as Christian turned the taps on and cold water shot down over them.
"I can smell him on you," he growled, tugging her dress off her shoulders as the water warmed.
"He kissed me," Carolyn muttered and then gasped when he pulled her back into his arms to kiss her again.
She felt the snap of her bra give way, and as it dropped to the floor Christian pushed down her panties. The moment he got them off her hips, the damp material slithered down to pool at her ankles with her dress. He immediately lifted her out of them and caught her between his body and the wall as she wrapped her legs around his damp, jeans-clad legs. Christian then reached for the soap and began to rub it between his hands.
"Christian, I-"
Her words ended on a surprised gasp and she closed her eyes as he dropped the bar and began to run his soapy hands over her face and throat. He then slid them up and down her arms and over to cover her breasts.
Clutching at his shoulders, Carolyn gasped, "Oh," and arched into his hands as he soaped them. She then sank back with a little sigh as his hands moved away to curve over the flesh around them, and down her sides. He was being as methodical as Jack had been about applying the suntan lotion.
"He only kissed me," Carolyn whispered, beginning to feel like he was trying to wash away a taint. "He didn't touch me. You're the only one who has touched me in seven years."
"He touched you on the boat every chance he got," Christian muttered, and she reached for his face, forcing him to look at her.
"But not like you do, and he didn't make me feel like you do when you touch me," she said firmly. "I don't think anyone could."
Christian stared at her silently and then his face relaxed and the tension slipped from his body. His hands began to move again, sliding slowly now to curve under her behind and lift her a bit higher against the wall. Still, meeting her gaze, he then brought one hand around and slid it between her spread legs.
Carolyn gasped and pushed her back hard against the cold tiles, her legs tightening around his hips as his soapy fingers slid over her.
"Moan for me," he whispered, his fingers dancing across her flesh. "I vostri gemiti sono musica. Cantano per me-Your moans are music. Sing for me."
She was panting now, straining against the pleasure, but Carolyn shook her head and managed a crooked smile as she challenged him. "Make me."
Her eyes widened incredulously when his suddenly flared bright silver. Then she tipped her head back against the cold tile wall and cried out as his fingers slid between her folds so that his thumb could strum the core of her excitement as one finger slid into her. She then moaned as that finger withdrew, and groaned as it returned.
"Beautiful," Christian panted, his voice gravel. Carolyn immediately lowered her head and kissed him, hard.
When he suddenly turned them both under the spray, she simply squeezed her eyes tightly closed as the water washed the lather away, her body twisting and writhing under his touch. Carolyn was vaguely aware of the water suddenly stopping, and movement, and then Christian was lowering her to a soft surface. The bed, she saw opening her eyes. They were in the bedroom now, and then her eyes shifted back to him as he withdrew his hand from between her legs and straightened to remove his wet jeans.
"Don't ever leave while I'm sleeping," he muttered, urging her legs apart. "Promise me you won't leave this time until we talk."
"I-"
Carolyn gasped as he pulled her to the edge of the bed and slid into her.
"Promise me," he insisted as he withdrew.
"I promise," she gasped as he slid back in and then repeated it with each thrust. "I promise. I promise. I promise."
Christian opened his eyes, instantly alert, panic clutching at him as he saw the wide, empty expanse of bed next to him. She'd promised, he thought with dismay and then became aware of the heat at his back and glanced over his shoulder. Carolyn. Christian relaxed. He sat up and turned to get a better look. Her back was to him and she was on her side on the very edge of the bed. If she moved the slightest bit she was likely to tumble out.
He was a bed hog, Christian realized with dismay and reached for her, intending to move her away from the edge, but then hesitated. If he touched her, he wouldn't be able to stop, and then they wouldn't talk again and...
Christian grimaced. He'd already pounced on her once without talking. It wasn't a good idea to do it again. He needed to convince her to have a relationship with him.
He needed to make her fall in love with and trust him, because he needed her.
A sleepy murmur drew his attention and he focused on Carolyn again as she shifted onto her back with a sigh, the sheet slipping down to reveal one breast. Christian found himself staring at the pale, perfect mound with its rosy areola. He licked his lips and immediately bent toward her, but caught himself just before he would have taken it in his mouth. They needed to talk. He had to not touch her so they could talk, he reminded himself sternly and started to rise, but paused again when he saw that her nipple had budded, growing more prominent.
Had his breath done that? he wondered with fascination, and then Carolyn shifted sleepily again, dislodging the sheet from her other breast as well. Now he was faced with a two-course feast. Damn, she wasn't making this easy for him. His gaze slid from one breast to the other, noting that the one just revealed wasn't erect like the first.
It looked a little unbalanced he decided. He should really balance that out for her.
Leaning over he blew on the second nipple, and then rose up a little to compare it to the first. Damn, now the second one was much more prominent than the first, the blowing apparently causing more excitement than just breathing.
Hmm, best fix that, he thought and turned his attention to the first nipple again. He intended to just blow, but really a quick lick might work just as well. He could resist after a quick lick, he assured himself and slid his tongue out to rasp the nipple, eyes squeezing closed when a quick lick of pleasure slid through him. Damn, he'd forgotten about the shared pleasure. It was all new to him, and Christian wasn't exactly sure how it worked, but apparently he had to be in physical contact to experience it, because he hadn't felt it when he'd breathed or blown on her... and that gave him an idea.
Sliding from the bed, he crossed the room and went out into the hall to hurry to Gia's room. The house was silent. It was still early though, well, probably one, early for their kind. The gig in the lounge had ended at eleven, and the others had gone to hit a club in town, leaving him alone to wait for Carolyn's return.
He'd spent the time until she arrived pacing along the wall of windows, staring at the villa below while cursing, and muttering to himself like a madman. In the end, it had only been half an hour before the van pulled up and disgorged Jack and Carolyn, but it had felt like hours to him. It had felt like hell... at least until he'd had to watch helplessly as Jack put his arms around Carolyn and kissed her, then he'd discovered what true hell was.
Christian had wanted to crash down the mountain and rip out the man's spine through his back, and still wasn't sure how he'd maintained enough control not to do that.
But then Jack had seemed to be about to leave, turned back, the couple had spoken briefly, and suddenly Jack was dragging Carolyn up the mountain like a father dragging a naughty girl home after catching her doing something she shouldn't. The man had delivered her to him even though he wanted her for himself... because he knew Carolyn wanted him.
Amazing, Christian thought as he slipped into Gia's room. He would never give her up... no matter what. If his efforts to convince her to accept a relationship with him failed and she ran, he would follow her to Canada, or the ends of the earth if necessary. He'd buy or rent a house or apartment near her, make it so that she couldn't avoid him, and haunt her sleep with shared dreams until the combination wore her down.
He couldn't lose her. It was as simple as that.
Pausing at the closet, he opened the door, his eyes sliding over Gia's clothes. She had some pretty wild outfits, and some cool accessories too: scarves, gloves, chains, and feathers among other things.
It was the feathers he had come in search of. He could run those over Carolyn's body without the shared pleasure overwhelming him. But the thought of Gia's gloves suddenly made him pause. If he wore those... could he touch her without being overwhelmed by shared pleasure?
Of course, Gia's hands were much smaller than his.
The gloves wouldn't fit him. But he could always buy gloves that would. And they would fit Carolyn. If the bit of cloth prevented her from experiencing the shared pleasure, he could let her touch him wearing them. It was a thought. She wasn't going to allow him to prevent her touching him forever. While she hadn't seemed to notice that he'd prevented her from touching him tonight, she'd been growing impatient with his refusal to allow it by the end of their first night together. He had to try something.
Right now though, he wanted feathers. Where the hell did Gia keep things like that?
Carolyn stirred sleepily and opened her eyes as she stretched in the bed. God, she felt good. Warm, happy, sated. The last thought made her smile and glance toward Christian, or where she expected him to be, but he wasn't there. Surprised, she sat up, and then slid out of bed to cross to the bathroom.
Carolyn found the room empty and started to turn away, but then paused, lowered her head and swung back.
Biting her lip, she hesitated for a moment, then slowly raised her eyes to her reflection in the mirror, and let out a slow breath.
Okay, that wasn't so bad, Carolyn decided. She was naked, no leather dress crumpled around her waist. She supposed her breasts still weren't as perky as they had been in her twenties, and she wasn't exactly svelte, but she could deal with it. What really made the difference was that this time there was no streaky makeup caked on her face, or black eyes from mascara. Christian had washed her face in the shower. She looked just... well... okay, so she didn't look great. She could do with some lipstick and maybe blush, but she didn't look as bad as she had the last time she'd woken up here.
Giving herself a wry smile, Carolyn moved to go to the bathroom, grimacing when she noted her dress, a damp heap on the shower floor. She then returned to the bedroom and glanced around. Christian still hadn't returned and when she spotted the black T-shirt, discarded on a chair, she walked over to claim it. Carolyn tugged it on over her head, murmuring with pleasure as she inhaled his scent. God, he always smelled so good.
The T-shirt stopped below her bottom, which was good enough, she decided as she tugged her hair out of the neck and crossed to the door. The villa was silent as she slipped out of the bedroom and headed for the stairs.
Christian wasn't in the living room. She could see it was empty as she descended the stairs, so she turned left off the last step to head into the kitchen and glanced around expectantly as she slipped inside.
He wasn't there and disappointment immediately claimed her as she wondered where he'd gone. As far as she knew the only other rooms were the bedrooms.
Had he left the villa? After making her promise not to leave before they talked? She frowned over that, worrying that he wouldn't return. That was quickly followed by the worry that he would, and she began to fret over how he would greet her, how she should greet him. This was another situation she wasn't used to.
Sighing, Carolyn walked to the dining room windows.
Staring out at the night she absently plucked at the neck of the T-shirt she wore and pulled it up over her nose so that she could inhale his scent again. For some reason the smell soothed her and made her smile. Christian did smell heavenly. His kisses were also heavenly, and his touch and...
Feeling her body begin to tingle as she thought of just how heavenly his kisses and caresses were, Carolyn gave a little shiver and hugged herself, hardly able to believe he wanted her. Boring little Carolyn Connor. And he definitely wanted her. There was no way for him to be faking the passion he showed her.
Why not? Robert had, the heckler in her head whispered.
But she'd been pretty inexperienced then, Carolyn argued with herself. Besides, Robert had fooled her with sweet words and limp kisses that hadn't even compared to Jack's, which couldn't hold a candle to Christian's.
And Robert had never made love to her six times in one night, or done all the delicious things to her that Christian had, or...
No, Carolyn assured herself, Christian wasn't faking his passion. He wanted her. The problem was, she didn't know what he wanted her for. Jack had said Christian was in it for the long haul and wanted her body and soul, but she was afraid to get her hopes up. Because she was scared silly she'd gone and fallen for him.
Carolyn let the T-shirt drop back into place with a sigh and tried to sort out her feelings. She'd spent a lot of time with Christian over the last few days, most of her time with him actually. They'd relaxed together, talked a lot, and had fun. She enjoyed his company a great deal.
In fact, she enjoyed his company more than Bethany's.
Spending time with Beth always seemed to leave her feeling depressed and hopeless for some reason. So much so that Carolyn had actually been rather disappointed when she'd returned to the villa to find that her friend was feeling better. Mostly because it meant she wouldn't be able to spend time with Christian.
She enjoyed his company more, had more fun with him, laughed more with him.
He made her happy.
But that wasn't all. She'd somehow come to trust him.
Carolyn wasn't sure how that had happened. But she did.
She wouldn't have let him tie her to the bed last night if she hadn't trusted him. She'd also trusted him to look out for her on the cruise yesterday. Carolyn didn't think she would have drunk as much as she had if she hadn't known Christian was watching from the back of the boat.
Despite his anger, she'd been confident he'd be there at the end of the trip to see her safely off the boat and back to the villa. As he had.
But what did he want from her? What exactly had Jack meant when he'd said Christian was in it for the long haul? And was he even right about that?
Carolyn shifted from one foot to the other with frustration.
She wouldn't know the answers to anything until she had that talk with Christian.
But the thought of it left her nervous and dry-mouthed.
Grimacing, she turned and walked back across the combination kitchen/dining room, and slid around the island to the fridge. She was thirsty and knew there was bottled water here. Christian had gotten her two bottles last night.
He wouldn't mind her getting another while she waited, Carolyn thought and pulled the fridge door open and then simply stared. There was water. Several bottles of it lined up on the fridge door shelves. The main part of the fridge though was what made her pause. It was filled with what had to be more than fifty bags of red liquid, all stacked on top of each other, that looked suspiciously like blood.
The sound of voices from the other room had her quickly closing the fridge door and moving guiltily away.
She had no idea what the blood was doing in it. Christian had mentioned an allergy to the sun, but he'd never mentioned hemophilia or anything like that. Although, she wasn't sure hemophiliacs carried around bags of blood with them, and even if they did, surely they wouldn't need so much?
Frowning, she started for the door and then paused.
Obviously the rest of the band had returned, and while she was covered up and relatively decent, she... well... she'd rather not be seen running around in nothing but Christian's T-shirt.
God, they'd all know she-That they'd-Oh dear, she thought with a sigh.
"Caro?"
Carolyn glanced to the door to see Gia there, with the rest of the band crowded behind her and immediately felt her face grow hot. Actually, her whole body did and she suspected she was blushing all the way down to her toes.
"Hi," she said weakly, tugging at the bottom of Christian's T-shirt, which suddenly seemed extremely short under their stares.
"Where's Christian?"
Gia asked "Er... actually... I'm not sure. I came in here looking for him," she admitted and then, seeing no hope for it, drew her shoulders up and headed quickly forward, murmuring, "I think I'll go back to his room now."
Carolyn was pretty sure her blush was darkening, and she probably resembled a tomato with legs as she hurried forward, but much to her relief, Gia stepped aside and the men backed away to make room for her to leave. Muttering an embarrassed "Thank you," she moved past them, crossed to the steps and scampered upstairs.