Once in a Lifetime. Gwynne Forster

silently, he closed the box.

      “Must be the bulb, but I can’t change that tonight.”

      “I don’t need that light, Telford.”

      He raised himself up from his squatting position. “Then I’ll do it after I get home tomorrow.”

      The moonlight cast a glow over his face that softened his features, and gave his hazel-brown eyes a sexy, almost wanton magnetism. She stared at him; she couldn’t help it. Her gaze darted to his broad chest with its pectorals prominent beneath his T-shirt, back to his square chin and settled on his mouth.

      She knew the moment had come, when he took the flashlight from her fingers and she heard the gadget fall to the grass. It didn’t occur to her that she ought to move.

      “Alexis, if you want our relationship to remain exactly as it is, get back in that house. Now.”

      She didn’t want it to change, but she wanted to be in his arms. Needed the warmth and loving that a faithless marriage had denied her. Her head said move, but her heart said stay where you are.

      “Did you understand what I said? Did you?”

      The hoarse, guttural sounds, so unlike his mellifluous voice, excited her, and a strange heat began wafting its way through her veins. She opened her mouth to answer, but no sound came.

      Like lightning, he had her in his arms and lifted her until he pressed them breast to chest and belly to belly. One of his big, powerful hands locked to her buttocks and the other to the back of her head. He stared into her face, and then his mouth came down on her, hard and trembling.

      “Open for me. Let me in you.”

      He parted her lips with his tongue, commanding her to take him. And she did. Hot darts danced inside her and her senses whirled dizzily when at last she had him. His tongue danced within her mouth, tasting, anointing, driving in and out in a symbolic act of love. He teased and tantalized until she gripped him to her and moans sprang from deep in her throat. Frustrated, she twisted against his chest, and experienced man that he was, his fingers found her nipple and pinched and rubbed until she cried aloud.

      “Telford, I can’t stand this.”

      The tips of his callused fingers brushed her chest before dipping into the scooped-neck caftan and freeing her breast for his rapacious mouth. His tongue, moist, warm and sweet, curled around her erected aureole, bringing a keening cry from her as he suckled her with a wild, animal hunger until electric shocks pelted her feminine core.

      Stunned as, for the first time in her life, love’s liquid flowed freely from her, she attempted to move away from him.

      “What’s the matter?” he whispered, as if he feared startling her. “Have I…done something wrong?”

      Embarrassed, she buried her face in his shoulder. “It’s… I’m sorry…it went further than I… I let it get out of hand.”

      He eased her to her feet, but his arm stayed snug around her. “I don’t want you to be upset. There’s no point in that. Both of us knew the minute we first looked at each other that this would happen. Right?”

      He caressed her cheek, rhythmically, the way he’d stroked her breast and, to stop his assault on her senses, she covered his hand with her own. But to him, it must have been a gesture of affection, for he kissed her forehead.

      “If you had left here then, it could have been a year from now, but I think I would eventually have gone after you.”

      “Yes, we both knew, but we didn’t want it to happen,” she whispered.

      “In these circumstances? No, we didn’t, but I wouldn’t exchange it for anything. Still, I’ll try to keep my hands off you.”

      She couldn’t help smiling at that. “I don’t question your honor.”

      He stared until she wanted to lose herself in his eyes. Then he tipped her chin with his right index finger. “You are one beautiful woman. And I’m not talking about looks, though there’s definitely that, too. I mean you are everything a man needs. I’ll see you at breakfast. Sleep well.” He opened the screen door, strode through her room and out of sight.

      She sat on the edge of her bed, grateful for a moment of privacy while Tara plunked away at the keyboard. Jack Stevenson hadn’t known what to do with her or, if he had, he hadn’t bothered to apply that knowledge. Maybe she’d asked to be treated as if she were cold porcelain, but she didn’t think so. Until tonight, she had no basis for comparison, but she’d always thought petting and sex ought to be both more demanding and more rewarding. When Jack didn’t show any concern for her lack of response, she began to resent his own release and finally reached the point where she tuned out, even when they were supposed to be making love. After the first six or seven months, she stopped hoping and, as time passed, she no longer tried to feel anything.

      She could think of a dozen reasons why she should stay away from Telford Harrington, including the fact that he liked his life as it was. Girl, you’d better use some discipline. If you don’t you’re headed for trouble. If she didn’t use self-control. Precisely what she didn’t want to do.

      He had hoped that Russ wouldn’t broach the matter of Tara and Alexis that night. He didn’t have the patience or the will to deal with his brother’s displeasure at his having hired Alexis. It wouldn’t hurt him to shave every day and observe rules of common decency in communal living. All three of them needed to clean up their acts and stop taking self-indulgence to such extremes. He bypassed the den and headed for his room, but Russ would not be deterred and waited for him at the top of the stairs.

      “Look, Telford, I suspect it’s useless to ask you to reconsider this. But have you thought about what it’ll be like for her in the midst of four men? This isn’t the place for her, and what about that child? In two weeks, she’ll know every cuss word ever spoken.”

      Telford loved his brothers, and he valued their camaraderie and peaceful relations, but this matter was not negotiable. “She stays, Russ. I gave her a contract. I don’t like our disagreeing about something so fundamental as who lives in our home. She’s intelligent, and if she finds that you’re not comfortable around her, I’m sure she’ll avoid you as much as possible. As for the cuss words, Tara won’t learn any in this house.”

      “Aw, hell, man. I’m not stupid. A five-year-old could feel the chemistry between the two of you. Tara feels it. And another thing, you can break that little girl’s heart.”

      He stared at Russ. “Right. That must be the reason you want me to send her away from here. Don’t expect anything to happen between Alexis and me.” He couldn’t help smiling. “As for Tara, I think she’s got my number.”

      Russ raised an eyebrow and let a smile play around his mouth. “If she’s got your number, her mother’s got your address. I just talked with Drake, and he thinks I ought to go up to Philadelphia tomorrow and check the new material he’s considering. You want to examine it, too?”

      “Not unless the two of you disagree, and that isn’t likely. I need to keep an eye on that school. That dedication ceremony will go on as scheduled, and the bell will ring for the first day of school on September seventh if I have to hold up that building with my back.” He knocked his left hand into his right palm and ground his teeth. “Fentress Sparkman will be sorry he ever heard of our dad, and it will be a long time before he turns the screw on another one or his partners. I’ve got him this time.”

      “Yeah. Just be sure you can give it your full attention.”

      Another allusion to Alexis. Both of his brothers wanted the best for him. He knew that, but he didn’t give either of them the right to choose his friends and tamper with his relationships. He told Russ good-night and went to his room, where he paced the floor for half an hour.

      She had a wallop like nothing he’d ever experienced. It scared the hell out of him and yet, it felt like coming home to a warm, welcoming fire when you were practically frozen. Unfortunately,