James, Stephanie (9 page)

Waverly. Maybe that and another couple of drinks will deaden the pain.”

Instantly Tabitha was on her feet, Steve Waverly completely forgotten as she rounded the table to take

Dev’s arm. “You will not sit here and gulp aspirin and alcohol! Of all the silly notions. What you need is

more bed rest. I should never have dragged you off to that artist’s colony this afternoon. How could I

have been so thoughtless? And now I’ve kept you up till all hours when you ought to be sleeping. Come

along, Dev. I’m taking you back to your cabin right now!”

Dev allowed himself to be assisted to his feet, his fingers closing strongly around the handle of the cane

as he smiled blandly at his puzzled foe. “If you’ll excuse us, Steve?”

Tabitha seemed to remember Waverly’s presence. “Oh, yes, please excuse us, Mr. Waverly,” she said

with a charming smile. “Dev is still recovering from a terrible incident back on St. Regis, you know. He

needs plenty of bed rest. See you later,” she added rather absently as she took Dev’s arm and started

him out of the cocktail lounge.

They had almost reached the door when Dev pulled back slightly. “Just a second, honey, I forgot to

leave a tip. You wait here and I’ll be right back.”

“I could take the money back to the table,” she began earnestly.

“No, that’s all right. Won’t take a second.” He patted her hand reassuringly and turned back into the

crowded lounge. Using the cane with a polite ruthlessness, he forged a path back through the dancers

until he found the table Steve Waverly occupied alone. The younger man glanced up in astonishment as

Dev approached.

“Listen, weasel,” Dev drawled in chillingly polite tones that immediately got Waverly’s complete

attention. “I think we need to clarify a small matter here. Just so there’s no misunderstandings, the lady is

private property. Come near her again and I will take you apart piece by piece. There are plenty of other

more exotic creatures on board this ship. Stay away from my tabby cat.”

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Waverly’s handsome face went through a variety of expressions as he rapidly reassessed the situation.

Dev was pleased with the final wariness which settled into the other man’s blue eyes. He nodded in

satisfaction, not feeling any compunction at all in having used nearly forty years of harsh experience and

the resulting masculine assurance to quell his younger rival. Dev knew damn well he could be intimidating

when he chose, and tonight he found himself choosing to be exactly that: thoroughly intimidating.

“Good night, Mr. Waverly,” he murmured arrogantly, turning back toward the door with masterful

confidence. Through the bobbing dancers he could just barely make out Tabitha’s anxious gaze as she

searched impatiently for him. Dev smiled to himself, quite pleased. He remembered to inject a hint of

brave suffering into his smile as Tabitha caught sight of him and came forward to take his arm once more.

“Did you leave the tip?” she asked politely, guiding him out the door.

“I left a tip,” he murmured in satisfaction.

“I’m sure it will be appreciated.”

“I can only hope so.”

“How’s the leg?” Tabitha inquired as he leaned more heavily on her arm.

“It aches, I’m afraid,” Dev admitted. It wasn’t altogether a sham, either, unfortunately. The damn leg

was hurting a bit tonight. And so were the ribs for that matter. Forty years might buy a man enough

experience and confidence to intimidate younger rivals but they also brought some less pleasant rewards

such as the aches and pains generated by all that accumulated experience.

The discomfort, however, was almost worth it just to see the warm concern in Tabby’s eyes as she led

him back to his room. Dev felt the gentleness of her touch on his arm and sensed the tenderness she

wanted to extend. The evening was going very well, he decided. Very well, indeed.

“Is the leg hurting very badly?” she asked anxiously as he opened his cabin door.

“It’s felt better,” he told her grimly.

She chewed on her lower lip for a second. “Look, why don’t you get into a bathrobe or something, and

I’ll massage it for you,” she finally offered. “Would that help? And I can put a compress on your ribs,

too, if you like.”

Dev sighed in satisfaction and tried to make it sound like a suppressed groan of pain. “That would be

fantastic, Tabby. How can I thank you?” He leaned the ebony cane against the wall and steadied himself

with a hand braced against the bathroom door. “I’ll be right out as soon as I change,” he told her calmly.

He was proud of the casual tone of his voice, especially given the fact that his blood was starting to move

with a heavy beat in his veins.

She was waiting for him when he emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later. He was dressed only

in a beach towel that he had wrapped carelessly around his waist. He saw the way her wide eyes

lingered on his bare chest before she quickly raised them to his face. “Sorry—” he smiled easily “—I

don’t have a robe.”

“I see. Well, lie down on the bed and let me at that leg. I’ll get a cloth from the bath for your ribs, too,”

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she said industriously, looking everywhere but at his half-naked body.

He sank heavily down onto the bed which she had already turned back for him and watched indulgently

as she scurried around the room, collecting a warm damp cloth and her nerves. He liked the way his near

nakedness had thrown her into awkward confusion. She was becoming increasingly aware of him, he

realized. It was just a matter of time.

Carefully arranging the sheet so that it covered as much of him as possible, Tabitha eventually settled

down to the task at hand. At the first touch of her gentle fingers Dev closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.

It was going to be a toss-up, he decided, between the way she aroused him and the way she relaxed him.

But he knew which sensation was going to carry the day. Already his body was tightening with

awareness.

“That feels so good, Tabby,” he growled as she worked on his aching leg. “Much better than aspirin.

“How did you hurt your leg, Dev?” she asked in a soft voice, as if afraid of intruding on his privacy, but

unable to resist the question any longer.

“I had an accident a couple of years ago. Zigged when I should have zagged,” he returned as

nonchalantly as possible.

“A skiing accident?”

“No, uh, car accident,” he corrected automatically. The story should be automatic by now. He’d told it

enough times. “Got cut with some flying glass.”

“Yes, I can see the scars,” she whispered, tenderly kneading the area around the knee where the

evidence of the accident still persisted. He heard the gentleness in her voice and smiled to himself. It was

so nice to have her fussing over him like this. Who would have thought after all these years that he’d find

himself wanting to immerse himself in a woman’s tenderness? Having a female for an occasional bed

partner had always seemed more than sufficient in the past

It wasn’t just her attention and compassion he was enjoying, Dev realized with a flash of honesty. He

was also enjoying playing the role she had assigned him. He rather liked being the kind of man she

admired. Tabby found him intelligent, a stimulating conversationalist, well traveled and very much the

gentleman. With her he actually felt like a cultured, gracious businessman who was on a cruise for

pleasure as well as business. God! She’d be utterly appalled if she knew what sort of tip he’d actually left

behind in the cocktail lounge this evening!

But Waverly deserved what he’d gotten. Tabby was Dev’s own private discovery and damned if he was

going to let another man come along and steal her away just when he had her halfway into bed.

Actually, she was sitting on his bed right now. He felt her adjust the warm compress on his ribs.

“Any better?” she asked after a moment.

“Much. You’re a natural nurse, Tabby. Probably missed your calling by going into the book business.”

He kept his eyes closed, aware that her hands were fluttering a bit awkwardly on him now. She wanted

to touch him more intimately, he realized, and she didn’t quite know what kind of excuse to use to do so.

Maybe he should pretend to fall asleep again. Last time she had stayed all night. If he could get her to lie

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down beside him tonight, he’d have it made, he was sure of it. Experimentally, he tried a yawn.

“You must be exhausted, Dev. Will you be able to sleep with your leg hurting?”

“It’s not hurting nearly so much now,” he told her in a voice that was rapidly thickening from something

besides weariness. How much more of this was he going to be able to take? When would she realize

how his body was reacting to her? Damn it, she’d been a married woman. Regardless of how lousy her

husband had been in bed, she must know when a man was becoming aroused! Maybe he should just

grab her. Hell, he’d waited long enough, hadn’t he? She was so close and he
knew
she was aware of him

as a man.

But if he could just hold off a little while longer, she’d take the initiative, and he wouldn’t have to risk

spoiling her image of him as a shy, vulnerable gentleman. His hand clenched under the sheet. How much

longer?

Dev sensed Tabitha’s increased agitation. Her own sensual awareness was there in her touch now. He

could hear her increased rate of breathing and even though he steadfastly kept his eyes closed he had a

mental image of what the action was doing to her lovely breasts. Her rounded thigh was pressed against

his as she sat beside him on the bed, and it was all he could do to resist closing his hand over the

intriguing curve.

When she leaned over him to adjust the sheet, he held his breath. Perhaps now. Last night she’d found

the courage to kiss him good night. If she tried that again this evening, he would simply close his arms

around her and pull her down onto the bed. His mind raced with the image of what he would do next. It

would be easy to roll over on top of her, trapping her beneath him with one leg while he stifled her

protests with a kiss.

No, he couldn’t wait any longer. When she leaned down to kiss him good night, he’d risk losing his

status of gentleman and grab her. Hell, a man couldn’t wait forever.

“Good night, Dev. I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast.” Suddenly her hands had left him.

Dev’s eyes snapped open in dismay as he realized there wasn’t going to be any good night kiss. She

was halfway out the door before he could think of anything to say and by then it was much too late. A

second later the door closed solidly behind her.

“Damn it to hell!” he gritted, his clenched hand lifting to pound impotently into the pillow. “Damn it to hell

and back! What went wrong?”

It seemed to him that his leg ached worse than ever.

Four

«^»

Tabitha knew exactly what had gone wrong. She’d lost her nerve at the crucial point and, since Dev was

too shy and too sensitive to take the initiative, she had lost the opportunity. Damn!

Back in her cabin she paced the tiny floor space and wondered what would have happened if she’d let

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the massage turn into lovemaking. She was almost certain Dev wouldn’t have rejected her. It had seemed

as though his body had grown tighter, harder, under her hands instead of more relaxed, and there could

be only one reason for that. She had managed to arouse him, she was sure of it. Poor man. He must

wonder at her intentions!

In all honesty, what were her intentions? She certainly had not set out to seduce Dev this evening. Her

immediate concern had been his bruised ribs and aching leg.

But somewhere along the line she had realized what was happening to both of them. And she’d lost her

nerve.

The knowledge of their mutual attraction had shaken her far more than she would have expected. After

all, she had been a married woman! Still, the lessons she’d learned from a husband who had found her

boring had been drilled into her so well that it was difficult to escape them. It was difficult to be sure that

she had at last found a man who found her interesting.

He was like her in so many ways, she thought Perhaps, in a way, he was even more withdrawn and

vulnerable. After all, in addition to his unhappy marriage, he’d also suffered that terrible car accident.

She’d seen how aloof and distant he’d held himself during the first few days of the voyage, never mixing

with the other passengers.

Yes, he was even more cautious than she was when it came to relationships, Tabitha decided, and that

meant that it was up to her to keep the wonderful association developing.

In other words, if there was to be any hope for something meaningful between Dev Colter and herself,

she was going to have to take the initiative and seduce him. He was simply too uncertain, too vulnerable

to do it on his own.

Deliberately seduce a man? She, who had never been given any reason to think herself either sensual or

irresistible? Whose husband had made it very clear that she was a nonentity in bed?