Seduced by Moonlight (21 page)

The luxurious bathroom was huge with a deep tub and a walk-in shower. The floor was heated and, best of all, the towels were thick and plush and there were two comfortable-looking terry-cloth bathrobes with the hotel's logo in gold lettering on the breast pockets hanging on double hooks behind the door.

Cherisse pinned her hair up and stepped into the shower stall, followed by Harry, who turned on the water. “Hot, warm, lukewarm?” he asked.

“Warm,” said Cherisse.

Harry adjusted the temperature and grabbed a thick washcloth and squeezed some of the milk-and-almond body wash onto it. “You first,” said Harry and moved aside so that Cherisse could step under the spray. He gently rubbed the washcloth over her back, her shoulders, her chest, slowing down when he got to the intersection of her thighs. Cherisse closed her eyes and stood with her back to him and her hands pressed to the tiled shower wall, legs slightly spread.

“Your skin is flawless,” Harry murmured. “How did you escape getting scars being so active in sports?”

“Oh, I have scars,” Cherisse told him. She turned around to face him and pointed out an inch-long scar on the inside of her right arm. “I got that from another player's cleat when I was sliding into home and his shoe connected with my arm. I played on the boys' baseball team.”

“Why the boys' baseball team?” asked Harry. “The girls didn't have a softball team?”

“Yes, but I wanted to play baseball, not softball, and my mom was feisty enough to go up against the school board to make sure I got the chance to do it. I played for two seasons. Then I moved on to girls' basketball.”

Harry kissed her scar. “My tough little Cheri,” he said softly as he dropped the washcloth, backed her against the wall and kissed her breath away.

Sinewy muscles rubbed against soft, fragrant skin. Her breasts were crushed against his hard chest and Cherisse spiraled into a state of arousal to rival any she'd ever experienced. Making out in the shower was something new to her and she wondered why her other two lovers had not thought of it. Why
she
had never thought of it.

Harry raised his head. “Now you're loosening up.” Looking deeply into her eyes, he said, “Tell me your fantasies, sweetness. I want to hear what you dream of doing with the man you love.”

Cherisse's female center throbbed at the sound of blatant sensuality in his voice.

The possibilities were endless. She was a woman who had not had a man make love to her in more than six years. She had a lot of desires to satisfy. “I want to make love to you in unusual places,” she breathed, her heart pounding with excitement. “Not someplace we might get caught, I'm not that freaky, but in your office with the door locked. On the deck of a boat under moonlight…”

“Outdoor sex,” said Harry contemplatively. “I've never done that before, too afraid of photographers with telephoto lenses.”

Cherisse laughed. “Yeah, that would be embarrassing.”

“The beach?” asked Harry.

“Sand getting in my hair? No thanks.”

“Ever did it in a hammock?”

“No, but it's worth a try.”

Harry laughed. “So basically you are a missionary-style woman, sex in the bedroom with the man on top.”

“Harry, what good does it do talking about sex when you could be demonstrating it?” Cherisse said suddenly, bending to pick up the washcloth Harry had earlier dropped and rinsing it out under the spray.

“I want to know what you're used to so I won't shock you,” said Harry. “It's obvious I've had more experience than you've had.”

“You're an ex-football star, Harry. Of course you've had more experience than I have. You've undoubtedly had more experience than the average man, let alone a woman who has had only two lovers in her entire life!”

“That's all?” Harry asked, brows arched in surprise. “Darling, you're thirty-seven.”

“Don't even tell me how many lovers you've had, Harry Payne. I don't want to hear it. And, yes, only two for me because I married the first guy I ever made love to and the next man I loved got killed. That didn't exactly make me want to go out and have sex with a lot of other men!” Cherisse stated emphatically.

“Okay,” said Harry mildly, a smile on his lips. “I'm not complaining about your lack of experience, I'm just surprised by it. You're almost a virgin.”

“You know,” Cherisse said, “‘almost a virgin' would make a good book title but it doesn't describe me. I like sex. I just don't go around having it with every Tom, Dick and Harry! Now, turn around and let me wash your back.”

“Yes, dear,” said Harry and turned his muscular back to her.

Cherisse's righteous anger faded as soon as she saw his butt. She could bounce a quarter off that baby! She didn't pick up a washcloth with which to rub his body down, she used her hands. Harry just smiled.

Harry had planned ahead. He'd ordered a repast for them that included cold spicy crab legs, fresh garden salad, crusty rolls and fresh fruit—Cherisse's favorites—and for dessert, rich double chocolate cake. Champagne had been left chilling in an ice bucket by the hotel's staff.

Harry had lit the candle in the center of the table and poured the champagne by the time Cherisse came into the room, wrapped in one of the bathrobes. Harry was wearing the other one.

He held her chair for her. “We didn't have dinner before the ball,” he said. “I figured you must be famished by now.”

Cherisse's stomach had been growling off and on since ten o'clock. It was now nearly eleven. “I am. Thank you.”

“I ordered the spicy steamed crab legs you like,” Harry said. “Eat up.”

Cherisse did. The spices weren't nearly as hot as she liked. She expected her eyes to water when she ate crab legs, but these had a nice delicate flavor and had fresh, succulent meat on them.

Harry had fun watching her lick those plump lips of hers.

Cherisse knew he was watching her and licked her index finger indolently, drawing it from between her lips with slow deliberation.

Harry's groin grew tight. He looked down at his own untouched plate and picked up a cracked crab leg and began to methodically peel the shell away from the meat. “What do you think of announcing our engagement at the Christmas party?” he asked.

Cherisse gave it some thought. “All right, that would cover all of my friends and family but you would have to phone your folks.”

“Oh, didn't I tell you?” said Harry. “My family will be coming here for Christmas. I invited them a few days ago and they'll be here on the twenty-third. They'll be staying until the first week of January.”

Cherisse swallowed hard and had to take a sip of her champagne to get the crabmeat to go down. All of sudden, her head was spinning. Harry Payne didn't play around when he made a decision, did he? The next thing he would be telling her would probably be that he had already planned the wedding and all she had to do on the fateful day was show up!

“Today is the nineteenth, Harry. In four days your family will be arriving and you're just telling me?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise, like the rest of tonight,” Harry told her, smiling as he tossed the crab leg onto his plate and rose. He went into the bedroom and came back out carrying what looked to Cherisse like a folded quilt. When he got closer, she saw that it was a quilt.

She loved quilts. Carefully wiping her hands on the cloth napkin, she rose as Harry placed the beautiful work of art in her arms. She carried it over to the couch, not wanting it anywhere near the food where something could get spilled on it, and sat down with it on her lap. She looked at Harry, her eyes questioning. “Where did you get this? It's the most beautiful quilt I've ever seen.” She ran her hand over the delicate stitching. “See that design? Those are supposed to represent interlocking wedding rings.” Her eyes stretched. “This is a wedlock quilt, Harry!”

Harry smiled his satisfaction, walked over to her and sat down beside her. “You know your quilts. My mom will be pleased. She made it for me and my wife.”

Cherisse burst into tears. That was the sweetest, most dear thing she'd ever heard. His mother had made him a special quilt for when he got married. No wonder he doted on the woman.

Laughing softly, Harry put his arms around her. “I can tell Mom it's a hit with you, huh?”

Too choked up to speak, Cherisse nodded. Harry kissed her cheek. “I love you.”

He rose again. “But the quilt's not the only gift I have for you tonight, darling girl.”

He didn't leave the room this time. He simply reached inside the pocket of the robe, withdrew a ring box and knelt on one knee in front of her. He opened the ring box and presented her with a five-carat white diamond solitaire in a platinum setting. “Asking you to marry me while we were having sex didn't seem the proper way to go about such a solemn occasion.” He smiled up at her. “Will you be my wife? Will you let me love you and care for you until the day I draw my last breath?”

“Only if you'll let me love you and care for you for just as long,” Cherisse said through her tears.

“Agreed,” said Harry happily.

“Then, yes, I
will
marry you,” Cherisse said and held out a trembling hand for Harry to place the ring on her finger.

Harry held her hand firmly in his while he slipped the ring onto her finger. Then he leaned forward and kissed her tenderly. Parting, he said, “You've made me a very happy man.”

Cherisse laughed and jumped into his arms, catapulting both of them to the floor, where she kissed him soundly. Once he could disentangle himself, Harry reached up to pull the thick, heavy quilt onto the floor and pushed Cherisse back onto its plush softness. “Let's christen this baby.”

Kneeling over Cherisse, he loosened his robe's belt and pulled it off, tossing it somewhere behind him, then he removed the sash around Cherisse's waist and ripped open her robe, revealing her luscious naked golden-brown body underneath.

His semi-erect penis achieved hardness as soon as he laid eyes on her. She was a visual delight, long limbs and womanly curves, hair splayed out around her beautiful face, that beauty mark next to her sensually curved mouth winking at him. He bent and kissed her mouth, his tongue parting her lips. Cherisse kissed him back hungrily, rising from the quilt. Harry pulled her to him, their bodies warm and naked, hot and bothered, alive with sexual need.

Harry was about to impale her right there on the floor when he remembered the condom in his robe's pocket.

He kissed her belly. “One minute, baby, I forgot the latex.”

Once the condom was in his hand Cherisse took it from him and placed it on his hard, throbbing penis. Then she pulled him down for a deep kiss as she opened her legs, welcomed him inside of her, and wrapped herself around him.

No words were needed as they achieved the right rhythm, hands caressing, and their mouths drank the nectar each freely offered, gently at first and then more urgently.

Bodies entwined, they somewhat resembled the yin-and-yang symbol, Cherisse's body being a lighter brown than Harry's, but both bodies together meeting in perfect synchronicity.

Harry had never felt this kind of exultation before and thought his heart might explode inside his chest, he felt such joy. How could he have known that a stranger he met on the balcony on a moonlit night would come to mean so much to him?

Cherisse ended up on top and Harry had to close his eyes against her intense beauty, afraid he would not be able to hold back the powerful climax he felt building within him.

Cherisse closed her eyes, as well, and threw her head back, riding him, feeling his penis rubbing against the sensitive walls of her vagina and worrying her clit until she thought she might scream.

She bent and whispered in his ear, “So this is what a little moonlight can do.”

Harry came in an instant because he knew exactly what she was referring to. The very thing he had been thinking only moments ago. How fate had brought them together that night on the balcony at Karibu.

At that moment, his love for her knew no bounds.

Cherisse came with a loud moan, and Harry pulled her down to hold her in his arms while her body went through its spasms of release.

O
n Monday Cherisse tracked down David Pedersen to tender her resignation. She was required by the terms of her contract to give six weeks' notice. She admitted to some misgivings about quitting nursing. She had gotten her master's degree when she was thirty, but she had worked as a registered nurse for a year prior to that. Would she miss the daily grind of the past eight years? No. However she would certainly miss the patients and the easy camaraderie she shared with her colleagues.

She finally caught up with David at lunchtime. She paged him, he called her and they agreed to meet in the cafeteria.

Cherisse got there before David and sat down at a table in the back, a salad and a tall glass of iced tea in front of her. She didn't wait for David, but began eating. If he decided not to show up, she still had to get back to work on time.

He arrived about ten minutes into her salad, carrying a tray to the table and sitting down with a tired sigh. Cherisse thought the bags under his eyes were fuller than usual.

And his carriage wasn't as erect as it normally was.

“Hello, Cherisse,” he said softly, looking at her with red-rimmed eyes.

Cherisse dearly wanted to ask him if he'd stayed up all night, but wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing she was in the least concerned about him. For three years he'd given her a hard time. Was she now going to try to end their association with tenderness and compassion? No. David wouldn't accept it, anyway.

“Hello, David,” she said. She put her fork down and regarded him. “I'll make this short. I'm quitting.”

David's eyes stretched, but he didn't say anything. He placed his stethoscope on the tabletop. The weight of it in his lab-coat pocket bothered him when he was sitting. Then he met Cherisse's eyes. “Don't be ridiculous, Cherisse. Where are you going? Has some other hospital made you an offer? Is that it? You'll be swallowed up by bureaucracy in one of those places. Sure they seem nice at first, better pay, better benefits, but would you find satisfaction with them? The kind of satisfaction you get from challenging me at every turn?”

Cherisse smiled at him. Could it be that David Pedersen had found their adversarial relationship stimulating and would miss her when she was gone? If it were true he would never admit it. “No, I haven't been recruited by another hospital,” she told him. “I'm getting married.”

“Lots of nurses get married and continue working. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give you a month's leave. How is that?” His smile was warm, even solicitous.

“That won't be acceptable. I'm going to be working with my husband in his business. So I won't have the time to continue working here.”

David frowned. “It's true then? I heard rumors that you were seeing Harry Payne. I figured they were lies. Well, this is a fine mess, Cherisse! It's going to take a hell of a person to take your place. You're leaving me high and dry. How can you do this to me?”

Cherisse laughed. “I'm giving you six weeks' notice, David. That's not leaving you high and dry. What's more, if you're going to be hiring within, I suggest Sonia Lopez for the job. She has more than ten years' experience…”

“She doesn't have a master's degree,” David pointed out.

“She's working on it,” said Cherisse. “She's been going to night school for two years. She graduates in June. I don't see why you can't consider her for the job! You know it would be more cost effective instead of having to bring someone in from the outside. Of all the nurses in pediatrics, she's the one the others look up to. They would accept her as their leader.”

“You think you've got it all figured out, don't you?” said David peevishly. He bit into his ham-and-cheese sandwich almost viciously, chewed, swallowed and took a swig of apple juice. “If I had known you were going to marry a millionaire and leave me three years from the date I hired you, I wouldn't have hired you!”

Cherisse was shocked by his reaction. “I thought you would be happy to see me go!”

David sighed. “I rode you so hard because I knew you had potential, Cherisse. I will not be happy to see you go. You have yet to achieve your full potential.”

“You mean I haven't yet bowed to management,” Cherisse said. “I'm not sorry to disappoint you, David. This is one nurse who is going out unbowed and with her dignity intact.”

“Let me leave the position open for six months,” David suggested. “Sonia can do the job for that long. You may change your mind. Rich men often change their minds about the women they marry. What if he kicked you out? You would have nothing to fall back on.”

“I'm touched by your concern,” Cherisse said sarcastically. “But the answer is no.”

“Then my answer to the Sonia Lopez question is no,” David stubbornly told her.

“Go ahead, David, bite off your nose to spite your face. But you're going to lose many more good people unless you start showing some compassion, a shred of interest in your staff as human beings and not just as bodies to perform tasks around this hospital.”

She rose and collected her tray. “My written resignation will be on your desk by the end of the day.”

David threw his head back in laughter.

Cherisse looked down at him. “Have you gone crazy from lack of sleep or something? You came in here looking like death warmed over and now you're acting peculiar.”

David gestured to her empty chair. “Sit, sit.” His eyes danced with amusement.

Cherisse sat back down and glared at him.

“Didn't it feel good to have one last knock-down-drag-out, Cherisse?” he asked smugly. “Of course I accept your resignation. Yes, I'll be sorry to see you go, but I'm happy for you. You deserve happiness, and if Harry Payne makes you happy, then, wonderful!”

Cherisse looked around them suspiciously. “Are we on some kind of hidden camera TV show? Am I being punked?”

Still laughing softly, David explained, “Nothing of the sort. I'm just tired of being a tight-ass, Cherisse. I spent most of my life, both as a civilian and in the military, being the one who never let his standards fall below excellent. My wife left me three weeks ago. She said she and I had nothing left. I was my job, and she didn't want to be married to a job. I haven't been able to sleep well without her beside me. I didn't realize how much I depended on hearing her reassuring soft snores next to me in order to get a good night's rest. Not that her snoring is the only thing I miss about her. It's just an example of one of the things I never appreciated about her.”

“Oh, my God, David, you've just shared something personal with a colleague. Will you now keel over and die?”

David laughed anew. “You're not going to give me a break?”

“Why should I give you a break? It's obvious you drove the poor woman away. I would have left you much sooner. How long have you been married?”

“Twenty-five years.”

“She's a saint! I would've killed you in your sleep two years into the marriage.”

David had tears in his eyes, he was laughing so hard. And Cherisse knew why. He was finally releasing some of the pent-up stress he'd been carrying around since his wife had left him.

“I would tell you that you have a good chance of winning her back if you cleaned up your act, but I have too much sympathy for the poor woman. She's suffered enough.”

David wiped his eyes with a paper napkin and regarded Cherisse. “Thanks, I needed that.”

Cherisse smiled. “You needed me to insult you?”

“I needed somebody to be brutally honest.” He sighed. “I'll seriously consider Sonia Lopez for the job. I can't promise to stop being a tight-ass. It's too ingrained in me. But I will definitely try to get my wife to come back to me. I love her and I believe she loves me. I can leave the job here from now on, and actually start to have a life outside of work.”

“Just my luck,” Cherisse quipped. “You're turning into a human being just as I'm leaving this place.”

“You could stay.”

“Not on your life,” said Cherisse. “And another thing, I'm going to need ten days off starting on January first.”

“You're busting my balls!” David cried.

“A girl has to have a honeymoon, David,” Cherisse said, rising. She picked up her tray. “And if you have got your wife talking to you again by January first, I'd like you to bring her to my wedding in Vail.”

“You're inviting me to your wedding?” David asked, genuinely moved.

“I'm inviting all of my friends, David.”

 

Charlie liked his job. He went to area high schools and community colleges to recruit students into the sports medicine program at the University of Colorado at Denver. He had so much fun talking to the students that he often felt let down when it was time to go home after work. But then he figured the reason he didn't want to return to the Patterson home at the end of the day was because he felt guilty. He had found a nice house not too far from campus but he hadn't told anyone about it yet. He wanted to be around the Patterson home for a while longer.

His big plan to win Cherisse back, to get Danielle on his side and therefore work on Cherisse's sympathies as a mother, had failed miserably because Danielle saw through his ruse in about a minute and called him on it. Cherisse had raised a very astute young lady. Basically, Charlie was now out of ammunition when it came to the big guns he was supposed to have brought to bear in the war to win Cherisse back.

Harry Payne was winning big-time. Charlie suspected that Cherisse had slept with Payne even though he hadn't overheard her talking about it with her mother or anything. Cherisse was notoriously closemouthed about that sort of thing.

Still, she looked exceptionally happy to him. She glowed. He hoped she wasn't pregnant!

What's more, lately, she was being very polite to him. She no longer avoided him and when she looked at him he saw a softening in her gaze as if she could finally stand the sight of him without rolling her eyes or cursing under her breath. He didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad sign. It could be a bad sign if she were so gone on Harry Payne that his presence was no longer a blip on the radar. It could be a good sign if she were genuinely beginning to consider Charlie as a rival for Payne.

Charlie wasn't going to hold his breath.

It was two days before Christmas and Charlie had gone shopping on his lunch break and gotten Danielle that new cell phone she had been dropping hints about, Cherisse a gold bracelet and Miss Jo a pair of pearl earrings. He'd had the bracelet engraved with the words
I'll Always Love You.

When he got home in the afternoon, Miss Jo and Danielle were in the kitchen cooking. They had started cooking two days ago for the Christmas Eve bash. The freezer on the back porch was full of goodies that only had to be thawed and reheated.

Charlie had even been put into service last night when they had baked cakes and pies for the party. His right arm was sore from whipping cake batter. He didn't mind, though. This was the first time in years he was going to spend Christmas with people he loved.

Danielle looked up from chopping celery and went to him and kissed him on the cheek. “Hey, Dad, how was your day?”

“It was fine, baby, how was yours?”

“Hectic, as usual,” said Danielle. “Grandma's trying to work me to death.”

Charlie went and kissed Miss Jo on the cheek. “Miss Jo,” he acknowledged with a smile.

Joann smiled back. “Hello, Charlie. Refresh yourself then wash up and join in the fun. There are still potatoes to be peeled for the potato salad.”

“I'm a pro at peeling potatoes,” Charlie said gamely.

Joann winked at Danielle. “Isn't that something? If he stays here long enough we'll have him cooking entire meals.”

Charlie suddenly decided it was time to come clean. “I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you, Miss Jo,” he said regretfully. “But I've found a house. I'll be moving at the first of the year. I found an owner who's agreed to rent it to me before I decide to buy.”

“Well, that's nice,” said Joann. She was wearing an apron over a smart gray A-line dress that nicely fit her plump body and a pair of black flats as she stood at the counter cutting carrots into three-inch-long sticks for appetizers. “I'm going to miss you around here.”

“I will, too,” said Danielle. She wore jeans and a red sweater with a pair of white sneakers. Her thick hair was braided and held back by a brown leather tie.

She smiled at her father. “But all good things come to an end. Things stay in flux. I learned that in physics. Even though we're not aware of it, the earth, everything is continually changing. Change can be good.”

Charlie looked into her eyes. Was she trying to tell him something? Perhaps prepare him for some shocking news.

Danielle seemingly spoke to his fears when she said, “Dad, I got a letter from Yale today. I've been accepted. I start the fall semester of next year. And since Mom put me in that young achievers program when I was eight, my tuition will be paid for the first four years.”