slipped about her and drew her back against his body. His lips traced the thin white scar.
She swallowed. “There are a lot more of them. You just didn’t notice them before. Do they bother you?” she asked, afraid of what his answer would be.
“You don’t seem to be bothered by mine.” His smile was slow and sexy. He turned his head to show her the scars that marred the side of his neck and shoulder. “And there are a lot more of them.”
Sam bit her lower lip. “Men tend to look rougher and sexier with visible scars. I haven’t ever heard some guy say, ‘Wow, that scar on your jaw makes you look real sexy, honey’.” Her cheeks turned pink.
David traced the line of her throat slowly with his mouth and watched her face in the mirror. She closed her eyes and gasped softly.
“I got mine from being hit with several chairs, a couple of tables, a prop ladder-and this one was from a seven- inch blade that some asshole tried to carve me up with.” He took her slim hand and lifted it to the side of his jaw, where a fine white scar trailed roughly three inches along the beard-roughened skin. Her eyes opened as she frowned at it for a moment, before turning to kiss it gently. “We sort of match.” His eyes met hers in the mirror.
”Gonna tell me how you got yours?”
Sam turned slowly in his arms and trailed her fingertips over the scars on his face and neck as she drew a long breath. “Nothing quite as impressive as yours. I was in a car accident about twelve years back.” Her eyes did not meet his.
Strong fingers lifted her chin and he breathed quietly, “I’m sorry. You don’t have to talk about it if you prefer not to.”
She shrugged. “I don’t mind. Sometimes it seems to bottle up inside me and I end up crying. Talking about it helps a little, I think.”
He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “What happened to you?”
She just let him hold her close for a long moment before speaking. “I was caught in my seat belt when the passenger side of the car was crushed under a semi. I was the passenger.”
He swallowed hard. “I’m surprised you’re still alive.”
“So were my doctors. They had me under the knife over a dozen times in two years. I would barely heal from one surgery and they were doing another. I sort of resemble a patchwork quilt on an x-ray,” she smiled and sighed against his shoulder. “I wasn’t supposed to be able to walk. They didn’t expect me to recover. But I don’t like to back away from challenges.”
“Was I a challenge?” His question caught her off guard.
She lifted her cheek from his body and gazed at him thoughtfully. “No. You were incredibly easy.”
He grinned at her and dragged her back into his embrace to kiss her quite satisfyingly. “I was pretty shocked at how easy I was myself. What the hell is it about you that turns me to mush?”
Sam swallowed and enjoyed the way his hands moved over her body. “I guess I could ask you the same thing. Usually I keep my head screwed on straight but when you touch me, I go berserk.” She ran her palms over his naked chest, her breath catching at the sheer beauty of him.
“Then your answer is yes?”
“What are you going to do with me, David? Keep me tied to the bed for the next few months?” Her eyes were incredibly green and vulnerable.
He swallowed hard. “I hadn’t thought about that, until you just mentioned it. Sounds sexy as hell. But I think I would prefer having to seduce you every time. It’s one hell of a lot more fun.”
She ran her palms down the sides of his knotted shoulder muscles. “You seem to think I’m sort of special now, David, but a few months will change your mind. By then, you’ll realize that I’m just a very plain, extremely ordinary female with no figure and no personality and you’ll regret having forced this situation. Can’t we simply settle for an obscene sum of money and go our separate ways? You’ll be far happier in the long run. And you won’t have to deal with a nasty-tempered, violent, shrewish woman who tests your patience at every turn and makes you wish you could simply strangle her instead of putting up with her.”
David stared at her intently. “You and your friend don’t have the kind of money it would take if you don’t agree to do this.”
Sam’s face was hot. “Then I guess I have no choice. But don’t expect me to just roll over any time the mood strikes you. I will stay with you but I won’t make it easy for you.” She knew she was lying to herself, because there was no way on earth she would be able to resist the way he made her feel. She would be a complete doormat. A willing, wimpy slave to his every need and desire. She hated herself for her weakness but she was not foolish enough to believe her own bravado. And from the flare of dark fire in his eyes, neither was he.
David drew a deep, calming breath. He had just hit her in her most vulnerable spot. He felt like a bastard, but nothing mattered except keeping her. Deep inside his conscience railed at him. But he couldn’t stop now. He wanted desperately to tell her he would never harm her. But if he did, she might change her mind.
She was going to do it. But she wanted him to believe she wasn’t willing. In a pig’s eye. He could feel the trembling of her body as she tried so valiantly to face him down. He knew that she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her but she would try to make herself and him believe she didn’t.
That was okay by him. If she resisted him, he would enjoy it even more. But then he realized that in six months, she would be able to simply walk out of his life forever and he would have absolutely no hold over her.
Well, like she’d just said, six months was a long time. A lot of things could happen in six months. “I’ll have it put into writing. That way, neither of us can back out.”
“I’d prefer a gentleman’s agreement. Can’t we simply shake hands?”
“A gentleman’s agreement won’t work if one of the agreeing parties is not a gentleman.”
“You have a point there.” Her soft sigh made him fight the smile that wanted to spread over his face. “I suppose we should try to get some sleep. You have a big day ahead of you and I have my own arrangements to make. I hope that you realize you are completely turning my life upside down.”
“Then we’re even.” Hadn’t she already done that to his life?
He was sleeping soundly, his face pressed against her throat, with his heavy arm draped across her body. She sighed and shifted to a more comfortable position, not wanting to wake him. She had lain awake for the past hour, just gazing at him as he slept. It was impossible to believe that she had actually dreamed this face, dreamed this body, years before she had ever known about him. She had dreamed the sensual, delicious way he made love to her. She had written about it in her novels. She swallowed hard. He was too gorgeous to be real. If she blinked, he might fade away into her dream.
She remembered her mother’s voice, so long ago, when she had smiled at her young daughter and had said softly, “Sometimes dreams are nothing more than other spirits trying to touch ours.”
She closed her eyes and tried to picture him in her dreams. It was definitely him. Something from this man had reached out to her from across the miles and years and had touched her dreams. She could believe him capable of that kind of will. Then she drew a deep breath and willed herself to sleep. She was going to be a wreck in the morning.
“Yeah, we all saw you on TV last night!” Phyllis’ voice seemed so very far away. Sam inhaled deeply and licked her lips.
“It was all part of the hype. The fans ate it up.” Sam was really getting good at fibbing.
“Well, they weren’t the only ones, girl. If that magnificent hunk kissed me like that, I don’t think I would have survived. What on earth was all that? Were you part of the act? The fans who saw you are absolutely raving about how brave you were, taking on that giant to save your lover. Book sales have gone through the roof again. We’re ordering a reprint and the book’s only been out for a month!”
Sam cleared her throat and interrupted her business manager. “Look, Phyllis, I didn’t call to ask if you watched TV last night. I called to tell you that I won’t be back to Cleveland after ninety days. It might even be more like six months.”
“
