Almost Always: A Love Unexpected Novel Read online

  "Banon de Chalais," he said as he fixed a bit for himself. "From Provence. It's wrapped in brandy soaked chestnut leaves. Delicious, isn't it?"

  Before I could agree he held another bite out for me to devour. This time, he stroked my lips with the tip of finger, tracing circles around the sensitive edges. I swallowed the bite of cheese and bread and broke the grip of his eyes on mine. I turned toward the table and took a sip of my drink as he did the same.

  "This is not exactly the right beverage to have with this cheese…far too overpowering for something so delicate…"

  He reached for my chin and pulled me back into his gaze. My lips parted with an unspoken 'oh' and he teased the tip of my tongue with his finger. He rubbed the moisture across my bottom lip. "You're lips are so perfect…" He hummed a little 'mmmm' of appreciation.

  He looked into my eyes and I could see the glaze of animal passion swirling there. His desire for me was dizzying. The way he owned me with his eyes, his hands and even the sounds he made simply possessed me.

  His kiss scalded my mouth. The lips that I had imagined, the mouth I had watched for so many nights was hot and wet against my own. I tasted lime and liquor as his tongue found mine. The faint remnants of his cologne left room for my senses to find the smell of his skin. His scent was all male, a spicy, salty, woodsy kind of odor that I wanted to bottle and keep.

  My body reacted predictably to Kason's smooth, practiced seduction. I felt his kiss roll all the way down my body. Being one of many suddenly mattered a lot less. He kissed my neck and nuzzled into my collar bone gently nipping at my flesh before returning to bruise my mouth with ever more insistent kisses.

  The desire was incredible. I had watched him and mentally devoured his body as he paced across the stage. Since I had met him I had indulged in countless fantasies in which he took the leading role. Lust enveloped me like a curtain of heavy fog and I felt my better judgment blanketed in mist. Maybe there was nothing wrong with being used; no harm in just giving in to a powerfully attractive man who was divinely sexy. ,Maybe I'd just use him.

  He pulled me across his lap and ran his hand down the curve of my side. "So feminine," he purred at me like a big powerful cat. The husky depth of his voice reverberated into my very core. "So soft you are. Delicious in every way."

  His touch ignited me.

  And the phone froze me. I hadn't paid much attention to it when he took it out of his pocket and put it on the coffee table. Plenty of people do that. I guess I just hadn't expected it to ring. Or, for him to answer.

  Four

  By the time I got back to the duplex, the whole evening really began to sting.

  He had given me a sheepish look, grabbed the phone and walked to the far end of the patio with it. I could see him wipe the back of his hand across his mouth and I suddenly felt unclean. I straightened my shirt and smoothed out my hair. The moment had clearly passed.

  The only words I could make out on his end of the conversation were expletives. It was obvious that something on the other end was going poorly for Kason. He shoved the phone into his pocket so hard it's a wonder he didn't rip the bottom out. He didn't make eye contact with me right away, but went over and pressed a button on the kitchen counter.

  "Look, something's come up," he told me. "It's Hong Kong."

  I guess that was supposed to be a sufficient explanation because he didn't offer any more details. Taishi appeared out of the darkness.

  "Taishi will drive you back to your car at the theater. I'm afraid I have to get back on the phone." Kason looked like an impending storm, all blackness and fury. He turned toward the house and left me standing on the patio with Taishi. I don't know what I expected—a kiss goodnight, an 'I'm sorry' or 'I'll give you a call.'—but what I got was zilch.

  I numbly followed Taishi around to the side of the house where a BMW sedan was parked. He opened the passenger side of the car and I got in.

  We rode in silence toward town. Taishi seemed about as uninterested in me as it was possible to get. He was probably thinking to himself how Kason was 'slumming' with the hoi-polloi. That I was definitely not in Kason Royce's league.

  "So, Taishi, are you Kason's butler?" I asked it a little belligerently. I had already put my thoughts in the poor guy's head and I felt like reminding him of his place.

  "Actually, I'm many things. While we're here, I look after the house. When we're in New York, I often act as chauffeur. When we travel to China, sometimes I translate. Always, I am his bodyguard."

  Taishi looked all of five foot eight and about 140 pounds soaking wet. He noticed me sizing him up.

  "I have a tenth degree black belt in Taekwondo. It is sufficient to do most things except perhaps stop a bullet.

  "He needs a bodyguard?"

  "Yes, he does." Taishi made that word the last of that conversation. I very much wanted to ask why, but the man's tone was unmistakable.

  I decided to take a friendlier tone. "You're from Hong Kong?"

  "No."

  I had somehow managed to offend the man to the point where all I was going to get out of him were one word answers.

  Jenn was asleep when I got in, so I was spared the 'I told you so' lecture from her. I sat on the couch in the dark and wondered what it was going to be like when I had to face him at rehearsal the following night. I felt foolish, cheap and immature. I knew better than to expect to meet someone like Kason Royce on equal footing but I let myself be seduced by the handsome face and a few tired phrases he had undoubtedly used a thousand times. One minute he was all charm and French cheese and the next he was as cold as stone. Had I really expected to matter?

  ***

  Much as I dreaded facing him, I dutifully showed up at the theater the next night. I needn't have been so nervous. Tom announced that Kason had been "called away". I took his place on stage and had the bizarre experience of having to read his lines all night long. Every word I spoke rung back in my mind in his voice and every movement I made across the stage reminded me of how he walked, how his elegant hands—so recently on my body—punctuated his flawless delivery and how his coiled power reflected in the smallest action.

  My rational self naturally commanded that I stop obsessing about a man who had so little regard for me. But my other self couldn't obey. I had a primal connection to the man that no amount of logic could break.

  The second night without Kason went badly. I was a poor substitute coach and the rest of the cast just wasn't feeling it. We accomplished little other than running lines and going through the mechanics. Tom was frustrated and called an early end to the rehearsal.

  I was about to lock the front door when the house phone rang in the box office.

  "Mahkeenac Little Theater," I answered.

  "Is this Annalise Harding, the sexiest stage manager in New England?" Kason's voice poured like liquid satin into my head and set it spinning.

  "Kason."

  "I'm just above San Francisco. My pilot will have me at Teterboro by four a.m. I'm going to catch a few winks and then check in at the office. I'll take a 'copter in the afternoon and make rehearsal in time."

  Of course it would be Teterboro. Kason Royce wouldn't be flying into a commercial airport. "Tom will be happy to hear that."

  "Are you happy to hear that?"

  Yes. No. I don't know. "Rehearsal didn't go well tonight."

  "Annalise . . . the other night."

  "You had business. I know that."

  "I'm not good with some . . . things. I hope you're okay with me . . . us."

  "It's okay, really." No, it is not okay. It hurt . . . Is there an 'us'?

  He turned up the heat in his voice. "I'm looking forward to . . . more of you. You're utterly delectable, did you know that?"

  I should have been offended. He was treating the incident as if he had left in the middle of dinner. But something about the way he said 'delectable' sent a glowing shock through my body. Men could do it. Kason could do it. I could do it to. Just have someone, even if only once,
just because they were desirable, just because they were 'delectable'.

  I put on my best casual sexy. "You're not half bad yourself, Mr. Royce."

  "See you tomorrow night," he purred. I could picture the half smile on the perfect face. A face I still wanted to see wandering all over me.

  "Goodnight, Kason."

  ***

  I dressed with a lot more care than usual for rehearsal. I wore a denim mini skirt that wouldn't scream 'dressed up' and a bandana print halter top. It was a good look for me and I purposely chose it for the accessibility factor. If a certain man wanted to touch me, there wasn't a lot in the way.

  Tom was sitting with a dark-haired man in the third row when I arrived. He introduced me to Roger Maynard when I sat down. He told me Roger was an 'old friend' of the theater and stopped by to say hello to the guys. Roger was an extremely handsome man with delicate, almost feminine features. He would have made a very good looking woman.

  The cast arrived and Roger greeted each one of them with great warmth. When Kason arrived they hugged each other like brothers but I saw a look of darkness flicker over Kason's face. When rehearsal started, Roger watched until the first break and then said his good-byes.

  "Kason, don't be a stranger, man. I'm still your friend, you know." Roger said as he embraced Kason again.

  "I know that Roger. I know." There was sadness in his voice when he answered. "I've been real busy. And…well…"

  "I understand. Give me a call anytime you feel like talking."

  The actors took the stage again but the rest of the practice seemed subdued. There was something unspoken and it seemed that all understood except me.

  Kason missed his blocking near the middle of the act and I called out for him to move downstage. He glowered at me and went. The next time I corrected him he said, "Speak up, will you?" I repeated myself unsure of why he seemed so sullen and menacing.

  "Pick up the glass…" I told him, interrupting one of his speeches.

  "Annalise, if you're going to correct me, do it so I can hear you!"

  "I'm sorry. It's just that you…intimidate me."

  "Well," he thundered from up on the stage, "don't be so goddamned intimidated!"

  I could feel the burn in my cheeks and the threat of tears behind my eyes. I blinked them back and busied myself with my notes. When he missed his blocking the next time, I didn't correct him. I figured I'd let someone else point it out. But no one did. It seemed I wasn't the only one Kason intimidated.

  The rehearsal concluded and everyone seemed in a hurry to get out of the theater. There was a melancholy pall in the air. Act 3 was the dark conclusion to a dark drama, but the cast's mood was not usually so. As I cleared the mess in the green room I tried to sort out the mystery of the night. Clearly, Roger had something to do with Kason's mood. I had been expecting flirtation culminating in seduction. Instead, I was feeling frustrated and confused.

  Kason was lounging on a 'bed' that was stuck in front of some scenery flats when I came out. The house lights were still on, but Tom had killed the stage lights so the low backstage lighting was the only illumination. It would have been easy to miss him in the shadows, but again I felt him before I saw him.

  "Come join me in bed." He patted the wooden platform beside him. His torso was against the headboard and the foreshortened bed wasn't long enough for his legs to stretch out. His knees stuck up at an angle.

  I went over and sat on the edge of the bed, facing him. He looked tired. There were dark circles under his eyes and they seemed to sparkle a little less than usual. He surprised me by pulling me toward him and holding me against his chest. I could feel him breathing against my hair. He stroked my bare back gently. I sighed a small sigh as my flesh yielded to his touch.

  His heart beat under my cheek and the smell of his skin seeped through his shirt. There was so much I wanted to ask him, but I couldn't bring myself to break the spell of that moment. When he lifted my face to his the kiss was all I wanted. Questions could wait.

  It was as if he wanted to kiss the world away. His mouth was eager against me, searching mine with his tongue. He took my lower lip between his teeth and nibbled in quick, hot bites. When my tongue sought his, he sucked it into his mouth hungrily.

  He trailed warm wet kisses down my neck as his hands went around to my back. He had no trouble releasing the bottom of my halter top and slipping it off over my head.

  "So perfectly beautiful," he murmured at the sight of my bare breasts. I wanted more. So. Much. More. I let his hands seek out my secrets, and soon I was putty in them. His fingers were having an effect on me that I had never experienced through a man's touch.

  "Lose yourself." Kason coaxed me, cheered me, urged me to cross the line to utter and selfish need. The rare and pure sensation demanded that I give myself over to it. The last niggling bit of inhibition vanished when I closed my eyes tight and let go. His touch rolled over me like surf and washed away all doubt. I curled over myself in coiled rapture and sobbed out a cry of sheer of utter ecstasy. I collapsed against his chest and gulped for air as the final aftershocks subsided.

  I then turned my attention to him, wanting to return the pleasure. It didn't take long before the unmistakable sound of his own completion ecstasy filled the air.

  I loved knowing that I had pleased him as completely as he had pleased me. The response of his body to my touch— my worship of his most intimate part— was pure and real. Every move and every sound he made was an echo of his desire.

  My head rested against his abdomen as his breathing returned to something close to normal. He lifted my chin with one finger, drew me up to his mouth and gave me a deep and grateful kiss.

  I tucked my body into the side of his, cramped on the little platform. My head was on his shoulder and his chin half rested on the top of my head. We stayed that way for a while. I felt him twitch, first in his leg and then the arm he had around me. I knew he had fallen asleep. Looking at him on that silly pretend bed made him seem vulnerable. The bed was all painted up in garish colors from some long ago children's play and he was scrunched up in it like some gangly boy.

  I was amazed he could sleep like that until I realized that he had been in Hong Kong less than 48 hours ago. He was running on almost no sleep and his body clock had to be completely confused. Plus, I'd just drained him more.

  "Kason, you should wake up." I gently moved my hand against his chest. "We need to get you home, and into a real bed."

  "Sorry to fall asleep on you." He kissed my lightly before he swung his legs over the other side of the bed and stretched out with a couple of groans. "You pulled the last of my energy out of me, I'm afraid."

  "You've had a long couple of days."

  "You can't even imagine. I do need a solid night's sleep, though—it's been a while."

  "Let me drive you home." I was concerned about him falling asleep at the wheel. "You can fetch your car tomorrow."

  "No, I'll be fine, really."

  When we got to the parking lot, I offered once again to take him home, but he firmly refused.

  "Can you give me a ring when you get home…just so I know you're home safe?"

  Kason gave me a very strange look when I asked him that. "Annalise, I said I'll be fine. Can we just leave it at that?"

  "Uh…sure. Well, good night then." I turned to go to my car, but he stopped me.

  "Thank you for tonight. It was wonderful." He kissed me gently on the forehead like a child, which seemed yet another odd thing considering what we had just been up to in the wings. Still, it was far better than the last parting and I decided to accept it for what it was—a spent man with nothing on his mind but a good night's rest.

  Five

  Sleep didn't come easily for me that night. It took a while for the glow of what our bodies had done to one another to wear off. When it did, I was left with quite a bit of confusion.

  I kept running the week through my head and not much of it made sense. Okay, I could accept that a crisis of epic propo
rtions halfway around the world could cause a temporary lapse in manners—what Kason called "not being good at some things". And I could chalk up the gruffness on stage to an ego that hated to be corrected.

  And, I suppose there could be legitimate reasons for a man with a great deal of money to have a personal bodyguard to travel with.

  There were still two things I couldn't reconcile. First, why did that Roger character have such a chilling effect on not just Kason, but the entire cast? Second, what in the world did Kason Royce see in me?

  Only Kason could answer the last question, but I was sure that any one of the other cast members could shed some light on the first.

  When I woke up Saturday morning, I was surprised to see that it was nearly ten a.m. I had slept poorly, waking several times from various disturbing dreams featuring painted stage beds, Chinese bodyguards and pretty men with sad faces.

  The apartment was empty because Jenn had to man the virtual Tanglewood box office and the phones on Saturdays. Sunday was the only off day we shared and as the summer drew closer to its conclusion, she and I tried to make the most of each day we had left together.

  She'd left a note on the kitchen table:

  Hey sleepyhead, how about a drive and a picnic tomorrow? Jenn.

  That sounded like a plan to me and it gave me something to focus on other than the strange and overwhelming way Kason had insinuated himself into my thoughts. He wasn't doing it on purpose. That much I freely admitted to myself.

  Even as a child, I had a tendency to over involve myself in people and situations. My sisters used to tease me about being 'sensitive' and taking things too seriously. Those qualities had also given more than one guy all the reason needed to walk away from a relationship with me.