The Return of Antonides: Christmas at the Castello(29)

He grinned unrepentantly. "Come on, Hol'. You know you want to wash my back."

She wanted to wash a great deal more than that. She wanted to wash all  of him. Holly swallowed a whimper. Then she drew an anticipatory breath  and stood up. "All right. Let's."

* * *

Sometimes over the days that followed, Lukas felt as if he'd died and gone to heaven.

He had Holly in the office, bright-eyed and eager, yet still  businesslike, every day. He had Holly in the kitchen-sometimes his and  sometimes hers-for breakfasts and dinners. She was a good cook-and she  ate his own attempts with relish.

"A man to cook for me?" she said. "Be still my beating heart."

His own heart beat a whole lot more rapidly when she was around. He had  expected that the reality of Holly might well pale compared to his  youthful dreams of her. How often, after all, did the real thing ever  measure up?

But Holly more than measured up. The memories of her had always  outshone any girl or woman Lukas had ever dated. But she outdid herself,  as well.

For a man who had always had his eye on the horizon, who'd spent his  life in pursuit of what was beyond it, this was a whole new experience.

He didn't want it to end. What the hell did Holly need to go halfway  around the world to find herself for? She was doing fine right here with  him.

There was no question that taking Holly to bed was amazing. But they  got along well outside of bed, too. He remembered she used to like  baseball so he'd invited her along to his softball games. She came and  cheered him on.

He tried to get her to come with him to the boatyard where he worked on  Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings with the St. Brendan's kids.  "You want to come," he said because she quizzed him eagerly about  everything when he came back.

But she wouldn't come. She told him, "I have work to do."

"Work can wait," he told her.

But she shook her head. "It's my job." And Holly was determined to do what she had promised to do.

He had no complaints. The minute she'd taken over as gallery manager,  things started getting done. She didn't know everything that needed  doing. She wasn't familiar with galleries and artists and who the people  to know were. But she figured out very quickly who to ask. She even  called Grace and asked her advice.

"Grace Marchand?" Lukas stared at her, surprised. She was making dinner  in his kitchen, looking completely at home. He liked coming in at night  to find her there. "You know Grace?"

"No, but you do." Holly tore up lettuce for a salad with brisk  efficiency. "I said I was working for you, and I needed some advice. She  was happy to help. We're having lunch together tomorrow. You're not  invited," she informed him cheerfully.

And thank God for that, Lukas thought. But he couldn't help wondering  how things were going the next afternoon. And he made it a point to turn  up in her office to remind her about his softball game that afternoon.                       
       
           



       

"How was Grace?" he asked, just a little warily.

"She's brilliant. She'd make a great gallery manager," Holly told him.  "All the right connections. She can get anything in the city done before  dinner. Seriously, Lukas, you might think about it. I can see why your  mother thinks you ought to marry her."

"No," Lukas said firmly. "Just no," he said again when her eyes widened at his vehemence. "Not interested."

Holly let out a sigh. "Well, you'd better find someone," she said. "It's not that long until I leave."

She still talked about leaving. There was a copy of her itinerary  tacked to the bulletin board in her office-and some Peace Corps official  mail reminding what inoculations she was expected to have before she  left.

"Good thing I'm not needle-phobic," she said cheerfully the day she went to get her typhoid shot.

Lukas found he wished she were. And he didn't like being asked his  opinion about what sort of clothing she should plan on taking to a South  Pacific climate.

It was all he could do not to tell her to forget the South Pacific  climate, that she was staying right here. But if he told her that, then  what? He kept his mouth shut.

In bed they didn't have to talk about inoculations or proper attire or  anything else. They made love. And there, too, Holly exceeded  expectations. She was as willing, eager and inventive a lover as he  could have hoped for. And she welcomed his lovemaking with passion and  enthusiasm.

He daydreamed his way through the grant applications, doing his best to  whittle them down. His heart caught in his throat when he watched her  at work, nibbling on the end of her pen as she contemplated something  she was reading, or licking her lips at the sight of a particularly  tasty snack one of the artists brought in, and his mind flashed back to  those lips on him, that tongue making him crazy with need.

He was going crazy right now. He'd just come back from a meeting at the  Plaza and stopped by her office to discover her at her desk, sucking  her pen as she read.

Holly looked up. "Oh. You're back." She smiled. "Did you say  something?" She twirled the pen across her lips again, then ran her  tongue over the top of it.

Lukas felt blood pumping where it had no business pumping at the office  in the middle of the day. He started to straighten, then changed his  mind and cleared his throat instead. "No. And stop teasing."

"Me?" Holly looked briefly surprised, then gave him a smug grin.  "Hadn't realized I was." But the speculative look in her eyes made his  temperature go up another notch.

"You realized." And if she hadn't at first, she certainly did now. "You want me to make love to you right here in the office?"

Holly tipped her head, a smile playing at her lips. "Is that a threat?" she asked. "Or a promise?"

* * *

Holly had never thought of herself as wanton. She never would have  considered making love with Matt on a desk in the middle of the  afternoon. But Lukas brought out the devil in her, the one who, when  pushed, had learned how to push back, the one who was determined to grab  these few weeks and live them to the fullest.

And why not? They were two consenting adults. They knew each other  well-well enough to press each other's buttons, especially now that Matt  was no longer there to be the steadying influence between them.

If Lukas could stand there, leaning against the doorjamb of her office  looking sexy as sin in a light tan suit, a dark brown shirt and a green,  jungle-patterned tie that brought out the gold in his hair and the jade  in his eyes, why shouldn't she flirt a little in return?

"If you keep looking at me like that, it's a promise." Lukas shoved  away from the doorjamb, pushed the door shut and locked it behind him.

Holly felt a kick of desire go straight through her as he advanced  purposefully across the room. She stood and came around the desk,  meeting him head-on. "How nice you had a meeting with the mayor," she  said, purring as she reached for him-and his tie. She loosened it and  slipped it off his neck. "I think I can find a use for this."

She found a use for it. Several. Both on the sofa in his office and later that night in his bed.

It was heady and exhilarating, making love with Lukas. He brought out a  side of her she'd never known she had. With Matt things had been  steady, calm and responsible-even their lovemaking. With Lukas, it went  from fiery to tender, from passionate to gentle. With Lukas, anything  went.

An affair with Lukas was everything she'd ever imagined it would be. And more.

Sated from their loving, she curled against his side, feeling her heart  rate begin to slow. But her desire didn't slow. She raised her head and  looked at him, traced his features, memorized them.                       
       
           



       

She wanted... No, she didn't.

She wouldn't let herself want. But sometimes she caught herself wishing... And she knew she couldn't even let herself wish.

Because he was Lukas. He was the man with his gaze on the horizon. He made no long-term commitments. He traveled light.

And even if he stayed in New York, he would move on from her. So she needed to move first.

"Remember that," Holly murmured, and she settled once more into the  curve of Lukas's shoulder and laid a hand against his chest.

Lukas lifted his head and turned it to look at her. "Remember what?" His voice sounded soft and smoky across her cheek.

Holly hesitated, then tamped down the desire for more and shifted to  press a kiss to his whisker-roughened jaw. Then she let her hand slide  slowly down his chest, across his taut belly, then lower. She would take  her joy where she found it. Here. Now.

She wouldn't ask for more.