Twin of Fire Read online

  When he began to kiss her neck, her cheek, her temple, she leaned into him, slipped her arms around his neck and kept dancing slowly, seductively.

  “You said you could be different,” he whispered, but Blair didn’t hear any words. “Come, kiss me once more before we have to leave.”

  Only some of the words reached her brain. She didn’t want to leave, wanted this moment never to end, and when he kissed her again, it weakened her more than before, and Lee had to hold her against him or her knees would have given way.

  He pulled back and for a moment she couldn’t move, her eyes closed, her head back.

  When she did look at him, he was grinning—an expression of delight on his face such as she’d never seen before. She smiled, too.

  “Come on, sweetheart,” he laughed, sweeping her into his arms. “I want to show you to the world.”

  Once Lee’d put her in the carriage, Blair’s mind began to work again. This evening was not going as she’d planned. She’d wanted to find out if her sister was marrying the right man and, instead of making a scientific study, every time Leander touched her, her knees turned to jelly.

  “This is utterly ridiculous.”

  “What is?” Lee asked from beside her in the carriage.

  “That…that I should have acquired this raging headache all of a sudden. I think I ought to go home.”

  “Here, let me look.”

  “No,” Blair said, leaning away from him.

  His long, strong fingers took hold of her chin as he moved his face closer to hers. “I don’t see any signs of pain,” he whispered, “except maybe this little vein right here,” he said, kissing her forehead at her hairline. “Does that help any?”

  “Please,” she whispered, trying to turn away. “Please don’t.”

  After a slow, lingering caress, he took the reins to the horse and drove them out of the park.

  Blair put her hand to her breast and her pounding heart. At least they would be in a public place, she thought, and then he’d take her home, and she’d once again be able to be herself—and keep this dangerous man in his place, which was in her sister’s arms, not hers.

  Later, someone told Blair that there had indeed been a reception for the governor, and that she had attended and met him, and had managed to speak in a coherent manner, but she couldn’t remember any of it. She had seemed to always be in Leander’s arms for those few hours, dancing across a floor of glass and seeing nothing but his eyes, drowning in the green depths of them.

  She remembered several people telling her that they’d never seen her looking lovelier or seen Lee so happy. There were a thousand questions about the wedding and Blair knew none of the answers, but it didn’t matter because Lee was always there to take her away to the dance floor again.

  If they had talked, she remembered nothing of what they had said. She thought only of his arms and his eyes and how he made her feel.

  It was when a boy brought a message to say that Lee was needed elsewhere that she came to her senses and realized that this magic night was over. She felt like Cinderella, and now she had to pay the price for her wonderful night.

  “You may stay and I’ll get someone to take you home,” Lee said. “Or you can go with me.”

  “You,” was all she said and he took her to his waiting carriage. They didn’t speak on the drive through the quiet streets of Chandler, but Blair knew that she was long past any coherent thoughts.

  He reached over, took her hand in his, and when she looked at him, he smiled. For a moment, Blair remembered her sister and knew that she shouldn’t be here now, that what she’d seen tonight was too intimate a thing to share, that these smiles and kisses were for Houston, and Blair had no right to intrude on their love. Until this night, she’d had no idea that the twin bond was as strong as it was, that she could spend one evening with the man her sister loved and, through that bond, could react so strongly to this man, could almost feel that it was she who was in love with him.

  “Warm enough?” Lee asked and she nodded.

  Warm enough, cold enough, drunk enough, sober enough, she thought.

  Leander stopped the carriage in front of a house that Blair’d never seen before. “Is your patient here? I thought we were going to the Infirmary.”

  Lee lifted his arms for her. “I’d like to think that my presence has made you forget the house we chose.”

  Before Blair could cover her error, he continued.

  “I thought maybe we could talk about some of the plans for the wedding. We haven’t been able to talk much lately.”

  “But what about your patient? Shouldn’t we—”

  He swung her down. “There is no emergency, nor is there a patient. I wanted an excuse to get out of there and I’m afraid I used my profession. You don’t mind, do you?”

  “I really must get home. It’s already late and Mother will probably be waiting up for me.”

  “I thought your mother was a heavy sleeper and you had trouble waking her?”

  “Well, yes, she is, but what with Blair home, she’s changing.” Blair smiled at his puzzled frown and quickly said that she’d love to talk about the wedding. She swept past him and stopped at the locked door, hoping that he wouldn’t ask her too many more questions.

  The interior was lovely, feminine without excluding the masculine. Blair was sure that Houston had decorated it. In the parlor, a small fire was burning against the Colorado mountain chill, and in front of it was a low table set with candles, roast duckling, caviar, oysters, chocolate truffles and four silver buckets filled with ice and French champagne. Fat pillows surrounded the table.

  Blair took one look at Lee standing there in the firelight and at the food and the champagne and thought, I’m in trouble.

  Chapter 5

  The way Leander stood there looking at her made Blair feel as if the blood were draining from her body. She’d spent the last week near this man and she’d never noticed that he had any special powers over women, especially not over her. It had to be the twin bond that was making her react this way. Houston was certainly a sly one who managed to conceal all this passion under her cool persona. No one, not even her own sister, had ever guessed what fires lay beneath that haughty-seeming exterior. And how Houston must have laughed to herself at Blair’s fears that she and Lee weren’t compatible!

  Of course, Blair thought, if I were engaged to a man who made me tremble every time he so much as brushed against me, I don’t think I’d allow another woman to be alone with him—not even my own sister, or perhaps especially not my own sister.

  But even as Blair thought those words, she told herself that she did have a man who made her tremble with his every touch. Well, perhaps not with every touch, but with enough touches to make her love him.

  As she looked at Lee again, at the way his upper lip curled and at the burning intensity of his eyes, she knew that if she were honest, she would have to admit that no man anywhere had ever made her feel like this before, nor had she had any idea that this kind of passion was possible.

  “I think I should go home. I think I forgot to do something,” Blair mumbled.

  “Such as?” He was advancing on her in slow, steady steps.

  “Stay there,” she answered, swallowing hard.

  Lee took her arm. “You aren’t afraid of me, are you? Come over here and sit down. I’ve never seen you like this. Not that I don’t like it, but…”

  Blair tried to relax, tried to remember that she was supposed to be her sister. If she told Lee now of the trick the twins had been playing on him all evening, he’d be furious—perhaps furious enough to break the engagement. She thought that if she could keep him talking, if they could eat a little, drink very little, then maybe she could get him to take her home. Anything, so long as she didn’t allow this man to touch her.

  She took a seat on one of the pillows and helped herself to a raw oyster. “I haven’t seen you very often as Dr. Westfield,” she said, not looking up at him, but she heard the sou
nds of a bottle of champagne being opened.

  “Never, as I remember. Have a strawberry,” he said, as he dipped the berry in champagne, ignored her extended hand and put it into her mouth.

  He was bringing his mouth to hers when Blair choked on the fruit. Lee handed her a glass which she drank from gratefully. Unfortunately, it was champagne and, almost instantly, she could feel it going to her head.

  “Never?” she asked, trying to suppress the lightheaded, dizzy, happy feeling that was beginning to overwhelm her. “That seems like an awfully long time.”

  “Too long for most things.” He took her fingertips and began to nibble them.

  She pulled away from his touch. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing to a bowl.

  “Caviar. It’s said to be a wonderful aphrodisiac. Would you like some?”

  “No, thank you.” She was drawn to the wineglass that Lee’d refilled. As she sipped it, she said, “How do you prevent peritonitis?”

  He moved closer to her, spearing her with his hypnotic eyes. “First, you have to examine the patient.” He put his hand on her stomach and began to move it around in a slow, easy way. “I feel the skin, the warm, alive skin and then I move lower.”

  Blair, in one frantic motion, managed to move away, and knocked her glass of champagne over so it ran down the table and onto Lee’s hand.

  He pulled back with a laugh. “I’ll put more wood on the fire.”

  She thought he seemed awfully pleased with something. “I really think I should go home. It must be awfully late.”

  “You haven’t touched your food.” He took a seat on the pillow next to her.

  “I’ll eat if you’ll talk. Tell me how you became a doctor. What made you want to do it?”

  He paused in putting choice bits of food on her plate and looked at her speculatively.

  “Did I say something wrong?”

  “No, but you’ve never asked me that before.”

  Blair wanted to shout that that was because she’d never really talked to him before. She took a deep drink of wine to cover her embarrassment, while Lee put chicken in wine sauce on her plate. “Maybe it was seeing you with the girl tonight.”

  He stretched his long, lean form out beside her, inches away, pants tight around his thighs, wine in hand, looking at the fire. “I wanted to save people. Did you know that Mother died not because she was having a baby at forty-five but because the midwife had just come from another delivery and hadn’t washed her hands?”

  Blair paused with her fork on the way to her mouth. “No,” she said quietly, “I didn’t know. It must have hurt when Blair asked about aseptic conditions.”

  He turned to look at her, smiling. “Blair doesn’t bother me at all. Here, have another oyster.”

  Blair didn’t know whether to be glad or offended by his comment that she didn’t bother him at all. “You certainly upset her. Did you know that she thinks you’re just like Mr. Gates?”

  Lee’s mouth dropped open a fraction. “What an absurd idea. Why don’t you relax here beside me?”

  Blair moved toward him before she even considered what she was doing, but she stopped. Maybe it was the champagne that was making her so forward. Of course, that didn’t explain how she’d behaved on River Street, or in the park, or at the reception. “No, thank you,” she said in a prim little Houston-voice. “I’m quite fine where I am. Do you plan always to work at the Infirmary?”

  With a sigh, he looked back at the fire.

  “You didn’t have to become a doctor to help people, did you?” she persisted. “You could have built a hospital, couldn’t you have?”

  “Thanks to my rich grandfather who left me a trust, yes, I could have. But I wanted to do something on my own. If I could ever find another doctor who’s interested, I’d like to open a women’s infirmary, something a great deal more complete than that two-bit clinic that’s set up for them now. I’d like a decent place where women like my mother could be treated. But all the doctors say gynecology is treating women whose illnesses are in their heads.”

  “What about Blair?” she asked, suddenly alert.

  “Blair? But she’s a wo—.” He broke off at the look in her eyes. “Perhaps. When she’s finished her training. Let’s not start talking about her again. Come over here.”

  “I really think I should go…”

  “Houston!” he snapped. “Is this the way it’s always going to be? Will you always refuse me?” His voice was showing his growing anger. “If we get married, will you still refuse me then?”

  “If?” Blair whispered. “If we get married?” What had she done to cause this? Could he be thinking of calling off the wedding after only one evening with Blair? Was Houston so much warmer to Lee than this that he considered her reactions tonight unforgivably cold?

  “Sweetheart, let’s not argue.” He opened his arms to her.

  Blair hesitated only a moment before she remembered Houston’s caution about not arguing with Lee. Perhaps if she kissed him just a few more times, then he’d be satisfied and take her home to safety.

  She went to him, let him hold her, her body full against his and, as he began to kiss her, she forgot about everyone except the two of them.

  Leander held her close to him in a way that was almost desperate, almost as if he feared that she’d disappear, and Blair was acutely aware that this could be the only time in her life that she would be near this man who made her feel like this. His mouth held hers in a deathless grip, never letting her go as she clung to him.

  When his hands went to her back and his skillful surgeon’s fingers began to unfasten the hooks and eyes at the back of her dress, she had no thoughts about stopping him. The dress began to fall away and, as her shoulders became visible, Lee kissed them, ran his hands over her skin until it tingled.

  Within moments, the dress was in a heap beside them and the rustle of the pink silk taffeta petticoat between them was a further spur to their growing passion. Leander’s long legs moved over the stiff fabric, twisting it and pulling it from her body at the same time.

  Blair couldn’t move away from his lips and her hands buried themselves in his long, clean hair and she could smell the deep male scent of it.

  “Leander,” she whispered, as his lips moved own her arm and his hands rid her of two more petticoats. Satin, taffeta, and the softest of cottons surrounded them, cocooning them together in the warm glow of the firelight.

  His hands on her body seemed to be everywhere, stroking her, caressing her, removing clothing with infinite care and slowness, sliding each piece of fabric down her skin, exposing more of her to his touch.

  With his hand on her leg, running up and down over her silk stocking, his lips on her earlobe, she realized that he was still wearing his clothes and she began tugging at them.

  In removing his own clothing, he did not use the care he did with hers, but instead, pulled it off with a force just short of violence.

  In medical school, Blair had seen many men nude, and once she had seen Alan with his shirt off, but she had never seen a warm, alive man with dark, sunbrowned skin coming at her with the fire in his eyes that Lee had now. For a moment, she pulled back from him as he moved to draw her back into his arms.

  There was caution in his eyes when she withdrew from him, but Blair didn’t see it. All she saw was Lee—his skin, his lovely skin, curving around firmly muscled shoulders, tapering down to his flat stomach. With interest, she looked downward, curious as to the difference between a man who was alive and one who was dead—the only way she’d seen a man who was fully nude before today.

  “Do I pass inspection?” he asked, and his voice was husky.

  Blair didn’t answer as she drew him to her and put her arms around that skin that glowed so.

  Leander wasted no more time in removing the rest of her clothing, slipping the garters off the hose and even unbuttoning her shoes, all without ceasing his caressing of her, so that by the time Blair was completely bare, she was beginning to feel that
her passion was rising to a level that might eventually cause her to burst.

  Nothing she had ever felt before prepared her for the feeling of her skin against Lee’s. With a gasp of pleasure, she clung to him, slipped her leg between his and tried to get closer to him.

  Lee pulled her over on top of him, kissing her, his hands running down her back, over her thighs, and back up her buttocks, lingering by her sides at her breasts.

  His mouth never left hers as he rolled her to her back and slowly spread her legs with his own.

  In theory, Blair knew how the human species reproduced itself. They’d had special classes for unmarried women at her medical college, but none of the teachers had mentioned the passion involved in the act. She had not guessed that a woman felt this way, that it wasn’t an act purely for the purpose of procreation, but it was an act of love and lust.

  She was ready for Lee when he entered her, but it still hurt, and she gasped with the pain. He lay still for a moment, his breath hot on her neck, his lips quiet as he waited for some sign from her.

  Blair recovered from the first moment of pain and began to move her hips slowly, her hands on his back and moving downward over his hips. Only Lee’s jagged breathing in her ear showed her the supreme effort he was exerting to control himself with her, to hold back so he didn’t hurt her.

  It was only when she began to move that he followed her lead and very slowly began to make love to her.

  There was no pain as Lee made slow, gentle strokes and Blair, awkward at first, moved with him. After a few moments, the slowness left them both and their passion showed itself in a frenzy. They could not get enough as they arched against each other, clinging, clutching, trying the impossible of getting closer until at last they exploded together.

  Blair held on to Lee as if she were afraid to let go. Their sweaty bodies stuck together, even their skin melded into one.

  “I love you,” Leander whispered into her ear. “I’m not sure I did before. I’m not sure I knew you before tonight. I’m not sure either of us is the same person as yesterday, but I do know that I love you and, Houston, I’ve never loved another woman.”