Blue Velvet by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online Page A

weariness in the slight droop of her shoulders, but it didn’t affect the valiant sturdiness of her stance. He must be getting old, he thought cynically, he’d never before looked at a lovely naked woman and only noticed how courageous she was. And she
was
lovely. Those beautiful full breasts flowed into the supple slenderness of her waist and hips and her long legs were strong and shapely. Her entire body was strong and graceful yet there was a fragility about her bone structure that gave her an air of intense vulnerability. Strength and vulnerability. The ambivalent physical mixture was echoed in her personality and he was finding it a very explosive combination, indeed. He glanced at the negligee in his hand and felt a sudden violentdistaste he refused to examine too closely. He impulsively hung the robe back in the closet and pulled a white terry-cloth one of his own off its hanger.
    “This will be more comfortable,” he said tersely, sliding the closet door closed and tossing the robe on the bunk. “Come on.” He opened the door to the adjacent bathroom and stepped into its brown and beige ceramic confines. He adjusted the water in the frosted shower stall to a warm soothing flow and stepped aside with a mockingly gallant gesture. “Mademoiselle. I’ll join you in a moment as soon as I get out of these clothes.” The frosted shower door closed between them.
    She was glad the sudden hotness of her cheeks could be attributed to the steam that was rising from the water. It had been intimidating enough having him look at her for those long moments with that curiously enigmatic expression, but she hadn’t imagined he’d be stripping and stepping into the tiny shower cubicle with her. There was scarcely room for one, much less two, beneath the spray. She drew a deep steadying breath and squared her chin. What earthly differencedid it make? Now or later both minor and major intimacies would come at Beau Lantry’s discretion. She’d better be prepared to accept that fact.
    “Move a little forward, Kate.” The frosted glass door was open and she instinctively obliged as Beau stepped into the shower and closed the door behind him. She could feel the warmth of his chest touching her back as he leaned forward to pick up the soap from the holder. “Let me get a little of this stench off of me and then I’ll take care of you. Tossing garbage cans around and playing with gasoline and trash piles sure tests a man’s deodorant.” She could feel him moving behind her, occasionally touching her as he soaped his chest and torso, but she kept her gaze fixed rigidly on the ceramic wall in front of her. “Are you feeling all right? No dizziness or nausea?”
    “No, I told you I was fine,” she said quickly. Except for the way her heart was pounding as if it wanted to jump out of her breast. Except for her skin that was becoming so sensitive to the casual brush of his that it seemed to ache and burn with every touch. “He didn’t hurt me.”
    “The hell he didn’t.” His hands were at herwaist as he shifted her a little to the side so that the full spray of water would hit him and rinse off the film of soap. “I should have cremated the bastard.”
    “You almost did,” she said breathlessly. His hands hadn’t lingered on her waist for more than an instant, yet she still felt them there. “For a second I was almost more afraid of you than I was of them.”
    “Afraid?” She could feel his gaze on her but her own remained riveted straight ahead. “You didn’t give the impression of being frightened. If I recall, you wanted to bust in there and take them both on by yourself.”
    “That doesn’t mean I wasn’t afraid,” she said simply. “It was just something that had to be done. You always have to do what has to be done even if you’re not very brave. You simply block out everything and get it over with.”
    “Do you?” There was an odd note of tenderness in his voice. “Then, of course, I was mistaken.