Mixed Messages

Despite all these things, Carly unfastened the chain and opened the door.

Mark was wearing jeans and a navy-blue football jersey with the number “39” printed on it in white, and he carried a bouquet of pink daisies.

Carly eyed them with a certain disdain, even though she secretly loved daisies. “If you think a few flowers are going to make up for the way you sandbagged me this morning—”

Mark sighed. “I was trying to get Clark to move you to another assignment.”

“I’ll be lucky if you didn’t get me booted out instead,” Carly replied. Grudgingly she took the daisies, carried them to the kitchenette and filled a glass with water.

When she turned around, she collided with Mark, and, for several excruciatingly sweet moments, her body seemed to be fused to his. She was possessed by a frightening and completely unexpected urge to bare herself to him, to feel his flesh against hers.

She shook her head as if to awaken herself from a dream and started to step around him.

He pinned her against the counter, using just his hips, and Carly felt heat rise from her stomach to her face as he took the daisies and set them aside. His voice was a low, rhythmic rumble.

“I’m not through apologizing,” he said, and then he bent his head and touched Carly’s lips tentatively with his own.

She gave a little whimper, because she wanted so much to spurn him and could not, and the kiss deepened. He shaped her mouth with his, and explored its depths with his tongue.

Even with Reggie, the man she’d planned to marry, Carly had been able to withstand temptation easily. With Mark, things were startlingly different. He had overridden her resistance, stirring a sudden and brutal need within her with a simple kiss.

Carly found herself melting against her kitchen counter like a candle set close to a fire. She had a dizzy, disoriented feeling, as though she’d just stepped off some wild ride at a carnival.

With a little chuckle, Mark withdrew from her mouth only to nibble lightly at the length of her neck. He cupped her breast with his hand, and beneath the terry cloth her nipple pulsed to attention.

She moaned helplessly, and Mark lifted her onto the counter. Then he uncovered the breast he had aroused and began to suck gently on its peak.

Carly drew in a swift breath. She knew she should push him away, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to do that. What he was doing felt entirely too good.

He traced her collarbone with kisses and then bared her other breast and took its pink tip boldly into his mouth.

Carly gave a strangled groan and let her head fall back against the cupboard door. With one of her hands, she clutched Mark’s shoulder, and with the other she pressed the back of his head, holding him close to her.

She clasped his waist between her knees, as though to keep from flying away, and when she felt his hand move down over her belly, she could only tremble. When he found her secret, and began to caress it with his fingers, she started and cried out softly.

“Shh,” he said against her moist, well-suckled nipple. “It’s all right.”

Carly, who had never given herself to a man before, sought his lips with her own, desperate for his kiss. He mastered her mouth thoroughly, then went back to her breasts. He continued his gentle plundering, and Carly’s heels rose to the counter’s edge in a motion of abject surrender.

Mark kissed his way down her belly and wrung a raw gasp from her throat when he took her boldly into his mouth. He gripped Carly’s ankles firmly, parting her legs until she was totally vulnerable to him.

A fine sheen of perspiration covered her body as he attended her, and her hair clung, moist, to her forehead and her cheeks. She writhed and twisted, murmuring nonsense words, while Mark drove her toward sweet damnation.

She cried out at the fiery tumult shuddering through her body, surrendered shamelessly to the searing pleasure. And when it was over, tears of confusion and relief trickled down her cheek.

Gently Mark released her ankles so that she could lower her legs. He closed her robe and kissed her damp brow softly.

“Oh, God,” Carly whispered, as shame flowed into her, like water rushing into a tide pool.

Mark traced her lips with the tip of one finger, and considered her with kind eyes. “Chemistry,” he said, and then, to Carly’s utter amazement, he turned away.

She scooted off the counter and stood for several moments, waiting for her knees to stabilize. Mark had already reached the door, and his hand was resting on the knob.

Carly cinched the belt of her bathrobe tightly. She couldn’t believe it. This man had aroused her thoroughly, had subjected her to a scorching climax—and now he was leaving. “Where are you going?”

The insolent brown eyes caressed her as he opened the door. “Home.”

“But…”

There was a touch of sadness to his smile. “Yes,” he said, answering her unspoken question, “I want you. But we’re going to wait.”

Carly was finally able to move. She stumbled a few steps toward him, filled with resentment because he’d made her need him so desperately and then dismissed her. “You would have been the first,” she taunted him, her voice barely above a whisper.

His eyes slid over her slender body, which was still quivering with outrage and violent appeasement. “I’ll be the first,” he assured her, “and the last.”

And then he was gone.

3

Carly didn’t see Mark the next day, but another mysterious message appeared on her computer screen late in the afternoon, just as she was getting ready to go home.

“Nice coverage on the food contest,” the glowing green letters said, “but telling ‘Frazzled in Farleyville’ to get a divorce was truly cavalier. Who the hell do you think you are, Joyce Brothers?”

Carly sighed. All her life, her view of the world had been pretty clear-cut: this was right, that was wrong; this was good, that was bad. Now she was faced with a man who could melt her bones one moment, and attack her most basic principles the next.

She poised her fingers over the keyboard for a few minutes, sinking her teeth into her lower lip, then typed, “If you don’t like my column, Holbrook, do us both a favor and stop reading it.”

Mark’s response took only seconds to appear. “That’s what I like,” it jibed. “A rookie who knows how to heed the voice of experience.”

“Thank you, Ann Landers,” Carly typed succinctly. “Good night, and goodbye.” With that, she shut down the system, gathered up her things and left the room.

Somewhat to her disappointment, there were no computer messages from Mark the next day or the one after that, and he didn’t appear in any of the staff meetings, either.

Carly told herself she was relieved, but she was also concerned. She worried, at odd moments, about Mark’s undercover assignment with the police. A thousand times a day she wondered how soon word would leak out if something went wrong…

A full week had passed when she encountered Mark again, at a media party in the ballroom of a downtown hotel. He was wearing jeans, a lightweight blue sweater and a tweed sports jacket while all the other men sported suits, and he still managed to look quietly terrific.

His eyes flipped over Carly’s slinky pink sheath, and instantly her nipples hardened and pressed against the glimmering cloth. “Hi,” he said, and the word was somehow intimate, bringing back Technicolor memories of the incident on her kitchen counter.

Carly’s cheeks went as pink as her dress, and she folded her arms in self-defense. “Well,” she said acidly, “I see you survived the crack raid.”

Mark took hold of her elbow and gently but firmly escorted her through the crush of television, radio and newspaper people toward the lobby. “We need to talk.”

Carly glared at him. “I think it would be best if we just communicated through our computers. Better yet,” she added, starting to move around him, “let’s not communicate at all.”

He captured her arm again, pulled her back and pressed her to sit on a bench upholstered in royal-blue velvet. He took a seat beside her and looked into her eyes, frowning. “What did I do now?”

She straightened her spine, drew a deep breath and let it out again. “That has to be the most obtuse question I’ve ever heard,” she said stiffly.

“I doubt it,” Mark retorted, before she could go on to say that she didn’t appreciate his criticism and his nonchalant efforts to get her fired. “Considering that you’ve probably been asked things like, ‘How do you walk without your tiara falling off?’ and ‘What contribution do you think tap dancing will make to world peace?”’

Carly leaned close to him and spoke through her teeth. “I’d appreciate it, Mr. Hotshot Pulitzer Prize Winner, if you would stop making comments about my title!”

His wonderful, damnable brown eyes twinkled. “Okay,” he conceded, “just answer one question, and I will.”

Carly was cautious. “Fair enough,” she allowed huffily. “Ask away.”

“What was your talent?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“In the pageant. When the other semifinalists sang and danced and played stirring classical pieces on the piano, what did you do?”

Carly swallowed and averted her eyes.

Mark prompted her with a little nudge.

“I twirled a baton,” she blurted out in a furious whisper. “Are you satisfied?”

“No,” Mark replied, and even though he wasn’t smiling, his amusement showed in every line of his body. “But I’ll let the subject drop for the time being.”

“Good,” Carly growled, and sprang off the bench.

Mark pulled her back down again. “Lighten up, Barnett,” he said. “If you can’t take a little ribbing, you won’t last five minutes in this business.”

Carly’s face was flushed, and she yearned to get out into the cool, crisp May evening. “So now I’m thin-skinned, as well as incompetent.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “I never said you were incompetent, but you’re damned cranky. I can’t figure out which you need more—a good spanking or a very thorough session on a mattress.”

That was it. Carly had reached the limit of her patience. She jumped up off the bench again and stormed back into the party.

She would have preferred to walk out of that hotel, get into her car and drive home. But she knew contacts were vital, and she wanted to meet as many people as she could.

She stayed an hour and a half, avoiding Mark, passing out and collecting business cards. Then she put on her shiny white taffeta blazer and headed for the parking lot.

She had unlocked the door and slid behind the wheel before she realized that Mark was sitting in the passenger seat. Surprise and fury made her gasp. “How did you get in here? This car was locked!”

He grinned at her. “I learned the trick from Iggy DeFazzio, a kid I interviewed when I was doing a piece on street gangs.”

Carly knew it wouldn’t do any good to demand that he leave her car, and she wasn’t strong enough to throw him out bodily. She started the ignition and glared at him. “Where to, Mr. Holbrook?”

“My place,” he said with absolute confidence that he’d get his way.

“Has anybody ever told you that you are totally obnoxious?”

“No, but my teenage niece once said I was totally awesome, and I think she meant it as a compliment.”

Carly pulled out into the light evening traffic. “You must have paid her.”

Mark spoke pleasantly. “Pull over.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t grovel and give directions at the same time,” he replied.

Wondering why she was obeying when this man had done nothing but insult her since the moment she’d met him, Carly nonetheless stopped the car and surrendered the wheel to Mark. Soon they were speeding down the freeway.

“So,” he began again brightly, “when you were twirling your baton, were the ends on fire?”

Carly reached out and slugged him in the arm, but a grin tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Is this your idea of groveling?”

He laughed. “Meet anybody interesting at the party?”

“Two or three TV newscasters and a talk-show host,” she answered, watching him out of the corner of her eye. “I’m having dinner with Jim Benson from Channel 37 Friday night.”

Mark’s jaw tightened for just a moment, and he tossed a sidelong glance in her direction. “He’s a lech,” he said.

“If he gets out of line,” she replied immediately, “I’ll just hit him with my baton.”

Mark cleared his throat and steered the car onto an exit. “Carly—”

“What?”

“We got off on the wrong foot, you and I.”

Carly folded her arms. “Whose fault was that?”

He let out a ragged sigh as they came to a stop at a red light. “For purposes of expediency,” he muttered, “I’ll admit that it was mine. Partly.”

“That’s generous of you.”

The light changed, and they drove up a steep hill. “Damn it,” Mark bit out, “will you just let me finish?”

Carly spread her hands in a motion of generosity. “Go ahead.”

He turned onto a long, curving driveway, the headlights sweeping over evergreen trees, giant ferns and assorted brush. “I have a lot of respect for you as a person.”

“I haven’t heard that one since the night of the junior prom when Johnny Shupe wanted to put his hand down the front of my dress.”

The car jerked to a stop beside a compact pickup truck, and Mark shut off the ignition and the headlights. “I get it,” he snapped. “You’re mad because I only took you part of the way!”

Carly wanted to slap him for bringing up the kitchen-counter incident, even indirectly, but she restrained herself. “Why, you arrogant bastard!” she breathed instead, clenching her fists. “How dare you talk to me like that?”

He got out of the car, slammed the door and came around to her side. Before she thought to push down the lock, he was bending over her, his lips only a whisper away from hers. “This is how,” he replied, and then he kissed her.

At first, Carly resisted, stiffening her body and pressing her lips together in a tight line. But soon Mark’s persuasive tongue conquered her, and she whimpered with unwilling pleasure, sagging limply against the back of the car seat.

Presently he took her arm and ushered her out of the car and into the house. By the faint glow of the porch light, Carly could see that it was an old-fashioned brick cottage, with wooden shutters on the windows and a fanlight over the door.

In the small entryway he kissed her again, and the sensations the contact stirred in her pushed all thoughts of their differences to the back of her mind.

“It looks like there’s one thing we’re going to have to get out of our way before we can make sense of what’s happening to us, Carly,” he said when the kiss was over. He smoothed away her blazer with gentle hands.

Carly, who had been an avowed ice maiden in high school and college, was suddenly as pliant and willing as a sixteenth-century tavern wench. Her body seemed to be waging some kind of heated rebellion against the resolutions of her mind.

She knew she should get into her car and go home, but she couldn’t make herself walk away from Mark.

He led her into a pleasantly cluttered living room where lamps were burning and seated her on the couch. Carly watched as he lit a fire on the hearth, then shifted her gaze to a desk facing a bank of windows. A computer screen glowed companionably among stacks of books and papers.

“I do a lot of my work at home,” Mark explained, dusting his hands together as he rose from the hearth. “You can’t see it now, of course, but there’s a great view of the river from those windows.”

Carly was still trying to shore up her sagging defenses, but the attempt was largely hopeless. Mark’s kisses had left her feeling as though she’d been drugged.

He left the room briefly and returned with two bottles of wine cooler and a couple of glasses. Taking a seat beside Carly on the cushiony sofa, which was upholstered in mauve suede, he opened the bottles and poured.

Carly figured she had about as much chance coming out of this with her virginity intact as she would have escaping a sheik’s harem. The crazy thing was, she didn’t want to leave.

Mark handed her a glass, and she took a cautious sip.

“I’m really very bright, you know,” she said, feeling defensive. “I got terrific grades in college.”

He smiled, set his goblet on the coffee table and swung her legs up onto his lap. “Umm-hmm,” he said, slipping off her high-heeled shoes one by one and tossing them away.

Some last vestige of pride made Carly stiffen. “You don’t believe me!”

Mark ran a soothing hand over her right foot and ankle, and against her will she relaxed again. “I’d be a fool if I didn’t,” he answered quietly. “There were over a hundred applicants for your job at the Times, and all of them were qualified.”

Carly was pleased. “Really?”

Mark took advantage of the sexy slit on the side of her pink dress to caress the back of her knee. “Really,” he said.

She put her glass aside, feeling as though she’d already consumed a reservoir full of alcohol. On the hearth the fire crackled and snapped. “I really should go straight home,” she said.

“I know,” Mark agreed.

“I mean, it’s possible that I don’t even like you.”

“I know that, too,” he responded with a grin.

“But we’re going to make love, aren’t we?”

Mark nodded. “Yes,” he said, and then he stood and drew Carly off the couch and into a gentle embrace. He kissed her lightly on the tip of the nose. “If you really want to go home,” he said, “it’s OK.”

Carly let her forehead rest against his chest and slid her arms around his waist. “God help me,” she whispered, “I want to stay.”

He put a finger under her chin and tilted her head back so he could look into her eyes. He moved his lips as though he meant to speak, but in the end he kissed her instead.

Again, she had the sensation of being swept into some kind of vortex, where none of the usual rules applied. When Mark lifted her into his arms, she laid her head against his shoulder.

He carried her up a set of stairs, along a hallway and into a room so large that Carly was sure it must run the entire length of the house. She noticed a fireplace, the shadowy shapes of chairs and, finally, the huge bed.

Made of dark wood, it stood on a U-shaped ledge, dominating the room. It was a place where a knight might have deflowered his lady, and Carly was filled with a sense of rightness, as well as desire.

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