"Cool it, Andrew," Sean said sternly.
"Well she is," Andrew said petulantly. "She has to sleep with Angela.
I don"t want anybody mashing me while I"m asleep."
"Mommy and Daddy sleep in a bed together," Mandy protested.
"No one else gets to sleep with them and we can"t go in their room at night unless it"s lightning and thundering," Angela contributed sleepily.
Blair met Sean"s laughing eyes across the room and then darted them back to the girls.
"We can"t go in their room on Sat.u.r.day morning either until after The Lssne Mnqer goes off," Paul said, sitting up in his bunk with this important bit of news.
Sean"s laugh broke the surface, but he smothered it with a cough as he pushed Paul back down.
"Their bed is real big, Blair," Mandy said conversationally.
"Is it?" she asked on a high note. She gave folding back the counterpane an inordinate amount of attention.
"Sean"s got one just as big, don"t you, Sean? I"ve seen it," Andrew said.
"Have you ever seen Sean"s bed?" Angela asked "N . . . no. Good night now."
"Do you have a big bed like Sean"s?" Mandy asked.
"No, stupid," Andrew said. "Didn"t you see that sofa she has to sleep on?"
Mandy"s face clouded with commiseration. "Maybe if you asked Sean he"d let you sleep with him in his big bed. He doesn"t live very far from you."
"Our daddy doesn"t mind Mommy sleeping with him," Angela added.
Blair"s cheeks flamed scarlet and she didn"t remember once in her life blushing before.
"Okay, that"s all," Sean said with an intimidating voice. "Goodnight."
He made certain all four pairs of eyes were closed before he turned to leave. After a cursory glance to the sleeping baby, who blessedly hadn"t been able to contribute to the conversation, Blair joined him in the hallway. She tried to go past him, but he blocked her path.
"Do you have any favors to ask me?" he asked, his blue eyes dancing.
"No." She could still feel deep stains on her cheeks.
He laughed devilishly. Placing his hand on the back of her neck he said, "Let"s go get something to eat."
Pam"s dinner, for all her distractions while preparing it, was wonderful, as were Joe"s steaks. The guests heaped their plates high from the buffet line and then selected places to sit either in the living room or on the patio.
Blair noticed that she and Sean were the object of many covert, speculative looks. He wasn"t openly affectionate, but he was never far from her side either. He joined in the conversations around them, yet was constantly murmuring private asides into her ear. When she was talking to someone else, she felt his eyes on her, ever watchful.
Since he had fetched and carried for her throughout the meal, she insisted on carrying their plates into the kitchen when they were done.
She sc.r.a.ped the refuse into the large plastic garbage can standing in the corner and took the plates to the sink to rinse them. She was just drying her hands on a paper towel when one of the guests came in behind her.
"That was quite a feed," he said, rubbing his hands over a potbelly.
He reminded her of "the toucher type," one of those annoying men who didn"t think he could carry on a conversation with a woman unless he was pawing her. Men like that had always infuriated Blair. What made such men think she wanted or liked their clammy hands on her? From the moment she"d been introduced to him, she"d avoided him. He had said, "I could have guessed you were a dancer with legs like those." He had considered his remark amusing. She had thought it, like him, repugnant.
"Yes, it was a delicious meal."
He had deliberately placed himself between her and the door. "Get into the city often?"
"I just moved here a few days ago, Mr...."
"Stan Collier. Call me Stan. All my friends do," he said in an oily voice.
"I haven"t had an occasion to return to the city."
"Me, I have to commute every day on the d.a.m.ned train. Of course sometimes if business keeps me in the city for a dinner appointment, I stay over in the company"s apartment. It"s a nice little place.
Private."
Blair couldn"t believe this. If he weren"t so disgusting, he"d be pitiful. Whatever was he doing as a guest of the Delgados? Surely Pam and Joe didn"t condone this sleaziness.
"I"m sure it"s very nice. Now if you"ll excuse me.." "Anyway what I was thinking was maybe if you came into the city and found yourself free for lunch, you could.." "Sell it somewhere else, Collier. Miss Simpson isn"t interested."
The hefty Stan whirled around with amazing agility when Sean"s words rasped threateningly through the room. Blair sank against the countertop in relief. She hadn"t been afraid of this overweight buffoon, she"d only been reluctant to cause a scene at Pam"s party.
"Hey, Garrett, relax, relax," Stan Collier said with false bravado.
His beefy forehead was perspiring profusely. "I was only funning with her.
Can"t you take a joke? " "Yeah, I can take a joke," Sean said, with not the least hint of a smile on his rigid face. "I didn"t hear anything funny. Blair?" He extended his hand and she rushed to it, grasping it like it was a safety rope. Sean enfolded her against him, more for the benefit of their observer than for her. Nonetheless, she pressed against him, welcoming the feeling of security his strong body lent hers.
They moved out of the room. "I hope you wanted to be rescued.
Maybe you find Stan appealing," he murmured in her ear as his blond head bent over her.
"Oh, please," she said, shivering against him. "Do Pam and Joe know about him?"
"Everyone in Tidelands knows about him and his philandering. Or at least his claims to philandering. I"m not sure the exploits he brags about are more than wishful thinking."
"Why would Pam and Joe invite him here?"
"His wife is a darling woman. Everyone adores her and tolerates Stan because of her. He didn"t single you out. He"s made that same trite pa.s.s to everyone who wears a skirt."
"And here I thought I was special," she said with an exaggerated pout.
He laughed, then became serious as he stared down at her. "You are, but I doubt if anyone with Stan"s indiscriminate taste would recognize just how special." He leaned closer and brushed the tip of his index finger over the tiny pearl in her ear. "I"m very discriminating."
She couldn"t speak. The muscles of her throat closed around her vocal cords. The quipping reply she knew she should come back with was prohibited from ever being uttered. Instead she stood mute, losing herself in the depths of his blue eyes.
"Would you like some coffee?" Had he said, "Would you like to make love?" it couldn"t have sounded more like an invitation to intimacy.
Tell him you can get your own coffee, Blair, her mind screamed.
Instead her lips formed the words, "Yes, please. No sugar, a drop of cream." He backed away slowly, his eyes still charting her face.
Dazed, Blair drifted to a chair and sat down. She pretended to listen when one of the ladies started in on how deplorable the dance school in town was, but her mind was in a turmoil. Her heart failed to slow down even though she willed it to. The roaring in her ears drowned out the woman"s tirade. Sean had kept his word. He hadn"t made one move toward her that could be criticized and that wasn"t in keeping with their agreement that they be friends only.
Why then her kamikaze gravitation toward him?
She didn"t want to admit how nice it was to be looked after, to be fawned over. Always independent, she now reveled in relinquishing control to his masculine protectiveness.
Had someone like Stan approached her months ago, she would have brushed him aside with a lashing insult that would have shocked him speechless and left his ears blistered and his ego crushed. She didn"t want to concede how wonderful it had been to let Sean fight that battle for her.
Just as seductive as his kisses, was the pleasure she found in being harbored by his virile strength.
"That"s a terrific idea," Pam exclaimed, jolting Blair out of her reverie. "What do you think, Blair?"
"Uh, I . .." she stuttered. Taking the saucer Sean was offering her, she realized that she had been the focal point of the unheard conversation going on around her. "I don"t know," she said lamely.
What had they been talking about: Pam enlightened her. "The dance school here is terrible. I"ve wanted to get Mandy started on ballet, but didn"t think I"d get my money"s worth.
And as you know if a child isn"t taught properly from the first, there can be irreparable damage done to her muscles. Do you think you"d like to teach some cla.s.ses while you"re here?"
"Well, I know I would love to take ballet," one of the ladies chimed in.
"Nothing strenuous you understand, just stretching exercises to shave off some lumps." Several others concurred enthusiastically.
"You want me to teach ballet cla.s.ses?" Blair asked, finally grasping the drift of the conversation.
"Yes! Why not?"
Eyes stared back at the expectant faces surrounding her and she laughed uncomfortably. "Well for one thing, I"m not a teacher."
"But you"re a dancer. The best I"ve ever seen. Now don"t be modest,"
Pam rushed on when she saw Blair was about to object. "You love to dance and since you can"t professionally for awhile, this might be the next best thing." The others nodded in agreement.
"Would it hurt your legs?" Blair turned to the quiet, low voice speaking close to her ear and looked into Sean"s penetrating eyes.
"I don"t think so. The doctor said that a minimum of regular exercise would be good for them and help them retain their strength. That way the climb back after six months" inactivity won"t be so difficult."
"Then it"s all set!" Pam said, her happy face beaming.
"Wait, wait, Pam. One has to have a studio, you know."
Pam"s brow wrinkled in consternation. "Oh, yeah."
"You need a wooden floor, a large room?" Sean inquired.
Blair turned back to Sean. "Yes."
"I bought an old school gymnasium several months ago with the idea of one day converting it into a health club. It has such a room. You could use that. I"ll do whatever reconstruction needs to be done."
"Terrific!" Pam clapped her hands.
"But I don"t want to go into business," Blair protested. She felt she was being carried along by a current she couldn"t fight.
"I won"t charge you rent for the building and you won"t charge your students. We"ll consider it a community project." Sean silently polled the crowd and saw that everyone agreed.
"But I"ll need records and something to play them on.
"I bought a record player at a police auction last month. I"ll donate that," Joe said.
"Between us, you and I have got dance records galore," Pam added.
"So you see, Blair, you"ve got no problems."
She gnawed her bottom lip in contemplation. If living here less than a week had taught her one thing it was that time didn"t move as fast in Tidelands as it did in the city. She was going to be here for six long months. If she didn"t do something, she"d likely go mad. Was this the answer?
"I could teach basic ballet to students no older than twelve," she said slowly. "For you women I suppose I could conduct exercise cla.s.ses, but I won"t be able to do any strenuous calisthenics."
"We could do those on our own," one of the women contributed.
Pam took both of Blair"s hands. "Then you"ll say yes? Please, Blair.
It"ll be good for you, too. If I didn"t think so, I wouldn"t have suggested it."
Blair"s eyes swept up to Sean. He was staring at her in that stirring way, but he neither encouraged nor discouraged her compliance. She looked back at Pam, shrugged, and said, "As you said, why not?"
All the guests had departed except Sean and Blair, who insisted on helping Pam clean up the mess left behind. "Do you do windows?" Pam asked facetiously as Blair stacked the last of the dishes into the dishwasher.
"Only when I can no longer see out them," she said, latching the door and starting the machine that wheezed as though in the throes of dying.
"Will this thing make it through the cycle?" Blair asked.
"G.o.d, I hope so. Surely it wouldn"t go out on me tonight. It couldn"t be that cruel. By the way, did I ever thank you and Sean for getting those little heathens of mine to bed?"
"It was our pleasure," Sean said, coming in through the patio door where he and Joe had been enjoying one last cup of coffee. Sean winked at Blair and she struggled to hold back a giggle.
Their amus.e.m.e.nt was lost on Pam who went to Joe and collapsed into his waiting arms. "Great party, Hon," he said, hugging her tight. "You did yourself proud."
"Thanks, but I"m p.o.o.ped."
"Then we"ll say good night," Sean said, taking Blair"s hand and leading her through the living room to the front door.
"I didn"t mean to force you out," Pam said as she and Joe followed them to the door.
"I think Blair"s had it, too. And now she"s got a lot to think about."