~ The Truth About Ramsey Cain ~

by

Marcy Graham-Waldenville

It took a moment for her to understand what she saw. The lines crisscrossing the blue paper seemed to have no rhyme or reason. She concentrated on the diagram, and in a flash the picture came to her. The lines made sense, and if she remembered what she had learned about feng shui she could see why the lawyer had been unhappy.

"What is that look about?" Ramsey asked, gazing at her, a frown creasing his handsome brow.

"It's lovely..."

"But...?"

"But...it is a little tight."

He slid away from the desk and gave her a hard glare. "Tight?" he snapped.

"Well, that was what the lawyer didn't like about it, right? It isn't open enough."

"Excuse me, how many buildings have you designed?" he asked, an edge of sarcasm in his tone.

"None!" she fired back, and with equal derision asked, "And how many malls have you shopped in lately?" She turned to her own desk.

What had she been thinking, sticking her nose in his blueprints? She should be shut up in her safe little bathroom, studying the files Melba had sent her.

He appeared to be thinking about what she’d said. He looked from the prints to Landis, who pretended not to notice his confused expression.

"You're right," he said after a while.

"Excuse me?" Landis asked, as innocently as she could.

"I haven't shopped in a mall since...college."

"Gee, did they have malls back then?"

"Very funny," he said, answering her smile with his own. "Come and take a look at these. Tell me what you think."

He gave her his chair but stayed close. Landis found it hard to concentrate with him standing so near. She was aware of was his presence--aware of the sensation of heat and anxious energy that flooded her bloodstream.

"Well," he prompted.

"At Christmas time, especially the day after Thanksgiving, it will be hard to maneuver through these passages with arms full of packages. Can you open this up and try to face the shops around a wide area, maybe a place with a fountain or benches? There should be several places where shoppers can rest and catch their breath."

The current plans had the center of the mall focused on a stage where special events could be held. It was very nice and would be a special draw for a mall complex, but it would make the simple act of shopping a pain in the neck.

"I hate it when I need something from Wal-Mart, and I have to push past a million people standing around watching a tiny tots’ beauty pageant. It's even worse at Christmas Imagine...you're desperate to get to the stores because you left all your shopping until the twenty-second, and all you see is a sea of people waiting to sit their kids on Santa's knee. It's aggravating. Believe me!"

He leaned over her shoulder. "What...if...I..." He made a few quick slashes to the blueprint, opening the center to better through traffic.

"That's better, but what about this?" She picked up a drafting pencil and looked at him for permission to doodle on his masterpiece.

"Go ahead," he said, leaning closer to watch her.

She wished he wasn't so close. He had a hand on the back of her chair, and the side of his broad chest brushed intimately against her arm.

Landis took a deep breath and drew a large circle around a smaller circle in the center. Off the larger circle like spokes from a wheel the stores would radiate, all sharing a front view of the fountains and benches.

"Maybe a dome over the fountain to fill the space with sunlight, lots of plants and those mall trees."

"Mall trees?"

"Yeah, the palmy kind, you know." She gave him a devilish grin. "Man, you weren't kidding. It has been a long time since you were in a mall."

He took the pencil from her hand and turned her circles in to almost perfect octagons, giving the stores angular fronts. "This is very good, Landis," he said, his voice smooth as velvet in her ear. He leaned down next to her chair, putting himself at eye level, and Landis’s stomach fluttered.

"Now, close your eyes," he said in almost a whisper.

Landis narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Ramsey slid his hand onto her nape, sending a surge of heat through her.

~ * ~

The moment he touched her a jolt, like an electric shock, coursed from him to her and back. He had meant to reassure her, but now all he felt was her warmth, the soft crackle of energy that flowed between them, the satiny texture of her skin, and the silky brush of her auburn curls on his hand.

He watched her lashes flutter closed. "Now, picture in your mind's eye what you described." He kept his voice deliberately soft, a hot whisper in her ear. "See the fountain and the benches."

A smile turned the corners of her mouth up, and he knew she could see it.

"See the trees, the walkway with its green park benches and beds of brightly colored flowers. Now, look around at the stores. What stores do you see there?"

Her smile broadened. "Waldenbooks. The Body Shop. Maybe Victoria's Secret."

"It sounds wonderful," he murmured.

He'd forgotten what it was like to imagine something you created for the first time. Now Landis's rapturous expression reminded him why he had wanted to build things in the first place.

And reminded him how badly he wanted to kiss her. He had teased her once that she was a temptation, but now the joke was on him. She did tempt him, nearly to the edge of his resistance.

~ * ~

When Landis opened her eyes she found Ramsey's face a few inches from her own. The vulnerability she had seen there before was gone, replaced by a hunger that had etched itself in the hard lines and sharp angles of his features. He studied her face, her eyes, her cheeks, her lips, the contour of her jaw. And she knew that no one had ever looked at her so intensely, as though committing her to his memory forever.

As he moved closer still, Landis parted her lips and gave herself over to the kiss. Ramsey pushed past any token resistance she might have offered and claimed her lips, leaving her weak with wanting more.

He tightened his hold on her and slowly stood, taking her out of the seat and drawing her against his body. That perfect body. She reached out to him for support and found the hard slope of his shoulders. Her hands traced the fine linen of his shirt around his back and she pulled herself tighter against him.

He left her mouth and nuzzled the sensitive place under her ear. A sound between a moan and a whimper came from her, bringing his mouth back to hers.

And his hands... He slid one hand from her neck down her back, tipping her slightly backward. His other hand skimmed the length of her body. He caught her behind the knee, drawing her leg up and around his hip, fitting her perfectly to him.

She was suddenly so happy she had chosen to wear a skirt that morning. He slipped his hand beneath the hem and snaked it along her thigh.

~ * ~

Oh, merciful God! he thought. She had thighs like silk. If the Lord had created anything more perfect, Ramsey doubted he could bear knowing about it. Landis returned his kiss, answering his desperate need with groans and soft sounds that only pushed him to take more of the sweetness she offered. She ran her hands the length of his back, as though frantic to do something.

He cupped his hand on the soft curve of her shapely derriere and pressed her tighter to his aching loins. He thought he would go mad if he didn't touch her. He lifted her onto the edge of the drafting table and pressed his lips again to her ear. "Landis," he whispered in a voice too raspy to be his own.

Her answer was a throaty hum that urged him on.

"I want you," he said. "I need you. I--"

"Have me," she groaned.

Leaving the warmth of her thighs, his fingers tugged the hem of her shirt from her waistband and fumbled with the bottom button. The first came off in his fingers, and Landis wiggled away. For a frightening moment he thought she wanted him to stop. Instead, she pulled herself up enough to balance and pushed him back far enough to reach between them. In a fraction of the time he would have needed she had opened the buttons on her shirt and had moved to those on his vest.

There was a moment of confusion on his face and then utter relief that she was not pushing him away.

"Come here," she said, answering his unspoken question.

The dying voice of her logic pleaded with her to think about this. To remember who this was. Who she was.

A rumble of a laugh started in Ramsey's chest. But he had pulled her to him again and slid his hand over one breast, and the voice in her head became a strangled whisper. Landis strained against his hand, and the nipple beneath her bra pebbled wantonly.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Are you kidding?" she gasped.