CHAPTER ONE
The oversized bed was a dimly lit oasis centered in the surrounding darkness. Its soft pillows and down quilt were the boundaries of the universe for the man and woman lying, limbs tangled and intertwined, amid the silken sheets.
The soft strains of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons filled the room, its delicate rhythms a counterpoint to the abandonment of the couple on the bed.
The woman’s eyes were closed, her thick, black lashes lying like dark shadows against her pale skin. The man beside her smiled and touched his lips to her slender throat.
‘I want you, darling,’ he groaned, his hand roaming over the curving line of her hip, outlined softly beneath the pale peach sheet. ‘I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you.’
The woman sighed. ‘Yes,’ she whispered, ‘yes...’
‘You were all I could think about tonight. I thought of this moment a hundred times. Tell me you tought about it, too.
’It’s true,’ she said softly. ‘I couldn’t keep my mind on anything else... ’
The laundry, she thought, tangling her hands in the man’s thick, blond hair. Dammit, I forgot to pick it up last night! And my blue silk dress is still at the cleaners.
The man shifted his weight and drew her against his chest. ‘I’ve never felt this way before,’ he said.
‘Darling,’ she whispered. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled. ‘I don’t know what’s happening to me...’
... aside from the fact that I don’t have anything to wear tonight. By the time I finally get away from here, the cleaners and the laundry will both be closed. Well, I can always wear jeans or my grey wool trousers. It’s not as if I’m going somewhere special...
‘I’m going to make you know the meaning of passion,’ the man said huskily. He caught a handful of the woman’s long, black hair and leaned towards her. ‘You’ll never forget this night.’
She smiled again and clasped the back of his head with one hand. ‘Neither of us will,’ she promised.
She pulled his head down to hers and their mouths met in a long kiss.
The grey wool trousers, she thought. She was only going to dinner with her agent—they’d probably go to that little Italian place near the studio— but Claire had mentioned that she wanted to make a quick stop after dinner. She had to see a new client or something...
She grunted softly as the man rolled his body across hers. There was something sharp in the damned mattress and it was digging into her hip. And the pillow was harder than a bag of cement...
‘Come on, Shannon! The least you can do is pay attention during a seduction.’
The deep voice broke the woman’s line of thought. She rose on her elbows and stared into the darkness.‘What’s the matter?’ she asked hesitantly. ‘Did I miss my lines?’
‘No,’ the voice admitted. ‘It’s... Harry, bring up the lights, would you? OK, everybody. We’ll take a five- minute break.’
The couple on the bed broke apart as the studio lights blazed on and the music shut off abruptly. The man sat up, the sheets falling below his waist and past his baggy sweatpants.
‘Hell,’ he groaned, scratching his bare chest, ‘I think I’m allergic to this damned quilt. It’s got to be the feathers. The sacrifices we make for All Our Tomorrows! Whoever said daytime TV drama wasn’t a legitimate art, anyhow?’
Shannon Padgett nodded in assent as she scrambled to her feet.
‘It was probably the last poor actress who spent an hour lying on her back in this studio, Tony.’ She tugged the straps of her flesh-colored bodysuit up over her arms and then rubbed the small of her back. ‘This isn’t a mattress, it’s a rock pile.’
Tony Richmond flicked his dark hair from his forehead. ‘Do me a favor, sweetie. Don’t let any of my fans hear you say that, okay? All those little housewives out in TV land would die if they knew you were thinking about your bad back while I made passionate love to you.’ A grin curved wickedly on his handsome face. ‘I can promise you that my date last night didn’t think about anything so mundane.’
‘You’d better hope the mikes are off when you say something like that,’ Shannon laughed. She snatched up her terry-cloth robe and slipped it on. ‘Maybe it’s just as well this was only a rehearsal.’
Tony turned towards the man standing beside the sound boom. ‘You wouldn’t let anything like that happen to me, would you, Jerry? You’re too good a director to let me fall on my face.’