Slowly, she ended the kiss and pulled away. “Let’s go back,” she said, taking his hand. “Let’s go to bed. Together.”
They left the hotel right after breakfast the next morning, and headed west into the low-lying hills. The land was burned to a pale ocher, the sky a deeper blue than anything the more temperate climate on the coast ever produced.
“It’s much hotter than it was yesterday,” she said.
He turned to look at her. He was wearing sunglasses which hid his eyes, but his smile, like his gaze, was slow and suggestive. “Oh, yes,” he said.
Her stomach rolled over. Heat quite unassociated with the soaring temperature outside flamed over her. Last night…long after she’d lain down beside him in his bed…long after he’d kissed her and held her, and promised again that, together, they’d work things out, she’d gone to turn off the bedside lamp.
He’d stopped her, and drawn the strap of her nightgown away from her shoulder and said, “Let me look at you.”
She’d shrunk against the pillows, afraid that he’d be repelled by the changes pregnancy had already brought to her body. Her breasts were fuller, heavier, and covered with a tracery of prominent blue veins. But he’d touched them with a wondering fingertip, then with his tongue, and her apprehension had fled, ousted by the lightning streak of pleasure that spiraled through her.
Edmund shifted gears and swung the Navigator along a dusty secondary road. Covertly, she studied his hands on the wheel, strong, square, capable. Able with a single easy motion to make the powerful vehicle do his bidding.
Her gaze slid higher, to his bare forearms, tanned and smoothly muscular. Last night, when she’d been quivering with anticipation and need, he’d supported his weight on those arms and held himself above her, his chest heaving and his eyes heavy-lidded with passion. And when she’d thought she could bear waiting no longer, he’d lowered himself with exquisite restraint and nudged her with the silken tip of his flesh. Teasing her until she was past the point of caring that she was begging him to come into her; pleading with him to assuage the raging ache inside her.
“We’re almost there,” he said, jerking her attention back to the present and the challenge confronting her. “This is Bud’s land we’re passing.”
Open country had given way to wire fencing and rows of grapevines neatly staked to supporting trellises. But even though there was no sign of a house or outbuildings, Edmund slowed down and parked in the lee of a slope.
“Why have you stopped?” she asked him, her voice sounding unnaturally high and thin.
“For this,” he said, leaning across the console.
His lips swept over her cheek, settled lightly on her eyelids. Turning her head, she found his mouth with hers and clung to him, desperate to preserve the closeness they shared.
His kiss lingered, deepened. Sent flames of hunger curling through her. His fingers touched her face, her neck, tender, featherlight caresses that snatched the breath from her lungs.
“What was that for?” she asked, when her vision cleared and her lungs began working again.
“Just to remind you that we’re in this together,” he said. “Now smile and look as if you’re happy to be wearing my ring, or Adrienne’s going to think I had to pay you to wear it.”
Soon after, they turned in at a dusty lane. At its end stood a neat little white house with a sloping lawn and a vegetable garden to one side. Behind lay an orchard and beyond that, a cluster of outbuildings.
The Navigator had barely rolled to a stop before the front door of the house opened and a child came hobbling out of the house, her poor little legs pitifully scarred and thin. “Daddy!” she shrieked. “I was watching for you at the window.”
“Hey, baby,” he said, squatting down and nuzzling her neck. “Have you been waiting long?”
“Very long. For eleventeen hours.”
A woman Jenna assumed must be Adrienne appeared, carrying a small suitcase. “It was only about ten minutes, actually,” she said, her glance skimming from Edmund and coming to rest on Jenna who’d remained as far in the background as she could get, short of hiding behind the car.
“I’ve brought you a surprise,” Edmund told the child, gesturing for Jenna to join them. “A very special lady. Come and meet her.”
The child—his child—wound chubby arms firmly around her father’s neck and regarded Jenna mistrustfully.
Well, take charge, woman! the other Jenna, the one who handled eighteen preschoolers a day without turning a hair, ordered. You’re the adult here. Don’t just stand around looking feebleminded!
Swallowing, she put one foot in front of the other and came to stand next to Edmund. “Hello, Molly. I’m Jenna.”
Molly promptly hid her face in her father’s neck and refused to speak another word. “Say hello, baby,” he told her softly. “Jenna’s going to spend the weekend with us so you can get to know each other.”
A muffled “No!” emerged from behind sun-bleached curls and the little thing wriggled out of his arms and attached herself to her mother’s leg.
Casting Jenna an apologetic look, Edmund straightened up and said sharply, “Cut it out, Molly! That’s no way to behave.”
“She’s shy,” her mother chided him quietly. “And you’re not helping matters by speaking to her like that.”
“She’s not usually shy. I’ve never known her to act up in front of strangers before. When did all this start?”
Gently extricating her leg from the child’s strangling hold, the mother said, “Honey, why don’t you go find your new kitten? I bet Daddy and this nice lady would love to meet O’Malley.”
Crisis diverted and sunny mood restored, Molly scooted off toward the outbuildings.
Jenna thought the woman handled the situation very well. Edmund clearly did not. “You mean to stand there and tell me you’re still letting her run loose in that barn? I thought we had an understanding, Adrienne?”
Rolling her eyes, she said, “She won’t be alone. Bud and two of the work hands are cleaning out the hoppers.”
“I’m hardly reassured. He was there when a tractor backed up over her, as well. In case it’s slipped your mind, he was the one driving it!”
“I’m not getting into this with you again, Edmund, and that’s final! What happened was an accident and no one feels worse about it than Bud. As for the way Molly’s acting this morning, I’d have thought you were smart enough to figure out that any child who’s just spent nearly two months in hospital is going to be very wary of strangers for a while. If you’d let me know ahead of time that you were bringing a guest, I could have prepared her.”
Her worst fears come to pass and feeling more of an interloper by the second, Jenna began backing toward the car. She should have waited at the hotel. Better yet, she should have stayed in Vancouver! “I’ll leave the two of you to sort this out. It really isn’t my business.”
She hadn’t taken more than three steps before Edmund spoke. “Stay right where you are, Jenna. We’re not going anywhere until I’ve had my say.”
“Oh, yes, you are!” Adrienne stepped forward, hand out-raised. “If you’re determined to go honking on and blow this all out of proportion, Edmund, you’ll have to come inside to talk about it where Molly can’t overhear. She’s gone through enough already, without having to listen to us bickering over her like two dogs with a bone.”
It was too late, though. Molly was staggering back down the path from the barn, clutching a scrap of black and white fur in her arms, and squealing for her father to come and look. Flinging an exasperated glare at his ex, he strode off to obey the pint-sized summons.
A small embarrassed silence hung in his wake. Jenna was conscious of the sun blasting over the scene, of the great blue expanse of sky, of heat shimmering over the nearby fields and the drone of honeybees among the flowers bordering the path to the door. And of the woman standing a few feet away.
Tall and pretty, with short blond hair and blue eyes, she was by far the more c
omposed of the two of them. “You’ve probably guessed I’m Adrienne, Edmund’s ex-wife,” she said, “and I’m sorry you had to witness that unfortunate exchange. I hope you understand there was nothing personal in the way Molly behaved.”
“Oh, please!” Jenna pressed her hands together in distress. “I’m the one who should apologize. I work with children Molly’s age and know how easily their security is threatened by strangers. I should never have let Edmund talk me into coming here.”
Adrienne grimaced. “But he can be very persuasive. I know. I’ve been there. When he wants something, there’s no stopping him. He just steamrolls over the opposition and flattens it. On the other hand, you must be pretty important to him. This is the first time he’s ever shown up with a girlfriend. At least, I assume that’s what you are, and not some busybody from children’s welfare here to make sure I’m a fit parent to look after a four-year-old.”
“Jenna is my fiancée,” Edmund said, coming back just in time to hear Adrienne’s last remark. “Please don’t make her feel any more unwelcome than she already does by suggesting she’s here under false pretenses.”
“Fiancée?” Adrienne’s raised eyebrows spoke volumes. “Well, color me amazed! I had no idea you were even seeing anyone, letting alone seriously involved. Isn’t this rather sudden, Edmund?”
There was no malice in her remarks. If anything, she was almost teasing him. Edmund, though, remained on the offensive. “I wasn’t aware I was supposed to keep you informed of my plans.”
“Oh, shut up and stop being so pompous!” she said cheerfully. “Jenna, please accept my very best wishes. Edmund can be a bit of a handful sometimes as you’ve probably already found out, and I don’t envy you trying to keep him in line, but you could do a lot worse. As for Molly, give her time and she’ll come around. She’s a pretty easygoing kid as a rule. It’s just that she’s been through a lot in the last little while.”
“Yes, Edmund told me,” Jenna said.
“Oh, I’m sure—with bells on, I bet! But regardless of what he’s led you to believe, Bud and I aren’t a couple of half-wits not fit to be left in charge of a flea, let alone a child.”
“I didn’t for a minute think you were.”
“Well, thanks. Hopefully you can convince him, as well.”
They left shortly after, with Molly strapped in the back seat with her favorite teddy bear. She refused to look at Jenna, though. Instead, she hid her face behind the stuffed toy and pursed her little rosebud lips into a disapproving pucker.
“Was that a complete nightmare?” Edmund asked in a low voice, as they drove down the lane in a cloud of dust.
“Not entirely. I liked Adrienne very much. I thought she was genuinely happy for you when you told her about us, and that, at least, was a relief.”
“You’ll like Molly, too, when you get to know her.”
“I’m sure I will.” Jenna started twisting her ring, then stopped when she saw that he’d noticed. “It’s whether she’ll ever take to me that has me worried.”
“Don’t be. Because Adrienne’s right, you know. Kids Molly’s age adjust quickly. She didn’t make any fuss about coming with us, once she got over her little fit of the sulks.”
She wasn’t over the moon about it, either!
“After lunch, we’ll take her in the pool. She’ll love it and the specialist told us getting her to exercise her leg in the water is the best thing we can do to help restore her muscle mass.”
“Maybe it should be just the two of you,” Jenna said. “I don’t think we should try to force the issue of me being involved.”
“No.” He gave the steering wheel a little thump. “We’re going to start out the way we intend to carry on, and the sooner she realizes that, the sooner she’ll accept you.”
Of course, it wasn’t nearly that easy. When Jenna joined them on the pool patio, Molly took one look at her and ordered, “You go home.”
But Jenna had come prepared and didn’t wait for Edmund to wade into the fray. “Okay,” she said, digging a pair of butterfly barrettes out of her straw bag and holding them on the palm of her hand. “But will you let me give you these first?”
Suspicion fought a brief and losing battle with guileless four-year-old avarice. “Can I keep them?”
“Sure.”
“Can I take them home?”
“Yes.”
Molly edged closer. Snatching opportunity the minute it presented itself, Jenna the preschool expert came to the fore. “Want me to show you how to put them in your hair?”
“No,” the child said. “I want my daddy to do it.”
“Count me out,” Edmund said from the sidelines. “I don’t know how.”
“Tell you what.” Jenna put the butterflies on the umbrella table next to their towels. “I’ll leave them here and if you decide you want to wear them, you can tell me.”
Molly eyed the straw bag. “Do you have more treats in there?”
“I might have.”
“For me?”
“Maybe. If you’ll show me how you can swim.”
“Daddy has to hold me, but,” she allowed, “you can watch.”
“That was bribery,” Edmund muttered in Jenna’s ear as he led Molly toward the pool.
“So?”
“So you’re smarter than I am.” His gaze roamed over her suggestively, conjuring up memories of the night before with chaotic effect on her blood pressure. “And better looking, too.”
After that, things didn’t seem quite so bleak, especially when Molly came out of the water, planted her little dimpled elbows on Jenna’s lap and said, “I want those things in my hair now.”
Edmund muttered, “Remind her to say ‘please.’”
But Jenna wasn’t about to blow a heaven-sent opportunity to earn a few Brownie points just for the sake of manners. “That can come later. Right now, we need to worry about the tangles in these curls.” She took a wide-toothed comb from her bag. “Come here, sweetie, and let’s get you fixed up.”
Still keeping a suspicious eye on proceedings, the child allowed her to work through the snarls and pin the barrettes in place. “Am I pretty?” she asked artlessly, when the job was done.
For the first time that day, Jenna’s smile came without effort. “Oh, yes. Very pretty!”
Molly folded her sweetly rounded arms, so different from her poor withered little legs, and regarded Jenna gravely. “You’re pretty, as well.”
Caught off guard by the rush of emotion which swept over her, Jenna blinked and bit her lip. “Oh, darling, thank you!”
“But not as pretty as Mommy,” Molly informed her, just in case she was getting ideas beyond her station.
“Of course not,” she said. “No one’s as pretty as your mommy.”
“I have to disagree,” Edmund remarked slyly, draping his towel over the chair next to hers. “I consider my fiancée to be a real tight package.”
“Tight package?”
He flopped down beside her and batted his wet eyelashes at her lecherously. “Beautiful, even!”
He had a beautiful mouth, a beautiful voice—a beautiful everything. And she ought to know. Inspired by his passion the night before, she’d responded with a degree of daring which, in retrospect, made her blush. There wasn’t an inch of him that she hadn’t explored.
“You’re not half-bad yourself,” she said, glad she was wearing her sunglasses so that she could stare her fill without being too obvious about it.
He linked her fingers in his and swung their joined hands between the chairs. “Everything’s going to work out, sweet pea. You’re over the worst with Molly. It’s going to be a piece of cake from now on.”
But Jenna knew better than to take too much for granted. Children needed time to adjust to change, and it would be a mistake to push too hard, too soon.
“You go without me and I’ll fend for myself,” she insisted, when Edmund suggested an early dinner so that Molly would get to bed at a reasonable hour. “She needs to have
some time alone with you, especially this first time. It’s important to reassure her that, just because I’m part of the picture now, she hasn’t lost her daddy.”
She didn’t expect to see him again that night. Molly’s bedtime rituals weren’t something that should be rushed. And for herself, she wouldn’t mind turning in early. Although last night had been wonderful, it hadn’t exactly been restful and she assumed Edmund would be as tired as she was. So she was surprised to hear a soft rap at the connecting door just after half past nine.
Concerned there was some problem with Molly, Jenna threw back the sheet and hurried to answer. Stripped to the waist, Edmund stood on the threshold, the light beige of his twilled cotton pants in striking contrast to his deeply tanned skin. As far as she could determine, the child lay sleeping peacefully in one of the beds behind him.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“Do you have to ask?” Leaving the door ajar, he stepped into her room and reached for her.
“No!” Aghast, she backed away. “Edmund, we can’t…do that!”
“I know,” he whispered. “I just came to say good night.”
“Good night!” She placed the flat of her hands against his chest and tried to push him away.
But touching him was a bad idea—and standing close enough for him to touch her, even worse. The warmth of his skin, the nearness of his mouth, the way his eyes turned a sultry near-purple in the lamplight, were not conducive to good sense. And his mouth brushing hers…!
“You have to leave,” she breathed, even as her hands strayed over the firm contours of his ribs. “What if Molly wakes up and sees us?”
“She won’t. Once she’s asleep, she’s gone for the night.” His tongue wove a heated trail from her lips to the corner of her jaw, dipped into the whorl of her ear, once…twice…three times, and unleashed such far-flung repercussions that her thighs trembled.
She sagged against him, damp and aching. He slipped his hand inside the deep vee of her nightgown, found her breast, drew it free. His other hand closed over her bottom and pulled her against him, hip to hip. The hard, pulsing strength of him was as unmistakable as the moist response of her own flesh.
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