by Tina Leonard
There was nothing to say to that, so the two of them sat in the dark watching TV, their hearts deeply saddened that they couldn’t do anything to help their only daughter be as happy as they’d always been.
ON HER WAY up the road, Daphne wondered why she just didn’t call Alex to tell him what she already knew she was going to say. But that was the cowardly way out. Their eyes needed to meet so that he could see how important what she was going to ask was to her. It was going to be the most heart-wrenching thing that had ever happened to her if Alex said no.
To her surprise, the mansion was dark. There wasn’t even a porch light on. Amazed, she glanced at her watch. It was almost eleven o’clock! Daphne couldn’t believe the evening had passed so quickly, but the babies had been fussier than usual.
Maybe they miss their dad.
But that was silly. They didn’t really even know Alex.
They should, the voice nagged. It was true, Daphne thought as she looked at the huge mansion. They had a lot to be proud of in their father.
Cos said she was ashamed of him and Danita. Daphne lowered her gaze. She hadn’t been totally honest with her folks. She wasn’t ashamed of them, but the Uncle Herman cattle deal had been the icing on the cake. The marriage wasn’t equal. Her side was always going to need some thing from Alex’s side. As long as one side was constantly being asked to give, the other side was only taking. That’s the way it had been forever between the two farms, and her dream marriage to Alex hadn’t changed a thing.
It had gotten worse almost immediately.
That’s why she had to tell him the truth tonight. She had no intention of taking another thing from him unless he understood her need to be on the giving end for a change.
Squinting at the house, Daphne pondered ringing the bell. But that would bring Nelly or Sinclair to the door, and no doubt they were sleeping.
She could go home and call Alex to warn him she was coming so he could meet her at the front door.
Or, a teasing voice suggested, she could give Alex a little bit of his own preferred method of entering her bedroom. Where that idea came from, Daphne never considered. She turned the Suburban, went to her house and loaded the ladder into the back.
Then she returned to the Banning mansion, parked and set the ladder under Alex’s window.
“Just right,” she muttered. “No doubt I’ll fall and break my arm, but…here goes nothing.” She ascended care fully and peered through the glass before tapping lightly.
Nothing happened. She’d prepared herself for Alex to appear in the window, but he wasn’t there. Maybe he was down stairs watching TV. Daphne frowned. What did her husband do at night when she wasn’t with him?
“Looking for some thing?” Alex inquired from below her.
“Aieeyyy!” Daphne shrieked.
“Be careful, Daphne!”
She didn’t need the warning. Her hands were clenched around the ladder like claws. “You startled me!”
“Now, Daph, don’t act all innocent.” He grinned at her, obviously glad to have gotten the upper hand. “You were going to try to sneak up on me, and I just sneaked up on you better.”
“Well, that wasn’t fair!” She glared at him. “I could have fallen.”
“You shouldn’t have been up there anyway. What if I hadn’t been home? You would have wasted all this effort and maybe broken your neck.”
“I was perfectly safe until you deliberately sabot aged my efforts!” she snapped.
Alex jammed his hands in his jeans pockets and looked at her thoughtfully. “Strange, but it occurs to me that we sound like your dad and my dad bickering.”
She frowned at that. “What do you mean?” One by one, she began to descend the rungs.
Alex held the ladder steady. “You were trying to one-up me, and I did it to you first, so you’re crying foul. Just like your father. And I’m acting like my father trying to make sure I—”
“Never mind.” Daphne avoided his grasp and hopped off the ladder. “I get your drift, and it’s annoying.”
“What is?”
“That we so easily fall into the old pattern.” She met his gaze, her head cocked. “You cannot always be king in this relationship.”
“And you cannot always be the sly serf, a role Cos played to the hilt.”
Daphne held in her laugh and pre tended to be indignant instead. “My father is hardly sly.”
“Trust me, Daph, your dad coined the word and wrote the book on it.”
“I beg to differ, but there’s no winning with you.” Daphne picked up the ladder and started to carry it to the Chevy. After a moment, she realized Alex wasn’t following. Slightly perturbed that he hadn’t offered to carry the ladder, she glanced over her shoulder.
He was staring at her. And that was disconcerting, too. “What are you doing?” she demanded huffily.
“I’m letting you win. You want to take your ladder and run off. I’m letting you.”
“I see.” She loaded the object of debate into the van. Then she walked to the porch and waited.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked.
“Letting you win,” she told him.
“How?”
She gave him a sly smile, her daddy’s at its best. “You’ve been wanting to get me upstairs for some time now. I may let you.”
“Really.” Alex walked forward briskly. “I may let you win, in that case.”
“How?” That didn’t set well with Daphne. She was letting him win.
“By taking you there.” He scooped her into his arms and said, “Don’t say another word, Daphne Way Banning,” before slanting his mouth over hers for a deep kiss.
“For a sore loser, you kiss pretty good,” she commented a moment later, when they’d parted to take some necessary breaths.
“For a woman who wants an easy victory, you never know when to be quiet.” He carried her up the stairs.
“I have a lot to say.” She snuggled against his neck.
“Daphne, there’s nothing I want to hear until the morning comes.”
“You may regret it,” she said on a teasing note.
“I can live with that kind of regret.” He put her gently on the bed and joined her, smoothing her hair from her face. “I was hoping you’d come back tonight. I saw you turn your car around, and it had me worried.”
That caught her attention. “You knew I’d been here?” Daphne was indignant. The element of surprise had been so crucial to her plan.
“Your father called to ask me to look out for you since it was so dark.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Daphne said, laughing. “My parents mean well, I’m sure.”
“They do. Cos wanted to make sure you made it from the truck to the porch safely. There’s a lot of stray cattle running around out there, you know. My heart sank when it looked like you’d changed your mind. I was actually looking forward to being ambushed.”
“Maybe I should change my mind,” Daphne whispered, as he kissed each and every one of her fingertips, starting a slow, aroused burn inside her.
“Too late. I’ve got you here, and you’re staying the night.” His lips moved from her fingertips along her upper arms. “Your mother said if I could talk you into staying, she’d watch the babies.”
“Wait a minute!” Daphne cried, trying to sit. “I’ve been set up!”
He pushed her gently against the pillows and began undoing the buttons on her blouse. “Yes. One night alone with my beautiful wife was an opportunity I thought about passing up, but decided it would be unfair not to give her that which she was seeking.”
“Alex!” Daphne grabbed his fingers as he moved toward her breast. “I came up here to tell you some thing important, not necessarily to…to—oh, my, that feels heavenly.” All thoughts of putting her husband off any longer flew out of her mind as he traced tiny kisses along her stomach. “I don’t want you to see my scar,” she whispered, lifting his head between her palms so she could see into his eyes.
“I h
ave never met a woman with more worries.” He lowered his head, moving toward the area of her body Daphne was most concerned about her husband seeing. “I take it as my most pressing duty to al le vi ate your fears at once. I want the sexual lioness who was proud of her fit body back.”
He placed kisses along one hip, and Daphne felt herself beginning a dangerous melt. “I’m not fit anymore.”
“After a night with your husband, you’ll be a lot closer to the definition. For that matter, so will I,” he groaned as she traced her fingernails lightly over his back.
“Let me take your shirt off, Alex.”
“I’m busy,” he murmured, some where between the region of her navel and her panty line.
“Alex!” she protested, squirming. “You undid my blouse. Fair is fair.”
“Your chest is so much prettier than mine, though.” He placed a kiss against the front clasp of her bra where her blouse parted. Suddenly, he looked into her eyes. “Daphne, am I moving too fast for you?”
“Maybe a little.” For some reason, she was overcome by shyness she hadn’t known since the first time they’d made love.
He considered that for a moment before moving to rest against the pillow beside her and hold her in his arms. “I know just what we need,” he whispered huskily.
“What?”
“We need to get to know each other all over again.”
It felt so good to be in the shelter of his arms. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation of being in bed with him. “It does feel kind of different than before, doesn’t it?”
“Well, we’re not the same people that we were before. We’re parents now. You’re a mother, I’m a father. That’s bound to change us. You’ve gained some weight, I’ve gained some gray hair.”
She giggled. “You know I should be angry that you mention my weight.”
He nuzzled her neck. “Daph, I love the weight you gained. Those three little girls of ours are amazing.”
“They are, aren’t they? Did you notice how Danielle’s looking around her more now?”
“Yes, and did you notice that Sabrina’s eye lashes are starting to grow out?”
They were silent for a moment.
“Alexis Abigail is still the quietest, most peaceful child I have ever seen,” Daphne said. “I’ve been very worried that there’s some thing wrong with her. Do you think she sees? Hears?”
“She seems fine to me, honey. Did you ask the pediatrician what he thought?”
“He says she appears normal. That later on we can run some tests, but that right now, she’s just a healthy, wonderful infant.” The tense ness started to creep into Daphne’s shoulders.
“What do you want her to do, Daphne? What do you think she should be doing?”
“Crying. Demanding some thing. Not just lying around all the time taking everything in.”
He kissed his wife’s shoulders to diminish the tension he sensed building. “You know, my dad loved all three of those girls. The day you brought home babies, Daphne Banning, you brought home my father’s dream.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Alex thought for a moment. “Not that I could accuse my father of playing favorites, but I could have sworn he and Alexis Abigail had bonded in some uncanny way. He just seemed drawn to her, and she seemed to trust him.”
Sentimental tears popped into Daphne’s eyes. “I know.”
“Remember when you named her Abigail for ‘father is rejoicing’?” He held his wife against his chest, and Daphne put her head against him, hearing his strong heart beat. “I can honestly say that my father was rejoicing in all his grand children, Daph. And that you gave him happiness before he died is some thing I can never thank you enough for. It made his passing bearable, knowing you had given him that which he wanted more than anything.”
“Not a boy, though.”
He tucked her hair behind her ear absently. “He didn’t care, Daph. You should have seen that for yourself when he bought those christening gowns.”
“I saw it for myself when he took Alexis Abigail from the minister. I can still remember how his hands trembled as if he were holding the most special thing in the world.”
“He was, honey. That was all my dad wanted. And you gave him triple his wildest hopes.”
“I’m so glad.” She tilted her head to look at him. “Alex?”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry about your father. I haven’t taken as good care of you as I should have since he died.”
He sighed, tracing one finger along her cheek. “I didn’t do some things the way I should have, either.” Resting his chin on top of her head, he said, “Nothing prevents us from starting over, though.”
“How do we?”
“Like this.” He moved her until he was facing her. “Daphne, my wife, I haven’t told you lately how much I love your hair when it turns fire-lit bronze when the sun shines on it. Don’t ever cut it, even when you get old.”
She smiled. “Please, Alex, it’ll be gray then. And gray hair to my ankles won’t be com fort able.”
“I meant, don’t cut it off short, at least until I’m as old as Cos.”
“Okay. I agree, as long as you agree not to ever wear those elastic-waist pants with no belt loops on them when you finally develop a paunch. And no comb overs when you start losing your hair.”
“Okay.” He ran a gentle finger over her eyebrows, which always seemed arched with curiosity. “I want you to always look at me with happiness in those green eyes. I never want to see pain.”
She nodded. “The same goes for your baby blues.”
“And this sloping nose, which I hope my girls got rather than mine, I want it to always stay the same.”
“Well, I’ll try,” Daphne said, laughing softly. “Unless I fall off a ladder or some thing else unfortunate.” She studied Alex’s aristocratic nose. “I do tend to think that perhaps yours might be a bit masculine for a girl.”
He cupped his hand under her chin and drew her to him for a long kiss, which she gave herself up to completely. “Of course, it’s your lips I have always found the most appealing thing about you.”
“Why?” Her gaze lit on his as she thought about what his lips had always been able to do to her.
“They’re you, Daphne Banning, kind of full, kind of easygoing, definitely sexy.”
For answer, she pressed her lips to his, taking her time. She felt him respond to her tongue as she lightly tasted his mouth. He groaned, and when he reached to undo her bra, Daphne un but toned his shirt—and his pants, making short work of the zipper, too. “I forgot how much fun undressing you is.”
“I didn’t forget how much I like undressing you.” He gave a playful growl as he slid her bra off. “I’ll take my time when I get to your panties, if you don’t mind.”
She could feel the rigid evidence of his desire for her through the boxers he wore. “I’m not in much of a hurry myself.”
“Good.”
His touch thrilled her as he slid his palms over her buttocks and down the backs of her legs. Daphne sighed, scooting as close to him as she could get. With both hands, she eased his boxers off him. “I see you’ve missed me,” she said, her lips curving in a rather pleased smile.
He groaned as she took him in her hands. “You don’t have to see to know that I’ve missed you.” Cupping her breasts in his palms, Alex groaned again as he ran his thumbs over the hardness of her nipples. “Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Oh, I’m definitely ready,” she whispered, placing one of his hands so he could feel the moist ness of her panties.
He slid them off her immediately. “Oh, Daphne.” His fingers slid back and forth along the slick curve hidden between her legs. “I meant, does the doctor say you can…”
“Resume marital relations?” she murmured against his belly as she kissed a trail of pleasure that had him praying the answer was yes. “The doctor says everything is fine, just to go easy.”
Care fully, he maneuvered hi
s wife underneath him. “Tell me if I do anything to hurt you.”
“I will.” She gazed up into his eyes and guided him to her.
He was as gentle as he knew how to be, slowly moving inside her. “Are you okay?” he asked, watching her face for signs of pain.
“I’m fine,” she whispered. “Don’t stop now.” Her hands pressed against his buttocks, drawing him farther inside.
“Daphne,” he said on a moan when he’d entered her completely. Laying his head in the crook of her neck, he remained still, not moving a muscle. “I’m so afraid of hurting you.”
She ran her fingertips along his spine. Then, taking his face between her palms, she kissed his lips, over and over again, until he under stood that she wanted him to continue making love to her.
Relieved, Alex moved inside his wife, feeling her, reveling in her, enjoying her. And when she cried out her pleasure a few moments later, he closed his eyes tight, driven by the climax pressing him for release. “Oh, Daphne,” he groaned, allowing himself to go into the out stretched comfort of her arms.
The feeling of being with her again was heaven. Whatever it took, he would never lose her again.
Chapter Eighteen
In the morning, Alex awakened to the scent of Daphne and the feel of her wrapped in his arms. He hadn’t for got ten how much he loved holding his wife, and having her here sent a profound gratitude washing over him.
“Good morning,” he murmured against her neck.
She arched against him. “Mmm. I don’t think I’ve had this much sleep since before the babies were born.”
He nipped a kiss on her shoulder. “If you were getting that much sleep, then obviously I wasn’t doing my job.”
She giggled, opening green velvet eyes. His heart paused. He could do nothing but stare at his lovely, sleep-tousled wife.
“You did your job. I just finally relaxed. It could have been not keeping one ear open to listen for my babies,” she said, one brow raised thoughtfully, “or it could have been the satisfying love making my husband gave me.”