Dana stood in the middle of the master bedroom in what was now her and Tyler’s bedroom, staring up at him. The imported ivory-white silk nightgown, trimmed with gold thread, a wedding gift from Arianna and Silah, felt cool against her fevered flesh. Tyler, wearing a black silk caftan-styled gown bearing Silah’s label, smiled the sexy smile she’d come to look for and love.
His fingers trailed along the curve of her cheekbone, down her throat, and over the fullness of her breasts. She closed her eyes, trembling slightly with anticipation. This was to become the first time she and Tyler would make love under this roof as husband and wife.
Lowering his head, Tyler pressed his mouth to her ear. “I love you, Mrs. Cole.”
Her hands went to the middle of his chest, feeling the heat of his body through the delicate fabric. The diamonds on her left hand gave off blue-white sparks under recessed lights in the ceiling.
A mysterious smile curved her lips as she moved closer, her breasts grazing his chest. “Not as much as I love you, Mr. Cole.”
Curving an arm around her waist, he pulled her against his middle, permitting her to feel his rising desire. “Would you like to make a wager?”
“Yes, I would, Mr. Cole.”
“What are you prepared to put up?”
“A lifetime of happily-ever-after.”
He smiled, nodding. “I’ll accept it wholeheartedly.”
Bending slightly, he picked her up and carried her to the bed. They took their time undressing each other, savoring the taste and texture of perfumed flesh as they began a journey of exploration and discovery. This was no frantic coupling because they had the rest of their lives to laugh and love together.
Dana moaned softly when she felt her husband enter her body. Raising her legs, she wound them around his waist, permitting him deeper penetration. He loved her a long time, whispering endearments in Spanish. She didn’t understand the words, yet Tyler had managed to communicate his love as he buried his face between her scented neck and shoulder and groaned out his passion.
Dana’s own release followed his, overlapping and merging as she surrendered to the ecstasy taking her beyond herself and reality. She lay motionless, eyes closed, savoring the lingering pulsing of her flesh squeezing the thick, heavy organ nestled inside her hot, wet body.
They’d made love again without using protection. They hadn’t talked about not having a child, which translated into wanting a child. And she did want children—Tyler’s children. He’d had asked for one child, but she wanted more than one, because she’d been an only child.
Tyler rolled off Dana’s slight body, reversing their positions. He held her protectively as she fell asleep atop him, and minutes later he joined her.
Twenty-three
The news of Dr. Tyler Cole’s marriage to Dana Nichols spread throughout Hillsboro like a wildfire sweeping across a bone-dry wheat field.
They decided to breakfast at Smithy’s, walking in together amid a round of applause. Tyler accepted handshakes, slaps on the back, and good wishes from all while Dana stood by watching. Most everyone stood a distance away from her, nodding and referring to her as Mrs. Cole.
How ironic, she mused. Tyler was the newcomer, while her family’s roots were planted deep in Hillsboro’s soil for the past one hundred years.
She remembered Billy Clark talking about deceitful people. She’d come home, and she wondered long she would have to pay for the sins of her mother.
Tyler dropped her off at her grandmother’s house, where she told him she had some documents to research. She told him that the house and its contents now belonged to her, yet she was undecided what she wanted to do with it, only because she had to wait a year before she could sell it. He told her to take her time, and if she needed investment advice he would refer her to Vanessa Blanchard Kirkland, the family’s financial guru.
Dana walked into the entryway, looking at the space as if seeing it for the first time. The house seemed so much smaller after living in Tyler’s house. She mentally corrected herself. It was no longer Tyler’s house, but their house.
Heading for the kitchen, she put up a pot of coffee, waited for it to brew, then retreated to the porch and the notebooks filled with Eugene Payton’s detailed notes.
She’d filled both sides of a legal pad when the tiny cellular telephone on the desk rang. Recognizing the number on the display, she picked up the phone, pressing the TALK button. She took a quick glance at her watch. It was after three. She’d been working nonstop all morning and most of the afternoon.
“Hello, darling,” she said.
“Dana, I can’t talk. I’m on my way to the hospital. They just brought someone in who’s hemorrhaging. I’m not sure whether I’ll be home in time to have dinner with you.”
Before Dana could say another word, the line went dead. “O—kay.”
It’d come out as two words. She’d gotten up early to defrost and marinate meat she planned to cook on the outdoor grill along with ears of corn and skewered vegetables, but it looked as if she’d have to scrap her plan.
She left a strip of paper in the notebook to mark her place, and closed it. Resting her left hand over the leather cover, she stared at the precious stones on her finger. The rings reminded her she was now Mrs. Tyler Cole, the wife of Dr. Tyler Cole.
Closing her eyes, she recalled times when the telephone rang minutes after Dr. Harry Nichols sat down to dinner with his family. Dana always watched her mother’s face when her husband apologized, then walked out to see a patient. Dana had become accustomed to the routine: if Harry was called before he sat down to the table, then Alicia would put his plate on the warmer for him to eat upon his return. But if he’d taken a single forkful, then she would empty the plate in the garbage, clean up the kitchen, drive Dana to Georgia’s, leave her, and disappear for hours. Georgia always rebuked for her actions, saying she shouldn’t have married a doctor if she hadn’t been willing to share him with his patients.
Pushing back her chair, Dana stood up rotating her stiff shoulders. She’d been sitting for hours. The phone call had shattered her concentration, so she decided to call it a day.
She lingered at the house for another half hour, watering the plants, winding the clock, and wiping away a layer of dust on tables and mirrors. It was exactly four-o’clock when she parked her car in an empty space in the garage, deactivated the alarm, and walked into the cool interiors of the house she shared with her husband.
Her steps were slow as she mounted the staircase and walked into the bathroom to shower. At the last moment she decided on a leisurely bath; she stepped into the large sunken tub, turned on the pulsing jets, and sat in the swirling waters until she felt herself falling asleep. Stepping out, she dried her body, applied a moisturizer, and walked back into the bedroom to an area Tyler had set up as dressing room. Shelves in the large walk-in closet were filled with laundered shirts and sweaters, the built-in racks crowded with slacks, jackets, suits, and ties. She counted more than thirty pairs of shoes. There was no doubt her husband was a clotheshorse.
Tyler had given her half the closet, and she stared at her meager garments. It went without saying that she had to go shopping for clothes. Pulling on a loose-fitting smock dress, she went downstairs to the kitchen. A rumbling in her belly verified she hadn’t eaten anything since her breakfast at Smithy’s.
Dana prepared a Caesar salad, adding strips of grilled chicken and tossing hers with garlic-flavored vinaigrette. She put aside a portion for Tyler, covering the bowl with a plastic wrap and placing it on a lower shelf in the refrigerator. Scribbling a note indicating his dinner was in the fridge, she stuck it to the door with a magnet advertising the services of the Hillsboro Women’s Health Clinic.
She ate her salad and cleaned up the kitchen, filled a water bottle with ice water from the dispenser on the refrigerator door, and left the house. The sun had shifted behind a copse of pine trees in the distance, leaving the garden and the orchard measurably cooler. She walked around to the po
ol area, peering at the plastic covering spread over the hole in the ground. The workmen had begun placing the blue tiles along the floor of the pool.
She continued her leisurely stroll into the garden, stopping to smell the flowers as a riot of color greeted her. Following a narrow path, she stopped suddenly when she spied a large pond filled with lilies floating on its placid surface. Covering her eyes, she saw an outcropping of trees and shrubs on the opposite bank. Large boulders created a natural barrier from which a steady stream of water poured into the pond. The skeletal remains of one tree resting in the water created a natural effect—a collaboration between Mother Nature and Father Time.
How beautiful, she mused. Everything was peaceful, beautiful, the perfect place to raise a family. She circled the pond, coming out in a cleared area that sloped down a steep cliff. Lying on her belly, she looked over the precipice, shrieking when she felt herself propelled back in a savage jerk that snapped her teeth so hard her jaw ached.
The hot breath on her neck sent a shiver of fear racing down her spine. Her hand formed a fist as she turned around, ready to protect herself against whoever it was that held her captive.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Her eyes widened in shock when she looked into the stormy gaze belonging to her husband. “Let me go, Tyler.”
“Not yet,” he snapped, literally dragging her away from the cliff. Rage had darkened his face under his deep tan. “Are you crazy? Don’t you know you could’ve fallen off?” The fabric of her dress was bunched in his fist.
She stared him down. “Please, let me go, Tyler.” He released the back of her dress. Going on tiptoe, she went close to his face, their noses inches apart. “For you information, I had no intention of falling off. I just wanted see over the side.”
“You could’ve lost your life just wanting to see what’s on the other side of this cliff. The ground we’re standing on has a sandy and spongy base. After a heavy rainfall it will give way and end up in the gorge.”
“Is this part of your property?”
He gave her long, intense look. “Yes, Dana. We own this property.”
Heat stole into her cheeks. He’d just reminded her of what would take her some time to get used to.
“I decided to go for a walk.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “And I’m glad I decided to come home when I did.” His expression softened. “I didn’t marry you to lose you, Dana.”
“And you won’t lose me, Tyler. Not for a long, long time.”
He raised his arms. “Let me hold you, baby.”
She took a step, curving her arms under his shoulders, holding him to her heart. Summer bloomed around them as butterflies flitted from flower to flower, bees buzzed noisily, frogs who’d made the pond their home called to their mates, and high above their head a hawk circled lazily, searching for his dinner before he settled in for the night.
“I left dinner in the refrigerator for you,” Dana said quietly after a pregnant silence.
“I grabbed a sandwich at the hospital cafeteria.”
“You’re not hungry?”
Tyler chuckled against her hair. “I’m very, very hungry, but not for food.”
Easing back, Dana saw the hunger in his eyes—his hunger for her. “Come here,” she said in a mysterious voice, pulling him away the cliff.
“Where are you taking me?” Tyler called after her as they skirted the lily pond.
“Over here.” They stood under the sweeping branches of several fruit trees. Floating down to a carpet of green, Dana patted the grass beside her. “Please sit down, Tyler.” He sat down, pulling her into his arms. Slowly, deliberately he eased her back to the grass.
Staring up at him through half-lowered lids, she smiled. “Just this once I want you to pretend that I’m Eve and you’re Adam seeing me for the first time.”
Hovering over Dana, Tyler smiled. There was so much about her that was a little girl and so much a woman. Whenever he looked for the girl, he found the woman.
His hands went to the front of her dress, deftly undoing the buttons. “There’s no need to pretend, because you are the woman of my dreams and my heart.”
Tyler unbuttoned her dress, his gaze lingering on a lacy white bra. His body reacted violently as he stared at the dark nipples showing through the delicate fabric. He unsnapped her bra, parting it in slow motion.
The waning rays of the setting sun filtered through the leaves of overhead trees, throwing light and dark shadows over the lovers as they stared into each other’s eyes while articles of clothing were laid aside, until they lay as naked as the human race’s first husband and wife in their own private Garden of Eden.
Dana wanted to look away, but couldn’t. She didn’t think she would ever get used to the perfection of the body poised above her, visually caressing the broad chest covered with thick black curling hair, which tapered to a thin line before it disappeared into an inverted triangle from which throbbed a long, thick length of dark-brown flesh nestled between strong muscled thighs. He came closer and she closed her eyes, enjoying the heat and weight of the body against her own.
Every muscle in Tyler’s body screamed and vibrated as he pushed into the moist heat of his wife’s body. The smell of her perfume on her skin and hair rose sharply in his nostrils, wiping away the scent of the antiseptic soap he’d scrubbed with before going into surgery. The smell had lingered even after he’d stripped off his scrubs and showered.
“I think it’s time we get to know each other in every way possible,” he said, breathing heavily in her ear.
Dana thought she knew all there was to know about Tyler—at least in bed. But he proved her wrong when he loved her like a man possessed; both of them were insatiable.
Under the emerging quarter moon, the twinkling stars, the heavens, and the infinite beauty of the Creator, they acknowledged his command to go forth, be fruitful, and multiply.
Twenty-four
Dana and Tyler’s first social event as a married couple was the Clarks’ July Fourth celebration. The aroma of barbecue wafted in the air as they made their way to the backyard where large umbrellas were erected to keep the harmful rays of the summer sun at bay.
Lily let out a little shriek of joy when she spotted her childhood friend heading toward her carrying a box. Dr. Tyler Cole followed, carrying a larger box. Blue and white sparks glinted off the square-cut stone on Dana’s left hand.
“I baked a few pies and jelly-roll cake. Tyler brought a couple of watermelons and beer.” Dana thrust the box at Lily, who motioned to her husband to come and take the boxes. Billy took both boxes, anchoring the smaller one under his arm.
“You know you didn’t have to bring anything,” Lily admonished in a soft tone.
“And you know we were raised never to come empty-handed or we’d never stop getting screamed on.”
Lily bobbed her head up and down. “Go figure that one. Now tell me, girlfriend, how did you hook the most eligible brother to have set foot in Hillsboro in twenty years in just two weeks?”
Raising her shoulders, Dana threw up her hands. “You’re going to have to ask Tyler. I tried everything, and I do mean everything, to send him packing, but he just wouldn’t take no.”
“How did he get you to change your mind?”
“He wore me down.”
Lily sucked her teeth. “That’s what I call a persistent brother.”
“Who’s persistent?”
Dana and Lily turned to find Billy and Tyler standing less than three feet away. “My mother,” Lily lied smoothly. “I was just telling Dana that my mother is very persistent once she sets her mind to so something.”
Billy cut his eyes at his mother-in-law, who’d taken over manning the grill. “She’s more than persistent. She has the tenacity of a pit bull, a Doberman, and a rottweiler all rolled into one little nasty Jack Russell terrier.”
Lily folded her hands on her hips. “William Clark, I know you’re not calling my mama a dog.”
> Billy held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Of course not, baby. You know I love your mama. She just won’t let me get to my grill,” he added through clenched teeth. “A man can’t feel like a man in his own house unless he can tend to his own grill.”
“Just give her a few minutes, then I’ll tell her you want to take over for a while,” Lily crooned, kissing her husband’s cheek. Shifting, she smiled sweetly at Tyler. “Look at you, Dr. Cole. You up and married my best friend.” She patted his arm. “You’re a smart man to have snapped her up as quickly as you did, because there are a few guys we went to school with that were talking about hitting on her if she hadn’t married you.”
Curving an arm around Dana’s waist, Tyler affected a wry smile. Lily couldn’t see the hardness in his eyes behind the lenses of his sunglasses. He had no intention of sharing Dana—especially with other men.
“I suppose I was born under a lucky star,” he said.
“I’d say you’re lucky and smart,” Lily told him, looping her arm through Dana’s. “I’m going to steal your wife for a few minutes. I want to introduce her to a few guys she hasn’t seen in years.”
Tyler stood, arms crossed over his chest, watching Lily lead Dana toward a quartet of men standing under a tree, talking and laughing with one another.
His eyes narrowed as he stared at three of the men, who shook her hand politely. However, the last one hugged her. He recognized the man as Ross Wilson. R.W., as he was called to distinguish him from his father, Ross Wilson, Sr., lowered his head and kissed her cheek. Tyler saw Dana stiffen in R.W.’s embrace, knowing it was time he rescued his wife.
Taking long, measured strides, he approached the group, a polite smile curving his mouth. “Good afternoon, gentlemen.”
Two he recognized as employees at a local bank, and R.W.—who most considered a business wizard because he’d initiated the deal that brought a car-manufacturing plant to Hillsboro, but not the fourth man.
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