Diamond Girl
Page 15
Her eyes were wide with love and passion and she was just barely hearing him. She felt an ache that had nothing to do with sore muscles.
“I love you, didn’t you know?” he asked, holding her eyes. “Never more than when I thought I’d lost you to Denny, and I walked out the door hurting in so many ways that I didn’t know how I was going to live. You will marry me, won’t you?”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “Yes. Oh, yes! I’d follow you barefooted through the snow,” she whispered brokenly, “if you wanted me to.”
“I know that,” he said roughly. “I’d do the same for you. My God, I love you!”
Her arms reached up to bring him down to her. “Show me,” she whispered tearfully. “And teach me how to show you.”
He bent slowly to touch his open mouth to hers. “What a sweet thought,” he whispered ardently. “Don’t be nervous. I’m going to treat you like three-hundred-year-old china.”
She tangled her trembling hands in his thick, dark hair. “I only want to please you,” she whispered against the increasing intimacy of his lips.
“You will,” he whispered. “And I’ll please you, if it takes all night.”
His hands touched her gently, in new ways, in wildly pleasing ways, until the flames burned high and bright and beautiful. And he watched her the whole time, his dark eyes tender and loving as he took her with him on a roller coaster. All the books Kenna had read hadn’t prepared her for the sensations she learned as he eased her again and again into a perfect frenzy of pleasure only to calm her and soothe her and start over again. Time dissolved into a kaleidoscope of movement and urgent whispers and a pleasure that bordered on agony, until his incredible control finally gave out. She learned the mystery of total possession in such a storm of hunger that she didn’t even notice whether there was pain.
Later, lying spent, her face wet with her own tears, she snuggled against his damp, pulsating chest, and could barely believe where she’d been. He was propped up on the pillows, looking down at her, and finally she was able to slide her head down his arm far enough to see his face.
“You liar,” she whispered, shaken. “Only a few wild oats, my foot! Where did you learn how to do that? Never mind,” she added quickly, touching his lips to keep the words back, “I don’t want to know.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Well, you said yourself that God compensated me for being ugly, didn’t you?”
She laughed wearily, delightedly, smoothing the dark hair away from his broad forehead. “Oh, my darling, you’ll never be ugly. Not to me. I love every break in your nose, and your big feet, and your ferocious scowl, and your temper...”
“You could have stopped at loving me, you know,” he murmured lazily, “without enumerating my bad points.”
“And I haven’t even gotten to the best part.” She grinned, blushing wildly as she realized how that sounded.
He laughed delightedly, and folded her against his side. “Imp. Delightful imp. Did I hurt you very much?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” she confessed, nuzzling her face against his. “I don’t know. I really don’t know, I was so out of my mind...Regan, will it always be like this for us, even when we’re old and wrinkled?”
“Speak for yourself, I don’t plan to get old. Just better. I’ll improve with age.” He kissed her softly. “So will you. We’ll just better away together.”
She laughed softly. “Or love away. I adore you.”
“I adore you.”
She sighed and stretched. “I’m so sleepy...do you suppose it will shock the household if you stay all night?”
“Dad will give us amused looks, Denny will grin, and Abbie will ask when I expect to make an honest woman of you. But no one will be shocked. They already know how it is with us. I think they knew before we did.” He crushed out the cigarette in the ashtray by the bed and turned off the light. “You’d better sleep while you can. I have plans for you around dawn.”
She giggled delightedly and snuggled close as he pulled the covers over them. She drank in the fragrance of his big body and drowned in love and the glory of sharing it. Her eyes opened, seeking him in the dim light from the moon outside the window.
“Regan?” she asked softly.
“What, darling?” he murmured sleepily.
“I’ll give you a child.”
“Yes.” He drew her closer, like the most precious kind of treasure. Neither of them said “to replace the one you lost,” but it was between them, all the same. She smiled, thinking about how it would be, the two of them and a little boy or a little girl to share their love with. Tears came to her eyes. I’ll take care of him for you, Jessica, she said silently. And outside in the cool darkness, a nightbird began to sing.
* * * * *
New York Times Bestselling Author
He’s everything she fears…and everything she wants.
Mercenary by name and by nature, Carson is a Lakota Sioux who stays to himself and never keeps women around long enough for anything emotional to develop. But working with his friend Cash Grier on a complex murder investigation provides Carson with another kind of fun—shocking Cash’s sweet-but-traditional secretary, Carlie Blair, with tales of his latest conquests.
Then Carlie lands in deep trouble. She saw something she shouldn’t have, and now the face of a criminal is stored permanently in her photographic memory…and Carlie is the key piece of evidence that could implicate a popular politician in the murder case.
Her only protection is Carson—the man she once despised. But when she learns that Carson is more than just a tough guy, Carlie realizes she’s endangered herself further. Because now her only chance to live means losing her heart to the most dangerous kind of man….
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ISBN-13: 9781460340004
DIAMOND GIRL
Copyright © 1984 by DIANA PALMER
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