Untitled0

by Unknown

  "Very."

  "So am I," he confessed, chuckling at her expression. "Men aren't made of iron, you know."

  "No kidding!"

  His arms tightened. "I suppose we'll have beautiful memories for the next few days, at least."

  "Several." She touched the faint cleft in his chin gently. "Dawson, I can't go back to Sheridan naked."

  "You can't?"

  She hit him.

  "All right. I'll go shopping." He grinned wickedly. "How about a maternity dress?"

  "I don't even show yet," she scoffed.

  182 MAN OF ICE

  "Why waste time wearing normal clothes until you do?" he wanted to know.

  "A man has his pride, Barrie. I'm rather anxious to show off what I've accomplished in such a short time."

  Her eyebrows lifted. "I'm an accomplishment?!" "By God, you are," he said huskily. "The most wonderful accomplishment of my life, you and this baby. I must have a guardian angel sitting on my shoulder." She slid her arms around his neck and reached over to kiss him lazily. "Then so must I, I guess, because you're certainly my most wonderful accomplishment."

  He searched her loving eyes with pride and a lingering sense of wonder.

  "I'm sorry it took me so long to deal with the past," he said. "I wish I'd told you when you were sixteen that I was going to love you obsessively when you were old enough."

  Her eyes twinkled. "Did you know so long ago?"

  "Part of me must have," he replied, and he was serious as he searched her green eyes. "I was violent about you from the very beginning."

  "And I never even suspected why," she agreed. She smoothed her hand over his thick gold hair, tracing the wave that fell onto his broad forehead.

  "What would have become of us if you hadn't dragged me back to Sheridan to act as chaperone for you and Leslie Holton?"

  "I'd have found another excuse to get you home."

  "Excuse?"

  "I've been managing flirtatious women for a lot longer than five years, honey," he said with a deliberate grin.

  "You said you were desperate to get that land!"

  "I was desperate to get you home," he replied lazily. "There's another tract of land on the north end of the property that's just become available, and I bought it before Powell Long even had time to get a bid in. I didn't need Leslie's tract anymore. Of course, she didn't know that. Neither did you."

  "I'm in awe of you," she said, aghast.

  He lifted a rakish eyebrow. "That's just right. A woman should always be in awe of her husband."

  "And a man in awe of his wife," she returned pertly. He grinned. "I'm in awe of you, all right."

  "Good. I'll do my best to keep you that way."

  He stretched drowsily and drew her close. "We can sleep a bit longer. Then we should go home."

  "I didn't leave labels in any of my clothes," she pointed out. "The ones you threw out the window, I mean. There's no way they could identify you as the mystery lingerie tosser.''

  "That's not why I want to go home. It's been just about six weeks, hasn't it?

  And despite the home pregnancy test, I want proof. I want something I can take up on the roof and wave at people."

  She nuzzled her cheek against his chest. "You'll get it," she promised. And he did. The doctor confirmed not only that Barrie was pregnant, but that she was disgustingly healthy and should be over her morning sickness in no time.

  As she and Dawson settled down in Sheridan, she thought back over the long, lonely years they'd been apart and how wonderful it was to have their future settled so comfortably.

  Dawson was still sensitive to teasing just at first, but as he and Barrie grew together he became less defensive, more caring, more tender. Over the months of her pregnancy, Dawson was as attentive and supportive as any prospective mother could wish her husband to be. He seemed to have finally dealt with all his fears, even the one of childbirth.

  But the most incredible revelation Barrie was ever to see was the look on Dawson's handsome face when he held their twin sons in his arms. As he looked into her worn,

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  delighted face, the expression in his pale green eyes would last her the rest of her life. He looked as if he had the world in that small hospital room. And, as he later told Barrie, he did!

  * * * * *