by Diana Palmer
His big hands framed her face as he touched it softly with his lips. “I want to give you a baby,” he whispered shakily. “That’s what you saw in my face at Wade’s, and it made you go red all over. You saw, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she whispered back, her body trembling.
He searched her wide eyes, his own blazing with hunger. “I could take you, Marianne,” he said very quietly. “Right here. Right now. I could have you, and no one would see us or hear us.”
She swallowed, closing her eyes. Defeated. She knew that. She could feel how capable he was of it, and her body trembled under his fierce arousal. She wanted him, too. She loved him more than her honor.
“Yes,” she whispered, so softly that he could barely hear.
He didn’t move. He seemed to stop breathing. She opened her eyes and saw his face above her, filled with such frank exultation that she blinked incomprehensibly.
“Baby,” he breathed softly, bending. He kissed her with such aching tenderness that her eyes stung, tasting her lips, smoothing his lips over her cheeks, her forehead, her nose, her eyes. “Baby, sweet, sweet baby. You taste of roses and gardenias, and I could lie here doing this for all my life.”
That didn’t sound like uncontrollable passion. It didn’t even sound like lust. She reached up and touched his face, his chin.
He kissed the palm of her hand, smiling down at her through wildly exciting shudders. “Do you know how wet you are?” he said with a gentle smile, glancing down at her blouse, which was plastered against breasts that no longer had the shelter of a bra.
“So are you,” she replied unsteadily and managed to smile back. What good was pride now when she’d offered herself to him?
He touched her taut nipples through the cloth. “No more embarrassment?” he asked quietly.
“You know what I look like,” she whispered.
“Yes.” He opened her blouse, no longer interested in the rain that had slowed to a sprinkle, and his eyes feasted on her soft skin before he bent and tasted it warmly with his mouth.
Mari lifted softly toward his lips, savoring their sweet touch, so much a part of him that nothing seemed wrong anymore.
“You’re so sweet,” he whispered. He drew his cheek across her breasts, his eyes closed, savoring her. “For the rest of my life, I’ll never touch another woman like this. I’ll never lie with another woman, taste another woman, want another woman.”
That was how she felt, too, about other men. She closed her eyes, smoothing his wet hair as he brushed his mouth over her pulsating, trembling body. She loved him so much. If this was all he could give her, it would be enough. Fidelity would do. She couldn’t leave him again.
“I’ll never want another man,” she replied quietly.
He laid his cool cheek against her and sighed, holding her as she held him, with the wind blowing softly and the rain coming down like droplets of silk over them.
Then he moved away, gently rearranging her disheveled clothing. He brushed back her damp hair, kissed her tenderly one last time and carried her in his arms back to the car with her face pressed wetly into his warm throat.
“The car,” she faltered. “We’ll get the seats wet.”
“Hush, baby,” he whispered, brushing a kiss against her soft mouth as he put her into the passenger seat and fastened her seat belt. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters now.”
He got in beside her, found her warm hand and linked her fingers with his. He managed to start the car and drive it all the way home with one free hand.
Lillian took one look at them, and her eyebrows shot up.
“Not one word,” Ward cautioned as he led Marianne inside. “Not one single word.”
Lillian sighed. “Well, at least now you’re getting wet together,” she murmured with a smile as she wandered back toward the kitchen. “I guess that’s better than mildewing alone.”
Marianne smiled gently at Ward and went upstairs to change her clothing. He disappeared a few minutes later after an urgent telephone call and drove off by himself with only a wink and a smile for Mari. She walked around in a daze, dodging Lillian’s hushed questions, waiting for him to come home. But when bedtime came, he still wasn’t back.
Mari went up to her room and paced the floor, worrying, wondering what to do. She couldn’t leave, not after this afternoon. He wanted her and she wanted him. Maybe he couldn’t offer her marriage, but she’d just settle for what he could give her. He had to care a little. And she loved him enough for both of them.
Why hadn’t he gone ahead, she wondered, when he had the chance this afternoon? Why had he stopped? Was he just giving her time to make up her mind, to be sure she could accept him this way? That had to be it. Well, it was now or never.
She put on her one seductive gown, a pretty white one with lots of lace and long elegant sleeves. She brushed out her dark hair until it was smooth and silky and dabbed on perfume. Then, looking in the mirror, she stared into her troubled blue eyes and assured herself that she was doing the right thing.
An hour later she heard Ward drive up. He came up the stairs, pausing at her door. Seconds later he started away, but Mari was already on her feet. She opened the door breathlessly and looked up at him.
He was wearing a dark pair of slacks with a patterned gray shirt open at the throat. His creamy dress Stetson was held in one hand. The other worried his hair. He stared at Mari with eyes that devoured her.
“Dangerous, baby, wearing something like that in front of me,” he said softly and smiled.
She swallowed her pride. “I want you,” she whispered shakily.
He smiled down at her. “I know. I want you, too.”
She opened the door a little wider, her hands unsteady.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Is that an invitation to be seduced?”
She swallowed again. “I don’t think I quite know how to seduce you. So I think you’ll have to seduce me.”
His smile widened. “What about precautions, little temptress?”
She blushed to her toes. She hadn’t expected resistance. “Well,” she began, peeking up at him, “can’t you take care of that?”
His white teeth showed under his lips. “No.”
Her blush deepened. “Oh.”
He tossed his hat onto the hall table and went inside the room, gently closing the door behind him. “Now, come here.” He drew her in front of him, holding her by both shoulders, his face gentle and almost loving. “What do you think I want, Marianne?”
“You’ve made what you want pretty obvious,” she replied sadly.
“What you think I want,” he corrected. His eyes went over her like hands, enjoying the exciting glimpses of her silky skin that he was getting through the gossamer-thin fabric of her gown. “And you’re right about that. I could make a banquet of you in bed. But not tonight.”
She turned her head a bit, looking up at him. “Are you too tired?” she asked innocently.
He grinned. “Nope.”
None of this was getting through to her. “I don’t understand,” she said softly.
“Yes, I gathered that.” He reached into his pocket and drew out a box. It was black and velvety and small. He opened it and handed it to her.
The ring was a diamond. A big, beautiful diamond in a setting with lots of little diamonds in rows encircling the large stone. Beside it was a smaller, thinner matching diamond band.
“It’s an engagement ring,” he explained. “It goes on the third finger of your left hand, and at the wedding I’ll put the smaller one on your finger beside it.”
She was hearing things. Surely she was! But the ring looked real. She couldn’t stop staring at it.
“You don’t want to get married,” she told him patiently, her eyes big and soft. “You hate ties. You hate women. They’re all deceitful and greedy.”
He traced a slow, sensuous pattern down her silky cheek, smiling softly. “I want to get married,” he said. “I want you to share your life with me.”
“Now, now,” he murmured gently. He bent to kiss the tears away. “It’s all right.”
“You want to marry me?” she whispered unsteadily.
“Yes,” he said, smiling.
“Really?”
“Really.” He brushed back her hair, his green eyes possessive on her oval face. “I’d be a fool to let go of a woman who loves me as much as you do.”
She froze in place. Was he fishing? Was he guessing? Did he know? If he did, how?
“You told me this afternoon,” he said gently, pulling her to him. “You offered yourself to me with no strings. You’d never make an offer like that to a man you didn’t love desperately. I knew it. And that’s why I stopped. It would have been cheap, somehow, to have our first time on the ground without doing things properly.”
“But…but…” she began, trying to find the right words.
“But how do I feel?” he probed softly, touching her lips with a faintly unsteady index finger. “Don’t you know?”
His eyes were telling her. His whole face was telling her. But despite her rising excitement, she had to have it all. The words, too.
“Please tell me,” she whispered.
He framed her face and lifted it to his darkening eyes, to his firm, hungry mouth. “I love you, Marianne,” he breathed against her mouth as he took it. “And this is how much…”
It took him a long time to show her how much. When he was through, they were lying on the bed with her gown down to her waist, and he looked as if he were going to die trying to stop himself from going the whole way. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Lillian had guessed what was going on and was trying to knock the door down.
“It’s bedtime, boss,” she called loudly. “It’s late. She’s a growing girl. Needs her sleep!”
“Oh, no, that’s not what I need at all,” Marianne said with such tender frustration that Ward laughed through his own shuddering need.
“Okay, aunt-to-be,” he called back. “Give me a minute to say good-night and I’ll be right out.”
“You’re getting married?” Lillian shouted gleefully.
“That’s about the size of it,” he answered, smiling down at Mari. “Aren’t you just overjoyed with your meddling now?”
“Overjoyed doesn’t cover it,” Lillian agreed. “Now, speaking as your future aunt-in-law, come out of there! Or wait until supper tomorrow night and see if you get fed! We’re going to do this thing right!”
“I was just about to do this thing right,” he whispered to Mari, his eyes softly mocking. “Wasn’t I?”
“Yes.” She laughed. “But we can’t admit that.”
“We can’t?” He sighed. “I guess not.”
He got up reluctantly, rebuttoning the shirt that her darting fingers had opened over a chest that was aching for her hands. “Pretty thing,” he murmured, watching her pull the gown up again.
“You’re pretty, too, so there,” she teased.
“Are you coming out, or am I coming in?” Lillian was sounding militant.
Ward glowered at the door. “Can’t I even have a minute to say good-night?”
“You’ve been saying good-night for thirty minutes already, and that’s enough,” she informed him. “I’m counting! One, two, three…”
She was counting loudly. Ward sighed at Mari. “Good night, baby,” he said reluctantly.
She blew him a kiss. “Good night, my darling.”
He took one last look and opened the door on “…Fourteen!”
Mari laid back against the pillows, listening to the pleasant murmur of voices outside the door as she stared at her ring.
“Congratulations and good night, dear!” Aunt Lillian called.
“Good night and thank you!” Mari called back.
“Oh, you’re very welcome!” Ward piped in.
“Get out of here,” Lillian muttered, pushing him down the hall.
Alone in her room Mari was trying to convince herself that she wasn’t dreaming. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done. He was hers. They were going to be married. They were going to live together and love each other and have children together. She closed her eyes reluctantly, tingling all over with the first stirrings of possession.
Chapter Twelve
The next morning Mari was sure it had all been a beautiful dream until she looked at the ring on her finger. When she went down to breakfast, she found a new, different Ward waiting for her.
He went to her without hesitation, bending to brush a tender kiss against her smiling lips.
“It was real after all,” he murmured, his green eyes approving her cool blue knit sundress. “I thought I might have dreamed it.”
“So did I,” she confessed. Her hands smoothed hesitantly over the hard, warm muscles of his chest. It felt wonderful to be able to do that, to feel so much a part of him that it no longer was forbidden to touch him, to look at him too long. “Are you really mine now?” she murmured aloud.
“Until I die,” he promised, bringing her close against him. He sighed into her hair, rocking her against the powerful muscles of his body. “I never thought this would happen. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to love or trust a woman again after Caroline. And then you came along, pushing me into indoor streams, backing me into corners about my business sense, haunting me with your soft innocence. You got under my skin that first night. I’ve spent the rest of the time trying to convince myself that I was still free when I knew all along that I was hopelessly in love with you.”
She burrowed closer, tingling all over at that sweet, possessive note in his deep voice. “I was so miserable in Atlanta,” she confessed. “I missed you every single day. I tried to get used to being alone.”
“I shouldn’t have propositioned you,” he said with a sigh, lifting his head to search her eyes with his. “But I still thought I could stop short of a commitment. God knows how I’d have coped with the conscience I didn’t even have until you came along. Every time Ty Wade was mentioned, I got my back up, thinking how he’d changed.” He touched her face with wonder in his whole look. “And now I know how and why, and I think he must have felt this way with his Erin when he realized what he felt for her.”
She sighed softly, loving him with her eyes. “I know I felt like part of me was missing when I left here. It didn’t get any better, either.”
“Why do you think I came after you?” he murmured dryly. “I couldn’t stand it here without you. Not that I admitted that to myself in any great rush. Not until that rattler almost got you, and I had to face it. If anything had happened to you, I wouldn’t have wanted to live,” he added on a deep, husky note that tugged at her heart.
“I feel that way, too,” she whispered, searching his eyes. “Can we really get married?”
“Yes,” he whispered back, bending his head down. “And live together and sleep together and raise a family together…”
Her lips opened for him, welcoming and warm, just for a few seconds before Lillian came in with breakfast and knowing grins. Ward glowered at her.
“All your fault,” he told her. “I could have gone on for years living like a timber wolf but for you.”
“No need to thank me,” she said with a big smile. “You’re welcome.”
She vanished back into the kitchen, laughing, as Ward led Mari to the table, shaking his head with an exasperated chuckle.
* * *
The wedding was a week later, and old Mrs. Jessup and Belinda had come home just for the occasion. They sat on either side of Lillian, who was beaming.
“Nice girl,” Belinda whispered. “She’ll make a new man of him.”
“I think she has already.” Old Mrs. Jessup grinned. “Spirited little thing. I like her, too.”
“I always did,” Lillian said smugly. “Good thing I saw the shape he was getting in and brought her out here. I
knew they’d be good for each other.”
“It isn’t nice to gloat,” Belinda reminded her.
“Amen,” Mrs. Jessup harrumphed. “Don’t I seem to remember that you introduced that Caroline creature to him in the first place?”
Lillian was horrified. “That wasn’t me! That was Belinda!”
Mrs. Jessup’s eyes widened as she glared past Lillian at the restless young woman on the other side. “Did you?”
“It was an accident,” Belinda muttered. “I meant to introduce her to Bob Whitman, to get even for jilting me. Ward kind of got in the way. I never meant for her to go after my poor brother.”
“It’s all in the past now anyway,” Lillian said, making peace. “He’s got the right girl, now. Everything will be fine.”
“Yes.” Old Mrs. Jessup sighed, glancing past Lillian again. “If only Belinda would settle down. She goes from boyfriend to boyfriend, but she never seems to get serious.”
Lillian pursed her lips, following the older woman’s gaze to Belinda, who was sighing over Mari’s wedding gown as she walked down the aisle accompanied by the organ music. She’d have to see what she could do….
The wedding ceremony was short and beautiful. Mari thought she’d never seen a man as handsome as her Ward, and when the minister pronounced them husband and wife, she cried softly until Ward kissed away the tears.
Lillian, not Belinda, caught the wedding bouquet and blushed like a schoolgirl when everyone giggled. The guests threw rice and waved them off, and Mari caught a glimpse of tall, slender Ty Wade with his Erin just on the fringe of the guests.
“Alone at last.” Ward grinned, glancing at her.
“I thought they’d never leave,” she agreed with a wistful sigh. “Where are we going? I didn’t even ask.”
“Tahiti,” he said with a slow smile. “I booked tickets the day after you said yes. We’re flying out of San Antonio early tomorrow morning.”
“What about tonight?” she asked curiously and flushed at the look on his face.
“Let me worry about tonight,” he murmured softly.
He held her hand as he drove, and an hour later he drove up to a huge, expensive hotel in the city.