Words of Silk

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Words of Silk Page 15

by Sandra Brown


  She stared at the telephone for a moment before answering it. Her heart began to pound. “Hello.”

  “Good morning.”

  The words fell on her ears like golden drops of honey, pure and warm and sweet and sensual. She remembered the first time he had said those words to her, the first morning she had awakened in his bed. He had been a stranger to her then, but no longer. Now he was her soul.

  “Good morning.”

  Without preamble he said, “I think the case will go to the jury Thursday afternoon. In any event we should have our acquittal by Friday.” She smiled at his characteristic overabundance of confidence and hugged the telephone receiver tight. “I’m going to say this only once Laney. I’m coming down there this weekend. I want you to have everything packed.” He hesitated and then said forcefully, “I’m moving you and the twins to New York.”

  “Like hell you are,” she said into the telephone before gaily dropping it back into its cradle. She jumped up with a broad smile on her face. “Mrs. Thomas,” she shouted. “Help me pack!”

  The housekeeper huffed into the kitchen. “Did you say pack?” Her face was wreathed in smiles. “Then he’s coming to get you?”

  “No. I’m running to him. Don’t answer that!” she exclaimed as the telephone began to ring again. “Don’t answer it for the rest of the day. Come on, we’ve got a lot to do.”

  While Mrs. Thomas attacked the drawers that held the twins’ clothes, Laney made airline reservations. In an hour and a half, miraculously, they were ready to leave. Mrs. Thomas recruited her husband to drive them to Tulsa in Laney’s station wagon. They would keep it parked at their house until further notified. Deke had relinquished the rented Cadillac when he returned to New York.

  At the departure gate, after their bags had been checked, Mrs. Thomas broke down in sobs, realizing for the first time that “my babies,” as she put it, were leaving. Laney knew that she was included in the term of endearment.

  “You won’t forget to call Deke, will you?” Laney was afraid that her plan might backfire and she would be left standing alone in LaGuardia Airport with two infants.

  “No. As soon as I see you take off, I’ll call him on that WATS line number,” she blubbered. “Flight 345 arriving in New York at five ten.”

  “Yes, and be sure to leave a message if he’s in court. Thank you, Mrs. Thomas. For everything.”

  She hugged the tearful woman, promising to see her soon when they returned to settle the house and furnishings. Then, with a flight steward carrying Todd, she rushed aboard the aircraft before she could change her mind.

  The twins were angel-kissed that afternoon. At least they behaved perfectly on the entire flight. Laney fed Todd because he was the more rambunctious eater, while a delighted flight attendant fed Mandy her bottle. Both slept after that.

  Laney almost wished they would be contrary. Then she wouldn’t have time to weigh her decision, to think about the enormity of what she was doing, to worry over Deke’s response to it.

  Suppose he didn’t meet them?

  Of course he would. He wouldn’t want his children to be stranded at the airport, even if he felt like choking their mother. After all, she had hung up on him and hadn’t answered again, although the phone had rung a good hour after she had abruptly ended their call.

  But what would he be feeling?

  At the sound of his voice that morning, Laney had realized what a colossal fool she had been. She wanted him, she needed him and she loved him. She had been stubbornly clinging to a fear that belonged in her past, before Deke. Her mother had been bitter, angry and disappointed with the world; she had not had the ability either to give or take love. Laney had realized that she would become like that, too, if she didn’t take a chance on giving her love away.

  No one was going to come to her door passing out happiness. Nor was it enough to merely find it. One had to take that last step, to reach for it. That involved risks, but it was either a matter of taking the risks or forever living with a gnawing emptiness inside.

  She had been selfish too. Even if Deke didn’t love her, he loved his children and would make a happy home for them. In good conscience she couldn’t deny them that. Nor did she want to deny herself.

  If only he meant . . .

  “Fasten your seat belt please, Mrs. Sargent. We’re on our final approach.”

  Nervously Laney latched the safety belt and checked the twins. How did she look? Were her clothes wrinkled? Did she need lipstick?

  Her stomach was in her throat and it had nothing to do with the landing. Would he notice that she had lost those last five pounds? What if he was angry? What if he had been called out of court? What if she had made him lose his case?

  It was too late to back down now. The airplane taxied to the gate and the door was opened. Women with young children were allowed to disembark first.

  Todd announced his arrival in the Big Apple with a gusty bellow that his sister soon echoed. “Oh, Lord,” Laney said as she hoisted one of the diaper bags over her shoulder and carried her son into the jetway. An attendant followed with Mandy.

  Over the throng Laney saw Deke’s gray hair first. His eyes were trained on the door through which they had to pass, and he spotted them immediately. Besides, Todd’s bawling was hard to miss.

  Deke began elbowing people aside as he waded through the crowd clustered in the waiting area. He looked distinguished and austere in his dark three-piece suit. She could read nothing in his expression. Just as he reached them, his face split into a huge grin.

  “Wait, Deke!” Her stern tone halted him and wiped the smile off his fade. She had to know. It took more courage than she knew was in her, but this was the moment of truth and she had to ask this question now or forever wonder. “Did you mean it when you said you loved me?”

  Their offspring screamed in indignation because they were in unfamiliar and uncomfortable surroundings. They were jostled by a moving mass of disgruntled travelers. But for what seemed like an eternity he looked only at her. Then, taking two steps forward, he cupped her face between his hands. Just before he stamped his mouth over hers, he growled, “God, yes.”

  CHAPTER 10

  It looks like a maze,” Laney observed, looking down at Deke’s improvisation.

  “Let’s just hope they can’t find their way out,” he said laughingly. He had arranged bolster pillows around the perimeter of the bed in the guest bedroom of his apartment. Then he had placed one horizontally across the bed. A twin was on either side of the center pillow. “Even the threat of picket lines and terrorist activities in the store wouldn’t induce Macy’s to deliver two baby beds today.” He pinched his wife’s bottom. “Give me more notice next time.”

  “Oh, coming from you, that’s laughable. You’ve never notified anyone that you were about to mow them down, have you?”

  “What would you have done if I’d called you up one night and said, ‘Hello, Ms. McLeod, you may not remember me. I’m the guy who rescued you during the blackout. I took you to my apartment. You took off all your clothes, got in my bed and I taught you how to—”

  “I’d have hung up immediately.”

  “‘—and I was just wondering if you’d ever like to engage in that kind of licentious activity again.’” His voice dropped seductively. “Sometime. Whenever you’re free. Like right now.” For the first time since she’d known him, Laney detected an element of shyness in the man whose well of self-confidence she had thought would never run dry. “Did . . . did you see Dr. Taylor, uh, before you left?”

  She plucked at a button on his shirt. “Uh-huh.”

  He swallowed hard. “And?”

  Coyly she raised her chin and let her eyes tell him what he wanted to know.

  He didn’t give her time to expound. His hands splayed over her back and pressed her willing body to his. Confidence restored, his mouth had its way with hers, with the arrogance of a warlord who claims the village virgin. His fervor cooled only long enough to lift her in his arms an
d carry her into the bedroom they had shared once before. When he set her on her feet, he gathered her close for another breath-stealing kiss.

  “I can’t believe this is happening to me.” Her mouth fluttered over his neck as his lips drew a path of kisses to her ear.

  “Believe it. Believe that I love you with all my heart and am going to spend every day of my life telling you how much you mean to me.” Her face was worshiped by emerald eyes. “You’re gorgeous, Mrs. Sargent. I always did like that suit.”

  “I didn’t think you’d noticed.” She was wearing the suit she had worn the night they met. Until today it had hung in her closet.

  “I noticed.” He eased her jacket from her shoulders and down her arms. “I didn’t have the privilege of undressing you before.”

  “Nor I you.” She ran her hands over his lapels before she slipped his suit jacket down his arms.

  During the blackout in the elevator, he had fumbled to untie the scarf around her neck. Now he caught it with deft fingers and methodically unwound it at his leisure. She worked with equal concentration on his necktie. At the same time, staring into each other’s eyes, they pulled shirttails from waistbands. Her blouse came off only moments before she dropped his shirt to the floor.

  Soft words of adoration came from his lips as his eyes wandered over her breasts. She was wearing the same bra she had worn that night. The glossy, sheer blue fabric was under stress to contain her breasts, which were fuller now. Creamy flesh swelled above the lacy border. His finger drifted across that satiny expanse.

  She laid her hands on his chest and when she felt his breath quicken, she glanced up at him inquiringly. “Go ahead,” he murmured. “Do whatever feels right. And only because you want to. Not because you think I expect it.”

  Her hands combed through the mat of dark hair sprinkled here and there with silver. Acting on impulse and hunger for him, she leaned forward and brushed her lips across the crinkly hair. Then she stayed to kiss the suntanned flesh beneath, her tongue flicking across his nipples.

  “God, Laney. You’re killing me.”

  He worked free the fastener of her brassiere and pulled it away from her body. She shimmied out of it. His breath was stopped momentarily as he gazed down on her breasts. Then he placed his hands at the small of her back, arched her over and hotly planted his mouth at the base of her throat. Groaning his pleasure, he kissed his way down her chest, over the lushness of her breasts to the tight bead of one nipple.

  “Deke . . .” That thread of a sigh escaped her as his lips kissed her sweetly, from one breast to the other. His tongue was a quick, wet tormentor that coaxed the dusky areolas to shrink and pout and thrust their crowns between his eager lips.

  His hard maleness found the cove of her womanhood and secured itself there, rubbing against her with erotic undulations. She chanted his name like a pagan litany as her fingers tangled in his hair.

  On the brink of losing all control, he kissed his way up and found her mouth to be as eager as his. “I swear to you, one day soon, we’ll play this doctor game all afternoon, but right now . . . ah, Laney . . . I’m just too hungry for you.”

  With fumbling fingers he unsnapped and unzipped her skirt. Gathering it and her slip and pantyhose in one gentle fist, he dragged the garments down her legs as he dropped to his knees in front of her. “Look at you,” he whispered adoringly as she stepped out of the garments. His hands coasted over her as though he were afraid to spoil her ethereal beauty with his carnal touch. He softly kissed each side of her recently slenderized waist, her flattened stomach, the dimple of her navel, the lavish nest of tawny hair, the tops of her thighs.

  She whimpered and swayed toward him.

  He stood and clutched her tightly, bringing both her arms up around his neck. “Hold on. We’re almost there.” He reached for his belt. There was the clink of metal, the sibilance of leather and cloth rubbing together, the sound of a zipper. The backs of his fingers, as they accomplished those infuriatingly necessary tasks, were kneading her belly. He stepped out of his shoes and, not releasing her, stretched down to peel off his socks. Then he let the trousers fall, and nothing separated them but the stretched white cloth of his briefs.

  Her breathing was rapid and warm as it fell on his chest, stirring the hair. Her head was shyly bowed and he could feel the tension in her body. “It’s all right, Laney. I know it’s been a long time. We can stop anytime you say.” His voice was gentle and she loved him for it.

  “No. I want you. I want to touch you.”

  Resting her forehead on the sturdy muscles of his chest, she let one hand glide down his torso. From shoulder to chest, over the corded tautness of his stomach, her fingers meandered down. He held his breath in suspense, but it rushed out in a low, ragged moan when she peeled the underwear down and closed her hand around his proud sex.

  “My love, my love.” He lifted her against him and carried her to the bed. They were as one, fused together as he lowered her to the linens.

  The kiss went on and on. They explored each other’s mouths as they relished the feel, the splendor, of their nakedness. Then slowly he lifted his lips from hers. Moving down her body, he paid it tribute. A score of kisses were left on her throat. With his teeth he nipped the tender undersides of her upper arms, the sides of her breasts. His tongue plundered the responsive insides of her elbows. He acquainted her with every erogenous spot of her body.

  Her breasts were honored by gently caressing fingertips and lips. His tongue bathed their peaked crests lovingly, delicately, maddeningly. He kissed each rib, her stomach, her belly. Her navel was debauched by a wickedly hedonistic tongue. It repeatedly glanced the tops of her thighs, then languished in the shallow grooves that funneled toward the center of her heat.

  “I love you.”

  The words reached her ears just as she felt his mouth blessing her with the most intimate caress. She swirled in a maelstrom of ecstasy, her passions as undisciplined as the liberties he took. With loving lips he expressed his love, then his unbridled tongue stoked the fires of her desire until her body could no longer contain them and she began to tremble. He knew she was ready to receive him and levered himself above her.

  “Tell me if I hurt you.”

  Their eyes met and transmitted a thousand messages of love as his body sank into hers. “Don’t hold back, Deke,” she pleaded, and curled her limbs around him to bring him securely into her body.

  He breathed curses and prayers into her ear as her wet silkiness swallowed all of him and entrapped him in the sweetest haven he had ever known. “Laney, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, beautiful. Just as I remember. Only finer. Much finer.”

  He gave himself up to it then and let their senses guide them. They matched movements and tempos perfectly. With each stroke their souls as well as their bodies were enriched. When the tumult came, they clung to each other, laughing, crying. Like a healing potion, his love burst into her, exorcising any trace of fear and imbuing her with the assurance that she was loved.

  “I forgot to ask. How is the trial going?” Laney idly examined the intricacies of Deke’s chest. She tweaked clumps of springy hair between curious fingers.

  After lying in the languorous aftermath of love for a long while, they had eventually stirred and gone to check on the twins, who were sleeping soundly in spite of their new environment. When Deke remarked that it would soon be time for the two-o’clock feeding, Laney told him they were now sleeping through the night. They had returned to their bed to contentedly cuddle. Deke was propped on the pillows in a half-sitting position against the headboard. Laney lay between his legs, her breasts filling the hollow beneath his rib cage.

  “We got a verdict shortly after noon today.”

  “No doubt you won.”

  His smile was crooked and a trifle chagrined. “Not exactly. He was found guilty of having sticky fingers in the company’s till, but he got off with a stiff fine and a five- year probation. I protested the verdict, of course,
but I was pleased.”

  “Was he guilty?”

  His grin was deliciously satanical. “As hell.”

  She laughed and snuggled against him. “You’re incorrigible.”

  “But you love me?” There was no avoiding the questioning.

  Her eyes were clear with love and free of the sadness that had always clouded them. “Yes. I love you.”

  “I was leading the witness.”

  She crawled up his body to place her lips against his. “I love you. And I would swear it under oath.”

  She kissed him and he delighted in her lack of inhibition. His hands traveled down her back and over the gentle swelling of her derriere. He was rewarded by a purr of reawakened arousal. But there were things he wanted to tell her, so he lifted his mouth, and his hands sought the more neutral territory of her shoulders.

  “Tomorrow you’ll meet my family.”

  Her head came up. “Deke, so soon?”

  “It’s my mother’s birthday dinner. A family tradition—the gathering of the clan.” He tried to make light of it.

  “You can go without us.”

  Her anguish was real and he knew it. “My mother would never speak to me again. She thinks I planned your arrival with the twins for her present. And since I’ve been caught up in the trial and haven’t shopped for anything else, you’ve saved my neck.”

  When he could see that she was still concerned, he drew her close and pressed his mouth to her forehead. “Laney, I’m very proud that you’re my wife. I want to share you with my family and them with you. They can’t wait to meet you. You’ll be stuffed with food, drowned with drink, kissed by cousins, hugged by everyone. You won’t be able to work a word in edgewise, and there will be tribal warfare over who gets to hold the twins. I promise.”

  Her eyes misted as she smiled. Never having known the kind of happy confusion that goes with a large family gathering, she thought it sounded too good to be true. “I’m scared. But it sounds wonderful.”

 

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