For Eric's Sake

by Carolyn Thornton

  "You don't want me to go?" Her eyes were shimmering with tears.

  "Oh, baby." He pulled her into his arms. "I need you. I want you. I think I must love you. I only know I've never known I could feel as violent as I did this evening when I realized how close I'd come to losing you. And that photographer—" She could feel his body trembling. "When I think that he almost stole your sweet innocence, and when it's been here for me, offered as a gift of love all this time. I was too cynical to think I could survive with one woman."

  "I can understand if you can't."

  He laughed. "That's a switch, coming after your accusations that I've been spending my nights with Lorraine. I haven't, you know."

  "But she said—"

  "Don't believe a word of what she says. She's spoiled and it won't be the first time she's lied to get her way."

  "But she said she would break you financially if I didn't leave you to her!"

  He laughed at that, too. "So what? Would you mind very much if we had to live in a more modest place? If it takes me a little longer to make it to the top?"

  She shook her head, still wondering if she were dreaming it all. She was still feeling dizzy and sleepy. Orange juice alone had never made her feel this way.

  "Good," he said, "because whatever happens, wherever we live, whatever we do, it'll be together. I know now how miserable it would be to live without you after these past weeks of living with you." He sighed. "I can't begin to tell you the number of nights I wished I could stay here with you instead of going back to that blasted restaurant."

  "But you love it."

  "I love you more." He squeezed her. "But I'm afraid the restaurant is still going to be taking up a lot of my time until I can get it operating. Can you take me that way for awhile?"

  "What way?"

  "On a part-time basis."

  "Oh, Shaw." She hugged him, her sobs in earnest now. "I'll take you anyway I can get you. I love you, I told you that."

  "I know," he smiled, "and it's been preying on my mind ever since. Do you know how much a coward that made me feel?"

  "I don't understand."

  "To know that you had the courage to tell me how you felt about me. But I was too busy trying to be the big macho male to think my emotions could get the better of me. Oh, baby, don't cry. You know I can't stand it when you do. It makes me feel so helpless."

  She hugged him. "I can't stop crying. All I want is to be with you."

  "You will be, my love, for all time. Now stop crying before I start."

  Brandy laughed through her tears and then caught her breath to discover that he was actually crying, too! Somehow that made him seem her equal, not an arrogant lord who would always get the better of her, but someone just as vulnerable as she. It only made her love him more.

  She put her hands up to his cheeks, cradling his face between her hands. He had just admitted he was as human and just as frightened of her love as she. She had never realized how much power, the power of love, she held in her hands.

  Gently she kissed him, the tenderness between them quickly mounting to passion. Brandy sighed against his lips. This was the moment she had waited for. She belonged to Shaw, and had from the first moment she had seen him and decided she wanted him for a husband. She had sensed even then the melting heat of his kisses, but nothing had prepared her for the weakness of her body as it pressed closer to his, meeting his passion with a sultry sexiness that she had not known herself capable of.

  His lips trailed down her cheek to her neck as he murmured against her skin, "I want to make love to you, wife."

  His words sent little flames of excitement through her.

  "Will you share my bed with me?"

  In answer Brandy stood up, tugging him after her to the bedroom. He could be so tender and caring. She had known it in her heart long before tonight. Perhaps he hadn't even realized his own tenderness and consideration before this moment. He was not demanding she share his bed as he had done in the past. He was humbling himself by asking her.

  "Show me, Shaw." She wrapped her arms around his neck as they reached the bedroom. "Teach me how to love you."

  He chuckled against her ear where his lips were nibbling on her earlobe. "You already know how to do that, my love. In fact, I think I should be taking lessons from you."

  She wound her fingers into his hair, unable to get close enough to him. "Well, we could begin tonight—"

  He kicked the door shut. "Exactly what I had in mind," he whispered.