Dan hadn’t spoken a word while he led her through the house. Now he came to her and put his arms around her and kissed her with an aching hunger. “I want to show you the upstairs.”
He took her hand and they went back to the entry and up half a dozen steps to a landing where the steps turned at right angles for the longer portion of the rise. The door to the first room stood invitingly open and sun shone onto the light tan carpet from the dormer windows. There was a large bed with heavy, carved walnut posts and a woven spread of muted blues, reds, and off-white. It was a masculine room, from the heavy dark furniture to the comfortable leather chairs. There were two doors on the right wall. One led to a walk-in closet and the other to a bathroom. The room looked and smelled like Dan.
“Yours?” Casey spoke for the first time since she entered the house.
“Ours?” It was a question.
Casey looked deeply into his quiet dark eyes and slowly shook her head.
“I’ll wear out the hall carpet,” he muttered menacingly.
Casey thought silence the best reproof, and allowed him to usher her, with his hand in the center of her back, down the hall to another room.
“There are four bedrooms up here and a small apartment over the garage. We used to have live-in help.” Dan indicated the door opposite his room. “That one’s my mother’s, although she’s seldom here. The next room is small, but I thought it might do for a sewing room,” he announced smoothly. “This room can be yours until we are married, as long as you won’t share mine.” He opened a door and stepped aside for her to enter.
The room was large and square and was set in the corner of the house. The walls were white, the carpet emerald green, the chairs and tables white wicker. The queen-sized bed had a bookcase headboard and was covered with an Indian-print spread in a pattern that matched the cushions on the chairs and the low couch. Large floor vases were filled with fragrant flowers. It was so different from the rest of the house that she had to keep her face from showing her surprise, especially since Dan was watching her and his eyes were dancing with mischief.
“Aunt Bea decided this room needed an overhaul a few years ago. She said it looked like a morgue. This is the result.”
“It’s lovely, and it certainly doesn’t resemble a morgue now.”
Casey smiled at him and he pulled her into his arms. She leaned compliantly against him and he stroked her face lovingly with his fingertips.
“I like seeing you in my house.”
“I thought it was your mother’s house.”
“Don’t get technical,” he scolded. His face was very stern, but his eyes were teasing and his fingers trailed down her neck, tracing the outline of her shoulder before moving, ever so delicately, to her breast.
“Dan Murdock, you’re a con artist, a lecher, an oversexed jerk, cad, louse . . . but I ...”
“But you what, my Juliet?” His chuckle rumbled in his chest.
“But nothing, my Romeo. Kiss me so I can go forth to procure yon raiment and return thus to this gallery.”
He groaned. “You just blew it. You’d make a lousy Juliet.”
“Oh, you think so!” Her fingers dug into his ribs and she planted her feet on top his loafers. Holding both of her arms to her sides he lifted her off her feet.
“You know what you’re asking for?”
“You better not!” she gasped. “You know what’ll happen.”
“You’ll have an accident?”
“Right!”
“I’d rather do this anyway.” He set her on her feet and lifted her arms to encircle his neck. “Mmmmm . . .”he said when he lifted his mouth from hers, “you taste like apple pie.”
“You’ve got your mind on what’s sitting on the counter downstairs,” she said softly against his lips.
“Wrong. My mind’s not on my stomach at all. It’s on yours.” He kissed her, softly at first, and then harder, his arms holding her close, his mouth clamped tightly to hers.
She melted into his kiss. She couldn’t have resisted if she had wanted to, but she didn’t want to. She just wanted to be there, next to him, feeling the warmth of his skin and the strength of his arms, and smelling the scent of him that was so familiar to her. He lifted his mouth. His eyes were very close. She could see her reflection in them.
“I love you Cassandra. That’s all. I just love you. No demands, no promises asked.”
“It’s crazy. But I think I love you, too, Lancelot.” She said 4t with a soft smile and a mist in her eyes. Think? Forgive me, darling, for not saying it more convincingly, she told him silently. But I’ve got to leave some room to maneuver.
“Ya-hooo . . . Daniel. I’ve been waiting down here for a long time. Are you up there smooching with that girl?”
“Aunt Bea,” Dan whispered. “She’s very earthy. I’m surprised she didn’t come on up in hopes of catching us in bed.”
Casey smiled broadly. “I haven’t heard ‘smooching’ for ages.”
“She’s a very liberated woman.”
“The birds and the bees and all that?”
“She’s straitlaced about a lot of things. Her most endearing quality is that you always know where you stand with Aunt Bea. C’mon, and meet her.” Sensing her sudden anxiety about measuring up to someone he obviously cared for, he flung his arm around her shoulder. “She’s been after me for years to marry some ‘nice girl.’ She’ll have you involved with her honey business before you know it.”
The woman waiting at the bottom of the steps had short, gray hair, large, wide-spaced eyes, and a broad smile. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt that said AUNT BEA IS A HONEY.
Dan greeted her with a kiss on the cheek, bending low because her head barely came to his armpit. She made up for her lack of height with a generously rounded bosom and tummy.
“Hi, Aunt Bea. This is Cassandra Farrow, but call her Casey.”
“Hello, Casey.” She held out her hand. There was nothing but surprise and pleasure in her broad smile. Her grip was warm and strong and her dark eyes twinkled up at Dan. “My, my. Isn’t she nice and tall? And her hair and eyes are like . . . honey.”
“I knew you’d say that.” Dan’s voice was resigned, but amused.
“Why’d you wait so long to bring her home?”
“I was working on it as fast as I could, Aunt Honey Bea.”
Aunt Bea nodded with satisfaction. Casey glanced at Dan and could tell that he was pleased with the warm reception his aunt had given her.
“Let’s have some coffee, Casey, and get acquainted. Daniel has a woman friend out back that’s having a fit because he hasn’t been out to see her.” Aunt Bea’s eyes took on the same gleam as Dan’s when he was teasing. .”Her name’s Sadie and she’s got the most gorgeous blue eyes you ever saw.”
Casey walked beside the small woman. Dan followed.
“We don’t want to keep him from his adoring public,” Casey said confidentially to Aunt Bea and reached back to slap Dan’s hand away after his fingers nipped her buttock.
Minutes later Dan opened the porch door and a large, black and brown dog walked sedately into the kitchen. It stopped several feet from where Casey sat at the round table and tilted its head inquiringly. Aunt Bea was right about the eyes. They were a startling blue in the dog’s dark face.
“Sit and say hello to Casey, Sadie,” Dan commanded firmly.
Sadie backed up a few steps and sat down, lifted her nose to the ceiling, and let out a mournful howl. She looked at Dan, then repeated the greeting even louder and longer.
“And hello to you, too,” Casey said and patted her thigh. The dog came to her and laid her jowls on her lap, her eyes never leaving Casey’s face. “What kind of dog is she?” Casey lifted her hand and gently stroked the massive head.
“Siberian Husky. Her name is Sovetskaya, but we call her Sadie.”
“I can understand why.”
Aunt Bea brought the coffee pot to the table and set it on a tile trivit. “Are you having coffee with us,
Daniel?”
“Sure, if I can have some pie to go with it. Then I’ll unload the car.”
“Marge called this morning. The thundering herd will be here this evening. She said she and Helen will go by the fried chicken place and bring out a couple of tubs of chicken and they’ll get potato salad from the deli. You’re to start up the charcoal burner because some of the kids will want hot-dogs.”
“Okay.” Dan pulled out a chair and sat down with his back to the windows. “How about Fred and Hank? Are they going to tear themselves away from the mill?”
“Are you kidding? Wild horses couldn’t keep them away.” Aunt Bea chuckled. “They can’t wait to meet Casey.”
Casey’s stomach began to churn and, as she was inclined to do when she became nervous, she tugged the scarf down more securely over her ears. Dan was watching her and the tender regard in his eyes made her hand tremble when she reached for her coffee cup. At that moment she glanced at Aunt Bea who was looking intently at the scarred hand they lay on the table. Automatically Casey drew it down onto her lap.
“The family, all at once, is a pretty big dose for you, sweetheart. Think you’re up to it?”
Casey didn’t dare look at Aunt Bea. Dan’s use of the endearment would certainly put their relationship on an intimate level. There was no use pretending she had come here to house-sit. Dan had brought her here for his family’s approval and the big test would be tonight. Dear Lord! She’d had no experience in integrating into a family structure, especially one as close-knit as this one. She looked at Dan with almost unseeing eyes as she struggled with her inner conflict.
She still hadn’t answered Dan’s question when the phone rang and he went to the other end of the kitchen to answer it. Casey felt the feathery touch of his fingers on her neck when he passed her and sudden tears ached behind eyes that were drawn to Aunt Bea to see her reaction to Dan’s caress.
“I never thought I’d see the day.” There was a happy smile on the softly wrinkled face and her eyes shone like twin stars. “Daniel’s head over heels in love with you, isn’t he? I knew that if he ever found the right woman he would be just like his father and the boys. The men in this family choose a wife carefully then love her to distraction. Of course, we were all worried there for awhile. What with all the women hot for him because he was a rugby player and all. But I told Hank and Fred, give him some rope and hell sort them all out and find the right girl. “
Casey looked at her for a long time before she said, “How do you know I’m the right girl? You know nothing about me and I could be just another one of the groupies as far as you know.”
“I haven’t lived all these fifty-five years under a rock. If you’d been one of them, Daniel wouldn’t have had to tell you this was his mother’s house and that you were coming to house-sit.” Aunt Bea delivered the statement positively.
Casey looked at her in wide-eyed amazement, but before she could form a reply Dan came back to the table.
“Hank said I may have to be gone for several days at the end of the week. I’m glad the family is coming over so you can get acquainted. They’ll keep you company while I’m gone.”
“I’ll have plenty to keep me busy. I’ve got my sewing, you know.”
They ate large slices of fresh apple pie and talked about sewing. Aunt Bea was so comfortable to be with that Casey almost forgot the ordeal waiting for her at the end of the day.
“More pie, Daniel? I baked it before I knew about the clan gathering. I’ve more in the freezer 111 bake this afternoon. Do you think four will be enough?”
“Four pies?” Casey asked with disbelief. Dan laughed. “There are twelve kids and seven grown-ups. Nineteen of us, counting you, sweetheart.”
“Lucy and Maryann are coming with Helen,” Aunt Bea said flatly and Casey darted a glance at her.
“Is she back?” Dan raised his brows, then grinned at Casey. “Helen’s sister. That’ll make twenty-one. Better put in another pie, Aunt Bea.”
The afternoon flew by. Aunt Bea went back through the break in the fence to her own home to put the pies in the oven. Dan unloaded the car and helped Casey put her things away. His obvious pleasure at having her here was the only thing that kept panic at bay. Casey went over in her mind, time and again, what she would wear this evening and how she would fix her hair. It was almost as if she were a schoolgirl again going to her first prom. It brought home to her just how much her self-confidence had slipped since the accident.
She showered, washed her hair, blew it dry, and turned it toward her face with the curling iron. She was quite pleased with the result. But what to wear? She was standing in the closet going through her choices when Dan tapped on the door and came into the room. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She could feel the hardness of his body through the heavy robe she was wearing.
“You smell good.” His nose nuzzled her neck. “I came to tell you to wear something old. The kids will want a baseball game.”
“Dan ...” She turned in his arms. “I should punch you in the nose for putting me through this.” The last of her words came out in a shaken whisper because his lips were tormenting hers. Her arms went up and around his neck and the familiar excitement began to throb through her body. Holding her nose to his face so she could smell the scents of his skin and hair, she let her fingers curl into the damp crispness at the back of his head.
“What are you worrying about? You’re not shy? Anyone that can give a demonstration before several hundred people can surely handle twenty people, most of them kids.”
“That was different. Dan . . . this is all too new. I wish I hadn’t come. I know they’ll think that we’re sleeping together and that I’ve latched on to you since the accident. I don’t like this feeling of being a hanger on’er,” she ended breathlessly.
“If that isn’t the craziest thing I ever heard,” he chided gently. “Do you think I need my big brothers’ approval before I select the woman I’m going to live with for the rest of my life? I want them to like you and you to like them, but if that doesn’t happen it won’t make the slightest difference. It’s your approval I want, my Guinevere.”
Casey was only half aware of what he was saying. She leaned against him and he bent his head, hesitating for an unbearable moment before touching her lips. All the emotional bruising melted and flowed from under the balm of his lips. Her mouth clung to his for a moment of incredible sweetness.
Very softly she said, “I’m scared.”
“You needn’t be scared of anything. I’ll be beside you.” He kissed her several times in quick succession. “Feel better?”
She nodded and looked deeply into the serious dark eyes that could sparkle with anger or amusement. “Ill make out.”
“Tomorrow is a school day so they won’t stay late. Now get on some jeans and a sweater. It’s cold here when the sun goes down.” His hands went to the belt of her robe. “Ill stay and help you,” he said with his best villainous leer.
“Get out of here, Daniel, or 111 scream for Aunt Bea,” she threatened softly.
“Smart-ass brat! Well take up where we left off when we get rid of the thundering herd, as Aunt Bea calls them.” He kissed her again as if to set a seal on his promise.
When Casey went downstairs she was wearing a bulky, soft knit sweater, jeans, and sandals. The gold sweater hugged her slim hips and was held close by a wide leather belt. She carried a silk scarf to hold her hair in place when she went outside. When she went into the kitchen, Dan was tearing the plastic wrap off a large stack of paper plates. He looked at her and let the wrap slide to the floor. Silently he opened his arms and she walked into them.
“You look as sweet and soft as a toasted marsh-mallow, all gold and white and delicious. Give me a kiss, then help me get this stuff out to the table on the porch. I think they’ll be too many bugs for us to eat outside tonight.”
A Love for All Time Page 13
