“He doesn’t know me. But you do. Is that what you think?” Connor scrambled to his feet. “If Robinson’s so damned concerned about Liddy’s and your welfare, why isn’t he here holding your hand?”
“He’s responsible for running the hospital.” Mallory leaped up, too. Then she put a hand to her head, and her shoulders bowed. “I can’t do this. I can’t referee between two grown men. The truth is, Alec, who has older kids, tends to ignore Liddy Bea. And these last two weeks, you’ve been great with her. I promised I’d tell her who you are this weekend, Connor. I considered begging off, given her present condition. But…I’ve got no valid reason to postpone it. Would you like to go see her now and watch me flounder through the big revelation?”
Connor’s eyes went from bleak to glossy with tears. “I don’t know what to say—except th-thank you.” His throat worked convulsively as emotion gripped him.
“It’s long overdue. I’m just…I don’t know how—I mean, what’s she going to think of me for hiding the truth?”
“She’ll always love you, Mal.” Connor shortened his steps to match her reluctant pace. He supported her by placing his palm at the small of her back.
Too soon, in Mallory’s estimation, they stood beside Liddy Bea’s bed.
“Connor, hi. I knew you’d come. I had a ’fection. That’s why I didn’t feel good.”
“I know, kitten. Your mama told me. If that ever happens again, I’m bringing you straight to the hospital.”
“Then you’re gonna stay? You’re not gonna leave ’cause I’m sick so much?” Liddy Bea sneaked a hand under the palm Connor had placed on her pillow.
Mallory moved forward until her hip rubbed Connor’s thigh. “Liddy, uh, I have something to tell you. Something I should’ve brought up the first day Connor visited you in the hospital. He’s…uh…not just an old friend of mine. He’s your—ah…” She sawed at her upper lip with even white teeth, glancing quickly at Connor before blurting, “I’m trying to say Connor’s your father, Lydia.”
It seemed for a moment that they all failed to breathe. Then a sunny smile lifted Liddy Bea’s down-turned lips. She grabbed Connor’s shirt with the hand not connected to an IV. “I knew! I knew you were my daddy. I knew all along.”
“You didn’t,” Mallory gasped. “How?”
“I just did,” Liddy proclaimed with a self-satisfied nod. “He knew about Ellie. And he bought me the frog band. That’s when I knew. I don’t hafta call you Connor now, do I? I can call you Daddy?” She sank back, wearing the brightest of smiles.
Mallory laughed and cried at the same time. Connor attempted to hug both of them, but it proved too awkward, so he settled for hugging Liddy Bea and throwing his left arm around Mallory, while he grinned like a fool.
“Are we all married now?” Liddy Bea queried innocently.
“Oh, no, baby.” Mallory gulped, casting Connor a frantic look. “It’s…uh…a long story. One you’ll understand better when you’re grown-up.”
The child’s gaze traveled from one adult to the other. “Okay.” She gathered the stuffed dog against her cheek. It was the one she always slept with at home.
“There you are!” Fredric Dahl popped his head into the room. “You suddenly disappeared, Mallory. The floor nurse thought perhaps you’d gone home.”
“No. Connor came. We had things to discuss, so we went into the lounge.”
Liddy Bea peered around her mother. “Dr. Fredric. Connor’s my daddy. My real daddy.”
Dahl managed enough surprise to appear properly dumbfounded. “Well, I guess I don’t have to ask if that makes you happy. Obviously it does. Have you told your grandfather yet?”
“Nope. But I will, and he’ll be glad, too.” She lay back again.
“Did you need me for something, Fredric?” Mallory looked worried. “The new medication’s starting to work, isn’t it? She seems perkier already.”
“What? Oh, yes, she’s responding to treatment. I do want to keep her overnight, though. To be certain we have those bugs on the run.” A smile rearranged his somber features. “You and Connor both look like something the cat dragged in. Go home. Get some rest. If she continues to progress, we’ll do her first hemo in the morning. I’ll release her in the afternoon. Alec just told me you’d come back to work. So, let’s say you can pick her up when you finish tomorrow.”
Connor, who’d remained silent, moved in behind Mallory and rested his hands on her shoulders. “If she’s that improved, what’s the chance of retrieving the kidney Mallory said you were notified of?”
The sober expression settled on Fredric’s face again. “That one’s long gone, I’m afraid. As it turned out, it was only a partial match. I’m confident there’ll be another for Liddy Bea when the time’s right.”
Connor felt Mallory tense in disappointment. He didn’t voice his own fears and doubts, but they rode very close to the surface of his weary soul. “The doctor’s right about one thing, Mallory. We’re both in need of shut-eye. You look ready to drop. Why not let me give you a ride home? You can pick up your car later.”
“I won’t argue, Connor. Liddy, baby, Mommy’s going home for a while. I’ll be back this evening. As will Grandpapa. He said so when he phoned to see how you were getting along.”
“Daddy? Are you leaving, too?” the child asked around a huge yawn.
Hearing the word fall so easily from her lips sent a warmth stealing through Connor. “I’ll stay if you’d rather one of us did.”
“No. I’m sorta tired, too.” She plucked at Connor’s shirt. When he bent over her bed, she said in a loud whisper, “If you’re taking Mommy home, will you ask her to let me have a puppy? A real one?”
Mallory ducked her head under the crook of Connor’s arm. “I heard that. Just because you have two parents now, little miss, doesn’t mean you can play each of us against the other. I’m way ahead of you there. I tried those same tricks when I was your age. They didn’t work with my folks, either.”
“Then what about a baby sister? Or a brother? ’Cept I’d rather have a sister.”
Not seeing how flustered Mallory and Connor were, Fredric Dahl, who’d reached the door, turned back with a question. “Have I been out of touch during an elopement or something?”
“No,” they exclaimed in one voice.
“Not for my lack of asking,” Connor said belatedly, much to Mallory’s chagrin. She grabbed him by the arm and tugged him from the room.
“Let’s go before this conversation gets really out of hand. Don’t forget hospitals are one big gossip mill. And I work here. Furthermore, if this is a ploy you and Liddy Bea cooked up to get me to agree to a puppy, I say…foiled again.”
“It’s no ploy,” Connor assured her, once they found themselves alone on the elevator. “We belong together, Mallory. There’s been a hole in my life for seven years. You’re what’s been missing, Mal.”
She leveled him a stern sideways look. “You missed me so much you happened to get engaged to another woman.”
He heard the underlying pain in her voice. “I’m not proud of the fact, Mallory. But you’re right. Looking back, I see I let Claire drift in to fill a void left by you. Dammit, I’m no good at putting what I feel into words.”
Mallory didn’t say anything as they exited the elevator and crossed the hospital lobby. She waved absently to a couple of people who acknowledged her, all the while wondering if Connor was telling her the truth or feeding her a line.
He didn’t continue their conversation on the short drive to the apartment. “Are you hungry?” he asked, rousing himself from a stupor moments before he pulled into the garage.
“I get too keyed up to eat whenever Liddy Bea has one of these crises. And frankly, there’s not much in the house. Oh—you’re probably starved, aren’t you? You worked all night, after tending Liddy Bea all day.”
“I could eat. Why don’t you go on up? I’ll run down to the corner store and pick up the fixings for something easy, like pancakes and eggs.”
“No problem.” He watched her key in the security code and didn’t pull away until the lobby door closed fully behind her.
SHE WAS IN THE KITCHEN, putting a kettle of water on the stove, when he returned. “I figured you’d have gone to bed,” he said, sliding the grocery bags across the counter.
“I think I’m running on adrenaline. Maybe herbal tea will settle my nerves.”
“I’ll take a cup, if you don’t mind. I’ve always had trouble sleeping when it’s light.”
“Me, too. When the water boils, I’ll toss a couple of tea bags into the pot to steep. Meanwhile, let’s put away the groceries.”
“Sounds good. Did you check for messages?”
She shook her head. “No. Expecting a call?”
“Jim Kirkpatrick promised to read our monitors. He’s going to call if they kick up again.”
“Oh. I’ll bring the tea into the living room when it’s ready. You can turn on the TV and check the national weather forecast. Unless you’d rather I start the pancakes.”
“Nope.” He crushed the last sack and stuffed it behind the cookie jar. “In fact, I don’t feel like eating anymore. Maybe if we both put our feet up, the tea and TV will lull us to sleep.”
“O…kay,” she said somewhat hesitantly.
“No Jim,” he called from the hall. “Your secretary, Mandy, phoned. If you’re gonna call her back, maybe I’ll grab a quick shave and shower while the tea finishes steeping. I like strong tea.”
“I already poured us some.” Mallory stepped into the hall, rubbing her neck.
“Sore neck?”
“It hurts when I turn my head. Probably because I carried Liddy Bea from the car to the emergency room. She must weigh sixty pounds.”
“Forty-seven,” he said. “We weighed her last week at the pharmacy. You’ve lost more weight, Mallory. What are you now? A hundred pounds?” His eyes cruised slowly from her neck to her toes and up again.
“Listen, I get ragged on by Alec all the time about how my clothes hang on me like a sack. One critic is all I need. I weigh one-o-eight, thank you.”
“I’m not being critical. I’m worried, okay? Come here. Sit on the ottoman, and let me massage your neck.”
“I thought you were going to shower and then we were having tea?”
“Yeah, well, I hate seeing you in pain. We aren’t running on anyone’s timetable but our own today. So, whaddya say?”
“Do you think I’m going to turn down a massage when I hurt? Oh, wait a sec. I need to let Mandy know I’m not coming in today, so she can tell Alec.” Mallory appeared more tense than usual.
“Problems at the office?” Connor jumped up to take the tray she carried, with its steaming pot of tea and two full cups.
“Yes and no. Alec invited Mr. and Mrs. Dorset in for a meeting without telling me. They’re a prominent couple he’s trying to add to our A-list of contributors. I’ve told him repeatedly not to set appointments without first checking my calendar. He’ll just have to take them to lunch without me today.”
He watched her gestures as she talked to Mandy. When she finished, he took a seat on the couch, and she settled onto the low hassock he’d positioned between his knees. “You really like your job at the hospital, don’t you?”
“It’s perfect when Liddy Bea is well. When I have to juggle a job with her illness, well, no job would be ideal.”
Connor took a sip from his cup, then returned it to the tray. “Turn around and let me work on that kink. You’re wincing every time you lift your cup.”
She complied, but not before setting her cup aside, as well. Bending backward, she rolled her head around her shoulders. At one point, she cringed, then stopped abruptly. “Ow, ow, ow.” Reaching back, Mallory dug at her neck. Her fingers tangled with Connor’s, as he’d begun to press both thumbs against the tight ball of muscle.
He nipped her ear with his teeth. “Stop messing in,” he said huskily. “This is my domain.”
“You bit me.” She laughed, but hunched a shoulder to her ear. “Oooh. And your face is rough.”
“Is this the same woman who used to tell me how cool I looked with a four-o’clock shadow?”
Mallory relaxed and planted her elbows and forearms on his thighs. At his comment, she tensed. “Back then, I was crazy about the rough-hewn look.”
“It’s in fashion again. Or don’t you watch the entertainment channel? All the TV bad boys have dumped their razors.” As his low voice rumbled in her ear, Connor’s fingers dipped under the collar of her blouse, widening the small circles on her skin.
She let her head loll against his hands. “Ah, that feels like heaven. If you only knew how much I’ve missed your magic hands.”
He drew her closer. “Just my hands?” Looming over her, he feathered kisses on her closed eyelids.
She caught her breath as his lips moved onto her cheekbones. The instant his warm breath and soft lips whorled around her left ear, her breath sighed out. She felt heat gather low in her stomach. A very small part of her brain pulsed a distant warning; a tiny voice cautioned her to call a halt. She knew where this kind of activity led. However, it had been so very long since she’d indulged her feminine yearnings. She allowed herself a passing thought: What would it hurt to enjoy the prelude to lovemaking?
Connor eased her higher on his right leg, which gave him fuller access to her lush mouth. Since moving in with her, he’d snatched a few harmless kisses. Until now, he hadn’t realized how badly he wanted to kiss her in passion and be kissed back.
“You taste like berries,” he murmured.
“The tea, it’s a mix of raspberry and honey.” Her lips formed an O around the word, honey. Connor took advantage of the moment, plunging his tongue into the hot interior of her mouth.
Straining against him to ease the new tension winding tight in her belly, Mallory grabbed the points of his collar and pressed her breasts to his chest.
Connor moaned low in his throat and slid sideways on the couch, turning her at the same time so that her full weight rested on the length of his body. He loved the way their lips were welded together, and barely noticed that he and Mallory were frantically tearing at each other’s buttons until he felt one fly off his shirt, and air cooled his damp skin.
In no time at all, he divested Mallory of her blouse. The lacy edges of her bra scraped against the hair on his chest. Heat raged in his groin.
Far back in his hazy brain lurked a bit of reason. Reason called him names for taking advantage of Mallory when her defenses were low. Reason reminded he had, without forewarning her, prepared for the inevitability of where this was headed. But, in his own defense, he hadn’t gone to the store with any idea of buying condoms. The shelf happened to be right next to the checkout.
Connor might have listened to those objections—except his control snapped the instant Mallory’s hand closed over a rigid part of his anatomy that had come to life the minute she kissed him back.
“Wait. I, uh, need to get something.” Untangling their limbs, he raced to the kitchen and unearthed his stash from its temporary hiding place behind the cookie jar. He returned almost before she’d struggled upright, and he dumped a handful of condoms on the coffee table.
Her eyes widened at his sheepish grin. Then, driven beyond reason, Connor toppled fully onto his back, allowing her an opportunity to take the lead if she wanted to.
She did.
Things reheated quickly. Mallory ran her lips from his navel to his pectorals and back again as she dispensed with his belt buckle. When he squirmed to help her, she shoved his jeans and shorts down around his ankles.
Time disappeared for both of them. Once more they were hot-blooded kids, making out on Mallory’s narrow dorm bed. Clothing posed few barriers.
Connor rucked up Mallory’s skirt. Babbling nonsense, he tore away the thin fabric of her lace bikini panties. At th
e moment it didn’t matter that the panties matched the bra one of them had flung over the lampshade. The only significant thing was pleasing each other. Fumbling only slightly, she sheathed him with a condom he handed her.
Connor lifted her slight weight so that she could settle over him.
She realized he’d encountered resistance. Things were moving too fast; after all, she hadn’t experienced a sexual relationship in almost seven years. “Sorry,” she panted, looking into his unfocused silvery eyes. “It’s been a long time for me.”
“And me. Slow down. Come here and kiss me.”
She stiffened. “No more lies, Connor. Not now. How could it be a long time for you? I heard Claire ask for one room at my dad’s. And I know how long you spent in hers later.”
“I’m not lying.” He stroked his hands up her sides and cupped her breasts, reveling in the way they still fit his palms nicely in spite of the weight she’d lost. “About the time I learned about Liddy Bea, the fact that I’d never slept with Claire became an issue for her. A big issue. That’s all I’m going to say about our relationship. I should have realized a lot sooner. You stood between us. Always.”
“Really?” Mallory smiled, shook back her hair and took all of him inside her.
From then on, she gave, he took. He gave, she accepted. Until sweat poured off them both, and her chin and breasts were tender from the scrape of his shadowy beard. They climaxed in a merging of flesh that left them both limp and clinging weakly together.
Slowly the air from the overhead fan cooled their exposed limbs and Mallory’s backside. “Um,” she murmured, lazily outlining each of Connor’s ribs. “Oddly enough, my neck doesn’t hurt anymore.”
His deep chuckle jiggled her body where she lay sprawled on top of him.
“Don’t laugh. I wasn’t finished. I was about to say my face feels as if I’ve undergone a dermabrasion. In case you aren’t familiar with the term, it’s also known as a face peel.”
Connor lifted his head and inspected her skin. “Ouch. Jeez, Mal, I’m sorry. I should’ve shaved first.”
The Seven Year Secret Page 22
