by kps
It still seemed impossible, but against all odds, Dev and Jeuny had survived their ordeal in the rain forests. The golden-haired babe-in-arms had been introduced as two-month-old Thomas, the first of Mariah's grandchildren. The second, Jenny had confided tonight before they'd left for the theater, would arrive in approximately six months. Both Dev and Jenny had been unusually secretive about where they'd been, how they'd survived, and where they had met their two companions, Gilliam McGowd and his daughter. Adam, after twenty years as a confirmed bachelor, took one glance at the lovely, delicate Shiona McGowd and fell head over heels in love. He wouldn't have cared if she'd been from another planet. Adam used his consular connections to smooth the way for McGowd and his daughter to enter England as British citizens, complete with valid passports.
Mariah had tried in vain to persuade Jenny to stay in England until the baby was born, but she had insisted she wanted to go home. Home now for the Cantrells was the two-hundred-acre ranch they had bought near Mariah and Jared's own Montana property. Though she hadn't yet begun her plan to convince Jared of a visit to Montana in time for the happy event, Mariah had no doubts that she would be there to see her second grandchild born.
The small farewell dinner party Jared and Mariah had arranged for Gilliam was still in progress when Dev bade goodbye to his old friend from Beaun Gowd'en and climbed the staircase to his bedroom. Jenny had retired a half-hour before, claiming her delicate condition as an excuse to lie down, yet Dev was sure he'd recognized a certain sensual glint in her eyes tonight that usually indicated a desire to make love.
In the hallway, Jenny's personal maid was just closing the bedroom door behind herself.
Dev's earlier suspicions were reinforced when the short, plump little blonde risked a glance at him, blushed and giggled, then offered a quick, bobbing curtsey before scurrying in the direction of the backstairs.
Dev knocked once and entered the large sitting room. Happy to be able to divest himself of the heavy, black evening coat, he pulled it off and called Jenny's name. "In here, darling," she answered from the bedroom. Seated in front of her mirrored dresser, Jenny turned and smiled warmly as Dev appeared at the open door. "I was wondering how long you'd last.
Poor dear, you haven't the excuse I used to get awayl"
"Nonsense," Dev replied, walking' over to Jenny's side to kiss her. He straightened, pulling impatiently at the buttons of his linen shirt. "I've got the same excuse. Being an expectant father is almost as tiring. Actually, I told everyone you had signalled me that you were in a romantic mood tonight and duty was calling."
"Dev-you didn't!" Jenny whirled around, but Dev was just disappearing into the closet. No, she thought, surely he was just teasing. Even Dev wouldn't be so rude as to announce such an idea, and in front of her parents. Jenny stared at the closet door, waiting for him to emerge again. When he did, he had finished undressing and wore the burgundy velvet dressing robe she'd had made for him. "I'm afraid I did, love," Dev said, deciding to tease her a few moments longer. A deep, amused chuckle rumbled from his throat. "Your mother was a bit shocked and poor Shiona blushed most becomingly, but other than that, the news was accepted as a matter of course. After all, Jen, I told the truth. You were quite obviously in a loving mood this evening."
"Devlan Cantrell! Swear to me that you didn't say such a thing in mixed company! Even if it were true,which I'm not willing to admit, to mention a private ..."
Dev grinned, deciding he'd played long enough. He stretched his muscles, dropped lazily into the armchair opposite her dresser, and declared, "All right, I admit I didn't say it aloud, but I'm sure everyone realized why I left so soon after you. It's only natural, Jenny; after all, we are married. You didn't become pregnant from holding my hand."
"You're a rogue at times, Devlan!" Jenny appeared vexed for a few seconds, but she could rarely stay angry with her husband longer. Turning back to face the mirror, she found him grinning at her in its reflection and wrinkled her nose in mock irritation. "I'm quite aware how I got pregnant. Hardly a night passes that you don't remind mel"
"Ah, but I can't help myself, Jen. If I didn't keep you tumbling on the sheets so often, you'd turn shrewish on me." Jenny's mouth twitched at the claim, but she made no denial as she began to pull out the pins securing the heavy masses of hair that had been curled in a fashionable evening coif.
The room was quiet for a few moments, then Dev broke the silence with an observation.
"Did you know that Mariah's already working on your father to join us at the ranch?" His expression, reflected in the mirror, revealed his empathy for Jared's poisition. "And, of course, she'll have her way."
Jenny pulled the last pin from her hair and shook her head, letting the silky black waves ripple in a liquid wave across her shoulders. "Of course she will. And Papa will make a token resistance so that he's satisfied he is still in command of such important decisions. When they both retire tonight, each of them will be content that the proper balance of power has been maintained!"
Dev stared at Jenny in the mirror. After a second, she demurely lowered her gaze and reached for her brush to begin the ritual of brushing her waist-length hair at least one hundred strokes each night. With her head inclined to one side, she silently kept a count of the strokes. Dev rose from the chair and crossed the room to stand behind her. His hand closed over hers, stopping the brush in mid-stroke.
Jenny leaned back against him with a lazy, contented smile and pulled his hand close to her cheek. She nestled like a sleek, sinuous kitten as she softly asked what she could do for him.
"For one thing, Mrs. Cantrell, you can stop playing the sly minx with me," Dev answered. He took the brush from her and began to pull it gently through her tangled curls. "The expression on your lovely face when you spoke of your parents' relationship was decidedly smug."
Jenny looked up at him once more with eyes as wide and innocent as little Tom's. "Why, whatever do you ..."
"You know just what I mean," he interrupted. "You could have been describing us. I can hardly remember a time when you haven't won your way with me, by some maneuver or other. Could be, I've been too easy on you." Dev's free hand caressed Jenny's throat; his eyes were hooded and heavy with the beginnings of desire. His wife .was a tempting sight, too tempting for the discussion he had in mind. He would not be distracted by the shadowed valley that divided her gently rounded breasts nor by the narrow black ribbon that gathered a trim of snowy lace across them. Dev shifted uncomfortably. His body was not in complete agreement with his purpose.
Jenny seemed not to have noticed as she protested, "I've given in to you at times, have I not?"
"On unimportant matters, I'm sure. My point is that you make use of every natural endowment to influence a given situation."
"For example?"
"For example, tonight you're romantic, you want me to make love to you." Dev dropped the brush from his hand and leaned close, catching Jenny's arms to bring her to her feet. His mouth touched hers, gently at first, as he sought to measure the intensity of her desires.
With one hand he firmly grasped the back of her neck, his fingers tangling in the fine tendrils curling at her nape, his other hand exploring the silk-clad contours of her body.
Like a spark set to dry kindling, the demanding pressure of Dev's kiss fanned the smoldering embers of Jenny's passion into a consuming blaze. A moment later his lips were against her throat and Jenny was trembling under the assault of ardent kisses pressed upon her yearning flesh. She was beginning to ache from the need to lie beneath him, to feel his raw, naked strength against the velvet skin of her own body. Her senses seemed heightened to an almost painful degree, and, as Dev's tongue flicked out to touch the tender spot beneath her earlobe, a soft whimper escaped her parted lips.
In the wake of Jenny's surprisingly quick arousal, Dev nearly forgot his initial purpose of teaching her a valuable lesson. Nearly forgot, but pulled back from the precipice of desire before he surrendered in his own, .answering response
. For too long, the recognition of his wife's velvet-gloved handling had nagged at the back of his mind. The discussion of her mother's similar conduct had provided the perfect time to bring the matter to light.
It was not so much the fact that Jenny exploited her femininity to manage the daily affairs of their life as the demeaning feeling that he was a pawn in her hands. Like the sting of salt in an open wound, it pricked at his male vanity. Had Jenny grown careless in allowing him to see through her veiled ploys, or did she no longer care to conceal them? Whichever, Dev was determined to see the settlement of the issue, once and for all.
Now he mentally prepared himself for the battle that was to come by reminding himself that it was a necessary step for their future well-being. Gently, but firmly, Dev disengaged Jenny's arms from around his neck and, with a very real regret, urged her to be seated once more.
She gazed up at him with a puzzled air as he explained, "The hour is later than I'd thought, Jenny. I'm tired myself, and I'm sure you must be exhausted." He made a pretense of yawning and then bent to place a dry, almost paternal kiss on her forehead. "Don't stay up too much longer, sweet; the rest is more important than finishing your hair." Continuing the charade, Dev turned his back on Jenny's dismayed face and strolled across the room to his side of their large, canopied bed.
Jenny felt as though she'd been doused by a bucket of icy water. At the very moment when she had anticipated being carried to bed by an urgent, impassioned lover, she had been suddenly rejected in favor of a good night's rest! A procession of emotions paraded across her face; frustration succeeded shocked disbelief, with resentment hounding its heels. Dev couldn't stir her desires to the boiling point and then suddenly announce that he was tired!
Yet that was exactly what he had done, without any apparent concern for her feelings.
Damn him anyway! she thought irritably, watching him through narrowed eyes. Seemingly unaware of her observation, Dev stood in the halo of golden light cast by the lamp on his nightstand and stripped off his robe, carefully folding it and laying it across the back of a nearby chair. Then, with the lamp reflecting every sinew and corded muscle of his naked body, Dev stretched with the slow, measured grace of a jungle cat and finally climbed beneath the covers. "
That was the last straw! Not only was she to go to bed with her frustrations, but she was treated to an exhibition of the very instrument that might have satisfied her. Without thinking, Jenny seized the brush from the floor and hurled it at Dev with all her might.
Despite the fact that he appeared to have been ignoring her, Dev had actually kept a close watch on her increasing show of agitation. The brush whizzed past his right temple, too close for comfort's sake. "What was that for?" he inquired with a tone of a beleaguered innocent.
Things were proceeding according to plan, and if she did not surprise him by crashing one of the lamps over his head, he would remain in full command of the situation.
Hands on hips, Jenny stomped across the room with righteous fury fueling every step. "You know very well what it was for," she asserted, climbing onto the bed to kneel beside him.
She settled back on her heels, crossed her arms, and dared Dev to deny that he knew what she'd referred to.
Dev took a moment to measure the depth of her anger, studying the emotional responses that raced across her exotically beautiful face. A soft diffusion of rose dusted her high cheekbones, emphasizing the intriguing hollows beneath them. "You're not tired, then?" He continued to gaze into her eyes while watching for any warning that she might strike out at him. "Oh, Jenny, my Jenny ... beneath that warm, woman's body you're still so--" A slight widening of her eyes warned him to use caution in what he said, but he had meant to cut off his statement abruptly, anyway.
"So, what? So much a child ... is that what you intended to say? Finish telling me, Devlan Cantrell, or we'll not share the same bed tonight, I promise you that." Jenny glared at him, her lips forming a tiny, set line.
"Really, "darling, I don't know how we got started on this. You shouldn't work yourself into one of these moods. Forget I said ..."
"I have not worked myself into this 'mood' as you call it; you have put me into it, and I demand to know why!" She leaned her head to one side, a sheen of unshed tears glistening in her eyes. "You are deliberately being mean to me."
"All right, I was going to say you were childish. If you don't believe me, go and glance in your mirror. Your mouth is beginning to pout because you haven't had your way. Any moment now you'll break into tears and have a tantrum." Dev reached out and gently stroked the side of her face, but Jenny refused to be comforted by. the very person who had caused her distress; she pushed his hand away.
"The truth, Dev. I know you well enough to guess that you have a definite purpose in mind.
Otherwise, why would you act the ardent lover and then decide you were tired?" She was openly nervous now, twisting a strand of hair around her fingertips and beginning to feel like the child Dev had named her.
Dev hadn't meant to push her this far, only to illustrate the way in which she usually manipulated his responses. It was time to stop playing and tell her exactly how he felt. "I simply used some of the tricks I picked up from you, Jen. As I said earlier, you were romantic tonight, yet I had to be the one to bring up the subject. There are a thousand little ways that you communicate your needs to me, all subtle and indirect. You're a mother and carrying my child now. Why should your modesty prevent you from telling me what you want?"
He wasn't sure how she was taking this; Jenny's head was bowed, and the dark veil of hair that had cascaded forward hid her expression. Beneath the lace bodice of her white gown her breasts rose and fell in a tantalizing display of inner agitation. He hadn't expected her to accept his claims easily, but what had he really gained by pressing his point?
Perhaps they would end the night in separate beds. Jenny looked so very vulnerable at this moment, he knew the cold, sleepless night would not only be his fault, it would be his loss.
Well, so much for those who claimed it was a man's world-they had obviously never met a woman like his Jenny.
Finally she raised her head. She didn't glare as he'd expected, but there was a flickering of burning resentment in her blue-gray eyes. "You have your faults, too," Jenny asserted defensively. "There are times when you're so stubborn I could scream!"
"Don't you mean there are times when I refuse to let you have your way?" Though he knew it would add fuel to the fire of her antagonism, Dev couldn't suppress a grin. "Come now, Jen
... admit that even you can't always be right. The most spoiled child must, at one time or another, heed the voice of authority."
Jenny gritted her teeth in outrage. So she was spoiled and he was in "authority?" She could not think of a properly scathing reply, one that would put him in his place. Willing herself to be calm, she stared past him, ignoring his presence with a haughty grandeur that would have thoroughly chilled any man but the one beside her.
Even as he admired her attitude, Dev was determined to keep the upper hand. God help him if she ever decided he could be swayed by either tantrums or icy rejection! Catching her by surprise, he seized her shoulders firmly and flipped her onto her back. By the time rebellion sparked in her eyes, she was his captive, lying pinioned in his arms against the mattress.
"No, I haven't forgotten you're with child, Jenny," he stated, forestalling her accusation even as she opened her mouth to protest. For a few seconds she wriggled, straining to escape the grip of his hands until Dev snapped, "Lie still, girl! I don't want to hurt you, just finish our talk. If you're going to be mad, we might as well get it all said in one night."
Even though it scraped at her pride, Jenny could no longer hold back the angry flood of tears. Her stoic expression crumbled with a tiny sob that would have softened the hardest of hearts, adding to her husband's increasing exasperation with himself for having begun the long argument. Dev's heavy, impatient sigh sounded like a condemnation of her weakness to Jenny
, and she turned her head away, letting the scalding flow of tears wash her face in misery.
The silence that followed was broken only by an occasional shuddering sob that Jenny could not hold back. Though her first reaction had been disbelief and self-pity, now that their major confrontation was over, Jenny's mind turned over the possibility that Dev was right.
Had she really used her sex, taken advantage of it to gain ascendency? Never consciously, she protested silently. Thinking about her parents, though, she could see Dev's point. Her mother did manage quite a few of the family decisions, but Papa, who seemed a paragon of strength, had never objected as Dev had now done.
Times were changing, though, weren't they? Women were crying for more freedom, demanding more equality between the sexes. Still, as Dev had pointed out, women possessed a natural arsenal of "gentle" weapons they used for their survival. Hadn't women needed them, though, in answer to the centuries-old domination of men?
Dear Lord, thought Jenny, the more she considered the aspects of the problem, the more confused she became! As clearly as she could see the issue between herself and Dev, what she'd been doing had come as naturally to her as sleeping or breathing, but, of course, that did not make it right. If a change was what Dev wanted, then she would try. That was all she could promise him.
Jenny turned to face him now, unsure how to begin. Her breathing was still ragged, but the tears had slowed to a trickle. "Dev, I ... I've been thinking about what you said, and ..." Oh, but it was hard to make an apology! And I am sorry if I've tried to manage everything my way. I truly didn't mean to, I didn't even know ..."
Already the importance of the point he'd tried to make was beginning to look very minor in comparison with Jenny's distress. He pulled her against his chest and held her close for minutes before he replied. "It's something your mother taught you, baby ... and she probably got it from her mother. Guess it's an endless cycle unless somebody like me, stubborn as a mule, objects."
