He stood and swept her into his arms, and she buried her face against his chest and whispered, “You know why.”
“I know that you’re wonderful,” he told her, walking swiftly.
He carried her to one of the chairs and set her there. Again she felt tremors, ripples, a quivering inside. She heard the rasp of a zipper, and, oh, what a sound could do….
She felt it all over again. The warmth, the soaring, the floating, the needing, the rhythm that went on and on, the throbbing need for him.
She rested her cheek against his shoulder, damp, gasping, savoring his body against her, inside her. He filled her with a staggering pleasure, hot and alive and full. She kneaded his shoulders and back, and felt the fabric of his shirt. Deliriously, she wanted to rip it to shreds. Instead she unbuttoned it slowly, shuddered and touched the bare flesh of his chest, then gripped his shoulders and stared into his eyes.
They were dark with hunger, his features taut, straining, almost grim. His eyes closed, and he moved within her, one final thrust, exquisite in the volatile pleasure it gave them both….
They clung together for a moment, panting. Then he raised his head, his eyes alight with amusement, and she flushed again.
“I thought you said you shouldn’t?” he teased her.
“Well, I didn’t think…” she began primly, but she lowered her lashes at the sound of his laughter.
“Don’t worry, okay?” he murmured, then picked her up again and collapsed into the chair with her on his lap. He kissed her lightly and mussed her hair, and as the seconds elapsed she began to feel a different warmth, the same warmth that she had felt in town, when the tour had ended and the darkness had closed around them like a blessing. I love you, she thought again with awe. She didn’t say it out loud; it was a frightening thought, deep and dark and true. It wasn’t the lovemaking—although making love with him was so wonderful that she still couldn’t believe it. But more than that, it was the warmth, the pleasure she felt just in holding his hand, in sitting across the table from him, in listening to him talk, in watching the stars reflected in his eyes.
“I—I have to get dressed,” she murmured. “I’m supposed to be cutting pepperoni.”
“Don’t you dare get dressed,” he whispered, nibbling at her ear.
“Dan…”
“I’m going to build the fire,” he promised. “The real one.”
“Hmm. That felt pretty real to me,” Kelly said.
He chuckled softly. “A fire in the hearth. One that we can curl up in front of up here on your beautiful mountain.”
She blushed happily, her arms wrapped around his shoulders. “Do you like it? Really?”
“I love it. Really.”
“Wait until you see the deer here. They’re extraordinary. They’re the tamest, sweetest, most gorgeous creatures you’ll ever see. I’ll bet we can even find them tonight! They’ll come to the light—”
“Whoa! I don’t—”
“You don’t want to see my deer?” she interrupted, crestfallen.
“I’m dying to see your deer. I swear. Just not—not tonight.”
“Oh.” She started to edge from his lap, but he pulled her back, kissed her deeply and stared into her eyes. “Tonight—” he kissed her once again “—tonight…I want just us. Here. Together, alone.”
She returned his kiss and stared at him, feeling awed again. She smiled weakly and started to move. “Really, I have to get dressed and cut the pepperoni.”
“Really. The pepperoni will taste a million times better if you cut it…undressed.”
Kelly laughed. “You’re terrible! And you’re not being fair. You’re still dressed. Well, sort of, anyway!”
“I’ll strip,” he swore solemnly. “Right now. Faster than a jackrabbit.”
Kelly couldn’t help but laugh again. “Dan, honest, you have no modesty.”
“No false modesty, my love,” he teased. “Really, why did you invite me here?”
“To feed the deer?”
“Not to feed the damn deer—but I will, I will, I swear, I’ll feed those deer. Tomorrow. Not tonight. I want to wallow in decadence tonight, okay?”
He slid his loafers off while she was still on his lap. Then, still holding her tightly against his chest, he shed his shirt with a speed that left her gasping and laughing.
Then he stood abruptly, deposited her on her feet and bent over to shimmy out of his jeans—pausing only to glance up at her with a truly diabolical smile.
“Want to help?”
“Help yourself!” She laughed, but she couldn’t keep herself from wrapping her arms around her chest. It wasn’t easy for her to be totally uninhibited—yet.
Then she turned and raced for the bathroom. She started a quick shower and shivered beneath the cold water, hopping out quickly. Then she grabbed one of the huge white towels off the bar and wrapped herself up in it.
When she walked back out Dan was naked, comfortably hunched down while he set the logs and started the fire. He sat back with satisfaction, whistling a tune, smiling with smug complacency, and merely arching a brow while she strutted by defiantly in her towel.
“No fair,” he charged. But then he shrugged and sat on the rug, edging back to lean against the sofa. Kelly poured out two glasses of wine, then dug around under the sink for a cutting board and started on the cheese. When she was done with that she turned her attention to the pepperoni. Her fingers were shaking. She paused and saw the top of Dan’s head. She smiled to her self, then set the knife down on the board and carried them both out to him. “You cut, I’ll get the wine.”
She went back for the wine. He didn’t start working right away, though. Instead he went to the closet and with a perfect instinct, procured an armful of pillows and her feather comforter. By the time she had picked up the wineglasses he had created a marvelous little nest in front of the fire. Then he began to cut the pepperoni.
Kelly came over with the wine. He paused long enough to look up at her, and she cast him a very suspicious stare.
He smiled serenely and took the wine from her. She started to curl down beside him, then gasped slightly, because he had taken her towel with a little tug.
She smacked his arm and he grunted, warning her that if she wasn’t careful he would wind up cutting more than pepperoni. Kelly told him laughingly that he probably deserved just that. When he gazed at her in wounded outrage, she laughed again, winding herself into the comforter and onto his lap.
“You’re too good at this,” she told him.
He arched a brow. “I beg your pardon? I’m doing my very best for you, madam!”
“You know what I mean!”
“Do I?”
“This!” Kelly waved an arm. “It’s my cabin, but you homed right in on the blanket and the pillows.”
He stuck a piece of pepperoni into her mouth. “There’s only one closet.”
Kelly quickly ate the pepperoni, then sipped the wine he handed her. As she leaned over to set the glass on the floor, she studied Dan as he ate—as he watched her watching him. She loved him so much. Everything about him. The way his dark hair fell across his forehead, the high bones of his cheeks, the slant of his nose, the little lines scrawled beside his eyes, the deep tan that attested to the fact that he loved the great outdoors of the present as much as he loved the past.
In fact, she loved the way his whole body was bronzed—except for the whiteness of his rump!
Other women had probably loved him just as much before her, she reflected.
“Out with it,” he said.
She shrugged. “I was just thinking about you.”
“Were you?”
“Hmm. According to the kids, I should be wary.”
“Why?”
“Well, their theory is that you’ve ‘loved ’em and left ’em.’”
“Oh? And how well do they know me?”
“I should think your daughter knows you quite well.”
“Great. The little minx has been gos
siping about me.”
“Well…” Kelly lightly tapped his chest. “I did hear that you…had been around. And now, seeing you in action, well, you are something of an expert.”
“I try.”
Kelly flushed at his brash stare. “That’s not what I meant.”
“I thought those were cries of joy issuing from your lips!” he exclaimed. “And now I discover that they were complaints.”
“Daniel!”
“It’s not Daniel. It’s Dante.”
“Dante! Who names their child Dante?” Kelly laughed.
He shrugged. “My parents. They loved the name. Dante’s Inferno, and all that.”
“You’re twisting everything I say—”
“I can’t help it. Daniel isn’t my name. Dante is.”
“Oh! Shut up before I pour wine over your head!”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would.”
“Then I would have to retaliate by pouring it over your entire body. And then…licking it off. Bit by delicious bit.”
“Seriously—”
“Oh, I’m dead serious.”
“Quit it!” Kelly begged, laughing. “Seriously, how many affairs have you had?”
He paused, frowning slightly, watching her. “Seriously, Kelly, I don’t know. I think it would have been rude to keep a scorecard, don’t you?”
She picked up her wine, lowering her eyes. Suddenly she didn’t like the way he was watching her; it made her uncomfortable about the way she was feeling. She was falling in love with him, but he… Who knew what—if anything—he felt for her. “Kelly.” He pulled her cheek against his chest, talking softly. “Kelly, I think that Sandy would have liked me to have been serious a few times. She’s got a great heart; she’s been good to almost everyone I ever dated. I just never fell in love before. Sandy thinks that I’m hung up because of her mother. I’m not. I even understand—a little bit, I think. It never bothered me that she left me; it killed me that she left Sandy. But she wanted something else out of life. I was drafted, and she was alone. When we were together, we fought. She was so convinced that I was running around when I was away that she almost drove me to it. I think maybe we were destined for divorce. But I’m not harboring any strange phobias because of it.”
Love…
I never fell in love before….
That was what he’d said. Did that mean he was in love now?
Kelly pulled away and took a hasty sip of her wine. Then she looked at him. It was as if she had no choice. His eyes willed her to do so. His eyes, deep and dark and penetrating…
“This is your first affair, isn’t it?” he asked her bluntly. “Your first affair since your husband died. And that,” he added softly, “was a pretty long time ago.”
She was compelled to nod, to be honest. She badly needed another sip of wine.
But just as she drank, Dan laughed, then bundled her into his arms with enthusiasm. Her glass joggled, and droplets or rich, red wine spilled all over it.
“Wow,” he teased. “I don’t even have to throw it all over you. You just did that yourself!”
“Dan!”
I never fell in love before….
They were the most beautiful words she had ever heard, and they made her laugh with delight. Laugh and laugh until he took the glass from her, stretched her out, manipulating her like a cherished instrument, ready to be played.
She felt his kisses, burning, sweet and hot, against her shoulder, her mouth, her collarbone. Her breasts and her ribs and her waist and…
“I didn’t spill any wine there!”
“I know.”
“Oh…”
They made love.
Again and again…
And again.
Before the fire, the blaze casting beautiful gilded patterns against their skin. It was a night of discovery. As long as she lived, Kelly would remember kneeling while he knelt, touching his shoulders, drawing her fingers across his skin, then leaning over and pressing her lips along the same path. Dan patiently allowed her all her whimsy, allowed her to become someone bolder, someone surer. Not just eager, but intense. Not just giving, but receiving.
In the end Kelly had no desire to make up the bed. She was too exhausted, too comfortable there before the fire. It was dying now, glowing softly, and she began to doze after the perfection of their lovemaking.
Dan nudged her.
“I can’t,” she groaned. “I really can’t.”
He laughed. “I was going to ask if you have another blanket in there. Then you can keep your cute little tush on the comforter and I can put something else over us.”
“Hmm,” Kelly murmured lazily. “You must be slipping. There’s a whole pile of blankets in the closet.”
She was so tired she could barely speak, barely open her eyes. She felt him stand, heard him pad over to the closet.
She must have dozed then, if only for a few seconds. She came awake and realized that he hadn’t come back. And yet he was still there. Still in the cabin. She knew that with a special sixth sense. She knew her love; she knew when he stood, when he walked, when he moved….
But he wasn’t moving. And she could feel something heavy in the air, an omen, a portent.
Frowning, Kelly struggled to sit up. “Dan?” He didn’t answer, and she turned around to see him.
He was standing there, silent, still, his expression like a thundercloud. He was holding something and staring at it. Kelly edged away nervously, her hand fluttering to her throat. “Dan?”
He looked at her at last, but didn’t say anything.
“Dan, what…?”
Suddenly he was moving toward her shaking something in front of her face. Something white and lacy.
Sandy’s bra, Kelly realized. Damn them! Damn the two of them. They hadn’t only managed to get Sandy pregnant—they’d managed to leave half their clothing behind.
“Do you know what this is?” Dan demanded heatedly.
“A bra,” she said dully. “You don’t need to be Einstein to answer that one.”
“No, not a bra!” he stormed at her. “Sandy’s bra! This whole thing was your fault!”
“My fault!” Kelly shrieked.
“Yes! The rest of the kids out there at least have to go through a little effort! Get out of the house, rent a hotel room, suffer it out in the car! Effort? Jarod? Oh no! His mother provides him with a cozy, isolated place. Not only a nice soft bed—but clean sheets, too!”
“Oh!” Kelly screeched, enraged in turn. She wasn’t tired anymore. She stood and strode about furiously in the darkness, desperate to find her clothing. To her horror, he trailed after her, still talking.
“You led them right to it!”
“I led them right to it? You’re sick, Marquette, do you know that? What do you think—that I dragged Sandy up here? That I sent her an engraved invitation?”
She found her panties and stumbled into them, then her slip. Bending down along with her, he picked up her bra and her dress and her shoes.
“Jarod sure as hell invited her up!”
“She could have said no!”
“She was innocent!”
“She probably seduced him!”
“Oh, yeah? I suppose he invited her up here just like you invited me up here—innocently. To watch the deer! Oh, yeah, let’s go up to my mother’s cabin. It has a super bed, a fridge, you name it. Let’s go up to this little love nest and feed the damn deer! Sure!”
“Oh!” Kelly exclaimed again, staring at him furiously. It was all she could think of in her rage. Then she noticed her dress and shoes and lacy bit of underwear in his hand and grabbed them from him.
“Do you know what this is, Sherlock? My bra! So give it to me!”
Fumbling, she managed to shimmy into the rest of her clothing. He must really have been floored by his discovery of the “scene of the crime.” Apparently he hadn’t even noticed that she was dressing.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
/>
“Leaving!” Kelly retorted.
“In the middle of the night? In the middle of nowhere?”
“You guessed it, Sherlock.”
“Oh, no, you’re not!”
“Oh, yes, I am!”
She had slammed her way out the front door before he had regrouped enough to think to stop her. Kelly smiled grimly, wishing she’d taken his keys—but willing to walk down the mountain. It was her mountain; she knew it like the back of her hand. And she would have a good head start on him. He couldn’t come rushing out stark naked. He would have to take the time to get his pants on.
As soon as she started down the path that would lead her toward the stream and the trail that went all the way down to the highway, an uneasy sensation stirred right at the base of her spine. She heard a rustling in the bushes.
It’s a deer, Kelly, she told herself. A squirrel.
But it wasn’t an animal. Not the four-footed variety, at any rate. She knew it. Just knew it. Sheer, blinding, horrible instinct told her that there was someone behind her. Someone evil. Someone who meant to slink through the darkness and brush and attack her, assault her.
She inhaled, desperate to scream. But who would hear her? How far had she come? Would Dan reach her—in time?
She turned; she could keep her back to the danger no longer. And she saw them. Those eyes. Those same horrible eyes, gleaming in the darkness. Eyes that had stared at her before. Eyes that were filled with pure malice and menace…
There was enough light for her to see that they belonged to a man. Medium height, husky build. Reaching for her now in the darkness.
She screamed at last, loud and long and shrill. Then, when he was just about to touch her, he suddenly fell instead.
Something was on top of him. Something bronze, except for a little patch of white. On the rump.
Dan.
Of all the deplorable—absolutely fantastic!—gall.
He hadn’t bothered with his jeans, or even his briefs! He had just waltzed out after her—naked as a jaybird, and now he was embroiled in a horrible fight—for her.
She screamed again. With the darkness, she could hear the blows falling, but she didn’t have the faintest idea what was happening.
“Oh, God!”
“Kelly!”
All in the Family Page 15
