by Lynn Young
He looked at her and found her staring at him with stunned eyes.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me that?” she whispered.
He thought for a moment but couldn’t come up with any real answer. “I don’t know. I
guess I thought I had some time. And every time I came home, I only had one or two days. All I could think of when I saw you was us fucking like bunnies.” Then he said softly, “I can only imagine how painful it was for you to have lost our baby. I wish I could have been here.” Anna Marie nodded, tears starting to well up in her eyes. “I wish you could have been here, too.”
“Did you want the baby?”
She nodded again. “Yes, I wanted the baby. I wanted it more than anything I wanted in my life. God, it hurt so badly when I lost it.”
Dallas looked at her for a moment, and then said carefully, gauging his words, “Could I ask why you wanted the baby so much?”
“Because it was part of you. I thought it was the one thing that I could keep that was from you. You see…” she swallowed hard as tears began to spill down her cheeks again and she had to catch her breath. “I loved you so much, but…” her breath hitched again. “I…never thought you’d ever love me back. The baby…” hitch. “The baby was my way of keeping part of you to Secret Affair 208
myself, when I could…” hitch. “I could never have you.” She laid her head on Dallas’s lap and sobbed.
He let her cry, stroking her head. When her tears were subsiding, he lifted her head and asked gently but firmly. “I want you to tell me why you’re marrying Richard.”
She tried to lower her eyes, cringing with shame, but he held her face immobile forcing her to look at him in the eye as she gave him his answer. “I felt that if I couldn’t have you or your baby, then I might as well settle for what I could get, which was Richard.”
“It pisses me off when you devalue yourself the way your family does, but we won’t get into that right now. That’s for later. Right now, you’re not marrying Richard tomorrow, Anna Marie.”
She looked at him with tear-stained eyes that were enthralled and mesmerized. “I’m not?”
“No, you’re not. Do you know why?”
“Why?” she asked dreamily.
“Because we’re going to be spending all our lives fucking like bunnies. Amongst other things.”
Anna Marie smiled beatifically, as if the plan sounded like the most wonderful thing she had ever heard, which it pretty much was. “Okay.”
He softly stroked her cheek with his knuckles. “Now, that we got that cleared up, can you do me a favor, kitten?”
She looked up at him with dreamy eyes. “Whatever you want, Dallas.”
“Please take off that shit excuse of a ring.”
She looked down at the engagement ring and laughed. She was amazed that she could
feel so light and humorous at the ring, when just an hour ago, every time she looked at it, she would feel a heavy weight pressing on her. She pulled it off. “It is a ridiculous ring, isn’t? I don’t know why he even bothered with a stone. And he was so proud of it, because he had found the brightest clarity for such a bargain.” It was so liberating to be able to make fun of Richard and his petty triumphs.
Dallas pulled her onto his lap and leaned back against the couch, cradling her in his arms.
She lay against him resting her head on his shoulder, closed her eyes, gave a deep sigh of contentment, feeling she had finally come home, and fell asleep.
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The alarm went off at six o’clock next morning. The first ten minutes it failed to stir the couple that was tightly wrapped around one another and fast asleep. The clanging finally reached Dallas’s deep sleep and he began to move fitfully. Lifting his head, only able to open one heavy eye, he gazed at the clock. His movements nudged Anna Marie awake, whose small, naked body was curled in a tight ball and burrowed against him.
Sometime after midnight, Dallas had carried her into her bedroom, undressed both of
them and made fierce love to her, long and hard and ravenously. He had only allowed her to sleep less than two hours ago.
“Why is your alarm going off on a weekend?” he muttered, but he didn’t bother to reach over and turn it off.
She yawned hugely and snuggled deeper into his arms, and murmured, “I set it to get
ready for the wedding.”
Dallas tightened his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. “Okay. As long as it wasn’t anything important.”
Both fell back to sleep in each other’s arms, despite the incessant clanging. It finally rang itself out after thirty minutes. They slept for another hour or so. Then Dallas woke up hungry, but not for food. Patiently, he stroked his lover’s soft body with his hands, gently caressing her generous curves so that she had no choice but to awake slowly to passion. But she wanted her share of sleep and fought it, trying to keep herself buried in his muscled arms, keeping herself sheltered in his heavy heat. When she still refused to open her eyes, he gripped her hair and pulled her face to his and covered her lips in a searing kiss, waking her rest of the way. As he twisted his tongue around hers, his hands exploring her body, she felt that erotic heat that she remembered only too well tighten her loins.
“I forgot how exhausting you were when you visit,” she complained petulantly and then ended up moaning sharply when his finger slipped into her flesh between her thighs.
Dallas gave a soft growling laugh and the predatory tone of it made her body shiver with fearful anticipation. When he ended the kiss, he lowered his head to her throat. Just as he entered her warm, moist flesh, he bit her, making her yelp and then cry out softly as he filled her while he suckled her. For the next hour, he fucked Anna Marie in a slow, leisurely fashion, not rushing both of them to fulfillment as he had when they had first come together the night before. But, despite the unhurried pace, Dallas’s hands and lips still created sharp pleasure that had her Secret Affair 210
whimpering and writhing with erotic tension that grew tight and heavy in her loins, where she was completely filled with him. By the time she was on the verge of climax, she was softly sobbing with pleas for him, her teeth sinking into Dallas’s shoulders to muffle her cries, her hands digging their nails in his arms as her body tightened even more. And, still, he stroked her slowly but steadily, insistently, building the burning ache inside her even more, his strong thighs keeping her slender ones parted. Even when he felt his own loins grow taught and painful, making him shiver, he continued his slow rhythm, maintaining his ruthless patience, even as he started to bare his teeth and growling moans rumbled from his throat. It had been too long since he had Anna Marie’s small, soft body in his arms, and too long of not experiencing her warm glove fisting his dick, and he wanted to savor the deliciousness and the utter rightness of being so intimately connected with her.
Just when he felt his balls were about to release a torrent of his liquid, he looked down at Anna Marie’s flushed face and feverish eyes. “You’re mine, Anna, and only mine. Tell me, Anna Marie, tell me you’re mine. I want to hear you say it.”
But Anna Marie was enduring her own impending crises as she struggled to breathe from the hot erotic pleasure that was raging inside her.
“Tell me you’re mine, Anna Marie,” Dallas ordered through gritted teeth.
She licked her lips, her breathing ragged. “Yes, yes, Dallas, I’m yours. I’ll always be yours. –Ahhhhh,” she ended on a sharp gasp as her body broke, then arched and cried out as the hot wash of orgasm flooded everywhere inside her.
Dallas barely heard her obedient, passionate response to his fierce demand as he felt her glove milking him, squeezing his dick with hard pulsations, sending him over the edge. Both shuddered in each other’s arms, their bodies tangled, their ragged cries ringing in the room for a long time while their orgasms rung out their bodies once more. When their bodies settled, they fell into an exhausted sleep again.
Anna Marie awoke again close to ten o’cl
ock in the morning.
“Where are you going?” Dallas mumbled against his pillow as he allowed her to slip
from his arm.
She grabbed the nearest article of clothing, which was Dallas’s white tee shirt, and pulled it over her. “To make coffee. And breakfast.” She was starving, as she always was after a long night of intense sex.
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Stuart, the fat orange tabby, impatiently sat by the door, not at all liking the fact that his own breakfast of fresh cream and kibbles was long overdue.
“How does bacon and waffles sound?” Anna Marie asked her lover and only got a grunt
of assent.
Rather unsteadily, she padded into the kitchen, Stuart waddling after her while growling his displeasure at her.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I did have some excuse for not getting to you,” Anna Marie said to him as she emptied his dirty bowls in the sink. “After what I’ve been through, I would think you’d show some sympathy. Anyway, you didn’t like Richard, because he wouldn’t let you sleep on the bed, so you should be glad that I’m not marrying him. –Oh, no!” She ended on a gasp as she realized that she still had a wedding to deal with.
When she set down fresh cream and food in clean bowls for him, Stuart’s only thanks
was a haughty flip of his tail before he crouched on his paws to lap at his cream.
Just as Anna Marie reached for the phone, her sister stepped into the kitchen.
“Look at you, you haven’t even begun to get ready,” Pepper said impatiently. “I thought I told you to set the alarm for six o’clock. What have you been doing all this time? We have to be at the hairdresser in ten minutes. We have to be at the church at two.”
“Uh…Pepper, something came up.” Anna Marie was at a complete loss as to how to
begin explaining to her sister about the sudden change in circumstances. “I’m not quite sure how to say this. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to say to Richard.”
Pepper set down her purse on the counter, opened up a cupboard, pulled out a canister of coffee and began to pour some in the coffee maker, as if she had a perfect right to make herself at home, which she felt she did. “Stop babbling, Anna, and get dressed. Mom’s going to be here in ten minutes and she’s going to get your wedding dress pressed.”
“Actually, that won’t be necessary…”
Cameron entered. He kissed Anna Marie on the cheeks. “Hey, beautiful. I thought I’d tag along for support.”
Anna Marie took a breath. “Uhhhh, listen you guys, there’s something I need to tell you.” Pepper flipped the switch on the coffee maker and turned around. “Anna, you don’t have time to make speeches.”
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Then she realized for the first time her sister’s rumpled appearance, her flushed face, her eyes heavy with spent passion, and that she was obviously naked beneath the overlarge white tee-shirt that hung almost like a tent down to her bare knees.
A sly smile curved Pepper’s lips. “Oh, you should have told us. You have Richard back there, don’t you? You two love bugs couldn’t wait until your wedding night, could you? Well, no big deal. This is the twenty-first century, so you’ll hardly run into any scolding from us.” Anna Marie fidgeted, her hands twisting into the material of the tee shirt. “Well, that’s not quite it. It isn’t that Richard is with me…”
“Oh, come on, you don’t have to cover yourself. Hey, Richard!” Pepper yelled towards the hall. “I hope you guys got some sleep, at least. You’ve got a big day ahead of you. You can’t spend the day in bed as much as you can’t keep your hands off her.”
Then she gasped when Dallas emerged from the hall, wearing a hastily pulled on white pants, leaving his broad muscled chest bare, his black hair tousled. He loomed tall and menacing standing behind the petite Anna Marie.
He put his arms around her and laid a kiss on top of her head and looked up grinning.
“You’re right about that. I could never keep my hands off this little delectable piece.” For several seconds, there was absolute silence, both Pepper and Cameron staring at them with shocked eyes.
“Whoa,” Cameron finally said, almost laughing in his astonishment, shaking his head, trying to comprehend what was in front of his eyes.
“But…but…but how…” his wife struggled to speak. “This can’t be. It’s…it’s just
impossible. You two can’t be…you just can’t be.”
“Hmmm, but we are. We have been for a few years, now. Haven’t we, darling?” Dallas
buried his face in Anna Marie’s hair, inhaled her fragrance that still lingered of her musk from the sex, then trailed his lips down her throat.
Although she trembled, Anna Marie pushed his arms away and stepped away from him.
This definitely wasn’t the time for some petting. But Dallas pulled her back into his arms, lifted her face and kissed her long and fiercely. Then he let her go and padded bare feet into the kitchen, past his stunned brother and sister-in-law and calmly poured himself a fresh cup of coffee.
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Horror dawned on Pepper’s face. “You two…you mean, you two have been…”
Somehow, she couldn’t finish her question, the idea of it too abhorrent to her.
“Yes, Pepper, we have been,” Anna Marie said, her eyes pleading for understanding.
“How long?” Cameron asked.
“Since the first time we met when you had both of us for dinner at your place.”
Pepper gasped and stumbled backward. She pressed her hand to her chest as if she was having hard time breathing. “That was over two years ago. You two have been seeing each other since then? But, how? You never gave any indication that anything was going on.”
Anna Marie shrugged her shoulders, a helpless look on her face. “It just kind of
happened. I didn’t say anything to you, to anyone, because…”
“It wasn’t any of your business,” Dallas finished for her in a flat, implacable voice. “Or anybody else’s.”
“So, you’ve been two-timing poor Richard all this time,” Pepper accused her sister.
“No. Well, not until last night. Anyway, I can’t marry Richard.”
“Richard’s a self-congratulatory, sycophantic ass,” Dallas commented.
Pepper rounded on him. “Don’t you call the man Anna’s marrying vile names.”
“He’s right, though. Richard is an ass,” Cameron said and shrugged when his wife turned glaring eyes at him. Not in the least intimidated, he went over to the coffee maker and poured himself a cup.
“I’m not marrying him,” Anna Marie repeated determinedly.
“So, you’re willing to give up your best chance at happiness for what? For him?” Pepper pointed at Dallas. “He’s nothing but a swaggering roustabout and as amoral as an alley cat, poaching on another man’s territory.”
“Hey, that’s my brother you’re talking about,” Cameron warned. “And he’s hardly
poaching since they’ve been seeing each other long before your shoved Richard at her.”
“I’m not marrying Richard, Pepper,” Anna Marie said again.
“Why not? It’s ridiculous of you to give up all that he can offer for passion. Passion runs out sooner or later. ” Pepper looked at her watch. “ Come on, you still have time to get to the hairdresser.”
“I don’t love Richard. I never have.”
Pepper jerked her thumb at Dallas. “Don’t tell me that you’re in love with him.”
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“It just so happens, I am.” Anna Marie looked at Dallas the way she never looked at
Richard, her eyes shining with love, happiness, contentment. And giddiness.
“You’re mistaking passion for love. Once it burns out, and it will burn out, what can this SEAL offer you? He can’t give you a home and stability because he’s too busy tramping around the world fighting evil. That kind of a man is only good for one thing, and that is an occasi
onal roll.”
“Watch it, babe” Cameron cautioned over the rim of his coffee cup.
Pepper ignored him. “But if you expect anything more from him, he’s only going to give you heartache in the long run. He’ll never marry you, always leaving you behind…”
“I’m taking Anna Marie with me when I fly back to Washington D.C.,” Dallas
announced.
Anna Marie looked at him with shock. “You are? But you never said anything.”
“I just didn’t get around to it, yet.”
Pepper threw up her hands. “Oh, great. What kind of life is that? You’re stuck in his apartment most of the time, while he’s too busy traipsing around the globe. And you’ll be alone, far away from your family and friends.”
“I’ve accepted a promotion at the Pentagon. It’s a desk job but it will keep me in
Washington most of the time,” Dallas said, shocking everyone including Anna Marie.
“But you like going on missions,” Anna Marie pointed out. “Why would you want to
give that up?”
He reached out a hand and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. “Because
your sister is right. It’s no way to be married and raise a family.”
She bolted out of his arms, her face white. She was trembling from head to toe. “I didn’t say anything about us getting married. You don’t have to go that far, Dallas.”
Dallas gave a weary sigh. “Didn’t you hear a word I said last night, kitten?”
She shook her head and her voice was shaky. “But you didn’t say anything about
marriage.”
“It would hardly be pointless for me to take you back with me to Washington if I wasn’t planning on marrying you.”
Anna Marie looked at him with a mixture of hope and disbelief. “You’re willing to do this for me? You’re willing to give up a job that meant so much to you for me?”
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He smiled. “I’m not doing it just for you, Anna Marie. I’m doing it for me, for us, and for the kids we’ll have.”
“Are you sure?”
