by Renee Roszel
She stepped away from him, scanning his near-naked form. “I don’t know. You don’t look particularly stodgy at the moment.”
He lifted a querying eyebrow. “No?”
She shook her head.
“What do I look like?” he asked with a slow, devilish grin that sent tiny electrically charged thrills down the tender skin of her neck.
Rubbing her nape, she couldn’t help but smile back. “You look like a crazy person standing there in your underwear.”
He frowned in mock affront. “I came a long way just for an insult.” The fringes of his dark lashes narrowed, as though he had a thought. “What if I weren’t wearing them? How would I look?”
A purely wanton warmth invaded her belly as her mind’s eye envisioned this magnificent man naked. She felt excited and alarmed all at once. What was happening? “I—don’t know…” she managed, worried about what they might be unleashing here.
“Let’s find out,” he suggested, slipping off his Jockey shorts and flinging them on the flames. “What do I look like now?”
Her body went warm and weak. The crazy game was moving along too rapidly, and she was worried at how suddenly things had turned around. It couldn’t be this easy. Dragging her gaze to his face, she asked, “This isn’t a trick. I couldn’t take it. Do you really mean it? We don’t go back to AEI unless I want to?”
His lean face grew serious again. “Gina, I ask only two things of you.”
“What?” She stiffened, expecting the worst.
He stepped close to her, taking her into his arms and whispering, “Burn that damned book you ordered and that infernal electrician’s tape?” His tender kiss on her earlobe lasted only an instant before he released her.
She stared. It wasn’t bright to melt this way, to trust him so quickly. He could bring disaster to her life so rapidly, and with so few words. But this time, something told her he really meant what he was saying.
“Will you do those two things for me?” he asked, his voice deep, almost reverent.
Reading the truth in his earnest expression, tears came to her eyes. He meant every word he said. Her lips trembling, she whispered, “I’ll go get them.”
When she turned to go, she felt a gentle tug on her wrist, “It’ll keep, darling. Right now, we have some love to make.”
Drawing her into his arms, he kissed her deeply. And Gina knew that whatever they decided to do, theirs would never be a dull alliance. If they did return to AEI—and she had a feeling they would—then that place, too, would be far from the stuffy institution she’d left behind. And this time, she would have her place there—a proud place by David’s side.
When her naked husband lifted her into his arms, he murmured, “If we go up to the lighthouse, will I be stepping on any other man’s toes?”
She curled her arms about his neck and smiled at him through her tears. “If you mean Paul, the last I heard, he and Iduna were licking their wounds together.”
He chuckled. “Sounds kinky—but I’m happy for them.” He carried her away from where the late Dean smoldered, toward the butter-colored squares of light that emanated from their cozy lighthouse.
“I’m eating salads now,” she felt obliged to say, as she drifted along in his arms.
“Not right now, you’re not,” he warned suggestively. “You’re going to be too busy to eat for a while.”
A giggle bubbled in her throat. “I thought that would make you happy.”
He halted, regarding her with a soft, heart-stopping gaze. “Darling, you have no idea how happy I am.”
Their lips came together, and they savored the taste of this, their first kiss, for it was a first. Their lives, from this moment on, would never be the same. They were embarking upon a relationship in which a man and a woman not only loved equally, but sacrificed equally. Gina thought of her parents and David’s, and knew a moment of sadness for the dominated women—and for their men, for they had never known the thrill and pride of accomplishments their wives might have made.
David lifted his lips from hers and murmured, “I brought you a box of chocolates.”
Her mood lightened and she laughed, hugging him harder. A wild new thrill at being alive filled her as her husband began to walk with her again, toward their lighthouse. “I love you, David,” she heard herself murmur. “But, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll have that wonderful, fattening, cholesterol-loaded box of chocolates bronzed.”
Relishing the richness of his laughter, she rested her head against his sturdy shoulder as she sailed away to a harboring, exciting paradise that would serve them to the end of their days—a paradise that she had helped create.
About the Author
Renee Roszel has been writing professionally since 1983, with over forty novels published to date. In addition to being named Oklahoma Writer of the Year by the University of Oklahoma Short Course for Professional Writers, she has multiple National RITA finalist honors and several nominations for Best Short Contemporary Novel by Romantic Times magazine. Renee’s books have been published in foreign languages in far-flung countries ranging from Poland to New Zealand, Germany to Turkey, Japan to Brazil, France, Australia and the Netherlands.
Renee has fans around the world, and she loves to hear from them. To contact Renee, visit her website at: www.ReneeRoszel.com
