Across the River of Yesterday (12 page)

“I’m sure we could work something out.”

“I’m sure we could. Perhaps we could take turns commuting on weekends. And there’s always the telephone, isn’t there, Serena? I’m sure we’d find long-distance heavy breathing more than satisfying.”

“Don’t be sarcastic,” Serena said. “It wouldn’t have to be forever. Just until we feel sure what we’re doing is right.”

“I’m sure,” he said between his teeth. “And you’re sure too, dammit!” He made an effort at control. “Look, I know you’re afraid, but I—”

“I’m not afraid. I just think—”

“The hell you’re not!” His dark eyes were blazing. “Do you think I don’t know you love me? That’s the one thing in the world I’m damn certain about. There’s no way that what we’ve got together could be one-sided. You’re just so scared you’re shaking in your shoes.”

“That’s ridiculous. Why should I be afraid?”

“You shouldn’t be afraid, but you are. There’s nothing to fear in what we have together. I know whatever you’re afraid of has something to do
with what happened to you that night, or in the years we were separated, and I know your marriage wasn’t what a marriage should be, but ours would be different. We can straighten everything out if you’ll only let me help you. But I can’t help you, if you won’t talk about it.
Talk
to me.”

She stared dumbly at him.

“Dammit, don’t look at me like that.” He stood up with the leashed ferocity of a caged leopard. “You’ve been a fantastic lover, but I need more than sex. I need you to trust me and let me become a part of you. Sex isn’t enough and I won’t let you use it as a substitute.” He turned to the door. “And I damn well can’t take it any longer!”

“Where are you going?” she asked, startled.

“For a walk.”

“But it’s pouring rain!”

“Good.” He cast her a glance as tempestuous as the storm outside. “Maybe it will cool me off.” He strode out of the room and a moment later she heard the front door slam behind him.

She was stunned and bewildered. Gideon had been angry with her. Her own defensive anger had disappeared, submerged in the sudden panic that realization brought. He had always been so patient, so infinitely gentle with her, and now he was furious. What if he decided to leave her?

She jumped to her feet and ran from the room. A moment later she was down the porch steps and out into the darkness. “Gideon,” she called frantically. “Come back!”

Which way had he gone? She couldn’t see anything through the pelting rain. She was soaked to the skin, and the water was dripping from her
throat down the low neckline of the caftan. She started running. “Gideon, where are you? I can’t see—” She broke off as she collided with something blessedly familiar. Her arms went around him and she held him tight. “Gideon.”

“You didn’t have to come after me. I was coming back.” She could sense the crooked smile on his lips. “I decided sex wasn’t such a bad substitute after all. For now.”

She clung harder to him. “I’m trying. I
am
trying, Gideon. But it’s as if there’s a wall I can’t seem to climb over, or a river without a bridge. Please believe me, I’m trying to give you everything you want.”

His lips brushed her forehead. “I know you’re trying. I shouldn’t have blown up, but sometimes I get so damn impatient.” He paused. “And scared.”

Her head lifted and her gaze searched his face in the darkness. “Scared?”

“I guess I wasn’t really fair to you in there. You’re not the only one who gets frightened. I’m scared I won’t be enough for you. That was why I didn’t come to you right away when those detectives found you. When the report came in, I found out you had jet-setter parents, and had attended fancy schools and even married a damn prince. And I was a cowboy from Texas without even a high-school education. I’d always tried to read and learn as much as possible, but I knew it wasn’t the same. So I had to try to cram a four-year college education into as little time as possible.”

“What!”

“Oh, I know I didn’t get the same kind of polish as the people you must have known but—”

“Gideon, shut up.” She couldn’t tell if the moisture on her face was rain or tears. “My God, you’re the best human being I’ve ever met and you’re worried about
polish
? You’re tender and warm and intelligent and—” She stopped, searching for words. “Everything. You don’t need anything more than you have right now.”

“Yes, I do,” he said quietly. “I need you.” He suddenly chuckled. “And I’ll get you, too, just wait and see.” He turned, his arm around her waist, urging her in the direction of the porch. “Come on, let’s get back to the house before we drown out here. Then we’ll hop into a hot shower together and I’ll show you just how much I need you. You know, it’s going to be kind of nice lying in bed together with the rain pounding on the roof. We haven’t done that since the first night I met you. When I was a kid I used to love to hear the sound of the rain and think how green it was going to make the earth and how beautiful the flowers would be.…”

Serena turned the bacon, experiencing a good deal of difficulty working around Gideon’s arms, which were holding her in an affectionate hug. He seemed to have a fondness for attacks from the rear, she thought with amusement. His cheek brushed aside her ponytail as his lips started to nuzzle the nape of her neck. “Gideon, you’re supposed to be making toast.”

“I am making toast.” His hands slipped beneath the loose cream shirt she was wearing to rub her midriff with lazy sensuous strokes. “The toaster is automatic.” His hands roved up to cup her bare breasts in his palms and began to squeeze their fullness while his thumbs flicked at her nipples teasingly.

She caught her breath, as she felt her breasts tauten and swell in his hands. “Well, this frying pan isn’t,” she said thickly. “I’m going to burn the bacon.”

“That’s simple enough.” He pressed closer so she could feel his rock-hard arousal against her bottom. “Turn it off.”

His fingers were plucking at her nipples and she was beginning to see everything through a heated haze. She heard a mechanical ping somewhere across the room. “The toast is up,” she said vaguely.

“That’s not all.” Gideon voice was ragged. “I never knew making breakfast could be such a turn-on. Of course, your running around in just my shirt could have something to do with it.”

“I have a pair of shorts on,” she protested, then tensed as his hand dove down between her thighs and squeezed teasingly.

“So you have. What a disappointment.” One hand was rubbing her with a slow circular motion that caused her to arch back against him convulsively, while the other left her breast to pick up the frying pan and put it on the back burner. “The bacon’s burning, Serena.” His lips nibbled at her ear before nipping sharply. “And so are we. Don’t you think we should do something about it?”

“Maybe we’d better,” she said breathlessly. “It’s obvious we’re not going to eat breakfast until we satisfy a few other appetites.”

He chuckled. “I knew you were a clear-thinking woman.” He drew her back from the stove and with his arm around her waist, he led her to a straight-backed kitchen chair and pulled her onto his lap. “You’re absolutely right.” He stared to unbutton her shirt.

Her eyes widened. “Here?”

“Why not? It’s closer than the bedroom.” He whirled her around until she was astraddle him. The bold shock of his manhood pressed against her, separated by only a few layers of material, and sent a hot liquid melting to her loins. He had the shirt unbuttoned now and was impatiently pushing it aside. “Wouldn’t you find it erotic to make love in the kitchen?” He was punctuating his words with tiny teasing strokes with his tongue at her nipples. “I’d like to make love to you on every piece of furniture in the whole damn house.” He blew teasingly at one taut peak. “Then, no matter where I was, I could look around and think about what you said, and what you did.” He smiled as she gave a little half gasp as his teeth nipped at her nipple. “How you wanted me in just that particular spot.” Two fingers slid beneath the cuff of her shorts and began stroking her with a rhythm that caused her to clench around those skillful intruders as if to hold them captive within her. “And you do want it right now, right here, don’t you, love?”

A shudder shook her as her hands clenched on his shoulders in a spasm of need. “Yes,” she gasped. “Right here, right now.”

“And so do I.” He fumbled at the snap of his jeans. “Help me. I don’t want to leave you.”

Her trembling hands slid down to the zipper and they were even clumsier than his at the task.

“What the hell!”

Serena looked up, startled at the violent imprecation. Then she, too, heard the strident knocking that had failed to pierce the passionate haze surrounding their senses. Knocking? There hadn’t
been any visitors in all the time they’d been here. “Who’d come calling here?”

“At the moment, I don’t give a damn, as long as they go away.” The pounding intensified, becoming heavier and more demanding. “Which our visitor evidently doesn’t intend to do. Damn, what lousy timing. Button up, Serena.” He tweaked a nipple affectionately. “But be sure to remember where we were.” He lifted her off his lap, stood up and strode swiftly out of the kitchen.

Serena automatically began buttoning the shirt as she followed him slowly into the hall. Like Gideon, she was experiencing intense frustration and annoyance, but it was also mixed with curiosity. Gideon had arranged for them to be so totally isolated here on the plantation that it had seemed like another planet. Now, abruptly, their isolation had been disturbed and she wanted to see who dared to intrude.

Gideon was frowning impatiently as he threw open the door. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“At the moment I’m nursing some very bruised knuckles from pounding on this door for the last five minutes,” Ross drawled. “May I come in?”

Gideon reluctantly stepped aside. “Why the devil are you here, Ross? I told you we’d contact you when we were ready to come back to Mariba.”

“It was a matter that couldn’t wait and I didn’t think you’d want anyone at the hotel relaying this particular message.” His gaze drifted over Gideon’s shoulder to where Serena was standing in the shadows at the end of the hall. “Hello, Serena, I’m glad you’re here. This concerns you too.”

“What do you mean?” She came forward to stand
beside Gideon. She suddenly felt an icy ripple of dread go through her. “Dane?”

Ross nodded grimly. “They wouldn’t let me see him last night, and Mendino sent a message to Gideon.”

Gideon froze, his body radiating tension. “What message?”

“He’ll release Dane into your custody for the sum of five hundred thousand dollars cash.” Ross paused. “Or he’ll send him to the Devil’s Plate.”

“Devil’s Plate?” Serena asked.

“It’s one of the more hellish prisons on Castellano.” Gideon explained, not looking at her. “How does he think he can get away with this? I’ll wring the little son of a bitch’s neck.”

“He’s scared,” Ross said. “The people have been rioting in the streets for the last three days and the junta may be overthrown at any time. My guess is Mendino wants escape money. Anyone high up in the military will receive an automatic death sentence once the revolutionary forces take power. At the moment, he’s more afraid of them than he is of you.”

Gideon began to swear beneath his breath. “It wasn’t supposed to be this soon. Julio told me—” He broke off. “What are the chances of Mendino giving us Dane if we pay the ransom?”

Ross shrugged. “Not good. He’s a greedy bastard and crooked as they come. He’ll probably take Dane with him and try to gouge Serena or the kid’s parents.”

“I’ve got to go back to Mariba right away,” Serena said. “There’s got to be something we can do. I have some money—”

“If it were merely a question of money, don’t you think I’d give it to the bastard?” Gideon asked harshly. “It’s
my
fault Dane is being used as a pawn. I set him up.”

“And I let him stay there, instead of fighting you,” Serena said wearily. “I thought he’d be safe.”

“Only because I told you he’d be safe.” Gideon was pale beneath his tan. “As God is my witness, I didn’t have the slightest doubt he’d be perfectly secure, Serena. I knew this uprising was coming, but I was told by someone I trust that things wouldn’t come to a boil until at least a month from now.”

“What’s the use of arguing about who’s to blame,” Serena cried frantically. “We’ve got to get him out of there right
now.
”

“We will.” Gideon spoke with total certainty. “I’ll get him out. I promise you, Serena, he’ll be out by tomorrow night.” He turned to face Ross. “Go back to Mendino and tell him we’ll give him the money. Try to stall him as long as you can about the delivery time. Tell him it will take time to arrange for that much cash.”

Serena turned toward the stairs. “Wait for me, Ross. I’m going with you.”

“No,” Gideon said sharply. “Mariba isn’t safe for you. What’s to stop Mendino from taking you hostage too? Besides, there’s nothing you could do there. Mendino won’t let anyone see Dane.”

She wheeled and strode back to him. “I’ve got to
do
something. I can’t just sit here and wait.”

“You will be doing something. We can do more here right now than in Mariba.”

“How? Dane’s in Mariba, dammit.”

“Easy.” Gideon’s tone was soothing. “I know you’re upset and worried nearly crazy, but trust me. You heard what Ross said; you know that money alone won’t do the trick. We’ll have to find another way.”

“What other way?”

“We’ll have to work through the revolutionaries.”

“But they’re in
Mariba.
” Serena twisted her fingers through her ponytail. “Are you trying to drive me crazy?”

“Not all of them are on Castellano,” Gideon said. “One of the principal ringleaders is here on Santa Isabella. We’ll contact him tonight and make arrangements for Dane’s rescue.”

“Oh, Lord, it all sounds so dangerous,” Serena whispered. “Revolutions, and juntas, and nightmare prisons.”

“I know.” Gideon’s hands closed on her shoulders. “I can’t promise you there won’t be danger, but I won’t let Dane be hurt.”