Come Lie With Me (22 page)

“I'll even sign a contract, if you want,” she said, swiping at the tears.

“Oh, I want, all right. An ironclad contract. What day can I fetch you? If I know you, you have Kevin's schedule mapped out to the very day you kiss him good-bye and walk away, and I'm going to be there to meet you when you walk out the door. You're not getting out of my sight until you're Mrs. Remington.”

“April twelfth,” she said, laughing and crying at the same time.

“I'll be there.”

 

He
was
there, leaning on the doorbell at nine o'clock sharp that morning, while a spring snowstorm dumped its white load on his unprotected head. When Francine opened the door he grinned at her. “I've come for Dione,” Blake said. “Is she awake yet?”

Francine opened the door wider, smiling at the tall man with the slight limp who entered her house. There was a reckless air about him; he was the sort of man who didn't let the woman he loved walk away from him.

“She's trying to get everything packed, but the children are helping her and it could take a while,” Fran
cine explained. “I imagine they're both wrapped around her legs and crying.”

“I understand the feeling,” he muttered, and at Francine's questioning look he grinned again. “I'm one of her ex-patients,” he explained.

“Take good care of her,” Francine pleaded. “She's been so good to Kevin, keeping his spirits up, not letting him get bored. She's special.”

“I know,” he said gently.

Dione came around the turn of the stairs with two tearful children in her arms. She stopped when she saw Blake, and her entire face lighted up. “You came,” she breathed, as if she hadn't dared to let herself really believe it.

“With bells on,” he said, going up the steps in a graceful leap that made a mockery of the remaining limp. There was no way to get his arms around her without including the children, so he pulled all three of them to him and kissed her. Amy stuck her finger between their mouths and giggled.

Blake drew back and gave the little girl a rueful look, which she returned with wide-eyed innocence. “Are you the man who's taking Dee away?” Kevin asked tearfully, lifting his wet face from Dione's neck.

“Yes, I am,” Blake replied gravely, “but I promise to take good care of her if you'll let me have her. I was her patient, too, and I need her a lot. My leg still hurts me at night, and she has to rub it.”

Kevin could understand that, and after a moment he nodded. “All right,” he sighed. “She's real good at rubbing legs.”

“Kevin, let Dione put you down,” Francine directed. When both of the children were on the floor, Amy wrapped her plump little arms around Blake's leg and
looked up a long, long way to his face. He looked down at her, then lifted his eyes to Dione's face. “At least two,” he said. “And maybe even three, if you don't give me a daughter on your first two tries.”

“I'm thirty years old, remember,” she said cautiously. “Almost thirty-one.”

“So? You have the body of an eighteen-year-old, only in better shape. I should know,” he murmured, the hot light in his eyes making her cheeks turn pink. In a normal voice he said, “Are you packed?”

“Yes, I'll bring my suitcases down. You wait right here,” she said hurriedly, turning and sprinting up the stairs. Her heart was galloping in her chest, and it wasn't from the stairs. Just seeing him again had been like getting kicked, except that it didn't hurt. She felt alive, truly alive; even her fingertips were tingling with joy. In eighteen days she would be getting married!

“Hurry it up!” he called, and she shivered with delight. Picking up her two suitcases she ran down the stairs.

When they were in the car he sat for a long moment just looking at her. Francine and the children had said their last good-byes in the house, not coming out into the snow, so they were all alone. The snow had already covered the windows of the car, encasing them in a white cocoon.

“I have something for you,” he murmured, reaching into his pocket. He withdrew the ruby heart and dangled it before her eyes. “You might as well keep it,” he said as he clasped it around her neck. “It never did work right after you tried to give it back, anyway.”

Tears burned her eyes as the ruby heart slid down to its resting place between her breasts. “I love you,” she said unsteadily.

“I know. I had some bad moments when you first gave the heart back to me, but after I thought about it, I realized how frightened you were. I had to let you go to convince you that I loved you. Lady, that was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, letting you get on the plane without me. Learning how to walk again was child's play compared to that.”

“I'll make it up to you,” she whispered, going into his arms. His familiar scent teased her senses, and she inhaled it delightedly. The smell of him brought back hot, sunny days and the echo of laughter.

“Starting tonight,” he threatened. “Or better yet, as soon as we can get to the hotel room I've booked for us.”

“Aren't we flying back to Phoenix today?” she asked, lifting her head in surprise.

“In case you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a snowstorm.” He grinned. “All flights are grounded until it clears, which could be days and days. How would you like to spend days and days in bed with me?”

“I'll try to bear it,” she sighed.

“Do you spell that b-a-r-e?” he asked, nuzzling her neck. Then, slowly, as if he had waited as long as he could, he closed his lips over hers. He kissed her for a long time, savoring the taste and feel of her, then pulled himself away with a visible effort.

“I'm able to drive now,” he said unnecessarily as he put the car into gear.

“So I see.”

“And I'm flying again. I tested a new engine last week—”

“Are you going to keep doing the dangerous stuff?” she interrupted.

He eyed her. “I've been thinking about that. I don't think I'll be taking as many chances as I used to. There's too much excitement going on at home for me to risk missing any of it.”

 

She was swimming laps, the hot May desert sun beating down on her head. The exercise felt good to her body, stretching muscles that had felt cramped. She had missed the pool and the well-equipped little gym where she and Blake had played out so many of their crises. That morning she had gone to a Phoenix hospital and been hired on the spot; she would miss the intensity of a one-on-one therapeutic relationship, but the regular hours would permit her to be with Blake at night and still keep doing the work she loved.

“Hey!” a deep voice called. “Are you in training for the Olympics?”

She began treading water. “What are you doing home so early?” she asked, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

“That's a fine welcome,” her husband of two weeks grumbled. He shed his coat and draped it over one of the chairs, then pulled his tie loose. Dione watched as he systematically undressed, dropping his clothes on the chair until he stood as naked as the day he was born. He came into the water in a neat, shallow dive, and reached her with a few powerful strokes of his arms.

“If you get caught like that, don't blame me,” she warned.

“It's too hot for clothes,” he complained. “Did you get the job?”

“Of course I got the job,” she sniffed.

“Conceited.” He put his hand on top of her head and ducked her, which didn't bother her at all. She was as
good a swimmer under water as she was on top of it, and she kicked her graceful legs, darting away from him. He caught up with her when she reached the edge.

“You never did say why you're home so early,” she said, turning to face him.

“I came home to make love to my wife,” he replied. “I couldn't keep my mind on what I was doing; I kept thinking about last night,” he said, and watched in fascination as her eyes grew heavy-lidded with memory.

He moved in closer to her and pressed his mouth to hers, his hand going to the back of her head and slanting her mouth across his. Their tongues met in mutual desire, and Dione quivered, letting her body float against his. Her legs twined with his and found them steady.

“You're standing,” she said, lifting her mouth away.

“I know.” His hand moved purposefully up her back and deftly unclipped her bikini top. He pulled it way from her and tossed it out of the pool. It landed on the tiles with a sodden plop. His fingers touched her breasts, cupping them together as he leaned forward and took another kiss.

With a moan she twined her arms around his neck; then she was wrapped around him like a vine. No matter how often he made love to her, it kept getting better and better as her body learned new ways of responding to him. The cool water lapped around them, but it didn't cool their hot skin. The fires within burned too brightly to be dampened by a little water.

He lifted her out of the water until her breasts were on a level with his mouth; then he feasted on the ripe curves that thrust so beguilingly at him. “I love you,” he groaned, pulling at the ties that held the minuscule bikini bottom on her hips.

“Blake! Not here,” she protested, but her body lay
against his in sweet abandon. “Someone will see. Miguel…Alberta…”

“Miguel isn't here,” he whispered, sliding her down the length of his body. “And no one can see what we're doing. The glare of the sun on the water takes care of that. Put your legs around my hips,” he directed.

Suddenly she laughed aloud, throwing her head back and lifting her face to the hot Phoenix sun. “You're still a daredevil,” she crooned, catching her breath as he took her with a long, delicious slide of skin against skin. “You love to take chances.”

She clung to his shoulders, her senses dazzled, drenched in the beauty of the day. He watched her face, watched the wonderful play of emotions in her exotic eyes, watched them grow slumbrous, watching her teeth catch that full, passionate lower lip as she quivered with the desire he was carefully building in her. “Lady,” he chanted. “Woman. You're all mine, aren't you?”

She laughed again, drunk with pleasure. She lifted her arms to the sun. “For as long as you want me,” she promised.

“Then you'll go to your grave as my lady,” he said. “And even that won't be the end of it.”