Showdown at Lizard Rock (19 page)

“No—not yet. I need to tell you. I’m here, King, because I love you.” She untied the straps of her sundress, and let it slide down her body. “In the past few weeks I’ve thought about us constantly. You made me look at myself. I expected you to take my belief in the springs on faith, yet I wasn’t willing to have faith in you. I was wrong. I never want to lose what we have. You’re what I want, now and forever.”

King was mesmerized. Beneath her dress she was wearing the same string bikini she had worn that first day. Like the old-world priestess he’d thought her to be, she stood beside the springs, ready to recite incantations to the gods. But the person on whom she was bestowing all her energy was himself. His words froze in his throat, and he could only lift his arms, opening himself to her with great joy.

“Be careful with your wishes, Kaylyn. Be very sure. I think you may get what you want.”

Then she was in the water beside him. He could feel her in his arms before she even touched him.
His heart nearly burst when he saw the certainty in her eyes.

“King …” Her voice was trembling, not from fear but from emotion. “I came here to tell you that I love you, more than I’d ever thought I could love anybody. And even if you can only love me a little in return, my soul will have been healed.”

Her mouth captured his in a kiss so sweet that the springs seemed to sing a special trill to celebrate the joy of their touch. As she felt the overwhelming sense of love intensify, her kiss deepened into a new kind of commitment of faith and forever.

King wanted to tell her that she had healed his soul as well, that she had filled the painful void in his life that he’d never before acknowledged to a living being. He wanted to say that she was the essence of the good that allowed man to love, and that he’d never, ever, let her go. But he only kissed her back, clinging to her with such force that his breath never seemed to reach his lungs.

All around them the springs gurgled and sang and caressed their burning skin.

She was barely conscious of being lifted from the water and laid on the grass beside the pool. She was lost to everything but the touch and feel of the golden man poised over her.

“You’re so very beautiful, Katie, my love,” he whispered hoarsely as he removed her bikini, his gaze traveling slowly and lovingly over her. His hands slid down her arm to her waist, then up across her ribs to her breast. The nipple peaked and trembled beneath his touch, and she waited, longing for the sweet tugging motion of his lips.

As he drew one nipple into his mouth she moaned
and gave herself over to the helpless need that burst out of control. She couldn’t be still. She was burning with fire as she strained upward, aching for him to enter her, to join them together. She whispered his name over and over. “King, King, King, please …”

He moved over her body, and she parted her legs, eagerly opening herself to him. He drew back and looked down at her with great love and joy in his face. “My daring Kaylyn, my most darling Katie.” He entered her, and time and place and worldly things fell away as they moved together in a ritual more intense than their bodies had ever known.

There was an energy, a loving that churned and intensified, separating them into millions of tiny particles of whirling fire before drawing them back together again. Like novas, their release was the explosive heat of nature, and they knew that they’d been fused forever.

At last King fell across Kaylyn, weak and shaken. “Are you all right?” He pushed himself up in alarm. She was so still. “Kaylyn?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m skinny-dipping in silver lava. I can’t possibly talk to a mere mortal. I have a god for a lover, and he’s just taken me to the ends of the universe.”

Her eyes were closed, her face was flushed, and there was the most wonderful peace about her smile. He’d been right to run the risks he’d run, he thought. They had been meant for each other from the first. His heart swelled as he contemplated the joy she’d feel when she learned what was going to happen. He bent down and kissed her, this woman who’d come to him despite believing that her springs had been
lost to her patients. She loved him even after she thought he was going to destroy a thing she believed in.

Only the sound of construction behind the rocks kept him from making love to her again. He was ready. He felt the tenuous movement beneath him that announced her body stirring in response.

“Kaylyn, darling, I think we should move to our trailer. The rocks have shielded us from the workers so far, but you can never be sure when one of them might decide to cool off.”

“Any man who puts his foot inside this circle will be hung at dawn,” she said solemnly. “It is ordained. Nobody enters the sacred grounds without permission, except the king and his woman. However,” she admitted, “the sacred grounds are becoming distinctly uncomfortable to the king’s woman’s backside.”

“To the trailer,” King said. He rose and pulled Kaylyn to her feet, then wrapped a towel around his nude body and held out his robe for her.

“A blue robe? Are you going soft on me?” She slipped into the robe and leaned back against him as his arms slid around her waist. He carefully folded one side of the robe over the other and pulled the belt tight.

“Not on your life, darling.” He tightened his arms around her. “Does this feel soft?” He wasn’t referring to the robe, and his reference point was anything but soft.

They managed to reach the trailer and get inside without being observed by any of his crew.

“Oh, King, it’s beautiful.”

The red-and-black decor had been completely replaced by soft blues and greens. The furniture consisted
of puffy pillows and cushions spread over low-slung frames. The black and chrome was completely gone. The kitchen was now a creamy white to match the pale green cabinets and carpet.

“It’s for you, Kaylyn. Blue for your eyes, green for the peaceful feelings you bring to this place. All for you. I want you to feel what I’ve learned about you and the springs.” He turned her in his arms and looked directly into her eyes. “Loving you has changed my life.”

“Oh, King, loving you has made my life different too. And I don’t know how to handle the changes. I’m not like you. I’ve always been involved with other people. That was easier. It hurt, but it still wasn’t me hurting for me. You’ve changed all that, and I feel as if I’m standing in sand that shifts every time I take a step.”

“Let me show you the rest, my sweet love.” He pushed the robe from her shoulders and lifted her into his arms. Somewhere between the tiny living room and the hall, his towel fell unnoticed to the floor.

“I started to get a smaller bed, but I didn’t.” He laid her on the pale blue down comforter and stepped back, gazing down at her with such love that she felt her entire being respond.

“You’d better not,” she said breathlessly. “I’m a pretty big girl, and we’re going to need every inch of this wonderful bed. That is, if you plan to join me here.” She squirmed, twisting her legs from one side to the other. “What are you waiting for?”

“I want you to hear this.” He knelt beside her, then leaned over her to the wall at the head of the bed. She totally missed his attention to a little box as she reached out eagerly to fondle him.

“Oh, King.” She kissed his flat, hard rib cage and ran her tongue across his upper body. He shuddered and gasped, and then she heard the sweet sound.

“The springs. Oh, King.”

The lilting melody of the springs filled the trailer as the water rushed forward and dropped gently, then fell in a crash of sound over the rocks and into the pool below.

“You’ve taped the springs, King. How lovely.”

“Not nearly as lovely as you, my Katie. I’ve lain here night after night listening to the water, waiting for you to come to me so that I could show you how much I want you.”

“Then show me, King. Show me.”

“So now,” Kaylyn said, “tell me about those pictures Tom was taking.”

They were sitting cross-legged on the bed, feeding each other peach ice cream from a mixing bowl King was holding between his legs.

“Just a minute. You’ve got peaches on your chin.” He leaned forward and caught the droplet of cream with his tongue. It seemed only natural to him then to slide upward and kiss her lips, sticky with the taste of peaches.

She pulled back. “King Vandergriff, at the rate we’re going, the ice cream is going to melt. And I’m going to turn into some demented maniac if you don’t tell me what you were doing.”

“All right. You stay right here and let me put the ice cream in the freezer. Then we’ll do some serious talking.”

She smiled as she watched him walk down the hall. He was a spectacular man, she thought, every bronze-colored inch of his body. And there wasn’t much of that body that she hadn’t become intimately acquainted with.

When he returned and she caught sight of the expression on his face, she wasn’t at all sure that what he had in mind was talking. It wasn’t. But she had to admit that it was definitely serious.

The late-afternoon sun slipped over the rocks, throwing the trailer into the shadows. Kaylyn stirred and opened her eyes. King was leaning over her, studying her with such a look of love in his eyes that she never wanted to move.

“Talk time,” he said. “Okay?”

“Yes.”

“I did it, Katie, darlin’. Or rather, Joker did.”

“Joker? What did he do?”

“He kept on working on our idea about the sports medicine center.”

“He did?” She was having trouble focusing on King’s words. His face was so good and kind, so very different from the stern man on the rock that first day, so different from the happy-go-lucky lover at the picnic. He was wonderful. Instinctively she wiggled closer.

“No, be still and stay away until I tell you.”

“Oh, all right. Tell. What did your brother do?”

“Well, I told you we got the investors to agree to save the springs and the rock. But advancing more funds to convert the clubhouse into a serious rehabilitation center and spa was more than they’d do. So Joker and Diamond approached various players, baseball, basketball, football, and hockey players, who then went to their unions. That’s what did it.”

“Did what? If you don’t get on with this, King Vandergriff, your royal family is going to have one less member.”

“Well, let’s just say that the Pretty Springs Sports Medicine and Therapeutic Center is now a part of the Golf and Tennis Club. We’re going to have steam baths, heated pools, exercise and weight rooms, all open three days a week to outsiders who need these treatments. What do you think about that?”

Kaylyn was stunned, totally and completely stunned. For the first time in her adult life she was speechless. She lifted her head, making no attempt to hide the tears of joy that ran down her cheeks.

“You did this? For me?”

“No, my darling Kaylyn. We did this for us, our children, all the people who’ve come before, and all those who will come after.” He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. “It was fate, darlin’, our destiny.”

Through the window Kaylyn caught sight of the Lizard, basking peacefully in the sunlight. A ripple of wind caught the limb of a nearby tree and threw a shadow across the face of the great stone creature. And for just a moment Kaylyn could have sworn he winked.

“You’re right, King,” she said, and turned her attention to the lips that had wandered up her wrist, her upper arm, and were now ascending with great determination toward her lips. It was “destiny.”

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Iris Raines, TV Nine, with a special report. Tonight we have a different kind of Christmas story, a story about two people on opposing sides of an issue who came together for the common good. Several months ago I was alerted to a protest being staged by a local woman to save a mineral springs dating back to the time of the Cherokee Indians. The springs were reported to have healing powers.…”

Iris went on to recap the story, beginning with the showdown at Lizard Rock and ending with the saving of the springs, and the subsequent wedding of the two people who had met, shared a common goal, and fallen in love.

The camera coverage switched from the springs to the wedding party posing on the front porch of the nursing home.

“Tonight’s wedding was very special,” Iris went on. “The Pretty Springs Nursing Home chapel was
decorated with red poinsettia, green pine boughs, and Christmas candles. Every resident who could be made mobile was in attendance, along with the Pretty Springs city council, the members of the local Humane Society, and a group of very special men in the community who call themselves the Soupies. But that,” Iris said with a warm smile, “is another story.

“As you can see, the crowd overflowed the small chapel and spilled out the hallway and into the yard, where a large group of townspeople have gathered to give their best wishes to the happy couple.”

Iris identified Tom Brolin, editor of the
Pretty Springs Gazette
, who gave the bride away; Joker Vandergriff, a red-haired giant of a man with a bushy beard and mustache, the groom’s younger brother; followed by Jack Vandergriff, the taller, dark-haired brother; and Mac Webster, foreman of the construction project. Beside the bride were Sandi Arnold, the maid of honor, and Diamond Vandergriff, sister of the groom.

But all eyes were on the couple in the center. Like exquisitely designed dolls, the striking blond couple stood, arms linked, gazing at each other in complete adoration. Her old-fashioned antique satin dress was beautiful, with lace trim and a long train. The groom’s black tux was perfectly tailored to fit the magnificent body of the hawk-faced man.

Iris stepped into the crowd and held out her microphone. “Well, you two, you did it. You saved the springs and the rock. What do you plan to do for an encore?”

King tore his gaze from Kaylyn’s face and faced the camera. “I haven’t the wildest idea. But when you’re married to a woman of the people, you never can tell.”

“That’s true,” Kaylyn added shyly. “And when you’re dealing with a self-made man, fate sometimes takes a hand. You just have to accept your destiny. Right now we need to cut a cake and drink our punch. We have a new baby back at the springs that we need to check on.”