against hope that you’d miss me. I broke speed records getting here tonight, and for what? To be told you didn’t give a damn!”
She stopped the tirade with her mouth. Poor wounded man, she thought. She slid her arms around his neck and felt him tremble as she pushed, gently unbalancing him. He fell against the dune, and she fell with him, her softness melting over him, her eyes red from crying, her mouth tasting of salty tears.
“Will you listen?” he ground out against her lips. Then he groaned and captured her, enfolding her against the warm strength of his body. His mouth opened under hers. She felt the deep penetration of his tongue, the throb of his heart. He was hers.
She nibbled his lower lip, lifting her head to stare down at him, her eyes adoring, sure of him. Her hands smoothed back his hair, and she smiled as she touched him with confident possession.
“Are you, by any chance, trying to seduce me?” he whispered. His heart was pounding, and his body was making insistent statements about what it wanted. He tried to shift her so that she wouldn’t feel how vulnerable he was, but he couldn’t budge her.
“Just lie still,” she chided. “I know you want me, so there’s no use trying to hide it.”
He glared up at her. “Rub it in,” he muttered.
She bent and kissed his eyelids with aching tenderness. “Were you going to sleep on the beach?” she whispered.
“If that was as close to you as I could get, yes,” he said angrily.
He was a hard man, she thought lovingly, lifting her head to look at him. A real handful. But she could manage him. They’d been friends a lot longer than they’d been lovers, and now she knew how to throw him off balance, as well.
She sat up, opening her robe. “I want to show you something,” she said without the least bit of self-consciousness, although she peeked down the beach, knowing her parents were eventually going to come looking for her. Under the robe, she was as she slept, bare except for a tiny pair of blue briefs.
He stared at her, stunned, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“This is what you did to me,” she whispered tenderly. She took his hands and held them to her minutely swollen waistline, watching the incredible expression that tautened his face as he touched her.
“My child...” His voice was soft, deep, reverent.
She gathered his head against her sensitive breasts, tears stinging her eyes as she rocked him, cradled him, feeling his lips touch her, though not in a sexual way. His hands smoothed over her under the robe as he brought her against his body, holding her so close that she could barely breathe. And she cried, because he cared and because she loved him.
“You little imp,” he whispered, nuzzling her warm throat. “I’m so crazy about you. I would have carried you home to Oklahoma in my arms, walking.”
Her lips touched his face, her breath catching as he turned and put his mouth with aching tenderness to her breasts.
His hands came up to touch them, to cup them. He moved, laying her down gently on the robe so that he could look, could explore the new contours of her body with his child tucked under her heart.
“Our baby,” he whispered, his fingers trembling as he lay beside her in the darkness with the surf crashing behind them.
She trembled with the profundity of the moment. “I know exactly when we made him,” she whispered.
He met her eyes. “So do I, to the very second. I meant to, even though I was temporarily confused about Bess. Do you know that the minute I got home from putting you on that plane, I patched up her marriage? She admitted that she loved Bobby, that she was just lonely. She’d never stopped loving him, but she was afraid to tell him how she really felt. She did, though, and now they’re closer than ever. They’re even talking about having babies.”
She laughed. “She called me a few minutes ago. She wanted to clear the air.”
“Nice woman. I’m glad she and Bobby have finally gotten their act together.” He looked down into her eyes, searching. “Do you know how I feel, or do you want the words?” he asked gently.
“Have you ever said them before?” she countered.
He smiled ruefully. “No. But I never wanted to before, either.”