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“Leigh, for God’s sake what is going on? Get inside. It’s freezing. And what’s wrong with Sarah? Why isn’t she asleep?”
He took the infant out of Leigh’s arms, which looked as though they might give way any minute. He carried the baby into her room, examining her closely as he went. Then he sat down with Sarah in the rocker and laid her head on his shoulder, stroking her back soothingly.
Leigh, who only an hour ago had sworn she could kill him for not calling, thirstily drank in the sight of him. Though she had thought she’d lambaste him for breaking his promise, here she was, tearfully grateful that he was here, taking charge, relieving her.
As she sagged against the doorframe, she sketchily told him about Sarah and what the doctor had said.
“I think the medicine might be working after all,” he whispered.
Leigh couldn’t believe it, but it was true. Sarah’s crying had stopped and she had tucked her knees under her tummy as she lay against Chad’s chest. Her lashes, still dewy with tears, rested on her plump cheeks.
A few minutes later they were gazing down into her crib where she lay in tranquil sleep. “I think we’d better have the doctor check her out in the morning,” Chad suggested.
“I do, too,” Leigh agreed. “She’s never cried like that.”
“Come on. You look like you’re about ready to drop, too.”
He went through the house turning off the lights and rejoined her where she waited in the hall. His arms came around to enfold her in his secure warmth. “I’m sorry I didn’t call. I was on the way. The part we needed came in this afternoon and I got things wrapped up earlier this evening. I tried to call then, but you weren’t home.”
“I was late getting home. I got a speeding ticket.”
He chuckled. “So you said. And something about a tree.”
“I’ll tell you later. Go on with your story.” She wanted him to talk if for no other reason than because the sound of his voice assured her that he was there. She knew now that she wanted to be with him all the time. If necessary, she could have made it alone. She’d proven it to herself, to her parents, to everyone, that she could. But why should she, when her life was so enriched by Chad’s presence in it? Why should she subject herself to nights like this alone, when he was willing to share the bad along with the good?
“Well, as I was saying, we took off, and by the time we got here, checked in the airplane, and I reported to my foreman, it was just as fast to drive over as it was to call. I’m sorry if you were upset.”
“I was, but it doesn’t matter now. You’re here and that’s far better than a phone call.”
His arms closed around her and pressed her against him. He kissed her long and deeply with a quiet desperation. “It’s been a helluva long week without you. I need you tonight, Leigh, and I think you need me.”
“I do.” Taking his hand, she led him into her bedroom. Clothes were shed with dispatch. Naked, she faced him and took his hand, bringing it to her breast and making it his. She ran her fingertip up and down the length of his fingers even as he caressed her.
“God, you are a woman,” he breathed, lowering his head to accept what was so lovingly offered. His mouth was a hot, wet vise that closed around her nipple. He urged her to know his rising manhood by folding his hands at the small of her back and lifting her to it.
Rapturously she clung to him. Her hair swept her naked back as her head tipped in abandonment. His relentless caresses made her weak and she slumped against him.
He carried her to the bed and laid her face down on the pillows. Straddling the backs of her thighs, he massaged her with loving hands that sensitized her whole body and made it quake with desire for him. When his hands had toured her at leisure, his lips followed suit, pausing to give special attention to the backs of her knees. He opened his teeth over the susceptible spot and flicked the fragile skin with his tongue. Heedless of her pleas, he kept up the torment until he, too, had to have more of her.
She rolled to her back at his prompting. His mouth sealed hers in a kiss so voluptuous that she writhed beneath him, seeking fulfillment. “Not yet, not yet,” he whispered. “Let me love you.”
His hands traced the delicate sculpture of her arms, then moved to her breasts. He went on to adore each inch of her skin first with hands, then with lips. All of her was touched, all was kissed, all was loved with the sweetness that was uniquely his.
At last, when they were both trembling with suppressed longing, when each nerve cell was quivering for the melding of their bodies, he held her hips in his hands, lifting her to bury himself deep inside her. The love words he chanted in her ear, without meter, without rhyme, were genuine poetry.
His loving thrusts stoked the fires of their passion until they were forged together by a conflagration of spirits as well as of bodies. It took a long time for the fire to burn itself out.
Still harbored inside her, still spent from trying to withstand the tempest, Chad lifted his head and pierced her with fevered eyes. “Will you marry me?”
Half-laughing, half-sobbing with the wonder and joy of loving him, she said, “Yes. Yes, my love, I’ll marry you.”
Chapter Nine
“You can’t be serious.” Lois Jackson didn’t even try to disguise her disbelief. Leigh watched as her mother shot a look of consternation at her husband, who seemed equally disbelieving. Leigh took a deep breath and prepared for the inevitable battle.
“I’m very serious, Mother. Also very happy. I love Chad. He loves me and Sarah. We’re getting married on New Year’s Day.”
