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“One question at a time please.” She was grateful for his strong reassuring hands on her arms. His voice was as brusque as always, but it was kind and familiar. “You’re in an ambulance. Do you remember the mud slide?” At her nod, he continued, “Well, you got quite a knock on the noggin from a falling brick, but you’ll be okay. You don’t have a concussion, just a bitch of a headache.”
She smiled in spite of the pain and tried once again to open her eyes. This time she went about it more carefully and had more success. The doctor’s caricature of a face came into view, blurred and double-imaged at first, but then clearer as she blinked and opened her eyes wider.
“Zack?”
He patted her arm. “No one was killed. A few people were injured, but everyone was lucky to come out alive. It’s one hell of a mess out there, but the fire department is working on it. Seems with the continuous rain we’ve had, the bluffs became saturated and couldn’t hold any more. A big chunk of earth broke off and started an avalanche of mud.”
Thank God no one had died! But Zack…?
“I’m going to give you a shot now, and you won’t remember much after this. It’ll knock you on your can. Here it comes.” She felt the needle prick her upper arm. “I don’t think you need to go to the hospital, but if you have more than a dull headache tomorrow, call me.”
Why wouldn’t he tell her anything about Zack? Was he seriously injured? She had seen him safe in the street. She remembered that now. But what if he had been injured after she had been struck down? Or killed! No, Dr. Daniels had said no one had been killed. But would he tell her the truth if it were Zack? Was he dead? He couldn’t be dead before she had a chance to tell him she loved him! Zack!
Her mind was getting fuzzy, and her tongue felt thick and furry. The doctor’s injection was already affecting her. Her eyes were closing involuntarily, and her head was throbbing.
“Zack? Zack? Where is Zack? He’s dead; I know it. Is he dead?” Her voice was shrill in the confines of the ambulance.
“Dead! Hell no, he’s not dead. He’s a real pain in the ass! He’s acting just about as hysterical and crazy as you’re working yourself up to be. God, I pity the doctor who delivers your babies.” He turned to an ambulance attendant who had been giving oxygen to a man on another stretcher. “Go get her husband, will you? You can’t miss him. He’s the one with the maniacal eyes.”
Zack shoved the paramedic out of the way as he rushed through the door of the ambulance. He looked deranged. He could have passed for a fugitive from Bedlam.
He knelt beside the stretcher and searched Camille’s face for signs of injury. She smiled at him tremulously and wanted to speak, but her tongue couldn’t quite get the message to her befuddled brain. She longed to reach up and push back the curls lying limply on his forehead, to smooth the worry lines etched there, but her arms were too heavy, and she couldn’t lift them.
Zack kissed her tenderly on the forehead and then on her closed eyelids. “You said you love me. I heard you, Camille. You love me.” Her surprise knew no limits when he buried his face against her stomach and clutched her to him. “God, Camille, I thought I’d lost you again.”
What did he mean? When had he lost her before? She must already be unconscious and dreaming this. But she was sure she could feel his ragged breathing and a strange moisture coming from his eyes. His hands were moving over her arms, weren’t they? Weren’t his fingers gently tracing the planes of her face?
His words echoed through her brain. God, Camille, I thought I’d lost you again. God, Camille, I thought I’d lost you… God, Camille, I thought…
* * *
She was having that wonderful dream again about Snow Bird. She didn’t want to wake up and have to leave the dream. She wanted to stay in it with Zack. She never wanted to leave him again. Please, God, let the dream last this time. It was so good.
She woke up, but the dream continued. There was the fireplace across the room. Heavy drapes were pulled closed over the wide windows making the room dim. She and Zack were lying naked in the vast bed, her body curled against the long, hard curve of his. One possessive arm was flung across her hip. They were sharing the same pillow. She could feel his sweet breath fanning the back of her neck.
This wasn’t a dream! This wasn’t the room in Snow Bird! This was Zack’s room at Bridal Wreath, and they lived here together as husband and wife. Her contented, grateful sigh must have awakened him, for he stirred behind her.
She r
olled over slightly and looked up at him as he leaned over her and studied her closely for indications of pain. “My darling,” he whispered, “how do you feel?” His lips barely touched hers in a soft kiss.
Had he called her “darling”? Was he kissing her tenderly? Maybe this was a dream. If so, she wished it would go on forever. She didn’t want to wake up. With fear that the figment would vanish, she said softly, “I’m wonderful, Zack. I’m here with you, and we’re both alive, and I’m wonderful.”
“Camille,” he choked. “I love you so much.” He buried his face in the hollow of her throat and covered it with impassioned kisses. “My love, my sweet love—”
His lips found hers. His kiss was tender and conveyed a meaning far too puissant for mere words. Her mouth responded in kind, opening under his and matching his ardor. When at last he drew away, he stroked back strands of unruly dark hair and curled a stray lock around his fingers. “This is how it should have been with us the next morning in Utah. I should have told you that night how much I loved you before we… I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me. A girl as beautiful as you must have heard every clever line in the book, I thought. Would you have believe me if I had started expounding on my love for you?”
She smiled and confidently explored his chest with her fingertips. “Probably not. I thought you were very sophisticated.”
“Is that a tactful way of saying you thought I was old? I must have seemed ancient to you! Do I still?” His breath was coming in short gasps as she continued to touch him intimately.
“Zack! Of course not! Your age intimidated me, though. I was frightened of you. That’s why I couldn’t tell you that I was falling in love with you. I was afraid you’d laugh at me. I was sure you’d look upon me as a one-night stand. I didn’t dare risk your ridicule, so I left.”
“You mean that’s the reason you ran out on me?! Oh, Camille, how stupid and proud we’ve been. I thought I repelled you in some way. How much precious time we’ve wasted!” He kissed her again, wanting to make up for all that lost time. His mouth went to her ear, and his tongue traced its delicate lines as he whispered, “Then you do love me, Camille?”
His caresses were causing a tickling sensation in her throat and she could barely articulate her answer. “Yes, Zack, I love you. I have ever since the first time I saw you.”
Stroking fingers smoothed the skin from her collar bone to her navel. It was a distracting movement, but she tried to concentrate on what he was saying. “I was like a man possessed when I woke up that morning and found you gone. Pride kept me from going to your friends and asking how to reach you. You had told me you went to school in Richmond, but never mentioned being from Atlanta. I called every Jameson in Richmond and none of them had a daughter, sister, or second cousin named Camille. I was on the wrong track all that time. When I came home, I was unbearable to live with. No one dared cross me for fear of my temper. My moods were volatile—”
