Seven
“This time, it’s
going to be the way I’ve always wanted it to be. No quick tumble. I
plan to stay all night and take you every way a man can take a
woman. By morning, you’ll be so completely mine, you’ll never let
another man touch you.” Reaching between their bodies, he untied
her belt and opened her robe, revealing the front of her naked
body. He sucked in a raspy breath. “God, you’re one beautiful
woman!”
A dragging sensation encompassed her
body, pulling her into a silken web of promise.
“Rick?”
“What do you want, Lori Lee? Do you
want me to touch you?” His big hand hovered over her
breast.
“Yes, please, Rick. Touch me.” If he
wanted to hear her beg, then she would beg. She needed his hands
and mouth on her body. She would do whatever he asked of
her.
He eased the robe off her shoulders,
completely exposing her full breasts. Her rosy nipples peaked when
he looked at them. He rubbed his index finger over the tip of one.
She cried out as an all-consuming, hungry ache tightened her
breasts. He rubbed her other nipple.
As an involuntary tremor shimmied
through her, she gasped several times, then released a sighing
breath. She could smell Rick. Musty, masculine power blended with
the fresh, clean scent of the soap he’d used when he
showered.
He smiled, loving the way she reacted
to his touch. Cupping the heaviness of her breasts in his hands, he
tormented their crests with the rotating movement of his thumbs.
Closing her eyes as she tossed her head back, Lori Lee leaned
against the wall behind her, flattening her palms against the
smooth surface.
With the sleeves of her red silk robe
hanging about her elbows, the hem dragging the floor, she opened
her eyes slowly, staring up at Rick with a sleepy, sexy, needy
look. “I want to touch you, too.”
His gaze traveled the length of her
body, halting momentarily to examine the nest of blond curls at the
apex between her thighs. Then he lifted his gaze to meet hers.
Reaching out, he prized her hands away from the wall and laid them
on his chest.
With nervous fingers rushing at the
task, she unbuttoned his gray cotton shirt and jerked it free from
his jeans. She spread her hands over his naked chest, curling her
fingers in his thick, black chest hair.
Wondrous, delicious feelings spiraled
through her. Touching Rick was such a pleasure. He was hard,
muscled man, his flesh warm and tempting. She inched her fingertips
up his chest and onto his broad shoulders.
Was there anything more purely,
primordially male than the breadth of a man’s shoulders? The look
and feel of something so powerfully masculine enticed all that was
feminine within Lori Lee to respond. Her heartbeat accelerated. Her
breasts felt tight and very heavy. And the core of her body tingled
with hot, moist anticipation.
Growling deep in his throat, Rick
speared his fingers through her hair and captured the back of her
head. Lori Lee gasped at the primitive, possessive gesture, but
didn’t protest his right to claim her. Giving herself over to him,
trusting him not to hurt her, she gazed up at him, allowing him to
see the yearning in her eyes.
This was what she’d wanted since she
was seventeen and Rick kissed her for the first time. This
exquisite, tormenting desire was what she’d been born to feel—but
with only one man.
He trembled, his need for Lori Lee so
strong it frightened him. Holding her head, he leaned down and
brought her face upward to meet his. Her hot, womanly scent,
combined with her expensive perfume, intoxicated him. Clamping his
mouth down over hers, he kissed her ravenously. He had spent a
lifetime wanting and needing this. Wanting and needing Lori Lee in
a way no amount of sex with other women had ever been able to
satisfy. It was as if she had been created for him and him alone.
Only his touch could awaken the sleeping beauty of passion within
her; and only she could bring him the ecstasy he had sought and
never found.
While he thrust his tongue into her
mouth with a driving rhythm, he pressed her against the wall,
trapping her there with his big, hard body. Sliding his hand
between her legs, he palmed her, then squeezed her mound. She
shivered uncontrollably. Prizing her thighs apart, he stroked her
intimately with his thumb as he inserted his fingers into her hot,
clutching body. A storm of raging hunger ravaged her senses.
Grasping his shoulders, she moaned into his mouth.
Rick pulled her hands off his shoulders
and eased her robe down and off, letting it pool about her feet in
a red silk cloud. He kissed her chin, her neck and both distended
nipples. His sex grew harder and heavier with every little moan and
cry she uttered.
“I’ve dreamed of touching you this
way,” he told her. Bending his knees and lowering his head, he
licked damp circles over her stomach. “I’ve thought about tasting
you. Every inch of you. Eating my fill of your
sweetness.”
He delved his tongue into her navel,
then withdrew, only to repeat the process several times. Lori Lee’s
knees weakened. She swayed unsteadily on her feet.
Rick reached up, grabbed her hands and
placed them on his shoulders, showing her how to brace herself for
the upcoming assault. Burying his face in her soft, musky curls, he
pleasured her with his mouth. When she clawed at his shoulders,
pleading with him to end the torture, he increased the pressure and
speed of his strokes until he felt her body tighten and release.
She screamed as fulfillment erupted inside her, shaking her so
badly that she slumped over, her bones becoming
liquid.
She was still gasping for air and
trembling with tiny aftershocks of release when Rick lifted her in
his arms and carried her up the stairs. Resting her head on his
shoulder, she clung to him. She had never known anything so
shamefully, sinfully erotic as the sweet, intimate loving Rick had
given her.
“Which room is yours?” he
asked.
Still surrounded by a fog of hazy
satiation, Lori Lee couldn’t speak. She pointed to her open bedroom
door. Rick carried her into the golden room, lighted by two bedside
sconces that cast the elegantly feminine room into soft, subdued
shadows. Leaning over, he lifted her up and into the middle of the
undraped four-poster brass bed, laying her on top of the handmade
crocheted coverlet. With his knees pressed against the edge of the
bed and his hands braced on either side of her, Rick worshiped her
with his gaze. Adoring her with his hungry eyes, he nuzzled her
neck and whispered softly, “I’ll make you forget any other man
who’s ever made love to you in this bed.”
“There hasn’t been anyone else.” She
caressed the hard, chiseled line of his jaw, loving the feel of his
heavy, day’s growth of beard. “Not in this bed, this room or this
house.”
“Not even Goodman?” The thought of her
with that man ripped at his guts.
“No one,” she vowed.
He lifted himself up and off her,
quickly divested himself of his clothes and came back to her,
covering her body with his. Nestling his throbbing arousal between
her legs, he took her in his arms and kissed her over and over
again, murmuring boldly erotic words to her, telling her with
basic, earthy phrases how he felt and what he wanted. She welcomed
his raw, untamed passion, at first submitting to and then becoming
a full participant in the glorious orgy of kissing.
She swept his big body with her hands,
settling her fingertips on his tiny bronze nipples, teasing them
unmercifully. Reaching beneath her, he lifted her buttocks and
brought her upward to meet the demanding steel of his arousal. The
inner walls of her femininity clutched and released, preparing for
his entrance.
“Please, Rick. Don’t wait. Take me
now.” She longed to feel him buried inside her, thrusting to the
hilt, filling her completely. She wanted—no, she needed—his
masterful possession.
He pressed himself against her. She
moaned. “You want me?” He taunted her with the mocking thrusts of
his body, promising but withholding. “You want this?”
Arching up to meet him, her body
undulating pleadingly, Lori Lee grasped his firm, tight buttocks.
“Yes, I want you.”
“All of me?” He rose over her,
separating their bodies as he looked down at her and smiled
devilishly.
“Yes, Rick, yes!”
“Then take me, honey. Take all of
me.”
He entered her hard and fast, his body
throbbing painfully with need. She gasped at the sensation of
having him so deeply, fully embedded within her. His possession was
all she had wanted and more. They made love. Hot. Wild. Furious.
Turning and twisting. Thrusting and retreating. The bed trembled
with the force of their savage mating. Their fervent, vulgar words
of passion fueled the fires burning so turbulently within
them.
Lori Lee screamed with release as spasm
after spasm of pleasure shook her and the dark, sweet oblivion of
completion surrounded her. When her wet heat tightened around him,
urging his body to follow hers, he thrust one final time. Groaning,
shaking, sweat dripping from his big body, Rick exploded as a hard,
shattering release claimed him. He lay atop her, hot, sticky and
heavy. But she loved the feel of him still inside her, and draped
her arms around his waist, holding him tenderly.
“I’m too heavy,” he told her, then
eased to her side, pulling her damp, shivering body close to
him.
Curling up against him, she kissed his
shoulder. “What just happened was... I don’t know how to describe
how I feel. Nothing like this has ever... Oh, Rick,
Rick.”
He kissed her, his lips soft and giving
on hers. “You told me how you felt, honey, without saying a word.
Your body said it all for you.”
“You’re so wonderful.” She rose on one
elbow and gazed down at him. Big, hard and beautiful beyond words.
A body thickly muscled. Long arms and legs sprinkled with curly
black hair, a thick patch encircling his impressive
manhood.
“You’re the one who’s wonderful.” He
kissed her on the nose, then rolled them over to the edge of the
bed.
She giggled and squirmed when he lifted
her in his arms and stood, carrying her through the open bathroom
door.
“What are you doing?” she asked,
clinging to him.
He eased her down the length of his
body, then held her by her waist while he turned on the shower.
“We’re both sweaty and smell of sex,” he told her. “We’re going to
take a shower, then go back to bed and start all over
again.”
True to his world, Rick lathered her
with scented soap and washed her thoroughly, acquainting himself
with every inch of her body. And when he completed his task, she
returned the favor, finding great enjoyment in scrubbing him from
head to toe. She lingered on the part of his body that fascinated
her the most, giving it special attention. By the time they had
dried each other, Rick’s hardness beckoned to her, tempting her
beyond reason.
She led him back to her bed, and this
time she took charge, teasing and tormenting him with her hands and
tongue. She licked and sucked, coaxing his body, taking him to the
very edge before retreating. When he couldn’t bear another minute
of her torture, he lifted her up and over his body, and thrust
upward into her welcoming heat.
Crying out with pleasure when he filled
her, she straddled his hips and positioned herself like an
equestrian preparing for the main event. He bucked up, plunging
higher, asking her to take him completely. She accepted him,
settling around him and leaning over just enough to offer him her
breasts. And while she rode him hard and fast, pushing herself
closer and closer to completion, he suckled her breasts and stroked
her hips. Then, within seconds of each other, Lori Lee and Rick
experienced the longest, hottest, most earth-shattering moments
they’d ever known.
Keeping his earlier promise to take her
every way a man can take a woman, Rick explored countless avenues
of erotic pleasure, taking Lori Lee to places she’d never known
existed—to heights he had never achieved with any other woman. For
both of them, these were precious stolen hours of bliss. No past.
No future. Only the wondrous, glorious present.
When dawn’s first light appeared in the
eastern sky, Rick and Lori Lee cried out their pleasure one more
time, then lay in each other’s arms, replete and totally spent.
Tyke rested snugly on a small floral rug beside the
bed.
“I should go,” Rick whispered against
her breast.
“No.” She held him to her warm
body.
“My old truck is parked in your
driveway,” he told her. “People will know I’m here, and you don’t
want that.”
“What if I told you I don’t care if the
whole town knows you spent the night here with me?” She caressed
the long, silky strands of his hair.
“I’d say you’re lying to yourself,
honey.” He kissed one rosy nipple and smiled when he saw it pucker
into a tight bud. “Besides, you’re still caught up in the
aftereffects of a lot of great sex.”
Lori Lee yanked his hair, pulling his
head up so that he faced her. “Are you saying this was a one-night
affair? Or are you suggesting we sneak around and keep our
relationship a secret?”
Pulling out of her grasp, Rick sat up
in bed and grabbed her chin. “You know as well as I do that we
can’t control this thing between us, so I suppose how we handle it
is up to you. If you want to be lovers in private and little more
than strangers in public, then I’ll swallow my pride and deal with
it somehow.”
“I’m not quite ready to announce to the
whole world that we’re lovers,” she admitted. “But I’m not ashamed
of you—of us—if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s just that we
started our relationship off backward. We’ve become lovers before
dating and becoming friends.”
“Are you saying you want us to date?”
he asked.
“I know you don’t have a lot of spare
time, but you and I and Darcie could do things together. That way
you and I could get to know each other better, and you could still
spend time with Darcie.”
“Just what do you have in mind?” He
kissed her on the tip of her nose. “Taking my daughter to Disney
movies and you and me making out in the dark theater?”
“I’m serious.” She jabbed him in the
ribs. “I want you and Darcie to come to dinner on Sunday.” When she
looked at him and saw him grinning at her, she slapped him
playfully. “This all happened too fast, and I’m not sure of myself
or my feelings. I want to back up a little and take things a little
slower.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. As much as
I wanted you, as many times I dreamed of becoming your lover, all
this doesn’t seem quite real.” Cupping her face in his hands, he
stared at her. “Don’t you think I know that I’m not good enough for
you, that you could have your pick of men.”
She covered his lips with her
fingertips. “Hush. Don’t talk crazy. I’m not the perfect woman you
think I am. There are things about me—”
He kissed her, thoroughly yet tenderly.
When he ended the kiss they were both breathless.
“Darcie and I will be here for Sunday
dinner. You just tell me what time.”
“One o’clock.” She caressed his cheek,
then let her fingers trail down his neck and onto his chest. “We’re
going to date and get to know each other and see if there’s more to
what we feel than sexual attraction. Agreed?”
“There’s something about this deal I’m
not going to like, isn’t there?” he asked, shaking his head. “We’re
not going to have sex for a while. That’s the catch, isn’t
it?”
“As long as we’re having sex, how will
we ever know if there’s more to our relationship?”
“Damn!”
“It will be just as difficult for me as
it will be for you,” she said. “All the while you’ll be wanting me,
I’ll be wanting you just as much.”
He grunted. “Believe me, honey, doing
without is going to hurt a lot more than you think it is.” He flung
the cover away from her naked body, reached out and flicked his
nail across her nipple. Lori Lee cried out as pure sensual
sensation shot through her. “See what I mean?”
“Uh-huh.” She shoved him down on his
back, covered his body with hers and claimed his mouth in a
tonguethrusting kiss.
When she allowed him to come up for
air, she said, “We’ll date for six weeks, without having sex, and
then we’ll decide where to go from there? Agreed?”
“Agreed. But I’m not happy about it.”
He stroked her naked hip. “Are you too sore to take me again,
honey? If you are, I’ll understand. But six weeks is a damn long
time.”
“I’m pretty sore,” she admitted. “My
body’s not used to marathon lovemaking sessions. But since I’ll
have six weeks to recuperate—”
Rick needed no further inducement. He
surged up and into her, wanting to brand her his
forever.
By lunchtime, everyone who cared to
listen to the latest gossip knew that Rick Warrick’s GMC pickup had
been parked in Lori Lee Guy’s driveway from sometime after midnight
until nearly seven o’clock that morning.
A steady stream of browsers entered the
Sparkle and Shine shop, chatted with Aunt Birdie and inspected Lori
Lee as if looking for some change in her appearance, then exited
the building as they whispered to one another.
By the time the twentieth customer came
and went without purchasing anything, Aunt Birdie flipped over the
Closed sign and locked the front door. She planted her hands on her
wide hips, pursed her lips and glared at her niece.
“I demand to know what’s going on!
People who’ve never been in this store have dropped by today, and
they’ve all been twittering around like idiots and looking you over
from head to toe. It seems that everyone in town knows something I
don’t know, and I won’t have it. Do you hear me? I won’t have
it!”
“I suppose some of my neighbors saw a
pickup truck parked in my driveway from around one last night until
seven o’clock this morning.” Lori Lee looked her aunt square in the
eye without flinching.
“An old, battered, blue GMC pickup
truck?” Birdie asked, a hint of a smile on her lips.
“Yes.”
Birdie scurried behind the checkout
counter and grasped Lori Lee’s hands. “You know that confession is
good for the soul, don’t you, sugar?”
Nodding agreement, Lori Lee smiled.
“I’m having an affair with Rick Warrick.”
Birdie squeezed Lori Lee’s hands
tightly. “Well, glory be. It’s about time.”
“Aunt Birdie!”
“I know it’ll take your friends time to
come around, to accept Rick, but once they realize what a fine man
he is, they’ll change their minds about him. And you and I have
enough money and clout in this community to help things along. I
could give Rick the money to buy Bobo’s business as a wedding
present for the two of you.” Birdie patted her hands together like
a gleeful child.
“Calm down, Aunt Birdie. You
misunderstood—”
Disregarding her niece’s attempt to
explain the situation, Birdie rattled on and on. “This is all so
wonderful. I’ve known all along, of course, that the two of you
were meant for each other. And now, you’ll have that precious
little Darcie for your very own. You will make the most beautiful
bride, and Darcie can be your flower girl, and...oh, dear me, it’s
already the middle of March. You are planning a June wedding,
aren’t you? I don’t think I can pull together anything really
spectacular before then.”
Lori Lee grabbed her aunt’s fluttering
hands. “Rick and I aren’t getting married. We’re having an affair.
Sort of. We’re going to date and see if there’s more to our
relationship than great sex.”
“What more do you need?” Birdie raised
her eyebrows inquisitively.
“I need to be in love before I marry a
man,” Lori Lee said. “And I have to know that a man loves me enough
to accept the fact that I can never have children.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you and
Rick aren’t in love? Well, don’t bother. You’ll never convince me.
You were in love with him when you were seventeen and he was mad
about you.”
“Sexual attraction isn’t love,” Lori
Lee said.
“Yes, well, maybe it isn’t, but sexual
attraction is a good seventy-five percent of it, my girl. I should
know. I’ve been in love half a dozen times in my life and I married
five of those lovers.”
“Rick and I have agreed to date for the
next six weeks and really get to know each other.”
“Without having sex?”
“Yes, without having sex.”
“My Lord! That gorgeous hunk of a man
at your disposal and you’re going to let him go to waste while
you’re dating? I swear if there wasn’t such
a strong family resemblance, I’d think they switched babies at the
hospital and you aren’t really any blood kin to me.”
“Rick and I are trying to do the right
thing, for both of us. And for Darcie. Rick and I have very little
in common. Once we get to know each other, we could be totally
incompatible.”
“That’s the trouble with young people
today. They do too much thinking and talking about things none of
us are meant to understand. Love is one of those things. You don’t
fall in love because it’s the right thing to do. It just happens.
Like getting struck by lightning. And take my word for it, truly
great sex is a rare gift to be treasured. It can be the strongest
bond between a man and a woman.”
“You may be right, Aunt Birdie. But I’m
not going to risk ruining three lives without being absolutely sure
Rick and I can build a future together.”
At precisely one o’clock on Sunday
afternoon, Rick and Darcie appeared at Lori Lee’s front door.
Darcie wore her church clothes, a cute little black-and-white
checkered dress, accented with a red leather belt. Rick, who
confessed he didn’t own a suit, wore a pair of khaki slacks, a blue
button-down shirt, without a tie, and a navy blue sport coat. He
still looked as if he needed a shave and a haircut, but those
deficiencies in his appearance only added to his aura of masculine
beauty.
Lori Lee’s dark purple crepe coatdress
clung softly to her curves when she opened the front door and
invited her guests into her home.
“Please, come in. Dinner is almost
ready. I’m so glad y’all could come.”
Tyke came bounding into the foyer,
sniffing their Sunday afternoon company. Lori Lee cautioned him to
behave himself, but when Darcie knelt to pet him, Tyke licked her
in the face.
Darcie giggled. “He gave me a kiss.”
When she hugged him, he licked her again. “I think he likes
me.”
“I think he does,” Lori Lee said. “Come
on into the living room. Tyke will follow us. Believe me, he thinks
he’s the boss around here.”
Darcie looked up adoringly at Lori Lee.
“Daddy says that we’re going to be dating you, and that means we’re
going to be spending a lot of time together.”
Smiling at Darcie, Lori Lee took the
child’s hand. “That’s right, sweetheart, if it’s all right with
you.”
“Oh, it’s fine with me,” Darcie said.
“You’re exactly who I picked out for me and Daddy. The first time I
saw you, I knew you were the one for us.”
“Now, Darcie, I told you that Lori Lee
and I are just dating. That’s all,” Rick reminded his
daughter.
“Yeah, I know. But people always have
to go out on a few dates before they get married, don’t
they?”
Lori Lee glared at Rick, her blue eyes
questioning him. He shrugged his shoulders as if saying, What am I
supposed to do with her?
“Well, Darcie, would you and your
father like to look around a bit or watch some television or listen
to some CDs while I put dinner on the table?” Lori Lee
asked.
“I’d like to help you,” Darcie said.
“Trey and Mark help Aunt Eve. They set the table and she lets them
put stuff in the dishwasher after they eat. She lets me help, too,
when I stay with them.”
“Darcie, Lori Lee isn’t used to having
a little girl handle her china and crystal and—”
“I’d love to have your help,” Lori Lee
said, then glanced at Rick. “And for your information, Mr. Warrick,
we aren’t having our meal in the dining room and I’m not using
china and crystal. I thought it would be more cozy in the kitchen,
just the three of us.”
“In that case, maybe Darcie and I both
can help,” Rick said.
After washing their hands, the three of
them set the table with Lori Lee’s sunny yellow everyday
earthenware, simple shiny stainless flatware and glasses decorated
with a tiny yellow and white daisy design. Sitting in the center of
the oak table, a small bouquet of yellow roses and white daisies
caught Darcie’s eye and she asked if yellow roses were Lori Lee’s
favorite flower. She said yes, and saw the sad look in Rick’s
eyes.
Someday, maybe, Lori Lee thought, she
would show Rick the single yellow rose she had pressed in her
favorite book of poetry. The rose he’d thought she wouldn’t
want.
Darcie asked to say grace before they
ate. Then, during the meal of crisp, tender pork chops, fried
potatoes, corn on the cob and lima beans, she was very careful to
remember her manners, except when it came to talking with her mouth
full of food. Darcie’s exuberant chatter amazed Rick. Usually she
was shy around other people, a magpie only around him.
Tyke wandered around the table, looking
up at the humans pleadingly, as if to say, I’m starving, although
his plump little body denied the accusation. Lori Lee dropped a
bite of meat into the dog’s open mouth.
“I’ve spoiled him shamelessly,” she
admitted. “Deanie says I love him too much and that he has me
trained instead of the other way around.”
“Maybe she’s right,” Rick said. “But I
think a little pampering is a good thing. I figure its better to be
loved too much than not enough.”
Lori Lee sensed that he was talking
about himself, and the long, lonely years of neglect he’d endured
as a young boy.
“You love me too much, don’t you,
Daddy? ’Cause I’m your bestest girl.” Darcie’s smile beamed
brightly as she gazed worshipfully at her father.
“You bet, sweetie,” he
said.
The look of love in Rick’s eyes when he
spoke to his daughter was almost more than Lori Lee could bear to
see. She envied both father and child. If Darcie was hers, she
would love her too much, just the way Rick
did. And despite her uncertainty concerning her feelings for Rick,
she couldn’t help wondering how it would feel to have such a
passionate man truly love her too
much.
After lunch, Lori Lee tied a bright
yellow apron around Darcie, the hem hitting her ankles, then put on
a matching apron.
Once again Rick marveled at the
unbelievable resemblance between Lori Lee and Darcie. Even he, if
he didn’t know better, would think them mother and daughter. A hot,
searing pain ripped through him at the thought of how much he
wished Darcie was Lori Lee’s child.
The three of them cleared the table,
loaded the dishwasher and scrubbed the pots and pans. Then after
cleanup duty, Lori Lee brought out some games she kept at the
studio for days when the students had parties. She allowed Darcie
to choose her favorite, which was Clue. Rick thought the game might
be a little too advanced for his daughter, but she proved him wrong
when she won two of the four games they played.
Since it was a sunny day, Lori Lee
suggested a romp in the backyard for Tyke while Darcie performed
her recently perfected baton routine for her father.
Rick and Lori Lee sat on the back
steps, Lori Lee’s tape player providing the musical accompaniment
for Darcie’s high-stepping dance number. The child gloried in the
attention she received. Tears of happiness gathered in her eyes
when the two adults applauded enthusiastically, Rick cheering and
Lori Lee repeating the word perfect over and
over again.
Later in the day, they popped popcorn
and watched a video. Darcie’s favorite, Beauty and
the Beast.
“May I lie on the floor?” Darcie asked.
“I like to watch TV propped up on pillows.”
Before Rick could protest, Lori Lee
tossed three pillows off the sofa onto the floor. After building a
nest for her and Tyke, Darcie waited eagerly for the movie to
begin. Lori Lee prepared the VCR, then sat on the crimson-and-cream
pinstriped sofa. Still standing, Rick nodded at the sofa, asking
permission to join her. She patted the cushion beside her, issuing
Rick an invitation.
Sitting, he draped his arm over the
sofa back, directly behind Lori Lee. All the while his daughter
watched the movie, he watched the woman at his side. From time to
time, Lori Lee would glance at him and smile, but for the most
part, she concentrated on the movie and on exchanging comments
about the story with Darcie.
“You know a lot about kids, don’t you?”
Rick wondered why a woman who obviously adored children didn’t have
any of her own. He knew she’d been married for five years,
certainly long enough to have started a family.
“I work with children,
remember?”
“Yeah, I know, but it’s more than
that.” He could not resist the temptation to touch her. Just a
simple, nonsexual touch. A light brush of his fingertips over her
cheek. “You’d make a wonderful mother.”
For a few timeless seconds, Lori Lee
couldn’t breathe. She felt as if some giant foot was pressing down
on her chest. “Thank you,” she finally managed to say.
He realized he’d said something wrong,
but he couldn’t figure out exactly what. Was it possible that she
really didn’t want a child of her own?
He decided changing the subject was the
best course of action. “Tell me a little bit about this recital
deal that’s coming up in a couple of weeks.”
“Aren’t you interested in the movie?”
she asked.
“Is that your way of telling me to be
quiet so you can enjoy Beauty and the
Beast?”
“It’s my favorite fairy tale, too. This
tape happens to belong to me. It’s my personal copy.”
When the movie ended, Lori Lee was
snuggled against Rick, his arm draped around her shoulders. Rick
hit the rewind button on the remote control, then glanced down at
Darcie and Tyke.
“Take a look,” he said. “Our little
beauty has fallen asleep.”
Darcie lay with her head nestled on one
of the pillows and her body curled into a ball. Tyke slept
contentedly at her side.
“Does she often take late-afternoon
naps?” Lori Lee asked.
“No, not usually. But she was so
excited about our big date with you that she woke me up at five
o’clock this morning.”
“Should we let her sleep
awhile?”
“Yeah, don’t wake her yet. Let her get
a little nap,” Rick suggested. “You and I could talk—” he caressed
Lori Lee’s neck “—or kiss—” he brushed her lips with his “—or go in
the kitchen and find out just how sturdy that oak table
is.”
“You’re shameless.” Lori Lee giggled
softly, slapping at Rick’s grasping hands. “No sex. Remember our
agreement.”
He nuzzled her neck. “It’s been only a
few days and I’m already dying to be inside you again, honey.” He
whispered the words against her warm flesh.
Lori Lee tried to get up off the sofa,
but Rick dragged her down onto his lap. She struggled for a few
minutes, then gave in and put her arms around his
neck.
“Behave yourself,” she warned
him.
He undulated his hips gently, just
enough so that his obvious arousal rubbed against her buttocks.
Gasping, she tried to get up again. “Sit still, baby. I promise I
won’t let things get out of hand. I know my little girl is right
over there.” He nodded toward Darcie.
“Rick?”
“What?” God, how he’d longed to hold
her in his arms, feel the sweetness of her lush body close to him.
But this wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy him. He needed to
make love to her. Today. Tonight. Tomorrow. And the day after that,
and the day after that.
He heard Lori Lee’s voice, but he
didn’t understand what she was saying. All he could do was feel and
want and need.
She slapped his shoulder. “Rick! You
aren’t listening to me.”
“Sorry, honey, what did you
say?”
“I asked you if Powell Goodman has been
to see you.”
“He picked up his ’Vette the other
morning. I haven’t seen him since. Why?”
“The whole town knows about us,” she
said.
“Yeah, I know. Eve told me that you and
I are definitely the talk of Tuscumbia.”
“Powell has been saying some pretty
stupid things.” Lori Lee laid her head on Rick’s shoulder. “He’s
made some threats.”
“Yeah, what kind of threats?” Rick
asked.
“Just don’t get into a fight with him.
Okay? He carries a lot of weight in this part of the state, and if
he wanted to, he could cause problems for you.”
. “Let him.” Rick squeezed her hip. “If
he thinks he’s going to scare me away from you, then he’d better
think again. I won. He lost. He’d better get use to the idea that
you belong to me now.”
“I do not belong to you. I don’t belong
to anyone except myself.”
“That’s a bunch of feminist garbage and
you know it,” he told her. “If my daughter wasn’t here, I’d show
you just how completely you belong to me.” When she opened her
mouth to protest, he kissed her quickly, then said, “And it works
both ways, Lori Lee. I belong to you, too.”
“What am I going to do with you, Rick
Warrick? You are the most irritating, infuriating man I’ve ever
known.”
“You’re going to let me really kiss
you, and you’re going to love it.” He lowered his lips to hers.
“And while I’m kissing you, you’re going to remember what it was
like upstairs in that big brass bed of yours, and you’re going to
ache with wanting me just like I’m already aching.”
She accepted the onslaught of his
kisses, needing more but willing to take this little slice of
paradise he offered. The kiss grew hot and wild. Only the sound of
Darcie Warrick’s voice brought them to their senses.
“Does this mean what I think it means?”
Darcie rubbed her sleepy eyes. Smiling, she gazed up at her father
and the woman in his arms.
Tyke roused, lifting his head, sniffing
the air.
“Oh, my goodness,” Lori Lee moaned as
she rested her forehead against Rick’s.
Rick eased Lori Lee off his lap and
quickly crossed his legs. “What—” he cleared his throat “—what do
you think this means?”
“That y‘all are in love. On television
and in the movies people kiss the way y’all did when they’re in
love.”
“Well, I’ll tell you, kiddo,” Rick
said. “That kiss means that Lori Lee and I like each other an awful
lot and we’re going to have more dates.”
“Aren’t y’all in love?” Darcie
asked.
“Not exactly,” Rick said.
“Why would you kiss Lori Lee like that
if you don’t love her?”
Rick looked to Lori Lee for help, but
she simply smiled and shrugged, as if to say, “You’re on your own
in answering this one.
Darcie had asked him a damn good
question, Rick thought, but one he couldn’t truthfully answer. Not
for his six-year-old daughter. She wasn’t quite old enough for the
birds-and-bees discussion. So how did he explain a passionate kiss
without mentioning sex?
“Well, Darcie, you see, I...that is,
we...Lori Lee and I...” He looked pleadingly at Lori
Lee.
She patted her lap, then held open her
arms. Darcie rushed across the room, crawled onto Lori Lee’s lap
and gazed up at her. Following hurriedly, Tyke jumped up on the
sofa and rooted his nose against Lori Lee’s thigh. She petted him
affectionately, murmuring softly to him.
“Grown-ups who like each other enjoy
kissing and hugging each other,” Lori Lee explained. “I like your
father very much and he likes me, but we don’t know each other well
enough to be in love.”
“That’s funny,” Darcie said. “Because
Aunt Eve told me that she and Uncle Tommy fell in love at first
sight.”
Rick chuckled, then cleared his throat
and put a somber look on his face when Lori Lee glared at
him.
“Eve and Tommy were very young and
they’d never been in love before,” Lori Lee said. “But your daddy
and I are older and we’ve both been married to other people, so
neither of us wants to rush into anything and make a
mistake.”
“Are you and Daddy going to hug and
kiss each other every time you have a date?”
“Yes, we probably will,” Lori Lee
admitted.
“Good,” Darcie said. “My daddy’s a
pretty great guy, you know, so I figure if you keep on hugging and
kissing him the way you were doing today, then you’ll fall in love
with him in no time.”
An hour later, after Rick and Darcie
had left, Lori Lee went over every detail of their first “date.”
She considered the whole afternoon a success. Rick and his daughter
had seemed right at home with her and Tyke, and she had enjoyed
their company immensely. Despite being denied the pleasure of
having sex with Rick, Lori Lee felt warmly content.
And she’d agreed to a second date with
the Warrick family. Rick had invited her to go to McDonald’s for
supper with them after Darcie’s next twirler class.