“Because the first time you were on this bed, you were with Cooper.”
“Yes,” she sighed with pretended despair, “I suppose I’ll have to give Jim up.”
They laughed, then were quiet for a long moment, enraptured with holding each other.
“How do you feel?” Jace whispered into the darkness.
“Like this,” Katherine returned impishly. Shyly, she lowered her hand under the covers. He inhaled sharply with a soft hiss when she found her target. She smiled in satisfaction at his instantaneous stirring under her fingertips.
“Oh, God,” he moaned. “That wasn’t exactly what I meant, but your answer will suffice.” With an effort he tried to control his rapid breathing. “Actually, I wondered if I had hurt you. I wasn’t very gentle.” He groaned when she became more confident. “Katherine…” he rasped. Then more levelly, “It never occurred to me that you might be a virgin.”
“Did you think I was a liberated, promiscuous swinger trailing a string of forsaken lovers behind me?” She nibbled at the base of his throat.
“No, of course not,” he ground out between clenched teeth. Speech was becoming more difficult with each passing second. “I just thought that surely someone as beautiful as you would have been… involved… before now. I’m delighted to learn you weren’t.”
“Oh, Jace,” she murmured as she buried her face in the hair on his chest and brushed it with butterfly kisses. Lightly, she flicked her tongue over his nipples.
“Katherine—” he cried softly. “You… you take me to heaven.” He reached under the sheet and lifted her hand away from him, bringing it to his lips. He pressed a passionate kiss into her palm even as he rolled her gently onto her back.
Masterfully controlling the urgency she had induced, it was with utmost gentleness that he took her once again to blissful completion.
* * *
The following weeks were idyllic. Katherine and Jace were totally engrossed in each other. They shared those looks and touches that, to lovers, are secret, and yet broadcast their affection to anyone who chanced to intercept these transmissions.
They laughed, talked, and made love with a joy that belied the strained circumstances of their marriage. Katherine tinkered with and experimented on her new typewriter, and, by the end of the first week, was composing rough drafts for her first series of commercials.
During the day while Jace was at the drilling site, she spent long hours jotting down ideas and doing research. She read her drafts aloud to Allison, who was a captive audience. The baby was relegated to a pallet on the living room floor until one evening when Jace brought in an indoor swing. As he wound up the A-shaped contraption and placed Allison in the comfortable cloth seat, he remarked, “This apartment is shrinking more each day.”
For one who had always cooked out of necessity, Katherine discovered an uncharacteristic joy in cooking for Jace. One night she surprised him with a chocolate pie, which he had emphatically insisted was his favorite food.
She knew him to have a vicious temper. Hadn’t she witnessed it the night Ronald Welsh attacked her? It had surfaced briefly in some of the arguments before their marriage. On the day they went to the lake and she inadvertently compared him to Peter she realized just how explosive his temper could be.
But there was no evidence of it now. He was easy to live with, neat to a fault, and generous. Allison enjoyed an abundance of affection from him. Every day he came in from work, showered and changed, and then spent time talking to and playing with her. Sometimes, if she were fussy, he would just rock her. His attention always seemed to pacify her.
Katherine overheard him cooing to her as he rocked her in the wicker chair one evening. “Allison, sweet baby girl, Daddy loves you. I love you, Allison.”
The words pierced Katherine’s heart. For even in their highest moments of passion, Jace had never hinted that he loved her. He showered her with love words, and his lovemaking was definitely a sharing experience. Never did he appease his desire without patiently and tenderly bringing her with him to perfect satisfaction.
She suddenly longed to hear those three words spoken to her with the same ope
n sincerity that he was speaking them to Allison. And then she knew.
She loved Jason Manning.
When had it happened? At what point had she thrown off the cloak of suspicion and accepted him as the forthright person he seemed to be? When had she stopped searching the depths of his eyes for hidden motives? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she loved him and that should he not remain a part of her life, it would become a vacuum, a dark void.
Never had she allowed herself such vulnerability to another human being. It was a frightening submission. He had first gained control of her life. Now he had control of her heart and emotions as well. What would she do if he betrayed that trust? How could she ever cope with duplicity from him now?
She pushed the terrifying thought from her mind as she listened to him softly singing to Allison. He wouldn’t betray her. He couldn’t! Not after they had experienced such an all-consuming sexual union. Their appetites for each other had been insatiable and they had not been left unassuaged.
Another nasty thought invaded her mind. Lust. Men could enjoy sex while keeping their hearts and minds detached. Is that all their glorious lovemaking meant to Jace? Was he so adept at sex that he could make her believe it meant as much to him as it did to her? Were the words he passionately whispered in her ear only rehearsed recitations?
* * *
“Hey, what imaginative culinary delight have you concocted for our dinner tonight?”
Jace brought her out of her disturbing reverie as he came up behind her at the kitchen stove and placed his hands on her shoulders.