Giant of Mesabi

The bronze mask was molded in uncompromising lines.

"This isn't the time to be discussing it." Alanna pushed more r firmly against his chest. "If you'll let me go, I'll fix your soup." She tried to sound firm and not affected by his touch. "And while it's heating, you can go upstairs and get out of these wet clothes before you catch pneumonia. A hot bath wouldn't do any harm. I'll bring the soup up and you can have it in bed," she said, trying to treat him as a child in need of motherly attention.

"No." It was short and clipped, his fingers biting into her bones. A muscle leaped in his jaw. "I'm not going to bed alone, Alanna, not any more."

The gasp of surprise had barely begun when he fluidly swept her off her feet into the cradle of his arms, checking the sound. He held her there, staring enigmatically into her startled face. His drenched clothes chilled her skin, but Alanna didn't notice it. The fire burning inside distracted all her thoughts.

Slowly he walked to the stairs, carrying her effortlessly in his arms as he mounted the steps. At the head of the stairs, he turned to the master bedroom. The drumbeat of her heart sounded louder than the thunder and more primitive in its origins.

THE TELEPHONE RANG, Alanna slowly opened her eyes, not sure of the sound, awareness creeping slowly through her sleep-drugged body. Sunlight flooded the room. with blinding force. She was lying on her side, the coolness of a sheet against her naked skin. A furnace warmth burned her back, extending over her waist and stomach. Her hand slid down to investigate the heat and encountered the curling hairs of an arm.

She stiffened for an instant, then languidly relaxed under its pressing weight. Rolt's warm breath caressed her shoulder in even breathing, stirring the tangle of hair at the base of her neck. She snuggled closer to him in heady contentment.

A delicious thrill ran through her veins at the memory of his easy mastery of her responses. She hadn't known that pain could mingle so easily with rapture, nor that there could be such a joy in physical union.

A flush colored her cheeks as she remembered the way their insatiable hunger had turned them to each other a second time in the night. She savored the memory. A smile curved her mouth. At last she understood her mother's 'heavenly plateau.' She had glimpsed them last night in Rolt's arms.

The discordant ring of the telephone harshly interrupted her reverie. With a start, she realized it was the sound that had wakened her initially. Fortunately she was lying on the side of the king-sized bed nearest the telephone on the night stand.

As she started to move to answer it, the arm around her waist tightened instinctively. She glanced quickly at Rolt over her shoulder. He was still sleeping. The rough angles and planes of his face were gently strong in repose.

Not wanting to disturb him, she stretched an arm toward the phone. Her fingertips gripped the receiver and lifted it off the hook before it could ring again. Absently, she realized the line downed by the storm must have been repaired.

"Matthews residence." She spoke softly into the mouthpiece, her voice still slightly thick with sleep.

"Alanna, this is Kurt," came the reply. '"Did I wake you?"

"Not exactly." She was suddenly and embarrassingly conscious of Rolt lying beside her. It flamed her cheeks.

"I've been trying to call for over an hour, but the storm knocked your phone out last night."

"Yes, I know," she murmured.

"I was calling to find out if you know what time Rolt left for the plant this morning, I was supposed to meet him at nine and he isn't here yet," Kurt said.

Her gaze slid to the clock on the bedstand. It was a quarter past ten. She swallowed, unable to tell Kurt that Rolt was still sleeping, with her.

"No. No, I don't know. He might have overslept." Alanna allowed a portion of the truth to slip out.

"There were quite a few trees downed by the storm. He might be waiting somewhere for a road to be cleared," Kurt suggested.

"Yes. If I hear from him before he sees you, Kurt, I'll have him call," she promised quietly.

"Thanks, I—"

Alanna never heard the rest of Kurt's sentence. A coolness bathed her stomach and waist as Rolt's arm moved. His fingers firmly took the telephone receiver from her hand. Breathing in sharply, she turned partially on her back to meet the wicked light in the dancing dark blue of eyes. His weight shifted so that he was pressing her shoulders on to the mattress.

"Kurt, this is Rolt." Even as he spoke into the telephone, his mouth was exploring the corner of her eyes, the curve of her cheek and jaw, mortifying Alanna beyond words. Kurt must have been as stunned as she was. "Are you there, Kurt?" Rolt inquired with faint mockery, the line of his mouth curving against her skin.

Teasingly he traced the outline of her lips. They parted tremulously under the tantalizing caress. Alanna moved weakly in protest, embarrassed that Rolt should be making love to her while talking to Kurt and that she should be letting him. Rolt's weight wouldn't release her. She twisted her face into the pillow and he shifted his attention to the vulnerable curve of her throat.

Distantly she heard the hollow sound of Kurt's voice coming through the wires, but she was too swamped by the dizzying sensations to hear his words above her quickened breathing. Gooseflesh shivered deliciously over her skin as Rolt found a particularly sensitive spot on her neck.

"Sorry about breaking our appointment. It was quite late before we got any sleep last night and Alanna was trying to be the considerate wife by letting me sleep in this morning. Weren't you, darling?" Rolt laughed softly against her throat, sending more shivers of irrational pleasure dancing down her spine.

"Rolt, don't," she whispered achingly.

"Let's change it to one-thirty. Will that work out for you?" The fiery trail of his mouth continued its downward exploration, investigating the shadowy hollow between her breasts, then choosing the rounded curve of one for closer inspection. An uncontrollable shudder of desire quaked through her, and her fingers curled into the muscled bronze of his naked shoulders. "And you'd better tell Mrs. Blake I'll be unavoidably detained until noon."