“I had to see you right then, before I lost my nerve. I would have gone through hell to get here.”
“You very nearly did.”
“At the time, it didn’t seem so bad. Besides, I had survived a plane crash. What was a little snow?”
“Hardly a ‘little snow.’ And driving with your injured leg too.”
She shrugged dismissively. To their delight the gesture caused her breasts to rise and fall against his hands.
Murmuring his appreciation, he covered them completely and massaged them gently, aware of the discomfort they’d been giving her lately as a result of her pregnancy.
“Tender?” he asked.
“A little.”
“Want me to stop?”
“Not on your life.”
Satisfied with her answer, he propped his chin on the top of her head and continued to massage her.
“I’m glad the operations on my leg have to be postponed until after the baby gets here,” she said. “That is, if you don’t mind looking at my unsightly scar.”
“I always close my eyes when we’re making love.”
“I know. So do I.”
“Then how do you know mine are closed?” he teased. They laughed again, because neither of them closed their eyes while they were making love; they were too busy looking at each other, looking at themselves together, and gauging each other’s level of passion.
As they watched a hawk lazily circling in downward spirals, Cooper asked, “Remember what you said to me the instant I opened the door that night?”
“I said, ‘You’re going to let me love you, Cooper Landry, if it kills you.’”
He chuckled at the memory and his heart grew warm, as it had that night, when he thought about the courage it had taken for her to come to him and make that bizarre announcement. “What would you have done if I had slammed the door in your face?”
“But you didn’t.”
“Assuming I had.”
She pondered that for a moment. “I’d have barged in anyway, stripped off all my clothes, pledged everlasting love and devotion, and threatened you with violence if you didn’t love me back.”
“That’s what you did.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said around a giggle. “Well, I’d have just kept on doing that until you stopped refusing.”
He planted his lips against her ear. “You went down on bended knee and asked me to marry you and give you a baby.”
“How well your memory serves you.”
“And that’s not all you did while you were on your knees.”
She turned in his arms and said sweetly, “I didn’t hear you complaining. Or were all those garbled phrases coming out of your mouth complaints?”
He laughed, throwing back his head and releasing a genuine burst of humor—something he did frequently now. There were times when he lapsed into the moody, withdrawn man he’d been. His mind carried him back to haunting phases of his life where she couldn’t go. Her reward lay in the fact that she could bring him out again. Patiently, lovingly, she was eradicating his disturbing memories and replacing them with happy ones.
Now she kissed his strong, tanned throat and said, “We’d better go in and get ready for our trip to L.A.” They made one round-trip a month to the city, during which they spent two or three days at Rusty’s house. While there, they ate in fine restaurants, went to concerts and movies, shopped, and even attended an occasional social gathering. Rusty stayed in touch with her old friends, but was delighted with the new friendships Cooper and she had cultivated as a couple. When he wanted to, he could ooze charm and engage in conversation on a wide range of subjects.
Also while they were there, she handled business matters that demanded her attention. Since her marriage, she’d been promoted to vice-president in her father’s real-estate company.