watched the movement of his lips, the silken texture of his mustache, the hint of an elusive dimple, the teeth that lay just beyond his lips. “I’m here now,” she whispered.
He raised his eyes to hers in supplication and read the invitation so boldly extended. With deliberate leisure, he tugged on the sash until it came free and the sides of her wrapper fell apart. His hands slipped inside, caressing the smooth, satin skin of her stomach before they settled on her waist and pushed aside the white eyelet. For long, ponderous moments, he stared at her, searing her flesh with eyes that roamed freely and without apology or shame.
His hands moved up slowly to cup her breasts and lift them toward his mouth. He gave each one only a fraction of the praise he felt it deserved for having nurtured his child.
Kathleen swayed unsteadily as he moved away from her slightly to study the rest of her. His hands smoothed over her abdomen. “No stretch marks,” he commented in a mere whisper. “Nothing to mar the perfection. Motherhood only made you more beautiful.” His fingers glided downward and wound through that tight auburn triangle. Kathleen sighed at the exquisite tenderness of his touch.
His hands went around her and appreciated the fullness of her hips before settling under the ripe curves and lifting her against him. Their stomachs touched, then her breasts were crushed against his chest. Finally, their mouths melted together in a fusion of spirit as well as of body.
The kiss was thorough and deep. His tongue penetrated her lips slowly, teasing them until Kathleen was pleading with her entire body for him to accept the proffered gift. When he did, his tongue explored her mouth wantonly, seeking the most secret recesses and relishing them.
She pulled away as she placed both hands on his whisker-roughened cheeks. Her mouth came up to his. She teased, tortured, tasted and promised. She gave.
When next he kissed her, his tongue dipped into her mouth again and again, intimating a more profound physical union. Their bodies welded together in a tight embrace that was lenient only in letting them rub against each other.
“Mamma.”
The chirping voice caused them to fall apart as nothing else could have. They stared down dazedly at Theron, who had stood up in his crib, hopping up and down. Kathleen clutched the sides of her wrapper together.
“Theron, when did you wake up?” she asked shakily. The baby was laughing and waving his arms around.
“I think he wants in on the fun.”
“Erik,” Kathleen gasped, and covered her flaming face with hands suddenly gone cold. “We ought to thank him for waking up. Everyone will wonder… We mustn’t let this happen again.” Indeed, she had almost betrayed her husband under his own roof. God! Guilt swamped her and she put more space between her and Erik. Her eyes were laden with shame when she met his. “We’re in Seth’s house. I’m his wife.”
Erik faced her soberly. “You should have reminded me of that sooner. I’d never want to betray Seth either, but my better judgment deserts me when I’m close to you, Kathleen. It’s a fact that is never far from my mind.”
She retreated into her bedroom and dressed hurriedly. She cursed her fumbling fingers and wondered if anyone would notice the high color in her cheeks or the swollen fullness of her well-kissed mouth.
She met Theron and Erik at the top of the stairs as they had planned moments earlier. “Don’t look so guilty, Kathleen,” Erik said out of the corner of his mouth. “Nothing happened. Believe me, I’m more painfully aware of that than anyone.”
The expression on his face was so anguished that Kathleen couldn’t help but laugh.
“Sadist,” he grumbled. He swung Theron up onto his shoulders. The boy enmeshed his stubby fingers in Erik’s hair for a handhold. When Erik whooped in pain, Theron shrieked in delight.
The three of them descended the stairs laughing. Seth wheeled up to meet them. “There you are!” he cried. “We were about to send a search party out, thinking maybe Theron had tied you both to the bedposts.” They all laughed, and Seth instructed them to lead the way to the kitchen, where dinner was being served tonight. Hazel was taking a tray in her room, pleading a headache.
In the hall, Seth paused, not following immediately as he watched the trio go toward the kitchen. No one was witness to the pensive expression on his face.
* * *
October was always a busy month for the stores, and this season was no exception. Not only was it business as usual, but this year they had Erik’s commercials to contend with, too. It was agreed that some should be done in time for the Christmas rush. Erik went into production immediately. All agreed that the ads were good, but nothing as creative as Erik wanted to do for the future. However, the first commercials aired locally generated even more business for Kirchoff’s, to say nothing of Erik’s new company.
Kathleen saw Erik often, but there wasn’t an encore of the amorous scene that had taken place in Theron’s bedroom. Neither trusted himself to be left alone with the other. Other people were always around and she felt that they both contrived to have it that way. When they weren’t in business conferences, they were at dinner at the Kirchoffs’ house. If anyone noticed the rarity of a single man Erik’s age spending an inordinate amount of time with Theron, no one spoke of it.
Hazel had tempered her frequent verbal attacks on Kathleen. The younger woman wasn’t naive enough to think that her dire warnings to her sister-in-law had done anything to alter the woman’s malicious nature. Perhaps she was only exercising caution by becoming more reticent. To Kathleen’s mind, that made Hazel even more deadly, and she was still wary of her.
For that reason, Kathleen was uneasy about leaving Theron for the two weeks she and Eliot would go to New York to do their spring buying.
“Alice.” Kathleen approached the woman one day while the housekeeper was working alone in the kitchen. “Are you sure you can handle Theron all by yourself while I’m away? Maybe we should call in some extra help. He’s getting so meddlesome.”
“That’s the tenth time you’ve asked me that and I’ve answered the same way each time. I can take care of Theron just fine. Don’t you trust me with him?”
Not for the world would Kathleen have Alice think that. “Of course I do! But if you should get busy and someone else should volunteer to watch him…” She didn’t know how to say what she wanted to. She couldn’t say, “Don’t leave him alone with his aunt.”
Alice eyed the younger woman shrewdly. “I think I understand what you’re saying. If you’re referring to the day he had his… accident… in the pool, you should know something. I didn’t want to leave him in Hazel’s charge. She insisted that I come in here and start dinner and leave him out on the patio to play a little longer. I could hardly refuse her, Kathleen, but I wanted to. I don’t know how to tell you this, and you’ll think I’m a superstitious old woman, but I had a feeling something bad was going to happen to that baby when I left him with her.”
A silent message passed between them. The housekeeper took both Kathleen’s hands between her own. “You go on that trip and do a good job for Seth. He expects it from you. Don’t worry about Theron. No one will get close to him unless I’m there. I’ve even asked George to move his crib into our room while you’re gone.”