All day they talked. He told her about quitting his job in St. Louis and going to Europe. He went into more detail about Jaimie’s being adopted by Bob and Sally.
“He’s like a different kid from the one you knew. He’s opened up so much, it’s amazing. No one can shut him up. Of course, my mother adores him. Until little Jennifer was born last summer, he was her only grandchild.”
Silently, both of them amended that. Theron was her grandchild, too.
“Is she still in Seattle?” Kathleen asked to cover up the uneasy lull in their conversation.
“Yes.”
“And Bob and Sally?”
“They live in Tulsa. That’s why they were able to get to Fort Smith within hours of the accident. Bob’s name was on my identification card as next of kin to notify in case of an emergency. They drove straight to Fort Smith after the doctor called them. Bob is an engineer for an oil company.”
They talked about everything but studiously stayed away from the subject of Seth and her marriage. For that day, it didn’t exist.
“I’ve never slept with Tamara,” he said when they were sitting in the sand still wet from the rain.
“What?” Kathleen acted as if she hadn’t heard him. Then she looked back out to sea. “I never said you had.”
He laughed and draped an arm around her shoulders. “But that’s what you thought. Give me some credit, Kathleen. Did you really think I’d want a slut like that?” He seemed genuinely dismayed. “Every man from here to Timbuktu has been invited between her legs. I went alone to the beach. She followed me.”
“But I saw her come out of the water naked and fall on top of you. She—”
“She got promptly thrown off, too. Only you didn’t wait to see that part.” When he saw Kathleen’s skeptical look, he said, “Oh, I admit, she was after me from the word go, but I never accepted the invitation. In fact, I discouraged it. Subtlety escapes Tamara, and she doesn’t take rejection well.”
“I wanted to kill her every time she put her hands on you.” The green eyes shone with a fierce light.
“You’re a little tigress, Kathleen Haley,” Erik teased, and neither of them noticed that he hadn’t used her married name. “What about all the times you’ve had your hands on me? Hm?”
“That’s different,” she defended.
“I’ll say it is.”
They returned to the bungalow, not trusting the privacy of the beach now that the rain had stopped.
* * *
“I just called the airstrip. No planes will be flying out tonight, but there’ll be one here first thing in the morning.” Erik spoke the words mechanically, not allowing his despair to show. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the telephone as though he hated it.
“All right,” Kathleen said as she came out of the bathroom.
He raised his eyes to hers, then took both her hands and drew her down on the bed beside him. He memorized each nuance of her face, breathed in the fragrance that belonged only to her. “We have to go home, Kathleen,” he said quietly.
She touched his hair, his shaggy brows, his mustache and the lips beneath it. “I know. But not tonight. Tomorrow.”
He lay back and pulled her into the curve of his shoulder. His expression was pensive. Strands of her hair were sifted slowly through his fingers.
“What?”
“Hm?”
“What are you thinking?”
He drew a deep breath. “I was thinking a most distressing thought.”
She raised up and leaned over him. She had never seen him so introspective, except perhaps the time he had told her about his Ethiopian experience. “What, Erik?”
“It has occurred to me that every time I’ve been with you, I’ve come on like a rampaging bull. I’ve taken advantage of this explosive attraction we have for each other and used it without any tenderness.”