Husband By Request

Dumbstruck, Andreas sank down at the side of the bed. “Then how do you explain my attraction to you?”

She stared up into his eyes, searching them. “There’s a basic kindness in you, Andreas. It runs very deep. You saw the accident that knocked me unconscious, a-and you saw my scar. I know how you honor valor, and realized you viewed me as some kind of heroine because I’d had a battle with cancer.”

He took a fierce breath. “So from that you deduced I felt so sorry for all you’d been through I asked you to be my wife?”

Her head moved from side to side on the pillow. “Not just that. I knew you were still mourning Maris’s death. The two of you were close all your lives. Your parents’ lives were shattered. I think your feelings of helplessness and despair had a lot to do with your reaching out to me. Like one of those dying children who’s granted their greatest wish. I believed you saw me as someone needing help.”

He swore under his breath.

“Earlier today Theo told me that when he first met me I reminded him of a fledgling bird who required protection.”

Theo be damned.

Andreas shot to his feet and started pacing. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “If that’s the way you perceived things, it’s a miracle our marriage lasted as long as it did.”

“I agree,” she murmured. “It’s one thing I’ve learned this past year. Even if it was the wrong perception, it was my reality at the time.”

His feet came to a standstill. “So what are you saying?”

She exhaled a tortured sigh. “I’m on a mission to discover the true reality of our lives. It means starting over from scratch, but I’m willing to do anything to make our marriage work, provided you are too.

“Please don’t get me wrong,” she cried before he could respond. “Before you tell me again that it’s pointless, let me admit up front that I’m the one to blame for our problems. When you tried to get me to open up, I froze. It’s no wonder you had to walk on eggshells around me. You’re a man with infinite patience. I took advantage of that remarkable trait and continued to behave like a spoiled, difficult child. The nicer and kinder you were to me, the worse I acted. You have no idea how I loathed myself.” Her voice shook.

“When you told me Theo had charged you with adultery, deep down inside I wanted to tell him it was my fault, that if he wanted revenge he should have come after me. I was the real culprit. Instead, I ran away like the coward I was. But I’ve had a year of psychiatric therapy to understand myself, and—”

“Therapy?”

“Yes. Don’t tell me that shocks you—not when we both know how badly I needed it.”

“I’m not shocked.” His voice grated.

She bit her lip. “Surprised, then.”

“If anything I’m amazed you would put yourself through that experience, considering you’ve had more surgery too.” Twelve months she’d deprived him of being there for her.

“Without the therapy I would never have decided to go in for reconstructive surgery. I think the doctor did a wonderful job. She told me only my husband would know for sure.”

Her humor awed him.

Her courage moved him to tears.

“Dominique—”

“I do believe my husband is speechless. I wonder if that’s good or bad.” She flashed him an impish smile, producing the dimple in her left cheek he hadn’t seen for a year.

“Come to bed.” She raised her soft, graceful arms toward him. “I’ve been waiting for this a long, long time.”

His heart was palpitating right out of his chest. Slowly he removed his robe and slid on the mattress beside the siren who by some miracle was still his wife. “I want to look at you first.”

She wound her arms around his neck, then brushed her lips teasingly against his. “We have a year to catch up on. It may take the whole night.”

There’d always been passion in their lovemaking. But she’d never met him as an equal before. Not like this.

Andreas pulled her on top of him and chased her mouth until he caught it. Exciting laughter gurgled from her throat before they looked without fear or striving into each other’s eyes. Then they began moving and breathing as one.

Dominique awakened at dawn with a sense of well-being she’d never known in her life. Her arms automatically reached for the man who’d brought her ecstasy last night. When she couldn’t find him, she sat up and smoothed strands of hair from her face.

Over at the window, facing the ocean, she detected his tall, distinctive silhouette. In the faint light she barely discerned the outline of his striped robe.