Husband By Request

“I’m going to try to salvage my marriage.”

After a pregnant pause, “Is she ill again? Needing your support?”

His brows furrowed in irritation. “If she is, I’ll deal with it.”

“I hate to think of you getting hurt a second time.”

He grimaced. “Let me worry about that.”

“Ari’s going to miss you.”

“I’ll make time to see him. Goodnight, Olympia.”

He pulled on his trousers before gathering the rest of his clothes to walk through the house to the bedroom.

Nothing could have astonished him more than to discover Dominique lying in bed wide awake with the side lamp turned on. From what he could tell, she wasn’t wearing anything but the covers and the wedding ring he’d given her.

His heart did a swift kick.

“I was afraid you weren’t coming.” Her voice sounded husky.

That comment was another first for her. Never once in their marriage had she admitted that she looked forward to going to bed with him, not even with her eyes. Only under the shield of darkness could he coax her into his arms.

Tonight everything was different.

Those deep set orbs watching him glinted purple in the light. Combined with her sculptured mouth, the flush on her white skin and her silvery-blond hair fanned out on the pillow, he’d never seen a more beautiful woman.

It crucified him to think cancer might ever ravage her again.

“I won’t be long,” he said, before heading for the bathroom.

The sight of her had left his body trembling. His legs felt heavy as he stepped into the stall. He was scarcely aware of his physical surroundings. Maybe he was having a fantastic dream.

Afraid he would wake up from a dream and find himself alone, he finished his shower in record time. Though his hair was still moist after a brief toweling, he threw on a robe and emerged from the bathroom holding his breath.

When he saw she was still there, with a tantalizing smile curving her mouth, his lungs expelled the air trapped there. He saw no hesitation in her expression, only a radiant eagerness.

If it was a façade to prove she’d changed, it was a damn good one. Andreas discovered for the first time in his life he was nervous.

Anyone would think he was the feverish bride, anticipating the first night in her lover’s arms.

“No— Don’t—” she urged softly when he reached for the lamp switch. “I want to see you.”

Her words checked his movements, almost giving him a heart attack.

“When I woke up after my accident and saw you staring down at me, I thought you were the most beautiful man I’d ever laid eyes on.”

Andreas’s throat thickened.

“I didn’t know there was a man born who could look like you. I deliberately tried to keep from staring at you. Even after we were married I was afraid to look too long because I didn’t want you to think I was…begging you.”

“Begging me?” he whispered incredulously. “To do what?”

“To make love to me.”

He shook his dark head. “If I needed to be begged, I would never have proposed to you.”

Her lower lip trembled. “I—I wanted to believe that. But every time I looked at myself in the mirror, I wanted to die, because I could never be the fulfillment of any man’s dreams—let alone my husband’s.”