Crescendo

She tickled his cheek and his lashes flickered up­ward. He looked at her dazedly and she smiled.

He closed his eyes again, sighing. 'I thought it was another dream,' he said. 'There've been so many.'

'I remember,' she said drily, and he grinned at that, a wicked amusement coming into his face.

'Shameless of you,' he teased. 'Walking into my room like that and handing yourself to me on a plate!'

'If you'd had any principles you would never have taken me,' she pointed out.

He sobered. 'I was a starving man given a chance to eat,' he groaned. 'I couldn't let the chance slip.'

She snuggled closer. 'It was good, wasn't it?'

He let his lips drift over her hair. 'It was heaven.'

'I was so horrified in the morning. I remembered every second of it, and although I thought I'd dreamt it I was terrified of seeing you again.'

She felt him smiling. 'I enjoyed the way you looked at me when you came down to breakfast. You gave me such a shy, sheepish look and I was hard put to it not to get up and kiss you there and then.'

'I'd have been overcome with shock,' she said, her eyes dancing. 'I could barely look at you as it was.'

/> 'So I noticed.' He bent his head and kissed her shoulder. 'You were very sweet and I could scarcely keep my hands off you.'

'I don't remember it like that,' she commented. He had kissed her the day after he arrived. It had

been a tentative kiss. He had been carefully testing the ice before he walked on to it, but she had not rejected him and Gideon had moved fast after that.

He read the thoughts in her face and laughed. 'You were very responsive, my love.'

'And you were very unprincipled!'

'I love you,' he whispered, finding her mouth. 'I had to get close to you. I needed to be with you. When we first met we were different people, darling. I was a different person. I'm not the man I was— you've changed me. Coming down and realising that you didn't know me, I saw that if I trod carefully I could find the way to reach you as I'd never reached you before, and it worked. You were open and warm and responsive and if I'd thought I loved you before I soon loved you fifty times more.'

Marina laid her head on his chest and heard the steady deep beat of his heart. They lay in silence for a few moments, their bodies close, then they heard movements downstairs and Gideon groaned.

'Grandie's back. Why couldn't he take another hour?'

'We must go down and tell him,' she said, sigh­ing.

'I think he already knows,' said Gideon in a dry voice.

She laughed. 'Yes.' Grandie knew. There had never been any doubt that Marina loved Gideon and for all her anger and hurt, Grandie had been aware of that. She had talked of going back to col­lege, taking up a career, but Grandie had known secretly that everything in her that was alive was turned towards Gideon. Gideon was not the only one who'was unable to live without a heart. Marina had lost hers to him the day they met, although it had taken her some time to realise it, and she had never seriously believed that she would be able to turn him away.

'I suppose we must go down,' said Gideon reluc­tantly.

'Yes,' she said again, smiling.

'I'd like to spend the next twenty-four hours in here,' he muttered with a quick look at her.

'Isn't that tough?' she said mockingly, laughing, and slid off the bed before he could grab her. He watched her with dark, intent eyes as she dressed, but she did not look at him because if she did she was afraid she might go back to him and Grandie was waiting.

'Do get dressed, Gideon,' she scolded.

'Kiss me first,' he demanded.

She walked to the door and looked back at him with a teasing smile. 'I'll see you downstairs.'

As she closed the door she heard his exasperated groan and laughed to herself. She might love Gideon, but she had learnt something from their three years together. You don't tame a savage animal by giving it its own way. Gideon still had a lot to learn.