"Blair, Blair," he said, burrowing his face in her lap. "I don't care if you have to crawl on your belly. I'll always want you."
"But you said-" He raised his head, his agony apparent. "Forgive me.
A million times since then, I've cursed my ability to speak for saying such an insensitive thing to you. I was mad, frustrated, loving you so much it was killing me, and dying because my love wasn't enough for you."
She closed her hands around the golden head, sinking her fingers in the fleecy hair. "It is, it is," she said with a sense of desperation.
"I was such a fool, Sean. Spoiled and selfish. Forgive me for not accepting your love, not knowing how to love you back. It had never happened to me before. I was afraid of commitment to anything but dance. That I knew. That I could cope with. I found a heaven with you I didn't know existed.
If having banged-up knees is the only way I could realize it, then it's really a very small price to pay."
His large, roughened fingers smoothed along her temple. "Darling, I hope you dance again. I want you to. Never think I wanted you to stop for any other reason but because it was injurious to you. When I saw you falling, lying there on the concrete, I thought I'd die, Blair."
I know you'd like to see me dance again," she said, smiling as she traced the groove that adorned his chin. Then her fingertip delighted in the bristly feel of his mustache. "If nothing else, I could be one of the best coaches on the East Coast. And I've got the dancing school here, don't forget. It may have to be suspended for awhile, but as soon as I'm able," He placed a finger over her lips. "Don't get too ambitious. I don't want you to ever be disappointed again."
"I won't be, I promise. As long as I have you."
"You do." He kissed her mouth softly, then her neck, her breasts through her blouse, her stomach. He staked small claims, marked his territory, assuring himself that she was real and whole and loving him.
When she tried to speak, her breath came in short spurts, the magic of his mouth having a dramatic effect on her faculties. "My parents will be . . . disappointed."
"Why is that?" He looked up at her.
She lowered her eyes to study the stitching on his collar. "Well, they're old-fashioned. They didn't know about Cole. I don't think they'd approve of my . . .
our "Living together? I'm old-fashioned that way, too." The quiet words struck her heart with the impetus of lightning. She met his sincere blue eyes with tear-laden green ones. "I've never lived with a woman, Blair.
That particular privilege was reserved for my wife. At least I hope you'll think of it as a privilege. Just as I hope you'll consent to being my wife."
She nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes."
He slid one arm beneath her knees and the other behind her back and lifted her off the bed. Trustingly she linked her arms behind his neck.
"Where are we going?" she asked, laying her head on his shoulder.
"Home," he said softly.
They passed Pam in the hall. She was slyly smiling.
"That was wonderful. You're getting better and better," the languid voice hummed.
Strong hands rolled her from her stomach to her back and adjusted the pillows behind her. A quick kiss was dropped on the tip of her nose.
"I should be. Two massages a day since we got married. Do you think we've set a record?"
"I feel certain we have." Green eyes shone up at him. "But not with massages." She raised her head for a more satisfactory kiss.
It was their fifth night as husband and wife. She was well established in the house, and wondered how she had ever been happy living anywhere else. He carted her from room to room, up and down the stairs, neither complaining nor listening to her constant apologies for the necessary inconvenience. He didn't consider it such. Lying together in the bed, that for so many years had gone unshared, was just one of the many pleasures life was now affording them.
Finally ending the kiss, he eyed her studiously. "Tomorrow I'm taking you outside in the sunshine. You've got a pallor."
"Somewhere private," she said mischievously, dragging the sheet down from her breasts.
"Why?" he asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"So I can sunbathe in the raw. You don't want me to have unsightly strap marks, do you?" Her eyelids fluttered flirtatiously.
Leaning down and placing his mouth directly over her ear, he drawled, "If I were to do that, you'd end up with no suntan at all, and I'd have sunburned buns." He laughed at her prim expression, which he knew to be fake, and kissed her soundly.
"Did I hear the telephone ringing earlier?" she asked breathlessly when he freed her mouth. He had taken the extension out of the bedroom so she could rest for an hour each afternoon. Only when he had to be out did he plug it in beside the bed so it was accessible to her in case of an emergency.
"Barney called."
"And? " "I told him to go to hell."
She laughed. "I'll get back to him in a day or two. His feelings get hurt easily."
He wasn't really worried about her talking to the agent. She'd convinced him that she wasn't bent on dancing again until she was certain her legs could take it, and only then if every other area of her life was being given its priority. It was still a few days until she could begin walking. They weren't rushing anything.
"Andrew called to say that he, Angela, and Mandy colored pictures of the wedding for you. His is the best because in Angela's you're taller than I am and Mandy spilled Kool-Aid on hers." They laughed. Blair loved the sound vibrating against her ear as he held her close.
"Your parents called to say that they had gotten home safely and to check on you." His hand stroked her stomach leisurely, but with tender possessiveness, not passion. "They're very upset about the possibility of your not dancing again. Your mother told me at the wedding how proud they've always been of you. They are, Blair. They just never verbalized it. They're fallible, just like all of us, and couldn't help missing you and wishing you lived closer to them and resenting what had taken you away.
She blotted her eyes against the furred skin of his chest, dampening it with tears. "She really said they were proud of me?" He nodded.
With a conscious effort, she pushed the tears aside. She wanted to look forward, not backward. "It was good to see them. They were happy to see me get married at last. And, of course, were most impressed with you." She kissed him under the chin.
"My parents, who can't quite believe I finally talked someone into marrying me, think you're either mentally deficient or a saint.
They loved you on sight and told me how beautiful you are. I thought it was a terrific wedding, considering that Pam and I pulled it together within a weeK.
"It was a strange wedding having the bride sitting down through the whole ceremony."
"And lying down through the whole honeymoon."
She pushed against his shoulder in mock consternation. "Don't you ever think of anything else?"
"Not since you took up residence."
She propped herself up on an elbow to better see him as she combed through his thick hair with loving fingers. "I must say you exercised magnificent self-discipline by sleeping in the other bedroom the week before the wedding."
"I think the least I deserve is the Medal of Honor," he chuckled, but nestled her against his body before he said softly, "I wanted our marriage to be unsullied. I wanted you to know that I love you for many more reasons than what you do to my libido. And, as has been the case since I first met you, I was afraid of hurting you."
He lowered his head to kiss her sweetly on the lips, but after a few moments it grew into something else. He growled against her mouth.
"But now that you're my wife, look out, Mrs. Garrett."
"You've got me at a terrible disadvantage. I can't even run from you.
His laugh was a warm blast of air against her cheek as he enclosed her in his arms. "That's good to know. You were long in convincing that I loved you."
Tiny love bites were taken out of his neck by delicate lips and teasing teeth. "My heart and mind were on something else. It took a while to divert my attention from that. And when I really started listening to you, what you said frightened me. It required so much of me. I wasn't sure I was up to it."
"Now? " "Now loving you and making you happy is the most exciting challenge I've ever faced in my life."
His lips branded an urgent message into her temple. "I love you, Blair."
"I love you, Sean Garrett." She began to giggle and he raised his head to look down at her.
"That's funny?"
"You must know how much I love you if I'm willing to go through life with a name like Blair Garrett."
"I've always had a poetic nature."
She sobered and watched with interest as his teeth caught her wandering finger. "Sean, are you sure I'm not taking up too much of your time these weeks that I'm an invalid? I don't want you to neglect your work."
"I'm caught up except for the Delgados' room addition and it's being finished by quality craftsmen. I'm overseeing them. The other clients I'm under contract to were understanding about a man wanting to take a few weeks off for his honeymoon. Besides I don't dare leave you alone for too long. You might decide to call that fresh young masseur from the Y. I'm sure he's just itching to get his hands on someone who looks like you."
"I'd never be as threatened by him as I was by you. You had your nerve that day. What made you do it?"
He grinned. "I had to touch you. First to see if you had any substance at all or were just a figment of my lecherous imagination.
You looked like such an airy little thing despite the sparks shooting out of your green eyes. Then pure animal lust took over.
I wanted to touch you all over." He trailed his mustache along her collarbone. "I'm not over that seizure of lust yet."
He kissed her deeply, his tongue rubbing against hers with increasing ardor. All the sweetness of loving him flooded through her until she was drowning in it. She escaped the fervor of his mouth and dragged his head down to clasp it possessively against her breasts.
"Sean, Sean," she whispered, "I love you so much it frightens me."
He struggled against her frantic hands so he could look at her.
His blue eyes pierced through her. "Why? Why, Blair?"
"Because I might lose you."
His expression softened and he stroked her lips with his thumb.
"No.
Never. Not if I have anything to do with it."
"Love me," she begged.
He needed no second invitation. His eyes navigated each inch of her.
She felt their heat on her skin as he looked at her breasts, dwelled on her nipples. His fingers enjoyed the feel of her. Her flesh generously responded. His eyes slid lower over her stomach and navel.
The texture of her skin and the white down that sprinkled it were adored by stroking fingers.
"Lovely," he whispered when his eyes encountered the dusky delta that harbored her womanhood.
"Touch me." Her request was a profession of love, as . . . .
was llS mumate pro zmg caress.
"Here? " "Yes, yes, yes. Oh, Sean . .."
"You're so beautiful, so dainty. Sweet." His tongue painted her nipples with dew before he sipped it up with his lips.
His mouth sampled morsels of flesh that melted against it until she was consumed with a fever for him.
"Sean, let me . .."
He gasped as a shudder of pleasure rippled through his body. He recited a litany of love words as she unselfishly loved him. Then he tensed with supreme restraint and rasped, "Blair, now or" He was welcomed into the tight fluid warmth of her dear body.
"Ahhh, Sean my love, my love." A fervent mouth sought her breasts, kissed them, loved them. Her fingers gripped the hard muscles of his buttocks, entreating him not to withhold any of himself. "Sean . .
. I never . . . a gynecologist . .."
He levered himself up, his eyes burning with passion, but glowing with love and understanding. "My Lord, Blair. I'd forgotten all about that.
Do you want me to' "No, no," she said, shaking her head, a brilliant smile breaking over her face. "We've got a good choreographer. Let's wait and see what the next steps will be."
the end.