Athena's Daughter (33 page)

Elizabeth chewed in silence, a thoughtful
expression on her face. At long last she nodded. “Okay. But you
can’t ever do it again, and you have to come back here to live when
you’re finished working.”

Forehead knotted, Derek closed his eyes
tight. “We’ll discuss all that later. Right now you need to finish
eating so you can brush your teeth and get into bed.”

“Can we talk about it tomorrow?”

Derek sighed. “We’ll see.”

“That means ‘no,’” Elizabeth muttered, but
finished her supper anyway. After her teeth were brushed and she
was tucked into bed, Derek paused before her small bookcase.

“I don’t want a story,” Elizabeth told him.
“I just want to go to sleep with Mr. Bunny.”

While Derek fetched the tattered rabbit from
the dresser, Athena perched on the side of the bed and smoothed
Elizabeth’s hair from her forehead. “Do you want us to stay with
you for a while?”

“No.” The little girl took the rabbit and
hugged it to her chest.

“Okay.” Athena pressed her lips to
Elizabeth’s forehead at the same time Derek kissed the back of the
little girl’s head. “I love you, munchkin,” Athena whispered.

“I love you, too,” Derek added.

After a moment, Elizabeth’s small body
relaxed. “I love y’all.”

Athena turned on the Minnie Mouse nightlight
as Derek extinguished the lamps, and then together they left the
room. It was harder than Athena thought to leave her child alone,
but she followed Derek downstairs to respect Elizabeth’s wishes,
fighting the urge to camp outside the bedroom door to keep her
safe.

Once in the kitchen, Derek walked away from
her and rested a forearm on the doorjamb between the kitchen and
den. He leaned his head on his arm, and Athena was alarmed to see
his shoulders shaking.

Hands over her mouth, Athena stood in
indecision. She wanted so much to comfort him, but his manner made
it clear he didn’t want that. She could only watch him, her heart
hurting as he dealt with it on his own.

Some time passed before Derek drew in a deep
breath. He wiped his hands across his face several times, but still
kept his back to her.

“Why did you cry?” he asked in a thick
voice.

“Wha-at?” That was unexpected; she thought he
was upset about Elizabeth.

“You obviously saw Barbara kiss me. Why did
you cry?”

Oh, no. She did not intend to get into that,
and was trying to think up a plausible lie when he turned to face
her. All her excuses fled when she saw his red-rimmed eyes and wet
lashes accentuating the pain etched on his face.

“Why?” he persisted.

Her arms rose to cross over her chest, and
her palms cupped her elbows as she tried to make herself as small
as possible. Uncomfortable, her gaze darted around the kitchen, but
kept returning to his intent face. The tension built until she
couldn’t stand it anymore, and she blurted out the truth.

“Maybe I agree with Elizabeth, okay? You
shouldn’t be kissing anyone but me.”

“Athena.” He took a step toward her, but she
stumbled back and shook her head. To her horror, tears streamed
down her cheeks and dripped off her chin, but she couldn’t stop
them.

“I’m sorry, Derek. I know you don’t want to
hear this.” Now she had to speak around deep sobs, her breath
catching in her throat. “But I thought that maybe after that night
when we…you know. I thought maybe things would change.” Her eyes
closed in remembered pain. “But the next morning you wouldn’t look
at me. And then the next thing I know you were going out on a
date.” Part of her mind screamed at her to stop talking, to retain
at least a little bit of dignity, but the events of the day left
her too weak to resist the impulse to finally get it all out.

“That killed me, Derek. To know that you had
to get rid of my touch with someone else hurt so much.” She wiped
the tears from her face with shaking fingers. “All I could think of
is you with someone else, and I wanted to die. Then I saw you kiss
her.” Her head shook in negation. “No more. I can’t take any more.
Especially because…because....”

“Especially because what, angel?”

His gentle tone and the fact that he called
her “angel” calmed her a bit, and she managed to get her breathing
under control. She looked up to meet his inquisitive gaze, and
firmed her shoulders. This was it.

“Because I love you. And because I’m
pregnant.”

For several ticks of the clock it didn’t
appear he’d heard what she said, and he continued looking at her
with a question in those blue, blue eyes. Little by little his
expression changed; his eyes grew round, and the muscles in his
face all seemed to relax at once, leaving him gaping.

“You’re…you’re…” His chest hitched as he
gulped in quick, shallow breaths, and Athena steeled herself for
the nuclear meltdown she expected. “How did…how…?”

“Remember those two days in New Orleans when
you wouldn’t let me leave the suite and I didn’t have my birth
control pills with me? You told me then I was going to need them,
and you were right.”

His gaze dropped and fixed on her belly, and
Athena had to resist the urge to cover it with her hands. There
wasn’t much to see, but his scrutiny was like a spotlight trained
on the small bump that was barely visible under her shirt.

“We’re having a baby.” The life came back
into Derek’s face, and the hint of a trembling smile moved his
lips. “We’re going to have another baby.”

“Derek, I…”

“A baby.” Derek strode forward with
glistening eyes and pulled her into his arms. “When?”

“January,” Athena told him, confused by his
reaction.

“A little late for Christmas, but still a
damn fine present, don’t you think?”

“Wait; you’re happy?” She pulled against his
arms, but he didn’t let her go.

“My God, Athena,” he laughed. “I’m
overjoyed!”

“Damn it, Derek. You can’t have your cake and
eat it, too, you know. You knock me up, and then you just gallivant
off into the sunset going on dates with other women?” She slapped
his chest with the flat of her hand.

He looked down at her and shook his head. “I
didn’t want to go out with her.”

Whether it was hormones, or because she was
fed up with everything that had gone on since he walked into Stax
of Wax in April, Athena snapped. “No one was standing there holding
a gun to your head, asshole! No one forced you to pick up that
phone and call that bitch who probably sat there and gloated that
she was going to go out with you while I sat at home babysitting
our daughter.” Her hand folded into a fist and she hit him a little
harder. Tears were falling again, but this time they were tears of
anger. “And not only did you go out with her, you made sure to come
over here and strut around in front of me so I could see firsthand
how good you looked for your little date!”

Derek’s brows rushed together in a frown. “I
thought that was what you wanted.”

“Me? Don’t you dare try to put this on me! I
stood right there in that room…” She pointed a shaking finger
toward the den. “…and took off my clothes because I wanted to be
with you more than anything else in the world. How the hell can you
stand here and tell me you interpreted that as my desire to have
you date other women?”

“I thought it was just the alcohol,” he
protested, tightening his hold on her as she tried to squirm away.
“The next morning you kept looking at me like you were afraid I was
going to jump on you again.”

“How would you know?” She ceased her
struggles to get away, and stood rigid in his embrace. “You
wouldn’t even look at me. And you came out of the bedroom fully
dressed, so it was clear you didn’t want a repeat of what
happened.”

“Christ, Athena! I had the worst hangover of
my life, and that’s saying a lot. I looked at you; I just couldn’t
get my eyes all the way open.” He ducked his head in an effort to
catch her gaze that kept skittering away. “I woke up in your bed
with a pounding head, and jumbled memories of making love to you
everywhere but the middle of the road. I knew you’d been drunk, so
I wasn’t sure what you were feeling that morning. I didn’t think it
best to be parading round half naked until I was sure. And then I
came in to find you huddled on the couch, refusing to meet my eyes
or say two words to me. What was I supposed to think? So I called
that horrid woman and went to dinner so you’d know I wouldn’t
bother you again since you so obviously didn’t want me to.”

“You are completely out of your mind. If I
didn’t want you I wouldn’t have stripped for you, and I certainly
wouldn’t have let you bang me on the kitchen table.” Her lips
started to tremble no matter how hard she tried to firm them. “And
the next thing I know you have a date. I really thought that was
going to kill me, Derek. We made love and then you didn’t want
me.”

“Christ, Athena, I do want you. You’re the
only one I want.” He leaned his forehead against hers, and she felt
his grimace against her skin and his tears warm on her face. “After
you left Los Angeles, I realized that you’re everything I’ve ever
wanted. I’ve been so happy with you and Elizabeth these past
months. I just didn’t want to push you too fast after the way I
behaved. But I want you. I want you and our children.”

Hope and happiness surged through her as the
truth of his words penetrated the sadness surrounding her heart.
Even though it was night, she felt as if the sun had come out,
bathing her in warmth and chasing the shadows from her life. With
trembling fingers she wiped away the traces of tears from his
cheeks. “You didn’t push me. How could you? I love you. I always
have.”

“I love you, angel.” Derek drew in a deep
breath and his voice became firm. “And I don’t want to be without
you again.” He released her and reached in his back pocket with one
hand, the other scrubbing over his face.

In confusion, Athena watched as he took his
wallet from this pocket and opened it. He removed an object from
behind the bills, and she caught a flash of purple right before he
lowered himself to one knee in front of her.

Taking her left hand, he rolled the circlet
of purple string up her ring finger. “I still want to marry you,
Athena, as much as I did seven years ago. Will you?”

This time she didn’t even try to stem her
tears. “Yes,” she told him. “Very much yes.” Dropping to her knees,
she pulled him to her just as his mouth closed over hers, warm and
familiar and very much welcome.

After a thorough kiss, he drew back and
looked into her eyes. “I won’t let anything or anyone stop us this
time, Athena.”

With shaking fingers, she traced the beloved
lines of his face. “Good. Neither will I.”

“Are you fighting again?”

They both turned at the small, forlorn voice
and saw Elizabeth standing at the doorway to the kitchen. Her face
was twisted with worry, and her tattered rabbit hung by his ears
from one trembling hand.

“No, munchkin. We’re not fighting.” Derek
held out his hand. “Come here, love.”

Elizabeth rushed across the room and burrowed
between her parents. “You sounded like you were fighting.”

“We’re not.” Athena smoothed the hair from
her daughter’s forehead. “I promise.”

“Then why are you on the floor?”

“Good question.” Derek laughed under his
breath. “And here’s another. Would you like it if your mum and I
got married?”

The little girl’s head popped up, and she
looked back and forth at them with wide eyes. “You’re getting
married?”

“Yeah, we are.” Athena smiled. “Is that okay
with you?”

“Yes!” Elizabeth threw her arms around her
parents’ necks. “See, Mama? I told you that your name would be
Athena Marshall.” She looked sideways at Derek. “Now we’ll be a
whole family, and that means I need to have a little sister to play
with.”

Derek bit his bottom lip, eyes shining.
“We’ll see.”

His daughter rolled her eyes. “That means
no.”

“Actually,” Athena said, sharing a secret
smile with Derek. “This time it means yes.”

Also by Juli Page Morgan:

CRIMSON AND
CLOVER

Under Katie Scott’s flower child exterior
beats the heart of June Cleaver. Though she digs her bellbottoms
and love beads, she longs for the idyllic family life she was
denied as a child.

Laughed out of San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury
after the Summer of Love for believing rock ‘n roll and white
picket fences can coexist she decides to try her luck in the
bohemian neighborhood of Ladbroke Grove in London.

When she discovers her new friend Adam is
starting a band with Jay Carey, she’s ecstatic. She’d admired the
British guitar god from afar for years, and when she and Jay
finally meet the attraction between them is instantaneous.

But life with a rock ‘n roll star doesn’t
lend itself well to white picket fences. And when Katie tells Jay
the secret she’s carried for two years it may end the dream before
it begins.

He leaned forward and his chest came into
contact with her shoulder. “Katie? Why won’t you look at me?”

Her gaze stayed glued to the toes of her
shoes even as her shoulder ignited with a fire that spread with
speed through her body. “Maybe I’m embarrassed,” she whispered.

“Don’t be; you’ve no reason to be. I don’t
have a problem looking at you.” His hand rose into her line of
vision and hovered close to her cheek. “Touching you, however…”

Katie swallowed as she watched his hand trace
the lines of her face, remaining just above her skin. It seemed a
trail of light followed its path and she held her breath,
waiting.

“Actually,” he continued, “it’s the not
touching you I have a problem with.” His voice was low and husky,
just above a whisper, but Katie heard every word as if he’d shouted
it in her ear. “Every time I’m with you all I can think about
is…touching you.”