Dreamkeepers (13 page)

“He’s right, sweetheart,” Jonathan said. “It’s out of the question.”

Jonathan and Mike were agreeing on something—and against her! She wanted to be angry, but instead felt relief. “Well, if that’s the way you feel about it . . .” She gave them both a mocking smile and got up from the table. “I’ll take my ideas to the dishpan. That’s one idea you’ll both approve of, I’m sure.” Both men laughed and suddenly Kelly was almost happy.

“I’ll help you.” Jonathan began to clear the table. “About tonight, Mike. What do you suggest we do about . . .”

“I’ll stay in the lodge tonight,” he said quickly. “I can’t do much to fill in for Clyde, but I can stay up here nights.”

“Do we have to socialize with the guests?” Jonathan asked when he brought a load of dishes to the sink.

“I can do that, too,” Mike said with a grin. “There’s a cute little blonde in there who’s been giving me the eye.”

Kelly could scarcely believe the evening had ended so pleasantly. The weather was cold, hovering around the zero mark, when she and Jonathan walked down the snow-packed path to her cabin. Charlie came bounding out to meet them, the ever present, battered frisbee in his mouth. He headed straight for Jonathan.

Later, when Jonathan lifted the blankets, slid into bed beside her, and took her flannel-gowned body in his arms, she made no protest. She was so tired. She snuggled against his warm body and was asleep almost instantly.

CHAPTER TEN

M
ARTY AND TRAM
arrived with the announcement that they had been married the day before in Fairbanks.

“We decided we didn’t need that little piece of paper to stay together,” Marty explained. “Then as long as we didn’t need it, we thought we might as well get it.”

Mike glowered at his sister, yanked a box out of the utility truck, and carried it to the cabin where she and her new husband would live. Tram had already disappeared inside and Jonathan was at the lodge.

“It’s a shock to Mike that you’re all grown up,” Kelly explained with a laugh.

“Gripes! I don’t know why it should be. We’re the same age. All three of us, as a matter of fact. The best thing for him would be to find himself a woman!” Marty picked up one of the suitcases and reached for a smaller one. “Let’s leave the rest of this for Tram and get in out of the cold.”

Tram was a tall, thin man of thirty. His hair was thick and curly, a warm, golden toffee color. He was attractive in an unconventional way. The sudden smile that came over his face when he looked at Marty plainly said he adored her, which endeared him to Kelly immediately.

“Mike said your husband is here. Is he going to stay?” Marty shrugged out of her coat and dumped it on a chair. She was a slender girl with full breasts and narrow hips. She raised her straight brows and her wide mouth tilted into a grin. “I’m anxious to meet the fabulous Jonathan Templeton. I saw his picture in
Newsweek
a couple of months ago.”

“What was that all about?” Kelly asked quietly.

“He resigned as chairman of the board of some big company and turned over the management of several other companies. I don’t know anything about business, but it was something like that. The stock market did something or other when that happened.” She looked closely at Kelly. “What’s a man like him doing here? Are you going back to him?”

“I’m not going back
with
him, if that’s what you mean. And as to what he’s doing here, he says he’s going to stay and help us run the resort.” Kelly’s voice dropped on the last word and Marty shook her head sadly.

“Are you still in love with him?” When Kelly didn’t answer, she said, “You are! Well then, what’s the problem?”

“I don’t know if I love him or not. Sometimes I think I do and other times I know I don’t. We don’t fit, that’s the crux of the whole thing. I was out of my depth, Marty. The months I spent in Boston were the most miserable of my life. I can’t explain it. I was a different person there and so was the man I married. I was afraid to move in case I did something wrong. His friends made it clear I was an intruder. His sister despised me. And he became cold and remote. It was awful!”

“How is he now?”

“At first he was belligerent. Now he seems more relaxed and at times I think he enjoys himself.”

“Do you sleep with him?” Marty asked bluntly.

Kelly’s tongue moistened her lips. “Yes, I do.”

Marty’s blue eyes grew warm. “You crazy girl! I know you wouldn’t sleep with him unless you cared for him!”

“Jonathan isn’t an easy man to refuse.” Kelly lifted stricken eyes.

Marty whistled. “Hell’s bells!”

“Did you whistle for me, lover?” Tram came in and planted a kiss on Marty’s mouth.

“Would you come running if I did?”

“Try me,” he said, and pinched her bottom.

“Did Mike leave?” Kelly asked.

“Just a minute ago.” Tram sat down to take off his boots and Marty hung up his coat.

“The blockhead! Now I’ll have to walk up to the lodge. You two come on up around six-thirty and we’ll have a before-dinner drink. I made a special dinner for your homecoming, if Jonathan hasn’t let the fire go out in the cookstove.” Kelly pulled her yellow wool hat down over her ears and wound her red scarf about her neck. “I’ll leave you lovebirds alone.”

Out in the crisp cold she walked with head down toward the lodge. She felt rather depressed about her own situation, but happy for Marty. Marty deserved to be happy. If only she and Tram and Mike could stay here. If only Jonathan hadn’t paid those taxes . . . There she went again, she chided herself. Instead of worrying about the
if onlys,
she should be concerned about the
what ifs.
What if Jonathan told them he was the man in charge here? What if he made Marty feel unwelcome?

Jonathan did neither. He was relaxed, friendly, charming, helpful, and made it blatantly clear that he and Kelly were a team.

“I like him,” Marty said while she and Kelly were cleaning the kitchen. “I can see him as the big business executive, though. He’s very possessive of you, isn’t he? He could scarcely keep his hands off you. I think he’s head over heels in love with you.”

“You’re right about everything up to that point.” Kelly lifted a big bone out of the roasting pan for Charlie. “It wounded his pride when I left him, but love me? . . . He doesn’t! He hasn’t mentioned a word about love. It’s want, want, want, and you’re mine. I won’t be used that way!”

Marty looked at her for a long time before she said, “I wish I had some earth-shaking words of wisdom for you. The only thing I can say is to hang in there. He may change, but I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Count on what?” Her twin came up behind her.

“None of your business, brother. If you’re going to butt in, grab a towel.”

“That’s woman’s work!” He put an arm around each girl. “Never thought I’d get both of my girls back to take care of me. I’ve got the biggest washing, and . . .”

“Chauvinist! Get your own woman!” Marty kissed him on the cheek.

“Good idea. This one’s spoken for,” Jonathan said from behind Kelly. His arm went about her waist and he pulled her back against him.

“Ah . . . ha!” Marty cried. “You’ve lost out again, brother. You should have let me fix you up with Geraldine Jenkins. She can cook fabulous meals, sew, make jerky, tan hides . . .”

“But she’s fat!”

“So? She can go on a diet come spring.”

“By spring she couldn’t get through that door!”

“Complain, complain, complain! Never satisfied, is he, Kelly? Tram! Tram, darling. Come take this brother away and tell him about the birds and the bees so Kelly and I can get this mess cleared away.”

Pulled tightly back against Jonathan, Kelly listened to the light banter between these two people she loved so much. Her husband’s warm breath tickled her ear and his heart thudded against her back. If only he could see Mike and Marty as she did. Why did she have to feel so pulled between him and them?

“Do you want help?” Jonathan asked against her ear. She turned her head slightly and warm lips found the corner of her mouth.

“There isn’t that much to do. Marty and I’ll do it.”

Jonathan removed his arm after a brief squeeze. “Come on, Mike. I know it’s a mind-blowing thought, but I don’t think they appreciate us.”

“Before you go, take this pan out for Charlie.” Kelly held out the deep pan filled with table scraps.

His smile was charming, endearing, and Kelly’s heart did a flip. Jack! Damn . . . she had to stop thinking about Jack.

“Charlie will appreciate me,” Jonathan grumbled and headed for the door.

Minutes later, Kelly and Marty joined the men before a huge fire in the family room. Jonathan was reclining on a bearskin rug with his back to an ottoman and pulled Kelly down beside him. She curled her feet up under her.

“Feet cold? Hold them close to the fire. It’s below zero out there.” His arm tightened around her. Just another way to let everyone else know I belong to him, Kelly thought drily.

“What do you think, Mike?” Tram took up the conversation. “Do we have a level enough space over in that clearing to launch a glider?”

“A glider?” Marty echoed. “You don’t know anything about gliding.”

“That’s what you think, oh sweet one. I’ve had an ache to try my hand at gliding for a long time. Jack’s got a motorized glider.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Marty protested.

“It really isn’t, Marty,” Jonathan said “When I was in Iowa last summer I tried it and got hooked. The young fellow who builds them taught me how to fly in just a few days. You sit under the wing in a harness suspended from the frame. A control bar in front of the harness connects to the rudder with control lines. The pilot controls the glider by shifting his weight. Lean back and it climbs; lean forward and it dives; move to the right, the glider turns right.”

“Still sounds dangerous. How high up do you go? Tram, I’d die of fright if you flew in such a thing!”

Jonathan laughed, and tightened his arm around Kelly. “How about you, honey? Would it frighten you?”

“Depends. It sounds fragile.”

“It is. It’s only a hundred and fifty pounds of Dacron and aluminum powered by a fifteen-horse, two-cylinder motor. I figure we could put skis on it and pull it with the snowmobile to get it started. Think that would work, Mike?”

“It will if twenty-five miles an hour will get you airborne.” Mike’s eyes shone with interest.

“That should do it. The contraption is still packed in crates. You fellows will have to help me assemble it.” Jonathan laughed. “Mechanics is not my long suit.”

“We can put it together if we have the instructions.” Mike’s blue eyes were now dancing with enthusiasm.

“I still think you’re crazy,” Marty said. “It’ll be too damn cold to work on the thing until spring.”

“We can work in the shed,” Mike said. “We’ve got an old potbellied wood stove I can set up. It will be warm enough for us to work.”

“1 knew it,” Marty groaned. “Just mention putting a model together and he’s off like a shot. Remember, Kelly, when he spent hours and hours on his darned old models and wouldn’t play with us?” She put her hand on the top of Tram’s head. “Darling, I don’t want you to fall out of that thing and land on this.”

Tram laughed and grabbed her hand. “I promise I’ll fall in a snowbank. How’s that?”

“Kelly and I will be going to Anchorage in a few days,” Jonathan said in the lull that followed. “While we’re there, I’ll have the glider kit sent out. We should see about bringing Bonnie back, too. Her leg is in a cast, but she’ll be able to get around. What do you think, sweetheart? Can they manage without us for a few days?”

“I guess they’ll have to,” Kelly said drily. He’d done it again, she thought bitterly. He’d won over Tram and Mike with the glider and then mentioned the trip to Anchorage in a way that made it impossible for her to refuse.

They walked silently down the snow-packed path to their cabin and Kelly went to take a shower as soon as she hung up her coat. She had to admit it was nice to have hot water any time she wanted it. She stood beneath the warm stream and let the tension wash out of her. Later in bed she listened to the hiss of the water as Jonathan took his own shower. How could he possibly be content to stay in this primitive place? Why was he doing it?

She was still wondering about it when Jonathan got into bed and pulled her against his naked chest.

“Did the shower warm you up?” he asked, nuzzling her face with his lips. “Come on now. Admit it’s nice to take a hot shower after coming in out of the cold.”

“I never said it wasn’t nice. I said we couldn’t afford to run the electric tank all day. When you don’t have much money, you have to be careful how you spend it.”

“You don’t have to be careful, darling. How can I make you understand that?”

“You can’t.” Her voice came out in a shaken whisper because his lips were tormenting the hollow at the base of her throat. The old familiar excitement was beginning to throb through her blood. Holding her breath so that she couldn’t smell the scents of his hair and skin, she willed herself to lie perfectly still and not respond.

“You didn’t have much to say about the trip to Anchorage.” His lips had moved on to tantalize the tender swell of her exposed breast.

“You didn’t give me any choice.”

“Don’t you want to see a doctor about birth control?” His thumb stroked her nipple, sending a shiver of fierce pleasure through her body.

“Yes!” she said fiercely. “But I wouldn’t need to see a doctor if you . . .”

He cut off her words with his lips. “Hush! I can’t do that. Don’t ask me to do the impossible.” He made a hoarse sound and rolled on top of her, pushing her slender body into the softness of the bed.

Kelly couldn’t hold back a groan of satisfaction that seemed to come from the pit of her stomach. Her heart was racing, her blood thundering in her ears. Her body was so taut she felt she would explode with the agony of wanting him.

Hungrily his mouth explored her parted lips, making them quiver in eager response until her own mouth opened to the sweet taste of his kisses. She touched his bare chest, his back, her hands possessive, stroking the tense muscles, hearing the blood pound in her ears, deafening her. Their kisses became harder as their naked bodies strained against each other. Kelly was terrified of the fire burning deep inside her. For a fleeting moment she considered pushing him away from her. But his body had hardened in intolerable desire, forcing her to feel the urgency of his need against her lower limbs. His hands moved down to cup her buttocks and she lost the power to resist him.