His Girl Friday (17 page)

She said her good-nights and went into her room, closing the door quietly. Monday she was going to start looking in the want ads for another job, she decided bit erly. She'd had al she could stand of her blow-hot-blow-cold bos , and she wasn't having any affairs with him. Her eyes narrowed as she got into her pale lemon-yel ow, see-through gown. It had been an impulse purchase, because she'd fal en in love with the lacy low-cut garment the minute she saw it. Not that anyone would ever see her in it, she sighed, looking at her slender, sexy body in the mirror. But it did look sharp on her. She laid her matching robe over a chair and climbed into bed. It took forever for her to get to sleep. She'd tried not to think about what had happened earlier, although it stil stung. But she'd only been asleep for a few minutes when a shout woke her.

She heard it in the back of her mind and sat straight up. Maybe she was imagining things, she thought as she lisle ned.

"Help!"

No, there it was again, and unles she was going deaf, it was Cabe.

She put on her robe and went sleepily down the hal to his room. His door was open a crack and she could hear voices across the hal as she walked into Cabe's bedroom and stopped dead.

There was a smal bedside lamp burning. Norman was at I he foot of Cabe's bed in his at ack position, with his dewlap down and his tail raised, looking ferocious—like a miniature iguanodon. Cabe, without a stitch of clothing on, was standing on the bed near the headboard, backed against the wal , brandishing a lamp that was companion to the one on the other side of the bed.

Danet a's shocked eyes lingered on his muscular, hair-roughened body for a staggering minute. She'd never seen a real live nude man in her life, and Cabe was just devastating. He was al man, and so sensuous that she had to drag her eyes away from him. Darkly tanned skin, even where swimming trunks would have been, long muscular legs, flat stomach..

"Norman!" she chided with her hands on her hips, forcing her eyes to stay on her pet.

The lizard didn't move. She sighed. Wel , immediate action was cal ed for. "Now Norman," she said quietly. She approached slowly and began to pet him, talking softly as she slid a hand under his body and lifted him gently. He whipped his tail, but after a minute, his dewlap began to go down and he relaxed, looking faintly bored instead of viciously homicidal.

Cabe had moved off the bed and found a robe, whipping it around his nude body.

"He's al right now," she as ured him, glancing hesitantly his way to make sure he was covered.

"He's al right," he muttered, glaring at the reptile. "My God, I thought my number was up! I felt something cold and clammy against my foot and—"

"Clammy?" she gasped. "Norman is not clammy.. !"

"—when I turned on the light, there was the Irish lizard practicing for the Darth Vader award!"

"He's just a baby, he wouldn't have hurt you," she defended.

"Like fun he wouldn't!" He righted the lamp that he'd laid on the bedside table.

"You weren't going to hit him with the lamp!" she exclaimed.

"No, I was going to throw it at him," he corrected darkly.

"Oh, shame on you!" she accused. "Why didn't you just get a newspaper and shoo him out?"

"Because I couldn't be sure that he wouldn't eat the newspaper for supper and me for des ert!"

"He doesn't eat people!"

"How do you know? Have you counted your relatives and neighbors lately?"

Eugene and Cynthia eased inside the room, looking from the lizard in Danet a's hands to Cabe's outraged expression.

"He escaped?" Eugene mused.

"Yes, he escaped, right out of Nicky's bedroom and into mine!" Cabe thundered. "He tried to climb me!"

"Weren't you nervous?" Cynthia exclaimed. " Cabe shifted. "A lit le," he admit ed.

"He was standing in the middle of the bed yel ing his head off," Danet a muttered.

"I was not!" Cabe shouted. "I was trying to get in the best position to heave the lamp at him!"

' How barbaric," Eugene murmured. "Poor Norman."

"He can't stay in the house," Cabe said doggedly. "I won't sleep next door to that creature."

"I'l put him out in the garage," Danet a said. "Is Nicky sleep?"

"Snoring," Cynthia said gently. "He never wakes up at night. He won't mis Norman."

"Wil he be warm enough out there?" Eugene asked, downing. "Suppose you close the game-room door and lint it off from the garage?" he suggested. "You can turn up (he thermostat and he'l stay toasty warm."

"If you wouldn't mind," Danet a replied.

"Not at al . Cabe can show you how the door works," he added. "It's tricky."

"Could you. . ?" Danet a began.

"I'm not afraid of the damned lizard," Cabe said defensively. "Come on."

She shrugged and went down the hal with Cabe. Cynthia and Eugene went back into their bedroom chuckling fend closed the door.

"They'l laugh for weeks," Cabe muttered. He glared at Danet a. "You and your at ack lizard."

"He isn't an at ack lizard." She followed him into the garage. It was cold outside, but once they were in the game loom and he shut it off from the garage, the chil was les noticeable.

Danet a put Norman gently in the cage and closed it, rubbing her arms. The robe wasn't much thicker than her gown, and she was cold. Cabe had turned up the thermostat and switched on a smal light. He was watching her, his pale eyes intent on the soft curves of her body through the thin fabric.

"You needn't get any ideas," she said shortly. "I didn't wear this gown for your benefit."

"I wish you had," he said with a heavy sigh. "It would mean you weren't stil hurt by what I said to you this morning."

"What do you care if I was hurt?" she asked, turning away. "You don't want me except in bed." He stuck his hands into the pockets of his dark robe. "That's what I said, wasn't it?" he asked bit erly. He sat down on the comfortable sofa and pulled a cigaret e from his pocket to light.

"Yes," she replied, ducking her head. "And I've decided that you're right. The best thing is for me to get another job. I can start looking Monday morning—"

"No!" he ground out. "Not yet."

She glanced at him nervously. "Why not? The sooner I go, the bet er!"

He blew out a thick cloud of smoke impatiently. He'd started this mes , now he had to find some way to calm things back down until he could decide how to handle it. "Not yet," he repeated doggedly. "Give it a couple of weeks. We've got to sort out your burglar first."

"Oh. I'd forgotten about him," she said, wil ing to use any excuse not to have to leave him. It was going to tear her heart out. He probably wouldn't even mis her. With a long sigh she sat down at the other end of the sofa. "Eugene said you had something planned, and that Jenny is coming home tomorrow." He took another draw from the cigaret e and abruptly crushed it out. The action caused his robe to open in front, giving Danet a a much-too-revealing look at his chest and stomach. She averted her eyes, shaking al over with the need to be held and loved by him. The longing was so strong that she was amazed he couldn't see it, but he wasn't looking at her. "We're going to stake out your apartment., I'l explain it to you when Jenny gets there. It's rather complicated, but it should solve your problems." She nodded. Her biggest problem was sit ing two feet away, but she knew he wasn't going to offer any quick solutions to that one. "You and your brother seem to be get ing along bet er," she said to break the tense silence.

"Yes, we are. He's a fine boy. I was thinking this afternoon that it wouldn't be unpleasant at al to have a son of Bay own." He glanced at her. "How do you feel about children?" She shifted. "I like them." She twisted the skirt of her own gown and robe nervously. "How are you going to have children when you don't want to get married?"

"I gues I'd have to get married." His pale eyes glanced over her, kindling as he noticed the way the soft yel ow fabric clung to her exquisite body." She swal owed. "To Karol?"

"Can you see Karol risking her figure to give me a child?"

She smiled faintly. "If she loved you, yes." "Then you think a woman would want the risk if she loved a man?" he persisted quietly. She nodded. He lifted his head, staring at her with eyes that faintly smoldered. "Then why don't you come over here and let me put your body under mine on this sofa, and we'l make love." Her eyes almost popped as they sought his, and she went scarlet. "I don't think I heard you.. "

"Yes, you did," he said quietly. "You just got through saying that you like babies. So do I. Let's make one." She got to her feet, shaking al over with reaction. "You're out of your mind____You don't want commitment, you said so, you don't want. . Cabe!" He'd reached out during her rambling speech and caught her behind the legs. She tumbled into his arms and he eased her down beside him. In the struggle, his robe had opened even more, and she got the same eyeful she'd had in his bedroom. It knocked the breath right out of her, and she couldn't seem to drag her eyes away from his deeply tanned, hair-roughened muscles.

"This is superfluous," he said quietly, shouldering out of the robe. "You know what I look like by now."

"This is crazy," she whispered as she fought to hold on to her sanity.

"Not if you love me, Dani," he said, his voice deep and solemn. "If you do, and it's more than just an infatuation, I'm going to ease you out of your gown and robe and we're going to have each other right here. I don't know of any bet er way to convince you that I'm not afraid of commitment than by get ing you pregnant deliberately."

"What wil your father and stepmother say?" she exclaimed in desperation.

"Oh, that's a dandy lit le story. Remind me to tel you al about it one day." His hands were on her robe. "Tel me. Yes or no." She trembled at his touch, her eyes like saucers. She hadn't counted on this, hadn't thought that it might happen.

"I'm scared," she confes ed in a tiny whisper.

"So am I," he replied unexpectedly. "I suppose it's natural when two people make this kind of commitment to each other. You do understand that I'm talking about marriage, not living together? In that respect, I'm pret y old-fashioned myself."

"You might regret it later," she faltered. "It might be just a physical thing, the novelty of my innocence."

"Let's find out." He began to remove her robe and gown, hesitating for an instant to make sure she wanted it. But she didn't protest. He eased the fabric away from her body, catching his breath when al the creamy pink and while contours were revealed to his fascinated eyes. He lay In-1 looking at her for a long time, not even touching her.

"You're blushing," he whispered when he was final y able to look into her eyes.

"I've never done this," she said with a painful smile. "It's more difficult than I thought not to grab for something to cover myself with."

"Why?" he asked gently. "You're exquisite. Like a delicate oil painting, in a very private gal ery, for my eyes only." He brushed his hand over her shoulder lightly, feeling her tremble. "But a painting that I can touch. Here. And here."

His fingers drew over her breasts with slow, painfully sweet expertise, down to her flat stomach, her hips, her long legs. He kis ed her in a way he never had, with such breathles tendernes that she relaxed completely.

"You're going to have to trust me completely, you understand that, don't you?" he whispered at her lips. "Because this is going to involve a kind of touching that you've never experienced, an intimacy that may shock you some-limes. Can you lie stil under my hands and give me that freedom without fighting me and yourself?"

"I. .think so," she whispered back. Her eyes searched his. She was already trembling from the sweetnes of his lonch, but even as she looked up at him, his hand moved down her body, and he held her gaze while he began to discover her in a frightening way.

He kis ed her tenderly, tasting the soft gasp that escaped BJr throat. "I won't hurt you," he said tenderly. "I won't have to." He smiled against her lips when she tautened and Shivered. "I hope you don't mind having the lights on, lit-i It-one," he said as he deepened the kis , "because I want lo watch you," Those were the last words that registered in her mind for I long time. He played her like a divine instrument, with his hands and his mouth, his tongue, even his teeth, while her heartbeat grew as loud and heavy as his, her faint trembling echoed in his powerful body as he guided her hands and aroused her body to a real y frightening pitch. He was lying beside her, not over her, and that position didn't change even when his hand slid to her hips and^ brought them into his with firm purpose.

"Open your eyes," he whispered, seeking and finding her drowsy gaze as he slid one long leg gently between hers and pulled her to him with incredible intimacy. She stiffened and he moved. "Steady, now," he whispered. "Let go. Don't be afraid, it's only going to hurt for a second." He | moved again. She cried out softly, but her body accepted his almost at once, and his hand enforced the total pos ession of his body as he brought her hips to set le completely against his. She shivered. "It's. . so intimate," she whispered, stil looking at his face. "Is. . is it over?" she asked, because! she didn't know. He smiled, and shook his head, indulgent even as his own j body went rigid and shuddered with its terrible need. "It's only beginning," he whispered, and his mouth covered hers.

There was a rhythm. It shocked her with its incredible j pleasure, because every time he moved, terribly sweet sensations knifed through her taut stomach and up her spine. She bit his shoulder, his chest, her hands smoothing down his hairy chest and loving the way his legs rippled when she did. She could feel every beat of his heart, every rough sigh of his breath, every movement he made.

He was holding back, she knew, for her sake, and it touched her even more deeply. She began to move against j him, trying to echo his own soft rhythm, feeling it slow and deepen as the first staggering tension racked her and dragged a high-pitched cry out of her throat.

"Soon," he ground out at her ear. "Soon, soon, soon.. !" He groaned harshly and she felt his teeth against her upper arm. "God, I can't. . get close. . enough.. !" But he did, because the world around them dis olved in it molten red furor of movement and sound. She felt her body become rigid just seconds before his, and the tension broke in a staggering rush of heated pleasure that left her weeping in his powerful arms.