Lacy (26 page)

Later, she sat down at the desk and wrote to her
mother and to Cole, making up lies about why she couldn't come home. It took a
long time, because she didn't want her tears to soak the paper....

Cole made no remark at all about his letter, but
Marion showed hers to Lacy with tears in her eyes.

"Doesn't she care?" Marion asked
piteously. "Doesn't she understand what Cole told her?"

Lacy hugged her close. "You know Katy loves
you," she said soothingly. But she was worried. She knew Katy as well as Marion
did. Katy loved her mother, and she wasn't selfish or uncaring. Something was
wrong; she could feel it. Katy was hurt or in trouble and wouldn't tell anyone.
Lacy only wished she could do something, at least find out what the trouble
was. But she knew, as Katy probably did, that Cole would be on the way to Chicago at the first hint of trouble in Katy's life. She didn't want him hurt, and Lacy
certainly didn't. Mobsters were dangerous, and they killed without compunction.
Lacy didn't want her husband to be another victim of the gang wars.

But as the weeks went by, Katy's life worsened.
She hadn't actually seen him use it, but she'd overheard his men talking about
his increased drug habit. She was on the receiving end of a kind of cruelty
she'd never even read about. She was afraid that one night Danny might go too
far and kill her. Her only compensation was that he hit her where it didn't
show, so that Blake Wardell didn't get suspicious. She couldn't forget what
Blake had threatened to do to Danny if he hit her again. She didn't want him to
know. She couldn't bear to see Blake hurt.

Blake had become a fixture in her life, to
Danny's delight. He took her to the theater, to the ballet. He squired her
around town and took her to the best restaurants, the best parties. He taught
her to fit in and treated her royally. He bought her presents. She grew drunk
on his kindness, because Danny was never kind.

She grew drunk on gin, too. It was the only
thing that kept her going, made life bearable since the miscarriage.

She forced her mind not to dwell on it. No one
at the ranch would know, anyway. She couldn't go home to see her dying mother
without risking death herself. Perhaps if she drank enough, she could kill
herself. That would end the anguish of living. But it would hurt so many
people. She ground her teeth together. There was just no escape.

Blake had taken her to a particularly good
nightclub, and she was pretty high when they left.

"You drink too much these days," he
said as they drove away in his chauffeured limousine. "It isn't good for
you."

"Nothing is," Katy said drowsily. She
leaned her head back. "I hate my life. I hate it all."

Blake pulled her close, his very size comforting
as her cheek pressed against his broad chest. "Leave him," he said
abruptly. "I'm no prize, but I love you. At least I wouldn't hurt
you."

She nuzzled closer. "I know that."

He hesitated. "Katy, Danny put a girl in
the hospital a few months ago. When he's on dope, he's a different man. He went
back to it just after he married you." His eyes narrowed at her sudden
stiffness. "He doesn't leave bruises where they can be seen, but I bet
you've got marks all over you."

She looked up at him, pleading. '"You
mustn't do anything," she said huskily. "You know how crazy he is! He
might kill you!"

"That isn't likely."

"He wants something from you, doesn't
he?" she asked, because Danny had mentioned it in a lucid moment. "A
cut of my business," he agreed. "And I'm the collateral."

He cocked an eyebrow. "How long have you
known?"

"Danny told me himself." She laughed
unsteadily. "He told me to play ball or else."

One eye narrowed. "Do you want to.. .play
ball?"

She sighed, laying her head against his hard arm
while she studied him. He was very much a man, and she
did
want
him. She wanted to let him love her one time.
To
have a man be kind to her would be a real novelty. Danny would know because
she'd tell him, and maybe he wouldn't beat her again. Beyond that, it would
repay Blake for all his kindnesses to her. She was so busy giving herself
reasons to allow it that she pushed the real one to the back of her mind—that
she wanted him, too, because there was a very special tenderness in their
relationship that she'd never experienced, even with Turk. Of course, Turk
hadn't loved her. Not as Blake did.

"It wouldn't be any hardship for me to
sleep with you, Blake," she said softly. "I think you've known that
all along. You're very special to me."

"That poor blind fool back in Texas," he said softly, his cheeks flushing with feverish desire. He drew her up
against him and kissed her, his mouth exquisitely loving.

She'd always enjoyed kissing Blake. Every time
it was different. Mostly his kisses were comforting or affectionate. But this
one was more. This one, besides being warm and respectful, was deeply arousing.

The gin made her even more receptive than she
would normally have been to his tenderness. She put her arms around his neck
and didn't even protest when he got a little rough. He wouldn't be cruel to
her. He couldn't be. He loved her too much.

He had the driver take her home. The house was
dark, because Mama Marlone was spending the weekend with her sister in New Jersey. Danny was out, she supposed.

Blake told the chauffeur to go home and he went
inside with Katy.

"Danny might come home
..."
she began worriedly.

He took off his coat and helped her out of hers,
then he swung her up easily in his arms and started up the stairs. "Danny
wouldn't interrupt us," he said simply.

He was probably right. She didn't care anyway.
She was feeling the gin. Her head was floating. Blake was strong and warm and
he loved her. She felt cloud high.

She let Blake undress her, enjoyed feeling like
a desirable woman again. He whispered how lovely he found her, touched her
white body as if he'd never seen a woman undressed. His mouth was reverent on
her swollen breasts, his hands warm and expertly arousing. She trembled with
need long before he pulled away from her to undress. But when he started to
take off his own clothes, she averted her face.

"Still shy?" He chuckled. "You're
one in a million."

She was staring at the closet, there was
something odd about the slant of the door, but before she could decide what it
was, Blake was in bed beside her, the white sheet just covering his hips as he
turned toward her.

He was bigger close up, more threatening without
his clothes. He was hairy and dark-skinned, not flabby at all. Katy touched his
wide shoulders and met his eyes, fascinated by the tenderness in them. Turk had
been tender. Turk! Oh,Turk, she thought guiltily, and put her mouth hungrily
against Blake's to blot out the guilt.

Her ardor threw Blake off-balance, but he
recovered after a few seconds. He'd wanted her for a long time. He adored her.
He wasn't going to rush through such a delectable interlude.

He took his time, kissing her softly for several
minutes before he felt her relax and curl into his body. Then he began to touch
her, caress her. He pulled the sheet away and looked at her again, pleased with
the soft contours of her body, with the soft thrust of her pretty pink breasts.
He smiled as he bent to excite them with his mouth, his teeth, his tongue. She
liked it. She began to writhe, and then his mouth went quickly down her body.
With his lips, he found her where no other man, not even Turk, ever had, and
made her gasp.

"No!" she protested as the sensations
ran over her like fire.

"Yes," he replied, and kept on.

She cried out with the throbbing pleasure. When
he felt her helpless arching, he moved between her legs and pushed himself into
her. She opened her eyes and gasped at the size of him.

"Shh," he whispered. He was still,
very still, giving her time to adjust to him, to relax again.

"Oh, my.. .God!" she cried brokenly.
"I won't.. .be able to..."

"Yes, you will, sweetheart. Easy, now.
Don't be afraid of me. I won't hurt you. I love you, Katy. I love you so
much!" He brushed his lips softly against hers, his hand moving down her
soft breast to her hip, her thigh, and then in between their bodies. He kissed
her. At the same time, he began to touch her, bringing back the hot excitement
that the shock of intimacy with him had made cold.

Seconds later, her taut muscles began to give,
and he let her absorb him until she took as much as she could. No woman had
ever been able to take all of him.

She looked into his eyes, staggered.

"Don't worry,"he said softly.
"I'd never hurt you. Let me satisfy the urgency, then I'll satisfy you.
All right?That's it. Just settle into the mattress and try not to panic. I know
how badly I could hurt you if I'm not careful. But I will be. That's it,
Katy," he whispered softly as he felt her relax. "You're so lovely.
I've never wanted anyone as much."

He smiled as she lay looking at him. His big
body shifted very gently, so that he was barely rocking against her. He bent
and kissed her warmly, a groan tearing out of his throat as he felt the
pleasure beginning at the very base of his spine. He loved her. Nothing had
ever been so sweet!

His face darkened, distorted as the gentle
rhythm spurred him to sudden, harsh completion. He ground his teeth together
and shuddered, a sobbing cry passing his lips as he let go. She was every dream
he'd ever imagined! He repeated her name, shivering with pleasure that never
seemed to lose its keen edge.

Katy felt him throbbing deep in her body. She
held him close, her breath catching as the helpless shudders tossed him in her
arms. "Oh, Blake," she whispered when he finally lifted his head and
she saw his eyes.

"Are you shocked?"he asked, shaken.
"Haven't you ever watched?"

"No," she whispered. She touched his
damp, flushed face, his disheveled hair. "Oh, I never dreamed a man could
be so gentle!" she said huskily.

"How could I be anything else with
you?" he asked unsteadily. His dark eyes smiled at her. He bent, brushing
his lips over her taut face. "It takes a long time for you, doesn't
it?" he asked, his voice husky with satiation, his face damp with sweat.
"You gave me completion. Now I'll give it to you. I want you to feel what
I just did, to know the glory of being loved down to your soul."

She closed her eyes and held him closer. Turk
had never loved her, he'd had sex with her. But Blake
did
love
her. She could love him back. She could, for this one night. "Blake—"
she began.

"Don't talk." He shifted so that he
could find her breasts with his mouth. He was very skillful, thorough and
generous in a way Katy, with her inexperience, had never known. But it wasn't
his skill that made her tremble with desire, it was the knowledge that he loved
her, that her pleasure was everything to him right now. She lay back and gave
in to him completely, enjoying the feverish pleasure he was giving her fluid
body. She was very attracted to him, and she did genuinely care about him. She
could
love
him!

He kindled her body into savage excitement so
unexpectedly that she cried out in fear as he went into her. The shock of his
possession was so overwhelming that she convulsed with hot pleasure, her cries
like music to the man above her. His jaw tautened and he laughed deep in his
throat as he watched her shudder and convulse, her wild eyes meeting his as she
surrendered to the ecstasy he was giving her. He almost went over the edge, but
he managed to pull himself back in the nick of time.

She pleaded with him not to stop, her voice
breaking as she clutched at him, coaxing him back into her arms. She felt
insatiable, drunk on fulfillment, and he couldn't resist her. He took her,
shivering, from one silver peak to another, from one plane of ecstasy to an
even longer one. She wept and clung to him, her eyes closed and nothing in her
mind except Blake's delicious sorcery as she felt the shudders lifting her,
illuminating her, satiating her in physical joy. She arched up into his taut
body and screamed. Blake said something, his body giving way finally to its own
anguished need. She felt him shaking above her, but she was so exhausted that
she barely heard his hoarse cries.

Someone was watching her. She felt it even in
the exhausted lethargy of pleasure that consumed her. Her eyes opened as the
last shudders began to die away and she saw Danny, standing just outside the
closet, watching. His face was sweaty, his eyes glazed. She stiffened,
horrified.