Love Will Find a Way (24 page)

"Forgive me?” Robert echoed incredulously. “For what, I've never done anything to Kevin."

"Maybe not.” There was no maybe to it. Robert's trespass had been against Emily, not Kevin. “But Kevin thought you had until Dennis convinced him differently."

"So I should thank the man who's trying to steal my wife away from me?” Robert asked caustically.

As they walked down the hall toward the elevator, Emily snapped, “I'm not your wife."

Robert was past hearing her. A mounting rage lay just below the veneer of his controlled exterior. “Don't you know what Dennis Morrison is trying to do?” He held the elevator door open.

Emily got into the cage and Robert followed her inside. “Reverend Morrison isn't ‘trying to do’ anything. He and his daughters think of me as family."

Over the clang of the closing door, Robert hissed, “Little by little the man is seducing you away from me."

If he only knew how platonic her friendship with Dennis really was, “If you think Dennis has some ulterior motive in being kind to me, you're wrong.” The elevator sped downward and stopped. “And I am as fond of Kim and Amy as if they were my own children."

"The daughters you never had?” Robert followed Emily into the hallway. “How very nice."

A nurse came from behind the lobby desk and walked toward them. “Unless you have some reason to be here, you should go."

Robert assured her, “We're leaving.” He took Emily's arm. “Tomorrow you and I are going to have a long talk."

Emily stepped through the lobby door. “I have nothing more to say to you.” The cool night air blew across her burned face and penetrated her thin blouse, making her shiver.

"Then maybe, for a change, you'll listen to what I have to say.” Robert guided her across the parking lot and to his car.

Chapter 12

Muscles Emily didn't even know she had twenty-four hours ago, were aching unmercifully. Tossing her handbag on Robert's couch, she kicked off her shoes and sank into the nearest chair. “I'll sleep on the couch. It's too small for you."

Robert closed the door and secured the lock. “It makes into a bed.” He nodded toward a door at the other end of the room. “The bathroom's that way, through the bedroom."

Emily was too tired to move. “You go first.” It occurred to her that she had nothing to sleep in. “Do you have an old shirt I can borrow?"

Robert strode toward the bedroom. “I'll find something.” He returned carrying sheets, a pillow, a blanket and a frayed-at-the-cuffs denim shirt. He pitched the shirt in Emily's direction and dumped the bedding on the floor beside the couch.

Emily caught the shirt. “Thanks.” She laid it across her lap.

Robert pulled a handle at the base of the couch. “Go on to bed.” A mattress unrolled and stretched into full view. “You'd better put something on your face. It looks like it's going to peel."

Emily ran her fingers across the bridge of her sore nose. The skin felt rough and hot. “It's been a long time since I was this sunburned."

Robert busied himself making the bed. “By now you should know to put on sun screen and wear a hat when you're out in the sun."

"My sunburn's not the worst of my problems.” Emily rolled her head around on the back of her chair. “I played baseball today. My back hurts, my shoulders ache and my legs are sore."

Robert scoffed, “At your age you played baseball?"

Anger brought Emily's head up. “What do you mean, at my age?"

"You're no longer a teenager, even though sometimes you insist on acting like one.” Robert sat on the edge of the bed he had just made. “Take a shower. That will help."

Emily began the painful process of standing. “I'll sleep on the couch. Go to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

"Why must you argue about everything?” Robert stretched out on the bed. “It's almost two in the morning. Goodnight, Emily."

Emily pointed to the couch. “I am sleeping here!” As she flounced from the room, she heard him say, “Like hell."

It occurred to her, as she let the cool spray from the shower wash over her weary, aching body, that arguing was unnecessary and stupid. What difference did it make who slept where? She dried carefully because of her sunburn, wrapped the towel around her wet hair and slipped into Robert's shirt. It was too big. After rolling up the sleeves, she rummaged around in the medicine cabinet, looking for something to put on her sunburned face.

"Need some help?” She turned to see Robert standing in the doorway, barefoot and wearing nothing but a pair of tight jeans.

Emily snapped, “You could have knocked."

"You wouldn't have heard me. You were in the shower.” He came to stand beside her. “Let me look.” Nudging her aside, he searched until he found a tube of ointment. “Aha, just the thing for sore muscles."

How long had he been standing there? Emily decided not to ask. “I was looking for something for my sunburn.” She backed toward the door.

"Would you like me to massage your back and your legs?” His chest rose and fell in rhythm with his shallow breathing.

Almost, she was tempted to take him up on his offer. “No, thank you.” Laying the towel aside, she shook her head vigorously, slinging beads of moisture across Robert's face and bare chest.

He picked up the towel. “Come here.” Pulling her to him, he rubbed her hair with the towel. “I can remember when you loved having me shampoo your hair and give you body rubs."

Emily braced herself against the onslaught of emotions those memories evoked. “I can remember when you loved doing it."

His fingers rubbed across the tightness of her neck. “These muscles are rigid."

"Maybe I did overdo.” Emily turned her head from side to side.

Robert's fingers massaged gently. “You need to relax. Let me give you a good rub down."

Emily didn't object when he led her to the next room and pushed her down on the side of the bed. A little voice in the back of her mind kept whispering that she was playing with fire. She paid no heed. What would have been cause for concern in the logical light of day seemed relatively unimportant in the obscure hours of early morning.

He massaged her calf. “I can feel the tension here and here and here.” His hands moved up and down her leg, kneading, stroking and caressing. As he rubbed along her calf, he kissed her toes, a soft feathery, wisp of a kiss that sent a tingle up her backbone. “Now your back.” He sat beside her and unbuttoned her shirt.

Emily let him slide the shirt off her shoulders. His fingers felt cool against her skin. She lay down and turned on her stomach.

His fingers massaged her neck and then her shoulders. “You always had the softest skin."

The thought that he might be comparing her to Susan brought Emily back to reality with a jolt. She rolled over and sat up. “That's enough."

Robert's arms fell to his side. Passion was etched into every line of his handsome face and if she needed further evidence, the bulge in the front of his jeans provided it. He didn't touch her. But his voice held a wealth of longing and the promise of sweet ecstasy. “I've missed you, Emily, so much. Let me hold you in my arms. Let me show you how much I care, how much I've always cared."

Her response was instant and incandescent. The embers of desire ignited and blazed. Then Robert's lips touched hers and the world faded into nothingness around her. She melted into his arms.

He kissed her with exquisite tenderness. His touch was so gentle, his words so sweet, his wooing so wonderful, that she wanted to weep for joy. It was like ... Suddenly, unexpectedly, the remembrance of that exquisitely terrible night in Wimberly rose like a specter to taunt her. She pulled herself from his embrace. “I can't."

"Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you.” Robert drew her back into his arms. “I love you Emily, only you. You're my world, my life, the heartbeat of my existence."

He had never before spoken such tender words of love, not even when he had been caught in the throes of intense passion. Emily's resistance faded away. She shed her shirt and wrapped her arms around Robert's neck. “I've missed you, too,” she whispered, “So very much.” Pressing her breasts into his chest, she gasped, “I want to feel your body and hold you close to me."

Robert crushed her to him. “Emily, oh, Emily.” His tortured words hung on a gasp of breath. “I was so afraid I'd lost you.” He kissed her passionately and then raised his head. “Are you sure, my darling, that this is what you want?"

At that moment, she had never been surer of anything. Rubbing her hands along the bulging muscles of his back, she whispered, “I'm sure. Make love to me."

A shudder ran the length of his body. “I'll try to be gentle, but I need you so badly. I've waited so long for this moment.” He unfastened his jeans and wriggled from them, tossing them aside as he crawled into bed beside her. “I love you, so very, very much. Tell me you love me, too."

Any answer she might have given was swept away on a flood tide of need and desire. She responded with an ardor that met and matched his. Pulling him down over her, she whispered, “Now, Robert. I need you now."

He entered her body on a burst of power, sending an immediate explosion of sensations blasting through her. With each thrust those sensations escalated and expanded until she was consumed by a skyrocketing burst of ecstasy. Rigor after rigor quaked through her and then receded like the ebbing tide, leaving her spent and sated.

As she floated somewhere in space, Robert detonated inside her. He convulsed in an agony of rapture before collapsing atop her, spent and gasping.

Neither of them spoke as Robert pulled himself from her and rolled to his side. He cradled her into his arms, just as he had done so many times before. His fingertips touched the sides of her face, as if to assure himself that she was really there. At last he muttered, “Sleep, my darling."

And sleep she did. She awoke the next morning to see a late morning sun was beaming through the bedroom windows. Emily rolled over. The space on the other side of the bed was empty. Looking around the room she spied her shirt lying in a crumpled heap by the side of the bed. She retrieved it and slipped her arms into the sleeves. She was struggling with the last button when Robert came through the door carrying two cups of coffee.

He sat beside her on the bed and offered her one of the cups. “Drink this."

Emily wrapped her hand around its warmth. “Thanks.” She took a quick sip of the warm coffee. Had she been a disappointment to him?

Robert set his cup on the table beside the bed. “After we see Aunt Beth we can decide what we're going to do."

"We've already done enough.” Maybe they had done too much. Emily tightened her grip on her coffee cup.

Robert snuggled into the bed beside her and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Maybe we should wait until Kevin is married to talk about retying the knot. We wouldn't want to upstage him.” He hugged her closer and rested his chin on her head. “I was so afraid I'd lost you. Do you think we should call Larry and tell him?"

Emily pulled away. “There's nothing to tell.” She put her hand over the top of her cup and scooted to the other side of the bed. “I have to call Dennis and the twins.” Robert's scowl made her add, “Somebody needs to look after Boo until I can get home."

She set the cup on the table beside the bed and reached for the phone. As she picked up the receiver a collage of photos and snapshots hanging on the wall across from her caught her eye. The receiver slid from her fingers. “All those pictures are of me.” She gasped, “There must be twenty pictures up there.” She pointed. “That was taken when I was barely six years old. Where did you get that snapshot?"

Robert rolled across the bed and sat beside her. “I went through the pictures that were in the attic. I hope you don't mind. I need your presence. Your pictures were as near as I could get to having you."

Emily pointed to a snapshot on the far end of the collage. “That was taken at my high school graduation."

"I had a studio mount each picture and then put them together.” He took her hand in his. “My favorite is you standing by the big oak tree in our back yard. Do you remember the day I snapped it?"

Emily remembered all to well. “You took it on our fifteenth wedding anniversary.” Just before our world began to come apart, she thought. She said, “I'm not that woman anymore."

Robert kissed her fingertips. “We have so many wonderful memories. Can you see now why I didn't want you to throw our past away?"

Emily said with quiet candor. “I know we have a past. I'm not sure that we have a future."

Nothing she said seemed to dampen Robert's high spirits. “After last night, I am sure, very sure."

Emily turned to face him. “About last night—"

He drew her into his arms and kissed her. “Last night was perfect."

Emily couldn't argue that point. “I enjoyed it, too."

Releasing her, he leaned back and frowned. “Enjoyed?"

He was making her uncomfortable. “Well ... Yes.” She clasped her hands in front of her as she stood. “It was very nice."

A sudden anger sent Robert catapulting to his feet. “Don't make light of what happened between us last night. I know it meant as much to you as it did to me."

His fury sparked an answering rage. Emily battled to bring it under control. “At least I didn't say it was a mistake."

"You still want to punish me.” Robert dropped to the side of the bed. “Go ahead, I deserve it. But I know now that you still love me."

The anger she had so far controlled blazed forth. “Like you loved me that night in Wimberly? The next week you filed for divorce."

"Is this your way of telling me you won't marry me again?"

Maybe the magic of first love was thinking that it could last forever. “Good sex between us was the first thing to go when our marriage began to fail. Maybe we can fix that. Maybe we already have. But a host of other problems followed and those problems still exist."

"We can work through them, if we're both willing to try."

"Can we?” Emily asked.

Robert's mouth was a thin contemptuous line. “Is it Dennis Morrison?"

"No.” Emily paused, sorting through her thoughts. “At least not in the way you think.” But to some extent, Dennis was responsible for so many of her doubts, not only about Robert, but also about herself. “I've learned a lot from him. Some things I once thought to be vices, I know now are virtues.” Her smile was enigmatic. “And vice versa."