Temporary Bride (12 page)

"No, Shane!" She jerked her head up and looked at him.
"I'm your wife and I want to stay your wife!"

He kissed her trembling lips lightly and murmured, "We'll
see. Right now we're going to catch up on our sleep."

He stood and pulled her up with him. When they got to the
door of his room, he turned to her and said, "Don't be afraid, I'm not
going to make any demands. I just want you with me. Do you mind?"

She squeezed his hand. "I want to be with you."

They removed their shoes and lay down on the bed fully
dressed. Karen turned toward Shane and he took her in his arms and held
her, close and warm but without passion. She snuggled against him and
he whispered, "Go to sleep, baby, and, please, try not to wiggle!"

Karen woke to the hum of an electric razor and the
splashing of water in the wash basin. She rolled over and reached for
Shane but she was alone in the big bed. She opened her eyes and
realized that he was making the sounds she was hearing. Intimate sounds
that made her smile.

A glance out the window told her that the fog had lifted
and the day was sunny and clear. The hands on her wristwatch pointed to
one o'clock. They'd slept for four hours and she felt marvelous. She
sat up and stretched as the sounds from the bathroom ceased and Shane
came into the room. He looked freshly scrubbed and much more rested.
She held out her arms to him and he sat on the side of the bed and
kissed her. He tasted of wintergreen toothpaste and shaving lotion and
his hands pressed her to him.

"Do you feel better now?"

She nodded. "Yes, do you?"

"Much." He pulled away from her and stood up. "The
bathroom's all yours, but don't be long—lunch is ready."

Mrs. Whitney greeted them, then stayed discreetly in the
background as she served lunch, but Karen could feel the chill of her
disapproval. Without even saying a word she had managed to let Karen
know that she thought Shane had been out of his mind to marry her.
Karen had observed Mrs. Whitney and Audrey deep in conversation at
times and she wondered if Mrs. Whitney was disappointed that Shane hadn't married Audrey.

The housekeeper was quickly forgotten, however, when Karen
realized that she was starving and attacked the fresh garden vegetable
soup that was placed before her. She hadn't eaten since breakfast the
day before. She had been too nervous to do more than nibble at the
wedding and too upset to eat breakfast this morning. There were
breast-of-turkey sandwiches to go with the soup and snow pudding with a
creamy lemon sauce for desert. Shane watched her devour everything with
wry amusement, but she noticed that he wasn't turning anything down
either.

Later they went for a leisurely ride along Seventeen Mile
Drive. At the Spanish Bay picnic area he pulled off the road into a
secluded spot where they could sit and watch the breakers form far out
at sea, then come rolling inward, foamy whitecaps riding the crest to
smash and break with a muted roar against the shore. Shane put his arm
around Karen and they relaxed against the cushioned seat back as he
said, "I want to talk to you, Karen."

A stab of fear splintered and raced through her. Was he
going to tell her he didn't want her anymore? Would he offer her a
bonus for trying and send her on her way? She raised her face to look
at him and he must have seen her fear because his jaw hardened and he
growled, "What is it about me that frightens you so? I've never laid a
hand on you but you look at me like you expect a beating."

She shook her head. "I'm not afraid of
you
,
I'm afraid of what you might do."

"What on earth do you think I'm going to do?"

She buried her face in his chest. "I'm afraid you'll send
me away."

His arms around her drew her close and she could feel his
heart pounding beneath her cheek. With a little groan he spoke into her
hair. "Karen, I don't even pretend to understand you. I thought I was
going to have to convince you to stay with me and you were afraid I'd
send you away. What is it with you? Last night you fought me, screamed
that you hated me, and this morning you curled up and slept with me
with no fear at all."

"I told you—" she murmured.

"I know." He sighed. "You're so damn young! I feel like a
heel taking advantage of you."

Her arms tightened around his waist. "No! You're not
taking advantage of me!"

His fingers caressed the nape of her neck. "Yes I am.
Don't you know that if I had the strength to send you away I'd have
done so that afternoon on the bluff, when I woke and found you sleeping
in my arms. I knew then that you were dynamite and I should get rid of
you, but I couldn't. I know now that the only thing I can decently do
is have this marriage annulled and send you away to school. But I
can't. You're like a fever in me that can't be quenched."

He lifted her head and his lips teased hers, then clung.
Her arms wound around his neck and he turned so he could press the full
length of her body against his. The kiss deepened as their passion
mounted until Shane forcibly pulled himself away from her. His voice
quivered as he said, "Hey, none of that! My self-control is gone after
what you did to me last night, and there's something very important
that I have to discuss with you."

She felt the old fear again and kept her eyes down so
Shane could not see as she said, "What is it?"

"Karen, are you sure you want to go through with this
agreement of ours? It's true I can't send you away but if you want to
change your mind I'll let you go. So far, it's not too late."

She looked at him with wide, pleading eyes. "I want to
have your baby, Shane."

There was a fleeting look of relief on his face as he
said, "All right, then, we'll forget about the wedding ceremony and
start over."

She didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, my wide-eyes little innocent, that I'll forego my
husbandly rights and court you as I should have done earlier."

She blinked. "But—"

He grinned. "Don't argue. I could easily be dissuaded!
I'll move you into the other bedroom of our suite and we'll pretend the
wedding never happened. We'll get to know each other the way we should
have done before."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. The sooner they
consummated their marriage, the sooner she would get pregnant and he
would have his heir. There was only one explanation and she could
hardly bear to ask. "Don't you want me, Shane?"

He took her in his arms again and his voice was husky.
"Oh, I want you Karen—never doubt that—but I'm not
quite the animal you seem to think I am. You have to want me, too." He
let her go and started the engine. "Would you like to go to a movie?"

They found a theater in Monterey that was showing a spy
thriller and afterward they had spaghetti in a tiny restaurant, where
their casual dress was suited to the red-checked table cloths and
dripping candles stuck in wine bottles. Their mood was gay and relaxed
and when they got home Shane helped Karen move some of her things into
the lavender room that had been his mother's. He kissed her good night
and left and she felt curiously bereft.

The next morning she made her bed carefully so the maids
wouldn't know how badly she had failed Shane.

Shane greeted Karen at breakfast with a lingering kiss and
the suggestion that they spend the day exploring the charming community
of Carmel-by-the-Sea, a few miles southeast of them. Karen was
delighted. She'd been to Carmel before with her parents, but Shane was
a resident and knew the 'in' places where tourists were discouraged.

During the morning they toured the small but elegant art
galleries along Ocean Avenue and had lunch in Carmel Plaza, with it's
flowering garden and parklike beauty. Shane chose a French country cafe
specializing in delicious Brittany crepes and omelettes served in true
European fashion. They ordered a sumptuous concoction called a Ni
ç
oise
Omelette, which consisted of fresh zucchini, tomatoes, green pepper and
onion—all prepared in their natural juices then delicately
combined with cheese. Shane drank wine but Karen couldn't resist the
Cafe Viennois: espresso, chocolate, steamed milk and vanilla ice cream
topped with whipped cream.

The breeze died down in the afternoon and the sun felt
warm as they walked to the white sandy beach bordered by rare Monterey
cypress trees. Swimming was prohibited because of the undercurrents,
but they took of their shoes and walked along the icy cold ocean that
occasionally lapped up around their ankles, then pulled back again,
leaving their feet wet and caked with white sand.

They moved away from the ocean and found a secluded spot
behind a boulder that sheltered them from curious eyes. Karen sank down
wearily and Shane dropped down beside her. He took her in his arms and
lowered her to the sand. It was soft, almost like a firm mattress, and
his face was only inches above hers. He brushed the chestnut hair from
her face and murmured, "Are you tired?"

Her hand caressed his cheek as she answered, "A little.
I'm not used to so much walking."

He kissed her eyelids and the tip of her nose, then teased
her lips until, with a little moan of frustration, she took his dark
head in her hands and guided his mouth to hers, then held it there as
their lips clung. His arms tightened and he rolled over, pulling her on
top of him and letting her take the initiative. His cheeks and chin
were rough under her lips but his eyelids were smooth to the flick of
her tongue. His breath came in little gasps as she sought and found the
pleasure points at the side and base of his throat. With a groan he
rolled her off him and sat up, his knees drawn up under his chin and
his arms clasped around his legs.

For a minute Karen lay there stunned, unable to adjust to
the sudden change. She watched Shane sitting there looking out over the
beach, his face an unreadable mask. She sat up and cleared her throat
before she asked, "Shane, what's the matter? Did I do something wrong?"

His look softened and he took her hand and kissed the
palm, then held it against his cheek. "You were doing everything right,
but my self-control is limited, Karen. Another few minutes of that and
we'd have been arrested for outraging public decency!"

She chuckled and leaned over to kiss him lightly. "We
could go home," she breathed.

The light in his eyes told her that he knew what she was
really offering but he made no move to hold her again. Instead he said,
"I'd like that more than you can possibly know, but we'd better not
rush it. I can take cold showers for a few more days. I want you to be
sure."

Karen wanted to tell him that she was sure, that she'd
never been more sure of anything in her life, but she was too shy with
him to put her feelings into words. He had every reason to distrust her
impulsive offer after what she had done to him on their wedding night.
No man would deliberately put himself through that twice!

The next day they went back to Karen's hometown to clear
up some minor business details and give Karen a chance to say goodbye
to some of her family friends. It was there that she found out for the
first time what Shane's business was.

Ted Webster, their next-door neighbor whom she'd known all
her life asked the question, and Shane answered. "We design and build
boats. We have several medium-priced lines but most of our sales are in
modification and custom-built models. We will either modify one of our
standard models or design to the customer's specifications."

Ted, a boat owner himself, prodded further and Shane
continued. "The business was started by my great-grandfather, who built
a boat for himself. Some of his friends liked it and asked him to build
boats for them and pretty soon he was in business. It remained strictly
family for two generations, but by the time my father took over we had
gotten too big and had to sell some stock to the public. However, the
McKittrick family retains the controlling interest and it will be
handed down to my son."

His son, Karen thought to herself with a pang. His son,
not hers.

The next morning they slept late and then drove north on
highway 1 to Santa Cruz, where they spent the afternoon on the
boardwalk at the beach. It was a gaudy, noisy, raucous place with
swarms of people, young and old, in shorts and faded jeans and damp
bathing suits, milling around taking advantage of the last week before
school started again.

Karen fully enjoyed herself. She had hot dogs and soda and
rode the ferris wheel, ate hamburgers and rode the merry-go-round, and
ate cotton candy and rode the roller coaster. They shared a seat on the
sky tram and rode high above the boardwalk from one end to the other,
then walked back by way of the games booths, where they threw balls at
bottles, darts at balloons, and shot guns at moving targets, collecting
numerous garishly colored stuffed animals as they went. When they'd
ridden all the rides and played all the games, they put on their
swimsuits and went swimming in the ocean. The water was cold and they
stayed in only long enough to get wet, then stretched out on the warm
sand and let the sun dry them.

When Karen's light skin began to turn pink Shane announced
that it was time to go. Shane was silent during the drive home and
retreated to his den as soon as he had changed. After dinner, he had
more work to catch up on and some phone calls to make in his office, so
Karen went into the library and started to work on her cataloguing.
She'd left it only partially finished when she got caught up in wedding
plans, and she was anxious to complete it. She loved the library and
the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with books.

The hours flew by and it was ten o'clock when Shane came
looking for her. She got up from her desk and went to him and he folded
her in his arms and nuzzled her neck as he said, "I'm sorry, I didn't
mean to neglect you. There was more work there than I realized and time
got away from me." He kissed her lightly and continued. "Would you like
to go in the den and watch television? You mentioned wanting to see the
movie—"