Her initial fear was replaced by anger, generated by jealousy and frustration. Moving away from the false security of the window, she faced him defiantly, her body straining with suppressed fury. “Get out of here and leave me alone.”
“Oh, no, Mrs. Kirchoff. Not after I’ve risked my life to get here. I’m not about to leave until I’ve done what I came to do.”
Her face paled in spite of her claim to despise him. “You flew out here during this?” She indicated the storm outside. “How?”
“I found a pilot with more greed than good sense and bribed him. I left him in the men’s room at the airstrip. He’s not feeling too well.”
“You were crazy to come here. And you’ve wasted your time and your money and your heroic effort. I don’t want to see you. Please leave my room.”
He laughed wickedly. “No way.”
He took two menacing steps toward her, and to postpone what she now thought to be inevitable, she asked hurriedly, “How did you find me? I didn’t tell anyone where I was going.”
“You have a bad habit of doing that, Mrs. Kirchoff,” he sneered. “This time, you didn’t cover your tracks very well. I’ll admit when I arrived in San Juan and couldn’t find you registered at a hotel, I lost your trail for a while, but it wasn’t too hard to get back on it when I started asking around for a… never mind what I asked for. I’ve found you.” His mouth narrowed into a hard, bitter line. His drenched clothes had formed a puddle around his feet that squished when he came closer to her. “Why did you run away without leaving word with anyone?” His eyes speared into hers, pinning her against the window.
Kathleen swallowed a lump of fear. He wouldn’t hurt her. She knew that. Didn’t she? “I… I was tired. I needed to get away for a while. I was intending to be back by the time you started taping again. Aren’t I entitled to a day off like everyone else?” she asked haughtily.
“Yes, but you were the only one who chose to leave like a sneaking thief in the middle of the night without letting anyone know that you were going. You were the only one who deserted the rest of the crew, leaving the leader of said crew to worry out of his mind. Do you think that’s responsible behavior, Mrs. Kirchoff?”
“Stop calling me that as if it were an epithet!” she snapped. His smile was insolent “Are you ashamed of your name, Mrs. Kirchoff? Or are you ashamed of how you came to have it? Poor old Seth has never been able to sample your wares, has he? For the life of me, I can’t figure out why a decent guy like him bailed you out when you were carrying my baby.”
“Shut up!” She shoved away from the window and moved to a small chest of drawers, keeping her back to him. “Someone like you wouldn’t understand an honorable man like Seth. All men aren’t as spoiled and selfish as you. Nor as base, thinking only of one thing with the single-mindedness of an adolescent boy.”
“What makes you an expert on what I’m thinking? Huh?” He was following her around the room. Each time Kathleen moved, he was behind her, trailing her, stalking her, leaving a wet path behind him.
“If I don’t know what’s on your mind, I’m sure Tamara could tell me. I see she made it back to shore last night without stepping on any sea urchins!” She angrily resumed her original position at the window. The thunder and lightning had stopped, but torrents of rain continued to beat the sand and surf. The wind bent the palm trees to drastic angles.
Erik quirked an inquisitive eyebrow. “You were spying on us?” he asked with amusement.
Kathleen spun around and faced him again, furious. “No! I couldn’t sleep, so I took a walk out on the pier. You certainly weren’t difficult to spot. You obviously weren’t concerned about being observed. Before the scenario became too graphically disgusting. I left.”
“Then you don’t really know what happened, do you?”
“I can guess.”
“Jealous?”
“J—Jealous,” she sputtered. “You must be kidding!”
“No, I’m not. You ran away because you couldn’t stand to see me with Tamara.”
“I couldn’t stand to see two adults acting like… like naughty children! You must have a thing for making love near the water.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Kathleen wished she could recall them. Her bosom heaved with emotion and anger as they stared each other down. Now Erik knew that she remembered—cherished—the time he had made love to her near the river.
He stared at her from under lowered brows and his voice was gruff when he said, “So, you remember.”
Her heart was pounding and she wanted to drag her eyes away from him, but they refused the commands of her confused brain. “Yes.” She ducked her head. “It would have been better if it had never happened.”
“Would it?”
Her head came up with a jerk and she said with feeling, “Yes!”
“We wouldn’t have Theron.”
“Oh,” she sobbed, and turned her back on him once again. Weakly, she leaned into the windowsill for support, though she thought nothing was strong enough to hold the heaviness in her heart. He had said “we.” He was wrong. He didn’t have Theron, she did. She and Seth. Barely above a whisper, she said. “How long are we going to tear at each other this way? Each time we’re together, we try our best to bring pain to the other. I surrender. I’m tired of fighting you, Erik.”
“I didn’t come here to fight.” His voice was close behind her, though she hadn’t heard his approach.
Blood rushed to Kathleen’s head and her eyes closed tightly. “Why did you come after me?”
Erik didn’t answer. For the longest time, she stood there, waiting for his answer, but he wouldn’t honor her silent plea to hear it. Finally, she turned around to face him, tilting her head back to look up into the face hovering above hers. “Why did you come after me?”
“Because I couldn’t let you disappear from my life again. I nearly didn’t survive it the first time,” he rasped. “I’ve got to have you in my life, Kathleen.”
“I’m married.”
“Yes, legally. But that man isn’t your true husband.” Erik’s hands settled lightly but firmly on her shoulders. “Have you and the man you’re married to ever had intercourse?”
Then, right then, she should have slapped his face and told him her private life with Seth was none of his business. Instead, Kathleen shook her head. “No.”
“Is he the father of your son?” His hands, warm and strong, cupped her cheeks and eased her head backward.
“No,” she mouthed as his face descended until his lips rested against hers. He asked huskily, “Who is your husband, Kathleen?”
“You,” she groaned softly before his lips claimed hers and she was swept into a captivating embrace. He lifted her off her feet, bringing their bodies as close to each other as clothes would allow.
“Kathleen, kiss me, kiss me,” he urged as he raised his lips from hers only long enough to draw breath.
She met his suggestion with abandonment, offering her mouth to the plunder of his and sending her own tongue on wild expeditions. When he finally allowed her feet to touch the floor, he wound his arms around her and pressed her face into his wet shirtfront. “Don’t ever leave me again without telling me where you are. I nearly went crazy, Kathleen. God, don’t do that to me again.” She could feel the expulsion of his breath on each word as he nuzzled her hair.
“No.” She shook her head. “I won’t.” Then her voice changed and she laughed softly. “If you promise me one thing.”
He pulled back slightly and looked down at her. “What?”
“That you won’t get me all wet the next time you come after me.”
He saw that teasing, happy glow in her green eyes, which hadn’t been there since he had kissed her and waved goodbye that fateful day more than two years before. The grin he returned was open and carefree, lacking any of the hard cynicism that usually curled his lip into a parody of a smile. “I promise.”
He lowered his mouth to hers once again and played upon it. She chased his elusive lips with her own and growled in frustration when they wouldn’t be caught. When he raised his head this time, she recognized that devilish gleam in his eyes. “I didn’t bring any other clothes. What do you suggest I do?”
“Well,” she answered, as if pondering a great problem. “We’re probably going to be kissing a lot. And since I don’t want to walk around in a wet terry-cloth jumpsuit, I guess the only solution is for you to take off all your clothes.”
Erik snapped his fingers and his face brightened. “Now why didn’t I think of that?”
She giggled like a young girl. “Why don’t you peel them off and I’ll get a towel.”
He grabbed her arm as she went around him. “One quick kiss before you go.”
She obliged him and then went into the bathroom. While she was there, Kathleen quickly sprayed Mitsouko around her shoulders and breasts. It seemed only natural to take off her jump suit. She walked out with the towel in front of her.
Erik was down to his underwear, and then that was no longer a hindrance to his nakedness when he turned around to face her. She caught her breath at the sight of his body. It was magnificent in its strength and hardness.
He came to her slowly, studying her reaction and feeling confident with what he saw in her eyes. When he stood only a breath away from her, Kathleen said, “You are my Danish prince.”
“No, that was Hamlet.”
She smiled. “He didn’t have a thing over you.” She lifted the towel to his hair and ruffled through it, though it was almost dried by now. Then she lovingly dabbed the soft cloth to each feature of his face. His shoulders and arms came next, and when the towel was necessarily lowered, she heard him draw in his breath when he saw that she, too, was naked.
She flattened the towel on his chest and rubbed her hands over it to dry him. It was more a caress than a motion of necessity. Her hands moved down over his taut stomach to his abdomen. Kathleen smiled secretly at his disappointment when she removed the towel and draped it across his shoulders. He was compensated by being able to look at her without the screening of the towel.
She took one corner of the towel in each hand and pulled it back and forth across his back, working her way down and at the same time moving closer to him. When she reached the small of his back, Erik held his breath expectantly. His patience was rewarded.
She drew the towel back and forth over his hips as she settled against him. Now it was her turn to open her eyes wide in surprise and gasp in pleasure when she felt the potency of his arousal against her.
“It’s your fault,” he chided when he sensed her startled reaction. His mustache tickled her ear as he mumbled against it, “You’ve brought on the ailment, and only you can cure it.”
Finished now with games, he put his arms around her and pulled her inexorably against him. His lips covered hers, parting them with his tongue. He nipped her lips gently with his teeth.
Kathleen swayed against him, alive with prickling sensations as every nerve of her body cried out for his touch. The hands that stroked her back and teased her spine were skilled. They cupped her hips and lifted her to meet his passion.
Erik wasted no time. Catching her under the knees and behind her back, he carried her to the waiting bed. He laid her on the pillows and then settled beside her, leaning on one elbow to look down at her.
“Kathleen, don’t take me any further if you—”
She placed her fingers against his lips. “Erik, please make love to me. Now.”
He reached up and captured the hand caressing the back of his neck and brought its palm to his lips. “I pride myself on my finesse, but I can’t wait.”
“Neither can I,” she whimpered, and moved against him until he had no choice but to stretch his length over her. Her body conformed to his with a silent entreaty, and he filled that aching void deep inside her.
“Sweet…!” he grated. “You’ve always been ready for me, Kathleen. Oh, God, I thought my memory had embellished how good it was with us, but it hadn’t. If anything, my love, the memory was diluted.” His hands held her face captive as he rained light kisses over it.
She sensed that he was being gentle with her, almost afraid. Staring directly into his cerulean eyes, her lips trembling, she said, “Don’t hold anything back, Erik. I want all of you.”
“Kathleen, sweetheart… precious…” His knowledge of her became total. As she arched against each acquainting thrust, they gave their all.
* * *
“That’s heavenly,” she sighed as his strong hands massaged the muscles of her shoulders.
“I thought you’d like this.”
“How do you know how to do it so well?”
“Practice.” He laughed.
“Oh, you!” she cried, and turned her head to look up at him.
He swatted her playfully on the bottom. “Lie back down or I’m going to stop.” The massage had been his idea after they had showered and returned to the bed.
“No, you’re not. You like touching me too well.”
“Don’t get sassy, or I’ll have to punish you.”
She lifted one curious eyelid while the other was buried in the pillow. “How?” Kathleen asked in an unconcerned drawl.
“Oh, I can think of a lot of diabolical ways. For instance,” he said as he moved his hands down her back to her hips, “I may have to get meaner and do this.” He was kneeling between her things now and kneading the backs of them with competent hands. His fingers teased her mercilessly, not quite touching what she longed to be touched.
“Erik…”
“Has the lady learned her lesson?” Erik asked as he lay on top of her and slipped his hands under her to caress the breasts she made available by raising up slightly.
“Yes,” she answered languidly. His breath was hot on her skin as he moved her hair aside with his nose and began to nibble her ear.
His hips settled more solidly on hers and she felt the tentative probings of his manhood. “Erik, please.”
He kissed her cheek smackingly. “No. I’ve waited a long time for you, Kathleen.” He placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her over. He brushed back the hair from her forehead and smiled at the look of dismay on her face. “Is this the same woman who accused me of being naughty? Hm?”
“The very same,” she said mischievously, reaching for him.
He dodged her hands. “Behave yourself. Last time we got a little carried away. It went by too fast. I want to take my time. I want to adore you first.”
He kissed her. It was a sweet kiss that bloomed into passion and encompassed their entire mouths. It was a kiss of giving and receiving, of teasing and fulfilling, of promising and pledging.
“You always smell so good,” Erik whispered as he worried the area under her ear and worked his way around her throat and down her chest.
He raised up and looked in awe at her breasts. His hand settled on one and rubbed it gently in a circular motion. “Raise your arms over your head,” he instructed. Kathleen complied and he stared down at the lovely picture she made.
Her hair formed a dark auburn cloud on the white pillow. The perfection of her face was set in that lovely frame. Her skin, the tanned areas contrasting with the paler flesh blocked by her bikini, glowed warmly. Her nipples were proud and inviting crowns.
“You’re perfect,” he murmured. “Just the right size. Not too large, not too small. Infinitely female.” He lowered his head and flicked his tongue over the taut nipples, watching as they enlarged under his attention. “Beautiful,” he whispered. Then he closed his mouth around one eager bud and it was cherished in a most gratifying way. His lips trailed to the other breast as he said, “I wish you still had milk. I would have loved to taste it.”
Her hands lowered and she wrapped them behind his neck. “I’m sorry you find me lacking.”
“I find you lacking in nothing.”
His hands wandered over her rib cage and onto her stomach and abdomen. Sensitive fingers fluttered over the auburn delta, fanning it gently, then moved lower to separate, find and please.
A small, satisfied moan issued out of her throat as his lips followed the course charted by his hands. When he knelt between her thighs and lifted her to receive the tribute of his mouth, she offered no resistance. He kissed her into sweet oblivion, deeper and more wonderful than any she had known. With the heat of his mouth, he branded her as his.
Before she was swept away by a floodtide of passion, she clasped his head with her hands and cried, “Erik, not that way. With you.”
He raised himself over her and melded his body with hers. He plunged deeply and she closed around him. He stirred, expanded, touched her womb. Withdrawing, he nudged the secret spot with the smooth, glistening tip of his manhood. Then he was within her again, stroking her. The cycle was repeated until Kathleen thought she would dissolve. She heeded his words and didn’t hurry it. They had time. Eternity. For surely this was rebirth.
When they finally allowed themselves to succumb, they did so together and became one in body and in spirit.
* * *
“I’m starving,” Kathleen said from the bed. She was sitting up against the headboard with the sheet pulled up to her chin. Erik was standing at the window watching the clouds as they rolled east over the ocean. The storm was spent and only a remnant of soft rain was left in its wake.
Erik turned and grinned boyishly at her. “It’s no wonder. I think we burned up about ten thousand calories since last night.”
She blushed prettily. “Well, if one needs to lose a couple of pounds, I can’t think of a better way to diet.”
“You don’t need to lose any. You’re too skinny as it is.”
“Skinny!” She dropped the sheet as she sat up in indignation. “I’m not skinny.”
He looked at her breasts unabashedly. “I’ll concede that some parts are more filled out than others.”
Kathleen threw a pillow at him, but he deftly caught it before it could do any damage. “I guess you’re hoping that I’ll chivalrously volunteer to go get us something to eat.”
“I think that’s the least a gentleman could do. You didn’t even buy my dinner.”
“My clothes will get wet again,” he whined.
“So you’ll just have to take them off again. And I couldn’t possibly wear clothes and make you feel self-conscious, so I’ll just leave mine off, too. But, of course, if you’d rather not…”
“I’m going, I’m going,” Erik said as he pulled on his semidry jeans and shirt. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.” He winked as he shut the door behind him.
She moved only enough to rest her forehead on her raised knees. “I won’t think about it,” she averred to herself. “I won’t think about the consequences of this, or anything right now but being with Erik. I love him. Surely I deserve this small time out of my whole life. Don’t I? Don’t I? I won’t think about responsibility or loyalty or duty or morality. Tomorrow doesn’t exist. Today he’s with me, loving me. I refuse to think beyond that. I love him. I love him.”
When he returned carrying a sack of groceries, she welcomed him with open arms.
He laughed as he shook water out of his hair and onto her naked skin. “See, you’ve already broken your promise never to get me wet again.”
“I broke it when we got in the shower last night,” he teased as he bent to kiss her on the nose. “You weren’t complaining then.”
“I was being polite,” Kathleen said righteously.
“Polite! I’ve heard of southern hospitality, but, baby—” She stuck a sweet roll in his mouth to shut him up.
He had bought them doughnuts, fruit, crackers, cheese, potato chips, chocolate bars and a can of tuna—which was useless, since they had no way to open the can. Nevertheless, it was one of the happiest, if one of the most unbalanced, meals that either of them had eaten. They ate it picnic-style on the floor. Erik had changed out of his wet clothes, but they decided to uphold a semblance of civilization and wrap towels around themselves. Erik insisted that it was only fair that hers come no higher than his, so they compromised on the waistline as the line of demarcation. He did allow her, however, to drop her string of coral beads around her neck. “They hang in such a naughty place,” he remarked, tracing the line of beads.
When they had eaten all they wanted, deciding to save the leftovers for later, she reached for a hairbrush. Rising to her knees, she faced him and started raking the brush through his hair.
“I’m glad your hair grew back around your scar,” she said as she found the faintly pink line marking the head wound he had suffered in the airplane wreck.
“Yeah. It only took a few weeks once the bandage came off. My hair grows fast.”
“It’s beautiful,” she said musingly.
“You’re beautiful.”
Kathleen looked down to see that her breasts were directly in front of his face and swaying beguilingly as she used the hairbrush.
“Put that thing down.” He captured her wrist, shaking it gently until the brush was dropped to the floor. He placed her arms around his neck, then leaned his head into her chest. She made a low, contented sound in her throat when she felt him blowing on her skin, bringing her nipples to erect attention with his warm breath.
“Touch me,” he commanded. “Take me between your hands and feel how much I want you.” His breath hissed through his teeth when she did as he asked. “No one else, Kathleen. No one is like you,” he vowed. “You’ve bewitched me, and under your spell, I become stronger than I’ve ever been and at the same time I tremble with weakness.”
She caressed him, and as she did, he felt more of a man than ever before in his life. “Now,” he pleaded.
His hands lifted her toward him until he was supporting her on the strength of his thighs. Then he was sheathed in liquid velvet.
“Kathleen.” Her name was almost a sob as he clasped her to him. Gently, almost without passion but with something much stronger, he rocked her against him. Each time she came closer, he went deeper, until only the universe was more secure in itself than they were with each other.
A new feeling welled up inside Kathleen. This was different. She felt a completion that went beyond orgasmic fulfillment. She was Erik; he was her.
When the full impact of the tumult came, she chanted his name. His own hoarse cry was, “You’re mine!”
* * *
“Is there really a dimple under there?” she asked lazily, trailing a finger along his mustache. They lay on the bed facing each other, replete. Only their hands weren’t idle as they explored, languishing in the privilege of touching.
“Maybe I should shave that side of it, so you’ll know for sure.” He captured her finger in his mouth and sucked it gently.
“Don’t you dare!” she exclaimed.
A deep laugh rumbled in his chest. “Why not?”
“Two reasons. First, I might think you were extremely ugly without it.”
“Thank you. What’s the second reason?”
“It feels good,” she cooed.
“Oh, yeah?” He raised up on one elbow, his eyebrow cocked suggestively. “Where? Here?” He touched the corner of her mouth with his finger.
“Un-huh.” He leaned down and kissed where he had touched.
“Here?” he asked, capturing an impudent nipple between his fingers.
“Un-huh.” Like a weapon designed strictly for seduction, the mustache brushed across the tip of her breast.
“Here?”
Her back arched reflexively, lifting her hips off the bed, as he touched her again. “Yes, Erik,” she breathed.
He lowered his head. Before the game was over, her body knew well his mastery.
* * *
The rain finally abated late in the afternoon and they walked on the beach hand in hand.
“I understand that on a normal day, when the tide goes out, there is a sandbar several hundred yards from shore,” Erik told her. “You can walk out to it. When the tide comes in, it’s completely covered up and no one could ever guess it’s there.”
“It’s a lovely island,” Kathleen remarked needlessly. Any place would look beautiful to them now.
All day they talked. He told her about quitting his job in St. Louis and going to Europe. He went into more detail about Jaimie’s being adopted by Bob and Sally.
“He’s like a different kid from the one you knew. He’s opened up so much, it’s amazing. No one can shut him up. Of course, my mother adores him. Until little Jennifer was born last summer, he was her only grandchild.”
Silently, both of them amended that. Theron was her grandchild, too.
“Is she still in Seattle?” Kathleen asked to cover up the uneasy lull in their conversation.
“Yes.”
“And Bob and Sally?”
“They live in Tulsa. That’s why they were able to get to Fort Smith within hours of the accident. Bob’s name was on my identification card as next of kin to notify in case of an emergency. They drove straight to Fort Smith after the doctor called them. Bob is an engineer for an oil company.”
They talked about everything but studiously stayed away from the subject of Seth and her marriage. For that day, it didn’t exist.
“I’ve never slept with Tamara,” he said when they were sitting in the sand still wet from the rain.
“What?” Kathleen acted as if she hadn’t heard him. Then she looked back out to sea. “I never said you had.”
He laughed and draped an arm around her shoulders. “But that’s what you thought. Give me some credit, Kathleen. Did you really think I’d want a slut like that?” He seemed genuinely dismayed. “Every man from here to Timbuktu has been invited between her legs. I went alone to the beach. She followed me.”
“But I saw her come out of the water naked and fall on top of you. She—”
“She got promptly thrown off, too. Only you didn’t wait to see that part.” When he saw Kathleen’s skeptical look, he said, “Oh, I admit, she was after me from the word go, but I never accepted the invitation. In fact, I discouraged it. Subtlety escapes Tamara, and she doesn’t take rejection well.”
“I wanted to kill her every time she put her hands on you.” The green eyes shone with a fierce light.
“You’re a little tigress, Kathleen Haley,” Erik teased, and neither of them noticed that he hadn’t used her married name. “What about all the times you’ve had your hands on me? Hm?”
“That’s different,” she defended.
“I’ll say it is.”
They returned to the bungalow, not trusting the privacy of the beach now that the rain had stopped.
* * *
“I just called the airstrip. No planes will be flying out tonight, but there’ll be one here first thing in the morning.” Erik spoke the words mechanically, not allowing his despair to show. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the telephone as though he hated it.
“All right,” Kathleen said as she came out of the bathroom.
He raised his eyes to hers, then took both her hands and drew her down on the bed beside him. He memorized each nuance of her face, breathed in the fragrance that belonged only to her. “We have to go home, Kathleen,” he said quietly.
She touched his hair, his shaggy brows, his mustache and the lips beneath it. “I know. But not tonight. Tomorrow.”
He lay back and pulled her into the curve of his shoulder. His expression was pensive. Strands of her hair were sifted slowly through his fingers.
“What?”
“Hm?”
“What are you thinking?”
He drew a deep breath. “I was thinking a most distressing thought.”
She raised up and leaned over him. She had never seen him so introspective, except perhaps the time he had told her about his Ethiopian experience. “What, Erik?”
“It has occurred to me that every time I’ve been with you, I’ve come on like a rampaging bull. I’ve taken advantage of this explosive attraction we have for each other and used it without any tenderness.”
“Erik, that attraction is reciprocal. You’ve never taken more than I’ve been willing to give.”
“Haven’t I?” he asked, swinging his legs to the floor and crossing to the window. Kathleen sat up in the middle of the bed, perplexed by this new side of the man she thought she knew well.
“Erik, what is it? What’s bothering you?” she asked gently.
He leaned against the windowsill and stared out over the water. “It bothers me to think that you might not know how I feel about you. It bothers me to think that you might justifiably believe that all I care about is your sexuality. I’ve never told you that there are so many other things… Kathleen—” He gestured helplessly, struggling for words. “I find it difficult to convey tender emotions.”
“That’s not true. You’re affectionate with Theron. I remember how you handled the children at the camp. You were—”
“Yes,” he cut in impatiently. “Yes, but with you, more often than not, I’m abusive. You, more than anyone, provoke my temper, which I admit is dangerously short. And I don’t understand that, because I do care a great deal for you, Kathleen. Some of the things I’ve said to you, done to you, are… there’s no word strong enough. Why do I continually wound you the way I do? Almost as if I’m punishing you.”
She sat silently, pleating the covers of the bed between trembling fingers. She cleared her throat of the knot suddenly grown there. “Why… why do you suppose you can’t express your feelings, Erik?”
He pushed away from the window and went to a chair. Falling into it heavily, he stared at the floor between his widespread knees. “My father was a kind man. He never did anything to intentionally hurt anyone. But he never displayed affection either. Never once do I remember him hugging Bob or me. I know he loved Mother, but I never heard him tell her he did. He scoffed at overt shows of affection. He equated tenderness with weakness. I guess I take after him that way. I don’t want to. I try to be as physically affectionate with Theron as possible. I don’t want him to miss that… that fondling.” Erik looked up at her then. “I want you to know that, as much as I’m capable, I love you. I’m sorry I can’t express it any better than I do. And I need to know that you care at least a little for me,” he added gruffly.
“Erik,” she whispered. “Erik.” Being married to Seth prevented her from verbalizing the love that flooded her whole being, but she could show it to him. Kathleen opened her arms and he came to lie beside her on the bed.
All through the night, she held him.