They were up until midnight making plans. Dinner was no more than sandwiches hastily slapped together and eaten distractedly. When neither of them could hold their eyes open a minute longer, they were still reluctant to go to bed. In the hallway between their rooms, their gazes caught and held.
Lacey raised her fingers to caress his cheek. “I love you,” she dared to say for the first time in months.
“And I love you,” he echoed. He glanced toward the door of the master bedroom, then back to her. “Lace?”
Her heart hammered in her chest at the invitation. To spend the night in his bed again, in his arms, would be just this side of heaven. But something inside her whispered that it was still too soon, that to give in to the provocative promise in his eyes would risk everything.
“I can’t,” she said finally.
She saw the quick hurt in his eyes and wished she could take the words back, but it was too late. Already he was retreating.
How many more times could she bring herself to say no? she wondered. How many more times could Kevin hear it without distancing himself from her for good? Would she even know when it was time to put her heart and soul on the line, no matter what?
The elusive answer to those questions kept her awake most of the night. When the early morning hours came, the questions were still there. And the answers were no clearer.
Chapter Eleven
So many times during the night Kevin was tempted to get up and go across the hall. It was three o’clock when he knew he could no longer deny himself. Lacey was still his wife. He still loved her with all his heart. And he knew in his gut that the longer they allowed this foolishness of separate bedrooms to go on, the more difficult it would be to end.
The longing in Lacey’s eyes tonight had been unmistakable. Whatever was holding her back mystified him. She wasn’t the type to play games. She never had been. Even when they had made love for the very first time, there had been no coy pretenses between them.
His thoughts drifted back to that long-ago night. It had been here on Cape Cod, the summer after their freshman year in college. Vacation was almost over and they faced another long year of being apart, thanks to his father’s determined interference.
They had come to the beach for the weekend with friends, but had quickly abandoned them in favor of privacy. They had gone for a walk on the beach, their way lit by the full moon. When they found a secluded cove, he had spread a blanket on the still-warm sand. Other nights, other summers, they had done no more than sit and talk, often until dawn, but somehow both of them knew that this night would be different. The love that had blossomed between them with a slow, sweet dawning needed expression in a new and exciting way.
Lacey had made the first bold move. With his eyes riveted on her, she had slowly removed her clothes. She had been a virgin, yet there had been no shyness in her that night. She had stood before him, naked in the moonlight, proud, her eyes filled with love.
“Make love to me,” she had whispered.
Uncertain, he was the one to hesitate. He had always been so sure that he was the stronger one, but that night Lacey had proved him wrong. She had been bold and daring, while he thought his heart would split in two with the sheer joy of making her his.
Slowly, tenderly he had claimed her, enchanted by the velvet softness of her flesh, intoxicated by the taste of her. He had wanted her for so long, needed her forever it seemed. His hands trembled as they cupped her breasts. His pulse raced as he touched her moist warmth. She had been so hot, so ready for him, so eager to guide him into her.
As he sank into her that very first time, she had cried out his name, not in pain as he had feared, but in unmistakable exhilaration. Surrounded by her heat, thrilled by her pleasure, he had felt his own pleasure build and build until he too came apart in a shattering climax that was beyond anything he had ever imagined.
Just thinking about it now aroused him to a state of breathless, aching anticipation. It was past time for patience, past time for half measures. He stood up and crossed the room in three strides. At the door he hesitated, then shook off his doubts. No, he was right about this. He had to be.
He paused again at the guest room door, then opened it slowly. Inside, a beam of moonlight streamed through the window casting a silvery glow over Lacey’s complexion. She was wearing a gown of French lace and Halloran’s finest pale pink satin. It was one he had given to her for their last anniversary. Though she preferred a classic, elegant look in public, she had always loved impractical, frothy concoctions for sleeping. In this one, she looked more feminine, more tantalizing than ever.
Tenderness welled up inside him, as he guessed how restless she had been. The sheets were in a tangle. The gown had ridden up to bare one glorious, tempting thigh. Kevin sucked in a ragged breath as desire pulsed through him. She was so incredibly beautiful, so inviting.
And so exhausted, he realized as he inched closer and glimpsed the shadows under her eyes. It was little wonder after the day she had spent working with Paula…and after the torment he had put her through
