Love Game (18 page)

H
ELLO, HELLO, HELLO
.
There
was an echo in her ears and it swept through her head, carrying the sound of the voice that haunted her dreams and her days.

“God, you look good to me,” he said, walking slowly toward her while she commanded herself to run, to hide, to do anything but grab her scissors and stab him in his heart if he had one. Or worse, rush into his arms and cover his face with kisses.

She had no idea what she was going to say until she said it. “You look like hell yourself. Make that more like a tomcat who’s spent too many nights on the prowl. Man can’t live on sex alone, Greg.”

He stopped short. Only several feet separated them but the heat of flaring emotions ran a mile wide and just as deep.

A flash of disbelief, then anger crossed his face. But he quickly subdued both as if determined to stay cool in a volatile situation. Too bad, Chris decided. Her hormones were on a rampage and she wanted to vent the manic fury of each one on the man responsible.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand where you’ve gotten such a wrong idea,” he said evenly. “The only woman I’ve been hungry for is you and I’m beyond starved. There hasn’t been anyone else, Chris.” He glanced at her stomach and she instinctively covered it. “I won’t ask if the same holds true for you.”

No one else for him?
Yeah, right.
The last thing she wanted to endure were more professions of innocence, lies she was desperate to hear. And wanting to hear them made her more furious than ever, flush with the need to lash out and hurt him as cruelly as he had her.

“Oh, but I
do think you should ask,” she said with a flippant little laugh. “I didn’t waste any time taking your advice. And what good advice it was. But I’m afraid it backfired on you since it made me realize what we had together wasn’t nearly as special as I had thought.”

His eyes probed hers and she prayed he wouldn’t see past her lie and into the longing she was frantic to suppress.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Then why don’t you ask Jerry?”

Chris watched the clench of his jaw with enormous satisfaction. But then, suddenly, he reached for his belt and whipped it from his pants. With a savage flash of movement, he flung it across the room.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, edging away from the dresser, her eyes darting around for the best path of escape.

“Short as your memory seems to be, I’m going to refresh it. Old friends that we are, indulge me with a comparative analysis once we’re done.
Blow by blow
.”

“No!” Chris latched on to a vase behind her and hurled it at his nose, dead center. He caught the porcelain neatly and she heard it shatter against the floor as she raced just beyond his reach.

Seconds later, she felt the surprisingly gentle clamp of his grip around her waist. But there was nothing gentle in his grind against her buttocks nor in his tone.

“‘No’ won’t get it, babe, any more than ‘Stop.’ The password is
roses
and I’ll hear you scream it before I’m done with you. And then,
then,
I’m going to hear you say that you love me and Jerry was a mistake. I can forgive a mistake. But I can’t forgive you wanting him and not me. And you won’t want him after this. Believe me, it’s true.”

Knowing just how
true it was, Chris struggled to break free. A real struggle, not a pretend one this time. She couldn’t let him take her or her fate would be sealed. She’d let him use her again however he wanted while he snuck around behind her back and ultimately destroyed her.

The knee she jerked up to his groin he easily deflected, but her fingernails connected with his face and she was both repelled and riveted by the three thin streaks she raked, making blood bead to the surface of his cheek.

“Such a bad girl you are,” he said with mocking approval as he gripped her wrists and efficiently bound them with his tie. “You just earned yourself a worse punishment.”

The baby.
If he was too rough she might suffer the miscarriage she had prayed for and had come to thank God heaven had refused to give. But, should she plead to be spared for the baby’s sake, Greg would use their child against her to get whatever he wanted.

Grasping at straws, she said, “Go ahead, Greg. Go ahead and do whatever you want. Just be prepared to get slapped with a lawsuit. I’ll cry ‘Rape’ before I cry ‘Roses.’”

“Rape?” He laughed a single harsh laugh. “No way, babe. I’m going to make you wet and I’m going to make you beg. For me, Chris, only for me. You’re going to open your legs wide, wrap them around mine, and take me home. We’re picking up where we left off. As in
now
.”

Chris knew there was no escaping the inevitable; he was bent on it and she was no match for his strength. The best she could do would be to cut off her feelings by remembering the woman’s voice and remain silent.

And so, she retaliated with indifference—a weapon more powerful than hate. She went still, stood there and let him take off her clothes. No assistance, no resistance. She could have been a pliable statue, movable but cold.

Shutting her eyes,
she refused to look at him; made no reply to his alternately sweet and dirty words. But as she allowed him to carry her stiff form to the bed and endured his languorous stroking, she realized his punishment was immeasurably worse than had he taken her by force.

Gentleness. Tenderness beyond belief. Kisses to her closed eyes, kisses to her breasts, kisses and more kisses to her stomach. She felt loved, treasured, her body worshiped. Her body cared not at all that he had betrayed her. And her heart joined in the conspiracy, whispering that no man could touch a woman like this and be capable of betrayal.

It was heaven. It was hell. She was coming undone, her defenses unraveling, her legs spreading wide, hips rising, moans breaking from her throat amid whimpers of “Greg, please, please, hold me. Be inside me where you belong.”

When she beseeched him with raised hands, he untied her wrists and she traced his beloved face, swept her palms over his back and urged him closer, closer.

How carefully he lowered himself over her; how restrained was his entry when so easily he could have thrust and met an eager acceptance. Buried inside her, he remained there, unmoving, pressed firm against her womb, their baby.

Their baby.
It was then that Chris began to cry.

Licking at her tears, he murmured, “I love you blind, Chris. I’m so blind with it, I don’t care whose baby it is if you’ll let me raise it as mine.”

Her shock was ample to halt her tears. Staring at him, unblinking, she saw the truth of his words in his gaze and knew for a certainty that no woman had ever been loved more than this man loved her.

“How—how
did you find out?”

“From the mouths of babes—the other one that I want as much as the child you’re carrying.”

And he didn’t even care if it was his. Her head was spinning, her heart rose and flew on a wing. What more proof of commitment did she need? But that other woman…there
had
to be an explanation, just had to be. One she should have asked for instead of jumping to conclusions without giving him a chance.

No more repeating mistakes. No more shutting him out or letting lies or pride, reason or fear come between them.

Suddenly needful to assure him, to share this miracle of theirs, she said with a tremulous smile, “There was no other man, Greg. The baby is yours.”

Forever would she remember the light in his eyes, the slow spread of his grin, the way he threw back his head and shouted,
“Yes!”

They made love and never would she forget that, either. It was filled with passion and a sweeping tenderness, soft laughter and pregnant tears. He cried some, too. And never had Greg seemed so strong to her as when he shed them openly, his tears of joy and relief mingling with the blood she had drawn.

Their lovemaking was healing, binding, and in the aftermath when he said solemnly, “Marry me,” she didn’t have to think twice about her answer.

“Yes, yes,” she chanted.

“And it’s yes because you love me.”

“I love you enough to be more afraid of losing you to someone else than to death. I love you enough to hate you just as much. And when you came here, I hated you enough to lie.” She told him about the call and though she had trouble understanding the unique friendship he had with his ex-wife, she could understand how any woman would prize him enough to keep him any way she could. Eileen was no threat and that made it easier to accept Greg’s wish to remain friends with her. He even suggested that Chris would come to like her, too.

And maybe she
would. After all, Eileen had offered temptation when Greg had been vulnerable for that comfort and his refusal had proved something to them both.

Wanting no secrets between them, Chris recounted her ordeal at the clinic, the reasons that had driven her there.

He listened patiently and there was a wealth of sympathy in his gaze, while his stroking of her belly showed a protectiveness to rival that which had reversed her decision.

“In the end, I couldn’t do it. I just—just couldn’t let the baby go.”

“Thank God for that,” he said, his gaze lifting to heaven and then lowering to her. “What stopped you?”

“At the time, I wasn’t sure. It was an instinctive thing, not based on reason at all. But then, just like it was after I cut us off and realized I’d made the mistake of my life, I did some sorting and came up with the real reason.” Tracing the red streaks she had inflicted with the intensity of passion only Greg had ever roused in her, Chris knew how very true the reason was.

“I wanted to believe it was simply my moral fiber and maternal instincts that stopped me,” she confessed. “Only, that wasn’t true. Had it been another man’s child, I might have gone through with it. But the baby was yours. I wanted your baby, Greg. And I wanted to see you in it, so I could always remember what it was like to come alive, to feel all the horrible, wonderful things you made me feel that I was sure were gone forever.”

“‘Forever’ is here,” he told her, though she needed no assurance it was true. “Our bond is solid, Chris. We’ve got
what it takes to get us through, no matter what. Our love, it’s tough enough to last.”

“A trial by fire,” she whispered. “If we survived this, we can survive anything.”

“Even Arlene.” He laughed ruefully. “You are marrying me for better or for worse, and worse is due to spend the summer with us. I…I’ve decided I’m not ready to cut my losses with her. Better late than never, I want to try to make a difference in her life if I can. I’m going to need your help, Chris.”

“Hey,” she said, knuckling his jaw, “what are wives for? We’ll take Arlene on together, Greg.”

The sound of a light knock at the bedroom door brought them both upright.

“Oh dear,” she groaned. “Reality intrudes. I hope you realize kids have a knack for terrible timing.”

“Actually, Audrey’s timing is perfect.” A quick kiss and he called out, “We’ll be there in a minute, sweetheart. Your mom and your soon-to-be daddy are just about through talking.”

A whoop of delight, a “Yea! Yea! Yea! Daddy, you did it!” accompanied the sound of excited jumping on the other side of the door. They made it a game of who could get dressed the fastest, but as Greg raced Chris for first dibs on hugs, she stopped him short.

“Your face. Let me tend it first.”

“Tend it later. Here.” He pulled out a handkerchief and said, “Spit. You know, the way moms do while their kids go ‘Yuck.’” But as Chris followed orders, he winked and said, “Yum.”

Audrey was waiting, still hopping almost high enough to touch the clouds, when they came to her, arm in arm.

Greg bent down and said formally, “I have a very important question to put to you and your mother.”

“What happened
to your face?”

“I, uh…borrowed your mother’s leg shaver for my whiskers and had a little accident. Want to kiss it and make it all better?”

She did, then patted his cheek. “All better?”

Better?
Sweet heaven, Greg thought, life didn’t get any better than this. He pulled out two ring boxes from his pocket but left the mitten he would forever treasure. “You made it so good, Audrey, that I’m proposing to you first.”

Lifting the velvet top and then the tiny diamond ring inside, he held it over Audrey’s right ring finger. “Your left hand is meant to be saved for a man who’ll have to ask me for it and promise to be as good to you as I promise to be to your mother. Audrey Nicholson, will you be my daughter?”

At her eager nod, he slipped the ring down her finger, then kissed it.

“Mama’s turn now,” she said, holding up her hand and admiring the diamond just before she licked it.

Greg stood, pulled Audrey next to him, and felt his heart expand until he thought it would burst.

“You said ‘Yes’ already, but I’d like to hear it again while I put this on.” He took her gasp as a definite yes and slipped on the damn gaudiest diamond he’d been able to find in the jewelry store; a rock as big and solid as he felt with Chris by his side.

“Chris Nicholson, seeing that your daughter’s agreed to be mine, I’m in big trouble if you’re not equally agreeable. Say you’ll be my wife. Again. And again and…”

Chris not only said it, she confirmed her promise with an unending kiss that didn’t let up until Audrey tugged at his arm and said, “You forgot to give Mama these.”

Greg took the roses and extended them like the vow they were to Chris.

“Roses,” he
whispered. “I give you roses.”

“And I share them with you,” she said, clasping her hands over his. The scent of roses lifted between them, surrounding them with sweetness.

“I’ll never betray you, Chris.”

“And I’ll never betray you by doubting it.
Roses,
Greg. My trust in you is complete.”

He laid the roses at Chris’s feet, singing softly, “Yummy, yummy, yummy, she’s got my love in her tummy.” His palm moved there, and she laid her own hand over his. Then Audrey’s joined theirs.

“And now we’re gonna be a family,” their daughter pronounced.