The orgasm struck, a sweaty fist that pummeled and pummeled and left her body a mass of indescribably exquisite aches. The air was clogged and burning in her lungs. She sobbed to release it, sobbed to gulp it back in.
She felt his body lunge, vaulting her over that final, keen edge. Like wax melted in the sun, she slid down to him and lay limp.
His own mind cleared gradually, the static from the storm dying to a steady quiet that was her breathing. The dark haze that had covered his vision lifted so that he closed his eyes against the hard sunlight.
"I guess I protected my honor," he murmured. She gave a strangled laugh.
"I didn't know — God, I can't breathe." She tried again. "I didn't know tweaking your ego would be so… rewarding."
"Relaxed?"
She sighed. "V."
"Happy?"
"Completely."
"Then this is probably a good time to ask you to think about something."
"Hmmm. I don't think I can think just now."
"Put this in the back of your mind." His hand gently massaged her back. "Let it stew there for a while."
"What am I supposed to stew about?" "Marrying me."
She jerked back. "Marrying you?" "Is looking shocked another way to tweak my ego?"
"No." Staggered, she pressed a hand to her cheek. "God, Finn, you know how to toss one in from left field."
"We'll talk baseball later — since the Cubs are in the basement." Goddamn nerves, he thought, while his stomach clenched. It was ridiculous for him to feel these tugs of panic, but all he could imagine was her saying no. Absolutely not.
For the first time in his life he wanted something and someone he wasn't sure he could have.
He levered himself up so that they sat, naked, facing each other, both still achy and sated with sex. The plan was, he reminded himself, to keep it light, natural.
"It shouldn't be such a surprise, Deanna. We've been lovers for more than a year."
"Yes, but… we haven't even resolved living together yet—"
"One of my points. My strategy in getting you to live with me; then easing you into marriage just isn't panning out."
"Your strategy?"
He didn't mind the edge in her voice. It matched the one in his own. "Kansas, the only way to handle you is like a chess game. A man has to think a half dozen moves ahead and outflank you."
"I don't think I care for that analogy." "It's an accurate one." He pinched her chin lightly between his fingers. "You spend so much time thinking things through, trying to avoid making the wrong move. I have to give you a shove."
"Is that what this proposal is?" She batted his hand away. "A shove?"
"We'll call it more of a nudge, since I'm willing to let you think it over."
"That's generous of you," she said between her clenched teeth.
"Actually," he continued, "I'm giving us both time. I can't say I'm completely sold on the idea myself."
She blinked. "Excuse me?"
It was inspired, he realized. Absolutely inspired. Two could play tweak-the-ego. "We're coming from opposite fields here on this subject. You from a big, happy family, all those traditional trappings, where "till death do us part" means something. For me, marriage has always meant "till divorce do us part.""
Incensed, she snatched up her blouse, swore, then tossed it aside. "For someone so cynical, I'm surprised you'd consider it."
His mouth quivered as she dragged on his T-shirt. "I'm not cynical, I'm realistic. Marriage has become like newspapers. You toss them out when you're through, and not a hell of a lot of people bother to recycle."
"Then what's the point?" She yanked on her shorts.
"I'm in love with you." He said it quietly, simply, and stopped her from storming out of the room. "I'd like to think about the idea of starting a life with you, having children, giving some of those traditional trappings a shot."
His words deflated her anger. "Damn you, Finn," she said helplessly.
He grinned up at her. "Then you'll think about it."
Chapter Twenty
Dan Gardner didn't marry Angela for her money. Not entirely. Some people were unkind enough to think he had — even to say he had. During the first few weeks of their marriage there was considerable speculation in the tabloid press about the matter, as well as the disparity in their ages: ten years almost to the day. A firm believer in publicity, Dan had planted the articles himself.
But there were other reasons he had married her. He admired her skills. He understood her flaws and, most important to him, how to exploit them. It was he, recognizing her insecurities and her suspicions, who had insisted on signing a prenuptial agreement. Divorce would not benefit him. But Dan wasn't planning on divorce — unless it benefited him. It was he — knowing her weakness for romance and her need to be the center of love — who arranged for candlelit dinners for two, quiet weekends in the country. When she needed attention beyond what he could provide, he arranged for that as well. As Angela became more and more obsessed with eroding ratings, he picked up the threads of several A. P. Production projects and deftly increased the profits.
He might not have married her for her money, but he intended to enjoy it.
"Look at this!" Angela heaved a copy of TV Guide across the room. It landed with Deanna's picture faceup. "Just look! "Daytime's new princess," my ass." Her silk robe billowed out like a sail as she paced the snowy carpet of her penthouse. ""Warm and accessible, sexy and sharp." They fawned over her, Dan. Goddamn it, they gave her the cover and two full pages."
"Don't let it spook you." Because they were staying in for the evening, Dan poured her a full flute of champagne. She was easier to handle when she was drunk and weepy. And when she was needy, the sex was simply stupendous. "She's just got a longer way to fall now, that's all."
"That's not all." Angela snatched the glass away from him. She didn't want to need a drink, but she did and she was in no mood to fight the longing. "You saw the ratings. She's had a twenty-percent share for the last three weeks."
"And you ended up the year as number one," he reminded her.
"It's a new year," she snapped back. "Yesterday doesn't count." She drank deeply, then planted the dainty heel of her feathered mule in Deanna's left eye. "Not so pretty now, are you?" Fueled on envy, she kicked the magazine aside. "No matter what I do she keeps moving up. Now she's getting my press." After draining the glass, she thrust it back at Dan.
"Angela's isn't your only interest." Dutifully he refilled the glass for her. "You have the specials, the projects A. P. Productions is involved with. Your interests and your impact are more diverse than hers." He watched her eyes consider as she drank. "She's got one note, Angela. She plays it well, but it's just one note."
The description steadied her quaking heart. "She was always limited, with her little timetables and note cards." But as her fury drained, despair crept into the void. "I don't want her cutting me out, Dan." Her eyes filled, swimming with hot tears as she gulped down champagne. "I don't think I could stand it. Not from her of all people."
"You're making it too personal." Sympathetically, he filled her glass again, knowing that after the third drink she'd be as pliant as a baby with a full tummy.
"It is personal." The tears spilled over, but she let Dan lead her to the couch. She cuddled there on his lap with tangled threads of contentment and unease working through her. It had been the same cuddling on her father's lap on the rare occasions when he had been home and sober. "She wants to hurt me, Dan. She and that bastard Loren Bach. They'd do anything to hurt me."