Richard came around the side of the house. He saw her and sprang forward, like a great hunting beast.
Thea cried out and jumped backward, slamming the kitchen door and fumbling with the lock. Too late! He would come through that door, lock or not. She sensed his determination and left the lock undone, choosing instead an extra second of time as she sprinted for the front door.
The back door slammed open just as she reached the front. It was still locked. Her chest heaved with panic, her breath catching just behind her breastbone and going no deeper. Her shaking, jerking fingers tried to manipulate the chain, the lock.
“Thea!” his voice boomed, reverberating with fury.
Sobbing, she jerked the door open and darted out onto the porch, shoving the outside screen door open, too, launching herself through it, stumbling, falling to her knees in the tall, wet grass.
He burst through the front door. She scrambled to her feet, pulled the hem of her nightgown to her knees, and ran for the road.
“Damn it, listen to me!” he shouted, sprinting to cut her off. She swerved as he lunged in front of her, but he managed once again to get between her and the road.
Despair clouded her vision; sobs choked her. She was cornered. He was going to kill her, and once again she was helpless to protect herself.
She let her nightgown drop, the folds covering her feet, as she stared at him with tear-blurred eyes. The gray light was stronger now; she could see the fierceness of his eyes, the set of his jaw, the sheen of perspiration on his skin. He wore only a pair of jeans. No shirt, no shoes. His powerful chest rose and fell with his breathing, but he wasn’t winded at all, while she was exhausted. She had no chance against him.
Slowly she began to back away from him, the pain inside her unfurling until it was all she could do to breathe, for her heart to keep beating. “How could you?” she sobbed, choking on the words. “Our baby … How could you?”
“Thea, listen to me.” He spread his hands in an open gesture meant to reassure her, but she knew too much about him to be fooled. He didn’t need a weapon; he could kill with his bare hands. “Calm down, sweetheart. I know you’re upset, but come inside with me and we’ll talk.”
Angrily she dashed the tears from her cheeks. “Talk! What good would that do?” she shrieked. “Do you deny that it happened? You didn’t just kill me, you killed our child, too!” Still she backed away, the pain too intense to let her remain even that close to him. She felt as if she were being torn apart inside, the grief so raw and unmanageable that she felt as if she would welcome death now, to escape this awful pain.
He looked beyond her, and his expression shifted, changed. A curious blankness settled in his eyes. His entire body tensed as he seemed to gather himself, as if he were about to spring. “You’re getting too close to the water,” he said in a flat, emotionless voice. “Come away from the bank.”
Thea risked a quick glance over her shoulder, and saw that she was on the edge of the bank, the cool, deadly lake lapping close to her bare feet. Her tears blurred the image, but it was there, silently waiting to claim her.
The unreasoning fear of the lake gnawed at her, but was as nothing when measured against the unrelenting grief for her child. She changed the angle of her retreat, moving toward the dock. Richard kept pace with her, not advancing any closer, but not leaving her any avenue of escape, either. The inevitability of it all washed over her. She had thought she could outwit fate, but her efforts had been useless from the very beginning.
Her bare feet touched wood, and she retreated onto the dock. Richard halted, his aquamarine gaze fastened on her. “Don’t go any farther,” he said sharply. “The dock isn’t safe. Some of the boards are rotten and loose. Come off the dock, baby. Come to me. I swear I won’t hurt you.”
Baby. Shards of pain splintered her insides, and she moaned aloud, her hand going to her belly as if her child still rested there. Desperately she backed away from him, shaking her head.
He set one foot on the dock. “I can’t bring that child back,” he said hoarsely. “But I’ll give you another one. We’ll have as many children as you want. Don’t leave me this time, Thea. For God’s sake, let’s get off this dock.”
“Why?” Tears were still blurring her vision, running down her cheeks, a bottomless well of grief. “Why put it off? Why not get it over with now?” She moved back still more, feeling the boards creak and give beneath her bare feet. The water was quite deep at the end of the dock; it had been perfect for three boisterous kids to dive and frolic in, without fear of hitting their heads on the bottom. If she was destined to die here, then so be it. Water. It was always water. She had always loved it, and it had always claimed her in the end.
Richard slowly stepped forward, never taking his eyes off her, his hand outstretched. “Please. Just take my hand, darling. Don’t move back any more. It isn’t safe.”
“Stay away from me!” she shrieked.
“I can’t.” His lips barely moved. “I never could.” He took another step. “Thea—”
Hastily, she stepped back. The board gave beneath her weight, then began to crack. She felt one side collapse beneath her, pitching her sideways into the water. She had only a blurred, confused image of Richard leaping forward, his face twisting with helpless rage, before the water closed over her head.
It was cool, murky. She went down, pulled by some unseen hand. The darkness of the dock pilings drifted in front of her as she went deeper, deeper. After all the terror and pain, it was almost a relief for it to end, and for a long moment she simply gave in to the inevitable. Then instinct took over, as irresistible as it was futile, and she began fighting, trying to kick her way to the surface. But her nightgown was twisted around her legs, pulling tighter and tighter the more she struggled, and she realized that she had caught it in the broken boards. The boards were pulling her down, and with her legs bound she couldn’t generate enough energy to counteract their drag.
If she could have laughed, she would have. This time, Richard wouldn’t have to do anything. She had managed to do the deed herself. Still, she didn’t stop fighting, trying to swim against the pull of the boards.
The surface roiled with his dive, as he cut through the water just to her left. Visibility was poor, but she could see the gleam of his skin, the darkness of his hair. He spotted her immediately, the white of her nightgown giving away her position, and he twisted his body in her direction.
Anger speared through her. He just had to see it through; he couldn’t let the lake do its work without his aid. Probably he wanted to make certain she didn’t fight her way free.
She put up her hands to ward him off, redoubling her efforts to reach the surface. She was using up all her oxygen in her struggles, and her lungs were burning, heaving with the need to inhale. Richard caught her flailing hands and began pushing her down, down, farther away from the light, from life.
Thea saw his eyes, calm and remote, every atom of his being concentrated on what he was doing. She had little time left, so very little. Pain swirled inside her, and anger at the fate that was hers, despite her best efforts. Desperately she tried to jerk free of him, using the last of her strength for one final effort….
Despite everything, she had always loved him so much, beyond reason, even beyond death.
That was an even deeper pain: the knowledge that she was leaving him forever. Their gazes met through the veil of murky water, his face so close to hers that she could have kissed him, and through the growing darkness she saw her anguish mirrored in his eyes. Trust me, he’d said repeatedly. Trust me … even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Trust me….
Trust him.
Realization spread through Thea like a sunburst. Trust. She had never been able to trust him, or in his love for her. They had been like two wary animals, longing to be together, but not daring to let themselves be vulnerable to the other. They hadn’t trusted. And they had paid the price.
Trust him.
She stoppe
d struggling, letting herself go limp, letting him do what he would. She had no more strength anyway. Their gazes still held, and with her eyes she gave herself to him, her love shining through. Ever if it was too late, she wanted him to know that in the end, no matter what, she loved him.
She saw his pupils flare, felt his renewed effort as he pushed her down, all the way to the bottom. Then, without the weight of the boards dragging at her, he was able to get enough slack in the fabric of her nightgown to work it free of the entangling wood. The last bubble of air escaped her lips as he wrapped his arm around her waist and used his powerful legs to propel them upward, to the surface and wonderful oxygen, to life.
“GOD, PLEASE, PLEASE, oh God, please.” She heard his desperate, muttered prayer as he dragged her out of the water, but she couldn’t respond, couldn’t move, as she flopped like a rag doll in his arms. Her lungs weren’t quite working; she couldn’t drag in the deep, convulsive breaths that she needed.
Richard dropped her on the grass and began pounding her on the back. Her lungs jerked, then heaved, and she coughed up a quantity of lake water. He continued to beat her on the back, until she thought he would break her ribs.
“I’m … all … right,” she managed to gasp, trying to evade that thumping fist. She coughed some more, gagging.
He collapsed beside her in his own paroxysm of coughing, his muscular chest heaving as he fought for air.
Thea struggled onto her side, reaching for him, needing to touch him. They lay in the grass, shivering and coughing, as the first warming rays of the sun crept across the lake to touch them. Convulsively he clasped her to him, tears running down his cheeks, muttering incoherently as he pressed desperate kisses to her face, her throat. His big body was taut, shaking with a tension that wouldn’t relent. He rolled her beneath him, jerking the sodden folds of her nightgown to her waist. Thea felt his desperate, furious need, and lay still as he fought with the wet, stubborn fabric of his jeans, finally getting them open and peeling them down. He pushed her legs open and stabbed into her, big and hot and so hard that she cried out even as she held him as tightly as she could.
He rode her hard and fast, needing this affirmation that they both still lived, needing this link with her. Thea’s response soared out of control and she climaxed almost immediately, crying out with the joy of having him there with her as she clung to him with arms and legs. He bucked wildly, shuddered, and she felt the warm flood of his orgasm within her, then he fell onto the grass beside her.
He lay there holding her for a long time, her head cradled on his shoulder, neither of them able to stop touching the other. He smoothed back her unruly tumble of curls; she stroked his chest, his arms. He kissed her temple; she nuzzled his jaw. He squeezed and stroked her breasts; her hands kept wandering down to his naked loins. She imagined they made quite a picture of debauchery, lying there on the ground with her nightgown hiked to her waist and his jeans down around his knees, but the sun was warm and she was drowsy, her body replete with satisfaction, and she didn’t much care.
Eventually he moved, kicking his legs free of the damp jeans. She smiled as he stretched out, blissfully naked. He had never been blessed with an overabundance of modesty. But then, it was almost a crime to cover up a body like his. She sighed with her own bliss, thinking of the naughty things she planned to do to him later, when they were sprawled out in that big bed. Some things required a mattress rather than grass. Though those pelts had been wonderful …
“All those times,” she murmured, kissing his shoulder. “You were trying to save me.”
His vivid eyes slitted open as he gathered her closer. “Of course,” he said simply. “I couldn’t live without you.”
But you did. The comment died on her lips as she stared at him, reading his expression. His eyes were calm, and accepting. Emotion swelled in her chest until she could barely breathe, and tears glittered in her eyes. “Damn you,” she said shakily. He hadn’t lived. Each time, when he had failed to save her, he had remained there with her, choosing to share her death rather than live without her. This had been his last chance as well as hers, and theirs. “Damn you,” she said again, thumping him on the chest with her fist. “How could you do that? Why didn’t you live?”
A slow smile touched his lips as he played with one of her curls. “Would you have?” he asked, and the smile grew when she scowled at him. No, she couldn’t have left him in the water and gone on living. She would have remained with him.
“You little hellcat,” he said contentedly, gathering her against his chest. “You’ve led me on quite a chase, but I’ve caught you now. We finally got it right.”
Epilogue
Two days later Thea and Richard were sitting outside in the swing, which he had repaired, contentedly watching the lake. Her bare feet were in his lap and he was massaging them, saying he wanted to get in practice for when she was big with pregnancy and would need such services. Both of them were absurdly positive that their first lovemaking had been fertile, and her happiness was so intoxicating that she felt giddy.
Her fear of the water had disappeared as suddenly as it had formed. She hadn’t been swimming yet, but that was more because of Richard’s anxieties than her own. Whenever they walked, he still positioned himself between her and the water, and she wondered if he would ever relax his vigil.
Plans. They’d made a lot of plans for their life together. For one thing, she would be moving to North Carolina. Her warrior wasn’t just “in” the Special Forces—he was a lieutenant colonel. Since he was only thirty-five, that meant he had a lot of time left to reach general, which was probably inevitable. Thea rather thought she would have to give up painting houses; it just wasn’t the thing for a general’s wife to do. The murals, though, were something else….
For now, though, they were selfishly enjoying getting reacquainted with each other, hugging every moment of privacy to themselves. They had cleaned up the yard, and this morning they had started preparing the house for its new coat of paint. Most of the time, though, they had spent in bed.
She tilted her face up to the sun, and gently cupped her hand over her belly. It was there. She knew it was. She didn’t need either drugstore or lab test to confirm what she felt in every cell of her body. Too tiny almost to be seen, as yet, but indubitably there.
Richard’s hand covered hers, and she opened her eyes to find him smiling at her. “Boy or girl?” he asked.
She hesitated. “What do you think?”
“I asked first.”
“Let’s say it together. You go first.”
His mouth opened, then he stopped and narrowed his eyes at her. “Almost got you,” she said smugly.
“Smart-ass. All right, it’s a boy.”
She twined her fingers with his, sighing with contentment. “I agree.” A son. Richard’s son. The baby who had died with her had been a daughter. She blinked back tears for that child, wondering if it was forever lost, or if it too had been given another chance.
“She’ll have another chance,” Richard whispered, gathering Thea close. “Maybe next time. We’ll know.”
Yes, they would. Each night, her memory became more complete as the dreams continued. Richard still shared them, and they would awaken to find their bodies locked together, ecstasy still pulsing through them. They were linked, body and soul, the past revealed to them as it was to only a few lucky people.
They heard the cars before they could see them, and Thea sat up, swinging her feet to the ground. Richard stood, automatically moving to place himself between her and whoever approached. Thea tugged on his belt and he looked around, a sheepish look crossing his face as he realized what he’d done.
“Old habits,” he said, shrugging. “Real old.”
Then the three cars came into view, and Thea watched in astonishment as her entire family drove up. It took her a moment to realize. “Today’s my birthday!” she gasped. “I’d forgotten!”
“Birthday, huh?” He looped an arm over her shoulders.
“How about that. That makes you … thirty, right? I have to tell you, this is the oldest you’ve ever been. But you’re holding up good.”
“Thank you so much.” Grinning, she caught his hand and began tugging him forward. She’d see if he was so sassy after being overwhelmed by her family. Nieces and nephews were spilling out of open doors, running toward her, while adults unfolded themselves at a slower pace. Lee and Cynthia, Jason and June, and her mom and dad all approached a bit warily, as if afraid they had intruded on a romantic getaway.
“I didn’t realize you’d brought company with you, dear,” her mom said, looking Richard up and down with a mother’s critical assessment.
Richard laughed, the sound low and easy. “She didn’t,” he said, holding out his hand to Thea’s father. “My name is Richard Chance. I’m renting the house next door.”
Her father grinned. “I’m Paul Marlow, Thea’s father. This is my wife, Emily.” Polite introductions were made all around, and Thea had to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud. Though her father was perfectly relaxed, and both Cynthia and June were smiling happily at Richard, her mom and brothers were scowling suspiciously at the warrior in their midst.
Before anything embarrassing could be said, she slipped her arm through Richard’s. “Lieutenant Colonel Richard Chance,” she said mildly. “On leave from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And, for the record, my future husband.”
The words worked a sea change in her more pugnacious relatives. Amid a flurry of congratulations and squeals, plus tears from her mother, she heard her father say reflectively, “That’s fast work. You’ve known each other, what, four or five days?”