Authors: Jayne Ann Krentz
“You never told me.“
“I didn’t know how to explain it. But now that I know you’ve had similar dreams, maybe you can understand.“ He hesitated and then asked urgently, “What’s it like for you?“
“I see you as you are now,“ she began slowly, hunting for the right words, “but also as someone you once were.
The warrior who chained the lady in the cave. It’s as if the dream image of you, the warrior image, is superimposed onto the real you. Does that make sense?“
“Unfortunately, yes. Sometimes I see you that way, too.“
“As a warrior?“
Colby gave her a gentle shake. “No, not as a warrior.“ He drew a breath. “As the lady who got chained in the cave
– a proud, powerful huntress who refused to bend to any man’s will.“
A frisson of fear, laced with excitement, went through Diana. “What’s she like, this other woman you sometimes see in me?“
“She’s not another woman,“ Colby said slowly. “She is you. But a slightly different version of you. A more primitive you, I guess. She’s some kind of amazon. Fierce, arrogant, untamable.
And I handled you all wrong last time.
I didn’t understand…“
“What?“ Diana looked up at him as he broke off. She was bewildered and desperately curious. “What do you mean, you handled me all wrong?“
Colby shook his head, as if to clear it. He scowled in the shadows. “Honey, those images are just fragments of our dreams.“
“I know, but it’s so strange that we’re both dreaming about the legend of Chained Lady Cave.“ Diana was very serious now.
Colby grinned slowly in the darkness, showing his teeth. “Does it get you excited?“
“I didn’t say that!“
He bent his head and kissed the base of her throat. “I think it does.“
“Colby, stop it. I want to talk about this dream business. There’s something going on here, and we ought to discuss it.“
“It will be more fun to act it out. What’s the point of having a vivid imagination if you don’t get some use out of it in your fantasy life?“ His eyes were glittering with sensual intent as he slowly and deliberately lowered his weight along the length of her.
“Colby?“ Diana wriggled experimentally and discovered her legs were trapped beneath his. She suddenly realized just how much more he weighed than she did.
“Are you getting hot yet, honey?“ He tugged off the peach-colored nightgown in one swift, efficient move.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Honestly, Colby, I’m trying to have a serious discussion with you, and you’re playing games.“
“A man’s got a right to play a few games on his wedding night.“ He used his foot to part her legs.
Diana shivered as his hair-roughened thigh slid between her knees. She sucked in her breath, and her fingertips splayed across his chest. He slid one finger into her, testing her readiness and groaned with satisfaction as she began to dampen his hand. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him.
Colby was suddenly very big, very male and very much in charge of the situation. When he gazed down into her face, Diana knew he was well aware of her quickening response.
Holding her captive with his eyes as well as his weight, Colby gently caught her wrists and pinned them to the pillow on either side of her head.
“This primitive enough for you?“ he asked, his voice sexy and excitingly rough as he arched his lower body against her softness. Again and again, he moved against her, seducing her into the ancient rhythm. His hard, blunt manhood pressed against her but he didn’t enter her. “Remind you of a professional warrior you used to know?“
Diana moaned as he began to sink into her with slow deliberation. “What do they feed professional warriors these days to make them grow this big?“
“A
lot of raw meat.“
“Oh.“ She closed her eyes and cried out softly as Colby thrust deeply into her.
She waited for him to resume the mesmerizing pattern he had used to tease her a moment before. She knew the pattern well – knew that it would bring them both to a glorious release, but Colby didn’t move. He stayed where he was, locked within her softness. Keeping her wrists chained to the pillow, he lowered his head to trail a string of hot, damp kisses down her throat to the peaks of her breasts.
“Colby?“
“Hmm?“ His attention was on the valley between her breasts now.
“You’re driving me crazy.“
“Good. I like it when you go crazy. I like to hear you scream.“
“I do not scream.“
“What do you call it?“
“Little cries of sensual completion,“ Diana stated loftily. She wished he would start moving within her. She could hardly stand the tight, full feeling of having him lodged within her pulsating body.
“Little cries of sensual completion, my foot,“ Colby muttered. “You’re a screamer. You go wild in my arms and you scream. There’s no other word for it. I’m going to make you scream for me tonight.“
“Are you?“ Diana gave up trying to dissuade him. The feel of him inside her and all along the outside of her was overwhelming her with excitement. A savage warmth was pouring through her. She was suddenly hot and restless and full of fire. Deliberately she tightened herself around him.
Colby groaned. “Oh, yeah, honey. That’s what I want.“ He released her wrists and began to thrust slowly in and out. The muscles bunched in his shoulders as he held himself in check while he waited for her to reach the heights.
Diana wrapped her arms around him, and then she wrapped her legs around his driving thighs. And when he had finally summoned them forth, Colby drank the feminine screams of release from her lips. An instant later he shouted his own satisfaction into the darkness.
Floating on the edge of dreamy contentment, Diana smiled to herself as a stray thought drifted through her mind.
This time around everything was different. This time around everything was right.
A long while later Colby stirred in the shadows. “I’ve been thinking. Making some plans.“
“Have you?“ Diana yawned.
“It’s time we made a doctor’s appointment for you. You heard what they said at the clinic when they gave us the results of your test the other day. We need to get started on a prenatal care program.“
Diana, who had been on the verge of sleep, came awake in a hurry. “I have a gynecologist in Portland. I can make an appointment with her.“ Diana stared up at the ceiling, feeling rather flustered. So many new things to think about.
So many changes to make in her normal routine.
Colby’s palm settled warmly on Diana’s still flat stomach. “Set it up, and well drive down to Portland to see her. It’ll give us a nice break.“
“What about your writing? I can drive to Portland by myself.“
“I’ll handle the writing. And I’ll drive you to Portland.“
Diana tried to decide how it felt to have someone else making the decisions. On the one hand, it was an enormous relief to share the responsibility. But on the other hand, it frightened her to have a man assuming that responsibility for her. She wasn’t accustomed to having anyone look after her, least of all a man.
“Stop worrying about it, honey,“ Colby said. He sounded amused. “You’ll get used to it.“
“Have you taken up mind reading?“ she demanded.
“No. But at times like this, it’s not hard to figure out what you’re thinking.“
She decided to ignore that. “Maybe it would be a good idea to spend a couple of days in Portland. I could check with Aaron Crown and talk about going back to work for Carruthers and Yale for a few months.“
“You don’t need to go back to work. You can wait until after the baby arrives.“
“No,“ Diana said firmly. “I want to go back to work while I wait for the baby.“
“Just so long as you remember that you’ve got other priorities in your life now.“
She heard the determination in his voice and decided to try to defuse his new mood with a little teasing. She rolled onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow to gaze down at him.
“Other priorities?“ Deliberately she drew her nails across his thigh.
It startled her sometimes to see just how quickly Colby could move when he wished. He caught her wrist and tumbled Diana back down onto her back. Then his strong, hard body was looming over her, blocking out the pale moonlight. His thumb rubbed the gold ring on her left hand.
“Two other priorities to be precise, Madam Executive. Me and the baby. And I’m not going to let you forget either of us.“
“How could I?“ she asked softly just before his mouth captured hers.
“The next thing we do, now that we’ve gotten married and seen your doctor, is start thinking up names for the kid.“
Colby forked up a large slice of salmon and regarded Diana across the small restaurant table. “How do you feel about Bertha Maud if it’s a girl, and Horace if it’s a boy?“
“You can’t be serious.“ Diana was still dwelling on the conversation she’d had with her doctor the previous afternoon. The pregnancy was becoming more and more real by the day. And Colby seemed determined to make sure she faced it. Every time she turned around, he was bringing up some subject that had to do with babies. Tonight they were eating at one of the best restaurants in town, but she could hardly concentrate on the excellent food she had been served. Now Colby wanted to talk names. “I wouldn’t stick any kid with a name like Bertha Maud or Horace.
Besides, it’s too early to start thinking of names for the baby.“
“No, it’s not. You just want to put it off because you’d rather worry about your career.“
“I understand my career better than I understand babies.“ The hum of conversation at nearby tables and the clatter of dishes made the words almost inaudible. But not quite. Colby had heard her.
“You’ll learn.“ Colby swallowed another bite of fish. “You about ready to head back to Fulbrook Comers?
We’ve spent enough time here in Portland this week. I’ve still got a book to finish this summer.“
“I
haven’t even contacted my boss yet. I was going to call Aaron tomorrow.“
“You can wait until the end of the summer. That’s what you were planning to do, anyway.“
Diana was getting accustomed to Colby’s efforts to sidetrack her every time she began to fret about her career. “I’d rather settle things as soon as possible now that I know I’m pregnant. I need to know if going back to Carruthers and Yale is even a viable possibility.“
“You know it is. That Crown character has been pestering you all summer to come back to work for him.“
“Yes,“ she admitted. “You know, I think I’m going to do it, Colby. It’s the perfect solution.“
“The perfect solution is for you to stop worrying about your career until you’ve settled into marriage and motherhood.“
“Do we have to go through this again? You know how I feel about being financially dependent on a man. I made a vow a long time ago that I would never expect someone else to pay my way in life.“
“You mean you promised yourself you’d never take the risk of trusting a man to support you either financially or emotionally. That’s a bit different than saying you don’t want someone else to pay your way in this world. Yeah, I know how you feel about it.“ Colby pointed his fork at her, scowling. “You’ve made it damned clear you don’t like the idea of trusting me to take care of you. But I think it’s time you realized that you’ve carried that particular phobia to extremes.“
“Why are you so opposed to my career plans? Don’t you understand how important that part of my life is to me? I didn’t think you were a chauvinist in that regard, Colby. You know how you feel about your writing. Surely you can empathize with me.“
“It’s not a question of being chauvinistic,“ he exploded, trying to keep his voice low. “My writing is every bit as important to me as your career is to you, but I learned the hard way that there are other things in life. It’s time you learned the same lesson. You’ve been too self-contained, too focused on your job and your narrow little world for too long. It’s time to learn what it means to be a woman who’s also a wife and, soon, a mother. You’re going to broaden your horizons, lady. The amazon bit wears after a while.“
“Ill bet you never gave up a paying job while you learned about the little joys of fatherhood.“
“All right, I had to do it the hard way. That doesn’t make it the right way. Raising Brandon alone and working full-time to support him and myself was not the ideal way to handle things. I had no choice, but you do.“
An old fear twisted into life inside Diana. “Do you know what I think? I think you’re being difficult about this because deep down you aren’t sure you like the idea that I can take care of myself.“
“That’s not true, Diana.“
“It bothers you, doesn’t it? You’re just old-fashioned enough to want me to be dependent on you. It’s some kind of power trip for you, isn’t it? In this society the one who controls the money controls everything else. That’s the way it works in business, and that’s the way it works in a marriage.“
“Your ability to take care of yourself doesn’t bother me, Diana.“ Colby spoke through set teeth. “I admire it. Most of the time. What bothers me is that you’re too damned scared about what will happen to your precious independence now that you’re a wife and a mother-to-be. I’ve told you before, you’ve got new priorities now. You’re going to have to learn how to balance all of them. And you can start learning that by giving up your cast-iron bra and spear.“
“Diana.“
The masculine voice that interrupted Colby’s lecture was the carrying kind – the voice of a man who likes to draw attention to himself and knows how to do it. “I thought it was you when I saw you a few minutes ago, but I told myself no way. You’re supposed to be tucked away for the summer in some little backwater mountain town.
What are you doing back in Portland?“
Diana looked up at Aaron Crown. She would have been grateful for almost anything that managed to interrupt the argument that had developed between herself and Colby, but she wasn’t prepared to see her boss standing by the table. She took refuge in the formalities.