Blue Mist of Morning (22 page)

"I still don't believe you," Anne muttered, though she had
to fight back the hope that was rising in her. "If she loves him, why
doesn't she just tell her family to stay out of her business and go
back to him, where she belongs? I don't believe she needs your shoulder
to cry on just because her family gives her a difficult time."

"Anne, love," he whispered earnestly, smiling as her lips
parted in response to the enticing endearment. "Not everyone is as
strong-willed as you are. Millicent certainly isn't. She's been too
pampered all her life. She can hardly decide which dress to buy without
someone's advice. And now, with Luke begging her to come back to him
and her family constantly warning her she shouldn't, she's on the verge
of a nervous breakdown. She was actually threatening to do something
desperate for awhile. I couldn't turn my back on her when she called me
for help, could I?"

Hope bloomed in Anne, making her giddy. Clutching his
crisp white shirtfront, she searched his dark beloved face as she
breathed, "Ty, is that the truth? Is it really?"

"It is, really," he murmured, drawing her up on tiptoe,
his hands molding her hips and pressing her against the hard strength
of his thighs. Flames of desire flickered in his eyes. "Anne, how could
you think I was involved with Millicent, when it was obvious I could
hardly keep my hands off you? Since the day you became my secretary,
there's been no other woman in my life. I only want you. You're
intelligent and caring and lovely to look at and to touch. And I love
you."

"You might have told me that and saved me a lot of
miserable moments," she complained half-heartedly, tears of happiness
filling her eyes. "Oh Ty, I love you so much and I've needed to know
you loved me. I wish you'd told me how you felt weeks ago."

"I think I did," he said wryly, brushing the edge of his
thumb across the soft curve of her lips. "Why else do you think I made
you quit working at the restaurant and come live with me? I used Jenny
as my excuse, but, Anne, didn't you know I really made you do it
because I couldn't stand to watch you working so hard to keep Sue in
school? You were beginning to look so tired and very fragile, at least
to me. I wanted to look after you. I still do, and I want you to look
after me, if you want to. Jenny told me that Mike was at the house to
see her the other night, so I'm not worried about him. But…
what about the other man, the one you worked for, the one who hurt you.
Can you forget him?"

"Oh Ty, I was only infatuated with him. I was eighteen, so
I was hurt and embarrassed when I realized he wasn't serious about me.
But I never loved him, and he
is
forgotten.
You're the only man I could never forget. I love you and, yes, I do
want to look after you for the rest of our lives."

"Then you're going to have to marry me, Anne. You know
that, don't you?"

Too overwhelmed with happiness to answer in words, Anne
stretched up on tiptoe, arching against him. As his mouth covered hers
gently at first, then with deepening rousing demand, that central
throbbing ache he always created in her flared to life again. Yet, this
time was different. She could surrender completely to the desire he
evoked and to him. He loved her, and tonight she would belong to him.
Trembling fingers unbuttoned his shirt. Her hands brushed lovingly
across his chest, her fingernails catching in the fine dark hair. "I
love you so much, Ty," she whispered, pressing her lips against his
firm bronze skin, then lifting her mouth to his again.

His marauding kiss drained all the strength from her
limbs, and she was warmly acquiescent as he unzipped her dress to push
it off her shoulders. It slipped down to the floor around her feet and
was soon followed by her slip. And though her breath caught as he
removed the fragile wisps of lace that were the remaining barriers
between them, she felt delightfully vulnerable and desired when he held
her from him and allowed his gaze to wander slowly over every
satin-textured inch of her body.

Her gray eyes were drowsy with passion, and as he cupped
her firm throbbing breasts in strong gentle hands, her lips parted with
a swiftly indrawn breath of anticipation. Covering his hands with hers,
she glanced at the bed behind her. "Love me, Ty," she whispered
invitingly. "Love me, now."

"Yes, I'm going to but not in here," he murmured huskily.
With lithe ease, as if she weighed nothing at all, he swept her up in
his arms and strode across the hall to his own room. "I've wanted you
in my bed for so long, Anne, and that's where I'm going to make love to
you."

By then, she didn't much care where he made love to her,
just as long as he did. Lying on his bed, she watched with half-closed
eyes as he swiftly undressed, then she lifted her arms to him. His
devouring gaze swept over the entrancing curves of her slender body,
then he was beside her on the bed, finding her mouth, parting her soft
lips with fierce demanding power until she was weak with longing for
him. His hands roamed over her, caressing her breasts, stroking her
abdomen and the gentle outcurving of her hips. As her lips clung
hungrily to his and she wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, he
lowered his weight gently onto her slight body.

"I love you, Anne," he whispered roughly. But his hand was
gentle as he caressed her thighs, coaxing them apart with the exquisite
brushing touch of his thumb. And as she quivered beneath him, his other
hand under her hips arched her upward to receive him.

His lips captured her first soft gasp and, then, the
shuddering sigh of delight as their bodies merged perfectly. "Anne,
love
,"
he murmured triumphantly as she pressed closer, seeking all the hard
warmth of his body. Whispering endearments in her ear, nibbling the
tender lobe with his teeth, he began to move slowly, rousingly against
her until she started to move with him, warmly feminine and
delightfully pliant and completely his.

Her desire heightened his, and he swept her along in a
turmoil of dizzying, piercing passion that culminated in waves of
exquisite pleasure rippling deep within her. She was lost in sensations
she had never really known existed, and she caught her breath as
fulfillment radiated warmth throughout her body. She was so sensitized
to his touch that she trembled violently as his hard, warm lips took
possession of the throbbing peak of one breast, but she arched against
him, pressing him down to her, finding even more delight in giving
fulfillment to his intolerable need, as he took her with tender, yet
demanding, strength.

Much later, Anne smiled as Ty brushed his lips across her
bare shoulder. When he pulled her over onto her side and lay gazing at
her lovingly, she cupped his dark face in her hands. "I love you, Ty,"
she whispered. "So very much."

"You'd better," he whispered back teasingly, "since we're
going to see what we can do about getting married tomorrow." After
stroking her hair back from one cheek, he lightly tapped the tip of her
small nose. "And after you become Mrs. Manning, Miss Fairchild, I do
hope you're going to let me help you pay Sue's college expenses."

"I might," she answered pertly. "But only if you let me
keep my job as your secretary."

Ty's expression sobered. "I thought you might want to go
to college with Sue and Jenny. If that's what would make you happy, you
know I wouldn't object."

In that moment, her love for him was dizzying in its
intensity. "You're a wonderful man," she whispered, stroking his face
adoringly, then giving him a coy smile. "But I don't think I want to go
to college now. Maybe someday, but not for a long time. I'm not about
to let some other secretary take my place and fall in love with you. I
couldn't bear to lose you."

"You never will," he promised. "So if you do want to
enroll in college…"

"I'd rather spend every day with you," she interrupted,
pressing one silencing finger against his lips. "And, after all, you
said once that I was the best secretary you'd ever had."

"And the sexiest, by far," he agreed, smiling wickedly.
"But you'd better remember that sofa in my office. If you're my
secretary, we might not get a great deal of work done."

"Umm, that sounds like a terrific fringe benefit," she
quipped, laughing softly until his lips descended on hers and brought a
sudden lovely silence to the room.