Damon, Lee (15 page)

I wasn't alone in having a... brutal husband, and that there were legal steps I could take.... Oh, Lord, you don't know what a relief it was just to find people who not only believed me, but who could help me, too."

O'Mara's mouth thinned to a grim line, and his eyes sparked with anger. "What about Ez's friends?" he growled. "Surely they'd have helped you."

"They'd have beaten him bloody," Kitt said bleakly, "and then they'd have called Ez—and he'd have killed him. I mean it literally, O'Mara, and you know it. Ez would have killed him with his bare hands. You've never seen him in a rage. I have. Once. And I hope I never do again. You know Ez—easygoing and loves the world—a big, happy bear. It's almost impossible to get him mad, but when it happens, he goes utterly berserk."

"I believe it. When did you ever see him in a rage?"

"Years ago. We were home on vacation from college and went into Boston one evening to see a new movie. Afterward, we were walking back beside the Common to the parking garage when we heard a girl scream. You know how dark parts of the Common are with trees and shrubbery, and how many weird characters roam around in there at night. Well, we couldn't see anything much except some movement, but the scream choked off and then we heard men's voices and a girl crying. Ez went charging toward the sounds, and I chased after him as usual, yelling at some people on the street to call the cops." She shook her head with a rueful grin at O'Mara's exasperated expression. "Don't say it. I know I should have stayed out of it, but it was an automatic reflex."

He grinned back at her. "I'm not surprised. You always did run at Ez's heels, no matter where he went." He reached across the table to tap her on the nose with a long tan finger, and laughed into her bemused eyes. "And mine, come to that."

Tilting her head, Kitt inquired in a mock-sweet voice, "Is that where you want me—at your heels?"

"Witch! You know it isn't. You'll stay beside me—all the time." He paused, and a wicked gleam sparked in the sapphire eyes while his voice dropped to a sensuous murmur as he added, "Except in bed... where you will definitely not spend all your time
beside
me."

He shook with silent laughter as Kitt's face flushed dark pink and her eyes widened in a delightful mixture of questioning apprehension and expectant wonder. She caught her lower lip between even white teeth and tried to think of something non-stupid to say.
Good grief, I'm thirty years old, and I'm blushing like a schoolgirl and groping for words as if I'd never heard of sex.

"My Kitt," O'Mara chuckled, "you are going to be such a delight to teach, and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it." He leaned forward, raising her hand to his mouth, and gently ran his lips and the tip of his tongue across her knuckles. Holding her eyes with the blue flame of his, he said softly, insinuatingly, "You will, too."

Kitt was mesmerized by the blazing sensuality of the promise in his eyes and of his tongue tracing patterns over her fingers. The noise and light of the restaurant faded off somewhere into the background. All of her senses were filled with O'Mara's overwhelming male presence. Dazedly, she let a thought drift to the surface of her mind.
God, how can he make me feel like this just by holding my hand and looking at me? Whoever would believe that his tongue tickling my knuckles could be so sexy? I wish he were—

She was jolted to awareness by his teeth nipping the end of her thumb. In what seemed like a cacophony of babbling voices and clattering dishes, their surroundings intruded and broke the heated, erotic spell.

"You... you great tomcat," Kitt exclaimed in exasperation. "Look at you. If you had whiskers, you'd be twitching them. And stop laughing at me!" she hissed. "You did that on purpose!"

"Of course I did, love," he said soothingly, trying to subdue his mirth. Sitting back in his chair, he released her hand and, with a very satisfied expression, watched her flustered movements as she fiddled with her coffee cup. "Since I can't court you yet, in the usual way, it's necessary to devise alternate methods." One thick black eyebrow lifted inquiringly and the blue eyes widened in mock innocence. "I thought I was rather creative. No?"

"No... yes!... oh, you... you just wait."

"I am waiting," he answered, grinning, "but this is hardly the place for you to retaliate." He pushed back his chair and stood up, holding out his hand to her. "Let's go, love. You can finish telling me about Ez and the muggers on the way back."

There was little traffic on Route One at that hour, and they were pulling into Kitt's parking lot less than thirty minutes later. Hero leaped up the stairs ahead of them and, by the time they were halfway up, they could hear him "talking" to Ez. Stepping onto the deck, they found Ez and Midge seated at a card table, obviously having just finished breakfast.

"Did we return too soon?" asked Kitt, all innocence. "You did say you were going back to bed, brother, although you didn't specify when. Now, let's see, it's just after nine, and you had to get Midge over here, cook breakfast, eat it and, yes, it does look like you've had most of that pot of coffee, so you couldn't have had time—"

She dodged behind O'Mara as Midge and Ez reached for the last two muffins with a purposeful gleam in their eyes.

"Wait a minute!" yelped O'Mara, pulling Kitt around and holding her in front of him. "I wouldn't think of commenting on your domestic arrangements, Ez. If you can find someone to cook your breakfast and entertain you at this hour on a Sunday morning, I'm all admiration. Besides, it would be a crime to waste those muffins. They do look good."

Giggling, Midge put the muffins on a plate and pushed it, together with the butter dish, toward O'Mara. "Here. Pull up a chair and help yourself. Uh, I'll make another pot of coffee; this one seems to be empty."

As Kitt and O'Mara moved toward the table, Ez caught his sister's eye and gave her an intently questioning look while asking, "Did you... enjoy the sunrise? Where did you go?"

"Ogunquit Beach, and it was beautiful." She slipped her hand into O'Mara's and smiled happily at Ez. "We also had a long talk, and it's going to be all right eventually. Isn't it?" she asked O'Mara, turning to him for reassurance.

"Oh, yes, love. No question." He didn't have time to say more before Ez sprang to his feet and grabbed his hand in what to a weaker man would have been a bone-crushing grip.

With a rather dreamy look on her face, Kitt stood and watched the two big men grinning exultantly and pounding each other on the shoulder.

"What in the world—Ouch! Watch where you're tramping!" Midge dodged around the men to reach Kitt's side. "What's gotten into them? Did somebody win the lottery?"

Kitt beamed down at her and explained, "Sort of. O'Mara and I... well, I guess it's mostly what I... we've finally... or I've finally—"

"Thanks," Midge said with a long-suffering look. "I'm really tickled to have such a thorough explanation. Can't tell you how pleased I am that you and O'Mara, or is it just you, or maybe it's O'Mara and Ez, or perhaps we should consider—"

Laughing, Kitt dropped into a chair, shifted it sideways and crossed one long leg over the other. "Sorry, Midge. It's just that it's a bit difficult to explain. You see, there was something I needed to tell O'Mara, but it was a very hard thing to talk about, and I thought it would take a long time before I could do it, but it didn't and I told him this morning."

"Terrific. I think I know almost as much now as I did after your first explanation. No," she admonished, holding up a staying hand, "don't spoil it by telling me anything that makes sense."

"All right, I won't." Kitt laughed, reaching over to pat Midge on the cheek. "I'll let Ez explain it all to you. It will give you another excuse to sit on his lap," she teased gently. "Isn't that where all little ones perch when they listen to a story?"

"I'll see if the coffee's ready," gasped Midge, blushing furiously and running for the door.

"What's gotten into the pixie?" asked Ez, settling back into his chair.

"She's getting the coffee," Kitt said blandly as she rose and started stacking the used dishes. "I'll just get all this out of our way. Well, perhaps not quite all. Ez, how about giving me a hand?" She gave him a compelling look that brought him to his feet, and he followed her inside, passing Midge on her way out with the fresh coffee.

"What is it?" asked Ez as he helped Kitt rinse and stack the dishes.

"I've told him the basics. No real details. I... I can't... just cold facts... it's too... oh, when I talk to him about it, I get upset and that upsets him and so does what I'm saying, and then I get even more upset because he's—"

Ez placed his hand across her mouth, cutting off the breathless jumble of words. "Calmly, calmly now. Just take a deep breath and quietly tell me what you want me to do." He moved his hand until only one finger was across her lips. "Just the basics, huh? Did you tell him how it all ended?" She shook her head. "Do you want me to tell him?" She nodded, her eyes wide and pleading. "Okay, but not today. Next weekend, I'll bring up all the documentation and let him read it for himself. Anything else?"

She pulled his hand down and held it in hers. "Could you... would you fill him in on the details? Once I know he knows, then I think I can discuss it with him. The hardest part is telling him for the first time... I mean, for
me
to have to tell him and know that it's... hurting... and making him so angry... not with me, but because it happened to me and... well, I think it would be easier on him if you told him first, and then we... he and I... could talk about it. Don't you think so?" She clutched his hand and looked at him appealingly.

"Oh, Kitt," he sighed, putting his arms around her and holding her gently. They stood quietly in the middle of the kitchen, her forehead resting on his shoulder, and communed in their own special way.

After a few minutes, he held her away from him and looked reassuringly into her troubled eyes. "I think you're probably right. It would be easier on him if I filled in the blanks. The important thing was for you to be the one to tell him that you were married and what kind of a marriage it was—at least, to tell him enough so that he realizes why you pull away from him."

"I did. I just couldn't—"

"It's okay. I'll talk to him about the rest." He turned her toward the living room and the door to the deck, his arm around her shoulders bringing her along with him out into the sunshine.

As soon as she saw them coming through the door, Midge poured their coffee. She and O'Mara were sitting opposite each other at the table, and he reached out to draw Kitt to a seat at his right while Ez dropped into the remaining chair. Hero ran frustratedly around the table until Ez leaned over and lifted Midge out of her chair and into his lap. With a whoop of satisfaction, Hero jumped into the empty seat and settled into his "people" position, looking around at the laughing humans with a puzzled frown.

"I told you your dog was a total eccentric." O'Mara chuckled, leaning toward Kitt and pushing her disheveled hair back from her face. "Everything okay?" he asked very softly.

"Just fine." The smiling face she turned to him suddenly seemed years younger, the strain lines erased and the pallor chased away by the delicate flush of healthy color across her cheekbones.

He glanced from her to Ez and back again with a questioning look. "Something?"

Seeing that Ez and Midge were engrossed in their own conversation, Kitt leaned closer to O'Mara and said quietly, "Later on, if it's okay with you, Ez will fill you in on some details you should know. I think... well, we both think it will be easier on you... and me, too... if he tells you and answers any questions and...." Her voice trailed off and she looked at him with a mixture of uncertainty and appeal.

"Okay. You're probably right. While you gals are upping the reading tastes of the local populace this afternoon, Ez and I will go out to my place and have a talk. Okay if we take Hero along to amuse Gus, or vice versa?"

"Sure. Ah... will you be coming back later?"

"What's your next dumb question?" His expression was only mildly interested, and Kitt grinned at him unrepentantly.

"Hey, you guys," Midge interrupted, "Ez says he doesn't have to go back until morning. His first class isn't until eleven. So, why don't we all do something interesting tonight?"

O'Mara and Ez locked eyes, grinned, and chorused, "All of us together? Just how interesting do you want it to be?" They broke up in laughter at Midge's outraged expression, highlighted by the tide of fiery red that spread over her neck and face.

"Never mind them," Kitt consoled. "We've got all afternoon to think up something really nasty to pay them out."

"F'sooth," said Ez, chuckling, "now what do you think a couple of bits of baggage like you two can do to us?"

"Idiot!" O'Mara groaned. "I'm not sure yet about the little one, but you should know better than to toss a challenge like that at the big one. Got a wicked, evil turn of mind, has my Kitt."

"Warty toads, the both of you!" Kitt laughed. "You just wait and see what's going to happen to you." The morning was rapidly warming up under a bright spring sun, and the four of them lazed on the deck for another hour, enjoying the tangy air and watching the boats on the river. By unspoken agreement, they kept it all very lighthearted— laughing, teasing, talking about tastes and hobbies, and making tentative plans for the next weekend. Finally, Kitt glanced at her watch and broke up the party.

"Ugh! Eleven, already. I've got to change and get downstairs. What do you think, Midge, can the two of us do a fast inventory of the paperback fiction in half an hour? I'd really like to get an accurate idea of what we need before we spend time going through catalogs and order forms."

"Don't know why not." Midge wrinkled her small nose in disgust. "There isn't what I'd call an overabundance of it. Can't imagine why the Baxters let the stock get so low."

"Well, if you two are going to start talking shop, we're off." Ez set Midge on her feet and then stood up to stretch. Wrapping one big hand around her neck, he walked her over to the stairs and stood on the second step down, turning to face her at eye-level. With a teasing smile, he declared, "It's all up to you, pixie." His hands closed over her shoulders as she leaned forward to fold her arms around his neck and kiss him.