Showdown at Lizard Rock (17 page)

Temporarily defeated, King flew back to Atlanta and drove to the springs to face Kaylyn with his failure. His plan had been wonderful. At least he’d saved the springs, but he still had no idea how he could keep them open for Kaylyn’s patients.

King stepped off the plane at Hartsfield International Airport a few minutes after midnight. A forty-minute drive took him to the springs and his trailer. All he wanted was to stride across those rocks and crawl inside Kaylyn’s tent. But he held back. He was more tired than he realized. He needed time to find the words to explain what he’d done, so that she wouldn’t think he’d let her down.

After unlocking the door to his trailer and stepping inside, he noticed that the air conditioner was running. He stood in the darkness for a moment, aware of an unmistakable sense of completeness. The strong aura of Kaylyn’s presence surrounded him. He walked across the living room and down the hallway. Kaylyn was sleeping in his bed, one arm curled behind her head, looking like a fairy-tale princess waiting for her prince to come. He hadn’t expected to find her here. His heart swelled in his chest. The tired feeling of defeat slowly ebbed as he shed his clothes and crawled in beside her.

“How’d it go, sport?” She curled naturally into his arms and sighed in contentment as he held her close. She wasn’t wearing any clothes. The feel of her skin against his body felt right.

“It was a drag.” He kissed her, closing off the questions he didn’t want to hear, and the answers he didn’t want to give. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too, you big galoot. I thought you’d never get back. It’s only been two weeks, and it feels like two years.”

“I’ll never do that again,” he said, sliding his hand down to cup her buttocks. “God, Kaylyn, it seems like forever since I’ve held you like this. Never again.”

“Never is a long time, King. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” She rubbed her face against his chin, reveling in the feel of the rough stubble of beard against her skin.

“I like holding you,” he murmured, “feeling your body against mine, smelling that crisp, clean fragrance of the spring water in your hair. You’re the loveliest human being I’ve ever known, Kaylyn Smith, and the most beautiful.”

“I’m no such thing,” she protested. “Let me check your nose.” She pulled her hand away from the shoulder she’d been clinging to and found his nose in the darkness. With light, feathery sweeps she ran her fingers up and down it, and across the lip beneath. “Well, it seems all right so far.”

“What seems all right?” He caught her fingers and held them against the strong pulse beat in his neck.

“Your nose. It hasn’t started to grow, so you’re not turning into Pinocchio—yet. No more exaggerations. I couldn’t stand you with a great, long proboscis. It would interfere with my doing this.” She brushed her lips against the tip of his nose and worked downward across his cheek, allowing her tongue to taste him as she reached his lips.

The heat of their contact drenched any thought of the slow, gentle loving that King had envisioned. He moaned and whispered hoarsely, “I want you, Kay. I need you. I’ve thought about this moment every second of the time I was away. I was afraid.…”

“Don’t be afraid, King. I’m here. And I want you too.”

“You feel so good,” he whispered to her a short time later. “I feel so good. I’ll never get enough of you.”

She felt him begin to stiffen again. Only a slight movement but it was there, and her body was giving its own signals of response as her muscles contracted in answer.

“Oh, Kaylyn. I hope I didn’t hurt you just now. I guess I was an insensitive devil rushing into you like that, but I couldn’t hold back. This time we’ll take it slow and easy. I want it to be good for you.”

“King, if it gets any better, I may dissolve into a pool of heat and disintegrate before your very eyes.”

With slow, gentle motions he began to move inside her again. Then suddenly he raised up, his body stiffening. “Wait! Dammit, Kaylyn. Stop!”

“Why? What’s wrong, King?”

“My darlin’ love,” he whispered in great disgust, “I forgot. I wanted you so bad that I never even thought. I didn’t protect you.”

“It’s all right, King. While you were gone, I took care of that myself. Just in case, you understand. I knew that you didn’t need to worry about my getting … I mean, you and I know what it’s like not to have both parents, and I didn’t want us to do that to a helpless child. I mean … well, you know.”

“You took care of the problem?” He should have been pleased. Why wasn’t he? The thought of Kaylyn being pregnant, carrying his child, was something he hadn’t contemplated until he heard that she’d chosen not to do it. There was a queer, twisting ache inside him that he couldn’t identify.

She lay still and silent beneath him, staring at up him. “What’s wrong, King? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, darling,” he muttered, “of course not. I’m just surprised. I mean, I know that it must have been embarrassing for you … I mean, since you’d never done that kind of thing before, have you?”

“That should have been fairly obvious, King.” A coldness was boring through her. He wasn’t pleased. She’d taken too much for granted. Maybe a woman wasn’t supposed to admit that she wanted a man and expected him to make love to her. Maybe only the women King had been involved with in the past
would have done such a thing. She’d become just like them, and now he was disappointed.

He felt her drawing away from him and panicked. “Kay, my love”—he kissed her eyelids—“thank you.” His lips moved down to her nose and her upper lip.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. Knowing that you wanted this—and us—makes me so very happy.” He found one breast and lifted it to meet his lips. “Please, I never want to cause you pain. I’m sorry if my poor choice of words has distressed you.” He felt her shift her weight so that he was halfway inside her and throbbing with ecstasy. “I’ve never lo—cared before.”

She made a low sound of deep emotion. “You’re driving me crazy, King. Inside me, all of you, don’t hold back. Please, don’t tease me anymore. This time I won the betting pool and the prize is … ahhh!”

“Sweetheart, it’s Joker who’s the tease, not me. And I think that I can’t possibly … I mean, I don’t want to hurt you. It’s been two weeks.” Even in the heat of his passion King had forced himself to hold back, pulling out instead of entering her warm, tight body, which seemed determined to hold on. He didn’t want to hurt her.

“Hellfire, King Vandergriff. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a big girl.” She gasped in pleasure. “And I want you, all of you—now.”

She pulled her legs up, folded them around his waist, and dug her heels into his back in a sudden motion that thrust him deep inside her. He felt all the heat in the universe converge as they came together. His release was a centrifuge of heat that
spun them both off into a kaleidoscope of pure delight.

“Oh, King, does it just get better and better?” She was completely drained. She couldn’t have moved if she’d wanted to. But she didn’t. She just wanted to lie there and experience the gentle sensation of total satisfaction, satisfaction brought to her by the man still holding her. Sleep was claiming her, shy and warm like a baby’s soft blanket. She had never been so happy.

“Oh, yes, my darling Katie,” he murmured. “Together we just get better and better.” He kissed her neck and felt his own eyelids grow heavy. “You sound like you looked that first day in the sun, like a woman truly loved by a man who’s finally found what love really means.”

“There, you did it again, called me Katie. You’ve never done that before. Why?”

“I don’t know. I guess it was everyone else’s name for you. It was warm and gentle, and it put me too close to you.”

“And now?”

“I don’t think I could get any closer, darlin’, and I’m damn sure nobody else will.”

“You are?” She liked the way his arm felt under her neck, his chest beneath her face. She loved everything about this man. She knew her mind was becoming fuzzy. She wasn’t sure whether she was whispering out loud or merely telling herself when she said, “I’m sorry, I can’t talk anymore. I’m very, very sleepy. I love you, King Vandergriff.”

His, “I love you, too,” became a part of her dream, as did the hand that held her breast throughout the night.

…

The knock on his trailer door seemed to be a muffled echo of the pounding of his heart as King tried to stop the noise from disturbing his dream.

“Go away!” He was holding Kaylyn and didn’t want to wake up and find it was all a dream.

“Not a chance, boss,” Mac answered. “You’d better get out here and see about this donkey.”

“Matilda?” Kaylyn said sleepily.

He wasn’t dreaming. Kaylyn was in his bed; he was holding her breast, and there was an earth-shattering knock jarring the trailer.

“Ah, hell!” He slid out of the bed and strode toward the door.

“King!” Kaylyn called in a panic. “Your robe!”

“Oh.” He whirled around and grabbed a black velour robe hanging on the back of the door, jerked it open and pulled the robe on as he strode down the hall.

“What the hell’s going on, Mac?” he asked as he opened the trailer door.

“It’s that donkey. I think she’s having her colt or kid, or whatever donkeys have.”

“So? Why wake me? I’m no veterinarian.”

“It’s where she’s having it that I’m disturbing you about.”

“And where is that?”

“Somebody didn’t fasten the gate tight, I guess, and she’s right in the middle of the equipment area, under that big tractor with the oversize pan. We can’t budge her, and we can’t move the machine without running over her. And we can’t find Kaylyn anywhere to help us get her back into her pen.”

“Is she all right?” Kaylyn asked. She was rubbing
the sleep from her eyes as she walked over to stand beside King, wrapping a matching velour robe around her without a thought. “Good morning, Mac.”

“Uh … good morning, Katie. Sorry to … uh, disturb you, but I don’t know nothing ’bout birthing no donkey babies.”

Kaylyn smiled. She didn’t know if the news about Matilda made her happier, or if her happiness was so great that she would have grinned at the announcement that the police station was on fire.

“Well, call the vet,” King said. He slid his arm around Kaylyn and pulled her close. He no longer cared if the men knew what was happening. He wanted to touch Kaylyn, and it didn’t matter whether or not Mac understood.

“Sure, boss. What about the machinery?”

“We wait.”

“And the men?”

“Send out for coffee. Tell them they’re on maternity break until Matilda’s baby comes. Anything else?”

“No, I guess not.” Mac glanced at Kaylyn, smiled, and backed slowly down the steps and away.

“Now”—King closed the door and turned back to Kaylyn—“where were we? Good morning, darlin’.” He bent his head and kissed her.

“Hadn’t we ought to get dressed and give Matilda our moral support?” She felt the belt to her robe fall open as he brought their bodies together again.

“Not just yet.”

“But don’t you think your crew is going to wonder about us?”

“I suppose,” he said reluctantly, staring at her with eyes filled with passion. “All right. We’ll dress and check on our foster child.”

“Then you’d better stop what you’re doing quick,” she said hoarsely. “It feels too good.”

“Tell me about it.” His hands had worked their way down her spine to her hips and were holding her tightly against his hardness.

“King,” she warned, “we’d better stop. Harold will be here soon. He’s going to do your laundry.”

“Harold?”

“Yes, you remember Harold, our old friend from the drunk tank.” King was sliding himself back and forth between her legs, setting off exquisite spasms of pleasure in her body.

“Yes.” His breath was coming fast, and he could hear Kaylyn gasping softly. “Has he stayed sober while I was gone?”

“Oh, yes. In fact, he’s even found himself a real job over at the nursing home. He’s going to be one of the night orderlies.”

“Harold?”

“You ought to see him in his white uniform.” She closed her eyes at the ecstasy he was creating in her. “Oh, King! Maybe … maybe if we hurry.”

They did.

Matilda didn’t.

By the time the tiny mule was finally delivered, half the day had been wasted and the men were openly shaking their heads in amazement over their boss’s new concern for causes and protestors. Kaylyn had missed arts and crafts at the home, and most of the special afternoon movie being shown on the new VCR that had been anonymously donated to the nursing home the day before, but she managed to put in a few hours’ work planning for upcoming activities and events.

It was early evening before Kaylyn returned to her campsite. There was no sign of King at the trailer. Harold finished the laundry and left for the nursing home, and Kaylyn walked around the campsite feeling lonely and a little scared. Where was King? Had he gone away again? If so, why hadn’t he mentioned it? Finally she gave up and crawled into her tent. It had been one thing to sleep in his bed when he’d been in Nashville trying to save her springs, but now she felt very strange about the relationship she’d allowed herself to fall into.

Tonight the sound of the springs didn’t bring the comfort she’d always felt. She realized that King had carefully avoided any mention of a trip or what he was doing. Maybe she’d misunderstood. No, she couldn’t be wrong about what they felt about each other. Nobody could misunderstand that. Unless she’d been wrong. Maybe everybody had those same sensations. Maybe she was only another notch on King’s alligator belt. Maybe …

Kaylyn tossed miserably for almost an hour before she drifted off into a troubled sleep.

It was late when King was forced to admit defeat, board a plane for the short flight back to Atlanta, and return to the springs. His last attempt to convince the backers to increase their investment in order to build the spa and medical complex met with sincere regret and a firm rejection. He didn’t know how he’d explain the truth to Kaylyn, but he couldn’t stay away from her.

He crawled into her tent and slid into the sleeping bag with her. He put his arm beneath her neck and felt her turn to him with a deep sigh of pleasure. She didn’t wake, and he didn’t rouse her. For now
he was content just to hold her and know the joy of being close to her. He still had to tell her that he hadn’t been able to find a way to open up the springs to the locals. But he hadn’t given up. There was always tomorrow.