Family Sins(46)

“I woke up, thinking I needed to check on Dad. It will take a while for me to get out of that habit, I guess.”

“Is there anything you need to do? I’ll do it for you if I can, or take you to do it,” Bowie said.

“No, there’s nothing. I prepared for this day a long time ago, but I forgot to plan for what I would do without him.”

Bowie kissed the back of her neck.

She turned to face him.

“You’re sure you still want to resurrect this relationship?” she asked.

He heard the uncertainty in her voice and frowned.

“Yes. I want to grow old with you, Talia. All I ever wanted from you was for you to love me.”

She traced the curve of his jaw, brushed a thumb over his lower lip, then reached behind his neck and pulled the band from his hair. The long dark strands fell over her hands and down on to his shoulders.

“I’ve been trying to tell myself that wanting to make love with you now is inappropriate so soon after my father’s death, but when I woke up and saw you lying beside me, I was reminded that I had given up enough. It’s time to live for me. I’m not pretty anymore, but my heart still beats the same for you. Will you make love to me, Bowie?”

It was, to Bowie, tragic that she thought she had to ask when the sight of her still made his heart race.

“You will always be beautiful to me,” he said, and swung her up into his arms.

He carried her back through the house and into her room, kicking the door shut behind him. The moment he put her down she began to strip.

He came out of his clothes erect and aching, and took a condom out of his wallet. The last thing she needed was to get pregnant before she got well. Wind was blowing rain against the windows as he slid into bed beside her. He heard her sigh as she put her arms around his neck.

“Oh, Bowie, please, tell me I’m not dreaming.”

He brushed a kiss across her lips, then ran the back of his finger against her cheek.

“Not a dream. Just a beautiful reality for both of us, and I am so damned scared I’m going to hurt you, I can’t think.”

“The pain of the last seven years nearly killed me. I want to feel whole again. I want to remember what it’s like to feel joy.”

He groaned beneath his breath as he took her in his arms. This he could give her, knowing full well it would be just as healing for him.

Thunder rolled above them as he centered his mouth on her lips. Holding her in his arms like this wiped out the pain of believing she didn’t love him, easing the loneliness of the past seven years and giving him something he’d thought he would never have: a family with the only woman he had ever loved.

Their kisses quickly awakened an urgent need for more. Her skin was so smooth and soft, just as he remembered, and when he cupped her breast, the moan that came up her throat vibrated within him.

It was joy.

Talia couldn’t contain her elation. She kept stroking his face, then his arms, across the back of his shoulders, marveling at how wide they’d become. He’d left her as a teenage boy and come back a man. When he slid a knee between her legs, she shifted to let him in, then exhaled slowly as the hard length of him filled her.

Bowie’s blood was racing. He wanted her, all of her—and now—but he paused, giving her time to adjust.

Then she wrapped her legs around his waist and whispered in his ear, “Love me, Bowie. Love me like you used to.”

And so he did.

All the emotional pain they had been suffering slowly turned into passion. The more time that passed, the hotter the heat grew within them. The act became a desperate chase for the climax that stayed just out of reach.

Talia had lost all consciousness of self and was focused on that blood rush with every sense she possessed. When the climax happened, it came between one breath and the next, rolling through her in waves, and leaving her weak and spent for the aftershocks that followed.

The moment Bowie felt her muscles contracting around him, he let go, riding out the shattering spasms of release that followed. Just before he lost the ability to think, he rolled onto his back to keep from crushing her and took her with him. They savored the aftermath in silence, with Talia stretched out on Bowie’s chest and his arms holding her gently in place.

Finally, she rose up enough to look at him and smiled. This was just as she had remembered him. Dark hair framing that strong, beautiful face and a look of love in his eyes.

“Are you okay, baby?” Bowie asked.

“So happy,” she said softly, then frowned as her cell phone rang. She checked the caller ID and rolled off him to answer.

He could tell by her one-sided conversation that she was setting up a time for the hospital bed to be removed from her house. Life had intruded.

He rolled out of bed and went across the hall to the bathroom. When he came out she was already getting dressed. He grabbed his clothes and started putting them back on.

“They’re going to pick the bed up in the morning, around ten,” she said, and then glanced toward the window. Even though the shades and curtains were pulled, she could hear the rain still blowing against the house.

“I told Mama I was staying with you tonight,” Bowie said.

Talia’s heart skipped. It was wonderful news, but she felt guilty for keeping him away from his family in the midst of all their troubles.

“Is it okay? I mean, don’t they need you?”