Love Beyond Reason(39)
When they were replete with spaghetti, salad, bread, and wine, Jace insisted that they each have a bowl of chocolate ice cream. As they companionably shared the chore of cleaning up, Katherine marveled again that he was able to eat so much and still retain a physique that sported not one ounce of fat.
They stood side by side at Allison's crib, arms around each other's waists, and felt drawn even closer by the commitment they shared to rear the child to be a responsible, compassionate human being. Katherine changed Allison's diaper, but the baby didn't awaken.
There was no question as to where Katherine was sleeping that night. She went with Jace into the other bedroom naturally and uninhibitedly. Before she had time to straighten the linens on the bed, he had stripped out of his clothes and reached for her. With meticulous care he untied the knot under her bosom and pulled the shirt from her shoulders. She stepped out of her panties as they lay down together on the wide bed.
"I'm insanely jealous," Jace said as he stroked her shoulder.
"Why?" she asked in a voice that sounded more like a contented purr.
"Because the first time you were on this bed, you were with Cooper."
"Yes," she sighed with pretended despair, "I suppose I'll have to give Jim up."
They laughed, then were quiet for a long moment, enraptured with holding each other.
"How do you feel?" Jace whispered into the darkness.
"Like this," Katherine returned impishly. Shyly, she lowered her hand under the covers. He inhaled sharply with a soft hiss when she found her target. She smiled in satisfaction at his instantaneous stirring under her fingertips.
"Oh, God," he moaned. "That wasn't exactly what I meant, but your answer will suffice." With an effort he tried to control his rapid breathing. "Actually, I wondered if I had hurt you. I wasn't very gentle." He groaned when she became more confident. "Katherine..." he rasped. Then more levelly, "It never occurred to me that you might be a virgin."
"Did you think I was a liberated, promiscuous swinger trailing a string of forsaken lovers behind me?" She nibbled at the base of his throat.
"No, of course not," he ground out between clenched teeth. Speech was becoming more difficult with each passing second. "I just thought that surely someone as beautiful as you would have been … involved ... before now. I'm delighted to learn you weren't."
"Oh, Jace," she murmured as she buried her face in the hair on his chest and brushed it with butterfly kisses. Lightly, she flicked her tongue over his nipples.
"Katherine—" he cried softly. "You ... you take me to heaven." He reached under the sheet and lifted her hand away from him, bringing it to his lips. He pressed a passionate kiss into her palm even as he rolled her gently onto her back.
Masterfully controlling the urgency she had induced it was with utmost gentleness that he took her once again to blissful completion.
* * *
The following weeks were idyllic. Katherine and Jace were totally engrossed in each other. They shared those looks and touches that, to lovers, are secret, and yet broadcast their affection to anyone who chanced to intercept these transmissions.
They laughed, talked, and made love with a joy that belied the strained circumstances of their marriage. Katherine tinkered with and experimented on her new typewriter, and, by the end of the first week, was composing rough drafts for her first series of commercials.
During the day while Jace was at the drilling site, she spent long hours jotting down ideas and doing research. She read her drafts aloud to Allison, who was a captive audience. The baby was relegated to a pallet on the living room floor until one evening when Jace brought in an indoor swing. As he wound up the A-shaped contraption and placed Allison in the comfortable cloth seat, he remarked, "This apartment is shrinking more each day."
For one who had always cooked out of necessity, Katherine discovered an uncharacteristic joy in cooking for Jace. One night she surprised him with a chocolate pie, which he had emphatically insisted was his favorite food.
She knew him to have a vicious temper. Hadn't she witnessed it the night Ronald Welsh attacked her? It had surfaced briefly in some of the arguments before their marriage. On the day they went to the lake and she inadvertently compared him to Peter she realized just how explosive his temper could be.
But there was no evidence of it now. He was easy to live with, neat to a fault, and generous. Allison enjoyed an abundance of affection from him. Every day he came in from work, showered and changed, and then spent time talking to and playing with her. Sometimes, if she were fussy, he would just rock her. His attention always seemed to pacify her.
Katherine overheard him cooing to her as he rocked her in the wicker chair one evening. "Allison, sweet baby girl, Daddy loves you. I love you, Allison."
The words pierced Katherine's heart. For even in their highest moments of passion, Jace had never hinted that he loved her. He showered her with love words, and his lovemaking was definitely a sharing experience. Never did he appease his desire without patiently and tenderly bringing her with him to perfect satisfaction.
She suddenly longed to hear those three words spoken to her with the same open sincerity that he was speaking them to Allison. And then she knew.
She loved Jason Manning.
When had it happened? At what point had she thrown off the cloak of suspicion and accepted him as the forthright person he seemed to be? When had she stopped searching the depths of his eyes for hidden motives? She didn't know. All she knew was that she loved him and that should he not remain a part of her life, it would become a vacuum, a dark void.