Part 12 (1/2)

On Christmas day, besides cooking a fat turkey Grady had shot, Storm presented Grady with her gift. The gesture left him speechless. He'd had no idea she was making him a gift and exclaimed over the fine workmans.h.i.+p. Then he rummaged in his pocket and with a flourish presented Storm with a small, elegantly wrapped box. She stared at it for several minutes before daring to open it.

”For me?”

”Yes. Go ahead and open it.”

Storm's hands shook as she ripped off the paper and snapped open the lid. Her lungs emptied of air when she saw the delicately wrought gold wedding band nestled on a bed of velvet.

”Oh.”

”There wasn't time to buy a ring when we were married. Besides, I ordered this one specially made and the jeweler needed time to complete it.”

Storm turned the ring over and over in her fingers, studying the design, which consisted of strange symbols and signs. ”What does it mean?”

”Those engravings are Indian symbols. They hold a special meaning.” She was rendered immoble by the intensity of his incredible blue eyes. ”One day I'll tell you what they mean.”

Storm looked at him squarely. ”Aren't you going to tell me now?”

”No. Someday, maybe, when the time is right. Here, let me slip it on you.” He grasped her hand, sliding Buddy's ring off her finger and replacing it with his. He hadn't said anything before about her wearing the wedding band given to her by a dead man, but now that he'd given her a replacement, he felt as if a great weight had been lifted from him.

”It-it's lovely,” Storm said, admiring the golden circlet that banded her finger. For the first time since their marriage she felt truly and irrevocably wed to Grady Stryker. Before he had placed his ring on her finger she had felt like an actress merely playing out a role. ”Thank you.”

”Is that the best you can do?” Grady asked in such a solemn tone, Storm thought she had offended him.

”I don't understand.”

”You will,” Grady said cryptically.

When he dragged her into his arms Storm finally understood what he wanted from her, and was angered by it. Was he trying to bribe her?

”I want you, Storm. A day doesn't go by that I don't long to make love to you like a real husband.”

His arms tightened and his mouth swooped down to claim hers. His lips were hard and searching, leaving her mouth burning with fire. The unspoken demand of his kiss left little doubt what he wanted, what he was determined to take. But guilt over her wanton response to Grady made her unwilling to surrender again to his seduction.

”I-can't.”

”You want me.”

”I don't deny it. I'm a brazen hussy to feel the way I do. I'm afraid of the powerful emotions you rouse in me, and it hurts to know that I never felt this way with Buddy.”

”Let me love you.”

”No. You promised.”

”Storm, look at me.”

Her head came up slowly, her honey brown eyes hazy with the heat of pa.s.sion. When she met the electrifying cobalt of his gaze, a shudder pa.s.sed through her body.

”Why should we both suffer because of your stubbornness?” Grady asked. His control hung by a fragile thread. ”This marriage doesn't have to be a sterile one. Two people who want each other like we do shouldn't deny themselves. We are husband and wife.”

He kissed her again, his lips hard and demanding. Her emotions whirled and skidded, her thoughts spun. He forced her lips open with his thrusting tongue, demanding a response. Her stubborn refusal angered him, and the more she protested, the more forceful and hungry his kisses became. Why was she resisting something as fundamental and basic as making love? Grady wondered as his hands joined his lips in convincing Storm that their loving was as natural as eating and breathing. Why should it distress her if he made her feel the kind of pleasure and emotion she had never experienced with her dead husband? What Grady desired above all else was to love Storm so thoroughly she couldn't recall her dead husband's name.

Buddy. The name filled him with rage. Why should a dead man hold Storm's affection when he, Grady, was alive and capable of giving her pleasure in a way Buddy never could? All Storm's resolve was swept away as Grady swept her into his arms and carried her to their bed. Her lips were parted and he could feel her breath fan his cheek. It came in short staccato bursts of air that conveyed her pa.s.sion-and her fear.

”You promised.”

”d.a.m.n you!” He dropped her onto the mattress and turned away. His fists were clenched, and the stark planes of his proud features wore a look of anguish. ”Go to sleep. I won't touch you.” Then he grabbed his heavy jacket from the hook beside the door and stormed out into the bitter cold.

When he returned hours later, chilled to the bone, Storm had donned her nightgown and was sound asleep, wrapped in a cocc.o.o.n of furs and blankets. Giving her a look of utter disgust, Grady tossed off his clothes and joined her, careful not to touch her until his body had warmed. It didn't take long. Lying beside Storm turned his body into a blazing inferno.

The longer Grady lay there, the more aroused he became. He didn't even need to touch Storm to maintain an erection. Just thinking about her and how loving her made his body burst into flame made him painfully aware that his legal wife was just a touch away.

Just when Grady began to feel the fuzzy edges of sleep overtake him, Storm turned in her sleep, molding her softness against his back and b.u.t.tocks. His body reacted instantly, his member becoming fully distended and throbbing. It was more than a human could bear. Even a Lakota warrior had his breaking point, and Grady had reached his.

Storm sighed in her sleep, instinctively seeking the warmth of Grady's body. Curling herself around him and squirming into a comfortable position, she began dreaming. As it so often happened these past weeks of enforced abstinence, her dreams became erotic in nature. The logic behind her dreams escaped her the next day when she recalled them, but she supposed it had something to do with the dormant pa.s.sion Grady had discovered and unleashed in her. A pa.s.sion that filled her with shame. But since her dreams had no bearing on reality, Storm usually succ.u.mbed fully to her dream lover.

Grady turned to face Storm, bringing her fully against him. When she made no protest his hands slowly hiked up her nightgown, raising it above her hips. When his member prodded her boldly, she arched her back and opened her thighs so that his hardness could slip between her legs. He lay still for a breathless moment, savoring the warmth, hardly daring to breathe as he waited for Storm to awaken and voice her usual protests. Nothing left her lips but a soft burst of air and a sound that could only be described as mewling.

His hands slid down her back to her b.u.t.tocks, gently squeezing the soft mounds as he brought one of her legs over his hips. But still he didn't enter her, waiting-hoping for the words of acceptance that would end his misery. One hand slid down her taut stomach to the moist crevice between her legs. He found her wet and ready for him. Still he hesitated, recalling his vow not to make love to her until she invited him. When his fingers grew bold, exploring the tender petals of her womanhood, Storm began whimpering words that made little sense. a.s.suming she was awake and that her whimpers were her way of granting permission, Grady flexed his hips and thrust into her.

Storm's body burned with desire and she whimpered in her sleep. Her dream lover was making love to her and she welcomed it, aware that she would awaken in the morning and find it all a fantasy. But, G.o.d, it felt so wonderful, so right-so good! She hoped she wouldn't awaken this time until it was all over. Usually her dreams only went so far, then stopped before that final burst of ecstasy she knew herself capable of. She felt him prodding between her legs, felt his hands kneading her b.u.t.tocks and stroking her nipples. Felt him thrust into her.

”Oh, G.o.d!” She jerked violently awake. It wasn't a dream after all. They were lying on their sides facing one another, and she felt herself stretch and fill as he thrust into her. ”What are you doing? You promised.”

Grady went still, forcing his body into a calmness that nearly killed him. ”What are you talking about? It's too late now. You should have stopped me before.”

”I was sleeping. I thought it was all a dream. I didn't want this to happen.”

”Oh, lady, it's happening,” Grady groaned, probing ruthlessly as he held her hips in place. ”It's too late to stop now.”

”What about your honor? Does it mean nothing to you?”

”My honor means everything to me and I know I'll regret this in the morning, but as G.o.d is my witness, I can't stop now.”

Then he was thrusting wildly, making Storm forgot her reason for denying him in the first place, driving everything from her mind but the urgent need he was creating inside her. Waves of ecstasy throbbed through her, and she cried out for release. It exploded upon her in a downpour of fiery sensations.

”Grady!”

”Oh, lady, that's what I want to hear. I want you to know who's making love to you. It's my name I want to hear on your lips when you cry out in ecstasy. I want to hear it again, sweet, do you think it's possible?”

It wasn't only possible. By the time Grady had finally allowed his own climax, he had taken Storm a second time to that lofty place where only lovers dwell.

When Grady floated back to reality Storm had deliberately turned her back on him. Her shoulders were rigid, her spine stiff, and Grady felt the heavy weight of her rejection. He also felt the suffocating disappointment of having broken his promise. How in the h.e.l.l did he know Storm was sleeping and wasn't aware that he was making love to her? To make matters worse, he knew he would break his word again and again, until he could no longer bear Storm's hatred. Remaining in the same house with her was impossible.

”Storm, I thought it was what you wanted.” His words, meant to be an apology, sounded cold and unfeeling to her. Once again he had succeeded in dominating her with his strength and sensuality. ”I had no idea you were sleeping.” He touched her shoulder and she jerked violently.

”You're a d.a.m.n liar, Grady Stryker.”