No other woman had ever pleased him so well. All through the evening, he proved his delight in her repeatedly and denied everything that Tom had said. Especially to himself.
Nine
First Rana couldn’t remember why she didn’t want to wake up. Then it came to her, and she squeezed her eyes shut again.
Trent was leaving today.
Rolling onto her back, she stared at the ceiling over her bed and wondered if she would be able to handle his departure with dignity. Before she could think about it long, however, there was a discreet knock on her door. She scrambled from the bed and rushed across the room to open the door a crack.
“I wouldn’t have to come tiptoeing across the hail at six A.M.if you’d let me spend the night in your bed. But I love you anyway.” Trent leaned forward and kissed her gently. Ruby knew about their affair, but Rana had remained steadfast about their need for some privacy from each other. She had stubbornly refused to sleep with him for the entire night. “Why aren’t you dressed to run?”
“I didn’t know you’d want to,” she whispered back.
“I do. This is our last morning to jog together on the Galveston beach. At least for a while.” He reached behind her and patted her bottom. “Hurry. I’ll be warming up on the front lawn.”
So he was going to pretend that today was just like any other… at least for a few hours.
When they returned from an exhilarating workout, they drank fruit juice and ate a light breakfast in the kitchen, as had become their habit. But when they were climbing the stairs, he took her hand and pulled her into his room, closing and locking the door behind them.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Locking you in. Today we shower together.”
That had been another intimacy she had refused him. “ Trent, you know how-”
He laid a finger over her lips. “No arguments. Consider this your send-off to a soldier on his way to the front.”
“But-”
“Do you love me?”
He asked the question with such intensity that she dared not make light of it. “Yes,” she said truthfully. “I love you, Trent.”
“And I love you. We’ve been as intimate as a man and woman can be. I’ve touched you, kissed you, everywhere. But I want to see you in the light. Do this for me. Please.”
He was the first-and probably would be the last- person ever to love her just as she was. Could she deny him anything on their final day together? She didn’t protest when he began removing her ugly gray sweat suit. She let him peel away one shapeless garment after another until she stood before him naked.
Several minutes ticked by before he said anything. His eyes traveled from the crown of her head to her feet, back up, then down again with more leisure. Bewildered, he hissed a soft curse.
“Why do you dress the way you do? You’ve got one of the most spectacular bodies I’ve ever seen. I don’t understand,” he said hoarsely, shaking his head in confusion.
Rana wanted to weep with happiness. His compliment meant more to her than any she had ever received. Words to the same effect had been repeated to her so often that they had lost their meaning. But Trent ’s speaking of them gave those words new significance.
If she let herself dwell on it, she would cry, and if she began, she was afraid she would never stop. This was too precious a day to waste on tears. So she closed the distance between them and, standing on tiptoe, murmured against his lips. “You’re wearing too many clothes, Mr. Gamblin.” She began working his shorts down his hips.
Before they stepped into the shower stall, he snatched off her glasses. She reached for them reflexively, but he held them far above her head. She turned her face aside.
“Ana, look at me.”
She loved him, didn’t she? If he did recognize her, would it matter so much now? He would leave her in a few hours anyway. Gradually her head came around, until she was staring up at him.
He seemed to lose himself in the swirling depths of her eyes. “Such an unusual color,” he remarked distantly, as though talking to himself. “It’s a crime for you to hide such beautiful eyes behind these tinted lenses.”
He put the glasses on the edge of the sink, then cupped her face between his hands and dotted it with soft kisses. He kissed her closed eyelids and her cheeks, her forehead and her chin, before settling his warm, open mouth over hers and sending his tongue deep into it.
Their shower together became a ritual of love. Lips sipped water from pulsing flesh, unashamed and uninhibited. Soapy hands explored slick skin, caressed and massaged, earned murmurs of pleasure and sighs of fulfillment. His lathered fingers moved provocatively through the silky tuft at the top of her thighs. Slippery hands made milking motions that left him gasping.
“You make me so hard,” he rasped, bringing their bodies together. Their coupling was exquisite and seemingly timeless.
The water from the shower turned cool long before their ardor.
Lunch was a solemn occasion. Ruby was unnaturally glum. “Are you sure you haven’t forgotten anything?”
“I’ve packed everything and checked the room twice, Auntie. If I’ve overlooked anything, you can send it to my house in Houston. The housekeeper will be there even if I’m not.”
Rana said little. She was concentrating on not bursting into tears, while she idly moved the unwanted chicken salad around on her plate.
“What time is your flight?” Ruby asked.
“We’re scheduled to take off at four, but I’m sure media interviews will delay us. They always do.” A frown creased his brow as he watched Ana. He had expected a little show of sadness on her part, since they wouldn’t be seeing each other for three weeks. He hadn’t thought she would be this despondent.
“Will you be interviewed on camera?” Ruby asked him.
“Maybe. Watch the news tonight and you might see me.” Trying to lighten the mood around the dining table, he winked at his aunt. “Should I wave to you?”
When they had dragged out lunch as long as they possibly could, all that was left to do was say good-bye. Trent hugged his aunt and gave her a smack on the lips. “I thank you, the coach thanks you, the team thanks you, the fans thank you.”
She pretended to be irritated. “What are you blabbering about, you silly boy?”
“If you hadn’t given me a quiet room to rest in and three square meals a day, I wouldn’t be in such terrific condition. All the other guys will have a much harder time at camp than I will, and I owe it all to your tender, loving care.”
Ruby blotted her damp eyes with a hanky and mumbled that he had an open invitation to come and stay any time. He would always be welcome at her house. After his promise to call her often, she discreetly withdrew, leaving him alone in the entrance hail with Rana. He had loaded his belongings in his car before lunch. It was waiting for him at the curb.
Without a word, he pulled Rana into his arms. She buried her face in his neck and locked her hands together at the small of his back. She wished she could gather his strength, his smell, his warmth, and cork them in a bottle to be enjoyed later whenever she needed a “fix” of Trent.
“Are you going to tell me?” he asked softly, stroking her hair.
“Tell you what?”
“Why you look like someone has just run over your kitty.”
She smiled tremulously. “Is that what I look like?”
“Or worse.”
“I’m sad. I hate to see you go.”
“It’s only for three weeks.”
It’s for a lifetime.
“I’ll call every night.”
For a few nights, then you’ll skip a night, and then another.