His heart began to race as he looked at her. “That’s what I thought, too,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t try to hold back.” He smiled ruefully. “And the fact is, I don’t think I could have. Years of abstinence makes it pretty hard for a man to keep his head.”

Her eyes widened. “You meant it?” she exclaimed. “It was actually that long?”

He nodded. “Now I’m glad,” he confessed. “It made it that much more intense with you.” He framed her face with his lean hands and bent to savor her lips with his warm, moist ones. “So intense,” he whispered roughly, “that I want it again and again and again. Every time I look at you, my body burns.”

His mouth became demanding, and she felt the quick, violent response of his body to the feel of hers.

“So does mine,” she whispered back, reaching up with her free hand to cling to his neck. “Blake,” she moaned as his hands dropped to her hips and pulled her hard against him.

“God!” he groaned, and his mouth covered hers urgently.

Somewhere in the fever they were sharing, a door opened.

“Daddy? Meredith? Where are you?”

They broke apart with heated faces, trembling bodies and faintly crushed roses. “We’re here,” Blake said, recovering quickly. “We’ll be there in a minute, Sarah. I was just giving Meredith her roses.”

“Okay, Daddy. Aren’t they nice, Merry?”

“Yes, darling,” she murmured absently, but her eyes were on Blake as the child went back through to the kitchen.

“You aren’t going home tonight,” he said huskily. “I’ve got you and I’m keeping you, and to hell with gossip. I’ll get the license tomorrow and arrange for blood tests with my doctor. I’ll phone you from my office in the morning with the time. Meanwhile—” he smiled slowly “—you can go over to Bess’s and get a change of clothes.”

“What will I tell her?” she groaned.

“That we’re getting married and you’re taking care of Sarah while Mrs. Jackson’s away,” he said simply. He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it warmly. “Sarah and I will even go with you to make things respectable. But first we’ll have breakfast. Okay?”

She sighed with pure delight. “Okay. But I’ll have to go to my apartment in San Antonio this week,” she added.

“I’ll take time off to go with you Tuesday. Sarah can come, too.” He bent, half lifting her against his lean, hard body. “I’m not letting you out of my sight any more than I have to. You might decide to run for it.”

“If you think that, you underestimate yourself,” she murmured, and buried her face in his throat. “I don’t have the strength to get away.”

His hands contracted. “How sore are you?” he asked intimately.

She burrowed closer. “Blake…!”

“Is it bad?”

She grimaced and looked up at him, hesitating.

“Tell me the truth,” he said. “It will spare us a lot of frustration later—if I start making love to you and have to stop.”

“It’s uncomfortable,” she confessed finally, averting her eyes.

But he tilted her chin and forced her to look at him. “No secrets between us,” he said. “Not ever. I want the truth, no matter how much it hurts, and you’ll always get it from me.”

“All right,” she said. “I want it that way, too.”

His eyes brushed over her soft features with lazy warmth. “You look very pretty without makeup,” he remarked. “As pretty as these roses.” He glanced at them and frowned. “We’ve bruised them a bit.”

“They’ll forgive us,” she said. She reached up to kiss him softly. “Will your board of directors understand your taking two days off in one week?” she asked. “For a blood test and a license and then to go with me to Texas?”

“I haven’t taken two days off in five years, so they’d better.” He let her go. “Let’s get breakfast. Then we’ll go see Bess and Bobby.”

She curled under his arm and, carrying her precious roses, let him guide her to the table.

It was cozy in the kitchen. Blake kept watching her and Meredith could hardly keep from bursting into song with the sheer joy of having him look at her that way. He might not love her, but he was already very, very possessive. And in time, love might come.

“Meredith and I are going to get married, Sarah,” Blake said. “She’s going to live with us and take care of you and write books.”

Sarah’s eyes lit up and the expression on the small face was humbling. “Are you, Merry? Are you going to be my mommy?” she asked, as if they were offering her the earth.

“Yes.” Meredith smiled. “I’m going to be your mommy and hug and kiss you and tell you stories and—oh!”

Sarah ran to her like a whirlwind, almost knocking the breath out of her as she climbed onto her lap and clung, crying and mumbling things that Meredith couldn’t understand.

“What is it, honey?” Blake asked, torn out of his normal calm by the child’s totally unexpected reaction. He touched Sarah’s dark hair gently. “What is it?” he repeated.

“I can stay now, can’t I, Daddy?” Sarah asked him with wet red eyes. “I don’t have to go. Merry is going to live with us and I’ll be her little girl, too.”

“Of course you can stay,” Blake said shortly. “There was never any question of that.”

“When I first came,” she reminded him, “you said I could go to a…a home!”

“Damn my vicious tongue,” Blake burst out. He got up, lifting Sarah out of Meredith’s arms and into his own. He held her close, his green eyes steady on hers. “You’ll never live in any home but mine,” he said huskily. “You’re my own flesh and blood, my own little girl. I…” He choked on the words. His jaw worked. “I…care for you—very much,” he bit off finally.

Even at her age, Sarah seemed to realize what a difficult thing it was for him to say. She lowered her cheek to his shoulder with a sigh and smiled through her tears. “I love you, too, Daddy,” she said.

Blake didn’t know how he managed not to break down and cry. His arms contracted around her and he turned so that Meredith couldn’t see his face. In all his life he’d never been so shaken.

“How about some more coffee?” Meredith asked gently. “I’ll get it, okay?” She went to the stove to pour coffee from the percolator into the carafe, and her eyes were wet. She felt stunned by Blake’s brief display of vulnerability, his hope for the future. If he could love Sarah, he could love others. She dabbed at her eyes and filled the carafe. Miracles did happen, after all.

When she turned back to the table, Sarah was sitting on Blake’s lap. And she stayed there for the rest of breakfast, her small face full of love and wonder. Blake just looked smug.

“What about your work?” Blake asked when they’d finished breakfast and Sarah had excused herself to go and watch her eternal cartoons in the living room.

“I just need a place to set up my computer,” she said.

His eyebrows arched. “What have you got?”

“An IBM compatible,” she said. “Twin disk drives, over 600K memory, word processing software, a big daisy wheel printer and a modem.”

“Come and look over my setup.”

She let him take her hand and lead her into the study. “It’s just like mine!” she exclaimed when she saw what he had on his desk.

He smiled at her. “A good omen?”

“Wonderful! Now we’ll both have a spare,” she said with a dancing glance.

“You can work here when I’m not home. And if you want to set up your equipment in the corner, we’ll order another desk and some filing cabinets.”

“It won’t bother you?” she asked hesitantly. “I work odd hours. Sometimes, if I get on a streak, I may work into the small hours of the morning.”

“I’m marrying you,” he said. “That includes your job, your eccentricities, your bad habits and your temper. I don’t mind what you do. You’re entitled to a life that allows you the right to be your own person, to make your own dreams come true in business.”

“I thought you were a chauvinist,” she said. “That’s the wrong attitude. You’re supposed to refuse to let me work outside the home and say that no job is going to come before you.”