“Your persistence in trying to get my attention. I withstood it long enough but can stand no more.”
“If you insist,” she said tiredly.
“I love obedient women,” he murmured as he ran his hand under her shirt and began to caress her rib cage, moving his hand up to touch her breasts.
Blair was astonished that she could want him again after only a few hours, but when her fingertips touched his warm skin, it was as if it were the first time. She hadn’t thought of the pranks she’d played on him in years. At the time, she’d thought she did them because she hated him, that she was getting even with him for taking Houston away. But now, she wondered if all she’d wanted was his attention.
When he lifted his head and started to unbutton her shirt, she took his face in her hands. “I don’t understand what you mean to me,” she whispered.
Lee gave her a soft, gentle smile. “Not yet? Well, stay by me and it’ll come to you. One thing about you, Blair, you sure can put up one hell of a fight. Do you think you’ll come to fight for me as strongly as you’ve fought against me?”
“I don’t know,” she said, confused. She was so torn about this man. He’d been her enemy for most of her life. She’d fought him every way she could. And in spite of what Lee had said, she’d effectively managed to sabotage her sister’s wedding. Why? Why had she fallen into bed with a man she swore she hated?
Lee took her hands in his and kissed the palms. “While you’re trying to find the answers to life, we’re wasting time.” He finished unbuttoning her shirt.
They made love slowly, almost delicately, Lee watching her face to see her reactions. He kissed each of her fingertips, lingering over them, and the sensation of feeling the warm, moist interior of his mouth went through all of her. He kissed her breasts, ran his hands all over her skin.
And when he came to her, it was gentle, sweet, prolonged.
Later, he held her very close, tucking her legs between his, wrapping himself around her, trying to enclose her body within his.
Blair lay within the circle of his arms, listening to clicking grasshoppers, the high-pitched whistle of a hummingbird, and the wind. The smell and taste and feel of Lee seemed to fill her. How much she wanted this moment never to end.
“When we get home, you’ll have to hire somebody to take care of my socks,” he said softly.
“Your what?” she asked vaguely, holding onto him as if her life depended on it.
“My socks and my shirts—and I like my boots kept polished. And you’ll need somebody to clean the place, make the bed and feed us.”
Blair was silent for a moment before she began to understand what he was saying. Since she was a girl, all she’d cared about—or learned anything about—was medicine. She had absolutely no idea how to run a house.
She gave a big sigh. “Think anyone’d like to marry us?”
She could feel Lee chuckle. “We can ask. I met a lady criminal who—.” He stopped when Blair put her teeth to his skin and threatened to bite.
“Lee,” she said, as she moved back to look at him. “I really, truly don’t know anything about running a house. My mother tried to teach me but—.”
“You climbed trees.”
“Or escaped to somewhere. Aunt Flo tried, but Uncle Henry kept saying that there was time, and then he’d take me into the surgery to help him. I guess there wasn’t time. Next year, I was planning to enroll in a course in housewifery so I’d be prepared when I married Alan.”
“A course, huh? One where they teach you how to get the toilet clean and how to scrub the floors?”
“Think it would have been that bad?”
“Probably worse.”
She put her head back into his shoulder. “I told you not to marry me. Now you see why no one else wanted to. Houston’s so much better at this than I am. You should have kept her.”
“Probably,” he said solemnly. “I’d certainly never have to worry about her borrowing my scalpel.”
“I never borrow yours,” she said indignantly. “I have my own.”
“Yes, but Houston does know how to run a house. I imagine her husband’s socks will always be clean and in order.”
Blair pushed away from him. “If that’s what you want, you can just go to her—or to any other woman for that matter. If you think I’m going to dedicate my life to your underwear, you’re mistaken.” She sat up and angrily began to pull on her trousers.