breathing.
And the warmth of her body made him want to surge forward and gather
her close.
His eyes blinked open again.
As his vision became accustomed to the dim light, his gaze roamed over
her, taking in the sweep of dark lashes hiding her eyes, the rich brown
hair tangled around her shoulders, the pale, almost translucent color
of her skin.
Sleep had eased the tense set of her lips that had made his throat
constrict so painfully the night before, but it hadn't erased the
shadows under her eyes.
She'd fallen asleep in his arms last night.
And she hadn't even stirred when he'd laid her on the bed and pulled
the covers up around her.
How much rest had she gotten in the past few days?
Probably not a lot.
As he gazed at his wife, his throat closed again.
He wanted her.
Needed her.
But how could he be thinking about making love to her now?
Now, when he knew she was exhausted and when the daughter he'd barely
met was missing, kidnapped by a group of thugs who might do God knows
what.
But maybe that was precisely why he needed Abby so much.
Once it would have been impossible for him to admit that he cared about
anyone's emotional support.
Yet the whole time he'd been gone, he'd imagined seeing her, holding
her, drawing comfort from her-easing his pain in her arms.
But as he lay there watching her sleep, thinking about the past three
days, he couldn't imagine why she would want to give him anything.
This whole mess they were in was his fault for learning up with such an
irresponsible hothead as Ollie Gibbs.
His jaw clenched to the point of pain.
God, couldn't he do anything right?
A desperate fantasy flashed into his mind.
He could see himself easing out of the bed, finding his clothes and
disappearing before Abby woke up.
Then he'd drag ol' Ollie back here and make him explain to Abby exactly
what had happened.
Except that if he went looking for him alone, he might kill him.
The Indian Liberation Army.
Didn't Gibbs know how dangerous, how unpredictable, they were?
And what had he done-double-cross them?
What the hell was he thinking about?
Steve's teeth grated against each other.
Abby stirred beside him, and his eyes were instantly on her again.
Her features contorted, and she moaned softly in her sleep.
"Sweetheart?"
Her head moved from side to side on the pillow.
Then a look of fear etched itself into her face.
"Don't!" he murmured as he reached out to cup her shoulders.
The moment his hands touched her flesh, her lids fluttered, and those
large green eyes sought his.
Time seemed to hang suspended, as if the world had suddenly stopped
spinning on its axis.
"Abby?"
She didn't speak, but a pulse began to pound in her throat.
His gaze shifted from her face to that spot of pulsing flesh and back
again, and he felt his own body throbbing in the same rhythm.
He heard a soft moan like the one she'd made in her sleep, and his
whole body tensed.
Then she closed the space between them, sliding her arms around his
'n@k and pulling him against the length of her body.
- @ "I need you, Steve. I need you. Don't leave me like that
again."
"Oh, Lord, sweetheart- I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know what
else to do."
His embrace enveloped her even as she gathered him close.
He told himself he just wanted to give her comfort, like last night.
Then she lifted her mouth to find his, and every other thought was
"I need you," she tried to say again.
He couldn't hear the words, but he felt them.
His mouth moved feverishly over hers.
Hers did the same as they shared a deep, desperate kiss.
It was the kiss of a man and woman reaching out to each other on the
most basic of levels.
A kiss that asked and gave reassurances where words might never be
enough.
But more than that, it was a kiss of lovers too long parted, too long
denied, too long frustrated.
Teeth, tongues, lips.
They sought each other in every way that two mouths could make
contact.
Could give and take pleasure.
He drew in her warm breath and gave it back as he sighed her name.
Suddenly the thin cotton gown she wore was an intolerable barrier.
He pulled it up and over her head, tossing it onto the floor, even as
he began to shed his own briefs.
Then he pulled her hot, yielding flesh against his, and they began to
rock as if caught in a great rolling surge on an endless sea.
Every inch of his body registered erotic sensations.
The twin pressure of her breasts against his chest.
The sliding caress of her smooth leg hooked around his rougher one.
The way his erection nestled in the cleft between her legs as their
bodies cleaved together.
She gasped at the intimate contact, and they both went very still.
"I'd forgotten," she murmured.
"How could I have forgotten?"
He knew exactly what she was talking about.
It was a long time since the bulky contour of her body had let them lie
this way, face-to-face, her shape molded so sensually to his.
Not that making love while she was pregnant hadn't been good.
But the new sleekness of her figure was startlingly provoking.
Slowly, his fingertips skimmed along her velvety skin, tracing up her
hip, dipping in at the hollow of her waist, and coming to rest on her
right breast.
He gently rolled her onto her back and trailed his knuckles across her
breasts, following the sensuous path with his eyes.
Her breasts were rounder, fuller than before, the nipples larger and
darker.
He watched admiringly as they responded to his touch, felt his body
tighten as he heard her little indrawn breath.
Coming down beside her, he curled the tip of his tongue around one
beautifully hardened nipple.
"Can I?
She flushed as her eyes met his.
Then she opened her arms to him.
When he took her in his mouth and began to suck, be felt her arch.
Her hands came up to clasp his head, and she made a long, low sound he
felt in every cell of his body.
"Sweet," he murmured as he moved his mouth from one nipple to the
other.
"Sweet."
At the same time, his hand stroked her most intimate flesh.
She was warm and wet and very ready for him.
"Steve. I want... I need you... now."
" Is it all right?
Will I hurt you?
"I don't know." When he shifted OD top Of her, he felt her hand grasp
his distended length to guide hpress an . But as he began -to into
her, she winced.
He went very siill above her, staring down into the deep green of her
eyes.
"Don't stop. Please don't stop."
"Sweetheart, wait. We can-" "No. I want you."
Her hips arched and her fingers
dug into his hips, urging him
forward.
She gasped as he came inside her, the sound tearing at his soul.
"Abby?"
She stirred beneath him.
Then she was kissing his face, reaching for his lips with hers, even as
she began to rock her hips against him.
"So long. It's been so long."
Long, lonely weeks when they'd needed each other and had been denied
this comfort, this fulfillment, this vitally important part of their
marriage.
Another gasp tore from her throat, but this time was very different.
Now he heard pleasure in her voice, not pain.
She held nothing back, moving, moaning, mingling her essence with
his.
And as she drove toward her climax she fueled his.
He cried out her name in a tone he hardly recognized, gathering her
tightly against him as his body lost itself in hers.
Abby wanted to drift for a little while longer in a cloud of peace and
contentment.
Steve belonged to her.
No one could steal him away from her the way they'dNot yet.
Don't make me face reality yet.
Above her, he stirred, shifting his weight off her body.
"I didn't want to hurt you," he whispered, his mouth buried in the
thick curtain of her hair.
She turned her face, caressing his cheek with her lips.
"I didn't want you to stop. I wasn't going to let you stop."
She drew in a shallow breath.
"And it only hurt right at the beginning. After that, it was
wonderful."
He didn't move, and she stroked her fingers across his broad
shoulders.
"Don't feel guilty. About anything."
She heard him swallow.
"You mean about liking that so much when we don't know where Shannon
is."
"Steve, I came here for two reasons. Because I need to help you get
our daughter back. And because I need to be with you every way I can
be with you."
He lifted his face and looked down at her.
"Being here is putting you in danger. All of this is happening because
I was stupid enough to say yes when Gibbs asked if I wanted to be his
partner."
"Steve, that was a long time ago, before you ever met me. Teaming up
with Oliver was the right thing for you to do at the time, wasn't
it?"
He nodded tightly.
"I know you're angry with him now. But don't let that poison your good
memories, or make you question your judgment. You gave up your
business out here to marry me. And you're not responsible for what
Oliver did after you left."
"I can't change the way I feel."
A small smile flickered around her lips.
"Well, not without a dozen or so counseling sessions. And I didn't
come out here for that. I came because I can't just sit at home and
wait for you to make things come out right. I have to help. Because I
love you. And Shannon."
"I love you, too."
She held him fiercely against' -her breasts.
"Do you know what it would do to me if something happened to you
-because you're with me now?" he whispered.
"You said we can't trust the ILAL could be sitting at home in
Baltimore, and they could decide they want another hostage. They
didn't have any trouble finding me a couple of days ago. They broke
into the house to leave the ransom note. It was in the middle of our
bed.
I think I'm as safe with you as anywhere else.
He swore low and angrily, and rolled onto his back, staring up at the
ceiling.
"You mean, either way I've Put my wife and child at risk."
"No! Stop feeling guilty. Weren't you paying any attention to what I
was saying? You didn't have any control over what Oliver chose to do
after you pulled out of the business and came back home."
She rested her cheek against his chest, listening to the drumming beat
of his heart.
Then she lifted her head so that she could look down into his troubled
eyes.
"It's been a terrible six weeks-for both of us. And I haven't made it
any better." Abby- "You ... you were apprehensive about being a
father. Then after Shannon was born, I was so worried that I didn't
know how to stop focusing on her and help you deal with your
feelings.
And when she was kidnapped, I couldn't let myself accept your
assessment of what had happened."
"Take your own advice, and stop feeling guilty."
She stroked her knuckles against his jaw.
"I can't, if you can't be open with me."
"I was pretty open with you a few minutes ago."
"that's different."
He combed his fingers through her hair, but the silence between them
lengthened ' "Abby, it's a lot for me to cope with," he finally
whispered.
"I know. God, I know."
"We'll find her, and bring her back. That's the most important thing
right now. That's the level I have to work on."
Abby buried her face against his shoulder and held fast to him for a
few minutes longer.
When his arms tightened around her, she squeezed her eyes shut.
-She wanted her daughter back-more than anything in the world.
But what if the unthinkable happened?
What if they couldn't find Shannon?
Would Steve turn away from her in guilt and despair?
If she lost her daughter, would she lose her husband, too?
STEVE DROVE the Range Rover he'd rented toward a line of low hills.
The transportation was a lot more comfortable than the taxi she'd been
in the evening before, and Abby leaned back in the bucket seat and
stretched out her legs.
At first the countryside was covered with low bushes and trees
interspersed with cultivated fields.
But as they drove farther from the city, the vegetation became more
lush and the signs of habitation more sparse.
Before she'd come to India the first time, Abby had pictured every
square inch of the country as heavily populated.
But that wasn't true.
She pulled her gaze away from the unfamiliar trees gliding past the
window and focused on the rigid set of Steve's jaw.
He caught her watching him and reached to cover her hand.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Okay. How are you? Are you still upset that I came?"
"No. I was thinking about Ollie. It's probably lucky that you're with
me. You can keep me from choking the life out of him."
Abby turned her palm up and knit her fingers with Steve's.
She knew her husband pretty well by now.
With his child in danger, he needed to be angry at someone, and Oliver
Gibbs was the most convenient candidate.
For her, it was Mrs. Hamadi.
At first she'd felt sorry for the woman.
Now she wanted to shake her by the shoulders until she confessed what
she'd done with Shannon.
How much farther?
" she asked.
"" Three or four hours, if the roads hold up.
Abby wanted to drive straight through, but even in the Range Rover, it
was hard to sit still for so long.
"I got the hotel to pack us some lunch," Steve said as the sun
approached its zenith.
"Ut's find a place to eat."@ He stopped by an outcropping of rocks
where a little stream cascaded under a low, rickety bridge.