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have shared with you."
346 Diana Palmer
Her face cleared. Things fell into place. Her life became an open book, a pattern, that she could see for
the first time. She hadn't trusted Cord. She'd been afraid that he would think less of her, that he wouldn't
want her, that he'd judge her, as so many other people had. But when she turned that scenario around,
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when she considered how she'd have felt if it had been Cord in her place-she was sick at her stomach.
"I failed him, right down the line," she said unsteadily. "I never thought how I'd feel, if he'd had such a
past and hadn't wanted me to know. It all comes down to trust, doesn't it?" she added, meeting his dark
eyes. "If you love someone, you have to trust them."
He smiled slowly. "I'm glad you're getting the picture."
"And nothing you do, nothing you have done, will ever make any difference," she continued, as if she'd
just found pure truth. "Because when you love, it's unconditional."
"Exactly." He pursed his lips. "Why don't you go home and tell Cord that?"
Her eyes brightened. It was like free fall. She didn't have to be afraid. She never had to be afraid again,
even of disclosure. Cord loved her. His was the only opinion that would ever matter. It was so simple,
and she'd never considered that one simple fact.
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She almost leaped out of the chair. "When the kids get bigger, I want to come and work for you.
Can I?"
He chuckled heartily. "That's the spirit. And yes,
you can."
She grinned. "I'll hold you to that, Mr. Lassiter. Thank you. For keeping my secret. For making
Adams and Stillwell keep it. For. .. everything! I think
you're terrific."
He got to his feet and shook hands with her. "Just for the record," he told her, "so does my wife."
She chuckled. "I'm not the least bit surprised!"
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The next few minutes were a blur of activity. Maggie almost knockedTess down getting out of the
building. She thanked her, blessed Dane, promised to phone, and dived into the car the minute Davis
pulled up at the curb. She inspired him to break speed limits and sighed her relief that they weren't picked
up by the state police as they pulled up in front of the house.
She opened the door even as Davis was putting on the brakes. She dived into the house, past a
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surprised June, right into the office where Cord was speaking on the phone to someone about a bull.
She closed and locked the door behind her, almost shivering with her discoveries. "I'm sorry, but
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you have to hang up now," she told Cord in a shaky little tone.
"Why?" he asked with the receiver an inch from his ear.
She shrugged, smiled sheepishly, and started to take off her blouse.
He dropped the receiver. It was the first time in their lives that Maggie had ever been forward with him.
In fact, he'd been certain that her past would preclude any such delightful opportunities.
"I'll call you back," he told whoever was on the other end of the phone, and hung up, quick.
Meanwhile, Maggie had shed blouse and bra and was stepping out of her shoes and working on the
zipper of her slacks.
She went toward him, totally nude, enjoying his look of shocked pleasure. She took him by the hand and
led him to the sofa, sprawling on it in breathless abandon.
"Well?" she asked huskily. "Are you up to it?"
He actually shivered as his hands went to rip off his knit shirt. "I'll show you what I'm up to," he said in a
husky tone.
She watched him undress, stretching sensuously as the fabric came away from that tall, powerful body.
"Did you lock the door?" he asked roughly.
"Oh, yes," she murmured with a smile. "You look very sexy."
350 Diana Palmer
"I'd love to tell you how you look," he said, sounding as he were choking, "but I don't think I have time!"
Neither did she, when she saw him without the last brief covering. He came down beside her, leaning
heavily on his uninjured arm, and his mouth went homing to hers. His long legs were insistent, feverishly
insistent, as they parted hers and he went down against her with uncontrollable desire.
"I'm sorry," he ground out.
She relaxed, smiling under his mouth as he went into her suddenly, urgently. She gasped a little and
arched to greet him, feeling his mouth swallow the husky little noise as he began to move on her with
practiced skill.
She wrapped her long legs around his and shivered with the increasing stabs of pleasure that built from
his uninhibited possession of her. She reached under him, her fingers sliding down the curve of his long
back to his buttocks. She dug her nails in, pulling him closer, while he rocked on her in a fiercely ardent
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rhythm.
She felt him tense more and more as the heated tension built. Their movements were loud in the locked
room, their breathing rasping, desperate, as they clung together. She opened her mouth wide and felt his
tongue penetrating it as great sudden waves of delicious heat exploded in pleasure deep inside her body.
She convulsed, crying piteously
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into his hard mouth as he thrust against her violently in the last harsh contractions of fulfillment.
He groaned hoarsely into her mouth, his powerful body arching downward and holding there, pushing,
grinding, straining, as if even skin close wasn't quite close enough. He shuddered over her even as her
own body pulsed in ardent release.
She felt dampness under her palms as he rested heavily on top of her in the aftermath, his mouth open
against her throat as he pulsed inside her.
"I can feel you there," she whispered in his ear. Her legs tightened around him.
"I can feel you, too," he whispered back, moving roughly from side to side to make her gasp with
returning spasms of pleasure. "My God, what an explosion! I wasn't sure I could bear it."
"I know. Me, too." She strained up toward him. "I love you so much. I love you more than my life!"
He groaned harshly at her ear and kissed her again, his hips moving helplessly against hers until he felt
himself suddenly capable in seconds and gasped with returning desire.
"Yes," she whispered at his ear, almost choking on the delight of his movements. "Can we, again? Can
we? Oh, Cord, I want ... you ... so much!"
His mouth found hers and his movements deepened, lengthened, slowed, until she was shivering with
every agonizing brush of his body on hers.
He laughed suddenly and rolled onto his back, still joined to her, still shivering. "My arm's giving out," he
whispered. He looked up at her with fierce passion. "Take me."
"Wh...what? How?" she exclaimed.
"Like this, you little puritan," he chided, taking her by the hips and showing her the movement. He
grimaced, shifting the wounded shoulder. "It's too much, too soon, but I can't stop. You can't stop.
Maggie! You can't ... stop!"
He groaned harshly. She sighed and set her lips, moving until she found the pressure and the rhythm that
made him gasp. After a while, it became exciting, and pleasurable, and then it was fun. She laughed. He
laughed. Until the pleasure bit into them so deeply that thought, and speech, became impossible...
She lay beside him, damp and drained, with one leg thrown over his, so content that she never wanted to
move.
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"I'm not complaining," he said at once. "But could you tell me what brought that on?"
She kissed his uninjured shoulder lazily. "It's all a matter of trust," she said softly. "I haven't given you
any. I thought it was time I did. So I had to show you that I could be a woman, without being ashamed of
myself, of my past, of my body." She sighed. "It's glorious, being a woman, Cord." Her hand
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