Belonging to Taylor (18 page)

"We use that so she'll understand better and learn to shield her own mind."

"I guessed that. But when she asked me about my own closed door, I just thought..."

"That since you weren't psychic, she'd confused no ability with the ability to
hide
ability?"

"Something like that. When I explained to her that I couldn't hear things the way she could, she ... laughed. Then she smiled at me and said, 'You don't know.' I couldn't figure out what she meant. But now ... she knew."

Taylor nodded. "Dory's going to be strong. And Jess?"

"When I denied being psychic, she didn't seem to believe me."

"Be sure to tell her she was right," Taylor advised calmly. "Jess has always felt a little left out—being less psychic, I mean."

"You knew that?"

"Of course. But it didn't do any good for any of us to reassure her. It was you encouraging her with the music that helped, darling."

Trevor shook his head a little helplessly. "I can't get over it. I'm psychic. I'm psychic?"

"You certainly are."

A little surprised at his bemused acceptance of this, Trevor suddenly found himself laughing.

"What's so funny?" she asked, smiling, knowing.

"Me," he said ruefully. "I was so worried about sharing my mind with you. But now, it's like—like I've been only half alive and never knew it."

"So was I," she confided quietly. "Building shields... locks yourself in as well as others out. There's a part of me no one's touched but you. Oh, Trevor, I never knew it could feel this way!"

"I'm very glad I found you crying in that park, love."

She snuggled closer contentedly, her head resting on his
shoulder. Then, only a quick flash of mental laughter alerting him, her ridiculous sense of humor reared its head.

"It
would
have been nice if you'd chased me to Australia," she mourned.

"I wouldn't have done that in any case," he said stoutly.

"No?"

"No. I would never have let you start the trip."

A note of suspicion crept into her voice. "You wouldn't have?"

"Absolutely not."

"You'd have flung me over your saddle and galloped off with me?" Pleasure was growing in her voice.

"Something like that."

"You'd have put your foot down and
ordered
me not to go?"

"Closer."

"You'd have grabbed me and shaken me and
commanded
me not to go?" she asked delightedly.

Trevor bit back a laugh. "Definitely. I'd have stuck you in a castle, raised the drawbridge, and put alligators in the moat."

"Because—?"

"Because, you adorable little witch, I can't live without you."

Taylor sighed happily. "Prince Charming. At last."

He hugged her, then said suddenly, "I forgot."

"What did you forget?"

'To propose," he said wryly. "Of course, I realize that in the eyes of your family, the ceremony's only a formality."

"But a proposal's obligatory," she said in a firm tone.

"In that case, will you marry me, love?"

"I'll have to think about it."

"Witch."

She giggled. 'This is so sudden! We haven't even known each other a
month,
for heaven's sake! I hardly know you, sir!"

Trevor made a rude noise.

She giggled again. "I couldn't resist."

"Neither can I.
Answer
me, for godsake! My heart and all my worldly possessions are at your feet! My castle beckons to you!"

"I never could resist castles."

"Is that a yes?"

"An unqualified yes, darling."

"I'm not Prince Charming, you know," he felt honor bound to point out.

"No, but you're
mine,"
she responded serenely.

"And you're mine." There was a world of contentment in his voice.

"D'you think we should elope?" she asked, thoughtful.

"Are you thinking? I want a double-ring ceremony with all the flourishes, my love."

"Yes, but Trevor—my family."

"They can come," he conceded magnanimously.

"I'm serious! You
know
my family. It'll be the most absurd wedding in history."

"I know." He chuckled softly. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

She laughed as well. "If you don't mind, I don't."

"Then all that remains is to set the date."

"June?"

"That's too far away," he protested.

"We're almost into May now, darling, and if you want a big wedding ..."

He sighed. "June it is, then. Where would you like to go on our honeymoon?" He was vaguely aware that sleep was tugging at him, and her own voice held a touch of drowsiness when she answered.

"Anywhere, darling. As long as we're together."

"We will be, love. We will be."

Chapter Ten

Taylor pulled the young Siamese cat off the dining room
table and put him firmly on the floor. "Pyewacket, you know better than that," she said absently. She barely heard the cat's disgusted "Hrrooo!" because she was busy deciding if she'd forgotten anything.

"Grandmother's china, best napkins, candles, wine..." She checked the wine in its terra-cotta cooler, then nodded, satisfied.

She went back into the kitchen, watching where she walked because Pye's favorite game was tripping his humans. The frustrated cat grumbled at her, but she gave him only a rueful smile. "You'd better hide when Trevor gets home," she advised. "You stole his best cuff link this morning, and he hasn't forgiven you for that." Pye's second-favorite game was stealing.

Taylor tasted from several bubbling dishes, added a few spices to one, then glanced at the clock on the wall. Good. She'd timed it perfectly. He'd be home any time now, and they had the whole weekend ahead....

She reached for the phone as it shrilled a summons, amused even before she got the receiver to her ear. "Hello, Mother."

"Darling, does he know yet?"

"Honestly, there are no secrets in a family of psychics!" Taylor rolled her eyes heavenward ruefully. "I haven't told him yet, and I don't
think
he knows."

'Tonight?"

"That's what I've planned. How's Amanda, Mother?"

"Flourishing," Sara replied vaguely. "She kept us up last night, but your father's spoken to her. Dory says she's going to have green eyes. So nice and sweet. Different, too."

"Well, say hello to her for us."

"I will, darling. Oh, Taylor—"

"Yes, Mother?"

'Twins. Your father's sure."

"I was pretty sure myself," Taylor murmured.

"So nice. Lots of babies," Sara said. "Our love to Trevor, darling."

Taylor was giggling when she hung up the phone. She was still working as her father's receptionist but had gone to another doctor for her test; Luke didn't treat his own family except in emergencies. Still, there were no secrets in her family.

Leaning back against the counter, she thought back over the last months. Six months since the wedding, a week since her baby sister's birth. And only two weeks until Christmas. If Taylor hadn't been psychic, she would have considered it a good bet that her own babies would be born very near the first anniversary of her marriage; being psychic, she was positive.
On
the anniversary. June twentieth—a Friday.

Friday's child is loving and giving.

Perfect.

In fact, everything was perfect. She and Trevor had found this old house and restored it gradually during the past months, with help from Jason and from her father. She smiled suddenly, wondering if her husband had noticed his brother's fascinated interest in Jamie. Of course he'd noticed; Trevor missed very little these days.

Jamie was still a very young woman, but Jason had clearly made up his own mind. He'd wait for her, Taylor thought. Jamie kept her own counsel, but Taylor knew her sister. And wouldn't they make a wonderful couple—Jason so lively and
Jamie so serene. Complicated explaining the situation to outsiders. Her husband's brother was also her sister's husband?

Oh, well.

She looked through the kitchen window at the snow blanketing their large yard and listened. Moments later, the back door swung open, admitting Trevor and a blast of arctic cold. He shut the door hastily.

"Why," he demanded wryly, "do we live in Chicago?"

"Because we both grew up here." Happily, Taylor went into his arms as soon as he shed his coat. She'd stopped wondering if each kiss would be as warmly dizzying as the last, content in the knowledge that it would.

How she loved this man!

The inner change in him had wrought an outward change as well. His gray eyes smiled now, gleaming with love and laughter. His lean, handsome face was relaxed and seemed years younger. He was quick to sense moods in those around him, quicker still to sensitively adapt himself to those moods.

Their love was a large part of that, of course, but the jolting truth of time's fragility had also changed him. Trevor had learned in a single fear-filled day never to take time for granted.

Though all barriers had crashed into rubble that day, it hadn't been easy for Trevor. His growing closeness with Jason had been a tentative, sometimes awkward thing, but immensely rewarding. And just as difficult had been his complete acceptance of his own psychic abilities; that still startled him, and probably would, she thought, for a while yet.

His wife had no complaints at all. With her, Trevor had opened up instantly and completely. The door that had opened that blustery night in Wyoming had never closed, he as comfortable with it as she was. And the love and laughter they'd shared since that night only confirmed and enhanced what both felt.

He was looking down at her now in faint surprise after glancing through to the dining room. "Candles—wine." His arms tightened around her. "What's the occasion, love?"

"I could say it was my birthday," she teased.

"That's in April," he said firmly. "April first, as a matter of fact. Apt, I've always thought."

"You were disappointed to find that out," she reminded him, turning away to check her preparations for dinner. "You were hoping I'd been born on Halloween—to fit in beautifully with your witch theme!"

As if in conditioned response, Trevor bent to pick up the cat nattering at his feet. "Well, slightly disappointed," he said sheepishly, allowing Pyewacket to climb onto his shoulder. "And you didn't answer my question."

"Didn't I?"

"You grow more like Sara every day!" he said severely.

Taylor giggled. "Sorry." Not that he seemed to mind. "Actually, I just thought I'd try seducing you again."

"You did that last night."

"I did not. I distinctly remember you joining me in the shower. I didn't do a single thing to provoke seduction."

"If standing there with only a bar of soap in one hand and a washcloth in the other isn't provoking, I don't know what is!"

"
I
was minding my own business."

He matched her virtuous tone. "And / was merely betraying a perfectly normal husbandly concern. I thought you might have drowned."

She started laughing. "Oh, put the cat down and make yourself useful!"

"Yes, ma'am."

They never ran out of things to say to each other, so it
wasn't until dinner had been finished and the kitchen cleaned that Taylor got around to her reason for the special meal.

The stereo was loaded with soft music, a fire kindled in the large old stone hearth in the den. Pyewacket had curled up in his basket near the fireplace, sleepy after his own dinner. And his two humans were sharing the large couch only a few feet away from him.

Trevor was sitting on the end of the couch, Taylor turned so that she half lay across his lap. One of his hands stroked her long hair, as he often did, and the other rested lightly but possessively on her hip.

Deciding that the time was right, she spoke casually into the peaceful silence. "Darling?"

The gray eyes smiled tenderly down at her "Yes, love?"

"I asked you a question once. You said I should ask you later."

Trevor, not gifted with Jason's total recall, was puzzled. "I don't remember the question, but ask away."

She absently parted the top buttons of his shirt, her fingers seeking the crisp hair beneath. "I asked if you wanted babies," she murmured. Her attention fixed on his chest, she only lifted her eyes back to his when the silence had stretched.

An arrested expression held the slate-gray eyes, and his face was very still. 'Taylor ...?" he breathed.

Her smile growing, Taylor nodded.

Trevor pulled her closer in a sudden fierce, gentle hug. "I do want babies," he said huskily. "Our babies." Then, whether through the ever-present contact they shared or through his own strengthening abilities, Trevor understood the rest. A slightly unsteady hand lifted her chin, and he gazed at her, bemused. 'Twins?"