Canyon of the Sphinx (24 page)

Kathlyn stared at her. She
crossed her arms, wiping a hand over her face as if trying to wipe away the
pain and sorrow. Mama, standing well back and out of the way, caught Lynn’s
attention and motioned him out of the room. Lynn gestured to Juliana, who did
as her husband asked. But not before she had final words with Kathlyn.

“He’s your whole world,” she
whispered sternly. “Enough is enough.”

They left the kitchen, leaving
Kathlyn standing there with a hand over her face and Marcus hovering near the
table, somewhat in shock. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.

 “Do you want to sit down?” he
asked softly.

Kathlyn somehow made it over to
the chair, unable to look at him.  Marcus carefully regained his own seat,
drinking in the sight of her. He couldn’t believe how thin she was, but in
spite of that, she looked delicious. He wanted to touch her so badly that his
hands ached.

 “You look great.” He was unsure
how to start the conversation. “How… how have you been?”

Her hand was still on her face.
She finally peered at him from between spayed fingers, but the shock of seeing
him was more than she could bear.

“Oh, Marcus,” she whispered.
“What in the hell happened?”

It was a difficult question to
answer. He sat there, his big hands in his lap. “I was the ass you have so
often accused me of being,” he said quietly. “Look, sweetheart, I’ll tell you
the truth. I was wrong. Horribly, terribly wrong. But you have to understand
that my sole motivation for doing what I did is because I love you more than
life and I would be lost without you. I shouldn’t have said the things I did
and I surely shouldn’t have attacked Murphy. But think of it this way; what if
you had walked into the field tent to find Jensen Elder all wrapped up around
me?  For a fraction of a second, you would have thought the worst. It’s
natural. And that’s exactly what happened to me, only I acted on impulse, which
I shouldn’t have. I can’t say I’m sorry enough. But I’m not going to apologize
for loving you so much that I wanted to keep what was mine.”

Kathlyn’s green eyes were welling
with tears. They spilled down her cheeks and Marcus restrained himself from
wiping them away.

“I understand all of that,” she
whispered. “But what I can’t get over is the fact that you actually thought I would
do something like that. You actually thought I would cheat on you. What did I
ever do to deserve that mistrust?”

“Nothing, sweetheart,” Marcus
insisted gently. “It wasn’t you at all. You knew I had reservations about
Murphy and the problem just compounded itself when I saw him hold you. Kathlyn,
no one in this goddamn world has a right to hold you but me. I’m sorry if that
sounds selfish, but that’s the way it is.”

Kathlyn sobbed softly into her
hand. “Do you know that Christopher has tried to contact me since I’ve been
back in the States? I haven’t even called him back. I can’t. Even separated
from you, you are my husband and you are where my heart lies. If I really
wanted to screw around on you, I’ve had an entire month to do it.”

Marcus didn’t want to hear about
Murphy calling his wife, but he bit his tongue. He really wasn’t surprised.

 “So what do you want from me?”
he asked.

The hand came away from her face
and the green eyes flashed. “I want you to tell me that you’ll never mistrust
me again, especially when I’ve never done anything to deserve it. I want you to
tell me that you’ll never fly off the handle like that again.”

“I swear it. You have my word.”

She wiped the moisture from her
face, blowing her nose on a napkin that Marcus handed her. “And I don’t ever
want to have a conversation like this with you again. Ever.”

“I promise.”

She just sat there, fiddling with
the wadded napkin in her lap. Marcus watched her; he could have watched her
forever. Slowly, he shifted in his seat, sliding until his knees hit the floor.
Kathlyn could see him moving closer to her and the anticipation she felt jabbed
through her body like thousands of needles. His thighs brushed up against her
lower legs and his hands, very gently, moved down either of her thighs until
his arms completely encircled her.

 His dark head pressed into her
lap, his face buried between her legs. Kathlyn closed her eyes tightly; to feel
him against her, once more, was the greatest sensation she had ever known.

“Please,” Marcus mumbled into her
lap. “Please forgive me, Kathlyn.”

She touched his hair; it was
longer and dirtier than she had ever known it to be. But the moment she touched
it, he erupted into great, body-wracking sobs.

 “Oh, God,” she folded herself
over him, holding him tight. “Don’t cry, honey. Please don't cry."

He tried to stop. He was ruining
her skirt. "I don't want to lose you, Kathlyn. You're worth more to me
than anything in this whole goddamn world."

"You're not going to lose
me," she whispered against his hair. "I love you, Marcus."

"I love you, too,
sweetheart."

Kathlyn put her hands on his
head, pulling him up. She kissed him, so hard that the force of their lips
meeting drove her upper teeth into her soft gum and drew blood. Marcus had her
in his massive arms, pulling her down off the chair and onto the floor with
him. On their knees, they kissed each other as they had never kissed before,
with something more than physical passion or emotional longing. It was furious
and delirious, unwilling to be sated. Thirty-two days of pain was being
unequivocally eased.

They were running on instinct.
Marcus unbuttoned her suit jacket and ran his hands over her flesh; he could
feel her ribs where she had lost too much weight and his tears almost started
again. He could feel Kathlyn's tears on his face and he kissed them away,
listening to her soft sobs as he touched her. He lay her back on the old, clean
linoleum of Mama's floor and made love to her with absolutely no privacy
whatsoever. The door to the back porch was open and the dogs watched them
through the screen. Kathlyn didn't care who heard or saw them, and neither did
Marcus. All she could focus on was his tender, loving touch, and the only thing
on his mind was the fact that he had his wife back.

They lost track of time. The food
on the table grew cold. When they finally came to their senses and realized
what they had done, the sun was beginning to set outside and the dogs were
snoring loudly on the back step. Leaning up against the wall near the table,
Marcus held Kathlyn in his arms, completely uncaring that they were naked in
Lynn's mother's kitchen. Kathlyn was dozing lightly and he roused her with
kisses to her forehead.

"Hey," he murmured.

"Hmmm," she sighed.

He wasn't sure what to say. He
chuckled with a mild amount of chagrin. "We should probably get
dressed."

Kathlyn peeped one eye open.
Blinking, she lifted her head, looking around the kitchen. Then she looked at
Marcus. "I've never met Lynn's mother before," she said. "What
on earth is that woman going to think of me, making love on her kitchen
floor?"

Marcus grinned and kissed her
again. "I think she'll be happy, considering the circumstances."

The table was almost at eye
level. Kathlyn peered at the stone-cold food. "Oh, Marcus," she
muttered. "I feel so bad. The dinner is cold."

"So we'll take them out to
eat," he reached over and grabbed her bra. "Here; put your clothes
back on and we'll all go out to dinner somewhere. I think cold food is a small
price to pay for all of this."

She gazed at him, studying the
lines of his face. She ran a hand over his stubble, re-memorizing his striking
beauty. It was all she had thought about.

"I'm sorry," she kissed
him as she whispered.

"For what?"

"For over-reacting as badly
as you did. It was horrible of me."

He kissed her in return, soft,
gentle pecks. "Sweetheart, you didn't do anything wrong. And this is
something I don't ever, ever want to talk about again."

She smiled weakly. "Agreed.
So what do we do now?"

"Go eat."

"That's not what I
mean."

He found his boxer briefs and
pulled them on. "I know what you mean," he said as she handed him his
jeans. "But I only want to think about tonight right now. We'll deal with
tomorrow at the appropriate time."

She was silent as she pulled on
the rest of her clothes. "Where are you staying?"

He shook his head. "I don't
know. I don't have a room yet. I just flew down from Modesto today to see
Lynn."

Kathlyn helped him fix his
collar. "How are the kids?"

"Fine. They miss you."

"I miss them."

"Then let’s go home,
tonight, after dinner."

She sighed. "Home is Egypt,
Marcus."

He took her face in his hands,
caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. "Not anymore." He pulled her
close and kissed her again; he couldn't seem to kiss her enough. "I think
our home is right here for the moment."

She reached up and fixed his
collar, pretending to busy herself when there was really much more on her mind.
"You've accepted Bardwell's offer of a professorship."

"How'd you know?"

"The same way you knew my
schedule for the past month."

He smiled faintly. "It seems
everyone was determined to keep us updated about each other." His smile
faded. "I hope you're not upset about it. I know we had this conversation
a couple of months ago, but it seemed that under the current circumstances,
I...."

She put her hand over his mouth. "You
don't have to explain your reasons. I know them too well. And I agree with your
decision."

"You do?"

"Yes."

"But what about all that
stuff you said about not being able to settle down, that you always had to be
out, exploring?"

She drew in a long breath.
"I have a lot of time to think over the past month, Marcus. I belong with
you and the kids, not traipsing around as if I have no responsibilities. I'm a
mother and a wife, and those are the two greatest things any woman could ask
for. I've been so stupid to think there were more important things in
life."

He looked at her, hard. "Are
you sure?"

"Do you want me to be
honest?"

"Absolutely."

"You've already accepted the
position. Whether or not I truly have any reservation isn't an issue any
longer. You've made your decision and my place is with you."

He shook his head, slowly.
"I don't want you resenting me for this, Kathlyn. I made this decision
when I was fairly certain I was going to be a divorced man."

A flicker of pain crossed her
face. "Did you really believe that?"

"I did."

She turned away from him, feeling
tears again. "You have so little faith in me, Marcus."

He could feel the mood turning
dark again. "That's not true, sweetheart. I just figured the damage I did
was irreversible. I was prepared to accept the consequences."

"You didn't think our love
was stronger than that?"

He grasped her gently and turned
her around. "Don't put a spin on this that doesn't exist. The love I feel
for you is stronger than anything that's ever existed. But love cannot survive
destroyed trust, and I was pretty sure I had done precisely that."

She gazed up at him. "Never.
But you did hurt me."

He began touching her again.
"I know," he whispered. "Seems like I've hurt you an awful lot
since the first day we met. I have no idea why you stick around with me."

"Because I love you, you big
ape."

He put his arms around her,
savoring the sensation of her sweet body against his. Up until a half hour ago,
he wasn’t sure he would ever feel her again. It made the fact that he had almost
lost her weigh deeper than it ever had, but he chased the miserable thoughts
away. He would not linger on what might have been, but now what was to be. They
were together again, no matter what lay ahead, and he knew they would remain
strong. There would be no more looking back. They would only look forward.

Lynn and Juliana were sitting
outside on the front porch when Kathlyn and Marcus emerged from the kitchen.
Kathlyn kept glancing back into the room to make sure they didn’t leave any
visible traces of the naughty things they had been doing, but Marcus merely
smiled and gently guided her forward. Before they exited the screen door and
onto the porch, he twisted her skirt around where she had zipped it up crooked.
She glanced back at him and wriggled her eyebrows sheepishly. He merely
grinned.

Lynn didn’t get up from his chair
when they came out. He just looked at Marcus, quite casually.

“So?” he said. “Where do you want
to go eat?”

Marcus remained behind Kathlyn,
his big arms wrapping around her. His mouth was in her hair as he spoke.
“Something fattening. And someplace that serves copious amounts of alcohol.”