Fast Courting (20 page)

His kiss was deep and loving, just as it had been for so very long without her daring to accept it as such. “I do love you, Nia, and I do want you to marry me.”

She couldn’t have heard more beautiful words, yet she had to know now, to ask everything. “You once said you would never ask a woman to share your kind of existence. Have you really changed your mind?”

“Uh-huh.” His confident smile left no doubt.

“Why? What made you change it?”

The thinking had all been done in those lonely hours away from her, or in the middle of the night when he’d awoken and lain beside her, fearing that one day she’d be gone. He knew his mind now, and was ready to speak it. “You made the change, Nia. From the first I knew you were special. More than special. You were everything I wanted in a woman. Every attempt to keep you at arm’s length failed. Even though I knew how badly you’d been hurt once, I just couldn’t picture
my
life without you. Then, because of you and what I wanted to do with you, I discovered that basketball
was
only a job. I was very happy to leave it after a game, having found something that meant so much more to me.”

“But what about your doctorate?”

“That was—is—more a profession than a passion. Yes, it means a lot to me, but it, too, has its place. I always knew that it would have to wait until my basketball days were over.”

“But they’re not—”

“Not yet. I doubt that Harlan will can me at this stage. But I do think I’d like to retire within another year or two.”

“To be a psychologist?”

“That. And…to be a husband, or
more
than a husband, perhaps even a father.”

Nia caught her breath. “You really think it would work?”

“It
has
worked! That’s the point!” Hadn’t her mother said as much? Hadn’t she herself come to agree? But to hear it from Daniel—that was something else! He spoke on, and she listened in silent ecstasy. “When I wanted to be here with you after the fire I decided to join the team a day late. It would never have occurred to me to do that before, but, you know,” he grinned in self-mockery, “they survived without me. Then, when I needed you so badly during that road trip, there you were. I know that things may not always be as convenient; there may be times when we
have
to be apart. But I want to help you settle the house, to be by your side if Mahoney opens his mouth again. I want to take you on the road with me whenever you can work it around your assignments. You’re as stubborn as I am; if we decide to make it work, it will!” He paused, took a breath. “That’s what changed my mind. For the first time I found someone who mattered enough to make it worthwhile to try!”

“Oh, Daniel, I love you,” she murmured, knowing then that everything would be all right, that her future was secure. Her cheek pressed against his shirt, she coiled her arms tightly around his waist. “I love you.”

“But will you marry me?” he drawled, half in earnest.

“Did you have any doubt that I would?” she returned, drawing back to gaze up at his handsome face.

“You
did
have a bad experience once before,” he confronted her softly. “It’s possible that you wouldn’t want to try.”

“If I don’t try,” her violet eyes flooded, “I condemn myself to a life of emptiness. You make everything so much richer.” She raised a finger to blot her lower lashes. “And besides,” she sniffled, then grinned, “now you’ve appealed to my streak of determination. We’ll make it work. I know we will!”

“That’s it, babe,” he crooned, hugging her soundly. “That’s the spunky woman I love! I don’t care if she tells me where to get off every once in a while as long as she tells me she loves me here and there along the way.”

Nia tipped her head back with a blinding smile. “You, Mr. Strahan, have got yourself a deal!”

It was much, much later that night, after they’d sated the needs of the flesh to their mutual, albeit temporary, satisfaction, that they spoke of the immediate future. “The team will be back and forth to Washington for the first-round playoffs, Nia. Can we be married by Wednesday, before the series begins?”

“I don’t see why not,” she answered, drunk enough on his love to agree to almost anything he said.

“Will you come down for the games there?”

“I don’t see why not.” She sighed her contentment and stretched against his naked length.

“You can do the researching for your article then?”

“I don’t see why not.”

He pinched her middle playfully. “Is there anything you’d object to right now?”

“You bet!” she snapped. “I’d violently object if you left this bed to do anything but—”

“What about the TV? Would you mind if I watched a rerun of the game?”

Nia regarded him indulgently, knowing she’d be unable to deny him anything he truly wanted. “You
really
want to watch a rerun of the game?”

“I might,” he tested her.

“OK.” She grinned. “You can turn it on…on one condition.”

“Uh-oh.” He rolled his eyes. “One condition. What is it?”

“You’ve got to watch in here.”

“In the bedroom?”

“That
is
where we are.”

He shammed dismay. “But the recorder is in the other room.” It was. And the last thing that would suit her purposes would be for him to risk a hernia carting the large set around.

“Then…let’s go in there…like this.”

“We’re not dressed!”

“Since when does that bother you?” Her eyes sparkled with humor.

Daniel was adorable in his feigned innocence. “Nia, I’m the
coach
. Coaches don’t go to games
nude!”

A ripple of laughter shot through her before she could contain it. “That’s terrific! Then, let’s take this blanket. Stand up.”

He stood obediently as she hauled the blanket from the bed, tossed one end up over his shoulders, and draped them together with the makeshift shawl.

“There!” she exclaimed. “Will this do?”

His hand slid over the softness of her beneath the blanket. “It’ll do.”

“Let’s go, then. The game is about to start.”

They managed to reach the living room with a minimum of bumps and contortions, and those, she was sure, were contrived by the coach. But if he wanted to watch the game, the game it would be. Daniel held her beside him as he headed for the set, pressed the proper buttons, then turned her around and collapsed on the sofa, dropping the remote control switch on the table nearby.

“There,” he panted in exaggerated exhaustion. “Sit here…no, this way …a little to the left…”

Nia twisted and squirmed against him, following his directions even as she wondered whether he knew what he was doing. But he
had
to know; that was no ghost of passion she felt in him.

“There I am,” he grinned, pointing to the set as the pregame show commenced. Nia followed the direction of his finger and failed to notice that it instantly disappeared beneath the blanket. “Hmmm, I look like I’ve gained weight.”

“You
always
look heavier on television,” she chided, feeling his warm touch inching its erotic way around her body.

“I don’t know,” he bent his head to nibble at the tip of her ear, “maybe I should grow a beard.”

“Don’t you dare,” she gasped as that stealthy hand slid sensuously over the firming swell of her breast, moving slowly back and forth with maddeningly precise effect.

“Why not?” he asked innocently as he lowered his other hand to her thigh.

“Because…your very slight five o’clock shadow…is sexy.” He was sexy right now and she wasn’t even looking at him. But her body tingled at his touch and she inched further back against him. “There you go.” She eyed the set, from which he suddenly disappeared. “That was quick!” The camera moved back, then closed in on the sportscaster.

“It always is,” he murmured between soft samplings of her neck. “These professional athletes aren’t all that bright, you know. Don’t expect any coach to sustain an intelligent conversation for very long. Two minutes is about his limit.”

“Two minutes?” She squirmed as the fingers of his lower hand crept to the inside of her thigh. “Is that all?”

“Um-hmmm.”

Now there were two sportcasters in colorful conversation, their headphones and mouthpieces solidly in place to ensure that the roar of the crowd was no more than a background accompaniment to the commentary in progress.

“Are you listening, Dan?” she moaned, slowly losing track of reality. She certainly couldn’t hear what the television said—the roar of blood through her veins was far too loud for that.

“Listening?” he asked blankly.

“The show…you wanted to watch.” She looked up over her shoulder at him, then slowly swiveled in his arms. Behind her, the crowd grew quiet.

“Hmmm…so I did.” He smiled, but he only watched Nia now.

“I love you,” she whispered, aglow from within. “I always will.” Their eyes were locked together in visual mating, in total understanding.

Deafened to all but their syncopated hearts, they barely heard the soulful opening strains of the national anthem, slow and full-bodied as it wafted into the air. His hand trembling, Daniel traced the softness of her features one by one. The gentleness of his touch matched the adoration in his eyes, and Nia exulted in them both. When his thumb brushed her lips they parted eagerly, to be rewarded moments later by the richness of his kiss. It was a kiss filled with promise, a kiss filled with love. Above all, it was a new beginning.

Blinded by passion, and lost in their love, Daniel groped for the remote control and switched the television off.

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

FAST COURTING.
Copyright © 1983 by Barbara Delinsky. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.

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Mobipocket Reader July 2005 ISBN 0-06-087678-6

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