Family Album by Danielle Steel Page B

their futures. The way she kissed him told him that she didn't want him to go, and then silently she stood up and led him across the hall to the spectacular white bedroom, and without waiting a moment longer, he lay her across the white fox-covered bed. He peeled her clothes from her, devouring her flesh, murmuring to her in whispers, as her fingers gently disentangled him from his clothes, and moments later, they lay side by side, naked, enveloped in the rich white fur, and then suddenly they were engulfed in each other's bodies, and neither of them thought of resisting or being sensible anymore. Faye shouted out for him with a passion that overwhelmed her, and Ward lay within her, his excitement far beyond control. They spent themselves in what would have looked like agony to strangers, and was the purest passion either of them had ever known. And as she lay silent at last, in the circle of his arms, the white fur bedspread soft beneath them, he looked down at her with a love he had never known before.
    “Faye, I love you more than life itself.”
    “Don't say that….” His passion frightened her sometimes. He loved her so much … what if one day it stopped? She couldn't have stood it. She knew that now.
    “Why not? It's true.”
    “I love you too.” She looked up at him with a sated smile, and he bent to kiss her once more, and it amazed him how quickly his body begged for her again, and how hungrily she reached for him, and they made love in her bed for hours, never able to get enough, to make up for the years when they had done without each other. It was as though they had waited for this for much, much too long.
    “Now what, my love?” He sat on the edge of her bed at midnight, smiling at her as she rose slowly, stretched, and smiled down at the man she so richly loved.
    “How about a bath?” And then suddenly she remembered, and covered her mouth with a look of horror. “Oh my God, I forgot to give you dinner.”
    “No, you didn't.” He pulled her toward him again. “This suited me just fine.” She blushed faintly and he smoothed the long blond hair back from her face, and then followed her to the white marble bathroom. She filled the tub with warm soapy water, and they slid in together, his feet tickling her in subtle places, as he nibbled on her toes. “I asked you a question a little while ago.”
    She frowned slightly, unable to remember. “What was it?”
    “I asked you ‘now what?’”
    She smiled at him mysteriously. “And I said, ‘a bath.’”
    “Cute. But you know what I mean. I don't just want to have an affair with you, Faye.” He looked faintly troubled, and at the same time extremely pleased with the evening they had just spent together in her bed. “Although, I must admit, it's tempting. But I think you deserve more.” She said nothing. She only watched him, her heart beating faster. “Will you marry me, Miss Price?”
    “No.” She suddenly stood up, and he looked shocked. It was a rapid refusal as she stepped out of the tub.
    “Where are you going?”
    She turned to look at him, magnificent in her naked beauty in the center of the white marble bathroom. “I will not tell my children that their father proposed to me in the bathtub. How can I tell them something like that?” He began laughing as he looked at her in amusement.
    “No problem.” He leapt out of the tub, swept her up in his arms, and deposited her soaking wet on the white fox bedspread once more, as he knelt at her feet and looked up at her with blatant adoration. “Will you please marry me, my love?”
    She grinned at him, impish, happy, yet at the same time terrified at what she was doing. But she knew she had no choice now. It was not just because she had slept with him. But it was what she wanted, “the other road” … the good life … marriage and babies with him … and with him, she was brave enough to do it. For her, it meant giving everything up, but she didn't care. “Yes.” It was the