grasped his shoulders. It couldn’t be happening again. Chance gained speed. Her scream of pleasure mixed with his groan of release as he sent her to the stars once more.
Chance held Ellen close as they lay on the too-small blanket. Her head lay against his shoulder and her arm rested across his chest with her hand buried under his hair. One of her legs wrapped around his and her foot was cupped in the arch of his.
She fit like she belonged. Perfectly. What would it be like to have her like this all the time?
He’d never been more satisfied in his life. She was everything he’d never thought to have in a woman. Beauty, intelligence, strength, passion, perseverance and most of all an easy smile. He shouldn’t think like that but having Ellen in his arms made him want to dream again. She’d brought that back to his life.
Her hand moved over his shoulder and teased his earlobe.
He looked at her. “Hey, there. I thought you were asleep.”
“Mmm… Just resting.” She stretched against him, running her fingers across his belly.
“You keep that up and I’ll have to retaliate.”
“I don’t have a problem with that.” She kissed his neck. “Didn’t you promise me slow next time?”
Chance kissed the top of her head as his hand caressed the under-curve of one of her breasts. “I can go slow. But the question is can you stand it?”
Ellen’s hand drifted to his hip. “As long as you can.”
He took the challenge and they both won.
They were still basking in a cloud of satisfaction while in each other’s arms when Ellen said, “Tell me about your childhood.”
Chance couldn’t help but flinch. Why did Ellen want to know about that? He’d rather talk about anything else but that and his ex-wife. She’d already heard that sordid story.
“I was a baby, then a child and now a man. Pretty typical stuff.”
She gave him a playful swat on the chest. “I know well that you are a man. But what I want to know about is Chance the little boy.”
Ellen wasn’t going to back off from this. That wasn’t who she was. He might as well tell her and then she’d quit asking. “I was raised in upstate New York. My father was a world-famous surgeon even when I was a young boy. He traveled and spoke a lot. We had everything money could buy but he was never around. My mother adored him.” Chance had worshiped his mother. “But my father was so wrapped up in his life that he barely saw her. He liked the jet-setting, being the big shot, and he like the women that went with that recognition. I’m not sure why they ever married.”
The same question had occurred to him when Alissa had left him. Had he, like his father, been so wrapped up in his work that he hadn’t been taking care of what he’d needed to do at home? Had it been fair to ask a woman to live his lifestyle? The question still nagged at him.
He looked at Ellen. Her golden hair was spread out over his chest and shoulder. Her fingers ran along the center of his chest as if she couldn’t get enough of him.
“How sad. Your mother must have been so lonely.”
“She was.”
“What happened?”
His chest tightened. “How did you know something happened?”
“By the tone of your voice.”
Had he become that transparent? Or was she just that in tune with him? He wasn’t sure which idea disturbed him more. “She left. Later I was told she joined a commune-type place. As far as I know, she’s still there. I went to see her once when I was in college but she said she didn’t want to see me. I never tried again.”
Ellen’s arm went to his waist and she gave him a tight hug. “Oh, Chance, I’m so sorry.”
She’d lost her mother as well. If anyone could empathize it was her. “You understand too well, don’t you?”
Her head nodded against him. “Mothers are important.” She didn’t say anything for a few minutes. Her voice wobbled as she said, “I watched my mother die.”
Even during this ordeal she’d never sounded so close to tears. They shared a huge loss but hers had been far more traumatizing. He pulled her close. If only he could take her pain away. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
Chance understood her agony. Knew the need of a child for comfort that only a mother could give. Or the smell of perfume that was hers alone. A whisper of a kiss on the cheek as she went by or that safe feeling when being tucked in at night.
Yet despite their similarities in background, Ellen saw the world as a sparkling place while he saw it as tarnished. She seemed to bubble even in the situation they were in now. He wanted that in his life.
Moisture touched his skin. Strong, resilient Ellen was crying for two children who had lost their mothers. Chance’s chest tightened. His father not caring was painful but his mother’s defection was devastating. At least Ellen hadn’t felt unloved. He squeezed her close as she cried. “I’m sorry about your mother too.”
Minutes later she composed herself again then said, “Who would have thought we’d share something so awful?”
He kissed the top of her head. “I, for one, would prefer to remember something else we’ve shared.”
Ellen moved to look up at him with eyes that were still misty. “Why, Dr. Freeman, I believe there might be a romantic under all that gruff and bluster.”
He smiled. “Don’t get that rumor started.”
At least they had moved past that emotional moment but they continued to hold each for some time.
Finally Ellen asked, “Will you tell me the rest of the story now? Did your father come home then?”
“Yeah, just long enough to put me and my sister into boarding schools.”
“You have a sister?”
“I do.”
Ellen grabbed a shirt and pulled it on. “But you’ve never said anything about her.”
He shrugged. “I don’t really know her.”
“How can you not know your sister?”
“Pretty easy when I only saw her once a year at Christmas.”
“What? That’s horrible.”
“Maybe so, but that’s the way it was.”
“Still is, I gather.” Ellen sounded as if she was accusing him of doing something appalling in a court of law.
He sat up and faced her. “We’re just in two different worlds. She has her life and I have mine.”
