A Promise of Thunder

complete it.”
    Storm turned the ring over and over in her fingers, studying the design, which consisted of strange symbols and signs. “What does it mean?”
    “Those engravings are Indian symbols. They hold a special meaning.” She was rendered immoble by the intensity of his incredible blue eyes. “One day I’ll tell you what they mean.”
    Storm looked at him squarely. “Aren’t you going to tell me now?”
    “No. Someday, maybe, when the time is right. Here, let me slip it on you.” He grasped her hand, sliding Buddy’s ring off her finger and replacing it with his. He hadn’t said anything before about her wearing the wedding band given to her by a dead man, but now that he’d given her a replacement, he felt as if a great weight had been lifted from him.
    “It—it’s lovely,” Storm said, admiring the golden circlet that banded her finger. For the first time since their marriage she felt truly and irrevocably wed to Grady Stryker. Before he had placed his ring on her finger she had felt like an actress merely playing out a role. “Thank you.”
    “Is that the best you can do?” Grady asked in such a solemn tone, Storm thought she had offended him.
    “I don’t understand.”
    “You will,” Grady said cryptically.
    When he dragged her into his arms Storm finally understood what he wanted from her, and was angered by it. Was he trying to bribe her?
    “I want you, Storm. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t long to make love to you like a real husband.”
    His arms tightened and his mouth swooped down to claim hers. His lips were hard and searching, leaving her mouth burning with fire. The unspoken demand of his kiss left little doubt what he wanted, what he was determined to take. But guilt over her wanton response to Grady made her unwilling to surrender again to his seduction.
    “I—can’t.”
    “You want me.”
    “I don’t deny it. I’m a brazen hussy to feel the way I do. I’m afraid of the powerful emotions you rouse in me, and it hurts to know that I never felt this way with Buddy.”
    “Let me love you.”
    “No. You promised.”
    “Storm, look at me.”
    Her head came up slowly, her honey brown eyes hazy with the heat of passion. When she met the electrifying cobalt of his gaze, a shudder passed through her body.
    “Why should we both suffer because of your stubbornness?” Grady asked. His control hung by a fragile thread. “This marriage doesn’t have to be a sterile one. Two people who want each other like we do shouldn’t deny themselves. We are husband and wife.”
    He kissed her again, his lips hard and demanding. Her emotions whirled and skidded, her thoughts spun. He forced her lips open with his thrusting tongue, demanding a response. Her stubborn refusal angered him, and the more she protested, the more forcefuland hungry his kisses became. Why was she resisting something as fundamental and basic as making love? Grady wondered as his hands joined his lips in convincing Storm that their loving was as natural as eating and breathing. Why should it distress her if he made her feel the kind of pleasure and emotion she had never experienced with her dead husband? What Grady desired above all else was to love Storm so thoroughly she couldn’t recall her dead husband’s name.
    Buddy. The name filled him with rage. Why should a dead man hold Storm’s affection when he, Grady, was alive and capable of giving her pleasure in a way Buddy never could? All Storm’s resolve was swept away as Grady swept her into his arms and carried her to their bed. Her lips were parted and he could feel her breath fan his cheek. It came in short staccato bursts of air that conveyed her passion—and her fear.
    “You promised.”
    “Damn you!” He dropped her onto the mattress and turned away. His fists were clenched, and the stark planes of his proud features wore a look of anguish. “Go to sleep. I won’t touch you.” Then he grabbed his heavy jacket from the hook beside the door and stormed out into the bitter cold.
    When he returned hours later, chilled to the bone, Storm had donned her nightgown and was sound asleep, wrapped in a coccoon of furs and blankets. Giving her a look of utterdisgust, Grady tossed off his clothes and joined her, careful not to touch her until his body had warmed. It didn’t take long. Lying beside Storm turned his body into a blazing inferno.
    The longer Grady lay there, the more aroused he became. He didn’t even need to touch Storm to