Gift of Fire

it. Figured you two had just gotten your wires crossed. All you needed was a little push to get ‘em straightened out.”
    “Knock it off, Ames. No one’s going to give you any credit for straightening this out. Verity and I took care of it all by ourselves. Go have another drink. You’ve had a long trip.
    “Where are you going?” Emerson demanded.
    “Home.” Jonas caught hold of Verity’s arm and led her toward the path that wound through the trees to the cottage.
    Behind them Emerson grinned in satisfaction. Then he swung around and started for the bar. “Clement, my man,” he called to the bartender. “The announcement is official. My daughter says she’s actually going to marry him. Break out your best vodka. The Russian stuff.”
    “Why bother?” Clement said with a slow grin. “All vodka tastes the same.”
    “In a pig’s eye.” Emerson sat down on a stool. “Let’s get the Griswalds in here, and you’d better call the rest of the resort staff. It’s pay-off time.”
    “If Jonas ever finds out you’ve been running a pool to guess the day he and Verity announced they were engaged, he’ll skin you alive, Ames.”
    Emerson looked offended. “Just a friendly little game of chance, that’s all it was.”
    “I suppose now we’ll all get suckered into a ‘guess the date the baby arrives’ pool,” Rick Griswald said from the doorway.
    Emerson smiled broadly. “Hell of an idea. Now why didn’t I think of that?”
     
    “Jonas?”
    “What is it, love?” Jonas sucked one of Verity’s nipples between his teeth and bit down very gently. He felt the little tremor go through her and was satisfied. He was taking his time making love to her tonight. It had been a long week. True, he’d taken her to bed often enough during the past few days, but he hadn’t been able to relax and enjoy it.
    For the past week he’d been driven, desperate, obsessed with the idea that he might be able to make her stay with him if he kept reinforcing the sexual bond. Tonight he wanted to indulge himself in the luxury of making love to his future bride without worrying about when she would kick him out.
    “We should have talked more about it right after it happened.” Verity’s fingers curled in his hair as he dropped a warm kiss in the hollow between her breasts.
    “After what happened?”
    “After the experience you went through in the hidden chamber. Our mistake was in not discussing it. I know it bothered you a lot to find out you didn’t have the talent any longer, but I didn’t want to raise the issue until you were ready. I kept waiting for you to open up and tell me how you felt.”
    “I was afraid to bring up the subject because I couldn’t tell how you would react.” He slid a hand down to the curve of her thigh. “I’ve explained that. I was terrified of giving you an excuse to talk about our relationship.”
    “What’s wrong with that? We should discuss our relationship more. We need to talk about it.”
    Jonas raised his head, his eyes glinting in the darkness. “Relationship discussions make me nervous. I’d rather go to bed with you than talk about our relationship.”
    “Well, you can see where that attitude has gotten us this past week,” she admonished roundly, “We had plenty of sex, but our relationship was falling apart because you wouldn’t open up and tell me how you really felt.”
    Jonas decided to see if a quick, abject assumption of all the blame would close her luscious mouth. “It was all my fault. I should have talked to you about the whole thing. I really screwed up, honey. I’m sorry.” He tangled his fingers in the soft nest of hair above her thighs and inhaled the unique fragrance of her.
    “Oh, Jonas, it wasn’t really your fault,” Verity said graciously. She smiled gently in the shadows, her eyes full of love. “I understand how traumatic it must have been. You had so much to adjust to it’s a wonder you didn’t sink into a deep depression or something.”
    “Or something,” he repeated absently, his attention on how soft and warm she felt. Right now he wanted nothing more than to sink into Verity’s welcoming warmth. He wanted the reassurance of her physical response and the peace of mind that always came afterward.
    “But now that it’s all out in the open we can really talk about it.”
    “Yeah. We’ll have to do that sometime.” He lowered his head and kissed the tight red curls that concealed her feminine secrets.
    “Why don’t we