The Ties That Bind

thin silk of her dress.
    "I love you. Garth, I love you." Closing her eyes, she clung to him. He was fumbling with the delicate fastenings of the silk now. She didn't care when she heard the faint tearing sound. Garth swore under his breath.
    "Damn it to hell, I'm as clumsy as a kid on his first date tonight."
    "It's all right." She soothed him, her fingertips working with gentle urgency on the sleek muscles of his shoulders. "I don't care about the dress."
    "I'll buy you another one." He pulled the dress down to her waist and then over her hips. It fell into a pool of brightly patterned gold at her feet. "Say it again, Shannon. I want to hear you say it again."
    She ran her fingertips through his hair, her eyes brimming with emotion. "I love you, Garth."
    The lambent flame of his gaze seemed to be melting all the ice she was accustomed to seeing in his eyes. "Undress me, Shannon. I want to feel your hands all over me."
    Obediently she began struggling with the buttons of his white shirt. For some reason it was a difficult task. Garth didn't seem to mind. He toyed with the tendrils of her hair and grazed her nipples with the pad of his thumb while she worked.
    The pieces of his clothing fell away in agonizing slowness. By the time she had finished, Shannon was violently aware of her own flaring desire. When at last they both stood naked she ran her hands over the hard contours of his chest.
    "I would have missed you so much this weekend," she breathed. "I couldn't stay away."
    "Shannon, you don't know what you do to me." He kissed her until she melted against him, and then he slowly sank down to his knees in front of her, his lips finding all the gentle curves and hollows of her body. His fingers tightened on her buttocks as he brushed his mouth across her thigh.
    "Garth." His name was a sweet, soft gasp of pleasure and need. "Please, Garth."
    "Yes, honey. I'll please you. Come here and let me make love to you." He pulled her down beside him and then tumbled her gently onto the rug. He filled her mouth with his kisses as he luxuriously lowered himself along the length of her body. He was rigid with a need that had flashed into existence with the white-hot rapidity of a forest fire.
    Shannon opened herself to him with a feminine honesty that brought Garth to a raging peak of desire. She could feel him fighting to control himself as he drove into her.
    "Hold me," he pleaded through clenched teeth. "Hold me, Shannon."
    She moaned softly and pulled him to her, her thighs enclosing him as he began the powerful, sensual rhythm. Her teeth sank delicately into his shoulder, and Garth responded with almost violent passion. His own teeth found the sensitive skin of her throat, and he nipped carefully. Shannon's mind swirled with excitement. Within moments she was crying out his name and shivering in his arms. When he lifted his head and saw the dazed discovery in her face, Garth let himself be sucked into the shimmering vortex. Together they hung suspended in space and then, very slowly, returned to a waiting reality.
    For long moments Shannon lay beneath Garth's weight, delighting in the feel of him on virtually every inch of her body. Her fingers moved lovingly on his shoulders and at the nape of his neck. For a while she thought he had gone to sleep, then Garth spoke softly.
    "I'm sorry I raked you over the coals tonight, Shannon."
    "I understand. Did you love her very much?"
    "Christine?" He rolled to one side, lying beside Shannon on the gray carpet. He touched the valley between her small breasts, stroking the dampness there in absent wonder. "Christine and I had what seemed like a well-organized and successful marriage. She was beautiful and ambitious. She married me because I was going places, and I married her because I knew she'd look good beside me when I got to those places. We had a lot in common. She had worked in the high-tech world ever since she had graduated, and she was interested in my work. More interested than I realized, as I found out when she and Jim left with several company proprietary designs." Garth put his arm across his eyes. "I guess Jim felt he had a right to those designs. After all, he'd been my partner for two years. What got to me was that they were my designs. Ones I had done on my own. I wouldn't have cared so much if he'd just taken company stuff." There was a pause before Garth added, "It was Christine who turned my work over to him. I'd been doing some revisions at home in the