The Ties That Bind

masculinity. It was such a perfect complement to her own, very female power. She and Garth flowed together the way her intricate designs did, capturing and releasing, intertwining and shifting, spiraling and dancing. In the dark shadows of the bed a jeweled dragon chased a fairy queen and then changed into a great soaring bird that flew after a brilliantly hued butterfly. Over and around the two went, tasting each other's fiery passion, coupling and uncoupling, teasing and promising until at last the whole, beautiful picture was complete, an illuminated image of perfect harmony and pleasure.
    As she clung to Garth in the aftermath of their love-making, the image of the silk-screen design Shannon had been mentally sketching returned. Before it slipped away again Shannon studied it and knew the initials would not stand alone. They would be linked together, intertwined completely just as she was forever linked to Garth.

Epilogue
    THE ANNOUNCEMENT that Sherilectronics had won the Carstairs contract came on the same day that Shannon and Garth were married. Annie O'Connor Turcott insisted on preparing the wedding feast for the small group of guests, and Dan took Garth aside to give him some advice on the fine points of being a husband. Having been one for more than two weeks himself, Dan felt obligated to pass along the masculine wisdom of the ages. He accompanied his lecture with a great deal of champagne.
    Shannon had watched in amusement as the two men stood talking earnestly together in Annie's fragrant kitchen.
    "I think they're both going to take to their husbandly duties the way ducks take to water," Annie murmured in Shannon's ear as she followed the line of her friend's gaze.
    "Amazing how adaptable the male of the species can be," Shannon responded with a grin as she sipped her champagne.
    "Uh-huh. Somehow I was always fairly certain Garth would marry you. The man would never have any peace of mind if he didn't. He needs you for that, you know."
    "Peace of mind?"
    "Umm. You're the one who can keep that fascinating dark, brooding quality at bay. It's a part of him. It goes deep. You were right about him having the soul of a poet somewhere inside that businessman's body. With you around it won't take over his life. I rather think he was falling prey to it before you arrived and took him in hand."
    "Nice to know I'm useful," Shannon remarked.
    "Oh, you'll find Garth useful, too."
    "Yes, I know. He's going to take very good care of me." There was amusement in Shannon's voice.
    "Don't knock it," her friend advised. "Being useful to each other is part of being married."
    "I can't imagine where you and Dan picked up all this insight into marriage so suddenly."
    "Comes naturally," Annie assured her. "Wait and see."
    "Does Dan fuss about everything from the locks on the doors to the kind of car you're allowed to drive?"
    "Sure. But I'll be the first to admit I tend to fuss about how much coffee he drinks when he's writing and how he shouldn't lift the garbage sacks the way he does with his bad back."
    "I guess it works both ways," Shannon mused complacently. Now that she and Garth would be sharing their lives completely, she thought she could take his tendency toward overprotectiveness in stride.
    "Garth seems a lot more interested in his wedding than he does in the fact that his company got that bid, by the way," Annie commented, glancing at where the groom stood talking so seriously to Dan.
    "The Carstairs bid was just a stepping stone to smaller and more important things," Shannon said.
    "Much more important things." Her eyes filled with love as she excused herself and went to join her husband. Garth waited for her across the room, his crystal gaze alive with the fierce emotion he felt toward his wife.
    "I am now an expert on marriage," he warned her with a promising grin.
    "Is that right? Taking lessons from the expert?" Shannon smiled at Dan.
    "That's right," Dan assured her grandly. "I was just telling Garth that he shouldn't wait to start a family. He's going to be forty in a couple of years and you're nearly thirty. I think the two of you should hop to it without any unnecessary delay. Nothing like a family to settle a man down."
    Shannon was about to make a pithy reply to that when she was interrupted by a loud, strident voice behind her. Turning, she took in the sight of the redheaded apparition dressed in black and red. Only Verna Montana would wear black and red to a wedding. Her hair, a little too red to be