Come Lie With Me by Linda Howard Page A

was going to have to pay with pain.
    To her relief he asked no more questions and in no way referred to what she’d told him of her childhood. Because of the extra demand he was making on his body, he was always sound asleep when she checked on him at night, so there were no repeats.
    Over Serena’s protests Dione also began giving him therapy in the pool. Serena was terrified that he’ddrown, since his legs were useless and he obviously couldn’t kick, but Blake himself overruled her objections. He’d said that he liked challenges, and he wasn’t backing off from this one. With his engineering expertise, he designed and directed the construction of a system of braces and pulleys that enabled Dione to lower him into the pool and hoist him out when the session was ended, something that he would soon be able to do for himself.
    One morning, after she’d been here a little over two weeks, Dione watched him as he devoured the breakfast that Alberta had prepared. Already it seemed that he was gaining weight. His face had fleshed out and wasn’t as gray as it had been. He’d burned a little during the first few days he’d been in the sun, but he hadn’t peeled, and now the light tan he’d acquired made his blue eyes seem even bluer.
    â€œWhat’re you staring at?” he demanded as Alberta removed the plate before him and replaced it with a bowl of fresh strawberries in cream.
    â€œYou’re gaining weight,” Dione told him with immense satisfaction.
    â€œShouldn’t wonder,” Alberta snorted as she left the room. “He’s eating like a horse.”
    Blake scowled at her, but dipped his spoon into the bowl and lifted a plump strawberry. His white teeth sank into the red fruit; then his tongue captured the juice that stained his lips. “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” he demanded grumpily. “To fatten me up?”
    She smiled and didn’t reply, watching as he demolished the fruit. Just as he was finishing Angela glided in with a telephone, which she placed on the table before him. After plugging it in, she gave him a shy smile and left.
    Blake sat there, staring at the phone. Dione hid a grin. “I think that means you have a call,” she prompted.
    He looked relieved. “Good. I was afraid you wanted me to eat it.”
    She chuckled and got to her feet. As he lifted the receiver and put it to his ear, she touched his shoulder lightly and murmured, “I’ll be in the gym; come down when you’re finished.”
    He met her eyes and nodded, already embroiled in conversation. She heard enough to know that he was talking to Richard, and just the thought of Richard was enough to pucker her brow in a line of worry.
    Serena had been very good after that first day; she’d come to see Blake only in the late afternoon, when Dione had completed her schedule for the day. She’d also learned not to wait until too late to arrive, or Blake would already be asleep. Most nights, Richard also arrived for dinner.
    Richard was a witty, entertaining man, with a dry sense of humor and a repertoire of jokes that often had her chuckling in her seat, but which couldn’t be repeated when Blake or Serena asked what was so funny.
    Dione couldn’t say that Richard had been less than a gentleman. In no way had he said or done anything that could be termed suggestive. It was just that she could read the deepening admiration in his eyes, sense the growing gentleness in the way he treated her. She wasn’t the only one who felt that perhaps Richard was becoming too fond of her; Serena was subtle, but she watched her husband sharply when he was talking with Dione. In a way, Dione was relieved; it meant that Serena was at least paying attention to her husband. But she didn’t want complications of that sort, especially when there was nothing to it.
    She didn’t feel that she could say anything to Richard about it