'Always after the rain,' he confirmed softly. 'It always seems to know something we don't know at all.'
Did it know her despair? Did it know that she too felt the same joy and sadness? She shivered with an uncanny feeling of predestiny and Kip turned her away, lifting her against him.
'You're cold. Come back to bed. It will soon be morning and I'll lose you.' How readily he said it, but how she needed him. She turned into his arms as he placed her back in the warm bed and his.lips were instantly tender and demanding.
It was after breakfast before she got back to the hotel and the others were standing on the steps, looking at the bright morning. There was no doubt at all where she had spent the night. She still wore the golden dress, the dainty sandals, her evening bag in her hand when she turned to lock the car. Her face was transformed, serene but haunted, and Neil pounced on her regardless of the others.
'Where the hell have you been?'
'Don't you remember? I went out to dinner.'
'And stayed with him all night.'
'Maybe I didn't bother to change this morning,' Natalie snapped. Really, she wasn't up to this. She felt she would never be up to anything else ever again.
'You weren't in your room all night!' He stared at her furiously and Natalie's face froze. Behind him she could see Paula and Ray. She had no idea if they could hear or not.
'And how would you know that?'
Something about her tone warned him that he was stepping into danger and he stepped back, getting control of the anger that made him ugly.
'I kept calling. There's this damned new interview you set up for today.'
'And since when have you either needed or welcomed my help on such things?' Natalie asked tightly. 'You've got until midday to work it out. Kane Mallory flies in at eleven and the official opening is at three. If you scrape in an interview after that we can leave as planned tomorrow.'
She spun round and left him standing there, smiling tightly at Ray and Paula as she passed. Up in her room she changed and showered. It was no use after all. Kip had wanted her to stay one more day. He had never even mentioned anything else. She might just as well go on the early flight tomorrow as they had planned. Her brief time with Kip was over almost before it had begun.
She didn't tell Neil that she was going with Kip to meet his sister and brother-in-law. She felt it would only provoke another outburst and when Kip's car drew up outside the hotel she was watching for him. She raced outside and slid in beside him almost before he had stopped.
'Where's the fire?' He leaned over and dropped a kiss on her mouth, surprising her by the old possessive sweetness. She almost told him then that she loved him. Instead she smiled up at him and began to question him about his sister.
'Will she be coming with him?'
'I imagine so. He's not likely to let her out of his sight and she's a persistent little devil.'
'She's small?' Natalie looked across with some surprise, in view of Kip's height, and he grinned to himself.
'Only in size. All the energy that didn't go into growing is packed inside and bursts out constantly. Andrea is a handful.'
Of course they did not arrive on a scheduled flight and Natalie wondered why on earth she had imagined they would. Kane Mallory was a millionaire many times over. A silver executive jet touched down within minutes of their arrival and taxied to the edge of the tarmac.
'Punctual as ever.' Kip glanced at his watch and then grinned to himself as one of the most powerful-looking men that Natalie had ever seen swung to the ground. He raised a hand casually to Kip and strange golden eyes flared briefly over Natalie. Then he was reaching inside, helping out his wife, Kip's sister, and Natalie's green eyes really did open wide.
Andrea Mallory was the smallest, prettiest thing that Natalie had ever seen. Her dark eyes were exactly like Kip's but her hair was spun silver. She broke away from her husband's restraining arms and simply flew at Kip, flinging herself at him and being swung off her feet in a great bear-hug.
'Ease off, Kip. We're pregnant.'
Kane Mallory was beside them in two strides, detaching his wife from Kip's embrace and tucking her neatly under his shoulder.
'Again?' Kip grinned into her flushed face. 'Where's Suzy?'
'With Aunt Maureen. Oh, I do hope we have a boy this time. I know Kane wants one.'