A/N's: Hey, I know better than to mess with a woman with PMS! ;) lol

Chapter Thirteen

Stunned and unbelieving, Dee stood motionless, feeling her stomach knot painfully. Hand cold and stiff, she slowly closed the door, dropped the shoes and valiantly fought back the sob welling up in her throat. She crossed the room to open the slatted double doors that led onto the private balcony overlooking the white sand beach and the restless sea beyond. Dee stood alone in the moonlight, her slender body trembling with need. Tears of hurt and pain stung at the backs of her eyes.

Then she whirled and went back inside, stripping the soft dress from her heated body. She turned on no lamps. It was the darkness that she sought. Tears now sliding down her cheeks, she stood in the shadows. Finally, she walked into the adjoining bath, and hastily shoving her hair up under a shower cap, Dee stepped into the shower, jerked the curtains closed and twirled the cold-water faucet full open. Cold, pelting water hissed upon bare, heated flesh.

It did little good.

When Dee stepped out ten minutes later, her body temperature may have been a little lower, but the clawing need deep in her stomach remained. She was patting her wet body when she heard the soft knock on her door. She grabbed for her robe.

"I'm coming," she said, heart pounding in her chest, and rushed to the door. Running nervous fingers through the tingled mane of her hair, she lowered her hands, jerked frantically at the sash of her robe, took a shallow breath and said, "Who is it?"

"Dwayne," was the firm, one-word response.

Stifling a gasp, Dee opened the door.

He stood there, hands clasping either side of the door frame. The elegantly tailored tuxedo was gone. The white shirt was unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up. His feet were bare.

Dee said nothing. One hand finally went to his pocket and brought out a pair of panty hose. He held them out to her.

"Oh," Dee said. "Thank you. I...I forgot."

For an interminable time, Dwayne stood there, saying nothing, his burning eyes devouring her.

"Dee," he finally managed.

He moved into the room and closed the door. "Dee, I...I hurt. I hurt so bad, honey. Help me. Hold me."

A flood of love and happiness washed over her as she murmured softly, "Oh, my Dwayne," and stepped into his embrace.

"Love me, honey. Please, love me. Dee," he gasped thickly against her sweet-smelling hair.

"Dear God," Dee marveled aloud. "You care. Dwayney-Boy, you still care."

"I said I'd care forever-" he slid a lean hand up to cradle her head "-and I meant forever, Dee." His eyes were filled with love and desire.

His mouth slowly descended to hers and soon he was nipping at the soft flesh inside her bottom lip, teeth raking playfully, before he kissed the left corner of her open lips and said, "Dee, sweet, I want to make up for all the yeas I starved for the taste of you."

His mouth moved back to hers, his tongue sweeping across her small, even teeth, then sliding into the darkness behind them. Dee clung to his neck and let the warmth in her body and his rise unchecked. Dwayne placed her hand inside his open shirt, directly over his hammering heart. The feel of his warm flesh added new fire to Dee's burning body and she wrenched her mouth from his and began to shove the white, rumpled shirt down from his wide shoulders, over his long arms and off.

Inflamed by the sight and scent of him, Dee, her gold eyes glazing, began to press heated lips to the broad, dark chest, murmuring love words.

His hands worked at the sash of her robe. So caught up was Dee with the hard male chest she was caressing, she hardly knew when the robe slipped away.

Suddenly she became very aware of her nudity. Dwayne's warm, sure hands were pressing her close, his fingertips gliding down her naked spine to the small of her back. Dee's lips lifted from his chest and she looked up at him.

"I love you, Dee Thompson," he said and pulled her closer.

Dee stood naked against the man she loved and kissed him and kissed him and was never quite certain how they arrived at the bed. She knew only that her head now rested on the soft, fat pillows in the darkness and that the sheets were cool and clean beneath her bare, hot body.

Dwayne stretched out beside her, his handsome face barely visible in the darkness. A long, heavy leg was resting over her own; she could feel the smooth, slick fabric of his pants and wondered fleetingly why he still had them on.

"Dee," he was saying, a hand raking through her hair, "there's not been one week, one day, one hour that I did not miss you."

"It's been the same for me, Dwayne. I swear it."

"Say it then, Dee. Say you love me." A lean hand moved down to caress a swelling breast.

"Dwayne, I love you. I have always loved you and always will. I belong to you, now and forever."

The hand at her breast tightened upon tender flesh. A finger circled the tight crest and Dee sighed with pleasure. "Oh, honey," he whispered in the darkness, "I love you, too. So much. So much I..." His hand released the breast and moved down to her narrow waist as his mouth again took hers in a deep, drugging kiss.

While the fingers of one hand tangled in her long hair, holding her mouth to his, the other hand continued to glide tenderly down her body, slipping around a bare hip. He shifted, pressing her closer to him, while his tongue went deep into her mouth and his chest pressed heavily upon her breasts.

For a long while they stayed in that position, taunting each other, pleasuring each other, savoring every magical, mystical step on the erotic road to fulfillment. Into each other's mouths they murmured love words.

Dwayne lifted his head. His eyes flashed at Dee and pulled from her embrace. Dee watched, enraptured as he rose from the bed. She heard the zipper slide down, squinted to see as he took off his dark tuxedo pants and tossed them over a chair.

The moonlight that slashed into the room covered only the lower half of the bed. "Dee." His velvety voice was very deep and loving.

"Yes?" She squinted back in his direction.

Dwayne's arm came out of the darkness. He reached for and found her hand. Gently he pulled her up to kneel on the bed. Dee, her entire body now awash in the moonlight, breathed shallowly, sat back on her heels and saw Dwayne step out of the darkness and into the light.

Above her head he was saying softly, "Dee, I'm going to turn you so that we will be lying with our heads at the foot of the bed."

Dee tipped her back to look questioningly up into his smoldering eyes. Dwayne could read her puzzlement.

"Because, darling," he said softly, "if we lie with our heads on the pillows, I won't be able to see you." Dwayne brushed his lips to her open mouth and gently maneuvered her down once more onto the bed, on her back, her face awash in the light of the moon, long hair spread out around her fragile face. He gently urged her satiny thighs apart and Dee moaned softly and tossed her head to one side, whispering his name.

Silky female flesh, wet from wanting, was his to claim, to caress, to make his own. Dwayne agilely shifted, moving his long, body over her. His mouth dipped to hers for a kiss of unrestrained passion and slid into her with a deep, sure thrust of his powerful male form.

It hurt very much like it did that first time, but Dee, her eyes wide open, looking into Dwayne's, bit the inside of her lip and felt the pain turning to pleasure, while above her, his breath warm upon her face, Dwayne murmured soothingly. "My love. I'm sorry, I'll stop, I'll wait."

"No," she sighed, "I want it. I want you to love me."

Dwayne sprinkled kisses over her cheeks and shoulders and breasts and felt her soft body slowly begin to relax and mold itself to his. They were one, joined in body and spirit, soaring high, finally exploding together. At the very pinnacle of pleasure, Dee's eyes widened in wonder, then slowly, languidly closed. They fluttered nervously open once again until she heard her gallant lover saying, "My darling, close your eyes if you wish. I love you, Dee, I love you."

Dee smiled lazily, let her eyes close and sighed with peace when she felt Dwayne's smooth lips tenderly kissing her closed eyelids. She lay completely limp and satiated while his mouth moved worshipfully over her face, her hair, her throat, and he remained still buried inside her; she was reluctant ever to have his flesh parted from hers.

Dwayne sighed and moved to her side, drawing her to him. "In all my dreams," he whispered, "in all the times I've lain in my bed and envisioned you in my arms again, never could I have hoped it would be this complete."

Dee smiled. "I know," she said. "Dwayne, I want to tell you something."

Dwayne kissed the fingers playing along his bottom lip. "What, sweet?"

"You know, darling, that first time, I was a virgin, remember?"

"Sweetheart, do you think I could ever forget?"

"Well, what I wanted to say is...I...Dwayney-Boy, since that night...that was the only time."

Dwayne raised up on an elbow. "My sweet, Dee," he said, "that's why it hurt again. Oh, honey, I hurt you. I knew it was hurting you and it's because-" The words choked off in his throat. "Dee," he said, stroking a lock of hair back from her cheek, "it was a wonderful gift you gave me all those years ago. It was the same gift you gave me tonight. You are a treasure and you make me so happy, Dee." He then confessed, "Listen to me. I've been to bed with other women, had sex, but I swear to you, I've not made love since that night you left me." He saw no look of censure in her eyes and he smiled, recalling the time she informed him of the difference. "There's a big difference, you know." He smiled.

Dee grinned. "Yes, I know."

Dwayne, relieved, lay back down and Dee, turning over onto her stomach, cradled a cheek in one hand; the other went to his chest.

"Dwayne, can we talk now?"

Dwayne yawned contentedly, folded his hands beneath his head. "Yes, now we can, Dee."

"Those first few months after I left I wrote you all the time," Dee reminded him.

"Yes, and your letters were full of all the exciting things going on at your L.A. station and of your success. I came to L.A. once," he admitted almost shyly.

"Dwayne?" Dee raised up on an elbow. "When? Did you try to see me, call me?"

"I did see you." He sighed. "Honey, I meant to call you and take you out to dinner. Then I lost my nerve, but they were having a big parade and I'd heard your radio station had a float."

"That's how you knew-" Dee's gold eyes widened.

Dwayne nodded. "There you were, showing off all your best assets to a panting crowd, while I stood, my blood boiling." His smile faded. "God, I wanted to jerk you off that float, cover you with my shirt and drag you home."

"Darling?" Dee said softly, "why didn't you?"

"Dee, sweetheart, I've a feeling you would have kicked my shins and told me to mind my own damn business, and you'd have been correct. You've as much right to choose which road to travel as-"

"I chose the wrong one. I've wasted years I could have been in your arms, so let's waste no more." Dee leaned down, gave his mouth a soft, sweet kiss.

"I wonder if your still the adventurous kind."

"I love adventure, you know that."

"Good. We're in the islands and we should take advantage of it, do you agree?"

"Yes. But then it appears to me we are taking advantage of it" She dipped back to his mouth, to tease, to taste, to delight him.

"Hmm, yes, we are," he mumbled, "but I thought tomorrow, since we have the entire day free, we could get up early, catch a plane to Eleuthera and..."