Free Tread Softly by Ann Cristy Page A

life to plan.
She and Rafe hadn't bothered about birth-control measures in a long time— not
since the fifth year of their marriage. Then they had planned to start a
family, and when no child had been conceived after a year of trying, Cady and
Rafe went to their respective doctors for a thorough examination. The doctors
had found no reason why the Densmores should not have the desired baby, yet
still Cady didn't get pregnant. Secretly she blamed herself, and sometimes she
wondered if Rafe underwent the same torment of doubt. In recent years their
lovemaking had been so infrequent that it rarely occurred to Cady to calculate
if she was fertile; her cycle was irregular anyway.
    Certainly
she had given no thought to getting pregnant since Rafe's accident. Nothing had
intruded into her thoughts except Rafe's health and doing a good job for him in
the Senate. She sighed as she cradled him to her. How ironic if she were to
conceive now! Well, she wasn't going to use it as a lever if the miracle
occurred, as she suspected was possible now. She would allow Rafe to get his
divorce and she would raise the child herself. Rafe's child! How wonderful that
would be! A smile curved her lips as she held him closer, her eyes fluttering
shut.
    In
the morning Rafe was gone. Only the indentation on the pillow told Cady that
last night hadn't been just a pleasurable dream. When she tried to rise, she
felt the unaccustomed ache in her lower body, the heat rising into her face as
she relived the eager abandon with which she had given herself to her husband.
    She
almost skipped to the bathroom, feeling the fulfilled happiness that had been
a daily occurrence in the early days of their marriage.
    She looked at
the tub longingly and then glanced at her watch. She shrugged and signed. It
would have to be a fast shower.
    She was singing
"He Touched Me" off-key when she felt a cold draft. She tried to wipe
the shampoo from her face to see who had opened the cubicle door when a warm
hand began to wash her back.
    "I
thought for sure you would be able to stay on key after all the coaching I've
given you." Rafe laughed as he brought the loofah sponge down over her
derriere.
    "If
I had had a music minor in college as you did, I might have overcome that tiny
deficiency." Cady tried to keep her voice level.
    "Tiny
deficiency!" Rafe pulled her back against him and reached around her to
begin washing her front. He seemed to take eons with each breast. "There's
a collection of cats waiting at the front gate. They think they've found their
leader for an evening of caterwauling."
    Cady
wrestled the loofah from his hand and turned to face him, trying to shove the
soapy sponge into Rafe's mouth. "Caterwauler, am I? I'll show you."
She struggled with him, wanting to see the soap froth from his laughing mouth,
but even without his full strength, Rafe held her fast.
    "Easy
does it, angel." He chuckled, lifting her with an arm under her buttocks
so that they were face to face. "Still think you can take me on, do
you?" His tongue flicked over her compressed lips. .
    "Yes,"
she gasped, loving every pore in his face, her hand coming up to touch the
fading scar on his jawbone where he had been cut in the crash. She could
remember sitting next to his bed and counting each stitch in his face, not
really believing the plastic surgeon, Dr. Herra, when he told her that the
marks would fade. "You shouldn't lift me the way you do. I'm too heavy,
and you're not strong enough yet," she mumbled, not sure what she was
saying.
    "You're
talking gibberish, do you know that?" Rafe muttered, nibbling at her ear.
"Are you lulling me into a false sense of security?"
    "Whatever."
Cady bit at his chin and his cheekbones, loving the feel of him.
    "Are you
going to make a meal out of me?"
    "Maybe. Do
you mind?" Cady felt glazed from head to toe. She never wanted to leave
the shower cubicle.
    "No.
I don't mind at all." Rafe's throat worked as though he had swallowed a
golf ball.
    Cady
felt a sense