Tory laughed self-consciously. “Stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”

Once more, Reese regarded her lover intently. “It’s true. Every word.”

“Stop,” Tory whispered, her fingers trailing down Reese’s neck and over her chest. “Because God help me, I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off you if you don’t.”

Reese shifted in her seat, caught Tory’s hand, and drew it to her lips. She kissed Tory’s palm and then cradled her hand between her own. “I love you. You make me feel like the luckiest woman in the world. I know that whatever was going on back there was about one of you, or both of you, hurting.” She lifted Tory’s hand again and brushed it against her cheek. “If it’s you, I want to help.”

“I’m all right,” Tory murmured, struggling with unanticipated tears. “Let’s go sit on the beach. If we stay in here, I’m going to forget myself.”

Reese grinned. “Yeah?”

Tory leaned over and kissed her a slow, deep kiss. “Yeah. Grab the blanket out of the back, will you?”

“Uh-huh,” Reese muttered, her stomach tight and the conversation with her father forgotten. Almost.

Chapter Seventeen

Reese spread out the blanket in one of the many bowls of sand carved into the dunes by the wind and the rain. Once they were inside the natural shelter ten feet across and just as deep they were invisible to anyone passing by on the beach below, even had the night not been fast closing around them. The sky was so clear, the stars overhead so bright, that it seemed she could reach up and touch one. Fifty yards away, the ocean lay before them, its black surface broken by the crests of waves that sparkled like diamonds in the moonlight.

Carefully, Tory lowered herself to the blanket and stretched out on her side facing Reese. The crash of the surf and the swirling wind forced them to lean close together to be heard. Tory wrapped an arm around Reese’s waist and snuggled against her. She knew Reese’s body so well that she recognized the knots in her back as an unmistakable sign of tension.

“Tell me what happened with your father, sweetheart,” Tory said, starting to knead the tight muscles.

Reese shifted and settled Tory’s head against her shoulder. She sifted strands of Tory’s hair through her fingers as she spoke. “He came to talk to me about the wedding.”

“Ah, I guess he got your letter, then,” Tory remarked, recalling the note Reese had sent to her father telling him of Regina’s birth and their plans to be married. She’d enclosed a picture of the baby and had invited him to come to the ceremony. That had been almost a month ago, and they’d received no reply. “I can’t believe he came in person to discuss it.”

“He said he was on the east coast for an appropriations meeting.”

“Uh-huh.” Tory rubbed her hand up and down Reese’s back. “So what did he say about it?”

Reese sighed. “What you might expect. He repeated the military’s stance on homosexuality, warned me that I was putting my commission at risk, and argued that there was no point in doing that since our marriage had no legal standing anyhow.” She pressed her lips to Tory’s forehead briefly. “He was very reasonable and rational.”

“He didn’t threaten you with any kind of official action again, did he?” Tory was struggling to remain calm despite her fury that her lover should have to face this kind of irrational discrimination from her own father.

“No.” Unconsciously, Reese tightened her hold on Tory.

“I take it he isn’t coming?”

Reese laughed humorlessly. “Ah, no. ‘Fraid not.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” Tory felt impotent, unable to offer her lover the one thing that Reese provided her so effortlessly. Comfort.

“It’s okay,” Reese murmured, closing her eyes and savoring the aroma of the sea and the delicate sun-kissed meadow scent that was uniquely Tory. “It’s not important whether he comes or not. What’s important to me is you and Regina.”

Tory heard the undercurrent of concern in Reese’s voice and had the sudden sickening sense that there was something even more serious at stake than Reese’s military position. “He came for some other reason too, though, didn’t he?”

Reese hesitated. “Nothing definite.”

Tory shook her head. “Don’t do that with me. Don’t try to protect me. I love you for it, but it’s not what I need.”

“I know.” Reese nestled her cheek to Tory’s. “He was circumspect because he had to be, but his message was clear. What we’ve been hearing about the unrest in the Middle East is only the tip of the iceberg. The situation is much worse than we think. That rumbling in the distance is war coming.”

“War.” Tory turned the word around in her mind. She didn’t remember much about the Vietnam War. Desert Storm had been over so quickly and, due to the strange immediacy of being able to watch it unfold nightly on CNN, had seemed almost unreal. “What does that mean?”

“I got the impression from the general, although he wouldn’t say anything specific, that a significant mobilization and deployment is likely within the next year.” Reese took a long breath. “If that happens, my reserve unit will be one of the first called. No matter what the situation, the Marines, especially the military police, always go in first.”

Tory shivered. They were sheltered in their little hideaway, and the air was still warm, but she couldn’t remember ever having felt as cold inside. “Do you really think this is going to happen?”

“I don’t know.” Reese heard the unsteadiness in Tory’s voice, and her heart ached. Tenderly, she stroked Tory’s shoulders and arms, cradling her lover against her chest, “But I think so. High-ranking military personnel like my father often know about these things well before anything is made public.” She felt Tory tremble. “Still, anything could happen.”

“Would you go?”

“Tory, I’d have to go.”

“Would you want to go?”

Reese thought about the question, the same question that had been in her mind since her father had warned her that her military career might be derailed by this wedding just as the opportunity for-significant advancement was around the corner. “All my life, Tor, I’ve trained to serve my country. When the call comes, it’s not something a marine thinks about. It’s just something that we do.”

“I think I understand,” Tory said quietly, “but you’re going to have to give me a while to absorb all of this. I never expected to be married to a marine.”

“I know. And I never expected to have a wife and a baby, either.” Reese worked the tail of Tory’s blouse from her slacks and slid her hand over the warm flesh of her back. She murmured softly as Tory, mirroring her actions, loosed her shirt from her trousers and pressed her palm to Reese’s abdomen.

“Would it have made a difference?” Tory asked softly “If you’d always had us or even had us ten years ago?” ;

“I don’t know. Nothing could have diverted me from my course when I was eighteen or twenty-five. Now, the one thing I’m certain of is that I don’t want to be separated from you.”

Tory found the entire conversation surreal. She had anticipated; many things for their future, but never that Reese would not be by her side. At least not for decades. As a physician, she understood in her rational mind that life was fickle and that anything could happen, but it was human nature to believe that those things would not happen to you or the ones you loved. And she was human, just like everyone else. She had visions of sharing the milestones of Regina’s life with Reese and growing old with her. Even the inherent dangers of Reese’s job as a law enforcement officer didn’t seem as ominous or frightening as the possibility of her going off to some foreign land to engage an enemy whom Tory could not even bring into focus in her mind. It just didn’t seem possible.

“I don’t want you to go anywhere.” The words were out before Tory could censor them. Before she could even imagine their impact on her lover. All she knew was that she would do anything within her power to keep her family intact, and that Reese was the very heart of her life.

“We don’t know that’s going to happen,” Reese whispered. She’d told Tory about her father’s predictions because she couldn’t keep something of that magnitude from her lover. But she understood the vagaries of politics and power as well and appreciated that in six months, the world picture could be very different. “We don’t have to worry about it now.”

Tory inched closer until she was stretched out on top of Reese, braced on her elbows with one thigh between Reese’s. She could see Reese clearly in the moonlight and thought she had never looked more beautiful. “Is there any possibility that you could get out of going? If you decided that?”

“Not unless I resigned. And I’d need to do it soon. Once something happens and we’re officially at war, that won’t be possible.”

“Would you do that for me?”

Reese threaded the fingers of her left hand through Tory’s hair and pressed her right to the small hollow at the base of Tory’s spine. She could feel Tory’s body all along her own not just against her, but inside of her. This woman was her life; she was the reason Reese lived and breathed, hoped and dreamed. There had never been a need in her life as powerful as the one she had for Tory. She would give anything to her, do anything for her.

“Yes.”

“I cannot imagine a day without you,” Tory murmured, leaning down and brushing her lips over Reese’s. “I need you. Regina needs you. You’re everything for both of us.” She slipped her hand beneath Reese’s shirt again and smoothed her hand over the hard planes of her abdomen and the gentle curve of her ribs until she found the softness of her breast. There, she stilled her hand and simply held her.

“Tory”