My Little Runaway (Destiny Bay) (21 page)

She opened her mouth and said breathlessly, “That sounds like a good idea.”
 

He shrugged slightly and turned to look out her window at the city lights.
 

“Are you and—and this lady going to . . . get together or anything like that?”
Get married
was what she was really asking, but she didn’t dare say the words.

“I don’t know.” He began moving around the room again, avoiding her eyes. “You see, this lady has never once said that she loved me.”

“What?” Jennifer stopped, in shock. “Oh, that can’t be true.” Was he talking about her? How could he say such a thing?

“It’s true. I don’t know why. I told her I loved her. I asked her to stay with me.” He whirled and stared straight into her eyes. “But she said she couldn’t do that. So I decided to ask again.” He came closer, so close she felt as though she could feel the heat of his body against hers. “But I’m not sure that she wants me because she’s never said she loves me.”

Jennifer swallowed, feeling faint with his closeness.
 
She loved him so much ... surely she’d told him; But when she tried to think of a time when she might have said the words, her mind was a total blank.

“She ought to tell you, then,” she said in a voice that sounded like sandpaper on a rough surface.

He nodded, still holding her gaze. “I wish she would.”

Jennifer swayed. Her heart was beating so loudly she could hardly think. “I don’t know about this crazy lady of yours,” she said hoarsely, “but I love you. Does that help?”

“You?” He raised an eyebrow. “I never knew that.”

“Oh, Reid,” she began, almost sobbing, and then she caught sight of the devil in his eyes. “Reid!” she cried indignantly. “You’re teasing me!”

She came at him with both fists raised, and he caught hold of her, laughing. His arms came around her, holding her tightly.

“Say it again,” he murmured huskily into her curly hair. “If you really mean it, say it again.”

“I love you,” she gasped, reaching up to put her arms around his neck. “I love you, I love you, I love—“

His mouth took hers, stopping the words in her throat, but her kiss underlined the emotion. He was hot and sweet and she was so, so hungry for him. His hands slipped under her sweater, caressing her naked breasts, squeezing gently at the tips, and she made a cry low in her throat, a deep, primeval message of love and need and desire. She reached down to touch him, and in no time they were shedding clothes and rolling on the thick carpeting, too impatient to make it to the bedroom. His plunge sent fireworks arcing through her, and they rose together into the shooting sparks, into the firestorm, then they clung together, laughing weakly and kissing anything that met their lips.

“I love you, I love you . . .”she continued with what he’d interrupted.

“Okay”—he put a finger to her lips—“enough. I believe.”

She searched his gaze. “Do you mean to tell me you really weren’t sure?”

He shrugged. “You never said it
.
”

She thought for a moment. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t know why. I sure thought it enough.”

He stroked her hair. “I think you weren’t secure
_;
enough to say it. You didn’t know where we stood.” He kissed her softly. “I love you so much, Jenny darling. I nearly went out of my head when you left me.”

“Me, too,” she whispered.

“I thought you’d left because I was smothering you

“Oh, no! That wasn’t it at all. I was afraid I could never be the kind of wife you needed for the life I thought you wanted to lead.”

He nodded. “That was more or less what your mother told me when I finally let her talk to me about it.”

“When was that?”

“Almost a month ago.” His grin was slow and warm. “It takes me awhile to assimilate these things. I had to work up to it slowly. Then I had to settle things so that I could leave.” He sighed, pulling her closer against him. “All the time I wasn’t really sure you would want me when I got here:”

She laughed low in her throat. “I guess I’ve put those questions to rest, haven’t I?” She smiled at him lovingly. “But where do we stand, Reid? Have you really left the law firm for good?”

“Yes.” He traced her features with a gentle fingertip. “I’m going to concentrate on a different type of law.
 
I’m going to help people with real life needs, not corporations and hedge fund managers.”
 

“Really?” Joy cascaded through her. This really was the old Reid.
 

Then she frowned. “But are you sure you’ll be happy? I couldn’t become a country club lady, no matter how hard I tried. What if you can’t be—“

“Don’t worry.
 
I know what I’m doing.
 
And I’ve already begun with my first client.”

“Really?”

He nodded.
 
“I’m helping Mickey find a way to get Kevin enough satisfaction so that he will leave Meggie alone.
 
The visitations have all been cancelled.”

“Oh.
 
Wow.
 
That’s wonderful!”

“And she told me she’d talked to you about opening a branch of the Magnificent Munch in her vacant store front.”

She stared at him.
 
Was he going to make all her dreams come true?
 
“Do you really think we could do that?”

“Sure.
 
Now that you’ve got a good lawyer.”

She laughed and kissed him.
 

He rolled onto his back and looked up at her. “See, this is what I want to talk to you about. All along, we’ve looked at this as an either/or choice. You were at one end of the spectrum, living wild and free, while I was at the other, immersed in upper-middle-class society.”

She nodded slowly. That had seemed to be the range they had to choose from.

He smiled at her. “But it occurred to me as I was thinking about it over the last few weeks that I don’t really want either one of those life-styles. And I don’t think you do either.”

She went very still. “What exactly do you mean?”

“Oh Jenny, Jenny,” he said lovingly. “We don’t need the wild parties, the dangerous stunts, the crazy characters, and we don’t need the hoity-toity country club scene. We’ve both tried those things. Maybe we’re finally ready for reality. Something a little more down to earth.”

“Such as?” She thought she knew where he was headed, and a grin began to grow on her pretty face.

“Such as—think of this: a woman and a man, a little house, a fireplace with a roaring fire, a dog, the patter of little feet.”

She reached down and licked his earlobe. “Little dog feet?” she teased.

“No.” He batted at her and caught her around the neck. “Little human feet. The kind that come attached to a head full of curls and a wide milk mustache.”

His warmth crept through her, nurturing her soul. She’d never felt so toasty and loved before. Suddenly she remembered Nita, the little girl who’d been lost in the washroom next to the freeway. Her family had been poor, but when Jennifer had brought their little girl home, the wealth of their family feeling had shone in their eyes.
 

That was what Jennifer wanted, what she’d always wanted. A family—a real, loving family, where everyone cared and no one felt like an outsider. Now she knew, without a doubt, that she and Reid could have that together. Like a gift from heaven, it was in her hands. She had only to hold it to her heart.

She looked at Reid, the man she loved, and despite the tears that were flooding her eyes, she went on with the tender joking.
 

“I don’t know, Reid,” she said with mock doubt. “You know what you’re risking here?”

He grinned, wiping away her tears with a gentle finger. “Yeah, I think I know,” he replied, his voice husky with emotion.

She shook her head, blinking away the last of the moisture.
 

“But have you considered the full ramifications? I mean, violin lessons? PTA meetings?” She pretended to shudder. “Little League?” She whispered the last as though it were a four-letter word.

He nodded solemnly. “Listen, I’m ready to risk it ... if you’re ready for Brownie meetings and Lamaze classes.”

She sighed heavily. “It’s a big decision.”

“There’s more.”

She looked at him questioningly.

“You’ve got to stop jumping out of airplanes.”

She frowned, pretending she cared. “Okay ... If you stop smoking.”

He put out a hand, and they shook solemnly.

“That’s the proposition,” he said at last. “Those are the options. What do you think? Can we make a go of it?”

They were both silent for a long moment. Finally, they locked gazes once again.

“Lady, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

“For real?”

“For real. Jennifer Thornton, will you marry me?”

“Yes, Reid Carrington. I’ve been waiting for you to ask for ten years.”

“Great. Let’s get back to the consummation.”

“Is that what we’re doing here?”

“Couldn’t you tell? Consummation takes a lot of practice. We want to be sure to get it right.”

“Hhhhmmm,” she breathed as his arms came around her and his hard, warm body covered hers. “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

His warmth spread like sun-ripened honey through her veins, then it ignited into the heat that only their love could conjure.

Jennifer knew she would never be cold again.

Also in the Destiny Bay series

Destiny Bay-Forever Yours
 

Book 1-My Little Runaway

Book 2-Wife For a Night

Book 3-Too Scared to Breathe

Book 4-Make Believe Wife

Book 5-Promoted to Wife

Book 6-Not the Marrying Kind
 

Available on Kindle

COMING SOON
:
 

DESTINY BAY~BABY DREAMS-6 books

DESTINY BAY~ISLANDS IN THE SUN-6 books

Available soon from
 

DoorKnock Publishing

Excerpt from:

WIFE FOR A NIGHT

Destiny Bay - Forever Yours - Book 2

by Helen Conrad

CHAPTER ONE: Cat Burglar
 

Janet Cardona had never broken into a house before, so she took it slowly, feeling her way through every step.

She was casing the place first, of course, watching from the stand of sugar pines across the road from the huge, modern redwood and black glass house. She’d seen the deliveries arrive at the back entrance, seen maids come and go, seen the man who drove the candy-apple red Corvette roar off down the driveway, taking the winding mountain road down to town.

She thought someone else lived in the house too, but the sports car driving man was the only one she saw. It had to be Matt Jessup, the jerk who’d refused to take her phone calls.
 
She’d trained her binoculars on him to get a closer look.

Tall, his shoulders impossibly wide in the nicely tailored sports coat, he walked with a jaunty, athletic stride that made him look outdoorsy, masculine—unconquerable.
 

Janet swallowed hard, watching him, a tiny shiver tickling the length of her spine. He looked to be in his early-to-mid thirties. His face was hard, strong, his chocolate-colored hair thick and neatly cut. All in all a very attractive man—at least to some, maybe. But Janet didn’t give a darn about that.
 
Mooning over cuties was not her style.

All she cared about was how tough he was.
 
Unfortunately, he looked like he could handle himself with no trouble in the least.
 
Darn it all.
 

This was the enemy, her counterpart in a dangerous chess game. She hated to think what might happen if she came up against him in a dark hallway that night. She only prayed he was a heavy sleeper.

It was still an hour or so before it would get really dark, but gloom was descending.
 
He’d been gone a long time.
 
What if he wasn’t coming back tonight?
 
Maybe she ought to take this opportunity to make a test foray into the house.
 
Her heart began to pound as she weighed her chances.
 
Why not?
 
The house might be completely empty.
 
She really ought to give it a try.
 

Carefully, she looked up and down the road.
 
No one in sight.
 
She stepped out from the comfort of the trees.
 
An owl—who had to be right behind her—hooted.
 
She shrieked and dashed back into safety, her nerves practically shooting out of her body.

A few deep breaths and she was calm again.
 
Calm, but angry.
   

“I can’t believe I’m such a scaredy cat,” she muttered to herself.
 
“Come on.
 
Let’s do this thing.”

Slowly, she stepped out again and started across the road.
 
The sound of an engine whining sent her back like a shot, and then, there he was, turning that red sports car into the driveway across the street, while she clung to a tree and tried to pull herself together.
 

Darn it all.
 
She grabbed the binoculars, more in anger than in hopes of seeing anything interesting.
 

He turned suddenly, just before closing the door of his car, and stared directly at her hiding place. Jerking back, she hid the reflective lenses of the binoculars and then cursed herself for reacting.
 
She held her breath. Had he seen anything move?
 

Apparently not. He continued to close up the car, locking it with a beep, while her heart beat wildly in her chest and she slumped against the rough trunk of the tree, trying to regain her equilibrium, wondering if she could really do this thing.