Summer at Lake Haven
Page 28
The thought should have scared her. Oddly, it only filled her with a strange, bubbly kind of anticipation.
He was the first to look away, glancing down at his watch. “It’s late. Almost two. Toby, I can’t believe you let me keep our guest up this late.”
His dog cocked his head and whined a little and Gemma was charmed when Josh reached down and rubbed the dog’s head.
“You should probably get some rest, especially since we might have to ride Ollie out of here tomorrow.”
“Do you really think things might come to that?”
“I’m hoping the crews are at work clearing the slide away right now but we won’t know the status until morning.”
“If I had to stay another night, I wouldn’t mind.”
She hadn’t meant to say that out loud and could blame it only on her exhaustion and the seductive lassitude stealing through her.
“You wouldn’t?”
At his intense look, she shrugged. “I like your house. It’s quiet here. Restful. I haven’t had nearly enough peace over the past three years.”
He gave a bright, broad smile that again stole her breath. “I’m glad. You’re welcome anytime.”
He led the way holding two of the lanterns through a doorway off the great room. Though most of the room was filled with shadows, a cheery fire burned in the glass-fronted woodstove and the room seemed warm and cozy.
“I need to add another log to the fire so it will burn all night for you.”
“Thank you.”
He pulled a split half log from a basket next to the stove, opened the door on the woodstove and pushed it inside.
She had to admit, she liked him fussing over her.
After closing the woodstove door, he rose. “The en suite bathroom is through that door. I’ll probably sleep out on the sofa so I can keep an eye on the fire out there. Let me know if you need anything.”
You. Does that count?
She managed to swallow down the words before she could blurt them out. “Thank you again for rescuing me and feeding me. I enjoyed the evening very much.”
“So did I.” He paused, looking rather adorably uncertain. “I would really like to kiss you right now. Would that be terribly forward of me?”
Heat flared inside her, a warmth that had nothing to do with the fire crackling inside the stove. She took a step forward. “Not terribly. No.”
With a low sound, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.
This was no gentle good-night kiss. His mouth was firm, hard, with a fierce intensity that left her knees weak.
His arms felt perfect around her, as if she had finally found a safe shelter she had been seeking for a long time without being fully aware of it. With a contented sigh, she wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him back. She wanted the kiss to go on forever, until they learned each other’s every secret.
How was it possible for a man who had been merely a passing acquaintance eight hours ago to become so very dear to her? She didn’t know. She knew only that now she had found him, she never wanted to let him go.
CHAPTER FOUR
ALL EVENING, JOSH kept thinking this whole thing had to be an incredible dream.
This, though. This was beyond a dream. He didn’t have the imagination to make up something so perfectly right.
Gemma Summerhill was actually in his arms, soft, sweet-smelling, delicious.
He was the luckiest guy in the world right now.
It was crazy, how much an accident that had happened to strangers in another country could impact him. Josh’s meeting with Lord Amherst had been canceled because of the death of the man’s son and the injuries to his daughter. He had still met with company officials, still managed to seal the deal to carry their fly rods at Bailey Outfitters, so the trip hadn’t been wasted.
For three years, he had wondered about Gemma Summerhill, that lovely, laughing woman whose image in a newspaper had so impacted him. At random moments, he would wonder how she was and hope she had recovered.
He thought he would never see her again and then fate had played a weird trick on him by entwining their paths together here in Haven Point and then dumping her practically on his doorstep.
She was the one for him.
He didn’t know how he could possibly know that after only one evening spent with her but Josh didn’t question it for a moment.
While he wanted to push her back against that bed and spend the rest of the night learning everything she loved, he knew there would be time for that, once they knew each other better and she was as certain as he was that they were meant for each other.
Somehow, he managed to ease his mouth away. Her eyes were dazed, half closed, and the arousal in them made him want to forget all his good intentions and take what he wanted.
“I should go or I won’t be able to walk through that door,” he murmured.
“Do you have to?”
He groaned a little and rested his forehead on hers. “Yes. When I make love to you, I don’t want you to have any regrets.”
“Who says I would have regrets now?”
Her throaty question made him want to throw all caution out the window and start working his way through the layers they both wore.
But he was playing the long game here. He suddenly knew he wanted forever, not just tonight. He eased away from her so she could see him in the firelight and could know he meant every word.
“I want this to be real between us, Gemma. Full warning, I am well on the way to being crazy about you. I have been since you moved to town—longer, if you want the truth. This is going to sound strange but I’ve never forgotten you, since learning about your accident and seeing that picture of you and your brothers in the UK papers.”
She stared at him, mouth swollen from his kiss and her eyes huge and shocked. “You have not.”
“You were wearing a green dress. There was a boat behind you, a sailboat of some kind. You were holding a wineglass, as I recall. Your brothers were both smiling at you as if you’d made a joke.”
She looked as if she didn’t know what to say and Josh hoped he hadn’t moved too quickly, overplayed his hand.
He reached for her fingers. “I was drawn to that woman for reasons I can’t explain and felt so sad about the accident. It haunted me, if you want the truth. Every time I talked to people at Summer Rods, I tried to drop your name into the conversation and ask how you were. I figured I would never meet you in person but I always hoped you had recovered and were going on with your life.”
“You...did?”
“When I walked into that party at Bowie and Kat’s place and was introduced to you as the new programmer in Bowie’s department, I just about fell over. Something led you here, Gemma. Admit it. You didn’t move here on a whim.”
She swallowed hard and shook her head. “I didn’t understand it, but when Aidan offered it to me, I knew I had to take the job. Everyone tried to talk me out of it but it felt more right than anything else I’ve ever done.”
He reached for her hand, again feeling like the luckiest damn man in the world. She was his. He didn’t know how he knew they were meant to be together. That they would be together. He knew only that now he had found her, he couldn’t imagine a world without her in it.
“I’m looking for something real and lasting. Just so you know where I stand.”
“What if that’s not what I want right now?” She still looked dazed, as if everything she thought she knew about her world had just been shaken up and put back together in a different way.
He shrugged. “Then I’ll wait around until you change your mind. And you should know, I’m a very patient man.”
He smiled and after a moment, she smiled back, though she still looked thunderstruck.
“Good night, Lady Gemma. Sweet dreams.”
She gave a sho
rt laugh. “You impossible man. How am I supposed to sleep now, after you drop a bombshell like that on me?”
He kissed her one more time. He couldn’t help it.
“Easy,” he murmured against her mouth. “You can sleep well knowing tomorrow is the day we wake up and start building a future together.”
A future that would be wonderful, filled with laughter and dogs, horseback rides into the mountains and long, delicious kisses that would always leave him wanting more.
Josh couldn’t wait.
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ISBN-13: 9781488055980
Summer at Lake Haven
Copyright © 2020 by RaeAnne Thayne
A Haven Point Beginning
Copyright © 2020 by RaeAnne Thayne LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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