“I’m looking for it all—wife, mother of my children, law partner, lover.”
He finally did take her into his arms, kissing her a few playful, short kisses.
“Is Sadie with Max?” he asked between them.
“Yes.”
“Is Max asleep?”
“Yes.”
“So he wouldn’t miss you if, say, it takes an hour or so for us to get back to him?”
“I don’t think so,” Lucy said, her voice growing deeper and more breathy as his kisses grew deeper and more passionate.
“Think Sadie would mind?”
“She figured out that you spent Saturday night with me and said she approved, so I don’t think she’d mind.”
Rand smiled. “That’s my girl.”
He kissed Lucy’s neck then, just below her earlobe at a spot she’d never realized was so sensitive, so arousing.
“And what about you? Any qualms about sticking around here for a little while?”
“Depends on what for,” she teased, tilting her head to allow more of the feather-brush of his lips against her skin.
“For this,” he said in a husky voice as he slipped off the coat she was still wearing and reached beneath her sweater to massage her bare back while his mouth returned to hers in open, hungry kisses that wiped away all other thoughts.
Even though Lucy had believed she’d given herself over to Rand when they’d made love before, she learned then that she hadn’t. Not the way she did now.
Now, when his hands grazed her flesh, shedding her clothes and his.
Now, when he led her to his bedroom and laid her on the downy comforter, lying beside her, capturing her mouth and claiming her breasts with his wondrous hands. Now, when her own hands claimed him in return.
Now, when she opened to him, accepted him fully into her and rode the wild ride with him that sealed the union they’d finally made, that celebrated it and bound them together for all of eternity.
And when they lay spent and exhausted and holding each other, Lucy finally said the words she’d thought she might never again say to anyone but Max. “I love you.”
Rand chuckled slightly. “I was wondering if I was ever going to hear that from you.”
“I like to keep you guessing. It stokes the fires.”
“I don’t think you’ll have any problem stoking my fires. And by the way, in case you’ve forgotten, I love you, too.”
She knew that. But it was still good to hear again. In fact, she couldn’t imagine ever hearing it enough.
“I should get home,” she told him on a reluctant sigh.
“We should get home,” he amended and it sounded incredibly good to her.
Still she didn’t hurry to move. She allowed herself just a little while to savor being there in Rand’s arms, reveling in his love for her, in her love for him, in the fact that she’d found him just when she’d been certain there wasn’t anyone out there she could trust again.
But there had been. There had been just one man who was perfect for her, who would be perfect for her for the rest of her life. Perfect for Max, too, whom she knew would be thrilled to welcome Rand into their small family.
And a family was just what they’d be, she thought.
A wonderful, loving family.
A family that really could have that happily-ever-after she’d thought was too good to be true.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Victoria Pade for her contribution to THE COLTONS series.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8412-2
FROM BOSS TO BRIDEGROOM
Copyright © 2001 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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From Boss to Bridegroom Page 18
