The Signature (A Perfect Forever Novel)

by Ward, Susan

  “There’s no place to run, Devon. I’m home. I’m finally home.”

  Once through the security at the front gate and safely inside her entry hall, Krystal slipped her arms up around Devon’s neck, kissing him with a force that brought him back against the door. She felt the heavy rise of his desire, the quickening of his breathing in response to her own urgent need, her body twisting closer and closer, as if it wasn’t possible to get close enough.

  His lips wandered lower to her neck. “Krys, if you don’t slow down, we won’t make it out of the doorway. I promise to submit willingly to every minute, if you only let us make it into the house.”

  “Too many tightly leashed hormones. Three months imagining this without relief.” She covered his throat with love nibbles, and then practically ripped his shirt in removing it. “Tell me you want me as badly as I want you. Devon, tell me...”

  “Oh, yes, sweetheart...you don’t even have to ask. It’s been agony without you,” he whispered, dragging her closer, his mouth a burning touch that seared every inch of her flesh.

  His voice came again in a shivering whisper. “Three months. If we don’t slow down, this won’t go at all the way I want it to. Agony, Krys. Every minute has been pure agony without you.”

  Devon stared into her eyes, her spellbinding signature feature, and he felt the misery of the past weeks fade and himself quickly lost in her.

  His hands went to her shirt, and it was gone in a flash. A rush of cold air touched the heated flesh above her lace bra, causing a sudden rise of tiny bumps. Devon seemed determined to make each disappear with tiny, fiery kisses. She moved her lips against his shoulder, barely touching him with her tongue.

  “What would...Forum Girl Magazine think if they knew that one of their fifty most sexy men of the year was about to be ruthlessly ravished on my entry hall floor?”

  Devon lifted his head as a movement caught the corner of his eye. “Probably nothing half as shocking as what that poor, elderly couple in the street watching us will think.”

  She thought he was joking. A quick glance over her shoulder told her he was not. Her laughter was muffled against his back as he tossed her over his shoulder and dashed for the stairs, after giving the door a swift kick to shut it behind them.

  Between kisses, he asked, “Where’s Katie? Should we be doing this tonight?”

  “Both Katie and Jason are at my Dad’s. Katie wouldn’t go without Jason. We have the house to ourselves.”

  Eagerly discarded pieces of clothing speckled the carpet all the way to Krystal’s room, and they were both laughing, raining frothy kisses on each other’s faces, as he lowered her onto the bed.

  She arched in heady ecstasy as his tender hands cherished her body, his thumbs lightly running her face, trailing lightly down her throat, to relish the aching fullness of her breasts.

  “Krys,” he whispered. Her name on his voice made her tremble. “I still can’t believe you’re with me, sweetheart. I thought I’d lost you forever.”

  “It doesn’t seem fair that we’ve only just found each other again, and next week I’m leaving,” Krys breathed, her voice catching as he placed gentle kiss over her belly while he opened her jeans. “I don’t want to spend even a day apart from you again.”

  “We were never apart, Krys. Not in our hearts.”

  “I can already tell. One week isn’t going to be enough for me after months without you.”

  “We have a lifetime, Krys.” He lifted his head so their eyes could meet. “A lifetime.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Rubbing her eyes, Krystal let Devon’s cell ring six times before reluctantly flipping it open and lifting it to her ear. “Hello?”

  “Hello.” The voice on the other end was male, attractive and faint with amusement. “Is this Devon’s cell? I have a terrible habit of dialing the wrong number when I try to read without my glasses. This is Devon’s phone, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” she said absently, unable to subdue a loud yawn. “Who is this?”

  “Robert Howard.”

  Devon’s dad. Krystal sat up in bed, suddenly alert.

  “I’ll get Devon if you’d like to wait. It could take a while. He’s downstairs and I have to get dressed.”

  The laughter on the other end made her cringe. What the devil had made her say that!

  “No, dear, that’s all right. It’s really you I’d like to speak with.”

  Her stomach plummeted. “Me?”

  “I know that you and Devon are probably very busy, but I have a request of sorts. The entire family is converging at Jordan’s today at noon, and my wife would really like you to be there, dear. She’d like to speak with you.”

  “Speak? With Me?”

  “I can’t explain it any better than that, only that she would like to speak with you and she’d appreciate it if you would come.”

  Without giving it thought, she said, “We’ll be there.”

  She hung up after his goodbye, closing her eyes, feeling more than a little nervous about what Devon’s mother wanted with her.

  After taking a quick shower, she stood in her walk-in closet and tried to decide what one should wear to her soon-to-be in-laws’ house. Selecting a simple, blue, spaghetti strap sundress, she went to her drawers and pulled out a pair of aquamarine earrings, big black glasses, and a wide brim hat trimmed in a floral pattern of the same sapphire hue.

  Slipping her bare feet into sandals, she paused to stare at her reflection. She dressed like this all the time, simple and demure, but only Devon knew that. Recalling that she had looked like a runaway from a reform school last night when she had barged in on the family at Devon’s house, she wondered if they’d think this was all some kind of ruse to fit in.

  She went to the kitchen and instead of Devon, she found a note: Krys, in case you wake before I return from your dad’s, there are waffles in the microwave and a fruit salad in the fridge. We were wonderful last night.

  Dad’s. Why had Devon gone there?

  She went to the microwave, noting that he had even paused to punch in the correct cooking time, hit the start button and went to the fridge. The fruit salad he had made by hand, and she ate every bite, loving him.

  Looking through her kitchen window, she saw Devon’s car parked at her front stoop and noticed that the legion of media was gone. Only Jenkins, who had proved distastefully vigilant, remained. Krystal wondered if Devon had used his influence with the media to make them back off.

  After dumping her plates in the sink, she went to find out where Devon was hiding himself.

  She found him on her back patio, reclined in a lounge chair, and Katie was on the far side of the yard, sitting on the grass, quietly playing dolls.

  “You brought Katie home!” Krystal announced happily, realizing why Devon had left her so early this morning.

  The quickly moving pen in his hand stilled. Was that her own day planner filled with the itinerary of her tour balanced against his knees?

  “Okay, Devon, what are you up to this time?”

  Laughing, he held the book away from her and pulled her down next to him with his other arm. “You can read the first page, but that’s all,” he chided, dropping a quick kiss on her nose. “There is a message from me to you on each day of the calendar that you’ll be gone. I’m not going to trust the phones or e-mail while you’re touring, and I want to make sure you start every day knowing how much I love you, Krys.”

  Between deep, electric kisses she whispered, “If what you’ve scribbled on those pages is half as good as this, I’m going to spend the next two months of nights gnawing on my bedposts. We were better than wonderful last night. For a writer, you’re terrible with your adjectives, Devon.”

  “There are not words in the English language to describe what we are when we’re together,” he whispered back, his laughter a pleasant vibration that rolled down her throat with the warmth of his lips.

  “So, what’s on the first page, Devon?” she asked, lifting her day planne
r from his gentle hold. The smile in his eyes made her tingle and she relaxed against him, her head against his shoulder, as she read the page. It was a list of phone numbers. She laughed softly.

  “Everyone I know is listed there in order of importance,” he explained. “I’ve also programmed them into your cell phone. I’m making up for the mistakes I made in Coos Bay. I never want you not to be able to reach me again.”

  “The number to the newspaper isn’t necessary,” she mumbled, scanning the neatly printed list. “I already know that number by heart.” The list ran from home to cell phone to work to parents, and then down the long list of his brothers and close friends. “Do you really expect me to work my way through this list each time I want to speak to you? I won’t have the energy to talk when I’m through with this!”

  His laughter made his muscles play pleasantly beneath her.

  “The list is just a precaution. I carry my cell all the time.”

  “In case I want to reach out and touch someone?” she teased suggestively.

  She scanned the list once more, smiled, and was about to close the book when suddenly a number caught her eye and made her pause. Why did Devon’s mother’s number seem familiar to her?

  “What’s wrong, Krys?”

  She stared at the number hard and then remembered the earlier phone call. She closed the book. “Your mother’s number reminded me of something. We’re expected at Jordan’s at noon today.”

  “We are, are we? You got all that from a simple phone number? What are you? Telepathic?”

  “That was a terrible play on words, Devon!” she chided.

  “What I’d like to play on is you,” he warned. “But we can’t. Katie is here. It was past time to have our family together, kiddo. Now you’ve just got to marry me to make it official.”

  “Any place. Any time. Any day,” she whispered back.

  “How about Tahoe in two hours? I’ve got all three of us booked on a plane. It’s beautiful this time of year. Katie will love it.”

  Krystal’s eyes rounded in surprise. “I’d like nothing better, Devon, but I don’t think there is going to be time today.”

  “What is that supposed to mean? It’s not like we have other plans.”

  She grimaced. “Your dad phoned this morning. I had absolutely no right to answer your phone and even less to tell him that we’d be at Jordan’s today at noon without consulting you first. I’m sorry I did both.”

  He kissed her lightly on the nose and assured, “You can answer my phone any time, Krys. Read my mail. Once we’re married, there’ll be no mine and yours. Which includes my family, who I’m certain, once we’ve settled on a place to live, you’ll find as intrusive in numbers as the tabloid press and just as difficult to escape.”

  “I like your family, Devon. I don’t want to escape them. Or you, for that matter. Any place we live will be fine, so long as it’s not this house!”

  “Don’t you like your high-walled prison?” he teased. “It does have five bedrooms, six baths, a recording studio, sauna, and separate servant’s quarters. What’s not to love?”

  She crinkled her nose and shook her head.

  “Well, we certainly can’t live at my place,” Devon murmured thoughtfully. “You’d be a sitting duck there for Jenkins and his mob.”

  “Anywhere you and Katie are will be home for me, Devon.”

  “We could always buy the Miller house and live in Coos Bay. Phil offered to renegotiate my contract only to include my column, and I can write that anywhere. Maybe finish that novel finally.”

  “I can’t think of a better place to raise Katie.”

  “Why don’t you let me call Jordan and beg off for today?”

  She pulled from the delicious wrap of his arms and stood up. “I’m not letting you divert me! We’re going to Jordan’s. I have a feeling we’ve been invited to our own special Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Whatever your family is thinking about me, it will only get worse if we don’t show up today!”

  “My family is going to love you, whether we show up today or not. How could they not love you? I love you. That’s all that matters with the Howards. I hope the Palmers prove as easy to win over. What’s not to love about me, thanks to you, made print coast to coast.”

  “Ah, but the Palmers are shockproof and we never believe the papers. So you have that going for you, Devon.”

  “I’m more than content with what I have going for me at present!”

  “We’re going to see your family! Face it, Howard, they’re stuck with me. We better show them what they’re stuck with!”

  And with that, Krystal called to Katie, “Come give your mommy a hug, Katie. We’re going on an adventure with Devon’s family. Let’s get cleaned up, sweetie.”

  They drove around Los Angeles for an hour until they were certain they’d lost Jenkins, who was tailing them, before they turned off the freeway into Brentwood.

  Krystal’s eyes rounded in surprise when Devon pulled through the gate of a high, stucco wall, in a circle driveway, before a very large, magnificent home.

  “What the devil does Jordan do?”

  Devon smiled, amused. “He’s a Wall Street corporate raider. He’s somewhat successful at it.”

  Krystal frowned. “I thought you said you were a poor boy from San Bernardino. You’ve been playing me false all along, Howard!”

  He dropped a playful kiss on her nose. “Jordan lives like this. Not the rest of us. I told you, my dad was the football coach for the local high school, which is why all of us at nearly forty still run laps. You better learn to run laps, sweetheart, since you’re stuck with us! Run laps and play touch football on the back lawn.”

  Krystal helped Katie from the backseat.

  “We’re going here, Mommy?” Katie asked in dismay.

  “Yes.”

  Katie frowned. “It doesn’t look fun!”

  Katie hated their new house behind the walls and this one was even more intimidating.

  “I promise you’ll have fun, Katie,” Devon said reassuringly. “All my nieces will be there. A whole bunch of new friends for you.”

  Katie nodded enthusiastically and smiled.

  The front door opened and Krystal’s gaze fixed on the Harris clan crowding the front living room.

  Staring up at Jordan Howard, the least daunting of the brothers, Krystal pounced on the first words in her spinning brain and said, “Are you going to invite me into the house this time, Jordan, or are you going to accuse me of being a stripper again?”

  Jordan’s face softened with a smile. He held out an arm to her and returned, laughingly, “I bet you’re never going to let me forget that, are you? You are going to fit right in, Krystal.”

  Devon was frowning as he stared down at her. “Maybe you’d like to fill me in, Krys, so we can all not forget together. What’s this about you being a stripper?”

  Krystal began to laugh. “Why don’t you let your brothers explain? Stop scowling. Jordan and I are old friends. Who do you think drove me to my concert?”

  Krystal proceeded Devon from the entry hall. Stepping into the massive living room with Jordan, she heard sounds of laughter and voices filling the high ceilinged rooms, bouncing and echoing all around her. The room pleasantly pulsed with the sounds of adults and children at play.

  Krystal’s heart lightened as she heard Devon laugh behind her, while Danny ribbed him about the headlines in the papers about last night’s events. Devon was also getting quite a bit of teasing about the bruise on his chin. Sneaking a quick glance at Devon, she could see he was smiling and that there was a comfortable arrangement to the gathering of male bodies at the foot the steps. They were like a huddle on a football field, their rapid wordplay punctuated by chuckles and barbs.

  Kara already had Katie tucked into a circle of Howard girls. Krystal felt the last of her tension wane. It had been foolish to worry even for a moment over Devon’s mother asking her here. Love was a unfailing bridge in all circumstances. Love was the Howard f
amily.

  Krystal was showered with hugs and kisses, sweetly worded greetings, and affectionate teasing, as every now and again a tidbit of this or that from the press coverage was good-humoredly breathed into her smiling face.

  The day was unfolding like a dream, and pondering this, Krystal’s thoughts drifted to Grace, that unknown woman whose voice on the phone had carried her through her darkest days so that she could be here. It would be a perfect day if Grace were here to share her joy. From misery, to the loving care of a stranger, to the strange quirk of fate that had sent Devon to her. She had somehow ended up here in love with an amazing new family, soon to be hers.

  An hour later, after a toast to her and Devon’s future, Krystal was refilling her plate at the buffet, while trying to keep pace with the fast moving conversation of Danny and Marc.

  Devon was deep in discussion with his parents, though there was a smile on his face every time she looked at him. It left her breathless. Nibbling on a pieces of zucchini in a tangy vinaigrette sauce, she kept her bewilderment from rising as she recalled that Devon’s mother had insisted on them being here, and yet it seemed Graelynn had almost spent the day avoiding her.

  She was about to cross the room to them, when she realized if she’d made a step she would have created a mishap. Someone’s baby was clutching onto her skirt with fingers made grubby by a teething biscuit.

  Laughingly, Krystal swooped up the cherubic girl and said, “Which one are you, little princess? Who do you belong to?”

  “This one belongs to Jerrot,” Danny told her. Grimacing, he checked the status of her diaper. “I should have warned you before you picked her up. This one only wants to be in arms when she needs a changing. Jerrot! Come get your daughter. She’s soaked clear through.”

  Jerrot scooped more shrimp on his plate and said, “You know where we keep the stuff for the kids, Danny. Go practice. That way if you ever stop being a jerk and marry Angie you’ll know how to do this on your own.”