She’d only managed to take two steps toward the doorway before she heard him.
“I’m sorry.”
Certain that she was imagining it, Jessica turned around and looked at him. Inside she was trembling, though she called herself a fool. “What?”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, louder this time and with more feeling.
He didn’t care who heard him. Logan cut the distance between them. At least physically. The rest, only she could do.
“I’m sorry I hurt you, sorry I ever let you out of my life.” Once started, he just kept going. “Sorry I was so afraid of my feelings, but I was. I’d always been able to call the shots before, Jess. Always been able to walk away when the spirit moved me. But that time, with you, I couldn’t. That look in your eyes, that sweet, innocent look, held me like nothing else ever had before. I had no control anymore. My feelings were controlling me. Scaring the hell out of me.
“I guess what I was most afraid of was not just that I had no control, but that one day you’d walk away and leave me.”
“So you left instead?” she asked incredulously. How did that possibly make any sense?
“Yeah, I left instead.” He realized how stupid that had to sound to her. Because it had been stupid. He knew that now. “But alone is alone, Jessi, and it didn’t matter how I got there. I didn’t gain anything by trying to outsmart my feelings. I lost everything. And I will again if you walk out of my life.” He took her hands in his, a silent entreaty in his eyes. “I love you, Jessi. I always have. I always will. I’m just not afraid to say it anymore. Not afraid to feel it.”
He took a breath, trying to deal with all the raw emotions that were coursing through his veins. All the raw emotions that had been stirred up in the last few hours.
“When you called me and I heard that tightness in your voice, I knew you were in trouble. You didn’t have to say anything more. And I was scared, scared that something would happen to you before I could get there. I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
“Even more than when you were on the track?”
“That was a piece of cake an comparison.” He opened his heart up completely to her. “You mean everything to me, Jessi, and I don’t want to lose you again. I couldn’t live through it.” His eyes searched hers, looking for an indication that she understood. More, that she felt the same as he did. “What do I have to do to make you stay? I swear I’ll do anything you want.”
They’d come a long way this past week. A long way. She’d seen him in a completely different light, as not just the master of his own fate, but a generous man who’d taken on a huge responsibility and shouldered it well. She’d grown herself. No longer the hopelessly in love woman she’d been, she was now a match for him. And just as in love as she’d ever been.
Jessica smiled at him. “You just did it. All I ever wanted was for you to love me—for you to admit you loved me,” she amended.
Was it that easy? Really that easy? “I’ll do more than admit it. I’ll take out a two-page ad in the Sunday Times for everyone to read.”
Humor curved her mouth. “Just a two-page ad?”
“Bigger. I’ll buy out the whole damn paper if you want.” He drew her into his arms. Where she belonged. “But for right now, would you settle for having me say it in front of the minister?”
She turned her face up to his. “I don’t see that as settling at all.”
As he brought his mouth down to hers to seal their future, Logan knew he was finally running toward happiness and not away from it.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5875-4
THIS HEART FOR HIRE
Copyright © 1999 by Mane Rydzynski-Ferrarella
All rights reserved Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York. NY 100 17 U S A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
“May I kiss you, Jessi, for old times’ sake?”
Letter to Reader
Dedication
Books by Marie Ferrarella
Books by Marie Ferrarella writing as Marie Nicole
About the Author
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Copyright
This Heart for Hire Page 19