Lacey wiped the tears from her eyes. “Oh, darling,” she cried softly and reached out to him. “No wonder,” she whispered, feathering his neck with avid kisses as he crushed her in his arms.
“It gets much worse,” he said, his forehead against hers as he caressed her shoulders through her coat. “The minute your guest left, another man pulls up in front in a motor home, and you rush outside with a baby in your arms. You can imagine what my mind conjured up.”
She could. “My guest was Brad’s supervisor from Denver. I’ve met him dozens of times. He always sleeps at the condo when he passes through Salt Lake. As for the other man, he came from the rental car place,” she confessed, brushing her lips provocatively against his. “It was for George’s sake, so that we wouldn’t have to be separated while I went to Idaho on business.”
But she didn’t get any further as Max’s compelling mouth silenced hers and they clung with a long-suppressed passion. Lacey lost cognizance of her surroundings until Max stopped kissing her long enough to say, “I went a little crazy every time I saw the way men reacted around you. I was even jealous of the waiters at the hotel. As for Dr. Rivera, I could have knocked his white teeth down his throat.”
“You forgot Nester.”
“I don’t want to think about him and the pictures that filled my mind of the lengths you must have gone to, to get that file from him. I don’t want to remember anything. But I guess it was when I saw you in Milo’s arms that something snapped and I knew I was on the verge of some kind of emotional crisis.”
She shuddered in remembered pain. “I really thought you despised me.”
He sucked in his breath and held her tighter. “That’s why I left the village and spent the night in the park, to get my head on straight. I never went to sleep, and gave everything a long, hard look. By morning I knew deep in my gut that you were totally innocent.
“It hit me then that you loved me and that I was terrified I’d destroyed the woman I loved more than life itself. I couldn’t get back to the village fast enough. But my worst nightmare became reality because you’d gone.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I had to leave. You made it clear you hated me, but I kept letting you do your worst because I couldn’t bear to give you up.”
He shook his dark blond head. “Lacey, you’ve got to forgive me,” he begged in a hoarse whisper.
“Now that I know what was driving you, there’s nothing to forgive. I love you too much, and I want to make up for all your pain.”
“I don’t deserve you.”
“Hush.” She quieted his lips with her own, rejoicing in the right to touch this man, to love him for the rest of her life.
Again they were caught away in a tide so powerful, it threatened to consume her. His caressing hand found the buttons of her coat. Like magic it slipped from her shoulders and fell to the floor in a heap.
“Dear Lord, how I’ve needed this. I love you, Lacey. So much I could never, ever, share you with anyone else. I’m not like my father.”
Marveling at his vulnerability, her hands shaped the contours of his firm jaw and held him fast while the light of love burned in her brilliant green eyes.
“There’s no one else. Greg was like a brother, and not even Perry could coax me into bed. I’m a one-man woman, and I love only you, want only you. No matter how awful you were to me, I’ve never been happier in my life than when we were living together.
“That’s why I’m here. I adore you, Max. Do you believe me?” Her voice throbbed with the urgency of her question. Her entire future rested on his answer.
At last, incredibly, tears filled his eyes. He stared at her for a long, long time. “Yes. I believe you. I think I’ve believed it since the moment you introduced me to George, but I was so embittered by Mother’s behavior, I refused to admit you were her antithesis.”
His words released her pent-up emotions. Lacey had nothing but love to give him as her body molded to his. They swayed together from the sheer ecstasy of their embrace.
“I’ve been in agony over the love I feel for you. Make the pain go away, Max.”
“It’ll go away, I’ll see to it personally,” he vowed in fierce tones, drowning her in kisses until she couldn’t breathe. “But not until our honeymoon, and that means a church wedding with you dressed in white, surrounded by family and friends. After all my suspicions, I need to atone for my sins. Besides, I wouldn’t want to scandalize Mrs. Taggert. She’s one of my fans and has been searching for you, as well.”
“Making our private life public probably drew in another hundred thousand listeners,” she teased, pressing hungry kisses to his enticing mouth.
“Naturally. I’m going to marry Lorraine, Radio Talk’s sweetheart. That makes me an insider now.”
She flashed him a saucy smile. “Did you talk your boss into letting you do this? Is that why you’re really marrying me?”
But her teasing smile slowly faded as she saw the raw blaze of desire flare in his eyes, igniting her own passionate nature.
“I’ll answer your question when I take you to bed for the first time, Mrs. Jarvis. That kind of heart talk is reserved for husbands and wives only.”
ISBN: 9781472066596
NO WIFE REQUIRED!
© Rebecca Winters 2013
First Published in Great Britain in 2013
Harlequin (UK) Limited
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