‘No.’ Annie sucked in a shaky breath, laying everything on the line just as he had done, knowing this was too important for anything less. ‘I didn’t want that with just anyone. I wanted it with you.’
‘What about the foot fetish guy?’
‘That was Will’s idea of a joke,’ she confessed with a nervous giggle. ‘There’s been no one at all since you.’
‘Not for me, either.’
She was surprised, but also knew a deep sense of peace and relief at the knowledge. ‘And what about now? What about Africa?’
‘The job has been offered to me,’ he admitted, causing her already sore chest to constrict with fear.
‘And are you going to take it?’
He paused a moment, watching her. ‘It depends.’
‘On what?’ she whispered, hardly daring to ask.
‘On whether or not I have a reason to stay.’ Dark eyes looked deep into hers. His voice dropped, husky and intimate. ‘Do I, Annie? Is there anything for me here in Strathlochan?’
Uncertainty held her in its grip as she worried whether what she had to offer him was enough. ‘There’s me.’
‘Sweetheart, you are all I need. All I’ve ever needed.’ One warm palm cupped her cheek and she rubbed herself against him, nearly drowning in the deep dark pools of his eyes that shone with love and hope. ‘Bring the light back into my life, Annie. Let me prove to you just how much you mean to me. Marry me. Have a family with me.’ Before she could respond he cuddled her closer, and she felt him shudder, heard the emotion lacing his husky voice. ‘I nearly lost you…again.’
‘Nathan…’
‘I love you, Annie. And I always will. I want what I’ve always wanted. You. For ever. As my wife and the mother of my children.’
‘I don’t deserve you after all I’ve put you through.’
‘Rubbish,’ he admonished.
She gasped in shock as he pulled a small jeweller’s box from the pocket of his jeans and opened it to reveal a platinum ring set with an exquisite sapphire.
‘I tried to match the shade of your eyes. I love you, sweetheart. Five years ago the timing was wrong. We both made mistakes, and we’ve suffered for them. But now we have found each other again. Will you marry me and make me the happiest, luckiest man on earth?’
Tears shimmered on her lashes before trickling down her cheeks. ‘I messed up so badly before, and I’m not about to do it again. Yes! Yes, yes, yes! I love you, too, Nathan—so very much.’
As she melted into his embrace, losing herself in his erotic kiss, clinging to him as tightly as he clung to her, she gave thanks for second chances, for the resilience of their love, for Nathan’s tenacity in not giving up on her. They belonged together. Being in his arms, her body battered and bruised as it was, she felt cherished and protected—as if she had come home. At last. Completely at peace. Whole. It would take a while for her to heal, and longer before she would be able to return to work in the rigours of the A and E department, but she knew Nathan would be by her side every step of the way.
Taking care of her fragile state, Nathan shifted her so he could deepen the kiss. Annie lost herself in the searing passion, longing for the day her body was well enough for them to take it to its inevitable conclusion. For now the kiss sealed their bond, their love, the triumph of overcoming the years lost to them. Ahead lay years of togetherness, and she vowed to spend every day for the rest of their lives proving just how special Nathan was and how much he was loved.
Here in the heart of Strathlochan they would found their own family—one born of trust and hope and a once-in-a-lifetime, for ever kind of love. Nathan was a special doctor, a special friend, a special lover. A man in a million. Her man. And she would never let him go again.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3842-2
THE EMERGENCY DOCTOR CLAIMS HIS WIFE
First North American Publication 2009
Copyright © 2009 by Margaret McDonagh
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 publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.eHarlequin.com
The emergency doctor claims his wife Page 17
