by Rita Herron
“Is something wrong?”
“Yes.”
“Your mother? Did things not work out?”
“No, Helen is fine.” Melissa smiled. “Thank you for finding her, she’s the family I never had.”
“I’m glad. I want you to be happy.”
“I am. Except there’s still something missing.”
His heart pounded, and he started to stand, but she dropped to the dock beside him, letting her feet dangle over the edge of the water. “I have to ask you something.”
“What?” Anything. He’d do anything for her.
“Do you blame me for the things Hughes did?”
He grunted in shock. “Of course not. Why would I?”
She shrugged. “Is there someone else?”
“Excuse me?”
“Another woman?” She gestured toward the cabin. “Here, in Atlanta, is there another girl in your life?”
He was so starved for her, he studied her face, memorized her eyes. “No, there’s no one else.” Didn’t she know there never had been?
She bit down on her bottom lip, then turned toward him, her eyes full of emotion. “Then why can’t you love me?”
A raspy breath escaped him. She had been so honest with him, so giving, had helped him through so much. Cain said he was a fool for not pursuing a relationship with her.
“Is it because you want to be single? Do you like your single life?”
“Uh, no.” He hated it. The empty bed. The TV dinners. The quiet. Whereas once the lake felt peaceful, now it felt lonely.
She pressed her hand over her heart. “Then is something wrong with me?”
“How can you ask that?” He couldn’t resist. She looked so vulnerable, soft, delicious. “You’re the most perfect woman I’ve ever known, Melissa.”
She wet her lips. “Then why? Is it because of my seizures?”
“No. Hell no.” He cleared his throat, studied his fingernails. “You deserve someone better than me, someone stronger, whole.” Anger churned through him, and he stood, hating that his leg still hadn’t completely healed, and he had to grab the post to support himself. “I’m broken down.”
She stood, her voice husky. “Eric, you are the most stubborn man I’ve ever met. But I love you, and I want you.” Tears laced her voice. “Don’t make me beg.”
He clutched her arms, aching to drag her to him. “You don’t have to beg.”
“Do you love me? Yes or no?” She stared him straight in the eyes. “Say no, on your mother’s cross, and I’ll walk away and never bother you again.”
She would always bother him, haunting his memories with her tenderness and strength. His chest squeezed, his throat closed. He glanced down at the cross that had become a symbol for so much in his life. For his mother’s dreams, his own hopes.
He couldn’t lie.
And he didn’t want Melissa to walk away and never come back. He wanted her to stay, to kiss his scars, to hold him all through the night. And he wanted to do the same for her. “I…”
“Yes or no, Eric?”
He closed his eyes. He wanted her as his wife. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?” she whispered.
“Yes, I love you.” The admission liberated him, opened up the dark vortex in his soul and filled it with sunshine. He opened his eyes, and caught her smiling.
Once he’d said the words, they kept spilling out. “I love you, Melissa, I love you with all my heart.”
She laughed, and he clinched his arms around her waist and spun her around, a giddy feeling bursting inside him. Then he raised his head and shouted it to the wind and the sky. “I love Melissa Fagan. I love you, love you, love you!”
Melissa looped her arms around his neck, cradled his face in her hands and pressed her mouth to his. “So, show me, lover boy.”
And he did.
He spread a blanket on the grass beneath a shady oak, stripped her clothes and made slow, sweet love to her until the sun faded into the night, and she promised to be his wife.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7864-0
UNDERCOVER AVENGER
Copyright © 2004 by Rita B. Herron
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†Nighthawk Island
*The Hartwell Hope Chests
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
