by Tina Beckett
Cassie.
Wearing beige shorts and a white shirt, she held a wide-brimmed hat on her head with one hand. And in the other she held...
Hair ties?
He stared at the clear package, the crush of memories threatening to drive him into the sand. Had she come here to rub salt into his wounds?
“I didn’t expect to see you here.” And if that wasn’t the stupidest thing to say, he didn’t know what was.
“I know. But Carmelita came to the hospital, and I had to come.”
Her hair blew freely around her shoulders for once, the blond locks making his fingers itch to touch them. To stroke them. None of which he could do.
For several seconds he just stood there without saying anything.
She saved him the trouble. “Mind if we sit awhile?”
Not waiting for an answer, she dropped onto the sand with a light, graceful movement, setting the hair-tie package on the ground and patting the spot next to her.
His eyes pored over her figure, trying to memorize everything about her. Her stomach still showed no signs of her pregnancy, and her... Wait. Carmelita had gone to the hospital? Why? His heart stopped for a second before it started beating again.
“Is everything okay?”
“No, but I hope it will be soon.” She nodded at the package. “I brought you a present.”
He carefully lowered himself onto the beach, leaving plenty of distance between them, just in case. “Present?”
She straightened. “I lost enough of these that I had to buy a new package. Then I thought, if you liked them that much I would save you the trouble of stealing any more of them.”
And how exactly would he do that? She’d said she didn’t want to see him again.
Except she was here. Bearing gifts.
Had he misunderstood her? He tried to recall her exact words, only to lose them in the chaotic mix of emotions he’d felt that day. He set his stuff sack down, elbows going to his knees as he glanced over at her and then out to sea, where other paragliders were still hanging suspended in the air. “You look good.”
“So do you. I’ve never gotten to see you fly. Do you really like it?”
His throat tightened. He had at one time but recently it had lost some of its appeal. “I did. I do.” He tried to clear his thoughts. “Why exactly did Carmelita come to see you?”
Her finger traced a pattern in the sand.
“She said you push people away. I came to ask you if that’s true.”
He gave a rough snort. “Carmelita should mind her own damn business. What did she say anyway?”
“She said you’d had a hard time after your dad died. That you still do.” Her hand stopped drawing.
“That is pretty much the understatement of the year.”
“I can’t imagine how difficult it had to be.” She paused. “How have your brothers dealt with it?”
He turned his head and looked at her, his gaze suddenly going blurry.
Hell, no. Not now.
“Dealt with what? The fact that I signed the order to disconnect our father’s life support—to have his chest cracked open and his heart removed? Maybe you should ask them.”
Cassie’s mouth dropped open and then snapped shut. Her hand covered his. “You? I had no idea. I am so sorry.”
“I thought you said Carmelita told you.”
“No. She told me about the transplant. And that you push people away because of your father’s death.”
Okay, so the bodega manager hadn’t spilled all the details. He’d done it for her.
Time to get to the point, though, before something inside him broke.
“Why are you here, Cassie?”
“I’m here because Carmelita made me realize something. You’re not the only one who pushes people away. I do too.” Her fingers threaded through his. “And I don’t want to do that anymore.”
His thoughts shifted so suddenly he thought he might have whiplash. “You don’t?”
“No.”
He tightened his grip on her hand. “That is... Hell, you might not believe this, but I was going to drive over to your house today for that very same reason.”
“You were?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out what drove that whole conversation in the parking lot that day, but I keep coming up blank. You said you push people away. Why?”
“Because I don’t trust them to stay.”
“I don’t understand.” Actually, he understood all too well. He didn’t trust people to stay either.
She shifted her body until she was looking right at him. “I’m going to lay it on the line here, Rafe. And if you knew my background you would know how hard this is for me...”
He leaned closer, something in the quiet urgency of her words pulling at him. “It’s okay. Tell me.”
“You have such a strong bond with your brothers—your parents. I’m envious, because I didn’t have that. I grew up without a home.” She bit her lip for a second. “That’s not exactly true. I had homes...a long line of them, actually. I just never knew how long each would last. Or when a car might pull into the driveway to take me to the next drop-off point.”
“But your mom and dad—”
“Are wonderful, and I love them dearly. But they didn’t come into my life until I was a teenager. They adopted me. Until that time I was in the foster-care system.”
He sucked in a quick breath. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who kept secrets. “I didn’t know.”
“It’s not something I shout from the rooftops. Only a few people—like Bonnie—know. Anyway, it makes me cautious about relationships.” She shrugged. “When I realized I cared about you, I was terrified that you didn’t feel the same way. That, like all those foster homes, you would disappear from my life...from my babies’ lives. I don’t want that for them.”
“You think I would do that?”
“I thought you might. You talked about not putting pressure on either of us, about taking things one day at a time—as if you could simply walk away if things didn’t go the way you wanted them to.” One hand moved to her stomach. “But after Carmelita’s visit I decided I needed to be sure. So if you don’t want to be with me for the next fifty or so years, I need you to tell me in no uncertain terms. So I can move on. So we can move on.”
It was as if he were paralyzed. Hope was swirling all around him, and yet he couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak.
Fifty or so years? He was half-afraid he was imagining this whole thing. Could you get altitude sickness from paragliding?
Cassie watched him for a few more seconds, then she grabbed the hair ties and climbed to her feet, her hat blowing from her head and tumbling down the beach. She ignored it. “Okay. I guess I have my answer.”
He was off the ground in an instant. “No. You don’t. I...”
Moving to stand in front of her, he cupped her face, searching for the words that would make her believe him. “I’m not good at this. And I don’t know how to do relationships.” His thumbs stroked across her cheeks. “You’re right. My brothers and I have a strong bond. Because they’re blood. But choosing to open myself up to someone else, to believe they’ll always be there... It’s hard.”
“It’s hard for me too, Rafe. I’m just as afraid as you are. But we can’t keep pushing away these chances at happiness.”
“I know.” He rested his chin on her head, the sweet scent of her hair filling him. “I swore I would never be in a position like I was with my father. To have to say goodbye to someone I loved. So I avoided getting involved. With anyone.”
“Is that why you left the hotel without waking me up?”
“Yes. Because even that night I knew something was different, that something dangerous could happen if I stayed. It happened anyway. I
love you, Cassie.”
There, he’d said the words that had been bubbling in his head for the last two weeks.
She leaned back and took his hands, the hair-tie package held between them. “I love you too. And it was killing me to think you might never feel the same way.”
“You have no idea how hard it was to let you drive away that day.”
“I think I might. What happened to your parents and Alejandro was beyond terrible. But that doesn’t mean that every relationship you have will end in tragedy.” Her grip tightened. “You felt alone back then. I get it. But you weren’t. Not really. Your brothers were there. And if you let me, I’ll be there too. You don’t have to do life alone.”
His throat worked, a rush of emotions clogging his chest, cutting off his breath. Then he dragged her close, holding her tight. “I was afraid I was going to lose you too. When you said it was better if I didn’t hang around—”
“I lied.” Her words were muffled by his chest. “It’s not better. I love you, Rafe—more than I imagined possible. Let us in. Please.”
“You were already there that first night. I thought if I just slipped away before you woke up, I could get rid of that feeling. I was wrong.” He bent to kiss her.
“So, what are we going to do?”
“We’re going to stop pushing each other away, for starters. I think we can let this little package be our guide.” He let go of her and held up the hair ties. “I want to take the elastic out of your hair. Every night—like I did those times we were together—and I’m going put it into a jar. Each day will be a new hair tie...a new beginning. When that jar is full, we’ll start another one.”
“And if I chop my hair off, and we no longer need the ties?”
“Then our daughters will use them.”
“How do you know they’re going to be girls?”
Rafe smiled, the joy in his heart growing with every word she said. She was talking like there actually was a forever. He held onto that, letting it steep in his soul. “I don’t. But there’s always the next baby.”
“The next? Exactly how many children do you want?” The alarm in her voice was overridden by her laughter. “Scratch that. I’m sure my parents would be extremely happy if we had several.”
“Marry me? So we can get started on those fifty years.”
“Fifty years. That sounds heavenly.”
“So is that a yes?” He didn’t quite trust that this was actually happening. He wanted...no, he needed to know she was all in. Just like he was.
She laid her cheek against his, her voice whispering in his ear. “It’s a yes. Yes to marriage. Yes to life with you.”
“I know you didn’t want to rush into a relationship, but this is as slow as I can go.”
She bit his earlobe, sending sweet heat flooding through his system. “I happen to know you can go pretty darn slow.”
“I can’t think when you do that.” He tried again, some tiny part of him still needing reassurance. “I want the wedding to be soon.”
“It can be tomorrow, if you want. As long as we’re together.” Then she stepped back, her teeth nibbling at her lower lip. “Oh, wait. There might be a problem with that.”
He frowned, wondering if he’d gotten his hopes up for nothing. “What kind of problem?”
“A Bonnie kind of problem.” She took the package of hair ties from him and tossed it onto the sand.
“Bonnie, as in your friend?”
“Yep.” She rubbed the edge of his chin with her thumb. Rafe understood immediately why his cat loved that so much.
Damn. He tried to find the thread of their conversation again. “Bonnie is a problem?”
Her thumb worked its way down his neck with soft, hypnotic strokes. “She said if we ever got together she would have to do something at our wedding. And if it’s tomorrow...”
Hell, the woman could walk across hot coals, as long as it ended with Cassie becoming his wife. “Anything she wants.”
“Anything?”
“That’s what I said.”
“You might be sorry when you hear what it is. She wants to sing a song and dedicate it to us.”
His body was already thrumming under her touch, and soon he wouldn’t care what Bonnie did or didn’t want to do. The sooner they got back to his condo the better. “Still not seeing the problem.”
Cassie laughed and moved in close, her body crowding his with purposeful intent that he was hoping to accommodate very, very soon.
“You will,” she said, going up on tiptoe and brushing her lips across his. “Because as much as she might like to think otherwise, Bonnie can’t sing.”
EPILOGUE
THEY HAD SURVIVED Bonnie’s singing. All of them. And the four months since their wedding had been filled with love and laughter. And blessed stability. For her. And the babies growing in her belly.
Cassie stood on the beach this warm November afternoon, watching her husband soar high overhead, the red of his paraglider easily visible against the pale sky. She’d always been afraid of flying, of hanging in space with nothing beneath her feet, but as the soft grains of sand filtered between her toes she realized she had already reached new heights. And she was no longer afraid.
Rafe had become her haven. A safe place to land. And she was grateful their children would be able to have a secure home like the one her adoptive parents had provided for her.
They were surrounded by love. By Rafe’s brothers and their wives, by Carmelita. And by her mom and dad. And most of all, they had each other.
Rafe waved to her as he went by, his craft much lower on this pass. She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to go up with him after the babies were born. But as long as he was with her, she could do anything. Even paraglide.
His feet touched the ground fifty yards in front of her, and Cassie was off, jogging the best she could toward him, cradling her belly in her hands. And then she was in his arms even before he’d gotten out of his harness.
“You looked good up there,” she murmured, kissing the edge of his chin.
“You looked pretty good down here. I couldn’t wait to be back on the ground.”
He let her go long enough to release the straps and fold up his equipment, then he slung it over his shoulder. “You shouldn’t be running any more.”
“It’s fine. I’m not even seven months along. Besides, I’m a doctor, remember?” Wrapping her arm around his waist, she couldn’t resist giving that taut backside a quick squeeze. “I know something else that’s fine.”
“Cassie...”
He’d been worried about everything recently, scolding her for this or that. She knew it came from those old fears of losing those closest to him, but that wasn’t going to happen. Cassie had no intention of going anywhere. She would fight with all of her being to stay with him.
“Dr. Davi said there’s no reason we can’t.” She gave him another squeeze. “Besides, you’re supposed to indulge your pregnant wife’s cravings.”
“Food cravings.”
“Any craving.” She laughed. “If I remember correctly, we’ve been known to combine the two. Maybe I should taste test you this time around.”
He groaned, stopping to drop a kiss on her mouth that was anything but chaste. “Enough. I give up. Let’s get you home.”
Cassie wove her fingers through his and they started down the beach, her body already humming a familiar tune.
As impatient as she was to be with him, she was in no real hurry. They had time.
Fifty-some-odd years, if she remembered right. And she intended to use each and every second of them to make Rafe as happy as he made her.
; Today and always.
* * * * *
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Secret royal prince Dr Elias Santini is stunned when he rushes to an emergency delivery. The patient is Beth Foster…and she’s having his baby!
Read on for a sneak preview of
THEIR SECRET ROYAL BABY
by Carol Marinelli
‘How pregnant is she?’ Elias asked.
‘Twenty-nine weeks. Her waters broke as we got her onto the gurney. Elias, this baby is coming and very rapidly.’
They had reached the cubicle and Elias took a steadying breath.
‘What’s her name?’
Before Mandy could tell Elias he was already stepping into the cubicle.
And before Mandy said the name, he knew it.
‘Beth.’
She was sitting up, wearing a hospital gown, and there was a blanket over her. Her stunning red hair was worn up tonight but it was starting to uncoil and was dark with sweat. Her gorgeous almond-shaped eyes were for now screwed closed and she wore drop earrings in rose gold and the stones were rubies.
They were the same earrings she had worn the night they had met.
He could remember vividly stepping into her villa and turning the light on and watching the woman he had seen only in moonlight come into delicious colour—the deep red of her hair, the pale pink of her lips and eyes that were a pure ocean blue.
Now Valerie had her arm around Beth’s shoulders and was telling her to try not to push.
For Elias there was a moment of uncertainty.
Could Mandy find someone else perhaps? Could he swap with Roger?
Almost immediately he realised there was no choice. From what Mandy had told him this baby was close to being born.
His baby?
Don’t miss THEIR SECRET ROYAL BABY by Carol Marinelli
Available March 2017
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Copyright ©2017 by Carol Marinelli
Also available in March from Mills & Boon Modern Romance is Carol Marinelli’s 100th book, THE INNOCENT’S SECRET BABY
ISBN: 978-1-474-05130-9
RAFAEL’S ONE NIGHT BOMBSHELL
