Husband Potential

by Rebecca Winters

  The way she clung to him as if he were her entire existence was the balm his soul craved. “Thank God I wasn’t too late,” was all she managed to get out before she broke down completely, uncaring of the people around them.

  “Please don’t leave me, Andre. Everyone we know and love is painfully aware I want you back. I need you. I love you, my darling.”

  As her hands lifted to his cheeks, she looked up at him out of a face glistening with tears. “Please say that you forgive me. We’ll start all over again. The right way this time. There’s so much to tell you, but I can’t say it all here.

  “Just know that your speech about emotionally crippled sailors made me see myself in a new light. After you left, I went over everything you said to me a hundred times or more.

  “I realized that if I couldn’t take any risks, then I had allowed my father’s behavior to stunt my life. It made me violently angry that he’d already blighted so much of it. That’s when I told myself he wasn’t going to ruin the rest of it. That’s when I drove over to your house, but then I saw that ghastly For Sale sign stuck in the snow. I almost died….

  “Oh, Andre—please come back to me,” she begged, “and I swear I’ll make you the happiest man alive. There is no life without you. I know that now.”

  Lord. A miracle had happened. He held a Francesca in his arms who had finally opened up her soul to him. The moment was so humbling, he had trouble expressing his thoughts.

  “I found my life the day I met you. I’ve never been the same since,” he muttered before his mouth descended.

  This time there was a difference in the way she kissed him back. The fear and the striving were gone. In their place was this dizzying sensation of two hearts and bodies merged in total communion.

  He was so enthralled by this new side of his passionate darling, he was scarcely aware of the wolf whistles until he heard someone call out, “Hey, Benet— Are you coming with us or not?”

  “Not!” he shouted back after he’d put a crimson-faced Francesca at arm’s length. “Wait right here, my love, and don’t move.”

  Her eyes shone with a rare luster. “I’m not going anywhere unless it’s with you. Oh darling, I’m so in love with you, it hurts.” She pressed a hand against her heart.

  “I have a remedy for that,” he whispered against her lips.

  “So do I,” she smiled through joyous tears. “Judge Appleby in Elko is waiting to marry us as soon as we can get there. I told him I was ready to make my vows this time. We’re booked on a flight out of L.A. airport at three.”

  Words weren’t sufficient. He crushed her against him once more, then finally whispered, “Give me five minutes, and I’m all yours.”

  “How about the whole of my life.” The fervency of her tone set a new fire raging in him.

  “You’re on, my love.”

  Nine hours later they stood before Judge Appleby who beamed at them.

  “Well, it looks like you went home and counseled together. I told you if your love was meant to be, everything would work out.

  “Now repeat after me. I, Francesca Mallory, take this man, Andre Benet, to be my lawfully wedded husband. I solemnly vow to love, honor, and cherish him, to remain faithful to him through sickness or health, through poverty or wealth, through the bad times and the good, until death do us part.”

  As Fran said the words in a clear, vibrant voice, she felt Andre’s other hand go to the back of her waist and draw her up against him.

  The Judge nodded, then told Andre to repeat after him, “I, Andre Benet, do take this woman, Francesca Mallory to be my lawfully wedded wife. I solemnly vow to love, honor, cherish and protect her, to remain faithful to her through sickness or health, through poverty or wealth, through the bad times and the good, until death do us part.”

  Andre’s deep voice held a fervency that penetrated to her insides. She bowed her head, brimming with a happiness she’d never experienced before.

  “Since you, Francesca, and you, Andre, have vowed before God and this assembly to love each other until death, then by the power invested in me by the court of Elko County, in the State of Nevada of these United States, I hereby proclaim you to be husband and wife.

  “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. You may give her the ring, then kiss your beautiful bride, Mr. Benet.”

  Andre let go of her long enough to reach in his suit pocket and draw out the precious ring she’d longed to wear. When he slid it on her finger, it fit perfectly. Before she could countenance it, he pulled her into his strong arms.

  “Francesca—” he cried her name with the same kind of overpowering emotion she was feeling. Compelled by the force of her love, she lifted her eyes, unable to deny him even the smallest secret of her soul.

  The answering fire in his dark gaze set off a conflagration as his mouth sought hers with a refined savagery that took the very breath from her body.

  Five weeks later, while Fran stood next to her husband to greet their guests in Gerda’s living room, she felt Andre’s hand slide up her back and caress her neck. “How much longer before we can be alone?” he whispered against her ear, taking advantage of the first lull in the line for the last half hour. It sent shivers of ecstasy through her trembling body.

  Every time they came together it was like the first time. Andre had made her feel reborn. The rapture they’d given each other reached levels she didn’t know were possible between a man and woman. It had made her thankful to be born a woman. Otherwise she would never know what it was like to be loved by a man like Andre. Just thinking about him, anticipating another night in his bed, in his arms, made it difficult to say a coherent word to anyone.

  “I-I’m afraid not for a while. A lot of people from our congregation are still waiting to meet my handsome husband. Do you know, tonight you remind me of the way you looked when I first saw you?” she said a trifle breathlessly.

  “If you recall, I was wearing a work shirt and pants I’d borrowed from Brother Joseph. Let’s hope this black tux is somewhat of an improvement.”

  Fran’s mouth curved upward. “I wasn’t referring to your clothes.”

  “Really,” he teased wickedly.

  Her cheeks went hot. “What I meant was, you had a princely bearing. It took my breath, and I haven’t caught it since.”

  She felt the intimate brush of his fingers against her ribcage. “I think I’ll wait until later to tell you some of the thoughts running through my mind while I watched your provocative body move in that peach suit you were wearing. I swear you could have tempted the devil himself.”

  “Andre!”

  He kissed her neck. “I love it when you pretend to be shocked.”

  By now she was enveloped in white-hot heat. Ignoring his comment she said, “If you want to know the truth, I’m the envy of every woman in Gerda’s living room.”

  He shook his dark head. “All eyes are on you, Francesca. Make no mistake about that,” he said in a husky aside. “I actually felt sorry for Dr. Barker. The poor devil’s still in love with you.”

  “You’re wrong, darling. He would like to be in love the way we are. One day it will happen.”

  “Maybe. If he’s lucky, and meets the right woman. Tonight I feel sorry for anyone who isn’t us.”

  Fran’s eyes filled from too much happiness. She knew exactly what he meant. Particularly since she had something earthshaking to tell him.

  “Andre—” she whispered tremulously. “After this is over, I’d like to go for a drive.”

  He flashed her a curious glance. “I must admit I had other plans for us, but I could never say no to you.”

  “It won’t have to take too long.”

  A strange glint entered his beautiful eyes. “Do you have a destination in mind?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is this some sort of surprise?”

  She flashed him a provocative smile. “You’ll have to wait to find out.”

  “You shouldn’t have told me that,” he half gr
owled. “Now I can’t wait to leave.”

  “If you did that you would disappointment everyone, particularly Gerda and Mother who’ve practically killed themselves to make this party perfect for us.”

  “In that case, I’ll be good. As it happens, they’re both favorites of mine.”

  Two hours later Andre finally got his wife to himself. “Where did you want to drive?” Curiosity had been eating him alive.

  “Just continue south on the freeway until I tell you to turn off.”

  She was behaving so mysteriously, Andre didn’t know what to think. Evidently there were things still to be revealed after five weeks of marriage. But he wasn’t complaining. On the contrary, life with Francesca had surpassed his conception of wedded bliss.

  “Take the next exit, darling.”

  “Whatever you say,” he murmured, feasting his eyes on her lovely profile. Tonight she radiated a beauty that made her glow. In fact he was so entranced by his wife in this mood, it didn’t register that they were on the road to the monastery until she told him to drive through the gates.

  Whatever surprise he’d thought might be waiting for him at the end of their little journey, he would never have imagined her wanting to come here. It was close to midnight and freezing out.

  “Francesca?”

  “In a few minutes your questions will be answered. If it’s all right with you, I’d like us to visit your father’s grave.”

  He blinked in astonishment, but as she seemed set on it, he levered himself from the car and went around the passenger side to help her out.

  “It’s too cold here for you.”

  “I’m fine with your arm around me.”

  A half moon made the grounds a little lighter than the last time he’d come to say goodbye. That seemed a lifetime ago when he was another man.

  By tacit agreement their footsteps slowed as they approached the spot where he’d watched the brothers bury his father last spring.

  Slowly she turned to him and put her hands on his arms. “Andre, my love— I have something to tell you that I thought your father would like to hear if he’s listening.”

  Andre’s heart started to thud.

  A smile illuminated her face. “We’re going to have a baby, darling. I just found out yesterday, and the news has left me overjoyed.

  “It seemed right to come here, because this is the place where everything happened, where we both fell in love. And all because Abbot Ambrose, your father, had agreed to do a story for the magazine.

  “I-I used to think things happened by accident. But looking back to last April, I’m now convinced that when your aunt told you about your father, and when I was sent out here in Paul’s place, it was destiny. Our destiny. And now it’s our baby’s.”

  Andre couldn’t think, couldn’t speak. All he could do was gather his beloved in his arms. This beautiful, wonderful woman whose body held their future, had just made the circle of his life complete.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7809-1

  HUSBAND POTENTIAL

  First North American Publication 2000.

  Copyright © 1999 by Rebecca Winters.

  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.

  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.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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