Mission: Irresistible
Page 20
East chuckled. It was a book, that much he knew. Expecting it to be a copy of that blessed Kama Sutra, he was taken aback by the pink and blue cover, as well as the title.
“What To Name Your Baby?”
She smiled primly. “Since it’s our first, I thought you might like to choose. But if we have another, the pleasure will be mine, okay?”
The grin on his face started to slide as his eyes began to widen. Ally stared, watching in sudden fascination and wondering if one facial muscle was connected to another in such a way that what was happening was beyond East’s control, or if he had gone into shock. She did a quick mental breakdown of the construction of the human form and decided upon the latter. It was definitely shock. But the longer he remained silent, the more she began to worry. Finally, she could stand the suspense no longer.
“Don’t you have something to say?”
He stared at her face, then her belly, then back at her face again, blinking through a blur of quick tears.
“Actually, I think I have two,” he mumbled.
This wasn’t going exactly as she had planned. Her fingers knotted as she tried to offer a brief smile. It didn’t come off as she’d wanted.
East saw the sudden terror in her eyes, but it was nothing to the joy in his heart.
He touched her belly, then his heart. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy in my entire adult life.”
Her lips parted in a quick, sweet smile.
“I’m so relieved. I mean, we hadn’t discussed any of—”
“Will you marry me?”
The smile dissolved into full-fledged tears.
“Oh, East, I was hoping you would ask me that, since I’ve already turned in my resignation with SPEAR.” She splayed her hands across the middle of her belly. “I mean…I can’t be running all over the country anymore and endangering our child. I will never do to my baby, what my parents did to me. I will be there in the night when it cries. I will be there to see first steps and hear those precious first words. And I will die before I’ll give this baby to someone else to raise.”
He gathered her close to him, holding her as if she was the most precious thing on this earth, which to him, she was.
Her pledge had him speechless. Finally, he managed to mutter. “Why is it that a woman always cries when she’s happy?”
She sniffed, taking the handkerchief he offered as she considered the question he’d unwittingly asked.
“You know, I think it has to do with an uneven level of hormones at the moment of excitement…or fear…as the case may be. In fact, I remember reading—”
He silenced her with another kiss, and then another, and then another. It was some time later before he thought to ask her again.
“You know, you never did answer my question. Will you marry me, Alicia Corbin, or are you going to ask me to live in sin?”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. Just when she started to explain why she would never do that, she realized he was grinning.
“You’re teasing me now, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said softly.
An answering grin tilted the corners of her lips.
“Well, since I can’t have the father of my children being any kind of a sinner, then I suppose I will have to say yes.”
“Ah God, Ally, you have given me something I never thought I’d have,” he said.
“You mean children?”
He shook his head, thinking back to the way he’d been before Jonah had sent her—living in limbo and guilt.
“No, I’m talking about my life. You not only gave my first son back to me, but you are giving me a future I never thought I’d have.” He kissed her softly, then added. “So, thank you. Thank you so much for loving me.”
Now her tears were coming in earnest. “It was easy,” she said. “All I had to do was trust you enough to let go.”
“I’ll never let you fall,” he promised.
“Oh, I know that.”
East took her by the hand. “Let’s go call Jeff.”
She looked a little nervous.
“What will we say?”
“That he’s getting a mother and a brother, all at the same time.”
“I hope he doesn’t resent me…us,” she amended, thinking of the baby she was carrying.
“How could he resent the woman who helped save his life? Now come with me. I’m in the mood for spreading good news.”
“Okay,” she said. “But after that, I thought we might try out page forty-two tonight. It’s a little complicated and I won’t be able to do those kind of contortions once I start getting big.”
East’s eyes widened as he thought of her and that book all over again. Then he took her by the hand and led her toward the bedroom instead.
“We’ll call Jeff tomorrow, now show me page forty-two.”
It was far into the morning before East rose up on one elbow and gazed down at Ally, who lay sleeping beside him. He kept marveling at how someone could maintain such a level of naivete while filled with so much uninhibited passion. Finally, he leaned over, pressing a soft, butterfly kiss against her cheek, then whispering in her ear.
“Education is a wonderful thing.”
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Sharon Sala for her contribution to the A Year of Loving Dangerously series.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1736-2
MISSION: IRRESISTIBLE
Copyright © 2000 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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