PALADIN'S WOMAN

by Beverly Barton

  "Why are you doing this? Why are you trying so hard to convince me what a bad guy you are?"

  "Because I am a bad guy, Red." Shoving her out of his arms, he turned his back on her. "I can't possibly live up to the image you have of me." He walked toward the windows, stopping to stare sightlessly out onto the lawn. "Remember the man you met at Rusty and Dina's engagement party? You didn't like that man, Addy. You weren't impressed with him at all. Well, I'm still that same man."

  "Yes, I suppose you are." Addy couldn't bear to think that she would lose him, but she could feel him slipping away from her. "I was wrong about you, though. There's a lot more to Nick Romero than his Latin lover-boy charm."

  "Is there?" Nick had to make her realize that he wasn't in her league. She was head and shoulders above him, a woman who deserved only the best, and he didn't even come close. "You know what my SEAL buddies called me? Romeo. And believe me, I lived up to my nickname."

  "I suppose I should be jealous of all those women, and I guess I am a little, but I'm also grateful to them." Smiling, Addy touched him on the shoulder. He cocked his head sideways so he could see her. "All that practice has made you a wonderful lover."

  How the hell could she joke about it? He'd thought that reminding her of his past would make her see what poor husband material he'd make. "You just plain refuse to see me as I really am. You've created some fantasy man." He walked away from her. "I'll disappoint you, Red. I'll let you down. I'm no good at this commitment business."

  "What are you so afraid of, Nick? Why are trying to put up walls between us?"

  "I'm afraid of hurting you. I'm afraid that one day you'll wake up and realize what a mistake you made, that I'm not the man you thought I was."

  Addy didn't go after him. She let him walk away, knowing that nothing she could say or do could make him feel any different about himself. Nick loved her as much as she loved him, but he thought she didn't really know him, that she saw him only as her rescuer, only as a lover. How could she prove to him that she knew exactly who he was?

  Nick Romero, a flawed and imperfect man with a colorful and slightly unsavory past, was destined to be the father of her children. Somehow she'd just have to convince him that a reformed Romeo would make a faithful husband and an adoring father.

  * * *

  Three days after Dina's funeral, Addy McConnell went home, back to her house in the Twickenham district. Her father and Nick Romero accompanied her.

  July had become viciously hot and humid, with heat indexes topping the hundred-degree mark daily. Tempers were short, moods constantly changing. She and Nick had spent little time together. His decision, not hers. He was trying to distance himself from her, to prepare her for his departure.

  Addy suspected that today was the day Nick would make an attempt to leave her. But if he thought for one minute he'd ever get away from her, he'd better think again. She wasn't about to lose the best thing that had ever happened to her.

  Addy served iced tea in the den. Rusty and Nick sat opposite each other, the older man inspecting the younger, eyeing him critically.

  "You'll be settling down here in Huntsville, won't you?" Rusty asked. "Long-distance romances seldom work."

  "Sam Dundee has offered me a job in Atlanta," Nick said.

  "Hell, stay on here. Take over as security chief at M.A.C. Tandy McHenry will be retiring in a few months." Rusty puffed on his cigar, then blew smoke rings into the air.

  Addy sat down beside Nick on the small sofa. She knew what game her father was playing. It was called "Running Addy's Life."

  "Thanks for the offer, Rusty, but—"

  "Damnation, boy, quit hem-hawing around." Rusty got to his feet, his ruddy, freckled face flushed with agitation. "You're staying here in Huntsville and marrying Addy, and that's final!"

  "Daddy!"

  "I hardly think it's your place to decide who Addy marries," Nick said.

  "I'm her father, aren't I? Who better to pick out the right man for her?"

  "I think Addy should have a say in this. After all, it's her life. If she's as smart as I think she is, she won't saddle herself with a guy like me for the rest of her life."

  "You're perfect for her, and you know it," Rusty said.

  "That's where you're wrong." Nick stood, facing Addy's father. "I'd wind up disappointing her. I don't know the first thing about love and commitment. Hell, I'm a forty-three-year-old bachelor."

  "Boy, do you know how much Addy will be worth when I kick the bucket? She'll be one of the richest women in the United States."

  "I don't give a damn about your money, about how rich Addy is. If I married Addy, I'd sign a prenuptial agreement. Addy, without one red cent, is worth a king's ransom. She's the kind of woman who's priceless."

  Rusty grinned, his smile lighting his face. "I agree. A man would be a fool to run out on a woman like that, wouldn't he? Especially if the two of them are in love with each other and create red-hot sparks when they're in bed together."

  "Daddy!" Addy jumped up, placing herself between the two bickering men. "I think this has gone far enough. You two are discussing me as if I'm not in the same room, as if I'm not perfectly capable of talking for myself."

  Rusty glanced from his furious daughter to a dark and brooding Nick. Flashing them a brilliant smile, Rusty walked over to the door. "Well, girl, start talking before your man starts walking."

  Addy stared at Nick. He stared back at her. They heard the front door slam and then Rusty's limousine pull out of the driveway. They continued staring at each other.

  "I'll go upstairs and get my suitcase. I think that's where your father's new chauffeur put it." Nick turned to leave.

  Addy grabbed his arm. "I want an autumn wedding. October or early November. It'll take that long to plan the kind of wedding we should have."

  Nick glared at her, disbelief in his eyes. Had he heard her right? Had she said wedding? "What are you talking about?"

  "I don't want an engagement ring. I'm not much on wearing a lot of jewelry. A simple, wide gold band will be fine."

  "Addy?" He turned completely around, looking her directly in the eye.

  "We should go back to Sequana Falls for the honeymoon and stay in our cottage. That's where you fell in love with me, wasn't it?"

  "I haven't asked you … we haven't discussed—"

  "Nick Romero, if you think I'm going to let you run out on me, then you don't know me very well. I've waited my whole life to love a man the way I love you. I didn't think it was possible. I thought people only felt this way in romance books or in the movies."

  "I'm not much of a bargain, Red. I don't know the first thing about being the kind of husband you need."

  Addy smiled. "If you run, I'll follow you. There's not a place on this earth where you can hide. You're going to marry me, Nick, and that's final."

  How could he respond to a statement like that? Addy was one determined woman. Did he have the guts to take the risk? If he married her, could he keep her happy? "You'll be taking a mighty big chance on me, Red."

  "Do you love me, Nick?"

  "Do I— Yes, I love you!"

  "Have you ever loved another woman the way you love me?"

  "No, never."

  "Then I'm not taking such a big risk, am I?"

  Grinning, Nick lifted his cane, placing it across Addy's back. Taking the ends of the cane in each hand, he pulled her toward him, pressing her against his chest, fitting her body snugly to his. "As long as you know what you're getting."

  "I know exactly what I'm getting." She slipped her arms around his neck. "I'm getting the man I love."

  * * *

  Nick and Addy lay in the middle of her antique bed, their naked arms and legs entwined. Damp with their mingled sweat and the sweet essence of sex, they kissed and stroked and whispered love words.

  "Aren't you glad you decided to stay and marry me?" Addy licked the perspiration from his tiny male nipples.

  He grabbed her hip in his big hand, pressing her c
loser to his side. "You're a very persuasive woman, Mrs. Romero-to-be."

  "Mmm—hmm. I like the sound of that. Mrs. Romero. Addy Romero." She snuggled against him.

  "I suppose you know that you've accomplished an impossible task," he said.

  "What's that, taming a wild man?"

  Nick laughed, playfully swatting her behind. "No. Capturing the most sought-after Latin lover in the world."

  Moving quickly, Addy straddled his hips, tossing her long, flaming hair over her shoulder. "You've accomplished a task just as difficult. You've taught me what real love is all about."

  Taking her hips in his hands, he moved her up and down, groaning when he felt a resurgence of passion tightening his body. "And I've also turned a Plain-Jane, frustrated old maid into a beautiful, sex-crazed hussy."

  "Why, Nick, what a thing to say! I was never a frustrated old maid, just an unfulfilled woman."

  "Woman, I'd like to fulfill you, and soon." He surged up against her, showing her he meant what he said.

  "I think we should fulfill each other." She slid down his legs to his ankles, then lowered her body until her breasts touched his thighs. She ran her hands over his calves, caressing him.

  "You've never said anything about my scarred leg." Nick threaded his fingers through her hair while she spread kisses over the top of his hairy thighs. "You've kissed it and caressed it, and you act as if it doesn't look any different from my good leg."

  Addy's tongue touched him intimately. He groaned. "The scars on your leg are a part of you. When we make love, when I see you naked, I don't think about your crippled leg, except to regret all the pain you must have endured."

  "I'm not quite the man I used to be because of—"

  "Nick Romero, you're more man with a crippled leg than any man I know with two strong legs. I've told you that before. Weren't you listening?"

  She stroked him, pleasuring him with her wanton tongue. "Ah, Addy, you're good for my ego."

  "I'm good for you, Nick."

  He didn't disagree. She moved up his body, straddling his hips again. He thrust himself up and into her, grasping her waist as his mouth sought her breasts. She rode him wild and hard. He gave her a thorough loving, losing control the minute he felt her tighten around him and cry out her release.

  In the aftermath of a second heated mating, they lay in each other's arms, listening to the sound of their breathing. Sated and spent, they touched each other with tender weakness.

  "I—I lost two babies when I was married to Gerald." Addy's voice sounded loud in the hushed stillness of her bedroom.

  "I know." He kissed her forehead. "Your father told me all about it."

  "The doctors said I might not be able to carry a baby full term." She took a deep breath.

  Nick pulled her close, kissing her with gentle sweetness. "I love you, Addy. You." He kissed her again. "Whether or not we ever have a child won't change the way I feel about you. We're so damned lucky to have found each other. What more could we want?"

  "I want to give you children."

  "Addy, sweetheart—"

  "Elizabeth said that I would have children. Your children." She smiled at him when he stared at her in confusion.

  "Elizabeth saw children in our future?" God, he hoped Sam Dundee's little soothsayer knew what she was talking about. If ever a woman wanted and needed children, it was Addy.

  "Two little girls, Nick. Maria will be the eldest. She'll be our little green-eyed brunette."

  Nick raised up, bracing himself with his hand as he leaned over Addy. "Maria, huh? After my grandmother."

  "And Maria's little sister will have my red hair and your black eyes. I want to name her Madeline after my mother."

  The conviction in Addy's words made him believe these little girls would be a part of their future. Their finding each other and falling in love had been a miracle. Who was to say that God wouldn't grant them two more miracles? "You know what, Red? I can't think of anything I'd like better than to be surrounded by adoring females for the rest of my life."

  "And I can't think of anything I'd like better than being one of those adoring females." She cuddled against him.

  "I love you, Red."

  "I love you, too." Silently she added, I'll love you forever, my paladin.

  * * * * *