The Honeymoon Assignment
Page 23
“Damn it, Kelley, will you listen to me?”
“I am listening to you. You’re trying to tell me this whole thing was a mistake, and it nearly cost us both our lives. But, Sam—” This time she overrode his objections. “We may have gotten each other into a lot of trouble, but we saved each other, too. If I hadn’t softened Wayland up—”
“I know.”
“And if you hadn’t finally gotten through to him—although I don’t know exactly how you managed to do that—”
“I told him I was in love with you.”
That stopped her short. Sam was grinning at her again, although there was something hesitant in his expression, too.
“Say that again.” She wasn’t completely willing to believe she’d heard him correctly.
“I said I told Wayland I was in love with you. Completely, absolutely, head over heels in love.”
Kelley couldn’t speak this time. Part of her—the trained, professional, suspicious part—was telling her, Of course that’s what he told Wayland. He knew Wayland was susceptible to that sort of stuff. But the look in Sam’s eyes, half triumphant, half uncertain, made her think it had been no mere ruse.
“I also told him I’d been such a bullheaded fool that it hadn’t occurred to me to tell you I loved you until that very moment, when it was almost too late.”
“Sam—”
He held up a hand, wincing slightly again. “Wayland thought that was just about the saddest old thing he’d ever heard,” he said. “I don’t think he was wild about the idea of seeing you die in the first place, but the idea of breaking up a red-hot romance in the process—”
“Was it true?”
Sam paused and drew in a slow breath.
“What you told Wayland—was it true, Sam?”
The laughter was gone from his face now. So was the hesitation. In its place she saw a tenderness, an honesty, that shook her. She’d never seen Sam let himself look so vulnerable, so certain and so scared at the same time. The undiluted longing in his eyes made Kelley want to cry.
“It was true.” His words were slow, a declaration Kelley had barely allowed herself to imagine hearing from him again. “I love you, Kelley. Damn it, I never stopped loving you. I just couldn’t figure out a way to fix what went wrong.”
She saw frustration creeping into his expression and smiled at the sight of it. Nothing with Sam Cotter had ever been easy—nothing ever would be easy. But as long as they were together—as long as the visions his words were opening up were real, and not just dreams this time—
“Love fixes what’s wrong, Sam.” The throatiness of her own voice surprised her. She sounded close to tears—maybe she was in tears. She didn’t care, and didn’t let it get in the way of her next words. “And I love you, too—I’ve loved you all along. It would have been easier if I’d stopped, but I just couldn’t.”
Something primitive flashed in his dark blue eyes, and Kelley caught her breath as she felt that old intuitive connection between them. “You’re like a part of me,” she murmured, and finally gave in to the temptation to run her fingers through his thick, wind-tossed hair. “You’ve always been a part of me. You always will be.”
“Then you can forgive me for what happened three years ago?”
“Forgive you!” It came out on a laugh. “Sam, what happened then was my fault. I was inexperienced, I had too much confidence in my own abilities, I didn’t listen to—”
“Kelley, none of it was your fault. If I’d been thinking straight—”
She laughed again. She couldn’t help it. “Sam, stop,” she said. “It doesn’t matter now. Remember? We love each other. And that’s enough to fix what went wrong.”
Sam was leaning closer to her now, his forehead almost touching hers. Kelley was aching with the need for his kiss, for his touch, for the silent confirmation of the love that had been stirring such unmistakable responses in her ever since this case had started.
But she didn’t miss the direction of his gaze, or the sudden pensiveness on his face as he said, “We lost a new life that night, Kelley. Is love strong enough to make up for that, too?”
He was looking at her belly as he spoke. He lifted his free hand now and rubbed his knuckles gently over the spot where their child had started to grow.
Kelley had never been able to think of her lost child without a stab of anguish. But now, as Sam’s hand moved in a slow circle against the soft yellow wool of her sweater, she felt something new—something strong enough to withstand pain, vital enough to fill her with hope.
She felt her own eyes shining with tears—and happiness—as she looked up at Sam again. “Love—real loveis strong enough to make up for anything,” she told him. “I’m willing to try again—if you are.”
“Willing!”
And there it was, that slow, sexy smile that Kelley would have given her life for. It creased the corners of Sam’s eyes, erasing all the cynicism he’d stored up there, and made his face come alive with emotions he’d kept buried for so long.
“I’m more than willing, sweetheart. I’ve been having fantasies about little blue-eyed babies all day while they were poking me with needles at that hospital, and taping me back together, and telling me I should rest—”
“You’re not going to have much chance to rest.” She said the wods pensively. “Wiley’s going to be leaving Cotter Investigations in two more weeks, in case you’d forgotten.”
“I hadn’t forgotten. But the new owner is a guy who’s getting too old for the rough stuff in this business. He’s planning on bringing in some new people to take care of the shoot-’em-up cases, so he can stick with what he really wants to do.”
“Financial crime?”
“Mmm.” His noncommittal answer vibrated at the spot where her forehead was leaning against his. He kissed her briefly, tantalizingly, and added, “Actually, it was babies I was thinking about. I hear the new owner is also planning to implement a very liberal materinal leave policy for his female employees.”
Kelley felt herself drawn into his smile, into the happiness that merged with hers and threatened to overflow. “I suppose they would be blue-eyed babies,” she said.
“They’d better be. And I just know they’re going to be as elegant as their mother—”
“What if they’re not? What if they’re stubborn little soand-so’s, like their father?”
“What if they’re both?”
The sound of his laughter blending with hers was a sweet music Kelley had almost forgotten about. “Then we don’t stand a chance,” she said. “Think we’d better not risk it?”
Sam shook his head and got awkwardly to his feet, holding out his left hand toward her. “We don’t have a choice,” he said. “There’s no way I’m driving back to Austin with Jack and Wiley tonight. I’m too bushed. And that means sleeping with you in the cottage one more night. And that means—” He waggled his dark eyebrows at her to let her know very specifically what he meant.
“And cigarettes aren’t the only things I ran out of, if you know what I mean.” His unrepentant grin seemed to wrap itself right around Kelley, and she moved into his arms feeling almost light-headed with joy. “So we’re going to start to work on those blue-eyed babies right away, whether that’s part of the plan or not. Got it?”
“I’ve got it. And I’ve got you.” She didn’t know where the familiar scent of Sam’s skin ended and the fresh sea air began. After this week together—this unlikely honeymoon that had somehow managed to lead them in a backward and roundabout way into marriage—she couldn’t separate the two in her mind.
And she didn’t even want to try.
* * * * *
eISBN 978-14592-7939-1
THE HONEYMOON ASSIGNMENT
Copyright © 1996 by Cathy Stanton
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 xerogr
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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.
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Table of Contents
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Excerpt
Dear Reader
Books by Cathryn Clare
About the Author
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Copyright