by Tina Leonard
“Well, I really can’t. There’s a giant tree down, blocking my path. So now I’m walking across the tree trunk, balancing carefully, to get over to your path, which is clear.” He walked along her arm with his fingers, until he reached her shoulder. “Good thing I’m possessed with natural athletic ability and flexibility, because my destination is here.” And he lightly tapped her heart. “This is home.”
She didn’t want to smile. It wouldn’t be good to encourage her husband’s teasing. “Joey’s been certain he was right about everything since the day he was born. If you keep listening to him, he’ll convince you to follow his pigheaded example.”
“No way.” Sam tugged her to her feet. “You’ll never catch me flat on my back on a table under the patio umbrella. Let’s steal Joey’s motorcycle and take a ride. The folks won’t mind watching the babies. Who knows? I may even decide to buy myself a Harley. For that matter, if you get the hang of it, I’ll buy you one. A matched set. We could put a baby carrier on each one, and motor the babies to the beach occasionally.”
She stared at him, her eyes huge.
“Oh, you like that idea.” He reached out to stroke her cheek.
“No, I don’t! It would be reckless and immature!”
“Hmm. Right now, yes. But later on when they’re old enough to wear helmets…come on,” he said softly. “Who better to find yourself with than your husband?”
“There’s something very wrong with the noun in that sentence.”
He took her hand, and this time she let him. “Nah. ‘Finding yourself’ and ‘husband’ both refer to healthy life phases and happy memories from the past. That’s a good thing. We can learn from our mistakes. Kids like Joey don’t know everything.” While Maddie glanced away, Sam stuffed the papers from Martin into a kitchen cabinet. “Let me call the folks over.”
Ten minutes later, Sam helped Maddie onto the motorcycle. Then he assisted her with the helmet. “Now, you’re going to have to put your hands around my waist, and avoid all cracks about how that’s in the past, too.”
“The thirty-two inch waistline, you mean?” He was as fit as ever, but Maddie sensed he was attempting to put her at ease.
“Exactly.”
“My old waistline is pretty much history, too,” she sighed. “The twins pulled me every which way.”
“Now that’s a true regret I have.” He put on his own helmet, staring at her as he did. “I wish I’d seen you pregnant.”
“It wasn’t a pretty sight. While the experience was like one of the wonders of the world, I’m afraid I wasn’t very attractive.”
“I doubt that.” He got on the bike and reached behind him for her hands. “I hear they call these love handles,” he said, placing her palms on his waist. “So love me, baby.”
She rolled her eyes. Sam had no love handles; he didn’t possess a spare ounce anywhere on his body. Considering she’d added several sizes to her clothing, she found that somewhat annoying. “I’m holding on. Ready anytime you are.” She was, and for some reason, she liked it.
“Maybe I should pick Vivi up at the airport tomorrow on this bike. She’d probably enjoy the ride.”
Maddie resisted the urge to pinch his nonexistent love handles. “I ordered her a taxi.”
“I’ll pick her up.”
“Perhaps I should go with you.”
“That would be great.” He gunned the engine, and they took off. Maddie held on to Sam, and a few miles out of the city limits, when she felt comfortable with the leaning of the bike and the feel of holding him, she relaxed.
Sam grinned. His little wife needed to let her hair down more often—with him.
MADDIE WASN’T SURE what she expected from a woman named Vivi who, according to Wine magazine, devoured men like bonbons. Maddie and her mother had discussed the situation and decided situating Vivi in Franny and Virgil’s house was the best idea. Even though Maddie wanted Sam to go back where he’d been happily living before he found out about their twins, she was bothered by the niggle of jealousy that attacked her every time she thought of the woman’s name. Vivi seemed so feminine. So sexy. So unlike plain Maddie. Overweight Maddie. She sighed, wishing her heart wasn’t such a wussy organ.
She’d set her course, and she would face it bravely. It was the right thing to do; it was the only thing to do.
Never did she suspect that lovely Vivi would get off the plane and charm her into a semihypnotic trance. The French woman brought adorable toys for the babies and a generous bottle of French perfume for Maddie.
Vivi gushed over the babies, exclaimed over the house and entertained Joey. Maddie had never seen her brother so charmed by someone twice his age. Vivi teased Severn and Virgil, who quite frankly had never seen that much Sophia Loren in French blonde since the days of Marilyn Monroe. Sara and Franny soon lost their suspicion of such a beautiful, sexy woman and pronounced her a delight, particularly when Henry spit up on Vivi’s sweater, causing her to shrug and say, “It washes. So much more important that the bubble came out of you, Henri, because you are more comfortable now, oui?”
But the most remarkable thing was that cool, calm, collected, devoted-to-Sam Martin captured Vivi’s heart.
“It’s the last thing I expected,” Maddie told Sam one night as they sat in the redecorated jungle bedroom. “I thought I would be so jealous of Vivi.”
“I never liked Vivi. I told you it was only business for me. Truthfully, she isn’t my kind of woman at all.”
Maddie liked hearing that. “I wouldn’t have thought she was Martin’s, either. And it’s not just a bonbon thing with her. She was smitten the moment she met Martin. I can’t understand it at all. To me, Martin has always been like a big brother. Except when he’s doing your dirty work.”
“Hey! Maddie, Martin is the only person I would have trusted with the personal details of our lives.”
She sniffed. “Have you decided to buy Vivi’s company?”
“No. How long is she staying?”
“Until you say you will buy it,” Maddie told him stubbornly. “It’s the only paperwork I ever want Martin to do that concerns the two of us.”
“If I agree, will you do one thing for me?”
Sam’s pleading expression sent a tremor through Maddie’s heart. How difficult it was to tell him no about anything! “Agree to a custodial arrangement?”
“Kiss me,” he said.
Her gaze skittered nervously away before returning to his. “That’s a high price to pay, isn’t it? Considering the circumstances?”
“I would be willing to pay anything you asked for a kiss.”
The tremors turned to an earthquake rocking her heart’s core. “Just one kiss? And you’ll agree to purchase Jardin?”
“Just one. And I sic Martin on the paperwork.”
It was what she wanted. Sam would return to France. She would raise her sons in peace, with their families for support. He would not be burdened by an obligation she’d forced on him. That was not the way to an equal marriage.
Just a kiss. Lips on lips. Pressure, suction, release.
Definitely doable.
Still, she hedged. “I kissed you the other day, remember, when our parents were celebrating the glories of the grape. Can you accept that as a retroactive kiss?”
“I don’t think that’s acceptable.”
With the babies upstairs with Joey, she really had no reason, no excuse not to. “Pucker up, huh?”
She puckered, and prayed it would be fast. He was calling the shots, though, since only he knew what kind of kiss he would accept for this agreement. Unable to stand the waiting, since he stood there smiling an enigmatic smile, and she felt pretty silly wearing the type of pucker eating a grapefruit induced, she closed her eyes.
And waited.
She didn’t dare open her eyes again, even though she didn’t feel him step any closer. The hairs on her arms tingled, and she was pretty certain her antiperspirant quit working.
His hands closed around her upper ar
ms, and her head started swimming. “Hurry, Sam,” she whispered.
“No way,” he told her. “This kiss is going to last all night.”
“All night!” Her eyes flew open. “The babies—”
“I paid Joey to baby-sit for the night. It’s time you and I spend some time alone. Together. Wherever that takes us.” He began kissing a sinuous trail along her neck, sending streaks of pleasure splintering through her body.
“You said one kiss!”
“And I meant that.” He ran a palm down her back to settle into the small crevice of her spinal curve. “One long, continuous kiss.”
“Sam!”
“No more, but no less. It was unromantic of me to fall asleep on you the other night. I’m making up for not living up to my boasting.”
She shut her eyes tightly again and strangled the moan threatening to escape her throat as she tilted her head back. “I think you’re pushing the boundaries of the agreement. This is bribery, I’m positive.”
“I know a good lawyer you could ask, but he’s busy at the moment with a certain French lady.”
Vivi had been staying with Franny and Virgil, as they had a nice guest room. “Is Martin at Mother’s with Vivi?”
“They’re out on a date, but if you want me to page him—”
“No. That won’t be necessary.” Her knees were weak under the onslaught of wonderful sensations and remembered passions of other nights. “But I would like to protest the length of the agreed-upon kiss.”
“You didn’t ask me to specify,” he reminded her. “I would have been more than happy to discuss it with you. But doing is more exciting than talking, and I like holding you. I like it a lot.”
He’s leaving for France, she told herself, as his kiss brushed the cleft between her breasts. He’s leaving for France, she reminded herself, squeezing her eyes tightly together as he kissed her navel.
Don’t go to France! her mind shouted.
She must have said it aloud because he said, “I’m not. I’m staying right here.”
Chapter Eight
Maddie tried to jump away from Sam and the soul-on-fire kiss, but he held her tightly as he moved slowly back up toward her lips. “Sam, you have to stop.”
“I don’t want to. It’s wonderful to hold you again.”
She put both hands on his chest, pushing slightly. “Sam, you said you’d buy Jardin.”
“I am,” he said. “Martin’s going to France to oversee it for me. He’s asking Vivi to marry him tonight. I’m happy this has all worked out so well, because I know you felt like you’d cost me the acquisition.” He took her wrists, removing them from his chest so that he could hold her against him instead. “Being with you means more to me than a company, Maddie.”
She shakily drew a breath. “You seduce me with words, and you seduce me with kisses. You make me want more.” Slight tearing blurred her eyes. “Okay. So you have your own wine company to help you kick-start a major wine-making operation here in Texas. You’re happy. But how long do these good feelings last before we get all tangled up again?”
Quickly stripping off her dress, himself of his jeans and shirt, he pulled her over to the bed, folded her under the lace coverlet and settled beside her, holding her in his arms.
“I couldn’t be happier about the twins.” Sam smoothed her hair against his chest, but Maddie couldn’t relax.
“Would you want more children?” This was a worry which ate at her. What if he did?
“Yes, I do. And we’ll have them the old-fashioned way.”
“What are the odds?” She so wanted to believe that they could, but it was the big question mark. And a source of great pain to them previously. It had ripped their marriage apart.
“Same as any other. There’s no guarantee Maitland could get you pregnant again, Maddie. Maybe it was luck. Maybe my deposit was potent when you had the procedure, but it had only been in the freezer a few months. By the time you decide to try again, it might be too frozen to thaw for the big swim.”
A tiny smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “I doubt that.”
“I do know this.” He ran his fingers through her hair, his touch mesmerizing. “This issue or any other, I’m not leaving you again.”
“I wish I could believe it would be as simple as you make it sound.” Maddie sighed. “I suppose we’d have to try again soon.”
“How soon?”
“Maybe the six-month mark, if we want the best chance for conception.”
He turned her to face him. “Is that healthy?”
“I don’t know.”
“What if it does take? Won’t that be hard on your body?”
“Maybe. But I’ll be that much closer to forty. I’m racing against time.”
“I can be happy with two—”
“I can too. But I want to try. I really do. I’ll call in my marker on an all-night-long kiss and much more when it’s time.”
“And pay for Joey to baby-sit, too?”
Sam was teasing her, and she liked it. She lightly brushed his lips with hers. “I think that’s fair enough.”
“Can you tell me what night so I’ll be prepared?”
She shook her head, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “We agreed we hated making love on a schedule. Therefore, the date of the next all-night kiss is a secret.”
“You’re always full of surprises. I like that about you, even when they’re momentous.”
She put her head back on his chest, taking a deeply contented breath. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
“So is this like a test? A trial and error kind of thing? If we manage to get pregnant, we’re okay? And if we can’t, we’re off again?”
“I don’t like the way that sounds,” she murmured.
“Neither do I, obviously.”
“If we couldn’t make it happen together, Sam, I would want to consult with Dr. Maitland again and see if he thought utilizing the same procedure would work. And you’ve already said no to that option, so I believe that door is firmly shut.”
“And so? It would be over between us? Because we couldn’t have more children?”
“This is the same conclusion that ended our marriage,” she reminded him. “We’re tracking over the same territory. I want children, and you’re happy with the picture as it is.”
“Yeah, I should just pack up and leave for France with Vivi and Martin,” he grumbled.
“You could probably get on the same plane, if you call for a ticket now.”
He shook his head. “No way. You don’t realize how badly you want me.”
That was the stomach-upending, roller coaster part of the problem. She did want Sam badly. He was irresistible. No matter how much she wanted to get over him, no matter how she tried to force her heart not to love him, she did.
She could be happy with him and the twins forever. It was knowing that she and Sam couldn’t handle bigger crises than this in their marriage that worried her.
“Sam, I have to tell you something.” She raised up on her arm and stared down into his face. “I’m not just being stubborn about having more babies. I know this is going to sound totally postpartum, but I have to try again.” She took a deep breath. “I have the strangest sensation that someone’s missing.”
His eyes widened. “Someone’s…missing?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “I know it sounds kind of uncanny, and I wish it didn’t. I’ve tried to put the feeling down to the fact that maybe I’d like a girl, since I’ve got two boys. Or maybe I had it fixed in my mind that I wanted a big family, so that’s what seems ‘right’ to me. I’ve tried to convince myself that’s all it is.”
He took her hand in his, softly rubbing it. “But you’re not convinced.”
Slowly, she shook her head.
After a moment, he kissed her fingers. “I’ll try as hard as I can to find that elusive youngster, morning, noon and night.” Grabbing her, he pulled her under him, kissing her thoroughly.
“Sam!” She beat at hi
s back playfully, trying to throw him off, but he wouldn’t go.
“Yes?” He stopped the kissing long enough to stare down into her eyes.
Maddie felt her breath catch. “You don’t feel it, do you? The missing baby?”
He nuzzled her neck. “Yes, I most certainly do. You’re my missing baby. I’m in the process of locating you right now.” Swiftly, he ran an exploring hand over her breasts, his eyebrow cocked as if he was searching for something.
“Sam!” she exclaimed with a laugh.
“The truth is,” he murmured as he put his face between her breasts, “you’re using this as an excuse. It’s the barrier you’re putting between us to stay pulled back from me.”
She frowned, but he was paying no attention. Her breasts had his complete focus. Apparently he’d found what he’d been playfully searching for, and what he was doing felt so wonderful that all she could think about was how badly she missed being joined with him. Gently, she tugged him away from her. “Do you really think so?”
His gaze met hers. “Yeah. I do. It’s the ultimate dead end, isn’t it? The super-goal I probably can’t meet.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Sam. I don’t think I saw it that way.”
He touched her cheek, running a finger over her skin. “Self-protection is a natural instinct, Maddie. Don’t be sad. I better than anyone understand being scared.”
“Why?” she whispered.
“Hey, who was in France? Nothing like escaping to a different continent to try to outrun my inadequacy.”
She put her fingers in his hair, running them through the dark strands. “Why are you so understanding?”
He laid his head against her chest, and she wrapped her arms around him. “Because I have a beautiful wife I want to keep,” he said simply. “If I want to earn her trust back, I know I have to out-think her. She is, after all, determined to send me back to France, even if she has to buy me a wine company.”
“Sam!” She pecked at his back with her fingers. “I just didn’t want you to give up your dream because of what I did.”
“You could have lost your dream because of what I did. So I have to figure out how to win my way back into your heart. And I’m not just doing this for you,” he told her quite seriously. “I’m setting a good example for my sons.”
