by Laura Moore
“No.” Gen shook her head wildly. Her chest was heaving, her breath coming fast and erraticly. “Why would Sydney marry Harry?” A look of horror crossed her face. “You mean she wasn’t pregnant with your— oh, my God.” With a heartrending wail, Gen crumpled to the floor.
“Jesus, Gen!” Panicked, Alex rushed to her side, scooping her into his arms, his terror mounting when he realized she was lighter than a feather. She was crying, her sobs wracking her body. Tightening his arms about her, he carried her across the room, to the half-open door on the other side, kicking it open with his foot.
Holding Gen cradled against his thundering heart, he swept inside the small bedroom, only to come to an abrupt stop in front of the most beautiful painting he’d ever seen. It was of a couple, naked and embracing, their bodies so close they became as one. The painting was of him and Gen.
He exhaled a long, shuddering breath. Drawing his eyes away from the painting, he gazed at Gen’s tear-streaked face and felt more confused than ever.
And more hopeful than he’d felt in six weeks and a day.
He turned toward the bed and caught sight of Jamie’s and Sophie’s drawings, beautifully framed, hanging a few feet above the pillows. Other than Gen’s painting, they were the only ornamentation in the spartan bedroom. Seeing that she’d cared enough to frame the twins’ drawings eased some of the terrible ache inside his chest. He bent over the bed to lower her onto the rumpled covers, and when her fingers tightened, clutching him, unwilling to let him go, he instinctively pressed his lips to her flushed brow and murmured, “Easy, love.”
As if hearing Alex’s tender endearment was more than she could bear, , she hid her face behind her hands, and whispered brokenly, “Oh, Alex, I’m so sorry. I’m so very, very sorry.”
Gently but no less determinedly he pulled her hands away. His eyes roved over her. “Why don’t you try explaining what this is all about? It’s something to do with Sydney, I’m guessing.”
Gen nodded tightly. “Yes, you see, Sydney came to your aunt’s house that day. She was looking for you and she was totally beside herself. Practically hysterical. I asked her what was wrong and she told me she’d just discovered she was pregnant—and as she wanted to talk to you, I thought you were the father. You’d only broken up a few weeks earlier.” Her gaze dropped to her lap.
“Oh, Jesus,” Alex groaned as things finally began to click into place. Reaching out, he let his fingers trace the damp smoothness of her cheek before slipping them beneath her chin, and lifting it so that their eyes met. “No, sweetheart, the baby is Harry’s. I guess Sydney was panicking because they’d only been seeing each other for a few weeks. She never even mentioned that she’d talked to you.” His mouth tightened and he shook his head. “I’d be furious with Sydney, but under the circumstances I can see how she might have been a bit distracted. And I never made the connection between her being pregnant and you leaving. I was so damn devastated that you’d left me, I wasn’t thinking very clearly. Gen,” he said softly, looking deep into her eyes. “Sydney and I had stopped sleeping together before I even met you.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “What?”
Alex nodded. “I’d already ended the relationship before you came to the office. But Sydney refused to listen. She was convinced that she could, uh, seduce me back into her bed.” Embarrassment had him clearing his throat. “I was in a stupid bind of my own making— I didn’t want to fire her from the TLM account, but that meant I couldn’t avoid her either, what with the arrangements for the party and the TLM wing.”
“She made me think you two were practically engaged,” Gen said, her voice quivering with outrage.
Alex cursed softly. “That was bull. I’ve never proposed to Sydney.” Taking her hands in his, he said, “But I’m to blame for this mess, not Sydney. I wanted to tell you that there was nothing between Sydney and me, but I figured that with Sydney acting like we were lovers, you’d think I was some kind of two-timing creep coming on to you for the hell of it—after all,” he smiled crookedly, “you didn’t exactly have that great an opinion of me to begin with. So I decided to wait Sydney out. But I hadn’t counted on how damned irresistible you were. Everything unraveled that morning when I was supposed to model for you. You looked at me and you were so beautiful, I couldn’t stop myself from touching you the way I’d been dreaming of.”
At Alex’s words, emotions welled inside Gen. “I wish I’d known about Sydney, I felt so guilty thinking I’d broken up your relationship. I was jealous, too, of how perfect she seemed for you,” she whispered. “But being with you and knowing that you loved me helped put my insecurities behind me. I knew that what we had together was real. Then, when Sydney came and told me about the baby, I realized it didn’t matter that I was strong enough to fight my fears, because I had to let you go anyway.” Her voice cracked in anguish at the memory of all that had happened, of what she’d done. The tears she’d fought to control rolled down her cheeks. “Oh, God, Alex,” she cried, “I’ll never forgive myself for the things I said to you— I only said them so you’d stay with Sydney and the baby. I knew that you were as jealous of Jiri as I was of Sydney. So I lied deliberately to hurt you and drive you away.”
He touched his forehead to hers. “It worked,” he admitted quietly. “It killed me to think that you’d used me and then gone off to be with Jiri. That’s why I didn’t come after you in Prague, because a part of me believed Jiri was perfect for you.”
“Oh, Alex, no!” Gen cried. Her hands clasped the sides of his face as she whispered urgently, “From that first time together, I knew in my heart that I could never love anyone the way I love you. I haven’t been able to live with myself, knowing how much I hurt you. I love you so much, Alex—”
“Shh,” he said, his arms slipping about her, rocking her. His lips traveled over her, raining soft, healing kisses on her salty cheeks. His arms tightened their hold, the feel of her against him making him complete for the first time in so very long. “I know, Gen. I know you love me—I figured it out the second I saw this.” And he nodded at the painting on the wall.
“It’s called Love,” Gen told him shyly. “It’s the only painting I’ve been able to make since I left you. I painted it for you, Alex, for that space above the mantel in your bedroom. It was the only way I could express how I felt—but then I knew I could never give it to you, never show you what you mean to me, because I’d destroyed our love.”
“No, Gen, the love is still there.” His mouth settled over hers, and his heart leapt at her familiar honeyed taste. “That’s why I’m here. I tried to stop loving you, but I couldn’t. As soon as I heard from Williams that you were in Boston, the wall that I’d built around my heart came tumbling down. I had to see you. I realized then that in spite of what had happened, I still loved you more than anything in the world. God, I love you, Gen,” he whispered fiercely. “I love you so much. That day at the studio? I had a ring in my pocket—”
At Gen’s sharp keen, Alex stroked the sides of her face. “Shh, sweetheart, it’s all right; just listen,” he said. “I was late coming back that day because I couldn’t find a jewel half as beautiful as the light in your eyes when I’m loving you. And then I was even later because I drove like a little old lady, nervously rehearsing what I wanted to say to you. I’m not nervous now, Gen, because I know what it’s like not to have you in my life. I know that without you I’m only half alive. Marry me, Gen. Come and make my life complete. Let me wake each morning to see the light shining in your eyes.”
THE END
The deeper you dive, the sweeter the reward .
NIGHT SWIMMING
by Laura Moore
When college offered an escape, Lily fled her hometown of Coral Beach and never looked back. Now a marine biologist, she must return there on a job to preserve the reefs that give the town its name. But going back means dealing with her past, her family, and worst of all, Sean McDermott. As a teenager, Lily passed through an especially awkward phase.
Sean, attractive and self-assured, was her constant tormentor.
As mayor, Sean knows how important it is to maintain the town’s natural beauty—and if the return of Lily Banyon is the price he has to pay, so be it. What’s harder to disregard is the fact that Lily has grown into a smart and beautiful woman, as passionate about saving Coral Beach as she once was about leaving it. While working closely together, it becomes obvious to Sean that if he and Lily can put the past behind them, they could have a passionate future. . . .
Published by Ivy Books
Available wherever books are sold
Subscribe to the new Pillow Talk
e-newsletter—and receive all these
fabulous online features directly in
your e-mail inbox:
♥ Exclusive essays and other features by major romance
writers like Linda Howard, Kristin Hannah,
Julie Garwood, and Suzanne Brockmann
♥ Exciting behind-the-scenes news from our romance editors
♥ Special offers, including contests to win signed romance books and other prizes
♥ Author tour information, and monthly announcements about the newest books on sale
♥ A Pillow Talk readers forum, featuring feedback from romance fans...like you!
Two easy ways to subscribe:
Go to www.ballantinebooks.com/PillowTalk
or send a blank e-mail to
[email protected] .
Pillow Talk—
the romance e-newsletter brought to you by
Ballantine Books
Also by Laura Moore
NIGHT SWIMMING
Books published by The Random House Publishing Group are available at quantity discounts on bulk purchases for premium, educational, fund-raising, and special sales use. For details, please call 1–800–733–3000.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
An Ivy Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 2004 by Laura Moore
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ivy Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Ivy Books and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-41568-4
v3.0
