Several people turned to see what had caught Kadina's attention, and Garcelle could have died. Especially when Kade looked over his broad shoulder, and his heated eyes fell on her.
Kade felt the breath literally leave his body as he watched Garcelle step inside the tent and take an empty seat in the rear.
"Wow," Kaleb said in his ear.
Kade knew his rogue of a brother was commenting on the way Garcelle looked in her short, strapless, fitted sequin dress, which was a deep slate gray, and her matching short fur. Her hair was piled atop her head. Her make-up was dramatic. She looked absolutely stunning. Wow was right.
His heart hammered in his chest as he forced himself to face forward.
The minister's words of love and devotion, coupled with the romantic setting and the sounds of Ettajames, made for a beautiful ceremony. It made a woman want to believe in love and a man want to believe in happily ever after.
Several times Garcelle had chanced a look at Kade, only to find his eyes already resting on her. They would both look away.
Garcelle envisioned that it was she who was standing at the altar, in a chic satin gown, with Kade, in his tux, and that they vowed to love one another until the end of time.
But that would never be. They would never be.
Coming here was a mistake.
Etta's singing of love at last grew louder, until her voice echoed inside the tent. Hank bent down to kiss his bride, and Garcelle rose from her seat and fled from the tent and the visions of a life she would never have.
19
One Week Later
Kade squatted down by the three-foot marble headstone of his wife. He used his hand to brush away the few leaves covering her grave.
"I miss you a lot, you know," he said, shifting to sit on the ground. "I guess you do know that. You probably can see everything going on down here." He licked his lips as the winds picked up. "So I guess you probably know about Garcelle."
He smiled at the thought of Garcelle. "You would like her. She's funny and smart and full of life, and ... and ... she made ... makes me happy, Reema," he admitted. "But I guess you probably know that, too," he said, with a laugh.
"She's so good with Kadina, and she talks about you all the time with her, and she would help me raise Kadina to be just the type of woman you would want her to be."
He looked around as the limbs of the trees swayed from side to side.
Seeing Garcelle at the wedding last week had brought it home that she, too, meant a lot to him. When he looked up after the wedding ceremony to find she was gone, he knew that the ceremony had touched her as well. He knew that she loved him still.
I'm here living and breathing and loving you, but I'm not about to fight with a ghost....
"I don't want you to think that I will ever forget you or stop loving you ... because I won't, but I love Garcelle," he admitted, blinking away tears as he cleared his throat. "I really love her, and I just don't want you to think that my loving her takes away from anything we shared together."
The winds whipped around him, and he felt comforted.
"Reema, it's time for me to move on, and I know now that you would want that for me." He rose to his feet with ease and brushed the dirt from his pants. "I will never forget you. I promise you that."
"Good night, Donnie," Garcelle called out to the gruff owner as she walked out the front door of the restaurant. She pulled her print sweater cap on before she searched in her purse for her keys.
"Garcelle."
She looked up. Kade stood there, leaning against his car and holding a large bouquet of roses. His usual Dickies uniform was gone, replaced by a black suit and an open black shirt, worn under a crisp tailored wool coat that made him devastatingly handsome. She felt surprised, pleased, and confused by his presence. "Hello, Kade," she said, feeling awkward in his presence. It had been a week since the wedding. She had just gotten her equilibrium back, and here he was, throwing her off again.
He pushed off the vehicle and walked over to her. The cold wind blew around them, and the scent of his cologne reached her as he held the bouquet out to her. "For you."
Garcelle bit her bottom lip as she accepted it. Their hands touched briefly, and there was still nothing but sparks. "What's going on? What's this all about?"
He reached up and lightly touched her chin. "It's about me being happy, and you make me happy. The last two months have been hell, but I'm ready for my own little slice of heaven in your arms ... in your life."
Garcelle closed her eyes and released a long stream of air through pursed lips as she fought for composure.
Kade continued. "You were right. I wasn't ready before. I wasn't able to fully accept you being in my life. All I knew then was that I loved you, and I wanted you in my life. It took time for me to realize that I need you."
Garcelle buried her face in the bouquet as she got her thoughts and her words together. "You really hurt me, Kade," she admitted. "I gave you distance. I didn't push. I didn't do a Zorrie on you-"
"I know. I know. Can I show you something?" he asked as he reached for her hand.
Her reluctance was obvious. "Kade, I don't know...."
"Please."
"Why are you doing this to me?" Garcelle looked into his eyes.
Kade stepped closer to her and brought one hand up to caress the side of her face and then her nape. "Do you love me?"
"My life is fine. Why not let it be, Kade?"
"Do ... you ... love ... me?"
Garcelle let her head fall back as he continued to massage her neck. "Kade..
He used his hand to turn her head so that their eyes locked. "Do you love me?" he whispered, his cool breath fanning her lips.
"Yes," she admitted in a heated rush. "Yes, I love you.
"Come on," he said, reaching for her hand and lightly pulling her toward the SUV.
They rode in silence. Their hands were entwined atop the console in between their seats.
"Where are we going?" she asked, still trying to decide if she was happy or not being with the man she loved. The same man who had hurt her.
"Home," he said simply.
Garcelle said nothing else. "Your home or my home?" she asked.
He didn't answer her until they turned down the road leading to his house. It appeared every room in the house was lit up. She had to admit it was a warm and inviting sight.
"If you think bringing me here to prove you can have sex in your wife's house-"
"Our home," he told her as he shut the vehicle off.
"Huh?"
"You asked if I was taking you to your home or mine, and I am saying this is our home."
He climbed out of the vehicle and left her sitting there, more confused than ever. "Our home?" she asked as she watched him jog up the stairs and into the house.
Garcelle dropped her roses on the driver's seat as she scrambled out of the vehicle and up the stairs and into the house. As soon as she crossed the threshold, she gasped in surprise.
There was a trail of rose petals and candles in tall vases leading down the hall and into the den. "Kade," she called out.
"I want you to walk around the whole house first and then meet me in the den," he called back to her.
"What?"
`Just do it."
And she did. Room by room after room. Upstairs and downstairs. And each room she found completely devoid of furniture. No throw rugs. No curtains. No towels in the bathrooms. No beds in the bedrooms. Nothing. There was absolutely no furniture. The house looked like it had just been purchased and was waiting for someone to turn it into a home.
What was going on?
In Kade's bedroom, she found the same emptiness, but what really shocked her was that the large wedding photo was gone from its spot on the wall. She left the room and went racing down the stairs. Once in the front hall, she followed the beautifully lit path into the den. "I'm coming, Kade," she called out.
"Come on," he urged.
In the center of the room, Ka
de was down on one knee, surrounded by a thick bed of rose petals. He held a ring box in his outstretched hand.
"Kade?"
"Come to me."
Garcelle hated to walk across the petals, but she wanted to be close to him. She tiptoed until she stood before him, with her eyes locked on his. "Kade, this so beautiful," she sighed, her accent very heavy.
"Garcelle, I am more than ready to welcome you into my life, my home, and my heart. I want this to be our home so that we can share our lives together and make our own memories. Our own babies. Our own history. We'll start fresh. We'll decorate it together. We'll make it ours." He took a deep breath and smiled up at her. "Will you marry me, Garcelle?"
She was touched beyond words. Her heart overflowed with love for him. She couldn't begin to explain how much all of it meant to her.
"Yes. Yes. Yes. I'll marry you. I will marry you, Kade Strong," she said, with a soft, teasing tone, as she bent down to kiss him firmly on the lips.
As he slid the three-carat solitaire onto her finger, Garcelle fell to her knees before him. She grasped his face, and they shared a dozen or more kisses before he pressed her body down upon the plush bed of rose petals.
They undressed one another slowly, as if to cherish every moment of their union. They sighed in pleasure at the feel of each other's naked flesh. His hard frame pressed against her soft curves as they explored each other's bodies. Sweat made many of the rose petals cling to their bodies as they rolled about and kissed and whispered words of nothing but love and devotion for one another. And when he filled her with his hardness, each stroke united them at a far deeper level than the physical one. It was the merging of two souls destined to become one.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
"It's a boy! It's a boy!"
Almost everyone in the entire waiting room of the labor and delivery wing of Colleton Medical Center jumped to their feet and rushed Kahron, with congratulations.
Garcelle turned to hug Kade tightly, with excitement, as she took in the rest of the family.
"Hot damn, the Strong name lives on!" Kael Strong roared, with a pump of his fist in the air. He pulled Lisha to him and twirled her around the waiting room.
"Yes, but it was a King that brought him into the world," Hank countered as he lifted his wife high in his arms. "Ain't that right, Mimi?"
"You are always right, Big Daddy," Mimi purred in her real voice as she rubbed his big belly. He giggled like the Pillsbury Doughboy.
Carlos stepped up to shake Kahron's hand. "Congratulations, Kahron."
"Thank you, Carlos. Thank you." Kahron's face beamed.
Once Kade asked Carlos for his daughter's hand in marriage, the Strongs and the Kings had pulled the Santos clan right into their midst.
"Pay up, you two. Y'all lost," Kaleb boasted to Kaitlyn and Kaeden, with his hand outstretched.
Kaitlyn reached in her purse and roughly pushed the fifty-dollar bill into Kaleb's hand. "I thought they said if she carried low, it was a girl," she grumbled good-naturedly.
"See if I listen to you and those old wives' tales again," Kaeden told Kaityln as he counted out fifty dollars from his wallet and handed the bills to his brother.
Kadina left her spot in between Garcelle and Kade and cleared her throat as she looked up at her Uncle Kaleb. "Remember, you forgot my birthday money because you didn't have any cash on you, Uncle Kaleb," she said as she eyed the wad in his hand, with a toothy smile.
Garcelle, Kadina, and everyone in the room laughed as Kaleb peeled off two ten-dollar bills to give her. Kadina cleared her throat again, and Kaleb peeled off a twenty.
"Happy birthday. We straight?" Kaleb asked as he mussed Kadina's bangs.
"All the time. All the time," Kadina said as she counted her money and walked back to her father and future stepmother.
She handed the money to Garcelle. "We'll put it in your piggy bank when we get home," Garcelle promised her.
"When can we see my little girl?" Hank asked as Mimi rubbed his lower back.
"Right now. But try and keep it down, okay?" said Kahron. He opened the door and held it open as everyone filed out.
Kade grabbed Garcelle around the waist from behind. "You sure you want to be a part of this circus?" he asked.
"There's nothing more I want in the world," she told him before she turned, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him deeply, with lots and lots of love, passion, and chemistry, which burned hot like fire.
Dear Readers,
I hoped you felt the love, passion, and fire between Kade and Garcelle. Theirs was truly a love that was able to overcome all obstacles.
This joint Strong Family / Hot Holtsville Series is becoming near and dear to me. I am truly enjoying each and every one of these couples as they fall headfirst in love. Fever is coming soon. It is book three in the Strong Family Series and book five in the Hot Holtsville Series. In Feveryou will see just how Kaeden Strong finally finds the courage to go after the sexy Jade Prince. It will be a sexy, funny, and endearing book, which I hope you all will enjoy.
Also, don't forget that Show and Tell, the sequel to my critically acclaimed mainstream debut, Live and Learn, is on its way to you all in March 2008. Catch up with Dom, Alize, Cristal, and Moet. You won't believe how the lessons they learned go right out the window as they each face more drama than ever.
Thanks again to all of you for your loyal support. I appreciate and cherish you all.
As always, Love 2 Live & Live 2 Love.
Best, Niobiar
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Table of Contents
Reviews of Previous Niobia Bryant Books
Prologue
Hot Like Fire (Dafina Contemporary Romance) Page 23
