Gabby collapsed on the sofa, glad Miko had come, glad she’d said the things that she had. Now she realized she had to finish packing. Maybe she’d see if she could get a flight out tonight. Staying here with Rafe, when she loved him, knowing he didn’t love her, hurt too much. If she returned to Italy, maybe she’d start to heal. Maybe she could figure out the course of the rest of her life.
Rafe hadn’t gone far. He’d positioned himself just outside the suite door and waited. Yes, it could be a long wait, especially if Gabby and Kutras reconciled. But she might need him. She might open that door and yell for his help. He couldn’t just leave her unprotected.
Only about twenty minutes had passed when the door to the suite opened. Rafe felt so relieved when he saw Kutras. The green haze of jealousy he’d denied since Kutras had come to the door evaporated. If the Greek and Gabby had reconciled, they’d be locked in each other’s arms in her bed. In spite of himself, Rafe looked for lipstick on Kutras’s pristine white shirt collar. He found none.
Mikolaus Kutras didn’t just leave. He saw Rafe, stopped and looked him in the eye. “You are a very lucky man.”
After that enigmatic statement, the Greek tycoon walked down the hall, stepped inside the elevator and disappeared from sight.
“Gabby?” Rafe called her name as he came back into the suite.
A half hour after Miko had left, Gabby took the turquoise sandals from the floor of the closet, fitted them in the suitcase around her other items and knew she was finished. The packing was done and it was time to leave. All she had to do was say goodbye to Rafe. Thank goodness, as a celebrity, she could get a seat on the last flight out.
She’d left her bedroom door open a few inches. Rafe rapped on it.
“Come in,” she called, not sure exactly what she was going to say to him.
Rafe looked different somehow and she couldn’t quite put her finger on the difference. His hair was too short to be disheveled, yet she had the feeling he’d run his hand through it lately many times. Maybe it was his expression. He looked…unsettled.
“I reserved a seat on a flight to New York tonight,” she explained as she moved clothes in the suitcase to keep her hands busy.
“I thought you weren’t leaving until the day after tomorrow.”
“I changed my mind. I thought it would be better for both of us if I leave today.”
He approached her slowly, as if he was afraid she’d run away if he moved too fast. “You didn’t spend much time with Kutras.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Now Rafe did run his hand through his hair. “I waited outside in case you needed me.”
How was she supposed to take that? As if he’d done his job? Or as if he really cared? She closed the lid of her suitcase and ran the zipper around it. “I didn’t need you, Rafe. Some things a woman has to do on her own.”
“Kutras said something when he left.”
She brought her gaze to Rafe’s. “What did he say?”
“He said I’m a very lucky man. Can you tell me why?”
She wasn’t foolish. She wasn’t naive. But she did believe in dreams. And she wanted her dream to come true. So she threw caution to the wind and risked her heart. “Miko picked up on what’s happened, I guess. I love you, Rafe. I can’t leave without saying it. I know you don’t want to hear it, but I can’t deny the truth. That’s why I’m leaving now. It hurts to be around you when I want you to be more than a bodyguard.”
Her hand was still on the zipper of the suitcase. Rafe came to her and took both of her hands in his. When he ran his thumbs over her palms, she could have melted at his feet.
“I found the present,” he said in a low voice. “But I don’t want a thank-you present. I want you…forever. Before you came into my life, I was stuck in the past. I considered myself tough and ready for anything, but I wasn’t ready for you. You pulled me from the past into now, and I fought it. I fought it hard. I fought you. But when Kutras came to that door today, I realized part of me would die if you reconciled with him. At first I thought it was jealousy. But it wasn’t. It was love for you. After Kutras left, I called Joe and asked him to watch the suite while I took a walk. I had to get perspective. I only made it outside the back entrance when I realized perspective meant nothing. My feelings for you meant everything.”
He squeezed her hands. “I love you. I want you to be my wife. I want to have children with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
She was crying now and couldn’t seem to find her voice. Rafe loved her. He really loved her.
He pulled her into his arms. “Am I a lucky man, Gabby? Will you marry me?”
“Yes, yes, I’ll marry you!” she responded happily, throwing her arms around his neck. They’d shared many kisses, but this one was full of promise. This one was full of love, yearning, tenderness and the passion that she knew they’d share for a lifetime.
His lips clung to hers and then he lifted his head, breaking the kiss. “We’re going to have to figure out what kind of future we want.”
“I want to have your babies.”
He grinned. “We might need a bit of time together first. But we can practice a lot.”
She laughed and laid her head against his chest. Then she realized they had some unfinished business. “What are we going to do about the photograph?”
“I really don’t think that’s a problem anymore. I don’t care if that picture of us kissing is published everywhere. I want the whole world to know I love you.”
“Show me how much,” she suggested.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. “Gladly. And then we’ll go get a marriage license.”
Gabby lovingly laid her hand against his face and ran her thumb across his lips. “Will you, Rafael Balthazar, be my bodyguard for a lifetime?”
He kissed her thumb and assured her, “I’ll watch over and love you forever.”
When Rafe laid her down on the bed and came down beside her, Gabby reached for him, believing the dreams they shared would come true.
Epilogue
Gabby and Rafe sat on a blanket on the rise of a gentle hill under a cypress tree, looking over the vista of plowed fields and olive groves. Rafe poured wine into the wineglasses she’d brought along in the picnic basket. Their small villa, with its stone walls, wooden doors and hand-painted tile accents was nestled in the valley below.
“So, do you really love our house?” Gabby asked. It was the one she’d found on the Internet and the first that they’d looked at when they’d flown to Italy.
“I do. And it will be a home soon, rather than a house.”
Their furniture was being delivered tomorrow. They’d done everything in such a short amount of time. They’d married in Dallas, with Rafe’s mother and sister and the McCord family present. Eleanor had graciously let them use her estate for the wedding. Then they’d flown to Italy for their honeymoon, mixing lovemaking with house buying and visiting her parents.
For the most part they’d stayed at a bed-and-breakfast, but last night they’d brought bedrolls and air mattresses and made love in their new house.
“What do you really think of my parents?” Gabby asked.
“I think they love you very much, and if your mother could, she’d have our wedding here all over again.”
“She’s throwing the reception. I don’t know how she put it together so fast.” The following evening relatives and friends in the area would be invited to celebrate Gabby and Rafe’s marriage in the villa where she grew up.
“Am I going to meet royalty?” he joked.
“Do you want to meet royalty?” Gabby asked, amused.
He reached out and stroked her hair. “You’re royalty enough for me.”
After a quick but sound kiss, Rafe produced a newspaper from under the picnic basket. “What’s that?” Gabby asked.
“Look and see.” He held it up for her and she saw the front page of the tabloid. It was the picture of the two of them kissing.
“You said you wanted the whole world to see.” She studied him closely to see his reaction.
“Yes, I did. And I don’t mind a bit. How about you?”
“I’m proud to be your wife. But what if you decide to leave McCord’s and go out on your own again? Will this affect what you do?”
“No. I fell in love with the woman I was guarding. What could be wrong with that?”
“Absolutely nothing,” she murmured, as he leaned close for a kiss. She tasted wine on his lips. She also tasted the desire that always took them both away to another place where the two of them found paradise.
After the kiss slowly ended, Rafe tilted his forehead against hers. “When we have children, I’ll specialize in online security for the McCords and Blake can find someone else to travel. We can make this our home base, maybe stay here most of the year and find a place in Dallas for the rest. What do you think?”
“I know we talked about waiting to have children. But Rafe, I think I’m ready now. Are you?”
“More than ready.” He took her wineglass from her hand, set his along with hers in the picnic basket and kissed her again.
As the Tuscan sun rippled over the hills, Gabby knew she’d found the life she’d wanted—a life with Rafe.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3793-7
THE TEXAS BODYGUARD’S PROPOSAL
Copyright © 2009 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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 xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Visit Silhouette Books at www.eHarlequin.com
~Logan’s Legacy
†Montana Mavericks: Gold Rush Grooms
*Baby Bonds
*Baby Bonds
*Baby Bonds
††Talk of the Neighborhood
‡‡Logan’s Legacy Revisited
**Dads in Progress
°The Wilder Family
**Dads in Progress
**Dads in Progress
§The Baby Experts
§The Baby Experts
¤The Foleys and the McCords
The Texas Bodyguard’s Proposal Page 19
