“N-nothing.” She dropped her gaze to her hands, twisting in her lap.
He waited a few seconds. “Okay. Then tell me what I’m dreaming about.”
She risked a glance at him—his face was serious, but his eyes laughed at her. Shelley shook her head. “I never know what’s in your head.”
“Not true. Sometimes you interpret very well.” A certain slant to his quick grin told her exactly what he meant. She gave an involuntary chuckle.
“See, you do know. So just extend the talent.”
“Zach. I can’t. I only know my own thoughts.”
“And couldn’t mine be the same?”
“No. Oh, no.”
“Why not?”
“Because…”
“Because, nothin’.” He sat up so that they were close together on the bed. “You deserve this, Shelley. We both do.” His arms slipped around her waist. His breath warmed her temple. “The longer we put off taking what we want, the less time we’ll have to enjoy it.”
She was afraid to believe him. “I don’t know…”
“Then let me tell you. I love you, Shelley Owens Hightower Harmon. I don’t know when it happened, or how. Maybe two years ago, or nine months, or on our wedding day. Doesn’t matter. I want us to stay together. A long, long, long time. A lifetime.”
“Zach, if this is just for the baby—”
“Look at me.” She couldn’t. He tightened his hold. “Look at me, Shelley.”
Gathering all her courage, she raised her eyes to his. There was love everywhere on his face, and a kind of hopeful patience that crimped her heart.
In that instant, Shelley stopped trying to hide what she felt. She let her whole heart show.
“That’s it.” He closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, his grin widened. “What I see on your face is inside of me. We belong, Shelley.”
Could it be this easy? “I drive you crazy.”
His warm hands stroked her back. “I like it.”
“I’m materialistic and ambitious.” Finally, she let herself touch him, his jaw, his nose, his hair. Forget weariness. Every part of her was suddenly, gloriously alive.
He smiled. “You’re a soft touch underneath.”
She ran a fingertip across his mouth. “I make more money than you do.”
“True.” He sighed. Then kissed her palm. “I’ll learn to live with that. And you have to live with a guy who’s satisfied just where he is.”
“There are harder jobs.” She sighed. “I love you, Zach. More than I can say.”
“Mmm.” He turned her more fully into his arms and lowered his head. “I was waiting for that.” He breathed the words into her mouth. Into her soul.
Their kiss swept her away…to a winter’s night in an anonymous bed with an exciting, unpredictable man. Then forward again…into a future filled with light and laughter. And love.
Zach drew back and smoothed the hair away from his wife’s face. “I’d better slow down,” he whispered. “The nurses wouldn’t appreciate the rating on what happens next.”
A rosy color crept into Shelley’s skin. But she was still smiling. “I doubt I’m up to much more anyway. And moms and dads shouldn’t behave like that.”
“Sure they should. Otherwise they wouldn’t be moms and dads.” He ducked in for another quick kiss, lingered for several. “They just shouldn’t get caught.”
He stroked the blush over her cheekbones with his thumb, then the slight hollow of her temple, the tremble of her lower lip. Her eyes were wide and dark, and need gathered with the love in his chest. “You are so touchable, lady. I’ve been crazy for most of the last nine months, dying to get my hands on you. Wanting to make sure you’re mine.”
“I am, Zach. Forever.” She buried her face in his chest and he closed his arms around her with a long sigh of relief.
Happily-ever-after finally looked like a sure bet.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5369-8
EXPECTING THE BEST
Copyright © 1999 by Cheryl B. Bacon.
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 publisher, Harlequin Enterprises limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
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.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Expecting the Best (Harlequin Superromance) Page 23
