by Janet Dailey
“That’s ridiculous,” she said, her voice choking up. She tried to convince herself it was strictly from the depth of her outrage.
“Why is it ridiculous?” Sebastian countered, and pushed the ring onto her finger despite her attempts to stop him. “After all, it’s better the devil you know than the Mr. Chocolate you don’t.”
“Will you stop this, Sebastian! I am not laughing.” Kitty tugged at the ring, trying to pull it off. “If this is some twisted attempt to make me feel better about breaking things off with Marcel, it isn’t working.”
Sebastian trapped her face in his hands and forced her to look him squarely in the eye. “Be quiet for two seconds and listen. I want to marry you again. I don’t know how much plainer I can say it.”
For the first time Kitty suspected that he really meant it. Suddenly her thoughts were all in a turmoil. “But . . . It wouldn’t work.” She said it as much to convince herself as him. “We tried it before and—”
“So? We’ll try it again.” A soft light warmed his eyes and his easy smile was unconcerned.
“You’re crazy,” Kitty declared, more tempted by the thought than she wanted him to know. “Have you forgotten the way we argued all the time?”
“Not about important things,” he replied.
“That isn’t true.” She was stunned that he could have forgotten their many stormy scenes.
“Think back,” Sebastian countered. “Ninety percent of all our arguments were about trivial things—like the proper way a tube of toothpaste should be squeezed. The only time we fought about anything major was when we let our business differences interfere with our marriage.”
“Business differences?” Kitty repeated incredulously. “We don’t have any business differences.”
“Not anymore, now that you’ve finally stopped trying to promote me and settled for pushing my paintings.”
“I never—” But she had. It all came back in a rush. The endless fights over his refusal to attend his own showings or to do any kind of publicity to promote his work. “It used to infuriate me the way you made fun of everything I tried to do to see that you received the recognition you deserved as an artist.”
“And you took it personally,” Sebastian concluded.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry for that.” He pushed back a wayward strand of hair, a loving quality in his touch.
“So am I.” Everything smoothed out inside her.
“So what’s your answer?”
“My answer?” For a second, Kitty didn’t follow him.
“Are you going to marry me or not? After last night, you can’t deny the fire’s just as hot as it always was.”
“I think both of us are crazy,” she said instead.
“Why?”
“You for asking and me for accepting.”
His mouth moved onto hers even as she rose to meet it. It was a kiss full of promise and passion, a pledge one to the other. For Kitty it was exactly like coming home.
ZEBRA BOOKS are published by
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Compilation copyright © 2013 by Kensington Publishing Corporation
“The Apple Orchard” copyright © 2013 by Cathy Lamb
“A Kiss Before Midnight” copyright © 2013 by Mary Carter
“Romeo & Juliet . . . and Jane” copyright © 2013 by Elizabeth Bass
“The Devil and Mr. Chocolate” copyright © 2002 by Janet Dailey
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ISBN: 978-1-4201-2419-4
