‘But of course.’
‘Ah, but will it be the promised dessert?’ She folded her arms and glared down the table. ‘What I want to know is if she’s managed to pull off what she promised she could. Lucy? Did she or did she not make you a macaron tower?’
Her grandmother smiled benignly. ‘Where are the stakes?’
Jo rolled her eyes when the contested pearls were placed with ridiculous ceremony in the middle of the table.
Mac cleared the plates. ‘I’ll pour the dessert wine,’ he said, moving to the sideboard. ‘Jo, you can bring in the dessert.’
‘The dishes?’ she asked him.
‘All cleared.’
‘The puppies?’
‘Safely tucked away in the laundry.’
Good. Right. She drew in a breath, rose, and moved to the kitchen.
As carefully as she’d ever done anything in her life, Jo picked up the first tower that she’d made and backed out of the pantry. She paused outside the doorway to the dining room for a moment, to pull in a breath, and balancing carefully on her new heels entered the room.
Gasps rose up all around her.
She set the concoction in front of her grandmother and with a quiver of relief stepped back again. Mission accomplished.
‘Happy birthday, Grandma. I love you.’ She kissed her grandmother’s cheek.
They sang ‘Happy Birthday’, but throughout the song she couldn’t help but notice, even though Great-Aunt Edith’s voice was the loudest, how her aunt’s gaze kept returning to the tower in awe. And she recognised something else there too—hunger and yearning.
When the song finished Jo left the room and returned with the second tower. She set it down in front of her great-aunt. ‘I made this one for you Aunt Edith, because I love you too.’
‘But...’ Grandma spluttered. ‘It’s not Eadie’s birthday.’
‘Maybe not, but you both deserve pretty, beautiful things. To me, you’re both the most beautiful women I know, and you’ve helped to make me the woman I am today.’
They stared at her, but neither spoke.
‘My real gift to you today, Grandma, is to bring this ridiculous feud of yours and Aunt Edith’s to an end.’ She reached across the table and took the pearls. ‘These now belong to me. I have no cousins. It’s what Great-Grandmother would’ve wanted. Besides...’ She clasped them around her throat. ‘They go perfectly with my outfit.’
The sisters’ jaws dropped.
‘Those towers consist of your individual favourite macaron flavours. The combination is perfect—much better than if they were just one or the other. Just as the two of you are perfect together.’
Both women’s eyes had grown suspiciously damp.
‘I love you. I know you both love me. I also know you love each other—even if you find the words too hard to say. Great-Aunt Edith, it’s time for you to come home. This is where you belong and this is where you’re wanted.’
Grandma blew her nose loudly. ‘She’s right, Eadie.’
Great-Aunt Edith cleared her throat—twice. ‘Lucy, I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear it.’
‘Excellent.’ Mac broke into the moment. ‘Now that that’s settled, I’m stealing Jo away.’ He raised a hand before anyone could argue with him. ‘She’s not fond of macarons, so I’ve made her a dessert of her own.’
He took her arm.
‘Jo?’ her grandmother and her great-aunt said in unison.
‘It’s okay,’ Jo said. ‘I’ll shout if I need rescuing.’
With that, she allowed him to pull her into the kitchen.
He turned with a grin that turned her heart over and over.
‘That was masterfully done,’ he said.
‘Yes.’ It had left her feeling powerful. ‘What dessert did you make me?’
He handed her a plate. ‘Pineapple upside-down cake.’
She took a mouthful and closed her eyes in bliss. When she opened them Mac was staring at her with a naked hunger he didn’t try to hide. It only made her feel more powerful and assured...and bold.
She tipped up her chin. ‘When are you going to tell me you love me?’
He met her gaze uncertainly. ‘I thought I’d been saying it all evening.’
He had.
Her great-aunt and her grandmother came bustling into the kitchen.
‘My dear, I do believe it’s terribly poor form to just leave the table like that.’
‘Yes—listen to your grandmother. We raised you better than that.’
‘I agree. But I’m afraid there are puppies to attend to. Unless you’d rather deal with the puppies yourselves?’
‘Maybe Malcolm could...?’
‘Not in a caterer’s job description, I’m afraid,’ Mac said, edging Jo towards the back door.
‘Puppies?’ asked Great-Aunt Edith.
‘Come along, dear, and I’ll tell you about them. Malcolm brought one for me and...’ she glanced at Jo ‘...one for you, Eadie dear.’
Grandma had just given away her puppy!
‘There are more puppies back at the beach house,’ Mac whispered in her ear.
Jo let out a breath. Okay.
Before Grandma and Great-Aunt Edith could form another argument, Jo took Mac’s hand and led him outside.
‘You left the puppies behind,’ Mac said.
‘But I do still have hold of my dessert.’
She released him to eat another spoonful. She took a step away from him so she could breathe and think.
She lifted her plate. ‘This is divine.’
‘You’re divine.’
* * *
Mac stared at the woman he loved and wondered if he’d done enough to win her.
If he hadn’t he’d just do more. He’d do more and more and still more if he had to—to convince her that they belonged together, to prove to her that he could make her happy.
She led him down to an old swing set and sat on the swing. He leaned against the frame and feasted his eyes on her. He burned to kiss her, but while it killed him he had no intention of hauling her into his arms until he was one hundred per cent certain it was what she wanted.
She had questions. Rightly. It was only fair that he answered them.
‘You somehow managed to manipulate my grandmother into asking you to come here today?’
‘Guilty as charged.’
‘Because you were worried I might fail with the macarons?’
He had no intention of lying to her. ‘I came here today to help you in whatever capacity you needed me to.’
She’d outdone herself with those macaron towers, though.
She pursed her lips, staring at him. ‘So you worked out early on that I was trying to get Grandma and Great-Aunt Edith arguing on the same side? Against me?’
‘It was a good plan. But it seemed only fair that someone should argue on your side too.’
If she’d let him, he’d always argue her case.
‘Why is Ethan at your beach house?’
She sat in the moonlight, eating pineapple upside-down cake in that sexy little purple and orange number, and for a moment he couldn’t speak. The urge to kiss her grew, but he tamped it down. After all this time away from her just being able to look at her thrilled him.
The night was mild for this time of year, but not exactly warm. He slipped his jacket off and settled it around her shoulders.
The flash of vulnerability in her eyes when he moved in close stabbed at him.
He eased back, his heart thumping and his mouth dry. ‘Everything you said to me before you left was a hundred per cent on the money.’
He closed his eyes. What if he hadn’t done enough? What if his best wasn’t good enough? What if she simply wished him well and turn
ed away? How would he cope?
‘I don’t want to play games, Mac.’
His eyes flew open.
She rose. ‘If you don’t want to talk then I’d like to go back inside.’
He was being pathetic. Spineless. Waiting for a sign from her first.
A real man wouldn’t hesitate.
Earn her!
‘Please don’t go, Jo. I was just gathering my thoughts. It’s been a crazy couple of months and I’m trying to work out where to start.’
She searched his face. Slowly she sat again. ‘Tell me what happened after I left.’
He leant back against the swing set’s A-frame. ‘I threw myself into finishing the cookbook. I finished it in record time.’
‘Congratulations.’
‘And then, with nothing to keep me occupied, I had a lot of time to think.’
‘Ah.’
‘And some of the things you said tormented me—like trying harder where Ethan was concerned. So I started wondering what more I could do to help him.’
‘And...?’
She stared up at him and her lips glistened as if she’d just moistened them. Hunger roared through him.
‘It took me longer to work out than it should’ve.’
‘And what did you work out?’
‘That he needed to be shaken up the same way you shook me up.’
Her lovely mouth dropped open.
‘I talked to his doctor first. I had no intention of barging in like a bull in a china shop like I did the last time. The doctor and I came up with a plan to bring him to the beach house, and then we got Diana Devlin on-side.’
‘I bet that wasn’t easy.’
He and Diana might never be the best of friends, but they’d come to an understanding.
‘Once the doctor told her he thought it’d be for the best she was behind the plan a hundred per cent.’
Jo leaned towards him. ‘How did you convince Ethan to go with you?’
‘I used emotional blackmail. Just like you had on me. By the way, Russ sends his love. I’m staying with him tonight.’
‘You’ve seen Russ?’
‘I’ve seen quite a bit of Russ.’
‘He’s not mentioned it to me.’
Because Mac had asked him not to. He hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up. He hadn’t known how long things with Ethan would take.
She sagged, one hand pressed to her chest. ‘I’m so glad.’
‘I am too,’ he said quietly. ‘There are some mistakes I’m never going to make again. But back to Ethan. I told him his mother needed a holiday, but that she refused to go without him. I told him she’d fall ill if she wasn’t careful.’
Her mouth hooked up. ‘Nice work.’
His chest puffed out.
‘And he’s improving?’
‘It’s taken a while, but, yes. The sea air and the fact he can see how good the break has been for his mother have both worked wonders. It’s the puppies, though, that have really been working magic.’
She leant back, her eyes wide. ‘Wow, that’s really something.’
It was. ‘Every now and again he starts to talk about the future. We even had an argument last week about what recipes I should put in my next cookbook.’
Her urgings to keep trying, not to give up, to try harder, had made a man of him. Regardless of what happened from here, he was glad—and grateful—to have known her.
‘He doesn’t blame me for the accident, Jo. He’s learning not to blame himself either.’
She set her now empty plate on the ground and rose to stand in front of him. ‘That’s wonderful news.’
His heart started to race. Hard.
‘He still has a way to go. There’ll be more skin grafts down the track. But eventually he’ll be able to return to work. When he’s ready I mean to help him any way I can.’
She moved another inch closer. Mac swallowed, his hands clenching at his sides.
‘I don’t know—’ His voice cracked. ‘I don’t know if you can live with that. You might see it as me putting him first.’
She shook her head. ‘I see it as you being a good friend—a true friend. I certainly don’t see it as a sacrifice or self-immolation or a sign of guilt.’
He stared at her. ‘That’s good, right?’
‘That’s very good.’
He couldn’t drag his gaze from the smoky depths of her eyes. Was she saying what he thought she was saying?
He seized her face in his hands, unable to resist the need to touch her. ‘What are you saying, Jo?’
No, wait!
‘No, wait,’ he said. ‘Let me tell you what I’m saying. I’m saying I love you, my beautiful girl.’ He brushed her hair back from her face. ‘I’m saying I want a life with you. I’m saying that fighting for you—by fighting to work out the right thing to do where Ethan was concerned—has made a man of me. I’m saying that if you give me a chance I will prove to you every single day that you are my first, foremost and most cherished priority.’
His hands moved back to cup her face.
‘You are my number one, Jo. Please say you’ll let me prove it.’
She pressed a hand to his lips. Her face came in close to his, her eyes shining and her lips trembling. ‘I love you, Mac,’ she whispered.
He wanted to punch the air. He wanted to whirl her around in his arms. He wanted to kiss her.
‘No man has ever made me believe in myself the way you have. No man has made me feel so desired or so beautiful or so right.’ She swallowed. ‘Yes, please. I really want the chance to build a life with you.’
He stared down into her face as every dream he’d been too afraid to dream lay before him in a smorgasbord of promise.
Jo’s eyes started to dance. She leaned in so close her words played across his lips. ‘This is the part where you kiss me.’
He didn’t wait another second, but swooped down to seize her lips in a kiss that spoke of all he couldn’t put into words. He kissed her with his every pent-up hope and fear, with the joy and frustration that had shaken through him these last months since he’d met her. And she kissed him back with such ardent eagerness and generosity it eased the burn in his soul.
He lifted his head with a groan, gathering her in close. ‘I love you, Jo. I nearly went crazy when I thought I’d lost you.’
Her arms tightened about him. ‘You haven’t lost me. I’m in your arms, where I belong, and I’m not planning on going anywhere.’
‘You mean that?’
‘With all my heart.’
And then she frowned. ‘Well, I mean, I do start my paramedic training next week, so I’ll have to leave your arms literally, but you know what I mean.’
He dropped a kiss to the tip of her nose. Her very cute nose. ‘But you’ll keep returning here? To me?’
Her fingers stroked his nape. ‘There’s nowhere I’d rather be,’ she whispered.
‘I can commute between the coast and Sydney,’ he said.
‘And I can commute between Sydney and the coast,’ she said. ‘But, Mac, we need to make sure that wherever we go we always have room for friends and for puppies.’
A grin started up inside him until it bubbled from him in a laugh. ‘I’m glad you feel that way, because Bandit had ten of the little beggars.’
Her mouth dropped open, so he kissed her again. When he lifted his head—much, much later—she smiled dreamily up at him.
‘Did I mention that I happen to love the way you kiss?’
‘No.’
So she proceeded to tell him. Which meant, of course, that he had to kiss her again.
When he lifted his head this time he found himself growling, ‘Promise me forever.’
She reached up to press h
er hand to his cheek. ‘I promise you, Mac—’ she stared deep into his eyes ‘—that for as long as you make me pineapple upside-down cake, I’m yours. Forever.’
Her voice washed over him like warm honey and he started to laugh...and it filled his soul.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from EXPECTING THE EARL’S BABY by Jessica Gilmore.
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PROLOGUE
‘OH, NO!’
Daisy Huntingdon-Cross skidded to a halt on the icy surface and regarded her car with dismay.
No, dismay was for a dropped coffee or spilling red wine on a white T-shirt. Her chest began to thump as panic escalated. This, Daisy thought as she stared at the wall of snow surrounding her suddenly flimsy-seeming tyres, this was a catastrophe.
The snow, which had fallen all afternoon and evening, might have made a picturesque background for the wedding photos she had spent the past twelve hours taking, but it had begun to drift—and right now it was packed in tightly around her tyres. Her lovely, bright, quirky little city car, perfect for zooming around London in, was, she was rapidly realising, horribly vulnerable in heavy snow and icy conditions.
Daisy carefully shifted her heavy bag to her other shoulder and looked around. It was the only car in the car park.
In fact, she was the only person in the car park. No, scratch that, she was possibly the only person in the whole castle. A shiver ran down her spine, not entirely as a result of the increasing cold and the snow seeping through her very inadequate brogues. Hawksley Castle was a wonderfully romantic venue in daylight and when it was lit up at night. But when you were standing underneath the parapets, the great tower a craggy, shadowy silhouette looming above you and the only light a tepid glow from the lamp at the edge of the car park it wasn’t so much romantic, more the setting for every horror film she had ever seen.
Harlequin Romance April 2015 Box Set Page 18
