One Unforgettable Kiss

by A. C. Arthur

  “What’s going on?” Garrek asked her.

  Ida Mae breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God somebody got here in time. I thought I was gonna have to deliver those twins on my own.”

  “What?” Garrek asked about two seconds before he heard a deep moan.

  They both raced to the hallway just as Morgan came to stand at the top of the stairs.

  “I need a ride to the hospital,” she said and then grabbed the bottom of her stomach and moaned once more.

  Chapter 17

  “It’s only August. They’re not supposed to be here yet!” Morgan yelled from the passenger seat of Garrek’s car.

  “Told you before, babies work on their own time. Doctors don’t know everything,” Ms. Ida Mae chimed in from the back seat.

  “But they’re the doctors!” Morgan yelled again and gripped the door handle until her knuckles turned white. The other hand had reached across the console to grasp Garrek’s arm.

  She moaned and yanked on his arm, and the car swerved as her action caught Garrek off guard.

  “Oh, Lawd, we may all need the doctor by the time we make it to the hospital,” Ms. Ida Mae commented.

  Garrek frowned at her in the rearview mirror. Not because of her nonstop commentary since he’d arrived at the house, but because she was still carrying those towels like she really thought she was going to need them.

  “Just keep breathing,” Garrek said, because that’s the only thing he knew to say to a pregnant woman who looked as if she were about to do bodily harm if somebody didn’t hurry and get those babies out of her.

  Morgan nodded. “I am. I am,” she said.

  Garrek nodded and breathed, too. His heart was thumping wildly as he tried to remember his way to the hospital and think of how else he could help Morgan get through this.

  “Did you call Gray?” she asked as she lay back on the headrest. Her tone between contractions was rather subdued, in Garrek’s opinion, but he would gladly take that in lieu of the nails in his arm and deep moaning.

  “Yeah, he was just leaving the airport,” Garrek told her. “And Wendy said she’s picking up the twins from camp and will head straight to the hospital.”

  Morgan nodded at his words, and two seconds later she let out a moan and pressed back in the seat as if she were about to spread her legs and push.

  “Turn left here!” Ms. Ida Mae screamed. “Just pull up at the ER entrance and open the door, I’ll do the rest.”

  Garrek didn’t like the sound of that. But sure enough, as soon as he pulled up in front of the double set of glass doors, the back door of the car opened and Ida Mae jumped out. She opened Morgan’s door and made quick work of the seat belt Garrek had had to struggle to get around Morgan’s girth while she’d been digging her fingers into his back through a contraction.

  “Lady having two babies over here!” Ida Mae was yelling to two nurses who were clearly on their smoke break.

  Garrek had gotten out of the car by then and was looking for a wheelchair as he stepped onto the sidewalk. He saw none and ran to the glass doors to see if anyone was around whom he could ask for help, because the nurses on break were still smoking. That was, until Ida Mae leaned Morgan against the car and marched over to them.

  “Didn’t you hear what I said?” she asked with both hands propped on her slim hips. “My granddaughter is about to have twins, and if either one of them falls out on this sidewalk because you two simpletons are too busy over here smoking, I’m gonna get a switch and start whuppin’ some behinds!”

  The women moved faster than Garrek even thought they could. One of them ran past him into the hospital while he went to join the other as she tried to assist Morgan. They’d only taken a couple of steps when the first nurse came through the doors with the wheelchair.

  “That’s more like it,” Ida Mae was saying as she pushed her glasses up onto her face.

  Garrek helped Morgan into the wheelchair, looking into her strained face once more.

  “It’ll be okay now,” he said. “We’re at the hospital. The doctors will take good care of you.”

  Half an hour later, Garrek wasn’t so sure of those words.

  Morgan lay in a hospital bed surrounded by white sheets and beeping machines, her pain more intense than ever. Wendy was there now and she’d taken a position on Morgan’s left, holding her hand as she squeezed. Ida Mae sat in the waiting room with Jack and Lily, because she said she didn’t want the children to see Morgan in such pain, but Garrek thought differently. He’d noted the usually calm and decisive Ida Mae Bonet had been frazzled and on edge since he’d arrived at the house. His guess was she didn’t like seeing her granddaughter in pain, either.

  Garrek had to admit it wasn’t something he’d ever imagined witnessing, but here he was. He’d promised Gray that he wouldn’t leave Morgan’s side until he got here, so no matter how uncomfortable this was making him feel, he was going to stay.

  “What’s that noise?” he asked during a rare moment when Morgan wasn’t moaning.

  “It’s the babies’ heartbeats,” Wendy answered. “You can see their heart rates right here.”

  She’d been wiping Morgan’s forehead with a damp cloth, but she nodded in the direction of a machine that was spitting out white tape. Garrek moved closer, lifting the tape to see two sets of squiggly black lines.

  “Are they all right?” he asked, because Wendy was a nurse. She also seemed pretty calm, so he figured that must mean she knew what was going on.

  “Yes. They’re doing fine. Their heart rates are steady.”

  “But she’s in so much pain.”

  Wendy gave him a calming smile and a nod. “Yeah, that’s typically how this works.”

  “I can’t take it,” Garrek said.

  “Most men can’t,” Wendy replied. “But this should be good practice for you. I’m sure you’ll have your own babies one day.”

  Garrek shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Oh, I know,” Wendy said. “Trust me.”

  He was just about to ask her what she meant when the door opened. Garrek expected to see another nurse or possibly one of the doctors, but he was surprised to see Harper instead.

  “Hey,” she said, coming in and going straight to the side of the bed where Wendy stood. “I got your text. How’s she doing?”

  Morgan moaned as if on cue, and Harper touched a hand to her stomach.

  Garrek looked down to see Harper’s hand moving over the protruding mound and felt something tighten in his chest.

  “She’s hanging in there,” Wendy said. “Especially since her brother-in-law swooped in like a knight in shining armor to save her from Granny.”

  Harper looked up at him then. She slowly pulled her hand away from Morgan’s stomach when she realized that’s what he’d been staring at, and backed away from the bed.

  “I didn’t know you were here,” she said to him and then gave Wendy an I’ll-deal-with-you-later look.

  “Didn’t you get my email?” he asked.

  “He sent you an email?” Wendy asked.

  Morgan moaned again, squeezing Wendy’s hand until her sister had to lean over the bed.

  “Yes. I did,” Harper replied, this time not looking at or answering Wendy.

  “Why did you come back?” she asked. “I mean, are you checking on the house? Because we haven’t really started anything yet. I thought I told you that in the email earlier this week.”

  Morgan’s contraction had apparently passed, because Wendy could now stand up straight. She used her free hand to wipe Morgan’s forehead while looking back to Harper and asking, “You emailed him earlier this week?”

  “Yes. I did,” Garrek replied to Harper’s questions. “But there was something else I needed to discuss with you, and I felt it would be better received face-to-face.”

  “Hot damn, fac
e-to-face! Now that’s what I’m talking about. No more of that email crap!” Wendy added, her excitement clear.

  This time when Morgan grabbed Wendy’s hand, it was before she said, “Leave them alone.”

  Garrek leaned in then and kissed his sister-in-law on the cheek. He desperately wanted to be alone with Harper, but he couldn’t, because Gray walked in the second Garrek was thinking about him. And not a moment too soon, because Morgan didn’t moan with the next contraction. This time she screamed as if somebody were doing bodily harm to her. Garrek figured that was kind of true.

  He stepped back from the bed and let Gray take his place beside his wife, while Wendy began focusing all of her attention on Morgan.

  “You think we should go now?” Garrek said just as two more nurses came into the room.

  Harper didn’t look like she particularly wanted to go with him, but she did glance back at Morgan, who was writhing on the bed now and nodded to him.

  “No!” Morgan yelled. “Stay! I want you both here.”

  “She’s ready to start pushing,” one of the nurses said.

  “I’ll get Dr. Savani,” the other one said and moved to the door. “If you’re staying, you need to stand over this way. As long as this birth goes naturally, you’ll be fine over here. If things start to change, we’ll have to take her back for a C-section.”

  Garrek had no idea what the woman was talking about, but Harper did. When she reached for his hand and pulled him over toward the door where the nurse told them to stand, Garrek went willingly. He also held on to her hand until the moment his new niece and nephew were born.

  * * *

  Six hours later, when Emma Olivia and Ryan Theodor Taylor were sleeping soundly in the All Saints Hospital nursery, Garrek stood on the front porch of the Adberry house.

  It was well past the time he’d asked her to meet him here, but Harper could see that the time change hadn’t caused too much of a problem. He’d changed since they’d left the hospital, which made her extremely glad she’d decided to do the same.

  He wore black slacks and a white polo shirt, and she’d taken off the awful shorts and T-shirt she’d been wearing at the hospital and put on a white sundress that had been a treat to herself after enduring endless weeks of Wendy’s harassing her to upgrade her wardrobe. Harper had also pulled her hair back into a ponytail and put on strappy black sandals. As she walked up the front steps and Garrek stared intently at her, she figured the outfit had been a good choice.

  “Hi,” she said when they were standing just a few feet from each other.

  “Hi,” he replied. “Thank you for agreeing to come. I know you were tired from being at the hospital all that time.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I’ve never witnessed childbirth up close and personal before.” And it was more intense than she could have possibly imagined. Intense and totally breathtaking.

  “Me either,” he said with a chuckle.

  They stood for a few awkward moments, the sun having already set and the night steadily creeping in. There was a slight breeze, and the smell of summer and magnolias drifted through the air.

  “You look really nice,” he said then.

  He’d slipped his hands into the front pockets of his slacks and stood in that way that made her feel like running up and throwing her arms around him. It was a simple feeling that Harper had decided to allow herself. Since receiving that email from him this morning, she’d been volleying back and forth with how she felt about seeing him again after all they’d been through. Her final thought—which hadn’t come until the moment Morgan had the new twins—was that she and Garrek really hadn’t gone through that much.

  Sure, their meeting had been out of the ordinary, and the resulting times they’d spent together could be construed as a very physical beginning, and the end—well, as endings went, Harper was certain theirs had been pretty civil.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I’m more comfortable in jeans.”

  “You look great in jeans, too,” he said, and the calm she’d been fighting for vanished.

  Those butterflies were back, flitting around in her stomach as if they hadn’t been MIA for the last month.

  “You look good, too,” she admitted. “Four weeks’ worth of good.”

  He smiled, and she really did want to run to him. It was silly, she knew, but she’d missed him. She’d been angry and hurt because he hadn’t trusted her enough to be honest with her, but being without him had been worse.

  “It’s been a really long four weeks,” he said and then took a step toward her.

  Her fingers moved at her sides as she thought about touching him again, but he stopped as if catching himself.

  “Why don’t you come inside,” he said, quickly turning away from her.

  Harper wondered why they needed to go inside. She knew what was in there—partially gutted rooms, a staircase with no railing, lots of dust and some supplies. Monday morning was going to be an even bigger day than today had turned out to be. But she followed him anyway, gasping when she saw all the candles. There were two on each step leading all the way up, to equal forty-four, as she knew exactly how many steps were on the grand staircase. On the bottom step was a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

  “Are we celebrating something?” she asked nervously.

  “I hope so,” he replied and reached for her hand.

  For a moment Harper could only stare at it. She wasn’t sure what was happening here or how she should feel about it. What she knew for certain was that she wasn’t going to let fear rule her. Not this time. Not ever again.

  She took Garrek’s hand.

  He led her closer to the steps and turned her to face him, taking her other hand in his.

  “In three weeks I’ll be leaving for my next assignment,” he said.

  “Oh” was all Harper could manage.

  “I have four more years left on my commission, but I was able to work out a teaching assignment in Pensacola, instead of heading back out to sea.”

  Harper nodded. “Okay.” Pensacola wasn’t Temptation.

  “There are a couple of things I want to have in place before I go.”

  His hands were warm on hers, and she gulped as he took a step closer to her.

  “I want to make sure the house restoration is getting off to a good start.”

  A part of her sank. A huge wanting, needing part of her. She blinked and then remembered that he was speaking to her, so she nodded and cleared her throat. “Well, we got some things done today before I received the text from Wendy. But Monday we’ll get started early, and as long as the supplies we’ve ordered arrive on time and there are no big weather delays, we should come in right around our seven-to eight-week projection.”

  “Good,” he said. “That’s really good.”

  They were silent then. Harper was uncomfortable.

  “Okay,” she told him. “Well, if that’s all you wanted to talk to me about, I’ll just get going.”

  She attempted to walk away, but Garrek held on to her hands.

  “Harper.” He said her name quietly.

  “Yes, Garrek,” she replied.

  “I wasn’t sure,” he began and then stopped.

  “You weren’t sure about what?”

  “When this first started...all of this...” he said and looked around. “I just wasn’t sure. Now, I know without a doubt that I want to be wherever you are. Every minute that I can, every second, I just want to be with you.”

  Harper was speechless. She’d thought—well, hell, she hadn’t known what to think.

  “I know it was rocky in the beginning, but I’d like to start over. I’d like to take you on a real date. I’d planned one for tonight, but the babies came.”

  She managed a smile. “Yeah, the babies.”

  “And then I thought about canceling, but no, this is too im
portant. You are too important.”

  He was rubbing his thumbs over the backs of her hands, and it was driving Harper crazy because she wanted to hug him. She wanted to feel him close to her, holding her tightly.

  “It’ll be long-distance for a while, but I’ll get leave again and then we can be together. I know I’m not really good at the relationship thing, but I want to try. I want us to try. I want to marry you, but I know it’s too soon. I know you need more. You told me so. Dates and courting, that’s what my mother would have called it. You need all of that.”

  She was already shaking her head and finally pulling her hands out of his.

  “No, Garrek, I don’t need any of that. I only need you,” she said and then closed the small distance between them.

  Finally, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “I just need you, secrets and all. Just you, Garrek.”

  His arms slid around her waist and he held her tight, just right.

  “Kiss me,” she whispered.

  “I love you,” he replied.

  “I love you,” she said softly, just seconds before his lips touched hers and then again when he pulled back slightly. “I love you, too.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from SEDUCED IN SAN DIEGO by Reese Ryan.

  Seduced in San Diego

  by Reese Ryan

  Chapter 1

  Jordan Jace made a hard turn into the car park of the Prescott George headquarters. He got out, slamming the door of his black Karma Revero. Jordan glared at the stone-and-brick building.

  He didn’t appreciate being summoned to HQ. Vaughn Ellicott may have been a lieutenant when he served in the navy. But as a civilian, Vaughn was the treasurer of the San Diego chapter of Prescott George, not his commanding officer.

  Jordan had joined Prescott George, or the Millionaire Moguls, as they were more commonly known, as a concession to his parents. He was the outlier in a family of wealthy London bankers who also had financial interests here in San Diego. His membership in the Millionaire Moguls was his way of throwing them a bone so they’d let go of their hopes that he’d eventually join the family business.