Bride Required
Page 20
When he finally raised his head, it was to demand, ‘You think I’m ever going to let you go? After what you’ve put me through?’
‘What I’ve put you through?’ Dee had to protest.
‘Quite! Like that night at Cat’s? One moment we’re in bed together and I’m feeling like the luckiest guy on earth—’ he smiled at the memory, then grimaced at what followed ‘—the next you’re announcing your engagement to Joseph and I’m out in the cold.’
‘There was nothing between Joseph and I,’ Dee repeated for what seemed like the hundredth time.
‘Yes, all right. On a logical level, I knew it,’ he admitted. ‘On a logical level, I even admired your altruism. I just had visions of making a fool of myself at the wedding.’
‘I assumed you wouldn’t go,’ Dee revealed. ‘But Cat said you would. According to her, you have masochistic tendencies.’
‘Yes, well, if I have—’ he gave an expressive sigh ‘—it hasn’t stopped her feeding them over the last few weeks… It’s been Dee this, Dee that. What a great girl you are. What a wonderful mother you’d make. How clever, talented, beautiful et cetera, et cetera… No one can ever accuse my sister of subtlety.’
Dee laughed, saying half seriously, ‘I’m surprised it didn’t put you off.’
‘What—as well as making me feel like some ageing Lothario to your sweet young thing?’ A pointed glance reminded her who had originally made him feel that way.
‘I was never sweet,’ she protested.
‘No,’ he agreed. ‘If anything, you’re rather tough.’
Dee didn’t take it as an insult. It seemed important that he saw her for who she was.
‘So where do we go from here?’ A hand lifted to caress the nape of her neck, and her bones turned fluid once more.
Dee no longer wanted to go anywhere. ‘I’ll stay, if that’s what you want.’
‘You know it is.’ He bent to kiss her softly on the lips, before adding, ‘But I’d prefer a formalised arrangement.’
Dee smiled quizzically. ‘I’m not sure what you mean.’
‘I’d like you to marry me,’ he said, in plainer English.
‘If I’m pregnant?’
‘No, in either case.’
He spoke so matter-of-factly Dee didn’t know how to react. Could he really want to marry her?
‘I’m not doing this very well, am I?’ he continued, at her silence. ‘I should go down on one knee, I suppose.’
A wry look appeared on Dee’s face at the idea of Baxter Ross so humble. ‘I’d rather you didn’t.’
‘Is that a yes or a no?’
‘More an “are we crazy?”.’
‘Possibly,’ he conceded, but he was smiling as he scented victory. ‘Register office or the full works?’
‘I haven’t said yes, yet,’ she pointed out.
‘Okay, we’ll sleep on it,’ he suggested, already drawing her back towards the bed.
‘Sleep?’
‘What else?’
‘I can’t imagine,’ she laughed back, even as he pulled the T-shirt loose from her jeans and began to set an all-time speed record for undressing another human being.
They made love the same way, with an urgency to be part of each other once more, then slept, their bodies entwined, until desire stirred with the first light of dawn.
They were married a month later in the church where the Ross family had had their weddings and christenings for the last four generations. In time to come Baxter would maintain he’d dragged Dee kicking and screaming to the altar—and it was partly true. She’d believed in Baxter and her love for him, but she still hadn’t believed in marriage—until the moment she floated up the aisle in white satin, and he turned to gaze at her, a smile slanting that absurdly handsome face.
It was then she saw the future stretching before them—years of loving and laughing, babies and battles, good times and bad. But always together, from this life to the next—soul mates who’d found each other.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0453-9
BRIDE REQUIRED
First North American Publication 2000.
Copyright © 1997 by Alison Fraser.
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