by Joss Wood
Clem’s mouth twitched as she tried to hide her enormous smile. ‘So, ask me again.’
Nick looked perplexed. ‘Ask you what?’
‘Ask her whether she loves you or not,’ Luella told Nick.
The puzzlement on Nick’s face cleared. ‘Oh, OK. So, Red. Are you in love with me?’
‘Of course I am. I would’ve told you at the time but you sent me away without allowing me to explain that I needed to go but I would come back, if that’s what you wanted.’
Joy diffused over Nick’s features and the cameras, Luella and the world disappeared. ‘Well, I can be extraordinarily stupid on occasion.’
Clem smiled. ‘You can.’
She lifted up her hand as if to touch him and noticed that Nick caught the movement. Nick’s eyes glinted with passion. ‘And, knowing that, I’m anxious to know when you are going to get your skinny butt on a plane and come home?’
‘I’m not.’ Clem lifted up a hand at his protest. ‘You still haven’t given me any reason to.’
‘I’ve just poured out my heart to you!’ Nick protested.
‘You’ve told me that you have crazy feelings for me. That could mean anything from indigestion to frustration,’ Clem said.
Luella rolled her eyes. ‘Nicholas! Stop being thick and tell her that you love her!’
Nick raked a hand through his hair. ‘Jeez, Red, you’re going to make me say it … on national—international—TV?’
Clem grinned. ‘Well, I did.’
‘But you’re a girl!’
Clem’s mouth dropped open and she shook her head at Luella, who leaned forward, tears glistening in her eyes.
‘We won’t listen, Nick, I promise,’ Luella assured him.
‘Yeah, right. Clementine …’
‘Yes?’
Nick dropped his head and looked down at his hands. Clem held her breath and waited until he lifted his head again and gasped at the emotion churning in those amazing eyes. Love, hope … lust, but mostly love. For her.
‘I don’t know how to tell you how much I love you, how much I’ve missed you. Four weeks and you turned my life upside down, but I want you to keep doing that for … I don’t know, the next sixty, seventy years? That enough of a commitment for you?’
Clem felt, and ignored, the tears on her cheeks. ‘That works for me. I’m catching the first plane I can.’
‘I can come to you,’ Nick offered.
Clem shook her head. ‘I need to come home, Nick.’
‘Then come, sweetheart. Just get here as quick as you can,’ Nick said, his voice low.
This wasn’t a time for tears, Clem told herself. She was loved and in love. And she was on TV.
Tossing her head, she blinked, sent Nick her naughtiest smile and his eyes crinkled.
‘I know that look, that smile. What do you want, Red?’
‘Do you know that it’s my birthday next week?’
Nick leaned back and placed his arm along the back of the couch. He looked relaxed and happy. So happy. ‘I’d heard a rumour.’
Clem’s eyes sparkled as she drank him in. ‘You know what I’d like for a present?’
‘A diamond engagement ring? A baby? Shares in Two-B?’ Nick’s voice sounded flippant but, in his eyes, she could see that he was offering any and all. When Nick committed, he did it with everything he had.
Clem placed her hand on her heart. ‘I’d prefer an emerald, I don’t need the shares and I’d love a baby at some point. But my request is a lot simpler.’
‘OK …’
‘Since I intend spending an inordinate amount of time with you in the immediate future, can you please fix the spring in Landy?’
Nick’s wicked grin flashed. ‘I said I love you, not that you weren’t a pain in my butt …’
Clem laughed and threw one of Luella’s very expensive cushions at the screen.
Nick paced the small area in front of the International Arrivals and frowned at the electronic board above his head. He knew that Clem’s flight had landed—it said so—but what the sodding hell was taking so long? Where was she? It had been thirty-six hours since the TV show, fourteen when he’d last spoken to her … He grabbed his mobile and dialled her number again.
‘Where are you?’ he muttered after she yelped her hello.
‘Trying to find my luggage.’
‘Forget your luggage, you don’t need clothes,’ Nick growled. ‘Just get out here.’
He heard Clem huff, heard the clunk of a suitcase. ‘Got it. Where are you?’
‘Where I’ve been for the past six hours, right by Arrivals. Hurry up!’
‘Don’t stop talking to me. Don’t go away,’ Clem said, her voice vibrating with emotion. He could hear the tears in her voice, knew that he was close to the edge himself.
‘Last chance, Red,’ he told her, his voice hoarse. ‘You walk through those doors and I’m never letting you go. Do you understand that?’
‘Walk through those doors? I’m flying!’ Clem said and she was. Nick looked up as she belted through the door in tight blue jeans and running on ridiculously high boots, dragging a small suitcase behind her. Nick pushed past a suit and stepped into her path, swinging her up as she fell into his arms.
Then her legs were around his waist, his face was in her hair and Clem was sobbing against his neck.
‘Shh, sweetheart. I’ve got you.’ Nick held her with one arm and rubbed his other hand up and down her back. ‘I’m here, you’re here, it’s all good. Shh.’
Clem’s arms tightened around his neck and he could feel her tears sliding down the collar of his shirt. ‘I’ve missed you so much.’
‘I missed you too,’ Nick said as she lifted her head. He let her drop down his body and held her as she found her feet. Digging his hands into her hair, he tipped her face up to look at him. ‘I’m so sorry for what I said … I know you. I do know you.’
Clem bit her bottom lip. ‘Are you sure? I need you to see me clearly … not as I was but who I am, now.’
‘You’re Clem and perfect as you are. Funny, big-hearted, loyal, passionate, stubborn. I see you, sweetheart, I do. I love who you are today and I’ll love who you are always.’
Clem blinked and tears ran. ‘Why didn’t you call—I kept hoping you would—’
Nick thumbed the moisture off her cheek. ‘I thought I’d get over you … gave myself a week, then another. Then I thought I needed more time but, instead of missing you less, I just ended up missing you more. I swear I was coming for you. I was trying to work out how but I was coming for you.’
Clem reached into her bag for a tissue and hiccupped a sob when Nick took the tissue from her hand and gently wiped her tears away. She kept her eyes locked on his and saw the truth within them. He did see her, know her, for exactly who and what she was. Relieved, she reached up and kissed his mouth, before giving him a wobbly but wide smile. ‘OK, then. So, I’m here. What now?’
Nick grinned at her. ‘Well, I think we should pick up where we left off, before I acted like an ass.’
Clem laughed as he grabbed her suitcase with one hand and her hand with the other.
‘Oh? So that’s why I travelled all this way? For sex?’ she teased as they walked towards the exit.
Nick stopped and looked at her. ‘Absolutely. But also because I intend making sure that you are insanely happy for the rest of your life. That OK with you?’
Clem nodded, tears welling again. ‘So OK.’
‘Now, can we please find a bed so that I can show you how much I love you?’
It was dawn and Clem woke up to the raucous morning chorus of the birds, Nick’s arm banded around her waist. It was two days before her birthday and she was in Nick’s room—her room—at Two-B. She had a million things to do, she realized, lifting Nick’s hand and slipping out of bed. She smiled down at him as he shifted, looking for her, and slid back into sleep. He should be tired, Clem thought, since he’d devoted the last week to showing her—in the most delightful ways possible—how
much he loved and adored her.
She pulled on a short robe and walked to the kitchen and made herself a cup of coffee. Nick’s entire family, and her father, was flying in today to spend her birthday weekend with them at Two-B. Miraculously, the private villa was unoccupied for three days and the Sherwood family would stay there while her father would move into their spare room.
Taking her coffee onto the deck, she wondered how she felt about sleeping with Nick with her father in the room next door. They’d probably have to stop making love in the shower for a while …
Clem grinned and leaned on the railing, looking over the waterhole. Her grin turned into a wide smile when she felt Nick’s hand on her back and she handed him her cup of coffee to share.
‘Why are you up so early and why are you grinning like that?’ Nick asked, standing in his boxers, looking fit and rumpled and so sexy he took her breath away.
‘I was thinking that we might have to stop doing it in the shower when my father arrives.’
Nick nuzzled her neck. ‘Uh, no. We’ll just have to be quiet.’
‘Eland at the waterhole,’ Clem told him as he wound his arms around her waist.
Clem felt him shaking his head. ‘Nyala.’
‘Damn it! I thought I had that one,’ she muttered.
‘Lucky I want a wife, not a game ranger,’ Nick said, his voice full of laughter.
Clem dropped her head sideways and looked up at him. ‘Is that a proposal?’
‘It’s a suggestion. The proposal would be dependent on whether you’re open to the idea or not.’
Clem cocked her head as he stepped away from her. ‘You still have doubts that I love you and that I’d say yes?’
Nick shoved his hand into his hair. ‘Not that you love me but whether this is enough for you. I live in the middle of nowhere, Clem, seeing the same people day in and day out.’
‘Well, I’m going to be pretty busy studying and getting the baby rhino orphanage up and running and when I’m not doing that, I’m sure that you’ll have stuff for me to do so I’m not going to be bored.’
‘I know, but …’
‘Nick, stop worrying. If I get cabin fever I promise I’ll talk to you about it. I’m a talker, so you will always know where I stand. I’ve found new friends in Hannah and Megan on the reserve and if I need a city fix, I’ll go to Jo’burg and hang out with your mother and sister. We can take the occasional holiday. I love the reserve and I love you. Trust me, I’ll be fine and we’ll be fine.’
‘I meant what I said; I’m never letting you go. I’d give up everything else before I let you go.’
Clem bit her lip at the tremor she heard in his voice. She turned in his arms and cupped his face in her hands. ‘Same back at you.’
Nick pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘I’m glad we cleared the air. Now I know whether to accept your father’s offer.’
‘What offer?’ Clem frowned. ‘What does he have to do with it?’
Nick’s naughty grin flashed. ‘Well, when I asked him for your hand—’
Clem’s mouth fell open. ‘Seriously? You asked my father if you could marry me?’
‘It seemed the right thing to do. Anyway, he said I was mad—’
‘He did not!’ Clem protested.
Nick sucked in his cheeks to keep from laughing ‘—and he offered me the choice between your mum’s emerald engagement ring or writing off the balance of my loan.’
Clem’s lips twitched. ‘OK, let’s pretend I believe that story … What did you tell him?’
‘To write off the loan … What, are you nuts?’
‘You’re going to tease me for the rest of my life, aren’t you?’ Clem pinched the skin at his waist before sighing. ‘I always wanted my mum’s engagement ring as my own. My dad wouldn’t have considered giving it to Cai.’
‘Don’t blame him, the guy is a moron.’
With one hand, Clem reached for her coffee and took a sip. ‘If we get married, we’ll have to book the entire Lodge for all our guests. When is the next date when the entire Lodge is empty?’
‘Two years and six months,’ Nick responded after giving it some thought. ‘Can I at least take the ring and ask you if you’ll marry me in two and a half years’ time?’
‘Mmm. You could do that. I might even say yes, depending on how romantic your proposal is,’ Clem teased him back.
Nick’s mouth twitched. ‘You are such a princess.’
‘Yes, but I’m your princess,’ Clem said as she pushed her thumbs under the waistband of his shorts.
‘Too right.’
‘Nick?’ she murmured. ‘It really was an eland and you were just messing with me, weren’t you?’
‘No, it was a—’ her hands moved ‘—it was anything you want it to be, sweetheart.’
Clem grinned. ‘Much better,’ she murmured against his mouth. ‘Love you. Take me to bed.’
Nick picked her up and dumped her on the lounger. ‘Too far. Right here, right now.’ He rested his head between her breasts. ‘You make me so damn happy, Red.’
Clem’s heart thumped at the emotion in his voice and she pushed her hand through his hair. ‘Me too and I plan for us to keep being happy for—at least—the next fifty years. That work for you?’
‘Make it sixty and you’ve got a deal.’
EPILOGUE
Two years and eight months later …
Luella Dawson’s final blog:
So, readers, I was one of the lucky people invited to Clem Copeland and Nick Sherwood’s wedding at The Baobab and Buffalo Lodge in South Africa. Remember them? They had us enthralled a couple of years ago, watching them fall in love.
The bride and groom were married in a moonlight ceremony on Arthur’s Hill in their game reserve. The bride wore a spectacular couture wedding dress and designer sandals, the groom wore a solid black tux and black wellington boots. (I asked but got some weird story about stepping on a snake …).
Their adorable eighteen-month-old son, Ross, wore the sweetest smile and sat on his father’s hip the whole ceremony. And, as the African moon rose, they exchanged rings and promises to love, honour and protect each other … and their children. The one in their arms and—breaking news!—the one on the way.
I confess, I cried. Luckily, I was standing next to Clem’s gorgeous father, Hugh, who happened to have a spare handkerchief and a broad shoulder. And a very naughty glint in his eye …
Have to say that those Full Moon picnics are very conducive to romance!
ISBN: 9781472039446
WILD ABOUT THE MAN
© Joss Wood 2013
First Published in Great Britain in 2013
Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
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