Alexa stared at the picture and thought about her cell phone, cravenly tucked into her pocket. Secretly, she had hoped he would call. He hadn’t. She had known that he wouldn’t.
Should she call him? Could he possibly want her still? He had been so remote at the airport. Why, if he loved her? Why had he let her go? And if he did love her, how could they ever make it work? They had made their forced cohabitation work, one rocky step at a time. Could it work for a lifetime?
She wanted to marry Jamison.
The realization hit her hard.
She gazed at the picture again and tears blurred her eyes. She curled up tighter and pressed the picture to her cheek. “Jamison,” she whispered brokenly.
Oh God, please tell me what to do.
Later that afternoon her cell phone rang, still in her sweat pants pocket. Blood zinged in her veins. Jamison!
Quickly, she flipped it open. “Hello?”
“Alexa, it’s Mart.” The bodyguard’s voice sounded quiet. Ominous.
“Mart!” All sorts of horrible scenarios ran through her head. “What’s wrong? Is someone hurt?” Fear cramped her heart, and her next word was only a whisper, “Jamison?”
“No one’s injured.”
“Thank goodness!” Relieved air whooshed back into her lungs. “Then what is it?”
“What have you done to my buddy, Alexa?”
“Me? To Jamison?”
“You chewed him up and spit him out, didn’t you?” Anger hardened Mart’s voice.
“I most certainly did not!”
“He’s miserable. Does that make you happy?”
“No!”
“Call him. Straighten out whatever’s going on between you two. Show some mercy, Alexa! He’s no good to Colin or anyone else right now.”
“You think I’m happy?” her voice broke.
“Fix it, Alexa.” His voice gentled. “Fix it now.” He cut the connection.
Jamison was miserable? Selfishly, her heart soared at the thought that he might be miserable because of her—because he loved her, and missed her?
And Mart blamed her. How could it be her fault? Jamison had stood there and told her goodbye! He hadn’t asked her to stay.
Neither had she offered.
Two stubborn, hurting people, unwilling to admit to each other—or themselves—how they felt about one another.
Could he possibly love her? She loved him. So much so that she ached inside every day, knowing he was half a world away, and she would never see him again. No. She reassessed. She more than ached. Her soul felt like it had been sanded and twisted and hung up to dry in a scorching wasteland. Wasn’t that what words were for? But even those words couldn’t describe the desolate loneliness and grief she felt every minute of the day.
At last, the truth became clear. Once again, she had succumbed to fear. She had assumed, just like she had with Ben so long ago, that Jamison didn’t truly want her. She had accepted his rejection of her love before he had been given the opportunity to know how she felt.
Never again. It was the last time she would allow fear to rule her life.
A beep from her phone indicated that she had received a text message. A glance discovered it was her daily Bible verse of the day. Beth had signed her up for the service when she had returned home. It was a gift meant to encourage and cheer her up.
The words seemed picture perfect for today.
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Jeremiah 29:11
Yes. She had to see Jamison one last time. She had to tell him that she loved him. Afterwards, let the chips fall where they may. A phone conversation would not do. Alexa picked up her phone and booked a flight to London.
Alexa hurriedly zipped her suitcase shut. Her flight left in three hours. She had to arrive at the airport in plenty of time to get through security. That meant she had to leave in five minutes if she wanted to have the full, two hour check-in period. She couldn’t miss this flight. She wouldn’t.
Her heart alternately soared and crashed, imaging seeing Jamison again. Would he be happy to see her? Or worse, indifferent, or still angry? Could he possibly want a future with her, or was she crazy for thinking it was a possibility? The logistics of any future with him seemed impossible to figure out. Like where they would live. Would he remain Colin’s bodyguard? How could their lives possibly mesh together?
But she was getting ahead of herself. One step at a time. All Alexa knew was that she would go flat out for love. No more licking her wounds and crying her eyes out. It was well past time for action. She would force that stubborn man to hear how much she loved him. Then she would kiss him. Then…who knew what she would do next?
“Alexa,” Beth called from the living room.
“I’m coming. Just a minute.” Alexa slung her bag over her shoulder and then scooted out of the room, pulling her swaying, giant suitcase behind her. She hustled down the hall and veered left into the living room. The suitcase smashed to the floor.
“Rrrhhh!” she growled, whirling in frustration. She kicked it. “I’ve a good mind to get rid of you!”
“Taking out your frustration on inanimate objects, princess?” The familiar, deep Italian voice made her freeze. She spun.
“Jamison!” she gasped. Her shoulder bag dropped to the floor. She stared at him. As usual, he wore all black, and he stood next to her grinning sister. “What are you doing here? I was just… I have a plane to catch,” she finished weakly.
His intense dark eyes scanned her, as if hungry for the sight of her.
“I’m hoping you’ll miss that plane.” His melodious voice filled her ears and her heart. She had missed the sound so much! She had missed him so much. Her gaze swept over him, thirsty for every detail, and for assurance that he really stood right in front of her, in her sister’s house. He wore a black T-shirt, which revealed the corded muscles in his arms, and black jeans.
“What are you doing here?” she gasped again.
Beth said, “Aren’t you going to greet him nicely, Alexa? He’s come a long way to see you.”
On rubbery legs, she moved toward him. She reached out and his warm, callused hands wrapped around hers.
Beth cleared her throat. “I’ll leave you two alone. Come on, kids, let’s go get ice cream!” Her children whooped, and she herded them speedily out the door.
Alexa barely noticed. She stood where she was, staring into Jamison’s intense dark eyes. A bit of uncertainty lurked in them. “Why are you here?” she whispered.
“I came to see you, Alexa.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think?”
“But you hate me. Don’t you?”
“Never.”
Her heart thundered. “Mart told me…”
“Mart called you?” He glanced at the ceiling, as if exasperated.
“He said you were acting like a bear.” Well, close enough.
He tugged her closer. She could not look away from the passion in his black gaze. He said, “I spent a lot of time thinking about what you said in London. I was a fool to let you go, Alexa. I need to tell you some things.”
“I do, too.” She gestured weakly at her bags. “I was on my way to London to talk to you.”
“You were going to fly to London, just to see me?” A small smile lifted the corners of his mouth.
“Don’t go getting a big head,” she warned. Why, oh why did he always pull the incorrigible imp out of her?
“You were coming to see me. Why?”
She glanced away for a moment. “I wanted to tell you something.” He waited patiently. She frowned. How like him to goad her into hanging her emotions out to dry first.
“You’re frowning, princess. Did you plan to come and chew me out?”
“No!” she glared. “You really are an impossible man. I planned to come,” she said
with emphasis, “to tell you exactly what I think of you!”
The black gaze gentled to brown. “And what would that be?”
“You tell me why you’re here,” she sallied back. “To see your Aunt Pauline? Maybe to visit your alma mater. What reunion would that be? Almost twenty!”
He laughed, and it felt good to her soul to hear it. “You’re as prickly as ever, aren’t you, princess? Maybe that’s why I love you so much.” He looked momentarily startled by his admission, but his gaze held hers unwaveringly.
Alexa blinked, and felt like she was going to cry. She whispered, “You love me?”
“I love you, Alexa. You drive me crazy, but I can’t live without you.”
“I drive you crazy? I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”
“It means you keep my blood pumping. And under all your prickly thorns is a sweet, loving woman.”
She blinked back her tears. “Jamison, when you left me at the airport, I felt like my heart ripped right in half. I have never felt such pain in my life.”
“I’m sorry. I was hurting, and I was afraid to trust you… I was a complete and utter fool.” His hands tightened around hers. “Why didn’t you tell me how you felt?”
“Because you were mad at me! I thought you hated me, and you’d never trust me again. I didn’t see how we could ever be possible.” She brushed the tears from her eyes. She bit her lip hard, to stop the tears. “I thought I’d never see you again.” She gave a mighty sniff.
“And that matters to you?” he asked quietly.
“Of course it matters to me, you exasperating, incorrigible, …wonderful man! I love you!”
“You love me.” He smiled then, a big one, flashing his white teeth. “Even though I don’t fit your criteria?”
“I love you because nothing about you fits my criteria. I think my criteria were pretty boring, to be honest.” Suddenly, she couldn’t stand to be with him another minute without touching him still more. She pulled her hand free and touched his jaw. His stubble scratched into her sensitive fingertips. “I love you so much, Jamison.” Her voice broke. “I felt like I was going to die from missing you.”
“Alexa.” His fingers plunged into her hair and he kissed her thoroughly. Alexa slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all of the passion and love scorching inside her. He was here. She couldn’t believe it. And he loved her.
After several more long, lingering kisses, he pulled back. Heat burned in his black gaze. “I think we’d better cool it.”
She found his hands again and held them tight. “What’s going to happen to us? Are you going to stay in Europe?”
“Yes. Will you move there and be with me?”
“I won’t live in sin, if that’s what you’re asking.”
He chuckled, deep in his chest. “No. That is not what I’m asking you.”
“Then what are you proposing, Jamison Jethro?” She tried to look severe.
“I am proposing you marry me, and put me out of my misery. Or maybe that would be the beginning of it…”
“Jamison!” She made to punch him, but instead her fingers slid across his stomach, tickling him instead.
Sudden heat blazed in his eyes and he caught her hand. “Don’t start that now, Alexa, because we can’t finish it.”
She leaned into him. “How long will it be before we can finish it?”
His gaze found her mouth. “As soon as my mother can put together a proper Italian wedding.”
“Jamison...”
“She made me promise, that day we visited them.”
Alexa gasped. “She knew? Even then?”
“Yes. Even when I didn’t think there was a chance in the fiery furnace you’d ever fall for an elf like me.”
“You are not an elf! And besides, he was kind of cute. But not as cute as you.”
“Thanks, Alexa.” To her shock, a black velvet box appeared in his hand. He opened it, and inside sparkled a diamond ring, reflecting all the brilliant colors of pure light. Princess cut, of course.
She gasped again, fingers pressed to her mouth.
His warm brown eyes smiled at her. “Marry me?”
“Oh, Jamison. Yes! I can’t think of anything I want more.” She flung her arms around his neck and held him tightly. “Just promise me one thing,” she said, her voice muffled.
“What?”
“That our sons will have your looks and my height, and our daughters will have my looks and your height.”
He grinned. “I promise you we’ll work at it until we get it right.”
“That sounds like a proposition I can agree to. And…”
Jamison kissed her, and whatever she had meant to say flew right out of her head.
He murmured against her lips, “I could get used to winning arguments this way.”
She mumbled, “In your dreams, Jethro… I have plenty more to say.” But she smiled in satisfaction when he kissed her again.
The End
“I sought the LORD, and He answered me;
He delivered me from all my fears.”
Psalm 34:4
About the Author
Jennette Green has always had a passion for writing. She wrote her first story over thirty years ago, and her first romance novel, The Commander’s Desire, was published in 2008. It was given the accolades of “Top Pick” novel and “Reader’s Favorite Hero for 2009.”
Jennette loves to travel with her husband and children, and particularly likes long walks along the ocean, dreaming up new stories.
She loves to hear from her readers. You can write to Jennette at [email protected] or visit her website at www.jennettegreen.com.
Her Reluctant Bodyguard Page 32
