He squeezed her hands and tugged them slightly toward him.
“I fell in love with you, Marti,” he said sincerely. “You. Just you. I know you can’t say that same thing about—”
Marti pulled one hand out of his to press her fingertips to his mouth, to stop him before he said anything else.
Did he mean all he was saying or had he just had the chance to rethink where he’d gone wrong this afternoon?
She hoped she wasn’t mistaken. It did seem as if he was speaking from the heart this time.
And when she considered who he was and what she’d come to know about him, it became less difficult to believe him. Because Noah was someone who had learned through pain and trouble to put effort into being exactly what Ry had said he was—a decent guy. He didn’t lie. He didn’t cheat. He didn’t take the easy way out. He was a straight shooter. And she didn’t think he would open his heart like this if he didn’t mean it.
But now that it had come down to that, what about her? She’d just stopped Noah from saying that he knew she couldn’t make those same declarations, that she didn’t have those same feelings for him. But was that really true? Or was Ry right about that, too? Did she care for this man? More than care for him…
She was still looking into that chiseled face, her fingertips still staunching the flow of his words. His brows were creased with worry.
She thought of how many ways she’d discovered she liked Noah in the last week. Liked having him there for her when she’d had the heartburn and the dizzy spells, or to weather the storms with her grandmother and with Hector. She liked just being with him, talking to him, seeing him, hearing his voice.
She’d more than liked it all, she admitted to herself now. She’d craved Noah’s company. And everything he’d said about how much he’d wanted to be with her was exactly how much she’d wanted to be with him. How much she’d just plain wanted him—his touch, his kiss, his body…
There weren’t rose petals and wine and candlelight here. This wasn’t Jack. But there was a roaring fire and a full moon and bright stars and the clean, clear scent of pine to bring her back to that first time she and Noah had been together, that first time when something bigger than both of them had been at work.
And while she might not recall much of their night together in Noah’s hotel room in Denver, she did remember what had led up to it. The way Noah had made her feel even then—as if he saw the essence of her and her alone. There had been chemistry between them—they’d just clicked. And wasn’t that what had happened again since she’d been in Northbridge?
It was. And it was something that didn’t have anything to do with the baby. That really was just between the two of them. And if there was that much just between the two of them—before the baby and again since—then maybe what he’d said that afternoon about having something to build from, something other than the baby, was true.
Marti shook her head then and blinked back the tears that flooded her eyes when it struck her just how much she did care about this man.
“You don’t know that I can’t say that I love you,” she whispered, shocked to find just how much she did.
Noah took her hand away from his face. “Does that mean you do?”
“This really doesn’t have anything to do with the baby?” she asked rather than answer that, when a glimmer of doubt struck.
It was Noah who shook his head this time. “I trust that you wouldn’t cut me off from my child. But this—” he brought her hands to his chest and held them there firmly “—you and me—is all this is about. If there wasn’t a baby, I’d still be here, right now, telling you what I’m telling you and asking you to marry me because I don’t want to be without you.”
“I haven’t heard you ask me anything,” Marti pointed out.
“Marry me, Marti. Just because I want you and you alone. Marry me just because you want me. Marry me just because—maybe—you love me, too?”
She smiled. “The first part of that was supposed to be the question, not the last part.”
Noah was still very solemn. “Seems like the last part is still a question, too, since I haven’t heard it for sure.”
Marti almost couldn’t believe what she was about to say. “I never saw myself with anyone but Jack. I didn’t think I could ever love anyone else. And I don’t know how this happened—especially so fast and with so much…oomph. But I do love you, Noah. I do…” Her voice dwindled off in awe of her own feelings for him.
She saw his dark eyes fill the way hers had a moment before but he only smiled a devilish smile and said in a hushed voice, “It’s about time. Nothing like leaving me hanging.”
That made her laugh and kept tears from falling all the way around.
“So, will you marry me?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered simply because right there, right then, she honestly did know that he wasn’t asking for any reason except that he wanted her. And because she wanted him, too.
Noah pulled her toward him and leaned in himself to take her mouth with his in a kiss that was sweet and tender until passion overcame it.
His arms went around her and he raised them both to their knees so he could bring her in closer, so his hand could catch her head to cradle it when his lips parted, when his tongue came to claim hers, when that kiss deepened and turned all-consuming.
Marti’s arms went around him, too; her hands found their way under his turtleneck to his broad, bare back.
Noah didn’t need any more encouragement. The kiss eased up enough to put some space between them to accommodate his hands where they went to work on the buttons of her camisole as her sweater fell from her shoulders.
Big, strong, adept hands that had no problem with the tiny buttons before he slipped the camisole off and the cool night air brushed her naked breasts a moment before the warmth of his hands covered them.
But all too soon those hands were gone again, along with his mouth, so he could cross his arms over his flat belly, grab the hem of his shirt and yank it off over his head. Then it was the heat of his body meeting hers that chased away the chill as he laid them both down on the quilt and quickly disposed of the rest of their clothes.
They came together in a frenzy, starved for each other despite the fact that it had been only hours since the last time they’d made love. Exploring, learning, with hands and mouths and tongues, arousing every inch of flesh until they were both frantic with need that Noah met when he slipped inside of her.
The moan that escaped Marti was uncontrollable as together they began that quest for the climax that she knew Noah could take her to, the climax he reached a split second after she did, leaving them both breathless and satiated and spent.
Then they were lying there under the moon, under the stars and the treetops. Their legs were entwined, Marti’s head was on Noah’s chest and the fire was dancing beside them, bathing them in a soft golden glow and the whisper of warmth.
And that was when Noah said again, “I love you, Marti. More than you’ll ever know.”
“I love you, too, Noah,” she responded.
“I’m thinking that we might not have had a crazy-long courtship like you had before, but that after this short one, we can have a nice long marriage. How would that be?”
She smiled in the darkness. “I’m counting on it.”
“And I’m also thinking there’ll probably be lots of kids just because I won’t ever be able to keep my hands off you.”
Marti laughed. “Okay. But let’s just have this one to start with.”
He hugged her tight. “Whatever you say.” Then he kissed the top of her head and she could feel his breath hot in her hair as exhaustion seeped into them both.
And as she closed her eyes to give in to it, basking in the feeling of being in Noah’s arms, of being against his naked body, of loving him so much it filled her almost to overflowing, Jack crossed her mind.
But nowhere in what she was feeling was there guilt. Instead, in that instant, she knew tha
t there was no cause for it.
For no reason she could know, she’d been offered another chance at the same kind of happiness she’d always thought she’d have with Jack. Only now she’d have it with Noah. Noah, who even Jack would have liked and approved of—she was sure of it.
And this time that happiness had come complete with a baby.
A baby that had brought them together. That would be the first that Noah could raise as his own. That had picked Marti up out of her grief and given her reason to go on.
And while the road to this moment had been entirely different with Noah than it had with Jack, Marti knew that what she’d found was no less perfect.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3256-7
A BABY FOR THE BACHELOR
Copyright © 2009 by Victoria Pade
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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