DAN WASN’T SURPRISED to see his entire family in the E.R. waiting room. He knew they cared about Emily. Even Walt had warmed up to her, not just as personal chef, but as an unofficial member of their tribe. Having seen the note Dan had left for them, they clearly wanted to show their support.
What was even more gratifying, though, was knowing how much Emily cared about them, too.
“Are Emily and the baby okay?” Ava jumped up as Emily and Dan walked over to them.
Tommy leaped out of his chair, too. “Why’d you faint?” he demanded protectively, moving around to study her face. “Is that supposed to happen?”
“We were worried!” Kayla dropped her coloring book and crayons long enough to declare.
Walt sized up Emily and added with gruff sincerity, “We hope everything is okay.”
Emily beamed at the outpouring of love. “Everything’s great,” Emily told them, hugging each of the kids and finally Walt in turn.
Feeling happier than he had in a very long time, Dan explained, “The doctor did an ultrasound and Emily and the baby are fine.”
Ava grinned slyly. “Did you find out what you’re having?” she asked.
Tommy elbowed his older sister. “A baby, obviously,” he joked, deadpan.
Ava rolled her eyes and elbowed Tommy right back. “I meant is it a boy or girl,” she said.
Looking blissfully happy, Emily reached into her purse and pulled out the picture the doctor had printed out for them. Radiating pride, she announced softly to one and all, “It’s a girl.”
Aware he was as happy as he would be if this were his child they were talking about, Dan studied the black-and-white ultrasound photo of Emily’s baby along with everyone else.
Finally Kayla tore her eyes away from the picture long enough to hug Emily. “What are you going to name her?” she asked, her chin resting on the curve of Emily’s belly as she looked up.
Putting her arms around Kayla’s shoulders in an instinctively gentle, maternal hug, Emily wrinkled her nose to demonstrate her own confusion. “I don’t know yet.” She grinned at Kayla, then looked around at the rest of the family to grin at them, too. “Maybe you all can help me come up with some names,” she suggested.
The sense of family in the room deepened.
“That’ll be fun,” Ava declared.
“Awesome,” Tommy agreed.
Already moving on to the next topic, Kayla tugged on Dan’s jacket. “Daddy, did you ask her yet?”
Guilt flooded Dan. He hadn’t had time to bring up the question the kids wanted the answer to.
Emily sent him a wordless, inquiring glance.
“We all agree. We really like having you around,” Tommy said.
Ava nodded. “Life at our house is so-o-o much better since you started coming over to cook dinner for us.”
“We want you to stay!” Kayla shouted.
“Whoa!” Dan said. “This isn’t the time or place to be discussing Emily’s plans.”
The kids’ shoulders slumped dispiritedly. Emily looked, curiously, just as wary of pursuing the matter as he was. Which, Dan guessed with disappointment, told him something he’d rather not know, too.
“The doctor wants Emily to go home and rest,” he continued firmly, putting Emily’s and her baby’s health first and his own feelings aside.
Walt pulled out his car keys. “I’ll get the kiddos home,” he promised.
A round of congratulations and goodbyes ensued, complete with hugs and expressions of mutual relief that Emily and her baby were all right. Then Walt gathered up the family and departed while Dan drove Emily to her loft.
En route, he noted she was awfully quiet.
He wasn’t sure what to say, either, after the unexpectedly eventful evening they’d had. He only knew he didn’t want to do it while he was driving.
It was only when they got out of the car and he saw her in the glow of the streetlamps that he realized why she’d been silent.
“YOU’RE CRYING,” DAN OBSERVED in dismay.
Emily turned her head away. Her steps graceful and deliberate, she headed for the front entrance to her building. “I’m just hormonal and overly emotional.”
And if I believe that, Dan thought, you probably have some prime swampland to sell me, too.
Certain it was a heck of a lot more than hormones upsetting Emily, Dan fell into step behind her.
Pulse picking up, he watched the flash of her long legs and the sway of her slender hips. The funny thing was, he noted silently, Emily had no idea how sexy and appealing she was.
And he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Or how much he wanted her.
Not just as a lover and a friend—or a mother figure to his kids—but as an ongoing, integral part of his life.
The question was, how was he going to make that happen? Especially in the limited time they had left?
Drumming up more business for her hadn’t helped. All that had done, he realized guiltily, was prompt more indecision and a fainting spell. Nor could he see himself standing in the way of her goal to return to Fredericksburg to rear her child.
Yet the critical thinker in him was sure there had to be a solution to their mutual problem. A way for Emily to get everything she had ever wanted…and be with him, too.
He just had to put his thinking cap on and come up with it.
Meanwhile he could see that even though Emily had her face turned away from him, she was still silently weeping.
Determined to comfort her, he waited until they stepped into the elevator and the doors shut behind them before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against him.
“I still want to know why you’re crying,” he murmured, burying his face in the softness of her hair.
Emily pushed him away. “I’m not! Not how you mean, anyway.”
Dan was familiar with tears for no reason. These were not that, he was certain.
The elevator stopped at her floor and the doors slid open. He put a hand across the portal so she could exit safely. Then he stepped out, too, and fell into step beside her. He waited patiently as she unlocked the door to her loft, hit the lights and walked in. He followed.
Stunned, he looked around. The place was practically wall-to-wall moving boxes. Only a few clothes and cookbooks remained unpacked. The kitchen area, however, appeared to be fully functional. Probably because she still had catering gigs scheduled the next week.
Moving almost automatically, Emily shut the door behind them and turned the lock.
It wasn’t quite the same as being officially invited in, but it was better than being escorted out, he decided, unable to help but notice how Emily was still surreptitiously wiping moisture from her cheeks.
“And furthermore,” she continued, her temper rising, “a gentleman wouldn’t have noticed!”
Dan teased her. “I thought we had established by now that where you’re concerned, I’m no gentleman.”
Emily slipped off her coat and pivoted to face him.
“Don’t we both wish,” she teased him right back. “But you are a gentleman. You caught me when I fainted, called my obstetrician, took me to the E.R., stayed with me and drove me home.”
What he hadn’t done, Dan realized, was throw caution to the wind and make love to her again, despite all the reasons they shouldn’t.
“What are those—” Emily threw up her hands “—if not the actions of a gentleman?”
They were, Dan thought, the actions of someone who was very close to giving his heart away. For good this time.
But aware this might not be the moment to say that and have it received the way he wanted it received—with an open heart and mind—Dan said instead, “Those are the actions of someone who cares about you, Emily.”
It wasn’t what he wanted to say, but it was a start. And a start, he figured, was better than nothing.
Emily considered him for a moment and he was relieved to see that she’d stopped crying.
Her gaze meshed w
ith his, she glided toward him. “You really mean that, don’t you?” she asked, looking happier than she had all evening.
Dan couldn’t lie about this. He took off his coat and dropped it over a chair. Emboldened by the desire he saw shining in her eyes, he swept her into his arms.
“I want to be part of you and your baby’s life, Emily.” He stroked a hand through her hair, pressed the other against her spine. “No matter where you ultimately decide to live. I want to know we can still see each other.”
And Emily, it seemed, wanted and needed that, too.
“And still,” Emily supposed out loud, searching his face and wreathing her arms about his neck, “do this…”
Their lips met. Dan meant to kiss her once, well, maybe two or three times, until she felt better and then call it a night. But the moment he felt her surrender in the way she opened her mouth to his, in the way she gave in to the passion with a soft sigh, all his patient, honorable intentions went by the wayside. Desire thundered through him, fueling a want and need that matched her own. The truth was, he wanted Emily. He’d wanted her every moment since the last time they’d made love. He just hadn’t figured she would be up to it this evening. But up to it she was, as she put her all into the hot, searing kiss, intertwining her tongue with his. After stroking her hands up and down his back, she slipped them beneath his shirt to find the sensitive areas along his spine, between his shoulder blades, near his waist.
Blood thundered through him, pooling low. The urgency built, not just to make love to her, but to make her his. Not just for tonight, but for always.
And there was no doubt that she wanted him, too.
He unfastened the buttons on her shirt, slipped it off. Divested her of her jeans and boots, leaving her clad in just a pair of red-satin bikini panties that dipped beneath the sexy swell of her baby bump, and a matching satin bra that barely contained her swollen breasts. His body reacted to the sight of hers. He bent his head again and let the passion take hold.
Still kissing her rapturously, he pushed one strap off her shoulder, slowly, deliberately peeling the fabric down to expose the taut, rose-colored tip. Learning the shape of her, first by touch, then by sight and finally by taste, he luxuriated in the ripeness of her body. In the way she curled against him as her skin heated and trembled.
His own need building as surely as hers, he slipped a hand beneath her knees, lifted her and carried her over to her bed.
Gently he lowered her to the pillows. Turbulent need shimmering in her eyes, she lay on her side, her head propped up on her hand. She watched as he undressed and joined her there.
His need to protect her dictated he do everything with utmost tenderness and care. His desire to pleasure her made him prolong every touch, every caress, every kiss. Until there was no more waiting, only sweet, inevitable feeling as she tensed, shuddered and sighed.
Her body hot and trembling, she reached for him…
Emily had meant to take charge of their lovemaking this evening. To show Dan how wild and wicked and wonderful she could be. Instead, she’d ended up giving in to him, giving over. She had let him dominate, not just her body, but her heart and her soul. And maybe, she thought, her future, too.
But now it was her turn to explore. To learn his body anew, to let the silk of her hair tease the taut muscles of his abdomen and thighs. To stroke and tempt and tease as she took in the musky masculine scent of him. She tasted the salt of his perspiration and the familiar sweetness of his skin. Aware she had never felt more alive, so safe, so loved, so protected, she soared toward the ultimate closeness. Yet still she focused on one seductive plateau after another until he, too, could stand it no more. With a groan that was part contentment, part need, he shifted upward. Sat back against the headboard and pulled her astride his lap.
Emily wound her arms about his neck and shoulders while Dan grasped her by the hips. Their bodies came together as one.
Aware nothing had ever felt so good or so right, Emily melted into his touch. She let him show her the way and set the pace…until there was no holding back the passion roaring through her…no containing the love in her heart. Together they skyrocketed into ecstasy, became suspended in tender fulfillment. And then drifted slowly, inevitably down.
Still shuddering with the aftershocks, Emily molded her body to his and pressed her breasts against the steely muscles of his chest. She clung to him, savoring the moment and the man. She thought about what had happened as he stroked a hand through her hair. Not just tonight, but every time they were alone together—and even when they weren’t.
She had tried so hard to deny it, but there was no getting around it—there was something special here. Something she had never felt before and was certain she would never feel again with anyone else. The urge to go back to the past and bring new life to the orchard her family had built paled in comparison to her desire to build a family with Dan. She could pretend she still wanted to bring up her child alone. That it would be enough.
Or she could be honest with herself—and Dan.
Holding as tightly to the burst of unexpected courage as she was to the feelings of well-being their lovemaking had engendered, Emily drew back far enough to look into Dan’s eyes. Her voice soft, she threw caution to the wind and told him what had been in her heart for some time. “I want to be your lover, Dan, as well as your friend. And I want you to be mine.”
Dan’s brow furrowed.
Clearly, Emily thought, this was not what Dan had been expecting to hear. She hadn’t anticipated saying it, either. She held up a hand before he could respond. “I know it’s not the usual thing for a woman in my condition to ask. And that you might not want to commit to something like that for even the duration of my pregnancy…” She trailed off.
Dan bent his head and kissed her, and the kiss felt like a commitment, like a bridge to their future. “Consider us exclusive,” he murmured, smiling. “Starting now.”
And then, just so she would know how serious he was, he kissed her with an intensity that took her breath away and made sweet, tender love to her all over again.
Chapter Thirteen
“I wish I didn’t have to go home,” Dan admitted an hour later as he climbed out of Emily’s bed.
Emily turned on her side to watch him gather his clothes. “But if you don’t, they’ll likely assume something else is wrong with me or the baby.”
When instead, Dan thought with contentment, everything was very right.
“Speaking of which—” he pulled on his boxers and jeans and sat down beside her on the bed “—we never really had a chance to talk about the discharge instructions the nurse gave you.”
Emily made a face. “You mean the ones about making sure I’m not working too many hours and am taking care of myself?”
“Those would be the ones.”
There was a brief silence as Emily ran her palm over the sheet with the same deliberation she used when she made love to him. She lifted her gaze to his. “You think I’ve been working too hard, don’t you?”
“Honestly? Yes,” he said somberly.
Emily sighed and rolled over onto her back. She drew the sheet over the full, womanly curves of her breasts and folded one arm behind her head. The other rested against her brow, shielding her gaze from view. “It’s occurred to me, too,” she said on a disgruntled sigh.
Dan lifted her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist. “You’ve looked tired ever since you took on extra gigs.”
Emily’s lips twisted ruefully. “I’ve felt tired.” Her breasts rose and lowered with each long, slow breath. “Between that and all the packing and the stress of trying to negotiate a satisfactory partnership agreement with Tex, it’s clear to me I haven’t been getting enough rest.”
More than ever, Dan found himself wanting to be the one who took care of her and looked out for her. “So what are you going to do about it?” he asked gently, deciding this time he would not stand by idly while it all fell apart. He’d find a way to help Emil
y and himself gain everything they wanted and needed, even if it meant he had to think outside the box.
Emily shrugged, her worry fading as quickly as his intensified. “I guess I’m going to have to start putting my feet up a little more. Probably stop taking on any more extra work until I do move.”
There it was again, the elephant in the room. “And until then?” It was with effort that Dan kept his voice mild.
An emotion he couldn’t decipher simmered in her eyes. “I’ve got one or two jobs a day in addition to making dinner for your family.”
Dan wrapped his arms around her and brought her close. “Do you want to stop cooking for us?” He planted a kiss in her hair.
Emily shook her head adamantly, trailing her fingers over his pecs. “I don’t want to let the kids down.”
“Do you want to give up any of the others?”
She sighed. “Nope.”
A frayed silence fell between them.
“I’m a working mom, Dan,” she reminded him with a deeply disappointed look.
He made no response. How many times had his ex-wife said the same thing while running herself ragged?
Emily promised in a flat, nonnegotiable tone, “I’ll figure it out.”
Brenda had said that, too. Only there had never been enough time for family, Dan recalled sadly, never enough time for the two of them. Were he and Emily headed down the same path? And if so, would she end up hurting not just him and his family, but herself and her baby, too?
Or was Emily smarter and better able to compromise?
There was no way to tell as her chin took on that stubborn tilt he knew so well. “I’ll work everything out, Dan,” she repeated. “I’ll find a way to be together with you that won’t take away from anyone or anything else important.”
Looking into her eyes, seeing the fire of her ambition—and the depth of her determination to be with him and his kids—Dan could almost believe Emily would somehow manage to have it all. Unfortunately he knew how difficult a goal like that was to achieve, especially when the overextended person in question was determined to continue going it alone in the decision-making process.
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