Oh, how did he do that? How did he know to say such beautiful things?
And he wasn’t finished yet. “And I’m hoping, maybe, in a few years, if you’re willing and it works out that way, there could be more children. I would like that, if we had more kids. But don’t get me wrong. If it’s only the three of us, that’s okay with me. You and Marybeth, you’re plenty. You’re all that I need.” He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket, and when he pulled his hand out, she saw he had a ring, a gorgeous vintage oval-shaped diamond with smaller diamonds glittering on the white gold band. “It was my stepmother’s.” His eyes shone so bright in the moonlight. “I...hope it’s okay.”
Jody gasped. “Seth. It’s beautiful.”
“Say yes to me, Jody.”
The absolutely crazy, insane truth was that she wanted to say yes. She longed to say yes.
Still, she tried to hold on to her scattered wits, to carefully examine the exact words he had said. The word love had not been among them. She knew why, too. He’d had love, true, lasting love, and that wasn’t what he offered her.
He was, however, offering her forever. A real commitment. He wanted a life with her, just as she wanted one with him.
He was no Dean. He was nothing like Brent. And he wasn’t dear, sweet Nick, either. Nick had been wrong for her, too innocent, too young.
But Seth?
Seth was so exactly right. With his rough edges and his bossy ways, his deep need to protect, his limitless tenderness with her little girl.
His unswerving devotion.
Seth understood her. She’d told him her sins and the secret of her lost little boy. He saw the whole of her.
He wanted the whole of her.
Forever. She could have that with him. It wasn’t perfect. But what in life ever was?
The moon bathed his upturned face in silver. “Jody. Dear God. Say something, please.”
“I...” It was all she could manage. There was more, so much more she should be saying. But somehow, her thoughts refused to organize themselves into actual sentences.
“Damn it, Jody.” The mild swearword shocked her. Seth never cursed. And then he was rising, sweeping to his feet, pulling her up and into his hard arms, yanking her good and close. “Say yes.” His head swooped down. He took her lips in a searing kiss that left absolutely no doubt about the chemistry between them.
Heat sang beneath her skin. She wanted to pull him down in the silvery grass, rip off all his clothes and hers, as well, to lay claim to his big body, right here and now, make him hers in the most fundamental way. So he would know that even if he had to save his heart for the woman who’d died so he would live, she, Jody, owned the rest of him. His body was hers.
But then he lifted his head, and she was gazing up into his shadowed eyes. “Say yes to me, Jody.”
He was the man she wanted. And he wanted her. He wanted to be with her, to take care of her little girl.
They had a true and powerful bond, even if neither of them was willing to call it love.
It was just so right with him, so good. With him, she had everything she’d given up hope of ever finding with a man. And if he saved his words of love for the woman he’d lost so tragically, well, it wasn’t as if that woman would ever return to take him back.
“Jody?” He sounded worried now.
And wait.
Hold on a minute.
Really, she needed not to get carried away. She should slow this down, take more time. They didn’t have to rush into forever. Forever would be waiting for them when they were ready.
But then again, she longed to say yes to him. It burned inside her, the need to accept what he offered her. They were so good together. And she wanted what he wanted, a life together—the two of them and Marybeth. She wanted to live the little fantasy she’d had back there in the front hall of the ranch house, in that moment before he led her up the stairs.
And words of love or not, now that he’d made what he wanted clear and it turned out to be exactly what she wanted, well, her answer really wasn’t going to change, was it?
“Say yes,” he whispered, prayerfully now.
That did it. She simply could not deny him. Couldn’t deny her own hungry heart.
She reached up her left hand and laid her fingers along the side of his face. “Yes.”
He made a low sound, desperate and tight. “What was that you said?”
“I said yes, Seth.”
He grabbed her hand, pressed a kiss to her fingertips and then slipped that beautiful diamond ring on her finger. “Yes.” He kissed her fingers again, breathing the word against her skin. “You just said yes.”
She laughed then—at the wonder in his voice, at the look of joy and surprise on his face. “Yes, I did. Let’s get married as soon as possible.”
And he picked her up and spun her around, right there in the silvery starlight, in the center of the beautiful clearing he’d considered his secret place when he was a boy.
Chapter Nine
They were married right there at the Bar-Y a week later.
Seth’s dad, Bill, holding Marybeth in his arms, stood up as Seth’s best man. Jody had no attendants, but her sisters were there, her mother and her brothers, too. Once you added in wives, husbands, fiancés, children, employees and various other friends and associates, it was a pretty good-size group for such short notice.
There were plenty of flowers from Jody’s shop, and Elise and her crew provided most of the food—but not the wedding cake. For that, Adriana Welch had outdone herself, baking three triple-decker chocolate cakes at Jody’s request.
Pastor Jacobs from Elk Street Community Church officiated. Jody wore a retro tea-length blush-pink dress with a fitted bodice and a full skirt, which she’d bought at the local bridal shop, Wedding Belles. She carried a bouquet of bright pink peonies. Her hair was piled up loosely under a short veil.
Elise stepped up and took her bouquet for the vows. A few minutes later, Seth slipped the wedding band that matched her gorgeous engagement ring on her finger.
The minister said, “Seth, you may kiss your bride,” and her new husband lifted her veil. Then he cradled her face in his big hands and pressed his warm, soft lips to hers. He kissed her slowly, taking his sweet time about it.
Friends and family pressed in close, but Jody forgot all about them.
There was only the two of them, Jody and Seth, married. Sharing their first kiss as husband and wife. He let his wonderful hands stray down to her shoulders and lower, gathering her close to him, wrapping his arms around her nice and tight as he went on kissing her. She could have stood there in her pink dress with her mouth fused to his into the next century and beyond.
But then Marybeth, in her grandpa’s arms, let out a high trill of sound that could have passed for a laugh.
The baby’s seeming mirth was contagious. Someone giggled. And then someone else chuckled.
Against her lips, Seth whispered, “More on this later.”
And then she was laughing, too.
Pastor Jacobs presented them as Mr. and Mrs. Yancy, and it was official.
She’d married Seth Yancy.
The party lasted until long after dark. When all the guests had finally headed home, Elise’s crew stayed to clean everything up. Seth, Marybeth and Jody returned to her house in town. Bill was staying at the ranch house, and Jody and Seth wanted privacy for their wedding night.
The ride back to town was a quiet one. Marybeth snoozed in her car seat. Jody stared out the windshield at the clear, starry June night and tried to ignore the fluttery sensations in her stomach and her ongoing state of near-breathlessness.
She’d been to see Dr. Kapur on Thursday. It was full speed ahead in terms of her sex life with her new husband. She’d had a contraceptive shot tha
t was already working, and she and Seth had discussed protection. Due to their mutual long-term abstinence, they’d agreed that no condoms would be necessary tonight.
It kind of amazed her that she would now have a sex life again after so long. There had only been Nick, that one time, in four years.
And what about Seth? In terms of abstinence, he put her to shame. She slid him a glance. In the dashboard light, he looked so stern and composed.
He must have felt her gaze on him. “What? Say it.”
She gulped. Hard. “Just thinking...”
“About sex, you mean?”
A wild, nervous laugh tried to burst out of her. She held it back, but it got away from her and came out as a goofy, snorting sound.
He nodded. “Yeah. I can’t wait, either.” And then he reached across, took her hand and kissed the back of it. “You’re beautiful. And I’m the luckiest guy in the world to be married to you.”
* * *
At the house, Jody left Seth in the great room with Marybeth.
“I’ll be right back,” she promised. “I’m just going to change out of this dress.”
Just like that, she was gone. He patted Marybeth’s tiny back and kissed her temple and thought about how he’d wanted to be the one to take that dress off of his bride. But Marybeth was hungry now, and that made her fussy. It was his job to keep her happy while Jody put on something more nursing-friendly.
“I’ll take her now.” Jody emerged from the bedroom hallway wearing a loose-fitting blue robe. She took the baby from him and disappeared back down the hallway.
He went to the kitchen, where he got down the whiskey and poured himself a stiff shot. Knocking it back in one go, he put the shot glass down hard. Then he wandered over to the breakfast nook and stood staring blankly at his own shadowed reflection in the window that looked out over the dark backyard.
Married. To Jody. He could hardly believe she’d said yes, given him permission to be with her. To be a father to Marybeth. Now he would never have to move out and leave them.
He would have it all, after all, though he’d long ago given up the last hope of such a thing. He wanted his new wife. Wanted her bad. Wanted her way outside the scope of the boundaries he’d set on himself since the loss of Irene.
And by some miracle, by a chain of impossible events that included not only the birth of his niece but also the loss of his only brother way too soon, he would have her, have Jody. She belonged to him now. As did Marybeth. No one and nothing could take them away from him.
Except death, which came for everyone eventually.
But he’d already put up with more than his fair share of death, hadn’t he? With just a minimum of luck he and Jody would have years and years together before they’d be facing that again.
Eventually he left off staring blindly into space contemplating his shocking good fortune. He went to the spare room where he changed from his dark suit to track pants and a T-shirt. Only then did he join his bride and Marybeth in the master bedroom.
“She’s finished,” Jody whispered from her recliner by the window.
Seth took the drowsy baby in his arms.
Jody held up the baby monitor, and he took it from her.
In the spare room, he put the monitor next to the blow-up bed. Then he burped and changed Marybeth. She was asleep by the time he positioned the pillows around her. He stood back for a moment to look at her, so sweet and peaceful, his now to love and protect.
In the master bedroom, Jody had already turned back the bed. As he stood staring at the snowy-white sheets, hardly daring to believe that in the morning he would wake up in that bed with her, he heard the bathroom door open behind him.
He turned. She stood in the doorway in a white, filmy bit of cobwebs and lace and nothing else. He could see the soft, womanly shape of her beneath the robe that wasn’t really a robe at all. Her dark brown hair, warmed with red glints in the light from behind her, was loose on her shoulders. And her blue eyes were enormous, trained on his face.
“Jody.” It came out like a prayer. Thankful. Sincere. And rough with yearning, too.
Her bare feet whispered across the rug and then she was in front of him. He smelled her perfume, a little flowery, but also dark, like spice and sex. He wanted to grab her, yank her close, put his mouth and his hands all over her.
And yet there was a certain reverence within him, a reluctance to be as rough as his need for her demanded. “I’m afraid to touch you. Afraid I might...”
Her sweet mouth trembled on a smile. “Shatter into a million overexcited pieces? If so, I know the feeling.”
“I was thinking more that I might hurt you. But yeah. What you said? That, too.”
“Seth.” She reached up a hesitant hand. Her finger brushed down the side of his throat, stirring sensations. Heat. Hunger. The promise of this night, of all their nights to come. “You won’t hurt me.” And then she went on tiptoe.
Her lips brushed his, back and forth.
Until he couldn’t stand not to hold her good and tight in his arms. He grabbed her close.
She came up against him with an eager moan, and he claimed the kiss from her, deepening it, owning it. Her mouth opened beneath his, making way for his tongue to sweep in and taste the sweet and the salt of her. Her arms slipped up over his shoulders to encircle his neck. He felt her soft, full breasts pressed to his chest. He felt...
Everything, every curve, every inch of silky, cool skin, even the parts that were covered by that little bit of nothing she’d put on in the bathroom. He felt her all through him, in his blood, to the bone, her breath in his mouth and the warm satin of her hair against his cheek, the scent of her darker now, richer than ever. To him, she smelled like pure sex now. And he was rock hard and ready, aching to fill her.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Seth...”
“Can’t wait.” He groaned the words against her parted lips.
“Yes,” she said again, encouraging him when encouragement was the last thing he needed. “Oh, please. Everything...”
“Everything.” He gave the word back to her as he took her down across the bed.
He should have been slow—he knew it. Slow and seductive and gentle and teasing.
But it had been so long and he ached so bad.
And she wasn’t helping him to keep control.
“Now,” she commanded, grabbing for his T-shirt, dragging it up and over his head. “Right now.” She shoved at the track pants. He helped her, barely getting his erection free of the elastic waistband before she was pushing the pants over his hips and on down his thighs. He kicked to get out of them. They went over the side of the bed.
“Seth. Oh, my. All these muscles. And this...” She wrapped that cool, smooth hand around him. “Amazing.”
“Jody. Jody, no!” He grabbed for her wrist.
She gave a low, needy moan that reached down inside him and stirred him all the hotter. “Let me...” And she tried to lower that smart mouth of hers onto him.
He couldn’t let her do that. He would lose it completely if she did.
But then, well, it kind of looked like he would lose it anyway. He drove his fingers into the thick fall of her hair and grabbed on to keep her from taking him in.
“Ouch!” she cried.
“Sorry.” He pulled her head up to him and kissed her lips, smoothing her hair as he did it, trying to soothe the pain that he’d caused. “Sorry, baby, but you were going to make me lose it...”
“So lose it.” She made a low, growling sound. “I can’t wait.”
“Slow down...”
“No. Uh-uh. Later for that...”
He gave up trying to control it—control her. She was totally wild, and who was he to hold her back? He let her do what she wanted.
And what she wanted wa
s frantic and beautiful, embarrassing and awkward and fine.
She grabbed that froth of cobwebs she was wearing and pulled at it until she got it above her waist.
He made the mistake of looking down then, getting an eyeful of all that womanly softness.
Bare. She was bare down there, completely revealed to him. The sight shocked him with a jolt of pleasure so strong, he almost erupted into climax right then and there.
“Jody!”
And she laughed, the sound naughty and bold and completely without shame, as she yanked the filmy nightgown over her head and tossed it away. “You like it?”
He pushed her gently to her back and rose up over her. And then he couldn’t stop himself. He had to touch her, to feel the smoothness, to cup that bare mound and then to slide a questing finger along her slick, wet, unprotected folds. “Beautiful...” He groaned. He really was going to lose it, and she wasn’t even touching him.
But she saved him from completely humiliating himself, saved him by wrapping one leg around him and then the other, by taking him in her hand again and guiding him into place.
He cradled her head on the pillow between his two hands. “Look at me while I come into you...”
The blue eyes, shining so bright, stared straight into his as he pushed in, as he tried with every ounce of will and restraint he had in him to take it slow for both their sakes. She’d had a baby not six weeks before, after all. He needed to be gentle with her. He needed to take care.
But she only smiled her naughty, knowing smile at him and wrapped her legs tighter around him. He sank into all that hot, wet softness.
It was sheer heaven, the best place a man could ever be.
“Kiss me, Seth.”
Oh, and he did. He kissed her slow and deep and thoroughly, somehow managing to hold himself still for her, letting her find the pace and the rhythm that worked for her, though no way, at this point, would he be able to take her to the peak. This had to be way too fast for her.
But apparently, it was how she wanted it. She’d set this frantic, headlong pace—and not for herself.
For him.
She’d made this rough magic for him.
The Lawman's Convenient Bride Page 13
