“I brought you something.” He set the red package on the desk in front of her.
She stared at it and then back at him. “Why?”
He jammed his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “Because I felt like it. Go on, open it.”
What was he doing? Why was he torturing her? Her fingers trembled as she unwrapped the paper to reveal a shoe box. She looked up at him again in confusion.
“I couldn’t find shoes like the ones you kicked off the day Norwood grabbed you, the ones that were ruined by the snow,” he said.
She opened the box and pulled back the inside paper to reveal a pair of bright red sling-back pumps with tiny white bows. They were the most beautiful shoes she’d ever seen.
Tears blurred her vision and suddenly she was mad, mad that he thought she’d want a pair of shoes when all she really wanted was him.
“You crazy fool,” she exclaimed. “I don’t care about shoes. All I really care about is you.” She stared up at him, appalled by her outburst.
His eyes narrowed and he pulled his hands from his pockets. “Do you mean that?”
Tension filled the air, a tension of expectancy that pressed tight against Layla’s chest. Did she tell him the truth or did she make a joke out of it? Before she could decide he walked around the desk and pulled her to her feet.
“I just had a talk with Portia,” he said. “She reminded me that love is a verb and that it’s something you do as well as something you feel. I feel it, Layla, and I decided it was time I act on it.”
Her heart began to beat faster but fear kept her frozen in place. “Is this some kind of a joke?” she finally asked.
“Does this feel like a joke?” He pulled her into his arms and took her lips with his in a kiss that sang of hot, sweet desire.
She pulled away from him as tears stung her eyes. “It doesn’t feel like a joke. It feels like passion, but I know how that works and eventually that will be gone and there will be nothing left. I don’t want you for a little while. I can’t stand the thought of you being just another man who leaves me when the passion is gone.”
“Oh, Layla.” He reached out and embraced her close again. “There’s no question that I feel passion for you. But I also want to be the man who holds you when you cry. I want to listen to everything you have to say, even if it sometimes makes my eyes cross. I love you, Layla, but more importantly I need you. I know what your father did to you, how he told you for years that you didn’t matter, and I want to spend every day of the rest of my life showing you how important you are to me.”
He stroked a hand through her hair and smiled and in that smile she saw his heart, and she knew that it was hers for the taking.
“I do talk too much,” she admitted.
“A charming trait.”
“And I don’t do mornings very well.”
“I can give you plenty of space in the mornings,” he replied.
“You’d have to like my cat.”
He grinned. “I love Mr. Whiskers and I haven’t even met him yet.”
“I love you, Jacob.” Once again tears burned at her eyes, but this time they were happy tears. “And I want you in my life forever. I love everything about you. You’re the man I’ve waited my entire life to find, and contrary to what my father thought, I am worthy of love. I am worthy of your love.”
“Layla, you talk too much,” he said as he lowered his lips to hers once again.
This time as his mouth plied hers with heat, she tasted not just his passion, but also the kind of love she’d only dreamed about, the kind that would last for the rest of her life.
Epilogue
The noise in the Grayson house was just shy of deafening. Caleb and Benjamin were in a good-natured argument about football. Peyton’s daughter, Lilly, was laughing as Tom tickled her tummy and Edie and Benjamin were refereeing Walt and Margaret as they argued about whose dessert was best, Walt’s apple pie or Margaret’s pumpkin.
Layla sat in a chair next to the grand Christmas tree and breathed in the sense of family that surrounded her. It was magical, as everything had felt since Jacob had come to her office and proclaimed his love for her.
He’d moved from the cabin into her house that day and for the first time in her life Layla felt as if she was where she belonged, that he was where he belonged.
She now smiled as he came into the living room. He’d left a few minutes before to have a chat with Brittany. “How is she?” she asked as she stood.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they stood before the glittery tree. “She’s still pretty fragile.”
“It hasn’t been that long. She just needs time to heal from the ordeal,” Layla replied.
“I don’t think she’s coming back to her job as a deputy.”
Layla leaned into him, loving the way she fit so neatly against him. “Did she mention what her plans are?”
“She wants to stay here with Benjamin and Edie for a while longer and she doesn’t know for sure what she wants to do after that.”
“She’ll be okay, Jacob. She’s tough and she’s a survivor. You all just need to give her some time and space for her to figure it all out.”
“I know,” he agreed, then laughed as Lilly released a new giggling scream of delight. “Just think, next year there will be another little one with Portia’s baby here.”
“If we work really hard we could make it two new babies here by next Christmas,” she replied.
His eyes burned with a new intensity as he pulled her even closer to him. “I’d like that.”
She grinned at him. “You just like the working on it.”
“That, too,” he agreed with his sexy grin. He sobered and released the sigh of a contented man. “It doesn’t get any better than this—family all together, the scent of great food in the air and the woman I love more than life itself standing in my arms.”
As he kissed her he warmed her from the very top of her head down to her toes that were encased in the red high heels he’d bought for her.
She returned his kiss and realized all she’d really needed to find happiness was Jacob Grayson and the belief that she was worth every good thing that came her way.
He broke the kiss and held her gaze. “I promise you, Layla, I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.”
She gazed up at him with wide eyes. “But you never make promises.”
“I only make ones that I intend to keep,” he replied. “Now, let’s go eat some of that apple and pumpkin pie and then get home so we can work on giving Lilly a new little cousin.”
She thrilled not just with the promise his lips had made, but also with the promise that warmed his eyes, the sweet promise of enduring love.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8829-8
SPECIAL AGENT’S SURRENDER
Copyright © 2011 by Carla Bracale
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*The Delaney Heirs
**Cherokee Corners
‡Wild West Bodyguards
‡‡Lawmen of Black Rock
Special Agent's Surrender Page 16