THIS PERFECT STRANGER
Page 22
Oh, Cain…
"So, I got on a plane and came back. Hoping you could forgive me for going. That maybe you still felt something for me." He reached a hand out to her face, but hesitated to touch her. "Do you, Mag? 'Cause this … this pain's getting worse and I'm crazy in love with you."
Maggie steepled her hands over her mouth, her eyes filling with tears. "I thought—"
He pulled her toward him and kissed her, hard and deep. Maggie threw her arms around him pulling him closer still. Oh, how she'd missed him! His taste, the wonderful scent of him and the feel of his arms around her.
Cain broke the kiss before she was ready to give him up and pressed his forehead against hers. "I missed you. So damned much."
She nodded, her throat clogged with tears. "I missed you, too."
He brushed a strand of hair off her cheek. "I know it'll be hard, but I'm asking you to take a chance on me. I'll do everything in my power to make you happy, Maggie. I swear it."
Shaking, she looked up at him. "What about Annie?"
"Annie will always be part of my past. But she's gone. And I'm here. And you're the one I want to spend the rest of my life with."
He pulled a small Tiffany box from his pocket and opened it. Inside was an exquisite diamond ring flanked by small, perfectly cut emeralds. Maggie gasped when she saw it. "Oh, Cain—"
"I never gave you a ring the first time." He took it from the box and put it on her finger. It fit perfectly. She started to cry all over again.
"You don't like it?" he asked, his voice suddenly worried.
"No … it's beautiful. It's just that—" She lifted her gaze to his face. "There's something I have to tell you first. Before you decide."
"Nothing will change my mind, Maggie."
"This might. Some men don't want—" She turned away from him, screwing up her courage.
"Men? What is it, Maggie? You're scaring me."
"I'm … I'm pregnant." There. She said it. It was probably the last thing he expected to hear, considering her assurances that wasn't a possibility. She only known herself for a week.
For a long heartbeat he didn't say anything. Then, "A baby?"
He whirled her toward him, on his face a look of wonder she'd never seen before as he stared at her belly. "Are you sure? I mean, how far along are you?"
"Almost two months," she said carefully. "I know I said it couldn't happen, but the doctors must have been wrong because I definitely am, even though honestly, I never meant to get … I mean personally, I'm very happy about it and I want you to know that I intend to keep it and if you're not, well, then I underst—"
He shut her up by covering her mouth with his in a joyous, emphatic kiss. He took her down with him into the deep golden alfalfa, cradling her tenderly in his arms. The smell of crushed hay swirled around them and when she looked up all she could see was the vast indigo sky brushed by gold and Cain's face smiling down at her.
"A baby," he repeated against her lips.
"You're happy?" she asked in a small voice.
"Happy? Maggie, three months ago, I didn't really give a damn if I lived or died. I was lost. And here I am, holding you—" his hand traveled down to the curve of her belly "—and our child. You made me remember what it was to be alive again. You gave me a reason to come back. And a baby … well, that's just something I never dreamed could happen for me."
He swallowed thickly, his eyes full of emotion. "Marry me—the right way this time—and I'll spend the rest of my life proving how much I love you."
She pulled him down to her for another kiss. His tongue moved against hers sealing the promise between them. Her fingers moved to the buttons on his shirt, flicking them open one by one.
Above them, Cain heard the Montana wind ruffle the grain with a sibilant sound as Maggie's warm hand slid against his chest. He could hardly believe his luck in finding her, loving her. That she offered herself to him now, without constraint was so … Maggie.
He would make love to her here in the hayfield surrounded by the mountains she loved. In the years to come, he silently vowed, there would be a thousand times like this to remind him that he'd been lucky enough to love twice in one lifetime.
And then he remembered the dream he'd had of Annie and the blond-haired little girl. He smiled against Maggie's mouth.
"What?" she asked.
"I'm thinking we should paint the nursery pink."
She laughed. "What makes you so sure it'll be a girl?"
"Just a feeling," he said, brushing the hair out of her eyes.
Her lips curved. "A feeling, huh? Did I ever tell you about the feeling I had the first time you kissed me?"
He shook his head with a wicked smile.
"C'mere," she whispered. "And I'll show you."
And she did.
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