by Maggie Cox
‘I’m glad.’
Although in future Jake wanted to be the one doing all the protecting. He knew that now—knew it without a single doubt. The thought was exhilarating…like a hang glider hitting a warm air thermal. All he had to do now was convince her that he was in earnest.
‘Will you come back with me to the hotel for a while? I’d really like to say what I have to say to you in private.’
Smoothing her hand down the front of her raincoat, Caitlin sucked in a steadying breath.
‘I have something I want to say to you too, Jake. But I’m not waiting until we get back to your hotel. It’s better said out here, in the open. You’ve told me that I’m important to you, but the truth is…the truth is I don’t know if I can be enough for you.’
She swallowed hard, her cheeks glowing a little with embarrassment.
‘What about the next pretty girl who becomes infatuated with you? You like your lifestyle just the way it is. You don’t want to commit yourself to one person and I don’t want anything less.’
There…she’d finally said it. She’d put her cards on the table and the consequences be damned.
‘Is that what you think? That you’re not enough for me?’
To Caitlin’s consternation, he laughed out loud.
‘I don’t know if I could handle you if you were any more woman than you are already, but I’d willingly die trying! What’s all this talk about not being enough? Caitlin, you’re my fantasy come to life—my most heartfelt dream come true. Why would I be remotely interested in any other woman? It’s true that there will always be pretty women in this business, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be remotely interested. Why would I if I have you? In any case, most of my time and energy goes into my work, and that’s the way I’ve wanted it…up until now, that is.’
With a meaningful pause Jake allowed his gorgeous blue eyes to reflect a promise that Caitlin hardly dared believe.
He continued. ‘And now I’m planning on using some of that time and energy in keeping you one very happy and contented woman, Caitlin Ryan…for the rest of your life.’
‘What are you telling me, Jake?’ She still wasn’t convinced of the startling equation her fevered brain had helplessly arrived at.
‘Is it really so hard to comprehend?’ He smiled, ‘I’m asking you to marry me.’
‘You’re serious?’
Her breath caught on a gasp. She was giddy and light-headed at the same time, just as if she’d been spinning on a carousel.
‘I’m perfectly serious.’
Jake purposefully covered the short distance between them and took hold of Caitlin’s hands in earnest.
‘Don’t you get it? I love you and I want you to be my wife. I think you already know what a nomadic life this is, being on the road with a band…it’s never going to be a conventional lifestyle. I’d be lying to you if I said it would be.’
‘That’s a relief, because that wouldn’t suit me at all. I’m a bona fide rock chick now, remember? I have my reputation to consider.’ Caitlin’s smile was uninhibitedly warm. ‘Home will always be wherever we are together, Jake. There’s a big wide world out there and I want to see some of it. If you’re willing, you could show me, couldn’t you?’
‘I can’t think of anything I’d like more.’
Suddenly impatient, Jake pulled her into his arms and planted a hot, hungry kiss on her mouth. He heard the soft helpless moan she breathed as he gently withdrew. Drawing the pad of his thumb down over her cheek, he was deeply satisfied to see the mutual desire and longing that her pretty green eyes reflected back at him.
‘But I don’t want you to think that I’m not open to compromise regarding a more permanent home,’ he told her. ‘Eventually I’d like us to have children…buy a place in the country, maybe? A place where they’ll have plenty of space to play and grow up.’
Caitlin couldn’t help but be moved by his heartfelt declaration. To hear Jake say that he wanted them to have children, that he was more than willing to embrace the prospect and ensure that his own children did not have a lonely childhood bereft of family or siblings like he had done… Well, it was beyond wonderful.
She sighed. ‘I love you, Jake…I love you with all my heart. There’s no one I’d want to be the father of my children but you. Do you really want to marry me?’
‘Right now I can’t think of anything I want more than for you to be my wife. Except perhaps to have you naked in my bed.’
‘And us being married—it won’t cramp your famous rock and roll lifestyle?’
Jake grimaced. ‘The so-called rock and roll lifestyle isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For one, it’s bloody lonely out on the road for weeks at a time, and after a while one hotel room looks much the same as another…whether it’s in Islington or Istanbul. I’m never going to be a conventional nine-to-five husband, Caitlin, but I’ll always be there for you when you need me. That’s a promise.’
‘Then I suppose my answer to such a sincere and heartfelt proposal has to be yes.’
‘Yes, what?’
Lia put her head impatiently round the door, her chin jutted warningly towards Jake.
Grinning, Caitlin told her. ‘Jake has just asked me to marry him.’
Lia’s face was a picture. Tussling between giving them both a lecture and fighting the urge to smile, because of the way Jake’s twinkling blue eyes were all but devouring her friend, she concluded that it would be a crime against passion for the two of them not to get married.
‘Oh. I suppose that’s all right, then.’
Jake’s eyebrows flew up. ‘You mean we have your permission?’
‘You know very well that Caitlin doesn’t need my permission.’ With an irritated huff, Lia stepped out to survey them properly. ‘But when you care about people you naturally want what’s best for them.’
‘I agree.’ Glancing towards her, he said clearly, ‘I love your friend, Lia. And, if you’d be so kind as to leave us alone together for a while, I won’t hesitate to demonstrate the fact.’
The neatly painted front door of the guesthouse closed behind Lia with an obliging click.
As Jake’s mouth descended avariciously on Caitlin’s lips a profound sense of coming home rolled over her. The sensation was so powerful and so warm that she knew to the depths of her soul that there was no more room for doubt or mistrust. She was no longer a displaced person, aching for someone to love who would unreservedly love her back.
She’d grown in confidence since joining Blue Sky, and wherever her journey as a singer took her everything would be all right—because Jake would be there with her, loving her and rooting for her all the way…her husband, her manager, her friend—and, one day, the beloved father of her children.
Long seconds later Jake broke off their kiss to gaze deeply into Caitlin’s eyes. ‘There’s just one small snag,’ he said seriously.
‘Oh? What’s that?’
‘You do know that we’re probably going to have to contend with Rick singing a solo at the wedding?’
‘Is there any way we can divert him?’
‘We can always ask Tina, the barmaid at the Pilgrim’s Inn, if she’d help us out.’
‘Do you think that she would?’
‘How could she resist?’
They were still laughing as they ascended the guesthouse steps, intent on sharing a celebratory drink with Lia.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from CHRISTMAS IN DA CONTI'S BED by Sharon Kendrick.
Ten years ago one devastating night changed everything for Austin, Hunter and Alex. Now they must each play their part in the revenge against the one man who ruined it all.
Austin Treffen has the plan… Hunter has the money… Alex has the power!
Read each of their stories in the captivating Fifth Avenue trilogy,
only from Harlequin Presents:
Avenge Me by Maisey Yates (June 2014)
Scandalize Me by Caitlin Crews (July 2014)
Expose Me by Kate Hewitt (August 2014)
And don’t miss the Fifth Avenue prequel that started it all, Take Me, by Maisey Yates!
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SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM
Sharon Kendrick brings you another spectacular book, full of passion, excitement and secrets!
Read on for an extract from CHRISTMAS IN DA CONTI’S BED…
* * *
ONE DANCE and it will all be over.
Alannah tried to relax as they began to move in time with the music and for a while they said nothing. But it wasn’t easy to pretend that it meant nothing to be wrapped in Niccolò’s arms again. Actually, it was close to impossible. His body was so hard and his arms were so strong. His unique scent of sandalwood and raw masculinity seemed to call out to something deep inside her—to touch her on a subliminal level, which no one else had even come close to. She could hear the thunder of her heart as he lowered his head to her ear, and even his voice seemed to flood over her like velvety-dark chocolate.
“Enjoying yourself?” he said.
“Not with…” Her words trailed off, because now he had moved his hands upward and his fingers were spanning her back. She could feel their imprint burning through the delicate material of her dress and her throat constricted.
“With what?”
“You’re holding me too tightly,” she croaked.
“I’m barely holding you at all.”
“You are a master of misinterpretation.”
“I am a master of many things,” came the silken boast, “but misinterpretation wouldn’t have been top of my list.”
She looked up from where she had been staring resolutely at his black tie and forced herself to meet the mocking light in his eyes.
“I don’t understand what it is you want,” she said. “Why you’re dancing with me. Taunting me. Trying to get underneath my skin. Especially when you don’t even like me—and the feeling is mutual.”
He pulled her closer. “But not liking doesn’t stop us wanting, does it, Alannah? Desire doesn’t require affection in order to flourish. On the contrary, sometimes it works better without it. Don’t you find that, mia tentatrice?” He stroked a reflective finger along her waist. “That sex can be so much more exciting when there is a frisson of animosity between a man and a woman?”
* * *
Find out what happens next in CHRISTMAS IN DA CONTI’S BED December 2014
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Copyright © 2014 by Harlequin Books, S.A.
ISBN-13: 9781460343531
A Rule Worth Breaking
Copyright © 2014 by Maggie Cox
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