by Susan Napier;Kathryn Ross;Kelly Hunter;Sandra Marton;Katherine Garbera;Margaret Mayo
“Oh, hell.”
“Listen, if you no longer want to sell me the resort, I’ll understand. You should know that I was setting you up from the beginning. Jayne was my assistant, not my mistress,” Adam said.
“But that changed.”
“Not for long,” he answered.
“This has nothing to do with the resort. Listen, you go after Jayne and talk to her.”
Adam wished it were that simple. But he wasn’t willing to lay his soul on the line for her. And she’d settle for nothing less. “She won’t listen to me.”
“You have to try,” Ray insisted.
“You’re taking this father confessor thing too seriously. It’s over between Jayne and me. The only thing left to do is move on.”
“Madon’, why the hell did I think this would be easy?” Ray said, stubbing his cigar out in the ashtray.
“What are you talking about?” Adam asked. What in blazes was he thinking, discussing this with a man who was nothing more to him than a business acquaintance?
“Look, compare, I’m not really a resort owner. I’m a matchmaker sent from heaven to make sure that you and Jayne fall in love.”
“Well, you screwed up,” Adam said, not believing what Ray said for a minute.
“You’re telling me! But you’re not leaving me any options here. If you won’t talk to her…”
Ray might be a little bit insane, Adam decided, flinching when the older man took his hand. Then, suddenly, the walls around them were spinning, and when they finally stopped he and Ray were outside a bar in New Orleans.
“This isn’t real.”
“Keep telling yourself that, compare,” Ray said.
“Why are we here?”
“I don’t know. This is the place you brought us to.”
Adam recognized the bar. He hadn’t been in there since the night of his divorce, when he’d gotten riproaring drunk. “Take me back to Perla Negra.”
“Not yet. Let’s go inside.”
Ray nudged him toward the door and Adam went in. He scanned the dimly lit interior and had no trouble finding himself seated at the bar. He looked so damn young and scared.
“Another round?” the bartender asked.
“Keep ‘em coming,” the younger Adam said. He downed the glass of cheap whiskey. In those days he hadn’t been able to afford the good stuff.
“Here you go,” the bartender said.
“Thanks, man.”
When the bartender turned away, Adam stood and announced to the room in general, “From this moment on, I will not be a victim to women and their emotional traps.”
Glasses were raised in support, and the younger Adam sat back down and finished his drink.
The older Adam stared in shock. He’d built his life around a vow he’d made when he was twenty-one and not sure of himself, he realized at last. He knew what had happened the next day: he’d made a solid business plan and used the impetus of Susan leaving him to start Powell International. He’d worked hard for six months before he met Rhonda, his first mistress. He’d still been too raw to really want more than sex from a woman.
So they’d come up with an arrangement that had worked for both of them. And what had been a temporary stopgap in his relationships had become the norm.
In an instant, Adam found himself back at his table in the lounge at Perla Negra. Ray was nowhere to be seen, and Adam wondered if he hadn’t dreamed the entire episode. He rubbed his forehead. The liquor had given him a buzz. And something Jayne said kept echoing in his head.
Just because I love you doesn’t mean I don’t value myself.
Adam realized that he hadn’t been valuing either of them, but letting the past keep him in the dark.
He left the bar, hoping it wasn’t too late to find Jayne. The only chance either of them had for happiness was together, he was certain. He loved her, and not saying the words out loud didn’t keep him safe, it kept him out of the sunlight that was Jayne.
Jayne had asked the bellman to call her a cab. Waiting outside the resort, she refused to cry. She was angry at Adam and at herself. How could she have misjudged him?
But had she? She’d spent her entire life hiding from the men who scared her. She’d been engaged to Ben because he was safe and didn’t make her heart beat faster. Only now, looking back, did she acknowledge that his leaving her didn’t hurt as badly as this moment with Adam.
Was a ring really that big of a deal in the big scheme of things? Her heart said no. But having a family was. And not just for herself. Adam needed it, too. He needed to have his own children so he could shower them with that unconditional love that she knew was buried deep inside him.
Was she a coward for leaving like this?
“Jayne, thank God, I caught you.”
“I’m not going to change my mind,” she said softly.
Adam glowered at her and she felt the force of his determination. “Yes, you will. I’m going to convince you.”
“With another practiced seduction?” she asked sarcastically. She still ached from their last encounter, and she wasn’t sure she was up for another one.
He shoved his hands in his hair, looking almost frantic. Her heart beat a little faster as she realized that he’d come after her. Adam had never gone after any of his women before. He just moved on.
“No. That was a mistake.”
Her cab pulled up in the driveway and the driver got out. “You called for a taxi?”
“Yes. I’m going to the airport.”
“No, she’s not,” Adam stated.
“Yes I am.”
“Listen, it’s late, and I don’t want to sit here while you two fight it out,” the cabbie said.
Adam took some money from his pocket, shoved it at the cab driver and said, “You’re free to go.”
As the man got back in his car and drove away, Jayne glared at Adam. She hated that he thought he could use his money to arrange life to suit him.
“Come with me,” he said to her.
“Not now. When you get home, come to my place and we can talk.”
“Forget that,” he said. Reaching out, he lifted her over his shoulder, then snagged her bag in one hand.
“Put me down!”
“No.”
She struggled and he smacked her butt with the flat of his hand. “Stay still, dammit.”
He stalked through the nearly empty lobby. Jayne stopped struggling and instead fought the urge to wrap her arms around his waist. She didn’t want to leave, and it seemed he didn’t want her to go.
He set her on her feet once they were in their room. She stared up at him, not recognizing this man. There was something in Adam’s eyes she’d never seen before. Something that looked like…love.
He took her face in both of his hands and lowered his head, whispering something against her lips. Tracing them with the tip of his tongue, he deepened the kiss when she opened her mouth. She sighed, lifting her hands to his chest.
She didn’t want to live the rest of her life without Adam. Tears started falling, and Adam brushed them away with tender fingertips.
“Don’t cry, chére. Don’t cry.”
He rocked her in his arms, and she knew that she’d stay no matter what he offered this time. And that hurt her deep inside, because she’d always believed that someday she’d meet a man who’d want her for herself and want all of her.
“I love you.”
She stared up at him, sure she hadn’t heard him correctly. “I don’t need the words.”
“Really? I think you do. And I know you deserve them.”
“Adam, I’ve only been gone thirty minutes. How can you love me?”
“I saw the light, and it was a scary experience. I’ll tell you about it later. I think I’ve loved you all along, Jayne.”
“I want to believe you,” she said.
“But you don’t. Hell, don’t leave me again, chére. If you go, I’ll become the hard shell of a man that you think I am now.
“I ne
ed you, Jayne. You make me a better man and I think I make you a better woman. You shouldn’t have run away from me.”
“I couldn’t stay. I was afraid.”
“Well, you don’t have to be anymore. No more hiding for you, Jayne.”
“Do you mean it? Because if you changed your mind—”
“I was afraid of that, too. But I can’t change my mind. Woman, you own me heart and soul.”
She swallowed against the tears burning the back of her eyes. This time they were tears of joy, for she knew that Adam didn’t say things he didn’t mean. If Adam committed himself to her, he’d stay with her.
And there was no mistaking the love shining from his eyes.
“I love you,” she said at last.
“I love you, too. And I always will.”
He lifted her in his arms and carried her into the bedroom. He settled her in the center of the big bed and then reached into the nightstand drawer for something.
It was a long, narrow jeweler’s box. “I ordered this for you. It’s not traditional, but then, neither are we.”
He piled the pillows against the headboard and sat back against them, then pulled her onto his lap. He held her loosely in his embrace while he removed the sapphire tennis bracelet from the black velvet case. He fastened the clasp around her wrist.
“We’re getting married,” he said.
“You’re not asking me?”
“Do I really need to?”
“Yes,” she said. She wanted to have a really good story to tell her grandkids one day. Though it’d be hard to top him carrying her through the lobby over his shoulder.
“Will you marry me?”
She wriggled her eyebrows at him. “Only if I can call you stud muffin.”
He groaned. “Okay.”
Her heart felt incredibly light and she turned on his lap, wrapping her arms around him. “I can’t wait to be your wife.”
He took control of their embrace and they didn’t talk for a long time as clothing was hastily discarded and they sealed their vows of love and commitment with their bodies.
Afterward Adam curled himself around her and held her fiercely in his embrace. They talked of the future and of their dreams for their life together. Jayne realized that Perla Negra had worked its magic and she’d found her heart’s desire.
Epilogue
I looked out over the ocean. All my life I’d lived near it, but never really seen it. I’d only thought that the beach was a good place for a smuggling drop and that water was a dangerous place to dump a body because sooner or later it washed up on shore.
But today, with the sun setting on the horizon and the minister saying words of love and lifetime commitment, I realized there’s a lot of beauty on earth. Too bad I didn’t learn that lesson while I was still alive.
Adam gave a Jayne a kiss that was too intense for public viewing. I turned away and felt Didi’s hand slip through my arm. I’d never admit it, but I’d enjoyed her company on earth.
And once she’d stopped dressing like my maiden aunt, she looked great.
“Nice job,” she said softly.
I took her hand in mine and started walking down the beach. “I know.”
“Pasquale, you need to work on humility.”
“Babe, I never really grasped why pretending you don’t know you’re good at something was a good thing.”
“I thought I warned you about calling me babe.”
“You might have,” I said.
She chuckled. “You’ve got too much charm for your own good.”
“Ah, babe, I didn’t think you’d noticed.”
“Save it for your couples,” she said. And I felt my body start to dissolve. She might think she’d had the last word this time, but she’d gone soft against my side before she disappeared. Maybe it was the fact that I spent so much time around couples falling in love, but I was starting to like Didi.
The Wife Seduction
Margaret Mayo
Margaret Mayo is a hopeless romantic who loves writing and falls in love with every one of her heroes. It was never her ambition to become an author, although she always loved reading, even to the extent of reading comics out loud to her twin brother when she was eight years old.
She was born in Staffordshire, England, and has lived in the same part of the country ever since. She left school to become a secretary, taking a break to have her two children, Adrian and Tina. Once they were at school she started back to work and planned to further her career by becoming a bi-lingual secretary. Unfortunately she couldn’t speak any languages other than her native English, so she began evening classes. It was at this time that she got the idea for a romantic short story – Margaret, and her mother before her, had always read Mills & Boon® romances and to actually be writing one excited her beyond measure. She forgot the languages and now has over seventy novels to her credit.
Before she became a successful author Margaret was extremely shy and found it difficult to talk to strangers. For research purposes she forced herself to speak to people from all walks of life and now says her shyness has gone forever – to a certain degree. She is still happier pouring her thoughts out on paper.
Chapter One
‘ARE you happy?’
Anna snuggled up against Oliver, feeling the exciting heat of his body, and nodded. This was a holiday romance come true. Two weeks in her sister’s cottage with the handsome Oliver Langford and she was head over heels in love. They were now on the ferry on their way home to England and he’d asked her to marry him and she truly was the happiest girl in the world. She wasn’t sure Oliver even needed to ask whether she was happy. Wasn’t it there in the glow on her face, in the way she looked at him, kept touching him, kept rubbing her body against him? He was incredible. He was magnificently male, and she never wanted to let him go.
Meeting him on the outward trip and then having him turn up on the doorstep a few days later had been totally amazing, like something out of a movie. How he’d found her, she didn’t care. It was sufficient that he had. She’d had no hesitation about inviting him in and then asking him to stay for the rest of her holiday.
He was totally, mind-numbingly gorgeous. The proverbial tall, dark handsome stranger, with an incredible magnetism and the most amazing tawny-gold eyes.
That never-to-be-forgotten crossing from Fishguard to Rosslare had been rough, the ferry objecting to the buffeting waves, and when Anna cannoned into Oliver Langford in the gift shop his arms had come instinctively and protectively around her.
Immediately, without any warning, an electric current had shot through her. She felt an instant and unaccountable response, a scary response. Nothing like that had ever happened to her before.
‘I’m sorry,’ she’d stammered, finding it hard to even speak. It was as though the air around them had thickened, making it impossible to breathe—as though a cloud had shut out everyone else in the gift shop, insulating her and the stranger in a cocoon of sensuality.
‘The pleasure’s mine.’ There had been a gruffness in his voice as though he too had felt his senses stirred by the sudden impact, as though he too was aware of no one around them.
He couldn’t seem to drag his eyes away from her; they were dipping deep into her soul and searching for answers to questions that she knew nothing about. They were looking hungrily at her mouth and back to her eyes again.
‘Would you like me to walk you back to your seat?’ And still his golden eyes were locked into hers. It was as though he were consuming her, filling Anna with a fever of desire such as she had never felt before.
How could a perfect stranger do that? It didn’t make sense. Why should the impact of a man dressed all in black spin her into a sexual frenzy?
There was no answer.
She’d wrenched away from him. ‘I can manage,’ she’d said with quiet dignity, not realising how much fire there was in her emerald eyes, or what it was doing to the man who had saved her from falling.
She’d gone quie
tly back to her seat and hadn’t seen him again until he turned up at the cottage. Not that she hadn’t thought about him. She had, constantly, and the shock of seeing him had almost sent her into a blind panic, it was as though she had conjured him up by simply thinking about him.
But those two weeks had been the most unforgettable of her life. She’d gone to that beautiful corner of southern Ireland for peace and relaxation after a job gone wrong and instead had found passion and excitement beyond measure, which had climaxed in Oliver asking her to marry him.
‘What are you thinking?’ Oliver stroked Anna’s delightful retrouss– nose with a gentle finger. Fate was at last being kind to him. Anna was so much the antithesis of other women he had known that he couldn’t believe his good fortune.
She turned her face up to his, her green eyes smiling, her silky red hair a perfect foil for her porcelain pale skin with its scattering of freckles which he had kissed—every single one of them—and thoroughly enjoyed doing so.
‘I was thinking about how we met,’ Anna admitted. ‘About the stunning quickness of it all. Two weeks ago I didn’t know you, and now I’ve promised to marry you. Am I out of my mind?’
‘If you are then so am I,’ he told her with a tender smile. ‘Two weeks ago I was off women altogether. You are a very special person, Anna Paige, do you know that? I think you must be a witch in disguise, casting your magic spell over me. And I think we should make our wedding arrangements the moment we get home.’
‘You don’t think we should wait and make sure?’ she asked softly.
‘I am sure,’ he declared. ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to make babies with you. I want—everything. Your love, your devotion, your friendship, your commitment. It’s what I’m prepared to give you. Am I asking too much?’
He held his breath as he waited for her answer.
To his relief Anna smiled and offered her mouth for his kiss. ‘It’s what I want as well,’ she whispered and he could feel the passion trembling through her.