by Valerie Parv
“I don’t understand,” she said feeling dizzy. What had brought this miracle about?
His mouth tilted up playfully. “What part of ‘I love you’ don’t you understand?”
“All of it. I thought you couldn’t wait for me to leave.”
Suddenly James seemed to shed much of his exhaustion. He looked freshly overhauled and she hardly dared to believe it had something to do with the high-intensity look he was directing at her. “I thought it was what you wanted. Until you made me an offer that took the courage of a lioness to make. Your offer to give me my daughter back could only have been made out of love.”
Fear rippled through her. “You’re not saying this for Genie’s sake, are you?”
His lips roved over her eyes, mouth and throat. “This is for my sake. I love you and I need you as my wife.”
She was having trouble thinking straight. “But our agreement—”
“You didn’t read it, did you?”
“It was too long and technical so I just sighed it.”
He gave a throaty chuckle. “As I hoped. It was simply an insurance policy ensuring you get everything if anything happened to me.”
She stared at him wide-eyed, her pulse racing madly. His kisses along the back of her neck didn’t help her thinking processes. “How did you intend to end our marriage without an official agreement?”
“The usual way—’till death do us part’.”
Thinking of how close he had come twice, she sobered. “When you didn’t come around after the operation, and again when you risked your recovery to find Genie today, I thought I would lose you and I couldn’t bear it.”
“You weren’t the only one,” he admitted. “But until I knew I had a future, it didn’t seem fair to tell you. Then afterward I wasn’t sure you wanted to hear it.”
“I told you I loved you after the operation.”
He smiled lazily. “So I didn’t imagine what you said.”
She felt a blush starting. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
“Thank goodness I did. Your love was what pulled me back from the brink. You nearly told me tonight, before I went to look for Genevieve, didn’t you?”
So he had guessed after all. Joy shrilled through her. “I will always love you, James.”
At the surgery door, the doctor gave a discreet cough. “There’s a good hotel across the road, you two.”
James grinned but didn’t loosen his hold on her. “Is that your medical opinion, Howard?”
“Sure is. My prescription is for bed rest and lots of warmth.”
James looked down at her. “You heard the doctor. Do you think Grace would mind keeping an eye on Genevieve—Genie—for one more night?”
His use of the nickname thrilled her. But his proposal thrilled her more. “They were having fun when I left, so I don’t think she’ll mind.” Zoe knew she certainly didn’t.
The bed and the warmth were easily provided by the local hotel, but she had a feeling it would be a long time before they got to the resting part. “Dr. Leigh is a smart man,” she murmured as she snuggled close to James much, much later. “He seems to know all about the healing power of love.”
James’s mouth moved over hers in a lingering kiss that tasted of the future. Their future together. “So do I, my darling. This is my prescription exactly.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Howard might have something to say about you practicing medicine without a license.”
His eyes sparkled with the brilliance of love. “May I remind you, Mrs. Langford, we do have a license for what we’re practicing—a marriage license.”
“But it wasn’t meant to be real,” she said, still bemused by the transformation in their relationship. James was truly her husband, to have and to hold from this day forward. Genie was really her child, the first of the family James had promised her as he whispered sweet words of love into her ear.
“I’ll show you how real it is,” he vowed, taking her into his arms. Dawn was painting the sky with gold by the time she admitted to being completely convinced.
Epilogue
Would she ever get used to seeing her child astride one of James’s powerful Arabian horses? Zoe asked herself. Her nerves were in shreds by the time Genie’s mount cleared the first of the jumps, tackled by her rider with gentle hands and a skillful touch. Zoe choked back her fear as Genie set her horse at a wall higher than any she had jumped before.
Fearless and magnificent, Genie spurred the spirited horse forward. Together they cleared the jump in perfect harmony, landing safely on the far side. Zoe decided it was safe to breathe again.
“Our daughter’s come a long way, hasn’t she?” James murmured into her ear.
She reached for his hand, her throat filling. Not so long ago she’d despaired of hearing Genie described in those words. And most of all of having the love of the man at her side. “So have we,” she agreed.
She sneaked a look at him. His sheer physical presence still thrilled her, especially when she saw his effect on other people. The strength in him, the set of his jaw, and the wide shoulders all bespoke a masculinity to be reckoned with. When he smiled at her as he did now, the sheer brilliance of it still possessed the power to snatch her breath away.
How did I get to be so lucky? she wondered as her gaze took in her men around her, James on her right, and four-year-old Jimmy on her left. Her heart filled to overflowing as she gathered her husband and son in her outstretched arms.
The gymkhana was over and the stirring strains of the national anthem brought them to their feet. As Genie stepped forward to receive her prize, Zoe clung to James, her heart swelling to a bursting point. Their daughter grew more like her father every day and, thankfully, had his generosity of spirit. Genie had readily accepted James’s explanation about why she had been taken away from him. His unrelenting efforts to find her had shown her how much he cared. It had forged a remarkable bond between father and daughter, which grew stronger as the years passed.
Like the bond between herself and James, Zoe thought dreamily. When she first confessed her love to him, she had never suspected that it could actually increase the longer they were together, until it became their haven in the good times and their shield against the bad. Nothing would ever come between them, she knew with unshakable certainty. Unquenchable and eternal, theirs was a love to last for all time.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4078-4
THE BILLIONAIRE’S BABY CHASE
Copyright © 1997 by Valerie Parv
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