“I’m useless to you, babe. I’m too tired to start anything.”
She shut the door on the dog and held open the covers for him. “You could try sleeping.”
He smiled crookedly. “Yeah, I could try that.”
He folded his long limbs onto the bed. She tucked him in, her hands lingering on his shoulders as she pulled the covers up and then crawled in beside him. He rolled toward her and hooked an arm around her waist, pulling her into him. His naked chest was a wall against her back, his naked thighs cradled her rear. She could feel the heaviness of his limbs and the tension in his muscles.
He had pushed his body past mere tiredness into sleepless fatigue. But for long minutes he lay very still, careful not to disturb her.
Nicole held her breath, willing him to relax, wanting him to sleep, wanting…
She exhaled noisily. “So, how was your day?”
His silent laughter stirred her hair. “It was all right. Power’s back up at the hospital. Water’s receding. Jarek’s doing a good job. Only found one broken window on the whole street.”
“Would that be my window?” she asked wryly.
“Is that a problem?”
“No.” She smiled against his arm. “I’ll just deduct it from your next paycheck.”
He bit her neck gently, making a nerve there kick and tickling other nerves, lower down. “I wouldn’t have had to break in if you’d left here when the flood started.”
“Really? And where should I have gone?”
“Away. Chicago. Your parents’ house, maybe.”
She shook her head, enjoying the texture of his skin against her cheek. “‘Hi, Mother, can I move back home? My new business venture is about to be swept away by floodwaters.’ No.”
“You should talk to them.” He sounded serious. Too serious.
“Oh, like you talk to your mother,” she mocked.
“I do. At least, I did today.”
She turned in his arms, genuinely pleased. “Mark! Really?”
“Mmm.” Their knees brushed. Their legs tangled. He dropped a kiss on her nose. “She ended up watching Danny for me.”
“That’s good.” Nicole bit her lip; studied his face. “Is it good?”
“It was okay.”
“Only okay?” she probed.
He shrugged, making the blanket slide from his shoulder. “I’m still not sure how much I trust her. I mean, in my head I do. She’s been dry a long time. But I can’t help feeling—” He broke off.
“Angry?” Nicole suggested.
“No. Why would I be angry?”
She traced the outline of his lips with her finger. “Because she’s your mother and she didn’t take care of you?”
His mouth tightened. “That was a long time ago. I was a kid.”
“Exactly. And now that you’re a compassionate and caring man with a child of your own to consider…” She kissed him softly until she felt his lips relax under hers. “You don’t have to be angry with her anymore.”
“Is that something else you got out of a book?” But he didn’t sound upset.
She raised her head. “Is that bad?”
“Only if you’re trying to change the subject.”
The heat in his eyes made her heart pound. “What was the subject?”
“We were talking about you leaving. You should have gotten out when the flood warning was announced.”
Okay, obviously they were thinking about different subjects. She tried not to mind. He was very tired.
“You didn’t leave,” she said.
He scowled. “I had work here.”
“So did I. I have my business here. My home.”
“Your life is worth more than this damn place.”
His sudden fierceness startled her. And gave her hope.
“Well—” She tried smiling at him. “If I hadn’t stayed, I might not have rescued the dog.”
“Yeah, and that was another stupid risk.”
Her smile came more naturally this time. “You’ll just have to trust my judgment about the dog.”
“Trust your judgment?”
“Yes,” she said firmly.
“Yeah? And if the owner comes looking for it?”
“Then we’ll deal with that.” She wiggled closer, partly because he felt so good and partly because he was naked and warm and apparently oblivious to the fact that she was naked, too, and totally available.
When she was sure she had his attention—Hello…naked. Yes, I’ve got that—she said, “Pets don’t come with a guarantee. But sometimes the risks are worth taking anyway.”
“We still talking about the dog here?” he asked huskily.
She swallowed. “We could be.”
She wouldn’t ask for promises he was not prepared to give. What they had now would be enough. She would make it be enough. Even if he broke her heart, she would never regret loving him.
He was silent so long she was afraid he had fallen asleep. Her chest tightened with love and disappointment. She held him close in the darkness, absorbing his heat, sharing his breath.
“So. You ready to take a risk?” he asked abruptly.
She raised her head. “Didn’t you bring a condom? Because I bought—”
“Not that kind of risk.” He rubbed his face with his hand. “Jeez. I’m too tired to do this right.”
“That’s all right,” she assured him, although she wanted him, wanted the comfort and connection of sex. “We can wait until morning.”
“Wait for what?”
“Well, to—” make love “—have sex.”
“Babe, I’m not talking about sex.”
“Okay.” She waited, bewildered.
He exhaled. “Marriage,” he said. “I’m talking marriage.”
Marriage. The possibilities crashed over her in a wave, leaving her breathless and sputtering. Her chest was too tight. Her mind spun.
“You want to marry me?”
“Yeah. Well, I want to have sex with you, too, but I figured this was a good time for a proposal.”
Joy welled inside her. She opened her mouth to say yes, a hundred times yes, but a tiny habit of doubt remained.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “We’re tired, we’re filthy, we’re lying above a snake-infested bar in the middle of a flood, and you think now would be a good time for a proposal?”
He lifted his hand and smoothed a strand of hair away from her temple. The simple tenderness of the gesture melted her heart.
“How else am I going to convince you I want you for yourself?” he asked, and kissed her. His warm breath skated across her face. His warm mouth glided along her upper lip and rubbed her lower one.
But even as she sighed and opened for him, she wanted more. He had so much love to give, such a need to give it. And she wanted it all.
“You could try telling me,” she suggested breathlessly when at last he raised his head.
“Tell you what?”
“Why we should get married.”
Mark rolled so that he was on top of her, all that lovely heat and weight pressing her into the mattress. “You want reasons?” He rocked into her suggestively. “I can give you reasons.”
She sucked in her breath, feeling the length of him all along her body. Oh, my. Oh, yes, he could. But this time she wasn’t going to settle. This time she was going to get everything she wanted and give everything she had in return.
“I only need one. If it’s the right one.”
“Babe, this is the only one I’ve got.”
She was hot with embarrassment, warm with laughter and desire. “The right reason.”
“Okay.” He frowned, considering. “You need me to fix your window.”
“That doesn’t count. You’re the one who broke it in the first place.”
“Right. All right.” He nuzzled her neck, making the pulse there go wild. “You need me to walk the dog.”
“Wrong. I’m giving you the dog. You and Danny. Try again.”
“Well,
you might not think so,” he said, the words muffled against her throat, “but I’ve got a lot of pay saved up. You could use it to fix the flood damage.”
His careless offer stunned her. She grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled so she could look into his face. “You would give your savings to me?”
“Sure.” He smiled crookedly, making her breath catch. “I would give you anything you wanted.”
“I don’t want your money. Anyway, I have flood insurance. I need a personal reason. An emotional reason.”
There. Her heart pounded. She couldn’t be plainer than that.
“Like, ‘Marry me, it will drive your mother crazy’?”
Disappointment made her mouth droop. “No. That’s not good enough. Besides, everything I do drives my mother crazy.”
“You could marry me for Danny,” he suggested, his voice teasing.
“For—”
He held her gaze. “You like boys. You said so.”
“I do. Oh, I do. But—”
“Or…” His voice deepened. His eyes darkened. “You could marry me because I love you. I love you, Nicole. Nobody will ever love you the way that I do.”
Joy and relief swept through her in a flood. She hugged him to her, closing her eyes in gratitude.
“That’s all I need to hear. That’s all I need.” She took a deep breath. “But I won’t marry you because of that.”
His body tensed against hers. “Right. Well, there isn’t anything left to say, then, is there?”
A great tenderness filled her heart. “Yes, there is. The reason. The only reason I could marry you.”
“What reason, damn it?”
“Because I love you back the same way.”
He went very still. In the dim light that came through her window, his face was as hard and beautiful as an angel’s.
“That’s a good reason,” he whispered, and held her tight until the dawn broke over the water.
Epilogue
The morning of Teresa DeLucca’s marriage to police chief Jarek Denko dawned bright and clear.
Half of Eden turned out to see their hometown reporter wed their chief of police. After the week’s storms and floods, most people were eager to put aside the cleanup of their homes and businesses to rejoice and give thanks.
At the back of the church, the bride’s tiny blond attendant bent to twitch her train into perfect folds. To the surprise of everyone except those who knew her very well, Tess had chosen a traditional gown and veil.
Even to a brother’s eyes, she looked beautiful.
Mark waited as Faye straightened from fussing with his sister’s dress.
“There,” she said with satisfaction. “All set.”
“Thank you,” Tess said.
Faye flashed a smile. “I’m counting on you doing the same for me.” The little blonde was engaged to be married to Jarek’s brother Aleksy two months from now.
Mark stepped into the foyer, having just delivered their mother to the pew.
“You ready?” he asked his sister.
Tess nodded, her golden eyes glowing. Up in the choir loft, Shirley Mulroney started something on the old pipe organ that shivered through the church like a fanfare.
“There’s my cue,” Faye announced and grabbed her bouquet—deep pink roses to match her dress—from Jarek’s dark-haired daughter, Allie.
At the edge of the white runner, Allie paused and looked over her shoulder. Not so much for permission to start forward, Mark thought, as to make sure Tess stayed in line behind her.
Tess blew her a kiss. Allie grinned, suddenly ten again, and stepped out in her new high-heeled shoes.
Tess tightened her hold on Mark’s arm.
“This is it,” he said. “The DeLuccas’ last charge. Unless you want to borrow my Jeep.”
She took a deep breath. “Nope.”
He shrugged. “Probably just as well. Jarek would come after you anyway. After he broke my nose.”
So she was smiling when he led her into the church.
The Denko brothers stood at the altar, shoulder to shoulder beside the priest, tall and dark and formidable. Mark hoped like hell his sister knew what she was getting into. He leveled a look at the groom—Be good to her or you’re a dead man—but Jarek only had eyes for Tess, walking up the aisle toward him. Next to him, tough cop Aleksy watched Faye with the hopeful, stunned expression of an outfielder seeing a pop fly drop into his mitt.
So maybe it was okay. Maybe everything was going to be okay.
Stolid Eric and dark-eyed Mary Denko beamed from their position across the aisle from Isadora DeLucca. His mother’s slight figure blocked Mark’s view of her pew, but he knew Danny was sitting beside her.
And beside him…
Tess’s manicured nails dug into the sleeve of Mark’s rented tux. The priest stepped forward to meet them. They were there. It was time to let go.
“Well,” she whispered shakily, “we made it.”
He leaned down to kiss her cheek. When he stepped back, her golden eyes were bright with tears and happiness.
“Nothing but fair winds and smooth sailing from now on,” he told her.
Jarek took her hand. The look on Tess’s face was enough to make anybody believe she’d found her own safe harbor.
Isadora sobbed happily behind them. Well, hell, Mark’s own throat was a little tight.
Turning, he walked along the front of the pew until he reached the open end on the far side. His mother sat on the aisle. Danny was beside her, interested and uncomfortable in a white shirt and a navy blazer. And next to his son, wearing pale blue silk and a welcoming smile, stood Nicole.
It was like staring at his future and knowing it was going to be good. Better than good. Outstanding. Everything he wanted was right there, with her.
She watched him slide along the pew toward her, the look in her blue, blue eyes only for him. Always for him. His heart swelled like a sail. With her love behind him, he could go anywhere. Do anything. Be the man he was always meant to be.
Reaching them, he lifted Danny in his arms and then turned back to her. Hopeful. Happy. And his.
“Looking for someone?” he murmured.
Nicole smiled back with complete confidence and tucked her hand in the crook of his arm. “Not anymore.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8266-1
ALL A MAN CAN BE
Copyright © 2003 by Virginia Kantra Ritchey
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* Trouble in Eden
All a Man Can Be Page 22