He fingered the delicate hem of a frilly white confection hanging in front of him. A smile pushed up his mouth. He had to be crazy for leaving her.
“Can I help you?”
A young woman with black hair and curious blue eyes watched him.
“Yeah. I need something pink. And sheer.” Something Farren could model for him. “Really sheer.”
If he could only convince her what a fool he’d been.
Farren plugged a vacuum tube into the tube tester and removed it when it checked out good. She put it back in her newest vintage radio. The sound of a car pulling into the driveway made her look out the window. She didn’t recognize it.
Standing, the smooth material of her floral skirt floated around her legs as she headed for the door. She tugged the hem of her matching V-neck sleeveless top and straightened the pink pendant that rested near her cleavage. Her bare feet padded over the wood floor. Opening the door, she heard her own gasp when Elam climbed out of the driver’s seat, big and tall and more gorgeous than she remembered.
He saw her and smiled, his gaze taking her in from her toes to her face.
Smiled?
She stiffened as her defenses rose, wariness keeping her joy from burgeoning. She put her hand on her stomach. Did it show? Had someone told him?
He stepped up onto the porch. She tipped her head back when he came to stand close. His eyes held an amused sort of hunger.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked, wishing her heart wasn’t racing with a ridiculous tide of love and excitement.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about you since I left Turkey,” he said.
She folded her arms in defiance, afraid to let herself trust where she thought this was headed. Afraid of how he’d react to knowing she was pregnant.
“Every time I see something pink, I think of you.”
“I think you should go now.”
“Every time I hear a woman talking nonstop, I think of you.”
“Go away.”
Instead of listening, he took a step closer and put his hands on her upper arms. “I’m sorry I left you the way I did.”
She stepped back so that his hands slipped off her and swallowed rising emotion that threatened to make her desperate enough to rush into his arms.
“I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“What happened to change your mind?”
“My mind has never changed. I was surrounded by underwear when it came to me. I’ve been wandering around lost without you. I just didn’t have the guts to admit it before now.”
“Underwear.” She began to tap her foot, anger brewing to life. “That’s why you’re here?”
“I’m here because I finally realized what an idiot I am.”
“Is that the only reason?” Did he know?
“What other reason would there be?”
She didn’t say anything and watched him glance down her body, then meet her gaze again. It was too early for the signs to show much, but his expression went slack with realization. His body went perfectly still.
“You’re pregnant,” he said, shock all over his face.
She spun on her heels and stepped inside her house. It was worse than she thought. He was still too afraid of a future with a woman like her. She wasn’t a tough military type. She wanted a real family—a real husband. She turned to close the door.
With one hand, he stopped her front door from slamming in his face. She backed into her living room as he advanced.
“You were supposed to call me.”
Her back came against the wall across from the entrance. He crowded her.
She put her hands on his chest and pushed. He didn’t budge.
“What did you expect me to do?”
“Tell me.”
“Really. And then what? You rush to my side to do the honorable thing? Marry me? Be a father to your unborn child?”
“Yes!” His fiery reply rang loud against the walls.
“What about me?” She shoved him harder.
He still refused to budge.
She growled low in her throat and pounded him with her curled fists. “You’d have come for the baby.” Tears brimmed her eyes.
He let her pound him once more. When she stopped, he put his hand on the wall beside her head, leaning closer, his mouth dangerously near to hers.
“I love you,” he said.
That stole her ability to find words. She just blinked up at him.
“I love you, Farren,” he said again.
“No, you don’t. If you loved me, it wouldn’t have taken you two months to come here.”
“I want to spend the rest of my life with you. If you. If you want me to quit my job, I will. I’ll do anything for you. You’re all that matters to me. I’m sorry for not seeing that before now.”
Farren just stared up at him. Was it true?
She started crying. “Someone told you about the baby. That’s the only reason you’re here.”
“No,” he said.
“I don’t want to believe you.”
“I’m nothing without you. I came here for you. Only you. You’re all I’ve thought about.”
Tears dripped down her face.
He kissed her.
She gripped handfuls of his shirt in her hands, wanting to believe but afraid to.
“It’s true, Farren. I love you so much I’m crazy with it.” He moved to kiss her jaw, her cheek.
“Elam.” The last threads of doubt fell away. She heard his heart in his sweet declaration. She sought his mouth. He kissed her hard.
She threw her arms around his neck and took him deeper.
He eased away, giving her a series of soft kisses. “I can’t believe I walked away from this.”
“Oh, Elam.” She met his kisses before drawing back to look up at him, happier than she’d ever been in her life. “You don’t have to quit your job. That’s part of you and it’s part of what I love about you and I wouldn’t want to change a thing about you. I worked with a girl once who made her husband quit his job and take another one and their relationship went down the hill. He started drinking and staying out late and had an affair and she wasn’t happy and he wasn’t happy and—”
He kissed her again.
Farren smiled against his mouth. But then he moved back from her. “Wait here.”
Bemoaning the separation, she followed him to the front door and waited while he went to his car. He came back with a present wrapped in pink paper.
She gave him a knowing, coy smile.
He smiled back as he handed her the box. She took it and went to a white chair in her living room, sitting with the box on her lap. She looked up at him.
“Open it.”
Carefully, she did, peeling pretty pink ribbon aside and tearing pink paper. Lifting the lid of the box, she parted tissue paper and lifted the delicate creation that lay folded inside.
Holding it in front of her, she looked through the material at Elam, laughing. Yes, she could see him through it. The man was incorrigible.
His smile turned into a sexy grin. “Put it on.”
She didn’t see the point. She might as well be naked. But Elam wanted to see her in it.
Standing, she kept the lingerie in one hand and went to him. Pressing herself against him, she met his gaze. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to have your children.”
“I know.”
“More than one.”
“Good.”
“We might even have to get a dog.”
“I like dogs.”
She smiled. “Do you?”
“Yes. I want what you want, Farren. It scares me to death, but I want it. With you.”
He meant it. Her heart warmed and swelled beyond what she could bear. She kissed him. “It scares me, too.”
He folded her in his embrace and kissed her with more meaning.
Gradually, she drew back. “When you’re away, I’m going to
miss you.”
His eyes heated. “I’m going to miss you, too.”
“But when you come home…” She smiled. She beckoned him. Love burst and sparkled inside her as she extended her hand, telling him without words what would be waiting for him.
He took it and let her lead him toward the stairs. “I’m going to buy you lots of underwear.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3942-9
HEIRESS UNDER FIRE
Copyright © 2009 by Jennifer Morey
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