A Risk Worth Taking
Page 18
She looked up at Grant. “But he talked me into one more. Then he kissed me.” His face exploded into a grin. “I tried to keep you away, didn’t I?”
He nodded, then took her hand and began rubbing her knuckles. Her pulse thrummed in her veins, and she needed to take several deep breaths before she could speak. “We even tried the cordial relations route, but eventually you wore me out.”
He raised her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss into her palm. The quiet murmurings of her guests swelled as there were several exclamations of, “Awww.”
She made a point of looking at her family who were standing in front, wide eyed. Abby noted her sister’s face was a contorted mess. Probably thinking only a spontaneous pole dance would be more horrific.
“Then I had to go and be my own worst enemy. All because I thought it was too risky. Goes to prove, just because you have a couple degrees and some age under your belt it doesn’t mean you’re smart.”
She slid her arm around Grant till she was grafted onto him, could feel the heat of his body and breathe in his warm masculine scent once again. She didn’t give the first-flying-fig what anyone thought of her PDA. Abby tilted his face to meet those blue eyes. “Grant Davis, I love you.” She punctuated her speech by dragging his mouth down to hers.
The crowd erupted into cheers, cat calls, and applause despite only a few of the guests having a clue what her drama bomb meant. Abby ignored them all, reveling in being exactly where she needed to be. After a moment when it became obvious she had no intentions of explaining herself or letting go of Grant, her audience left them.
Grant tilted her face to look at him. “I don’t want to keep you from going to London if that’s what you really want.”
Abby shook her head. “I only thought that’s what I wanted because it seemed like the kind of adventure I could handle.” She ran her fingers along his whisker shadowed jaw. “Then I learned that life with you is all the adventure I really want.”
A devilish grin curled his sensuous lips. “If that’s the case,” he began, dropping to one knee. Grant reached inside his jacket and brought out a small box. “Can we begin our adventure as husband and wife?”
“Yes, yes, yes. And yes!”
Once she’d finally broken through her wall of doubt, she wasn’t holding back. She threw herself into his arms, tears of joy streaming down her face. “And I know just where we need to have the wedding.”
Epilogue
One month later, Turks and Caicos
“I still can’t do hair,” Chris stated as he took a small cluster of flowers from Abby’s trembling fingers.
In lieu of a veil, she’d chosen white orchids for her hair, which in her imagination would rest on the chignon at her nape. Thank God, despite his insistence, her bestie was good with hair pins. She smiled at his reflection. “Some bride’s maid you turned out to be” she teased, pointing to where she wanted the flowers.
In fact, he’d offered to escort Abby down the aisle to meet her groom, and taking his job seriously hadn’t left her side all day. “Before Katie gets back with your bouquet, I want us to have one more of our talks,” he said, fixing the flowers in place.
“Don’t you make me cry,” she told him. “Between my bridal shower, Jackson’s toast last night, and Heather’s surprise wedding gift, I’ve been teary-eyed more in the last week than I have in the past decade.”
Once the initial shock wore off, Grant and Abby’s friends and most of their family had jumped at the chance to help them celebrate their marriage. Katie was delighted to have Abby doing double duty as both mother-in-law and sister-in-law. She’d only pouted for a second or two at being kept in the dark.
Katherine Davis had been another story altogether. She, along with Sarah, headed the unofficial Shocked and Appalled Committee. The one person who so often got painted as the villain in these stories became Grant and Abby’s champion. Thinking about Heather’s efforts to have Grace at her father’s wedding brought tears to Abby’s eyes. She widened her gaze and fanned her face trying to keep the waterworks at bay.
Undeterred by Abby’s pre-wedding emotions, Chris handed her a tissue. “You have on waterproof mascara, so hush and listen.” He took her hands, his green eyes locking on to hers. “You don’t have to go through with this. Just say the word and I’ll have you out of here in a flash.” He ran his assurances together in a one breath run-on sentence.
Abby’s jaw went slack, but before she had time to voice her shock, his face split into a wide grin. “I know this is what you want,” he told her. “I just thought since I’m giving you away, I needed to act like the father of the bride.”
She twined her arms around Chris’s neck, grateful no matter what he had her back. “I’m so happy. Wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” she told him in case he was actually worried about the temperature of her feet. She pulled back, dabbing at tears which despite his jest were still pooling at the corners of her eyes. “Once Katie gets back with my flowers, I’ll be ready to go.”
Right on cue, Katie burst through the door. Her blond hair flying, she skidded to a halt. “Oh my God, Abby, you’re gorgeous,” Katie squealed. “Grant’s going to have a fit when he sees you.”
Abby brushed her hand over the knee-length ivory dress she and Katie picked out. With spaghetti straps, an open back, and a few sequins at the waist, she could easily have worn it to a summer cocktail party or the beach as was the case.
Still beaming, Katie handed Abby the bouquet of white orchids and roses. “I’m totally claiming credit for this romance,” she added with a wink. Then she scanned the room. “Do you have everything?”
“Absolutely,” Abby answered, not referring at all to the traditional old, new, borrowed, and blue her matron of honor, Katie had seen to.
In her wildest imagination Abby could have never envisioned finding herself as the bride, and now that the impossible had come true she couldn’t imagine wanting anything more.
“Then let’s go. Jackson’s only going to be able to keep Grant occupied for a little while longer. He’s already threatening to come get you if you’re late.”
The words had no more left her lips when the sound of fist against wood echoed around the hotel suite. “Abby, open up,” Grant insisted. “I need to talk to you for a second.”
“No, you don’t,” Katie shouted. Scurrying to the door where she continued, “This isn’t your first rodeo. You know good and well it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.”
“I don’t need to see her. I just want to talk,” came his muffled retort. Stress had turned his normally sultry voice to thin and reedy.
Something about hearing the anxiety in her soon-to-be husband’s voice calmed Abby’s nerves. Grant hadn’t appreciated one bit that he’d had to spend his last night as a single guy without her. Nor had he wanted to make himself scarce while Katie and Abby had enjoyed a spa day. He’d called every hour until Jackson had taken his cell phone away.
“All right, but just for a second,” she told him, moving across the plush carpeting in the outrageously over-priced heels Grant insisted she needed. After engaging the chain lock, she opened the door. “Sweetheart, I promise I’m not going to change my mind. I have no plans to be the runaway bride, no matter what Chris suggests.”
“What?” he roared, reaching for her through the open door.
Abby clasped his searching hand, patting it like she would a child’s. “He was just teasing,” she cooed. “Now what did you need to tell me?”
“I wanted to give you your wedding present,” Grant said, tugging her wrist.
Keeping the rest of her body hidden from view, she let him draw her arm the door’s opening. “You didn’t have to give me something,” she said, feeling him attach something cold and heavy to her wrist before he pressed a kiss into her palm. Abby drew her arm inside to see a diamond tennis bracelet joining the aquamarine one she never took off. Her breath caught. “Oh, Grant, it’s gorgeous.”
Gracefully accepting
his over the top gifts was a work in progress. His latest extravagance probably cost more than her first car, but sharing his wealth was how he showed people he loved them. “You realize if you keep this up, you’re going to have a very spoiled wife on your hands.”
“I’d like nothing better in the world,” he told her, reaching for her again.
She was never truly going to be comfortable with his money, but the good thing was he totally got that about her. He hadn’t pressed her to quit her teaching job, nor had he asked her to sell her home. A fresh wave of emotion expanded her heart even more than his love already had.
“Close your eyes, and put your face up to the door,” she told him. Once his handsome face appeared, eyes obediently clenched, she leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. “That’s a little something to hold you over till the ceremony.”
He moaned into her mouth. “That might just be enough,” he said, slipping back to his side of the door.
Abby closed the door and turned to her bridal party. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Fifteen minutes later, she stood behind a pair of closed French doors trying not to strangle the bouquet in her hands. “You ready?” Chris asked as the music began.
Abby nodded and with her arm tucked into Chris’s, followed Katie to the hotel’s patio. Her gaze darted to their guest of honor, Grace, who sat quietly on her mother’s lap. Then her devilishly handsome groom caught her attention.
Wearing a beige linen suit and a smile that lit up her insides, Grant stood between Jackson and the officiant.
“Dearly beloved,” the justice of the peace began, sending her pulse into triple digits.
Abby’s eyes never left Grant’s as they repeated those binding words. With the vows complete, Grant pulled her into his arms. A grin flashed across his face seconds before he dipped her deep and kissed her long.
When he finally let her up for air, he asked, “Mrs. Davis, would you care to dance?”
“Yes, thank you.”
The five piece band began the opening measures as he steered them to the poolside deck. Then the vocalist belted out the soulful lyrics, doing justice to jazz great Etta James about how it felt to have found her love.
“At last, indeed,” Abby murmured.
Their surroundings disappeared as she gave herself over to the soulful lyrics and pounding surf, the scent of his aftershave, and the feel of her husband’s arm. Going by the way Grant’s hand had slipped to her bottom, his mind had leapt ahead to the honeymoon.
Which was more than fine with her, but while her thoughts had joined his, when he made a quick and slightly awkward turn, she stumbled. “Oh, we are so not doing that again.”
Abby glanced over his shoulder to see the pool inches from her shoe. “I agree. There are some aspects of that night which shouldn’t be repeated.”
They moved silently together for several measures, caught in their own little bubble. “Are you happy?”
Abby buried her face in the crook of his neck. “Unbelievably.”
His laugh rumbled against her body. “I still can’t believe you’re actually going through with this.
Confused, Abby looked up. “What, scuba diving?” Sure, she was still too chicken to follow him in most of his athletic pursuits, but she’d taken the classes and been okay.
He tilted her chin. “No. Taking a risk on me.”
“Sweetheart,” she began, making the truest statement of her life. “Loving you is the surest thing I’ve ever done.”
A word about the author...
From the time Melissa was old enough to hold a book, reading has been her favorite way to relax, dream, and sometimes escape. That love of books led her to writing, where now she’s able to create her own worlds instead of just reading about them.
Following a career in the legal field and education, she devotes herself to writing stories about men and women who know what they want out of life and aren’t afraid to go after it. She lives in Georgia with her family.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Title Page
copyright
Praise for A RISK WORTH TAKING
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
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Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.