by Joanna Neil
Slowly, gently, he drew her out of the kitchen and into the living room. ‘Sit with me, here on the settee,’ he said softly. ‘I can feel you trembling in my arms. You’re still not over what just happened, are you?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said, but she did as he suggested all the same. It wasn’t the events of the evening that were causing her any problem, but the fact that he was holding her, and she wanted so much for him to kiss her, and tell her that she meant everything in the world to him.
‘I didn’t know where to find you,’ she said. ‘I wanted you to be here with me, but you’d gone away, and I felt as though I was completely alone.’ She frowned. ‘I was alone. I didn’t know how I was going to cope. I didn’t expect you to come back.’
‘I had to,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t leave you, knowing that you were afraid and that you might be in danger.’
He sat down beside her, drawing her into the circle of his arms. ‘I didn’t want to go away, but I’ve been in town looking for a building that I can use for business premises. It had to be just right, with plenty of rooms, open floor spaces and offices to one side. I finally found what I was looking for a couple of days ago, and I was trying to set up the facility so that we can open up as soon as possible.’
She sent him a quick, puzzled glance. ‘Are you setting up more offices to deal with the salvage operations? I thought you already had a base in town?’
‘I do, but this is something completely different. This is for a new medical facility…a welfare clinic, where people can come for medical care when they don’t have insurance or any other means of payment. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. I have the money to fund it, and I’ve set things in motion to make sure that it goes on being a viable proposition. It’s mostly trust-fund income that will keep it going, but there will be charitable donations as well. I’m planning to work there myself alongside a team of doctors. It’s something that’s really necessary out here…a lot of people on low incomes worry about how they’ll cope if they or anyone in their family becomes ill.’
‘Oh, Jake…’ She lifted her hands to his face and gently cupped his cheeks with her fingers. ‘I should have known that you would do something like that. You were never really the loose-living, laid-back, live-for-the-moment man that you appeared to be, were you? I could see it in the way you looked after the woman who was brought out of the sea, and the diver who nearly died. You cared so much.’
‘At least they’re both up and about and living their lives again—perhaps with a bit more care, having experienced such close calls.’ He smiled into her eyes. ‘I want you to know that I’m getting myself back on track. I’d do anything to have you love me and care for me, and want to be with me.’
She made a soft gasp. ‘Did you not know? How could you not know how I feel?’ She kissed him tenderly, rewarded when his arms crushed her to him, and his kiss told her everything she needed to know. He wanted her, he needed her…and most of all he craved her love.
‘I couldn’t help but love you, Jake,’ she said huskily. ‘No matter how carefree and unconcerned you seemed to be, no matter that you didn’t want children, or that you wanted me off this property, I still fell for you. I couldn’t help myself.’
‘Is that really how you feel?’ His gaze meshed with hers, his eyes gleaming with a desire that warmed her through and through. ‘I loved you almost from the first…but there was your ex, who kept getting in the way, and Rob, who hankers after you and winds you round his little finger. I didn’t know how to deal with that. I just knew that you were the girl for me.’
He kissed her again, his hands gliding slowly over the softness of her curves, and Lacey could think of nothing but this wonderful moment, of being in his arms and having him love her.
‘I’ve been having a rethink about children,’ he said, at last, reluctantly dragging his mouth from hers. ‘I mean, perhaps they’re not so bad after all. And between us we should be able to figure out how to handle them, shouldn’t we?’
She sent him a startled look. ‘Children?’ she echoed. She couldn’t stop her mouth from smiling. ‘I’m thrilled to bits to hear you say that, but isn’t that a huge leap from having me move in with you?’
‘Well, of course we’d have to get married.’ He looked at her, frowning, as though he had no real idea what she was talking about, and then light dawned in his eyes. ‘I put that wrongly, didn’t I? Of course, I took it for granted that we would be married…I just didn’t ask the question.’
He paused, giving himself time to sort out his thoughts, and then he started again. ‘Lacey, I love you, and I want you to be my wife. I want to wake up and watch the sun rise over the Keys with you by my side, knowing that you will always be there with me.’
His gaze trailed over her. ‘Will you marry me? Love me? Be with me for always?’
‘I will, Jake.’ She smiled up at him. ‘Always. I love you.’
He breathed a long, ragged sigh of relief, and buried his head against her breast. ‘We’ll be great together, you and I, Lacey. I know it. I feel it deep down in my soul.’
‘Yes. I feel it, too.’
She ran her hand lightly over the contours of his rib cage, and he tipped her gently back against the cushions of the sofa. His kiss was long, and thorough, enticing her to wrap her arms around him and draw him ever closer.
She was blissfully content. Together they would watch the sun rise over the Keys, as he had said, and in time their children would run through this paradise on earth, secure in the knowledge that they were forever part of a loving, united family.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6932-7
THE SECRET DOCTOR
First North American Publication 2010
Copyright © 2010 by Joanna Neil
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