She smiled. And she rested her head against his chest.
It wasn’t what she wanted from him.
But it was a very nice start.
He didn’t leave her.
The hospital was more of an ordeal than she had been expecting, but Justin was determined that she needed to be there. After she had been checked and poked and prodded, Roger and Sue were let in to see her, too.
It was nice, because she felt so very cared for, and because for once she and Justin were on the very best of terms before Roger and Sue.
When Roger and Sue were certain that Kristin was going to be fine, they were determined to leave. Justin gave them the keys to his house, asking them to make sure his uninvited guests got out again all right.
“I won’t be home until morning. I’m keeping my eyes on this one. She’ll probably try to walk home if I don’t keep her here.”
“Right,” Roger agreed. He stared sternly at Kristin, reminding her that she was in trouble with him, too.
“Make yourselves at home,” Justin told them, winking.
The two left hand in hand. Kristin wanted to talk. She couldn’t. Nurses kept coming in and out.
She fell asleep.
When she woke in the morning, Justin was staring at her. She flushed, wondering what she looked like in the hospital gown, her hair a mess, no makeup. Well, he’d seen her a mess before.
“How are you feeling?” he asked her.
“Fine. Honestly. I feel fine.”
“Good.” He studied her closely, lifting her hair, then delicately placing a kiss at her nape. “You won’t believe this, but the bruises have already almost faded. I’ll step out. The doctor is going to come in and release you.”
He left for the few moments it took for the doctor to give her a once-over and pronounce that she was, indeed, fine.
Then Justin was back with a shopping bag Sue had brought filled with some clothing and her toilet articles. He sat at the foot of the bed while she showered and dressed, and when she came out of the bathroom, he was still there. He reached for her hands.
“I thought you were in a hurry to take me home.”
He shook his head solemnly. “I’m never taking you home again.”
“What—?”
“You don’t stay there when I take you. I’ve figured it out. I’m going to marry you. That way, when I take you home, you’re with me. And I can always keep an eye on you.”
“What?”
He smiled. “I love you, Kristin. But you know that, don’t you? I love you desperately, and I’m in love with you, and I want to take you home with me for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”
She started to fling her arms around him and kiss him. And then she pulled back.
“You were supposed to crawl and grovel your way through the snow.”
“I know.” He winced. “I just don’t grovel well. I am sorry for ever doubting you, though. I’ll never do so again. I swear it.”
He kissed her, very tenderly. “You never, never doubted me,” he said huskily.
“Oh, Justin, I do love you!” she told him.
And she kissed him back. And kissing him was so wonderful that she could have done it forever. She could have just leaned back and let it go on and on
On a hospital bed.
She straightened. “Justin! I’ve got to tell Roger and Sue. Please. Right away, do you mind?”
He shook his head wryly. “Can’t stay here anyway, I guess.”
On the long drive back to his house, she sat next to him, and his arm was around her. She was amazed when he said that he’d move to Boston for her.
She knew what his home meant to him.
“Well,” she said huskily, “I am growing rather fond of the country myself.”
His arm came around her. He pulled her tight against him, and something about the feel of him then was far better than any five-mile crawl through the snow that he might have made.
When they reached his house she flew out of the car to ring the bell and bang on the door.
Roger answered it, his hair wild, his eyes wide. Kristin ignored him, bursting through the door. Sue wasn’t in the living room.
She ran on through to the patio.
The table out there was set for two with crystal and china. Roger had been making mimosas with orange juice and champagne.
Soft music was playing…
And Sue was sitting there in an elegant bathrobe.
“Oh!” Kristin murmured.
“You’re really early,” Sue said nervously. “Kristin, it’s barely seven.”
“Oh, it’s just that I had to tell you…”
“What?” Roger asked politely.
Justin was standing behind him. Kristin went running to him, throwing her arms around him. “We’re getting married,” she announced.
“That’s wonderful!” Roger said.
“Kristin!” Sue leaped up.
And then they were all kissing and hugging one another.
Until Kristin wound up in Justin’s arms again. And he held her, and she just looked into his eyes.
“I love you so much!” he whispered.
Roger was putting on his shirt. Sue slipped into her shoes.
Kristin managed to pull her eyes away from Justin’s. “Oh, listen, you two, we’re sorry. We’ll leave—”
“No, no thanks,” Roger said. “Sue and I will just go home. Our own little bedroom is starting to look like fantasy land. Well, at least it isn’t Grand Central Station.”
Sue gathered her things and followed her husband. “Breakfast is ready,” she said to Justin and Kristin. “Mimosas are made … there are cushions on the floor, the pool water is nice and warm … well, goodbye. We’ll see you tonight, all right? Dinner out somewhere. If you two can handle it.”
“I’m sure we can,” Kristin said demurely.
Sue and Roger left them. Kristin heard the front door close.
Justin smiled at her. “I love you so much, Kristin. You’re everything that I ceased to believe in. You’ve given me back everything.”
Kristin stood on her toes. She kissed his lips softly.
“The water is nice and warm,” she murmured. “The mimosas are made.”
“It shouldn’t be wasted. Somebody really should have some nice, hot, wonderful, passionate sex, right?”
“Hey,” Kristin said, laughing huskily, “that sure sounds right to me.”
He swept her up into his arms. And kissed her.
And kissed her…
There was no reason to stop now.
No reason at all.
A Biography of Heather Graham
Heather Graham (b. 1953) is one of the country’s most prominent authors of romance, suspense, and historical fiction. She has been writing bestselling books for nearly three decades, publishing more than 150 novels and selling more than seventy-five million copies worldwide.
Born in Florida to an Irish mother and a Scottish father, Graham attended college at the University of South Florida, where she majored in theater arts. She spent a few years making a living onstage as a back-up vocalist and dinner theater actor, but after the birth of her third child decided to seek work that would allow her to spend more time with her family.
After early efforts writing romance and horror stories, Graham sold her first novel, When Next We Love (1982). She went on to write nearly two dozen contemporary romance novels.
In 1989 Graham published Sweet Savage Eden, which initiated the Cameron family saga, an epic six-book series that sets romantic drama amid turbulent periods of American history, such as the Civil War. She revisited the nineteenth century in Runaway (1994), a story of passion, deception, and murder in Florida, which spawned five sequels of its own.
In the past decade, Graham has written romantic suspense novels such as Tall, Dark, and Deadly (1999), Long, Lean, and Lethal (2000), and Dying to Have Her (2001), as well as supernatural fiction. In 2003’s Haunted she created the Harrison Investigation servic
e, a paranormal detective organization that she spun off into four Krewe of Hunters novels in 2011.
Graham lives in Florida, where she writes, scuba dives, and spends time with her husband and five children.
Graham (left) with her sister.
Graham with her family in New Orleans. Pictured left to right: Dennis Pozzessere; Zhenia Yeretskaya Pozzessere; Derek, Shayne, and Chynna Pozzessere; Heather Graham; Jason and Bryee-Annon Pozzessere; and Jeremy Gonzalez.
Graham at a photo shoot in Key West for the promotion of the Flynn Brothers trilogy.
Graham at the haunted Myrtles plantation, Francisville, Louisiana.
Graham and the Slushpile Band playing the Memnoch the Devil Ball at the Undead Con in New Orleans, 2010.
Graham with dear friend, actor Doug Jones.
Graham (third from left) with F. Paul Wilson, R. L. Stine, Jon Land, and other friends at the seventh annual ThrillerFest, held in New York City, 2011. The authors participated in the “Be Book Smart” campaign organized by Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s oldest and largest children’s literacy organization.
Graham (seated center) with her local Romance Writers of America group in Broward County, Florida, 2011.
Graham (second from left) with fellow authors Stephen Jay Schwartz, F. Paul Wilson, and Barry Eisler participating in a panel at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, Los Angeles, 2011.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright ©1991 by Heather Graham Pozzessere
Cover design by Michael Slavin
ISBN: 978-1-4976-7398-4
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
EBOOKS BY HEATHER GRAHAM
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
Available wherever ebooks are sold
Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.
Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases
Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign up now at
www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters
FIND OUT MORE AT
WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM
FOLLOW US:
@openroadmedia and
Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia
Snowfire Page 21