“No chance of messing up our clothes, if we’re not wearing any.”
She smiled. “I’m told it could save hundreds a year on laundry and dry cleaning bills.”
“Damn it, Lexie. Are you going to let me move in here?”
“Would you like that?”
“What I’d really like is for you to marry me.”
She grinned. “My mother will be thrilled.”
“That’s nice. What would you be?”
“I’ve been thinking.”
“Have you? About what?”
“About how much I love this place.”
He shook his head. “No, you like this place. You only love me.”
She giggled, a soft girlish laughter.
She didn’t respond until he prodded, “Right?”
“Right,” she mused. “I’ve been thinking since you live next door and I live here, what if we combined the two apartments.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“Because after we get married, we might have one or two or maybe three kids. One place is too small for a family of five, and I don’t want to leave this neighborhood.”
He laughed at her roundabout response to his proposal. Still, he pressed, “So you are going to marry me?”
She ignored the question. “With a little reconstruction, we could have a very comfortable place to live for the rest of our lives.”
“You want to know a secret?”
She was taking off his shirt. “What?”
“God, I love the way these things jiggle when you move,” he said, temporarily losing his concentration. He reached for her breasts.
“That’s the secret?”
He grinned. “No, the secret is Mr. Kerrington asked me if I wanted to buy this place. He’s sick of it and the problems that come with it.”
“Really,” she asked, her happiness and excitement obvious. “Can we afford it?”
Jim nodded. “He’s desperate and about to list it at a bargain. With my place rented, we should be fine. We don’t need to start construction anytime soon, do we? I mean, you’re not…”
“No, I’m not pregnant, yet.”
“You want to wait a little on that?”
She nodded. “I think we can talk about it again next year.”
She leaned against him and spread kisses over his mouth, nose, cheeks and throat, while causing him a groan of pleasure as their naked bodies brushed together. “You are thinking to leave the old folks alone, right? I mean you’re not buying it to somehow get them out.”
“I don’t dislike them, Lexie. As long as you’re safe, we’ll get along fine.”
She brightened at his comment. “Let’s eat,” she said as she felt his response press into her belly.
“My thoughts exactly,” he said as he sat, refusing to let her go. He guided her to his lap then brought her fork and plate to sit next to his. “You still want to go to Italy?”
“Honeymoon?” she asked.
He nodded.
“I was thinking when I go to stay there for a spell, at least a month. Can you get off that long?”
“Why?”
“We can make it a business/ honeymoon trip. While there, I mean to visit dozens of towns, and even more restaurants and collect recipes from Venice to Naples.”
He grinned. “I have some time coming. We’ll work it out. Tomorrow, we’ll buy the ring.”
She smiled.
He took a bite of his chicken parmesan. “Did you make this?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“Damn,” he managed on a groan of pleasure. “You’re going to be the best wife, ever.
“One more thing.”
“What?” she asked.
“You never told me you loved me.”
“Of course I did.”
He shook his head, saying nothing more.
She blinked. “Are you sure?”
He gave her a long look. “I wouldn’t forget something like that, Lexie.”
“If you’re really a hero, you wouldn’t make me say it alone.” She blinked then frowned. “Now that I think of it, you never said it either?”
He laughed, knowing she was right. He’d never actually said it. “Shall we say it together then?”
“On the count of three?” she asked on a giggle.
He smiled. “One,” he said as he leaned forward and dropped a gentle kiss to her cheek. “I love you, Lexie. Two,” he said as he dragged his mouth over the side of her face to the edge of her lips, sending chills down her back. “I love you, Lexie. Three,” he said as he kissed her eyes, her chin and finally her mouth. “I’m always going to love you, Lexie.”
She smiled; her gaze was wide with happiness. She was breathing hard when he finally pulled back. “Always, are you sure?”
“I’m very sure,” he returned.
“In that case, I love you, Jim,” she said as she cupped his face in her hands.
Following his example, she deposited a dozen kisses to his eyes, his cheeks, chin and lips, leaving him equally breathless. “I do love you, Jim,” she whispered close to his ear.
He grinned, then asked, “What would a hero do next?”
“He’d carry his lady to her bedroom, of course.”
He nodded, came to his feet and brought her with him. “I like the way heroes think.”
About the Author
Patricia Pellicane lives with her husband on Long Island in New York. Her six children live in neighboring towns as do most of her sixteen grandchildren. Her favorite hobby is reading. Patricia insists her ideas for stories come while doing dishes. “Could anything be more boring? It’s nearly impossible to keep your mind from wandering.” In a recent interview she was asked: How hard or easy is it for you to write? Patricia returned with, “Someone once wrote. ‘Writing is easy. All you have to do is put a sheet of paper in a typewriter and stare at it until blood forms on your forehead’. Sometimes writing is exactly like that. And other times it’s a wondrous happening where words flow from mind to fingers to computer screen almost without conscious thought. It doesn’t matter which way it works for you. Once a writer begins the journey, they’re hooked. It’s a drug, and you can’t stop looking for that next story, that next high.”
Patricia’s fans can contact her at, [email protected] or stop in at her website at www.patriciapellicane.com Click under Books for a list of her twenty-two printed published books and About Me to catch a glimpse of what Patricia thinks about life in general and more.
Also Available from
Resplendence Publishing
The Marshal’s Woman by Patricia Pellicane
All Liz Romano wanted was a peaceful week or two at a borrowed lakeside cabin. Driving into the beautiful hills of West Virginia, what she found instead was a lawman whose rugged good looks and country charm took her breath away, while his smile brought a trembling to her heart. She never thought that this dangerous relationship could lead to anything but a few stolen moments of pleasure. Once he touched her she never thought at all.
Greg Cannon, US Deputy Marshal, never imagined this drug bust would come to more than the arrest of a murderous gang. How could he suppose this pretty, little woman, in fact, the most dangerous woman he’d ever known would walk into the midst of a vicious gunfight and threaten to steal his heart?
Midnight Academy by Bella St. James
Abigail Crace has always been a good girl, obeying the rules set down by her wealthy mother, whose anti-men attitude began when Abigail’s father took off with another woman. Abigail did anything necessary to please her mother, even faking an engagement with her dear, gay friend. Giddy with freedom after her mother’s death, and adamantly opposed to the confines of marriage, Abigail pushes her fears aside and accepts an opportunity to visit the Midnight Academy, an exclusive school where she will learn about the arts of the bedroom. In return, she must share her expertise in the areas of manners and comportment with another Academy student.
A star on the basketball court, Nathanial Grayson
is in trouble with his etiquette coach and his agent, a situation made desperate when his mother insists he bring a nice girl to his sister’s wedding. Nate doesn’t date that kind of woman, or any woman for very long, which has given him a well-earned reputation in the bedroom. He’s less than happy when his agent arranges for him to visit the Midnight Academy for an intensive course in manners and proper public behavior, but he wants to please his family and can’t afford to lose his agent. When he meets the stuffy, exacting, manners-obsessed Miss Crace, Nate doesn’t see how he will ever find common ground with his new teacher. Especially once he realizes that in order to be taught what he needs as a student, he has to become the instructor, and the man of Miss Crace’s dreams.
Memphis Nights by Ninette Swann
Aster Dunn has an axe to grind against the entire world. Just twenty-one, the girl is one of Memphis' top bounty hunters, spurred to action when her parents were brutally murdered by criminals on the run. She lives alone and hopes to die alone, quickly and heroically. The first time police officer Brian Cultry interrupts her catch, she chalks it up to bad luck. The second time, she's not letting him go. She needs all the help she can get because keeping Dick Harbinger off the streets isn't business. It's personal.
When her two-faced friend, Laurette, breaks into her apartment with Dick and sets her on the run, she finds herself knocking on Brian's door—or, more accurately, lying in his bed. Now she has to choose between protecting her friends or saving herself.
Police officer Brian Cultry had always put his job first, until he met Aster Dunn. After a night together, he can't get the woman out of his mind, and agrees to help her bring in her next catch…from the other side of the law. Together they learn whom to trust and whom to burn.
Serpentine by Haley Devlin
It’s been over thirteen years since absolute horror and betrayal chased Abby Monroe from her childhood home in upstate New York. Vowing to never return, she built a new life for herself in Florida where she could ignore the ghosts of her past and live in relative peace and safety. But when tragedy compels her to return to Riverside, Abby finds herself navigating the mysterious small town where everyone has a secret, and the slithering lines between right and wrong, friend and foe, and love and hate are as blurry as the murky waters of Green Lake.
Jason Talbot’s whole world turned upside down when his family was brutally murdered and the only thing left worth living for fled the state. Bitter and disillusioned, he has spent the last thirteen years trying to make sense of the madness and navigating the serpentine cesspool that is his life in an alcoholic, drug-induced haze. When his best friend is murdered and all seems lost, hope and clarity arrive in the form of his ex-fiancé, Abby Monroe. But as the days pass and the body count rises, Jason realizes the only way to save the only woman he’s ever loved is to make her to leave Riverside as soon as possible, before it’s too late.
In the Dark by Brynn Paulin
Silken Threads Series, Book One
Born with a red blemish streaking her cheek, Katherine has been hidden her entire life. Even after her family perished in the plague, she did not emerge from behind the walls that protect her. With the help of a faithful servant, she is content to live as she’s been taught. However, her contentment ends when a band of men arrive to the castle in a cloud of dust. She’s horrified. And worried. And more than a little fascinated by the man who leads them, Calen the Black. While she spies on Calen from afar, her need to draw closer rages out of control until she sneaks to his room to experience his touch…for as long as they remain in the dark.
**Publisher's Note** This is an extensively revised version of a previously released title.
www.resplendencepublishing.com
Just Like a Hero Page 8