by Bella Andre
Deep inside, the still-wary part of her heart kept trying to warn her not to let bliss blind her to the possibility of future pain. But she refused to listen.
Jack was different. Yes, they were working together on his campaign, but every step of the way, he’d reassured her that his feelings for her had nothing to do with business.
And that he loved her.
Still, nothing soothed her lingering fears better than being in Jack’s arms. Yet again she wished he were—
“Angel.”
Mary looked up into the most beautiful face she’d ever set eyes on.
“Jack, you’re here! I thought you had a meeting with Allen.”
His smile as he drew her close was both warm and filled with desire. “I couldn’t stay away a moment longer.”
He’d been the one to ask for a little more private time together that morning, but despite the dozens of eager and interested onlookers, how could she possibly keep from kissing him?
Mary was just moving to wrap her arms around his neck when a little girl pushed between them.
“Here are your candles for the ceremony.”
Soon, Mary reminded herself as they moved apart to each take a candle from the girl, she and Jack would be alone again and then she could kiss him to her heart’s content with no interruptions.
As their candles were being lit, a young boy walked onto the small stage beside the tree and began to carefully recite a Christmas poem he’d written about Rudolph the reindeer and Santa Claus. In the dark, Jack slid his hand into Mary’s and she leaned into his warmth, loving how strong and steady he always was. Just as the boy finished his poem, the Christmas tree came to colorful, glittering life.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Mary said as she squeezed Jack’s hand tighter.
“The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he agreed. But he wasn’t looking at the tree.
He only had eyes for her.
A children’s chorus began to sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” and when Jack joined in, his voice ringing out deep and true, Mary’s heart swelled with love.
Chapter Seventeen
“I haven’t enjoyed a Christmas celebration that much since I was a child,” Mary said when they had finished distributing the Pocket Planners to the crowd. Mary had explained how the device worked to the mother, the businessman and the student, and they’d all been thrilled to go home and play with their unexpected gifts.
A short while ago she’d met Jack in this same spot in Union Square, and he’d asked her to join him for pie and ice cream. Now she was the one saying, “I happen to know a great diner just around the corner from here. Want to join me for some of the best pie you’ll ever have?”
Strangely, he gave her a slightly nervous look that confused her. She’d never seen Jack anxious before. Was he tired from the string of long days getting ready for the big holiday launch? Or was there something else going on?
Before she could ask him if everything was all right, he finally gave her one of his beautiful grins. “Great idea. In fact,” he added as he took her hand and they began walking toward the diner, “I think pie and ice cream at the diner should always be part of our new post-Christmas-tree-lighting tradition.”
Tradition.
Mary had thought she’d left tradition behind when she left Italy. The idea of starting a new tradition with Jack was at once terrifying…and wonderful. Because it meant that he really did intend to keep loving her past this first Christmas, when everything between them was so fresh and exciting.
She forgot all about his slightly strange initial reaction as they chatted easily about their busy days while they walked. They weren’t just lovers, they were friends, too. Best friends who would do absolutely anything to make the other person happy.
Despite being fairly empty, the diner was cozy and warm. This time, they both sat on the same side of the booth and shared a supersize slice of pie. Her night couldn’t get any more perfect than this, sitting with the man she loved while he fed her warm cherries coated in melting vanilla ice cream. They simply enjoyed being with each other.
She knew her life wasn’t perfect, and there were things she would always wish she could have done differently, but for the first time in a very long time, she felt at peace.
“Mary—”
Something in Jack’s voice as he said her name pulled her from her relaxed reverie. The note of anxiety she’d sensed earlier was back.
“Jack? What is it?” She’d seen him look intense before, but never this intense.
“I think we should go back to your place now.”
He put a twenty-dollar bill down on the table and pulled her to her feet, quickly bundling her up in her coat and scarf. Moments later, they were out on the sidewalk, and he was all but dragging her along the street in the direction of her house.
Panic skittered down her spine. Just when she’d finally let herself relax, had something gone wrong?
“Jack.” He was much bigger than she, but she was strong enough to tug him to a stop. “Tell me what’s wrong. Please just tell me.”
“I’m doing this all wrong.” He cursed once in a low voice as he ran his free hand through his hair.
She shook her head in confusion. “What are you doing wrong?”
Before she knew it, he’d dropped to one knee in front of her.
Her mouth fell open. All the way open, in fact, as she stared in shock at Jack kneeling before her.
“I was planning to surprise you with rose petals and champagne and every other romantic thing I could think of. But I just can’t wait another second to ask you to be my wife.”
Mary’s head and heart were spinning round and round so fast that she needed to make sure she’d heard him right. “You want me to be your wife?”
“I know I don’t have much to give you, and that you deserve absolutely everything. Riches. Beautiful gifts. I can’t give you any of those things. Not yet, anyway. All I can give you is my heart. And every last piece of my soul.”
He reached with a shaky hand into the inner pocket of his blue blazer and pulled out a small black box wrapped in velvet. When he flipped the lid open, she gasped at the sparkle of diamonds in the light of the streetlamp above them.
“And this ring.”
Mary instantly recognized it as a classic Italian engagement ring. One that symbolized love for all eternity.
“Marry me, Angel, and make me the happiest man in the world.”
“Yes.” The word flew out of her mouth before she could think, before she could process anything more than how much she loved him. She tugged him back to his feet so that she could wrap her arms around him, the ring and box crushed between them. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Their mouths met in a kiss so loving, so sweet, so passionate that she could hardly believe all of this was real. It had happened so fast, from meeting Jack to falling in love with him, to being offered his heart and soul.
When they finally drew back from each other, he took her left hand in his and slipped the gorgeous engagement ring onto her fourth finger. Mary stared in wonder at it, thinking just how much her mother would have loved this moment. If only she could call her with the wonderful news…
But, suddenly, thinking of her mother brought more than just a pang of longing for her estranged family. It also brought Mary’s fears back to the forefront.
“I don’t—” She swallowed hard as she made herself face Jack. “What if I don’t know how to be a wife? What if I’m no good at being one half of a whole? I’ve only ever been on my own as an adult.”
“So have I,” he said in a soft voice, “but that’s just because I was waiting to kiss the prettiest girl in the world under the mistletoe. Whatever we have to learn, we’ll learn together.”
Easy. He made it sound so easy. And because she badly wanted to believe that it would be, she echoed his, “I was waiting for you, too.”
* * *
Mary and Jack stopped to kiss at every corner, so the walk back
to her house took twice as long as it otherwise would have. By the time they made it to her front door, she was more than ready for a repeat of the wild against-the-door lovemaking from the night he’d taken her to see Singin’ in the Rain.
But instead of tearing her clothes off the moment they were inside, Jack put his hands on either side of her face and held her gently.
“Mine.”
He said the word softly, but she heard the possession—and the wonder—in the simple word as it fell from his lips.
“Yours.” Emotion made her voice unsteady. “Always.”
Slowly, reverently, he ran the tips of his fingers over her eyebrows, cheekbones, lips and earlobes. By the time he reached her neck and then the hollows of her collarbones, she was beyond desperate for more of him.
“Jack, please.”
He leaned forward and slid his bristly cheek against her smooth one. “I know I didn’t do the proposal right,” he murmured against her earlobe, “but I’ll get this part right. I promise.”
“Everything you do is exactly right,” she insisted, just as she had the first night they were together, even though she knew that when Jack Sullivan made up his mind—especially when it came to giving her pleasure—nothing could deter him.
After slipping off her scarf and coat and then his own, he slid his fingers through hers and led her into the bedroom. For so long her bed had seemed too big, but it was just the right size for the two of them.
“Undressing you is one of life’s greatest pleasures.”
He moved behind her to gather her hair up over one shoulder and began to pull down the zipper that ran from her neck to the center of her back. She could feel the heat of his fingertips through the silk chemise she was wearing.
Slowly, so slowly it made her breath catch in her lungs, he slid the wool off her shoulders and arms so that it bunched at her waist before he finally gave it an impatient shove down over her hips. A moment later, she felt the warm press of his lips against her neck, and then she was arching into his touch as his large hands slid from her waist up to her ribs to cup her breasts. She gasped when his thumbs brushed over the taut peaks.
Turning her head so her mouth could find his, she might have kept kissing him forever had his roaming hands not made her so breathless that she had to pull back to drag much-needed air into her lungs.
Holding her still with one large hand over her stomach, he slid the other between her thighs, brushing his fingers over the bare skin at the top of her stockings. In her girlish dreams of love, and then later, in her adult experience of real-life passion, she’d never expected to feel this much…or to want this much. But every time Jack touched her, she sparked, lit into flames and then melted for him.
Slowly, seductively, Jack moved his hand higher to cover the damp material between her legs, then slid his fingers beneath it as he breathed the sweet endearment, “Angel.”
She shook, then shattered against him as he took her even higher with a kiss that rocked through her as deeply as the caress of his hand just had.
The next thing she knew, she was in his arms and he was laying her down on the bed. After he quickly unzipped her boots, he unhooked her garters to roll one stocking down her leg. Her breath was coming fast by the time he’d bared her other leg.
He was still wearing his sports coat and slacks, and she felt deliciously naughty in only her bra and panties as she rose to her knees to take off his jacket.
“One of life’s great pleasures,” she agreed as she unbuttoned his shirt. Even the sound of his belt buckle coming undone excited her, as did the caress of his hands over her skin as he stripped the final bits of lace from her body.
Need fed need, desire stoked desire, and love fueled love as they fell back onto the bed into each other’s arms.
* * *
A long while later, Mary lay on Jack’s chest, working to catch her breath, while he stroked his hand over her hair, soothing her even as he inflamed her again.
“I love you.”
She nestled in closer to him, loving the way his voice rumbled through his chest to hers when they were this close. “I love you, too.”
The ring glinted in her peripheral vision, and happiness swelled inside her. Everything was so great, almost perfect, as long as she didn’t think about…
As if he could read her mind, Jack suddenly said, “I think you should call your mother and father to tell them about us. They’ve got to want to know how happy you are.”
Mary was tempted, so tempted to pick up the phone and share her joy with the two people who had been the center of her world for nineteen years. Her heart raced just thinking of it.
“No,” she finally said, shaking her head against his chest. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
Her parents had always expected her to be the perfect little girl and to only dream the dreams they’d allowed her. Clients and photographers had always expected her to be flawless and poised.
Only Jack, Mary believed, loved her for who she really was.
“Because if I call and they aren’t happy for me, it will ruin our perfect night. And I don’t want anything to touch us tonight.” Mary lifted her head and shifted her weight over his so that her thighs were on either side of his, her breasts pressed to the dark hair on his chest. She lowered her mouth to his and whispered, “Tonight is only for us. Only for love.” And then she let passion—and the joy of knowing she was with the one person on earth who loved her for herself—sweep her up all over again.
Chapter Eighteen
Mary felt as though she were floating the next morning as she and Jack got out of the taxi hand in hand in front of the studio where they were going to shoot the final photos for the campaign. She thought she’d been in love before, but now she knew she’d never been anywhere close to it. Just being near Jack sent her heart racing and every inch of her skin heating up. And though it had been an hour since they’d made love that morning, when he took her hand in his and gently rubbed his thumb across her palm, she felt as if he was still holding her in the warm, strong, safe circle of arms, naked and sated.
And loved.
Mary was known for her prompt appearance at every booking, unlike many of the models who rolled into the studio when it suited them. Today, however, she and Jack had arrived a good fifteen minutes after everyone else, and she didn’t care that they were late. Not when every extra moment in Jack’s arms had been utterly precious.
Jack gently brushed a lock of hair away from her forehead. “I love you.” His voice was soft but oh so steady as he brought his lips nearly to hers. “I can’t wait to let everyone know that you’ve agreed to be my wife. Are you ready?”
She absolutely refused to acknowledge the nerves jumping inside of her as she said, “Yes.”
It was so easy to get lost in him, she thought as he kissed her. But before she could get more than one too-short taste, the door opened…and Howie discovered their big secret before they made their big announcement.
Mary was glad to see more delight than shock on Jack’s partner’s face as he happily ushered them inside the building. The beautiful diamond ring on her left hand was hard to miss, and before Mary knew it, Howie was giving her a congratulatory kiss on the cheek and clapping Jack on the back.
“Everyone,” he called out, “I believe Jack and Mary have a very exciting announcement to make!”
It had all happened so fast, a whirlwind from having pie and ice cream with Jack to swearing she wouldn’t mix business with pleasure, and then not being able to stop herself from doing just that as she fell head over heels in love. More than once she’d worried that she was in too deep and that it had happened too fast, but each time Jack’s constancy had reassured her. Every step of the way, he’d been so sweet, so patient with her, even when they’d both been driven to the edge of madness with desire.
How, she wondered as they stood on the precipice of announcing not only their relationship but also their engagement, could those long-held fears
rear up again?
Love, in her experience, had always been conditional. But Jack wasn’t like that, he could never treat her that way…could he?
“Mary?”
Though everyone was waiting for their big announcement, Jack was looking at her as if they were the only two people in the room.
She remembered the way she’d felt in Union Square that first time she’d seen him in the crowd of strangers. From that first moment she’d felt as if she knew him…and she had known that he was special.
Just because other people in her past had disappointed her didn’t mean that he would, too. Plus, she’d seen him with his family, the way he and his brothers had always been there for one another, no matter what.
Telling herself that trusting Jack couldn’t possibly be the wrong decision, Mary squeezed his hand and let his steady warmth settle her nerves. “Let’s tell them, Jack.”
In all her dreams of love, she’d never envisioned a man like him could exist, one who was completely open every single moment about his feelings for her. She’d never been one for public displays of affection—in the entertainment business they were almost always false—but now she couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss him.
When she drew back, Jack pulled her close against him, then he finally told the group, “I’m extremely pleased to let all of you know that Mary has agreed to become my wife.”
The next thing she knew, Allen had popped a bottle of champagne and was pouring a glass for everyone. How, she wondered, could Allen have known to have champagne ready?