by Ally Blake
She hitched up her PJ bottoms and rearranged her oversized jumper, and let her Ugg boots lead her to the door. She dragged it open to find—
‘Bradley?’
Leather jacket. Jeans. Smelling of soap. And winter air. And that yumminess that was purely him. Her heart gave a sorry thump. She forced it to limp back to where it belonged, in a crushed and mangled mess, deep in her chest cavity.
‘We need to talk,’ he said.
‘Do we, now?’
The fact that he’d used the words she feared had been the beginning of the end a few days before would have been funny if she could remember how to laugh.
‘Send me an e-mail,’ she said, swinging the door shut in his face.
He stopped it with a determined hand. ‘I don’t know your new one.’
‘Right.’ Of course. Her old work email had clearly been deleted the same time she had. With a half-hearted wave she said, ‘Then you better come in.’
She left the door open and moved to the couch, where she fell back into the over-soft cushions. She picked up a piece of cold pizza from a box on the coffee table and bit into it, as if that was far more interesting than anything he had to say.
While the sad truth was the second she’d seen his face her whole body had begun to thrum in anticipation.
‘How old is that thing?’ he asked, sniffing in the direction of the pizza box.
She shrugged. ‘It wasn’t in the fridge before I left for Tasmania, so not that old. What are you doing here, Bradley? If you’re here to ask me to come back to work—’
‘I’m not.’
‘Oh.’ Her stomach landed somewhere in the region of her knees. Maybe he was here to kick her in the shins a few times, just in case she didn’t feel rotten enough.
He moved to look at a row of knick-knacks on the shelf over the fake fireplace. ‘Unless you’d like to come back?’
‘No.’ She realised she’d said it overly loud, so softened it with a ‘thank you’.
He nodded. ‘You might like to know things are in disarray without you there.’
‘You’ll survive.’
‘I know.’ A pause, then, ‘Sonja says you’ve been keeping busy. On your computer.’
She had. And she had a sudden need to tell him what she’d been working on. Maybe as a first step to dragging herself back into the light from the dark corner in which she’d hidden herself. ‘I’m going to start my own production company. I’m thinking small to start with. Home-town documentaries. I think I’d have a flair for getting that kind of thing done, and done well.’
He finally turned to her, and she was dead surprised to see a flicker of something that seemed a heck of a lot like respect gleaming in his dark grey eyes.
It gave her courage. She put down her pizza and sat forward on the chair. ‘So, if you’re not here to beg me to come back, why are you here?’
He looked at the spare chair, then, sensibly deciding he’d likely break the silly little thing Sonja favoured, paced instead. ‘I was hoping you might give me a chance to say some things. Things I probably should have said a few days ago.’
Heat began in the region of her toes and flowed clean to her scalp. She stood and paced herself. She didn’t want to do this again. Couldn’t. She could kick him out. She could …
But she needed closure on this thing if she was really going to be able to move forward. To begin her life anew. ‘Fine. Go for your life. Talk.’
He looked at her a few long moments.
She tried to steady her heart again, but found she could not. He’d hurt her, but she loved him. Likely would for a long, long time. Unlikely she’d ever love anyone as deeply.
Then he shook out his hands as if they were filled with pins and needles. He was anxious. Skittish, even. She could only watch in amazement as the great Bradley Knight was reduced to a bundle of nerves in her lounge room.
It was with a strange sense of anticipation that she couldn’t comprehend that she crossed her arms and waited for Bradley to say what he’d come to say.
‘Okay, so here we go. I’ve been an independent man for a very long time. I like that I get to choose what I do on a Sunday morning. I like that I have control over the remote. I like things to go my way.’
Big shock! Hannah thought, but she just sat on the arm of the couch and let him talk. The sooner he said whatever he’d come to say the sooner he’d be gone and she could drown herself in a bottle of wine.
‘While you …’ he said, waving a hand in the air as though hoping to pluck out the words. ‘You’re a smartass, and your family is like a walking soap opera. You’re a disrupting influence.’
She blinked at him, not at all following where he was going. ‘Fair enough. But I’d ask you to be so kind as to not put that on a recommendation letter in the future.’
He glanced at her, a first sign of humour in his eyes. She bit her lip.
‘I’m trying to say you’ve been an unexpected force in my life.’
‘I have?’
‘From the day you landed in my office till the day we landed in Tasmania I never saw you coming. And it’s on that subject that I need to ask you a favour.’
Her voice cracked as she asked, ‘Which is?’
‘That we leave what happened in Tasmania in Tasmania.’
His words ought to have felt like a slap upon a slap, but the sincerity in his voice, the uncertainty in his eyes, gave her pause.
‘I thought that was what you’d already done.’
‘I don’t mean what happened between us there. I was a fool to think that walking away could ever be that simple.’
She breathed out slowly between pursed lips, willing herself not to get ahead of herself. ‘Okay.’
‘I mean that last day. The way I acted. The things I said. The things I didn’t say. When you told me that you loved me …’
Hannah cringed, wishing he’d used some kind of euphemism. The fact that her love had been unrequited hurt as much now as it had then, even if he had come to make some kind of amends.
She stood and paced again.
‘Hannah, I was taken by surprise. And not for the reasons I am sure you think are true. But because it came from you.’
‘Right …’ she said, while not having a clue what he meant.
‘I know you now, Hannah. I know you’ve known loss. I know you’ve also struggled with rejection by someone you care for. I know that while you have a light inside of you the likes of which I’ve never known you are also serious, and cautious, and thoughtful. The idea that that woman was strong enough to put all that aside to love me …’ His faraway gaze focussed back on her as he put a hand to his chest. ‘Me. A man who never let anything into his life he couldn’t afford to lose. I have never, in my whole entire life, seen anything as courageous.’
Nope. No more pacing. Hannah’s knees had just turned to jelly. ‘Bradley, I—’
He held up a hand. He needed to finish. And, boy, did Hannah want him to.
‘That’s why when you told me how you felt I froze. I was so unprepared. I handled it badly. I feel ashamed even thinking about it. The look in your eyes … the hurt. I would make all of it mine if I could.’
‘Bradley—’ she beseeched, her phoenix of a heart beating its wings in her chest. But he held up his hand again. She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood.
‘For all that,’ he said, ‘I’m so sorry.’
Her heart danced. Unlike the last time that word had passed through his lips, it no longer felt like a goodbye. It felt like a new beginning.
‘Bradley—’
He cut her off again, clearly on a roll. She physically put her hand over her mouth.
‘I know its taken me a while to be able to say it, but the truth is I now know that being my own man pales in comparison with how it made me feel when you told me I was your man. I only hope I’m not too late.’
He took two hesitant steps her way. Finally. Her whole body pulsed towards him like a flower to the sun.
�
�Hannah,’ he said, his voice rough and unsure and utterly adorable.
‘Yes, Bradley?’
Then, for the first time since he’d walked through her door, he smiled. A slow, sexy Bradley smile. And with a self-conscious shrug he said, ‘I came here to tell you that you’re the one that I want.’
The reminder of the song he’d made her sing made her laugh out loud. But her boisterous laughter fast turned to the most exquisite ache in her heart.
That was the moment he’d put himself into a position of extreme discomfort in order to give her the closure she needed on an issue that had hindered her through her entire life. That had been an act of love. Pure and simple. And she’d never realised.
She should have known he was a man of action, not of words. How could a man who’d never felt love know how to express it? Well, she’d just have to show him. Again and again and again. Every day for the rest of their lives.
Starting now.
She took the final two steps and took his face in hers.
‘Bradley Knight. You, my gorgeous, stubborn man, are the one that I want. I should have known that you just needed more time. I’ve always been quicker to see the potential in things than you.’
At that he laughed. Loud, reverberating laughter that rocked the thin walls of her old apartment. ‘You are the most audacious woman I have ever known.’
She shrugged, while letting her fingers wander into the heavenly hair at the back of his neck. ‘It is one of my most lovable traits.’
She pulled him to her and kissed him. Wholly, fully, showing him every ounce of love she had. He hooked a hand beneath her knees and carried her to the couch. She sank into it, and then some.
His eyes gleamed as he hovered over her. ‘That thing is so soft I fear if I get on there with you I may not be able to get back out again.’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that a problem?’
His gaze raked over her before he moved his hand slowly up the inside of her jumper, making her curl into his touch. ‘Not in the least.’
Eventually they pulled apart, their bodies a tangle of heat and sweat and the kind of joy they’d only ever seen in one another’s eyes.
Bradley kissed the tip of Hannah’s nose. ‘I never thought I’d say the words, much less feel the feelings, my whole entire life. And then there was you. I love you, Hannah Gillespie.’
Actions could speak louder than words—but, boy, was it ever nice to hear the words anyway!
She wrapped her arms tight around him and in his ear whispered, ‘I love you right on back, Bradley Knight.’
‘Glad to hear it.’
‘Do you want to hear it again?’
He shivered as her breath washed across his neck. ‘Later,’ he said, before covering her mouth with his.
Much later, as the sun set over Melbourne, they stood at the small window, looking out over an array of squat Fitzroy buildings with a glimpse of city lights twinkling in the near distance.
Hannah’s back was tucked into Bradley’s front, his arms around her waist, her arms on top of his. His chin leaning gently on her hair. Exactly as she’d seen her parents stand looking out over their suburban backyard a hundred times.
Happy. Nowhere else they’d rather be. In love.
‘I meant what I said before,’ Bradley said.
‘I certainly hope so—or I wouldn’t have let you do any of what just happened on the couch.’
She felt his laughter rumble through her.
‘I was referring to when I told you that you’re the one. You’re it. There’s never been anybody else, and I know there never will be. Fate would never be so kind to a guy like me twice.’
She slapped him on the arm. ‘Better not.’
He tucked his arms tighter around her, his fingers sliding beneath her jumper to skid back and forth over her hipbones, creating the most delicious shivers in their wake.
‘On that score, I have a proposal.’
At the seriousness in his voice she spun in his arms. ‘Is this one I’m going to agree to?’
‘I certainly hope so, because I’m fairly sure Australian law prohibits marriage between two people if one of them doesn’t say “I do”.’
She blinked up at him. ‘I’m sorry, did you just say—?’
‘You’re the one,’ he said, looking her right in the eye, giving her all the emotion she’d ever hoped to find in one man and then some. ‘And now I’ve found you I don’t see any point in waiting. You may as well marry me.’
Her throat was so blocked with emotion she couldn’t even find the words.
‘Come on,’ he said finally, giving her a little shake. ‘Do you honestly think we’re ever going to find another living soul who would put up with either of us?’
‘My man. The last of the great romantics.’
He grabbed her hand and spun her out. She laughed, and squealed so loud one of the neighbours banged something on the wall. But she barely heard it over the pure joy pumping through her brain.
He spun her back in. Their bodies smacked together, as close as two people could be while still fully clothed. Looking into his sultry dark eyes, she could barely drag breath in deep enough. And Hannah thought that if she loved him even a tenth as much in ten years’ time she’d be one lucky woman.
Then, before she even felt it coming, he held her across the back and tipped her into the most fabulous Hollywood dip that had ever been.
‘How’s that for romantic?’ he asked.
‘It’ll do me just fine.’
‘Hannah Gillespie, will you please stop dillydallying and agree to marry me?’
‘You say that while in a position to drop me?’
‘Unfortunately it’s not to my benefit. You already know I’d never let you fall.’ He lifted her slowly back up into his arms. ‘When I know what I want I go out and get it. I want you. For ever. If you’ll have me.’
What could she say but, ‘Yes’?
His nostrils flared as he let out a long slow breath. ‘And just like that the world is back on its right axis.’
Then he kissed her slowly, gently, deeply. When she pulled away there were stars in her eyes. And rumbles in her tummy, which had been given little but stale pizza and coffee for several days and now craved a feast.
Only the fact that she knew how many days and nights she had to wrap herself around him in the future made her able to pull away. She moved into the kitchen in search of takeaway menus from the fridge.
She glanced at him, watching her from the other side of her tiny kitchen bench. Big, bad, beautiful Bradley Knight. No longer her boss. Now he was simply her man.
Her inner imp twirled to life.
She said, ‘You do realise that one day a show of yours will take on a show of mine in the ratings, and I’m going to take you down?’
Bradley grabbed the menus from her hand and threw them in the bin. He reached into her fridge for eggs and her cupboard for a frying pan. ‘Is that a challenge?’
Hannah raised a saucy eyebrow. ‘It’s a promise.’
And somehow they never did get around to dinner that night.
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II BV/S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of bind
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First published in Great Britain 2011
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Ally Blake 2011
ISBN: 978-1-408-91472-4
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Cover
Praise for Ally Blake
About the Author
Also by Ally Blake
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Copyright