Maddy Lawrence's Big Adventure
Page 23
Manhattan.
The city skyline, larger than life and as familiar as the lines in her hand, was right outside her bedroom window. Puzzled, her head starting to throb, she frowned as she noted the utilitarian bed and stark white walls decorated with a generic watercolor print. No, this wasn’t her bedroom, she thought fuzzily. She was in a hospital…in New York.
A dream. From the moment that magazine rack had come tumbling down on her head at the newsstand and knocked her out cold, nothing else had been real. Especially Ace and his love for her. It was all just a dream. Nothing but a dream.
No!
The silent cry echoed without end through the bruised canyons of her head. Slamming her eyes shut, she squeezed back the tears, furiously trying to reject the reality before her. But it was a wasted effort. The silent tears of acceptance were already streaming down her cheeks. Ace. He’d never been anything but a dream, a fantasy, the wishful thinking of a lonely woman who could only find love and adventure in the pages of a book.
Pain lanced her heart. Devastated, she heard the door open to her small, private room, but she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes and face the city and a life she didn’t want to go back to. Not yet. Not without Ace. She just needed a few more minutes to cling to a dream that was never going to be.
“Maddy? Honey? Dear God, are you awake? Can you hear me?”
Of course she could hear him. When, she wondered wildly, had her imagination become so good that she could recreate every nuance of his husky voice with no effort whatsoever? If she hadn’t known better, she would have sworn he was standing right beside her. Lord, she was losing it.
Then the mattress dipped and she opened startled eyes to find him bending over her, his rugged, unshaven face haggard with worry. Dazed, she could only stare at him in confusion.
“Thank God!”
At the relieved sigh that burst from his lips, she frowned in confusion. “How did I get here? I thought you were a dream…that everything that happened was just a dream. But you’re here…you’re real…”
“Hell, yes, I’m real, honey! It’s the past three days that have been the nightmare!”
“Three days? I’ve been out for three days?”
He nodded, his blue eyes somber as he reached for her hand and pulled it to his own cheek. “I thought I’d lost you, sweetheart,” he rasped. “When you didn’t regain consciousness on the ship, I had you flown home. I thought if you were on familiar ground, it would help. Your mother’s been here constantly—in fact, she’s down in the cafeteria right now—”
“Mother’s here? But she’s not supposed to be walking yet! Her hip—”
“Is just fine,” he assured her. “I talked to her doctors myself. They’ve been trying to get her to exercise that hip for over a week, but she was so upset over your disappearance that she wouldn’t even get out of bed. The second she heard you were in the hospital, though, she was up and dressed and down here to see you before I could even send a cab for her. She’s been worried sick about you, sweetheart. We all have.”
“We?”
“Your friends from school, your neighbors. They’ve all been here. When the doctors couldn’t find any medical reason why you wouldn’t wake up, your mother called everyone she could think of who might be able to reach you. You’ve got some great friends, honey. The minute they heard you were in trouble, they came to see you. But nothing seemed to help. You didn’t respond to any of us.”
Amazed, Maddy just stared at him. What he’d just described sounded like something out of It’s a Wonderful Life, and she hadn’t been aware of any of it. Except him. Tears constricted her throat. “I heard you,” she choked. “I heard you calling to me, but I couldn’t reach you. That’s when I thought I must have imagined everything. It was horrible. I was afraid if I woke up, I’d lose you.”
“Aw, honey.” He reached for her then, pulling her into his arms, against his chest, locking her close. “That’s never going to happen. I’m real. We’re real. Dammit, I love you! Surely you don’t think you dreamed that? Dreamed this?”
He kissed her then, a hot, scorching, desperate kiss that told her more clearly than words just how much she meant to him and how terrible the past three days had been for him. No, she thought, swallowing a sob as she threw her arms around him and kissed him back. She hadn’t dreamed this, hadn’t dreamed him, hadn’t dreamed the love that she felt in his every touch as his hands swept over her in a rush to reassure himself that she was really okay.
He was shaking. The same tough, fearless man who had boldly followed her up a rain gutter right above the heads of Barrera’s armed guards without breaking a sweat was shaking like a leaf in the wind…for her. Against her breast, the wild thunder of his heart was slamming against hers, filling her with wonder and a sweet, sweet urgency that she’d never felt for any other man but him.
He loved her!
If she’d still had any doubts about that, they would have died the second he framed her face in his hands and pulled back just far enough so that his gaze could meet hers. Naked love burned in his eyes. “I never thought I would ever find anyone like you. I’ve dragged you halfway across the world, taken you away from everything that’s familiar to you and given you every reason to hate my guts. When I asked you to marry me, you didn’t ask me my real name or who I work for or even where we were going to live—”
“I knew we’d get around to all that stuff eventually,” she said, grinning. “Once you said the L word, nothing else mattered.”
“Sweetheart, I plan on spending the rest of my life whispering the L word in your ear, but just for the record, I want to clear the decks now so we can get on with the more important stuff—like when you think you might feel up to a very small, very private wedding right here in your room. No,” he said, chuckling, when she opened her mouth, “first things first.” He held up his index finger. “Number one—I can live anywhere as long as you’re with me. Two—as for my job, I don’t really have an office, but I’m officially assigned to the Smithsonian. That makes me plain old civil service.”
“The Smithsonian!”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “Surprised? My job title is Tracker, and that’s pretty much what I do—track down stolen artifacts for our government and anyone else Uncle Sam loans me out to. Every once in a while, I run into some real hard asses like Barrera—who’s in custody, by the way—but most of the time, it’s pretty routine. As for my name…”
“Yes?”
His grin turned rueful at the thought of the stiff and stuffy name his very rich parents had put on him. Alistair. God. One day he’d tell her, but not now. “Let’s just say I’ve gone by a variety of nicknames all my life, but the latest was given to me by one of my co-workers who’s really hooked on a series of books by an author by the name of Susannah Patterson Rawlings.”
Her eyes wide with disbelief, Maddy said, “You’re putting me on!”
“I swear to God I’m not,” he assured her, holding up his hand like a witness called to testify before a judge. “It seems Ace Mackenzie and I have a lot in common besides our nickname. You love us both. So you see,” he continued, gathering her closer, “from the very beginning, we couldn’t have fought what was between us even if we’d tried. It was fate.”
He leaned down and dropped a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Kismet.” A second kiss followed, this time to the opposite corner of her mouth. “Written in the stars,” he murmured, lingering to explore the full sensuous curve of her bottom lip. “You were looking for someone to love in the pages of a book with my name on it, and I was right across the street, just waiting for the chance to rescue you.”
Light-headed, glowing with happiness, she clung to him. “What was that you were saying about a private wedding?” she asked huskily.
He laughed softly. “I thought you’d never ask. You just lie here and take it easy and I’ll take care of everything.”
He started to ease her arms from around his neck, but she quickly locked them
tight. “Oh, no, you don’t!” she gasped. “The last time we tried that, I didn’t wake up for three days. This time, I’m not letting you out of my sight until the deed is done.”
His grin crooked, he shifted her in his arms and crawled right into bed with her. “We’ll probably shock the hell out of your mother, but she might as well get used to seeing me around. I’m not going anywhere without you. Give me the phone, sweetheart. I’ve got some calls to make.”
Laughing, she did as he asked, her eyes sparkling at the thought of the changes he was going to make in her life. Things were never going to be the same. She couldn’t wait.
*
eISBN 978-14592-7934-6
MADDY LAWRENCE’S BIG ADVENTURE
Copyright © 1996 by Linda Turner
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
All 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 incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Printed in U.S.A.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Excerpt
Dear Reader
Books by Linda Turner
About the Author
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Copyright