She looked at Ross, tall, dark, and had she really used to think he was handsome? All he looked like now was a creep she needed to get rid of. Fast. He’d abused her, both mentally and physically. Had wanted her to have an abortion, had shoved money into her hand to do it, too.
She thought about Ross’s polar opposite, Joe, and all he’d tried to do for her. How hard it must have been for him to show up at the prenatal appointments, to be the first one she shared the first sonogram with, when never being able to become a father had still been eating away at him. The moment he’d slid into that chair beside her in the parenting class had nearly made her heart burst with gratitude. He’d acted the part of being a father, even when he’d believed he would lose her and the baby, as if his past was bound to repeat itself. Yet he’d shown up and stuck with it, for her, and had never let on about the pain he must have suffered because of it. Oh, God, he was her true hero—a man to be worshipped, adored and loved. With all of her heart. And she did. She loved him.
Facing Ross, right now, she knew without a doubt what her true feelings were for Joe. Yet Joe had convinced her to walk out on him. And she’d gone because he’d looked so tortured by her being there.
She stood before Ross, a shadow of a man standing by the driveway hedge, feeling completely alone. All she wanted to do was go inside Joe’s house where she’d always felt safe, and close and lock the door. Forever. On Ross.
She kept her distance, not trusting him for one second, but Ross took a single step forward.
She’d never let herself be a victim again and he’d have to hear her out. “You need to know I’ve finally experienced a good relationship. I know for a fact there are good, loving and caring men in the world who put their partners first. I never learned that from you, but now I have faith in the world again. In myself.” She touched her heart. “You wanted to control me and tear me down to keep me under your thumb. I may have let you before but I never will again.” To show how serious she was, and to prove she wasn’t afraid of him anymore, she took a step forward but still kept safely out of his reach, then stared him down. “You need to leave L.A. I’ll never go back to you. Never.”
Ross’s expectant-puppy expression soon turned to one of defeat. Did he think he could just show up and everything would be fine again? Was he that out of touch with reality? Or had it proved once and for all how he truly had zero respect for her.
Something she’d said must have gotten through to him because he actually turned to leave. Carey took a breath for the first time in several seconds. But just as quickly he turned back, lunging toward her with the look of pure rage in his demon eyes.
His first mistake had been showing up uninvited in California. His second mistake was to grab her wrist and clamp down hard enough to cut off her blood supply, then raise his other hand ready to slap her.
Instead of pulling away, fighting mad, Carey growled and steamrolled into him. Catching him off guard, her knee connected full force with his groin, the V of her free hand ramming with all her might smack into his larynx. Everything Joe had taught her about self-defense came rushing back with a vengeance.
Ross doubled over in pain, unable to gasp or shout. And, of course, he’d let go of her wrist. Shocked she’d actually pulled it off, Carey stood there dazed for one second, her body covered in goose bumps, staring at him while he writhed in pain on the driveway.
Well, plan A had worked like a charm. What was she supposed to do next?
Run! Run for the car and get the hell out of there. She turned to make her getaway, but slammed into a brick wall of a man.
CHAPTER TEN
JOE CAME FLYING out of the kitchen door the instant he’d seen the man lunge for Carey. He’d watched the whole encounter between the guy who must be Ross and Carey, the woman he loved and his new superhero, from the window above the kitchen sink.
He’d known Carey needed to face down her demon once and for all, and he’d been ready to pounce if she’d needed him. So, as hard as it had been, he’d stayed on the ready just around the corner and waited. She’d stood up to the man, not wavering for a second. When twisted reasoning hadn’t panned out, the guy had lunged at her. Joe had rushed through the back door and flown outside, but she’d beaten him to the punch. Like a pro, she’d taken down her attacker. It had impressed the hell out of Joe, too. Great going.
Pride for Carey mixed with pure fear that she could have been hurt by the bastard from her past made him take her in his arms and hold tight. She didn’t fight it either, just leaned into him.
“You okay?”
She nodded, then pulled back to look into his eyes. “Did you see that? I decked him! Thanks to you.”
He laughed, all the while watching Ross, who slowly began to get onto his hands and knees.
“Do as Carey says, just stand up and leave. Don’t ever come back,” he said, with Carey safely tucked under one arm, ready, if necessary to take the matter into his own hands if the guy made so much as a hint of a move in the wrong direction.
Now Ross stood, anger still plainly carved in his face.
“The police will be here shortly,” Joe said. “I called when I first saw you. She’s also got a restraining order out on you in case you ever get any ideas about coming around again. Consider it your ‘go-straight-to-jail’ card and this is your final warning.”
Ross took one look at Joe, saw the don’t-even-think-about-messing-with-me stare and took off, running to the street and back toward Santa Monica Boulevard.
With arms still wrapped around each other, they watched him disappear round the corner.
“I don’t have a restraining order out on him,” Carey said.
“He doesn’t know that.”
“And the police, are they coming?”
“Again, he doesn’t need to know I was just about to call when I saw you kick his ass, so I hung up to help you.” Joe flashed Carey a proud grin. “You were the bomb, babe.”
She laughed. “You taught me everything I know.”
He pulled her near and hugged her tight. God, he’d missed her. To think he’d almost let her get away sent shivers through his chest. “You’re all right? Let me see your wrist, it looked like he had a firm grip.” He checked out the area around her thin wrist, which was reddened and showing signs of early bruising. Like a dope, he kissed it because it was the only thing he could think to do, and he wanted more than anything for Carey to understand how precious she was to him. “You need to know something. I said things the other night that were horrible and not true. The only person you remind me of is you, and I never want to lose you. Or your daughter.”
She disengaged her wrist from his hands so she could stroke his cheek. Looking into his eyes with her soft green stare, she smiled. He got the distinct message she had a few things to clear up with him, too.
“I never want to lose you either. Standing up to Ross just now made me realize he was the one who should feel ashamed, not me. That dark past I dragged out here needs to stay in Chicago with that loser. It shouldn’t have any influence over me or my future. I’ve started over again. That ugly shadow is gone for good.”
He believed her, too. She stood before him a woman of conviction, nothing like the frightened victim he’d first met two months ago.
She went up on her toes and delivered a light kiss. He matched it with a kiss of his own, and damn if it didn’t feel like a little piece of heaven had just tiptoed back into his life.
“I meant what I said to him, too,” she said, her arms lightly resting around his neck. “You’ve given me faith again in love. You helped me learn that it’s not weak to open myself up to someone and to love again. Even if you didn’t want me to.” Her eyes dipped down for a second then swept back up. “I couldn’t stop myself from loving you. I do, Joe, I love you
.”
Now he felt like the coward, well, until five minutes ago anyway, when he’d watched Carey confront her biggest fear and kick its ass, and Joe finally knew without a doubt that he loved her, too. No matter how hard he’d tried, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from falling in love with her. He’d pulled out every old and sorry reason to keep from loving her, but she was meant to be loved, and he was the guy to do it. And for someone whose thoughts sounded suspiciously like a caveman’s—Me Joe. You Carey. We love.—he had yet to voice the most important words he’d ever say. He just stood there, staring into her eyes, stroking her hair, loving her in silence.
“It’s especially nice when you love someone.” She cleared her throat to draw his attention away from her eyes and back to noticing all of her. “If that someone loves you back.”
Hint, hint! There was that tiny mischievous smile she’d occasionally given when making an obvious point, and he’d missed it so much.
The ball was clearly in his court, and it was time for him to say what he felt and mean what he said. Without a doubt he loved Carey. So, still being in caveman mode, he bent down, swept her up into his arms and carried her up the steps to his front door.
Once inside he planted another kiss on her, and got the kind of reception he’d hoped for. But he knew he couldn’t get away with a mere display of affection. If ever a person deserved, or a time called for, words, it was now. So he gently released her legs to the ground, snuck in one last quickie kiss, and stepped back.
“Please forgive me for pushing you away. I was hurt. And afraid. Still am. And if you don’t think that’s a huge thing for me to admit, you don’t know me like you think you do.”
“I totally understand how huge that is.” She groped around his shoulders and chest. “Just like the rest of you.”
He went along with her making light of things, because the topic was difficult and heavy and loaded with old habits that needed to be set free. They’d both been through so much lately, but he had one more thing to say and he needed to say it now. He cupped her face between his hands.
“I’ll understand if you can’t see a future with me, because I’m sterile and I can’t make babies with you.”
“Stop right there,” she said. “You really don’t get it, do you? Did you not hear me say I love you? You may not be the biological father of the little lady here, but you’ve acted nothing short of a true, loving, and beyond decent father. Actions really do speak louder than, well, other actions in this case, I guess.” She screwed up her face in a perfectly adorable way, having briefly confused herself. Right now there wasn’t a single thing she could do wrong. “I know, terrible analogy.”
He laughed lightly, while understanding exactly what she’d meant, because that was part of what was so right about them, they always got what each other meant, spoken or not.
“But it’s all the family we need,” she added, and he loved her even more for her generous thought. But the truth was a small family could never be his style, that’s why he’d decided to never be in the position to have a family at all. Until Carey had shown up and changed everything.
“You don’t want her—what are we going to name her?—to have sisters and brothers? How about Peaches?”
“Name my daughter after a piece of fruit?” she playfully protested.
“Our daughter, you just said it, so that gives me equal naming privileges. Besides, I thought Peaches might be significant since I’m planning to make the famous Matthews ice cream just for you after dinner tonight.”
“You’re making me peach ice cream?”
“How else can I make sure you’ll never leave me again?”
“Ah, your father’s secret ingredient.”
“Yes. That. Plus the fact you have no idea what a hellhole it’s been here since you left, and I’ll never let you go again.”
“And…?” she encouraged him.
“Because I love you and can’t imagine my life without you.” He kissed her again, because there was no way he could say what he just had without needing to touch her, with the best expression of love he knew. Physical touch.
“Neither can I,” she said. “And if we want to give, well, I’ll agree to give her the nickname of Peaches, but honestly we’ll have to come up with something better than that for real. Anyway, if we want to give her siblings in the future, first one step at a time and all, right? Let’s see how this little one turns out. But, honestly, in this day and age, if we want more children, we can find a million ways to do it. Right?”
“Right, as usual. Sorry I’ve been so dense about that topic for so long. I’ve been too busy wallowing in my pain.”
“And that should never come into play with us again. Okay?”
“You got it. Because I intend to spend the rest of my life showing both of you how much I love you.”
She sighed her joy and nuzzled into his neck, which felt fantastic. “That works out perfectly because I intend to spend the rest of the afternoon showing you exactly how much I love you.”
For a guy who’d been up all night and who earlier could hardly keep his eyes open, Joe suddenly felt full of life, love, and, right this instant, intense desire. He pressed his nose into her hair and inhaled the smell of fresh coconut shampoo, thinking how he could contentedly spend the rest of his life simply doing this. He smiled widely, knowing she had a far better idea. “I like your plan.”
She gave him a long and leisurely kiss in case there was any mistaking what her intentions were. He loved how well they communicated.
“For the record,” she whispered into the shell of his ear, “you had me at homemade peach ice cream.”
*
Look out for the next two great stories in
THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS CLINIC
TAMING HOLLYWOOD’S ULTIMATE PLAYBOY
by Amalie Berlin
and
WINNING BACK HIS DOCTOR BRIDE
by Tina Beckett
Available July 2016
And if you missed where it all started, check out
SEDUCED BY THE HEART SURGEON
by Carol Marinelli
FALLING FOR THE SINGLE DAD
by Emily Forbes
TEMPTED BY HOLLYWOOD’S TOP DOC
by Louisa George
PERFECT RIVALS…
by Amy Ruttan
THE PRINCE AND THE MIDWIFE
by Robin Gianna
HIS PREGNANT SLEEPING BEAUTY
by Lynne Marshall
All available now!
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ISBN-13: 9781488009679
His Pregnant Sleeping Beauty
Copyright © 2016 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Lynne Marshall for her contribution to The Hollywood Hills Clinic series.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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His Pregnant Sleeping Beauty (The Hollywood Hills Clinic) Page 16