Unforgettable, page 36
“Gavin…please. Just tell me.”
He slowly crossed to her, placing a finger under her chin and tilting it up so that he could study her face. “Yes, I love you, Anna Prescott. I’ve been in love with you for some time.” His hands were gentle as he cradled her face. “That’s why I wanted you to share your life with me.”
Anna slipped her arms around his waist and held on. It was several moments before she could speak or see past the tears obstructing her view. Resting her cheek on his chest, she leaned against him.
“Anna? How could you have doubts?”
“You never said the words. You said from the very first that—”
“I know, but I didn’t see marriage as the answer for me. And you were right. Talking to your father made me recognize I wanted what your parents have shared over the years.”
She hit him with her balled fist. “You should have told me how you felt.”
He confessed. “I thought you knew I loved you.”
His eyes closed at the sweetness of having her back in his arms again. She was crying in earnest now, as she tucked her face beneath his chin.
“Oh, Gavin. I love you so much, it hurts.”
He sighed heavily. Bending his knees so he could gaze into her eyes, he whispered, “You don’t tell a man you love him, then hide your face. I want to look at you, sweetheart.” He rained kisses down from her forehead over her soft cheeks, her nose, to her soft generous mouth. As he savored her, he tasted her tears.
“I should be furious with you. Look what needless agony you put us through,” Anna scolded as she cradled his unshaven cheeks.
“I won’t make that same mistake again. I’m in love with you, so much so it hurts.” He kissed her tenderly. “I’m sorry I didn’t make myself clear last night. How was I supposed to know those words meant so much?
“I’m a jock. What do I know about these things? I never felt this way about anyone before. I certainly never wanted to marry.”
She warned, “I suggest you memorize those three words.”
Anna was kissing Gavin when she gasped as she felt him lifting her off her feet. She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck. He sat down on the couch with her in his lap.
“Sweetheart, I spent a terrible night without you. I couldn’t sleep. I kept replaying our argument. I hated every minute of it.”
When he pressed his lips to the highly sensitive place on her throat, she shivered in response, whispering his name.
“I love you so much.”
He stared into her eyes before he confessed, “You were right. I needed to hear those words just as much as you did. I didn’t fully understand how much it meant to me until just now.”
“I was miserable without you. Just ask my cousin and brothers.”
“Uh-oh. Now the Prescott men are really gunning for me, especially Wes.”
“No, they aren’t. Wesley is still your friend. He stood up for you today.” When Gavin looked doubtful, she quickly explained, “It’s true. As soon as I told him that you proposed, his entire attitude changed and he insisted that he knew the reason why.”
“Honest?” Gavin grinned.
“Yes. Wesley told me straight out that I was wrong. He told me that you were your own man, and you wouldn’t ask me to marry you to please someone else, even Daddy. Both Devin and Ralph encouraged me to come here tonight and find out the truth.”
“So that’s why you came back?”
“Partly.” She placed a kiss against the warm scented base of his throat. “I was such a mess that everyone knew something was wrong. Wesley ushered me into the family room, wanting to know what was going on. Devin and Ralph followed. They were all so sure you loved me. It took all three of them to convince me to at least try to find out why you asked me to be your wife.”
“Then I have them to thank.” He ran a soothing hand down her back.
“I thought I knew why. I was wrong.”
“None if it is your fault, Anna. You’re not a mind reader. I did a lousy job of proposing.”
“Honey, no. Don’t say that.”
“It’s true. If I hadn’t messed up, we would have spent last night and today together instead of apart.”
“We both made mistakes. I should have told you why I was so upset.”
“You are going to marry me, aren’t you?”
“I haven’t been asked today.” She smiled.
“Don’t tease. It’s too important.” Gavin’s eyes locked with hers when he asked, “Will you marry me, sweet Anna? Will you be my wife and my lover?”
“Yes, my love.” She sighed heavily as he kissed her with all the pent-up emotions that had been locked inside him. That kiss led to another and yet another.
“Thank you,” he whispered gruffly, holding her close. “You have no idea how happy you’ve made me.”
Her smile was warm, brimming with happiness. “Promise me that from now on, there will be no more secrets.”
“You have my promise that it won’t ever happen again. I believe in you and what we have.” He revealed, “I just never expected to fall in love. My parents never married. What I knew about love and marriage has been gained from watching your parents and Kelli and Wesley.”
He brushed her lips with his own. “I don’t want to make any more mistakes, Anna. I want what we have to last for the rest of our lives.”
“It will. Honey, tell me what you meant when you said that you’ve loved me for some time. How long have you known?”
He smiled. “I’ve always cared about you. My feelings for you started changing even before you came here to work for me. I noticed the changes you made in your appearance…you began wearing perfume…you wore your glorious locks down more often. I was thoroughly intrigued by the woman you’d grown into while I wasn’t paying attention. Suddenly I stopped thinking of you as Wesley’s little sister.”
He smiled. “That’s about the time I began to worry about who you were involved with, and I was convinced you were dating one of the guys on the team. And I didn’t like it, not at all. Hell, you were in and out of their houses five days a week. Whenever I questioned you”—he paused to give her a hard kiss—“you told me nothing.”
“Gavin, there was never anyone else. I made those changes because I was feeling differently inside. I wanted to look on the outside like I felt on the inside. For so many years I was so busy finishing school and getting the business established that I didn’t take time to dress up or wear makeup. I looked in the mirror one day and didn’t like what I saw. Honestly.” She caressed his throat. “I am very glad, Mr. Mathis, that you noticed.”
He chuckled. “I noticed all right. When you came to work for me, I couldn’t keep my eyes off you. I was captivated by the way you smiled, the sound of your laughter. I was touched by the warmth and kindness you showed Kyle. You turned my house that was much too big for one person into what I wanted it to be…a home.”
Anna smiled up at him, giving him a hard squeeze. “How many of those beers did you have?”
“Not that many. I’m stone-cold sober.”
“I’d hate for you not to remember any of this in the morning.” She laughed.
“That’s not about to happen. I know exactly what I want. And that’s you.” He brushed her mouth with his. “No matter how hard Kyle tried to make things difficult, you never gave up on him. I think that’s when I began realizing that I was falling in love with you. You have such a generous spirit. You were even nice to my father.” He shook his head.
“The next thing I knew I couldn’t keep my hands off you. Even though I knew, going in, how protective the men in your family were about you, it didn’t stop me from going after you. What about you? When did you know?”
“Well…” she teased.
“Tell me.”
She laughed. “That’s easy. Even before I came to work for you full-time, I was attracted to you. Suddenly all I could think about was you. I started looking forward to seeing you, hearing the sound of your voice. I often lay awake wondering what it would be like to hear that sexy, deep voice of yours at night.”
She confessed, “By then I was working for you full-time. I tried not to, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted you. And I hated the idea of you being with anyone else. I was so jealous of Natasha. Just knowing that you two had once been lovers hurt. I hated that she knew things about you that I could never know.”
“Natasha was never a threat. I got so tired of women who were after me not because of the man I am but for what I could do for them that I chose to do without for a year.”
“You told me, but I couldn’t quite make myself believe.”
“Believe it. I’d gotten so that I rarely dated.”
Anna was smiling when she said, “I longed for your touch…ached to have your kisses. Oh Gavin, I wanted you to make love to me for weeks before you ever touched me.” She blushed before she said, “Then you started pursuing me, and I panicked. I knew nothing about pleasing a man like you. Yet I couldn’t stay away from you. I adored your kisses…your caresses. And then my meddling brothers saw us kissing. That really threw me. Gavin, I was so upset, embarrassed, and furious.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said, huskily as he held her close. “Sweetheart, when did you realize it was love?”
“Thanksgiving weekend, I knew beyond any doubt that I was in love with you.” She quietly revealed, “It took all my control not to scream those words at you when you were inside me. You have no idea how many times since then I’ve bitten my lip to keep from saying those three little words, especially while we were making love.”
“So that was what you said the other night against my throat.”
She nodded. Gavin sponged Anna’s soft lips with his tongue, then groaned deeply when she opened for him and stroked his tongue with her own. His hands moved down her back to her generous hips. He tightened his hold, cupping and squeezing her behind while she pressed her breasts into his chest. Quivering, Anna rubbed aching, hard nipples against him.
He kissed her hard before he revealed, “Suddenly all I can think about is being inside you and making you climax, again and again. I can’t wait to hear you scream your love while you come.”
Her cheeks were hot as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She scolded, “Shame on you.”
“I will show you shame later, but for now there are two things I have to do.” His voice was husky with suppressed need. His hard shaft pressed against her side as his hand moved over her cloth-covered thighs. Suddenly he rose and placed her on the cushion beside him.
“What?”
“Just give me a moment.” He shoved his hand into his back pocket and pulled out the ring box. “I bought this over a week ago, and I’ve carried it around with me trying to find the right time to give it to you.” He dropped down on one knee. “Will you accept this as well as my heart, sweet Anna?”
She nodded, cradling his unshaven cheek. When she held out her left hand, he grinned, placing a tender kiss on her ring finger before he slid the ring onto it. Anna’s arms went around his neck and they shared a sweet kiss. Once more she was cradled in his arms.
Recalling what he’d said, she asked, “What was the other thing you needed to do?”
“Talk to your father. I want to ask his permission to marry you.”
She tilted her head back to search Gavin’s features. “Seriously?”
“Absolutely.”
Anna smiled. “What if he says no?”
“I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I’m marrying you no matter what. Ready to go?”
“You want to go tonight? Everyone is still over there.”
“Right now. I’ve waited a long time to have you. I want it settled tonight.”
She smiled. “Let’s go.”
It was a cold, starry night with the ground covered by a new blanket of snow. Gavin didn’t feel the cold as they walked hand-in-hand. It was Anna who insisted they stop for him to get his jacket and boots.
“It will take too long,” he complained, his arm around her waist.
“We’re in a hurry?” she teased.
“You bet. The quicker we get there, the faster we’ll get back and,” he said against her lips, “I can make you scream.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to Jessica B. Harris, author of Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa’s Gifts to New World Cooking.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
UNFORGETTABLE. Copyright © 2003 by Bette Ford. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition December 2006 ISBN 9780061755484
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Bette Ford, Unforgettable
