Blazing Midsummer Nights (Harlequin Blaze) (21 page)

No. Not a chance.

She wouldn’t do it in a million years. Not his Mimi. Not the woman he’d come to know and love. In fact, he would probably find her wide-awake, wondering if he was okay, worried more about him than her own situation.

He entered her room and immediately saw that at least one of his suppositions was right. She was alone.

But she was also sound asleep.

“Mimi?” he whispered.

Nothing. She didn’t even stir.

He edged closer, his eyes adjusting to the low light. It was nearly dawn, and a bit of brightness was easing in through the slats in the window blinds. Enough to reveal the gleam of her red hair against the pillow and the beautiful face.

“Hey, are you really asleep?”

She mumbled something and shifted in her sleep. He leaned closer to try to hear what she was saying.

“Don’t need to fly,” she whispered.

“What?” He sat on the edge of the bed and reached over to smooth her hair off her brow.

Her lashes fluttered a little, but she didn’t open her eyes. She was obviously dead to the world. Judging by the white streaks on her cheeks—she hadn’t even washed off her makeup—she’d done some crying in the night.

His heart twisted and he called himself every name in the book. He shouldn’t have left her to deal with the ambush on her own. He should have set aside his own anger and been there for her, a hand on her shoulder. Someone should have had her back.

It had been a mistake. A big one. It was also one he would never repeat, if she forgave him and let him back in her life.

He waited another moment, but she still didn’t stir. Finally, figuring he ought to go back to his own place, shower, and change, he bent down and kissed her temple, then stood to leave.

“Don’t go. Wait for me.”

He froze. But she still didn’t open her eyes, didn’t move or reach for him. Was she still talking in her sleep?

“It was you. The man of my dreams.”

“Mimi?” he asked, truly unsure now. Her voice sounded steady, assured.

She opened her eyes.

“Don’t go,” she repeated.

He smiled down at her. “I thought you were dreaming.”

“I’m not, am I?” she whispered.

“No, honey, you’re wide-awake.”

She slowly sat up on the bed, letting the covers fall to her lap to reveal her beautiful, naked breasts, all pink and inviting. Xander’s mouth went wet with want, and his other body parts went hard.

But he hadn’t come here to make love to her—at least not right away. They couldn’t go back to what they’d had before, couldn’t keep having this amazingly sensual affair, until they at least acknowledged all the other variables in their relationship.

Emotions. Feelings. All that crap, which didn’t seem so much like crap right now when his was the heart that was twisting and aching and hers were the beautiful eyes that were still luminous with many shed tears.

“I’m sorry I left,” he told her. “I was wrong. I should have stayed to make sure you were all right.”

“I’m fine.” She moved over toward the center of the bed, pulling the covers back, beckoning him to join her.

He kicked off his shoes, but kept the rest of his clothes on, and sat down.

As if she feared he wasn’t getting undressed because he was still angry, she immediately explained. “Xander, I didn’t have an official conversation with Dimitri, not because I didn’t want to, but because I really didn’t think there was any need. We went out a couple of times, that’s it. Last Saturday, when Helen showed up, I flat out told him that I didn’t consider our relationship serious and that it was none of my business how he felt about her.”

He had figured as much, but couldn’t deny a rush of relief went through him as she confirmed it.

She wasn’t finished. “I eventually realized you thought I’d actually made things even more clear than that with him, and I meant to…but he went out of town, and I didn’t see him again until yesterday, when all hell broke loose.”

All hell had broken loose on her yesterday. And instead of staying there, sucking up his own feelings and helping her out, he’d taken off.

It was going to take a long time to make that up to her. But he would do it, no matter what.

“Do you understand?” she asked, sounding worried.

“I absolutely understand,” he told her.

“I am sorry,” she insisted.

“I know.”

“If it’s any consolation,” she added with a tiny, irrepressible grin, “he certainly got the message last night.”

He chuckled. “That, I wish I had stayed to see.”

“Actually, it wasn’t any kind of a shock. He wasn’t at all on board with that ridiculous proposal. My father had mentioned the idea to him yesterday morning, and he hadn’t yet figured out how to tell him that he wasn’t in love with me.”

Xander suspected that was because he was still in love with someone else. Someone who lived right upstairs. But he didn’t really care about Dimitri’s romantic entanglements. He was only interested in his and Mimi’s.

He slid his arm under her shoulders, pulling her closer. Mimi turned onto her side, rolling against him, slipping her naked leg between his jean-clad ones. The move was both trusting and sensual. He regretted that he’d kept up his defenses by not just stripping his body as bare as hers.

But he could strip one thing bare right now—his emotions.

“I’m in love with you, Mimi,” he admitted softly.

She sighed and burrowed closer. Though he couldn’t see his face, he suspected there was a smile on it.

“I guess that’s why I got upset last night. I have gone from closet-peeper to crazy, possessive man-in-love in just a couple of weeks, and I didn’t even want to contemplate the idea that you didn’t feel the same way.”

She tilted her head back to look up at him. Lifting her hand, she brushed her fingers across his mouth, as if forbidding him to say such a thing. He kissed them gently, softly, curling his cheek into her palm.

“I love you, too,” she told him. “I hadn’t wanted to say anything for the same reasons—it was too fast, went against all common sense. But I am completely in love with you, Xander. You’ve become the most important thing in my life, and I’ll move heaven and earth to make sure we have a chance at happiness.”

So relieved he could hardly think, he settled for bending down to kiss her. Mimi’s mouth opened to him, sweet and warm, and their tongues met in a slow, hungry exploration. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he stroked her bare back, holding her close.

He would eventually strip out of his clothes and make love to her, but for right now, holding her, kissing her, whispering words he hadn’t ever dreamed he’d say, much less hear, was enough.

Still, he was curious about one thing. And after another long kiss, that curiosity made him ask, “What were you dreaming about right before you woke up?”

A slow smile spread across her face. “I remember this time…I haven’t remembered my last few dreams, but this one is so clear.” She pressed a kiss against his chest, nibbling her way up to his neck. “I dreamed I was stuck in a boring, stifling old castle, and the king was trying to drag me down to marry someone, only I didn’t want to get married.”

He laughed softly. “Talk about dreams reflecting life!”

“Exactly. Then a mysterious man wrapped in shadows appeared. He told me I didn’t have to stay, said I could step right out my window to the world that was waiting for me.”

“And did you? Did you go with him?”

“I woke up right before the dream ended.”

She moved closer to kiss him again. But right before their lips met, she added, “But to answer your question…yes, I did. I went with him. And the world was beautiful.”

Epilogue

I
F
A
NNA’S TALENT
with backyard engagement parties was amazing, her ability to put together a small, private wedding was absolutely without equal. As Mimi stood beside the man she loved, promising to share with him all the days of her life, she realized she couldn’t have ever dreamed of a more perfect place to exchange the vows that would tie her to Xander forever.

They stood at the edge of the woods under a gazebo draped with soft white netting. Starlight and dozens of candles provided all the illumination they needed. They were serenaded by the whisper of the autumn breeze through the ancient trees, whose leaves were just now turning gold, orange and red.

Though they had wanted this event small, private and genuine, they were still surrounded by well-wishers. Their friends and neighbors—Anna and Obi-Wan, of course. Will, the writer, who’d sworn he was going to have to write a book about all the romantic shenanigans that went on in the great old house. Helen and Tuck…and with them, Dimitri, who held tightly on to the hands of both his future wife and his future stepson.

And Mimi’s parents.

Her father hadn’t walked her down the aisle…but he
had
walked her across the lawn. The grass had been her aisle, the backdrop of trees was their cathedral.

It had taken a few months for him to come around to everything. Mimi going to work for a department store chain had been hard enough, though she’d stuck to her guns despite almost constant harassment and pleading.

Her marrying not a future king of Wall Street, but a heroic prince who risked his life on a daily basis to help others, had been an even higher hill to climb. But it appeared even stubborn, spoiled, bossy millionaires were able to be swayed by genuine emotion, and to recognize what they had before they lost it forever.

He never said it, but she strongly suspected that what Xander had said to her father that night when he’d given her that ultimatum had finally sunk through his thick skull. Because the look he had given her as he passed her hand over to Xander’s, in front of the minister marrying them in the eyes of God and nature, had been misty, emotional and filled with love.

It had been the final wish she’d made before the wedding, knowing his acceptance and approval—which she’d already gotten from her mother, who’d loved Xander at first sight—would mean the world to her.

“Mimi and Xander, congratulations, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

As the minister spoke the final words of the service, the breeze suddenly picked up, blowing her hair wildly around her face. Nearly all the candles were winked out, and the evening descended into darkness. But then, as if the love that welled up between her and Xander had electrified the night, every firefly in the woods chose that moment to brighten the world.

“I knew it,” she whispered, smiling. “I knew love made them glow.”

“In that case, Hermione Burdette McKinley,” Xander said as he bent toward her for a kiss to seal their union, “we’re never going to be in darkness again.”

* * * * *

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