IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN (27 page)

She calmly waited until he had left to go out for his morning jog and packed her suitcase. She made every effort to remain under control. She loaded her things into her white Escalade and waited for Raphael to return home. 

Forty-five minutes later, Raphael staggered through the front door breathing heavily. Bent at the waist, he clutched his thighs and sweat dripped down his face. Finally, he limped to a nearby chair complaining of a cramp in the calf of his leg and closed his eyes. He was in a foul mood.

Laney offered him a half-lazy smile. “I’ve decided to go back to Olivia, but I wanted to wait until you returned so I could say goodbye.”

Slowly, Raphael turned and looked up at her. He spotted the suitcase nearby, but remained silent.

Laney had been so focused on maintaining control, she hadn’t noticed the savage expression in Ray’s eyes. She smiled again to break the mounting tension since he hadn’t uttered as much as “I’ll see you later.” She turned and headed for the front door. She’d only taken a few steps before a hand clamped down on her shoulder and spun her around.

“I’ll be damned if you’re leaving
this
house.”

This was the first time she regretted that she only reached his shoulder. He was so close she had to tilt her head back to see his face. “I can’t continue to live…”

“Ice it, Red,” he roared.

“Now see here…”

“No, you see here. You’re not going anywhere. In fact, just as soon as I get out the shower and dress, we’re going downtown and get a marriage license. We’re getting married as soon as it’s legally possible to do so. So, you need to take your suitcases back to wherever you got them from.”

His expression would cause most men to back up, but Laney folded her arms over chest. “I’m not marrying someone who doesn’t love me.”

Ray sucked his teeth. “Roll that by me again.”

Laney wrinkled her nose. “I said I’m not marrying someone who doesn’t love me.”

“I don’t love you,” Ray shouted and jerked her up next to him. “Girl, you’ve been wrapping me around your little finger from the first day I met you, and you have the nerve to stand here and tell me I don’t love you!” He stepped back and jammed his glasses on top of his head. “I’ve spent nearly every dime I’ve got funding your next research project and buying back Universal Entertainment. Hell, I might not have enough left to pay the light bill when it rolls due next month. And if Bryant ever nuts up and tells the police what I did to him, my ass could be locked up somewhere doing five to ten. So don’t you
ever
say I don’t love you!”

It wasn’t exactly romantic, but it was definitely exhilarating. Laney offered him a private smile. She went up on tiptoe and looped her arms around his neck. “I love you, too, darling.”

Ray looked down a Laney and noticed how pretty she looked, her eyes twinkling with mischief. Doggone her pretty freckled-faced soul. She’d done it, again. She’d gotten him to tell her what had transpired over the last two days. So smooth, he never saw it coming. He closed the gap between them and buried his face in the hollow of her neck, breathing in her baby-fresh scent. “God, I love you,” he whispered. 

Nothing in his wildest dreams ever made him believe he’d love any woman. He’d been blessed with this slight, delicate creature that’d waltzed into his life and had completely and unequivocally changed it.

“I want lots of babies.”

“Yeah,” Ray muttered with delight.

“I think we should try for six.”

Ray frowned. As petite as she was, he wasn’t sure she could go through that many pregnancies. “Let’s start off with one.” He grabbed her by the hand and headed for the staircase. “You know a man normally has…”

She listened to his words rustling in her ear. While she loved their trivia games, she wasn’t in the mood to play it now. “Why so many when one already did the job?”