It Was Only a Kiss (15 page)

Patrick straightened and theatrically placed his hand on his back. ‘Gee, I thought I mentioned it too. But, no, you had to make the grand gesture.’

Luke grinned at them. ‘You sound like a bunch of groaning grannies. For two sports freaks, you two could moan for Africa.’

Nick glared at him. ‘Bite me.’

Luke was here—finally here. His back was to her and she sucked him in. His hair was almost ludicrously long, curling over his collar and falling into his eyes. The long sleeves of his T-shirt were pushed up over his elbows and he wore his oldest, most faded and frayed jeans. Three-day-old stubble completed his surfer-boy look.

Jess’s mouth watered.

Then her heart hardened as she remembered that he thought she was an overbearing control freak, an interfering witch. And how dared her brothers use the key she’d given them for emergencies to saunter into her house without so much as a hello or any type of greeting?

She was sick of arrogant, egotistical, selfish men!

‘You have thirty seconds to leave my house before I start going bananas,’ Jess told them, her voice hard and cold. She waved at the brown parcel—obviously a painting. ‘And take that with you. I have nothing to say to you, Savage.’

‘Well, I’ve got a couple of things to say to you,’ Luke replied in a mild voice as his eyes flicked over hers, softened and bounced back to her brothers. ‘Okay, you two can leave now.’

Nick and Patrick exchanged a long, considering look and Patrick shook his head. ‘Forget it... I want to know why you chartered a plane to deliver that painting and why we had to babysit it like our firstborn in a truck over here. Are
you
going anywhere, Nick?’

Nick folded his arms. ‘Heck, no! Clem would kill me if I didn’t get every romantic moment. Get on with it, Luke, you’re wasting time.’

‘Like I’m
really
going to have this conversation in front of you two,’ Luke scoffed.

‘Nobody is having a conversation with anybody!’ Jess stormed to the door and gestured for them to get out. ‘You’re all leaving—now!’

Luke looked at her brothers. ‘C’mon, guys, give me a break. I need to talk to Jess and you’re not helping. Just go! Please?’

Nick placed his hands together in an attitude of prayer and bowed low. Patrick followed suit. ‘May the force be with you,’ Nick intoned.

The brothers bowed again before backing out through the front door and slamming it behind them.

Luke said something uncomplimentary about them under his breath before he raised his head to look at Jess. ‘Hi.’

Jess shoved her shaking hands into the front pockets of her jeans. ‘What are you doing here, Luke? I thought you said everything of importance a week ago.’

‘Not quite.’ Luke looked around her small house. ‘Nice place.’

Jess shrugged and sent a curious look towards the painting—it could
only
be a painting—then gestured to the kitchen. She had no idea why Luke was delivering a painting to her house after a week of silence and her pride refused to allow her to ask. ‘Do you want something to drink?’ she asked in a polite, cool voice.

Luke nodded and followed her into the sunny kitchen. Jess handed him a bottle of beer and they took up their customary positions of leaning against opposite counters. They spent a couple of minutes just looking at each other.

Luke eventually broke their hungry silence. ‘You look good.’

Jess lifted her eyebrows. He was either using flattery or her looks hadn’t gone to pot yet. ‘You look tired.’

Luke picked at the label on his beer bottle. ‘Listening to those two bitch for hours will do that to a man.’ Rolling a tiny ball of paper between his fingers, he flicked it towards the dustbin.

‘I’m surprised to see you and my brothers on such good terms,’ Jess said, annoyed. Where was her siblings’ outrage on her behalf? The desire to beat him up—metaphorically, of course. She didn’t want him actually hurt—because he’d broken her heart? Traitors, every last one of them.

‘Well, I practised my grovelling on them before coming here.’

‘Is that what you’ve come to do? Grovel?’

‘If I have to.’ Luke placed his untouched bottle of beer on the counter and rubbed his hand over his jaw. ‘I hope it won’t come to that. I have a great deal to say to you and I hope you’ll hear me out.’

‘You’re here, in my kitchen, and I can’t kick you out or gag you, so I don’t have much of a choice, do I?’ Jess retorted.

It was so unfair that he could look so good and she couldn’t touch him. That he was so close and yet still so inaccessible. She couldn’t read his eyes, couldn’t find a clue to what he wanted to say in his inscrutable face, his tense body.

‘Thank you for finding out what happened to my mother.’

‘Even though I interfered and took the decision out of your hands?’ Jess asked, sceptical.

Luke shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and rocked on his heels. ‘I was scared to do it—scared of what I’d find out. I had finally come to terms with my mother’s death and I didn’t want to have to live with something else. When you handed me that envelope I felt like you were pushing me somewhere I didn’t want to go.’

Jess grimaced at the reluctant note she heard in his voice. ‘You’re still not happy I did it.’

‘I’ve been on my own for so long that I find it difficult to accept help—to feel comfortable with someone...’

‘Meddling? Interfering? Snooping?’

‘Concerned about me,’ Luke said firmly. ‘It’ll take some getting used to.’

Jess felt her heart roll over in her chest but dismissed the spurt of hope as her imagination. ‘That implies that there will be a tomorrow for us?’

‘I’m hoping that there will be a lifetime of tomorrows.’

Jess licked her lips. ‘You called me a control freak and overbearing, said you understood why my exes kicked me into touch. Snotty and interfering...’

‘I know, I know...I’m sorry. But I’d been slapped with a whole lot of things that day that I didn’t know how to deal with and I was reeling. You were in the splash zone.’

‘Like what?’ Jess demanded.

‘When you—briefly I’ll admit—thought that I’d slept with Kelly, I was hurt. I wanted you to trust me implicitly, but you hesitated.’

‘I did trust you—when I started thinking and not reacting.’

‘Then I saw the ad, saw all my dreams captured on screen, and I felt at sea. And then I realised that you loved me...’

‘Not any more,’ Jess stated, her colour heightened.

‘Liar,’ Luke countered. ‘I realised that you loved me but I didn’t know what to do about it. How could I ask you to leave your family, your business, your life to live with me? Someone who has no idea how to be part of a family, who doesn’t know how to give you what you need? Then you hit me with my past and it was too much...it was all too much. I miss you, Jess. I need you in my life.’

‘You hurt me,’ Jess said in a small voice. ‘You took my heart out and stomped on it. And now you’re back, asking me to risk it again?’

‘I want to be with you, Jess. I want you to be my family.’

Luke rubbed his shoulder with his hand. Jess heard his expulsion of air.

‘After my anger subsided and I looked at the folder I needed some time to think it all through: my mum, my father, you.’

‘And?’

‘And I’m glad to know that my mum loved me. I realise that my childhood is over and, most important, that I want to be with you—make a commitment to you. I don’t do that lightly or easily, because when I do, I do it with everything I have.’ Luke stepped forward and placed his hands on either side of Jess’s hips, effectively blocking her in. ‘I’m so in love with you.’

Jess gnawed on her bottom lip and looked up at Luke with wide, scared eyes. ‘So what are you suggesting, Luke, exactly?’

‘I realise that you can’t leave your business, so can we find a compromise? You spend a week with me at St Sylve, then I spend the next week with you here?’

When Jess didn’t answer, Luke sped up. ‘If that doesn’t work for you I’ll leave St Sylve, let Owen run it. Hire a vintner...go back to venture capital full-time.’

‘You’d hate it,’ Jess pointed out.

‘But I’d be with you, which is the most important thing to me.’ Luke raised an enquiring eyebrow at her still-troubled face. ‘What’s the problem, Jess?’

As Luke turned those amazing eyes to hers she stepped away and paced to the fridge and back, wringing her hands. ‘Look, Luke, you say you love me now, but I don’t know if you are going to change your mind again. I don’t know if I can run that risk. I don’t know if my...’ She stuttered to a stop and then forced the words out. ‘If my heart can stand it.’

Luke looked at her, his face expressionless. Then, taking her hand, he yanked her towards the lounge and made her stand in front of the wrapped painting. He looked at her, a small smile on his face. ‘Somehow I knew that I would need a grand gesture.’

Jess was utterly bemused as Luke went to stand at the side of the package. Bunching the paper at the corner edge with his fist, he looked at Jess, his heart in his eyes. ‘This is my most prized possession—possibly the only material thing I’d try to rescue from a fire. And you fell in love with it a couple of weeks ago.’

Luke ripped the paper and revealed the enormous painting that graced the large space above his bed at St Sylve. The mountains jumped out at her and the mist glistened. Jess wanted to climb into the painting with Luke and make love between the vines.

Ignoring her galloping heart, she forced a shrug. ‘I don’t understand.’

Luke patted the frame. ‘This is, apart from you, my greatest treasure. If there was one thing I’d risk my life to save it would be this. I just want to know if I can share it with you.’

‘But why? Are you giving it to me? You can’t give it to me!’ Jess squeaked. ‘It’s one of only two paintings you have of your mother’s.’

Luke half smiled. ‘I can, because the same thing that calls to me in this painting calls to me in you. Your strength, your generosity, your utter courage and your bloody stubbornness. And because I love you. You’ve got to know how much I love you.’

Jess couldn’t help her knees buckling. She sat down on the edge of the couch and stared up at Luke, absolutely baffled. She felt Luke’s arm around her shoulder and instinctively dropped her face into his neck, winding her arms around his head in case he disappeared as quickly as he’d appeared.

Luke ran his hand over her hair. ‘Sweetheart, are you crying? Because if you are Nick will beat me to a pulp. Not that I don’t deserve it, but I’d rather avoid it if I can.’

Jess lifted her head and her eyes were clear, bright and happy. She hiccupped a laugh. ‘Do you mean it?’

‘Which part? The loving you or the Nick beating me to a pulp?’ Luke teased.

Jess slapped his chest and placed her thumb between her teeth. ‘Luke?’

Luke kissed her hair. ‘I love you, Jess, with everything in me. I think I probably fell in love with you eight years ago and never really stopped. I’m sorry I hurt you. Let me share your life, Jess. In Sandton, if you want to stay here, or at St Sylve.’

Biting her bottom lip, Jess stared at the painting and back at Luke, who suddenly didn’t look as confident as he usually did. Maybe she hadn’t loved and lost as she’d first thought.

Forcing her bubbling laughter away, Jess pursed her lips. ‘My decision rests on a couple of assurances from you.’

‘As much wine as you can drink, I’ll replace any thong I rip with two more, and my house and land and my heart are in your hands.’

‘Shut up,’ Jess ordered, her mouth twitching. ‘I want a child. Or two. Maybe three.’

‘Sold,’ Luke responded quickly, joy flooding his face. ‘What else?’

‘I want to go home—back to St Sylve—and I want the painting to go back into our bedroom. And I want you to marry me. So if you don’t think that might happen some time in the future maybe you should walk away now.’

Taking her chin, he lifted her face to look up into his. ‘I was made to love you, to look after you, to protect you, to make beautiful, beautiful babies with you. Will you marry me?’

Jess’s mouth fell open. ‘You’re proposing? Right now?’

‘That’s what “will you marry me?” means. Feel free to say yes any time.’

His eyes held an element of doubt and she reached up to touch his jaw with her fingertips. ‘I’ll marry you because my sun rises with you, because I want to carry your beautiful, beautiful babies, because I want to tell you every day that nobody will ever love you as much I do and will.’

Luke rested his forehead against hers. ‘Oh, Jess, you take my breath away. I don’t have a ring for you yet. I was focused on getting you back and hadn’t dared hope that you might consider marrying me. Maybe we could have one designed?’

Jess sent him a look long of adoration. ‘Just knowing that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you is enough.’

Luke cupped her face in his hands. ‘I love you so much.’

He kissed her thoroughly, reverentially, and Jess fell into his embrace, happiness seeping out of every pore. Her hands were undoing his shirt buttons when his mobile rang.

Luke cursed, yanked it out of his pocket and looked down at the screen. He turned the screen to show Jess. ‘Nick, your nosy brother.’

Jess pressed a kiss to his chest. ‘Ignore him.’

Luke dropped the phone, but it had barely hit the cushions when it rang again. Two seconds later Jess’s mobile started to chirp in the kitchen.

Jess dropped her head back and hissed her frustration. ‘They’ll keep calling until they know what’s going on.’ Jess reached for Luke’s phone and put it to her ear.

‘Can I not just be amazingly happy for five minutes without you guys wanting in on the action?’ Jess demanded, her hand on Luke’s cheek. She smiled as Nick spoke, said goodbye and then sent Luke a bemused look.

‘Nick says that you’re not to forget about the silky bantams. Um...why do you need to buy some chickens?’

Luke just laughed and kissed her.

EPILOGUE

Six weeks later Jess's family swept in
en masse
to an exhibition of Katelyn Kirby's paintings. They were surrounded by an amazing collection that had the art world buzzing—but what was the first thing her mother said on seeing her?

‘He still hasn't put a ring on your finger!'

Jess rolled her eyes and pulled her left hand out from her mother's grasp. ‘Mum! Luke and I are getting married in six months' time. An engagement ring is not going to change that.'

‘Every girl should have a ring!' Liza stated.

‘And I'll get one...when Luke finds exactly what he is looking for,' Jess told her, and turned to greet the rest of her extensive family. ‘You're late. Luke is about to do his speech.' Jess snagged her father's jacket and pulled him back. ‘Dad, you can view the art later...come here.'

Clem made her way to stand next to her and slipped an arm around her waist. ‘It's good to see you so happy, Jess. You
are
happy?'

‘Absolutely.'

‘And how are you coping with your business?' Clem asked, taking a glass of champagne from a hovering waiter.

‘Ally has picked up the reins and is not letting go. I have very little to do with the Sandton office except for designing the initial concepts.'

‘And the Cape Town office?' Nick asked from his position behind Clem.

Jess looked rueful. ‘I haven't set it up yet, and I don't know if I'm going to. I've been doing a bit of consulting here and there, looking after clients in the city.'

Clem lowered her voice. ‘And St Sylve? Is it on a bit more of an even keel?'

Jess looked past Clem's shoulder at Luke. ‘There's been a pick-up in sales and that's encouraging. I'm also renovating the manor house to turn it into a venue suitable for small weddings, functions...family weekends away, so I'm swamped. Happily, crazily busy. We're designing a house that we want to build on the other side of the farm, and...'

‘And Luke keeps you busy...?' Nick added dryly.

Jess fluffed her hair and grinned. ‘He most certainly does—and in the most delightful ways possible.'

Nick scowled.
‘Blergh.'

Jess laughed and stood in the middle of the half-circle her family made. She watched Luke, looking tall and strong and amazingly attractive in his black tuxedo, step up to the podium. She felt the glow in her stomach when he looked for her, and his eyes were warm and loving when they connected with hers. They were wildly in love and amazingly happy. Jess, ring or not, considered herself a very lucky woman.

Luke looked around the room and smiled. ‘Welcome to this exhibition of Katelyn Kirby's art—my mother's art. As most of you know, she died when I was really young, but this huge collection of her work has recently come to light and I wanted to share her talent with the world. Some of the paintings here are not for sale—my fiancée, Jess, and I have decided to keep some—but the rest of her art, including her sketches for jewellery designs and sculptures, are being sold to raise money for a foundation we've established in her name to fund the training of talented, disadvantaged young artists.'

A few minutes later Jess watched as Luke walked towards her, with that slow, sexy smile on his face. He greeted her family before dropping a sexy kiss on her mouth. His green eyes sparkled as he looked down at her.

‘I have a present for you,' he said.

Jess did a little dance in her ice-pick heels. ‘You do? Will I like it?'

‘I hope so. It has the added benefit of getting your mum to stop nagging you—and me.' Luke sent Liza a full, teasing look and grinned widely when she wrinkled her nose at him. Turning back to Jess, he pulled out a box from his pocket and flipped open the lid.

Jess stared down at the soft, romantic, deeply unusual ring. It was unique—swirls of gold and platinum, with a deep sapphire winking up at her.

Luke's voice was laced with emotion when he slipped it on to her finger. ‘My mum designed it, and when I saw her sketch I thought of you—thought that she'd drawn it with you in mind. I snuck it out of her portfolio before you could see it so that it would be a surprise. What do you think?'

Jess bit her lip in an effort to hold back her tears. ‘I love it. I love
you
.'

Luke cupped her face with his big hands. ‘Love you more.'

Nick broke the emotionally charged moment. ‘Jeez, Savage, if you're going to get soppy you'll end up being our least-favourite brother-in-law,' he drawled. ‘It puts far too much pressure on the rest of us to be romantic.'

Luke grinned at Nick, Jess plastered to his side. ‘I'll be your
only
brother-in-law,' he pointed out.

Nick pulled a face, laughter in his eyes. ‘
You're it?
Then I definitely need another large drink!'

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
The Taming of a Wild Child
by Kimberly Lang.