No Need to Ask (7 page)

Jillian was silent, letting his words wash over her, filling the void she’d felt since he’d left, one she hadn’t known existed until she met him.

“Say something, please. Anything,” Ethan pleaded.

“What’s in the box?” she asked, looking up at him.

“It’s for you.” Ethan set it on the bed and opened it. Jillian came closer, curious to see what was buried in between the wads of crumpled newspaper. “While I was in New York, I visited my grandparents upstate. I used to spend summers there as a kid and they always let me stay in the main guestroom, even when an older cousin or grownup aunt or uncle was staying over, too.”

“Oh,” Jillian said, her eyes on his smooth, strong hands. “Sounds like they doted on you.”

“They did. Spoiled me rotten. What I remember most is how they’d let me stay up late reading comic books, making shadow puppets. I couldn’t bring the room with me, but I thought you could work a little piece of it into my new life.”

Ethan pulled out a red metal goosenecked table lamp. The color had mellowed into a dull but pleasant patina. She could tell that it was solid and heavy, but had been well-looked-after as well as loved. The lamp was vintage, the real thing, not some quality facsimile. Channeling Ives, she mentally dated it to the early 1930s, most likely French. It would look right at home on the desk of an industrious Jazz Age accountant working late into the night in his Left Bank office or on the nightstand beside Ethan’s very modern bed.

“It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for,” she breathed, reaching out to touch it before taking it out of his hands to feel the reassuring weight of it.

“I was hoping you’d say that because…” Ethan reached into the box and pulled out its twin. “One for my side of the bed… the other for yours.”

Jillian stared at him, her mind buzzing with a million ways to answer him, but none coming close to conveying what she felt.

“Jillian?” he asked, naked uncertainty in his voice. “Do you love me? Can you love me?”

“I love you, Ethan. I do,” she said. “There’s no need to ask why or how much. Just know that I do and always will.”

Ethan took the lamp out of her hands, setting them both back in the box. His hands came around her waist, lifting her off her feet to meet his hungry kiss.

****

Even though she was blinded by the steady bursts of light from the swarm of paparazzi taking her picture, Jillian remembered what Trudy had told her about making small movements and keeping her smile relaxed, if not real.

The six weeks of buildup to the unveiling of the
InStyle
living room she’d designed to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of America had been intense and unrelenting. After Maisy’s PR firm had discovered they much preferred working with Jillian instead of their demanding client, she’d been put front and center on the project.

She’d shot a web feature on putting the room together for the magazine’s site, had been asked to contribute to their decorating issue, and her new agent was negotiating the final details of her decorating advice column as a regular feature both on the site and in the magazine.

Jillian knew that her name was getting passed around some very exclusive living rooms, but her first official clients would be designing a nursery for the newly-pregnant Trudy and helping Ethan give Alimente some personality to match the delicious food.

From the corner of her eye, Jillian saw Maisy start her walk down the red carpet. Jillian gave the photographers one last smile and quickly made her way to where Ethan was waiting for her. He held out his hand to take hers, his fingers brushing over the 3-carat Ashoka-cut diamond engagement ring he’d slipped on her finger a week before.

“So? What do you think?” he asked, making sure his mouth was near her ear so she could hear him over the clamor of the paparazzi and screaming fans. He pressed a kiss onto her lobe. “You ready for this kind of crazy?”

“This
is
crazy, but it’s good crazy.” Jillian leaned into Ethan’s solid, steady frame, grateful he was there along with Ives, Trudy and Valerie. “I still can’t wait to get home, crawl into bed and…”

“And?” Ethan asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

Jillian looked up at him as her own arms entwined themselves around him with no intention of ever letting go.

“And flip on my very own rare best reading lamp,” she answered with a teasing smile.

Now Available:

Leslie Quinn might have been dumped by her longtime boyfriend, but she still has her determination to make it as a top stylist at an exclusive Manhattan department store.

Busy dodging knives from her back stabbing co-workers, Leslie keeps her focus on doing the best job possible and going on the occasional (and unsuccessful) blind date to keep her friends off her back. When her manager offers her a last minute plum assignment, Leslie packs her bags to meet a mysterious client who is in need of a complete wardrobe overhaul.

She soon realizes that this mystery man holds the key to her success at work and also to her heart.

Also by Margo Candela

Just Like That (A SweetSpots Contemporary Romance)

The Brenda Diaries

Life Observed: reality meets fiction

Good-bye To All That

More Than This

Life Over Easy

Underneath It All

About the Author

Margo Candela is the author of
The Brenda Diaries
(SugarMissile, Oct. ‘11)
Good-bye To All That
(Touchstone, July ‘10),
More Than This
(Touchstone, Aug ‘08),
Life Over Easy
(Kensington, Oct ‘07),
Underneath It All
(Kensington, Jan ‘07) and the short story and essay collection,
Life Observed
(June ‘11).

More Than This
was a Target stores Breakout Book and an American Association of Publishers national book club selection at Borders Books.
Good-bye To All That
(Touchstone, July ‘10) was the only novel picked by Los Angeles Magazine for its 2010 Best of L.A. list.

For more information about her SweetSpots contemporary romance e-series, other novels and how to get in touch, please visit www.MargoCandela.com.