Playing for Keeps/A Tempting Stranger (54 page)

Read Playing for Keeps/A Tempting Stranger Online

Authors: Lori Copeland

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #General, #Contemporary, #Westerns, #test

BOOK: Playing for Keeps/A Tempting Stranger
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Page 183
too much to deny what happiness we can bring each other. If the offer's still open, then I humbly accept. I want to be with you as long as you want me.'' Her voice was low, her eyes never leaving the depths of his.
"Do you know how many nights I've lain awake fantasizing that someday you would say those words to me, Chandra?" Garrett's look was returning her love a thousandfold in the quiet, antiseptic room. The two nurses slipped quietly out the door, leaving the couple alone.
"You've always known I loved you," she whispered shyly, aching for him to touch her, to feel the comfort of his arms once more.
"You've said the words to me, but you wore another man's ring."
"I didn't love Phillip . . . not in the way that I love you. You knew that, Garrett." Chandra moved closer to him, her arms creeping around his neck.
"I knew you had your doubts about the marriage, but I honestly didn't know if you would marry the man or not," he said sincerely, his arms going around her waist to gently urge her nearer. "I had to be sure you'd break the engagement before I gave my heart to you completely. I
had
to, Chandra!"
"I knew I wasn't going to marry Phillip from the first morning you left my house when Mr. Rhodes picked you up. I still forced myself to think I was, but in my heart I knew there would always be a blue-eyed test pilot somewhere in the world who had stolen my heart," she murmured truthfully, her fingers gently soothing his now.
"It tore me to pieces, Chandra, every time I thought about you in his arms. I never once allowed myself to really believe that you might be mine someday. I knew your loyalty to Phillip and your stubbornness combined would never let you come to me. I refused to even hope that what we had together would ever be permanent. The night I found out you had actually broken the engagement, I had to restrain myself from coming over to your parents' house and kidnapping you that evening. For the first
 
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time I really began to hope, Chandrareally began to believe that we had a future together.''
"Garrett!" she exclaimed. "If you really felt that way, why didn't you come over? Why have you waited so long to try to see me?"
"You forgetI did try to see you. I called twice and you refused to talk to me either time. Thenwell, hell! I got stubborn. I thought that if you loved me as much as I loved you, you would eventually break down and come to me. I knew I could give you until today to make the decision, before I took things in my own hands and came after you. There was
no way
I was going to let you go back to Kansas City."
Chandra smiled as her eyes glistened with unshed tears. She reached up to trace the outline of his lips with one finger, her love for him overflowing. "You tested me and I failed you. I've always told you I love youthat you could trust me not to hurt youand I failed the first test miserably. I'm truly, truly sorry." She buried her face in his clean-smelling neck, the familiar scent of his aftershave tugging at her heartstrings.
"I'm more than willing to let you make it up to me," he whispered huskily, drawing her into a bone-crushing embrace. "In the future I'll let you know when I'm going to give a quiz on your love. That way you can bone up on ways to make me believe that you're mine . . . all mine." He moaned as his arms increased their pressure, nearly breaking Chandra in two with their intensity.
"Oh, Garrett," she murmured against his neck, her salty tears soaking the collar of his shirt. "There may be times when I'll fail you again in small ways, times I should tell you I love you and I don't say it, but I will never, never fail in my love
for
you. It will always be there strong and alive, whether I speak the words or not. I know you have had little reason to trust in any kind of love in your life, but I promise you you'll have mine for an eternity." She raised her face to his, tears of love and joy streaming down her cheeks. "And I would very much appreciate it if
 
Page 185
you would kiss me and help me get myself under control,'' she sobbed.
"With the greatest of pleasure, sweet lady. With the greatest of pleasure." Their lips met in a sweet reaffirmation of their love for one another, his mouth moving against hers, drinking deeply of her fountain of love. The feel of her had been denied him far too long, and he clasped her body intimately against his, hungering for her eager and willing body.
Chandra leaned into his solidness, her heart singing with ecstasy, her hands gently caressing the back of his neck, pressing his mouth deeply into hers. She knew without a doubt she had made the right decision. Her mom had been right, as she so often was. If two people really loved each other, it was worth whatever sacrifices she would have to pay. If he only gave her a month out of his life, she would take it and cherish the time spent with him forever.
"I think it's time you let me ask you what I've tried to all night," he murmured tenderly, kissing her eyes adoringly, trying to stop the flow of tears.
"I've just been up to Supply, Mr. Morganson, and you're lucky, there was one set of crutches leftoh,
excuse
me," a nurse said in embarrassment as she walked into the room.
"That's okay, nurse," Garrett replied calmly, his eyes gazing adoringly at Chandra. "This is the lady I told you about earlier."
"Oh, yes! I believe congratulations are in order," she smiled. "I understand you and Mr. Morganson are going to be married on New Year's Eve."
Chandra looked up in surprise at the nurse, noting that she was not one of the two who had been in earlier, then back to Garrett's smug face. "We are?"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you all night, sweetheart. If you weren't so hotheaded, you would have heard it hours ago."
"Tell me?" she bristled unconsciously. "Don't you mean
ask
me?" She was trembling almost violently, her pulse behaving erratically at the thought that he was asking her to marry him.
 
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''No," he whispered softly, drawing her lips back down to his, "telling you. If I have to drag you to the altar, you'll marry me. You'll still have your marriage on the thirty-first, but this time instead of a nice, secure, hairless Phillip, there will be a tall, devastatingly handsome, mean, cussing, hairy bully of a test pilot standing next to youwhose life would not be the same without you." He kissed her long and convincingly, his lips reminding her that he was being flippant only because it was beyond his power to express the frightening depths of his love for her.
"I can't believe you're really asking me to marry you." Her arms hugged him tightly. "Is this what you really want, Garrett? I meant it earlier when I said I would live with you. No ties, no obligations" His searching mouth cut hers off again.
"I hope you have a particularly . . . unique way you'll go about making me eat every bad word I've ever said about marriage," he whispered suggestively in her ear, his voice low because of the nurse standing across the room.
"I'll think of something while you're having your cast put on." She moistly touched his ear with her tongue. "Tell the doctor to hurry."
"Maybe they'll let me put it on myself," he moaned huskily, his hands seductively brushing one breast as she leaned weakly against him. "I'll tell them I have . . . pressing business to attend to."
"Oh, I love you, I love you, I love you," Chandra cried exuberantly, jerking her head up from his shoulder unexpectedly. It took Garrett by surprise as her mouth smashed against his roughly in her overzealous enthusiasm, her teeth biting into his lower lip. "Ohhhhh . . . darling! I'm sorry." Chandra stared at the bright spot of blood that appeared instantly on his bottom lip.
One large hand came down to wipe it away, stunned blue eyes staring resignedly at the amount of red on the back of his hand.
"I'm
sorry
, GarrettI'm such a klutz!" Chandra stood beside him, wringing her hands. How much more could the poor guy be expected to take?
 
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''No," Garrett held up one hand calmly, "don't think another thing about it. What's one more little cut? I'm too happy tonight to be upset if a diesel hit me in the parking lot."
Chandra and Garrett both looked up at the nurse and said in unison, "There're no trucks coming in here this time of night, are there?"
The nurse laughed. "Not that I know of."
Chandra turned back to Garrett, wiping at the small drops of blood trickling off his lip. "Oh, darling, when we get married, I promise I'll try to watch over you more carefully, and . . . I promise I'm going to learn to cook better," she vowea hurriedly.
"And I promise I'm going to watch my language when I'm around you, and I'm not going to get so upset with you over small things," Garrett promised her, sitting quietly as she dabbed insistently at his swelling lip.
"And I'm not going to cry as muchI know how much that upsets youand I'll learn to control my temper. You won't be sorry you're asking me to marry you, Garrett," she assured him dutifully, listing all her weak points. "I'll even learn to play poker," she ended hastily.
"You don't have to learn to play poker," he grinned, catching her hand in his once again. "I don't want you changed in any way. As far as I'm concerned, as the song says, 'you're close enough to perfect for me.'" He lifted her hand, staring at it as he spoke. "Those are awfully small hands to hold my entire world in, Chandra, but I gladly give it to you. I trust you with all my future happiness. All I ever want out of you is your love." His blue eyes grew somber. "And I want it for the rest of our lives, Chandra. For me there will be only one woman in my life, and I've asked that woman to marry me. I haven't heard her answer yet."
"She answers yes, yes, a thousand times yes," she said, smiling radiantly.
"I really hate to break this up," the nurse said jovially, bustling over to the cart Garrett was sitting on. "We haven't had
 
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this much excitement in here since the bus from the nudist colony turned over last summer, butI'm afraid the doctor has arrived.''
"You'll wait for me, won't you?" Garrett's eyes couldn't seem to leave hers as he held tight to her hand.
"Forever," she responded, kissing him again tenderly.
It seemed like hours before Garrett finally came through the emergency room doors again, but in actuality it wasn't that long at all. He hobbled through the doors on his crutches, a big, yellow balloon tied to one of them.
Chandra jumped up and walked over to take his arm, guiding him along the dim corridor of the hospital. The halls had hushed to a low murmur as the patients were being readied for the night, the entire building growing calm and peaceful.
"Where did you get your big balloon?" Chandra teased, tongue in cheek, as she held on to him tightly, his crutches tapping along the polished floor.
"That one damn nurse is as much of a clown as you are," he grunted, working his way painfully along the dim hall. "I guess with the prices these people charge, they want to send you out of here with something more than a pain in your"he looked over and grinned at Chandra wryly"git-along."
Chandra hugged his arm tightly. "Are you still in pain?"
"A little," he sighed heavily. "I don't know, Chandrathis rash of accidents has unnerved me. I've always prided myself on being careful, not taking too many unnecessary chances, but it's beyond me how I've managed to bust myself up like I have in the last three weeks," he fretted worriedly as they made their way slowly to the door.
"Oh, it's probably just one of those times in your life when weird things seem to happen to you," she soothed gently, gripping his arm tightly to steady him as his one good foot slipped on a puddle of melted snow at the entrance door. "Everyone has them. You'll probably go for years and not have another thing happen to you," she consoled reassuringly.

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