To Seduce a Rogue (43 page)
His other half? For heaven’s sake, she had thrown him out of her house this morning, and he thought she was his other half? “About this morning—”
He pulled her into his arms. She slipped there easily, comfortably, as if they were two distinct parts that fit into a perfect whole. She was starting to believe he was truly hers. Heavens, she wanted to run down the street, shouting that she loved him. “I love you, I do,” she said against the rough wool of his coat.
“Oh, sweetheart. I’m sorry. Sorry it took me so long, sorry I let you leave Richmond. You knew that I was dying inside. You knew why I could not go to the train station.”
She nodded against his chest.
He kissed the top of her head and gathered her close. The occasional shout from the boardwalk, the sound of a passing carriage, the cold air in the newspaper office, all ceased to exist as they reveled in the knowledge that they finally belonged to each other.
“The
Sentinel
...it’s ours?”
“Yes. The bastard drove a hard bargain, but I was very persuasive.”
“Richmond?”
“Tanner is staying in the city for a few months. He needs a place to stay. We’ll travel back often. Special assignments for the
Times
.”
She pushed him away with a hand to his chest. “You left your job?”
“I sent a telegraph today.”
“
Today
?”
He stared at a spot on the floor as a red tinge colored his cheeks. “I told you, I just figured all this out.”
She suppressed a smile. He sounded like a child caught leaving muddy tracks on a freshly mopped floor. Should she be irked that he’d been intending to depart again?
But he’d brought the ring with him. He must have been planning something.
“I sent for Taber, too. He likes it here. Open fields. Clean air.”
“What about my roof?”
He glanced up with a half smile, his dimples digging into his cheeks. “Miles can fix the damn roof, after all the trouble he’s brought me.”
“Trouble? You think I’m trouble?” She touched a finger to his nose. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
He laughed and pressed his forehead to hers. “Just go slowly with me, Miss Whitney. I’m a novice where this love stuff is concerned.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Mr. Chase.”
Fulfillment
To bring about the completion or achievement of a desire.
“Papa!”
A small body plowed into his legs. Adam turned from the counter of the telegraph office. He bent and scooped his son high against his chest. The scent—leather, dirt, horses and child—was enough to make his knees weak. Enough to make him say his prayers twice a day and three times on Sunday.
“Papa, you have to come to the office.”
Adam nodded to the clerk behind the desk and walked through the door. Looking at his son, he was amazed, as always, to see a tiny version of himself looking back. Except for the startling blue eyes, his son looked like he had been spit from Adam’s mouth.
“Piggy-back, okay?”
Adam swung his son to his back. “Hold on tight. No dropping off like last week.”
“Oh, Papa, my hands were slippery.”
Yes, from dipping them one too many times in the horse trough. Come to think of it, his son smelled rather horsy today. “Eaton, have you been messing with the horse trough?”
Vigorous shaking burst forth against his back. “Nope. Been down at the livery.”
“Ah.”
“Taber gets lonely, Papa.”
Adam tipped his head to Mrs. Whitefield as they met crossing the street.
“Hold on.” He hopped to the boardwalk, tightening his arms across the plump legs wrapped around his stomach.
“She’s doing it again.” His son sighed, an age-old sigh he and Charlie often laughed about. Sometimes, Eaton seemed wiser than his parents.
Adam paused at the door, curbing the urge to glance inside. After all this time, his heart still thumped with heavy strokes if he saw Charlie walking toward him along the street or heard her voice coming from the back of a store. As each day passed, he loved her more. She was his best friend, his lover, his wife, his confidant. And, though it had been surprising when it happened, the mother of his child.
He dropped Eaton from his back and squatted until his face was level with his son’s. The boy was tall for his age, only five, and growing as fast as kudzu.
“Remember what I said? Your mother’s more tired than usual. You did the right thing by coming to find me.” He winked at Eaton and patted his shoulder. Eaton beamed like he’d won a medal.
“Your mother is a stubborn woman and resists letting the Chase men take care of her.”
“Yes, Papa, I know.” Eaton sighed again.
Adam laughed and planted a quick kiss on his son’s cheek, which Eaton promptly wiped off after looking to make sure no one had seen it. “I’m not a baby to be kissing on the street.”
Adam smothered a grin. “So sorry, I forgot.”
They entered the office, grinning and holding their fingers to their lips. Adam glanced at her desk, the same scarred one from years ago. She would not let him replace a damn item in the office. He supposed she never would.
“See, Papa.”
“Yep, I see.” He brushed his hand along her cheek. Tanned as always.
Her eyelids fluttered, and she tilted her head, regarding him with a warm smile. “Jared.”
He dropped to his knees beside her. “You were supposed to stay home today.” He lifted a strand of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear.
She shrugged as if that was explanation enough.
“I thought we agreed that when the weather got warmer, you would stay home part of the week.”
She laid a hand on his arm. “You worry too much. Heavens, I’m hardly showing. We have four months to go.”
He took her hand in his. “I just worry. Will you, for once in you life, let me take of you?”
“Papa, papa, look!” Eaton ran to them, sliding to a halt just before he plowed into the desk. “There’s a fire in the sky! Just like the one you showed me before!”
Adam winked at his wife. “Hear that, sweetheart? A fire in the sky. Imagine, it has not even begun to fade.”
* * * * * * * * *
The Seaswept Seduction Series:
Tides of Love
(Book One: Noah)
Tides of Passion
(Book Two: Zach)
Tides of Desire
(Book Three: Caleb), Coming June 2012!
Southern Heat Series:
To Desire a Scoundrel
(Book Two: Tanner)
Tracy’s story telling career began when she picked up a copy of LaVyrle Spencer’s
Vows
on a college beach trip. A journalism degree and a thousand romance novels later, she decided to try her hand at writing a southern version of the perfect love story. With a great deal of luck and more than a bit of perseverance, she sold her first novel to Kensington Publishing.
When not writing sensual stories featuring complex characters and lush settings, Tracy can be found reading romance, snowboarding, watching college football and figuring out how she can get to 100 countries before she kicks (which is a more difficult endeavor than it used to be with her four-year-old son in tow). After stops in France, Switzerland and Taiwan, she now lives in the south. However, after spending a few years in “the city”, she considers herself a New Yorker at heart.
Tracy has been awarded the National Reader’s Choice, the Write Touch and the Beacon—with finalist nominations in the HOLT Medallion, Heart of Romance, Rising Stars and Reader’s Choice. Her books have been translated into German, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish. She loves hearing from readers about why she tends to pit her hero and heroine against each other from the very first page or that great romance she simply
must
order in five seconds on her Kindle.
Ciao!
Praise for
TIDES OF PASSION
Reader’s Choice for Best Long Historical