Captured In Ink (Art of Love Series) (39 page)
Zack nodded. “You know I don’t mind, but I’m glad you hired a replacement player for our team.”
Reesa sighed and raised her hand with the shiny band on it. “Yeah—I haven’t quite gotten my mind wrapped around that one yet. But on the bright side, I do own you all now.”
Zack laughed at her teasing comment, and appreciated the pleasure in her voice. “And we love you for it, Aunt Teresa.”
“I love you all too,” Reesa said sincerely, rolling to the edge of the bed and sliding down to the floor. “I hate sleeping in my clothes. You feel so grungy the next day.”
“So what kind of pizza do you want?” Zack asked.
“I don’t care. Put half a million bags of it on a big cookie sheet and cover it all in foil. Put it in the oven at three hundred degrees for a few minutes. It will be ready when we are,” she said, heading to the bathroom. “It will no doubt get eaten.”
“I can do that. Brian can help me,” Zack said, smacking Brian on the arm, who was watching his sisters sleep.
“What? I like to watch them sleep. They’re being quiet and not complaining about anything for once,” Brian said. “Girls are noisy when they’re awake.”
“Yeah, well one day you won’t mind the noise so much,” Zack told him, laughing softly as they walked out of the room.
***
When Reesa came back from the bathroom, the girls were gone from the bed. Gone in search of breakfast probably, she thought. Lord knew that was all she could think about with her stomach growling at her.
While she was getting dressed, she saw a folded piece of paper on the night stand. Reesa picked it up to check what it was before throwing it in the trash. With so many drawing artists in the family now, she wasn’t really surprised to see her image on it. It was the super hero costume that stopped her. She knew then it belonged to Shane
Shane tapped on the bedroom door and came in when he didn’t hear an invitation. He wanted to make sure Reesa wasn’t still sick. When he saw her sitting the bed looking at his drawing of her, he walked softly around and sat down.
“That’s the picture I kept trying to show you. I drew that the morning after we were together,” Shane explained. “I think I’ve told the story to everyone in my life except you.”
“You didn’t even know me,” Reesa said, looking up from the drawing into his face.
Shane tapped the paper with his hand. “I knew this about you. I don’t know how I knew it, but I did. I don’t question my intuition very often. I’d rather trust it, especially since it brought you to me.”
Reesa swallowed hard. “If you get killed or you leave me, I am never going to fall in love in again,” she warned him, her voice clear and firm, even if her eyes misted over.
Shane leaned forward and kissed her softly, the mint from her toothpaste tickling his tongue as he slipped past her defenses and had his way with her mouth for a moment. But he pulled away because the timing was bad and they weren’t straight yet.
They still hadn’t talked about yesterday. And he had to tell her about his fight with Addison.
“Knowing about your losses, I wish I could make you a promise that nothing will ever happen to me, but I can’t,” Shane said. “I just plan to love you the best I can for as long as I can. Sara has the same concerns as you do, so I’ll tell you what I keep telling her. When I’m away, I will always want to come back to you.”
He cupped her face and smiled at the gold band on his finger. “I really do love you, Reesa Callahan Larson. Give me some time, and I promise you will believe it too.”
“I will try my best to love you back,” Reesa said, turning her face into his palm to plant a kiss. “I’m just afraid.”
He reached out the other hand to hold her face so she couldn’t turn away from what there was between them.
“All heroes, no matter how brave and strong they are, get afraid now and again. Let me be your faithful sidekick. I swear I really want to,” Shane said.
Reesa laughed and sniffed. “How can I say no to the sweetest and most original marriage proposal I’ve ever had?”
Instead of reassuring him, her comment had Shane’s gaze darkening. “What do you mean? Just how many have you had?”
Reesa laughed again and blushed. “Something like a dozen or so,” she said, not wanting to tell him fourteen.
“
A dozen?
Damn, you’re as bad as Jessica,” Shane said, laughing. “I am Dad.”
“Jessica? Which one was Jessica? I don’t think I met her,” Reesa said, sniffing.
“You haven’t, but you will. She was the tallest redhead in the group. Looks just like Brooke, only older and much, much bigger,” Shane said, laughing. “Wait—please don’t tell her I described her that way.”
He dropped his hands from her face, but took one her hands in his and linked their fingers. “How mad are you that the judge made you marry me to keep the kids?”
“Passing the buck for that mess to the legal system are you?” Reesa asked, her tone sarcastic.
“I won’t say the idea hadn’t crossed my mind, especially after I talked to my attorney, who is also my step-father, but that’s another story. But you’ll be happy to know, I promised my father and brother that I wouldn’t try to get you pregnant or anything like that,” Shane said sheepishly.
“
Oh Good God
,” Reesa said fiercely, pulling her hand from Shane’s as he laughed. “Is there nothing the men in your family don’t discuss? You’re worse than me and Jillian. I thought guys never talked about personal stuff.”
“Another urban myth shot to hell,” Shane said dryly, enjoying her consternation and looking forward to soothing her at the first opportunity. “Look on the bright side, as your legal husband. your investment in my sex training now comes with a lifetime guarantee of all the orgasms you can handle.”
Michael was irreverent anyway, but her face flamed thinking about Will and Shane discussing their intimacy. How was she ever going to look at Shane’s father again? She reached out and smacked Shane in the shoulder, but he only laughed harder.
“For the record, I don’t like the world knowing about our sex life—good or bad. Not everyone needs to be informed about our lousy wedding night. This will be your only warning,” Reesa threatened.
“I thought our wedding night was pretty wonderful considering how sick you were. We’ll consummate our marriage tomorrow morning,” Shane said easily, patting her shoulder. “I’m not worried about sealing the deal.”
“Gee, thanks,” Reesa said dryly, pushing Shane’s patting hand off her.
She handed him the folded paper with her image on it. “I thought artists were more observant, Larson. These are not my breasts,” she said firmly.
Laughing at her tone, Shane looked at her breasts, considering.
“I hadn’t paid enough attention to them at the time I drew this. Frankly, I could have drawn other parts of you with a lot more precision. In defense of my art, I bet your breasts would look just like this if they were being squished by a spandex superhero suit.”
“You’re just making me think I traded one dweeb for another,” Reesa told him, sliding off the bed. “I’m starved. We’re having pizza for breakfast. Jillian’s bringing donuts too.”
“I heard,” Shane said. “Uh—speaking of dweebs, I need to tell you a story.”
“Not until I’ve had food,” Reesa said, holding up her hand as they went down the hall. “I need coffee and food first.”
“Okay,” Shane said softly, with a warning in the agreement. “Just don’t take any business calls before you talk to me. You need to be prepared.”
Reesa sighed and breathed in the heavenly smell of coffee when she got to the kitchen, but she couldn’t stop herself from asking the inevitable with Shane all but gloating.
“Brent came by yesterday, didn’t he?” she asked, figuring her former fiancée had come by to see what had happened in court. He hadn’t believed for a moment that it was going to work out in her favor. And she hadn’t either, Reesa admitted, staring up at her stubborn rescuer.
While she still wasn’t one hundred percent sure that it had, Shane seemed confident enough for the both of them. Reesa decided that was good enough for now.
“I thought Addison stopped by to see my wedding band, so I showed it to him,” Shane said innocently. “I don’t know why he doesn’t believe we got married. I was still wearing my wedding clothes and technically had just climbed out of bed with you when I saw him. The man is such a skeptic.”
The kids stopped talking to listen to their conversation, and Reesa snorted as she looked at their expectant faces. Her marriage might still worry her, but Brent’s opinion of her choices definitely didn’t. This was her family. Nothing was going to change that now.
“He’s left us no choice then. Death to the dweeb,” Reesa said firmly. “I didn’t want his damn job anyway.”
“Awww….Aunt Teresa said an ugly word. Now
she
has to stand in the corner,” Sara announced happily.
Shane leaned down and kissed Reesa, happy and content to be with them. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you company,” he whispered against her lips. “I’m in the damn corner all the time anyway.”
Reesa laughed at Sara’s squealing, and held Shane’s face down to her so she could kiss him back the way she wanted.
# # # # #
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KEEP READING in this ebook to read an excerpt
from “Commissioned In White”, Book 4
of the
Art Of Love
series.
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EXCERPT from Chapter 1, “
Commissioned In White
”
Despite his questionable friendship with Steve Lipton, Will sat on the groom’s side of the church, smiling at the picture Jessica made in her soft green bridesmaid dress standing next to a beaming Susan in her white bridal gown. While he was sincerely happy for Steve and Susan, his mind couldn’t help daydreaming about him and Jessica. They were three weeks away from their own wedding, and Will was anxious for the time to pass.
He was ready to be married again and didn’t care who knew it. He was ready to make love to Jessica while the gold bands Michael was making for them gleamed in the soft lighting they preferred in the bedroom.
When he pulled his attention from the future back to the present, he saw Susan turning to hand Jessica her massive bouquet of gold roses. The colorful roses suited her, Will thought. Susan was just as bright and lovely as the flowers.
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Groom, you may now kiss your bride,” the minister said with smile.
Steve pulled Susan up to him, his fingers digging into her lace covered hips. He bent her backwards with the force of a kiss that went on so long the minister cleared his throat twice before Steve finally relented and let her go.
Susan stumbled back a little, and a laughing Jessica reached a hand out to steady the back of the smaller woman she cherished as friend.
The grinning groom gave the jaded maid of honor a wicked look over his new wife’s head. Jessica rolled her eyes at him, but grinned back, happier for Steve and Susan than she had words to express. She had followed her heart in introducing them and had never regretted it for a moment.
The recessional music started up and Steve took his wife’s hand, tucking it lovingly into the curve of his elbow.
Jessica allowed Steve’s best man to do the same for her, but she looked at a grinning Will and winked as she walked down the aisle trying not to trip on the long trail of her gown. She was walking a bit unsteadily in the three-inch spikes Susan had insisted she wear, despite the fact that she towered half a foot over both the best man and the groom.
