Cassandra Austin (16 page)

When she finally sat back she was breathless. She smiled a little shyly. He thought she was beautiful. “I suppose I should admit,” she whispered, “that I’ve been in love with you for quite a while, too.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I know.”

She opened her mouth in mock outrage. “How would you know that?”

“Johnny told me. My marrying you was one of the bargains we struck.” Her outrage was starting to look real. He added quickly, “I had already decided to ask you at the earliest opportunity. Your greeting tonight was very encouraging. Feel free to throw yourself at me anytime you want.”

She chewed on her lower lip. “You better tell me all the bargains.”

He tore his eyes away from her tempting lips. “His first request was that I spend the night here to keep Peggy safe and to keep you from worrying. In exchange he’s never going to steal again, which will be hard on him since he’s convinced he’s quite good at it”

“Steal. When did he ever steal anything?”

Adam scratched his cheek, which was starting to feel a little rough. “That’s the second thing. I’m not supposed to tell you.”

“And that’s when you struck a bargain to marry me?”

Adam laughed. “Johnny thought if I spent the night, it would be the right thing to do.”

“Oh, but.” He watched her cheeks turn pink, enjoying every second of it. “He’s just a boy,” she said, but she looked toward the parlor as if she wasn’t so sure.

“He’s had to grow up too fast. He doesn’t want you to get the reputation his mother has.”

“Has? He’s an orphan.” She glanced again toward the parlor, probably thinking, as Adam did, that there was a lot yet to learn about Johnny.

Adam shook his head. “He overheard his mother and her boyfriend plan to leave Peggy on a busy street across town. They were going to keep Johnny because his job. and other activities were bringing in a few cents. He took his sister and ran.”

Adam watched Jane’s face as she tried to imagine what the children had been through. Of course, Peggy’s early behavior had already given her a few clues.

But they had strayed from the subject, and he didn’t have his answer yet. “So. Will you marry me?”

She brought her attention back to him and a smile
slowly spread across her face. “I want to sleep on it.”

“Sleep on it?”

Jane watched Adam’s handsome face register bewilderment, as if he thought she might turn him down. She took his face between her hands, feeling uncommonly bold, and whispered mere inches from his lips, “Let’s sleep on it.”

Realization dawned slowly and quite readably. He took her lips in a quick kiss and pulled her to her feet.

A hand on his chest stopped him from kissing her again. “Is it all right to leave Peggy?”

“She’s fine,” he assured her.

One strong arm wrapped possessively around Jane’s waist as he turned down the wick on the lamp. He paused in the doorway to the dining room. “I should go home and shave.”

Jane bit back a giggle. “I think I can stand it just this once.” She brushed a hand across his very tempting jaw, then stood on her toes to plant a kiss there.

He hustled her across the dining room, then slowed to a quieter pace as they entered the hall and tiptoed past the parlor. Jane opened the door to her bedroom and invited Adam inside, feeling her heart skip when she heard the door latch shut.

She slipped her arms around his waist and lifted her face to his, knowing he’d find her lips in the dark. She opened her mouth and let her tongue duel
with his, surprised at her boldness, yet thrilled by it as well. His lips left hers and trailed across her jaw, down her neck and lower, where at least three buttons on her bodice had mysteriously come loose.

Thinking to return the favor, she tried to open his shirt. Her fingers were trembling. He wasn’t fully cooperating, either, his interest being centered on her cleavage. A collar button clattered to the floor. He wasn’t distracted in the least. Jane imagined a future with collar buttons scattered in every room of the house.

He raised his head finally. “Light a lamp,” he whispered.

“We can find the collar button later,” she said, finding she could make much better progress on his shirt when he wasn’t kissing her.

“Collar button?” He reached up and sent another skittering across the floor. “I want to see you.”

Pleased with the notion, she lit the lamp on the stand beside the bed. He stood a few feet away, looking slightly disheveled. Of course, she wasn’t any better. She looked down, drawing the edges of her bodice together, feeling shy in the pale light.

He crossed the distance between them slowly, making her body quiver with anticipation. “Am I really lucky enough to call you mine?” he whispered.

He didn’t give her a chance to answer, though. He distracted her with his lips and his hands. Her
clothes were in even more disorder, and her knees were weak when he spoke again.

“I want to go slowly this time, Jane, but I find myself too impatient.” His fingers were untying the ribbons at the waist of her petticoats as he talked. They all dropped to a heap on the floor.

“We can go slowly next time,” she said, equally eager to lose all the barriers that were between them. She drew his face down to hers for another hungry kiss. In short order, he lifted her onto the bed and settled down beside her, leaving all their clothes behind.

He pulled her up against him, and she reveled in the touch of his warm, strong body. She’d had no idea how much her skin would like the feel of his.

“I love you, Jane,” he whispered. He rolled her onto her back and braced himself above her.

“I love you, too,” she said, pulling him closer. A moment later she wasn’t sure if she had spoken aloud or merely said the words in her head. She said them again, just in case. “I love you.”

It came out a sigh that brought a decidedly arrogant chuckle to her ears. He was feeling very pleased at reducing her to jelly. “I don’t know if that’s your brain or your body talking, but I’ll accept it either way,” he said.

She wanted to object, to assure him that she truly loved him, but what he was doing was too distracting. In moments she was beyond rational thought. Her entire world was Adam. She clung to him, muffling
her cries against his shoulder as she gave herself up to sensations alone—sensations, release and the blissful afterglow.

Then sleep, followed as promised by a slower, gentler uniting in the middle of the night.

Jane woke to find Adam gone. Her old fears rose up, and she felt a moment of panic. No. She wouldn’t believe that he had used her and left her. The thought that he had been called away on a medical emergency wasn’t reassuring. Had someone come for him while he was sleeping in her house? But no. That wasn’t possible, either. She would have heard someone at her door.

By the time she was up and dressed, she was sure he had slipped back to his own house before dawn, to save her reputation, though the possibility that Peggy had worsened had her hurrying to the kitchen. Peggy was sleeping soundly, the kitten at her feet.

Jane started breakfast as quietly as possible, hoping, praying, that Adam would arrive soon-properly, of course, but soon. She didn’t think she could stand waiting through another day like the one before.

Johnny came in a few minutes later. He looked in on his sister, then sat in the kitchen watching Jane. “Why ain’t Dr. Hart still here?”

“He went home early this morning. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” She didn’t sound as certain as she had intended to.

“Did him and you have a little talk?”

She turned and tried to give the boy a severe look. It was spoiled, she was sure, by the fact that she wanted to grin. “I understand you were playing matchmaker,” she said. “You should learn to mind your own business.”

“This is my business,” he declared. “I’m tryin’ to fix up a good home for Peggy.”

Jane had no answer for that and was saved from trying to think of one when she heard the front door open. And voices. She stepped into the dining room and greeted Adam and George.

“You’re likely to catch the flu if you eat with us, George,” she said.

“I’m going up to see Ferris, anyway. I don’t see how eating with you’ll matter after that.”

“I got George up early to talk business,” Adam explained. “I invited him to join us. He needs to talk to you.”

Jane was curious, but she needed to get back to her stove. She instructed Johnny to set the table in the dining room, and brought the food out as quickly as she could. George, predictably, wanted to eat before there was any talk of business.

Adam kept tossing her looks that spoke eloquently of what they had shared the night before. She hoped Johnny wasn’t reading them so easily. Or George. Lord. When she had made her wanton suggestion, she hadn’t considered the morning after.

“All right,” George said finally, setting his plate
aside and drawing a sheaf of papers from the empty chair beside him. “Adam’s come up with a proposition, but I wanted to clear it with you before I did anything else.”

Propositon? Jane glanced at Adam, only to have him wink at her. As if that explained everything.

George began spouting numbers-the amount of money still due on the house, the money in Adam’s fund, the rent paid each month on the house next door. Jane was barely following, except to guess that Adam was getting the house. Long ingrained fears crept into her consciousness. She couldn’t have been wrong, could she? He wasn’t just after the house?

Peggy came dragging in, rubbing her eyes. Jane scooted her chair away from the table and picked the little girl up, trying to listen to George.

“Peggy bad,” the child lamented.

“Does Peggy feel bad?” Jane cuddled her closer, certain she wasn’t as hot as she had been the day before.

Johnny came to stand beside Jane’s chair, handing Peggy a biscuit. Peggy took it, nibbled on a corner, then searched the front of her nightgown for a pocket.

“You don’t have to save food no more,” Johnny told her. He took the biscuit back and set it on the table. When Peggy reached for him, he lifted her and carried her around the room for a couple of minutes.

He walked close to Adam, and Peggy stretched
her arms toward him. “I can’t make you feel any better than Johnny can,” Adam said, but he took her anyway.

“So what it comes down to,” George said, “is we extend the loan and put the little house back on the market. With the new smaller payments, you can have title to this house in six months.”

“There’s only one hitch that I can see,” Adam said. “If Jane’s going to quit taking in boarders and I’m moving in instead, the lady has to agree to marry me. She hasn’t done that yet.”

George chuckled, but Johnny looked truly shocked.

“Why, Dr. Hart, I’ve considered your proposal…overnight.” She wished her cheeks weren’t growing hot. “I believe I’ll consent.”

“Does that mean yes?” Johnny asked.

“Yep. It means you get first pick of the rooms upstairs, just like I promised,” Adam said. Johnny spun around, heading for the stairs. “Don’t bother Ferris,” he called after him.

“What else did you promise?”

“At least two more little brothers or sisters,” Adam said with a grin, adding, “so you won’t miss the boarders.”

George wasn’t even pretending not to listen. He was checking figures, chuckling away.

“Oh, one more thing,” Adam said, adjusting Peggy so he could reach across the table to tap the
paper in front of George. “Put the house in Jane’s name. She’s always wanted a home. All I need is her heart.”

* * * * *

eISBN 978-14592-5104-5

HEART AND HOME

Copyright © 1999 by Sandra Detrixhe

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