Garden of Dreams (43 page)

“Yeah, just like that.” With an exhalation Nina almost translated as relief, JD crushed her against him and bent his head so their lips met.

Ecstasy. Sheer ecstasy blossomed from somewhere deep inside her as JD's lips demanded surrender. Nina slid her arms over his shoulders for support and gave him everything he asked and more. Pressing closer, she offered what she thought he wanted. He could have her any way he liked. She just couldn't bear living without him any longer.

She'd thought she was running away when she'd boarded the plane in Nashville, but upon arriving at this desolate house with its dying plants and deserted air, she'd known she'd been running toward something far more important than botanical gardens and math classes. JD had once told her he'd never had a home. She could give him a home. She could give him the love he needed, teach him to trust people again. JD needed her as much as she needed him. She saw that now. She just had to make him see it.

“Oh, God, Nina, now I know how my plants felt when you watered them.” JD hauled her more tightly against him, rubbing her backside in a motion that reminded her of what that bulge in his jeans meant. Nina squirmed closer, kissing his neck and hanging on for dear life.

“I don't need a watering can for you?” she teased, licking his neck and discovering the delight of tasting him. He shuddered, and she did it again.

“Damn, Nina, we need to talk. We're two adults here, not hormonal teenagers.”

He returned her to the floor, but she didn't release him. She faced him boldly. “We can touch and talk at the same time.”

He managed a wry grin. “Maybe you can, but I can't. If you don't let go of me right now, I'll have that pretty little top off of you in the next five seconds. You don't have any idea what you've put me through these last few days.”

“Oh?” Reluctantly, Nina released his shoulders, but she slid her fingers into JD's hand. She needed that physical reassurance right now. It gave her the confidence she lacked to do what she had to do. “I didn't know I'd done anything to you these last few days.”

He flopped down on a sagging couch that had seen better days and pulled her into his lap. Nina thought this might not be the best position for conversation, but she didn't object. She wrapped her arms around his neck again and wriggled into a more comfortable position against his thigh.

“On second thought, maybe we ought to get this physical stuff out of the way and talk later.”

Before Nina could respond to that provocative statement, JD had her flat on her back on the wide cushions of the couch, his knees securely trapping her thighs as he again caught her mouth with his.

His tongue tasted as sweet as she remembered. Giving herself up to sensation, Nina explored the muscled arms preventing his heavy weight from crushing her. Even in this, JD was gentle. She knew she only had to back off, and he'd stop at once. She didn't want him to stop. She'd dreamed of this moment for weeks. For a lifetime.

The buttons of her ribbed shirt came undone, and Nina squealed as JD's mouth tugged at an aching breast. She hadn't known this was what breasts were for until JD had shown her. She dug her hands into his hair and let him plunder as he would.

She hadn't realized she'd worn this short skirt for just this purpose until JD shoved it up to her waist and cradled her hips in his hands. She felt wickedly depraved when he ripped off her panties and they were still almost wholly dressed. Maybe she had read one too many naughty books, but she responded eagerly to JD's hurried demands. Her need was as strong as his.

He spread his hands between her thighs and hesitated, searching her face for an answer to a question he couldn't seem to ask. She would need to be a mind reader to understand this man, but the task wasn't so difficult this time. Sliding her fingers over his smooth-shaven jaw, Nina urged JD's lips back to hers. She couldn't explain it any better than that.

He didn't hesitate any longer.

Nina cried out as he surged into her. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her body responded enthusiastically to its duty, arching to take JD deep inside, rising and falling rhythmically without need for thought, quaking with the joy he gave her. He teased her breasts, kissed her throat, and drove her straight into oblivion with his frantic release.

They collapsed in sweaty exhaustion in each other's arms. With the gradual return of her mind, Nina thought she should feel awkward lying like this with a half-naked man, their lower parts still joined and moist, the upper parts fully dressed. Instead, she knew only immense satisfaction. JD wanted her. She'd never felt like this with another man. Surely, that was a step in the right direction. Now, if she could only make him see...

He propped himself on one arm and gazed sleepily down on her. “I love you,” he murmured.

Shock rippled through her, and Nina stared at his neatly shaved jaw with incomprehension. Maybe that was something he said to all his women.—except, he hadn't said it before. She met his eyes, but his gaze didn't waver. It held her pinned as he challenged her to respond.

Gulping, Nina cautiously stroked his cheek. “You don't have to say that for my benefit.”

“Yeah, I do.” JD pulled her shirt closed and smoothed it tenderly over her breasts before looking at her again. “I don't think I've ever said it to anyone before, so it's kind of hard to get out, you know?”

The cold sensation of parting as JD sat up was nothing compared to the revelation of his words. Hastily brushing her skirt down, Nina struggled to sit up beside him. JD reached over and planted her firmly in his lap again. He hugged her close, and she rested her head against his shoulder. She liked resting her head against his shoulder. It seemed so right somehow, secure, as she had never known security.

“Yeah, I know,” she replied in the same vernacular. Switching to her softer Southern dialect, she attempted to clarify. “You have to hear the words often to say them with ease. Maybe we should practice on each other. I love you, too. I don't have any idea why, but I do.”

She felt JD's chuckle as much as heard it.

“I don't know why you do either. I'm pigheaded, blind, and stupid. I have no concept of what it takes to make a marriage. I barely have any idea what love is, but if it's this need to have you with me all the time, then I've got it bad. I've spent these last weeks worrying about you instead of worrying about the damned company. Every time I called up a financial statement, I thought of you curled up in that apartment, lecturing me on risk. When I learned I had control of Astro, instead of reaching for the champagne, I reached for the phone to call you. You weren't there,” he said accusingly.

“I've been busy,” she answered defensively. “All that money you solicited had to be spent somewhere. I have bulldozers and tractors and construction workers all over the place.”

“Yeah, I know.” JD reached inside her unbuttoned shirt and cupped her breast in his palm. “I've just been out there. It looks pretty good.”

Nina sat up so fast she almost clipped his chin. She jerked her shirt closed over his protesting fingers. “What do you mean, you were just out there? You were out there and didn't see me?”

He shrugged almost sheepishly. “I went there to see you, but you were here. Must have been some kind of mental vibrations crossing.”

Nina stared at him in astonishment. “You went all the way out there when you're busy taking over another company and producing a new program and looking after Jackie? Couldn't you have just sent a letter?”

He wrinkled his brow in thought, staring at the ceiling. “Can't remember the last time I sent a letter. Could have been back in the service, when I wrote Nancy. Didn't have much luck then.” He brought his dark gaze back down to her, and Nina shivered with the intensity of it. “Couldn't take that risk again. I'm eliminating risks in my life, Miss Toon. You see here before you a reformed impulse addict. I will proceed cautiously from now on. Will you marry me?”

In shock, Nina hesitated.

JD gave her a mischievous grin. “We didn't use any protection just then. You may have to marry me, Miss Toon.”

Blood rushed to Nina's cheeks at the thought of carrying his child. She knew better than to think it possible after just one try, but she wouldn't put anything past JD. “I thought you were forgoing all risk, Mr. Marshall,” she replied, too shaken to remember she had come here intending to make him marry her. “That seems like a rather immense risk to me.”

“Nah.” He shook his head and hugged her tenderly. “I know you too well. If I got you pregnant, you'd be here with a gun at my head and a knife to my throat demanding I do the right thing by our child. And then I'd have you right where I wanted you. So I didn't take any risks. You did.”

So she had. She'd taken a huge risk. Stupid of her. But she'd had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Hattie had been wrong. Sometimes, one had to risk everything to gain anything.

Nina relaxed against JD's shoulder again. “This is ridiculous, you realize. We live two thousand miles apart. We might as well live on different planets. It will never work.”

JD nuzzled her neck. “Of course it will work. I don't hum. Can't carry a tune.”

Nina wondered if she'd heard properly. Or if they'd both gone mad. She glared at him. “You don't hum?”

He nipped her nape and slid a finger beneath her shirt, teasing a nipple. “If you don't hear me humming, then the relationship must be working. Isn't that how you tell when things are going to break down?”

Nina stared up at his grin in disbelief. “You're insane, you know that, don't you? People don't...” But of course, people hummed all the time. The smirk on JD's face told her that.

“See? I told you. Besides, anything that breaks, I can fix. Did you know your mother threatened to cut off my balls if I didn't take care of you?”

She'd believe almost anything at this point. Shaking her head and burying her face against his shoulder as his teasing finger made mush of her mind, she sought some sense in his words. “Why would she do that?” she asked warily. “She's never shown any concern for me before.”

JD's voice lost some of its teasing quality. “Are you sure about that? We had a bit of a talk while I was booking my flight. She threw the prison thing in my face to see if she could run me off.” He tilted Nina's chin up with his finger. “I think she protected you in the only way she knew how, by letting you think her dead and with the angels. She never knew a whole lot about love, Nina. Just think how old Hattie must have been when your mother was born. Helen didn't know you'd miss what she'd never had. She just did what she had to do and suffered for it, alone.”

His words pierced her heart. Nina blinked back tears as she absorbed this new aspect of her mother. She hadn't really allowed herself to think about it, it hurt so much, but JD's version eased the pain.

“Nina, will you marry me?” he asked softly.

The question jerked her back to the moment. It was too much, too fast. She wanted to scream, “Yes, yes, of course!” but the habits of a lifetime were hard to break. “I don't know anything about being a corporate executive's wife,” she warned. “You don't know anything about living in the middle of nowhere. I signed a teaching contract for this next year. I can't renege on it at this late date. Your company needs you at a time like this, or you risk losing everything. And there's Jackie. He needs your attention, too.” Looking at the immensity of their problems, Nina groaned. She'd been an idiot to think just making him admit they belonged together would solve everything.

JD stroked her hair and ran his finger down her chin. “I told you, I've quit taking risks. I'm a family man now, and I have to think of my family first. I know you won't like it here, and you can't give up all your responsibilities back home. But I can live anywhere. I have lived everywhere. Now, I just want a home and a family. Madrid is perfectly fine with me, but I'm hoping maybe you'll like my other idea a little better.”

As the realization sank in that JD really meant it, really thought of her as family, Nina basked in a warm glow. She tried not to look at him too adoringly, but she didn't think she could disguise her love very well. It would go straight to his fat head. She'd best keep things in perspective.

“What idea?” she asked with suspicion, but the way he grinned back told her he wasn't fooled. How the devil would she live with someone who knew her too well?

“I've been busy. I talked to your lawyer as well as to Helen. I know you officially own the garden now. So I called a few Realtors out your way. I had time before the plane left Nashville to stop and look at a few places they suggested. There's a place way out in the country near the state line that I thought you might like. It's modern, I'll admit, but they've buried all the cables underground so all you'll see is trees from the windows. It's about halfway between Madrid and Nashville. I know you're not used to commuting to work, so maybe when the weather is bad we can stay at your farm so you don't have to drive far. I thought you might like a place of your own, so your mother could stay at Hattie's.”

Now she knew why she loved this man so much. JD was so incredibly intelligent, he took her breath away. Staring at him now, Nina couldn't believe he was saying these things. There had to be flaws in the design, but she was too flabbergasted to see them. “What about your company?” she finally asked, too stunned to know what she was asking but understanding it was of importance.