The Talk of Hollywood (20 page)

She gasped. ‘You can’t want to marry a doctor of archaeology?’

He nodded. ‘I most certainly can! That is if you don’t mind marrying an actor and film director?’

‘Excuse me,’ she chided huskily, ‘but that would be a multi-award-winning Hollywood A-list actor and director!’

‘Whatever,’ Jaxon dismissed gruffly. ‘Will you marry me, Stazy, and save me from the misery of merely existing without you?’

She swallowed. ‘Being alone in a crowd …?’

‘The hell of being alone in a crowd, yes,’ he confirmed huskily.

Stazy knew exactly what that felt like. It was how she had felt for the past three months since she’d last seen Jaxon.

Tears welled up in her eyes. ‘I’ve been so lonely without you, Jaxon. Since my parents died I’ve never wanted to need or love anyone, apart from my grandparents, and yet you’ve managed to capture my heart.’ She gave a shake of her head. ‘I love you so much, Jaxon, that these past three months of not seeing you, being with you, has been hell.’

‘Hence the weight loss and lack of sleep?’ He ran a caressing fingertip across the dark shadows under her eyes.

‘Yes.’ She nodded miserably.

‘When you said a few minutes ago you were inexperienced in things, you meant falling in love, didn’t you …?’

She gave a self-derisive laugh. ‘I’ve never been in love. I’ve had two lovers, spent one night with each of them, and they were both utter disasters!’ She grimaced.

‘Forget about them.’ Jaxon reached up and cradled
each side of her face, his love for her shining out of his liquid grey eyes. ‘We’re going to make love, Stazy. Real love. And it’s going to be truly beautiful.’

‘Yes, please …’ she breathed softly.

‘You haven’t agreed to make an honest man of me yet,’ he reminded her huskily.

‘Is that a condition of the beautiful lovemaking?’ she teased.

‘I do have my reputation to think of, after all …’

Stazy laughed huskily at the dig as she threw herself into his waiting arms. ‘In that case—yes, I’ll marry you, Jaxon!’

‘And have my babies?’

Babies. Not only Jaxon to love, but his babies to love and cherish. ‘Oh, God, yes …! ‘she accepted emotionally.

‘Then you may now take me to bed, Dr Bromley.’

She chuckled at his prim tone. ‘If you think I’m going to sweep you up in my arms and carry you off to the bedroom before ravishing you then I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed!’

‘I’ll do the sweeping.’ Jaxon did exactly that. ‘You can do the ravishing.’

‘With pleasure, Mr Wilder,’ Stazy murmured throatily. ‘With the greatest of pleasure.’

And it was.

Just over two years later …

‘I’m truly impressed,’ Jaxon murmured teasingly in her ear as the two of them stepped down off the stage to the rapturous applause of his peers, after going up together to receive yet another award for Best Screenplay
for
Butterfly Wings
. ‘I think you thanked everyone but the girl who made the coffee!’

‘Very funny,’ Stazy muttered as she continued to smile brightly for the watching audience as the two of them made their way back to their seats.

Jaxon chuckled. ‘And after you were once so scathing about the length of the speeches made at these awards, too!’

‘Just for that, you can be the one to get up to Anastasia Rose if she wakes in the night!’ Stazy dropped thankfully back into her seat, her smile completely genuine now as she thought of their beautiful six-month-old daughter waiting for them at home. Geoffrey had opted to stay with his beloved great-granddaughter rather than accompany them to another award ceremony that he had declared would be ‘far too exhausting at my age!’

‘I’ll have you know that Anastasia Rose and I have come to an arrangement—I don’t wake her up if she doesn’t wake me up!’ Jaxon grinned smugly.

‘Really?’ Stazy turned in her seat to look at him. ‘Does that mean we can have our own very private celebration later …?’

Jaxon chuckled. ‘Insatiable woman!’

She arched teasing brows. ‘Are you complaining …?’

‘Certainly not!’ He kissed her warmly—something he had done often during their two-year marriage, whenever and wherever they happened to be.

They both knew and happily appreciated that life, and love, didn’t come any better than this …

* * * * *