The Yuletide Engagement & A Yuletide Seduction (29 page)

Jane couldn't move, could barely breathe now.

Gabe was no longer looking at her, his thoughts all inwards as he recalled the past. “I told myself not to be so stupid,” he continued harshly. “Love didn't happen like that, in a moment—”

“At first sight.” Jane spoke hoarsely, remembering he had once asked her if she believed in the emotion. She had said a definite no!

“At first sight,” he echoed scornfully. “But I couldn't stop watching this woman, couldn't seem to look anywhere else. And as I watched her I realised she wasn't just beautiful, she was gracious and warm too. She spoke to everybody there in the same warm way, and there was an elderly man there, who had been slightly drunk when he arrived, but instead of shying away from him as everyone else was she sat next to him, talking to him quietly, for over an hour. And by the time he left he was slightly less drunk and even managed to smile a little.”

“His wife had died the previous month,” Jane put in softly. “That evening was the first time he had been out in company since her death. And people weren't shying away from him because he'd had slightly too much to drink; it was because they didn't know what to say to him, how to deal with his loss, and so they simply ignored him.” She remembered that night so well—it had been the last time she had gone anywhere with Paul, because, ironically enough, a few days later
he
had been dead.

Gabe nodded abruptly. “I know that. I asked around who he was. Who you were. You were another man's wife!”

She
was that perfect woman, the woman who had seemed to disappear, evaporate. And after the accident, after losing the baby, that was exactly what she had done!

Gabe had been in love with her three years ago! Not a man on a quest for vengeance, but a man on a quest for the woman he had fallen in love with at first sight at a party one night!

“You were another woman's husband,” she reminded him gruffly.

“Not by the time I came looking for you.” He shook his head firmly. “The first time I saw you, I accept we were both married to other people, and in those circumstances I would never have come near you. I didn't come near you. And maybe I did act with indecent haste by trying to find you after our respective partners were killed,” he acknowledged grimly. “But, as it happened, my worst nightmare came true.” He looked bleak. “You had disappeared. And, no matter how I tried to find you, someone would put a wall up to block my way. After three months of coming up against those brick walls, of finally discovering that you had lost your baby because of what happened—”

“That was the reason you did a deal with Richard Warner rather than buy him out, wasn't it?” Jane said with certainty.

“A horror of history repeating itself?” Gabe nodded. “It was too close to what happened to you three years ago.”

Jane gasped. “You weren't responsible for my miscarriage—”

“Maybe I could have done something to stop Jennifer.” He shook his head. “Who knows? I certainly didn't. So I tried to convince myself I had imagined you.” He sighed. “I went back to the States, buried myself in my work, and told myself that Janette Granger was a myth, that even if I had finally got to meet you, speak to you, you would have hated me; that it was best to leave you as a dream, a mirage. The only trouble with dreams and mirages is that they transpose themselves over reality.” He grimaced.

“No normal woman can possibly live up to a dream one. And for me no woman ever has.”

He turned away abruptly, staring out across the empty paddock. “When I met you again so suddenly two weeks ago. You were everything I had ever thought you were. And I was sure that you knew me too, but I thought—stupidly, I realise now—that if you could just get to know me, realise I wasn't a cold-hearted ogre, you might come to— Oh, never mind what I thought, Jane,” he rasped. “I was wrong, so very wrong.”

“My name is Janette,” she put in softly, pointedly. “Janie, if you prefer; it's always been my father's pet name for me.”

Gabe loved her. At least, he had loved her three years ago… Had the reality lived up to that dream?

He turned back to look at her. “That night, at your apartment, I called you Janie…” he realised softly.

“You did,” she nodded. “And I don't know what you're trying to do to help my father—”

“I'm putting him into Richard's company as his senior manager,” Gabe told her gently. “Richard is good at PR work, and your father is good at the management level; together they should turn that company around in six
months.” He swallowed hard. “You were right about me; I had no idea of the financial difficulties your father had three years ago, of the debts he had to pay—”

“Paul's debts,” Jane put in hardly. “My father did that for me. And what you're doing for him now has transformed his life—his and Mummy's. I could love you for just that alone,” she added shyly.

“Don't, Jane—”

“But I don't love you for that alone,” she continued determinedly, eyes very big in the paleness of her face as she looked up at him. “I love you because you're warm and funny, caring and loving. And when you kiss me…!” She gave a self-conscious laugh.

“When I kiss you,” Gabe agreed throatily, “I'm back to that first night I saw you; I can't think straight, can't see straight, all I know is you. With every part of me. Oh, Janie!”

She needed no further encouragement, flinging herself into his arms, both of them losing themselves in the sheer beauty of loving and being loved.

How long they remained like that Jane didn't know, finally laughing gently against the warmth of his chest, where he had cradled her as if he would never let her go again.

“All we have to do now is find a way to explain to our respective parents that we're going to be married.” She chuckled softly. “Considering my parents don't even realise we know each other—”

“Marriage, Janie?” Gabe looked down at her searchingly. “You love me that much?”

And more. Marriage to Paul had been possession and pain; with Gabe it would be sharing and love. With Gabe,
she had no doubts about making such a commitment. No doubts whatsoever.

“If you'll have me.” She nodded shyly, suddenly wondering if he was prepared to make such a commitment again after his disastrous marriage to Jennifer.

He let out a whoop of delight, picking her up to swing her round in the snow. “Oh, I'll have you, Janette Smythe-Roberts, Janette Granger, Jane Smith. All of you! I love you, Janie, so very much.” He slowly lowered her to the snow-covered ground. “And my parents already know how I feel about you, have known for some time that I left my heart behind in England three years ago,” he acknowledged ruefully. “As for your own parents, they only want for you what will make you happy. And I certainly intend doing that! So will you marry me, Jane? Soon!” His arms tightened about her. “It has to be soon!”

He had already waited long enough, his pleading expression told her. And so had she, she realised weakly. “As soon as it can be arranged,” she assured him huskily. “I can't wait for us to belong to each other. And my father was asking me only the other day when I was going to give him grandchildren…!” She looked up at Gabe hopefully. “Children…
Our
children, Janie,” he groaned, his hands trembling as he held her. “
Soon
, Janie. Oh, yes, very soon!”

G
OLD.

Bright, shiny,
warm
gold.

Her hair, returned to its natural colour for almost a year now, flowed like liquid gold over Gabe's fingers as he played with the silky tresses, his attention so intense he hadn't realised Jane had woken beside him in the bed and lay looking up at him.

It had been a good year—a year in which they had married and moved into a house of their own in London. Initially Jane's time had been filled with choosing the décor and furnishings, and soon—very soon!—her time was going to be filled with their son or daughter.

Being with Gabe, as his wife, was the deepest happiness Jane had ever known—falling asleep in his arms every night, waking still held in those strong arms, and spending their days busy in each other's company. Both sets of parents were constant visitors, eager for the birth of their first grandchild. As Jane and Gabe were.

“Good morning, my love.” She greeted her husband huskily, warmed by the pleasure that lit his face as he realised she was awake.

He kissed her lingeringly on the lips. “I've just been wondering what I ever found to do with my time before I had you to look at and love,” he admitted ruefully. “You're so beautiful, Jane,” he told her shakily.

She laughed softly, reaching up to gently touch his cheek. “At the moment I look like a baby whale!”

His hand moved to rest possessively on the swell of her body that was their unborn child. “To me you're beautiful.”

And she knew he meant it, that he had enjoyed every aspect of her pregnancy, been a part of all of it, as far as he was able. And since Felicity and Richard's son Thom had been born six months ago, the other couple now close friends who visited often, Gabe had been practising changing nappies, much to baby Thom's disgust.

“You were very restless last night, darling.” Gabe frowned down at her concernedly now. “Do you feel okay?”

Jane grinned up at him. “As okay as I can be in the early stages of labour,” she informed him lightly, knowing that the slight cramps she had had in her stomach the evening before had deepened during the night, although not seriously enough yet for her to need to go to hospital, which was why she had been napping on and off during the night, preparing herself for the much heavier labour she was positive was imminent.

Gabe shot out of bed so quickly Jane could only lie and stare at him, moving up to lean on one elbow to watch him as he raced around the bedroom, throwing on his own clothes, before puling her own out of the adjoining wardrobe and laying them down on the bed.

“Gabe…?” She finally stopped his rushing about. “It's going to be hours yet—”

He came to an abrupt halt, sitting down on the side of the bed, gently clasping her shoulders. “I'm not taking any chances with you, Jane,” he told her emotionally. “If anything should happen to you—”

Jane placed her fingertips lightly against his lips. “Nothing is going to happen to me,” she assured him confidently. “We fell in love with each other against all the odds; nothing could possibly happen to part us now,” she said with conviction, sure in her own heart that they were meant to be together. Always.

“I love you so much, Jane,” he choked. “My life would be empty without you!”

“And mine without you. But that isn't going to happen, Gabe.” She was absolutely positive about this, felt sure they were going to grow old together. “Nothing is going to happen in the next few hours except we're going to have our own darling little baby.” She gave him a glowing smile. “But perhaps you're right about going to the hospital now.” She began her breathing exercises as a much stronger contraction took her breath away. “I think the baby has decided that today would be a good time to be born!”

And six hours later, when their daughter Ami was born, with Jane's golden hair and Gabe's aqua-blue eyes, they knew that their world was complete.

“She's gorgeous, Jane.” Gabe gazed down wonderingly at their tiny daughter, each tiny feature perfect. “I can't believe you're both mine.” He shook his head.

“Believe it, Gabe,” Jane told him emotionally.

As she believed.

In Gabe.

In their marriage.

In their for ever…