The Weekend Wife Page 20
“I can’t leave.” He approached her hospital bed to see…damn, was she crying?
“Why not?” she said through a sniffle. “Car won’t start?”
His heart drummed against his chest. “No—it’s you, Kimberly.”
“What about me?” She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
“I love to argue with you,” he said.
“What?”
“It’s insane, I know, but I love it.”
She simply stared at him, obviously waiting for him to say something that made sense. He wasn’t doing very well so far. So much for being impetuous again, but he had to forge on because he only had one shot at making this right. “And I love to have hot, sweaty sexy with you,” he said.
She still looked baffled. And he knew he was still doing a lousy job, but he’d never actually done this before—he was new at it. “So you’re saying…what?” she asked.
Just tell her. Just spit it out.
“I’m saying that I love you.” Wow. He stopped, shook his head, amazed at how easy that had been. “God, that felt good. To just say it. I’m pretty sure I’ve loved you for…well, a long time. It just took this weekend to make me see it, accept it. I’ve missed you, babe, and I don’t want to let you get away again.”
She blinked. “You don’t?”
“No, I don’t.” Then he took a deep breath and blurted out the next part. “Marry me.”
“Huh?”
Okay, now she was making this difficult. “You heard me, Brandt. I want to marry you. I want to feel like I feel when I’m around you all the time, for the rest of my life.”
“You do?” She was blinking some more now, and trembling a little, and he suddenly thought that maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t such a new idea to her.
“I really do,” he said. “Will you? Marry me, Kimberly?”
“Oh, Max—yes! Yes, yes, yes!”
And then he was on the bed with her without really planning it, taking her into his arms, kissing her soft and warm and deep, and whispering, “This feels a hell of a lot better than being at home in bed alone,” and then, “Aw hell, am I hurting you?” when he remembered her wound.
But she only shook her head, laughing—that pretty laughter he’d been afraid he’d never hear again, that pretty laughter that had drawn him back here to this perfect moment.
Kimberly almost didn’t believe it. It was too wonderful to be true. She gazed up into Max’s handsome face, into those dark, sexy eyes she’d just learned to read, and what she saw there was…love. Just like the door back at the warehouse, this was real, no mirage. “Oh, Max,” she breathed, “I’ve loved you for so long. And I never thought you’d love me back.”
“How could I not? You’re…everything, Kimberly. Soft and sweet. Smart and tough. Hot and sexy—and amazing in bed on top of it all. What man could resist all that?”
She sighed with joy, glad the tough part of her was for real, glad the soft part of her was still intact, and glad he loved all of her. Then she twined her arms around his neck and pulled him into another long, languid kiss as he smoothly ran his hands up under her hospital gown.
“You don’t have any panties on, Brandt.”
She bit her lip coquettishly. “My partner ripped them off when we were having hot sex last night.”
He raised his eyebrows at the reminder. “Any chance you’re up for a repeat performance?”
Kimberly laughed. “I thought you were tired.”
But Max was already off the bed and closing the door, then sliding the visitor’s chair in front of it. Returning to the bed, he flashed a devilish grin. “Not that tired, babe.”
Epilogue
“I need a woman.”
“You’ve got a beautiful one right there.”
Frank pointed across his living room toward Kimberly in her bridal gown. He’d given her away at the ceremony and was now hosting the wedding reception.
Max smiled and took a moment to study her himself. After all, they’d only have one wedding day and she looked beautiful.
That was why he hated to muddy the day with business. But he’d just gotten an urgent call this morning from a client who needed some undercover work done. The job could wait until they returned from their honeymoon to Hawaii in two weeks, but he’d have to start making some arrangements now, before they left.
“It’s for a job,” Max explained.
“What are the parameters?”
“The usual,” he replied. “Smart, good instincts, good acting abilities. And she needs to be attractive, too.”
“Like I said, Max, you’ve got a beautiful woman right there.”
He located Kimberly across the floor again—she was dancing to a Leon Redbone song with his father. The sight brought a smile to his face, but he let it fade as he turned back to Frank. “It’s a dangerous job.”
“She’s a capable woman.”
“The job calls for a guy, too,” Max said.
“And you’re a capable guy.”
“But I’m getting out of the field, remember?”
“What’s going on over here?” Apparently, the dance with his dad had ended because Kimberly had just bounded up the steps to the foyer where the two men stood. She planted her hands on her hips. “You look way too worried for your wedding day, Max.”
“It’s like this,” Frank said before Max could even begin to reply. “He’s got a dangerous job lined up that he’s afraid to let you take. Oh, and there’ll be a male partner involved, too, and he’s too jealous to let you work with anyone but him, but he refuses to do it himself because he wants to quit.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, Frank? I’m not quitting—I’m taking a step back.”
“Quitting,” Frank said.
“How dare you!” Kimberly jumped in. “Whatever that job is, I want it! And I want you to do it with me! Got it?”
Max tossed a glance at Frank. “There’s that sassy side I told you about.”
“I like it,” Frank said.
“So,” she said, “are we square on this? We’re doing this together?”
Max tilted his head. “You remember what happened the last time we worked together, babe. I didn’t handle it well. I let my emotions—”
“Get in the way,” she finished for him. “Yes, I know.” Then she reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “But you’re a good P.I., Tate. You’ll learn.”
He couldn’t help smiling.
“So do we have a deal? As soon as the honeymoon’s over, we go to work together?”
Max sighed, then gazed into her eyes, today a stunning shade of emerald that sparkled when she smiled. “Oh, what the hell,” he said. “Who wants to quit anyway?”
About the Author
Toni Blake's love of writing began when she won an essay contest in the fifth grade. Soon after, she penned her first novel, nineteen notebook pages long. Since then, Toni has become a RITA™-nominated author of more than twenty contemporary romance novels, her books have received the National Readers Choice Award and Bookseller's Best Award, and her work has been excerpted in Cosmo. Toni lives in the Midwest and enjoys traveling, crafts, and spending time outdoors.
Learn more about Toni and her books at:
@AuthorToniBlake
AuthorToniBlake
www.toniblake.com
Look for these other classic Toni Blake reissues
The Cinderella Scheme
The Guy Next Door
The Bewitching Hour
Also by Toni Blake
The Coral Cove Series
All I Want is You
Love Me If You Dare
Take Me All the Way
The Destiny Series
One Reckless Summer
Sugar Creek
Whisper Falls
Holly Lane
Willow Springs
Half Moon Hill
Christmas in Destiny
Other Titles
Wildest Dreams
The Red Diary
Letters to a Secret Lover
Tempt Me Tonight
Swept Away
The Weekend Wife was originally published in a slightly different form under the title Hotbed Honey in 2000.
Copyright © 2000, 2017 by Toni Blake
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
www.toniblake.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
The Weekend Wife/ Toni Blake -- 2nd ed.
ISBN: 978-1-943966-14-1
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