Authors: Candace Havens
Hell, don’t I know it.
The ring had been too much for her. The shock in her eyes alone had created a knot of fear in his gut.
What the hell were you thinking?
That I love her.
He hadn’t lied about the Italian Romeo. She was so beautiful and had such a kind heart. Men were drawn to her and she didn’t have a clue. He’d seen it time and time again when they were in Phosphor. He couldn’t get over that she was his woman.
His woman.
She’d laugh if she heard him say that out loud, but it was true. She was it for him.
The idea of spending another day without waking up next to her was hard to imagine. She brought a kind of balance to his life that he never realized he needed.
He only hoped he did the same for her. When she’d shared with Cade her discussions with her dad, even via the phone he could tell how much mending that relationship had lightened her soul. She’d told him that it was after seeing him with GG and his cousins that she realized how much she was missing out on with her own family.
He’d also been impressed by the way she was able to wrap her quick mind around the details of his business and she had fresh perspective, which was exactly what he needed.
That connection they’d forged in Phosphor had only grown stronger as the days went on. When he found out they’d taken her to the emergency room he’d made preparations to fly to Italy. But she’d called him an hour later to tell him that she was fine.
“Is that bacon?” Patience covered her mouth in a yawn as she sauntered into the kitchen wearing his shirt from the night before. Her long, toned legs and her tousled hair took his breath away.
“I’m not sure the bacon is good for your ulcer, but I’m also making eggs,” he said as he gathered her in his arms and kissed her.
She tugged on his ear. “I don’t care if it’s good for me or not, I’m eating bacon. Maybe I’ll even have seconds.”
The feel of her against him was too much for his control. Gently he set her on the kitchen counter. “I have a better idea of what I want for breakfast,” he said, cupping her left breast.
Her breath hitched as he rubbed his thumb across her nipple. Unbuttoning the shirt he used his tongue on one breast, then the other. Her hands went to his hair as she gasped.
The sound caused a tent in his boxers.
When her hand reached down into said boxers, he nearly came in her hand.
His fingers flew down to her heat and when he discovered she didn’t have on panties, he stopped breathing for a moment. He captured her lips with his as he slid his fingers into her pink flesh.
Patience moaned and writhed against him.
Increasing the speed of his fingers he teased her flesh faster and harder until she screamed her release.
She shuddered and leaned into him, head bent. “I want you, Cade. Please, I need you inside me,” she begged.
More than anything he wanted to, but they were missing a key element.
“Patience, I don’t have a condom.”
She gave him a wicked smile as she pulled one out of the breast pocket of the shirt she was wearing.
That’s when he saw it. She wore the engagement ring.
Everything stopped as he stared at her hand.
She laughed at the shock he knew was on his face.
“Patience, did you come down here to seduce me into marrying you?”
“Yes,” she whispered as she opened the condom. “I dare you to marry me, Cade Randall.”
“Oh, hell, yeah,” he said as her fingers slid the condom down his cock. “I’ll take that dare any day, but are you sure?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said as she guided him into her. The tightness and warmth was almost his undoing. Then she kissed him and Cade’s body took over as he pumped in and out of her slowly.
“Tell me how much you love me, baby,” he said.
She watched him with those knowing eyes of hers. “With everything that I am. Do you want to marry me, Cade Randall?” she asked, as she leaned back on the counter making it easier for him to get his full length into her.
“Yes,” he growled. “I want you more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life.”
“Then take me, Cade, take me.”
“Definitely,” Mar affirmed. “Hold on, Jackson wants to talk to you.”
“Hey, man, I know Mar sounds nervous, but it’s all good. The package is ready.” Jackson was not just Mariska’s husband, but a former CIA agent. They were coming to Phosphor for the wedding and now they had what he hoped would be the best present ever for Patience.
Cade took a deep breath. There was a noise at the top of the stairs. “Thanks for this,” he whispered into the phone. “Just text me when you guys are coming up the walk. I don’t know if I should give them some kind of warning or let it be a surprise.”
“A package this big should be a surprise,” Jackson said.
Cade couldn’t argue that, and besides, he had no idea how he could explain what was about to happen. Never in his life had he been this nervous. All he wanted was for Patience to be happy.
Patience talked him into holding off on the wedding until her dad could come back to the States from Italy. Normally a control freak with a capital
F
she’d left most of the planning to GG, who had done her level best to involve the entire town. There were banners congratulating the couple and twinkle lights on every tree.
Smiling, he watched Patience chat with her father, Professor Clark, as they entered the living room. Thanks to her work on his archeological dig, they had spent more time together in the past few months than they had since she went away to college. Every day he saw those walls she kept erected around herself crumble more and more.
His phone vibrated. This was it.
“Everything okay?” Cade asked.
“Fine,” Patience’s father answered.
That was good. They would need some calm before the storm.
The door creaked open and Mar stepped through.
“Mar!” Patience rushed up to give the woman a hug. “I didn’t know you were coming down today.”
GG stepped up beside Cade. He gave her a worried glance and she put a hand on his shoulder. She, along with Patience’s stepmother, were the only two people at the B and B who knew what was about to happen.
“It’ll be all right, son,” she tried to reassure him.
As she said the words, Patience’s brother, Jeremy, stepped through the door. He was a tall, gangly fellow, with the same curly blond hair as his sister’s, though, his was cut short.
There was a loud gasp. “Jeremy?” The professor reached out a hand to the boy.
Patience had been hugging Mar and was faced away from the young man, but she quickly whipped around at the sound of his name.
A sob came from her throat and she, too, reached out to Jeremy. He looked from one to the other as if he wasn’t sure what he should do.
Patience swallowed hard and then smiled. “Is it really you?”
The young man nodded.
“Do you know who we are?” Her voice was no more than a whisper.
“Yes.” Jeremy’s wobbly voice was hoarse.
Her father stood there with tears streaming down his face. “Son?” He extended his arms full out and this time Jeremy did the same, hugging his father as they sobbed in each other’s arms. Patience wrapped her arms around them both.
Cade glanced around the room and there wasn’t a dry eye anywhere. GG, who rarely cried, dabbed her eyes with a kitchen towel. Then she motioned Mar, Jackson and him to join her in the kitchen.
“Let’s give them some time alone,” she said softly.
As they were turning to go, Cade noticed Patience’s stepmother at the top of the stairs. She held a box of tissues. He motioned for her to come down, but she mouthed, “Have to look after the boys.” He nodded his understanding.
With one more glance back at Patience and her family, he smiled.
“There’s no excuse for what your aunt did,” Cade answered, “but at least Jeremy grew up loved. And he’s a good guy, that’s easy to see. Your mother’s sister might have been crazy, but she took proper care of him.”
Patience kissed Cade’s cheek. “He is a great guy. I’m not surprised he’s an artist. He used to draw on everything.” She sighed happily. “We’re all together, Cade. You brought us all together for our wedding.”
He wrapped one of her curls around his finger. “You can thank your friends Shannon, Mar and Jackson and the rest of the Stonegate gang for their truly heroic efforts. They’ve been working around the clock to find him for you. It was when GG asked if any of your mother’s family might want to come that I started digging.”
Patience and her father didn’t know about her mother’s sister. When her mother had married her dad, no one from her side was in attendance. She told him they were all dead. Now that her aunt, Lucille, was dead there was a good chance they would never know the whole story. The woman told Jeremy that Patience and their father had been in a terrible accident and that she had been given custody of him. He was so young then, that he never thought to question her.
“I guess when I was old enough to ask questions I never thought to,” Jeremy had said. “We had a happy life and it never dawned on me, until your friend Mar arrived at my college dorm, that she might have lied.”
Patience blew out a big breath. “I can’t believe this day. Nothing feels real anymore.”
Cade took both of her hands in his. “This is real,” he said as he kissed her.
She touched his cheek. “In case I’ve forgotten to say it today, I love you. More than I ever thought it possible to love someone.” Leaning away she gave him a wink. “In fact, I’m thinking we should get married or something.”
Cade laughed. “Well, we’re definitely getting married in forty-eight hours, even if I have to hog-tie you and throw you over my shoulder to get you down the aisle.”
She scooted farther away from him. “I only made you wait a few extra months.”
“The longest nine months of my life. I’ve been worried that you were never going to make an honest man out of me.”
Patience giggled. He always did know how to make her laugh. It was one of the many qualities that made him such a wonder.
“Cade?”
“Mmm?” He snuggled into her neck.
“I’m so restless. I think I need a good soak in a hot tub.”
“Do you want me to go up and get the bath started?”
She stood and grabbed his hand pulling him off the couch. “I was thinking some place a little more private. A magical place where the fairies play.”
His eyes lit with understanding. “It’s forty degrees outside, hon.” But he followed her to the coatrack.
“Yes, but the water will be warm and I feel the need to, um, express myself.”
Cade laughed again. “Well, then we better find someplace private.”
She opened the door, but before she could walk through he grabbed her and kissed her hard. “I love you, Patience.”
Her heart whole for the first time in her life, she took his face between her mitten-covered hands. “Cade. That’s what makes my life so amazing.” On his lips, she whispered, “I love you, too, Cade. Always.”
Copyright © 2011 by Candace Havens
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