Foxfire Light (18 page)

“I bought something for you.” Reece went straight to the point, gesturing toward the ring with a nod of his head. Her eyes widened when she saw it. They became misty as they swung to him, her lips parted in wordless surprise. “Don't ring up a 'No Sale.' ”

Her laugh was slightly choked by emotion. “Is this a proposal?” Her hand pushed at the side of her hair, but she made no move to reach for the ring.

“It very definitely is.” He could stand it no longer and removed the ring from the velvet case. Her hand was shaking as she extended it toward him. “Does that mean you are accepting?”

“Yes,” she said in a breathless voice. He slipped it on her finger, then held her hand tightly, his gaze burrowing into her. “Oh, Reece, you do pick the darnedest places. First the boat, with me looking a sight, and now here.”

The ache in her voice told him that she wanted
to be in his arms, that she wanted to be kissed by him. She wasn't alone in her frustration.

“I was going to wait until tonight and do it properly with candlelight and wine and beautiful music in the background,” Reece admitted. “I had a very romantic setting all planned. But I wanted you to say ‘yes' because I asked you and not because you were caught up in the mood of the moment.”

Her response to that was a vague shake of her head, then she was leaning across the counter, her hand curving behind the back of his neck, She kissed him without reserve, erasing any doubt about the reason behind her acceptance.

There was absolute silence in the shop when their kiss ended. All attention was obliquely focused on them. Reece turned, beaming proudly as he surveyed the customers. “It is all perfectly respectable,” he informed them. “The lady has just consented to marry me.”

A murmur ran through the store, rippling like a happy wave. There were smiles of understanding and silent wishes of happiness in their eyes.

O
utside the doll shop, the suspense was building. Waiting in the car with the windows rolled down, Joanna watched the store entrance. Time passed slowly, its weight heavy on her hands. Her thoughts wandered in and around the subject of love and marriage. She tried to imagine her mother's reaction to someone like Linc without success, but it was easy to visualize her skepticism at the thought of Reece finally settling down. She wouldn't take the news well.

With the constant flow of summer traffic on the busy street, the crunching sound of tires on the graveled parking lot attracted minimal attention from Joanna. There was vague recognition that a vehicle had driven up to park next to
the car. Her glance strayed to the side when a door was opened. An electric shock tingled through her system at the sight of Linc's rangy build filling her vision.

“Hello.” Resting a hand on top of the car, he bent to look in the opened window and treated her to one of his crooked smiles.

Her heart seemed to tumble over her ribs with reckless abandon. “Hello.” There was a slightly breathless quality to her voice.

“I was driving by and recognized the car. I thought I noticed someone sitting in it.” He looked briefly toward the shop. “I take it Reece is inside.”

“Yes.” It seemed much longer than three days since she had seen him. An inexplicable kind of hunger filled her and she feasted her eyes on his virile features carved in bronze.

His glance returned to her, his golden-brown eyes inspecting her in a way that threw her senses into chaos. “Have you managed to stay out of trouble lately? No more run-ins with any mules or ghosts?” He was mocking her, yet with a warmth and subtle humor that made it something special.

“Things like that only seem to happen to me when you're around,” Joanna replied. “My life is relatively sane otherwise.”

“Implying that I make you a little crazy?” Linc rephrased the statement.

It did seem to explain the wild, wonderful feeling raging inside her—crazy in love. “Yes.”
She agreed with him without elaborating on the source of this glorious madness.

“Is that good or bad?” His searching gaze probed her expression in an attempt to uncover the ulterior meaning he seemed to sense existed.

“I think it could be good,” Joanna admitted but it depended so much on how he felt.

A lazy gleam of satisfaction appeared in his gaze before his attention was distracted. “Here comes Reece with Rachel,” he announced as he straightened to stand erect.

One look at the beaming couple told Joanna what Rachel's answer had been. Each had an arm around the other's waist as they approached the parked car. As Joanna opened the door and stepped out, Linc moved to one side to give her room.

“She said ‘yes,' didn't she?” Joanna directed the unnecessary question to her uncle, already positive of the answer.

“She did,” Reece stated proudly, then informed Linc of their engagement. “Rachel has agreed to marry me.”

“Welcome to the family.” Joanna hugged her aunt-to-be, while Linc shook hands with Reece.

“Congratulations.”

For the next couple of minutes, it was a jumble of voices as they talked over each other until none of it made sense. They all seemed to realize it simultaneously and stopped talking. The abrupt silence brought a round of shared laughter.

“This calls for a party to celebrate the occasion,” Linc stated when it stopped.

“Linc is right,” Joanna agreed. “Dinner, champagne, everything.”

“Actually, I had in mind an old-fashioned barbeque at my place,” he corrected her with an amused glance. “I'l1 invite a bunch of friends and neighbors over Sunday afternoon.”

“There's no need to go to such trouble,” Reece protested.

“If I thought it would be too much trouble, I wouldn't have suggested it,” Linc replied. “I'll arrange it for Sunday . . . unless the two of you plan to keep the engagement a secret for a while.”

“It would be extremely difficult.” A smile dimpled Rachel's mouth. “Everyone in the store knows about it. By this afternoon, it will be all over town.”

“I wouldn't have cared if the whole world had been there,” Reece insisted.

Linc slid a glance at his watch. “I need to be leaving,” he said indicating there was somewhere else he had to be. His glance rested on Joanna. “Would you give me a hand planning the menu for Sunday?”

“Sure,” she agreed without hesitation.

“I'll stop by this evening sometime,” he told her and turned his attention to the engaged couple. “Congratulations again.”

“Come for dinner,” Joanna invited, betraying some of her eagerness for his company.

Linc shook his head as he opened the door to
the pickup cab. “I can't make it tonight but I'll see you later in the evening.”

His departure signaled the close of the gathering. Rachel reluctantly heeded the silent summons of the shop, calling her back to work. All three of them were looking forward to the coming night, but not all for the same reasons.

When Linc arrived that night, Reece had already left the cabin to meet Rachel. Their initial conversation centered on the engagement of her uncle who was his best friend and their shared approval of it. It naturally led into his plans for the Sunday barbeque and a discussion of the menu. As he made notes, Joanna was beginning to think it was the sole reason he was there, that it hadn't been an excuse to see her as she had first hoped.

She hardly paid attention when Linc read the list back to her. “If that isn't enough variety to satisfy everyone's likes and dislikes, they can just go hungry,” he concluded on a mock threat. “Wouldn't you say so?”

“What?” The blankness left her expression as she remembered what he'd said. “Yes, that's right.”

His gaze traveled over her, then he set his notes aside and combed his fingers through his hair. Flexing his shoulder muscles, he rolled leisurely to his feet and took a step away from the couch. Curled in an armchair, Joanna looked up in bewildered protest.

“Are you leaving?” she questioned.

“Why? Do you want me to go?” With an eyebrow raised he halted near her chair. The subdued glitter in his look said he already knew the answer.

She was irritated into pretending an indifference that she didn't feel. “No, but naturally, if you have somewhere else to go, I don't expect you to stay just to keep me company.” She shrugged and challenged him. “Do you?”

“No.” A smile showed briefly.

She never knew how to act with him. He kept changing the pace and course of their relationship until she didn't know what to expect next. Since she wasn't able to second-guess him, she stopped trying.

“There's iced tea in the kitchen. Would you like some?” She'd get a crick in her neck if she had to keep looking up at him so Joanna uncrossed her legs and rose from the chair.

“I'm glad you did that,” Linc said.

His remark made no sense at all. “Did what?” she frowned, because to her knowledge, she had done nothing except offer him a cold drink.

“Stood up.” The span of a foot separated them.

“Why?” Joanna still didn't understand. If anything, she was more confused.

“There is an old Ozark superstition,” his hands found her waist and shortened some of that distance, “—that says a man shouldn't kiss a girl while he's standing and she's sitting in a chair.”

The nearness of him was starting those funny
little pitter-patters of her heart. With an absent fascination, she studied the way her hands rested on the wall of his chest.

“Why not?” The upward sweep of her glance met his steady look and all sorts of crazy sensations started leaping inside.

“According to superstition, that would cause an immediate quarrel,” Linc explained.

“Who told you that?” She laughed out the words.

“I have it on the best authority,” he assured her.

“Let me guess. Jessie Bates.” She tipped her head to one side, provocative and challenging.

“Right, and arguing is not one of the things I want to do with you tonight,” Linc stated and increased the pressure to bring her fully against him.

It was all the invitation Joanna needed as she stretched to meet him halfway. His mouth seared its claim on hers in a long, drugging kiss. Arching against him, she was aware of his hard, muscular thighs and the sinewed steel of his encircling arms molding her to him. Her hands curled themselves around his neck, her anchor in this raging storm of emotions.

When they finally came up for air, Joanna was too dazzled by the heat lightning flashing through her to move an inch away from him. The brush of his lips closed her eyes, flirting with her lashes before it ran over the rest of her face. The emotion running through her was so fierce that she trembled from it.

She wanted him so much that when she spoke, it was almost a groan. “Linc, you can't believe any more that I'm not ready.” It was a protest at his lack of initiative to let the embrace go beyond mere kisses.

“By God, you'd better mean that,” he muttered against her throat. “I'm not interested in casual sex, Joanna. If that's all you want, you're picking the wrong man.”

“I think I have the right one,” she said and felt a brief stirring of surprise that she could be so positive. “I barely know you at all, yet I seem to know all that's important.”

His hand covered her breast in a physical demonstration of the rights she was giving him. “Patience is not one of my strong suits,” Linc warned. “If you think I'm going to be like Reece and court you for nearly six years, you're wrong. It isn't going to be like that.”

“I don't want it like that,” Joanna admitted huskily. “I couldn't stand it.”

She felt she would go crazy now if he didn't do more than hold her. Her breast seemed to swell to fill the palm of his hand, straining to achieve a greater intimacy. All of her ached with the same need.

“I'm not going to carry on any love affair long distance—with you in California and me here.” He continued to spell out his conditions, insisting that Joanna be aware of what he expected.

“What is the alternative to long distance?” She was arching against him in deliberate provocation.
Her teeth teased at his earlobe, nipping at it in sexual play. “Is it this? You're from Missouri, Linc. Show me.”

“It won't be a temporary coupling.” Linc drew his head back to look at her while he emphasized his message. “The linkage will be a lasting one.”

Her lips lay against each other in an inviting line, sensual and full. “Ever since I arrived in the Ozarks, everyone has been telling me how instinctively intelligent you hillpeople are. But I'm beginning to think I'll have to send you an engraved invitation to make love to me.” She didn't try to hide any of her feelings from him, letting him see all the fires that burned inside. “I thought you were a man of action. But, maybe you act as slow as you talk.”

“Are you trying to get a rise out of me?” Linc drawled and eyed her with a complacent look.

“Now, you're getting the idea,” she murmured.

His mouth began its movement toward her. “I'll give you all you can handle—and more,” he taunted.

The piercing crush of his arms was sweet agony, that unique mixture of pleasure and pain. There was no holding back in this embrace. Joanna wanted to give as she got, and Linc was inflaming her with his needs.

The shrill ring of the telephone was a piercing interruption. Joanna shuddered a protest when Linc lifted his head, dragging his mouth
across her temple. Leaning against him, she tried to close her hearing to the sound, but it kept repeating itself.

His arm stayed around her waist, supporting her and drawing her along with him as he turned to pick up the receiver. With her head tipped to rest against his shoulder, Joanna watched him carry the phone to his ear and answer it.

“No, it isn't. Reece isn't here at the moment,” Linc said in an obvious response to a question by the caller.