One Winter's Night (18 page)

He was silent for a moment. “I saw the pain Bane went through when he and Crystal were forced apart. I can still see that pain whenever he comes home and asks about her or mentions her name. A love that fierce scared the hell out of me. I never wanted that kind of love for myself. Our lives were shattered when we lost our parents and uncle and aunt in that plane crash. I could not imagine falling in love with a woman and going through that sort of pain due to death or any other kind of separation.”

He went back and sat down. “So my issues were making it hard for me to ever consider a serious involvement with a woman. Until you. With you, it was hard to keep my emotions in check, and I found myself wanting things I felt I shouldn’t have.”

Alpha could barely breathe. Was he saying what she hoped he was saying? That at some point it had become more than just sex with no commitment? That he had been fighting his emotions for her like she had been fighting hers for him? “What are you saying?” she asked softly.

“I’m saying that as much as I wished otherwise, it stopped being just sex for me during our trip to Memphis. I wanted to tell you then but didn’t want to push you into anything. So I decided to give you hints about where I wanted our relationship to go. That’s why I started sending the flowers. Why I invited you to meet my family. They took the hint but you were slow. It angered me when Paula showed up at my place with that DVD. How could you have thought it had been a private joke between her and me?”

She tried to get her heart rate to slow down. Had he kind of said, in so many words, that he loved her? “I saw the exchange between you two that day at McKay’s, when I took off my coat and she saw my outfit.”

He smiled. “Oh, that. It wasn’t a private joke. It was egg on her face. The last time she saw you, you were overdressed because of the cold weather. She made a comment about me dating a frumpy woman. She got to see just how
not
frumpy you were and was almost rendered speechless. I liked the fact that she had to eat crow.”

“Oh.”

“I think we both had misgivings about allowing our relationship to go beyond anything other than just sex. So now I want to make it clear what I want. I want you, Alpha, and not just in a physical way. I love you so damn much it scares me. But I’m willing to take a chance on love and believe it was meant for us to be together, no matter what.”

Alpha tried to fight back the tears that filled her eyes. “Oh, Riley, I love you, too, but I had promised myself never to let anyone come between me and Omega. When I saw that DVD in your drawer, I thought the worst and I’m sorry.”

He eased from the chair and crossed the room to sit down beside her on the sofa. Reaching out, he wiped away her tears and then took her hand in his and held it tight. “So what do you think we should do about our issues?”

She was filled with so many emotions, she almost couldn’t speak. Then she said, “What do you suggest?”

“I think we need to communicate more when it comes to things that threaten the love we have for each other. The thought of losing you for any reason is my worst nightmare and something I won’t let happen.”

“Oh, Riley.”

He leaned down and brushed a kiss across her lips. Then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her with all the intense emotion that he was feeling. When he finally released her mouth, he softly caressed her cheek. “Will you marry me?”

She reached up and caressed his chin. “Only if we can have a long engagement. We owe it to ourselves to build our relationship, develop open communication and trust. And besides, there’s no way we can marry before Megan’s big day in June.”

He nodded in agreement. “Then you decide when and I shall be there. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I love you, too.” She stood. “Now I need to get back home before the storm hits.”

He stood, as well. “If you think for one minute I’m letting you go back out in that weather, then think again. It’s hard to believe you even ventured out.”

“We needed to talk and I wanted to do it face-to-face.”

“Well, we did, face-to-face, and you know what I think?”

“No.”

“That our very own one winter’s night should start now,” he said, standing and pulling her close to him. “What do you say to that?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I would say start the party.”

He swept her off her feet and headed upstairs toward the bedroom, intending on doing just that.

Epilogue

A beautiful day in June

R
iley grabbed Alpha's arm when she hurriedly walked by him and pulled her behind a huge planter to steal a quick kiss. “Hey, slow down. How long will I have to be without a date?”

Alpha wrapped her arms around Riley's neck. “Just long enough for Megan and Rico to cut the cake. Don't you think they made a beautiful bridal couple?”

“Yes, and thanks to Imagine, it was a storybook wedding. You truly outdid yourself. I thought everything was perfect.”

“I think you're perfect.” And she really meant that. Over the course of the past six months, she and Riley had continued to build an even stronger relationship. Somehow he had talked her into that ski trip to Aspen in January and, as promised, he had kept her warm...most of the time. She hadn't gotten the hang of being on skis but the evenings spent in his arms in front of the fireplace had given them plenty more winter nights to cherish.

He had flown home to Daytona Beach with her over Easter weekend to meet her parents. Before that, he had invited Omega and Marlon to a surprise party he'd given for Alpha at the end of February to celebrate her selection as Denver's Small Businesswoman of the Year. She could tell he liked Omega and was one of the few who could tell them apart. And Alpha knew Riley liked Marlon Farmer, Omega's husband. The two had hit it off immediately. Already plans were in the works for her and Riley to visit Omega and Marlon in Paris...especially since Omega was expecting. She had never seen her sister looking so happy and radiant.

She glanced down on the beautiful ring she wore. They had decided on an August wedding, and she was looking forward to becoming Mrs. Riley Westmoreland.

Alpha also knew that while in Daytona, Riley had talked with her parents and let them know that she had his full support in maintaining a close relationship with her twin. He further told them how much family meant to him and that he hoped one day they would be able to repair their relationship with Omega. She had fallen more in love with him at that moment.

The sound of loud laughter made Alpha look in the direction of the wedded couple. They had just cut the cake. After Megan fed Rico a slice it seemed he was still licking the icing off Megan's fingers.

Alpha then glanced around the huge ballroom and her gaze settled on Riley's cousin Zane. He was leaning against the wall and staring hard at Dr. Channing Hastings, the woman he hadn't wanted Megan to invite.

“What are you looking at, baby?” Riley asked her.

She smiled up at him. “Your cousin Zane and how he's staring at Channing Hastings. She's beautiful.”

Riley nodded. “Yes, Channing is beautiful both in and out. She and Zane had an affair a couple of years back when she lived here in Denver.”

“Now she's engaged to be married to the man with the roving eyes. I bet he's checked out every single woman here today, even a few married ones.”

Riley nodded, looking over at the man at Channing's side. “You noticed that, as well? She deserves better, which has me wondering why Channing is marrying the guy. I bet Zane is wondering that, as well. But as far as I'm concerned, when you snooze, you lose, and Zane was definitely snoozing when it came to Channing. I would bet any amount of money that he's feeling the pain of his loss. We always warned him that his womanizing ways would cost him one day. So he won't get any pity from me.”

Alpha couldn't help but grin. “How can you talk? You were just as much a womanizer.”

Riley shook his head. “Nobody could top Zane when it came to women. And, as far as I'm concerned, you have to admit that when I met the woman I knew was for me, I had no problem making her mine and putting a ring on her finger,” he said, reaching out and taking her ringed hand in his. “Zane was too stubborn to do that. And I hate to say it, but he probably has lost the only woman he is capable of loving.”

“How sad.” She truly meant it. Now that she had Riley, she couldn't imagine not having the person you loved in your life. But she had a feeling, from the way Zane was staring at Channing, that Zane would be changing that soon. Alpha couldn't help wondering why Dr. Hastings would marry a man with wandering eyes.

“I've got to get back,” she whispered, before brushing a kiss across his cheeks. “My work isn't completed until I get Megan and Rico off on their honeymoon. I think it's wonderful that they're going to Dubai for two weeks.”

“Yes, it is wonderful, isn't it?”

She glanced around at all the Atlanta, Montana and Texas Westmorelands she had met over the past couple of days. The men all favored and the women were ultrafriendly. She felt blessed that she was marrying into such a warm and loving family. She smiled when she glanced over and saw Pam and Dillon with their daughter, who'd been born on Christmas Day. She was definitely a beauty.

She then saw Riley's brother, Bane, whom she had just met earlier that day when he had arrived in town. He was such a handsome man she had to take a second look every time she saw him. Even though he was always smiling, she could detect sadness around his eyes. Now she understood Riley's reasons for not wanting to feel the pain his brother was enduring.

“Alpha?”

She glanced up at Riley. Immediately, he lowered his mouth to hers, swiping any thoughts from her mind and kissing her with a hunger that she couldn't help but reciprocate, capturing her tongue in his and doing all sorts of erotic and scandalous things to it.

Scandalous...

It seeped back into her brain just where they were and what she was supposed to be doing. Dislodging her mouth from his, which wasn't an easy feat, she took a step back and drew in a deep breath. “Has anyone ever told you that you shouldn't mess around with the hired help?” she said playfully.

“No, and I wouldn't listen to them anyway. I have tunnel vision when it comes to you, sweetheart.”

He took a step closer to regain the distance she'd put between them, bringing his body to hers. She felt something else he had, an erection that was hard and thick. “I'm going now, and I think you need to stay behind this planter until you get yourself together.”

He chuckled. “As long as you're close by, I'll never be together—unless you're sharing my bed. And I've been thinking.”

“About what?”

“We've had our one winter's night so what about a summer one?” he asked, leaning down and nibbling her lips.

“Riley...” she whispered in a strained voice, “I do need to get back to the wedding.”

“No, you don't,” he said, wrapping his arms around her. “Lindsey is a great assistant and has everything under control.”

“Megan is going to fire me.”

“And I will hire you to plan my wedding,” he said as his mouth moved lower to nibble her throat.

“Behave,” she said, pulling out of his arms again.

“Only if you promise that as soon as this wedding is over you will meet me at Riley's Station for our own after-wedding party.”

She gazed up at him. She had a million things to do, but he was right, Lindsey was a great assistant and Alpha had a fantastic staff. “Okay, I promise.”

She quickly moved away but couldn't resist glancing back over her shoulder. She was one lucky woman, and later tonight, when she was through with Riley Westmoreland, he would be convinced he was one lucky man.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
Up Close and Personal
by Maureen Child

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One

“L
aura, I know you're in there!”

Ronan Connolly pounded on the brightly painted blue front door a few more times, then paused to listen. Not a sound from inside the house, though he knew too well that Laura was in there. Hell, he could practically
feel
her, standing just on the other side of the damned door.

Bloody hardheaded woman. How had he ever thought that quality attractive? Now that attractive hardheadedness had come back to bite him in the ass.

Seconds ticked past and there was no sound from within, which only irritated him further. He glanced at the sunshine-yellow Volkswagen parked alongside the house—her car—then glared again at the still-closed front door.

“You won't convince me you're not at home. Your bloody car is parked in the street, Laura.”

Her voice came then, muffled but clear. “It's a driveway in America, Ronan. You're not in Ireland, remember?”

“More's the pity.” He scrubbed one hand across his face and rolled his eyes in frustration. If they were in Ireland right now, he'd have half the village of Dunley on his side and he'd bloody well get her to open the damned door.

“I heard that,” she said. “And feel free to hop onto one of your private planes and go back to Connolly-land anytime you feel like it!”

If only he could, Ronan thought. But he'd come to California to open an American branch of his business and until Cosain was running as it should, he was going nowhere at all.

At the moment though, he was tired, on edge and in no mood to be dealing with more females. Especially one with a head as hard as Laura's.

He had spent the past six weeks traveling across Europe acting as bodyguard to a sixteen-year-old pop star whose singing was only slightly less annoying than her attitude. Between the girl and her grasping mother, Ronan had been more than ready for the job to end so he could get back to his life. Now that he was back, he'd expected peace. Orderliness. Instead…

Grinding his teeth together, he took a long moment or two and counted to ten. Then did it a second time. “Whatever the hell you want to call it, Laura, your car is
here
and so're you.”

“I might have been out,” she shouted. “Did you ever think of that? I do have friends, you know.”

The Connolly temper lifted a couple notches inside him and Ronan was forced to fight it back down.

“But you're not out, are you?” he asked, entirely reasonably, and he gave himself points for it. “You're here, driving me to distraction and making me shout at a bloody closed door like I'm the village idiot turned loose on his own for the first time.”

“You don't have to shout, I can hear you,” she said, her voice carrying nicely through the door.

Laura Page lived on a tidy street in Huntington Beach, California, in one of a dozen town houses built to look like a Cape Cod village. When he'd first seen her place, he'd thought it charming. Now he glared at the building as if it were to blame for his current situation.

A cool ocean breeze shot down the narrow street and rattled the limbs of the nearly naked elm tree in Laura's front yard. Roiling gray clouds overhead promised a storm soon, and he hoped to hell he wasn't still standing on this bleeding porch when it hit.

“Your neighbors can hear me, too,” he pointed out with a brief nod at the man clipping his hedge with enough vigor to whittle it into a toothpick. “Why not open the door and we can talk this out. Together. In private.”

“I've got nothing to say to you.”

He laughed shortly. That would be a first indeed, he told himself. A more opinionated woman he had never met. In the beginning, he'd liked that about her. Too often, he was surrounded by smiling, vacuous women who agreed with everything he said and laughed at the lamest of jokes just to ingratiate themselves with him.

But not Laura.

No, from the first, she had been stubborn and argumentative and unimpressed with his wealth or celebrity. He had to admit, he had enjoyed verbally sparring with her. He admired a quick mind and a sharp tongue. He'd admired her even more once he'd gotten her into his bed.

He glanced down at the dozen red roses he held clutched in his right hand and called himself a damned fool for thinking this woman would be swayed by pretty flowers and a smooth speech. Hell, she hadn't even
seen
the flowers yet. And at this rate, she never would.

Huffing out an impatient breath, he lowered his voice a bit. “You know why I'm here. Let's get it done and have it over then.”

There was a moment's pause, as if she were thinking about what he'd said. Then she spoke up again. “You can't have him.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” she called back and Ronan narrowed his gaze fiercely on the door as if he could see through the panel to the woman beyond.

“Aye, I heard you. Though I don't believe it. I've come for what's mine, and I'm not leaving until I have it.”

“
Yours?
You've been gone two months, Ronan. What makes you think anything is still
yours
?”

Tossing the roses to the ground, Ronan set his hands on either side of the door and leaned in. “Laura, I've been on a bloody plane for ten hours, listening to a teenage girl list the reasons she is to be adored. I've had her mother bitching about everything from the type of bottled water on the jet to the fluffiness of her pillow. I'm a man on the edge, love. All I've thought of for these last weeks is getting back to my house on the cliffs and seeing my damned
dog
. I'm not leaving without him.”

The door was yanked open suddenly and there she stood. Five feet nine inches of curvy blonde with a pair of blue eyes as clear and lovely as a summer sky. Even in her worn jeans and button-down white shirt, she took his damned breath away, and he resented that fact down to his bones.

She kept one hand on the door and the other braced against the doorjamb as if she'd be enough to keep him out if he decided he wanted in.

Ronan glanced down and saw
his
dog leaning into her with slavish adoration. He scowled at the animal he called Beast, and the dog paid him no attention whatsoever. “A few weeks gone and you've dismissed me?” he asked the dog in a withering tone. “What kind of loyalty is that from man's best friend?”

The dog whined and leaned even more heavily into Laura's side until she staggered a little under his weight.

“A ‘best friend' wouldn't have abandoned him,” Laura said.

“He wasn't put out into a jungle forced to hunt for his own food,” Ronan countered. “My cousin Sean—”

“Left him with me when he went back to Ireland. You can see now that Beast is fine. He's happy here. With me.”

“That may be,” Ronan told her after sparing his traitorous hound another hard glare. “But he's not yours, is he?”

“He's in my house. That makes him mine.”

“He's only
in
your house because Sean asked you to look out for him until I got back.”

And for that, Ronan owed his cousin a punch in the face. Called back to Ireland unexpectedly, Sean had asked Laura to watch Beast in order to save the animal a monthlong stay in a kennel. Which Ronan hadn't found out about until it was too late to change anything. Yes, it had been the right choice for the dog. But for Ronan?

He hadn't seen Laura since he ended their affair two months ago. Though he couldn't exactly claim to have shut her out of his mind. Hell, he had taken the bodyguard job for the teenage singer himself, rather than handing it to one of his employees, only so that he could get a little distance from the woman standing so temptingly close to him at the moment. Distance hadn't helped. He'd thought of her. Dreamed of her, and awakened nearly every morning with his body tight and ready for her.

Even now, the lush, slightly floral scent of her reached out to him as if to tease every sense memory he had of touching her, tasting her, being inside her…

“Ronan,” she said in a patient tone that interrupted his musings, “we both know Beast is better off with me. You're not exactly a good dog parent—”

“I'm not his father, I'm his bloody owner,” Ronan countered.

She ignored him. “Soon enough you'll be going back to Ireland and—”

“Taking Beast with me,” he finished for her.

In truth, he hadn't really considered what he would do with Beast when his time in America was over. But right now, the decision seemed an easy one. Even fighting the quarantine laws to get the dog home to Ireland would seem like a vacation after dealing with Laura Page.

Jaw tight, he looked deeply into those calm blue eyes and wondered if she was as unaffected by him as she seemed. Had she forgotten him so quickly? Gotten over him so completely? A lowering thought for a man to consider.

Brushing aside what had once been between them, he said, “Beast is mine, and I always intended to take him home to Ireland with me when I go. Nothing's changed.”

“Sure it has,” she said, taking a step toward him, dislodging the dog so that he nearly toppled over. “You have a dog back home, right?”

“Aye. Deirdre.”

“And it's been how long since you've seen her?”

“That's nothing to do with this.”

“It's
everything
to do with it,” she countered, folding her arms beneath her breasts. “A dog needs more than a visit every couple of months. A dog needs love. Companionship. Someone he can count on. Someone who will
be
there.”

Frowning, Ronan looked hard at her. This was the reason he had stepped back from their relationship in the first place. The woman had hearth and home and forever practically stenciled on her forehead. She was a woman who wanted and
deserved
to be loved. He just wasn't the man to give that to her. So he'd ended their affair before things got even more complicated than they had been already.

“Are you talking about Beast now, Laura, or yourself?”

She gaped at him. “Your ego knows no bounds, does it? Do you really think I've been sitting here moping? Missing you?”

Actually, yes. He did. And the more fired up she got, the more he knew she was no more over him than he was her.

“This isn't about us, Ronan. It's about Beast, and you can't have him. You don't
deserve
him.”

Before he could counter, she slammed the door in his face and Ronan heard the lock snap into place. Stunned, he stared at the closed door for a long minute. He could hardly believe it. No one shut a door in Ronan Connolly's face, for pity's sake.

He heard her inside, cooing to Beast, assuring him that he was safe from bullies and that was nearly enough to have Ronan pounding on her door again. But he thought better of it. Let her believe she'd won this battle. It would make her complacent and that much easier to get around later.

Still furious, he turned sharply, stomped on the fallen roses and left.

But he'd be back. Connollys didn't know how to quit.

* * *

“It's all right, sweetie,” Laura said to Beast as she scrubbed the top of his head and scratched behind his ears. “The mean man is gone.”

Laura was trembling by the time she heard Ronan's sports car fire up and zoom off. Oh, not from the argument. She had known that confrontation was coming for weeks. But actually seeing him again had been much harder than she'd thought it would be.

Looking up into those dark blue eyes of his, she'd watched them flash with temper and had been just as stirred as when she'd seen them darken with passion or glitter with a cool, businesslike gleam.

Tall, broad-shouldered, with chestnut hair that showed just a hint of red in the sunlight, he wore business suits and jeans with the same casual air that made him both intimidating and irresistible. And apparently two months apart hadn't dimmed her reaction to him at all.

From the moment he had first walked into her real estate office several months ago, Laura had known that she was in trouble. Oh, she and her sister had sold homes to unspeakably rich people before, but there had never been the slightest temptation to fit herself into their world. With Ronan, it had been different from the start.

Everything in her still wanted him, even though her mind knew better. He'd been out of her life for two months and that was as it should be. After all, she had known going into that mind-dazzling affair that it couldn't last. He was rich; she wasn't. He was Ferrari and she was Volkswagen. He lived in Ireland. And she'd be staying in California.

She sighed a little, then looked down at the dog each of them wanted. Beast was big, at least a hundred pounds and his black hair was full and shaggy, clumps of it usually falling across his eyes. No one knew what mixture of breeds he might be, but privately, Laura had often thought a pony must have been involved somewhere in his lineage.

Now, Beast looked up at her as if sympathizing with the situation, and Laura smiled.

“Sure,” she whispered, still stroking Beast's head, “I knew Ronan would be trouble from the first. But a gorgeous, successful man with an Irish accent that makes my bones melt? How was I supposed to fight that?”

The dog gave her one long swiping kiss and she laughed. In his own way, Beast was as charming as his master—just another reason she wouldn't give him up. Then she stood and walked to the kitchen, hearing Beast's claws clatter on the floorboards behind her.

“Well,” her sister, Georgia, spoke up from the kitchen table. “That was dignified.”

Laura poured herself a cup of coffee, then carried it across the room to take the chair opposite her sister. “I wasn't going for dignified.”

“Luckily.”

She already knew Georgia's opinion on the whole situation with Ronan—namely,
Never mix business with pleasure
—and she really didn't want to go into it all again. Laura avoided her sister's all-too-perceptive stare by sliding her own gaze around the comfortable kitchen.