Wishes (21 page)

He turned away as though he expected Nellie to follow, but he looked back and frowned when she remained where she was. “I told you that you have to return.”

“No,” Nellie said. “I’m not going.”

“What?”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Jace (and Berni, watching) gasped. “
Now
she stands up for herself,” Berni muttered in disbelief.

“You can’t stay here in this storm. These shacks are about to fall down.”

“What does it matter to you?” Nellie yelled at him. “I am nothing to you.”

Jace was across the porch in seconds, his face furious as he grabbed her shoulders. “You could have been everything to me, but you chose your family over me.”

“I am not a dog, Mr. Montgomery, to follow you blindly. I love my family, and of course I’d believe them over you. Wouldn’t you believe your family over a stranger?”

“I’m not a stranger. I’m—” He broke off.

“You’re what?”

“Nothing,” he said, and he dropped his hands and took a step backward. “You have to return with me.”

“I most certainly do not. I am an adult. I got out here by myself, and I can return without your help.”

“I guess you can at that,” Jace said, his face hard. “Good day, Miss Grayson. Perhaps we’ll meet again.” He turned and started to walk away.

“Freeze!”
Berni shouted, and the picture did freeze, Nellie at one end of the porch and Jace at the other, his back to her. “I have never seen two more hard-headed people in my life,” she muttered. “I know the course of true love is never supposed to be smooth, but this is ridiculous. Now let me think.”

She looked at the two of them under the porch, the rain pelting down, then smiled. “What are the sexiest words in a romance novel?” She deepened her voice. “ ‘We’d better get you out of those wet things. It looks like we’re gonna be here all night.’ ”

Berni grinned, then snapped her fingers. A huge bowl of butter-dripping popcorn appeared. She leaned back in her chair. “Go to it, kids. You’re on your own. If you can’t handle it by yourselves from here on, you don’t
deserve
a happy ending.”

J
ace turned back at Nellie’s scream. The end of the porch where she’d been standing was gone. It had collapsed under the weight of the rain, and Nellie was nowhere to be seen. He covered the distance to the end of the porch in two strides and saw Nellie floundering about in a deep pool of water. He didn’t think about what he did but jumped in after her.

“Nellie, are you all right?”

“Yes,” she yelled back, gulping water and clinging to him.

The pool was deep but not very big, so he was able to pull her to the side in just a few strokes. He grabbed her waist and, finding a toehold, pushed her up to the safety of the muddy street.

“Let’s get out of here,” he shouted when he was out of the pool. Rain was beating him in the face. He put his arm around her protectively, and they began to run to the old stables where her buggy and his horse were tied. But just as they reached the building a brilliant flash of lightning lit the sky and thunder cracked over their heads. Jace’s horse reared, Nellie’s horse reared, and both horses broke away from where they were tied. Jace pulled Nellie to him as the two horses ran past them into the rain.

Jace stood for a moment staring after the horses. He knew he had not only tied his horse but shut and bolted the stable door. The door hadn’t looked rotten enough that the horse could have broken it so easily.

A shiver from Nellie made him turn his attention to her. With his arm still around her he led her down the street to a dilapidated old house that was failing in on one side, but he could see a chimney, and he hoped the fireplace was still working.

There was firewood stacked inside the house, and after checking to see that the flue was clear he built a fire, blowing on a little pile of dried sticks and paper. It was some time before he had the fire going and he turned to look at Nellie. He knew he was wet and cold, but Nellie’s lips were blue.

“Do you have anything else to put on?” he asked. “Is there something in the buggy?”

“I…I don’t know,” Nellie said, teeth chattering. “It’s Aunt Berni’s buggy.”

“I’ll go see.” He went outside into the rain, ran to the half-rotted stables, and searched the carriage. He found a small lap robe and the picnic basket. Bending over to protect them from the rain, he ran back to the house. Nellie was shivering even harder. He knelt and threw more wood on the fire, then opened the basket and withdrew the tablecloth.

“It doesn’t look like there’s a chance of this rain letting up, and I can’t find the horses until morning.” He looked up at her. “Maybe you’d better get out of those wet clothes. You can wrap this around you.”

Silently Nellie took the tablecloth and walked to the far side of the room. Her hands were so cold she had trouble unfastening the buttons of her dress. She kept glancing at him, at his broad back as he knelt before the fire. She didn’t, understand why she’d been so angry at him earlier, but she hated his insinuation that she was interested in him for his money. The
last
thing she cared about was his money. If she had’ realized that he loved her, she would have lived with him in the worst hovel in America.

When she was down to her chemise and knickers she hesitated to remove them, but they were cold and clammy next to her skin. She looked at Jace and her hands began to tremble even more, but this time not from the cold. With shaking fingers she removed all of her clothing and wrapped the tablecloth about her bare body. She unpinned her hair and shook the wet mass about her shoulders.

She walked back to the fire and stopped a little behind Jace. “You look cold, too,” she said softly.

“I’m all right,” he answered, and there was hostility in his voice.

What was it Aunt Berni had said about men, Nellie wondered. It hadn’t made sense at the time, but now she remembered something about Jace not thinking she was his best friend. He was right: She hadn’t been his friend.

She sat on the floor very near him. “How is your brother’s foot?”

“All right,” Jace said tersely, not looking at her.

“And did your mother get over her cold? Is she singing again?”

“Yeah.” He snapped out the word. “Everybody at home is fine.” He turned to glare at her. “And they’ll be glad to see me again. People at home trust me. They don’t believe I’m a liar.”

She couldn’t bear his stare. She looked back at the fire. “I was wrong,” she whispered. “I told you that. I tried to believe you, but I couldn’t believe you’d want someone like me.” She looked back at him. “I
still
can’t believe it. You could have any woman on earth. Why would you want an old maid like me? I’m not exciting, I quit school when I was fourteen, I’m not anything special at all.”

“You make me feel good,” he said softly, and he leaned toward her as though he might kiss her, but then he pulled away. “You did make me feel good. I thought you felt about me as I did about you, but I was wrong. I think you believed you loved me in spite of the fact that I was a low-life, philandering nobody who was after your father’s money.”

“True,” she said. “I did. After the Harvest Ball, after I heard so many dreadful things about you, I still went to my father’s office to see you. Even thinking the worst about you I still loved you. It has been a joy to discover that I’m in love with a good man.”

For a moment he seemed to sway toward her, then he pulled back. “A rich one, you mean. Tell me, has your father drawn up any contracts having to do with Warbrooke Shipping? Is that why you lost weight? Did you and your family think you could snare a rich fish easier with a skinny worm?”

“How dare you,” Nellie said under her breath. “I never even knew about your money until after you’d returned from abandoning me.”

“I didn’t abandon you!” He stood and glared down at her. “I received a telegram saying my father was very ill. I suspect your treacherous little sister sent it.”

Nellie also came to her feet. “You leave my sister out of this. Terel has been a great comfort to me. All those months you were gone and no word from you, I—”

“I wrote you. I wrote you about everything. I sold every stick of furniture, every blade of grass I owned so I could come be with you, and then you told me to get out of your house.”

“And you told me I had three days, yet when I came to you, you threw me out,” she shouted back at him. “Maybe one of your other women would have left her family in three days, but I couldn’t. I would have followed you anywhere.”

“Ha! You can’t leave, your dear sister for even one day. You may as well be a prisoner in their house. You cook for them, clean for them, adore them. And for what? What do they give you in return? They don’t want you to marry and leave them, because where else could they find such a servant as you?”

His words were too close to home. She turned away as tears started to form.

He took a step toward her but didn’t touch her. The tablecloth had fallen off her shoulders, and he could see them shaking with her tears. “Nellie, I’m sorry,” he said softly. “It hurt more than I can say to find out that my love wasn’t returned. Maybe I’ve been spoiled, I don’t know. I’ve only fallen in love once before in my life, with Julie, and she loved me in return. There was never any question that we loved each other. Julie trusted me, she—”

“And her family knew your family?”

“Of course. We’d grown up together.”

“My family didn’t know you. You were a stranger to us and you…you paid attention to a woman no man in town had ever even looked at, much less loved. You—”

“That is the strangest damn thing,” Jace said, his voice rising. “What’s
wrong
with this town? I was glad the men saved you for me, but they must all be blind or stupid. You’re by far the prettiest girl in town, you’re smart, you’re funny, and you’re the most desirable female I’ve seen in years.”

Nellie turned to look at him. “You’re the one who’s blind. I’m fat old Nellie Grayson, only good for cooking and ironing and—”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “You were made to love and be loved. Why couldn’t they see that?”

“I’m glad they didn’t,” she whispered against his lips. “If I’d married someone else, I wouldn’t have met you.”

He held her against him, and his hands roamed over her body until Nellie wasn’t sure she could breathe. He released her abruptly. “Look—ah—this is going to be a long night. Maybe we ought to eat something and get a little sleep.”

Nellie looked at him and knew what she wanted to do. She wanted him to make love to her. Maybe out of her own stupidity she’d lost her only chance for marriage and a home of her own, but she wasn’t going to lose this opportunity to spend the night with the man she loved. She wasn’t going to let pride or convention stand in the way of one night with this beloved man.

She smiled at him and moved the basket nearer to the fire. As she looked inside it she said, as though it meant nothing, “You’ll catch your death in those wet clothes. You’d better remove them. You can wrap up in the lap robe.” He didn’t say anything and she didn’t look at him, but she heard him turn and walk to the far end of the room.

Nellie was shaking as she withdrew one package of food after another from the basket. She couldn’t identify some of the items. In the bottom were three bottles of wine, one of champagne, plus lovely crystal glasses. She was wondering how the glasses had not been broken when she saw Jace’s bare foot across from her.

She looked up slowly, up muscular calves to heavy thighs, then a small robe about his waist. She’d never seen a nude man before, and the sight of Jace’s broad, thick, sculpted chest made her mouth dry.

She sat back on the floor with a thunk. “Oh my,” she whispered. “My goodness, my.”

To his consternation, Jace found himself blushing. “I, ah, ah…anything good to eat in there?”

Nellie kept looking at him and swallowing. She had no idea an unclothed man could be so utterly, splendidly beautiful.

“Champagne,” he said, bending to pick up the bottle. He quickly popped the cork, then, sitting, he filled two glasses and reached across the basket to hand Nellie one. “What shall we drink to?” he asked.

“To love,” she whispered, her eyes roaming over his body.

“Oh, God, Nellie,” he said with a groan, then he quickly pushed the basket out of the way and was on her. “I can’t wait for our wedding night. I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you.” He was kissing her neck. “I’ve behaved so well. I’ve kept my hands off you, but I can’t bear this torture any longer. Please,” he whispered.

“Teach me,” she whispered as she kissed his ear. “Teach me everything.”

He didn’t answer as he kissed her neck, his hand moving the cloth off her shoulder. When he had the cloth half off her body she could feel his skin against hers, his hairy roughness against her soft smoothness. His body was so lean and hard, so full of planes and angles. She ran her hand down the side of him. His lap robe was gone, and she touched the leanness of his buttock.

“Nellie,” he whispered before his mouth descended to her breast.

There were no words or thoughts to express how his mouth felt. That this man who had taught her so much, who had given her the greatest gift of all, love, should give her this wonderful, heavenly, physical joy was almost more than she could bear.

Instinctively she arched her body up against his as his tongue made circles on her breast. His hand ran down her body, caressing her, touching her skin. He moved his hand inside her thighs, stroking, kneading, making her feel things she never dreamed existed.

He rolled to the other side of her, his body slightly off of hers. Nellie looked at him in the firelight, his eyes half closed with desire. His lips were full and slightly parted. She touched his lips, running her fingertips over them lightly, then ran her fingers down his neck, across his chest, down his hips and to his thighs as far as she could reach.

She closed her eyes and put her arms around him, and he moved fully on top of her. Nellie wasn’t sure what she was doing, but instinct, desire, and love combined to make her raise her hips to him.

When he first entered her she gasped at the pain, but when he started to withdraw she clasped him to her. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered.

“Never.”

He went slowly with her, pausing now and then, waiting while she adjusted to this new emotion. “Nellie, I…” he said, and then he was blinded with passion. Nellie’s eyes opened. He hurt her, true, but this building force in him, this overpowering, all-consuming passion she felt in him touched some inner, deep woman’s core of her, and she lifted her hips higher to receive him.

With his final thrust she wrapped her legs about him and pulled him deeper and closer to her. She wanted all of him that she could get.

Jace lay on her for a moment, his body lightly covered with sweat. “Did I hurt you?”

“No,” she said, only half lying.

“Nellie, I meant to wait. I meant to wait for a bed and a beautiful hotel suite and—”

She put her fingertips to his lips. “I am more than happy. If I never have any more than this, it will be enough. I will always remember this night. When I am home alone I—”

“Alone?” He lifted off of her. “Home? What is this, blackmail? You mean you’re
still
choosing them over me?”

“I thought you were going back to Maine. Just this morning you were packing.”