Page 53 of Texas Honor

“Okay, aunt-to-be,” he called back. “Give me a minute to say good-night and I’ll be right out.”

“You’re getting married?” Lillian shouted gleefully.

“That’s about the size of it,” he answered, smiling down at Mari. “Aren’t you just overjoyed with your meddling now?”

“Overjoyed doesn’t cover it,” Lillian agreed. “Now, speaking as your future aunt-in-law, come out of there! Or wait until supper tomorrow night and see if you get fed! We’re going to do this thing right!”

“I was just about to do this thing right,” he whispered to Mari, his eyes softly mocking. “Wasn’t I?”

“Yes.” She laughed. “But we can’t admit that.”

“We can’t?” He sighed. “I guess not.”

He got up reluctantly, rebuttoning the shirt that her darting fingers had opened over a chest that was aching for her hands. “Pretty thing,” he murmured, watching her pull the gown up again.

“You’re pretty, too, so there,” she teased.

“Are you coming out, or am I coming in?” Lillian was sounding militant.

Ward glowered at the door. “Can’t I even have a minute to say good-night?”

“You’ve been saying good-night for thirty minutes already, and that’s enough,” she informed him. “I’m counting! One, two, three...”

She was counting loudly. Ward sighed at Mari. “Good night, baby,” he said reluctantly.

She blew him a kiss. “Good night, my darling.”

He took one last look and opened the door on “...Fourteen!”

Mari laid back against the pillows, listening to the pleasant murmur of voices outside the door as she stared at her ring.

“Congratulations and good night, dear!” Aunt Lillian called.

“Good night and thank you!” Mari called back.

“Oh, you’re very welcome!” Ward piped in.

“Get out of here,” Lillian muttered, pushing him down the hall.

Alone in her room Mari was trying to convince herself that she wasn’t dreaming. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done. He was hers. They were going to be married. They were going to live together and love each other and have children together. She closed her eyes reluctantly, tingling all over with the first stirrings of possession.

CHAPTER TWELVE

THENEXTMORNINGMari was sure it had all been a beautiful dream until she looked at the ring on her finger. When she went down to breakfast, she found a new, different Ward waiting for her.

He went to her without hesitation, bending to brush a tender kiss against her smiling lips.

“It was real, after all,” he murmured, his green eyes approving her cool blue knit sundress. “I thought I might have dreamed it.”

“So did I,” she confessed. Her hands smoothed hesitantly over the hard, warm muscles of his chest. It felt wonderful to be able to do that, to feel so much a part of him that it no longer was forbidden to touch him, to look at him too long. “Are you really mine now?” she murmured aloud.

“Until I die,” he promised, bringing her close against him. He sighed into her hair, rocking her against the powerful muscles of his body. “I never thought this would happen. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to love or trust a woman again after Caroline. And then you came along, pushing me into indoor streams, backing me into corners about my business sense, haunting me with your soft innocence. You got under my skin that first night. I’ve spent the rest of the time trying to convince myself that I was still free when I knew all along that I was hopelessly in love with you.”

She burrowed closer, tingling all over at that sweet, possessive note in his deep voice. “I was so miserable in Atlanta,” she confessed. “I missed you every single day. I tried to get used to being alone.”

“I shouldn’t have propositioned you,” he said with a sigh, lifting his head to search her eyes with his. “But I still thought I could stop short of a commitment. God knows how I’d have coped with the conscience I didn’t even have until you came along. Every time Ty Wade was mentioned, I got my back up, thinking how he’d changed.” He touched her face with wonder in his whole look. “And now I know how and why, and I think he must have felt this way with his Erin when he realized what he felt for her.”

She sighed softly, loving him with her eyes. “I know I felt like part of me was missing when I left here. It didn’t get any better, either.”