Chapter 15 #2
Peter John Douglas, one of Dane’s oldest and best friends from their special ops days, reached a hand down and shook his.
Acer jumped to his feet as if Peter were still their commanding officer, the leader of their team.
“Acerman.” Peter nodded at him and took a seat near the end of Dane’s bed. “I had to see for myself this ridiculous demonstration of how damn hard your head is, Blaise. A reckless move even for you.”
“Never fear, general. The skull is still intact.”
The general who wasn’t a general, but was now the governor of Massachusetts, smiled.
“Seeing is believing.” He cleared his throat. “Thank you, Dane.” He looked around at all of them. “Thank you all. Even the ATF is grateful—or they will be once the PR nightmare blows over. Parrish was a bad one and no one else was close to touching him.”
Penny sniffed then and Dane turned to her, catching her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Dane. Sorry I got Beachcomber Investigations involved in all of this. Sorry you got hurt.” She took a breath. “But I’m not sorry that Delbert was caught and that he’ll do jail time.”
She went to leave and Shana went with her. Gable followed.
Cap was catching the governor up on the details when Shana returned. She hung in the doorway again.
He half listened to the men in his room as he kept his eyes on Shana. She was too far away and there were still too many people with them.
He looked at the three men, three of his favorite men on the planet, and said, “It’s time you all got the hell out of my room. Leave me in peace.”
The governor stood and waved them all to the door. No one was offended. They knew him well.
“Go have a drink on me,” he said to their backs.
They left him alone with Shana. She closed the door and went to him, sitting on the edge of the bed.
His mind had finally cleared enough to talk to her, to tell her what he needed to tell her.
She caressed his face, stroking his rough beard with her fingertips, making him sigh with relief and pleasure. Her face held tenderness and concern. He wanted to see passion.
He reached up and took a handful of her hair and pulled her face to his, stopping before her mouth touched his.
“You know I love you.”
The smile blossomed on her face like the first flower in spring, like it was the only flower ever to have blossomed in the world.
“Yes,” she said.
“Marry me.” It wasn’t a question.
It might as well have been a gunshot.
Shana jumped back from his grasp, turning white, face falling. She stood.
“Are you kidding me?”
His heart raced as if she’d stomped on his gas pedal with a lead foot. He bored his eyes into hers, willing her not to leave, cursing himself for not predicting that this would be her reaction.
Was she the only woman on the planet who didn’t want to marry the man she loved?
“No—I mean, this is sudden.” She looked frozen. “You’ve had a near-death experience. You shouldn’t—I mean—”
“What the hell do you mean, girlie?” He pushed himself up in bed, ignoring the pounding in his head that now accompanied the pounding in his chest and throat.
She rushed back to his side and held his shoulders, pressing him back into his pillows. Her hands on him worked their magic, calming him enough so that he let her manhandle him. Hell, he’d let her manhandle him from now until eternity if truth be told. He belonged to her.
She owned him.
In the past, that self-admission would have cost him, would have been something he avoided, but not today. A man learned a thing or two from near death. Not that it was his first time with such experiences, but he had a hard head.
“I mean I don’t want to take advantage of you. Of your vulnerable state.” She sat down next to him again, her head down.
He lifted her chin so he could look into those world-ending green eyes. The sparkle of tears shone there.
“Don’t you know I’m always vulnerable where you’re concerned, girlie?” He half whispered the words, testing them, testing himself.
“You’re not the only vulnerable one.” She smiled. “I hate it. Hate that I almost lost you.”
“Now you’re saying you’re scared to marry me because you might lose me?” He didn’t mind mocking her for the same thing he’d been guilty of since he’d met her.
She laughed. She knew a pot calling the kettle black when she saw one.
He pulled her back in and she let him with only a sigh of reluctance.
Holding her in a tight hug against him, he felt her arms wrap around him, heard her murmur. He had no idea what she said or if she said anything. The ease of tension at the same time his chest tightened made him dizzy. He closed his eyes.
It could have been the effects of the concussion making him dizzy, but he didn’t care. He held her, welcoming the stimulation, opening himself up like a man emerging from a cave. He felt like he’d been hibernating through life. Now his heart and soul were waking.
She shifted and he let her sit up so that he could see her.
The way her eyes examined him he felt like they ought to play doctor.
But that was one thing the doc at the hospital had been adamant about—as if he knew Dane’s intentions when he left him in a hurry in Shana’s care—he’d said no sex.
Absolute celibacy as if he were a monk for at least a week.
But the doctor hadn’t realized what a quick healer Dane was, didn’t realize that Shana was the reason he was alive. He wanted her.
She read his mind. Or maybe his wolfish glare gave him away. He must have that look of a starving man looking at a steak dinner. That’s how he felt—on one level. But there was a whole other level to his need. There always had been.
Chances were, she knew that. He hoped to hell they had that in common.
In the same instant, he reached up to pull her in again, this time to rip her clothes off. When he did, she moved away.
“Damn, girlie.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you anticipation is where it’s at?” She licked her lips, killing him with need, making him stiff with wanting. “We have a whole lifetime.” She said the words like a question, like she was asking, “Don’t we?” Like she still needed his assurance.
So, he gave it to her. In his own way.
He sighed.
“Have it your way. Leave me alone. Let me rest. You go out and do some shopping.”
“Shopping?” She laughed. She wasn’t a shopper and he knew it.
“You’ll need a wedding gown, girlie. I’m not marrying you in street clothes.”
He watched her face transform, watched the oh of her shock that she hadn’t scared him off change to joy. Saw the bliss of pink cheeks and glistening eyes. This was more like the reaction he’d wanted.
When her expression settled into a wide instinctual smile, brought to her face by every molecule of her body responding to her heart and soul, she leaned down to kiss him.
“I’ve passed all your tests then.”
She lowered her face to his, her lips a wisp from his.
“I do have one more test, but it’ll have to wait until the honeymoon.”
Boom. His chest tightened and then expanded impossibly. She covered his mouth with hers and he reveled in their kiss.
That was the way he wanted to stay. With her lips on his, mouths joined, sealing their minds, hearts, and souls and making them one.
***THE END***