"No, just fishing for a compliment." She snuggled into his arms, rather liking sitting on the floor between his legs. She felt surrounded, safe, loved. "But to answer your question, yes, I most certainly do want this. And I want this because I know everything about you that’s important. You’re a damn good man. Scars fade with time. And the ones that never go away, well, they build character, maturity, caution."
"And you’re an amazing woman." He kissed the side of her mouth. "Who happens to be fantastic in bed."
The way he stroked her back, her temples, as he kissed her, with such tenderness and awe, had her longing for physical intimacy to match the emotional closeness she was feeling. She needed to have Damien in her, to see him give up control and succumb to their love. To trust her and her feelings.
"Let’s test how good I am in bed, just to make sure." Mandy could hear his breathing change then, move from anxious to relaxed to aroused, as she flicked her tongue across his bottom lip. "But first you need to ask me to marry you."
Damien breathed in her scent, soft and floral. He had never thought he would say the words again, but when he did, they were easy. They were strong. They were hopeful. "Mandy Keeling, will you marry me? I love you with all of my heart, such as it is."
Her brown liquid eyes were tender, round. "It’s a good heart, even if it’s been kicked around a bit. It’s always been a good heart, that’s why it was so easily bruised. A lesser man wouldn’t have cared as much. So yes, I will marry you. And this baby…"
She took his hand and placed it on her stomach, under hers. "This baby is already our daughter."
He kissed her then because he had no words. He needed to pour all his passion and emotion and love into her. There was so much feeling, so much emotion, more than he could have ever believed possible. She had given him a life back. She had given him everything that mattered.
Mandy shifted as they mingled hot, wet, tongues, so that she was facing him. "Put your legs down."
"Why?" Even though he knew why, even as he obeyed her. Their hands were tearing over each other, pulling at clothes, shoving fabric and buttons and zippers out of the way.
"Because I can’t wait for the bed. Just love me, Damien."
"I do. I will." Damien skimmed her panties off as she went on her knees and shoved her dress up to her waist. She had already unzipped his pants, and he pulled her forward with a desperate groan.
Now, everything had to be now. Mandy was his, going to be his forever, his wife. They were going to share her child, and he had to climb inside her, blend all of him with all of her in frantic mating.
He eased her down onto him, her slick, hot body wrapping around him as they both panted in out-of-control pleasure. Mandy gripped his shoulders and they moved, together, with no words, in perfect unison and perfect understanding and perfect love.
Vaguely, somewhere in the back of her sex-soaked brain, Mandy heard her cell phone going off.
"Maybe you’d better answer that. Your phone has vibrated about twelve times in the last hour."
Mandy peeled her head off the bed with a groan. "It’s got to be my roommates. They’re worried about me." Which was sweet, but incredibly annoying.
"I’ll get it." Damien reached over to the nightstand. "I tossed it over here when we ripped the covers off the bed."
Mandy let her head drop back down, sighing with satisfaction. She reached out and ran her finger across his tattoo. He had turned Jess’s name into a rather erotic looking dragon, his tongue licking at the flames he threw. It was amazingly sexy, just like Damien. The man she was going to marry.
Damn, that sounded fantastic.
"Hello?" Damien said, his voice low and scratchy from their lovemaking.
A woman’s shattering shriek pierced Mandy’s ear. And she was three feet away from the phone. Damien’s eardrum was probably damaged from that volume.
"What the hell?" Damien jerked his head back and dropped the phone.
Mandy grabbed it. "Jamie? What’s the matter?"
"Mandy?"
"Yes?" Maybe she should have answered the phone earlier. Maybe something was wrong and they were trying to reach her.
Jamie sighed. "When he answered your cell, I was so sure he’d killed you. He scared ten years off my life."
It took Mandy a second to figure out what Jamie meant. Then she rolled her eyes. "I’m fine. Wonderful, in fact. Damien’s proposed to me and I accepted."
"Really?" Jamie’s tone completely shifted. "That’s awesome, Mandy! I told these guys he was a nice man, just right for you."
Mandy grinned. "Thanks, Jams. Now we’re in bed, so I’m going to hang up."
"Oh! Absolutely. Bye, sweetie."
Mandy dropped the phone and met Damien’s gaze. "They were a bit concerned, since they found that article and I wasn’t answering my phone." No sense in beating about the bush.
There was a long awful moment where her words hung between them.
Then he gave a brief smile, rubbing his hand over his chin. "I guess they really care about you."
Mandy nodded. "They’re good friends."
"I can’t wait to get to know them and give them a more accurate impression than those articles must have given."
Mandy was concerned that Damien might retreat from her, but he just put his hand squarely on her bum and hauled her over to him.
"But I won’t be meeting your roommates tonight. Or tomorrow. Or even Sunday."
"Why not?" She tried to sound nonchalant, but her ragged breathing and tightening nipples gave her away as he stroked, stroked, stroked.
"Because we’ll be busy getting married, that’s why. In Punta Cana."
"Oh, Damien, that’s just bloody brilliant."
Chapter 25
"How do I look?" Mandy smoothed her dress and wished she’d worn something without a pattern. God only knew what these yellow flowers looked like on her backside, which was spreading, no matter what Damien said.
Damien kissed the side of her head, messing up the hair she’d just tried to tame in the taxi. "You look fantastic. And why are you so nervous? It’s just my family."
"Spoken just like a man." Mandy went up the front walk with him, taking in the trim lawn, the tidy flower beds, and the stone duck sitting by the front door. This big Victorian house was where Damien had grown up, and she could just picture him running through the shady backyard in his baseball uniform, not a speck on it anywhere.