November Harlequin Presents 2(54)

‘I’m sorry I made it so ugly for you.’

‘You couldn’t help it. I left you no option. I lied to you from the start. I pretended to be someone else. I can’t blame you for hating me.’

‘You haven’t been listening to me. I told you, I love you.’

She shook her head. ‘You can’t mean that. Not after everything that’s happened. You don’t have to be nice to me just because it’s Christmas. I’m not going to make you marry me like that other woman. You don’t have to pretend.’

He allowed himself a smile. ‘I’m not being nice to you because it’s Christmas. And I know you wouldn’t marry me if I was the last man left on Earth, but I was wondering…’

He picked up both her hands in his, stroking the back of them with his thumbs, so tender where the canula was taped into one.

‘I was wondering whether you’d consider having me as your husband if maybe I wasn’t the last man left on Earth?’

She looked up at him. ‘You’re asking me to marry you?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m begging you to marry me.’

‘Because I’m having your baby?’

‘The baby is a bonus. I want to marry you because I love you, and I can’t stand the thought of trying to live without you.’

‘You really love me?’

‘With all my heart and soul.’

She threw her arms around his neck. ‘Of course I will. I have loved you for so long!’

He put her away by the shoulders. ‘You have? Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘How could I, when I wasn’t even me? How could I admit anything? I didn’t even know who I was supposed to be. And meanwhile you were expecting this thing between us to burn out in two weeks.’

He looked into her eyes. ‘This thing between us is never going to burn out—you better believe it.’

She looked up at him, her colour back, her eyes warm and delicious, her lips an open invitation. ‘I want to believe it.’

‘Then maybe this will convince you,’ he said, and lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed her, with all the depths of passion that he felt for her, with all the respect she deserved for what she’d done, with all the love for her that would never be more than she deserved.

And he felt her love in her kiss, in the way her arms pulled him to her, in the way her mouth moved under his.

The door burst open and a nurse bustled in. ‘Everything all right in here? This man isn’t bothering you, is he, Miss Fielding? Your sister sent me in to check.’

‘No,’ she said, looking into the eyes of the man she loved, the father of her child, the man she was going to marry. ‘He’s not bothering me at all. Tell Morgan everything is just perfect. And you know what else you can tell her for me?’

The nurse looked a little perplexed. ‘What’s that?’

Without taking her eyes from his, she smiled up at him, a smile that he’d been looking for for ever, a smile that he would treasure until the day he died, and his heart swelled like it was about to burst.

‘Just tell her there really is a Santa Claus.’





EPILOGUE




MAVERICK hated to be kept waiting. He hated not being in control, and he hated feeling helpless. And more than anything he hated watching the woman he loved in so much pain, her brow glistening with perspiration, her face contorted with every contraction. So he was damn sure he never wanted to go through this whole childbirth experience again.

That is until, with one final push, their baby emerged with a short cry into the world.

Their baby.

He squeezed Tegan’s hand and watched with awe and frustration while the cord was clamped and cut and the baby assessed.

‘Congratulations,’ said the midwife, smiling broadly as she handed the wrapped child to its mother. ‘You have a beautiful baby girl.’

‘Nell was right!’ she cried as she cradled the child against her breast. ‘We have a daughter.’

She was beautiful, with a shock of black hair that framed her face, a tiny Cupid’s bow mouth and muddy blue eyes that looked up at her mother in fascination as she wriggled her limbs, testing her new-found freedom.

Maverick found himself moved to tears. Never had he seen a more perfect picture than the one before him now: the woman he loved holding the baby they’d created together.

His woman.

His child.

His fortune.

‘She is beautiful,’ he agreed huskily, planting a kiss on their daughter’s downy, soft hair before turning to his wife. ‘Just like her mother.’

The team quietly and efficiently finished up around them in the minutes following, and drifted away one by one, leaving the new family some time to get acquainted.