Back in the Soldier's Arms (20 page)

“Come on, girls, let’s go home.”

Penny had no intention of protesting when it came to that particular request.

The helicopter moved with a steady beat into the sky. Penny kept her eyes shut. Tight.

“You can look,” Daniel told her.

She could tell without peeking that he was smiling. That he had stolen his gaze from where he should be looking, and he had turned his aviator-glasses-clad eyes toward her. That his too-cute dimple was grinning her way.

Penny shook her head. No.

“I can’t believe in all these years that you’ve never been up with me.”

“You know I hate flying, Daniel.”

He chuckled. “Says the girl who’s just flown halfway around the world for the second time in four months.”

Not funny. He knew what she meant.

“It’s magical, Pen. Please look,” he pleaded.

She sucked back air like she was on the verge of hyperventilating.

It wasn’t that long ago that she’d seen a Black Hawk2B9Ñ€ go down over the desert, and she hated having to go up in the sky.

“Penny?”

“Okay.”

She peeled one eyelid slowly back, then the other. And her heart stuttered before kicking back into gear again.

It was amazing.

Daniel’s laugh made her look at him. “Thank you.”

She didn’t know if he’d heard her whisper through the headset, but she couldn’t make her voice any louder. The breath had literally been stolen from her lungs.

“You’re not serving now, Pen. This is just me and you.”

She tipped her head back until it rested on the seat and looked through the wide windscreen.

“Where are we going?” she asked, confidence slowly trickling back through her body.

Daniel didn’t answer straightaway, leaving her to gaze out the window and watch the world disappear beneath them.

“You might not like surprises, Pen, but this is one thing you’re going to have to wait to see.”

She bit her lip to keep her mouth from breaking into a big grin. Part of her wanted to cry. To sob out loud and let all her emotions out. Being home was so surreal she could hardly describe it. Dealing with the fact that she was never going to have to leave her family again.

Penny lifted her arm up, relinquishing her grip on the helicopter’s door. Her childhood charm bracelet rested on her wrist, tiny charms swaying as she flexed her fingers.

When she’d seen Gabby wearing hers at the airport, she’d felt a sudden desire to wear her own, to remember her own mom. Now, high above the air, free, it seemed right.

“Prepare for landing.”

Already? “I was just starting to enjoy myself.” Daniel didn’t divert his eyes but she saw his dimple crease. “We’ll be back in the air again before you know it.”

Penny let her fingers drop back to the door, but her knuckles didn’t turn white this time. Her body was still relaxed, shoulders not tense like they had been when they’d made their ascent.

“I know you’re going to laugh at me, but it’s really nice being up in the air with you, Danny. I have to admit it,” she told him.

His focus remained fixed on flying. “Tell me that again once we’ve landed. I want to look you in the eye and make sure you’re not kidding.” Wow.

Penny hardly heard his last words. Her hand flew to her mouth.

The field below them was covered in wildflowers, bright colors that seemed to never end. “Where are we?”

Daniel didn’t answer her. He brought the chopper down slowly, hovering until they touched down carefully on the ground. He flicked a switch to cut the rotors, then removed his headset.

“You like it?”

Did she like it? Hell, yes!

“Daniel, I don’t …” She shook her head in disbelief. “How did you know about this place?”

He grinned before jumping out and running around to open her door. He held out both his hands and she slid broрinto his open palms as he reached to guide her out.

“The farmer produces honey and he has this field sown in wildflowers for the bees to pollinate.”

Penny no longer cared how he knew the landowner or how he’d found the place. She didn’t even want to look at the pretty field of flowers.

All she wanted was to stay in Daniel’s arms. To stay in the one place in the world she felt safe and loved.

He took one of her hands and led her away from the helicopter, giving her a look she couldn’t decipher over his shoulder as they walked.

“So about enjoying that ride?”

Penny swatted at his shoulder. “You need to hear it again, huh?”

“Sure do.”

She twirled into Daniel as his arms engulfed her waist.

“You’re an amazing pilot, Daniel,” she told him honestly. “I should have trusted you sooner and gone up with you.”

His eyes twinkled, but there was a seriousness there she couldn’t figure out.

Daniel stepped back, holding her hands, trailing to her fingertips, before letting go.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, worry licking like fire across her skin, making goose pimples appear on her bare forearms.

He looked solemn, reached for her hand again. Just the left one this time. Before dropping it.

“Daniel?”

Daniel looked down at the ground, then met her gaze. Without breaking eye contact, he reached for her necklace and unclipped it. Took it gently from around her neck.

She held her breath as he slid the ring off the chain and held it up.

“When I gave you this ring, I made a promise to you, Penny. That I would be faithful to you while you were away. That I would prove that we could make this work.”

She nodded, tears in her eyes. He took her right hand and slid the ring on. She didn’t resist, just stood there, motionless, incapable of words.

Then he dropped her right hand and reached for her left, his other hand disappearing into his pocket.

“Penny, I love you, and I don’t want you to wear a promise ring around your neck anymore.” He paused, the corner of his mouth tilting up into a smile. “I want you to be my wife again. To wear the rings I gave you on our wedding day.”

She laughed. Penny actually laughed at him.

Until she saw the worried look on his face.

“Yes,” she whispered, drawing him in, her mouth against his neck as she tucked her body into his. “Yes, Daniel. Yes!”

He pushed her back, his eyes full of questions, or maybe disbelief.

Penny held out her left hand to him and let him slide the rings home.

“Will you be my wife again, Penny? From today and for every other day of our lives?”

She nodded and pulled him back in for a deep kiss, lips pressed against his, arms around his neck and hands at the back of his head to stop him from getting away.

She released his mouth to whisper to him.

“Yes, Danny,” she said. “

In a field of wildflowers, with only the helicopter for company, Penny let herself be held and slowly folded down to the ground. Daniel’s body molded snug against her, as if it was made to fit. Her hands touched along his muscled neck and shoulders, down his arms.

“What about the bees?” she asked as he traced a feather-light trail of kisses down her chest.

“To hell with the bees,” he murmured.

Penny shut her eyes as Daniel’s mouth covered hers again.

This was the homecoming she’d wanted. Her daughter safe at home, her husband in her arms, and their whole lives, together, before them.

*  *  *  *  *

Back in the Soldier’s Arms/Here Comes the Groom

Here Comes

the Groom

Karina Bliss

Back in the Soldier’s Arms/Here Comes the Groom

Dear Reader,

If you could compare writing books to scaling mountains this one would be Everest or Frodo and Sam’s Mt Doom. Maybe because of the level of research, maybe because this is the first of a series and I had three other books in my head as I wrote it. Probably because I loved my characters so much and wanted to do them justice.

The initial idea—what if your best friend called in a joke wedding contract?—became a book about persevering against the odds. And boy, did I give my characters odds. But as true heroes do, they pushed through the challenges and eventually got to The End happily.

I hope you relish their journey as much as I did. Karina Bliss

PS I love to hear from readers (see dedication!). You can e-mail me at [email protected] and visit my website, www.karinabliss.com.

Back in the Soldier’s Arms/Here Comes the Groom

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About the Author

New Zealander KARINA BLISS is a winner of Romance Writers of America’s coveted Golden Heart awards for unpublished writers. She’s currently writing her ninth romance for Cherish™ on the next hero in her SAS series, Ross Coltrane, who features in Here Comes the Groom. The former journalist lives with her husband and son north of Auckland. Visit her on the web at www.karinabliss.com where Karina runs regular draws for her backlist and also posts excerpts of upcoming books.

Back in the Soldier’s Arms/Here Comes the Groom

To every reader who has e-mailed to say

they’ve enjoyed one of my books.

You make my day.

Back in the Soldier’s Arms/Here Comes the Groom

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to Kate Gordon and Audrey Walker

(via Pamela Gervai) for their insight into farming. In

the novel, I refer to a book called Contented Dementia.

Written by Oliver James, I found it an excellent

resource and highly recommend it.

Back in the Soldier’s Arms/Here Comes the Groom

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CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS AT THE POINT her bar pickup started whispering the naughty things he wanted to do to her that Jocelyn Swann realized that, while she was drunk, she wasn’t drunk enough.

Rubbing the tickle out of her ear, she planted an encouraging kiss on Tony-the-Corporate-High-Flyer’s sexy mouth and said, “Hold that thought, hotshot.” Wriggling seductively out of the circular booth, she threaded past the ladies’ room and doubled back to the dimly lit bar.

One more shooter should do it—silence the disapproving voice that kept whining, “This is not a good idea.”

< T‡“ aid=”OPEKA">“Shut up,” she muttered. The bartender, a student who looked as out of place in the hotel’s funky bar as she felt, looked up. “Not you … Sorry, Phil.” Leaning over, she patted his scrawny shoulder.

His bespectacled gaze instinctively dropped to the girls, nicely displayed by Jo’s push-up bra and low-cut chiffon top. She froze on a sudden upwelling of grief, then laughed and shimmied them. “Pretty good, huh? One of my best features, I’m told.”

Phil averted his gaze. “Um … yeah, sure … What would you like?”

“A sublime sexual experience that I’ll remember the rest of my life,” she confided. “But right now, another Jägerbomb will do.”

“Okaaay,” said Phil slowly. “On your room tab again, Ms. Swann? Eight oh One, wasn’t it?”

“Thanks, mate.” He filled a tumbler with Red Bull, then dropped in a shot glass of Jägermeister. Jo watched the red-brown liqueur billow into the gold and told herself it didn’t look like a blood spill because that would be morbid and tonight was all about having fun with a capital F.

“Got the time?” she asked. “Hard to tell in this place.” Plush and windowless with pods of circular white booths, Bar None was an artful contrast of shadows and soft blue spotlights that spilled nowhere useful. Jo had to squint to sign for her drink.

“Ten o’clock.”

“Guess this better be my last.” Picking up her cocktail, Jo knocked it back with a grimace. The anise flavor wasn’t as nice as it had been two shots ago. “Nothing by mouth after midnight,” she commented. “But you’re the med student, Phil. A couple of buffer hours would be sensible, right?”

His eyes bugged. “You’re drinking … the night before surgery?” He snatched her glass. “You shouldn’t touch alcohol for at least forty-eight hours before.”

Does the joy never end? Then the Jägerbomb dropped its alcohol load, the song changed to Ben Harper’s version of “Sexual Healing” and Jo started to laugh. “I should care but I don’t. No, don’t nag, Phil, your future patients won’t like it.”

Riding the buzz, Jo danced back to her prey. He was engrossed in a call—how cutely corporate—cell to one ear, hand over the other. As Jo did a last hip swivel she heard “I love you, too,” and stopped mid twist. Please let that be his mother.

Tony glanced up, caught sight of her and his face said it all. Married.

Her stomach plummeted. “You despicable, lying worm, you told me you were single.”

Cutting off the call, he pocketed his cell. “Jo, I—”

“Forget it. I’ve just wasted two precious hours on you … hours I’ll never ever get back.” Her voice shook. “I haven’t even got the time to make you suffer … now get out!”

Tony didn’t need to be told twice. When he’d gone, Jo sank into the booth, rested her elbows on the table and cradled her spinning head until her nausea subsided. Married! Thank God she’d found out before she slept with him. There was a jug of�€† of water on the table. She slopped some into Tony’s empty glass, wiped the rim with a cocktail napkin and drank it, desperately scanning the bar for new prospects. Too old, too young, too thin, too slick.

Dammit, the alcohol wasn’t just for Dutch courage—it was supposed to be lowering her standards.

An hour later, Jo was having her neck nuzzled by Brad-the-Banker. “You’re gorgeous,” he murmured. “I can’t believe my luck meeting you tonight.”

Jo closed her eyes, the better to assess his skills—not bad—then quickly opened them again. The dizziness receded, replaced by handsome blondness.

Brad’s knuckles brushed the outside of her breast. “And you’re so sexy, I—” Ribald male laughter burst from an adjacent table. He frowned. “Yobos.”

“Who cares?” Jo planted his palm against her curves. “Tell me I’m sexy again.”

Brad’s brown eyes darkened and he smiled, spreading his fingers to encompass her breast. Leaning closer, he opened his mouth to speak.

“Hey … sexy.”