Beauty & the Beasts (29 page)
Read Beauty & the Beasts Online
Authors: Janice Kay Johnson,Anne Weale
Tags: #Animal Shelters, #Cats, #Fathers and Sons, #Fiction, #Romance, #General, #Veterinarians, #Love Stories, #Contemporary
Dad’s face went quiet “Forget permission. How about your blessing? I want you next to me when I say, ‘I do.’”
“Cool,” Garth said blithely. He might actually
enjoy
this wedding!
S
HE TOOK HIS BREATH
away. This dress was only a little less seductive than the green one, but she looked just as spectacular. Rust-colored and highwaisted, it floated down to midcalf; but the fabric was so insubstantial, so clingy, that the long lines of her thighs and the curve of her hips were revealed and concealed as she moved, like wisps of fog parting to reveal the sun.
Her hair was soft tonight, done in some complicated twist that still let curls cascade over her neck and shoulders. Her makeup was as beautifully done, but softer, too, less blatant.
She was no less sexy.
What the hell was she playing at?
Eric said polite things—he hoped—to her mother before escorting Madeline down the walk, under the fragrant garden arch and to the car. In its dark interior he kissed her.
Her mouth opened for his, as though she knew no other way of responding. He imagined her beside him in bed when he awakened in the morning, the way she’d instinctively turn to him, respond to his kiss, murmur with pleasure. Not just one morning, but every morning. Forever.
They scarcely talked on the way to the romantic candlelit restaurant he’d chosen for his formal proposal.
Everything had a dreamlike quality, from the small box forming a lump in his suit-coat pocket to the golden quality of the early-evening summer sunlight. Her elegantly packaged beauty added to his sense of unreality; where was his Madeline?
The waiter seated them in a private alcove by the windows where they could watch the setting sun. But Eric didn’t even glance at the view.
“You’ve dressed up again.”
“Well.” She smiled, teasing, flirting, laughing. “You might have tried, ‘How lovely you look, Madeline.’”
He brushed that aside. “You know what I mean.”
“You don’t like me in this dress?” She batted her eyelashes.
His heart did a somersault. “Yeah, I like you in that dress,” he growled. “You know damn well it turns me on. That’s not the point.”
“Then what is?” she asked innocently.
“I love you.” He reached both hands across the table, crushing the elaborately folded napkins and shoving aside the centerpiece. ”
You
. Not the feeling of being turned on.”
Her smile trembled; her eyes were pools of green and gold and brown. “But you see, I’ve discovered that I can enjoy looking beautiful sometimes. I’m me, no matter what. I was so determined to learn to like myself despite how I look it’s taken me fifteen years to realize that I can like myself the
way
I look. I don’t have to…disguise myself.”
“You can dress any way that pleases you,” he said roughly.
“Admit it. This is fun once in a while.”
“Oh, yeah.” He wanted to make love to her right here on the spot. “It’s fun.”
She crinkled her nose. “Good.”
The waiter approached; Eric shook his head, and the fellow faded away again.
“Garth made me dinner last night,” Eric told her.
Her teeth worried her lip. “He did?”
“Gave me a present,” Eric said casually.
Now he’d perplexed her. “A present?” she echoed.
“Symbolic, Garth said.”
“Symbolic,” Madeline repeated, looking dazed.
“Yeah.” Eric let go of one of her hands to take the box from his pocket. “Madeline, will you marry me?”
“I…” Her face went completely still.
His heart almost stopped. Was she hesitating?
“Yes.” Her voice was so low he scarcely heard it. “Yes, I’d love to marry you, Eric.”
His hand tightened in a spasm on hers. “I wish we were home. Alone.”
If eyes could reveal a soul, hers did. “I wish we were, too.”
Committing to memory that look, the kind a man could live for, he handed her the box. “From Garth. His symbol.”
She opened it, took out the gaudy plastic ring and gravely slipped it on her finger, as if he’d given her real rubies, real gold. Gazing down at the ring with a tender smile, she said, “I love your son.”
“He’s pretty cool, isn’t he?” Eric grinned crookedly.
“He gave me his permission. Or blessing. I didn’t try to distinguish.”
Still she admired the ring. “I will treasure it always.”
“Carefully. It’s losing paint.”
A giggle escaped. “Oh, dear.”
“Tomorrow, we’ll go choose one for you to wear. I figured maybe Garth could come with us. Unless you’d rather he didn’t.”
She flashed him a glorious smile. “I would love him to come.”
“Shall we order so we can eat and get home sooner?”
“Whose home? Mine, with my mother? Or yours, with your son?”
Eric swore. “How about a very private back road?”
Humor quivered at the corners of her mouth, although her eyes held the darker shimmer of passion. “That sounds very intriguing. Since we
are
engaged…”
“I love you,” he said, the declaration scraping a throat that suddenly felt raw. These weren’t words that should be said lightly; they had to hurt.
“Yes. I love you, too.” Madeline looked back at the ring. After a moment she said musingly, “Do you know—my dress is symbolic, too.”
He had no trouble understanding that one. “Of all you can be. When you choose.”
“Very nicely put,” Madeline said. “I chose
you
very wisely. Just think, no more vet bills.”
“But eleven cats on our bed every night.”
“Oh, I’m
very
fond of cats.” He’d die for a smile like this one. “Cats, and you,” Madeline murmured.
“Ditto,” he said.
eISBN 978-14592-7070-1
BEAUTY & THE BEASTS
Copyright © 1997 by Janice Kay Johnson.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books SA.
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