Authors: Tina Donahue

Claiming Magique: 1 (24 page)

BOOK: Claiming Magique: 1

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Hunt loosened his tie, unable to
pull in a full breath. Anger, then sorrow surged through him. Fuck, this
couldn’t be it. Why wouldn’t she give them a chance? He knew she loved him.
He’d felt it in her response to everything he did, whether it was romantic,
stupid or otherwise. He saw it on her face. She recognized the depth of her
emotions. That’s why she was so afraid.

So what now? Continue to chase her?
Keep showing up at her dates, keeping her from other guys?

Would she continue to be with other
men?

A wave of frustration and hurt hit
so hard, Hunt gripped the arms of his chair so he wouldn’t bang his fist
against the table.

Activity continued around him, a
reminder that it was late. Five minutes ago, he was supposed to be at a meeting
that his firm had planned for weeks. He’d tried to get out of it for today’s
luncheon date and had failed.

His server approached again. “Mr.
Prescott, are you going to order? If not, we do need this table.”

Hunt didn’t answer. For the first
time in his life, he didn’t know what to do. Stay? Leave? Call her or maybe
Ronnie?

Idiot.
Make a decision, will you?
When he’d been a boy and his mother’s boyfriends had
attacked her, he’d reacted quickly, not even considering his response.

“Mr. Prescott?”

Hunt searched the street for
Alexa
. His heart caught at the long hair he saw, so black
it had blue highlights. He leaned to the side, trying to see around the man in
front of—

The guy moved finally. The woman
wasn’t
Alexa
. It would never be
Alexa
.

Hunt’s entire body ached. “No, I’m
not ordering today.” He tossed enough cash on the table to cover his drinks and
a generous tip.

The server stepped back as Hunt left
his seat. His cell phone rang.
No doubt Tim or David,
wondering where the hell he was, with Tim probably having guessed how lunch had
turned out.

Clenching his jaw, Hunt opened his
phone and stared at the caller’s number.

At the hospital, he stopped the
first orderly he saw. “Where’s the waiting room for this wing?”

“Down that hall to the left,” she
said, pointing him in the correct direction.

Hunt broke into a jog, his shoes
slapping the vinyl floor. Other visitors glanced up at the noise. Doctors and
nurses hurried from one room into another. The door swung closed behind them,
its sign warning Staff Only.

He rounded the corner and entered
the waiting room.

Alexa
stood at the window, her shoulder propped against the
glass, head down.
Alone now as she’d been for too many years.

Hunt’s chest ached with compassion.
He would have given a decade of his life to have saved her from this.

As though she’d felt his presence,
she glanced up and turned, her face drained of color, anguish in her eyes.
Before he could move, she crossed the room and wrapped her arms around his
torso, releasing her weight into him.

“You didn’t have to come,” she
whispered, her voice thick with tears. “I didn’t expect you to. I—thank you for
being here.”

He ran his hands down her back and
cradled her even closer. “Thanks for calling me. When you didn’t show, I…I’m
sorry, I shouldn’t be talking about that now.”

“No, it’s all right.” She clung to
him as she hadn’t before. As though they’d known and trusted each other
forever, or as if he was the only one she had left now. “I was getting ready
for our date when Wallace called.”

Hunt glanced past the empty room to
the hall, not seeing the older man. He didn’t want to ask, but knew there was
no getting out of it. “How is Ronnie?”

Alexa’s
shoulders shook with her quiet weeping.

Aw god. Hunt forced down a swallow.
“Is she—has she—”

“No! Please don’t even think that.
The last I heard she’s stable. The doctors are still with her. So is Wallace.
She asked to see him.”
Alexa
gripped Hunt’s shirt in
her fist. “He told me Ronnie was having trouble breathing this morning. It may
be a blood clot from her chemo. I’m not sure. I could barely listen to what the
doctors were saying. When they let me see her a few minutes ago, she gave me
these.”

Hunt eased back. Ronnie’s pearls
rested in her palm.

“Why would she do that if she’s
going to be okay?”
Alexa
cried. “She never lets go of
them. She was doing fine. She was getting better.”

“
Shhh
.”
He pulled her back into him, holding her as tight as he dared, hoping to ease
her fear. “She’s going to get the best care there is. I’ll make some calls to
people I know in the industry. We’ll get the top oncologists out here.
Nothing’s going to happen to her. This is just a setback. We’ll make certain
it’s fixed.”

“Don’t leave me, please.”

“I won’t, I promise.” He tightened
his embrace, pressing his cheek to hers. Her skin was damp with tears. “I’ll
wait with you for as long as it takes. We’ll be here together when the doctors
come out again.”

“What if
it’s
hours?”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” She brought her arms
back. “You have work. I shouldn’t have asked you to—”

“I don’t mind,” Hunt said, caressing
her. “They’re not expecting me back today. Even if they did, I’d tell them to
take a hike. I’m not leaving. I love you,
Alexa
. You
know that, right? Or haven’t I made myself clear?”

She pressed her face against his
shoulder.

Was she crying again? Had he said
too much?

“I wasn’t sure at first,” she
whispered.

Okay, he could accept that. “What
changed your mind?
Me showing up here?”

“No.” She wrapped her arms back
around him.

Her embrace comforted and thrilled.
All of his life, Hunt had waited for a moment such as this with a woman like
her. He grinned so hard, his cheeks hurt. “Then what, or rather, when? What
were we doing?”

“Talking.”

No kidding? He tried to recall when
that might have been. What he’d said.

She murmured, “You asked me to go
grocery shopping.”

Hunt laughed softly. “If you think
that’s something, wait ’til we do laundry together.”

She pressed her fingers into his
back. “Will we?”

He pulled back a bit so he could see
her expression. Her face was puffy from tears and fatigue, but she didn’t
appear as frightened of her feelings for him as she had in the past. “Close
your eyes.”

She did as he asked, not questioning
why, giving him a bit of her trust.

Grateful, Hunt kissed her closed
lids,
then
whispered, “Do you want us to do everyday
stuff?”

“I don’t want you to leave me. From
the moment I met you, I didn’t want that.”

Hunt felt another grin coming on,
but stifled it when
Alexa
looked at him, a bit of her
old apprehension returned.

“What?” he asked.

She shook her head.

No way was he going to let her get
away with that. They needed to talk, just as Ronnie had said. “You’re still
scared, right?”

“I don’t want to be. I…” She screwed
up her mouth.

“What? Finish, please.”

The look she gave him said she’d
prefer to walk barefoot over glass, but at last she said, “I need you.”

Hunt waited.

“I love you,” she blurted. “I didn’t
want to. I tried not to.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” He smiled.
“Quit beating yourself up.
How could you resist me? How
could any woman?”

Laughing,
Alexa
punched his arm, then hugged him again, even more fiercely this time, as though
she never wanted to let go.

Other visitors arrived. They gave
him and
Alexa
a cursory glance before sitting.

With his arm wrapped around her
shoulders, Hunt led her back to the window. There they remained while he made
his calls, then waited for more news on Ronnie.

When the doctor finally emerged, she
greeted them with a smile.

“Ms.
DuBlanc
is fine and resting,” the young woman said, glancing from
Alexa
to Hunt.

“You’re certain?”
Alexa
asked.

“We’re taking good care of her,” the
doctor assured. “She’s no longer in any danger. She told me to tell you Wallace
is with her…and that she wants her pearls back.”

Alexa
laughed,
then
buried her face in
her hands.

The doctor backed away and hurried
behind the door.

Hunt gathered
Alexa
close. “It was good news,” he murmured.

She wrapped her arms around his
torso and squeezed tight. “Don’t ever let me go.”

Smiling, he caressed her with care
and with love, knowing that whatever else came their way, they’d face it
together.

About Tina Donahue

Tina Donahue is an award-winning,
bestselling novelist in erotic romance, and an admitted chocoholic known to
down semi-sweet candy bars in grocery checkout lines. She lives with her family
in Palm Springs, California, where tires melt in the 120-degree summer heat and
an occasional earthquake puts everyone on notice to bolt things down. When
she’s not writing her steamy stories, trying to stay cool or crawling beneath
her desk during a trembler, she loves shopping, eating at her favorite Mexican
restaurant and meeting other authors. Before she wrote romance, Tina was the
editor of an award-winning Midwestern newspaper and worked in Story Direction
for a Hollywood production company.

Tina welcomes comments from readers.
You can find her website and email address on her
author bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.

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