Man Shy (27 page)

His eyelashes fluttered open. When he saw who it was, he struggled to a sitting position, stifling a yawn.
“
You shouldn
’
t be out of bed.
”

“
You
’
re absolutely right,
”
she said, and climbed in next to him, cuddling up to his side.

“
What are you doing, Mallory?
”

“
Don
’
t worry. My mother gave me permission.
”
She pressed herself closer, trailing her fingertips across the ridged muscle of his exposed chest.

He gave an involuntary shudder.
“
For this?
”

Mallory nibbled at his earlobe.
“
She said to see you if I needed anything. And Brody
”—
she walked her fingers down the center of his abdomen
—“
what I need is you. I love you desperately. And I don
’
t care if you
’
re the commitment type or not. You
’
re my type, and that
’
s all that matters.
”

“
No, it
’
s not.
”
He grabbed her wandering hand and pressed it to his chest, where his heart thumped an agitated rhythm.
“
Feel that, honey? That
’
s what happens every time I think of you.
”
He took a deep breath.
“
Last night when I saw that gun pointed at your head, I damned near had a heart attack.
”

Mallory
’
s throat grew tight.

“
I love you, Mallory, but sex is only a small part of it. I want to live with you, have children with you, grow old with you.
”
He swallowed hard.
“
Marry me?
”

“
Oh, yes,
”
she said, and kissed him.

Depths
, he thought.
Soft, warm, loving depths
.

My life is like a fairy tale. Okay, a fractured fairy tale. At age eleven I fell hopelessly in love with a little town in eastern Oregon. A population of under fifty didn
’
t even qualify this town as one-horse, but the place had character, not to mention an abundance of arkayesses
.

I had never heard of an arkayess before, let alone seen one, but on the first day of my visit, I became intimately acquainted with a particularly gruesome member of this species
—
also known as the road-killed snake
.

Swinging a dead snake like a lariat, the orneriest boy in town raced toward me on his bike.
“
You
’
d better run,
”
he yelled.
“
I
’
m gonna wrap this arkayess around your leg!
”
He chased me half a block, aimed, then let it fly. The snake cartwheeled through the air with deadly accuracy to coil itself around my bare leg
.

The boy was almost as shocked as I was; he hadn
’
t expected to hit his target. To make it up to me, he proposed
c
and it only took him nine years to do it. I accepted, of course. How else could I stay in eastern Oregon and live happily ever after in my very own castle? Okay, so it
’
s a three-bedroom ranch house, but it has an irrigation ditch out back, and that
’
s practically a moat, right?

It also has a computer, where I spend an inordinate amount of time conjuring up slightly off-beat romantic adventures on my enchanted keyboard. I write from the heart, but filter everything through my funny bone, my goal being to entertain Loveswept readers while I earn enough magic beans to put the three baby Mulvanys through college
.

MAN SHY

A Bantam Book / March 1998

LOVESWEPT and the wave design are registered trademarks of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and elsewhere
.

All rights reserved
.
Copyright
©
1998 by Catherine Mulvany
.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher
.
For information address: Bantam Books
.

eISBN: 978-0-307-56974-5

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words
“
Bantam Books
”
and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036
.

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