The Midnight Hour (35 page)

Nettie chuckled as she admired the vehicle Christy was driving. "I wonder if she got any tickets along the way."

"She is simply beautiful," Tori said as she watched Christy join her three brothers and, ignoring their frowns, she proceeded to give Justin, Dex, and Clayton hugs. Tori remembered the night she had met the brothers and was glad she had recently gotten the chance to meet their wives as well. She had found Lorren, Caitlin, and Syneda Madaris to be warm, loving, and caring women, and just what the three men needed. She could tell the Madaris family was a rather close one that extended the pinnacles of that closeness to include many friends, like Drake. She had even enjoyed her trip back to Houston where they had been the houseguests of Jake Madaris and his beautiful wife, movie star Diamond Swain-Madaris.

"Yes, Christy is beautiful and the brothers are very protective of her," Nettie whispered as if letting Tori in on a secret when it was a fact that everyone knew.

Corinthians Grant didn't say anything as a smile touched her lips. She gazed past where Christy was talking to her brothers to the man standing alone, off in the distance and watching Christy with keen eyes.

Alex Maxwell.

She knew that the Madaris brothers were clueless that their baby sister and Alex were attracted to each other. She wondered what would happen once they found out. She could tell by the way Alex was staring at Christy that all was not well between them. In fact, it seemed that Christy was deliberately ignoring him, something Corinthians had noticed her doing on a number of other occasions. But Alex was definitely not ignoring Christy and Corinthians had a feeling that as far as Alex was concerned, there was unfinished business between them.

"Well, I don't have too long to wait now," Tori said, breaking into Corinthians's thoughts.

Corinthians turned around. "No, you don't and you and Sir Drake deserve to be happy. After all you have gone through, I don't know of any other couple who deserves happiness more," she said softly as tears clouded her eyes. She would always have deep love and affection for the man who had helped her husband rescue her from the clutches of a crazed kidnapper almost two years ago.

"And I agree," Nettie added. "Sir Drake was there for Ashton and almost single-handedly rescued him out of that forest fire when the park rangers had wanted to give up. But of course Sir Drake wouldn't let them." Nettie giggled. "He even threatened to blow off their heads with his Beretta if they tried."

Tori shook her head, smiling. She had heard the stories of those two incidents involving Corinthians and Ashton, as well as Drake's other escapades and how he took pride putting the fear of God into people and wouldn't hesitate carrying out any threat he'd made.

"Well, I plan to cool him down some," she said, smiling brightly. "He won't be taking unnecessary risks from now on. He'll be too busy playing the role of dad than of Rambo."

It seemed that nothing but blessings had been coming their way lately. Drake had made a decision to leave the Agency and start his own security company since he'd had such good success with the one he had installed.

"Is it true, Tori? Did you and Drake get a wedding gift from the president and first lady?" Nettie asked excitedly, as she stepped back from the window to adjust a curl that had fallen out of place atop Tori's head.

Tori smiled. "Yes, it's true." The president had been grateful for her and Drake's rescue of his niece.

"All right, ladies. It's time to go and you know how your father believes in things starting on time, Corinthians."

Everyone turned when Corinthians's mother, Maudlin Avery, entered the room. Corinthians's father, the Reverend Nathan Avery, was ecstatic that Drake was giving up the cloak-and-dagger business and settling down and getting married. He had eagerly agreed to perform the ceremony.

Maudlin took one look at Tori and a huge smile touched her lips and tears formed in her eyes. "You look beautiful, dear, and I know Drake will thank God every day for bringing you back into his life."

Back into his life, Tori thought as a smile also touched her lips. "And I will thank God every day as well for bringing him back into mine."

It was a gorgeous day for a wedding, and a few minutes later, outside under the beauty of God's sky and surrounded by Warren Mountains, Tori walked down the aisle to Drake on Hawk's arms. Her old boss and good friend had been touched that she had asked him to do the honors.

She smiled when she looked ahead and saw Drake. His decision to have two best men didn't surprise her. It rounded things out perfectly since Corinthians and Nettie had agreed to stand beside her as her best ladies.

Once she reached Drake's side he took her hand from Hawk's and lifted it to his lips and kissed it with all the love he had shining in his eyes. Over the past two months he had proven to her in more ways than one that he loved her and that she and the child she carried were the most important things to him.

They had decided to keep the beach house in California and use it as a summer home. For their honeymoon they would be spending a month in the Caribbean, compliments of Drake's many friends.

The ceremony was memorable but brief, and when Reverend Avery said, "I now pronounce you man and wife and you may kiss your bride," Drake didn't hesitate to pull Tori into his arms and kissed her in front of all his guests with all the passion and love in his heart.

When he released her mouth, he whispered against her damp lips, "I love you, Mrs. Warren."

She smiled and said, "And I love you as well."

Later that night, after leaving the wedding reception and catching a flight that took them straight to the Cayman Islands, Tori lay naked in her husband's arms in the beautiful villa feeling completely satisfied and extremely happy. They had just finished making love and her body still glowed with passion.

She smiled. "I think our child is enjoying your visits more and more," she whispered.

Drake smoothed a hand over his wife's rounded stomach. "And I love those visits," he said huskily. It seemed she had started showing overnight and he would never forget the experience of their child's first movement. He and Tori had been in awe and had shared the moment together.

And seeing Tori naked and pregnant always did something to him. All he had to do was look at her and his sexual needs would become ferocious and all he could think about was burying himself deep inside her body.

"Do you want to make another visit?" she asked, gazing deep into his eyes.

Drake smiled. Her passionate appetite was just as fierce as his. "Are you sure you can handle it?" he asked. "I wouldn't want to wear out my welcome." Without waiting for her reply, he raised up and eased his body over hers.

"You could never wear out your welcome, Drake Warren," she said, knowing she loved her husband beyond reason.

He kissed her in a way that intended to give her pleasure,immediately going after her tongue. She kissed him back and in that single kiss they shared, she knew love as she had never known it before.

And then he began making love to her again.

Slow, hot, intense, mind-whirling, earthshaking, bed-spinning lovemaking, and the last thought that came to her mind before a climax ripped through her and she felt a similar one rip through him was that Drake Warren was a man who was an ace when it came to passion.

As his arms closed about her, holding her tenderly to him, she knew this is where she would always want to be, close to his heart.

Dear Readers,

I hope you enjoyed Sir Drake and Tori's story in and revisiting with some of the characters from my earlier books in the Madaris Family and Friends Series.

I want to thank St. Martin's Press, especially my editor, Monique Patterson, for giving me the opportunity to continue this series of books. I have received your e-mails, cards and letters asking about Christy and Alex, and I am pleased to say that I am presently working on their story. This has been a long-awaited story, and I appreciate all my readers' continued support of my work. I'm pleased to finally bring the book, which is tentatively titled Unfinished Business, to you in April 2005.

I also want to thank my readers who took the time to vote on my Web site last summer as to what the babies born in this series would be. The results were incorporated into the story line. As you can see, there are still more babies being born-more future Madarises and friends to write about.

I love writing connecting books. Individually, every book I write will be a totally satisfying love story. And together, the entire collection of my books in this series will create a compelling saga of one family's love and deep devotion, which will extend to their friends as well. I hope they will be stories you will enjoy and cherish forever.

If this is your first book, then welcome! With all my books, I intend to give you an enjoyable read and leave a smile on your face.

You can write me at the following address: P.O. Box 28267 Jacksonville, FL

I would love hearing from you, and time permitting in between book deadlines, I will write back if you include a business-size, self-addressed, stamped envelope. If you have an e-mail address and would like to receive my monthly online newsletter, filled with plenty of information, please send me your e-mail address at Writer Jackson @ aol.com so that I can add you to my on-line address book. Also, please check out my

Web site at

www.brendajackson.net.

COMING IN 2005!!

10-Year Anniversary Celebration

of the Madaris Family in a

Madaris Family Reunion

Getaway Cruise to the Bahamas.

Come join me.

Visit my Web site for details!

Take care,

Essence bestselling author, who has given readers hours of enjoyment with her romance stories, presents her next full-length Madaris novel, the long-awaited story of Christy and Alex.

Read on for a special excerpt from this breathtaking novel, coming in 2005, from St. Martin's Paperbacks.

Christina Marie Madaris stood at the window that faced her mother's flower garden, remembering an Albert Einstein quote: "In the middle of difficulty lives opportunity."

She sighed deeply, acknowledging that this had been a very difficult year for her, but now she was faced with an opportunity, one she had decided to take advantage of.

The phone call she had gotten earlier had been a blessing. It would give her the chance to pick up her life and move on-something she could not do if she remained in Houston.

She had already told her parents of her decision and now the only thing left was to tell the rest of the family. She decided to tell her brothers first, more than certain that they wouldn't like her news. They would try to talk her out of leaving, saying that she already had a great job as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle, and that she didn't need to take the job offer in Cincinnati, Ohio.

What she couldn't tell them and what they didn't know was that the job opportunity was only part of the reason she was leaving. She needed space and a chance to do something she hadn't been able to do over the past two years.

Repair her heart.

"Christy? Mom and Dad said you wanted to see us." She slowly turned around and met the three pairs of curious eyes belonging to her brothers. She shifted her gaze from one to the other, then said softly, "Yes, I have some news that I want to share with the three of you."

Seven hours later

Alexander Maxwell bolted upright in bed when he heard the telephone ring, suddenly remembering he was back in Houston and not in Miami where he had been for the past week. His company, Maxwell Investigative Services, was expanding, resulting in more cases to solve which oftentimes took him out of town.

When the telephone rang again, he wiped the sleep from his face before reaching over to pick it up. "Yeah?"

"Alex, sorry if I woke you, man. This is Clayton."

Alex wiped another hand down his face and glanced across the room at the illuminated clock. It was past midnight. The last time Clayton had called him in the middle of the night had been nearly five years ago when he'd wanted him to find someone. "Clayton, what's going on?"

He heard Clayton's frustrated sigh before he said, "I need you to do me a favor, and I want you to keep it between us."

Alex lifted a brow. "What is it?"

"Do you still fly into Cincinnati occasionally to check on your business interest there?"

Alex knew Clayton was referring to the rental property he had recently acquired as part of his investment portfolio. "Yes, why?"

"Because I'd like for you to check on Christy-discreetly of course-"

"Christy? Why would Christy be in Cincinnati?"

"She's moving there."

"What!"

"Yeah, we were surprised as hell, too. She broke the news to me, Justin, and Dex this evening. She's taking a job there, claims it's the opportunity of a lifetime."

Alex took a deep breath, not believing what he was hearing. Christy was moving to Cincinnati? He couldn't believe that the Madarises were letting her move someplace way across the country, considering how overprotective that they had always been of her. Her leaving home to attend college was one thing, but permanently relocating to another state was altogether different.

"So will you do that for me?"

Clayton's question reclaimed his attention, and somehow he got himself together enough to say, "Yeah, I'll check on her whenever I'm in Cincinnati."

"Thanks, man, I owe you one."

A few minutes later, Alex pushed his sliding glass door aside and stepped out onto his deck. The night was cool, not uncommon for February. He inhaled deeply as he thought about Clayton's call.

He stared into the darkness as his thoughts then shifted to the day of Christy's thirteenth birthday. He had come upon her crying and saying that no guy would ever want to marry her when she grew up because of her overprotective brothers. As a way to cheer her up, he had told her to stop crying because he would wait for her to grow up and marry her himself, and had gone so far as to take a ring he wore on his pinkie finger and place it on hers.