A Profiler's Case for Seduction(84)
Minutes after Amanda left, Dora had just made it back to the sofa when a knock fell on the door. She assumed Amanda had forgotten something. She pulled open the door and her breath caught in her chest.
There he stood, with that darned sexy smile curling his lips and a simmer of something magic in his eyes. “Mark,” she said, half-breathless. “You were the last person I expected to see this evening.”
“And why is that?” He swept past her, his clean male scent eddying in the air around her. She quickly closed the door and hurried after him.
He sat down on the sofa and stretched an arm across the back, looking as if he belonged there. “I just assumed your work was done here,” she said, trying to halt the desperate stuttering of her heart.
“Dora, my work here is far from done,” he replied, and patted the sofa next to him.
She didn’t want to sit next to him. She didn’t want to feel his warmth and smell his familiar scent and know that when he’d tied up all his loose ends he’d be gone. Yet, despite her reluctance, her feet moved her across the room and she sank down on the sofa next to him.
Instantly he leaned toward her and placed his hands on each of her cheeks. He held her gaze with the crazy intensity that made her feel like he was looking inside her very soul.
“Did you really believe I would just leave without seeing you again? Without assuring myself that you were really and truly okay? Did you really believe I would just go and not tell you goodbye?”
Before she realized what he intended, he took her lips with his and she could do nothing but respond to the kiss that fired a thousand emotions inside her.
When he’d finished kissing her soundly, he leaned back slightly, but still held his hands on the sides of her face. “Did you really believe I was just going to leave without a plan for our future together?”
“Future together?” Her heart began to beat like the wings of a hummingbird, fast and frantic to keep her hovering in the air.
He finally dropped his hands from her face and instead grabbed her hands with his, entwining their fingers as if to keep her captive. “You know we belong together, Dora. I love you and I can’t imagine going forward with my life without you in it.”
An automatic protest rose to Dora’s lips and she started to voice it and then stopped. She saw the light shining from Mark’s eyes, a light that didn’t lie. He loved her and she deserved to be loved.
“I love you, Mark.” She said the words tremulously. “But, I don’t know how we go forward from here.”
He stood and pulled her up and into an embrace. “One day at a time. You finish your schooling and I go back to work in Dallas. That’s only a short drive away and every spare minute that we have we can spend together, building something amazing, something that will last forever.”
She believed him. She knew that if they wanted it badly enough they could make it work, and she wanted it...him...badly. “When I graduate I could probably find a job in Dallas,” she said as she gazed up into his beautiful eyes.
He tightened his arms around her. “I’m counting on it, and you can count on me, Dora. If you give me your heart, I vow that I will take good care of it.”
“I never doubted it,” she said just before he claimed her lips once again in a kiss that stole her breath and replaced it with hopes and dreams she’d never thought possible.
She knew that Mark would take good care of her heart, because he was a special man...and because she was his special woman.
Epilogue
Dora checked the Christmas tree lights to make sure every single one sparkled brightly and then raced into the kitchen to pull the gingerbread cookies out of the oven.
It was late Christmas day and she had special guests due any minute. Her heart sang with joy as she removed the cookies from the baking sheet and placed them on a red-and-green platter with racing reindeers around the rim.
The past two months had been beyond her wildest imaginings. She had her days in class and at the bookstore and her nights whenever possible with Mark. Their relationship had grown stronger with every day that passed.
She’d known love broken and abused; she’d known the despair of wasted time; and now she knew the beauty of healthy, nurturing love.
Mark’s daughter, Grace, had been a charming addition to her life. She’d met the little girl at Thanksgiving and it had been an instant mutual love. She’d also met Mark’s ex-wife, Sarah, for coffee one afternoon. She’d found Sarah a warm woman who only wanted happiness for Mark. Dora suspected Sarah had wanted to check her out, knowing that it was possible Dora would be a part of Grace’s life.