No ones suggesting you need to apologize. If anything, you should take a bow. Some idiots think tummy tucks and boob jobs are about nothing but vanity. Youve always been a womens supporter for real, Justin. Reconstruction after cancer or a tumor can make a difference to a womans esteem Abruptly she stopped and waved that subject aside. She could have ranted on, but he was obviously trying to distract her. Anyway, the point is-Im not knocking the work you do. Im only asking why you give the community the impression that you only take on spoiled rich women for patients, when in reality you donate a ton of your time to some of the worst burn cases over three states.
Hell. He tugged on his ear again. Who told you that? Someones been spreading vicious lies and slander about me.
Shut up, Justin. Im just trying to tell youI know somethings wrong. Maybe its not my business. But once I started realizing how much youve changed since Bosnia, it just kept hitting me in the face. Obviously something serious has been bothering you. Something you dont talk about. And I dont know whether that wild-assed idea about marrying me could be part of that, but
As if she hadnt been right in the middle of an important, serious conversation with him, Justin suddenly bolted to his feet and grabbed his jacket. Some instinct made Winona turn around in bewilderment, seeking some reason for his sudden behavior.
At the door to the diner, Willis Herkner was just ambling in. The jerk was still working for American Investigator, which, as far as Winona was concerned, was the belly-buster of all the sensational media rags. Willis was dressed to impress, wearing a long white aviator scarf with his ultracool jacket. Still, even though the smarmy investigator was a major nuisance, Winona couldnt fathom why his appearance would bother Justin enough for him to be hustling double-time out of there.
Justin she began, intending to question him, but just then Angels baby-blue eyes fluttered open and her rosebud mouth opened in a squeal. The first squeal was fairly sleepy and friendly sounding. The next one, Winona knew, wouldnt be. The baby needed to be fed, bathed and rocked to sleep. Come to think of it, after this long day-so did she.
Justin, in the meantime, had lunged out of the booth and was zipping up. You know what? Even when you were a belligerent, aggravating, sullen twelve-year-old, I realized this odd thing about you. You were never fooled by peoples bologna. You always saw past the cover story to the truth. I could never lie to you, Win, even when I wanted to.
Wellthats good, she said forcefully, and then hesitated. Hed seemed to mean a compliment, didnt he? Only hed managed to confuse her by the side comment. She organized the thoughts in her mind again, determined to get back to the point-there was something wrong, something bothering Justin, and she was determined to get him to talk about it.
Instead, faster than she could get the words out, he leaned down.
Half the town-maybe more-was sardine-packed in the Royal Diner, most of them familiar, the baby squawking louder now, children screaming from another booth and Sheila shrieking something to Manny in the back. Yet he kissed her. Just bent down, and softer than the stroke of a petal, brushed his lips on hers.
Like a rose hungry for sunlight, her whole body strained upward for the touch of him. Her throat arched at the same time her eyelashes swooshed down. It wasnt dark behind her closed eyelids. If anything, there were fireworks of light and soft, silver flames. Her closed eyes just cut out the riffraff sensory images in the restaurant until there was nothing in her mind-nothing in her sight, sound, touch, taste, but Dr. Justin Webb and his wicked, wicked mouth.
Her conscience scrambled for some common sense. Some inhibitions. Some sanity.
Nobody home behind any of those doors.
Oh my, oh my. She didnt let go. Not with men, not with anyone. You get too close to people, then if they abandoned you-even if they never meant to or wanted to-your heart broke. You didnt die. Your heart just hurt and ached and never stopped aching. Nothing was worth that. She was sure of that yesterday, and she was sure of it today.
But her lips clung to Justins and wouldnt let go. Her hands didnt touch him. Her breasts, her legs, her tummy-no body part was connected to him except her lips. And tongue. His warm, silky tongue touched hers, gentle as a spring breeze, not demanding, not taking, justoffering. Touch. Taste. The intimacy of himself.
Heat flushed her body head to toe.
The baby revved up the volume of tears. A child galloped past toward the rest room. A plate clattered on the floor. The jukebox twanged out another song about pickup trucks and getting up in the morning. Neon lights flashed on, off, on, off into the dark winter night street outside. Winona saw. She heard. She just didnt care.
And then Justin lifted his head, eyes suddenly darker than a midnight sky. Its a good idea, dont you think? Kissing in public.
What? He might as well have suggested rolling naked in a mud puddle. It would have made as much sense.
Everyone in town realizes that we know each other, Win. But just in casethis way theyll get the picture that were closethat we were thinking about getting married even before Angel entered the picture. This way well look like a couple. So it wont seem contrived or hokey when we tie the knot.
Tie the knot, she echoed.
And youre damn right. There was a very serious reason I asked you to marry me. Its because I thought we could make it together. And I thought that ages before you ever laid eyes on our beauty here.
He touched Angels cheek, which was enough to startle her from whimpering into a gurgle for him. And then he strode for the door.
All that noise, all that chaos, but there suddenly wasnt a sound in the restaurant but the scratched tape from the jukebox. Some folks were being polite. But the others were either outright staring at her or at Justins departing figure.
Swiftly, Winona gathered up the baby, patting, soothing, trying to grab her jacket and car keys at the same time. He put a drug in his kisses. Well, what else could she possibly think? Maybe she didnt recognize the controlled substance, but it was there. In the taste of him. The mood. The look in his eyes. And whatever was in that damn chemical went straight to her head.
And it was still going straight to her head.
Blasted man-richer than a tycoon-yet hed forgotten to pay for their dinners. So she had to finagle that money out of her pocket, get her jacket on, get Angel and all the baby paraphernalia, all under the watchful, smiling eyes of everyone in the whole darn diner.
But when she finally hurtled into the night a few moments later, she sucked in a lungful of frigid winter air and, out of absolutely nowhere, smiled, too.
There was nothing funny about her situation. Nothing. She needed to figure that man out, and pronto. Somehow there still seemed to be a marriage proposal hanging between them. More worrisome yet was the stunning, startling thought that he actually wanted to marry her. But boy
That man sure could kiss.
Six
Justin drove to the Texas Cattlemans Club, but when he parked the Porsche, he turned the key and sat there, motionless. His meeting with the guys was at eight. It was already a few minutes after. He could see lights on within the building, recognize some of the other members cars in the lot. His mind needed to be on the plane crash and the missing jewels and serious business. Instead, all he could think about was Winona.
He was so in love with her.
Technically, loving her was old news. Heaven knew, hed figured out his feelings for her long, long before hed kissed her in the diner.
But that kiss was the first time hed really dreamed, thought, believed that she could come to feel the same way about him. The baby was the first need hed seen in Winona, the first dent in her emotional armor, the first emotion that shed willingly revealed to himbut that kiss wasnt anything about Angel. It was about them. About something new and strong and powerful building between the two of them.
Justin tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking that when a man got a taste of heaven, it was tough not to want it all. Both the problems and the joys. It was possible that Winona wanted to adopt every abandoned kid in the county for the rest of their lives, and God knew the woman was stubborn, closed in, too independent to lean on him even when he damn well wanted to be leaned on. But he really didnt care. Justin was also well aware that she was confused about the emotions suddenly exploding between them, but just as Shakespeare had said, all was fair in love and war. Shed been doing a lulu act on his heart for a long time. It wouldnt kill Win to be off balance for a bit.
Not when the cause was right.
Whistling, he finally climbed out of his classy chassis, and hiked toward the building. When he stepped inside, his mood promptly sobered.
He had to quit thinking about Win. For that matter he had to quit thinking like a cockeyed dimwit in love. This was no time to be singing in the rain.
He could hear a game of poker going on in the far room, saw a few men putting on their coats, leaving the card room where cigar smoke gushed out in a fog. From old habit, his eyes shot to the Leadership, Justice and Peace motto on the far wall. The actual sign wasnt that intrusive or large; most strangers ambling in rarely seemed even to notice it. But for him, it was like making eye contact with an old friend, and abruptly he charged toward the east rooms, expecting to find the others in the standard meeting area off to the rightand he did.
The room was as comfortably overloaded with testosterone as a room could get. A fire blazed in the hearth. A boars head hung over the stone mantel. The pool table stood under a Tiffany chandelier, untouched, rack ready. The furniture was all leather, couches and big chairs, with ottomans to put your boots on-but no one was sitting tonight. Justin braced, feeling how much tension the others were giving off. Matt was pacing like a caged cougar, Dakota standing in the window, pensive and still. Aaron still wasnt back from Washington, but Ben was here nowtypically, the sheikh had on his proper kaffiyeh for a serious meeting, and any other time Justin would have smiled. Ben was an extraordinary man whod become a special friend, but he did have a way of looking like a desert warrior, between his kaffiyeh and those fierce dark eyes and rigid posture.