Wild in the Moonlight - Jennifer Greene 22 стр.

I dont think thats the reason for the tummy.

No? She sucked in a breath when he peeled off his cords and shorts. Um, Cameron. Youre going to smell like flowers if you come in here.

Id care about that if I were a sissy. But I happen to be a tough guy. A tough guy always does what a tough guy has to do. The cats scattered when he stepped in. The water whooshed up to the top of the tub and splashed over. She didnt notice or look. She only looked at him, pulled her knees up.

You couldnt get a bath closer to home?

Well, thats the problem, chére. It took me this long, not to take a bath, but to realize that this is home.

Total silence fell for a moment. He sank in, knee to knee, eye to eye, and reached out a hand. She folded her fingers with his. I didnt think you wanted a home, Cameron Lachlan.

I dont know if I ever told you about my dad. I loved him. He wasnt a bad guy, nothing like that. But he built his whole life around possessions. Things owned him instead of the other way around. He was never home for us. He never had time for us.

Im sorry.

I dont want you to be sorry. I just needed you to understand how I turned into a vagabond. I just never wanted that to happen to me. I wanted people to matter, not things. I wanted the freedom to love people, not things. He laved her feet, since they were easy to reach. And her knees. He got her knees really, really clean. And then I met you. And lost you. And realized I was doing exactly what he did wrong. Putting a barrier between myself and who I wanted to spend time with, who I wanted to love. Who I needed in my life.

He moved up from the knees, to those long, silky white thighs. Her phone rang. It seemed a measure of how well he knew her, and them, that neither even blinked or made any effort to answer it. Phones were always going to ring in this house. Theyd wait.

I quit Jeunnesse. Came back to my place in New York, saw my girls. But the whole time I kept thinking about making a whole different kind of life. Ive got the money to buy the land, put in a big five-hundred acres of lavender. Itd be adventurous, challenging. Hard work, but still a lot of free traveling time in the winter. Time to be impulsive any way a couple might want to be. Of course, we have to find a house-sitter for the cats. And obviously its not your usual life-itd only work for people who really liked the land, got a charge out of getting their hands dirty-

Soyou came back for the land, did you?

Nope. He could see that haunted look leaving her eyes. And she wasnt backing away from him. But she didnt move toward him.

You always sounded so positive, Cam. That you didnt want to settle down.

I dont want to settle down. I want to live with you and be your lover. Forever. I dont want to settle for anything. I want to create exactly the life that works for us. I was going to say for the two of us-but maybe for the three or four or five of us, if for any reason the family somehow grew.

Again she went still, seemed to even stop breathing. Daisy called you, didnt she?

He didnt directly answer that, because this wasnt about her sister or anything her sister had said to him. It was about the two of them. And to make sure he had her attention, he took her warm, slippery hands in his. I dont think its a good idea for a woman to marry a guy who has nearly grown childrenat least until youve met the children. Im totally positive youd get on with them like a house afire, but they are teenagers, which means they stay up nights trying to think up new ways to make adults lives difficult. For myself, though, Ive always liked kids. Nice kids, wild kids, difficult kids, doesnt matter to me. Id love more.

Lachlan, that isnt at all what you said before.

I know, I know. I wasnt exactly lying before. But I was trying to make sure you know I loved you for you. That you were what mattered to me, not whether you could have kids or not. I love you first. I want you first.

Tears started to well up in her soft eyes, so he started talking faster.

Violet, youre probably ten times more woman than I can handle, but Id like to try. But I want you to absolutely know that my loving you has nothing to do with kids. If you want some, we can adopt or foster, or try working with those skinny tubeshell, maybe we can just take in more cats. I dont know. I dont care. I just care that we work together to find choices that are right for us.

She took a long, shaky breath. Its possible that this tummy isnt caused by too many milkshakes.

I thought the skinny tubes were pretty much a for-sure problem.

So did I. Every doctor I went to told me my chances of conception were minuscule. Her fingertips caressed his. Her gaze seemed to caress his face at the same time. You must have awfully determined little seeds in there, Lachlan.

I prefer to think of them as skillful. And smart enough to go after what they want. He wanted to draw her into his arms, right there, right then. They had a lifetime to finish all this talking business, and the old-fashioned tub was big, but not necessarily big enough for the rest of the night he had planned. Yet he had to say gently, You should have told me you were pregnant, chére.

I wanted to and I would have. But I had to think about how, Cam. I never wanted you to feel trapped. Nothing works when a person feels trapped. And I love you. Of everyone in the universe, Cameron Lachlan, I so want you to be happy. I want you to have what you need in your life.

There, now. He drew her on top of him. Warm water sloshed on the floor, but still he finally had her, breast to breast, tummy to tummy. Heart to heart. Thats easy, then, because what I need is you. In my life, all my life.

Thats a two-way street. I love you so much. And I want you in my life, all my life, she whispered, and blessed him with an eyes-closed, drowning-defying, promise-invoking kiss. When they came up for air, his eyes were moist and hers were dry.

It was going to be a hell of a thing, if she turned him into an emotional kind of guy. Chemists were supposed to be rational, calm, cold types, but somehow Cameron didnt think that was going to work. Not anymore.

Hed always tried to be careful, not to let anything own him. Yet Violet owned his heart-and it was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Of course, that was just today.

They had a lifetime to explore all they could be together.

Jennifer Greene

lives near Lake Michigan with her husband and two children. She has written more than fifty category romances, for which she has won numerous awards, including three RITA® Awards from the Romance Writers of America in the Best Short Contemporary Books category, and a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times magazine.

Jennifer Greene

Wild in the Moonlight

The second book in the Scent of Lavender series, 2004

Dear Reader,

Welcome to another passion-filled month at Silhouette Desire-where we guarantee powerful and provocative love stories you are sure to enjoy. We continue our fabulous DYNASTIES: THE DANFORTHS series with Kristi Golds Challenged by the Sheikh-her intensely ardent hero will put your senses on overload. More hot heroes are on the horizon when USA TODAY bestselling author Ann Major returns to Silhouette Desire with the dramatic story of The Bride Tamer.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a mans mistress-even just for pretend? Well, the heroine of Katherine Garberas Mistress Minded finds herself just in that predicament when she agrees to help out her sexy-as-sin boss in the next KING OF HEARTS title. Jennifer Greene brings us the second story in THE SCENT OF LAVENDER, her compelling series about the Campbell sisters, with Wild In the Moonlight-and this is one hero to go wild for! If its a heartbreaker youre looking for, look no farther than Hold Me Tight by Cait London as she continues her HEARTBREAKERS miniseries with this tale of one sexy male specimen on the loose. And looking for a little Hot Contact himself is the hero of Susan Crosbys latest book in her BEHIND CLOSED DOORS series; this sinfully seductive police investigator always gets his woman! Thank goodness.

And thank you for coming back to Silhouette Desire every month. Be sure to join us next month for New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jacksons Best-Kept Lies, the highly anticipated conclusion to her wildly popular series THE MCCAFFERTYS.

Keep on reading!

Melissa Jeglinski

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

One

Just as Violet Campbell limped inside the back door into the kitchen, she heard the front doorbell ring.

She simply ignored it. It wasnt as if she had a choice. Wincing from pain, tears falling from her eyes, she hopped over to the sink. After spending hours in the brilliant Vermont sun, her kitchen seemed gloomier than a tomb. It wasnt, of course. Her pupils simply hadnt adjusted to the inside light-either that, or the terrible severity of pain from the sting of a particularly ferocious bee was affecting her vision.

Someone rang her doorbell a second time.

Impatiently she yelled out, Look! I cant come to the door because Im dying, so just chill out for a few minutes!

Everyone in White Hills knew her, so if they wanted something from her, they were hardly going to wait for formal permission. Heaven knew why she bothered keeping the doorbell operational, anyway. People barged in at all hours without a qualm.

Gingerly she lifted herself onto the red tile counter, kicked off her sandal and carefully, carefully put her right foot in the sink. Her skirt got in the way. Ever since opening the Herb Haven, shed had fun wearing vintage clothes-her oldest sister claimed she looked as if she shopped from a gypsy catalog. Today, though, she had to bunch up the swingy long skirt to even see her poor foot. An empty coffee cup was knocked over. A spoon fell to the floor. One of the cats-Nuisance? Devil?-assumed she was in the kitchen to provide a lap and some petting.

She petted the cat, but then got serious. Darn it, she needed to get her foot clean. Immediately.

Until that was done, she couldnt tackle the bee sting. She was positive that the stinger had to still be in there. Nothing else explained the intense, sharp, unrelenting hurt. Well, there was one other explanation. Friends and family had no idea she was a complete coward, but Violet had discovered three years before that there was one terrific advantage to being divorced and living alone. She could be a crybaby and a wimp anytime she wanted to be.