Tomorrow...Come Soon Page 17

  `You'll forgive me, Devon, I hope,' he said, his mouth curving warmly as he observed the sudden pink of her skin, 'but I've been around sufficiently to know that there are such women as I first thought you were. It occurred to me then that I could kill the two proverbial birds with the one stone—have you living with me and hating it, thereby making you pay in some small measure for a change. And, for my part, having possessed you, I was sure living with you would soon be showing what I with my profound wisdom knew was false--that you were nowhere near as innocent as you were pretending. I was arrogantly positive that within days I would soon be seeing plenty in you not to admire.'

  Her hands went damp at the thought—was Grant saying that he had found something in her to admire? She couldn't ask.

  `How could I?' he questioned. Tor a start, I was in shock. You were, according to my superior intelligence, a girl who liked nothing but a good time. And yet there you were with a long and recent scar that couldn't be a lie—the proof that you'd been telling me the truth staring me in the face. The proof that, far from having a good time, you must recently have suffered terrible pain. Pain

  which, as something clicked in my head about you saying you were not to overstrain yourself, I saw you could know again if I couldn't get myself under control.'

  `You did leave the room rather quickly,' she murmured as she remembered.

  `It was touch and go, I don't mind telling you,' he said, a hint of a smile there that quickly disappeared, as he recalled, 'By morning, of course, even with the evidence of my eyes, I was back to thinking that you just couldn't be everything you were showing yourself to be.'

  `Was that why you were bad-tempered with me sometimes?'

  `Sometimes is probably an understatement,' he said. 'I still wanted to possess you, but wasn't liking it at all that you,' he paused momentarily, then added, 'had started taking possession of me.'

  `I—possessed you!' Her eyes went wide as she stared at him, confused again, until he clarified, and had her throat going dry:

  `You started to possess my head,' he explained ruefully. `You were there with me everywhere I went, at home, at my Office, in everything I did.' And while she swallowed painfully, 'So much so,' he said, 'that one day I found myself picking up the phone and dialling this number, for no other reason than that I just wanted to talk to you— God knows what I would have said had you answered.'

  `I—didn't know it was—you,' she said chokily, knowing she had told him that before, but grasping for something to say, for suddenly, her thinking, had gone haywire.

  `And I can clearly remember another day, when I'd thought of little else but you, a picture with me of you resting your limbs in the garden. I raced to get through my work so I could get home the sooner, only when I did— you weren't there.'

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  Devon had to clear her throat again. 'That was the day I went home . .

  `And I was so angry, with you, with myself, that I demanded you handed over your house key.' Grant's look was rueful again as he said, 'Not knowing you'd got a spare tucked away somewhere. God, I must have been unbearable, but I didn't want you anywhere but here.'

  `Because you—wanted me—available, whenever you decided to—er—to make me comply with the terms pf our contract?' she questioned, wanting it to be more than that, but not seeing how it possibly could be.

  `I was still telling myself that,' he said softly. And gently then, as if he could just not stop himself, he moved closer to her, and set her heart thudding when he leaned forward and placed a kiss to the side of her face, before going on. `Even when by that time,' he murmured, a hand coming to brush a stray strand of silky blonde hair back from her face, his touch making her quiver, `I'd discovered, to my amazement, that I was not always lusting after your body.'

  Devon fell to earth with a bump. 'I remember,' she said, tears wanting to spurt, because for a few moments she had actually started to believe that Grant was saying that he had been on the way to caring for her in some small way. `Your —preference—f-fell for a more experienced woman sometimes, didn't it?'

  His arm coming round her shoulders as her words fell between them was something she could do without if she was to get herself under control. But her head shot round, as with her eyes glued hypnotised to his she heard him say, and sound sincere as he said it:

  `I haven't looked at another woman since that day you struggled here from the bus stop with your cases, my dear.'

  `But you told me . . .' she began, gasping at what he had said, at that softly murmured, 'my dear'.

  said I wasn't always lusting after you, and that is true,' he broke in. 'There were many times when all I could think of was that I desperately wanted to protect that body that had known injury and pain, and was still healing after surgery. But,' he said, 'there were other times, times when—you'll forgive me—you were blatantly inviting me to take you. And those were the times when I had to get out of the house. Though not to go to another woman, as I led you to believe, but because I wanted you so badly, I couldn't' be at all sure, had I stayed home, that I wouldn't be giving in and making you mine.'

  Devon considered what he had just said. He had to care for her a little, didn't he? said her heart. Nonsense, said her head—when she did not want to listen to her head, but her head was not so easy to ignore.

  `You say that you haven't looked at another woman, yet . . Oh God, it was coming out all wrong, she was actually sounding jea/ous! Devon decided to shut up.

  `Yet?' Grant prompted, his look alert, nothing wrong with his hearing or his ability to pick up intonations, a smile quirking his mouth as he encouraged, 'Go on, Devon.'

  `Well,' she said, picking every word carefully, 'that night, that last night, wh-when you told me to get into your bed—well,' she went on lamely, 'you went to-- sleep.' His very silence had her going on, as she got deeper into the mire. 'I—th-thought,' she stammered, 'that it must be—because you had—had—er--used up your - er—excess energy elsewhere.'

  The arm around her tightened, and he looked pleased about something—even as his smile fell away. was furious with you for not being where I'd thought of you. As mad as hell when I came to your home and found you

  I

  exhausted on the settee from labouring in your father's house, an overall wrapped round you, a kitchen full of home cooking—I was mad enough to want to frighten the daylights out of you,' he ended.

  Tut . . .' she began, recalling vividly how it had been, `that still doesn't explain why you—went to sleep.'

  `I didn't go to sleep,' he quietly shattered her by confessing. 'I let you think I was sleeping.' And leaving her with that to think on, he went on, 'I'd cooled off by the time I came to bed, and had a mighty argument with myself outside the bedroom door, then, because I hadn't seen you for two whole days,' he said, 'I couldn't take the single bed as I know I should have done, but came and joined you. When I was sure you were asleep, careful not to wake you, I took you in my arms, and felt near to content at last. I drifted off to sleep,' he concluded, 'and didn't waken until you stirred.'

  `You were awake before I . . .' she gasped, starting to colour.

  `I knew before you started kissing me that I had a battle on my hands,' he replied, revealing that he had awakened when her hand had touched his naked chest, and smiling at her blushes as she recalled how she had kissed him not once, but twice. Tut I still thought I was strong enough not to make love to you—I hadn't intended to—I just wanted to hold you. Your kisses weakened me, Devon,' he told her softly.

  Tut you didn't—make love to me,' she said, her voice gone husky again. 'You said you'd gone off Me be-because I was throwing myself at you.'

  His short bark of laughter told her that she had not been anywhere as near forward as she thought she had been.

  `Which just goes to prove that I'm a better liar than I accused you of being,' he said, not looking at all abashed, as he confessed, 'The only reason I told you that, Devon

  Johnston, was because after w
hat had happened up there in that bedroom, I was back to wanting you like hell, yet I had no idea if when you saw your consultant, he might tell you you needed to give that hip another couple of weeks' rest. You,' he said quietly, 'had revealed that you wanted me as I wanted you, and I was convinced by then that we'd gone too far to go back to the way we were. I was desperate,' he owned. sent for your father, and then you came downstairs and started arguing. Another few minutes of arguing on that subject, and I wasn't sure I would be waiting to take you upstairs before I gave in.'

  Her throat seemed to have gone permanently dry, but as he came to an end, Devon managed, 'So you—attacked my pride by saying you'd—gone off me.'

  `Which worked,' he said, but added with some charm, `though you can soon prove me a liar.'

  But Devon was not charmed. She was confused, she admitted that, for she had been on the way to believing that Grant really did have some caring for her. But what he had just said only went to prove how ridiculously wrong she had been.

  `You . . .' she choked, and at the stricken look in her eyes, all humour left his face. 'You still want me to . . . Now that you know that my hip is—completely healed, you're saying that you want me to--to move back in to repay . . .' She broke off as she saw she had aroused instant anger in him.

  `Oh, for . . . !' he started to explode, then he had himself under control, and asked tightly, 'Haven't you been listening to a word I've said? Didn't you hear me say forget the money? Didn't you get the message that there is no outstanding debt?'

  Stubbornness took charge of her. She had let her heart believe he cared, but she must not listen to her heart again, but only to what her head was telling her.

  `You want me to move back here with you?' she challenged.

  `Yes, I want that,' he admitted. 'I . .

  `Which is the same,' she cut in, her stubborn chin tilting, that or give way to a storm of weeping that she had been such an idiot to think he cared, 'the same,' she repeated, 'as saying that the debt is still out . .

  `Shut up!' Devon blinked at the violence of the two words Grant threw at her. 'Shut up and listen,' he went on more quietly, and waited only to see that she hadn't a thing to say as she stayed quiet and looked ready to listen, before he went on to absolutely astound her, by. saying, 'You're the first woman I've ever said "I love you" to—so perhaps I've done it very badly.' And while her heart selected a rhythm she was a stranger to, and she had thought she knew them all, he went on, 'I love you more than I ever knew it was possible to love, Devon Johnston. Thoughts of you consume me night and day. So much so that there've been times when I thought I would go crazy with it.'

  `You—love me!' she gasped, forgetting in her shock that he had told her to shut up.

  `My God!' he exclaimed, exasperated. 'What the hell do you think I've been telling you this past half hour if it wasn't that?'

  I—er . .' she licked dry lips. 'I was—hoping it—what you said—meant that you—cared,' she managed after a struggle—and heard that Grant had picked out one word from the rest.

  `Hoping?' he queried. Then suddenly his harsh look had gone from him, and a smile was creasing his face as he asked, 'Was I right to think I saw a look of love in your eyes for me? Was I right when I thought I heard a strain of jealousy in your voice?'

  His smile was short-lived, and had disappeared altogether, tension taking him as Devon fought an unex-

  pected shyness and tried to formulate her words. But in the end, as his face went from smiling to being stern as if he was a man bracing himself to hear the worst, all she was capable of giving him was a straight answer.

  `No, Grant,' she said, choked up inside, 'you were not—wrong.'

  In the next second both his arms had come around her. `And you love me?' he asked. 'Even though I've given you little cause to do anything but hate me?'

  Her voice was barely audible, but he heard it. 'I love you, Grant,' she said breathily.

  His name was the last word heard in the room for some time as Grant pulled her against him. Then he pulled back to look into her face, to look into her love-filled eyes. And then he was swallowing hard, and holding her close for long moments where she gulped convulsively. Then he was pulling back once more to look at her as if he just didn't believe any of it, and finally he kissed her.

  Together they lay on the settee exchanging kisses and caresses. 'My darling, sweet Devon', he murmured at last, his hand moving up from her throat to the side of her face. `Is it any wonder that I adore you? You're all the dear sweet innocent things I never believed you.'

  Their lovemaking had been heated; she was as eager as him to get close, the buttons of her dress were undone, as were the buttons on his shirt. `I'm feeling less and less innocent by the moment,' she said softly, and heard him laugh in delight with her.

  `We still have some way to go,' he hinted, his other hand trailing the naked curve of her breast.

  `Oh, Grant,' she sighed shakily. 'When you touch me like that, I'm not thinking anymore.'

  `Which leaves me,' he said, manfully taking his hand from the hardened peak he had created, and moving it so that his two hands cupped her face, 'having to think for

  the two of us.' He smiled down at her then, as he confessed, 'Which also makes me think we'd better sit up if I'm to try to think in any ordered pattern.'

  With his assistance, Devon, moved to sit beside him, Grant not saying another word until with regret in his look he had tidied first her clothing and then his own.

  `Now,' he said, unable to resist just one more kiss on her inviting lips, 'where was I?'

  `Er—I think you were going to do some—er—ordered thinking.'

  He grinned, and as her heart flipped, so did Devon, her lips managing to look inviting again. 'Cut it out,' he growled, but he was looking so happy Devon had to laugh from sheer joy. He looked away from her as if to get his head clear, but he had his arm around her as he said:

  `Much as I would prefer you spend tonight under my roof, I think I should be doing something about ensuring you have an early night in your own bed.'

  `Yes, Grant,' she replied, too much in love with him, knowing that he loved her, to object to anything he said or did. Though since she had that day been pronounced perfectly fit, she thought she ought to mention it. 'Why an early night tonight especially?' she asked. 'I know it isn't usual for a girl to hear her heart's two desires in one day—one that she's as fit as any other girl, and the other, that the man she loves,' she looked at him shyly, 'loves her,' she said, 'but . .

  `It isn't so usual either,' said Grant, his eyes loving every inch of her face, 'for a girl to get engaged one day and married the next.'

  `Married?'

  `You have no objection to our getting married tomorrow, I hope?' he asked, a touch tentatively, though not looking ready to accept a refusal.

  Hurriedly she shook her head. 'No, but . . .' she

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  answered, trying to think coherently, `. .. but—doesn't it take three days to get a—a special licence, or something?'

  `I've had a special licence for longer than that,' he told her, watching her eyes pop in amazement. 'But with you being adamantly determined you wouldn't marry until you had your final all clear, loving you as I do, I thought it was the one thing I could do to let you know how much I loved you. I've made myself wait until this day.'

  `Oh, Grant,' she whispered, and just had to lean forward and kiss him.

  Their kiss lengthened, and threatened to get out of hand. Then suddenly Grant was pulling back from her, trying to tease, for all he seemed to be searching for some of the control that had been abandoned.

  `You kiss me like that tomorrow night, my girl, and see where it gets you,' he said ruefully—and pulled her to her feet and headed her towards the door.

  `Come on, witch,' he said, let's get out of here and back to where your father is waiting.'

  `My father!' Devon exclaimed, feeling suddenly guilty that for so long she had forgotten him. 'I've no idea wha
t he'll say about .

  `Us,' supplied Grant, moving her more slowly out into the hall. His grin appeared as outside the front door they stood on the wide top step and he locked the door behind them. don't think you'll find him too surprised. I told him last night that I was going to ask you to marry me today.'

  He went to go down the steps, but moved back to her side when he felt her resistance as she stood rooted and stared. 'You didn't!' she exclaimed.

  `Why do you think he didn't go with you today?' he asked. And as she stood and gaped, he kissed her, and looked delighted at her stupefaction, as he told her, 'He told me when I went round to wait for both you and him,

  as I thought, to return from your appointment, that knowing I wasn't one to let the grass grow, he was positive I would be meeting you from the clinic. He was certain I would propose to you then and there.' And as Devon stood goggling, he gently urged her across the top step. 'Shall we go and tell him our good news, my darling?' he asked.

  `Good news?' she echoed, still stunned.

  `You will marry me tomorrow, won't you?' he asked gently.

  What could she reply? Only what was in her heart. 'Oh yes,' she said, her face alight with love, laughter and happiness bubbling up. 'Oh, Grant,' she sighed, 'I love you so much, tomorrow can't come soon enough!'

  On the top step of his home, Grant took her in his arms and held her very close. His voice was thick, his kiss on her brow, when it came, a benediction, as gently he told her:

  `All your tomorrows are going to be happy, my dearest love, I promise you,' he vowed.