Bound to Happen (21 page)

A fleeting impulse to teach Joe Bonner a good lesson raced through Leslie’s mind. She might never again see him so low or so humble. But it was this same humility in him that reached her heart, and she instantly forgave him. “I haven’t had a whole lot of experience, but I don’t think it’s ever too late if you love someone,” she said.

Joe crossed the room in three long strides and took her hands in his. He looked deep into her eyes as if he couldn’t believe that getting her to forgive him was truly so easy. When he saw that it was, his gaze softened and the familiar expression of loving adoration eased the lines of tension and concern in his face. He cupped the side of her face with his hand as if she were the most precious thing he’d ever touched. His voice was thick and deep when he spoke. “I really am sorry, Les. The last three weeks have been hell. And then when I discovered how stupid I’d been, I was so afraid that I’d lost you forever. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be close to you again.”

“You don’t have to. I know. I’ve felt so empty inside.” Leslie pressed her forehead to his shirt front, as if trying to transmit her thoughts and emotions directly through his chest wall and into his heart. “I wanted to tell you, Joe. I was so scared that you’d be angry, that it would ruin all the happiness between us. I thought we had more time. I kept hoping the perfect opportunity would come along to make it easier to tell you. I knew you’d be disappointed in me.”

Joe sighed and wrapped his arms around her tightly. “I wish I could tell you that wouldn’t have happened. But it probably would have. I have a lousy temper, no doubt about that. But once I’ve exploded, it’s over, and I don’t stay mad for very long, honey. Honest. I would have come around, and we could have talked it out. I value honesty like yours. Even when I’m angry, I recognize the courage it takes to tell the truth.”

“Are you as good at making deals as you are at taking bets?” she asked, her eyes closed as she delighted in his embrace. It was like coming home and finding everything was the same. The familiar smells and sounds and sensations were right where she’d left them, in Joe’s arms.

“I think so.”

“Then I’ll promise always to tell you the truth and face your anger, if you’ll promise always to come back and let me explain.”

Joe’s laughter rumbled in her ear, and he squeezed her a little harder. “It’s a deal.” He pulled away slightly. Looking down at her, his face was animated with joy and merriment. “Is this where we get to kiss and make up?”

Leslie gave him a lazy, knowing smile. Her fingers deftly loosened the knot in his tie as she spoke. “We could do that. In fact, we could do that and then some.”

The kiss they shared was a slow, deliberate act. It was more than a seal on a deal. It was a mutual vow to cherish the love between them, to nurture it, to strengthen it against the pressures of the world and protect it from their own faults.

Now Leslie had witnessed both sides of love. She had been loved and had taken it for granted, and she had been without love. She much preferred being in love, aware and susceptible to its every inclination. She felt tuned into Joe. He was a man who was bright and intelligent, a man who excited her and cared about who and what she was. A man, not perfect, with at least as many faults as virtues, but also a man who suited her, fit her like a glove, and balanced her life.

They had come too close to turning their backs on a love so great and perfect that it had been destined to be right from the start. Whether they had wanted it or not, it was bound to happen.

Joe moaned and ended the kiss, although he didn’t release the hold that kept her as close as two clothed bodies could get. Nor did he restrain his hands as they wandered with familiarity over the body that he knew was his to possess. “Mm. I’ve missed those kisses of yours. Have I ever told you what a great kisser you are?”

“No. I don’t recall that you have,” she said. Her hands made their way along his strong, corded chest to the buttons that dotted the front of his shirt. “Is there anything else you’ve forgotten to tell me?” she asked, working at the buttons, fishing for the words Joe found hardest to say aloud.

“Not unless it’s that I think you’re pretty amazing.”

“Me? Amazing? In what way?”

“Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather this afternoon when you and Ruth Collins pulled that eagle-out-of-the-hat trick.”

“What makes you think I had anything to do with that?” she asked, trying to sound casual when she was actually worried that Ruth had broken her promise to keep her source anonymous.

“Because aside from the ranger, who obviously hadn’t reported the birds, there were only two other people in the world who knew those eagles were there. And since one of them hadn’t considered the birds as a possible deterrent, that left you.”

“Now I’m amazed,” she said, pulling away slightly to lead him to the stairs that went up to her bedroom. “You’re a very clever man, Joe Bonner.”

“I know. That’s how I also figured out why you’re no longer working for Darby Development.”

With her mind elsewhere, Leslie wasn’t prepared for all of Joe’s cleverness. She came to a halt with one foot on the bottom step and stared at him in true astonishment. “How did you know that?”

“I’m a very clever man, remember?” he said, moving her along with him as he started up the steps. “I went there this afternoon looking for you. Imagine my surprise when they told me that you’d quit.”

“Imagine mine when I decided to,” she muttered, more to herself than Joe, as she recalled that day in the hospital when she determined that if her life was to be the way she wanted it, she would have to make some changes.

“I hope you won’t regret it. I wouldn’t have asked you to give up your job. Even though Darby Development operates at the polar negative to everything I believe in, we could have worked something out so we wouldn’t have been constantly fighting, you know.”

“Wait a second, Joe,” she said, turning on the step above him to look him straight in the eye. “I love you, and I’d do almost anything you asked of me. But I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. I’d like to say that I quit my job and conspired with Ruth Collins to get the project thrown into the district courts for you. But the truth is, I didn’t. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again when I made those decisions. I made them for purely selfish reasons. Getting the ski-resort project into the courts was the only way I could make up for what I had done in my ignorance. And you know that going to court isn’t a guarantee that the project will be stopped. It all depends on the judge and whether or not he eats Grape Nuts or Frosted Flakes for breakfast.” She turned, and they continued their ascent up the stairs in the most natural way, hardly aware of where they were going. Knowing only that their paths and their destinations were the same, logged on the same map for all time.

“As for my job, well, I think that was pretty much over the minute I saw the mountain. I never would have been able to do a good job for Darby and live with myself after that anyway.” She glanced up at Joe. “Are you very disappointed that I didn’t do it for you?”

Joe smiled. His eyes were warm but quite serious when he shook his head and answered. “No. Not at all. I’m very proud of you. And I love you very much.”

“What?”

“I said, I love you very much.”

“Say it again, please.”

Again Joe smiled. This time his gladness shone in his eyes. They had reached the top of the stairs. He made a quick perusal of his surroundings as his hands reached out and took hold of the sash on her robe. Apparently having found what he was looking for, he turned his full and undivided attention back on Leslie. The expression on his face sent chills of delight racing up and down her spine.

“I … love … you,” he said, his voice a deep, stoking caress that coiled the muscles low in Leslie’s abdomen. “I … love … you,” he repeated, advancing on her, forcing her to walk backward in the direction he wanted to go, step by carefully calculated step. “I … love … you,” he said again, releasing the sash and following her into the bedroom. “I … love … you.” The robe slid from her shoulders and landed in a heap on the floor. “I … love … you.”

Mary Kay McComas is an acclaimed romance novelist and the author of twenty-one short contemporary romances, five novellas, and three novels. McComas has received several honors and awards for her work, including the Washington Romance Writers’ Outstanding Achievement Award and two Career Achievement Awards from
Romantic Times
(one for Best New Author and another for Innovative Series Romance).

Born in Spokane, Washington, the third child of six siblings, McComas graduated with a bachelor of science degree in nursing. She worked for ten years as an intensive care nurse. After marrying her husband and having their first child, the family moved to the Shenandoah Valley in northern Virginia, and McComas soon retired from nursing to raise her family, which included three more children.

Throughout her childhood and into college, McComas battled undiagnosed dyslexia. As a result, she was an infrequent reader in her youth and early adulthood. It wasn’t until after the birth of her youngest son that McComas began reading for pleasure—books hand-picked by her older sister for their humor. Gradually, she branched out with her own choices, reading widely, until one book changed her life. “Eventually I bought IT. You know … that one novel that even a dyslexic amateur can tell is poorly written, with no plot and horrible characters,” she explains. “I told my voracious-reader husband, ‘I can do better than this!’ And he said, ‘Then do it.’”

McComas’s first book landed her an agent, who helped sell four of McComas’s stories and secured the author a four-book contract within a year. McComas published her first book,
Divine Design
, in 1988, and followed it with seven more paperback novels.

A favorite of both fans and reviewers, McComas has been nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award eight times and has been a Romance Writers of America RITA Award finalist twice, once for Best Short Contemporary Fiction and once for Best Novella. Over the course of her “third career,” as McComas refers to it, she has expanded her scope beyond contemporary romances. She frequently contributes to Nora Robert’s J. D. Robb anthologies and her paranormal novellas have garnered continuous praise.

McComas continues to live in the Shenandoah Valley with her husband, three dogs, and a cat. Her four grown children live nearby. Read more about Mary Kay at marykaymccomas.com.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1989 by Mary Kay McComas

Cover design by Julianna Lee

978-1-4804-8430-6

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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