Emergency Delivery (Love Emergency) (19 page)

Her heart started to beat again—an unsteady rhythm with a familiar tug of longing, and a rampant, dangerous hope. “Hunter—”

“Wait a minute.” He tapped a finger on the counter. “I’m not done yet. I need someone to leave a light on for me when I get home late from a class or a study session.”

“Oh, my God. You got in?”

“Yeah, I did, because I needed a letter of recommendation, and someone took it on herself to provide one for me. A damn good letter, from what I hear.”

“I told the truth. I wanted to help you.”

“I’m grateful, but I need more help. I need you by my side, and in my corner, telling me I can do it when I get frustrated, or kicking my ass if I slack off. I’ll need support. Literally.” His lips tipped up into the barest of smiles. “I’ll be an unemployed student.” He stood there, his unfaltering blue gaze locked on her. “Can I count on you to be there for me?”

She opened her mouth and tried to find her voice, but emotions choked her. He wanted her. He
needed
her. Not space. Her.

“I want to be there for you, too, and for Joy. I want to be the man who walks her down the aisle someday.”

Madison drew in a painful laugh. “You don’t want anyone to touch her until she’s thirty.”

“Not even then. But I do want to be the one who stands up for her and lets that poor bastard know he’s going to have to deal with me if he ever fucks up.”

Rachel swung around the corner and stopped. “Oh boy. You must be Hunter. Um, ladies, I can help you down here.”

“I want one of those, to go,” the tallest one said, pointing at Hunter. The others nodded.

He squeezed her hand. “We’re holding up the line, baby. Let me get down to the point. I know you wish we’d met on a random afternoon over a screwed-up coffee order, but I wouldn’t trade the way I met you for anything, because I’m not going to regret a single instant of the most important moment of my life. This might have started as me rescuing you, and maybe my so-called hero complex did play a part in drawing us together, but it’s not what draws me to you now. You don’t need saving, but I hope you still need me, because I love you. I love your stubborn, prideful, independent, soft, generous heart.” He took her wrist, turned it palm side up, and dropped something in the center of her hand. “You signed your letter ‘Love Always.’ Did you mean it? Yes or no, Madison.” He drew his hand away. She stared at the small black box.

A series of gasps and one, “Hot damn, he’s serious,” reached her buzzing ears. She clasped the top of the box with shaking fingers and flipped it open. Light dazzled and danced over the facets of the diamond solitaire nestled in white satin. “I…I…” She struggled to find the air to say what was in her heart but only managed a whispered, “Yes.”

Applause and “awws” surrounded them as he slipped the ring on her finger and then leaned across the counter and swept her into a kiss. When he broke away they were both breathing hard, but she sank her fingers into his hair and pulled him down for another. He held back, and she saw a measure of the heartache she’d endured these last few days reflected in his face. His growl of a question confirmed it. “What the hell were you thinking, leaving like that?”

“I’m sorry. I love you, too, and I thought you needed space.”

“I’m going to show you exactly what I need, Madison. It’s going to take a while—possibly the rest of my damn life—so I’d like to get started as soon as possible. What time do you get done here?”

“Soon.” She kissed him again.

“Good. Consider this a Code 3 emergency. I require a hot response.”

“Hunter Knox, I’ll always come to your rescue.”

Epilogue

Madison raised her soapy face to the shower spray and then sucked in a startled breath—and a mouthful of water—when an arm slid around her waist. A second later she found her back pressed against a wide, hard chest.

“Who’s interrupting my shower?”

“Your husband.” The response vibrated through his chest and along her spine. Another arm banded her waist and flutters started low in her belly. “Remember him?”

She turned her head away from the streaming water and smiled. “That’s impossible. My husband’s a second year resident, and he just got off a twenty-four-hour shift. He’s fast asleep.”

“Do I need to show you my ID?”

“You carry identification in the shower?”

“I sure do, baby. Hold on…there you go.”

His “ID” nestled into the divide between her butt cheeks. A shiver danced through her, despite the hot water. “Hmm. Let me check it.” She reached around, grabbed a handful of his chiseled backside, and hugged him to her at the same time she squeezed his glutes.

The move produced a low groan from him. “Damn, I like the way you verify, woman.”

Her laugh turned to a squeal when he growled, “You know what else I like?” and then cupped her breasts.

“I did kind of”—oh, God, he massaged gently and her knees went weak—“pick up on that.”

“They’re a couple of my favorite things.”

“Even now?” She barely managed the question. The things he was doing to her sensitive breasts scrambled her brain.

“Especially now. I love watching you feed our son.”

“That’s good, because he likes to eat.”

One of Hunter’s hands slid down her torso. “Is he at Nelle’s?”

“Uh-huh.” His hand was on the move again. She tried not to squirm. “We put Joy on the school bus, waved good-bye, and then I took him over. She’ll pick up Joy after school and keep them both until I get home from work.”

“I’ll get them. I like meeting Joy at the bus, and intimidating that little prick Donny.”

A smile pulled at her mouth even as heat pooled between her thighs. She closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest. Fine droplets of water tickled her face. “That ‘little prick’ is named Danny, they’re six years old, and he has a crush on her. It’s adorable. I wanted you to be able to sleep…”

“I’m not particularly interested in sleep right now.” He swept his lips along the side of her neck and splayed his palm over her stomach. “This is another of my favorite parts.”

Not hers. Eight weeks after giving birth to seven pound, twelve ounce Zachary, she still had a little belly. “Baby weight’s even more stubborn the second time around.”

A sharp bite landed at the curve just above her collarbone, followed by the abrasion of his stubbly jaw over the spot. “Shush. The only stubborn thing on this body is right here.” He kissed the top of her head and then turned her around and brushed her hair back from her face. “Now, unless you have any objections, I’m going to say hello to what is, quite possibly, my most favorite part.” With that, her world spun. The next thing she knew, she was a foot off the ground, back braced against the tile, hips pinned to the wall.

Six years together, through a roller coaster of ups and downs—cranky babies, all-nighters, her promotions, his med-school graduation—and being in this man’s arms never failed to thrill her. She wrapped her arms around his head, dug her heels into his calves, and sealed her mouth to his. He slid inside her, filling her, completing her. Their grateful moans bounced off the walls and echoed in the small space.

Then he started to move. In, out, up, down, holding her hips and hitting all the spots he knew turned her into a helpless, desperate mess. The scrape of his chest against her nipples, the thrust of his tongue in her mouth, the relentless stroke of his body dragged her up so fast all she could do was cling to him as pleasure shot through her in hard, powerful spasms.

“That,” he said against her slack lips, while he continued to pump his hips, “is my favorite…fucking…thing…ever. Jesus—”

A flush rose under his five o’clock shadow. His eyelids drifted down and fluttered for an instant while he fought to keep them open. She tunneled her fingers through his hair and kissed him as he emptied himself into her.

“Hope I didn’t make you late for work, Mrs. Knox,” he teased a few moments later, as he carefully set her on her feet. It wasn’t until their bodies slipped apart that a belated thought hit. They’d just done it without a condom.
Oops. Baby number three?
Last time they’d discussed this, they’d weighed the pros and cons of giving Zach a little brother or sister close to his own age, but agreed the responsible thing would be to hold off on more kids until Hunter finished his residency and they could move to a bigger house. She’d secretly been a bit sad to let logic rule, even though she’d been the one to point out how much sense it made to wait.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled them both under the shower. While they rinsed, she glanced up at him and tried to determine if he realized they’d just rolled the dice, but his lazy smile gave nothing away.

“Um, you know we just did it without—”

“I know.” He shrugged. “Joy wants a little sister. Pass me the soap.”

She passed it to him and then opened the shower door. “And you?”

“I have this philosophy I like to live by.”

“Oh yeah? What’s your philosophy?”

He leaned down and kissed her then flashed her his cocky grin. “I told you the day we met. Think about it. And close the door.”

The day they met? “Hunter.” She stepped out and closed the glass door behind her. “I was kind of distracted the day we met.”

“Think about it,” he repeated. “Oh, by the way, you need to check the back window of your car.”

“What? Why? Oh, no. Please don’t tell me there’s a crack.” Dang it, her beautiful, new white Highlander…

“Just check it,” he called over the patter of the shower.

Great. She rushed through the rest of her morning rituals—drying her hair, dressing, feeding Baxter, the black terrier of undetermined pedigree Joy and Hunter had come home with a year ago, after stumbling across a pet adoption fair at a local park. Finally, she grabbed an apple for herself and headed out to the driveway. Her steps slowed as she approached the SUV. Shoot. Did she really want to see this?

Come on, Madison. It’s just a car. It wasn’t going to stay perfect forever
. Drawing in a deep breath, she moved to the trunk…and froze. There, on the back windshield, were a series of stick figure stickers. A tall daddy, a smaller mommy, a girl, a boy, a dog, and three little dots…

“The dots are for whatever comes next.”

She looked toward the house through watering eyes and saw Hunter leaning against the porch rail, watching her. That man.
Her
man. Everything she’d ever wanted and never imagined actually finding.

Tears leaked out the corners of her eyes as he ambled over with his sexy grin in place. Words from six years ago replayed in her mind. She cleared her throat and offered them to him. “You have to have faith in happy endings. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

“Exactly.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and hauled her against him. “Do you have faith, Madison?”

She kissed him. “I do. I always do, with you.”

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Acknowledgments

I owe big THANK YOU’s to so many people for helping give birth to this story, but the biggest goes to my editor, Heather Howland. I don’t think we’ve ever worked so hard on a book, but I felt like she loved Hunter and Madison as much as I did, and I am so appreciative of all the tireless attention, the weekend turnarounds, the not freaking out when I brought up stuff at the last minute.

Additional tackle hugs to:

Liz, Curtis, Rhianna and the rest of the Entangled team. At the risk of overusing the word awesome, they are awesome, Awesome, AWESOME!

To Robin Bielman and Hayson Manning. Thank God we are all in the same state again, (although now it’s only a matter of time before we’re sharing the same padded cell). You ladies inspire me, and teach me the meaning of talent on a daily basis.

The Romance Writers of America and the Los Angeles Romance Authors. If you want to do this romance-writing thing, you want to do it with the resources provided by these organizations.

To the readers, for being so fun, enthusiastic, inspiring, generous, lovely, smart, pretty…the list goes on. Romance writing is a pretty good gig, but connecting with readers who love the genre is one of the very best parts.

To my moms. I’m lucky enough to have a great one by birth, and another great one by marriage. On the off chance I’m ever considered a great one, I have you to thank.

To Charles and Hud…smooch, smooch, smooch.

About the Author

Wine lover, sleep fanatic, and USA Today Bestselling Author of sexy contemporary romance novels,
Samanthe Beck
lives in Malibu, California, with her long-suffering but extremely adorable husband and their turbo-son. Throw in a furry ninja named Kitty and you get the whole, chaotic picture.

When not dreaming up fun, fan-your-cheeks sexy ways to get her characters to happily-ever-after, she searches for the perfect cabernet to pair with Ambien.

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