Clayton stared down at her. They stood transfixed, mesmerized by a sensual power that for the moment bonded them together in heart and mind.
Syneda saw his hands ball into fists at his side and knew he was fighting hard to resist her. But then, little by little, she saw the coldness leave him and watched as warmth crept back into his body, beginning with his eyes.
He slowly bent his head to kiss her, his mouth moist and gentle against hers, and she knew that love had won. When he lifted his head, a flood of warmth and love shone in his eyes.
Tears of happiness slowly found their way down Syneda’s cheeks, and he tenderly kissed them away. With a raw ache in his voice he said, “I want more from you than my shirt, Syneda. I agree with what you said about there having to be more between us than sex. And I want more, a lot more.”
He covered her hand with his and pressed her palm against his mouth. “I want everything you have to give and still more. I want you to marry me, to have my children, to be my partner in life and love. I want you to walk beside me, and to believe in me, and believe that I love you more than anything or anyone in this world. I need you.”
Syneda’s heart swelled with love for him. “And I love and need you, Clayton. I need a man in my life whom I can trust, a man whom I can believe in and depend on.” Her lips quirked in a smile. “And I want a man who wants more than the shirt off my back.”
Clayton laughed, pulling her gently into his arms. “You’ll get everything you want and more.”
Syneda pressed her face into his shoulder. “You’ll never know how hard it was for me to get out of your parents’ home unnoticed wearing my coat with only your shirt underneath.”
Clayton grinned. “You’re something else.” He hugged her tighter. “How soon can we get married?”
Syneda laughed affectionately as she pulled back out of his arms. “I’m open to suggestions.”
Clayton smiled. “How about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” Syneda laughed. “That’s kind of rushing things a bit, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to let you return to New York. Besides, I don’t want to run the risk of you changing your mind on me.”
“I won’t change my mind. I want all the things you’re offering—marriage, children, trust, and most of all love, your love.”
“I guess I won’t cheat my parents out of witnessing their last remaining son’s marriage. Especially since they weren’t present at Justin’s and Dex’s weddings. Do you have anything against a big wedding?”
Syneda shook her head. “No. In fact, I think I’d like that. We may as well do it right. How about a June wedding?”
“How about December?”
“June.”
“I’d like a Christmas wedding.”
“Next Christmas?”
“No, this Christmas.”
Syneda grinned, shaking her head. “That’s too soon. I say June.”
Clayton frowned. “June? I don’t know if I can wait that long.”
Syneda chuckled. “June’s only seven months away, and believe me, time will go by quickly. That will give us time to really plan things. Caitlin and Lorren will have had their babies and Christy will be home from college for the summer. Then there are the cases I need to finalize or transfer to other attorneys, not to mention the fact that I need to look for another job here in Houston.”
Clayton’s hand moved slowly down her back as he stared down at her. “You’ll have another job. I have plenty of room in my office to take on a partner. I like the sound of Madaris and Madaris, Attorneys at Law. Don’t you?”
Syneda smiled up at him, her heart bursting with happiness. “Yes, it sounds wonderful, but I’m a little worried we might disagree on every case we take on.”
Clayton smiled and folded her to him. “I’ll take that chance.” He silently pledged to love and protect her for the rest of her life. “I think,” he rasped close to her ear as his hands came to rest on her smooth thighs, “that you can return my shirt now.”
Syneda pulled away from him. “My things are in the car.”
Clayton nodded. “I’ll bring them in later. Right now I can think of other things I prefer doing. I’ve always thought that my shirts look better on you than they do on me,” he said huskily as he continued the task of unbuttoning the shirt. He paused briefly to bend his head. His mouth claimed hers in a kiss of both violent tenderness and turbulent longing.
Syneda kissed him back with all her heart and with all of the love that she had accumulated through the years but had been afraid to give.
“Your mom expects us by eleven in the morning,” she whispered shakily when Clayton lifted his mouth from hers and began removing his shirt from her body.
“Eleven?” He smiled down at her. “In that case, we shouldn’t waste any time,” he said moments before gathering her up into his arms.
“My sentiments exactly,” Syneda said, returning his smile and pulling his mouth down to hers.
“W
hat do you mean the two of you are getting married? Is this some kind of joke?”
The living room of the Madaris family home was in a complete uproar as everyone began shouting questions at Clayton and Syneda all at once. When? Where? How? Why?
Clayton laughed at the look of surprise and shock on most of the faces staring at them. He and Syneda had made the announcement to the family after arriving a few minutes before eleven and finding them gathered around the breakfast table.
He pulled Syneda to his side. “When? Sometime in June. Where? That’s for Syneda to decide. How? The usual way two people get married. And why? Because we love each other very much,” he said, pulling her to him and placing a gentle kiss on her lips.
Kattie shook her head, still not convinced. “Okay, you two, the joke is over. April Fool’s Day is months away.”
Syneda chuckled. “Believe us, Kattie. This isn’t a joke. Clayton and I are really getting married.”
Traci rolled her eyes heavenward. “Be real. The two of you don’t even get along most of the time. Besides, you haven’t been romantically involved, and…”
Traci stopped talking in midsentence when a thought suddenly hit her. She gave Syneda a long, penetrating stare.
“You’re her!” she exclaimed. “You’re the one responsible for Clayton’s out-of-town trips.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe it. Why didn’t someone tell me?”
Dex chuckled. “Evidently they wanted to keep it a secret, and everyone knows you can’t hold water, Traci.”
Traci turned and glared at her next-to-oldest brother. “And I suppose you knew?”
Dex smiled at his sister. “Yes, but they didn’t tell me, either. I figured it out at Uncle Jake’s party for Senator Lansing. All anyone had to do was to take a good look at them dancing together and figure it out.”
“I saw them dancing together and didn’t notice anything unusual,” Kattie piped in.
“Probably because like most of the women there that night, you were more into noticing Sterling Hamilton,” her husband Raymond suggested, grinning.
The majority of the women in the room nodded. That was a good possibility. A very good possibility.
“But why the secrecy? Why did the two of you hide the fact you were seeing each other?” Caitlin asked. She frowned at her husband. The nerve of him knowing and not sharing the information with her.
Syneda glanced up at Clayton. He took her hand in his. “When Syneda and I went to Florida together, it was as two good friends. However, we discovered something special while we were there. The reason we didn’t tell any of you about it was because we wanted to go slow. We needed time to see where the attraction was going and what it meant. And we needed time to sort out our feelings.”
He pulled her into his arms. “We have them sorted out now. We love each other very much and want to commit our lives to each other. I’ve asked her to make me the happiest man on earth by becoming my wife and she has agreed.”
Syneda’s gaze held Clayton’s. He had made it all sound so romantic. He had eloquently and smoothly presented his family with an understandable, convincing and acceptable reason why they’d kept their relationship a secret over the past months. Only the two of them knew things hadn’t really been quite that way.
“We’re happy for both of you.” Jonathan Madaris’s words to his youngest son and future daughter-in-law were followed by similar ones from the others as they crowded around the happy couple offering words of congratulations once the surprise had officially worn off.
A poll was taken to see who else had known about the couple’s involvement beforehand. Marilyn Madaris admitted knowing and confessed to passing the information to her husband that weekend at Whispering Pines.
Justin and Lorren admitted to finding out about the couple when they paid them a surprise visit to Florida.
And, surprising his wife, Kattie, Raymond admitted to knowing. He recalled seeing them together in Atlanta during one of his business trips, although they hadn’t seen him.
“The reason I didn’t tell you, Kattie,” Raymond said when she glared at him, “is because you don’t hold water any better than Traci.”
This was truly a day of Thanksgiving, Syneda thought hours later as she sat around the dinner table with Clayton at her side and his family around her. News of their engagement had quickly spread and the telephone calls from other members of Clayton’s family—uncles, aunts and cousins, began rolling in.
Everyone was more than happy to hear that the man who had loved his freedom, who often boasted of having to answer to no woman, and whose credo in life for the longest time had been “all men are fools, except for bachelors” was finally tying the knot. They were very pleased with his choice of wife. And there was no need to welcome her to the family because as far as they were concerned, she was a member of the family already.
“Tomorrow is the biggest shopping day of the year, Syneda,” Traci said from across the huge table in the Madaris family dining room. “If you like, we can go shopping for—”
“No!” It seemed the entire Madaris family echoed the single word at the same time. Traci turned and glared at them. “And what’s wrong with Syneda going shopping tomorrow?”
Daniel gave his wife a serious look. “There’s nothing wrong with Syneda going shopping. You just aren’t going with her. You’ve been suspended from shopping, remember?”
Justin chuckled. “Suspended from shopping? That’s a new one.”
Daniel smiled. “When you’re married to Traci, you have to do what you have to do.” He held up his hand when Clayton opened his mouth to say something. “And don’t you dare remind me that the three of you warned me, Clayton.”
Traci gave her husband an imploring look. “But, Dan, I have to go shopping with Syneda. How else will I know what she wants me to wear in her wedding?”
“The wedding isn’t until June. You have seven months to pay off your charge cards, Traci,” he replied.
Syneda smiled. It had been decided that Lorren and Caitlin would be her matrons of honor, and Clayton’s three sisters, and their cousin, Felicia Laverne, would be her bridesmaids. She thought of asking two good friends from college to be her bridesmaids, too.
The wedding would be held at Gramma Madaris’s church near Whispering Pines, and the way the plans were shaping up, the guest list would be enormous.
“Syneda won’t be going shopping with anyone but me tomorrow,” Clayton said. He captured her hand in his and held it tenderly. “The first thing I’m going to do in the morning is to take her to the jeweler.”
“Make sure you pick out the most expensive ring,” Clayton’s youngest sister, Christy, suggested. “By the way, Syneda, who’s giving you away at the wedding?”
Syneda met Clayton’s eyes and smiled. “No one is giving me away, Christy. I’m giving myself away.”
Dex laughed. “That should be interesting. But knowing you and Clayton, I guess we shouldn’t expect the norm, should we?”
Syneda smiled at him. “No. As you can see, we’re full of surprises.”
Clayton watched as the morning light shone through his bedroom window. Its rays highlighted Syneda, who still slept soundly in his arms.
He moved, shifting her closer to him, wanting to be a part of her again, but knowing that she needed to rest. They had spent the entire Thanksgiving Day at his parents’ home. It had been after midnight before they had returned to his apartment.
His lovemaking last night, just like it had been the night before when she’d shown up at his place wearing only his dress shirt, had been aggressive, demanding. It was as though he couldn’t get enough of her. And she had only added fuel to his fire by meeting him kiss for kiss, stroke for stroke, matching his demands with equal fervor.
He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “I love you.”
A smile touched Syneda’s lips as she struggled to open her eyes. “And I love you, too, Madaris. Now kiss me awake.”
“My pleasure.” His mouth found hers in a passionate kiss that she returned.
Moments later, after he had broken off the kiss, she rested against him, feeling like the luckiest woman in the world. All the past fears, doubts, disappointments and pain seemed to have left her under the onslaught of Clayton’s love. And she knew that as long as he was a part of her life, she could deal with just about anything.
She sat up, ignoring the morning chill that was in the room. “I went to the cemetery to visit my mother last week, Clayton.”
Clayton gently pulled her back down beside him. He understood that must have been an important undertaking for her. She had once told him that she had never visited her mother’s grave, and had shared with him the reason why.
He raised himself up and looked down at her, concern on his face. “How did it go?”
“It went okay. I had to go there in order to close a chapter in my life forever. I knew I loved you and didn’t want to deal with my father in my life any longer. I wanted to get rid of it once and for all.”
“And did you?”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad.” He kissed her again, this kiss longer than before. Afterward when she lay in his arms snuggled close to him, he wondered if he should tell her about hiring Alex to find her father. It had been his original plan, right after she had broken things off with him, to find the man and beat the hell out of him for what he had done to her, and for being the cause of all their problems. But then, after rationality had set in, he had kept Alex looking for the man just out of pure curiosity. He wanted a name. He couldn’t help but wonder what kind of man would do what her father had done to a child.
But now, there was a whole new element to everything with Alex’s revelation that two other investigative agencies were looking into Syneda’s past.
“Syneda?”
“Hmm?”
“Have you ever tried finding your father?”
He felt her tense. She looked up at him, frowning. “Of course not. Why would I?”
“And you know nothing about him?”
“Nothing other than the little bit I told you.”
“So you have no idea how he looks? Your mother never kept a picture of him around the house?”
Syneda sat up again. “Why all the questions, Clayton?”
“Just curious. We don’t have to talk about it if discussing him upsets you.”
She shook her head. “No, discussing him doesn’t bother me now.” She lay back down in his arms. “I don’t know how he looks, and I don’t recall Mama ever having a picture of him. I assume he’s some light-skinned brother with light-colored eyes since my mother’s coloring was darker than mine, and her eyes were dark brown.”
Syneda frowned. “Now, to think about it, I remember her telling me all the time when I was a lot younger how much I looked liked him. She stopped telling me that after I began asking questions about him.”
Syneda shifted in his arms. “Now I want to ask you a question.”
Clayton nodded, smiling. “What do you want to ask?”
“Do you know anything about Larry Morgan being hired at Remington Oil?”
He chuckled. “Why would I know anything about it, sweetheart?”
Syneda gave him a pointed look. “Because you do. I know it and you know it whether you admit it or not.”
Clayton shrugged. “End of discussion.”
She frowned at him, knowing he wouldn’t fess up. But she had a way to make him talk and confess all. She smiled sweetly up at him. “Can I see that case of condoms you have in your closet?”
Syneda held her left hand out in front her. Tears misted her eyes as she looked at the three-carat diamond ring on her third finger that Clayton had just placed there. It was absolutely stunning.
It had been past noon before they had left Clayton’s apartment. After showing her the case of condoms in his closet, he had proceeded to put a few of them to good use. The first place they had stopped on their shopping expedition was the jeweler.
“Oh, Clayton, this ring is absolutely gorgeous.” She looked up at him. “Are you sure?”
Clayton glanced down at Syneda’s face and saw the uncertainty lingering there. It was there in her eyes. Dear heaven!
How could she still doubt anything about him? But then he remembered she had had eighteen years of doubt and pain from another man she had wanted to believe in. Placing her complete trust in someone didn’t come easy for her.
“Am I sure about what, Syneda? That I want to marry you or that I love you?” he asked her quietly.
“Both.” She bowed her head, unable to meet the intensity in his eyes any longer.
“Syneda?” He waited for her to look up at him. Waited for the abundance of golden-bronze hair that fanned across her shoulders to fall back in place and frame her face.
When she lifted her eyes to him, her gaze was searching his for answers. “Yes?”
“I’m sure,” he said, his voice low and soft. “I’m sure that I love you very much, and that you’re the woman I’ve been waiting for all my life, even without knowing I was waiting. And I’m sure I want to marry you, to make you my wife. I want to give you my name and one day I want to give you my babies. I promise to be a good husband to you and a good father to our children.”
She smiled through the tears that misted her eyes. “Babies? Meaning more than one?”