Her One and Only (31 page)

As she looked at him she saw him swallow and then heard him say in a thick emotional voice, ‘Come on, let’s get out of here...’

In the drawing room Max had just given Ben Crighton his news. Through the open doorway Katie could see her grandfather’s face quite plainly. Max’s news had totally eclipsed anything she might have said to Gramps or anything he might have wanted to say to her—thankfully.

Breathing a small sigh of thanks to her brother she looked up into Seb’s face.

‘Yes,’ she agreed softly. ‘Let’s...’

* * *

‘H
AVE
I
TOLD
you just how much I love you...just how wonderful you are, how gorgeous, how adorable, how sexy and...’

‘Mmm...but you can tell me all over again if you like,’ Katie said happily as she snuggled deeper into his side.

The late-afternoon sun shining in through the window of his apartment brushed their naked bodies with a soft gold wash of colour. Seb’s skin was much darker than hers, his body hair dark and silky.

Idly she stroked her fingers through it and then leaned over teasingly, kissing one of his nipples and then the other.

‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ Seb growled, his growl turning to an urgent low groan of reaction as she tugged sensually on the small hard nub of flesh, her palm spread flat on the concave plane of his belly.

‘I never really loved Gareth, you know,’ she told him gently a few minutes later as she propped herself up on one elbow and looked lovingly down into his face. ‘I just thought I did, but the Gareth I imagined I loved never really existed, he was just someone I’d created in my own head, and as for you being jealous of him...’ She gave him a searching look and then said quietly, ‘
You’ve
been married, Seb. You must have loved Sandra once...and...’

Quickly Seb shook his head.

‘We thought we loved one another but it was just an infatuation, something which by rights we should have got out of our systems with a few nights of experimental sex, but I was too strait-laced, too aware of my Cooke heritage, to do that. Sandra and I should never have married and we certainly should never have had a child. I
do
feel guilty about that, about not being there for Charlotte when she was growing up, but when Sandra told me that she felt it was for the best that Charlotte didn’t have any kind of contact with me rather than be torn between the two of us, I felt that she was right and then she married George and to all intents and purposes he became Charlotte’s father.’

‘That must have been hard for you,’ Katie said gently, ‘knowing that another man was taking your place.’

‘It wasn’t always easy,’ Seb agreed wryly, ‘but for Charlotte’s sake...’ He stopped. ‘When I first got in touch with her I was terrified that she might be disappointed in me, that I wouldn’t live up to her expectations and that I might somehow have damaged her by not being there for her, but she’s just about the most well-adjusted human being I know...’

‘Mmm...’ Katie agreed and then asked him a little hesitantly, ‘How will she feel, do you suppose, about us?’

Seb looked at her and then shook his head gravely. ‘That’s going to be a problem, I’m afraid,’ he told her solemnly.

Katie’s heart lurched. ‘It...it is?’

‘Mmm... She’s already told me that there’s absolutely, totally no way she will ever...’ He paused while Katie looked anxiously at him. ‘Ever...’ he continued dramatically, ‘wear a bridesmaid’s dress that makes her look like a pink meringue...’

‘What?’ Katie glared at him and then burst out laughing.

‘She thinks you’re wonderful,’ Seb told her softly, ‘and she can’t
wait
for us to provide her with another clutch of half siblings...’

‘Oh, Seb,’ Katie whispered, her eyes full of emotional tears.

‘Oh, Seb, what?’ Seb repeated equally emotionally, but Katie couldn’t make any rational vocal response because he was kissing her, pressing her back against the pillows, pinioning her arms in a tender mock-masterful lover’s embrace as he kissed her, slowly and softly at first and then with increasing passion and urgency as his body hardened and Katie gave a low female moan of arousal deep in her throat. The soft rose-pink colour staining her breasts now didn’t come from the dying sun but from the slow sensual suckle of Seb’s mouth. As he kissed the soft curve of her belly Katie arched frantically beneath him. His hand caressed her thigh and then tenderly touched her sex. Katie moaned out loud.

‘We shouldn’t be doing this,’ Seb reminded her with a soft groan as she turned towards him. ‘Not without...’ But Katie was already touching him, stroking him and the urge to bury himself deep inside her was far too strong for him to resist.

Later, lying in Seb’s arms, Katie gave a blissful sigh and told him softly, ‘I saw him...just now, when...he was so beautiful, Seb...’

‘Yes, I know,’ he agreed quietly, ‘I saw him, too.’

They looked at one another, sharing the awe of what they had both experienced.

‘He looked so like you,’ Katie told him tremulously.

Seb frowned.

‘No,’ he corrected her, ‘
he
looked like
you
.’

Katie’s eyes widened.

‘Twins,’ she whispered chokily. ‘We’re going to have twins. Oh, Seb... Seb...’

‘Mmm...’ Seb breathed as she kissed him. ‘Careful...it could be triplets...’

Katie laughed.

‘There are no triplets in the Crighton family,’ she mock-scolded him.

‘We’ll have to get married...and soon,’ Seb warned her.

Katie pursed her lips and pretended to frown.

‘I mean it, Katie,’ Seb told her fiercely. ‘This isn’t a “let’s live together and see how it works out” thing for me. You’re the woman I love and it’s a “forever love” for me...’

‘...and for me,’ Katie assured him happily.

‘A quiet simple wedding,’ Seb continued, stopping when Katie started to laugh.

‘No...no way can we do that,’ she told him joyously. ‘You’re a Cooke and I’m a Crighton, Seb, and the whole town is going to want to see us married. It’s just as well Haslewich has such a large church.’

‘Mmm...but does it have a large
font
,’ Seb murmured before drawing her down against his body and then silencing whatever reply she might have made with a long sensual kiss.

EPILOGUE

‘I
T
’
S
JUST
AS
well that Haslewich has such a large church,’ Jenny Crighton told her husband, unconsciously echoing
Katie’s own comment to Seb.

‘Mmm... I know they’re in love, but does everything have to happen in such a rush?’ Jon protested ruefully, stopping when he saw the look Jenny was giving him.

‘Oh,’ he exclaimed, ‘I see...’

‘Katie hasn’t
said
anything,’ Jenny warned him, ‘but Louise is pretty sure, and you know how it is with them, being twins...they seem to share a special bond and...’ Jenny broke off as she saw her husband’s expression. Gently she touched his arm. Her Jon was a twin himself, even if he and his brother David weren’t in contact with one another any more.

‘Your father still believes that ultimately David will return home.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Jon agreed heavily. ‘You know I had the oddest feeling when I went to Jamaica that...’

‘...that what?’ Jenny pressed him, but he was already shaking his head.

‘Oh, nothing... So we’ve got another wedding to look forward to. Which reminds me, we’re coming up to Olivia and Caspar’s anniversary.’

Jenny started to frown.

‘What is it?’ Jon asked her.

‘I don’t know,’ Jenny admitted. ‘It’s just that Olivia seems to be rather on edge at the moment.’

‘Mmm...well, we are under a lot of pressure at the practice which, of course, is one of the reasons why I was so pleased when Katie agreed to join us. Which reminds me,’ Jon joked, ‘we’re very definitely going to have to think about buying that dining room table you were telling me about!’

‘The one that extends to seat twenty?’ Jenny asked him. ‘You said it was too big.’

‘Mmm...that was before I’d added up the number of grandchildren our family is blessing us with.’

Jenny laughed and agreed. ‘Yes, Katie was saying only last night that it’s just as well the church has such a long aisle...for all the little bridesmaids she’s going to have,’ she explained. ‘Close on a dozen at the last count.’

* * *

‘A
DOZEN
!’ C
HARLOTTE
exclaimed, looking bemused when Katie outlined her wedding plans to her that same evening.

‘Mmm...all of them dressed in little pink mini-meringues,’ Katie told her solemnly, tongue-in-cheek.

‘Like
what
?’ Suddenly realising she was being teased, Charlotte burst out laughing.

‘All right, I agree to take charge of them and to act as yours and Dad’s support, but no
way
am I wearing pink or tulle.’

‘No way,’ Katie agreed, her eyes dancing with laughter and love.

‘Oh, I’m so glad you and Dad have found one another,’ Charlotte told her happily.

As Katie smiled at her and then looked across the room to where Seb was watching them, her eyes sparkled with happiness and love.

‘So am I...’ she told Charlotte tenderly.

* * * * *

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ISBN: 9781459249646

Copyright © 2000 by Penny Jordan

The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of
the individual works as follows:

THE PERFECT FATHER
Copyright © 1999 by Penny Jordan

A PERFECT NIGHT
Copyright © 2000 by Penny Jordan

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now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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