One Night With You (26 page)

Authors: Candace Schuler

Tags: #Romance, #Contemporary

"Don't be silly. She'll probably need changing and, besides, she's teething. You might have to rock her back to sleep."

"You think I can't handle one little baby?" he asked in mock indignation.

"No," she answered him honestly, her blue eyes alight with laughter and tenderness.

"Don't bet on it. My older sister has four kids. I'm an expert baby rocker."

"And diaper changer?" she said dryly.

"Anybody can change a diaper." He grinned. "It just takes a strong stomach." He put one big hand between her breasts and toppled her backward onto the bed. "Wait for me right there," he ordered. "I'll be back."

Desi smiled up at him. He'd be calling for her help soon enough. She'd give him five minutes, at most.

She heard the door to Stephanie's room creak open and then the baby's crying quieted abruptly, presumably as Jake picked her up. She heard the deep, muffled sound of Jake's voice as he talked to his daughter, but there was no frantic appeal for her help. Maybe he
could
change a diaper.

Desi got up from the bed and pulled back the quilted spread and the crisp powder-blue sheets, fluffing the pillows before she crawled back in it to wait, as ordered.

It was just as if they were already married, she thought, hugging herself happily. She snuggled down into the bed, while Jake took his turn with the baby.

"I'll make him happy," she whispered aloud, to no one in particular.

She made herself comfortable under the covers, listening to the muted music of father and daughter in the next room. Jake seemed to be talking to the baby, and there were pauses, as if she was answering him. Desi closed her eyes, smiling at the picture that conjured up...the internationally famous heartthrob Jake Lancing, babbling gibberish to a five-month-old baby girl. It was enough to bring foolish tears to her eyes.

"You didn't wait for me." Jake's breath tickled her ear as he snuggled down into the bed beside her.

Desi's eyes flickered open, focusing groggily on the bare, hairy chest in front of her. "I guess I fell asleep," she said. She wrapped her arm around his waist, burying her face against his furred chest as if waking up to find him naked in her bed was the most natural thing in the world. "You took long enough," she complained sleepily.

"Stephanie wanted to talk."

Desi rubbed her cheek against his hair-roughened chest. "She's too young to talk."

"She is not," he informed her, a ring of fatherly pride in his voice. "We decided that she's going up to Sonoma with us tomorrow to finish the picture."

Desi rolled over onto her back to look up into his face. "She is, is she?"

Jake nodded.

"I thought you didn't like kids."

"Who told you a lie like that?"

"You did—indirectly, anyway."

He looked at her quizzically, one eyebrow raised in mute question.

"Those paternity suits," she explained, "and a couple of things you said in interviews."

"I never said I didn't like kids. I just said those particular two weren't mine."

"Oh," Desi uttered softly, not knowing what else to say.

"In fact, I'm crazy about kids." His arms cradled her. "Especially little redheaded kids. I'd like to have at least as many as my sister." He peered down into her face. "Did I tell you that she has four?"

"Ah, yes." Desi nodded against his chest. "Four." She felt his hands moving slowly on her body. "That's quite a large family, isn't it? I mean—" she squirmed as his fingers explored her navel "—for a working couple. That's a lot of... um, responsibility and, um..." She was becoming incoherent as his hands continued their tantalizing journey over the curves of her slim body.

"Don't worry about it." He spoke against her ear, his tongue teasing the lobe. "We'll get a nanny and they can travel with us. I'm rich, unless this film flops and then—"

"It won't flop," Desi interrupted loyally, propping herself up on one elbow. "It's a great film and it'll be a big hit. I know it will."

"Hey," Jake said, a slow, sexy smile on his face, his dark eyes alight with love and tenderness and passion. "Do you really want to talk business? Now?"

Desi's smile matched his. "No," she said, a little breathlessly.

"Then kiss me," he ordered, rolling her over so that she was trapped under the welcome weight of his hard body.

Her arms came up, pulling his head down to her searching mouth, and her slender body arched under him, inviting his most intimate possession. He shifted eagerly as her legs opened, taking what she so freely and so sweetly offered.

"Desiree," he groaned, straining forward into the honeyed warmth of her body.

Desi's fingers clutched convulsively at his shoulders, and she murmured his name softly, over and over, like a chant. It was the only thing she seemed able to say as he took her beyond coherent thought with the thrusting heat of his muscled body and the sweet, exciting love words that he whispered hoarsely against the dampness of her neck. It was those words, as much as what he did to her with his body, that finally drove her over the crest. She nearly screamed as her climax washed over her in waves, burying her face in his neck to muffle the sound. She felt him stiffen in her arms as his own climax took him.

They lay there entwined for several long minutes, wrapped in each other's arms, as they drifted back to reality. Slowly she became aware of the sheets rumpled under their sweat-sheened bodies, of the comforter that had slipped to the floor, of the distant sound of the constant city traffic, and the weight of Jake's body above her—all things that had gone completely unnoticed during the act of love.

Jake shifted his body then, relieving her of his weight, but keeping her close still, with his arm around her shoulders and her head on his chest. "I think you were right," he said, his voice soft and gruff from somewhere above her head.

"About what?" She lifted her head a little to peer up at him.

"Stephanie does have my eyes," he told her, a note of pleased conviction in his voice. He pressed her head back down to his chest with his free hand.

"Oh, you." She punched him lightly in the ribs in retaliation and was rewarded by a soft oomph of laughter.

His hand stroked lazily down the length of her back. "Go to sleep, my Desiree," he said. "We have a long day tomorrow." His voice sounded fuzzy and far away as if he, too, was drifting off to sleep. "Drive up to Sonoma. Get
Devil's Lady
in the can before Christmas. Shall we have Christmas with your family, sweetheart? We could get married then."

He paused, in case Desi wanted to speak, but she remained silent, cuddled contentedly against his side. "It should be a small wedding, don't you think?" he went on, not really waiting for, nor expecting, an answer. "Just immediate families. Will your parents mind arranging a wedding on such short notice? Or should I have my secretary take care of it?"

"Mmm," Desi mumbled against his chest.

Jake jiggled her a little. "Hey, we're planning a wedding here. Pay attention, woman."

"Mmm," Desi said again, drowsy with love and contentment. "It sounds wonderful. I'd love a Christmas wedding, and my mother will have a ball."

They had almost dropped off to sleep when a sudden thought brought her upright. "Oh good Lord!"

"What?" Jake heaved himself up onto his elbow, concern in his eyes. "What is it?"

"My mother."

"What about your mother? Don't you think she can handle the arrangements for the wedding?"

"No, that's not it." Desi was giggling now. "Mom and dad will be
overjoyed
to arrange the wedding, believe me. It's just that their future son-in-law is going to come as a real shock. They have no idea that there's even a man in my life." She lay back down against the pillow and smiled up at him mischievously. "Let alone a man like you. The great Jake Lancing," she teased. "Mom will be the envy of her bridge club."

Jake raised a skeptical eyebrow, ignoring her teasing. "Surely, they must know there's
someone
," he said dryly, his head cocked toward Stephanie's room.

"But that was nearly a year ago." Her smile widened into a grin.

She lifted her hand and touched his face softly, trailing the tips of her fingers across his eyebrows, down his nose, over the curve of his upper lip. Her grin faded.

"That time should have been yours, too, Jake," she said seriously. "You had a right to know that you were going to be a father, and I shouldn't have let pride and hurt feelings keep me from telling you." Her other hand came up and she cupped his face between her palms. "I'm so sorry, Jake. Can you ever forgive me for being so selfish?"

Jake turned his lips into her palm, too moved, for a moment, to speak. "We've both done some things and said some things we should be sorry for, Desiree. But that's all in the past. Tonight—" he turned his head, kissing her other palm "—tonight we start with a clean slate. Agreed?"

"Agreed," she whispered. Her hands curved around his jaw to the back of his head, her fingers threading through his dark hair. Her lips parted softly, her lashes lowered over eyes as brilliant as sapphires.

He resisted the pull of her arms for just a moment. "You want to seal it with a kiss?" he said, his eyes smoldering with love and passion and teasing laughter.

"Several kisses." Desi tightened her arms around his neck, lifting her head to his. "Lots of kisses," she murmured as their mouths touched.

Jake's arms slid under her then, hugging her body to his. He pressed her down into the pillows, tilting his head so that their kiss was deepened. Desi's lips opened wider, eagerly accepting the sweetness of his seeking tongue. She wrapped her arms more tightly around his neck, needing to hold him as close as possible. Closer. She moaned softly.

Jake freed his mouth for just a moment. "A lifetime of kisses," he said solemnly, and bent his head to taste her lips again.

The End