Tempestuous Eden (39 page)

“In the morning!” Blair suddenly thought of the Hunger Crew. “Oh, Craig, we can’t get married tomorrow. I still owe the crew time.”

“My dear Mrs. Morgan Huntington Teile soon to be Taylor!” Craig feigned gross exasperation. “You forget you are dealing with a highly trained government mind. I have taken all that into consideration. I am on leave now. We don’t make the move to Spain until January. That gives us plenty of time to finish out your two years together.”

“You know,” Blair said slowly, her love and appreciation sparkling her eyes to an emerald deeper than the sea. “I think I might really like that governmental mind of yours, my love. Not only are you going to make me the happiest woman in the world, you’re going to make Dr. Hardy the happiest man!”

“Un-unh,” Craig disagreed gravely “I’m going to be the happiest man.” He shrugged. “Your father is going to be a little tiffed about not making the wedding, but he’ll get over it.” Craig paused, his brows furrowing together into a scowl as he noticed Blair ignoring him and rummaging through the duffel bag. “What are you doing now?”

“Looking for more champagne!” she laughed. “And oh, yes, Dad will be tiffed, but he will get over it.” She threw her arms around Craig and met his eyes with heavy, sensual, half-closed lids. “I need that champagne. If we’re going to have a champagne fight going here, I want plenty of my own ammunition!” It wasn’t at all ridiculous to be sitting by the moonlit jungle stream stark naked sipping champagne.

It was beautiful and exotic. Craig to her would always be a man of the jungle, sleek and powerful as its predatory cats, as agile and superb as the wonders of nature that surrounded them.

He tipped her face to his. “As they seem fond of saying, princess, employ any means …”

She was lost again in the yellow-gold of compelling eyes as they descended over hers.

T
HE LETTER ON GEORGE
Merrill’s desk was marked Personal and was accompanied by a small package. With knit brows and a growing smile of suspicion, he first ripped open the letter with a quick gesture of thumb and forefinger. His smile turned to a broad grin when he saw that the message had been written on interoffice stationery.

M
EMO

From:
Taylor

To:
G.M.

Thought you might like to know that the royal wedding took place Monday morning. Princess became Mrs. Craig Taylor at ten
A.M.
our time, a relief because we can dispense with the Morgan, Huntington, and Teile. Says she is looking forward to Spain. I think the Spanish will like our American royalty.

Have two days honeymooning in Mexico City so won’t waste time writing. (Dr. Hardy got generous. Forty-eight hours, then we have to be back.)

C.T.

P.S. Enclosed turquoise earrings are for Lorna with love from Blair and myself. (Did you think it was for you? Really, Chief, turquoise won’t do much for your eyes.)

The return didn’t catch up to Craig and Blair for almost two months, since the Hunger Crew had left the village behind to move inland and bring relief to a few of the major cities.

M
EMO

From:
G.M.

To:
Taylor

Craig!

My heartiest congratulations. Missed the royal wedding, but will be there with bells on for the royal reception Huntington is planning in December.

Speaking of Huntington, beware! The man shocked us all with a temper tantrum when he heard wedding took place without him present. Then he laughed for two days straight. Read Blair’s letter over and over, grinning like a coon. Word of warning—watch your step with your father-in-law.

Give the princess my love. (And best wishes and thanks from Lorna.) Long life and happiness to you both.

The Chief

Another letter marked Personal appeared on the chief’s desk a few days after Thanksgiving. George Merrill smiled before opening it.

M
EMO

From:
Taylor

To:
G.M.

Sir,

This should catch you, with any luck, a week or so before our arrival home. Am looking forward to seeing you before leaving for Spain, and want you to check your schedule now for a small party by princess and myself on Christmas Eve. The occasion is CLASSIFIED, but I’ll clue you into the surprise since it’s in respect to warnings regarding Andrew Huntington. Don’t worry, I can handle the man. We plan to announce that a royal birth will take place early next summer. Think that will keep him smiling?

Taylor

Heather Graham (b. 1953) is one of the country’s most prominent authors of romance, suspense, and historical fiction. She has been writing bestselling books for nearly three decades, publishing more than 150 novels and selling more than seventy-five million copies worldwide.

Born in Florida to an Irish mother and a Scottish father, Graham attended college at the University of South Florida, where she majored in theater arts. She spent a few years making a living onstage as a back-up vocalist and dinner theater actor, but after the birth of her third child decided to seek work that would allow her to spend more time with her family.

After early efforts writing romance and horror stories, Graham sold her first novel,
When Next We Love
(1982). She went on to write nearly two dozen contemporary romance novels.

In 1989 Graham published
Sweet Savage Eden
, which initiated the Cameron family saga, an epic six-book series that sets romantic drama amid turbulent periods of American history, such as the Civil War. She revisited the nineteenth century in
Runaway
(1994), a story of passion, deception, and murder in Florida, which spawned five sequels of its own.

In the past decade, Graham has written romantic suspense novels such as
Tall, Dark, and Deadly
(1999),
Long, Lean, and Lethal
(2000), and
Dying to Have Her
(2001), as well as supernatural fiction. In 2003’s
Haunted
she created the Harrison Investigation service, a paranormal detective organization that she spun off into four Krewe of Hunters novels in 2011.

Graham lives in Florida, where she writes, scuba dives, and spends time with her husband and five children.

Graham (left) with her sister.

Graham with her family in New Orleans. Pictured left to right: Dennis Pozzessere; Zhenia Yeretskaya Pozzessere; Derek, Shayne, and Chynna Pozzessere; Heather Graham; Jason and Bryee-Annon Pozzessere; and Jeremy Gonzalez.

Graham at a photo shoot in Key West for the promotion of the Flynn Brothers trilogy.

Graham at the haunted Myrtles plantation, Francisville, Louisiana.

Graham and the Slushpile Band playing the Memnoch the Devil Ball at the Undead Con in New Orleans, 2010.

Graham with dear friend, actor Doug Jones.

Graham (third from left) with F. Paul Wilson, R. L. Stine, Jon Land, and other friends at the seventh annual ThrillerFest, held in New York City, 2011. The authors participated in the “Be Book Smart” campaign organized by Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s oldest and largest children’s literacy organization.