Читать книгу The Sergeant's Baby - Bonnie Gardner - Страница 8

Two Years Ago

Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Allison Carter stood in her bra and panties in front of the closet and tried to decide what to put on. She’d always preferred slimming blacks and dark colors, but tonight she and her fiancé, Danny Murphey, were going to announce their engagement at Danny’s air-force unit’s annual Fourth of July bash on the beach. She needed something that shouted celebration, for the nation’s birthday and her own special day.

“I like the red one,” Danny said from behind her. He wrapped his arms around hers, pinning them to her sides, and drew her to him. He nuzzled her neck, his breath warm and arousing against her cheek. He was referring to the crimson silk sheath with the oriental motif.

Ally had to admit that she looked great in that dress when she was wearing four-inch heels, but on the sandy beach, they would be very much out of place, nor would she be able to walk. Plus, considering her five-foot frame, she wasn’t so sure the dress would have the same effect when she had on flat sandals.

Ally turned around and found Danny’s lips. She tasted him hungrily, and soon she wasn’t worrying about what to wear.

What was there about this man that made him different from the others she’d dated? Ally wondered with delight. She felt Danny harden against her, but she gently pushed him away.

“There’s plenty of time for that later, Danny,” she said breathlessly, turning back to the open closet. “Tonight’s important. Tonight, we’ll officially be a couple.”

“We aren’t now?” Danny countered. “We’ve been all but living together for months. It’s hardly a secret.”

“I know,” Ally replied. “But it’s a big deal for a woman. I can’t wait to introduce you to the people I work with,” she said as she selected a fuchsia sun-dress. She’d always thought it a little bright, but Danny had helped her pick it out. And she could wear sandals with it. “Will this one pass inspection?”

“Definitely.”

Danny reached around her and grabbed a moss-green polo shirt. Ally loved the way it stretched across his broad chest and over his wide shoulders. She smiled as she thought of the day she’d helped him pick it out. Telling her that he wore green almost every day, he’d rejected it almost immediately. She’d had to explain to him that with his tanned complexion, Irish green eyes and red hair it was perfect, and nowhere close to the same green as his battle-dress air force uniform. She chuckled, remembering.

“I don’t know why it matters, anyway,” Danny said.

“What matters?”

“Introducing me to your friends from work.”

“Not friends, Danny. Colleagues,” she corrected him. “My work is important to me. So are the people I work with.”

“Yeah, but you’ll be quitting soon enough,” Danny said.

Had he really just said that? Ally turned, her hands on her hips, and stared at him. Surely he was joking. But his expression proved that he was serious. “Why on earth would I be quitting my job?”

“No Murphey has ever allowed his wife to work. Not while he was alive, anyway,” Danny said.

“Allowed his wife to work? Allowed?” Ally repeated with incredulity. “What gives you Murphey men or any other men, for that matter, any say in the matter?”

He gaped at her as though she’d spoken in tongues. “As the head of the family,” he said slowly, as if addressing a slow child, “it’s the duty of the man of the house to provide for his wife and children.”

“I did not spend four years in college and work my buns off getting myself established in government civil service to have you or any man tell me that I can’t work, Danny!” Ally exclaimed.

He shrugged. “Okay. Let’s drop it for now. We have a party to go to. Let’s have fun.” He smiled and kissed Ally on the top of her head, then finished dressing. “We can hash the working thing out tomorrow.”