Читать книгу Paws And Proposals - Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 19

‘I THOUGHT I told you not to even try leaving here until the two of us had finished our conversation!’ Jackson roared furiously as he slammed the door to Bree’s apartment behind him. Bree herself was tossed over his shoulder as he strode purposefully down the hallway.

‘Put me down this instant, Jackson!’ Her protest was as violent as the fists she pounded against his back. ‘How dare you—?’

‘How dare you?’

Jackson didn’t even break stride as he kicked open the door to her bedroom, a nerve pulsing in his clenched jaw, his expression grim and his eyes bleak as he recalled the lurching feeling in his chest when he had heard the sound of Bree’s car starting up in the garage. He and Danny had been sitting together in the kitchen, drinking hot chocolate to warm up after being out in the snow for over an hour.

‘You simply can’t manhandle me in this ridiculous way—’

‘Too late—I just did!’ Jackson threw her unceremoniously down onto her bed and stood glowering down at her. ‘Where did you think you were going?’ he demanded through gritted teeth.

Bree glared back at him just as angrily as she struggled to sit up. ‘Just for a drive, if you must know—’

‘Oh, I believe I must, Bree.’ His voice was dangerously soft.

This was a danger that Bree recognised—even if she had no intention of responding to it after the sheer indignity of having the ignition of her car switched off and the keys deposited in the pocket of Jackson’s jeans, of being hauled out and thrown over Jackson’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carried down to her apartment before being dumped unceremoniously onto her bed! She was far too angry to heed the warning signs.

‘Don’t move,’ Jackson bit out harshly as Bree tried to get up.

Her eyes flashed darkly. ‘Maybe someone should have told you that the time of the caveman is long past—’

‘Maybe someone should have told you not to push your luck,’ he warned, putting one knee on the side of the bed.

‘I—what are you doing?’ Bree attempted to scoot across to the other side of the bed as Jackson loomed over her ominously.

‘Guess!’ He smiled humourlessly and his hand grasped her leg, preventing her from moving any further away.

‘Jackson …?’ Bree eyed him warily as he knelt fully on the bed before nudging her legs apart. She was barely breathing, and certainly unable to move as he lowered himself in between her denim-clad thighs, taking his weight on his elbows as he looked down at her. ‘Danny is—’

‘Danny is perfectly happy upstairs in the kitchen with Mrs Holmes.’

Jackson’s face was so close to hers that his breath stirred the hair at her temples.

She swallowed hard, very aware—how could she not be?—of the heat of Jackson’s arousal nestled between her thighs. ‘I—I don’t think this is sensible, Jackson—’

‘I’ve tried being sensible for the past four days!’ he exploded. ‘For all the good it did me!’ He shook his head in disgust. ‘You’ve barely been able to look at me, let alone speak to me! So to hell with being sensible, Bree,’ he finished grimly. ‘I want answers and I want them now. And once I have them I’m going to make love to you until you don’t have the strength to move, let alone think about leaving!’

Bree breathed shallowly, knowing by the glittering intensity in Jackson’s eyes that he meant exactly what he said.

‘I don’t understand …’

‘You will,’ Jackson promised grimly. ‘Now, I want to know exactly why David came here to see you on Friday.’ He gasped with arousal as she ran the tip of her tongue across her lips. ‘And it might be better for all concerned if you didn’t do that, Bree …’

Bree’s cheeks warmed as she felt once again the throb of Jackson’s arousal between her thighs.

‘David is—I was engaged to him. A year ago we should have been married.’

‘Why weren’t you?’ Jackson’s voice was hushed.

Bree grimaced. ‘Because I found out a week before the wedding that he was having an affair with someone else. My own sister, as it happens.’

‘Holy—’ Jackson stopped himself, scowling darkly, his gaze once again sharpening in intensity. ‘This all happened a year ago, you said …?’

She nodded. ‘It was the anniversary of our supposed wedding day last Thursday.’

The same day Jackson had noticed a difference in Bree—that new recklessness, as if she were standing on the edge of a cliff and about to jump …

Jackson’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why did he come to see you?’

Bree smiled ruefully. ‘He thought that a year was probably enough time for me to have forgiven him—’

Jackson drew in a sharp breath. ‘And was it?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Bree confirmed, knowing she had only been able to feel that forgiveness because of the way she now felt about Jackson. She was in love with him. And it was a love totally unlike anything she might once have felt for David.

Just being with David again on Friday evening had been enough for Bree to realise that it had been her pride more than her heart that was hurt a year ago.

She had realised just as surely that her heart would never recover from loving Jackson.

‘I see,’ Jackson snapped. ‘So the two of you are now back together?’

‘Hardly!’ Bree dismissed the idea with a dry smile. ‘Forgiving him and Cathy doesn’t mean that I want to pick up where the two of us left off!’

‘It doesn’t?’

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘I don’t love him. I’m not sure that I ever did.’ She gave a rueful shake of her head. ‘We met at university, parted for a while, and then met up again. I realise now that going out together became something of a habit; when he asked me to marry him it just seemed like the next step in the relationship. I know now it would have been the wrong step,’ she concluded quietly.

Jackson nodded. ‘So are the two of you going to see each other again?’

‘I told you earlier that we aren’t.’ Bree shook her head firmly. ‘We’ve made our peace and said goodbye.’

‘And going out to dinner with Roger Tyler on Thursday …?’

Bree sighed heavily. ‘That was just a knee-jerk reaction to the anniversary of my wedding-that-never-was.’

Jackson looked down at her searchingly, deducing from the unblinking steadiness of her eyes as she returned his gaze that she was telling the truth.

‘Okay.’ He breathed deeply. ‘So now we come to the biggie: did our own lovemaking last week happen for the same reason?’

Bree’s gaze no longer met his and she began to push against his chest. ‘You’re too heavy, Jackson—’

‘I’m not going anywhere until you answer me, Bree,’ Jackson assured her grimly.

Her hands grew still against his chest and she frowned up at him. ‘I don’t know what else you want me to say. Obviously these … lapses between the two of us have made things very difficult. To the point where, as you suggested earlier, we may not be able to continue working together.’

‘And would that bother you?’ he demanded sharply.

Would leaving Beaumont House, leaving Jackson and Danny, bother Bree? Just the thought of it was enough to create a huge hollow inside her. And it was a hollowness that Bree knew would never be filled once she was forced to leave Jackson.

‘Yes, it would bother me very much to leave Danny and—and you,’ she admitted huskily.

‘Why?’

‘It’s like you said earlier: I’ve come to love Danny … to think of him as part of my family.’

Jackson eyes gleamed. ‘And … me?’

She swallowed hard, a haunted look entering her eyes.

‘Sorry, it’s unfair of me to expect you answer that now.’ He frowned in self-disgust, rolling to the side and taking Bree with him, his arms like steel bands about her waist, holding her beside him as he stared up at the ceiling. ‘You’ve been honest with me about your past, and now I’m going to reciprocate by telling you something that only one other person besides myself is aware of.’

‘Jackson …’ Bree raised her head to look at him uncertainly.

He smiled ruefully. ‘It’s nothing bad, Bree, just … very personal.’

‘About you and Jennifer Greaves?’

‘Me and …?’ Jackson shook his head in bewilderment. ‘There is no me and Jennifer Greaves!’

‘You went out to lunch with her on Friday.’

‘And that’s all I did.’ He looked hard at Bree for a moment. ‘It would appear that, for me, La Greaves and women like her have completely lost their appeal.’

Bree’s heart gave a leap in her chest. ‘They have?’

‘Yes,’ Jackson assured her decisively. ‘Now, will you allow me to finish what I started telling you?’

‘If it really is that personal, are you sure you want to tell me about it?’

‘Very sure,’ he stated firmly. ‘It’s about Danny’s mother.’

Bree drew in a sharp breath as curiosity and confusion battled inside her. Loving Jackson as she did, how could she help but feel curious about Danny’s mother? At the same time she felt deeply confused as to Jackson’s reasons for wanting to confide in her.

Unless …

No, she mustn’t let her imagination run away with her. Jackson was only reciprocating after she had just told him about herself. Not that Jackson had given her much of a choice in the matter, but even so …

Bree shook her head. ‘You don’t need to tell me anything—’

‘Yes, I do—damn it!’ Jackson swore vehemently, rolling over to look down at her whilst holding her firmly against him as he smoothed the hair back from her soft pale cheeks. ‘Maybe after what happened to you a year ago you aren’t ready to hear this yet—maybe you never will be,’ he added grimly. ‘But I’m damned if I’m going to let you walk away from me without first telling you how I feel.’

‘About what?’

‘You, damn it!’

She stared up at him. ‘Me?’

Jackson sighed with frustration. ‘Bree, if these last few days of floundering around like a—like a jealous moron have shown me nothing else, they’ve shown me that I’ve fallen in love with you. Completely, crazily, head-over-heels in love with you.’

Bree’s breath caught in her throat. Had Jackson just said …? Had he just said that he …?

‘There’s no need to look quite so horrified, Bree,’ Jackson muttered sardonically. ‘I told you—I’m not expecting anything back from you. God knows, I’m well aware of how impossible I can be! But—’

‘You’re in love with me?’ Bree finally managed to gasp incredulously.

‘Well past the point of no return, I’m afraid.’ He nodded gently. ‘Admittedly it took the threat of two other men in your life for me to realise the truth, but now that I have I must be honest with you about it. I owe you that much. I love you, Bree. So very much.’

Bree was speechless. Absolutely, completely speechless.

Jackson cocked his head to one side thoughtfully. ‘It took the appearance of Roger Tyler and David in your life for me to finally admit it to myself—and even then I still initially thought I was just annoyed at the possibility of one of them stealing the best personal assistant I’ve ever had.’ He shook his head. ‘I hated it when you went out with Roger Tyler. Then I went through absolute hell when you disappeared with David on Friday evening after the two of us had made love. I didn’t know who I wanted to strangle more—him or you!’

The wall Bree had built to shield her emotions over the past few days had begun to crumble the moment Jackson told her he was in love with her, and it fell away completely now, as he continued to explain his feelings for her—in typical Jackson fashion, of course!

Jackson loved her.

Jackson was in love with her!

Bree’s heart felt full to bursting as she looked up at him. ‘And now …?’

He grinned. ‘Now I just want to keep you all to myself, so that no other man can steal you away from me—ever!’

She swallowed hard. ‘Ever …?’

Jackson nodded. ‘I would very much like to marry you, Bree.’

Bree’s eyes widened. ‘You want to marry me?’

She was aware that she had sounded somewhat moronic during these last few minutes, but the things Jackson was saying … the prospect of a future together implied by his words … it was almost beyond belief.

Jackson’s arms tightened around her again. ‘I’ve realised these past few days that I want it all with you, Bree.’ His voice deepened solemnly. ‘Marriage. Babies. Years and years of loving, arguing, growing old together.’

Bree gazed at him—at the sincerity in his expression and the love shining in his eyes. It was all more than enough to convince her that Jackson meant every single word.

‘And what if I were to say that the reason I’ve been behaving the way I have over the past few days is because I’ve realised I want all that too?’

Jackson became very still. ‘And have you? Do you?’

Bree smiled shyly. ‘Oh, yes.’

He swallowed. ‘You … love me?’

She chuckled at his expression. ‘There’s no need to look quite so horrified, Jackson,’ she teased, repeating his words from earlier. ‘Impossible as you undoubtedly are, you’re also incredibly loveable.’

‘You really are in love with me?’ Jackson could still only stare at her dazedly.

‘More than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything.’

‘Enough to marry me?’

She nodded. ‘And have your babies. Lots of them. At least four would be—Jackson!’ Bree only had time to gasp before he swept her up into his arms and proceeded to show her just how much he loved her.