Meant-To-Be Marriage

“Between you and me, I like you without a beard.” She bantered easily with him. “How does it feel?”

“Liberating.”

“What a surprise everyone in Cannon is going to have next Sunday.”

“I’m afraid I won’t be there.”

“Extending your vacation a while longer?”

“Something like that.”

Their conversation prompted Sydney to stand a little more apart from him so the other woman wouldn’t associate them being together.

“Heaven knows you work so hard you deserve more time off than they give you. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.”

“Will do.”

Instead of walking on, he moved to the side so Sydney could check in. Once she had her boarding pass in hand, she started for the gate, trying to get ahead of Jarod so people would assume she was alone.

But he was having none of that. Before they’d reached the crowd of people waiting to board, he put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

“I know what you were thinking back there, but you’d be wrong. Let’s get one thing clear. The only reason I didn’t introduce you to Sally and explain myself was because other people were waiting to be checked through. She works part-time at the diocese answering the phone, and will learn the truth soon enough.

“You could have no comprehension of what it means to me to be an engaged man. I’m living for the moment we’re married, Sydney. There isn’t a male in sight who hasn’t noticed you and wouldn’t sell his soul for the right to be in my place. It’s all I can do not to shout to everyone that you’re mine,” he claimed in a fierce tone.

“Jarod—”

“It’s true and you know it.”

Keep telling me those things, my darling. I want to believe you.

Three hours later, Jarod followed Sydney into her apartment and put her bag down in the living room. At last they were alone and turned instinctively to each other, not needing words.

Like a man dying of thirst, he crushed her against him and drank from her mouth. Now that he had the right to communicate with her in the most elemental of ways, he realized she’d become his addiction.

All he wanted was to cling to her. Being able to touch her, to bury his face in her scented neck and hair was so intoxicating, he feared he might break his own rule after all.

“Help me, Sydney. Tell me to leave.”

Her answer was to mold herself to him until their mouths and bodies crossed that seamless line into forgetfulness.

He rubbed his hands over her back. “When you were in Cannon, do you have any idea how many times I imagined being together with you like this?”

She took a shaky breath. “Yes. I lived for every precious moment I could steal in order to see you for even a few minutes in passing. Talk about torture.”

/> “I know.” He clasped her tighter.

“Brenda never betrayed herself, but she was a smart girl and knew how I felt about you, Jarod. I know that’s why she pretended she didn’t have the courage to attend her counseling sessions without me along.”

His lips roved over her upturned features. She was such a gorgeous woman, he couldn’t get enough of her. “I’m afraid neither of us fooled Brenda. When I didn’t tell her I needed to see her alone, she never questioned it.”

“You worked wonders with her.”

“So did you, Sydney. That entry in her journal was a plea for help, and you picked up on it as she hoped you would. The last time I ever saw her, she said she wished you and I were married so we could be her baby’s adoptive parents.”

“What?”

Sydney’s throat almost closed up. She tilted her head back so she could see into his eyes.