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“Would you see if you can convince Alice to come and eat?” Cass asked several hours later.
“I’m not sure if she wants to see me,” Jack told her, although he’d been dying to go to the carriage house. He knew Alice was sad about the way things had turned out, and furious at him. He wanted to comfort her, but he also knew sometimes you had to give a woman a little space.
“Try,” Cass told him.
He let himself into the carriage house and climbed the stairs to the second floor, bracing himself against an unfavorable reception. He found Alice bent over one of her worktables, a long white gown spread out before her.
A wedding dress.
Jack stopped, unsure whether or not to proceed. Whose gown was it?
Hers?
His chest tightened. Maybe she wasn’t so mad after all.
“You can come in.” Alice didn’t look up.
“What are you working on?” He took a seat nearby.
“My wedding dress. Seeing what I can do with it.”
“Thinking about getting married?” he asked lightly.
She put down her sewing and faced him. “Maybe. But don’t get too cocky.”
“I won’t. Look—” He sat on one of the tables. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out with Landon. And I guess I should have told you he was here.”
“You knew it wouldn’t work from the start. Why are you always so sure you’re right?” she asked.
“Because I usually am.”
Her blue eyes studied him. She didn’t look amused.
“I’ve made a career out of knowing things. Seeing patterns where other people don’t. You know all this—I told you before.”
“You saw things about Landon you didn’t like?”
“Actually, I didn’t. I think I’ve gotten a little gun-shy about my abilities.” He hadn’t put it into words before, but it was true. “Something happened about six months ago. I got into trouble.”
“Tell me about it.” She kept working, but Jack knew she was listening, and for once he felt ready to talk. Alice was different from the other women he’d known. He wanted her to understand.
“In my last assignment I was stationed in the Middle East and worked closely with an informant. I can’t tell you where—sorry.”
Alice waved this off.
“Got to know his whole family,” Jack went on. “He had a wife, two sons and a daughter. Lila was the baby of the family. Sweet girl—but smart as a tack. My informant was proud as heck of her. She was like me,” he added.
“She noticed things, too?”
Jack was grateful that Alice got it. “Exactly. Learning languages has always come easy to me. I have a great memory, and I catch the details of the way native speakers use words. She was like that. She knew some English from school, of course, but a few weeks around me and she was speaking like she’d grown up in the US.”
“Sounds cute.”
“She was. A little genius. I stayed with them for nearly a month. You’re not supposed to get close to people, but it’s hard not to when you’re with them all the time. My informant’s wife wasn’t pleased I was there. His two sons were at school all day. Lila only went to school for a couple of hours a day. The rest of the time she was home, and she was curious about who I was and where I came from. We played games. I quizzed her on math problems, which no one else did, but she’d been listening to her brothers and had taught herself. You wouldn’t believe how much ground we covered while I was there.”
“What happened?”
“My informant and I were out of town when there was a raid on her school. The attackers took all the girls away. Her father was out of his mind with fear and grief. Her mother blamed me. My superiors ordered me not to interfere. That wasn’t why I was there.” Jack took a deep breath. “How could I not interfere?”
Alice nodded, her work forgotten in her lap. “Of course you had to.”
“Thing was, the kidnappers wanted money. Thought the United States government might pay to get those girls back. They called up the village chief. Put one of the girls on the line to prove they were still alive.”
“Lila,” Alice guessed.
“That’s right. She remembered a code I taught her. Used it right in front of her captors. Told me everything about what she’d seen on the way to where they’d taken her. She was amazing.”
“What happened?”
“I got her out. Got all of them out. With Lila’s information, the men in my informant’s village were able to track down her kidnappers and mete out justice. What I’m trying to say is—”
“You sense danger. You thought Landon was a danger to me.”
“That’s right. Alice, I’m always looking for danger. That’s my job—it’s what I do. It’s not that I don’t trust your judgment—or your gift—it’s that I don’t trust anyone, really. And I need to keep the people I love safe. I already lost my parents. I nearly lost Lila. I can’t… lose you. I just can’t.”
“Okay. Here’s the deal. I’m hiring you to keep me safe. You work for me now.”
“Are you serious?” She had his full attention.
She nodded. “Dead serious.”
“How are you going to pay me?”
Alice just smiled.
When Jack got up and came to kiss her, Alice met him halfway, her heart throbbing. He loved her.
To a man like Jack, loving and protecting was the same thing. She had an uncomfortable realization that the General might feel the same way. While he’d admitted he’d taken the wrong tack with them after Amelia died, in those first years when his wife was gone, when he couldn’t find it in himself to return to Two Willows, had he felt that by sending overseers and guardians he’d been demonstrating his love for his girls?
If he had, he’d gotten it so wrong.
But so had she and her sisters. They’d viewed those interlopers as an expression of their father’s loathing for them.
They’d begun to loath themselves.
By the time Howie Warner had come around, Alice thought he was worthy of her—although he never was.
“What?” Jack pulled back.
“For a species whose specialty is communication, we all suck at it,” Alice said.
Jack chuckled. “Yeah, although I thought I did a good job of communicating just now.”
“You did,” Alice rushed to assure him. “Poor Jack.”
“Poor Jack?” he repeated, eyebrows lifting.
“By saving Lila you lost your career and condemned yourself to marrying me. That’s how the General got control over you, right? Because you didn’t follow orders.”
“That’s right. Can’t say I mind the outcome, though.” He grew serious. “Unless I mess this up somehow. What do you see, when you look into the future… about us?” he asked hesitantly. He’d tangled his fingers in her belt loops, holding her in place as if afraid she’d run away.
Alice knew it was a miracle he’d asked at all. She couldn’t fool herself into thinking Jack believed in her abilities wholeheartedly. He was trying because he loved her, not because he thought it was possible.
Images filled Alice’s mind. Making love to Jack. Sitting side by side on a porch swing with him. Laughing together. Walking and talking.
“I see something wonderful,” she whispered.
“Good.” Jack braced his hands on her hips, took a deep breath, then suddenly pushed away. When he lowered himself to one knee, Alice sucked in a surprised breath. Was he… ?
“Alice, you know that your father sent me here, and you probably imagine that it was against my will. It wasn’t. The first time I saw your photograph, I knew I could care for you. The first day we met, I knew I wanted to make you my wife. I keep waiting for the other boot to drop—for someone to show up and say it was all a mistake. I didn’t know how a man like me could end up with a woman like you. All I know is, I never want to leave you—or Two Willows. I’ve dreamed of a life like this for years, but didn’t think it was possible. Now I’ve begun to hope. Alice, it’s too soon, and it’s not fair, and you’ve had so much going on in your life these past few months, but I don’t think I can take not knowing anymore. Would you… marry me?”
Alice thought of her mother. What would Amelia say if she knew Jack? Would she focus on his inability to fully believe in her foresight? Or would she focus on the man himself? The way he worked to keep the ones he loved safe. The way he’d dedicated his life to using his talents to help other people, rather than wallow in sorrow over his parents’ murder. The way he’d opened up his heart to a new family, rather than keep his love locked inside him.
She had grown to love this man, despite the places they were different. She’d seen that he was someone she could depend on, too.
And she wanted to be with him. Desperately.
She felt a touch on her shoulder, as if her mother stood by her side and had just placed a hand there to offer comfort.
She waited to hear her mother’s advice, but none came. Amelia simply stood by her in solidarity. A woman who’d loved a man with a vastly different way of seeing the world. A woman who’d found everything she’d ever wanted within the small sphere of a single ranch.
A woman who’d embraced her gift fully, no matter what anyone else thought.
Alice had wondered what guided her mother through her life. What made it possible for Amelia to handle such a powerful gift.
Now she understood. The answer was staring her in the face.
Love.
Amelia gave love and accepted it freely. Wholeheartedly. Without holding anything back.
Alice wanted that, too.
“Yes,” she heard herself say. “Yes, I’ll marry you.” Accepting Jack was the path truest to herself.
Jack stood up, and she got the sense that her answer had begun to thaw the wall of ice he’d built around his heart so many years ago. As someone who’d also known loss and loneliness, she understood. It was hard to trust again—to love again.
But oh, so worth it.
As he took her in his arms and kissed her, Alice realized she was saying yes to life. To all of it—not just the parts she thought other people could understand. She was saying yes to herself as well as to Jack.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and met him kiss for kiss, happiness welling up inside her until she wondered how she could hold it in. Jack was hers, and she wanted to savor the feeling of him. Unlike her visions, he was real and present—not a ghost from the future, but a solid force in her life today.
And he was letting her know he wanted far more than kisses. His hands slid under her shirt to rest on her waist. Alice knew what he was asking. Wanted it, too.
She tugged her shirt up and over her head and tossed it aside.
“Now we’re talking.” Jack tugged her close again and dipped down to kiss the tops of her breasts. Alice bit her lip.
“That feels good.”
“It’s going to get much better before I’m done.”
“Really?”
Jack stopped. “Are you doubting me?” He lifted her up and sat her down on the worktable.
“Wouldn’t want to make assumptions,” she teased.
“Get your clothes off. Let me show you how it’s done.”
Watching Alice strip, perched on her worktable, her hair tumbling over her naked shoulders, her motions slow and sensuous, was turning him on so bad Jack was losing his cool.
He shrugged out of his jacket and flannel shirt. Tugged his T-shirt over his head and nearly went to help her shuck off her jeans but decided to wait and enjoy the view instead.
It was a hell of a view.
Unbuckling his belt, undoing the button of his jeans, slipping them down with his boxer briefs and kicking the whole lot off with his boots, he stood in front of her, hard and ready.
“Look at you,” Alice said as she tossed the last of her clothing to the floor, still seated on the edge of the table, one leg crossed over the other. She took her time doing just that until Jack burned to take her right then and there.
“Look at you.” He moved closer, spread her thighs and stood between them, running his hands from her hips to her breasts, palming them softly before bending to tease one of her nipples with his tongue.
Alice’s hands went to his shoulders, and she braced herself as he caressed her, breath catching with the sensation of his hands on her skin.
The heat of her against his hardness made it difficult to go slow, especially when Alice leaned back, lifting her breasts into his touch, and moaned.
Jack slid his hands under her bottom, lifted her up, positioned himself—
And pushed inside.
Her gasp nearly took him over the edge, but he held on, wanting to bring her with him, and he began a slow rhythm moving in and out, knowing soon she’d be ready, too.
Alice worked with him, meeting him thrust for thrust, moving her hips, clinging to his shoulders, until her breathing was as ragged as his.
“Jack—”
She arched back, cried out, and Jack bucked against her, Alice’s release pulling him into his own. They crashed against each other again and again until Jack, winded, bumped the table and they both collapsed on it.
Alice wriggled beneath him. “You’re heavy.”
Jack savored the feeling of her body pressed against him one last moment before pulling out and sitting beside her. “Maybe we should head inside. Try this again—in bed.”
Alice made a noise. “We’d have to get dressed, go out in the cold and get undressed again.”
“What’s the alternative?” He let his hand trace her hip. Alice moaned appreciatively and rolled over.
“We can do it again right here.”
Jack let out a happy groan and ran his hand over her shapely bottom. Yeah, he could be persuaded to stay here. He got off the table and moved between her legs. Bent over the table, her position gave him so much visual stimulus he was ready all over again, straining to hold back from taking her hard and fast right now.
Instead he ran his hands over her body, appreciating every dip and curve. When Alice pushed up on her elbows, he cupped her breasts, savoring the weight and fullness of them.
Alice lifted her hips, telling him what she wanted, and Jack was only too happy to comply. As he pushed inside her, she pushed back against him, taking him deep until Jack had to fight for control. He moved a hand to tangle it in her hair, moved his hips to slide in and out of her.
“Oh god, that’s good,” Alice breathed.
He wasn’t sure he could find the words to answer her.
It was good. She was slick and hot and moving with him in a way that was bringing him oh, so close to losing his mind.
“Faster,” she coached him. Jack sped up. What else could he do?
Bent over her, moving inside her, one arm wrapped around her, the other hand tangled in her hair, all Jack could do was hold on and go for it. Alice’s moans told him she was right there with him, but Jack wasn’t sure if he could have stopped if he tried. His body had taken over, moving of its own accord, desperate for relief from the tension every glimpse of Alice twisted tighter inside him.
“Jack!” Alice cried out, pushing back against him. Jack went over the edge into an orgasm that spun on and on until he thought he’d black out. He pumped into her again and again, praying he wasn’t hurting her, reassured by her own cries of ecstasy as she bucked back, meeting him thrust for thrust.
When it was finally over, Jack could barely move. “Woman,” he panted. “You’re going to kill me.”
Beneath him, Alice’s shoulders shook, and for a horrible moment he thought she was crying.
When he slid out of her and turned her over in his arms, he was relieved to find her laughing.
“What?” he demanded.
“Like you said before. This… works.”
“Hell, yeah it does.” Jack gathered her close. “Am I wearing you out?” he added.
“Is that possible?”
Jack laughed. “I hope not. I want a lifetime of that.”
“Me, too.” She sighed when he palmed her breast with his hand, then bent to kiss it.
“But first there’s something we have to do.”
“What’s that?” Alice leaned into his touch and caught his mouth with hers. “What do we have to do?” she asked again a few minutes later when they broke apart.
Jack thought hard. What was it?
Oh, right.
“Go buy you a ring and make this official.”