Marion Lennox: A Millionaire For Molly

‘I’ve been a fool.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘Then you wouldn’t believe wrong. Molly…’ He took her hands in his and searched for the words to explain something that he was only starting to understand now. ‘Molly, I had the pits of a childhood. The only way I could be at peace was to institutionalise myself. Nannies. Boarding school. University and corporate life. Those things followed rules that I could understand. They made me safe. So I tried to organise my personal life along the same lines. Cara is my half-sister. She lived the same bitter life as I did, with the same results whenever we showed emotional need. So when life got too tough-well, we were all we had.’

‘Cara is your… half-sister ?’ Molly drew back, stunned.

‘Yes. And until now Cara and I have been living under the same rule. Which is self-protection at all costs. I tried to move outside the rules once and it was a disaster.’ He moved his lips in her hair and sighed, a great sigh. The sigh of a man reaching home. ‘I thought I loved someone. She wanted me only for my money. I was young and stupid-but it made me distrust for life. Only then I hadn’t met you. A man can be a fool…’

She could scarcely believe what she was hearing. Please…

It was a desperate little prayer, starting deep in her heart, but by the feel of his hands holding her close-by the feel of his heartbeat under hers-it had already been answered. ‘But now?’

There was a kookaburra laughing outside, its raucous cackle making a mockery of the two lovers. But they didn’t care. It could just as well be a nightingale, Molly thought, and found she wanted to pinch herself to wake up. She didn’t need to. He was real and he was hers, and his next words confirmed it. ‘But now Cara’s met her Raoul. And…’

‘And?’ The whole world was holding its breath. Well, maybe not the whole world. There was one stupid kookaburra-but surely he didn’t count.

‘And now I’ve met my Molly. My love. My wonderful brave, funny, loyal, tender, wonderful Molly, and now I realise that I didn’t know what the hell I was running from. I thought I was running from love, but until I met you I didn’t know what love was. We’ve spent three weeks apart and every moment I’ve missed you. I’ve ached for you. I’ve wanted you. Molly, I want you to be my wife. For now. For always. Will you marry me?’

Will you marry me?

The kookaburra was definitely a nightingale, Molly thought deliriously. She’d have it renamed by deed poll.

Would she marry him? Yes and yes and yes !

But there was one last thing. She had to say it, even though her entire future-her entire happiness-rested on it.

‘Jackson-wherever I go. I need to take Sam. I…he’s part of me. I must…’

But it seemed that Sam was no problem at all. ‘Of course he is. How could I expect otherwise? He’s the best kid, and I have such plans…’

‘You have such plans?’

‘We’ll move here.’ He put a finger on her lips and shushed her as she tried to speak. ‘No, listen. You wanted things not to change for Sam, so you moved to the city. But things have changed for Sam, like it or not. I reckon he could be gloriously happy right here. The local school has to be smaller and happier than the one he’s in now. He’ll be able to breed frogs. He’ll have his own pup and help breed cattle, and he’ll eat Mrs Gray’s pavlovas so he stops looking such a waif…’

‘Oh, stop.’ She was half-laughing, half-crying. ‘You make it sound so wonderful. You make me want to agree just for Sam.’

‘You think I’d blackmail you?’

‘No.’ She looked lovingly up into his eyes and then laughed and changed her mind. ‘Yes! If you want your own way, that is. You’ll do whatever it takes.’

‘I only want you.’

She held him still, their hands linked, forming a perfect circle of trust and of joy.

‘Really, Jackson?’

‘Really.’ He bent forward and kissed her ever so lightly on the mouth. A feather kiss. A kiss of promise. A kiss of joy to come.

‘And I’ve sorted it all out.’

‘You have been busy.’

‘It’s a long time, three weeks. A man does a lot of thinking-of hoping-in three weeks.’

‘So what have you decided?’ They were making love with their eyes.

‘I thought…I don’t have to travel so much. I can mostly work from here. We’d be proper farmers. But, if you like, you could set up an exclusive farm sales agency. Only the best…’

She was laughing. ‘Of course only the best.’

‘And in our spare time we could be farmers together.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah.’ His eyes caressed her, but there was still a hint of anxiety behind them. An anxiety she loved. He was her big handsome prince who could rule the world. But when it came to his love for her he was putty in her hands.

She loved him so much she could hardly speak. And in the end she didn’t have to. There was no need.

She placed her hands on either side of his face and she drew him down to her. Down to be kissed and kissed and kissed again. Kissed until they were both breathless with love and laughter, and with pure, unadulterated happiness.

And finally when they drew away-for an instant only-Molly found the voice to whisper, ‘We should go down to help release the frogs.’

‘You’ve released your frog,’ Jackson growled, and hauled her ruthlessly into his arms for yet another crushing kiss. ‘He’s your lover for life-and kiss all you like; he’s never going to be a frog again.’

Marion Lennoxwas born on an Australian dairy farm. She moved on-mostly because the cows weren’t interested in her stories!

In her nonwriting life Marion cares (haphazardly) for her husband, teenagers, dogs, cats, chickens and anyone else who lines up at her dinner table. She fights her rampant garden (she’s losing) and her house dust (she’s lost). She also travels, which she finds seriously addictive.

As a teenager Marion was told she’d never get anywhere reading romance. Now romance is the basis of her stories. Her stories allow her to travel, and if ever there was an advertisement for following your dream, she’d be it!