Diana Palmer - Diana Palmer Collected 1-6 - Soldier of Fortune / Tender Stranger / Enamored / Mystery Man / Rawhide and Lace / Unlikely Lover

Gabby just grinned and walked on, feeling proud and happy as J.D. grinned at her from where he stood near the altar.

It was a brief but solemn ceremony, and at its end, after Gabby had enthusiastically kissed her new husband, she threw her arms around Matthew and hugged him.

“Thank you,” she told him with a beaming smile.

First Shirt looked faintly embarrassed. “I enjoyed it. Uh, Gabby, your mother’s giving us a strange look.”

“Mother’s always been strange, Matthew,” she informed him. “I’ll show you. Mother, come meet Matthew,” she called while J.D.’s partner, Richard, congratulated him and bent to kiss Gabby’s cheek.

“All the best, Gabby, J.D.,” Richard said with a grin. “What a shock, to be invited to your wedding. Especially after all that’s happened the past week.”

“The road to love is rocky,” Gabby grinned at him. “As you’ll discover someday.”

“Not me,” Richard retorted. “I run too fast!”

“That’s what I thought,” J.D. murmured with a wicked glance toward Gabby. She stuck out her tongue at him, and went to drag her mother away from the assistants.

Mrs. Darwin, resplendent in a white linen suit and a hat that looked three sizes too big, followed her daughter slowly. She looked as out of place as Matthew and Apollo and the rest.

“I hate dressing up,” she muttered, casting a curious eye at Matthew. “Give me my jeans anytime.”

“I hear you shoot and cuss and ride,” Matthew told her, pursing his lips.

Mrs. Darwin actually blushed. She lowered her eyes and grinned. “Well, a little, Mr…?”

“Matthew,” came the reply. “Matthew Carver. Archer’s…I mean, J.D.’s like a son to me.” He held out his hand, took hers, and lifted it to his lips. “What a lovely mother-in-law he’s getting,” he murmured.

Gabby left her blushing mother and went to greet Apollo, Semson, Laremos and Drago.

“Hi, guys,” she said, grinning at them.

“Hey, Gabby,” Apollo greeted her. “Good thing you know the ropes—we won’t have to run you through the training course or anything.”

“Now, just hold on,” she informed him. “I am going on a honeymoon. My adventuring days are over. I can just see me, pregnant and crawling through underbrush with a rifle…”

“Oh, we’d carry it for you, Gabby,” he said, all seriousness.

“How gentlemanly!” She laughed.

“Unspeakable ruffian,” Laremos said with a mock frown as he stepped forward to kiss Gabby’s hand. “Congratulations. And of course you will not be crawling through the jungle.” He grinned. “We will carry you.”

Semson and Drago added their comments, and Gabby clutched J.D.’s arm, all but collapsing with laughter.

A strange man stood up farther down the pew and walked closer as the other guests paused on their way out to congratulate Gabby and J.D. He was the last. Tall, blond and heavily muscled, he had a face as rugged as Jacob’s and a tan that emphasized his sun-bleached hair.

He had brown eyes, and they studied Gabby for a long moment before he spoke. He was wearing a tan suit that looked as new as those J.D.’s men friends had on, and there was something familiar about the way he shook hands with J.D.

“I thought you hated weddings,” J.D. remarked with a cool smile.

“I do. I just wanted to see who caught you.” He pursed his lips and narrowed one eye, looking Gabby over in a way that made her nervous. Finally, one corner of his mouth tugged up a little and he gave a short laugh. “Well, if she can shoot and doesn’t start screaming at gunfire, I guess she’s okay.”

“Okay?” she returned with a cold stare. “I’ll have you know I’m terrific. I can even hit what I aim at.”

The laugh mellowed a little and his dark eyes twinkled. “Can you?” He held out his hand. “I’m Dutch.”

Her eyes widened. She remembered that he’d met J.D. in Rome and was the intelligence-gathering logistics man for the team.

“Well, miracles never cease,” she murmured. “I thought you’d be bowlegged and chew tobacco.”

Dutch burst out laughing. Impulsively, he drew her into a friendly embrace and hugged her. “Oh, J.D., you lucky son of a…”

“Dutch!” First Shirt burst out, interrupting him. “Where did you come from?”

“The Middle East,” came the reply. “I need a few grunts. Interested?”

“Maybe,” Matthew said. He glanced at the others. “Let’s go talk. J.D., take care of her. And yourself.” He clasped hands with the younger man. “I’ll be in touch.”

Gabby hugged him. “Thanks for giving me away. Let me know where you’ll be at Christmas. I’ll send you a box of thick socks.”

Matthew kissed her forehead. “I’ll do that.” He leaned toward her ear. “Write down your mama’s address for me, too,” he added in a whisper. “I like a lady who can shoot and cuss.”

She laughed. “I’ll do that.”

The others filed out after brief goodbyes, and Gabby glanced at J.D.’s impassive face as they thanked Reverend Boone and started on their way to take Gabby’s mother back to the airport.

“Call me once in a while, baby,” her mother said to Gabby at the entrance to the waiting area.

“I will.” She hugged the older woman. “Matthew took to you.”

Her mother grinned. “I took to him, too.”

“There’s just one thing…” Gabby began, wondering how much to tell her mother.

“He’ll settle one day, just like J.D. did,” came the quiet reply, and her mother gave her a knowing smile. “Some men take longer. Meanwhile, I write a sweet letter.” She winked. “Come and visit.”

“We will,” J.D. promised, coming up to join them. He hugged his new mother-in-law and watched as she walked away with a wave.

Gabby slid her hand into the crook of his arm, and they walked back toward the parking lot.

“You’ve been very quiet since we left the church,” he said softly. “Were you afraid I’d want to go with them?”

She was startled by his perception. “Yes, I think so. A little,” she admitted.

He stopped beside the car and turned her to him, looking down into her troubled face. “I’ll be honest with you, because anything less would cheat us both. I did feel a sense of loss when the others left without me, because in Guatemala I had a taste of the old, wild life and it brought back memories of days when I had more freedom than I have now. But I’m a realist, Gabby. Matthew said he told you, before we left Guatemala, that I’d gone too far to come back to them, to their way of life.” She nodded and he touched her mouth softly with his fingers. “He was right. I’ve built a future for myself, for you. I’ve invested too much of my life in building it to throw it away for a little excitement. Besides,” he murmured, lifting her slender hand to his chest and pressing it hard, “there are different levels of excitement.”

His eyes studied hers with an intensity that made her knees go weak. He slid her fingers inside his vest, against his white shirt, letting her feel the warmth of his skin and the thunder of his pulse.

“You have the same effect on me that being caught under fire does,” he whispered huskily, moving her fingers across one hard male nipple. “Except that you’re a little less dangerous than a bullet.”

“Only a little?” she whispered back, moving close, so that she could feel the length of his body touching hers.

His dark head bent and his mouth hovered just above hers. His hand moved between them to stroke one soft, high breast. It immediately went taut; his nostrils flared and his eyes burned with undisguised hunger.

“Are you afraid to have sex with me?” he whispered.

Her face flushed, but she didn’t drop her eyes. “No. I love you,” she whispered. “And it won’t be sex. It will be…loving.”