Elizabeth Harbison - A Groom for Maggie

She caught his eye and mouthed the word now? and gestured toward her left ring finger.

He gave a small shake of his head, then turned to his daughter. “Kate, could you excuse us for a minute?”

“Okay…” Kate looked to Maggie, seeming a bit puzzled.

“I have to talk to Daddy for a moment,” Maggie said. “I’ll be right back.”

Outside in the hall, she turned to Alex.

He took a step toward her, closing the bedroom door behind him.

Even though there was room, neither one of them stepped away to widen the space between them.

“Have you changed your mind already?” she asked him lightly.

“Yes.”

She took a breath and her gaze flitted from his chest to his eyes. “Oh?”

“About the ceremony.” His voice was a hoarse whisper in the dimly lit hall. “We need to have something more than just the courthouse.”

“Why?”

He hesitated. “Don’t you have family you want to invite?”

“My mother…isn’t much of a traveler. Though she sends her best wishes.” She leaned against the wall, but it added only an inch or two between them. “I called her before our contract discussion. She thinks you’re a very lucky man, actually.” She smiled.

“I am,” he said, and at that moment meant it. Even though he knew this relationship—this marriage —was to be different, for just a moment he felt like the luckiest man on earth. It was crazy.

Maggie looked at him. Her green eyes were wide and tentative. “I didn’t mean…I wasn’t soliciting compliments.” She dampened her parted lips.

“I know you weren’t.” He tried to stop the rush of desire that came over him, but couldn’t.

“But that was nice, thank you.”

He paused, then decided to say what he felt. “I meant it. The way you handle things.” He looked at Kate’s closed door, then back at Maggie. “I don’t see how I could do this without you.” He hesitated again, wondering at the depth of his meaning or if he was a fool to admit it to her. “I’m just glad I don’t have to try.”

“But you were ready to just find another nanny,” Maggie said softly, still holding his gaze.

Maybe he could find another nanny, but he couldn’t find another Maggie—another woman who would give him such a hard time or who could make that hard time so damned enjoyable—so easily. Funny, he’d never quite been able to admit that before. Maybe it was because he always knew she would be leaving.

And now he knew she was staying.

As she stood before him he realized with an awkward awareness that she was quite beautiful. Beautiful enough to make him stumble over his words like a schoolboy. “You couldn’t be easily replaced,” he said.

“Yesterday you were ready to do just that.” She challenged him with her eyes.

“Yesterday I thought I had to. Besides, you know you’re more than just a nanny.”

A slight flush darkened her cheeks. “Oh?”

“Kate really loves you.”

Soot-dark lashes lowered like a curtain.

“Maggie.”

She met his eyes. Before he realized what he was doing, Alex reached his hand to her cheek, and slowly rubbed his thumb across the smooth blushing skin.

She didn’t move, and her gaze remained fixed on his.

She wasn’t going to leave. She was staying.

Alex slid his hand behind her head and gently pulled her toward him. Their lips met and fire shot to his extremities. For a long moment they didn’t move, then Maggie’s lips parted under his and he nudged his tongue into her mouth.

Her hands rose tentatively to his chest and he moved his other hand to the small of her back. Hunger for her burned quick and bright inside of Alex, despite the fact that he knew—he knew —he shouldn’t be doing this. Only half an hour before, they had agreed not to do this. He ran his tongue along her upper lip marveling at the blaze of sensation within him.

Suddenly Maggie stopped. She drew back, flushed and a little out of breath. “What was that?” she said, perhaps to him, perhaps to herself.

“A kiss.”

“I know that. But…us?” She took a step away from him, looking everywhere but at him. “That’s not appropriate for us. It can’t happen again.”

He stared at her for a moment in silence, taking in the fiery eyes, the cheeks still flushed with passion, the full lips swollen from their kiss. There was nothing he could say, he knew she was right but he couldn’t voice his agreement.

So he gave a slight incline of the head. “I apologize,” he said, without an ounce of sincerity.

She obviously knew it because it was a long, narrow look she gave him before saying, “You were about to say something about the wedding.” She drew herself up and met his eyes boldly. “Why do you want to have a bigger celebration?”

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