A Bride for Christmas by Marion Lennox Page B

watched as his face changed.
    ‘What—?’
    ‘I’m married to Ben,’ she said stupidly.
    ‘Ben was killed two years ago.’
    ‘Yes, but…’ She took a deep breath, searching for…Searching for she didn’t know what.
    ‘I can’t remember him properly,’ she said inconsequentially. ‘I can’t remember the way he held me. I can’t—’
    ‘Jenny, it’s natural.’
    Was it? She felt her heart clench with a well-remembered pain. Ben was dead. Move on, people said. Her own mother-in-law…Let Ben go. And she had tonight. For the first time she had. But to have this moment become a decision about the rest of her life…
    Ben, her heart screamed. Ben. I’m not ready to let you go.
    ‘He’s my husband,’ she whispered. ‘He’s in my heart. I thought you at least would know that.’
    Guy stood, gazing down at her in the silence.
    ‘I do know that.’
    ‘Then why…?’
    ‘You make me feel different.’
    ‘You make me feel different, too,’ she said, and she put her hand up to his face and cupped the curve of his jaw. The feeling she had then…it was indescribable. Say yes, her heart screamed. Say yes before he changes his mind.
    ‘I can’t do it,’ she whispered. ‘You must see it’s impossible.’
    ‘Why is it impossible?’
    ‘Henry…’
    ‘Henry would come with us,’ he said strongly, taking her hands in his, trying to make her see where his thoughts had taken him. ‘You can’t tell me he’s getting optimal medical treatment here. The world’s best doctors are in New York.’
    She stilled. ‘You’d take us both to New York?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘But our home is here.’
    ‘I have a massive apartment in Manhattan. You can see the Statue of Liberty from—’
    ‘Our home is here.’ Her voice was flat, without inflexion, and suddenly desperately weary. ‘Do you think I could leave Lorna?’
    ‘Lorna has Jack.’
    ‘She does. And she has me. And she has Henry. We’re family, Guy.’
    ‘You don’t need family.’
    ‘At Christmas?’ she whispered. ‘You’re saying that two days before Christmas? That I don’t need a family?’
    ‘Hell, Jenny…’
    ‘This is ridiculous,’ she said, trying hard to be strong. ‘We hardly know each other.’
    ‘And yet you feel what I’m feeling.’
    ‘I don’t.’
    ‘Jenny,’ he said, and the hands holding her shoulders suddenly firmed. ‘You’re lying.’
    Of course she was lying. Whatever he was feeling she was feeling, too. Multiplied by about a thousand. He drew her into him, his lips met hers, and she felt…She felt…
    Heat.
    The word slammed in her mind as the sensation slammed through her. Heat. A conflagration that was all-consuming, starting from her lips and flooding through the rest of her. As if she was dry tinder and a match had been held to the all-too-ready fuel.
    She wanted him with every inch of her being. Her lips opened under his. She welcomed him with joy. Her hands came around his chest and tugged him closer.
    Guy.
    The kiss went on and on. Neither could stop it. Why should they?
    Guy had asked her to marry him. This man who was holding her, who was making her feel as if life itself could start now…
    Guy.
    He was her employer.
    The thought slammed into her mind and somehow it steadied her. The thought had her remembering that her feet were planted on Sandpiper Bay ground—and had to stay that way. Somehow she tugged back, and Guy gazed down at her in the moonlight, concerned.
    ‘What is it, sweetheart?’
    What right did he have to call her sweetheart? She loved it, she decided. But…she couldn’t.
    ‘Guy, leave it,’ she demanded, and he let her take a further step back. The fact that her body was screaming to remain in his hold had to be ignored. It must be.
    ‘What’s wrong?’
    ‘If you weren’t my boss I’d slap your face,’ she managed.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘For taking liberties.’
    ‘You want to be kissed.’
    ‘I don’t.’
    ‘You do.’ He was teasing her with his eyes. He was smiling down