She moved to stand close to him and bravely laid her hand on his chest. “You loved Ana in spite of her plainness. I’m the same woman, Trent. Can you love me-more than that, can you accept me-if I wear this face?”
His eyes were embarrassingly moist, and he blinked in an effort not to disgrace himself. “You are so beautiful,” he said hoarsely. “I don’t… I don’t know you. You’re like something out of mythology, a goddess.”
“But I’m not, Trent. Talk to me,” she pleaded. “Touch me. Kiss me and you’ll know I’m the very same.”
She met him more than halfway. He didn’t do much more than incline his head toward her before she flung her arms around him. She rested her head on his chest and held him close.
“I missed you,” she whispered, nuzzling her face in the opening of his shirt. Her breath feathered through his chest hair. She kissed his tanned skin. “I missed you.”
He groaned softly and pulled the familiar body closer to him. His fingers sank into her hair, and he tilted her head back for his kiss. But a second before their lips met, he hesitated.
She gripped handfuls of his hair and pulled him down nearer. “Don’t you dare become a coward now. Don’t you dare be afraid to mess me up. Kiss me just as you always have.”
That invitation was the only one he needed. His lips slanted hard and hungrily over hers. They parted eagerly. He thrust his tongue inside her mouth and made fervent love to it. Her arms locked around his neck possessively. She arched up against him, adjusting her body to complement his.
Then he knew. She was his. He was home.
“What did Aunt Ruby think?”
“Poor dear. For once, she was speechless.”
“She recognized Rana?”
“Oh, yes. You know her and her fashion magazines. She had heard my mother call me Rana and-”
“Your mother? When?”
“I had a surprise visit from her. I found out that Morey-”
“Who’s Morey?”
“My agent. My friend who died.”
“The one you thought was a suicide?”
“Yes, because that was what my mother had led me to believe.”
“What a bitch.”
“Yes, well…”
“I’m sorry for the interruptions. Go ahead. This is all so confusing.”
“I’ll fill in the blanks later. Suffice it to say that Mother came to see me and it wasn’t a happy reunion.” Her voice took on a sad tone. “I hope that someday she and I will reach an understanding and feel some affection for each other.”
Trent kissed her temple gently. “I hope so, too, but only for your sake. Anyway, back to Aunt Ruby.”
“She had actually heard two people call me Rana, but apparently the name didn’t sink in. When I came downstairs tonight, she just stared and started sputtering. I told her I’d explain everything later.”
“It seems that you’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Miss Ramsey,” he said, lifting her chin with his finger.
“Yes. But as I said… later.”
He pulled her over him and laced his fingers together on the back of her head. Their kiss was lengthy and intimate and erotic.
They hadn’t stayed at the party long after their reconciliation. After some tempestuous kissing in the gazebo, they had repaired their clothes and retrieved Rana’s shoes before returning to the house. Tom met them on the patio, looking worried and confused.
“What the hell is going on?” he demanded.
They invited him to join them as they went through the sumptuous buffet line. Over supper they gave him a brief rundown of the facts. Tom shook his head in aggravation. “I might have known that Gamblin, my buddy the superstud, would end up with the most gorgeous woman in the whole U.S. of A.,” he grumbled.
“Are you really a ‘superstud’?” Rana asked him now, latching onto his earlobe with her teeth. They were lying entwined, naked, in his king-size bed. After a cursory tour of his house and a terse good night to the hovering housekeeper, Trent had taken her straight to bed.
“Complaining?” He cupped her hips with his hard, strong fingers and held her in place.
“Uh-uh.” She sighed, rocking against him. “But I’m a monogamous creature, Trent.”
His eyes locked with hers. “So am I. Now.”
She traced his mouth with her fingertip. “Do we have a future together?”
“We do if you’ll have a broken-down football player for a husband.”
She lifted his right hand to her mouth and kissed the crooked fingers. “I want you for my husband more than anything in the world. But you’re far from broken down.”
“I’m serious, Rana.” The name came easily to him now. “This season I might get out there on the field and make a laughingstock of myself from Green Bay to Miami.”
“You won’t,” she whispered fiercely. “But if you don’t win a single game, it won’t be the end of the world. Don’t you know by now what a tremendous success you are?”
“I am?”
“At the things that are really important.”
“Such as?”
“Such as being a loving, caring human being.”
“You don’t think I’m manipulative? Tom accused me of falling in love with ‘Ana’ solely because you were the first woman who didn’t threaten my fragile ego.”
She denied that theory with a shake of her head. “I disagree with him, but maybe I helped teach you something.”
“And what was that?”
“That all any of us has to give is our best. If we do that, we succeed, no matter what the outcome.”
“I have learned that. But you’ve got to promise not to scold when I get moody and sullen after losing a game.”
She kissed him. “I’ll just have to think of ways to improve your bad moods, won’t I?”
He angled his head to one side, and his eyes shone with a teasing light. “You know, I was a trifle jealous when those photographers clustered around us tonight as we left the party. They were as eager to get pictures of you as they were of me. Will you ever want to go back to modeling?”
“Maybe, but only if it doesn’t conflict with you and the children.”
His mouth slanted into that sly grin she loved. His eyebrow tipped down toward it. “Children?”
“Do you mind?”
“Hell, no. I’ve always had a hankering to fill up this house with a few kids.”
“Good. Because I want to get started right away!”
He laughed and hugged her tightly. “God, you’re gorgeous.” He proudly surveyed her face. “I’d like to see you in action, preening before a camera or strutting down a runway with a spotlight on your hair.” He ran his hands through it and she smiled.
“I’ll have to lose some weight first.”
“Lose some weight! You’re all bones now.”
“Not nearly bony enough to strut down a runway. But now that I’ve acquired a taste for potatoes and gravy, I don’t know that I’ll ever go back to a diet of lettuce and water.”
“Just don’t lose these,” he said, lifting his head to kiss her breasts. “They’re perfect.”
She sighed as his mouth moved over her, then adjusted her body to his and took him inside her. He filled her with a warm, solid pressure.
“That’s beautiful,” he said with a groan.
“What?”
“That little sound you make every time I’m inside you. I want to hear it every day, at least once, for the rest of my life.”
“Then you plan on keeping me”
“I guess I will.”
“Don’t sound so self-sacrificing.”
“Well, I do feel a little sorry for you.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” He moaned with extreme pleasure when she made a rolling motion with her hips. “If I don’t marry you, you might end up an old maid.”
“Why?” she asked on a soft gasp as he drove deeper.
“Because, you poor, homely thing, your front teeth are crooked.”
Then he kissed her and heaven rained down.