Elusive Lover Read online

‘It’s beginning to look like it.’ Some of the tension started, to leave him. ‘You really love me?’

  ‘Very much.’

  ‘And you’ll marry me?’

  ‘Oh yes!’ Her eyes glowed.

  ‘Oh God, Erin,’ he groaned into her throat, his arms shaking as he held her against him. ‘I love you!’

  An office might not be the ideal place to give and receive a proposal of marriage, but the comfortable armchair Erin had occupied earlier was ideal for accepting the invitation, their murmured words of love and adoration interspersed with heated kisses.

  At last Josh pulled back with a ragged sigh. ‘When Matt told me you hated the picture I thought I’d lost you for ever.’

  She nuzzled into his throat. ‘I only hated it because I thought you’d painted it to mock me.’

  ‘Never! His arms tightened about her. ‘After the fire I daren’t let you come back to the bungalow. You seemed ashamed of the fact that we’d made love, and I couldn’t trust myself not to touch you, to want you again, so I left you with Martha and Jim, and spent the time painting you.’

  ‘Jim said you were helping to clear the damage caused by the fire.’

  ‘I was, in the day. And at night, when I couldn’t sleep for wanting you with me, I painted you.’ He shrugged. ‘It was all I had. But, believe me, I would rather have had you with me.’

  ‘I thought you’d been disappointed in me, that you regretted what had happened.’

  ‘When I’ve been wanting to do it again ever since?’ he groaned.

  ‘Josh!’ She buried her face against his chest.

  He gave a throaty chuckle. ‘Well, I have.’

  Erin looked up at him. ‘When did you really fall in love with me?’

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I didn’t like that Johnston guy touching you, I was even jealous of your liking Dave. And when you told me Bob had been your stepfather and not your lover I was so damned happy I felt like shouting.’ ‘You didn’t act it,’ she recalled dryly.

  ‘Not straight away, no,’ he gave a rueful smile. ‘I had to stand under the cold shower for fifteen minutes to calm myself down. I also had to show you that you shouldn’t have just gone off with a stranger like you did, not when you were an innocent. You could have landed yourself with anyone,’ he frowned.

  Erin smoothed that frown away with her fingertips, kissing him lovingly on the lips. ‘Not anyone, darling. I’d already decided that I wanted to give my virginity to you. In the end I gave it to the man I wanted to marry, like you told me to.’

  ‘And I thought you were ashamed.’

  ‘When I loved you so much?’ She shook her head. ‘I was never ashamed in the way you mean. And like you, I’ve been wanting to do it again ever since.’

  He groaned. ‘I wonder if we could sneak out of here without anyone knowing?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she laughed. ‘Besides, I want everyone to see the original of the painting.’

  Josh looked at her with concerned eyes. ‘Are you sure? I can have it taken down—’

  ‘Don’t you dare!’ she warned, knowing now that it had been painted out of intense love.

  ‘Erin, you’re sure you’ll be able to take being my wife?’ asked Josh. ‘You’ve seen what it’s like. I live like a recluse most of the time, and the rest of the time it’s like this, being hounded by the press.’

  ‘Which reminds me,’ she interrupted sternly. ‘Who was that glamorous brunette you were with the other night?’

  He grinned. ‘You wouldn’t be jealous, would you?’

  ‘Insanely!’

  ‘You needn’t be,’ he chuckled. ‘I wasn’t even with her, she just happened to be standing next to me when the photograph was taken. I only went to the party because Matt said I should. I left about ten minutes later. I was so damned worried about you I couldn’t think of anything else. When I found you’d gone, just disappeared ... I don’t even want to think about it,’ he shuddered.

  ‘Oh, darling!’ She kissed him passionately on the mouth, her lips parting invitingly as he deepened the kiss.

  It was the sound of exaggerated throat-clearing that finally broke them apart. ‘I hate to break up the—er— party,’ Matt smiled, ‘but the press would like a statement from you, Josh.’

  ‘Then they shall have one.’ He stood up, Erin held firmly against him. ‘Ready, honey?’

  ‘Ready,’ she nodded, stars in her eyes.

  She didn’t hear anything of what was said after Josh began his statement with ‘Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the future Mrs. Hawke . . .’

  She looked up from her sewing as Josh came into the room, at once standing up to receive the passion of his mouth.

  ‘My second nude completed,’ he murmured against her lips.

  ‘It really is finished?’ she said excitedly. The painting of herself hung on the studio wall, where only her husband could gaze at it.

  ‘Mm,’ he teased her with light kisses on her mouth and throat.

  ‘I’m not sure I approve,’ she said with mock sternness. ‘Naked females cavorting about your studio!’

  Josh gave a delighted chuckle. ‘That “naked female” fell asleep halfway through the sitting. I had to change her diaper and put her to bed.’

  Erin gave a gurgle of laughter. ‘Poor Amy, she doesn’t understand that her daddy wants to paint her.’

  ‘Did I remember to thank you for our daughter?’

  Their daughter, Amy Sharon, was three months old now, with her father’s jet-black hair, and eyes like blue- green lakes. And they both adored her, although after eighteen months of marriage their love for each other had only deepened.

  ‘About a hundred times,’ Erin nodded. ‘But I like the way you say thank you.’

  ‘So do I,’ he growled, lifting her up into his arms. ‘Why do you think I do it so often?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ she answered mischievously.

  ‘Hussy!’ Josh laughed, laying her down on the bed before hastily joining her, his mouth claiming hers in deep possession.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten