Page 50 of Fairy Tale Husband

“So am I,” she said, joining him. “I’m also glad the boys weren’t here. Ishudder to think what they’d have done to Randolph if they had been.”

“No worse than what I’d have done if he’d said one more word to you.”

A topic best avoided, she decided. “It’s strange to have the boys gone tonight.”

“You usually tuck them in at bedtime, don’t you?”

She nodded, confessing, “I like to sit and watch them sleep.”

“Do they remind you of your sister? What was her name? Tracy?”

“Yes.” Wynne bowed her head. “I feel closer to both her and Rob when I’m with the boys. Ican...” She shrugged. “I can feel them nearby.”

“They must have thought a lot of you to leave their kids in your care.”

“They knew I loved Buster and Chick,” she answered simply. “That I’d do anything for them.”

“Even marry me.”

Her smile held a whimsical charm. “That was the easiest decision I ever made. Irealized the minute we met that you were the perfect man.”

“Because I could slay dragons.” Shadows concealed his expression, but his voice held a causticedge.

“Not just that. You were the perfect man because I—” Because I took one look and saw you more clearly than you see yourself. Because the moment I looked into your fierce golden eyes, Ifell impossibly, irrevocably in love. But she couldn’t tell him that, he wasn’t ready to hear it. So she offered the only response he’d find palatable. “I married you because we needed each other. We still do.”

“For a little longer.” His words held a grim warning.

“Jake...”

He released his breath in a gusty sigh. “Let me guess. What part of the evening do you want to hash out? The part about my grandfather? My parents? My untempered pillaging of the women in town?”

“I think we settled the issue of your pillaging, untempered or otherwise,” she replied with a quickgrin.

“Thanks to your impassioned defense.”

“Don’t sound so surprised. Iknow what sort of man you are, even if Randolph doesn’t. Ialso know that it’s ridiculous to believe you’d resort to force when you could seduce any woman in town with a single look.”

His laughter sounded rusty. “It might take a little more effort than just a look.”

“Maybe.” She cast him a sidelong glance. “But one lesson on how to drive your truck would have overcome any lingering hesitation on their part.”

He shook his head, lounging on his elbow. “No way, sweetpea. You’re the only woman I’ve ever taught to drive a stick shift.” His eyes darkened. “The only woman I’d care to teach, for that matter.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” she admitted with a shy smile. She scooted closer to him, sliding her hand across his thigh. Flames leapt behind the screen, the firelight branding her pale hair with crimson streaks and flickering across the pure planes of her face. “Tell me the rest, Jake,” she urged. “Tell me quickly so it’s off your chest and we don’t have to ever refer to it again.”

“You want to hear all the gory details of my life?”

“Not really. But I suspect you need to tell them to me, if only for your own well-being.”

He instantly withdrew, the mental barriers slamming into place. “Why would you think that?” he asked coldly.

“It’s all right, Jake. Iwon’t run screaming in terror once I know your darkest secrets. Iwon’t turn from you in disgust or treat you with pity. And I certainly won’t sneak into your bed in the middle of the night, then pretend we’re strangers come daybreak.” She paused. “That is why you haven’t told me, isn’t it? Because you weren’t certain how I’d react.”

He sat up abruptly. “Damn you,” he whispered.

“I know,” she sympathized. “You’ve worked so hard to build up your defenses, secured every wall, made sure your fortress is totally invulnerable. Now you have this irritating wife, banging on the castle door and you have to open up and let her in.”

“I have to?”

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