It was crazy, how much an accident that had happened to strangers in another country could impact him. Josh’s meeting with Lord Amherst had been canceled because of the death of the man’s son and the injuries to his daughter. He had still met with company officials, still managed to seal the deal to carry their fly rods at Bailey Outfitters, so the trip hadn’t been wasted.
For three years, he had wondered about Gemma Summerhill, that lovely, laughing woman whose image in a newspaper had so impacted him. At random moments, he would wonder how she was and hope she had recovered.
He thought he would never see her again and then fate had played a weird trick on him by entwining their paths together here in Haven Point and then dumping her practically on his doorstep.
She was the one for him.
He didn’t know how he could possibly know that after only one evening spent with her but Josh didn’t question it for a moment.
While he wanted to push her back against that bed and spend the rest of the night learning everything she loved, he knew there would be time for that, once they knew each other better and she was as certain as he was that they were meant for each other.
Somehow, he managed to ease his mouth away. Her eyes were dazed, half closed, and the arousal in them made him want to forget all his good intentions and take what he wanted.
“I should go or I won’t be able to walk through that door,” he murmured.
“Do you have to?”
He groaned a little and rested his forehead on hers. “Yes. When I make love to you, I don’t want you to have any regrets.”
“Who says I would have regrets now?”
Her throaty question made him want to throw all caution out the window and start working his way through the layers they both wore.
But he was playing the long game here. He suddenly knew he wanted forever, not just tonight. He eased away from her so she could see him in the firelight and could know he meant every word.
“I want this to be real between us, Gemma. Full warning, I am well on the way to being crazy about you. I have been since you moved to town—longer, if you want the truth. This is going to sound strange but I’ve never forgotten you, since learning about your accident and seeing that picture of you and your brothers in the UK papers.”
She stared at him, mouth swollen from his kiss and her eyes huge and shocked. “You have not.”
“You were wearing a green dress. There was a boat behind you, a sailboat of some kind. You were holding a wineglass, as I recall. Your brothers were both smiling at you as if you’d made a joke.”
She looked as if she didn’t know what to say and Josh hoped he hadn’t moved too quickly, overplayed his hand.
He reached for her fingers. “I was drawn to that woman for reasons I can’t explain and felt so sad about the accident. It haunted me, if you want the truth. Every time I talked to people at Summer Rods, I tried to drop your name into the conversation and ask how you were. I figured I would never meet you in person but I always hoped you had recovered and were going on with your life.”
“You...did?”
“When I walked into that party at Bowie and Kat’s place and was introduced to you as the new programmer in Bowie’s department, I just about fell over. Something led you here, Gemma. Admit it. You didn’t move here on a whim.”
She swallowed hard and shook her head. “I didn’t understand it, but when Aidan offered it to me, I knew I had to take the job. Everyone tried to talk me out of it but it felt more right than anything else I’ve ever done.”
He reached for her hand, again feeling like the luckiest damn man in the world. She was his. He didn’t know how he knew they were meant to be together. That they would be together. He knew only that now he had found her, he couldn’t imagine a world without her in it.
“I’m looking for something real and lasting. Just so you know where I stand.”
“What if that’s not what I want right now?” She still looked dazed, as if everything she thought she knew about her world had just been shaken up and put back together in a different way.
He shrugged. “Then I’ll wait around until you change your mind. And you should know, I’m a very patient man.”
He smiled and after a moment, she smiled back, though she still looked thunderstruck.
“Good night, Lady Gemma. Sweet dreams.”
She gave a short laugh. “You impossible man. How am I supposed to sleep now, after you drop a bombshell like that on me?”
He kissed her one more time. He couldn’t help it.
“Easy,” he murmured against her mouth. “You can sleep well knowing tomorrow is the day we wake up and start building a future together.”
A future that would be wonderful, filled with laughter and dogs, horseback rides into the mountains and long, delicious kisses that would always leave him wanting more.
Josh couldn’t wait.
ISBN-13: 9781488055980
Summer at Lake Haven
Copyright © 2020 by RaeAnne Thayne
A Haven Point Beginning
Copyright © 2020 by RaeAnne Thayne LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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