Going Back (31 page)

His honesty moved her in a way
nothing else could have. He did love her. Only a man who loved her
deeply would tell her the truth about her looks. “All right,” she
concurred, running her hands over his naked chest. “I’ll try
contacts again.”

“Or laser surgery.”

“Right.” She made a face. “Now that I’m up to
my eyeballs in debt buying my partnership, I can spend another
fortune on those eyeballs and get them surgically
reshaped.”

“I could pay for it,” he offered, and she
tensed. He was rich—they both knew that—and his new job would
probably make him richer still. But she didn’t want to be his
charity. She didn’t want him spending money to redesign her into a
woman he found more attractive.

He must have sensed her discomfort.
“Or you can get contacts,” he corrected himself. “Or not. I don’t
care. I don’t want you doing anything to your eyes that doesn’t
feel good.”

“Speaking of feeling good...”
Daphne felt for the buckle of his belt.

Groaning, Brad stripped off her
shirt, then helped her with his trousers. Before long they were
both naked, and she and Brad tumbled onto the bed, kissing,
tasting, touching, relearning each other with their hands and lips
and tongues. Daphne’s last conscious thought before Brad fused his
body to hers in a powerful surge was that, while love was
definitely not the same thing as lust, both had a great deal going
for them.

***

“WE’LL SELL your house,” Brad said,
a long time later.

Daphne lay beside him, her skin
damp with perspiration and her chest still heaving as she wrestled
with her erratic breath. Brad held her snugly to himself with his
arm, and she used his upper chest as a solid pillow. He was
sweating, too, but she wasn’t going to recommend cranking the air
conditioner back up. To do that would mean to break from the
shelter of his body, and the last thing she wanted to do was to
move away from him.

“What do you mean, we’ll sell my
house?”

“We’re both agreed my house is
nicer than yours,” he pointed out.

“I never agreed to that!” she
objected.

“You said before that if we swapped
houses, you’d get the better end of the deal.”

“I was speaking monetarily,” she
explained. “Your house is appraised at a higher value than
mine.”

“Okay,” he said agreeably. “Let’s
go with the more valuable house.”

“But your house has stairs,” she
complained. “Vacuuming stairs is a real pain. That’s one of the
reasons I bought a ranch house.”

“I’ll vacuum,” he offered. “You can
be in charge of cooking—as long as you don’t serve me clam
sauce.”

“Linguini and clam sauce is pretty
much all I know how to cook,” she warned him.

“I’ve eaten your peanut-butter
sandwiches,” he reminded her. “They weren’t so
terrible.”

“All right.” Daphne nestled closer
to him. “We’ll sell my house.”

“You’ll marry me?” he asked
hopefully.

She leaned away and twisted her
head to look at him. “I thought we were talking about
houses.”

“Both,” said Brad. “We’re talking
about both.”

“Oh.”

“Because I don’t want to go back
with you anymore, Daff. I want us to go forward. And that’s what
marriage is about, going forward. Isn’t it?”

Daphne smiled and settled against
him again. His description of marriage was infinitely more romantic
than flowers, wine, Mozart or silk caftans. “I guess it is,” she
agreed.

“Then say yes.”

“Would you still want to marry me
if I didn’t get contact lenses?” she tested him.

“Absolutely.”

“Okay.” She kissed his chest, then
grinned and settled contentedly against him, savoring the
possessive strength of his arm tightening around her again. Closing
her eyes, she imagined the description she’d write for her house
when she listed it for sale:

Beautiful ranch in excellent
condition on 1/4 acre. Three b.r.s, two b.s, encl. porch, attached
gar., mature plantings. Lucky lady found her Mr. Right
here.

###

About the Author

Judith Arnold is the
bestselling author of more than ninety published novels. A
three-time RITA Award finalist, Judith has won four Reviewers
Choice Awards from
RT
Magazine
, and
Publishers Weekly
named her
novel
Love In Bloom’s
one of the best books of the year. A New York native, she
currently lives in New England, where she indulges in her passions
for jogging, dark chocolate, good music, good wine and good books.
She is married and the mother of two sons.

You can find out about
Judith’s other books, contact her, and sign up for her newsletter
by visiting her
website
.