Dan would thank the BKI ladies until his dying day for convincing Penni to do that. He’d loved seeing her blossom. Loved watching his child grow within her. Loved going to Lamaze classes. Loved…her.
“You think the only reason I’ve stuck around as long as I have is because you’re pregnant, but that’s not true,” he insisted. “Baby or no baby, I would have pursued you exactly the same,” he continued. And the look on her face said she desperately wanted his words to be true. “Because I believe with my whole being and everything that I am that we belong together. You and me. Forever.”
“Dan—”
“And you think because I loved my wife with my whole heart that there’s no way I could love you the same.” He cut off whatever protest she’d been about to make. Now that he was talking, he was determined to get it all out, lay every single one of his cards on the table. “But again, you’re wrong.”
“But—”
“See, my love for her doesn’t lessen my love for you,” he said, his eyes boring into hers, insisting she hear and understand and believe. “’Cause love is endless, boundless. Just when you think there couldn’t possibly be any more in you, you look and see a well of it just waiting to be tapped.” And it was a miracle. He was awed by it. Humbled by it.
“I loved Patti. And I love you. And I’m so…lucky…” His voice hitched. Oh, and great, now he was the one with tears welling in his eyes. “So fucking lucky to have had the opportunity to love two brilliant, beautiful woman in my life. So fucking lucky to have found a soul mate twice.”
“Soul mate,” she whispered.
“That’s what we are,” he insisted, wiping a hand under his nose. “When I think back on it, I’ve known since the beginning. It’s that strange connection we share. That odd sense of peace and comfort we get whenever we’re near each other.”
“That bizarre feeling of knowing and being known.” She sighed.
His heart leaped. Did she…finally…believe him?
“Exactly.” He nodded. “So I’ll make love to you, Penni.” Oh, how he’d make love to her. Over and over. Twice for every time he’d wanted to in the past six months. “Just as soon as you tell me you believe me. Just as soon as you tell me you love me too.”
He held his breath, searching her face. And then he saw it in her eyes. She believed him. She believed him!
“Dan…” She whispered his name and he hoped to hear it on her lips for a hundred more years. He didn’t dare move. Didn’t dare blink. His heart was a fist, huge and hammering against his sternum. “I believe you,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tight. “And I love you,” she confessed in his ear.
He sucked in a breath of triumph, tightening his arms around her, knowing they would stay around her. Forever. Tears rolled down his face, soaking into her hair. He didn’t care.
“I told you back in Malaysia I was looking for something more in my life,” she whispered. “For someone more. But I think the truth was I was aching for love, aching to be loved. And I’m so humbled, Dan.” She was openly sobbing. The sound made his own tears flow faster. “I’m so humbled and fortunate and happy that my questing heart found you…”
“Penni.” He framed her face, his heart bursting with love and happiness, his shoulders shaking. It caused the new ink he’d gotten yesterday, the fresh ribbon with Penni’s name in the center that he’d had tattooed just below Patti’s—when their baby was born, his or her name would go on a ribbon too—to rub against the material of his T-shirt and burn. “You’ve just made me the happiest man alive.”
“Good.” She nodded, her smile a little wobbly through her tears. “Now would you please make love to me and help me make this kid to hurry the hell up?”
“It would be my pleasure,” he growled. And it was…
Order Julie Ann Walker's first book
in the Deep Six series
Hell or High Water
On sale July 2015
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Read on for an excerpt from
Hell or High Water
The first in The Deep Six, a pulse-pounding new series from Julie Ann Walker!
Present day
10:52 p.m.…
“And the Santa Cristina and her brave crew and captain were sucked down into Davy Jones’s locker, lost to the world. That is…until now…”