stranger?
She already knew the answer. If it had been any other man in that food court, she’d probably have been polite and friendly and told him she’d made a mistake. After all, she’d had misgivings the very day she’d mailed her letter, and when she’d received an answer she’d nearly chickened out altogether.
But now…now everything had changed.
When her gaze had met Marty’s for the first time in the food court, something had pulled into an almost painful ball in her abdomen and she’d had to remember to take another breath. Had she ever been attracted to Rob like this? She must have been once. Of course she had been. The twin strains of widowhood and motherhood probably just had dulled the edges of her memories.
Sex appeal. That’s all it was. And she should be dismissing it as fast as she would have with any other man. But now she’d met Marty, and found that the man beneath the appealing exterior was every bit as appealing in personality.
She liked him. She liked him a lot.
Of course she did, she thought as she moved to the back of the store to assist another customer. Why else would she have called her baby-sitter and asked her if she’d mind staying later than usual tonight? She normally was fanatical about getting home to Bobby. And a part of her felt torn even now. Before he’d been born, she couldn’t imagine the powerful maternal feelings that dictated her every move. Now…she thought of nearly everything in terms of how it would affect her son.
She must be crazy. But Marty appealed to her in a powerful way that she couldn’t resist, couldn’t walk away from. He seemed like such a good man. He’d make her son a wonderful father. If she didn’t reach out and take this chance, she could be missing something important. Something that could change her life forever.
The last few minutes until closing time stretched interminably until finally the last customer was walking out of the store.
Marty lifted his head, and his gaze sought hers. When her eyes locked with his, she drew in a breath. He didn’t smile, didn’t move, but that look seared her with an unspoken possessiveness and deep in her stomach, nerves she hadn’t known existed began to hum with awareness.
The moment vibrated between them long after the exchange of gazes ended. He waited while she locked the heavy barred doors of the shop, and then he escorted her to the parking lot. He invited her to go with him to a popular watering hole whose name she recognized from overhearing the conversations of some of her co-workers, and when she asked him if she could follow his truck in her own car, he didn’t appear to mind.
The bar was large and noisy and crowded. Marty settled her at a small table next to the dance floor and went to the bar. When he returned with the soda she’d requested, she was surprised to see that he carried one for himself.
Apparently he noticed, because he said, “I have a two-hour drive home tonight. No drinks for me.”
She nodded. “Good practice.”
He indicated the energetic couples doing a two-step around the dance floor. “Do you do this?”
She shook her head. “I’ve watched, but no, I’ve never tried it.”
“Then it’s time you did.” Marty clasped her wrist and started for the floor.
“Marty! I’ll step on your toes!”
He stopped and looked back over his shoulder, and his lips curved, then parted as he laughed. “You’re just a little thing. I’ll hold you high so your feet don’t touch the floor.”
She smiled and let him pull her out amid the dancers, but when he faced her and held out his arms, she suddenly realized she would be stepping into the embrace of a man she barely knew. Other women do it all the time, she told herself. It’s just dancing.
But deep inside she was afraid that with this man, it might be much more than that. And when his arm slipped around her waist and his brawny strength encircled her, it felt so right that she automatically relaxed and let him lead her.
They danced several dances. Marty taught her the steps, patiently reminding her until she had mastered his movements. He was a strong lead; all she had to do was stay loose and let him put her where he wanted her.
She was very conscious of the words of one romantic song, and when Marty pulled her in and tucked her head under his chin, she could have stayed there all night. They swayed to the three-step, waltzing slowly on the crowded floor, and she fought the urge to press herself closer, to burrow into his warmth and strength and let him take care of her.
“There’s something I’ve got to ask you.” His voice was a low rumble above her head, and she tilted her face up so that she could see his expression.
“What?” Yes, you can kiss me. Please kiss me!
Marty lowered his head until his lips brushed her ear. “Do you wear that stuff you sell?”
His tone was deep and husky, and his hands drew her even closer as his lips lightly caressed the outline of her ear. Arousal rushed through her so fast that she sagged against him; his arms tightened and his hands slipped over her until she was held flush against every inch of his big body. Every hard, male inch.
She swallowed. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.” Good heavens, Juliette! Whatever possessed you?
His feet stopped moving for an instant. Then he twirled her in a deep turn again, molding her body to his, and she heard him chuckle. “All right. Do you have a time frame in mind here?”
She gazed up at him. “A time frame?”
“For a wedding,” he prompted. “I’d like to marry you.”
She opened her mouth. Then she shut it again without a word. Heavens! She’d expected to have more time to think about this. “I’d like to marry you, too,” she said, “But—”
“How does Friday sound?” he asked her. “I can get the license and make the arrangements, and we’ll start the new year with a wedding.”
Her eyes widened. “This coming Friday? That’s—that’s soon!”
He nodded, smiling at her reaction. “I don’t have a reason to wait. Do you?”
She started to say yes, but the word wouldn’t come out. “Well, uh…I guess not.”
“Good.” He took a deep breath and, held as she was against him, the action lifted her clear of the floor for an instant before he set her down again. Automatically she glanced at her watch. It couldn’t be nearly nine. Could it? Good heavens, she had to get home to Bobby! Ruefully she thought that a week could have passed while she was in Marty’s arms and she wouldn’t have noticed.
“I have to go,” she murmured regretfully.
“Yeah, I’ll be sorry if I don’t get going, too.”
But he made no move to let her loose.
Finally she stepped back, slipping her hands from his. “I really do have to go.”
Marty reached over the railing separating the dance floor from the tables and snagged his jacket and her long
