Free Season for Love by Marie Force Page B

you provide these services only for pregnant women?”
    That drew a laugh from him. “I provide these services only for you .”
    Something about the way he said that filled her with a warm, cozy sense of security that, if she were being truthful, she’d never felt with Justin.
    When Owen lowered her to the bed, she kept her arms around his neck. The position put his face very close to hers. Laura zeroed in on his lips. “Will you stay awhile?”
    “Oh, um, sure.” He pulled back from her and straightened to kick off his shoes.
    “Only if you want to.”
    As he stretched out next to her on the bed, he reached for her hand and linked their fingers. “Of course I want to.”
    The bleat of a foghorn and the crashing waves against the South Harbor breakwater were the only sounds in the otherwise quiet night.
    “This is a very odd situation we find ourselves in,” Laura said after a long period of companionable silence.
    “You could certainly say that,” Owen said with a chuckle.
    “I want you to know… I’d understand if you decided to leave. I know you have to work and—”
    “I don’t have to work.”
    “You don’t?”
    He turned his head and met her gaze. “Remember when I told you that living the way I do is pretty cheap?”
    She nodded.
    “I’ve socked away most of what I’ve earned over the years. I could safely take a couple of years off if I wanted to.”
    “Oh.”
    “Are you trying to get rid of me, Princess?”
    “No! Of course not!”
    “Are you sure?” he asked. “I don’t want to be in your hair if you don’t want me there.”
    “Owen, come on… I want you there.”
    “Why do I hear a ‘but’?”
    Laura rolled her bottom lip between her teeth as she tried to find the words.
    “Laura? What’s on your mind?”
    “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way.”
    “You can say anything you want to me. You should know that by now.”
    She did know that, and it was one of the things she loved about being with him. “I’m getting attached to you.”
    “Is that right?” A satisfied grin stretched across his face. “Then my campaign is working.”
    “Is that what this is? A campaign?”
    He brought their joined hands to his lips. “I’m campaigning for a spot in your life, Princess.”  
    “What spot would you like to apply for?”
    His lips moved from her hand to the inside of her wrist. “The most important one.”
    She wondered if her pulse point was clueing him in to the rapid beat of her heart. Her mouth was suddenly dry and the palms of her hands damp. “Well,” she said, attempting a playful tone, “there’s a long list of qualifications for that position.”
    He added a touch of tongue to the sensitive skin on her inner arm, sending a sharp arrow of desire spearing through her that landed in a throb between her legs. “Name them.”  
    She pulled her hand free. “I can’t think when you’re doing that.”
    “My apologies,” he said, propping his head on one hand. His eyes were full of mischief as he waited for her.
    Laura wished she possessed the quick wit to make her list of requirements funny and lighthearted, but nothing about this was lighthearted. Not anymore.  
    “Tell me about your qualifications.”
    “First of all,” she said haltingly, “the candidate must want me and only me. No extracurricular activities allowed.”
    “Done. Next?”
    Unnerved by his intense expression, she couldn’t look away from him. “How do you know you won’t change your mind about that in a couple of months or a year?”
    “I suppose no one ever knows for sure about these things, but all I can tell you is I want to be with you—only you. It’s really that simple.”
    “What do I do, after I take a big chance on you, if you decide you’d rather be somewhere else?”
    He reached out to comb his fingers through her hair in a gentle caress that turned sensuous when his fingertips slid over her jaw and down her neck. “I wish I could assure you there’s no