The Mistress Deal Read online

  “You really do love me?”

  Something like a smile lifted the harsh lines on his face. “Lauren, I really do love you.”

  She got up and walked right into his arms. “Oh, Reece,” she quavered, “I love you so much. It’s been so awful without you—hold on to me and never let me go.”

  “I never want to let you go,” he said fiercely, pressing her so close to his body that she could hear the pounding of his heart. “You’re all I ever wanted and ever will…and you even came looking for me after all I’d done to you.”

  “You’re worth it,” she said with a radiant smile. “Anyway, you came looking for me, as well.”

  “We’ll invite Sam—and his new girlfriend, he told me all about her—to the wedding.”

  “Wedding?” Lauren said. “Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself?”

  He grinned. “If you want me to go down on my bended knee, I will. Marry me, Lauren? Please?”

  “Yes. Oh, yes,” she said with a ripple of joyous laughter. “You don’t have to get down on your knees. But you could take me to bed. If you want to, that is.”

  “Want to?” he said huskily. “You don’t ever have to doubt that.” He bent his head to kiss her, a deep kiss of passionate commitment. “I’m yours, body and soul…you’ve made me whole again.”

  “I love you so much,” Lauren said, her eyes clear as rainwater, her face alive with happiness.

  “Let’s go to bed,” he said. Picking her up in his arms, he carried her up the stairs into his room, where, in the big canopied bed, he pledged his heart to her in a lovemaking that carried Lauren to a place she’d never been before. A place they’d reached by literally making love, she thought; a place beyond words.

  As she snuggled into his chest, her pulses slowing, she gave him a bemused smile. “Do you have to tear off to Tonga or Tasmania first thing tomorrow?”

  “I do not. Do you have to be on the doorstep of a museum?” He stroked a strand of hair back from her face. “I didn’t even ask you about Maxwell Galway.”

  “He bought one of my works and I don’t have to be anywhere else but here.”

  “So Galway’s smart enough to recognize real talent when he sees it—congratulations.” Reece gave her a lingering kiss. “As neither of us has to go anywhere, we could spend the day in bed. Planning our wedding, among other things.”

  “What about Hazel and Tom? They’re supposed to look in on me in the morning.”

  “Hazel likes you. She’ll be a model of tact and leave us strictly alone,” Reece said, kissing Lauren with lazy sensuality.

  And indeed, when Hazel unlocked the front door the next morning and saw Reece’s suitcase standing in the hall, she backed up immediately, a big smile on her face. Then she hurried home to tell Tom to stay away from the lodge all day.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-0039-5

  THE MISTRESS DEAL

  First North American Publication 2001.

  Copyright © 2001 by Sandra Field.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  Visit us at www.eHarlequin.com