A Loving Scoundrel by Johanna Lindsey
They’d just spent several hours making up for missing each other. The bedcovers were in disarray. She was lying against Jeremy’s chest, his arms firmly around her. She wasn’t the least bit tired yet. Neither was he.
“We’ll have to air out this place a bit more. It’s still a bit musty,” Jeremy was saying.
Danny agreed. “It was only recently cleaned, had been closed down all these years.” Then she thought to ask, “Did you want to live here?”
“No,” he replied, then asked after a long pause, “Did you?”
“No, I rather like your house better. It’s much easier to clean.”
He sat up abruptly and frowned down at her. “Don’t even think of still cleaning that house, Danny. I mean it. Your days of wielding a duster are over.”
She chuckled at him, pulling him back down so she could get comfortable again. “I was just teasing. I’m quite aware of my elevated circumstance.”
He mumbled, “It’s a bloody good thing I wasn’t aware of it before I asked you to marry me, or I probably wouldn’t have asked.”
Now she sat up abruptly and demanded, “Why not?”
“Because, m’dear, your mother wouldn’t have let me anywhere near you, so I wouldn’t have gotten to know you, wouldn’t have fallen in love, would still be going about my merry way blissfully unaware that I’d be miserable without you.”
She thought about that for a moment and then laughed. “She would have welcomed you once she got to know you.”
“Don’t count on it, luv. She would have sized me up and decided a scoundrel like me wasn’t good enough for her daughter. You could have aspired to a lofty title, you know, and that’s the way mothers think.”
“I’d like to be one to find out.”
“One what?”
“A mother.” Then she whispered, “I want a baby, Jeremy, your baby.”
He groaned, pulled her back into his arms, said huskily just before he kissed her, “It’s going to be my absolute pleasure to grant that wish, Danny, I do assure you.”
“Since it’s going to be my pleasure, too, can we work on it a little bit more tonight?”
“Tonight, tomorrow, every single day until you’re puking your guts out, dear girl.”
“I’m not going to have morning sickness. My mother said she didn’t, nor her mother.”
“Don’t run in the family, eh? Well, that’s one thing I’ll thank your mother for.”
“Doesn’t,” Danny said.
“Eh?”
“Doesn’t run in the family.” She beamed at him. “Now that was rather nice, correcting you for a change.” Then she mimicked him, “’Deed it was.”
Jeremy burst out laughing.
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Johanna Lindsey, A Loving Scoundrel