Swallowing the painful lump in her throat halted her cry of disbelief.The heightened color of her face swiftly drained, leaving her deathly pale.From somewhere her proud anger responded.
“Sure you do.”Her voice was thick with sarcasm.His lie slashed deep into her already wounded heart.Was he so desperate that he would go to any length to have her sign a contract?
“I deserve that.”He laughed bitterly.“I don’t blame you for doubting.”His thumb moved slowly across her cheek.“Answer me one thing.Do you honestly believe I’d take advantage of you?”The lack of emotion in his voice gave his question all the more significance.
Her instincts told her she could trust him with her life, but logically she couldn’t dismiss his repeated insistence that she become a professional singer.Unable to find the words to answer him and equally unable to trust herself to look into his eyes, she turned her face away.
Swiftly he brought it back, the steel gray of his eyes pinning her.“I had to know,” he ground out angrily.“I didn’t mean to fall in love with you.You crashed into my life with a force that sent me reeling.At first you were just a challenge—the girl with the witty façade who was hiding from the real world.But the more I came to know you, the more I realized that you were everything good I’ve ever dreamed a woman could be.”His fingers dug into her shoulders.“Don’t you know what it cost me to make that offer?I had to be sure.Can’t you see that?I want a wife, not a career woman yearning after the glamour and glitter of footlights.”
Risking a glance, and yet afraid to believe the fragile hope stirring within her, Skye found his dark gray eyes gleaming with intensity.
“You love me?”she whispered, unsure of anything at the moment.
“More than I thought it was possible to love anyone,” he expelled with a shuddering breath.
Her lips trembled, and she bowed her head weakly to shield her eyes.“I want to believe you, Jordan,” she whispered huskily.“I love you, too.”
The response for each was as automatic as breathing, and Skye was crushed against the steel hardness of his torso.
Against her mouth, Jordan murmured, “Trust me, my love.”
“I want to,” she admitted, and her voice cracked.
Framing her face with his hands, he raised her eyes upward.“I need you, Skye.My world would be a dark hole without you now.”He paused, a smile forming at the grooves of his mouth.“Who would have ever thought a funny little girl who hides cash in her shoes would steal my heart so completely?Skye Garvin, will you be my wife now and for all our lives?”
Wide blue eyes stared at him with all the yearnings of her heart.“I...I don’t know...”Somehow the words wouldn’t form.It was what she wanted with all her heart.Why was she hesitating?
Dark furrows ran across Jordan’s forehead, drawing his brows together.Suddenly the reality of his love confronted her, and with a happy laugh she threw her arms around his neck, hugging him close.
“Yes,” she said joyfully.As the excitement began to diminish, her expression turned serious.“It would be the greatest honor of my life to be your wife and bear your children.”
Locked in his arms, Skye surrendered as he hungrily sought her lips, parting them with a desperate need.
A burning question remained unanswered.Skye ended the kiss.“Jordan, what would you have done if I’d agreed to sign the contract?”Her voice reflected the importance of the question.
Jordan cupped her chin.Indecision danced across his face, twisting his mouth into a cynical mask.“Exactly as I said.I’d have done everything in my power to make you into the superstar you have every possibility of being.”He lowered himself onto the sofa; then his muscular arm circled her waist and he drew her onto his lap.Skye looped her arms around his neck, urging his mouth to hers.The moment was tender and serene, each of them absorbed in the magnificent gift of love God had granted them.
“I want to tell you about Glen,” Skye whispered tautly, resting her head against his shoulder.
She didn’t need to explain who Glen was; Jordan knew.His fingers began a comforting, stroking action down the length of her hair.“You don’t need to tell me.”
“But I want you to know.”She sighed softly.“Glen was a wonderful Christian man.Dedicated, sincere, gentle, everything a woman could want.We fell in love when I was fifteen and he was twenty-one.”
Skye could feel Jordan tense, the muscles of his jaw constricted.“You were hardly more than a child.You couldn’t possibly have been in love.”He dismissed her claim.
Tenderly her hand explored his jaw, caressing and gentle.This would be as difficult for him as it was for her.But it needed to be said.
“We knew.Brad and Glen were best friends, and Glen was always around.Neither of us openly acknowledged our love back then, but we knew.Without a spoken word Glen waited for me to grow up.I know he suffered wretchedly through my first dates and the junior and senior proms.But he neednever have doubted.In my heart there was only him.I never considered marrying anyone else.The day I graduated from high school he gave me an engagement ring.I think Mom and Dad were shocked; as far as they knew Glen and I had never so much as dated.Neither of us wanted a long engagement, but my parents insisted I attend a year of college first.The request didn’t bother us.We had our whole lives ahead of us.Then Glen decided to enter the ministry and enrolled in a Bible institute back east.We planned to marry the summer before he left, but my dad was having health problems, so we decided to wait until that Christmas.”Unexpectedly her voice throbbed with remembered pain.“I...I never saw him again.”
“Don’t tell me, Skye.”Jordan kissed her hair ever so gently.“I don’t need to know.”
“I want you to know.”She smiled, loving him with a ferocity that paled in comparison with the love she had lost so many years before.
“About the time Glen began his studies, the doctors discovered my father had cancer.It was agony to witness this robust man waste away.I sat with Dad at the hospital for hours, reading him Scripture, holding his hand, anything to lessen the pain.Dad had always liked to hear me sing, so I started bringing my guitar.I played and created songs to amuse him.Then...then we learned Glen had been killed.He was driving home.He’d...he’d decided he was needed here in San Francisco with me...the car skidded on an icy patch in the road and Glen was killed instantly.Afterward my music was the only thing that kept me sane.I spent hours alone singing out my grief.Up to this time my voice had been normal, nothing spectacular.But it changed.As Dad got worse, I played more and more.Dying was agony.But death came sweet, gentle, and welcome.My new voice was God’s gift.I could never exploit this talent.Sincethat time I’ve always used it as a means of bringing solace to others or to praise God.”
Jordan’s eyes filled with compassion as he viewed the tears that made wet paths down her cheeks.Carefully he brushed the hair from her damp face and tenderly kissed away each tear.
Chapter Nine
