“Yes.” Sullivan looked at him. “We’re very big on that kind of thing. How do you feel about your new granddaughter-in-law?”
Mitchell smiled. “She’ll do.”
“This better work out, Mitch. I swear to God, if Rafe doesn’t treat her right—”
“Don’t sweat it.” Mitchell watched Rafe slide a protective arm around Hannah’s waist. “She’s his passion. You know how it is with Madisons and their passions.”
“Yes.” Sullivan sounded satisfied. “I know how it is with Madisons and their passions. Nothing gets in the way.”
chapter 25
One month later . . .
The phone rang, shattering the moment. Rafe paused in the act of leaning over to kiss Hannah. She looked up at him from the pillow.
“The phone,” she said.
“I knew I should have switched off the ringer before we went to bed tonight.”
The instrument warbled insistently.
“You’d better answer it. Might be your grandfather.”
“All the more reason to ignore it.” Reluctantly he picked up the phone. “This better be important,” he said to whoever was on the other end of the line.
“Am I interrupting anything?” Gabe asked politely.
“Yes. Our one-month wedding anniversary.”
“It’s only nine o’clock.”
“Us old married folks go to bed early.”
“I’ve heard that,” Gabe said. “Actually that brings me to what I wanted to talk about.”
Rafe groaned and flopped back on his pillow. “I really do not want to talk about your thwarted love life tonight.”
“I haven’t got a love life to thwart.”
“Another date go south?”
“Big time.”
Rafe glanced at Hannah, who raised one brow. “Told you this idea of using a businesslike approach to finding a wife wasn’t going to work very well.”
“No, I know I’m on the right track. I just need to fine-tune the strategy. I realized tonight that what I have to do is approach this the same way I would approach a merger or an acquisition. I need to hire a professional consultant.”
A premonition of disaster shot through Rafe. “I hope you aren’t going to tell me what I think you’re going to tell me.”
“I’m going to call Hannah’s sister first thing in the morning and sign up with her matchmaking agency. I understand she’s fully computerized.”
Rafe shut his eyes. “This is a bad dream. I know it is.”
“I spoke with Lillian briefly at the wedding. She said she’s got a very high success rate.”
“Gabe, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Well—” Rafe hesitated. “I don’t know. It just feels sort of dicey for some reason.”
“What have I got to lose?”
“Uh, well—” Rafe felt a tug on his wrist. “I’m going to hang up now, Gabe. I want to go back to celebrating my one-month anniversary.”
“Give Hannah my best. If things work out with the Private Arrangements agency, I’ll be celebrating some anniversaries myself one of these days.”
“Something tells me it won’t be that simple,” Rafe warned. “You’re a Madison, remember? We don’t do simple when it comes to marriage. We always do things the hard way.”
“Only when we make the mistake of letting emotion take over. I don’t plan to make that mistake.”
“Good luck.” Rafe disconnected, tossed the phone onto the table, and rolled back toward Hannah.
That was when he realized that his left wrist was bound to the red wrought-iron bed frame. He studied the familiar-looking padded handcuff Hannah had used to chain him with great interest.
“Where’d you get the cuffs?” he asked.
“I bought them from Virgil.” She held up the second cuff. “An anniversary present.”
“Oh, my.” Rafe smiled slowly. “Don’t know if I can handle so much excitement.”
“Something tells me you’re up to the challenge.”
“I’ll do my best.” He reached out for her with his free hand and pulled her down across his chest. “I love you, Hannah.”
“I love you, too.”
He speared his fingers through her hair. “Should have married you eight years ago.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I think we both needed time to decide what we wanted out of life.”
“You could be right.” He thought about that for a few seconds. “I told you that night that it would be a long walk home.”
“Yes, you did.” She brushed her lips across his. “But we both got here safely. That’s all that matters.”
Contents
prologue
chapter 1
chapter 2
chapter 3
chapter 4
chapter 5
chapter 6
chapter 7
chapter 8
chapter 9
chapter 10
chapter 11
chapter 12
chapter 13
chapter 14
chapter 15
chapter 16
chapter 17
chapter 18
chapter 19
chapter 20
chapter 21
chapter 22
chapter 23
chapter 24
chapter 25
Jayne Ann Krentz, Eclipse Bay
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