Drake Sisters 05 - Safe Harbor

the reception in your ballroom. She showed me the flapper clothes and then we got dressed up and had tea. We should do that."
    His heart nearly stopped. "Have the wedding here?"
    "Wouldn't you like that? Dress like she wanted and have the ceremony here? It would be such fun. Joley would love it."

    "I would, too, but would you?" His eyes searched hers.
    She smiled. "Absolutely. I think it sounds perfect." She grinned at him. "If we're going to get married, I mean."
    He kissed her nose. "Oh, we're getting married, baby. You don't want ten kids running around without my ring on your finger. Your father would make you a widow before you ever became a wife."
    She laughed and rolled over, wincing. "Wow! I guess I am sore. I must be out of shape."
    "I don't know, Hannah, you outlasted me. Come on. I'm going to run you a bath." He jumped up, uncaring that he was naked, went into the connecting bathroom and turned on the faucet. He stuck his head out the door when she didn't move. "You coming?"
    "No. I can't walk. I'm going to stay right here all day." She pulled the sheet over her.
    "No, baby, you need to soak in a tub, you really won't be able to walk. As it is, you're going to be sore. I don't have any bath salts, or crystals or whatever it is you girls all use, but I lit some of the candles Sarah gave me last Christmas. Don't tell her I said this, but they're soothing."
    She laughed. "You're so funny, Jonas, not wanting to admit candles and crystals have healing powers." She rolled onto her side and propped her head in one hand, elbow on the mattress, studying him. He was completely at ease in his nudity.
    "I admit it. It's just that you all think I need those things for protection." He glanced into the bathroom to check the water level in the tub.
    "You do need them, silly. In our own way, we try to shield you the way you do us.
    You matter to all of us…"
    He swung around. "You're mine, Hannah. It's no longer a family thing." There was finality in his voice.
    Hannah frowned. He'd always enjoyed the relationship he had with the Drake sisters.
    He knew he was family to them. He loved them. She couldn't imagine why what she'd said would irritate him. "What's this sudden driving need to establish dominance, Jonas? What's wrong?"
    He sighed. "Come here." He crooked his little finger at her.
    Hannah rose, wrapping herself in the sheet, trying not to be annoyed that he always made everything sound like an order. "I'm here. Tell me what's wrong."
    "Lose the sheet first."
    Just like that, as tired and as sore as she was, her body responded. Her breasts tightened, her womb clenched and a frisson of excitement skittered down her spine. "I want you, Jonas, I swear I do, but I think if you make love to me again, you'll kill me."
    A reluctant grin curved his mouth. "It would be a nice way to go, locked to you forever. Inside of you. Deep. Right where I belong." He tugged at the sheet.
    Hannah let it drop to the floor.
    "I like looking at you. Don't hide from me." He caught her chin and leaned down to kiss her. "Not me. Not ever."
    "Jonas…"
    He simply picked her up, carried her to the bath and set her in the steamy water.
    "I can't go home with that skirt and blouse and nothing else." The water felt so good.
    She could just stay there all day, forget the bed. She rested her head against the lip of the tub.
    "I'll find you an old pair of my jeans and a shirt. I have to have something around here that will fit you."
    "You didn't tell me what's bothering you."
    He stood watching her, his expression grim. "You didn't say you loved me, Hannah. I know you want me, but you didn't say you loved me."
    "I said it a million ways. Do you think I'd let another man touch me the way you did?
    Or put his mouth on me? His tongue in me? Jonas, don't be an idiot. If you know me at all, you'd never doubt for one moment that I love you with everything in me. And I have told you before. On the beach I told you."
    "That isn't the same as when we're making love. I told you a dozen times last night.
    You never said it."
    "I thought I was saying it, over and over." She hid a smile. Jonas was so big and bad, but underneath it, he was as vulnerable as she was. "I love you, Jonas Harrington. And I trust you not to forget it."
    He grinned at her, that same cocky, satisfied grin he often wore, the one that always made her heart melt. "Have your bath, baby. I'll be back with some clothes for you in a sec."
    Jonas rarely threw anything away and he rummaged