Full Bloom

you—"
    "What about me?"
    "You've come into your own. You're so much stronger now, Emily." Jacob smiled slightly. "I'm dealing with a full-blown passion flower, not a delicate, budding rose that can be crushed by a high wind or too much rain. I figure this passion flower can make up her own mind about me and stick to her decision. She won't let her family sway her."
    Emily shook her head swiftly. "Never, Jacob. I would never let them change my mind about you. They wouldn't have been able to change it before if they had tried. I knew then that I wanted you."
    Jacob nestled his face in her sweet-smelling hair. "Maybe I was the one who lacked faith two years ago. Don't make the same mistake now that I made then, Emily. Love me, sweetheart. Love me enough to trust me.
    She looked up at him and he saw the flaring emotion in her eyes. He could see her sorting through the myriad hopes and uncertainties that had been plaguing her, and then she seemed to reach a conclusion. For the first time since he had asked her to marry him, she finally relaxed and surrendered to her love. Jacob felt something tight and dangerous unwind within himself at the same time. It was going to be all right, he thought. It was really going to be all right.
    "I do love you, Jacob." Her smile was tremulous but very real and it caught at his heart. "And I do trust you. More than anyone else in the world."
    He hugged her tightly. "Enough to believe I can handle your family if it comes to that?"
    "I think you could handle just about anyone," she said softly. "You once asked me who they could send to intimidate a professional intimidator. I should have listened to you then. You're right. I've let my imagination run wild. My family is ruthless, stubborn and difficult, but—" she grinned "—you're even more so."
    "I'll assume that's a compliment," he remarked dryly.
    "Oh, it is. But underneath it all, none of you are monsters. It's going to be okay, isn't it?"
    Jacob breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "It's going to be just fine." He rocked her gently in his embrace for a long, precious moment. "Everything is going to be fine."
    "I can hardly believe this is my wedding night."
    "It wasn't much of a wedding," Jacob muttered, feeling guilty for the first time. "But we'll make up for it when we get back to Seattle. We'll throw ourselves a huge reception and you can do all the flowers. How's that?"
    She laughed softly. "Whatever you say, Jacob."
    "I like a woman who knows when to give in."
    "Beast."
    Some of the humor went out of him. "I know. And you're Beauty. According to the fairy tale we should make a perfect couple."
    "I think you're supposed to turn into a prince somewhere along the line."
    "Details, details," he scoffed.
    "It's the little things that count in life." Her hands moved over him and she smiled with sweet, enticing wickedness. "But there's nothing about you that's particularly little."
    Jacob groaned as he felt her palm brush across the front of his slacks. He bent his head and kissed her forcefully. When she responded instantly, melting against him and parting her lips, the very blood in his veins seemed to roar as it began to heat.
    "You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Emily," he confessed thickly. "Maybe that's why I was afraid to take you when you were younger. I didn't really believe anything that good could happen to me. And I'd made such a mess of my first marriage."
    She touched his face with infinite compassion. "It's all in the past. Let it stay there. We have our future to think about now."
    He willingly shook off the aching feeling of too much time wasted. She was right. What was past, was past. It was time to concentrate on the present and the future.
    Jacob gathered her close, the red-and-gold silk sliding under his rough palms as he lovingly shaped the curves and hollows of Emily's slender body. She was so perfect, he thought, and did not stop to question why he should find her so. He accepted on some level deep within himself that she was his true mate and that fact made her perfect. She aroused him more than any other woman he had ever met, and now this perfect mate was his wife. His body was already beginning to scream for release.
    "Come to bed and let me love you," he muttered as he found the zipper of the silk dress and fumbled with it.
    His hands felt clumsy and awkward, but the dress eventually came undone and fell into a pool of crimson and gold. He carefully removed Emily's glasses and placed them on the