The Temporary Mrs. King Read online

  She staggered a little and slapped one hand down on the glass case to steady herself. “Twenty—”

  “Your husband spoke so highly of your talent,” the man said, sighing wistfully. “It’s very clear to me that he loves you very much.”

  At least he used to, Melinda told herself sadly. Her heart ached. Sean must have set up this meeting before he left. He had believed in her talent. In her. He’d found a way to help make her dreams come true. And she’d allowed her own hurt and anger to let him slip away. God. She was such an idiot.

  “When did you last speak with my husband?”

  He checked the gold watch on his left wrist. “Oh, an hour ago.”

  “What?” Shock jolted her. “Where? I mean, where did you see him?”

  The man blinked at her in surprise. “Why, at the hotel not far from here. It’s much smaller, but he explained that he was using it as office space. Now, if you’d like to discuss—”

  He was here? Sean hadn’t left Tesoro? Hadn’t left her? The dark cloud that had been hanging over her heart suddenly shattered under the force of what felt like a million suns exploding inside her. Melinda could hardly breathe.

  She smiled, then grinned, then laughed out loud.

  “Mrs. King?”

  “God, that sounds good,” she said, still laughing. “Mrs. King. Mrs. Sean King. Now and forever.”

  “We were speaking about your work,” Mr. Fontenot said slowly and carefully as if he were speaking to a deranged three-year-old.

  And Melinda could see why he would think that.

  “I’m so sorry,” she blurted. “But it’ll have to wait. I really do want to talk to you, but first I have to see my husband. I’ll be back. Later. Much later, hopefully.” She laughed wildly, gave the man a quick hug and said, “I really have to go!”

  “Well, go and talk to her!”

  Sean gripped the phone more tightly and said, “You know what, Rafe, I’m done taking your advice. I’ll go see Melinda when I think it’s time.”

  “Always were a hardhead,” his brother muttered.

  “Good talking to you, too,” Sean snapped and shut the phone off. He tossed it onto his desk and scowled. Three days since he left Melinda. Felt like three years.

  The hotel where the King crew would be staying was just a few miles from the Stanford hotel. But as far as what Sean was feeling, it might as well have been on the dark side of the moon. He was further away from Melinda than ever and waiting to see her was slowly killing him.

  He rubbed the center of his chest in what was becoming a habit. But the pain that was lodged around his heart just kept throbbing in time with his pulse. She was in his soul. His bones. She was a part of him and until he got her back, nothing was worth a damn.

  He kicked the desk and a scatter of papers floated to the floor. “Damn it,” he grumbled and bent to pick them up.

  “Mr. Fontenot told me where you were.”

  Sean froze at the sound of that voice. The one voice he’d hungered to hear for days now. Slowly, he stood up and turned to face the woman he loved. Melinda stood in the open doorway, and the world started turning again. Everything in him came back to life in a painful rush. Just seeing her was enough to ease the aching inside him. But he wanted more.

  “Thought he might.” Sean couldn’t stop staring at her. Everything about her was perfect, from her wind-tousled hair to her red T-shirt to her favorite sneakers.

  He had hoped that she would come to him after talking with Dominic. But if she hadn’t come, Sean would have gone to her by nightfall.

  “You didn’t leave,” she said, taking a single step into the room.

  “Of course not.”

  “Why did you let me think you did?”

  “I was giving you time to cool off,” he admitted, scraping one hand across the back of his neck.

  “How much longer were you going to stay away?”

  “Couldn’t have waited much longer,” he admitted. And now, looking at her, he couldn’t imagine how he had waited this long. “If you hadn’t come here, I’d have been beating your door down tonight.”

  Her mouth curved into a faint smile before it was gone again. “I was leaving at the end of the week. Going to Long Beach. To see you.”

  He drew his first easy breath in way too long. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded and whispered, “I thought you left me.”

  Sean stalked across the room and stopped right in front of her. Staring into her eyes, he willed her to believe him when he said, “I love you, Melinda. I will never leave you.”

  She gasped and smiled. “You do?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you miss your home. I know that and—”

  “You are my home,” he said simply and caught her when she threw herself into his arms.

  “I love you so much,” she whispered, and Sean held her tighter, harder, glorying in the sound of those words and grateful as hell that she’d said them.

  “Damn, Melinda, I’ve missed you. Longest three days of my life.”

  “You’ve been here?” she whispered, voice muffled against his shoulder. “At Grandfather’s other hotel? All this time?”

  “Yes,” he said, kissing her neck, her jaw, moving his mouth up to take hers in a fierce, hard kiss that left him hungering for more. “And it’s been hell.”

  “I’m so glad.”

  He laughed. “That’s my girl. One of us suffers, we both suffer.”

  “Exactly. Oh, Sean I missed you, too.” She drew her head back to look up at him. “I’m so sorry. I told you I wanted the truth and then when you gave it to me, I turned on you.”

  “I could have told you in an easier way.” He cupped her face in his palms.

  She sighed and the sound slipped into his heart and twisted there. “I was only angry because you were keeping things from me for ‘my own good.’”

  “Yeah, and I’m sorry about that, Melinda. It was never about thinking you couldn’t deal with the truth. It was more that I didn’t want to be the one to hurt you.”

  “I get it,” she said, covering his hands with her own. “But no more secrets, okay?”

  “Absolutely.” He kissed her again and grinned down at her. “From now on, it’s the whole truth. Starting with, I love you more than life and I’m going to need an extension on our little marriage deal.”

  She grinned back at him. “Yeah? For how long?”

  “I’m thinking, forever.”

  “Is that all?” she teased as he pulled her into the room and closed the door behind her.

  “Forever and two months,” he said, tearing his shirt off then helping Melinda take off hers. “Sound about right?”

  “Sounds perfect,” she said, moving into him, lifting her face for his kiss. “Because since we’re all about honesty now, I love you Sean King. More than I ever thought it possible to love anyone. And I am never going to let you out of our marriage bargain.”

  “Best news I’ve ever heard,” Sean said, holding her so tightly, he could feel the beat of her heart against his own chest. He felt whole for the first time in his life and he had this one amazing woman to thank for it. “Oh, hey. There’s something I want to show you.”

  Reluctantly, he let her go, but kept a tight grip on her hand as he drew her over to his cluttered desk. There were sketches scattered across the surface and he picked up the top one and handed it to her.

  “What is it?” She looked up into his eyes, and he felt warmed to his bones by the love shining in her gaze.

  “It’s our new house,” he said. “No more hotel living for us. Rose taught me how to cook a little, but we can hire a chef if neither one of us wants to do all the cooking.”

  “A house?”

  “I want to build it by that cove where we made love the first time.” Pointing to a building to one side of the main structure, he said, “That’s your new workroom. Lots of natural light. Plenty of space—”

  “Sean…” She took a breath and lifted one hand t
o cover her mouth as she stared at the sketch. “You did this for me?”

  “For us.”

  “But what about California?” she asked, “I thought you’d want to go home.”

  He smiled. “No, I already told you. Home for me is where you are, and Tesoro is where you belong.”

  Tears rolled along her cheeks, but her smile told him just how happy she was. “God, I love you. This house, the workshop, it’s all so beautiful.”

  “It will be, if you’re in it,” he told her, “because without you, I’ve got nothing.”

  Melinda took both of his hands in hers and felt more joy than she had ever known rise up inside her.

  “With you,” she said, “I’ve got everything.”

  He swept her up into his arms to carry her to the bed and Melinda knew there was nowhere else she wanted to be.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-8190-5

  THE TEMPORARY MRS. KING

  Copyright © 2011 by Maureen Child

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  ††Kings of California