Eternally Yours - Brenda Jackson [92]
Clayton’s hand moved slowly down her back as he stared down at her. “You’ll have another job. I have plenty of room in my office to take on a partner. I like the sound of Madaris and Madaris, Attorneys at Law. Don’t you?”
Syneda smiled up at him, her heart bursting with happiness. “Yes, it sounds wonderful, but I’m a little worried we might disagree on every case we take on.”
Clayton smiled and folded her to him. “I’ll take that chance.” He silently pledged to love and protect her for the rest of her life. “I think,” he rasped close to her ear as his hands came to rest on her smooth thighs, “that you can return my shirt now.”
Syneda pulled away from him. “My things are in the car.”
Clayton nodded. “I’ll bring them in later. Right now I can think of other things I prefer doing. I’ve always thought that my shirts look better on you than they do on me,” he said huskily as he continued the task of unbuttoning the shirt. He paused briefly to bend his head. His mouth claimed hers in a kiss of both violent tenderness and turbulent longing.
Syneda kissed him back with all her heart and with all of the love that she had accumulated through the years but had been afraid to give.
“Your mom expects us by eleven in the morning,” she whispered shakily when Clayton lifted his mouth from hers and began removing his shirt from her body.
“Eleven?” He smiled down at her. “In that case, we shouldn’t waste any time,” he said moments before gathering her up into his arms.
“My sentiments exactly,” Syneda said, returning his smile and pulling his mouth down to hers.
Chapter 22
“What do you mean the two of you are getting married? Is this some kind of joke?”
The living room of the Madaris family home was in a complete uproar as everyone began shouting questions at Clayton and Syneda all at once. When? Where? How? Why?
Clayton laughed at the look of surprise and shock on most of the faces staring at them. He and Syneda had made the announcement to the family after arriving a few minutes before eleven and finding them gathered around the breakfast table.
He pulled Syneda to his side. “When? Sometime in June. Where? That’s for Syneda to decide. How? The usual way two people get married. And why? Because we love each other very much,” he said, pulling her to him and placing a gentle kiss on her lips.
Kattie shook her head, still not convinced. “Okay, you two, the joke is over. April Fool’s Day is months away.”
Syneda chuckled. “Believe us, Kattie. This isn’t a joke. Clayton and I are really getting married.”
Traci rolled her eyes heavenward. “Be real. The two of you don’t even get along most of the time. Besides, you haven’t been romantically involved, and…”
Traci stopped talking in midsentence when a thought suddenly hit her. She gave Syneda a long, penetrating stare.
“You’re her!” she exclaimed. “You’re the one responsible for Clayton’s out-of-town trips.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe it. Why didn’t someone tell me?”
Dex chuckled. “Evidently they wanted to keep it a secret, and everyone knows you can’t hold water, Traci.”
Traci turned and glared at her next-to-oldest brother. “And I suppose you knew?”
Dex smiled at his sister. “Yes, but they didn’t tell me, either. I figured it out at Uncle Jake’s party for Senator Lansing. All anyone had to do was to take a good look at them dancing together and figure it out.”
“I saw them dancing together and didn’t notice anything unusual,” Kattie piped in.
“Probably because like most of the women there that night, you were more into noticing Sterling Hamilton,” her husband Raymond suggested, grinning.
The majority of the women in the room nodded. That was a good possibility. A very good possibility.
“But why the secrecy? Why did the two of you hide the fact you were seeing each other?” Caitlin asked. She frowned at her husband. The nerve of him knowing