"Quit foolin' with me, Caitlan." He glared at her, annoyed with her nonchalance. "You're not making any sense, unless I'm due to die sometime soon."
"No, you're quite healthy," she said, strolling toward him with a sultry look in her eyes. "And the Superiors don't anticipate anything fatal befalling you for some time yet." Stopping in front of him, she reached out and toyed with a button on his flannel shirt, driving him to distraction with the innocent gesture.
Arousal hummed in his veins. "Caitlan," he warned. His low voice vibrated with longing and need, but he kept his control tightly leashed.
She sighed, as if put out by his insistence. "According to heavenly plan, you'll live to be eighty-six, and you'll have three more children and sixteen grandchildren." Leaning close, she walked her fingers up the front of his shirt, her expression playful. "You'll grow old with one woman. A very special woman."
His lips tightened. "Stop it, Caitlan. That won't happen." How could she think he'd marry another woman when his heart was nonexistent without her?
"It will," she vowed, sliding her palm back inside his shirt, this time to seek out warm, firm flesh, then his nipple. She rolled the nub gently between her fingers, and he drew in a quick breath, his eyes flaring. A siren smile lifted her lips. "Do you think you can put up with me for another fifty-two years?"
"Oh, God," he groaned. He stepped back, stunned at what she was suggesting. His spine bumped against the fence railing, preventing him from escaping her.
She laughed lightly. "There you go again, Johnny, looking as though you've seen a ghost."
Realization slowly dawned, and he stared at her incredulously. He found it difficult to believe Caitlan could truly be his in this lifetime. "How…" He couldn't even find the words to ask the hundreds of questions whirling in his mind.
The look in her eyes told him she understood his confusion. "Between you keeping the medallion and me moping around heaven, Christopher and Mary decided to put us both out of our misery." Caitlan went on to explain how their hearts had entwined so intricately when they'd both declared their love at the same moment. "However, the board of Angel Superiors had to vote on my release, and they almost didn't discharge me from my guardian duties because of the drastic changes it would cause in destiny." She glanced heavenward, smiling appreciatively. "But then He made the final decision and blessed us with a full, rich life together." She transferred her gaze to J.T., her expression impish. "And here I am."
J.T. glanced down the length of her, then back up, frowning. It couldn't be as easy as that. "You took a bullet for me. Everyone thinks you went back home, to Chicago. What will they think when they see you?"
"I'm sure they'll think I recovered from my injury quite nicely." She pulled back the collar of her shirt, showing him the puckered flesh she'd acquired as a result of being shot. "And then they'll think I came to my senses and realized I couldn't live without you."
He glanced at the stitched wound, realizing she'd saved his life not once but twice. This whole angel business still boggled J.T.'s mind, and he knew it would take him a while to understand it all.
"Are you really real?" he whispered, disbelief still holding him captive.
"Flesh and blood." Holding his gaze, she moved closer, until the tips of her boots pressed to his. "Touch me, Johnny."
Tentatively, he raised his hand and cupped her cheek, his fingers caressing silky soft skin. The muscles in his stomach tightened. She closed her eyes and sighed, nuzzling into his palm. A frisson of heat spread up his arm and throughout his body, awakening senses that had shut down when she'd left him. Caitlan felt real, alive; but then, he'd thought that while she'd been a guardian angel.
Then touching her wasn't enough. Sliding his fingers into her hair to cradle the back of her head, he slipped an arm around her, bringing her body flush to his. She flowed into him, becoming a part of him. Reveling in the way her soft contours matched his harder ones, he stared into her bright violet eyes, seeing every feeling in his heart reflected there.
She linked her arms around his neck. Lashes fluttering closed, she pulled his head down to her. "Kiss me, Johnny," she breathed. "I need you."
With a groan of complete surrender, he dropped his mouth over hers, drinking in the honeyed taste of her. The silken glide of his tongue stroked over hers, then deeper, demanding her acquiescence. She yielded, body and soul.
He broke the kiss, breathless and aroused. Hugging her to him, he absorbed her warmth, wishing they were in the privacy of his bedroom, instead of standing out in the corral with King watching them.
Then he decided he didn't really care, because he wanted everyone to know the depth of his love for Caitlan. Holding her left hand, he knelt in the dirt on one knee before her. She glanced down at him, surprise and a touch of delight entering her eyes.
"Johnny?"
"Caitlan, will you marry me?" he asked, his voice strong and sure.
She smiled, her dimple creasing her cheek. "Seems I've heard those words before."
"Except this time I'm never letting you go," he said, twining their fingers together. "You're mine, Caitlan. Now and forever."
"Yes, Johnny," she whispered, love and eternal loyalty glistening in her eyes.
"You'll marry me?"
"Try and stop me."
Joy poured through him, and his body shuddered in relief. Standing in a fluid motion, he kissed her again to seal their vow-a slow, lazy kiss that held the promise of so much more. Her love wrapped his heart and soul in contentment, filling every aching, lonely part of him.
Minutes later, they came up for air, lightly pressing their foreheads together. Caitlan's finger followed the gold chain around his neck to the medallion between them. Holding the golden pendant, she pulled back to look into his eyes.
"I don't think we'll be needing this anymore."
"Not even for a keepsake?"
She shook her head, her mouth lifting in humor. "No."
He sighed, reluctant to give up something that held so much significance. Taking off the medallion, he held it in his palm, a sudden knowledge filling him. Looking deeply into Caitlan's eyes, he smiled. "You're right. I have everything I could ever want right here in my arms. And I don't want your Superiors looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives."
"Then let's give it back."
J.T. stepped back and looked up at the stretch of clear blue sky above them, holding the medallion tightly in his palm. Gratitude wove through him, and he whispered, "Thank you for giving me Caitlan back."
"Take care of yourself and Caitlan. You won't be given another chance."
Stunned by the voice he heard out of nowhere, J.T. glanced sharply at Caitlan.
She laughed lightly, seemingly having heard the advice, too. "No, you're not going crazy," she confirmed.
"Thank God," he murmured. Looking at the medallion one last time, he took a deep breath, then drew back his arm and pitched the gold pendant straight up into the air.
He grabbed Caitlan's hand, and together they watched sparks of sun dance off the gold disk as it soared higher and higher into the sky. A second later, a flash of light burst the medallion into glittering stardust that shimmered like tiny angels up into the heavens, showering love and peace all around them.
Janelle Denison
