After reading Anne Stuart's "Moonrise" I mulled for quite a while and felt that it was a little sad that we never found out whether things ever worked out for these traumatised, scarred characters with their tortured lives. I thought it might be nice to speculate on what might have happened if Anne Stuart had continued the story ..... Please note that this is completely a fabrication by me and of course Ms Stuart has nothing to do with my fevered imaginings.
***
McKinley smiled with wry tenderness even as he grimaced in pain when Annie crumpled into a faint and landed into his aching arms.
Calmly, he surveyed the scene of devastation around him, saw Martin Paulsen's shattered body at the foot of the stairs and walked out the door carrying his woman with him.
--
Annie surveyed her lover's face with concern.
"I think you should see a doctor." she told him.
"No." he said flatly.
"You narrowly escaped being killed by a bomb - you have shards in your leg and you are still bleeding."
"It's what I like about
you. You're so very observant." he murmured even as he grimaced in pain,
carefully extracting the shards of metal from his powerful thigh.
Her mouth thinned as they sat in the hotel room and his dark eyes met her stormy ones calmly.
"I don't care what you want. I'm getting you medical treatment."
Some time later, he wasn't quite sure how she had managed it, he was having his wounds tended to professionally by a doctor and a nurse who were shaking their heads in concern.
"Fortunately for you, Mr McKinley - these will all heal cleanly."
Annie's face relaxed slightly and James found his mouth curling into a faintly amused smile.
--
"Stop fussing, woman," James said impatiently as Annie changed his bandages for him. Her mouth tightened stubbornly and she ignored him, calmly finishing her expert bandaging but laughed despite herself when he reached out and pulled her into his arms.
"You're impossible," she told him with a laugh in her voice and he smiled back at her, murmuring,
"When will you learn that I'm very possible," he said, his hand sliding beneath her loose blouse to caress her full breasts erotically.
"You're not recovered yet," she reprimanded him, trying to pull away but he pulled her head to his and kissed her lingeringly,
"I'll go out of my mind if I don't have you soon," he told her and she curled up beside him and kissed his lean cheek lingeringly.
"When you are well. I don't want you doing damage to yourself." she told him severely.
"Are you my lover or my mother?" he demanded with exasperation and she grinned up at him, laughing at the petulant tone in his voice.
"I love you, James," she told him, her eyes glowing with her love for him and his throat tightened as he stared down into her haunting face.
"Not half so much as I love you, Annie Sutherland," he said fiercely, his eyes darkening and the Irish returning to his voice as his emotions gripped him. She kissed him lingeringly on the mouth, her mouth opening hungrily beneath his as his arms tightened around her and he was rolling her beneath him, his hands pulling her jeans down her slender legs and parting her slender thighs.
"No, you'll hurt yourself, James," she mumbled thickly and groaned as he plunged deep within her, filling her completely, her eyes wide and filled with pleasure as he stared down fiercely into her face, his upper lip beaded with perspiration as he pumped within her.
He groaned low and deep and she tightened around him, taking him deeper, milking him and when he spilled himself into her, they were both shaking and convulsing with the sheer pleasure of their release.
--
"Do you think you can be happy here, Annie?" he asked her, staring around the green Irish countryside.
"I'd be happy anywhere, love so long as I was with you." They had decided not to live in Dublin, but in a green countryside outside the city in a beautiful house that James had bought. His new role as a "technology consultant" was as lucrative as it was easy for him and she could do whatever she wanted, he informed her.
His injuries were healing fast, as were hers, he noted possessively, glad to see that the bruises were fading from her exquisite skin and the horror slipping out of her gaze.
She still had nightmares, waking in the night crying and sobbing and only his touch and kisses could chase away the terror. It was the same with his own nightmares. He would away stiff and tormented, his body soaked with perspiration and only the soft cool murmur of her voice and her gentle arms could make the horror fade.
She was happy and contented and within a month of settling into their new house, she had made it a home, decorating it and filling it with beautiful things which made him smile. She found herself smilin possessively as she saw him outside working the garden. His hair was now cut short, his face relaxed and younger-looking now that he smiled more often.
For some reason though, he hadn't asked her to marry him. She wasn't sure why precisely and she wondered whether she should pluck up the courage to ask him herself, but squashed that thought down.
"Have some more spuds," he announced, coming in from the garden as she was slicing carrots. She put the knife down and took the dirty potatoes from him.
"You wash them," she ordered him imperiously and with a laugh he obediently obeyed and they stood side by side at the counter. The freshly washed potatoes sat in the sink and he dried his big hands on a cheerful gingham teatowel and then bent his head to kiss her hungrily.
She kissed him back, putting her arms around his neck and he laughed, lifting her into his arms to carry her up the stairs to the bedroom. "James - dinner," she protested even as she kissed him back.
"Dinner be damned," he laughed as they tumbled onto the huge bed together, rolling and pulling off clothing. Much much later he pressed an exhausted kiss onto her sweaty cheek and demanded outrageously,
"So what's for dinner?" he laughed when she hit him and cuddled her closer.
"Marry me," he whispered so quietly she could scarcely hear him.
She was very still for a moment.
"Did you hear me?"
"Barely. What did you say?" she demanded and he stared down into her dark eyes intensely and whispered,
"I asked if you would marry me, Annie Sutherland."
She was silent for an endless moment and her full mouth finally curved into a smile.
"What took you so long, McKinley?"