“But you did make it,” she said, laying her hand against his cheek.
He turned and kissed her fingers. “I know the last few weeks must seem like an out-of-body experience for you. But I’ve been on adrenaline jags before, and I want you to know that what I feel is very real. I’d say I’ll spend the rest of my life protecting you, but God knows you don’t seem to need it. So I’ll just say that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me, sweetheart?” Sean held his breath as he waited for her response.
Speechless with emotion, Claire stared at him while tears filled her eyes.
“I know it’s too soon to get married right away,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck and cursing himself for dumping it on her all at once. “I mean, we’ve only known each other a month and all. But that’s where I’m going with this, and I wanted to know if that’s where you want to go, too.”
The tears in Claire’s eyes spilled over, and she laughed with the sheer joy of being alive and being in love. “I can’t believe this! I thought I was going to have to take you home tonight and throw myself at you again.”
Sean grinned back at her. “You can throw yourself at me anytime you want. I’ll always be there to catch you.”
Claire tunneled her hands into his hair and pulled him down for a thorough kiss.
In the hallway outside the suture room, Aidan smiled and walked away, whistling silently. Olivia owed him five bucks.
Claire finally pulled back. “I love you, Sean Richter. And I do want to marry you. But I think we should have a long engagement.”
“Whatever you want,” he said, stroking butterfly kisses over her mouth and cheeks.
She laughed even as his lips brushed hers. “In fact, considering that we just met a couple of weeks ago, I think we should date for a while first,” she said, smiling wickedly in anticipation of his reaction. “You know, holding hands and looking shyly at each other.”
Sean’s head whipped up. He took one look into her dancing black eyes, then groaned and kissed her again before she got any other brilliant ideas.
About the Author
Heather Lowell has hiked the Andes, gone up the Amazon River, backpacked through Australia and New Zealand, jumped out of an airplane, gone SCUBA diving, bungee jumping, white-water rafting, and caving. After earning a Master’s degree in International Development, Heather began life in a cubicle as a project manager in Information Technology, which closely paralleled that of the comic strip Dilbert. Then the tech bubble burst, and she took it as a sign that she should follow her dream of writing. Heather Lowell now considers herself to be a dedicated homebody—with a car, mortgage, and dog to prove it. She currently lives in Arizona, where she is working on her next book.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
WHEN THE STORM BREAKS. Copyright © 2003 by Two of a Kind, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition December 2003 ISBN 9780061755996
First HarperTorch paperback printing: August 2003
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Contents
Dedication
Chapter 01
Chapter 02
Chapter 03
Chapter 04
Chapter 05
Chapter 06
Chapter 07
Chapter 08
Chapter 09
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher