Feeling the Heat Read online

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  Five days later, a military aircraft carrying Micah and his team arrived at Andrews Air Force Base. The antidote had worked, and millions of lives were saved. Homeland Security had arrested those involved.

  Micah and every member of his team had worked nonstop to save lives and thanks to their hard work, and the work of all the others, there hadn’t been anymore deaths.

  He drew in a deep breath as he glanced over at Kalina. He knew how exhausted she was, though she didn’t show it. All of them had kept long hours, and he was looking forward to a hotel room with a big bed…and his woman. They would rest up, and then they would ease into much-needed lovemaking.

  They had barely departed the plane when an official government vehicle pulled up. They paused, and Micah really wasn’t surprised when Kalina’s father got out of the car. General Daniels frowned at them. All military personnel there saluted and stood at attention as he moved toward them.

  As much as Micah wanted to hate the man, he couldn’t. After all, he was Kalina’s father and without the man his daughter would not have been born. So Micah figured that he owed the older man something. That was all he could find to like about him. At the moment, he couldn’t think of a single other thing.

  General Daniels came to a stop in front of them. “Dr. Westmoreland. I need to congratulate you and your team for a job well done.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Micah decided to give the man the respect he had earned. Considering the lie the man had told, whether he really deserved it was another matter.

  The general’s gaze shifted to Kalina, and Micah knew where she had gotten her stubbornness. She lifted her chin and glared at her father, general or not. Micah noticed something else, as well. It was there in the older man’s eyes as he looked at Kalina. He loved his daughter and was scared to death of losing her. Kalina had told him how her mother had died when she was ten and how hard her father had taken her mother’s death.

  “Kalina Marie.”

  “General.”

  “You look well.”

  “Thank you.”

  The general spoke to all the others and then officially dismissed them to leave. He then said to Kalina when the three of them were alone. “I’m here to take you and Dr. Westmoreland to your hotel.”

  Kalina’s glare deepened. “I’ll walk first. Sir.”

  Micah saw the pain from Kalina’s words settle in the old man’s eyes. He decided to extend something to General Daniels that the old man would never extend to him: empathy.

  He then turned to Kalina and said in a joking tone, “No, you aren’t walking to the hotel because that means I’ll have to walk with you. We’re a team, remember? And if I take another step, I’m going to drop. I think we should take your father up on his offer. Besides, there’re a couple things we need to talk to him about, don’t you think? Like our wedding plans.”

  The general blinked. “The two of you are back together? And getting married?”

  Kalina turned on her father. “Yes, with no thanks to you.”

  The man did have the decency to look chagrined. Micah had a feeling the man truly felt regret for his actions two years ago. “And there’s something else I think you should tell your father, Kalina.”

  She glanced up at Micah. “What?”

  Micah smiled. “That he’s going to be a grandfather.”

  Both Kalina and her father gasped in shock, but for different reasons. Kalina turned to Micah. “You knew?”

  He nodded as his smile widened. “Yes, I’m a doctor, remember.”

  “And you still let me stay on the team? You didn’t send me away, knowing my condition?”

  He reached out and gently caressed her cheek. “You were under my love and protection, but not my control.”

  He then looked over at her father when he added, “There is a difference, General, and one day I’ll be happy to sit down and explain it to you.”

  The old man nodded appreciatively and held Micah’s gaze as a deep understanding and acceptance passed between them.

  “But right now, I’d like to be taken to the nearest hotel. I plan on sleeping for the next five days,” Micah said, moving toward the government car.

  “With me right beside you,” Kalina added as she walked with him. She figured she’d gotten pregnant during the time the doctor had placed her on antibiotics after the auto accident. Even as a medical professional, it hadn’t crossed her mind that the prescribed medicine would have a negative effect on her birth control pills. There had been too much going on for her emotionally at the time. Since she’d found out, she had been waiting for the perfect time to tell Micah that he would be a father. And to think, he’d suspected all the time.

  Micah took Kalina’s hand in his, immediately feeling the heat that always seemed to generate between them. This was his woman, soon to be his wife and the mother of his child. Life couldn’t be better.

  Epilogue

  Two months later, on a hot June day, Micah and Kalina stood before a minister on the grounds of Micah’s Manor and listened when a minister proclaimed, “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

  All the Westmorelands had returned to help celebrate on their beautiful day.

  “You may now kiss your bride.”

  Micah pulled Kalina into his arms and gave her a kiss she had come to know, love and expect. He released her from the kiss only when a couple of his brothers and cousins began clearing their throats.

  With the help of Pam, Lucia, Bella, Megan, Bailey and Chloe, Kalina had found the perfect wedding dress. She’d also formed relationships with the women she now considered sisters. Kalina and Micah’s honeymoon to Paris was a nice wedding gift—compliments of her father.

  And Bella had taken time to give birth to beautiful identical twin daughters. And Ramsey and Chloe now had a son who was the spitting image of his father. Already, the fathers, uncles and cousins were spoiling them rotten. Kalina had to admit she was in that number, and couldn’t wait to hold her own baby in her arms.

  A short while later, at the reception, Kalina glanced over at her husband. He was such a handsome man, dashing as ever in his tux. More than one person had said that they made a beautiful couple.

  She had been pulled to the side and was talking to the ladies when suddenly the group got quiet. Everyone turned when an extremely handsome man got out of a car. The first thing Kalina thought, with his dashing good looks, was that perhaps he was some Hollywood celebrity who was a friend of one of Micah’s cousins, especially since it seemed all the male Westmorelands knew who he was.

  When Micah approached and touched her hand she glanced up at him and smiled. She hadn’t been aware he had returned to her side. “Who’s that?” she asked curiously.

  He followed her gaze and chuckled. “That’s Rico Claiborne. Savannah and Jessica’s brother.”

  Kalina nodded. Savannah and Jessica were sisters who’d married the Westmoreland cousins Durango and Chase. “He’s handsome,” she couldn’t help saying. Then she quickly looked up at her husband and added sheepishly, “But not as handsome as you, of course.”

  Micah laughed. “Of course. Here, I brought this for you,” he said, placing a cold glass of ice water in her hand. “And although Megan is hiring Rico, they are meeting for the first time today,” he added. “But from the expression on Megan’s face, maybe she needs this cold drink of water instead of you.”

  Kalina understood exactly what Micah meant when she, like everyone else, watched as the man turned to stare over at Megan, who’d been pointed out to him by some of the Westmoreland cousins. If the look on Megan’s face, and the look on the man’s face when he saw Megan, was anything to go by, then everyone was feeling the heat.

  Kalina took a sip of her seltzer water thinking that Micah was right. Megan should be the one drinking the cooling beverage instead of her.

  “Are you ready for our honeymoon, sweetheart?”

  Micah’s question reclaimed her attention and she smiled up at him, Megan and the hotti
e private investigator forgotten already. “Yes, I’m ready.”

  And she was. She was more than ready to start sharing her life with the man she loved.

  * * * * *

  ISBN: 9781459225961

  Copyright © 2012 by Brenda Streater Jackson

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