by Susan Crosby
“You are so beautiful,” he said, the words burning his throat with their truth.
“Diego,” she whispered.
He pushed her sweatshirt over her head and shoved it across the bed. Brushing a satin bra strap aside, he kissed the smooth flesh of her shoulder and tugged the strap lower and lower, until he’d peeled the lace away from her breast so he could look at her.
“Please,” she moaned.
He ran his thumb over the hard nipple, shifting his gaze to her face as she arched, moaned and closed her eyes. She arched higher, holding her breath when he tasted her, sweeping the peak with his tongue, stroking the underside.
“I want you,” she pleaded.
He pulled the crest into his mouth, flicking the catch of her bra open to bare her other breast, reveling in the way she pushed herself toward him, celebrating the sounds she made.
Her words were little more than a growl. “I need you.”
An inch at a time, he unwrapped her, until all that was left were lacy panties. He angled up to slide the piece of temptation off her, then he balled the fabric and brushed her body with it in long, steady strokes. She gasped as the lace scraped her nipples.
“I—”
“Shh. Let me take care of you, novia.”
He left a trail of fire with his tongue as he loved her. There was nothing she could say, nothing she could do but savor it. And when he found her most sensitive spot, he cherished her until she cried out. Then he was inside her, stretching her, filling her, taking her up agam fast and hard until she slammed into the climax that waited at the top. He kept moving, slowly, steadily, wondrously. She didn’t think she could possibly...
But she did, journeying with him, finding the pleasure together, treasuring the beauty, wondering at the need that stayed beyond fulfillment. She would never be satisfied, never have her fill of him.
He held himself off her slightly, found the rhythm of breathing again, heard her find her own. He smiled as she sighed loudly. Ah, but there was such pleasure here, such contentment, such endless joy.
He rolled to his side and rested a hand on her abdomen, moving his thumb up and down, stroking the hollow of her belly and the padded jut of hipbone.
“Do you think you’re pregnant?”
He watched her stiffen.
“Magnolia?”
She shoved his hand off her and rolled away. “Get out of my bed. Get out of my life.”
“What? Why?” He sat up, bewildered, automatically reaching for his jeans and pulling them on as she disappeared into the bathroom. When she emerged, she was bundled in a robe.
“I said get out.”
“What did I do? I thought you wanted that as much as I did.”
“I thought you came here because you missed me,” she said, breathing hard. “Now I find it’s only because you want to know if I’m pregnant.”
“That’s not—”
“Well, here’s a news flash for you, Zorro. I’m on the Pill. I’ve been on the Pill since two weeks after we met. I’m not pregnant, so don’t worry about that. Now, get out of my house.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You did not want my child?”
“Are you always this dense, or is it just with me?” She threw up her hands and stalked away.
He followed her into the living room, where she stormed around the room. He tried to control his temper. “I do not understand.”
“I was on the Pill because I didn’t want to trap you,” she shouted. “I have no idea how I can continue to love you when you offer me nothing in return except obligation and macho attitude. But I’ll tell you this, James Diego Shaunnessey, I’m sure I can stop loving you as soon as you’re gone from my life. So get out. I want to be sane again.”
“You love me?” he asked quietly.
“Of course I love you. What do you think that—” she gestured wildly toward the bedroom “—was all about?”
“I love you too.”
“How can you be so—What?”
He took advantage of her stillness to approach her. “I love you, Magnolia.”
Maggie swallowed hard. “You said you wished you’d never met me.”
He frowned. “When?”
“In your fever. When I taped you.”
“I don’t think you can hold me responsible for what I said in a fever, novia. But it isn’t how I felt—or how I feel. What I resented was how knowing you had forced me to re-examine my life. My dreams. I’m not comfortable looking that deeply into myself.” He pulled her into his arms and held her, tucking her head under his chin. “You turned my world upside down. I didn’t know how to handle it. All I could see was the job I had to do. And you kept getting in the way.”
He tightened his hold on her. “I fell in love with you anyway. I think in some way I was waiting to hear the words from you first. I was afraid if I let myself acknowledge how I felt it would leave me too vulnerable. Like my father had been. I was afraid you’d leave me. I’m still afraid of that.”
She burrowed closer, her heart full. “I promise I won’t ever leave you. Ever.”
“I want to marry you.”
She leaned back at the hesitance in his voice. “But?”
He brushed his hand down her hair over and over. “I like my job.”
“Of course you do.”
“I know it’s not cool to say this out loud, but I love my country. I believe in truth and justice and the American way.”
“Well, good. So do I. But what’s that got to do with anything?”
“I can’t guarantee you one house, one place to raise our children. Promotions often mean relocation. And I expect to climb the ladder.”
“All right.”
“You’d probably just get the house the way you like it or the kids settled in school when I’ll be transferred again.”
“And I’ll pack up the house and arrange for a mover and off we’ll go. What’s the problem?”
“You said you wanted your children to have stability. A sense of place. I can’t guarantee that.”
“I also said I was building a career at home so that I could be there with them. That’s stability.” She rested her hands on his chest. “Don’t you see? It’s precisely because I’m a homebody that this can work for us. I can create a home anywhere. All that matters is that we share a life together.”
“You won’t regret it later?”
“Diego. I love you. I loved you when you took care of me, spoiled me and worried about me. I also loved you when you ignored, rejected and ordered me. Love’s like that. It won’t be easy all the time. But the love’s not going to change, except to deepen. Home is wherever you are.”
He brushed her hair back, left his hands there to frame her face. “Then I think the first order of business should be another wedding.”
The most gloriously sexy shimmer settled in her eyes as she drew a leisurely Z across his chest. His heart slammed into his sternum, jump-starting desire again.
“I have this spectacular red teddy, Zorro, that I’ve been keeping in perfumed tissue paper since my birthday.”
He let his imagination lock in the image before he kissed her, thoroughly, possessively, dangerously, dragging her closer and closer.
“Then again,” he said against her lips, “I think tomorrow might be a better day to plan a wedding.”
“And a lifetime.”
He held her near to his heart and closed his eyes. “And a lifetime,” he agreed softly.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-7149-4
WEDDING FEVER
Copyright © 1997 by Susan Bova Crosby
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