His eyebrows arched in surprise. "I quite like this new controlling you." He wrapped his arms around my waistline and nibbled on my earlobe. I giggled and leaned back into him. His warm palms caressed my expanding belly and then one hand trailed up to the V-neck of my wrap dress. "I also quite like this dress on you. Are you sure you don't want to stay in tonight, Mrs. Morgan?" He fingered the edge of the fabric that revealed my ever-increasing cleavage.
"Later you sex fiend," I giggled.
"Or maybe round two at the restaurant?" He swayed me back and forth and I felt his growing erection against my bottom. I sighed as my body began to hum and my nerves tingled with desire.
"Can I persuade you to join me in the shower?" he whispered in my ear.
"No, now go." I turned and pushed him away from me, smacking his bottom as he turned toward the shower. I turned back to the mirror and ran a brush through my hair.
My eyes darted to Carter shrugging off his dress shirt in the reflection in the mirror. It dropped to the floor and he popped the button of his trousers and slid them down his hips. I moaned as his lean naked form bent over and twisted the knob in the shower.
"See something you like, Mrs. Morgan?" He'd turned and quirked an eyebrow at me in the mirror. My cheeks reddened in embarrassment.
"Always," I grinned. He shook his head with a laugh and stepped behind the glass door.
***
"Dinner was perfect, baby." He wrapped me in his arms as we stood on the chilly boardwalk overlooking Boston Harbor. We'd just stepped out of the bustling restaurant. Carter looked delicious in Oxfords, wool pants and a double-breasted coat, completed with a scarf around his neck. I stretched on my tiptoes and brushed his soft lips. The cold wind whipped around us as I tucked tighter into his form. Damn myself for wearing a dress in winter. I was wearing a wool knee-length white coat that blocked the majority of my body from the chill. Thankfully the winters in Boston weren’t as freezing as they were in Upstate New York.
We walked a few steps away from the restaurant and found ourselves alone overlooking the water.
"I have something for you." I stopped and looked up at him.
"Oh, yeah?" His eyes gleamed with love.
"Yeah." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a black box. His eyebrows rose in surprise. He took the box from my hand and opened it; I saw emotion pool in his steel blue depths. I took the box back from him and held the wedding band up in the light. The beveled platinum band shined in the light of the streetlamps.
"I love it," he grinned.
"It's engraved." I tilted the band. "It says, ‘You and Me. Always.’" I smiled up at him.
His eyes held mine and I saw love and passion reflected back at me. He held his left hand up and I slipped the ring on his finger, twisting it lovingly.
"It's perfect," he whispered.
"It's true." I wrapped my arms around him and snuggled into his warm embrace.
Epilogue
I stood looking out over the landscape laid out before me like a postcard. The summer waves crashed on the shore, meeting the blond sand and leaving ripples in their wake. Sea grass blew in the wind; the smell of sweet summer on Cape Cod filled my nostrils. Voices and soft music hummed from down the beach and I inhaled a breath of fresh sea breeze, thankful for the small moment of peace.
"There you are, beautiful." Carter came up and slipped his hands around my waist. I laid my head back on his shoulder and closed my eyes, reveling in the moment. "I’m thankful for so many things today, but seeing you in this dress again is the one I am most thankful for." He smiled and turned me in his arms, placing soft kisses up the line of my neck and running his fingers into the hair pulled softly off my shoulders. The wind grabbed fallen tendrils and swirled them around my face.
"I’m so glad we could do this—have everyone here when we renewed our vows. My mom has guilt-tripped me since I told her we married without her." I shook my head with a smile.
"It meant the world to my mom that you let her plan it, and have it here." We had just completed a small vow renewal at Carter's parents summer home on the Cape with family and close friends.
"It meant the world to me that she did it. Everything was beautiful."
"Most of all my girls," Carter whispered in my ear. I grinned remembering their sweet little toddling steps walking down the aisle to meet Carter and me. They were meant to be flower girls, but they'd dumped the petals in a pile at the end of the aisle and giggled and jostled into each other the remainder of the way.
"They were precious."
"Completely." Carter continued to nuzzle into my neck. "Caroline has your beautiful green eyes." His fingertips played with the edge of the lace fabric of the wedding dress I’d worn more than two years ago in Aspen.
"I think Kaitlyn got her chocolate brown eyes from my dad. And they both have your toffee-colored hair." I wrapped a hand behind his neck and tugged on his locks for emphasis.
"Toffee-colored, huh?"
"Didn't I ever tell you that you have toffee-colored hair?"
"I don't think you mentioned it." He captured my lips with his own and ran his tongue along my bottom lip. I parted my lips and our tongues tangled together in a slow dance. I inhaled his sweet scent and the ocean breeze that swirled around us.
"I’m hoping this one has your gorgeous brown hair." He ran his fingers through it and rested his palms on my cheeks, nipping at my lips.
"When are we going to tell them?" I asked in between light caresses. My hand instinctively trailed down to hold the very small bump of my belly.
"I vote for when we get back. I'll do it during the toast?" He placed a warm hand over my own on my belly.
"Sounds perfect."
"Just like you." He ran his thumb along the curve of my mouth.
"Just like us," I corrected him.
"You and me always?" He lifted his left hand and spun the platinum ring on his finger with his thumb.
"You and me always." I smiled and leaned in for another kiss.
The End
A Note from the Author
Thanks to my brutally honest beta reader, Terri Thomas. She is dedicated to making every book the best it can be and I take her suggestions as if they were direct from God himself. Check out her blog My Book Boyfriend for book reviews and delicious eye candy.
Thanks to Karen Lawson, my proofreader, who is still worth her weight in gold, and provides a running commentary that makes me giggle when I'm about to pull my hair out from all the editing.
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Epilogue
A Note from the Author
Precious Lace (Lace #4) Page 9