The Blushing Bride

by Judith Stacy

  Jason turned to her again, his eyes taking her in from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, understanding for the first time that she was naked under her robe and gown. His chest swelled.

  Amanda’s flesh tingled as he looked at her. Warmth crept through her. Jason took her in his arms and kissed her, and Amanda knew there was no place in the world she’d rather be.

  He brushed his lips against hers, then deepened their kiss until Amanda responded. She welcomed him inside her, moaning softly at the exquisite warmth of his tongue. Amanda looped her arms around his neck and raised on her toes, pressing closer.

  Jason groaned. He kissed a hot trail down her neck, then pulled loose the sash of her robe. His hand closed over the swell of her hip, then lifted to cup her breast. He groaned again.

  She pushed against him, feeling the length of him. Amanda opened the buttons of his shirt and pressed her palms against his chest, wiggling her fingers through the curly, dark hair.

  Jason claimed her mouth again with his as he unfastened the little buttons of her gown. He lifted his head and gazed down at the white flesh of her breasts swelling outward.

  “Oh, Amanda….” Jason wrapped both arms around her shoulders and pulled her against him, kissing the top of her head. He held her that way for a few moments, then took a big breath and set her away from him.

  “You know what’s about to happen here,” he said, his voice heavy.

  She nodded. “Yes, I know.”

  Jason shook his head. “Once we get much further along, it’s going to be damn near impossible for me to stop. So if you don’t like where this is heading, now’s the time to say so.”

  Amanda smiled up at him. “I like where it’s heading.”

  His eyes closed for a few seconds, then opened again, heavy with need. “You’re sure?”

  She nodded. “I’m sure.”

  Taking her in his arms again, Jason kissed her as he pushed her robe off her shoulders. Their mouths still together, he ripped off his vest and shirt. While he hopped on each foot and yanked off his boots and socks, Amanda reached for the pins securing her hair.

  “No, wait,” he said.

  She stopped, unsure of what he wanted.

  Jason studied her face, her beautiful hair piled up atop her head. Then took her hand and led her to the bureau. He stood behind her and adjusted the mirror so they could both see her reflection.

  He touched his hands to her shoulders, marveling at her delicate frame, then leaned closer and buried his nose in the back of her hair. So sweet. Jason touched his lips to her neck and felt her shiver.

  Slowly, he traced his hand across her shoulder and captured a loose tendril of hair. Soft, silky. He closed his eyes and twirled it around his finger.

  When he opened his eyes again his gaze met Amanda’s in the mirror. She wasn’t frightened, or unsure, or uncomfortable with what he was doing. Anxious, yes. But he was anxious, too. A new sort of contentment settled in the pit of his stomach.

  Carefully, he pulled one of the pins from the back of her hair. It tumbled down, covering her shoulder, his hand. He found another and pulled it free. More hair fell loose. Sliding his fingers through her heavy hair, he found each remaining pin and pulled it out until all her hair curled at her waist. Jason smiled, threading his fingers through her mane. He’d wanted to do this for weeks. No, his whole life.

  Amanda turned in the circle of his arms and kissed him, hot and full on the mouth. He moaned, lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed.

  She stretched out atop the coverlet, her hair spread over the pillows, her gown open to the waist. He’d never seen anything so beautiful in all his days. Then she smiled, and he was lost.

  Jason pulled off the rest of his clothes, tossing them over his shoulder, then got into bed beside her. He raised on one elbow above her and rested his hand on her hip.

  Her hand covered his, stilling him. “I’ve never—”

  He leaned down and kissed her softly on the throat. “The whole idea here is for us to enjoy this,” he whispered. “If you don’t like something, just say so.”

  Amanda smiled then, and he lowered his head to kiss her throat again. He captured her mouth then, deepening their kiss until she parted her lips for him. His hand slid upward to her shoulder. He eased her toward him and rubbed her back until she relaxed against him.

  The world moved in slow motion for Amanda, while her heart beat wildly. Jason’s hands, even calloused from hard work, were soft against her. Gentle. Loving. His lips were hot, his kisses demanding. Her body grew warm, tight, needing to answer the demand of his kisses.

  Jason’s blood pounded through his veins. He slid his hand down her leg and beneath the hem of her gown, caressing her, pulling the fabric higher until he eased it over her head.

  “Oh, Amanda…” he moaned, feasting on the sight of her naked body stretched out beside his.

  He dropped his head to the valley between her breasts and kissed her, catching her nipple with his lips, warming her skin with his tongue. She moaned softly and arched against him, wrapping her leg over his and digging her fingers into the hair of his chest.

  Jason rose above her, kissing her face, and eased inside her. She tensed, but he kissed her again and finally she relaxed.

  An urgency, a calling, gripped Amanda as she lay locked in Jason’s arms, holding tight to his shoulders. The steady movement of his hips became the center of her world. Her body answered, moving with his, climbing, searching until a storm of passion broke through her. She grabbed a handful of his hair and called out his name.

  Jason drove himself deeper into Amanda as she gripped him, holding him, his body finding the fulfillment only hers could offer. He collapsed beside her, holding her against his chest.

  “So why don’t you go to weddings?”

  Amanda heard Jason’s voice speaking softly at her ear, his head on the pillow beside her, their arms and legs tangled together. They’d made love twice more and were under the covers now, the room dark except for the faint lights of Beaumont filtering through the curtains.

  She turned her head to see him. “Because I don’t like weddings.”

  Jason pushed himself up on his elbow and frowned. “You run a matrimonial service, but don’t like weddings?”

  Amanda turned her head away, gazing at the curtains floating on the cool evening breeze. With his finger, Jason touched her chin and urged her to look at him again.

  “Is this what you wanted to talk to me about? That day just before my little brother showed up you asked me if we could talk after supper.” Jason shook his head. “I got caught up in my own problems. Too caught up to listen. But if you’d like to tell me now, I’d like to hear about it.”

  The comfort of his arms, the closeness of their bodies settled over Amanda like a warm blanket on a cold winter’s day. She knew she didn’t want to be anywhere else. Only with Jason.

  “When I was very young I was engaged to be married,” Amanda said. “Everything went as planned. My family spent a large amount of money, the guests were assembled, and the groom never showed up.”

  “Damn. He just didn’t show up?”

  “He sent his brother to explain, as if a public humiliation on that scale could be explained,” Amanda said. “He felt we weren’t suited for one another. The marriage was a mistake. We wouldn’t make each other happy. We shouldn’t have been engaged in the first place.”

  “It took him until your wedding day to figure that out?”

  “Apparently.” Amanda drew in a deep breath. “So, as one might imagine, it was difficult for me to trust another man after that, or even think about getting involved with anyone.”

  “But you started your matrimonial service?”

  She nodded. “It seemed like the most natural thing to do. This way I could help ensure that no woman was ever left at the altar again. I made it my business to match up compatible men and women so they’d make good husbands and wives.”

  Jason shrugged. “Makes sen
se.”

  They were quiet for a long time, listening to the thud of hoofbeats on the dirt street outside, the creak of wagon wheels. Faint voices rose to the window occasionally, the words indistinguishable.

  “We should go,” Amanda said.

  “In the morning,” Jason answered, snuggling closer.

  “Oh, Jason, good gracious,” she said, half sitting. “The two of us in Beaumont all night? People will know what we’ve been doing.”

  Jarred by her wiggling, Jason raised on his elbow. “You know what’s going on up on my mountain tonight, with all those newlyweds?”

  Amanda grinned. “Well…yes.”

  “Then believe me, nobody’s going to give you and me a second thought when we come rolling into camp tomorrow.” Jason hooked her waist and pulled her close to him again. “Besides, I don’t think we’re quite done here.”

  Her heart fluttered. “Really?”

  “I’ve got something I want to show you,” Jason said.

  Her brows rose. “You have something else I haven’t seen yet?”

  “Yeah. Look at this.” Jason held up his palm.

  “I’ve seen that already,” she said.

  “Yes, but look at this.” Jason pulled the sheet down to her waist and laid his hand on her breast.

  A whispered gasp slipped through Amanda’s lips.

  “See that?” he asked. Jason squeezed her gently. “Fits perfectly.”

  Amanda gazed down at his dark, sun-browned hand and fingers closed over the swell of her white breast.

  “Just the right size for my hand,” Jason said. “Not too much, not too little. Perfect. Just like I knew it would be.”

  Amanda smiled. “That’s important to you?”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said, and moved his hand away so that his lips could take its place.

  Amanda writhed against him, pressing closer. “A good fit does seem important.”

  “Damn right.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Miss Amanda? You in there?”

  Amanda answered the knock on her cabin door and found Brandon Kruger on her doorstep. Not the Kruger brother she’d hoped for.

  The camp had been quiet when she and Jason had ridden up from Beaumont this morning, most everyone otherwise occupied, as Jason had predicted. She’d been surprised not to find Meg or Todd in her cabin, though, and she worried about where they might be.

  “How are you feeling today?” Amanda asked Brandon.

  He glanced down at his arm still in a sling and shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”

  Where an adult might have taken weeks to get over so severe an injury, the resilience of youth had Brandon up and around in only a few days. It seemed more a nuisance to him than a worry.

  “Jason said for you to come down to the office,” Brandon said, nodding down the hill. “And he says to bring that catalog of yours with you.”

  “My catalog of brides?” She was a little surprised by the request, but after all the weddings that had taken place yesterday it was only natural that some of the other loggers would now seek brides.

  Amanda fetched her satchel with the catalog inside, closed up her cabin and walked down the path with Brandon.

  “I’ve been at the office working today. Jason said I can work there with him and Ethan,” Brandon said. “Guess I’m going to learn about the lumber business.”

  She smiled. “Really? That’s wonderful.”

  Brandon shrugged as if he didn’t understand it, but it suited him all right. As they neared the office, Brandon headed toward town.

  Amanda paused before she stepped up onto the porch outside Jason’s office, unsure of how to act on this occasion. She’d spent the night in Jason’s arms at the hotel in Beaumont. He’d said he loved her, that one time.

  Would he take her in his arms when she walked through his office door, declare his love over and over, beg her to be part of his life forever?

  Terribly romantic. Amanda smiled at the scene that played out in her mind. It caused her heart to thump a little faster.

  Right now, though, it was enough that he loved her. He’d said it. They’d rolled around in bed together for hours. Surely he wouldn’t have done that if his intentions weren’t honorable.

  Amanda’s brows drew together. Some men were like that. She’d heard the talk, been warned since she was a young girl. But Jason wasn’t like that. Amanda hitched her satchel higher and walked into his office.

  He stood at the stove pouring himself a cup of coffee. With a casual glance over his shoulder at her, Jason gestured to the chair in front of his desk.

  “Sit down,” he said.

  Well, so much for professions of love. Amanda placed her satchel on the floor in front of his desk. A feeling of foreboding crept up her spine as Jason stirred sugar into his coffee, tasted it, then ambled to the desk.

  “Sit down,” he said again, then dropped into his own chair.

  “Jason, I—”

  “Just a minute.” He shuffled through a few papers on his desk, looking them over and finally putting them aside. “We’ve got some business to attend to.”

  “Business?”

  She wasn’t sure she’d heard him right at first, but his cool, casual demeanor assured her that she had.

  Amanda slipped into the chair in front of his desk, steeling her feelings.

  “I’ve decided I need a wife,” Jason said.

  Amanda’s stomach clenched and her heart rose into her throat.

  “And I want you to find me one,” Jason said, leaning back in his chair.

  She could only stare at him. He wanted a wife? And he wanted her to find him one? After all they’d been through, after their night together in Beaumont, he expected her to order him a wife from her catalog?

  “Now, first off,” Jason said, steepling his fingers over his chest, “I want a smart one.”

  Amanda just stared at him.

  “Aren’t you going to write this down?” he asked. “I’m real particular about the kind of wife I want.”

  Jason found a piece of paper and a pencil on his desk and pushed it in front of her. Numbly, Amanda picked up the pencil.

  “Second of all,” Jason said, “I want a wife who’s not afraid to speak her mind. That’s important. I can’t abide a timid woman who won’t let me know where she stands on every little, tiny thing that comes along.”

  Amanda opened her mouth to speak, but he wagged his finger at her.

  “Write this down,” he said. “Next, I want a wife who’ll tell me when I’m wrong.”

  Amanda blinked across the desk at him.

  “Of course,” Jason went on, “I need a wife who can fend for herself when it’s called for. One with a good head for business. One not afraid to take a chance on a business deal, if it’s warranted.”

  Amanda just stared at him.

  “She’s got to be pretty, too,” Jason said. “I like brown hair with streaks of red in it. The kind I can pull the pins out of and watch curl through my fingers. I want a wife who’ll let me do that.”

  Amanda dropped her pencil.

  “And see this?” Jason held up his palm. “I want her bosom the perfect size to fit in my hand. Like we were made for each other.”

  Tears popped into Amanda’s eyes.

  “Think you can find me a wife like that?” Jason asked.

  “Yes,” Amanda said, “but she’s liable to shoot you first.”

  Jason grinned and rounded the desk, pulling Amanda into his arms. She laughed and sniffed and brushed away her tears.

  He settled her against him. “Will you marry me, Amanda?”

  “Yes. Oh, yes, Jason, I will.”

  Amanda threw her arms around his neck and rose on her toes to meet his lips. He kissed her long and hard and she melted against him.

  “All right now, you two, enough of that.”

  Jason broke off their kiss but didn’t let Amanda out of his arms as Ethan walked into the office. Amanda didn’t feel embarrassed at being caught. Ins
tead she smiled.

  “I’ve got news,” Ethan said. He stopped. “Well, actually we’ve got news.”

  He reached out the doorway and pulled Meg inside the office. Her cheeks were pink and she was smiling.

  Amanda moved out of Jason’s arms. “What is it?”

  Ethan looked at Meg and gave her fingers a squeeze. She gazed at him and blushed.

  “We’re getting married,” Meg announced.

  “Oh, Meg!” Amanda rushed to her friend. They hugged and laughed.

  Jason shook his brother’s hand, then exchanged a big bear hug.

  “Did you run McGee off?” Jason asked in a low voice.

  Ethan shook his head. “No. Meg told him last night she’d never forgive him, never love him again. He said he’d give her the divorce she wants, then took off.”

  “What about her son?”

  Ethan frowned. “Todd didn’t seem to care much for his pa, after all. Meg talked to the boy and it was all right with him.”

  Jason raised an eyebrow at Meg, chattering away with Amanda. “So, what have the two of you been doing since last night?”

  Ethan elbowed him in the ribs. “Probably the same as you and Amanda.”

  “Oh, you’ll never guess,” Amanda said, whirling around, her eyes bright. “Jason asked me to marry him.”

  Meg squealed. “This is wonderful. Now, we’ll really be sisters. Oh, Amanda, I’m so glad I wrote you that letter pretending to be Jason needing a wife.”

  Amanda gasped. “That was you?”

  “It was the best way I could think of to get women up here,” Meg said.

  Ethan slid his arm around her waist. “We’re going to have to keep an eye on these two wives of ours. They’ll take over the place.”

  “I think they’ve already done that,” Jason said. He pulled Amanda into his embrace and smiled down at her. “And that’s all right with me.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-5937-2

  THE BLUSHING BRIDE

  Copyright © 2000 by Dorothy Howell

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.