His low rumbling laughter tickled her skin as his mouth found the soft hollow under her ear. He nuzzled the sensitive flesh, and she shivered. “I don’t think the neighbors would appreciate the public display.”
She bit her bottom lip, imagining that sensual mouth on her breasts. Knowing too well the delicious, exquisite sensation of her nipple being finessed by his tongue, she melted a little more. “Should we go back to my place?” she whispered.
He lifted his head, shaking it, his eyes feverish and impatient. “I can’t wait that long.”
The unmistakable erection pressing against her belly attested to his barely suppressed restraint. Excitement and awareness seized her. “Me neither.”
They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity to Teddy, both of them uncertain as to what to do about this awesome need they had for each other, and how to satisfy it. Then a reckless grin slashed across his features, and she sensed trouble was about to begin. He bent his knees, and in one fluid motion hefted her over his shoulder caveman-style.
A surprised shriek escaped her. By the time she’d dragged in a breath and could talk again, they were inside the house, and he was carrying her across the foyer toward a set of stairs that led to the second landing. Blood rushed to her head, making her dizzy. “Austin!” she said, choking back laughter, and managing to prop herself up by bracing her hands on his backside. “Put me down!”
He gave her thigh a loving, intimate squeeze. “In a minute.”
Jordan rounded the corner from the living room into the foyer at that moment, a comical expression on his face when he saw the two of them. Teddy blushed to the roots of her hair.
Austin didn’t stop his stride. “Don’t mind us, Jordan,” he said, then loped up the stairs, two at a time, giving Teddy a jarring ride. “We’ve got an itch that can’t wait to be scratched.”
A grin quirked Jordan’s mouth, and he reached for the set of keys on the small table by the front door. “Gotcha. I’ll take this as my cue to ‘get lost’ again, this time for a few hours.”
“At least,” Austin agreed wholeheartedly, shamelessly. Entering a room, he kicked the door shut behind them, then lowered her back to her feet.
Light-headed, she swayed slightly, and he grabbed her hand to steady her. As she gained her balance, Teddy glanced around, registering the warm, masculine tones of Austin’s room, and the big four-poster antique bed dominating the middle. Her pulse quickened, and she brought her gaze back to Austin, who was looking at her very intently, their earlier play replaced by something serious and intimate.
“Will you marry me, Teddy?” he asked, his voice strong, and clear, and infinitely tender. “If you need time, I’ll give it to you, but I need a commitment.”
“You’ve got it,” she assured him, smiling. “I don’t need any more time to know that you’re the perfect man for me. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Relief touched his expression. Framing her face between his palms, he brought her mouth up to his for a kiss that started out gentle and sweet, but quickly escalated into a full-blown seduction. Eager again, she slipped her hands into his jacket and shoved the heavy material off his shoulders and down his arms, letting it fall to the floor. He groaned, and rid her of her coat, too, then lifted her sweater over her head and tossed it aside. Less than five seconds later her bra followed, and he filled his hands with the warm, resilient flesh, rubbed his thumbs over the beaded nipples until her breath caught in her throat.
“Do you mind living here?” he asked, raising his arms so she could peel his shirt off while he toed his loafers off his feet.
She couldn’t imagine them living in her small condo when they had such a lovely place to call home. “I’d love to live in your house…and I’d love to have your babies.”
That stalled him for a moment, just as he’d unsnapped her jeans and started to unzip them. His gaze jerked to hers, hopeful and searching. “What about your career?”
Giving him a provocative smile, she went to work on his belt buckle. “Weren’t you the one who told me I could have it all?” Done with that first task, she took care easing his zipper over the full erection straining the fly of his jeans.
“Yeah, and I’m glad you believe it.” He released a tight hiss of breath when her hands slid into his briefs and she took all that hot, hard masculinity into her hands.
Grasping her wrists, he pulled them away from his body and walked her back toward the bed—until the mattress connected with her knees and she was forced to sit. Then he knelt before her and pulled off her leather boots and socks.
“You’ll make a great mom,” he said knowingly.
She believed that, too, especially when she had him by her side, supporting her, loving her. He hooked his fingers into the waistband of her jeans, and she lifted her hips so he could pull them off. Then he slowly removed her panties, trailing hot, damp kisses along her belly, her hip, her feminine mound, her quivering thighs…all the way down to her feet.
Dewy and restlessly inflamed, she struggled to keep her mind focused on important issues for just a few minutes longer. “How do you feel about eloping?”
The smoky gaze traveling leisurely, hungrily, up her long legs jumped immediately to her face. “Are you serious? You don’t want a big wedding?”
She exaggerated a shudder. “No.” She’d been that route before, and didn’t need all that pomp and circumstance to pledge her eternal love to Austin.
He raised an eyebrow, and with a tantalizing, calculated roll of his hips that was all for her pleasure, he shimmied out of his own pants. A smile curved her mouth. She planned to extract many more private performances in the future.
“I thought all women wanted a big, fancy wedding,” he said, curious and confused.
Anticipation and desire quickened her pulse as she took in his magnificent body. She wriggled back on the bed, until she lay in the center. “I’d strangle my mother before we made it to the ceremony,” she said jokingly. “Besides, I want to marry you soon. I don’t think I could wait months and months to live with you, and wake up to you every day…”
Grinning in obvious agreement, he moved up onto the bed, and over her, settling his hips between her welcoming thighs, teasing her with the tip of his shaft. “Is three weeks enough time to make arrangements, and schedule yourself a nice, lengthy vacation?”
“That would be perfect,” she murmured, wrapping her legs around his thighs to urge him closer, and drawing his head down so she could kiss him. “But I don’t think I can wait another minute for you to make love to me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he drawled with a sinful grin, and obliged her, taking her breath away in one smooth, silky thrust of his hips against hers. He touched her heart with his love, filled her soul with that unconditional faith of his, and in the process redefined the word perfect.
Epilogue
A MONTH LATER, Teddy and Austin eloped to Waikiki, Hawaii, where they were married by a minister on a bluff overlooking the crystal blue Pacific Ocean. The bride wore a simple cream silk dress complemented with a lei of orchids, and the groom sported dark brown slacks, a cream-colored shirt and an adoring smile as he exchanged wedding vows with the woman who’d stolen his heart.
Afterward, they ordered room service in their bridal suite and sat out on their lanai and fed each other lobster, buttered potatoes and slices of raspberry white-chocolate cheesecake. And when their appetite for food had been appeased, they’d moved to the bedroom and satisfied a more physical and emotional hunger, consummating their love in a ritual as old as time.
Two hours after becoming Mrs. Austin McBride, the only thing Teddy wore was the orchid lei, which Austin had insisted upon, a pink flush on her skin from Austin’s loving and the huge rock of a diamond her husband had surprised her with during their wedding ceremony. The ring now replaced the ruby and diamond band she’d worn there for the past year.
Austin propped himself up on his elbow and stared down at his wife, amazed that one woman could make his l
ife so incredibly rich. She looked beautiful, and entirely too pleased with herself. He knew the reason why.
“You do realize, don’t you, that your parents are going to hit the roof when they get your ‘wedding announcement’ in the mail.”
“Yeah.” Amusement threaded her husky voice and sparkled in her eyes. She’d asked the minister’s wife to take a Polaroid snapshot of the two of them after the ceremony, then on a piece of the hotel’s stationery she’d written, “Teddy and Austin announce their wedding to one another,” along with the date. She’d sealed both in an envelope, and sent it to her parents in San Francisco so they’d receive the news before Austin and Teddy arrived back home.
She rolled to her back and smiled up at him, looking tousled, and thoroughly satiated. Her breasts were tipped in fragrant orchids, and a few crushed petals clung to her still-damp skin. “I have to admit that it felt good to buck convention.”
He laughed. Leave it to Teddy to indulge in one final act of rebellion with her parents. “You sure you’re okay with this?”
“Absolutely,” she assured him, touching her hand to his jaw. “I couldn’t be happier, or more in love, and I don’t need a huge ceremony or reception to validate how I feel about you.” Then a small frown creased her forehead. “My parents will survive this little catastrophe, though I’m a little worried about Jordan.”
“Jordan?” he questioned, wondering what his brother had to do with all that. “Why?”
Her hand absently caressed his chest, and the diamond on her finger caught the light, glittering like a brilliant star. “Well, I know you’re trying to sell Fantasy for Hire, but he didn’t seem too thrilled about handling the business while you’re away.”
“He’ll be fine.” Austin grinned with wry humor. “It’s not as though he’s got to worry about fulfilling anyone’s fantasy. I only need him to book the dancers.”
“I guess you’re right, but wouldn’t it be great if he found someone like we found each other?” The hopeful quality in Teddy’s voice attested to the fondness she seemed to have for Austin’s brother. “I mean, I’m sure he’s some woman’s ideal fantasy.”
Austin thought about the possibility of Jordan shedding his conservative image to play some woman’s fantasy, but knew his brother would never go for that kind of public performance. Jordan tolerated Fantasy for Hire, but he’d never personally advocate being hired out as someone’s fondest desire.
He shook his head at Teddy. “Naw, it’ll never happen.”
Moving over Teddy, he fitted himself snugly between her thighs, his need for her already fierce and rampant. “Now, what do you say we forget about Jordan, and your parents, and enjoy our honeymoon. I want you, wife.”
Smiling a sultry, seductive smile, she lifted the lei of orchids from around her neck and placed it over his head, letting the fragrant flowers fill the air between them. “Consider yourself laid, husband.”
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