A Champion's Proposal

by Tina Martin

  With her bare arms crossed, she turned away from the view to look at him, standing six-foot-four with hypnotizing hazel eyes that were enticing enough to seduce her to do just about anything. His caramel skin was as smooth as butter. Hair, black and cut low. Lips like traps once they latched on. The impressive jawline edging his face was hard and strong. Everything about him was strong.

  They’d married a year ago after secretly dating for one full year, and she’d convinced him to keep their union hush-hush until she could have a talk with her unreasonable parents. And she tried it – every time she attempted to bring up the subject of marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth would toss out Dudley’s name, telling her how he was the one who would help take her career to the next level. Said they’d be a Charleston power couple – whatever that meant – and that the merger of the Ellsworth and Carrington families would bring both families a host of prestige and notoriety. Both families were already wealthy. How much more wealth and notoriety did they need?

  Another reason Savannah choked when she attempted to discuss Harding with her parents was she knew she would gain her parent’s favor if they continued to think a marriage to Dudley was a real possibility. They were not concerned about the rumors following him – that he had baby mamas all over South Carolina. Some in North Carolina. A few sprinkled in Florida. He was the Dudley Carrington and was a single, wealthy and powerful attorney. Appearances were everything to her parents who undoubtedly wouldn’t be impressed by their only daughter getting hitched to a computer savvy technician who made less than eighty grand a year and was raised by a single mother. But that’s not how Savannah saw Harding. She loved him deeply. She just didn’t know how to go about telling her parents about them.

  She came out of her reverie and walked back towards him. Harding was standing at the door ready to make his exit she assumed. She was intent on not letting that happen. She steadied her breath as she took the final two steps, stopping in front of him and resting her hands on his firm, solid pectorals. “Harding...”

  He carefully gripped her dainty wrists, removing her hands away from his body.

  “Harding don’t do this. You know how much I love you.”

  His eyes remained heavy with sadness and disappointment as he looked at her. “No, I don’t. I know how much you say you love me.”

  “I do love you.”

  His eyebrows snapped together. “You do?” he asked, his question suggesting he thought otherwise.

  “Yes. I do,” she answered quickly, beholding the pain in his eyes.

  “Then why don’t your parents know about me? About us?”

  “I told you—”

  “Why do you only wear your wedding ring when we’re together?” he interrupted to ask. “Any other time it’s off.”

  “I told you—it’s complicated, Harding.”

  “Well, I don’t like complicated. I’m tired of complicated, Savannah! Marriage is not supposed to be like this.” He looked at her for what he considered the final time, at least in this setting, but seeing sadness creep into her eyes made him rethink his impending exit. He frowned, angry at himself for letting his heart interfere with his mind. Every single time he tried to leave, tried to convey his side of the matter, tried to make her see that her overbearing parents didn’t control her life, she’d make some promises to break free from their control and influence over her life. She never followed through, only used those promises to pacify him along. And she was doing the same thing all over again…

  “I’m out,” Harding said, turning and heading for the door.

  “Please don’t go, Harding,” she begged, hugging him from behind with a death grip while resting her head against his back. “Please. Please.”

  He closed his eyes, silently cursing his heart for succumbing to her advances. “I can’t keep doing this. Savannah.”

  “I’ll make it right. I promise I will. Just don’t go.”

  With his right hand on the doorknob, he felt her soft hands maneuver underneath his shirt and flutter across his hard abs.

  “Please,” she begged, raising his shirt high enough to press her lips on different places all over his back, using the softest movements of her mouth and her teeth to nip at his shoulder blades.

  Harding closed his eyes, frustrated with himself for needing her so much, for not turning the doorknob and taking a stand by making his exit. But her lips felt too good on his back and it had been too long since they’d last made love.

  Savannah tugged his shirt upwards. When he helped her take it off, she knew he wouldn’t be leaving. She’d managed to buy herself more time.

  Harding turned around to face her after he dropped his shirt to the floor prompting her to leave kisses all over his thick, chiseled chest feeling her stomach pull with anticipation. After feasting on his chest, she looked up at his lips before her eyes met his mesmerizing gaze. Harding could hardly think for wanting her so badly – to the point that even his blood seemed to harden inside of his thick veins. He stared down at her, looking at delectable lips he hadn’t kissed in nearly a month – far too long to be without the taste of the woman he loved more than he loved himself. The woman he vowed to love forever. He stared into the depths of her eyes, felt himself descending there until he lowered his mouth to hers and took a mouthful.

  Literally. A mouth full, lips and all.

  Soft hums came floating intermittently from her mouth as he, with his hands resting on her delicate face, kissed her with a ravenous hunger – a deprivation he needed to fill. Losing control, his tongue tangled with hers – touching, tasting and lapping every nook of her mouth. He always wanted her. That wasn’t, nor had it ever been, a question. He wasn’t the one caught up in a dilemma. She was, and every time they made love he tried a little harder to make his love more real and convincing to her. Maybe if he kissed her longer, connected their bodies deeper and loved her breathless, she wouldn’t care what her snooty parents thought of them being together. And yet again he found himself doing the exact same thing – giving in to her and embedding his body so deep inside of her, he lost himself. He stared into her eyes, seeing pure bliss in them while hearing soft moans sing from her mouth. He dipped his head and continued to kiss her deeply and passionately.

  Groans rumbled from this throat as he tightened their connection surging back and forth, testing limits and holding her vision as he did so. She nibbled on the bridge of his shoulder and held on for dear life, wrapping her legs around his sinewy thighs, locking her feet at the ankles.

  “Ha-Harding,” she mumbled.

  He captured her lips once more, still surging and taking until the whimpers from her mouth became progressively louder.

  “Harding!”

  Her body jerked and tightened around his as she continued to writhe beneath him. Her pleasure hurled him into oblivion as he grabbed a fist full of her hair, closed his eyes tight like he was straining and released love, frustration and desire all in a long, earth-shattering, unrestrained body spasm. It was the longest he’d ever experienced, probably due to the state of their marriage and all the emotions filtering through his drumming, conflicted heart.

  The sound of his heartbeat pounded in his ears as he lowered his body, letting all his weight restrict her. In her ear, he whispered, “I love you, Savannah.”

  “I love you, too, Harding,” she said, her heart still beating rapidly as they held on to each other.

  After a few minutes when the spasms let up, he eased off of her. He’d usually pull her into his arms, but this time, with a light mist of sweat covering his face, he stared up at the ceiling, because when it was all said and done, nothing had changed between them, and she’d offered no viable solution to the problem plaguing him. Was she even bothered by the distance separating them? That they lived in different states? That they had yet to live like a normal married couple?

  Fulfilled and spent barely able to move, Savannah managed to slide her body closer to his and rested her head on his chest. She’d usually be asleep by
now, but she wouldn’t allow herself to be relaxed into a slumber, especially since she knew Harding wasn’t himself. He’d presented a problem to her, and she wanted to give him the opportunity to talk about it. While using her index finger to draw invisible circles around his left nipple, she said, “I know our situation has been hard on you.”

  “You don’t know the half, Savannah.” His eyes remained locked on the ceiling. He was in a zone he’d never found himself in before – sexually satisfied but extremely unfulfilled.

  “I do—”

  “You don’t,” he said adamantly, certain she didn’t understand the scope of how this issue beleaguered him. “You don’t know how I go to work every day to come home to an empty house. It’s not a mansion but you’ll fit in perfectly with my life in Wilmington.”

  “Don’t make those kind of absurd comments to me, Harding,” she said, propping up on her elbow to look at him. “You don’t have to live in a mansion. I love you, regardless.”

  “Then why don’t your parents know that?”

  “They will.”

  “When? You’ve been telling me the same story for over a year.” Harding twisted his body so they were face-to-face. He wanted a good view of her face while talking to her. “My mother adores you—loves you like a daughter and yet I haven’t officially been introduced to your parents. When is that going to happen?”

  “When I tell them about us.”

  A frown settled on his forehead. “And when might that be, Savannah? You’ve been saying that forever it seems.”

  A sigh escaped her lips. “You have to understand that with them it’s all about prestige and image.”

  After a splenetic, out-of-place grin, he said, “And there’s nothing prestigious about being married to a computer technician who lives in a middle-class neighborhood, huh?”

  “Harding…”

  “You know what the messed up part is?” he asked as he sat up. “I don’t know if it’s them or you. You’re a grown woman. This ain’t high school. Shoot, this ain’t even college. This is the real world. Real life. You’re thirty-two-years-old. There’s nothing you can say to persuade me you care that much about what your parents think of you and your life choices.”

  The problem was, she did care. Little Miss Perfect had always done whatever mommy and daddy wanted and now it was catching up to her. “I’m trying to come up with a compromise, Harding.”

  “That’s not good enough. It’s all words. No actions.”

  She sat up. “So, what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying—and let me be very clear—this is the last time I’m meeting my wife at a hotel.”

  “You’re putting me in an awkward position.”

  “No, you’re putting yourself in an awkward position. I’ve been patient for a year. I can’t do it anymore, Savannah.”

  “Don’t you think you’re being unreasonable?”

  Irritated, he snapped, “Coming home to an empty house when I’m married is unreasonable.”

  Savannah’s stomach grew so tight, she had to hold herself in an attempt to massage away the tension. “I need more time.”

  “No.”

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”

  Mouth falling open just slightly in disbelief, he glared at her. “Are you really that selfish? I’ve been—” He paused before he said something he would regret.

  “I don’t like the circumstances either if that makes you feel any better,” she said.

  He turned away from her and when his feet touched the floor, he said, “You have one month.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. One month. If your parents don’t know about us in one month’s time, you can take the ring I gave you and toss it. You barely wear it anyway.”

  Panic had her heart beating out of control. “I know you don’t mean that,” she said with a tremulous voice.

  He stood up naked, searching the floor for his boxer shorts. “I love you, Savannah. I love you in a way I’ve never loved anyone. But I will not come second place anymore. Not to you, your parents or that stuck-up attorney they want to set you up with.” Stepping into his boxers, he said, “One month. If you want me, prove it.” He stepped out onto the balcony for fresh air feeling his gut wrench at the possibility that in one month’s time, his marriage to Savannah could potentially be over.

  * * *

  Enjoyed the excerpt? The Way Champions Love is available now.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  TINA MARTIN is the author of over 60 romance, romantic suspense and women’s fiction titles and has been writing full-time since 2013. Readers praise Tina for her strong heroes, sweet heroines and beautifully crafted stories. When she’s not writing, Tina enjoys watching movies, traveling, cooking and spending time with her family. She currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and two children.

  You can reach Tina by email at tinamartinbooks@gmail.com or visit her website for more information at www.tinamartin.net.

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