Marriage, Maverick Style!

by Christine Rimmer

  “Tessa.” Her name came out on a low husk of breath. And then he touched her. With one slow, deliberate finger, he traced a line from the hollow of her throat straight down to the little black bow between her small breasts. “I’ve waited forever for this.” That finger went roaming, stirring a trail of heat and hunger in its wake, up the gentle curve of one breast, back down, and up over the other.

  She somehow couldn’t stop her mouth from arguing. “It hasn’t been that long. We’ve only known each other—oh!” The breathless sound escaped her as he took her by the shoulders and pulled her tight against that big, hard body of his. It felt so good. That hardness. That heat.

  He bent his head and rubbed his deliciously scruffy cheek against hers. “You are perfect.”

  “Well, no, I’m—”

  “Don’t argue.” His hand strayed behind her.

  “But...” She forgot whatever it was she meant to say as she felt the quick brush of his knuckles against the middle of her back right before her bra came undone. She barely had time to gasp in surprise before he had the straps sliding along her arms and was pulling it down from between them, whipping it up and tossing it over his shoulder.

  “Perfect.” He clasped her waist and then eased both hands upward along her rib cage to cover her breasts with his big palms. His thumbs dipped in to rub her nipples, making them ache, bringing a long, breathy moan from her. “I’ve never known anyone like you,” he whispered. “I hardly know what to do with you. I only know that from the first minute I saw you, Tessa, in that stork suit on that silly float, holding Kayla’s baby, looking adorable and miserable and too cute for words, I knew I had to meet you, to know you, to hold you like this.”

  She stared down at his hands. They felt so good engulfing her breasts. With a slow sigh, she lifted her gaze to meet his. “I was so scared that day when you saw me, when you stared at me and I stared back at you. I felt as though you and I were the only two people in the world, as though Main Street and the Baby Bonanza Parade and every single citizen of Rust Creek Falls had vanished. There was just us, and I was terrified.”

  “Terrified?” He frowned down at her, dark eyes velvet soft. “Why?”

  “The attraction I felt for you was so strong, so...instantaneous. It really scared me. It was too much like what had happened with—”

  He cut her off with a quick shake of his head.

  She understood. She didn’t want to say another man’s name right now, anyway. Because there was no other man. Just this one. Just Carson. “I...didn’t want to go there again.”

  He made a chiding sound. “This is nothing like what happened before. You’re with me now. I’ve told you I won’t cheat.” He repeated, “This is nothing like before.”

  But how long will it last? And what if it ends badly? What if you break my poor heart?

  The questions tumbled over themselves in her mind. And why wouldn’t they? After all, she was doing exactly what she’d promised herself she wouldn’t do, taking the kind of emotional risk she’d sworn never to take again. And, no, Carson really wasn’t like Miles. Except for being too good-looking and having too much money—oh, and giving off an air of undeniable power and self-confidence.

  And the women. Even if he’d promised not to cheat and she actually believed him, he’d admitted openly that he’d been with a whole bunch of women.

  He bent close, caught her earlobe between his white teeth and worried it gently, unleashing a flood of sensation inside her, hot little shivers that skittered down her nerve endings. “You’re thinking too much. Stop.”

  And then he banded those big arms around her, hard. Her bare breasts pressed flat against his broad, hot chest. She could feel everything, every beautiful muscle, including the long, thick hardness between his muscular thighs.

  “Oh!” she gasped again—her vocabulary reduced to one silly exclamation—as he grasped her bottom in both hands and lifted her. “Yes,” she sighed, raising her legs, wrapping them around him nice and tight.

  His mouth came down on hers. She opened to him instantly, kissing him with eager yearning as he carried her to the bed. His tongue skimmed the wet surfaces beyond her parted lips. She sucked on it shamelessly, rolled her own tongue around it. He tasted so good. She could kiss him forever.

  She loved the way he touched her, so tenderly and yet with such hunger. He laid her down on the bed so carefully, as though she were infinitely precious to him. And then he took his mouth from hers and looked into her eyes. “I need to see you. All of you. I need you bare.”

  She couldn’t agree fast enough. “Yes. Bare. Please. You first.”

  That took about a second. He lifted the waistband of his boxer briefs over the bulge of his erection, shoved them down his legs and kicked them off.

  He was so fine. A smile trembled across her lips.

  He smiled back, slowly, a naughty smile that promised a whole night full of sweet, hot delights. And then he took her panties by the elastic and guided them down. She lifted her head from the pillow and watched as he slid them past her thighs, over her knees, all the way clear of her lavender-painted toes. He tossed them off the end of the bed.

  “So damn pretty,” he declared, gently easing her thighs apart, revealing her most secret, intimate flesh to his gaze. “Beautiful.”

  It had been so long since a man had looked at her this way, so possessively, with a hunger that promised he would devour her. Not for years. No, wait.

  The night of the moonshine. Carson had looked at her that way then. But how could that count when she could only remember it in a vague and hazy way?

  A horrible thought occurred to her. She gasped and bounced up onto her elbows.

  He stopped tickling the back of her knee to ask, “What’s the matter?”

  “Condoms. I forgot to ask. I just assumed you would have them.”

  “Shh.” His hand went roaming. He caressed his way up to the top of her thigh.

  She gasped again, partly in response to his touch and partly because there was no way they were going any further without condoms, no way she was driving to Kalispell for the morning-after pill again. “But, Carson—”

  “You assumed right. I have them. Now, lie back.”

  Relieved, she dropped her head onto the pillows again as his hand strayed higher. He traced a slow path inward and then up even higher, over the narrow strip of dark hair she’d left when she’d groomed herself so carefully to be ready for him tonight.

  And then, at last, he parted her, touching her where she wanted him most. “Wet,” he whispered approvingly. Followed by, “Finally, Tessa. Finally.”

  She might have said yes. She might have said anything as he parted her, stroking her, making her wetter still, dipping one finger in and then another. She moved with him, her body rocking in rhythm with his knowing touch. No way could she keep herself from lifting, opening her legs wider, offering him more.

  When he lowered his mouth to her, she cried out.

  He made soft, soothing sounds as he kissed her there, where she burned for him. Oh, it was so good. So fine. Just what she’d needed from him for so long now—for these past two weeks of too-brief days that also somehow felt like forever.

  He guided her knee up, eased those wide shoulders under her thigh and settled between her parted legs. He kissed her some more, deeply, thrillingly, using his hands, too, to take her higher and higher, until she cried out as fulfillment found her. Clutching his dark head, holding him there, she lost herself completely, her climax drawing down to a pinpoint of heated light and then flaring, spreading out from the center of her like the spokes in a burning wheel.

  He stayed with her, touching her, kissing her, drawing the pleasure out, so that it kept pulsing through her for the longest, sweetest time.

  At the end, she wanted him closer, wanted to feel him all along her yearning b
ody, skin to skin. She fumbled, grabbing for him, pulling on his shoulders, stroking his hair.

  Finally he freed himself from the cage of her open thighs and slid up her body. He gathered her close to him, wrapping her up in those big, hard arms of his. She breathed in the scent of him, soap and that subtle aftershave he wore. And man.

  All man.

  It was wonderful. Exactly right. She laid her head against his chest and listened to the strong, steady beat of his heart as he cradled her close.

  And then she was ready all over again, yearning for more.

  Because really, who knew how long this thing with them would last? Who could say?

  She only knew she was in it now, her hungry heart open, wanting. Needing. Hoping for more.

  Better not to waste a moment.

  She ran her seeking fingers downward, over the hard curves of his chest, along the rocklike ripples of those beautiful abs until she found him and wrapped her hand around him.

  She stroked him, learning the beautiful shape of him.

  “Harder,” he commanded in a low growl.

  She was only too eager to comply, squeezing him tighter, sliding her hand roughly up and down the shaft, rubbing her thumb over the sleek flare, spreading the moisture that wept at the tip.

  He kissed her as she stroked him, kissed her hard and deep and wild.

  And then, with a feral groan, he reached between them and stilled her hand. She tried to override him, to keep stroking, keep pleasuring him.

  But he wouldn’t have it. “Not like this.” He kissed the words onto her parted lips. “Together.”

  Still, she held on. It felt so good to claim him that way, to have the power to make him wild.

  “Behave.” He growled the word. He pressed his forehead to her forehead. And then, a little raggedly, “Please.”

  Reluctantly, she released him. He reached across her to the nightstand on her side, slid open the drawer and took out a condom. She watched as he tore off the top foil strip with his teeth, got it free of the packet with a quick twist of his long fingers.

  He rolled it down over himself.

  And then he was reaching for her again, turning her to her side, facing him. His mouth took hers as his warm hand slid down over the curve of her back, one long stroke over her hip to her thigh. He lifted her leg, guiding it over to wrap around him, positioning her for him so that he slid into her waiting heat in one smooth, thrilling glide.

  They kissed endlessly, their mouths fused as though sealed together, never, ever to let go. And then he started to move, withdrawing so slowly, then returning, only to withdraw once more. Each time he retreated, she almost lost him.

  More than once, he chuckled against her mouth, cruel and tender, as she begged him with her lips and her body, with her arms around him and her leg wrapping him hard and tight, holding him to her.

  Please, please don’t go.

  Never go.

  Stay.

  He picked up the rhythm, pulsing faster against her, going deeper, retreating farther, though surely that wasn’t possible. Each time, she knew she would lose him. Until he came back to her, filling her so perfectly, going deeper still. She felt him all through her, into the heart of her. He claimed her, all of her, thrilling her, carrying her away to a place where there was only pleasure. Only him. His big body taking her, his eyes searing into hers, his touch burning her in the most shocking, delicious way.

  Like a wave, he rolled over her, rising, crashing into her, filling her so full with him, so that all she wanted was the feel of him, the touch of his mouth on her skin, the warmth of his breath in her ear.

  Carson, I love you.

  Dear, sweet Lord in heaven, she’d almost said it. How totally foolish would that have been? She’d known him for exactly two weeks as of that very night. Nowhere near enough time to start talking about love.

  But some shred of sanity remained to her. She kissed him harder and kept those words in.

  And he kept on moving, pushing so deep within her, driving her higher, until she was lost again, the coil of heat and wonder opening wide within her. She let out a cry as her climax rolled through her.

  He guided her onto her back then. She lifted her legs and twined them around him. He levered up on those muscled arms and moved harder and faster, went deeper than ever.

  Dazed, dreamy, her own finish still rocking her in thrilling aftershocks, she saw the shudder of greater pleasure sweep through him, felt him pulsing within her as his climax took him down.

  * * *

  They made love again an hour later. Tessa thought it was even more beautiful than the first time.

  More tender, less desperate, the hungry edge not quite so sharp. He filled her body and her heart.

  Love. Dear Lord, I love him.

  She wasn’t supposed to do that, had thought she’d learned her lesson, had promised herself never again to fall so hard and so fast.

  Later, she decided. She would think about it later. He was leaving in five days. She would enjoy every second she had with him till then.

  And after that, well, they would see, wouldn’t they?

  Maybe there would be a job offer from IMI, as he kept insisting was guaranteed to happen. By then, she would have a better idea of what to do.

  Or at least, she hoped she would.

  “Tessa.” He nuzzled her neck, wrapped her hair around his fist. “God. I can’t get enough of you. The scent of you, the feel of your skin, those soft little sounds you make when I touch you, all of it, all you do. You drive me wild.”

  And then he was kissing her, touching her all over, turning her onto her stomach, doing very naughty things to her...

  * * *

  Twenty minutes later, he left her just long enough to get rid of the condom. When he returned to her in the tangled bed, he wrapped her close, pulling her back against him, spoon-style. “Sleep now.”

  “Umm...” She was already drifting off.

  Long after midnight, he woke her again with slow, drugging kisses. She moaned and told him to go back to sleep.

  At first.

  But he only kept kissing her, kept touching her, arousing her. Soon enough, she was every bit as eager as he to make love yet again.

  They didn’t get to sleep again until almost four.

  Sometime later, she woke to the smell of coffee. He was bending over her, wearing unbuttoned jeans and a tempting smile. “Eggs and bacon?”

  “Perfect.”

  He served her breakfast in bed, after which they greeted the morning with more lovemaking, her slight soreness from the night before quickly turning to excitement and pleasure.

  After that, she took a long, slow bath in the suite’s huge jetted tub as he made a few calls to LA and caught up on his messages.

  They returned to the boardinghouse for lunch, taking sandwiches to the park the way they liked to do. Later, after she’d put in a couple of hours helping her grandmother and Claire, they hiked into the mountains, where they spread a blanket in the sun and made love beneath the wide Montana sky.

  That night they returned to the Manor and went to bed early, though not to sleep.

  After that, the days settled into a glorious rhythm. Mornings were for working. And the afternoons, evenings and late into the night were for the two of them. The hours flew by. She wished she could grab each moment and hold it close, so that this precious time they shared would never end.

  * * *

  On Thursday afternoon, Carson told Tessa that IMI would be calling her. On Friday, she got that call. She agreed to an interview at their Century City offices on the following Thursday.

  Too soon, it was Saturday. Carson would leave for Los Angeles on Sunday.

  That night they had dinner at the Manor bar and then went up to his suite, whe
re they fell on the bed together, kissing desperately, popping more than a few buttons in their eagerness to eliminate the flimsy barrier of their clothing. They made love as though they would never see each other again.

  And then, as they lay together afterward, holding each other close, he tipped up her chin, stared hard into her eyes and said, “Come with me tomorrow. Move in with me in Malibu. You can work from there as well as here. And there will be a great job for you with IMI, anyway.”

  She opened her mouth to speak.

  But he shook his head and went right on. “I want you with me. I know it’s fast, but I don’t give a damn. I haven’t felt like this since...oh, who am I kidding? I’ve never felt like this. I don’t want to walk away from it. I want us together.”

  Yes! cried her hungry heart. But she needed to be smarter than that. She needed not to make the same mistakes she’d made with Miles. “Carson, I—”

  His eyes flashed with angry heat. “No. Don’t start with the excuses. Don’t compare me to that cheating loser who didn’t have sense enough to take care of what mattered, who was too much of an idiot to treat you right.”

  “I’m not comparing you to him.”

  “The hell you’re not.”

  “I’m not. I just can’t go with you now.”

  “You can.”

  “I can’t. Not right now. I really can’t just throw over all my plans so suddenly. I need to do this my way. I’ll come down for the interview with IMI, I promise. That’s less than a week from now. I’ll stay a day or two with you then. But we have to slow down a little. Please try and understand.”

  He dragged her close and kissed her, a hot, angry, punishing kiss, a kiss she reveled in—until he ended it by grabbing her arms again and pushing her away. “No,” he said much too softly. “I don’t understand.” And then he shoved back the covers and left her.

  Clutching the sheet against her chest, she watched him stride naked to the bathroom. He shut the door behind him harder than he needed to.