by Marie Force
“Come to me, my love.”
“Always.”
With one word she made his heart beat faster and his body tighten with the kind of desire he’d only ever felt for her. He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the porch.
She punched in the code that opened the front door and he swept them over the threshold in keeping with tradition.
“Ahhh, home sweet home,” she said.
In the months since she moved in with him, she’d made subtle changes that had made his home theirs. Throw pillows and blankets to snuggle under on the sofa, her prized antique typewriter on the mantel, candles and new lampshades, her books mixed in with his, some of her favorite art on the walls. He loved every change she made because it meant she was there to stay.
Hunter put her down only long enough to shed their coats and then picked her up again to carry her upstairs. Their puppy, Horace, was spending the weekend with Aunt Hannah and Uncle Nolan, so Mommy and Daddy could have some time to themselves, as Hannah had said when she made the offer. The house was eerily quiet without the little guy to welcome them home.
“If you injure yourself toting me around, you won’t be any good to me on our honeymoon.”
“I’m not going to injure myself, and I’m going to be so good to you on our honeymoon.”
She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. “Did today really happen?”
“It really did, and we’ve both got rings to prove it.”
“Best day of my life.”
“Mine, too, honey. Best ever.”
“Every day that I’m with you is the best day ever.”
In their room, he put her down but kept his arms around her. “I love you more than life itself, Mrs. Abbott.”
“I love you more than that, Mr. Abbott.”
“No way.”
Smiling up at him in the darkness, she said, “Yes way.”
He kissed her nose and then her lips. “Hang on for one second.” Hunter went around the room, lighting the candles they kept on every available surface because she loved them so much. “There,” he said when he was finished. “That looks more like a wedding night.” Returning to her, he placed his hands on her shoulders. “Now tell me how I get you out of this gorgeous dress that bowled me over the first time I saw it.”
“Did it really?”
“Oh, baby, you have no idea. I almost lost it when you came in with my gramps. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.”
“I hoped you’d like it. I wanted so badly to ask your opinion. You have better style sense than any woman I know.”
“Should I be offended by that? And P.S., I loved it.”
“You should not be offended because that was a compliment, and P.S. I’m thrilled you loved it.”
“About getting you out of this gorgeous dress I loved so much . . . What’s the secret?”
Smiling, she raised her arm and pointed to the zipper.
“Ahhh, thank you.” He unzipped her slowly, taking his time now that they had the rest of their lives to spend together. The zipper went all the way to her hip, and when it was open, he slid his fingers over the skin he’d uncovered, making her shiver in response. Nuzzling her neck, he said, “Take your hair down.”
She reached up to remove the pins that had held it in place and it dropped to her shoulders in sheets of fragrant golden silk. Then she went to work on his tie, unknotting and removing it. Her fingers moved over the buttons of his shirt with determination. She spread the two sides apart and pressed her lips to his throat, making him tremble.
Hunter pulled off his suit coat, his dress shirt and the T-shirt he’d worn under it. He helped her out of the dress, which he placed on a chair while his own clothes landed in a heap on the floor. He didn’t care in the least about the suit he’d had made just for tonight. How could he when his gorgeous, sexy wife was standing before him in the most scandalous lingerie he’d ever seen.
“I thought you might like this, too,” she said, dragging a finger over the plump tops of her breasts that were contained by a lacy, sheer strapless bra.
Hunter took a step back to take in the full view of equally lacy panties, garters and sexy-as-hell stockings. “Dear God, woman. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“Hardly,” she said.
“Let me see the back side.”
Turning, she looked at him over her shoulder as he took a long perusing trip down her back, swallowing hard at the sight of the thong that disappeared between supple cheeks. “Holy Christ,” he whispered. “I’ve got to be the luckiest guy to ever live.” He placed his hands on her hips and drew her ass in against his hard cock. Then he raised his hands to cup her breasts, teasing her nipples through the bra.
“Hunter,” she said breathlessly.
“What, baby?”
“I want you. Now.”
“Are you going to be a needy, demanding wife?”
“Yes,” she said, laughing. “A very needy, demanding wife.”
“Excellent. That’s just the way I want you.” Keeping one hand on her belly, he released his belt and unfastened and unzipped his pants, letting them join the growing pile on the floor. His boxers followed, and his cock snuggled into the valley between her cheeks.
Kissing her shoulder and the curve of her neck, he smoothed his hand over her flat belly down to cup her intimately, reveling in the shudder that gripped her and the moan that escaped from her lips.
“You’re not a very obedient husband,” she said gruffly. “Torturing your wife this way.”
“My wife loves this kind of torture.”
“Two can play at the game,” she said, reaching around grasp his erection in her tight little hand.
Hunter saw stars when she began to stroke him. “Maybe you’re right. We ought to move things along here.”
Her laughter went straight to his heart. “I like when you see things my way.”
With his hand over hers, he extricated himself from her grip and turned her to face him. She was so pretty and so damned sexy, especially with arousal heating her cheeks and her lips already swollen from the many times he’d kissed her during their wedding.
Reaching behind her, he released the clasp on her bra and watched with desperate desire beating through him as her breasts sprang free. “So beautiful,” he whispered. “And all mine.” He put his arms around her and brought her in tight against him for a deep, passionate kiss. While he kissed her, his hands moved over her, touching her with the kind of reverence required for a wedding night, but the reverence only amped up the desperation for both of them.
She tugged on him, drawing him down over her on their bed, her legs opening to welcome him.
He pulled back, only to remove the garter belt, stockings and thong, leaving her bare to his ravenous gaze.
“Hunter,” she said, reaching for him. “Make love to me. Please.”
He could deny her nothing, especially when she asked in such a pleading tone for something he wanted more than his next breath. They both wanted a baby as soon as possible, so they’d stopped trying to prevent pregnancy a while ago. He’d hoped she’d already be pregnant by now, but it hadn’t happened yet.
Sliding into her with nothing between them but raw desire and love was like finding paradise on earth. He had to take a minute to get himself together or risk this being over way before he wanted it to be.
Megan held him close, caressing his back and running her fingers through his hair. “You feel so good. So, so good.”
“Mmm, you do, too. Best thing I’ve ever felt is your skin against mine. And to know I get to have you in my bed every night forever . . .” He raised his head to meet her gaze. “There’s nothing else I could ever want as long as I have you.”
“Me, too.” Lifting her legs over his hips, she arched into him, asking for more.
Hunter was more than happy to give it to her, surging into her until they both came with sharp cries of pleasure. Every time they made love, he wondered if it would lead to
the child they both wanted so badly. He kissed a path from her neck to her lips, kissing her softly in the calm that followed the storm.
“Thanks for marrying me, Megan.”
“It was a tremendous hardship, but somehow I’ll cope.”
Smiling at her witty reply, Hunter dropped his head to her shoulder, as content as he’d ever hoped to be in this lifetime.
CHAPTER 24
The days between Hunter’s wedding and Christmas passed in a whirl of work and holiday parties and long hours in bed with Charley. Tyler had never neglected his business as much as he had since Charley had been staying with him, but he figured it was a small price to pay to spend hours lost in her.
She’d been quieter than usual since the drama with Max and Chloe at the wedding, and he’d wanted to ask her what was on her mind, but he’d held back, afraid of what he might hear. Despite all their many steps forward, he knew it wouldn’t take much to send her spiraling backward.
On Christmas Eve, they wrapped the last of the presents that had been delivered to his house from her rash of online shopping.
“I’ve got to admit there’s something to be said for having it all show up in the driveway instead of slogging through malls in the cold and snow,” she said late in the afternoon.
Wearing only a Dartmouth T-shirt of his, she sat on the sofa and he was on the floor as they used the coffee table to wrap. He knew there was nothing under the shirt because he’d put it on her when he dragged her out of bed earlier to attend to the wrapping that had to be done before the gathering at his parents’ home later.
“I won’t tell anyone you said that.”
“Please don’t. I’ll get run out of the family.”
“Who would manage their systems if they ran you out?”
“Systems administrators are a dime a dozen. They’d find someone.”
Tyler studied her intently, one of his favorite pastimes. There was so much insight to be found in her many expressions, her tone of voice and the things she didn’t say. “Do you think Hunter would be as easily replaced because CPAs are a dime a dozen?”
“He’s way more than a CPA. He manages the whole show. We’d be lost without him.”
“How about Will? Couldn’t just anyone run the Vermont Made line?”
“Will knows this state better than the governor does. He’d be hard to replace.”
“How about Ella and Wade?”
“Ella is magic with the employees. They absolutely love her. And Wade, as our resident healthy living fanatic, is ideal for running the health and wellness line. They’re all really good at what they do.”
“And you’re not?”
“I am, I guess. I’ve spent a lot of time building the systems and making them talk to each other. But that doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t come in and take over for me.”
“If you ask me, you’re selling yourself short. You’re as essential to that business as any of your siblings are.”
“Dad’s making noise about a catalog and distribution center after the first of the year. That’ll make for a nice juicy challenge.”
“And you love nothing more than a nice juicy challenge.”
She smiled, flattening him with the punch of emotion that hit him when she looked at him that way.
“Don’t look now, but I think we’re done wrapping,” he said.
“Thank God. I don’t know how the ladies in the store wrap all day at work and then go home to do their own. They must see dancing Santas in their sleep.”
He stood and stretched, working the kinks out of his back from an hour sitting on the floor. Wearing only boxer briefs, he tried not to think about all the keys he’d handed out to her family and how often they’d made use of them. Then he opened his eyes to find her staring at him. “What?”
“You.”
“What about me?”
“I like to look at you.”
Taken aback by the statement and the blatant invitation in her eyes, he said, “You can look at me any time you want, free of charge.”
She held out her hand to him and brought him to lie next to her on the sofa.
“You rang?”
Charley laughed and flattened her hand on his chest, stopping his heart. He was still getting used to what it felt like to be touched by her. “I wanted to tell you that I think that having a boyfriend is . . .”
Tyler died a thousand deaths waiting to hear how that sentence would end.
“. . . pretty nice.”
“Pretty nice, huh? I suppose that’s better than pretty awful but not quite as good as pretty awesome would be.”
“You never give up, do you?” she said, her lips curved in amusement.
“No, I’ll never give up on you, unless you tell me I have to. But please don’t do that.” He ran a finger over the furrow that had frequently marked her brows since the wedding. “What’s this about? You’re stewing over something, and you have been for days now.”
“I’ve been thinking about Max and the baby and what Chloe did—and how hard it must’ve been for her to decide that motherhood isn’t for her.”
“She probably should’ve thought about that before she had a baby.”
“He wasn’t planned. Accidents happen—and they happen to people who don’t want to be parents.”
“True, and I don’t mean to be judging someone I don’t even know, but I can’t help but feel sorry for Caden. Someday he’s going to learn that his mother didn’t want him, and that’s going to be tough.”
“He’ll have plenty of people who love him and want him.”
“But his mother isn’t one of them, Charley. Whenever he figures that out, he’s going to have a lot to deal with.”
“I know,” she said with a sigh. “You’re right.”
“So what else is bothering you about this? I know it’s more than Max and Chloe.”
She rolled her lip between her teeth and glanced up at him with huge brown eyes gone liquid with emotion.
“What is it? Just tell me and we’ll figure it out. Please don’t cry.” He kissed her cheek and lips.
“You want kids someday, right?”
“I guess. I like being an uncle. I like that a lot, but I’ve never even come close to having my own kids. Of course, there’s no comparison between an occasional visit and a daily commitment that lasts for eighteen years. Why do you ask?”
“Because I don’t think I want them. I never have. While my sisters and cousins were playing with babies, I was shooting baskets or wrestling with my brothers or skiing. While they were babysitting, I was waitressing. I’ve never been into babies and kids, and at thirty, I’m not expecting to change my mind about that.”
“Okay.”
She eyed him skeptically. “That’s it? Just okay?”
“What do you want me to say?” He twirled a strand of her hair around his index finger. “I’d never try to talk you into something you don’t want, especially something as important as a baby.”
“You built this house for the family you hope to have someday. Those are your words.”
“If my family were you and me and Rufus, I’d be pretty damned happy about that.”
“That’s a lot of empty bedrooms, Tyler.”
“Who says we’d have to stay here?”
“You love this house.”
“I love you more.” The words were out of his mouth before he took the time to weigh the pros and cons of telling her that.
Her eyes went wide with surprise—or maybe it was shock. “You . . . You . . .”
“I love you, Charley. I’ve loved you for a while now, even when you were pushing me away and shooting me down.” He leaned in close enough to kiss her, forcing her to make eye contact with him. “I. Love. You.”
“Oh,” she said on a long exhale. “Well . . .”
Laughing at her befuddled reply, he said, “No need to panic or freak out or run away or do any of your usual things. It doesn’t change anything.” Even as he said that, however, he kne
w it wasn’t entirely true. It actually changed everything.
“Yes, it does,” she said softly.
“If I get to have you but I don’t have kids, I’d be just fine. I’d be better than fine. I’d be fantastic because I had you.”
“Your parents would hate me if I kept you from being a father.”
“They won’t hate you. They’ll love you because I do.” Now that he’d said those three powerful words out loud, he couldn’t seem to stop saying them. “And they’d never know anything other than we decided not to have kids.”
“This conversation is getting pretty far down the road seeing as how you’re my temporary boyfriend.”
“I thought we decided deadlines were silly.”
“We did and they are, but still . . . Nothing has been decided, and we shouldn’t even be talking about this stuff.” When she would have pulled away from him, he stopped her by tightening his arm around her.
“Don’t, Charley. Don’t run away from me because it’s gotten intense between us.” He moved ever so slightly to position himself on top of her, looking down at her as he spoke. “Don’t run. Stay here with me and freak out. I’ll hold you until you get it out of your system.”
“What if I never get it out of my system?”
“I’d hold you forever if you’d let me.”
“You’re too good for me, Tyler. You deserve someone who can give you everything you want and need.”
“I already have her. I have what I want and need. The question is, Charley, what do you want?”
What do you want? Tyler’s question stayed with Charley as she showered and changed for the gathering at his parents’ home. It stayed with her when she met his brothers, Rob, Chris and Dave, as well as his sisters, Cheryl and Paula, and their husbands and children. It stayed with her while she chatted with his dad and watched Tyler on the floor wrestling with his nephews and later, allowing his nieces to paint his nails a bright shade of pink.
What do you want, Charley? Her heart melted at the sight of his littlest niece, Violet, asleep in his arms while the family chatted in their big family room after dinner. The tiny girl’s face was flushed with holiday excitement. Tyler ran his fingers through her blond curls while talking football with his brothers.