Special Order Groom

by Tina Leonard

  “Crystal,” he said on a tight groan, his body stiff as he buried himself deep inside her. “Crystal!” He went into her arms, surrendering to pleasure that seemed to shoot from every pore of his body. She was beneath him, accepting him, her passion fully encompassing him, and he thought he was going to lose his mind. His climax followed hers, and a yell tore loose inside him. Every muscle in his arms and legs seemed to go limp with the surge of completion that claimed him, but he made certain he didn’t collapse on top of her.

  Yet her arms reached to pull him to her, and he realized she didn’t mind his weight against her. He accepted her offering and let himself totally relax. Pressing a gentle kiss against her temple, he felt her fingertips lightly stroking his back as if to calm him. He felt calm. In fact, he felt mended, somehow. No more Jekyll and Hyde.

  I never expected to feel anything like this. This, this moment, is magic.

  Chapter Seventeen

  On Sunday morning, Mitch wanted to stay in bed forever with his new bride. “I don’t mind getting up to feed the dogs and cats,” he said. “I just want to find you still here when I get back. Right there, between the sheets.”

  She was nude underneath the sheet, so she let it fall to her waist as she sat up and rearranged the pillow behind her. “Are you certain you wouldn’t rather do something else today?” she asked, making her tone sultry and teasing.

  He pointed a finger at her. “Don’t move. You look like a Renoir or one of those nude paintings painted by a great master. I want to find you just like that when I get back.”

  “Are you going to paint me?”

  “I’m going to do better than that.” He dashed out the back door. Mitch raced through the chore, sounding frantic as he filled the dog and cat bowls with dry food. He hurried inside to wash his hands, and Crystal laughed as he ran past the bed.

  She fluffed her hair around her shoulders when he paused to simply stare at her, drinking her in. “I could at least brush my teeth since you were so kind to offer to feed the pack.”

  “You’re beautiful. I’m no artist, but if I were, I’d be whipping out the paints and canvas right now.”

  She rewarded his romantic talk with a smile. They’d drunk champagne and loved each other until the light hours of the morning. It had been a wonderful wedding night. Mitch crawled back in the bed beside his lovely bride.

  “Maybe you’re not the kind of artist that paints, but you do other amazing things with your hands,” she murmured, allowing him to stroke her body the way he knew she liked. “Lover, surgeon—”

  The phone rang, making both of them jump.

  “Don’t answer it,” he said.

  “I have to,” she said on a laugh. “Although you give me great reason not to.”

  “It’s my sisters. We can call them back.”

  “It’s my mother. She’s discovered we’re not legally married and wants us to repeat the performance just to make doubly certain her only daughter is no longer an old maid,” Crystal guessed.

  “Don’t answer it,” he said. “We can tell her later that the wedding night was fully consummated and that you are married in the fullest sense of the word. Not that I remember being in bed with an old maid last night—”

  “You’re sweet, but we have to.”

  She reached over him to answer the phone, and he took advantage of her position to stroke her breasts. With half an ear he listened to her say hello and then frowned as she swiftly sat up.

  “Just a moment, please,” he heard her say, her tone formal.

  Handing him the phone, she said, “This is a call you kind of have to take, Mitch. It’s your lawyer.”

  He took the phone from her, watching regretfully as she slid from the bed, her face suddenly sad. Covering the mouthpiece with his hand, he said, “Don’t go far.”

  She smiled, but it wasn’t the same happily-ever-after smile she’d worn since the wedding.

  “AS SOON AS I GET BACK,” Mitch said, “I’ll help you with the packing for the cruise.”

  Crystal nodded. “All right. Kathryn’s going to come over every day and feed the pet menagerie,” she said, staring at a to-do list. She crossed something off. “I didn’t trust Uncle Martin to do it. He overfeeds the pets by about a cup a day. But I don’t think Kathryn was herself at the wedding. With the new baby, maybe I’m asking too much. Barney said he’d help her, but…” She turned to face him. “What do you think?”

  “That you worry too much. If you haven’t noticed, Barney is practically living with Kathryn and that infant. In fact, I think he morphed into that child’s real father while we weren’t looking. I hear wedding bells in the not-too-distant future, like quite possibly when we return from our honeymoon.”

  She gasped, putting down the pad and pencil. “You know something you’re not telling!”

  “Never! I tell my wife everything,” he said, looking extremely smug.

  “You don’t tell me everything. You’re holding something back.” Crystal lowered her gaze, appalled by what she’d said. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

  He tried to take her in his arms, but she wasn’t ready for that much closeness just yet.

  “It’s not that I’m keeping anything from you. I just haven’t wanted to talk about tomorrow. And this last-minute call to meet with the family who is suing me isn’t pleasant, Crystal. I’m going, but I’d give anything not to leave you. I want to stay here and pack for our honeymoon. I want to stay here and make love with you. Can you blame me for not wanting to talk about it? I’m a guy. I’d rather have sex than talk any old day.”

  She knew he was avoiding the subject, but she couldn’t help smiling at him. “Me, too. It’s not just a guy thing.”

  He sneaked a kiss. “I always wondered about that.”

  “Wonder no longer.” She wound her arms around him. “As a matter of fact—”

  The phone rang again, and they stared at each other.

  “Now I’m glad we booked a cruise,” he told her. “It will be a heck of a lot harder for anyone to call us while we’re in the middle of the ocean.”

  She grinned. “That was not the original reason you suggested we take a cruise. You answer the phone this time. It’s half yours now, anyway.”

  “Splitting phone duty. Did I agree to that?”

  “I think it’s redundant,” she said as he picked up the phone. “As a doctor, aren’t you always ‘on call’?”

  “Oh, ha ha. Hello?”

  She watched his eyebrows rise, and momentarily contemplated how handsome he was. It was going to be sheer bliss to spend a week with him watching him wear little more than swim trunks. Lying on a beach in some romantic place with Mitch would be the closest thing to heaven on earth for her, she decided.

  “Sure. Come on over. We’re not doing anything except packing, and I have to leave in a little while, so now’s the best time. Okay. Bye.” He hung up the phone and grinned. “That was Bess. Your family wants to come over and give us our bon voyage gifts.”

  “Bon voyage gifts?” Crystal shook her head. “Are you sure you knew what you were getting into when you said ‘I do’? I have the only family who would call at noon the day after our wedding to say they’re bearing bon voyage gifts.”

  “As I recall, you accepted some risk as well. I’d call this whole thing even.”

  He tossed some T-shirts on the bed beside his swim trunks and looked at her. “Anyway, if not for your family, we wouldn’t be wearing gold rings, most likely. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself at the time. Since your mother began interfering in my life, I’ve had a lot more to feel good about.”

  “Perish the thought!” But Crystal laughed and laid sunglasses next to the suitcase.

  “No, it’s true. Before your aunt reintroduced us, I was depressed about the lawsuit, my baby sister was marrying a dope, and my other sister was engaged but in my heart I knew she wasn’t happy. I think I thought that all Janet needed was a man to appreciate her, and then she’d be content. I no
ticed the sudden weight gain, but I…ignored it. I didn’t want to think that she wasn’t happy.” They met each other’s eyes for a shared moment of empathy. “The fact that my life has been totally turned around for the better since I met you again does not escape me. Notice I’m not all that worried about tomorrow, for example. Apprehensive, yes, but not worried. I’d rather not leave you today to go meet with my lawyer and the plaintiff’s lawyer, but I know I have you to come home to, and that’s why I know everything’s going to be just fine, whichever way it goes.”

  “That’s so sweet,” she murmured. “You were supposed to be rescuing me from a life of utter spinsterhood.”

  “Well, it’s nice to do my civic duty,” he told her. “One less spinster roaming the streets, disturbing the population balance.”

  “Oh, hush!” She tossed a couple of beach towels at him. “Find a place in our suitcase for those.”

  He caught the towels. “Our suitcase. Our suitcase. I really, really like the sound of that.”

  Crystal hid a smile. “If it’s our suitcase, then it’s also our lawsuit.”

  He raised his head slowly, the smile gone as he laid the towels beside the suitcase. “Crystal,” he said huskily. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do. But it’s my burden. I told you in the beginning that this in no way would affect you. I made certain with my lawyer that there was no way your assets could be affected. And that’s as much as I want to talk about it.”

  “It’s not about assets, Mitch. It’s about what is ours. I shared the burden of my mother’s cardiac problems. You helped me with that immeasurably.”

  “No, I didn’t,” he broke in. “She wanted me to do the surgery, and I couldn’t. Wouldn’t.”

  “So you think you don’t deserve me being there for you right now?” Crystal shook her head. “That isn’t logical. Nor is it the way I feel. People who keep things from each other don’t stay together—” She broke off the second she realized what she’d said. The doorbell rang, and they stared at each other.

  “That’s your family bearing gifts,” he said softly.

  “Streamers and champagne to celebrate,” she replied hesitantly.

  “We have a lot to celebrate. Come on.”

  They went to the front door together, but Crystal suddenly felt that maybe it had all been just a wonderful dream. Any minute she would wake up.

  Actually, she had. Because in that moment, she realized they’d all been playing their parts.

  She’d been the only one who’d strayed from the script. They’d gotten married for many reasons, but none of them was love.

  “Congratulations!” Bess cried as Mitch opened the door.

  “Congratulations! Bon voyage!” Martin and Elle said merrily.

  They each held a wrapped package, and their faces held nothing but happiness.

  Okay, Crystal thought. I can play my part. For their sakes.

  “NOW THAT THEY’RE GONE, I think we should open the gifts,” Mitch said. Somehow the three tiny packages lying inside the suitcase made him nervous. “I know they said not to, but won’t Customs want to know what’s inside them?”

  “I’m sure they’ve got X-ray machines.”

  He frowned at her calm tone of voice. “I was expecting a bottle of champagne. Something typical.”

  “From my family?” She laid a demure swimsuit over the gifts so they’d be hidden from Mitch.

  “That one gift is smaller than my finger,” Mitch noted. “It makes me the most nervous of all.”

  “I heard the best things come in small packages,” she teased.

  “Okay, what about that squishy one? It’s at least the size of my palm.”

  “A sexy nightie, knowing my mother. Rest easy, Mitch.”

  “Okay, I wouldn’t mind a sexy nightie.”

  “It’s probably not for you, you know.”

  He squinted at her. “The one Uncle Martin gave us we definitely should open now. Roundish, odd-shaped, small—I don’t know.”

  She pushed him gently away from the suitcase. “It’s time for you to go, Mitch. You don’t have time to open gifts. Besides which, I think you’re avoiding leaving.”

  “Maybe I am.” He sighed heavily. “I am.”

  “I know. I understand.”

  He thought about how much he’d rather stay here with her than leave. “Once we’re on that boat, it’s just me and you, babe. Me and you. The honeymoon starts tomorrow afternoon after the hearing.”

  She gazed at him, her eyes glowing. “It’s okay, Mitch. I know. Go do what you have to do.”

  He nodded. There was nothing else to say.

  “Flash your wedding ring,” she said softly. “I want the respectability factor to kick in as much as possible.”

  “It doesn’t work as well, considering I let their daughter die.”

  “Oh, God, Mitch.” Her eyes went round. “You hid your pain well.”

  “I hid from the pain by staying busy planning for the wedding. I realized that just now. The cruise, my sisters, you and your family, I’ve hidden behind all this to keep from giving into the fear. But I can’t hide anymore.”

  He felt his hands begin to shake, and knew that these were not the hands that had once skillfully held a surgeon’s precision tools. The wedding band he wore was no armor against the fear that suddenly encircled his heart.

  CRYSTAL FINISHED PACKING with a heavy heart. She closed the suitcase, her ears straining for the sound of Mitch’s car in the drive. He had been so quiet when he left that she was worried. The old Mitch, the one who laughed and teased and had a Robin Williams bedside manner, had been reduced to a shadow.

  He was facing a lot, and he was facing it alone. He would not allow her to help him. The best thing she could do was not be hurt by his withdrawal. Six weeks of emotional support, that’s what she could give him. They had married for convenience and it had been a good thing for both of them.

  The front door opened and he walked in. “Mitch!”

  His face was gray, his eyes dark.

  “Oh, my gosh!” she cried. “What happened?”

  He shook his head. “It was very hard to face her parents. If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a nap.”

  Before she could say anything, he went into their room and closed the door.

  Her heart shattered.

  It would take a great surgeon to put her heart back together—and unfortunately, he had just shut her out.

  CONCERN KEPT CRYSTAL from waking Mitch that night. Instead, she crawled into bed next to him as quietly as she could. Normally, he reached for her and held her in his arms, even when he slept, but now was different. He didn’t reach for her, and she didn’t reach out to him.

  The next morning, he left while she was still asleep. She looked for a note, but there was nothing. The dogs and cats had been fed, their water changed to fresh.

  The tickets for the cruise lay on the kitchen counter. Crystal hung on to the thought that after today’s hearing, she and Mitch would be on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Just the two of them.

  And then maybe they could begin the start of their marriage. Because in the night a new hope had grown in Crystal’s heart. They’d married to shield themselves from certain unhappy factors in their lives, but after today, those factors would no longer exist. Maybe, just maybe, while they were in the middle of nothing but blue sea, the romance could blossom between them again.

  She desperately hoped so, because if it did, she wanted to tell Mitch the truth. She didn’t want a divorce. She wanted to start their marriage on their honeymoon. As if she were turning back a clock so that the hours before didn’t matter as much, she hoped their real marriage could start not in the gym, where so much of the past had been, but on their honeymoon, where so much of the future could be.

  CRYSTAL SAT BY THE FRONT door, waiting for Mitch to return. She had the suitcase in the car, the tickets in hand. A list for Kathryn lay in the kitchen, detailing the pets’ feeding schedule.

  “Suntan lotio
n,” she murmured. “I forgot to pack suntan lotion.” It was getting late. They needed to leave for the airport. She got up and occupied her racing mind by selecting a bottle of lotion from the bathroom cabinet and taking it out to the car.

  After she packed it into the suitcase, she went back inside to pace some more. She wished she knew how Mitch’s meeting was going!

  A red flashing light on the answering machine caught her eye. She’d missed a phone call while she was outside. Punching the button, her breath held when she realized the call was from Mitch.

  “Good news! We didn’t actually have a hearing. The plaintiffs decided they didn’t want to pursue a suit or claim against me. Apparently, they changed their minds after our meeting yesterday. It had something to do with the fact that I’d just gotten married. They said that they’d realized that suing me wasn’t going to bring their daughter back, that they knew I had done my best to help her. In the end, they said they knew how much I’d cared for her, and that they hadn’t meant to take their pain out on me. I’m free, Crystal! I’m free! Anyway, you go on to the airport—I’ve got some last-minute paperwork I have to finish and I’ll meet you there.”

  The message clicked off. Crystal smiled, grabbed her purse and the tickets, kissed the dogs and cats goodbye, and hurried out the door.

  The past was about to be laid to rest forever.

  AT THE AIRPORT, Crystal glanced at the clock. Mitch should have arrived by now. The boarding calls had become more urgent, as the plane door was within moments of being closed. She’d already checked in the suitcase.

  “Ma’am, you need to board,” said the woman who was holding the gate door open. “It’s now or never.”

  “Oh, my gosh,” Crystal said. “My husband isn’t here!”

  “I’m sorry. I have to close the door.”

  What should she do? Obviously, Mitch had gotten held up in traffic or something. She’d tried calling his cell phone, but he hadn’t answered.