The Sometime Bride

How all of this has happened so fast. I never really thought…”
    Mike hushed her by tracing the tender line of her lips with one finger. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that.”
    “But Mike!” she said, splaying her hands against his chest. “We’ve only known each other three days.”
    But three minutes was all it had taken for Mike to know. The moment he’d seen her holding court at the top of those stairs at the inn, Mike had ached inside at the feeling someone like her could never be his. And now, every ounce of his being ached at the possibility that she could.
    Mike couldn’t believe that any woman as warm, as wonderful, as completely genuine as Carrie, could be standing here professing her love. But she was. And not just with her words — with her eyes. Eyes that searched his soul and begged answers to so many questions.
    “Carrie,” he said, kissing her at first lightly and then feverishly before pulling back. “I want to make love to you. With you. For as long as you can possibly stand.”
    Carrie grinned as the smallest—daintiest—tingle took hold of her tailbone, then spread like rapid fire. “That’s the best offer I’ve had all day,” she said with a kiss.

Chapter Eleven

    Mike took Carrie’s hand and led her back into the sparsely lit bedroom. At the height of the afternoon, it was unmistakably the brightest room Carrie had ever had occasion to make love in. She’d always required it dark and comfortable. For her, that was, and her multitude of figure flaws. But here, in the light of day, with nothing but Mike’s king-size bed before them, there was nowhere to hide.
    Carrie thought of asking Mike to close the blinds but then saw the single shade was already drawn.
    “Come here,” Mike said, pulling her down onto the bed beside him. “Let me look at you.”
    She was as beautiful as ever, a patterned sarong skirt wrapping around her curvaceous hips. Her knit sweater top highlighted every curve.
    “I think,” Mike said, reaching up to touch her face as they lay sideways on the bed, “that I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
    “You’re not dead yet,” she assured him with a kiss.
    “Then why do I feel like I’m floating?” he asked, running a stroking hand up and down her bare arm.
    Carrie’s skin ignited at his touch as his caress wandered lower, strumming over her hip, wending around to her bottom, where he gave her tush a playful squeeze.
    Carrie colored in spite of herself.
    “You’re not inexperienced, are you?” Mike asked, bringing his nose to hers and nesting a hand in her hair.
    “Heavens no,” she said, coloring again. And feeling all the while like a liar. She’d never experienced anything quite like him. Her heart was beating so furiously she was certain it would break free from her chest cavity at any moment and make a mess of the bed.
    But Mike assured her with his heated kiss they’d find others ways to dirty the linens entirely.
    “I knew from the moment I saw you,” Mike said, rolling her onto her back and straddling her legs with his own, “that something would develop between us.”
    “You knew this?” Carrie asked doubtfully, tugging lightly at his derriere and situating him comfortably on top of her. Boy, he felt like heaven. All six foot two of manly heaven. And, positioned just right.
    “Well, I hoped it actually. You looked so pretty standing there. So defenseless—”
    “Defenseless?” she challenged, lifting her head from the pillow.
    Mike chuckled and kissed her sweetly. “No, my love…”
    Carrie’s heart fluttered at the sound of that.
    “You are absolutely right. You are many, many things, but defenseless is not among them.”
    “Mike,” Carrie said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, “it’s getting hot in here.”
    “Baby,” he replied, bringing his mouth to hers. “You don’t know the half of it.”
    With that, he clambered off her, taking her elastic-waist skirt along with him in one swift, tugging motion.
    Carrie brought her hands self-consciously to her outer thighs, but Mike reached out and held her wrists captive.
    “You, Carrie St. John, are the most exquisite woman I’ve ever seen. Please, don’t hide from me.”
    With that, he released his grasp and gripped the hem of her knitted top, yanking it deftly up and over her head in one smooth move. Carrie willed herself not to dwell on his apparent ease at clothing removal but to focus instead on the calming lull of his eyes.