The Sometime Bride Page 8

The gratitude part she could buy. He seemed sincere enough in his emotion, but... “The note?”

  Mike wrinkled up his brow. “Guess I crossed the line on that one. My apologies. I sometimes get so swept up in things, I act before I think.”

  Carrie held her tongue, knowing very much what that felt like. Okay, so maybe he had acted on impulse. And maybe, out of good intention. But what a viper she was going to look like now, when she announced her relationship with Mike had ended.

  “How about your family?” she asked, after a long pause. “Don’t they make you feel -- included?”

  Mike gave a slow, sad smile and studied the table top. “Well, I guess family’s a pretty subjective word, isn’t it? Mine isn’t all that big really. Just me and my dad.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry." But Mike didn’t offer any more. He just sat there being very quite. Abnormally quiet.

  Carrie sat there thinking and studying the man. The man with the gorgeous green eyes and shoulders broad enough to take on anybody’s troubles. It wasn’t only his trick with the flowers that was going to make ending this charade difficult.

  After what seemed like eons, Carrie reached across the table and laid a hand on his arm. “Mike?”

  “My dad’s sick, Carrie,” Mike said, looking up with moisture-tinged eyes. “Very sick. For the past two years, almost all of my income has gone to his care.”

  Carrie felt the raw burn in her throat. She’d never known her parents. They’d died in a house fire when she’d been barely a year old. By a twist of fate, she’d been staying with her grandmother as her parents were planning on going away together for their second anniversary trip. They’d never made it, and Carrie, thanks to the luck of the draw, had survived to be raised by her Grandmother Russell and doting great aunts.

  Still, she couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to lose someone who’d looked after you, somebody you’d equally loved and cared for. Carrie bit back the sting in her own eyes realizing her Grandma Russell’s time probably wasn’t that far away.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I had no idea.”

  “Well,” Mike said with a shaky smile, “Dad’s had a good life. A good hard life, led the way he wanted to lead it. I can’t fault him that.”

  “What’s he got?”

  “It’s more like, what’s he haven’t? His liver’s going, he’s got heart trouble. But, you know, the great thing is he’s still out there kicking. Tough old coot..." Mike’s voice faltered. “My dad. Still got that great sense of humor. In fact, just to look at him, you’d never..."

  “Oh, Mike." Carrie stood from the table and walked to where he sat, drawing her arms around him. Her heart went out to this man. This man who always tried to put on the good face, who had worked so hard to make her laugh... Who had sent her grandmother flowers. Who could kiss like nobody she’d ever known.

  “Now, don’t go feeling sorry for me,” Mike cautioned, looking up and returning her hug.

  “What I feel for you,” Carrie said, for the first time admitting it to herself, “goes way beyond sorry...”

  Oh great, Mike thought, she pitied him. That was even worse.

  “And the love I see in your eyes for your father only reconfirms it. I’ve seen somebody very different here today. And yesterday, at the shower, also. It’s not just that you’re a warm, caring person. Not just that you can make me laugh..." Not just that he looked like sin, she told herself.

  Mike drank her in with his eyes, beholding a million new possibilities. Then, stood to cradle her in his arms.

  She was going out on a limb here, and she knew it. But the words that were welling within her were so fierce, so true, she was losing all power to hold them back.

  “Mike, I think that I’m falling in love.”

  Mike nestled her closer and brought his forehead to hers, kissing her sweetly on the lips. “Only think?” he asked, with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Oh Mike,” she brought soft hands to his checks and looked at him deeply. “More than think. I know it’s brazen of me to say so. That it will probably take a while for you to feel the same way. I don’t understand what has happened to me. 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 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 buy Mike’s king sized 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 highlighting every curve.

  “I think,” Mike said, reaching up to touch her face, as they laid 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?” Carried 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 of 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 bottom line 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 focus instead on the calming lull of his eyes. Eyes that seemed to be looking down and into her. Steadying, reassuring, that nothing -- and no one -- else on this earth mattered.

  “Carrie,” Mike said, bringing his lips to her cleavage, just above her bra, his hands cupping both breasts. “You’re beautiful.”

  Carrie sighed back against the mattress, sure she must be dreaming. Savoring the sensation of his touch, as she reached out and explored the leanness of his hips, the tautness of his derriere.

  Carrie felt for his belt buckle and unhitched his pants as he kissed her with the fury a dry man in the desert seeking water.

  “Carrie,” he said, cradling her head in the muted light of the room. “I’ve waited a lifetime for you.”

  Though all rationale argued against it, her heart dared to believe, as she reached for his shorts and slid them down toward his knees.

  Mike briefly righted himself and did away with his clothing. All of it.

  Carrie marveled at his size, at his rigidly, longing to make him all hers.

  “Here,” she said, pushing down her panties and urging him to help her.

  He stripped away those and the last barrier of her bra with skilled ease.

  “Mike, don’t you think --”

  But he was already miles ahead of her and unrolling a condom onto his ready form.

  And Carrie was ready, too. Oh so ready, like she’d never been in her lifetime.

  Mike reached up and gently gripped her breasts in his hands, then rocked slowly onto her, carefully aligning their bodies until their lips and every other inch of them met exactly where they were meant to.

  “Ready?” he asked, sliding his hands up her rib cage, alongside her shoulders, up her neckline and into her hair.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Then I,” Mike assured her, filling her slowly, single-mindedly, with his manly need. “Am going to show you just what loving is...”

  He gave her a tender smile. “Until you cry uncle,” he said, bringing the furnace of his mouth down on her own.

  “Uncle!” Carrie cried, several hours later.

  Mike raised a moist chin from between her legs.

  “Uncle, uncle, uncle!” she yelped, slapping him on the shoulder. “My God, are you trying to kill me?!”

  Mike grinned and fell down on the mattress beside her. “Just trying to take you to heaven, angel.”

  “Been there and back. There and back. And then some,” she assured him breathlessly, tugging at his arms.

  “Good, then that means you liked it?” Mike asked, sweetly stroking her knees. The sensation of his touch -- lingering, strong, tender -- sent shivers racing to her core.

  “Liked it?!” Carrie exclaimed, raising herself up on her elbow. “Gracious. Now that I’ve, uh... tasted it, I fear I’ll never be able to live without it!”

  Mike fell down on the mattress beside her and pulled her tightly into his arms. “Precisely what I wanted to hear.”

  “I’ve really got to go,” Carrie said, trying half-heartedly to escape once again.

  Mike linked his arms around her naked torso and nibbled the small of her back. “Uh, huh.”

  “Don’t you have a job?” Carrie asked, in exhaustion. Already it was Tuesday. Heaven only knew where the past eighteen hours had gone.

  All Carrie knew was that she was hungry -- and late for work.

  “Probably not any more,” Mike answered. “But real estate was never really my calling anyhow.”

  “No,” Carrie said, “turning on the bed and kissing the man behind her fully on the lips. “Your talents run a much deeper than that.”

  Mike hooted and sprung from the bed. “I’ve got it! How about we go to breakfast!”

  “Breakfast?” Carrie asked, sitting up and clutching the comforter to her chest. “But I have to get to work! I never even reported in yesterday.”

  “Great,” Mike said, coming around the bed and kissing her on the top of her head. “Then you’ve set a precedent.”

  Carrie’s eyes traveled the nude expanse of his body, thinking over all the precedents the two of them had set within the last several hours. There was no denying it. Mike Davis had positively swept her away. “Well, I suppose I could phone my secretary...”

  Mike shot her a triumphant grin. “Get showered,” he said, striding to the bathroom and returning with a towel which he lobbed in her direction. “I’ll make the coffee.”

  “Like that?” Carrie asked, taking in his stunning specimen once again.

  “What’s a matter?” he teased, “too sexy for you?”

  “Goodness no,” she answered. “Just sexy enough.”

  “Just don’t count on getting to breakfast any time soon,” she said with a growl as she leapt from the bed and tackled him to the carpet.

  Mike bit into his bagel with gusto. Apparently he’d been just as staved as she was. “You know, Carrie,” he said between mouthfuls. “I don’t think this reunion thing is going to be very hard to pull off.”

  Carrie laughed affectionately and ran a tender hand down his face. “No,” she answered, “I think we’ve got that touchy-feely part down pretty well.”

  In between their hours of love-making, they’d also done some soul-spilling. Among other things, they’d both revealed how much each one had been itching to get physically close to the other. Carrie had confessed that the whole “touchy-feely” pose regarding Wilson had been a total sham, and Mike had admitted how he’d eagerly planned to take advantage of that idea.

  Well, she supposed they both were satisfied now. Carrie blushed at the thought, as the waiter refilled her coffee.

  They were in a small diner, a few miles from the home-town university. The place, it turned out, where both Carrie and Mike had secured their undergraduate degrees and Carrie had later gone on to graduate school in pursuit of her MBA.

  Mike still didn’t know about the money. And Carrie still wasn’t sure if she was willing to tell him. There she was a hopeless, helpless mess. Totally in love with a man she’d known for less than a week, but who’d seemed in tune with her soul for a lifetime. Could she really risk messing it all up now? They hadn’t even made it past the hurdle of the reunion, and her hidden mission of impressing his friends.

  Not to mention the very pointed fact that, in spite of all of his words of love, despite the way he looked at her and made her feel, Mike still hadn’t said, I love you.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Mike said, clinking his coffee cup to hers. “Feeling tired this morning?”

  Carrie lifted her coffee cup to her lips and smiled naughtily over its rim. “Not as tired as I could be.”

  Mike laughed in surprise. “Why, Carrie St. John,” he returned with a sly wink. “You are insatiable.”

  Only with you, she replied in her heart. Only with you.

  “Okay, here’s the plan,” Mike informed her, as he stood kissing her goodbye at her car. “First of all, you and I phone in to be sure we still have our jobs.”

  Carrie laughed and mussed his hair. Tuesday had somehow melted into Wednesday, and then Thursday had come along straight out of nowhere. In between it all, they’d gone out to restaurants, called into their respective offices occasionally with “no show” excuses, and done plenty of dirtying of Mike’s sheets.

  “You probably ought to do the laundry while I’m gon
e,” she teased, with a poke at his chest that had now become a silent joke between them. At one point during their hours of love-making, Mike had maintained she’d merely given him her rigid finger as a phallic encouragement. Carrie swore to herself with a grin, she’d never give anyone but Mike Davis that sort of finger again.

  “Hey baby,” he said, leaning in close and nibbling her neck. “You trying to tell me something with that finger...?”

  “Mike!” she said, swatting him on the backside. “You don’t watch yourself, the two of us will not only be out of jobs, we’ll entirely miss your reunion.”

  “And what a tragedy that would be,” he said, encoiling her in his arms.

  “Okay,” she said, reaching behind her and popping open the driver’s door. “I’m going this time. Really, really going.”

  Mike raised one sexy eyebrow. “Well, personally I like it better --”

  “Don’t you even say it, you beast!” she said, climbing into her car. “Heavens, I’ve become involved with an animal.”

  “Aw, come on now, Carrie,” he said, leaning in over her door, “you know you love it.”

  The truth was she did. But for now, she decided, the satisfaction of that knowledge would be hers and hers alone.

  ****

  Chapter Twelve

  Carrie unfolded the tissue and heartily blew her nose. “Oh. Grandma Russell,” she sobbed. “It’s no use. There isn’t going to be any wedding!" She’d decided it was time. Time to tell the truth about the whole sordid affair. Now that she’d fallen in love with Mike, she couldn’t have her grandmother go on thinking he was Wilson. And -- with Wilson out of the picture -- there was that little matter of a wedding to cancel. Something that she’d been putting off and putting off, and finding excuses not to do.

  “Now, now, honey,” her grandmother said, reassuringly patting her hand. “Don’t go blowing things all out of proportion like you sometimes do. I swear, you must get that from your Aunt Nellie.”