Male Order Bride (22 page)

"Rafe," Lacey said, laughing, convinced now that what he
had in mind for a romantic weekend, especially after an unromantic week
apart, was close enough to what she wanted.

He ignored her attempt to interrupt him and continued
speaking. "That still leaves the third room, and it's okay. I've looked
inside. It's a double bed, but obviously not like the master bedroom.
The furniture's nicer in there. But even if we don't like that, we can
always ask for our money back."

"Or try the floor, or the couch or that
interesting-looking chair in the corner," Lacey said, making certain
she managed to interrupt him this time. "Rafe," she added gently,
remembering how he enjoyed going into detail about things sometimes,
"don't tell me how the watch is put together, just give me the time,
okay?"

His own phrase caught his attention. He noticed her lips
begging to be kissed and satisfied them. Rafe sighed and pulled Lacey
closer against him, running his hands over her back, remembering by
touch how she felt. "Would you like to see the bedrooms for yourself
and pick one out?" he invited.

"I thought you'd never ask," Lacey whispered, running her
tongue around his lips, rubbing up against him, inching her fingers up
his neck and into his hair. "But if this weekend is supposed to be an
escape for me, I don't think I need to be making any heavy decisions.
Why don't you choose one for us?"

"Now?"

"Uhm," Lacey answered. "Never put off until tomorrow what
you can do again tomorrow."

Rafe turned her around, crossing her chest with his arm to
grasp her shoulder and guide her forward as he walked closely behind
her.

It was still daylight as Rafe stepped through the bedroom
door with Lacey. Soft afternoon light filtered through the gauzy
drapes. Heavier moss-green curtains matched the carpet of green taken
from the jungle pattern of the bedspread. Lacey spared half a thought
to the decor, thinking it would have been more fitting to have beach
colors instead of Amazon accents in this room. The view deserved it,
but at the moment she didn't care to discuss decorating with Rafe when
she had lain awake at night imagining this reunion.

She let him guide her into the bedroom, loving it when he
took the initiative and let her follow his example. There would be
other times when she would be the aggressor, taking him off guard and
surprising him with her lovemaking. She wanted him to be a little bit
unsure of her, but just enough to keep him from taking her for granted,
just enough to keep him intriguing her with variety. She wanted to keep
exciting him with unexpected caresses and loving so that he wouldn't
get bored with her or think he had fallen into a rut the day he knocked
at her door.

Rafe's mouth was on Lacey's, his tongue telling her
without a sound how tenderly he had missed her. His hands traveled over
her back, across her shoulders in a gentle motion that explored her
spine, pulling her hips in closer to his and traveled around her waist
to flatten across her stomach. He moved his hands up the sides of her
body, beneath her arms and around to her back again before he pushed
her a little away from him and looked at her, frowning.

"How does this thing work?" he asked, looking at her short
jumpsuit. "How do I get you out of it?"

Lacey smiled, realizing his groping had been for buttons,
snaps or zippers. "It just slips down and off," she said, showing him
how to bare one shoulder, and then the other, waiting for him to do the
rest when he was ready.

He pushed the material off her shoulders, to her waist.
With a wiggle, Lacey left it in a rumpled pile at her toes. She didn't
have to give him instructions with the bra. He remembered the
combination of the fastener from last time and tossed it aside. His
hands came down over her hips and she stepped naked next to him,
impeding his own efforts to undress, but making him that much more
anxious to be naked with her.

"Your body feels silky," he said, hugging her against his
chest, running his hands from shoulder blades to hips.

"I was just thinking the same thing about you," she
whispered, marveling at the smooth ripple of his muscles. He fit so
nicely against her. She rubbed her nose against the soft gathering of
hair on his upper chest. Next, she placed her mouth on his shoulder,
tasting the saltiness of his skin.

Rafe pulled her down with him on the bed and took his
hands off her long enough to pull his boots off. Lacey moved behind
him, hugging him, spreading her fingers across his chest while her
breasts warmed his back. Rafe kissed her hands and then pushed them
away so that he could take time to get out of his pants.

He stood up and walked around the bed, pulling back the
covers of the king-size bed. Holding out his hand to Lacey, he invited
her to join him between the sheets.

Rafe slid into bed next to Lacey, holding her against him.
His arms gathered her close and for a long while they simply lay
together, holding one another, content to kiss and snuggle in each
other's arms.

Lacey's lips curved into a smile somewhere near Rafe's
right shoulder. Rafe could tantalize her all evening with his
tenderness, or he could fall asleep in her arms. She didn't care as
long as they were together. But the longer she lay so temptingly close
beside him and felt his loving nibbles at her neck and shoulder, she
hoped he wouldn't decide to fall asleep, not for a while anyway.

She let her hands explore his body, tracing the muscled
curves of his chest, moving lower, dipping into his navel, and then
grinning wider as she next discovered he was just as aroused as she
was. She shifted in his arms so that she could invite him closer, and
didn't have long to wait for him to accept her unspoken suggestion.

Lacey melted against the pillows, wishing she knew how to
keep Rafe locked inside her forever. He filled her with gentleness and
at the same time a breathless excitement. He knew just how to touch her
and when to encourage her body to pulse helplessly around him on slow
waves of anticipation.

"Tell me," Rafe whispered, "how I can give you as much
pleasure as you give me."

"You're doing it," Lacey answered, smiling wider,
imitating the movement of his hips, trying to pull him closer inside.
As his mouth began a tender trail of kisses around her ear and down her
neck and across her shoulder, she sighed, her skin glowing from the
touch of his mouth.

Rafe moved away from her to gently assault her left breast
with his tongue and lips, teasing the hardened nipple to flush peach
before moving his mouth to her right breast without missing much in
between. His hands roamed across her stomach and along her thighs,
molding her flesh the way a sculptor would intimately know his creation.

Lacey felt warm and moist, on the brink of a new sensation
with Rafe. As if he sensed her need or glimpsed the new flush on her
face, he came back to her, imprisoning her body beneath his until both
of them were thrusting and pulsing and shaking with
emotion—first Rafe, and then Lacey as he carried her with him.

"That was it!" Lacey whispered, grinning wider than he had
ever seen her smile. "Oh, Rafe, that was it," she said again, and
hugged him tightly. Lovemaking with him didn't need words, she thought,
wanting to keep him as close to her as she could for as long as
possible. Why should she insist the rest of their relationship had to
have a script?

Each time with him was different. Their lovemaking never
followed a pattern as they continued to discover each other, gently
teaching by touch what pleasure each could convey.

She wanted to tell him:
I love you
.
Instead, she held him tighter, and felt his answering response in a
grip that made her feel as if he might slip over the edge of a cliff if
she were not there to hold him.

"Get up," Rafe said, punching Lacey gently in the back.

"Why?" she mumbled, taking his arm and hugging it tighter
around her midriff, snuggling the curve of her back more comfortably
against his chest. "It's Saturday. And neither one of us has an office
in this town."

"We have a lot to do today," Rafe persisted. "We need to
get up."

She turned her head on the pillow to look at him. "You're
one to talk," she accused. "Have you even opened your eyes yet?"

He opened his eyes then and raised his eyebrows in a
teasing, leering gesture. Lacey laughed. She turned around to face him,
putting her arms around his neck so that she could hug him. "Good
morning." She grinned, kissing his eyelids and cheeks.

"You started saying that right after midnight," he
reminded her.

She kissed his shoulder, "Mmmmmm, and it was." She
smiled, remembering the times they had made love during the night and
how each time had been different, sometimes gentle, almost in slow
motion, once ticklish and playful, and another time with a frantic kind
of passion. But just lying in his arms again after the days apart made
the evening, night and morning a good one.

"You're a character," he said. Lacey looked at his face.
It showed he was pleased.

She ran her hand along the smooth lines of his body from
thigh to chest and back down again. His skin was smooth and firm, cool
to her touch. "Can I interest you in a seduction?" she asked.

"I never turn down a bed-to-bed traveling saleswoman," he
answered.

She drew back. "You don't? But are you sure you have
enough time for this… demonstration? I mean, with all this
stuff you have to do on a Saturday, I wouldn't want to keep you tied up
unnecessarily."

He pulled her back to him and began kissing her. "All that
needs doing today, I've been talking about in the future tense. I
allowed time for unexpected developments." His tongue started a hot
trail along her neck and collarbone to her breasts. "Why do you think I
woke you up?"

Lacey laughed and hugged him tighter and then lay back,
captive to his caresses.

She let him direct the morning after that, content in
knowing she was well loved, even if neither of them had admitted it.
She sat in the restaurant with him over lunch with the secret of having
shared the night and most of the morning in bed with him. When she
closed her eyes, she could still recall the sensations of having been
with him. Lacey smiled and put a potato chip in her mouth. If she
didn't stop thinking about Rafe this way, she'd attack him again, and
they might want to return to this restaurant again one day.

Rafe had a meeting with the investors of the complex after
lunch. He took Lacey with him because it was an informal discussion.
They'd covered the major business points with Rafe on the phone weeks
earlier. Now all they wanted was Rafe's personal opinion of the complex
and his innovative ideas for further development.

Lacey thought she would feel out of place in this shop
talk, but she quickly discovered it was a true Saturday for everyone.
One of the men turned up in tennis shorts, another was heading for the
golf course after the meeting, and a third was at the end of his wife's
leash running errands around town for her.

Afterward Lacey and Rafe drove through the entire complex,
and aided by a map they had been given, pinpointed all the major
attractions—from laundry locations to the game room. Lacey
watched the clouds gathering as the afternoon drew on and wanted to
catch thirty minutes or an hour on the beach before it rained, but such
idleness didn't seem to be listed on Rafe's itinerary.

"The rain builds up every afternoon here in the summer,"
she was told when she asked about the dark clouds. "We get a torrential
rain, and then the sun breaks out again. You'll see."

Rafe drove back to the condominium. "You have fifteen
minutes to change clothes for the wedding," he told her.

"That's all?" She frowned.

"All you have to do is change clothes. You look terrific."

Lacey smiled. After the steamy heat of the afternoon,
she'd love another shower, but if Rafe said fifteen minutes, he meant
no more than twenty, and she could handle that, even if it meant
putting her makeup on in the car.

"Clear out," she announced. "I need space for elbow room
if you're only giving me fifteen minutes."

"I'll get dressed in the other bedroom," he said, trying
not to laugh. He couldn't resist needling her just a little more.
"Fifteen minutes and then I leave, with or without you. That's all the
time you get."

"Just get out of my way," Lacey said, intent on impressing
him by being ready with two minutes to spare. "You're standing on my
time."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, and left the room.

Lacey raced into the bathroom with her dress and
accessories, and took time to redo her makeup so that she felt as if
she looked fresher. Then she hobbled into the living room with one shoe
in her hand and her brush in the other. "How'd I do?" she asked, eyeing
his relaxed form stretched in the living-room chair.

He looked down at his wrist. "Not too bad. You're only two
minutes late."

Lacey wrinkled her nose at him and put her other shoe on.
Then she looked up and remembered, "You don't even wear a watch!"

"It's all built in," he answered, getting up and admiring
her flushed face, wanting to skip the wedding and go right to the
honeymoon—their own.

The wedding took place in a small chapel a long drive from
the condominium. Lacey could see why Rafe had given her so little time
to dress. They had barely entered the church when the ceremony began.

Lacey sat quietly beside Rafe. She didn't know any of
these people, but obviously he knew quite a few and was well known by
many of the other guests. She turned and glanced at him during the
ceremony. Was he a man who liked weddings? His face didn't reveal
anything.

At least he had more respect for weddings than Dominick
ever had, Lacey thought. Just the mention of a friend getting married
had sent Dominick into a violent mood. He would always blame it on some
other event which had gone wrong with his day. Now that Lacey had the
perspective of time and distance behind her, she could see all their
arguments had been connected to the topic of marriage. Lacey shuddered
and Rafe put his arms around her. "Are you cold?" he asked.