Trapped Under Ice (32 page)

“No, no way.” When he was this close to her, everything else faded away. He ran his hands down her shoulders a couple of times, and then slid the sleeves off her shoulders, kissing her neck. She moaned, quickly shirking off her dress. She stood in a black and red, lacy bustier, with the straps buttoned in place to hold her stockings up.

“Damn!” he proclaimed for the third time that evening. He sat on the end of the bed running his hands along her sides and taking in every last detail.

Beth kicked a heel up on the bed next to him. “I may need some help with these,” she commented, her eyes dancing as she indicated the buttons attached to the tops of her stockings.

“Okay,” Chad returned, swallowing and trying to control his racing heart. He carefully unbuttoned one of the elastic straps and it snapped back. He gazed up into her face as his hands slid beneath her, to release the second strap. It was obvious she was into him being into her. He ran his hand down her leg a heartbeat at a time, letting his eyes follow their delicate curves, until he came to the strap of her shoe. He took a deep breath. This was going to be harder than he anticipated. As slowly as he could, he undid the strap and slid the shoe and stocking off. She took the leg away and kicked the other leg up on the opposite side of him. He repeated his movements, caressing her bare leg a little before she withdrew it.

She began to unbutton his shirt as he peered up at her face, his hands on the back of her legs. When she got to the bottom, she yanked his shirt out of his pants in one quick motion, nearly sending him over the edge. She brought her hands up under the cloth, along his bare skin, to his shoulders, pausing, totally in control of him and loving it. She jerked his shirt and jacket off. He sat contemplating the many, many directions that this could take now.

Beth kissed him once, stealing his breath away, and then climbed past him up the bed and onto the pillows. She leaned back, one leg bent, and waited for him to come to her. She reached over and turned off the bedside lamp, but she was still illuminated by the neighbor’s security light beaming through the window, which had just been triggered by the wind. He lost the rest of his clothing and jumped on the bed next to her, making her laugh. He grabbed her and swallowed her up in kisses until she edged away and swung around to sit on top of him.

“You,” he spoke, breathing hard, his hands running up and down her sides. “You are”—he searched for a word to finish his sentence—“
incredible
.” He reached up to grab behind the neck and draw her to him, kissing her hard on the mouth. There was no mistaking it; he couldn’t wait for her much longer.

In a short time, they were both completely naked, and he had his hands on her rear as she moved above him. He could not believe the exquisite ecstasy she gave him by just the way she moved her hips.

She was soon lying in his arms, stretched out along his side languidly. They lay like that for several minutes, soaking in their happiness. She reached out her hand in the darkness, the engagement ring sparkling in the light from outside.

“Chad?” she spoke into the darkness around them.

He stirred. “Um-hum,” he responded, his voice clouded by sleep.

“There’s something I want to ask you,” she began tentatively, “but I’m afraid it will hurt your feelings.”

He woke more and pushed himself up on one elbow above her. He brushed the hair from her face. “You can ask me whatever you want. You can’t hurt my feelings. Whatever you have to say, it can’t be worse than what I’ve heard before.” But even as he uttered it, he knew she had much more power than his father ever had to hurt him. The difference was he trusted her with that power.

“It’s just, this ring is gorgeous. It’s the most exquisite thing I’ve ever seen and I love it. Truly, I do. But…do you think we could get the jewelers to remake it, the exact same design, just with smaller diamonds? It would make me too nervous to wear this,” she ended. She held her breath, studying his face.

He laughed. “You are the only woman I know who would ask for
fewer
diamonds in her diamond ring.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.

“You’re not upset, are you? Because, really, everything was so perfect, all the work you put into it—”

The rest of what she was saying was smothered by his kisses. “You can have
anything
you want, Mrs. Almost-Evans.” He paused, wondering if she would be willing to take his name after so many years as Beth Donovan. She seemed to be considering this new name. Would she be able to let go of the name her husband gave her on their wedding day?

He tried to read her face in the dim light offered by the alarm clock on her side of the bed. “Or, maybe you would rather keep the name Donovan. That would be all right with me, Beth.”

With his words, she knew it was time to let go. She would always love Paul, but there was room in her heart to love Chad, too. She reached up and caressed his face. “I would be so proud to be Mrs. Beth Evans.”

“Good,” he responded with satisfaction, lying back down.

Just as he was drifting off to sleep again, she whispered, “Chad?”

“What?” he mumbled, lying on his stomach.

“I was just wondering…oh, never mind.”

His eyes opened in the dark. He flipped over to face her again. “What were you wondering?”

“Well, I’m not trying to push or anything, but I was just wondering…if you knew what your time frame would be? …For the wedding, that is.”

He smiled in the darkness. “We’ve been engaged a whole, what”—he squinted at the clock—“three hours, and you’re already pressuring me, woman?”

“Well, no. I—”

“I’m kidding, Beth. If it were up to me, there would have been a preacher there tonight. But I know it’s not easy for you.”

“I want to get married right away.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. I don’t want to waste any more time not being together.”

“Well, I don’t really have any breaks in the schedule until—”

“Who needs a break in the schedule? Why don’t we just have a small ceremony before a concert?”

“On stage?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“You don’t want a big reception and the whole church thing?”

“Not unless you do. I’ve had all that before.”

“Man. You
are
a cheap date. We’ll look at the schedule and you can pick a date. Who do you want to come?” He sounded like he was getting excited.

“Well,
Cas, of course, and Cali and the other lunch ladies. But that’s it. Just an intimate kind of thing.”

“That sounds fantastic!” He changed positions. “We should get some sleep, I guess. We’ll talk about it more in the morning.”

Ten minutes later it was Chad who broke the stillness. “Beth?”

“
Mmmm?”

“You know how you were saying earlier that you don’t have enough time to write?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I was thinking…when
Cas goes to school in the fall, what would you think about giving up your lunch lady gig and touring with me? You could bring your laptop and have all the time you needed. You don’t have to answer right away, just think about it. I know you like working with the girls and with the kids at the school. I just wanted you to know, traveling with the band would be an option, too. We can talk about it more in the morning if you want to. Go back to sleep.”

***              

“Chad.”

“Huh?”

“Cassie’s awake.”

He opened one eye. Beth was sitting up in the bed, clutching her knees and listening for movement in the hall. He sat up, too.

“I’m nervous about telling her,” she confessed.

“You didn’t seem nervous last night.”

“Yeah, well that’s ‘cause I was all high on love and everything. This is reality.”

“You don’t think she’ll like the idea?”

“I just don’t know. She adores you, Chad, but the only man who’s ever been in this house is her dad. I just don’t know how she’s going to take this.”

“What do you want me to do? Do you want to offer to take her out to breakfast and I can call a cab and be gone before you get back?

Her face scrunched up. “No. I shouldn’t have said anything. I love you, Chad. And I want her to know it.” She touched his face. “It’s not something to hide. It’s just…awkward, or something. Come on, let’s get dressed and go tell her together.”

“Are you sure that’s how you want to handle it?”

“No. But let’s do it anyway.” Beth hopped out of bed and started opening drawers.

“Beth, all I have to wear is my suit from last night.”

“Oh well, that’s all you have to wear then, I guess.”

Cassie was eating cereal when they walked hand in hand into the kitchen. She glanced up and froze, spoon halfway to her mouth. “You spent the night?”

“Uhh, yeah,” he answered lamely.

Cassie continued eating. “Do you want some cereal or something?”

He exhaled and joined her at the table. “Thanks, that sounds great.”

Beth reached into the cabinet for a bowl.

“Nice suit,” Cassie teased.

He took an assessment of his wrinkled shirt and pants. “Yeah. Somehow I think it looked better last night.”

Cassie snorted.

As Beth handed the bowl to Chad, Cassie’s eyes got big and she grabbed Beth’s hand. “Umm,
Cas—”

“You two are engaged?”

She searched her daughter’s face. “Yes. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about—”

Cassie jumped up and hugged Chad. “Way to go!” She ran over to hug a stunned Beth. “This is great! Congratulations! When’s the wedding? How did you propose? Let me see that ring.”

Beth laughed, pulling her daughter in for another hug. “I love you, Cas, you know that? But if you have any concerns, you can tell us...”

“Yeah,
Cas. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I’d understand if—”

“What? No! Chad’s the best thing that ever happened to you, Mom. Anyone can see that. He made you laugh again, I mean,
truly
laugh. You get a certain glow every time he calls you, or you talk about him. This is fantastic news. I’ve got to go call Jessica! Can I tell Jessica?”

“Of course.”

She ran out of the kitchen. They exchanged a smile. But before they could do anything else, Cassie ran back in and slid across the kitchen floor in her socks to give Chad a kiss on the cheek. “Welcome to the family!”

He gave her arm a squeeze. “Thanks,
Cas.” She tore out of the room and ran up the stairs.

“Man,” Beth commented, gliding over to his side. “You sure know how to charm the Donovan women.”

“Do I?” he replied innocently, pulling her down into his lap and kissing her.

After a couple of minutes, she climbed out of his lap and sat adjacent from him at the table. As he was just shoveling his first bite of cereal in, she began, “Chad, we still need to talk about this hate mail you received.”

“Oh, that.” He hoped she would forget about it with all the excitement. “Really, Beth, it’s no big deal.”

“You promised ‘full disclosure.’”

“All right.” He set his spoon down. “I’ve been getting letters for awhile. Ever since the first of the year, actually, and—”

“The first of the year? And you didn’t tell me about them?”

“Well, I really didn’t think it was a big deal. I receive hate mail all the time. As many crazy fans who love us, there’s an equal amount of crazies who hate us for some reason. And as the face of the band, so to speak, things generally get addressed to me.”

“So, why was this different?”

“I guess it was a little bit more personal.”

“In what way?”

“They say stuff about the way I treat women.”

Beth pondered this. “An old girlfriend?”

“That’s a definite possibility, but I don’t want you to worry about this. Pete will make sure nothing happens.”

“I’d like to be able to put my trust in Pete, but it still makes me nervous to think someone is gunning for my man.” She rose and kissed him on top of the head before heading up for a shower.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Chad stood on stage, fiddling with his tie, alongside Roger, and Beth’s uncle, who happened to be a priest. The men were joking around, when suddenly Roger’s eyes got wide. Chad turned to see Beth approaching, wearing an off-white sleeveless dress, tied behind the neck.

“Holy shit! She’s freaking gorgeous. You don’t deserve her,” Roger threw out, stepping forward. Chad simply swung his arm into his friend’s midsection to stop him, a huge smile plastered on the lead singer’s face. The couple met at mid-stage and immediately started kissing.

“Nah-ah-ah!” Keith yelled. “Not before the wedding.”

“Dude, leave us alone,” Beth told him between kisses, purposefully using the word “dude” as Keith seemed to employ it the way other people used “um.” All of the band members cracked up.