the kind of man who likes to be prepared.”
“In my family, it pays to be.” His eyes shuttered closed, blocking his secrets.
“You’ll have to tell me why one day.”
“At the moment, I can think of better things to do than talk.” He drew her arms up above her head, distracting her with his naked body.
He was sexy, handsome and very, very male. And he was hers.
“What are you grinning about?” he asked.
“I didn’t realize I was.” Obviously thinking about him made her smile, but she wasn’t ready to admit that just yet.
Although her father had been her guardian, she’d had to be independent and she’d raised herself in his unorthodox world. She’d been alone and on her own for longer than she cared to remember and she liked the notion that she had someone to share things with now. The logistics between them didn’t matter. They’d work those out in time. Right now, the ring and the license proved they were a couple.
“I’m just thinking, if my first…um, climax was so amazing, the next one will be off the charts.”
He brushed his thumb over her moist lips. “Because I’ll be inside you.” As he spoke, he nudged himself between her thighs.
He was rock hard and she wanted, needed, to have him fill her in the most basic, primal way. She bent her knees to help him ease his way. Without breaking eye contact, he thrust deep inside. Her entire body felt the penetration as she accepted all of him and she drew in a shallow breath.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, glancing at her with concern.
She nodded. “I told you it had been a while.”
He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her lips, silently telling her he appreciated that fact. “Let’s make it easier on you.” With a slick motion, he rolled to the side, taking her with him and settling her on top, straddling him. “Now you’re in control.”
He placed his hands on her waist and rolled his hips upward, causing a rippling swell of rising need in her as their bodies ground together all too briefly before the tide eased.
She moaned at the sensual assault and picked up his rhythm, rocking her hips from side to side, reveling each time their bodies touched at just the right spot, and the pressure inside her built higher. Together they created the perfect ride and it wasn’t long before she was moaning aloud as she clenched her inner walls harder around his rigid length.
His grip tightened on her waist and his pace grew more frenzied. Unable to hold herself up any longer, she stretched forward, leaning across him and letting her chest press hard against his. Heat assaulted her from the intimate contact and her nipples puckered tighter, pressing into him, the friction adding to the spiraling heights to which she was ascending.
Suddenly he let out a low groan, thrust his hand into the back of her hair and kissed her hard, his body frantically pumping upward, as he pulsed inside her and took her along with him. Her climax was all consuming, rippling through her with lightning speed. As one glorious wave ended, another began. Finally, she lay on top of him, spent and oh so satisfied.
MIKE AWOKE to a pounding headache the likes of which he hadn’t felt since his college days and the smell of coffee brewing. Disoriented, it took a few minutes to remember. Las Vegas for Dan and Natalie’s wedding, rescuing the beautiful blonde from the guy manhandling her, spending the day partying, winning a hundred and fifty grand and-
He ran his hand through his hair and sat upright in bed. The quick movement was hell on his fuzzy head, but the events of yesterday were suddenly crystal clear. He had married Amber Rose.
He already knew he was alone in bed, but the smell of coffee told him she was up, and the sound of the fan indicated she was probably in the bathroom. He drew a deep breath and let the reality settle in.
He was married.
To Amber.
Surprisingly, he wasn’t upset by the notion.
He’d grown up watching his father descend into reclusive madness because of love lost and the damn curse. With Amber, he’d had fun. And if they could make the logistics work, maybe they could have a decent life together without invoking the notion of his losing everything like the rest of the men in his family.
Although his cousin Derek was currently married to the love of his life, everyone around them felt as if they were walking on proverbial eggshells waiting for something bad to happen. Which made Amber, who made him laugh and whom he enjoyed, something of a perfect catch. Even if they’d tied the knot in a Vegas chapel the same day they’d met.
He rose to check on his
A full pot of coffee sat on the counter in the sitting area, but she wasn’t there. The bathroom door was ajar and he could see she wasn’t standing by the sink, either. He didn’t hear the water running, but he stepped into the bathroom anyway, his gut churning as he took in the empty shower stall.
He was alone in the hotel room. Telling himself not to panic, he slowly walked to the closet and opened the door, praying he was wrong.
But the safe was open and the money gone.
All one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of it. And so was his new wife.
CHAPTER THREE
Amber hadn’t believed Marshall when she’d picked up a call from him on her cell phone while she was making coffee for Mike. She’d immediately hung up and dialed the nursing home, asking them to put her father on the line. He no longer had a phone in his room, since there really was no need. Carole, the day nurse, told her that Marshall had taken him out for lunch to meet Amber.
In the early days at the home, all her father had asked for was a weekly outing with Amber or Marshall, something to make him feel he still had the freedom to visit his favorite places with people he enjoyed. It had seemed a small thing to put Marshall’s name on the list of people allowed to remove him from the home for outside visits. Only Amber, Marshall and Amber’s closest friend, Paul, the bar owner who’d been her best friend since childhood, were allowed access. Paul was the second emergency contact.
As the days wore on and her father seldom roused himself from staring vacantly into space, the outings stopped. She only came to visit and talk, hoping to catch a spark of something in his expression. She’d forgotten about the list she’d given the home of people allowed to take her father out.
Marshall hadn’t. J.R. had told him about Mike’s winnings and that’s what Marshall wanted. Mike’s one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in exchange for her father.
Sweating in the un-air-conditioned taxi, she grit her teeth on the half-hour ride to the restaurant where Marshall had brought her father, wondering how her life had turned around so quickly.
One minute Amber had been feeling that everything was right in the world. She’d met Mike at the right time, when she was not only ready for a change, but needed one desperately. Marshall and the card-counting life she so despised were behind her. Instead, she’d go home to Boston with Mike, get settled and bring her father to a local nursing home nearby. She could get a job at a Boston hotel, get hired on as a concierge again, and somehow between them, she could make things work.
But as soon as her cell phone rang, she knew she’d been spinning fantasies that could never come true. Unless she got the chance to explain and make Mike trust her again when this was all over.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the cab came to a stop in front of the restaurant. Amber tossed the driver a generous amount of money, grabbed the hotel laundry bag full of cash and jumped out of the car.
