Dream A Little Dream

knew there would be no going back for her. She'd set aside her pride and spoken from her heart. If he didn't like it, that was his problem.

He took a deep breath. 'Okay.'

'Okay?'

'Yes.' He gave a jerky nod. 'Okay.'

'Okay what?' She was bewildered.

'Love. Commitment. The whole thing.' He grabbed the skirt of her dress and smoothed it back in place. 'Kentucky.'

'Kentucky? What are you talking about? Oh, Eth, you are drunk. I knew it!'

'I'm not drunk!' He spun her toward the door. 'Come on. We're leaving right now.'

The knowledge crushed her, and her throat constricted as she turned to face him. 'You don't want me anymore.'

He pulled her back into his arms. 'Oh, baby, I want you so much I can't stand it. And I love you, too, so stop looking at me like that. I haven't been able to think about anything else since you walked into my office in those tight white jeans.'

The small flame of hope that had started to burn inside her disappeared and she regarded him angrily. 'You love me? Why don't you just say what you mean? You lust after me.'

'That, too.'

She'd always been able to read him so clearly, but now she felt as if she were in the presence of a stranger.

'I don't love you because of all the cosmetic changes you've made,' he said. 'I'm not that shallow. It's just that all those changes finally forced me notice you and appreciate what's been right under my nose the whole time.' He gazed at her as if he could see into her soul and wanted her to see into his. The flame of hope began to burn anew inside her.

His thumb settled in the hollow at the base of her neck. 'You've been in my life for so long that I stopped thinking about you as someone who existed separately from me. You were just part of me. And then all these changes happened, and you decided to leave me, and I've been going crazy ever since.'

'You have?' She felt delirious, entranced.

He smiled. 'You don't have to look so happy about it.' And then his forehead knitted, and a note of pleading sounded in his voice. 'We can talk on the road. Come on, baby. Hurry. We really, really don't have any time to waste.' He grabbed the doorknob with one hand, her shoulder with the other.

'Where are we going? Why are you in such a hurry?'

'We're going to Kentucky.' He pulled her outside and hustled her toward his car. 'It's not far to the border. There's no waiting period to get married, and we're getting married tonight, Kristy Brown, no matter what you say. And I'm not leaving the ministry, either!'

They'd reached his car. He was beginning to sound as if he were running out of breath, and he stopped by the passenger door to fill his lungs. 'We'll do it all over again for our families when we get back. We can even pretend it's the first time, but we're getting married tonight because the two of us need to make love in the worst way, and it's not going to happen unless we say some permanent vows before God first.' He froze. 'You do want to get married, don't you?'

Happiness bubbled inside her. She smiled, then laughed. 'Yes, I really do.'

He squeezed his eyes shut. 'Good. We'll work out the details on the way.'

'What details?'

He pushed her into the car. 'Where we're going to live. How many kids we're going to have. Who sleeps on what side of the bed. That sort of thing.' He slammed the door, rushed around to the other side of the car, and climbed in. 'I also should tell you the reason your car wouldn't start earlier was that I sneaked over to your condo and disconnected the battery cable so you'd have to ride with me. And I'm not sorry, so don't think you're going to get an apology!'

She didn't ask for one, and, within minutes, they were back on the road.

Bemused, Kristy spent the next ninety miles listening to the strangest lecture she'd ever heard. Ethan had always been a stickler regarding premarital counseling for the couples he wed, and now he tried to condense everything he knew into the time it took them to cross the Kentucky border and make the arrangements. He talked and talked and talked.

Kristy smiled and nodded.

They found a Pentecostal minister who agreed to marry them, but Ethan conducted the ceremony. He was the one who asked her to repeat the vows he recited, and he was the one who spoke his own vows in a deep, intense voice that came directly from his heart.

It was Kristy, however, who spotted the Holiday Inn not far from the outskirts of the Cumberland Falls Resort State Park.

They'd barely set their suitcases down before she tackled him, and he fell backward onto the king-sized mattress. She looked so eager, so excited, so thoroughly pleased with herself, that he laughed.

'Gotcha!' she said.

While he tried to catch his breath, she tore at the buttons on his shirt, then lunged for his belt buckle.

He gazed up into the beautiful, intent eyes of his virgin bride. 'Let me know if I'm scaring you.'

'Shut up and take off your pants.'

That cracked them both up. But they didn't laugh for long; their mouths were too busy with hot, wet kisses. And since neither of them had the patience for slow disrobing, they were naked and groping each other within seconds.

'You're beautiful,' she sighed as she stroked him. 'Just the way I'd imagined.'

He cupped the spill of her breasts and tried to find his voice. 'You're even more than I imagined.'

'Oh, Eth… That feels so good.'

'You're telling me.'

'I want you to do that a lot.'

'Remind me if I forget.'

She made a throaty moan as he ran his thumbs over her nipples.

'Do that again. Oh, yes…'

'Lie back, baby, and let me play with you.'

She did as he asked. His caresses grew more intimate, and she sobbed in her passion. 'Oh, Eth, I want to do everything.' She moaned. 'Yes. That. And I want… I want to say everything. Dirty words. I want to say dirty words. And dirty little phrases.'

'Go ahead.'

'I-I can't think of any.'

He whispered a really good one in her ear.

Her eyes widened, and she climaxed beneath his hand.

Even though he was so hard he ached, he laughed because he was the only person in the world who knew her secret.

Kristy Brown Bonner was easy.

She calmed, but he was ready to explode. He longed to bury himself inside her, but, at the very last moment, he remembered something he'd forgotten to discuss in their hurried session of premarital counseling. He stroked her hair and noticed his hand was shaking from the effort it took to restrain himself. 'Are we worried about getting you pregnant?'

'I don't think so.' She regarded him searchingly. 'Are we?'

He settled his weight between her thighs, kissed her, and thought of the babies they'd have. 'No, we're definitely not.'

She was tight and new and wet. He tried to take his time entering her, but she would have none of it. 'Now, Eth… Please stop messing around. Oh, please… I want to remember this forever.'

He drove home, and, as he fully possessed her, he gazed down into her eyes. They were filled with tears of