“Been awhile,” she said, wrapping her arms around him as she sank down farther.
“Feels so good.” His lips vibrated against her neck, setting off another ripple of sensation she felt everywhere. “Nothing feels better than being inside you.” He gripped her bottom and moved her slowly up and down, creating the best kind of friction.
If she could’ve spoken, she would’ve told him that nothing felt better than having him inside her. But he’d stolen the breath from her lungs and the words from her lips with the subtle movement of his hips, fingers and tongue. It had been this way between them from the very beginning, a connection that couldn’t be denied no matter how hard she’d initially tried to fight it. And she’d tried. And he’d pursued, winning her over with his relentless belief that people from different worlds could exist in harmony if they drowned out the noise around them and focused on the things that worked perfectly between them.
So she’d done that. She’d kept her focus on him, on them, on all the ways they worked so well together rather than the few ways they didn’t. But looming in the background, always, was the reality of how different their lives really were. Every so often, one of those glaring differences would make things difficult for them. They’d managed to get through it. Every time except for the night on the roof, when she could no longer deny their differences.
“Where’d you go, honey?” he asked, bringing her back to the present with his gruffly whispered words.
“I’m here. I’m right here.” She ran her fingers through his hair. “I like your longer hair.”
“I wondered if you would.”
“I do. I love it.”
“Then I’ll leave it long just for you.”
Pleased with that, Elisabeth rolled her hips and was rewarded again with the tight grip of his fingers on her bottom. “Not yet,” she said, smiling at him.
He bit his bottom lip, which he did when he was fighting to hold off, and intensified his efforts to get her to where they both wanted to be. She was so primed from his earlier ministrations that it didn’t take much to send her gasping into yet another orgasm. She’d once thought she was good for only one a day. That was another of the many myths Jared James had helped dispel for her.
He was right there with her, holding her close throughout the wild ride, until they sagged together, clinging to each other in the aftermath.
“Don’t ever leave me again, Lizzie. I wouldn’t survive it.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
*
The phone call he’d been waiting for came at nine o’clock the next morning. They were still in bed, where they’d been since the afternoon before, emerging only to accept a takeout delivery that Jared had brought right back to bed. Because the call came to his personal cell phone, he reached for it on the bedside table.
“Jared James.”
“Good morning. This is Doro Chase, the broker for the Chesterfield heirs.”
Lizzie’s hand moved from his chest to his belly, letting him know she was awake. If she ventured any lower, she’d find out how awake he was, too. “Yes, hello. I hope you’ve got good news for me.”
“Indeed I do. The heirs have accepted your offer.”
“Excellent. Since this will be a cash transaction, I’d like the closing to be scheduled within two weeks. I have urgent business that will require the estate be turned over to me two weeks from yesterday. I assume you can make that happen?”
Jared could almost hear her gulp. “I’ll do everything I can.”
“Very good. Let me know when the closing is scheduled.”
“We’ll need to travel to the mainland—”
“We’ll do it here. I’m spending fourteen million dollars, Ms. Chase. Surely they can come to me.”
“Of course. I’ll let them know.”
“If you could messenger a letter of agreement to me today, I’d appreciate it. I’ve got plans to make.”
After she assured him she’d send over the letter, Jared thanked her and ended the call, returning his phone to the bedside table. He put his arm around Lizzie and held her close.
“What plans do you have to make?” she asked in the sleepy, sexy morning voice that had been one of the things he’d most missed about her while they were apart. Who was he kidding? He’d missed everything about her and was thankful to wake this morning with the promise of forever with her.
“Our wedding.”
She propped herself up, pushing the mane of hair back from her face. “
Our
wedding? I thought you bought the place for Alex and Jenny to use.”
“I did, and it’s all theirs as soon as we say ‘I do.’”
“And when is my wedding taking place?”
“Two weeks from today.” He loved the way her eyes bugged out of her head.
“Are you out of your mind? You expect me to marry you in
two weeks
?”
“You’re lucky I’m giving you that long. If it were up to me, we’d be on a plane to Vegas today. I figured you’d probably want your folks there and maybe a few friends.”
“Two weeks.”
“Some friends of Jenny’s just had a two-
day
engagement and managed to pull off a beautiful wedding. I figure with two weeks, we’ve got all the time we need.”
“I have to go back to work on Monday!”
“You’re probably going to want to ask for some time off since you just found out you’re getting married in two weeks.”
“Jared, you’re acting crazy.”
“I’m crazy, insane, over-the-top, out of my mind in love with you, and now that I’ve got you back with me—where you belong, I might add—I want a second ring on that finger, and I want it two weeks from today.” He kissed her and then tipped his head and kissed her again. “Okay?”
Probably because she could see how badly he wanted it, she said, “Okay.”
“You can go back to work on Wednesday. I’ll take you. We both have things to sort out in the city. And you, my love, have a very sexy wedding dress to buy.”
“How sexy are we talking?” she asked with a coy smile that made his heart flutter.
“
Sinfully
sexy.”
“I’ll see what I can scare up.”
“Babe, I want to have this fight now so we can get it out of the way.”
Her lips pursed adorably. “What fight?”
“The one about how I’m paying for this whole thing.” When she began to object, he pressed a finger to her lips. “I’m paying for it, Lizzie.”
“You’re not paying for my dress.”
“I’m paying for all of it.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Lizzie…”
“Jared.” The look she gave him left no room for negotiation.
“Please? It would make me happy to buy you a sinfully sexy dress.”
“And I love you for that, but I’ll buy my own sinfully sexy dress, and I’ll knock your socks off with it.”
“I pay for the rest.” He went with a statement over a question because he really didn’t want to talk anymore. Not when he had the love of his life naked in his bed. There were so many better things they could do besides talk.
“You can pay for the rest. But the dress is mine.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Can we have sex now?” he asked.
Her tentative glance told him she had something on her mind.
“What?”
“Why don’t you say it the way you used to?”
“Say what?”
“What you just said. You never would’ve asked so politely before I messed things up between us.”
“You didn’t mess things up on your own, Lizzie, and I was always polite.”
Her brow lifted in a haughty expression that made him laugh out loud.
“Okay, maybe not
always
, but I was most of the time. Wasn’t I?”
“You were
real
with me, and I liked it. It took me awhile to get used to your brand of ‘realness,’ but once I did, I liked it.” Her hand lay flat against his chest until she dragged it down to his belly, setting off a chain reaction that had him hard and ready in under a second. “I liked it a lot.”
Realization dawned on him all at once, and he offered a wolfish smile. “So you wanna fuck?”
“
There it is!
” she said, laughing as she reached out to cup his cheek. “Don’t be different with me.”
“I didn’t mean to be.”
“Don’t be careful with me either.”
He turned his face into her palm and placed a kiss in the middle. “I’ll always be careful with you. You’ve given me the greatest honor of my life by agreeing to marry me.”
“That’s very sweet of you to say, but I hope you know what I mean. I want you to be
you
, Jared. The way you were before, not some cautious version of yourself. It’s not going to blow up in our faces again. We won’t let that happen.”
“I got ya, honey. So are we gonna fuck?”
Laughing, she said, “I don’t know if I can. I’m so sore from yesterday’s gymnastics.”
“Oh, baby,” he said, kissing his way down the front of her. “I can work around that.”
Epilogue
Two weeks had never gone by faster, Elisabeth thought as she stood before a full-length mirror in one of the upstairs bedrooms at The Chesterfield. She took a final, critical look at herself before the biggest moment of her life. The dress was, indeed, sinfully sexy, clinging to her breasts and fitting tightly to the rest of her. While it was definitely sexy, it was also simple. She’d rejected dress after dress for being “too much,” until she found one that was just right. There was no train, no bows, no frills, and she loved it. She only hoped Jared wasn’t hoping for something fancier.
That thought summarized all the last-minute nerves she’d experienced as the days flew by in a flurry of activity. True to his word, he’d left the firm over the strenuous objections of his partners, who would feel his loss painfully in their wallets. But Jared had stayed focused on the life they had planned for themselves and the partners had finally accepted his resignation.
Elisabeth had given a week’s notice at the shelter and proposed that Aimee be promoted to take her place. The board of directors had agreed, and though they were sad to be losing Elisabeth, they were excited to move forward with Aimee in charge.
Jared had closed on the Chesterfield Estate yesterday and had been ready with all the things they’d ordered from the mainland—and paid a small fortune to have shipped to the island in time for theirs to be the first wedding at the new venue.
Because of the short timeframe, they’d skipped invitations and spread the word digitally like the modern couple they were. The thought gave Elisabeth a fit of the giggles. He was modern and hip. She was always trying to catch up and keep up. She had a feeling that wouldn’t change after they were married, thus her worries about whether she’d be enough for him long term.
As she worked her way through last-minute nerves, she tried to remain oblivious to the photographer who snapped her every expression. This wasn’t just any photographer. Oh no… Her fiancé, being the businessman he was, had given exclusive rights to photograph their wedding to one of the top bridal magazines in the world, knowing the images of them and their fantastic wedding venue would bring The Chesterfield more business than they could handle.
Elisabeth had agreed to it because she couldn’t deny it was a brilliant marketing strategy, but with the stipulation that the photographers and magazine team remain in the background during the wedding. So far, they’d been terrific about respecting her boundaries.
A knock on the door preceded her sister and parents into the room. “Oh, wow,” her sister, Melanie, said as she took in the full ensemble. Jared had insisted on bringing hair and makeup people to the island for the big day, so she could have all the pampering she would’ve gotten in the city. Because she wanted to look beautiful for him, she’d chosen not to fight that battle and couldn’t deny his people had done a masterful job.
Her hair was down around her shoulders the way he liked it, in an array of soft curls that were held back from her face by a single clip in the back. Tiny blooms from the Chesterfield gardens had been artfully woven into the design, and her bridal bouquet was made of white hydrangeas that Alex had cut for her. As her maid of honor, Mel wore a periwinkle gown she’d chosen for herself and carried deep blue and purple hydrangeas.
“How are things downstairs?” Elisabeth asked her family.
“Everything looks lovely, honey,” her mom said as she dabbed at tears. “I can’t believe how quickly the two of you pulled this off.”
“I can’t take much of the credit,” she said. “It was mostly Jared.”
“He’s a good man,” her dad said gruffly. “He’ll take very good care of my little girl.”
“Yes, he will.” That much she knew for certain, and with that realization went the rest of her nerves. Everything was going to be fine as long as she and Jared faced the challenges that lay ahead together.
“It’s time,” Mel said. “Are you ready?”
Life with Jared would be as far removed from the life she’d imagined for herself as it was possible to get, but she had no doubt it would be a grand adventure. “I’m ready.”