Frenched Series Bundle (55 page)

In the bathroom off the bedroom we thought of as “ours” at the villa, I cleaned up and freshened my makeup, frowning slightly at the rumpled mass of brown waves spilling over one shoulder, which had been knotted so artfully this morning.
Guess we shook a few pins loose.
I smiled at my flushed reflection.

A small price to pay.

I touched up my lip gloss and removed a few flecks of mascara that had fallen under my eyes before turning out the light. In the bedroom, I went to the dresser and opened the top drawer, searching for another pair of panties to put on. The gorgeous Yvett bra, panties, and garter set I’d splurged on from Agent Provocateur tempted me from their hiding place—nude silk overlaid with black lace and fishnet, tiny pink flowers embroidered on the lace, little black bows at the top of each strap. The back of the panties was nothing but French fishnet…a little more modest than a thong but just as sexy. Black silk stockings with a seam up the back and sky high heels would complete the ensemble—the perfect blend of naughty and sweet, which I knew Lucas loved. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to have it for our wedding night.

Our wedding night!

Stomach jumping, I ran my fingers over the silk and lace, tucking one side of my lower lip between my teeth. How much longer before we could really be alone?

Music from the reception below drifted in through the window screen, and a loud burst of male laughter had me wandering over to look out.

“Oh no. No, no, no.” Among Lucas’s brothers and their group of friends, it was apparently tradition to throw the groom in the pool, and I watched in horror as Lucas was borne on the shoulders of his two older half-brothers and ceremoniously heaved into the aquamarine water on the count of
trois
.

“That beautiful suit,” I moaned as Lucas sputtered to the surface, laughing and tossing his hair from his eyes. “And the shoes—the shoes!” Lucas had been wearing a gorgeous pair of brown leather Italian-made dress shoes. Had they bothered to pull them off before throwing him in the water?

Not that Lucas appeared to care. In fact, he looked downright delighted as he climbed out of the pool and grabbed his brother Gilles by the elbow. More shouting and laughter followed as Lucas dragged Gilles to the edge and struggled for a moment but finally succeeded in shoving him in. He went in himself a second time, but not before I noticed that he was, thankfully,
sans
shoes.

“Boys,” I muttered, shaking my head at the two of them now engaged in a water fight. But Lucas looked so happy I had to smile. A couple years ago I’d looked out this same window and figured my crush on him could never amount to anything beyond a vacation fling—now here I was, his
wife
, wearing a ring and a wedding gown…
sans
panties.

I smiled. Maybe I’d keep it that way.

#

“I thought French men were supposed to be more sophisticated than this.” I handed Lucas a towel as he shrugged out of his dripping jacket.

“They are.” Gilles hauled himself over the edge of the pool and slapped Lucas on the shoulder. “But he’s half American. And he started this tradition at my wedding, so he deserved it.”

I handed Gilles a towel as well, shaking my head ruefully. “I supposed he did.”

Lucas grinned as he wiped his face off and shook the water from his hair like a puppy. I couldn’t help smiling at how adorable he was, even when his hair was hanging in his face. Especially when his hair was hanging in his face. As I watched him try to dry himself off, I recalled the night we first met, the way I’d wrinkled my nose at his floppy hair and unshaven face. But even then, I’d liked the invitation of his smile, the warmth of his eyes.

And the shape of his butt. I’d liked that too.

In fact, I like it right now
. His wet clothes clung to his trim, toned body. “At least you took your shoes off.”

“I didn’t, but Jean-Paul yanked them off before they threw me in.”

“Thank God for Jean-Paul. But your poor suit,” I moaned.

“Yeah, not sure this thing will survive.” Lucas held up the dripping jacket, and my eye caught the glint of his wedding ring. Without thinking, I reached up and brushed my thumb across the smooth platinum band.

My throat tightened unexpectedly, my vision blurring with tears. How ridiculous—I hadn’t even cried at the ceremony, and now I got weepy?

“Hey.” Lucas dropped his arm and put the other one around me, pulling me close and pressing his lips to my forehead. “You OK? You’re not mad, are you? Groom Thrown in Pool probably wasn’t on the wedding list.”

I sniffled. “No, silly. I’m not mad. I just saw your ring and it hit me how happy I am. The ceremony was over so quickly, I didn’t even have time to take it in—I mean
really
take it in that we are married.
Married
.”

“We are.” His voice cracked, and he squeezed me even tighter. “And I’ve never been happier.”

“Me either.” Laughing, I pulled away from his damp body. “But if you want to hug me, maybe go change your clothes first.”

He studied me for a moment, and I could see the fire in his eyes rekindling. “I’ll go change, but when I get back down, we’re saying goodnight. Fuck an hour.”

Damn. I hadn’t even told him I wasn’t wearing underwear. “Really?”

“Yes. I’m done sharing you, wife.”

Grinning, I wondered how long it would be before my stomach stopped flipping every time he called me that. “Sounds good to me. I’ll wait here.”

I mingled a little, chatting with guests and dancing with friends, until I saw Lucas walking across the gravel toward me, every step coiling my desire a little tighter. He wore a loose-fitting white shirt, untucked and unbuttoned a third of the way down, beige linen pants, and an expression that said Say Goodnight Now, Princess, The Wedding Is Over. When he reached me, he gripped my hand and whispered in my ear, “Time’s up.”

I smiled. “Let me just say goodnight to my parents and Coco and Erin.”

We made one goodbye round, accepting hugs and kisses and well wishes from friends and family, and suffering a lot of bad jokes and wiggling eyebrows from Lucas’s brothers, Erin, Coco, and Nick. After thanking Henri and Jean-Paul once more for offering their beautiful villa for the wedding, we escaped the crowd and slipped into the house hand in hand. When we reached the base of the large center staircase, Lucas tugged my arm.

“Give me a second.” He kissed my cheek. “I want to grab a few things from the kitchen and I know once we’re in our room, I’m not going to want to leave for the rest of the night.” Leaning closer, he said, “Nor will I let you out of my sight.”

I giggled. “What are you going to do, chain me up?”

His eyes glittered, his fingers tightening around my forearm. “Don’t tempt me.”

Dear God.
For a moment I entertained a fantasy of Lucas cuffing me to the headboard in my wedding gown, although silk was more his style than metal. But the idea had its appeal. I watched him disappear into the dining room, my hands curling into fists. I couldn’t wait to get him naked—my husband.
My husband
.

How did I ever think of spending my life with anyone else? Sometimes it still amazed me at how close I came to missing the chance to be with Lucas entirely. What if I hadn’t gotten on that plane? What if I hadn’t wandered into his bar that night? What if he hadn’t been covering someone else’s shift? It was incredible how much in life was open to chance, the blind luck of blundering fools—that’s why having a plan was always a good idea in my book.

As Lucas came back around the corner and smiled at me, I made a plan for tonight.

1. Go up to our room

2. Torture husband with lingerie

3. Have sex

Yeah, that was pretty much it.

Sometimes simple is good.

“Ready?” He carried a bottle of champagne and two glasses, but offered me his arm to climb the stairs. “I asked them to put an ice bucket in our room earlier. But if it isn’t there, I’m not going to worry about it.”

“Me either.” Slipping one hand inside his elbow, I held up my gown with the other as we ascended. “I don’t care about anything right now but being alone with you.” I tilted my head to his shoulder for a second. “Feels like it’s been so long.”

“It has. Too long.” We reached the top of the stairs and moved down the hall toward our room. “But we’re going to make up for that.”

I liked his plan too.

Lucas opened the door to our room and stood back to let me enter first. Right away I noticed the candles—they hadn’t been there earlier, but now there were dozens of ivory candles of various widths and heights along every flat surface in the room. I gasped at the way the entire room glimmered with soft, warm light. “Oh my God, it’s so beautiful,” I whispered, turning around to take it all in.

Lucas shut the door behind us and set the glasses on the dresser. “I’m glad you like it.”

“I love it. Thank you.” I peeked into the bathroom and saw that candles even lined the sink and tub. Mmm, I had some nice memories of being in that tub with Lucas. Some loud memories—my voice really carried off those tiles. “Honey,” I said, glancing at the window behind me. It was still open. “Think we should shut the window now?”

A grin stretched his lips as he unwrapped the foil from the top of the champagne bottle and untwisted the wire. “So we don’t disturb the peace?”

My cheeks warmed. “Ahem. I’m not exactly quiet, you know.”

“I thank God for that every day.” Then he aimed the cork across the room, worked it up till it released with a loud pop, and shouted, “Oh my God, I love Paris!”

I groaned, recalling how embarrassed I was that I’d actually yelled that out during sex the first night Lucas and I were together. “Jeez, are you ever going to let me live that down?”

His shoulders shook with laughter as he poured. “Never.”

I had to smile too as I went to the window, cranked it shut, and pulled the curtains across. “I really do love Paris, you know. Can we still spend a few days there before we go home?”

“We can do anything you want.” He handed me a glass of golden bubbly. “You want Paris? I’ll give you Paris. You want to go to the beach in Turkey? I’ll give you the beach in Turkey. You want to ride a camel in Morocco? I’ll give you a camel in Morocco.”

I grinned. “I want it all, eventually. But I’m so exhausted from all the wedding planning stuff, I don’t really want to take a big trip right now. Paris with you sounds like heaven to me.”

“Then Paris it is.”

“And let’s do all the things we did the week we met.”

“You mean have sex constantly? Works for me.”

“No! I mean, yes, sure, but I was talking about visiting places like Père Lachaise and the Musée Rodin. You can be my tour guide again,” I said happily, “and I’ll think dirty thoughts about you.”

“I had plenty of dirty thoughts about you, too, believe me.”

“And that’s why we’re so good together.” I clinked my glass to his. “Cheers, husband.” We drank, the fizz tickling my tongue and throat.

“Husband.” Lucas shook his head. “I can’t get used to it.”

“Me either,” I admitted. “But I love saying it.” Our eyes met and desire simmered between us. My dress felt heavy and hot. “Think we’ll be too warm in here with that window shut?” The villa didn’t have central air.

Lucas shrugged, setting his glass down and reaching for me. “If we are, we’ll open it again. I don’t give a fuck who hears us.” He kissed me, his hands winding around my waist, his tongue searching for mine, cool and tingly from the champagne. As the kiss grew hotter and deeper, desire for him flared at my center and need pulsed between my legs.

“Want to help me out of this dress?” I whispered. Setting my glass on the dresser beside his, I turned away from him so he could unfasten the closures at my lower back. He worked the hooks and eyes free and slipped the filmy straps from my shoulders, catching the dress in his hands.

“I love your back,” he said, kissing each shoulder blade, then each vertebra in a long, slow trail down my spine. Gooseflesh cascaded down my arms, and my breasts ached to be touched. Lucas pressed close behind me, and I could feel him getting hard, his erection nudging my tailbone. I reached around and rubbed him through his pants, my breath coming faster as he thickened and lengthened beneath my palm.

He moaned softly. “We better get this dress off you. Another minute of that, and I’ll just work around it.” Crouching, he lowered the gown and I stepped out. “You weren’t wearing underwear?” he asked in disbelief.

I smiled down at him. “Not since I met the stranger in the stairwell.”

He straightened, his hungry eyes traveling slowly up my body from my heels to my hair. “Stranger, huh?”

“There might have been something familiar about him. He certainly knew my body well enough.” I swayed closer to him, put my hand between his legs again and whispered in his ear. “And his cock was incredible—so big and thick. He fucked me against the wall so hard…”

“Yeah?” Lucas’s voice was hushed and gritty. “You like to be fucked hard?”

“I do. Hard and deep.” Beneath my hand I felt his cock jump and thought I’d better hang up my dress and change into my new lingerie before things got out of control. I knew how quickly Lucas could go from simmer to boil—and how fast he could take me there too. “I should hang up my dress, baby. And then I need a few minutes to change into your surprise.”