Saved by the Bride (18 page)

“Unlike some people, I’m organized and prepared. The perfect
Boy Scout.”

“Thank God.” As she shook his hand in her right, she whipped
off his towel with her left. Her mouth fell open with a gasp. “You—you’ve had
shorts on under there the whole time?”

He grinned at her with dancing eyes. “I was having some fun
with you, but I’m not a sleazebag.”

Her own embarrassment collided with an edge of disappointment
that he wasn’t standing in front of her naked, and she mustered up some playful
indignation. “I could have severed an artery when I dropped that knife.”

“But you didn’t.” His fingers played with her hair. “Besides,
is it my fault that your imagination had me naked under the towel? You should be
thanking me for a virtual picture show.”

He reached to pull her closer, but she ducked away and rounded
the couch. If he thought she was that easy—and heaven help her, she was—she’d
make him work a bit harder to get what they ultimately both wanted. “I think
this is a case of false advertising.”

One black brow shot up. “Is that so?”

He’d tortured her so now it was her turn. She pressed her palms
against the back of the couch and leaned forward, knowing the position gave her
meager breasts some cleavage and that her scoop-necked T-shirt fell slightly
forward. “Sure. It’s a blatant misrepresentation of what was really on offer to
trick me into making a purchase that I otherwise might have avoided.”

His dark eyes swept her breasts and her body fired with heat as
he met her gaze. It burned with a need that matched hers and somehow she managed
to add, “I’ll need to alert the FTC.”

“I see.” With every part of his height and breadth targeted on
her he rounded the couch and moved tantalizingly slowly toward her. “On what
grounds?”

He stood so close she could smell his desire for her and her
brain almost emptied. “Truth in labeling or manipulation of packaging by using,
um,” she stammered as she visualized his boxers underneath the shorts, and then
vividly pictured what lay under that soft cotton, “too many layers or
fillers.”

He tilted his head and a curl dipped over his eyebrow giving
him the delectably wicked look of a pirate. “Oh, baby, there’s nothing false or
misleading about this and there are definitely no fillers.” His fingers gripped
the fastener at the top of the zipper on his shorts and his voice dropped even
deeper. “What you see is what you get. All of it. Just for you.”

A blast of need hit her so hard she swayed and anticipation had
her so wired she could hardly see straight. Liquid heat followed, pouring
through her and making her panties wet. “So what are you saying? That if I
unwrap the packaging this time I won’t be misled?”

She reached out and slid her fingers under his, undoing the
fastener. Then her hand slowly slid down the front of his pants and she shivered
as she felt his erection under the material.

He groaned and his eyes glazed over. “If you’re unwrapping me,
you need to do it fast.”

She laughed. “But I always unwrap my presents carefully by
peeling back the tape and not ripping the paper.”

His hands caught hers and he pressed them against the band of
his shorts. “If you unwrap this too slowly, you might find your present won’t
work for a while.”

“I can’t have that.” She shucked his shorts with a quick tug,
expecting to see boxer shorts. But he stood before her with the late-afternoon
sunshine streaming all over him—tall, tanned and blissfully naked. This time she
gasped with wonder and her hand longed to wrap itself around his long, silky
length. She couldn’t hide the admiration from her voice. “You’re beautiful.”

He gazed down at her. “So are you.”

The soft words made her heart jolt and she instantly went on
alert reminding herself that this was just sex. His words were just part of
foreplay. She stepped into him, wrapped her arms around his neck and tilted her
head back.

His mouth melded to hers and his heat flooded her like the
blast from an open furnace—swooping through her like a hot wind on an August
day. It instantly fanned all the tiny embers of desire that had been burning
deep inside her for days into a raging and out-of-control wildfire. She
plundered his mouth with hers, filling herself with his taste of coffee, mint
and sex. As she lost herself in his mouth she pressed her hands to his naked
skin, touching him and soaking him up like parched land absorbs rain when the
drought breaks.

He pulled her down onto the air mattress and straddled her,
gently pinning her underneath him. “Now it’s my turn to unwrap you.”

“Yes, please.” She raised her arms and he pulled her T-shirt
over her head. A sliver of reality pierced her lust, making her instantly
self-conscious about her old, plain bra that was a very faded orange, and had
been washed so many times it was ready to fall apart. Embarrassed, she crossed
her arms. “I don’t have any sexy underwear.”

He smiled and slid the straps down her arm. “I’m a lot more
interested in the contents than the packaging.” Three seconds later, and without
a moment of fumbling, the embarrassing article was on the floor lying on top of
his shorts.

Thirty seconds after that, her skirt and panties joined
them.

She rolled her head back to look at him. “Impressive.”

He grinned and his dark eyes flashed with desire. “I aim to
please.”

And he did. He lowered his head and nibbled her ear and then
his mouth roved along her jaw nipping and kissing in a seductive march of
branding. She moaned as his mouth closed over her breast and his tongue gently
and deliciously lashed her nipple. Pure pleasure streaked through her and her
hand gripped his head hard as her body seemed to rise off the bed.

His mouth broke contact.

She cried out as loss rammed her. “Don’t stop.”

His mouth twitched. “Sweetheart, I’ll keep going when your
hands stop clamping my head like a vise.”

“Sorry.” She dropped her hands. “It’s just so good.”

He dipped his head again and his mouth suckled her other
breast. A moment later she bucked toward him and her fingers dug into his
shoulders.

His hands caught hers and he laid them tenderly above her head,
keeping one of his hands gently over them. Her breasts rose as her shoulders
pressed against the mattress. Part of her felt totally exposed but most of her
felt unbelievably desirable. She’d never experienced anything like it.

He kissed her on the nose. “Your hands need to stay here so
they don’t keep getting in the way and nothing short of fire or flood can move
them.”

“But I want to touch you.”

“And you will, I promise. But right now this is going to work
better for you.”

She didn’t understand. “Why? I mean it—”

“Shh.” He put his finger to her lips. “Just trust me on
this.”

And despite only knowing him a few days she knew she could
accommodate his request. “I do trust you.”

“Excellent. Now where was I?”

His curls brushed her face as he trailed kisses across her
chest and then his tongue wove a slow, meandering path between her breasts and
down her belly. Unlike the glorious but almost excruciating pleasure of his
mouth sucking her nipples, this had her moaning out a long sigh. Although at
first she wanted to touch him and give back to him, she slowly relaxed and
totally submitted to his touch—losing herself in every luscious sensation.

His mouth moved past her belly button, moving lower and lower
and her body floated on a river of heady arousal. She was vaguely aware of his
fingers tightening slightly around her wrist and then his tongue caressed her
most sensitive place between her legs.

She whimpered with building need, her hips left the bed and her
arms tensed, wanting to wrap themselves around him and hold on tight. Deep
inside her muscles throbbed, desperate to have him fill them. She lifted her
wrists and his hand fell away but before she could touch him, his mouth and
tongue did things to her that she never wanted to stop. Heat spiraled, need
burned, sheer and intense pleasure built—spinning faster and faster until she
thrashed under his touch, wanting more, needing more, and she greedily took
everything he offered. Wave after wave of wonder took her higher and higher
until she thought she’d die from exquisite pain. As she tumbled over the edge,
she heard a faint scream in the distance and realized it was her, but she was
already floating high above herself on a cloud of utter bliss.

As the sensations rolled away, she slowly came back to earth
and to Finn. She pressed her hand to his cheek. “That was simply amazing. Thank
you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Only...”

“Only what?” A ghost of anxiety crossed his eyes.

“No, not that.” She kissed him hard and fast. “You’re
unbelievably generous, not to mention talented.”

His chest expanded. “Talented. eh?”

She laughed. “Oh, I can see using that word was a mistake.” Her
fingers skimmed down his chest. “It’s just I don’t get how that was good for
you.”

A slight crease marred his high forehead. “Watching you orgasm
is an incredible turn-on.”

His words stunned her. “Really?”

“Believe me, it is.”

He rolled her over and sat her on top of him. She could feel
him hard and strong between her legs and she burned to feel him inside her.

He ran his hands through her hair, trailing his fingers through
its length that fell to brush her breasts. “You’re my Lady Godiva.”

She’d never felt so powerful in her femininity as she did at
that moment. She used her hands and explored every inch of his broad, toned
chest that had been calling to her from the moment he’d taken off his shirt, and
she pressed her lips to salty skin. As she skimmed her hands downward, she felt
his tension spearing through her palms.

She gave him an arch look. “Is this bothering you?”

“No.” But his hand shot out for his shorts.

She plucked them out of his hand and found the condoms in the
pocket. As his hands cupped her breasts and his fingers did delicious things to
her nipples, she somehow managed to open the square foil. She rolled the condom
onto him, loving the feel of him under her hands and she wanted to stroke him
again and again.

“Annika.” Her name came out on a guttural moan and she saw his
restraint crumbling. “You’re killing me.”

“We can’t have that.” She rose on her knees and then slowly
lowered herself down on him, feeling herself opening for him and wanting to give
to him what he’d just given to her. Wanting to send him spinning out on a stream
of mind-altering delight.

He rose up to meet her—filling her—and her body gripped him.
She kept her gaze on his face, hypnotized by the line of his jaw, the sheen of
sweat on his top lip and the lust burning brightly in his eyes. Her body started
moving with his and suddenly she wasn’t an onlooker anymore. Her body caught his
rhythm, and she was one with him, riding fast toward the stars.

She shattered a moment before he did, but this time her orgasm
scooped him up and took him with her. Together, they were flung out into space,
circling each other until they fell back to earth on separate paths and rolled
away from each other.

As they both lay panting, Finn rose up on an elbow and brushed
her hair from her cheek. He stared down at her with deep dimples carved into his
cheeks and a quiet smile on his lips. “No tripping, dropping or stumbling. I
think we’ve just found the one sport you’re incredibly good at.”

She rolled into his arms laughing. “I was pretty hot, wasn’t
I?”

“Totally hot.”

She traced her finger along his sternum. “And you’re very
talented.”

He grinned. “We’re the perfect summer combination.”

She rested her head on his chest, feeling the rhythmic rise and
fall of each breath. All she knew was that she’d never had sex like it. Not that
she’d had many partners and she didn’t really count her first time in a college
dorm with a boy who’d known even less than she did. Based on that experience
she’d always thought sex with Ryan had been adequate and he’d certainly never
complained although her needs had often been left behind. She now realized she’d
been shortchanged by him more than just emotionally and financially.

Finn shifted slightly and immediately groaned as his elbow hit
the floor. “Next time we’re doing this in my bed.”

She refused to feel embarrassed about the rush of tingles that
shot through her at the thought of a next time. She did a quick calculation of
the number of days between now and Labor Day and smiled.

Chapter Ten

“Nicole said your meeting with the brides went
well.”

Annika looked up from her sketch of the monogram she’d been
toying with for Jessica’s wedding and smiled. When hunger had finally driven
them from the air mattress, they’d enjoyed a meal together before Finn had been
caught up on a work call. Annika had unpacked her pens and ink, lit citronella
candles along the veranda and made herself comfortable on the glider swing. Now
Finn stood before her holding two glasses of wine.

“Both brides were lovely. I’m still a bit stunned we’ve got two
weddings booked and for me, it’s going to involve at least one day, possibly
two, spent in Duluth sorting out the invitations.”

“Why?” He set the glasses down on a low table and sat down next
to her, the swing moving gently under his weight.

“Jessica, one of the brides-to-be, wanted the print on her
invitations to be raised so I need to use a—”

“Thermography machine.”

She blinked at him—twice—stunned that he knew exactly what she
needed. “Yes, but how do you know that?”

He gave her a bemused look. “Annika, exactly what do you think
AKP does?”

“Recycles paper.” At least that was what most of the
correspondence she’d dealt with had been about.

“Recycling’s one part of the business and the new plant in
Mexico’s been my focus while Sean’s been taking care of the packaging side. But
AKP is
all
about paper.” His eyes lit up with a glow
of pride. “All kinds of paper. We supply companies with everything from pulp to
triple crown stock and I bet we make the paper you use for your
invitations.”

She immediately thought of the quality paper used for Bridey’s
engagement party invitation. “And that’s how you know about thermography.”

“Yep. My grandfather and Sean insisted we spend time working in
all areas of the company. I started off in the boutique paper area and I’ve used
a thermography machine.”

Finn was full of surprises. “So you know how fiddly it is. I
have to quickly calligraphy one invitation at a time in sticky ink, immediately
apply the gold powder and then run it through the machine. That’s why it’s going
to take two long days. Longer if the humidity is high.”

“I need you here.”

The softly spoken words made her stomach flip but when she
looked at him she could only see the astute businessman. “I can go up on the
weekend.”

“What if you rented the machine from AKP? We can write that
into the contract and you can set up a studio in the warehouse rent-free.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’d do that?”

He shrugged. “I told Nicole I’d support Weddings That WOW with
some office equipment and this is all part of that.”

Of course it was. This wasn’t personal at all—just business,
and she’d do well to remember to keep the two very separate. She pulled up the
inexperienced businesswoman within and started haggling. “I’ll need fans for the
temperature control.”

“Okay. That won’t pull much power.” He pulled out his phone and
started typing a text message. “I can have the machine here in the morning. But
we need to have a schedule.” He hit Send and turned to her—the quintessential
businessman on an organizational roll. “I need you in the office every morning
and you can do your studio work in the afternoons. We’ll leave the truck at the
Whitetail dock and you use the boat to travel back and forth because it’s a lot
quicker, especially if I need you back here urgently for something.”

“Like transposing conference calls?”

But her teasing reference to his made-up call earlier in the
day didn’t elicit a smile or even a delicious twinkle in those dark and
enigmatic eyes. With a jolt she realized he was serious. Of course he was—he was
talking about business.

His phone beeped with a return message. “By the way, your new
phone’s arriving in the morning and your first job is to synchronize our
electronic diaries. I need to be able to contact you as necessary and you need
to have the phone with you and turned on at all times.”

A ripple of irritation shot through her. “Is that in the
contract?”

“Damn straight.”

She crossed her arms and tried not to raise her voice. “So I
can’t ever turn my phone off.”

“It can be off when mine’s off.” For the first time in the
conversation, he smiled and treacherously divine dimples carved into his
cheeks.

She tried to ignore the sweep of heat that whooshed to her toes
at his smile. “Oh, right, so that’s never.”

His eyes burned bright with the same spark of need she knew lit
her own. Holding her gaze, he pressed the off button on his phone and slowly
laid it down on the side table.

She watched mesmerized. She’d never known an everyday action to
be so erotic. His arms reached for her at the same moment she moved into his
lap. Yet again, they didn’t make it to the bed.

* * *

Bridey had three yellow legal pads on the kitchen table,
along with copies of almost every wedding magazine that had been published this
month and her laptop was open displaying photographs of wedding cakes. Every day
for two weeks she’d been compiling lists upon lists for the wedding and sending
Hank emails filled with pictures.

Her father strolled in and gave her shoulder a squeeze as he
glanced at the organized piles. “Ah, wedding planning. Having fun,
Baby-girl?”

She leaned into her father’s hand and rubbed her temples.
“There are so many decisions to make and get right. Which cake do you prefer?”
She pointed to a more traditional nine-tier cake with a matching cascade of
sugar-flower roses and calla lilies that wound around the tiers. The only color
was the yellow stamen of the lilies which gleamed gold against the elegant
ivory. The other cake could have been mistaken for a basket filled with a mass
of spring flowers.

“Honey, it’s your wedding so it’s up to you. Choose whatever
makes you happy and I’ll be there to give you away and to pay the bill.”

“Yes, but do you have an opinion?”

“As long as they both taste like cake, that’s enough for me.”
He kissed the top of her head and walked into the kitchen.

She tried not to sigh. She should have known better than to ask
her father. Although he’d been married three times the weddings had always been
arranged by the brides or, in the case of his marriage to her mother, hastily
organized by the bride’s parents. Finn had been born seven months later.

Her wedding to Hank and their marriage was going to be very
different, starting with Hank being involved in every step of the wedding
planning. That had been part of her plan for this vacation. But Hank was in
Chicago and had been for almost two weeks and she was here. He wasn’t responding
to her emails about wedding venues or cakes or boutonnieres. When she tried to
talk to him about it on the phone he usually sounded so tired that she hadn’t
pushed him for any opinions, but she was starting to get anxious about it. She
wanted his input. She didn’t want to make any mistakes in the planning because
everything
had to be perfect. If the wedding was
perfect then their marriage would be perfect. But so far the planning of the
wedding wasn’t going to plan.

Snapping down the lid of her laptop, she also snapped down her
disappointment.

So
organize
the
other
part
of
the
plan
.

Bridey was her father’s “Baby-girl,” no matter that she was
twenty-nine, and her father usually gave her what she wanted—within reason. He’d
always been generous with gifts for both her and Finn, although she suspected
they came with some of his guilt attached. Growing up, Finn had hated the gifts
and had returned many. Bridey had always loved pretty things and felt no
compunction in accepting them. As a result, her relationship with her father had
fared better than Finn’s. In the last couple of years, she’d taken to inviting
Sean to her guest speaker gigs at local colleges and most times he’d attended
and had then taken her out for dinner afterward. Had she ever been asked the
question, she’d probably say that right now their relationship was the closest
it had ever been.

“Daddy.”

“Yes.” Sean poured himself a glass of iced water from the
dispenser in the door of the fridge.

“Do you remember the zip line?”

He smiled. “You used to scream like a banshee every time you
rode it and then you’d swim back to shore and do it all over again.”

“I was thinking maybe Logan might get a kick out of something
like that.”

Sean sipped his water and Bridey held her breath while silently
willing him with a chant of
please
,
please
,
please
.

He put the glass down. “That’s not a bad idea, B.”

Yes
! Bridey pulled a brochure out
of the back of her diary that she’d carefully placed there a month ago. “Here’s
the number of a company that installs them. When you call, ask for Jeff.”

Sean rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “Actually, Bridey, I
don’t need the number. The zip line is just the sort of project I’ve been
looking for.”

Bridey started. “You’re going to build it?”

He laughed at her surprise. “Honey, I did engineering at
college.”

The loud whirring noise of the helicopter cut off her reply.
“Do you and Dana have guests for the weekend?”

“Not that I know about.”

Dana came in from the garden, her brows drawn down. “Sean, have
you forgotten to tell me something?”

Sean smiled at his wife before kissing her on the cheek. “I’m
in the clear this time. Besides, I promised you this summer is about us, not
work.”

Dana touched Sean’s cheek and exchanged a smile with him that
made Bridey feel like an outsider. She loved that her father was happy and
unlike Sean’s second wife, she really liked Dana a lot, but a tiny part of her
still ached for the family she’d lost when her parents had separated. She knew
it was silly because Dana was a much better fit for Sean than Kathleen had ever
been, but it was moments like this that made Bridey feel she didn’t have a
family as such, more a collections of parts. Parts that never came together to
form a whole unit.

She quickly gathered her stuff and stacked it on a side
table.

Dana turned away from Sean and spoke to Bridey. “Oh, have you
made your cake decision already? I thought we might have coffee and a browse
together.”

Bridey appreciated Dana’s interest but the thought of more
wedding talk combined with the possibility of Kathleen finding out, suddenly
intensified her headache and the
one
person she
needed to be interested in the wedding wasn’t returning her emails and texts. “I
need some fresh air. I think I’ll go for a swim before spending some time with
Mom.”

“Another time then. Esther’s doing a potluck supper tonight and
I thought we could serve ourselves from seven. Kathleen’s very welcome.”

Her father sighed. “You know she won’t come.”

Dana’s chin tilted up sharply. “I know no such thing. Bridey,
it would be great if you could encourage her to come. I’ve texted Finn but I
haven’t heard back.”

“I think my son might be otherwise occupied.”

Bridey heard her father’s tone and did a double take. “What has
he said?”

“To me? Nothing at all. This is Finn we’re talking about. I’m
just saying he’s a man sharing a two-roomed cabin with a leggy blonde. He’d have
to be made of stone not to be somewhat occupied.”

“But he didn’t want Annika at the cabin. In fact he tried to
get Mom to— Oh.” Bridey smiled as realization dawned. Finn always kept his
private life very, very private and she might have just stumbled onto a
bargaining chip to get her brother to start attending some family gatherings.
“Dana, I’m pretty sure Finn will be there tonight and I’ll do my best to bring
Kathleen.”

She let herself out, enjoying the feel of the soft, warm grass
tickling her bare feet as she walked down toward the beach. Her father’s words
kept turning over in her mind and she decided she might just kayak over to the
island as she did from time to time. Of course while she was there, she’d have
to call into the cabin and say hello, because not to do so would be plain
rude.

Lost in her scheming, she didn’t hear anything other than her
own thoughts so when a pair of arms covered in blond hair grabbed her around the
waist and swung her up and off the ground, she screamed. It took less than five
seconds for her to recognize the strong hands with their neatly trimmed nails
and for her brain to decode the familiar earthy scent tinged with a slight tang
of oil.

She squealed with sheer joy. “Hank.”

Holding her tightly, he let her feet touch the ground and then
he spun her around in his arms, never losing contact. Behind his dark-rimmed
glasses he looked bone-tired, but his honey-brown eyes smiled down at her.
“Bridey.”

His lips brushed hers lightly, making her body sing, and she
wrapped her arms around his neck, needing to feel his strength against her skin.
“I can’t believe you’re here.”

His fingers gently rubbed her neck. “I hitched a ride on the
helicopter along with some gear for Finn.”

She gave a tiny jump of delight and kissed him hard before
catching his hand and pulling him toward the tree house. “Our vacation starts
now and we’re starting it horizontal.”

He laughed and tugged her back toward him, while at the same
time glancing around the wide expanse of grass as if he was looking for someone.
“Where is everybody?”

“Around. Out. I don’t know. Does it matter?” She’d missed him
so much and all she wanted to do was strip him bare, touch him all over, hold
him and make wild and unrestrained love. Right now. She counter-tugged but Hank
had stopped walking, his feet wide apart and firmly planted on the grass.