Carter Bravo's Christmas Bride Read online

  But he didn’t let her. With a low chuckle, he caught both her wrists and pressed them into the mattress.

  “Fine,” she complained in a breathless little whisper. “Be that way.”

  He made a rough sound, a knowing sound. That sound vibrated against her willing flesh as he suckled her breast, flicking her aching nipple with his tongue, nipping it lightly with his strong teeth.

  Surely this couldn’t be happening, she and Carter in her bedroom in the middle of the night, doing the things people do when they’re a lot more than friends. Surely this couldn’t be real.

  Oh, but it was.

  He kissed her other breast. She shuddered in delight and lifted her body toward him. He let go of her wrists then—in order to undo the little satin bow at the top of her pajama bottoms. She lifted her head off the mattress and watched in heated awe as he eased them down and tossed them away.

  “Carter, I—”

  “Shh, Paige. It’s okay...”

  She blinked and stared down at herself. Naked. Except for her pajama top spread wide against the sheet, she was naked.

  She was naked and Carter, still fully clothed, was sliding to his knees by the side of the bed. He guided her legs apart and moved in between them, taking her by the waist, pulling her closer to the edge of the bed, then easing her thighs up onto his shoulders. She let him do all that, let him position her just where he wanted her. She didn’t make a peep of protest, gave him nothing but a willing sigh. She let him see all of her, and she felt not even a hint of reserve or shyness.

  “Relax,” he whispered.

  She did relax. She let her head drop back to the bed as she felt his breath across her skin. Her body hummed with pleasure as he laid a burning trail of kisses up the inside of her right thigh.

  And he didn’t stop there. He pressed that clever mouth of his to the eager flesh stretched over her hipbones, brushed those lips in places she knew she shouldn’t let him go.

  Ah, but she did let him. She more than let him. She welcomed him, opened wide to him. She surrendered. To his hot kiss, to the heat that seemed to roll off his big, hard body in delicious waves.

  To the magic in his hands.

  Oh, he was good at this. So good that she cried out more than once and he had to reach up and press his fingers to her lips and whisper, “Shh. Shh, now, sweetheart...” before he went back to driving her crazy with his lips and his tongue and even his teeth.

  And did she mention those hands?

  Oh, my, those hands. It so wasn’t fair what he did with those hands. He had her completely at his mercy.

  And at his mercy, as it turned out, was a great place to be.

  She felt her body rising, the tide of pleasure cresting. And she rode it joyfully, spreading her arms wide on the bed, clutching the pillows, the blankets, the sheets, grabbing tight and holding on, tossing her head, moaning his name, trying to keep from shouting out loud as her climax rolled through her.

  In the middle of it, as she came apart completely, he rose and joined her on the bed again. He kissed her, taking her mouth as his fingers continued making magic down low. His lips were so warm. He tasted of her own arousal, and he kissed her so deeply as the waves of pleasure pulsed and shimmered all through her. She hit one peak, dared to think it was over...

  But it wasn’t over. She faded down a fraction, started to catch her breath—and it was happening all over again. The pleasure receded only to bloom hot and glorious once more.

  When it finally ended, she just lay there, body limp, little sparks of giddy light flashing pleasantly on the insides of her eyelids.

  “Paige?” He kissed her name onto her slack lips.

  She sighed. “What now, Carter?”

  “Say yes, Paige.”

  She opened her eyes and looked at him as he stared down so intently at her. His mouth was swollen, red from kissing her. She could feel his erection, hard and hot, against her side, pressing at her through the fly of his jeans. And his eyes were so green right then, green and deep. And way too determined.

  All at once, she felt very naked. She fumbled for the sides of her pajama top to gather it around her.

  He caught her hand. “Don’t hide from me. Just say yes. Just say you’ll be my fiancée, say we’ll be together. Really together. Say I can stay with you, here, tonight, in this bed.”

  “Oh, I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

  “Will you stop with the negatives? Show me the positive. Give me my yes.”

  “Carter...” She reached up then and touched the side of his face. “Tonight I ate a carton of ice cream, watched a bunch of girlie movies and told myself I was licking my wounds, moving on...”

  He turned his mouth into her hand and kissed her palm. “Say yes, Paige.”

  She knew she should remind him again of all the ways his crazy plan would be flirting with disaster. But really, he was such a terrific man. He’d always been so good to her, generous, caring, there at her side whenever she needed him.

  And now that she’d had a taste of him, well, she really didn’t want to stop.

  He said, “We can be good together, better than ever. I know we can. I just want my chance with you.”

  That got to her. After all, she wanted the same thing. Her chance with him.

  Why shouldn’t they try it? Why assume it would all go to hell in the end?

  After all, it was the season of miracles. Maybe the miracle she wanted most of all would happen. She and Carter would work it out and end up making a life together, building a family, having it all.

  He bent close and rubbed her nose with his. And he didn’t stop there. He pressed soft, tender kisses on her cheek, along her jaw and then on her mouth.

  Generous. Yes. He was a generous man. Even in bed.

  And she couldn’t hold out against him any longer, didn’t want to hold out.

  “Say yes.” He breathed the words into her hair. “Have a little faith, Paige. Take a chance on me.”

  By then, she’d all but forgotten all her very good reasons for telling him no.

  She just wanted what he wanted, the two of them, together. To be his through the holidays, to get her chance to show him that love didn’t have to equal insanity.

  “Yes, Carter,” she whispered. “All right. I accept your proposal. We’ll try your Christmas engagement and see how it goes.”

  Chapter Seven

  Carter could hardly believe it. “You just said yes.” At last. It was happening. They were on. “Tell me I’m not dreaming.”

  Paige gave him that beautiful, soft little smile of hers. “You’re wide-awake. And we’re in this.”

  He kissed her, hard and quick. And then he sternly instructed, “Do not move.”

  She laughed. “Carter, what—?”

  “Stay right there.” He cut her off before she could get rolling. “Stay just as you are. Don’t move and don’t say a word.” She looked amazing with her clothes off, all soft and so touchable, with all that velvety pale skin, her dark hair wild against the white sheet, those fine breasts with their dusky nipples that fit his hands just right...

  Paige Kettleman. Naked for him. Who knew?

  And the way she’d come apart for him? That had been something special. All signs were good they would share a smoking-hot sex life.

  She pressed her sweet lips together and widened her eyes at him to let him know that, okay, she would be quiet and she wouldn’t move. Maybe for thirty seconds—a minute, tops.

  That should do it.

  He got up, fast, and reached back to get hold of his T-shirt, whipping that puppy over his head and off in an instant. He jumped on one foot and then the other, pulling off his boots and getting rid of his socks. After that, there were only his jeans and his boxer briefs. He reached in a front pocket
and pulled out the three condoms he’d brought because a man who knows what he wants needs to be prepared to get it.

  A flick of his wrist and the condoms landed on the bedside table next to the lamp. Paige was still quiet, still all eyes. Other than the wide eyes and the pressed-together lips, she hadn’t moved a muscle. That wouldn’t last long.

  He ripped his fly wide. Careful of his damn close-to-painful erection, he took both jeans and boxer briefs down in a single motion, stepping clear of them, giving them a kick toward the bedside chair.

  Paige’s eyes had gone wider than ever. And his minute of silence was up. “Carter...” She said his name on a soft exhalation. And then she slipped her arms out of her pajama top and held them out to him.

  He couldn’t get back to her fast enough, going down to the bed and gathering her into his hungry arms. She snuggled right in.

  Damn, he did want her. He wanted her bad.

  He tipped up her chin to take her mouth.

  And wouldn’t you know? Being Paige, she started talking again. “Wait. I need you to promise me...”

  He groaned. “Did you happen to notice I’m about to explode here?” She laughed. And he grumbled, “Right. I suffer. You laugh.”

  She lifted her mouth and gave him a quick, sweet little kiss. “I just need your agreement on one thing.”

  He teased, “As if I could refuse you anything in this condition.”

  She snuggled in closer. She felt really good there, her head tucked in against his chest. “It’s about Dawn.”

  “What about her?” He kissed the top of her head and then ran a hand down the silky skin of her outer arm.

  She tipped up her chin then and he looked down into those coffee-brown eyes. “As long as we’re test-driving our relationship, we’re going to be discreet for Dawn’s sake.”

  “Discreet...” Did anyone but Paige even use words like that?

  She pinched up her mouth at him. “Yeah. Discreet. You’ve got to be out that window before daylight. And whenever we spend the night together, we have to work it out so she doesn’t have to know.”

  “How’s that going to happen? She’s eighteen and not in any way an idiot.”

  “We’re going to make it happen, somehow. I need your word on that, Carter.”

  He combed his fingers through her hair. It smelled like vanilla and flowers. He wanted to bury his face in it, rub it on his chest, wrap it around the part of him that was getting very impatient to continue what they’d started. “I don’t like sneaking around.”

  “Says the man who keeps climbing in my window in the middle of the night.”

  He traced the indentation of her spine. Slowly. With pleasure. “You’re not going to budge on this, are you?”

  “Nope.”

  “All right. Have it your way. I’ll be gone before daylight and we will be discreet.”

  She gave him a glowing smile. “I appreciate that.”

  He thought about the ring then. “I didn’t bring the ring tonight. I started thinking that maybe I was pushing it, choosing it for you. That maybe you wanted to pick out your own ring.”

  “I love that ring.” She said it fast, without taking time to think about it.

  He knew she meant exactly what she said. “Well, good, then. You got it.”

  But then she started thinking. Paige always started thinking. “You know, maybe we should pick out something a little bit—”

  “Don’t you dare say ‘cheaper.’” He gave her a lowering look meant to signify that she shouldn’t poke the bear.

  “Well, really, now, Carter, I don’t need such an expensive—”

  “Stop. You like it and I chose it for you. It’s yours. Discussion over.”

  “I cannot believe that we’re sitting here naked, arguing about an engagement ring.”

  “So stop arguing. Let’s go back to the part about how we’re naked and take it from there.”

  Her answer came softly, almost shyly, “Okay.”

  His mama had caused no end of trouble for her children, but she never raised a single fool. Carter swooped down and captured Paige’s fine mouth, pushing his tongue right in, loving the taste of her as much as the feel of her in his arms.

  As he kissed her, he scooted them both around so they could stretch out on the pillows. He kicked the blankets down all the way, trailing kisses over her soft, strong little chin and into the sweet-smelling curve of her throat where the skin was so delicate and tender. He couldn’t resist sucking that softness against his teeth, knowing it would leave a mark, forgetting already that they were being discreet.

  Paige wrapped her slim arms tight around him and pushed her beautiful breasts against his chest. She whispered his name urgently, encouraging him to kiss her some more.

  He was just working his way downward over her delicate collarbones when all at once, she had him by the shoulders and she pushed herself up. She pressed him back against the mattress, dark eyes shining with intent to take the lead.

  Hey. No problem. She drove him crazy with her bossy ways a lot of the time.

  But in bed, he could be flexible. He liked to run things, yeah. He also enjoyed it when his woman stepped up and demanded a little control.

  She looked down at him through lazy, shining eyes. “Oh, Carter. So many muscles. I might have to kiss them all.”

  He didn’t object and she got right to work on that, scattering kisses across his chest, over his shoulders, along the side of his neck. And then down. She wrapped her soft hand around him. He gritted his teeth and tried not to embarrass himself.

  And then she took him in her mouth. He closed his eyes and gave himself up to the pleasure she offered.

  But it had been a while. After the disaster of Sherry, there’d been no one else. And Paige’s mouth all over him, well, that brought him to the brink way too fast.

  He reached out, fumbling for the nightstand. She glanced up and met his eyes as his fingers closed around one of the condoms.

  Now, there was a great view. Paige with her soft mouth all around him, that silky hair falling to one side and tickling his thigh, those big, dark eyes so soft and sexy...

  “Can’t last,” he confessed with regret.

  And she reached up and took the condom from him, getting it out of the wrapper and down over his aching hardness in no time.

  “Come up here.” He took her by the shoulders. She let him pull her up so they were face-to-face. And then he kissed her. He really, really liked to kiss her, to spear his tongue in and taste her, so sweet and wet and open to him.

  At his urging, she straddled him. He reached down between them to hold himself in place.

  And then, so slowly, she lowered herself onto him.

  Oh, yeah. That was something special, Paige taking him in. He sucked in air slowly, letting it out with care, keeping his eyes open so he could watch her move on him. He drank in every line, every curve, every sigh and sweet shudder as she took all he had.

  When she was almost there, he couldn’t resist. He caught her soft hips and yanked her down harder.

  She let out a hot cry.

  “Shh.” He reached up, touched her mouth in tender warning. “Shh...”

  She started to move then, staring straight in his eyes, her hair falling forward, her pretty breasts swaying, her hands braced at his chest. She started to move...

  And then he was the one making noise, groaning so loud and deep she bent right down close and teased, “Shh,” against his mouth.

  That was right before she kissed him again, her clever tongue slipping between his parted lips, sweeping the inside of his mouth, driving him wild as she kept rising and falling above him, pushing him to the limit, taking him right to the edge.

  He hovered there, just barely keeping himself from going over, determined to fee
l her go first.

  But she went on kissing him, went on moving so perfectly, lifting and falling, driving him closer. He was losing the battle, and he knew it. He wouldn’t be able to hold out.

  So he wrapped his arms around her and rolled them.

  On top, he had a chance to outlast her, to hold on to control long enough to feel her shatter around him—Paige, all around him.

  For the very first time.

  She gazed up at him, eyes hazy with need, a tiny knowing smile curving the sides of her mouth. He lowered his head and covered her mouth again, taking that smile for his own, rocking into her as she lifted her legs and wrapped them good and tight around his waist.

  After that, sensations rolled over and through him so fast, he lost all control. Heat sizzled and burned along every nerve. He surged into her and she took him, rocking beneath him, holding him tightly, just as he held her. He felt the end coming.

  And then, just before he lost himself inside her, she cried out, sweet and lost and beautiful. He still had his mouth on hers and he drank in that cry.

  Her body tightened around him in the first wave of her climax. So good, so right. He pushed into her harder. And then he held it, held still within her as her body pulsed around him and she moaned into his mouth.

  That did it. He lost it. He threw his head back and groaned at the ceiling as the finish plowed through him, mowing him down.

  * * *

  He got up long enough to deal with the condom and then he returned to gather her close. For a while, they just lay there, all wrapped up in each other, drifting. He stroked her back and she cuddled in close. Her breathing evened out.

  She’d fallen asleep.

  Worn out, poor baby. The past several days had been hard on her and he knew he was to blame for that.

  Because she loved him. Because she knew the way he was, not going for the love thing, no way. Because she’d tried so hard to hold out against him and he wouldn’t let her do that.

  But things would be better now. They were together just the way he wanted it. He would take care of her and she would be fine.

  Had he rushed her to bed?