Protecting The Colton Bride

by Elle James

  As she returned to the earth and her senses, another ache filled her, and she urged Daniel up her body, dragging at his hair.

  “Hey, that’s attached.” He laughed and complied, sliding his body over her torso and breasts until his lips hovered over hers. “Are you ready?”

  “Oh, you have no idea.”

  “I think I have a little bit of an idea. But first...” He leaned over the side of the bed, reaching for his trousers and the wallet in the back pocket.

  Thankful he’d had the wherewithal to remember protection, Megan grabbed the foil packet from his hands and ripped it open, then slid the contents over his rock-hard member. She tossed the empty packet to the side. “We aren’t done yet.”

  “Are you always this insatiable?” He smiled, his eyes darker than dark, his lips wet from pleasuring her.

  “Baby, it’s you.” She gripped his bottom and brought his staff to her entrance. “I can’t seem to get enough.”

  “It goes both ways, sweetheart.”

  “Then don’t let anything stop you now.”

  He nudged her opening.

  “Oh, please, don’t take it slow,” she begged.

  Hot and wet from the most incredible foreplay she’d ever experienced, she was ready.

  Daniel drove into her, burying himself hard and deep.

  Megan raised her hips to take him even deeper.

  He withdrew and entered her again. His length and girth filled her, stretching her channel in the most glorious, sensual way. Megan bucked beneath him, digging her heels into the mattress to meet him thrust for thrust.

  He rode her hard and fast, his long, steady strokes building speed, the friction inside heating her, sending her back up to the top of the peak.

  One last time he powered into her, all the way until he could go no more. There he held her, his body rigid, his member so thick and solid, yet throbbing and warm, pulsing inside her to the rhythm of her own heartbeat.

  When at last his muscles relaxed, he collapsed on top of her and rolled over, taking her with him, retaining their intimate connection.

  Megan lay with her cheek against his naked chest, her body limp and replete after the most mind-blowing sex she’d ever experienced.

  Daniel pulled her into his arms and rested his chin against her temple. “That was amazing.”

  “I have no words, except...wow.”

  He stroked a hand down her arm and along the swell of her hip. “We should get some sleep.”

  “I haven’t even thought about tomorrow.”

  “We have an entire day of honeymooning and another night here. You don’t have to think beyond that. Not yet.” He kissed the top of her hair, then pressed his lips to the tip of her nose and finally her lips.

  Megan wove her fingers into his hair and deepened the kiss, holding on for as long as she could before breathing became a necessity.

  Her body stirred against him, and his flaccid member grew hard all over again.

  “I assume sleep is not on your mind,” she teased him, her finger trailing down his chest and belly to the tip of his shaft which pressed against her stomach.

  “Not now. And not for the rest of the night if you keep doing that.”

  “Is that all it takes?” She circled him with her finger. This time she rose up over him, straddling his hips, her knees sinking into the mattress, her warm wetness easing down over him.

  “Who needs sleep, anyway?” Daniel thrust up into her. Holding her hips in his big, calloused hands, he guided her up and down in a hot, rapid ascent until they climaxed together, calling out each other’s names.

  Megan lay over his bare chest, her racing heartbeat matching his. Exhaustion melted her into him, and she could barely move enough to slip onto the bed next to the big Oklahoman. “Sorry, that’s all I had in me. Give me a couple hours of sleep and I could do it all over again.”

  “Is that so?”

  “You bet.” She looked into his eyes. “Promise me one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Tomorrow.” She yawned and closed eyelids so heavy she could barely keep them open. “No regrets.”

  * * *

  Daniel lay awake for a long time after Megan fell to sleep, staring into her fresh, beautiful face. Her strawberry blond hair fanned out over his arm in burnished-gold, silken strands. Her full, soft lips were swollen from his kisses, and her fingers rested against his chest, curling ever so slightly as if to hold on to him.

  No regrets.

  As soon as she’d said it, a dozen thoughts had powered through his head, every one of them a strong reason for him to step away from her as fast as he could. He was a good man, but he wasn’t the kind of man who strove for wealth and power. He liked living on the ranch and taking care of horses.

  His goal was to establish a viable horse-breeding program, not to conquer the world one corporation at a time. He had no desire to be a big shot in an office. Horses were his passion, and no matter how little he made at what he was doing, he wouldn’t want to do anything else. He loved the animals, felt most comfortable around them. More so than around humans.

  Except Megan. She’d fit right into his life without so much as a bump in the road. Her passion for horses equaled his, and her desire to live simply paralleled his own. Then why did he think she was a debutante to be coddled and protected until the day her parents handed her off to some rich playboy? He’d provide for her, protect her and see to it she never lacked for the most beautiful things money could buy. But would he let her do the things she loved? Would he love her like she deserved to be loved?

  No regrets?

  Daniel’s only regret was Megan’s accident of birth. If she had not been born of insanely wealthy parents, he could have seen being with her for the long haul. But he didn’t have enough to offer her.

  He must have drifted off in the wee hours of the morning. When he opened his eyes, sun streamed through the curtains of the honeymoon suite.

  Megan stirred beside him, rolling onto her back.

  Daniel slipped his arm out from beneath her and propped himself up on his elbow to stare down at the beautiful woman. Tall, slender and curvy in all the right places, she was absolutely gorgeous. Never in all the time she’d worked for Daniel had she expressed an interest in him, nor had he encouraged it. He respected her as his employee. Though he’d considered her hands-off, he couldn’t change the way his body reacted to hers when they worked in tight quarters.

  Even now, as she lay sleeping in the bed, his breath quickened and his member hardened.

  If he didn’t move immediately, he’d be touching her again like some sex-starved teen.

  Daniel eased off the mattress and stood. They needed at least one day in Vegas to make it look like a proper honeymoon before heading on to California to meet with her grandmother’s attorney. The sooner they got the ball rolling on her inheritance, the sooner she’d be able to purchase her horses.

  While in California, they’d meet with her parents, an encounter he didn’t look forward to. They’d be upset she’d married beneath her. Daniel hoped they didn’t make a big deal out of it.

  Megan was old enough to make her own decisions and live life the way she planned, not the way her parents felt she should. The least he could do was show her a proper honeymoon for an unusual wedding. He stepped into the bathroom, past the jagged edges of the busted door frame.

  His heart stilled for a moment. If the attacker had been successful, what would have happened to Megan? Had he been there to hurt, kidnap or kill her?

  And why? What did Megan have that an intruder would want? Kidnapping made more sense. Her parents were rich. If they loved her, they’d pay anything to get her back alive. Killing her made no sense whatsoever, unless it had been a random break-in and the burglar was on an insane mission to
murder.

  Daniel glanced at the sleeping Megan through the doorway and decided to leave the door open enough that he could hear if anyone were to break in and attack again. He’d keep her close until they returned to Oklahoma. For that matter, had her horse been poisoned in order to cause injury to Megan? Perhaps he was putting two and two together and coming up with five.

  He switched on the shower and stepped beneath the cool spray, hoping the water would wash away the fog of uncertainty and make his thoughts clearer. The danger they’d encountered had to stop before Megan got hurt.

  Whatever he did that day, he needed to keep his hands off his bride. This was supposed to be a marriage of convenience, not the real deal. As soon as she acquired her grandmother’s inheritance, she wouldn’t need him anymore. Daniel had to remind himself of that fact. Megan would be his ex-wife and, if she chose to stay at the Lucky C, she’d be his employee again. He had to keep their relationship on a business level. No more making love into the dark hours of the morning.

  The cool spray of the shower did nothing to tone down his rising desire. Just the thought of a naked Megan lying in the bed made his insides heat. The water warmed as he lathered a bar of soap, spread it over his face and body and then stepped beneath the showerhead to rinse off.

  Cool air fanned across his backside. Slender fingers circled his waist, and a warm body pressed against him.

  Daniel’s body reacted immediately and with profound lust. He leaned his hands against the cool tiles and let the water wash over his head and shoulders as he gathered his wits and held tight to his slipping control. “You are making it extremely difficult to remain hands-off in this marriage,” he grumbled.

  “You were the one who wanted this marriage to be hands-off.” Megan pressed her cheek and other, more interesting parts against his back. “How’s that working for you?” Her hands slid lower to fondle his hard staff.

  “I’m failing miserably.” He sighed and turned to face her, gathering her in his arms. “Especially when you look so damned beautiful in nothing but water and soap.”

  Her brows rose. “I don’t have any soap on me.”

  “Guess we’ll have to fix that.” He lathered his hands with the bar and set it aside. Starting at her neck, Daniel spread the suds across her shoulders and over the swell of her breasts. He stopped to tweak each of her puckered nipples, swirling the slippery bubbles around and around until Megan captured one of his wrists and guided his hand lower to the tuft of hair over the apex of her thighs.

  “There’s no soap here,” she said, her voice gravelly and sexy.

  Daniel cupped her sex and slid a finger between her folds.

  Megan’s breasts rose on a long, indrawn breath. “Yesss.” She gripped his upper arms and closed her eyes, holding on while he touched her again.

  Daniel studied her face as he toyed with the special place that made her crazy when he stroked her. He liked watching her eyelids flicker, her tongue dart out to wet her lips and her hips gyrate with every movement of his finger. Her response made him ready to take her there against the cool tiled wall.

  He slipped his soapy hands around to her back and down over the rounded swells of her bottom. Then he lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Poised at her opening, he was sorely tempted to thrust up inside her.

  With her hands braced on his shoulders, she tried to lower herself, but his hands on her hips stayed her descent.

  “No. We can’t do this.”

  She drew in a deep breath, her breasts within reach of his lips. “Protection?”

  “It’s in the other room.”

  “Then let’s go into the other room.” She cupped his chin and smiled down into his face, the shower pelting her chest, the water dripping off the tips of her breasts.

  Daniel groaned. “It’s more than just protection. We can’t keep doing this. When the charade is over, we have to go back to being us.”

  “And this isn’t us?” Her fingers raked through his hair, and she tipped his head toward hers. “It could be.”

  “It shouldn’t be,” Daniel said. “I promised I wouldn’t take advantage of you.”

  “What if I want you to?”

  His lips quirked on the corners. “It doesn’t make it right.”

  Her mouth pressed into a thin line. “I swear, Daniel Colton, you have the hardest head of any of the Coltons. What does it take to get you to look past the nose at the end of your face?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing.” She loosened her legs around him. “Let me down.”

  Now that she’d asked him to put her down, he was certain he didn’t want to. But he complied.

  Megan stepped out of the shower onto the mat and slid the curtain shut in his face, fire flashing in her green eyes.

  Daniel didn’t like that she was mad, but perhaps it would be better if she stayed that way. The less she liked him, the easier it would be to go back to their former way of getting along.

  Staring down at his erection, he doubted they’d ever go back to the way it was before they were married. Who was he trying to kid?

  He rinsed under the lukewarm water and switched it off. When he pulled the shower curtain back, Megan had left the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

  His pulse leaped at the thought of her in the bedroom alone with a possible intruder. Daniel dove for the door, his wet foot slipping on the tile floor. Instead of opening the door silently to check on her, he crashed into it headfirst and slid to the floor.

  His head throbbing, he pushed to his feet and regrouped. He flung open the door, throwing a towel around his naked waist.

  Megan was halfway across the room, headed in his direction, a frown denting her brow. She wore a black lacy bra and matching panties, the darkness of the scraps of material enhancing the paleness of her skin. “I thought I heard something fall in there.”

  “You did.” He straightened, his pulse settling into an uneven rhythm with her almost naked in front of him, the undergarments almost as enticing as her nude body. “I just—” he cleared his throat “—wanted to make sure you were alone.”

  Her brows lifted, and she glanced around the room. “I believe we are the only two people in the suite at this time.”

  “Good.” He marched into the room, grabbed his clothes and kept going into the sitting area, thus avoiding temptation.

  “Hey, cowboy.” Megan leaned in the doorway, her arms crossed, her lips quirked. “You can run, but you can’t hide from the way you feel.”

  “It’s not right. We’re only in this for a short while.”

  Megan dipped her head. “So why not enjoy each other’s company in the meantime?”

  “It’s not right. My mother and father did that, and what did it buy them?” He jammed his legs into his blue jeans. “A bastard child.”

  Megan’s arms dropped to her sides, and she crossed the floor to where he stood pulling his shirt over his shoulders. She laid her hand on his arm, all amusement wiped from her face. “Daniel, a child of ours wouldn’t be a bastard.” She nodded toward the papers on the end table. “We’re legally married.”

  “For show.”

  “It’s legal.”

  He shook off her hand. “You deserve a better match.”

  Her frown returned, and she spun away from him. “For the love of God. You sound like my parents.” Megan disappeared into the bedroom. Drawers slamming and the rasp of a suitcase zipper were the only sounds coming through the open door. Then she appeared, pulling a dress down over her head. “That marriage license has to be legal for me to collect my inheritance.”

  “I realize that.”

  “Fine,” she said, straightening the hem of her dress. She turned and gave him her back. “Zip me.”

  A chuckle rose up his chest, and he crossed to
where she stood in her stiff, fiery anger.

  He dragged the zipper up the back of the dress. Before she could get away, he turned her to face him. “Look, let’s make this day a good one, no matter what happens in the coming days. We have all of Vegas to explore and no one to please but ourselves.” He held out his hand. “Deal?”

  She stared at it, her eyes narrowed. Then she relaxed and slid her hand into his, her frown easing. “Deal. We’ll make it a day.” Letting go of his hand, she glanced up at him, her eyes narrowing again for just a moment. “But I still think you’re discriminating against me because of my family.” She poked him in the chest with a finger. “I. Am. Not. My. Family.” She reentered the bedroom, calling out, “The sooner you get that, the better.” Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she emerged in the doorway. “Ready to paint this town red?”

  He grinned. “Let’s do it.” Daniel pushed aside all his misgivings about this marriage of convenience for the day and concentrated on showing Megan a good time, while keeping a close eye on her in case the man who’d broken into their room showed up again.

  Chapter 10

  Megan smiled and laughed through the day, walking along the broad sidewalks of the Vegas Strip. She and Daniel toured several of the more notable casinos from the pyramid of the Luxor to the MGM Grand. They ate a sumptuous lunch at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino and walked beneath the sky-painted ceilings of Caesars Palace.

  The day passed in a whirl of activity and fun. Megan hadn’t realized how entertaining Daniel could be and how special he made her feel, always opening doors for her and holding her hand everywhere they went.

  At The Venetian, Daniel hired a gondola to take them through the beautiful canal winding its way through the spacious hotel and casino. The oarsman paused long enough to use Daniel’s smartphone to snap a picture of them in each other’s arms, drifting beneath an arched bridge.

  Despite the nature of their agreement, Daniel went above and beyond what was necessary to make the day special. If she hadn’t known better, Megan could almost have believed they were truly on their honeymoon.