“You are my world, Belle. You don’t have to fit into anything. You’re perfect as you are.” His heart was so full he felt like it would burst. “Marry me?”
“Yes. Oh yes.”
“I’ve got a ring here and everything.” He felt the little box in his jacket pocket.
“Oh, Marty.”
“Yeah. It’s really pretty, too.”
“I know it is, even if I can’t see it.”
“Sucks I can’t put it on your finger now.” He watched the taxi pull into the driveway. “I can’t believe me, suave Marty Lawson, is proposing to his one true love while he’s sitting on her doorstep, locked out, and she’s half a state away at the dinner he’s supposed to be at as well.”
“Life has a way of taking egomaniacs down a peg or two.”
Laughing, he got to his feet. “Honey, you are so going to pay for that when I get home.”
“When will you get here? Tonight?”
“I wish.” Grabbing the handle of his suitcase, he walked towards the waiting taxi. “Tomorrow.”
“I’ll be waiting for you.”
The taxi driver took his suitcase while Marty slid into the back seat. Curiously he looked at her darkened house. “Where’s Cleo, anyway? Your parents?”
“I brought her with me. Last I saw, she was curled up on your pillow.”
“Great, everyone’s home but me.”
“I’ll be waiting for you.”
Warmth slid through him. That was so damned perfect. Who said dreams didn’t come true?
~*~
England
Honeymoon
Exploring the ancient castles and old graveyards was awesome, but not as awesome as doing it with the man she loved.
Belle smiled up at Marty as he stood close beside her, one arm around her waist as he studied the suit of armour, the tourist information pamphlet in his other hand.
“Looks damned uncomfortable,” her sophisticated husband finally said. “Imagine wearing that in winter? Freeze the balls off a brass monkey.”
“I don’t think the armour went anywhere near the - er - aforementioned unmentionables.”
Marty quirked a brow in amusement. “Come on, honey, you can say the ‘b’ word.”
“It’s not that, it’s just I don’t think these hallowed halls ever heard much of that kind of language.”
“Are you kidding me? My understanding is that way back in time the servants used to all sleep in a main hall and shag each other there and everything. Saying ‘balls’ after the kind of activity these walls have witnessed over the centuries is kind of tame.”
“You’d know about that kind of debauchery wouldn’t you?”
Marty leered.
Belle rolled her eyes, then shrieked when he heartily smacked her bottom and proclaimed loudly and lustily, “Avast, me wee wenchie! Let’s find the main bedchamber and have a tumble!”
“Good grief!” Blushing at the amused and not-so-amused glances cast their way by the other tourists and guides, Belle tried to smother her mortified amusement and elbowed him in the side. “Behave yourself. Oh, and get control of your characters. That was part Scottish, part pirate, and part something else.”
“Lusty barbarian?” He waggled his eyebrows. “How about we blow this joint and head back to the hotel?”
“No. I want to sight-see.”
“So do I, but in a more earthy fashion.” His gaze was both wicked and hot as he swept his gaze down her body. “If you know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean. What if I say no again?”
“Fine. But you’ll owe me.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah. I expect to be compensated for walking around with a boner.”
Lowering her eyelashes, she moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Okay.”
He took one look at her actions and groaned. “You so owe me.” Pulling her hard against him, he kissed her so long and hot that when he finally lifted his mouth from hers, she was gasping for breath and thinking about heading back to the hotel after all.
“Maybe I’ve changed my mind,” she said unsteadily.
Taking her hand, he grinned widely and towed her along the richly decorated hallway. “Nope. Your choice, honey. We’re sight-seeing and I’m going to suffer and you are going to relieve that suffering back at the hotel. You owe me big.”
Suspiciously, she looked up at him. “Hmmm. You’re up to something.”
“Me? Never. You just owe me.”
“You keep saying that. What, exactly, do you expect me to do to pay you back for this noble suffering?”
His smile was slow, wicked and oh, so carnal. “Oh, honey, what you did last night with your mouth…get the idea?”
Pleased, shy and embarrassed all at once, Belle flushed. “I was just experimenting. You said to do whatever I wanted, so I did.” She glanced away then back up at him. “You really liked it?”
His eyes grew even hotter. “Oh, yeah. Oh God, yeah.” His hand around hers tightened just a fraction. “Did you?”
Remembering very well his groans and moans, the way he’d come apart beneath her hands and mouth, the sensuality in not only giving him pleasure but watching him being swept away in a tide of passion, the desire she felt for him was almost overwhelming. “You have no idea.”
Marty glanced around quickly before yanking her into a small alcove. In a hard, fast move he caught her face between his hands and kissed her, dragging her up against him, his kiss ravenous, devouring, and she drowned in his scent, his essence, his mastery and pure, unconditional love. When he finally let her come up for air, they were both breathing fast. The sexual heat between them was almost palpable.
And someone was coughing behind them.
Belle peeked around Marty to find one of the castle guides frowning at them in displeasure.
“Excuse me, Miss, Sir,” the man said. “I’m afraid this castle is for exploring, not for clandestine affairs.”
“Sorry.” Smiling congenially, Marty grabbed Belle’s hand with the sparkling engagement and wedding rings on her finger, and waved it at the guide. “Honeymoon.”
The man didn’t look appeased.
“She jumps me every chance she gets,” Marty added.
Belle smacked his arm.
“Likes it rough, as you can see.” Turning back to her, eyes gleaming wickedly, Marty said, “Don’t hit me until we’re back at the hotel, honey, you know I’m a screamer. Now try to keep your hands to yourself, okay? I just want to look around first, then you can ravish me.”
Belle blew out a breath of combined laughter and exasperation. There was just no controlling the man or his sense of humour, however perverted and teasing. Just another of the things she loved about him.
Entwining her fingers in his, Marty tucked both their hands into his thick coat pocket and led her from the alcove past the guide.
“You owe me big,” Belle muttered.
Marty leered. “Well, I do know what you like me to do with my mouth.”
She blushed. Laughing, he kissed the top of her head.
That night when they returned to their room after dinner, Belle picked up the large envelope lying on the little table in the corner. “I wonder who it’s from?”
“Open it and find out.” Marty came up behind her.
Opening the flap, she withdrew two pieces of fax paper. One had Alan’s scrawl on it and the other was a copy from a newspaper.
Sliding his arms around her waist, Marty leaned his chin on her shoulder. “That’s from Alan. ‘Thought you might like to see the latest gossip. Hope you’re having a great time. Don’t forget to bring me a present.’ Straight to the point as ever.” He laughed.
Belle held up the faxed copy of the newspaper article. It was the photo taken at their wedding and it had made the society section of the newspaper. In the photo they were exiting the church, she was looking up at Marty, he was looking down at her, and while she was obviously blushing and laughing, he looked...well, do
wnright wicked, but there was no mistaking the love on their faces. She remembered very well that he’d just whispered something downright deviant he wanted to do to her and it had calmed her nerves. It hadn’t calmed her libido, but he’d taken care of that as soon as they were alone. In the coatroom of the fancy restaurant they were having the reception in, actually.
Even the memory was enough to make her blood heat a little.
Marty read the caption beneath the photo. “‘Martin Lawson marries Belle Broune. Finally, he’s made an honest woman of her. Or has she made an honest man of him? Whichever the case, The Other Woman and the Most-Sought-After-Bachelor of the Decade are both off the market. Here’s wishing them many happy years of marriage!’”
“Wow,” said Belle. “I don’t know what to say. Should I be insulted or honoured?”
“I’d take honoured, it’s more dignified.”
“Okay.”
“Speaking of not knowing what to say, you didn’t know how to respond when Melissa phoned you the night before our wedding to thank you for saving her from, as she put it so eloquently, years of wedded nightmare with a cheating bastard.”
“I can’t believe that after everything that happened she wished us happiness.”
“Hey, you can never tell how a woman thinks.”
“Still sore that Marcia sent you a cactus for a wedding present?”
“I think she’s holding a grudge.”
“Very possibly.” Belle still found the unspoken message of the prickly present amusing.
Marty laughed.
“It was lovely of Alan to send us this.” Belle looked at the photo again.
“You were so beautiful.” Marty kissed her ear.
“And you were so handsome.’
“Yes. Yes, I was.” He squeezed her waist. “Still am, in fact.”
“That is why I keep you around.”
“I keep you around for my sex toy.”
“So we’re both happy.”
“Stuck with each other.”
Turning her head, she looked at him, the love she felt for him so strong it almost took her breath away. “Forever.”
He smiled, his eyes warm with answering love, his hold protective as he cradled her back against him. “Forever.”
#######
BIO
Angela Verdenius lives in Australia, where she is ruled by her cats, adores reading, and thinks a perfect day is writing and drinking Diet Coke, followed by reading or a good horror movie.
To date, she has written numerous novels in sci-fi romance and BBW contemporary romance, 2 novellas, and several short stories, one of which is a zombie story she had great fun writing. Her books have won many reviewers’ awards, as well as having been on the Fictionwise best-seller list and winning the Golden Rose Award.
Visit her website at http://www.angelaverdenius.com/
The lighter side of life on her blog http://angelaverdenius.blogspot.com/
and at Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/angelaverdenius
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
The Lawson Boys: Marty Page 26
