And the Winner--Weds!

by Robin Wells

  “You’re a really different kind of guy,” she found herself saying.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, I don’t know—decent. Straightforward. Honest.”

  “That hasn’t been your experience with men?”

  Frannie leaned her head back against the side of the tub and rolled her eyes. “Ha!”

  “Tell me about the guy from college.”

  “He was a jerk. End of story.”

  “So how did you meet him?”

  She hadn’t talked about Joe in a long while. There were parts of the story she’d never talked about at all. Maybe it was the beer, maybe it was the deepening twilight, maybe it was just Austin. Whatever the reason, she found the words just spilling out. “Joe was in my junior calculus class. He was having trouble with the course, and he asked if I’d help him.” Frannie stared up at the sky, at the enormous orange moon hanging low over the mountains. “One thing kind of led to another. I was crazy about him. I thought he was The One.” Frannie gave Austin a wry smile. “And then I got a new roommate.”

  Austin’s eyes looked silver in the moonlight. “The Pamela Anderson look-alike.”

  Frannie nodded. “She was new to Montana, and she didn’t know anybody on campus. I invited her to go out with Joe and me a few times because I didn’t want to leave her sitting alone in the dorm room. Like an idiot, I missed out on all the signals that anything was brewing between them.”

  Austin’s hand continued to rub her calf. The muscle didn’t hurt anymore, but she decided not to tell him just yet. His fingers felt delicious, and she didn’t want him to stop. “Anyway, about that time, a professor talked me into running for class treasurer. He said it would look good on my résumé. All of the candidates had to make a speech to the junior class the day of the homecoming ball. I was nervous about it, but I had it all prepared. I’d practiced and practiced and practically knew it by heart.”

  The memories were getting uncomfortable now. She took a deep breath. Seeming to sense her anxiety, Austin shifted closer and started rubbing her neck. “What happened?”

  “Right before I was supposed to give the speech, I went to lunch with a friend at a pizza place. The restaurant had high-backed booths where you couldn’t see who was seated behind you. Anyway, my friend went to the rest-room, and while she was gone, I heard a familiar voice from the booth behind me.”

  “Let me guess. Joe and Pamela.”

  Frannie gave a mirthless smile. “No. That would have been a lot easier.” She leaned her head back as Austin’s fingers massaged her neck. “It was Joe, all right, but he was with a new pledge to his fraternity. Each upperclassman was assigned a freshman fraternity member that he was supposed to mentor—sort of a big brother, little brother arrangement.”

  “I get the picture.”

  “Anyway, Joe was talking to his plebe, giving him the lowdown on life, as if he were some kind of all-knowing, experienced man of the world. It probably would have been funny, listening to him, if the topic hadn’t hit so close to home. Joe was explaining that women are like currency. ‘You use them to get what you want,’ Joe said. ‘Take Frannie, for example. I used her to get through a couple of tough math classes.’”

  “What a jerk,” Austin muttered.

  “Oh, it gets better. This freshman—I think his name was Nathan—said something like, ‘I thought you and Frannie were kind of serious.’ Joe laughed and said I didn’t know it yet, but we were seriously finished. He’d already found my replacement.”

  “Man.”

  Frannie’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Joe said he was ready to trade up. He said being seen with a beautiful woman was a status symbol, like driving a fancy car, and if a guy wanted to be looked up to by his peers, he’d better find—and I quote—’a real show dog.’”

  “Ah, honey.” Austin’s voice poured over her like a balm. He ran his hand up and down her arm, and the words began to pour out faster.

  “Joe said that women were always competing in a big beauty contest. He said I was nice and smart and everything, but I didn’t rate very high on the head-turning scale. He said he wanted a woman who made other guys think, ‘Wow! Joe must really be cool if he’s got a gal like that.’”

  “The idiot must have been blind,” Austin muttered.

  “Nathan asked him who he had in mind to replace me, and Joe said, ‘Frannie’s new roommate.’ And then he went into a crude description of the size of her chest. He said he planned to dump me after the dance that night.”

  Frannie glanced over and found Austin’s gaze resting on her, his eyes warm and troubled and filled with concern. “Did you ever let the moron know you were sitting right behind him?”

  “No. They left soon after that, and then my friend came back to the table.” Frannie gazed out at the sky. The moon was higher now, but still incredibly large and orange. A sprinkling of stars twinkled around it.

  “Did you tell your friend what you’d heard?”

  “I tried, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t bring myself to repeat the words. I—I just kind of sat there. I can’t tell you how bad I felt. How inadequate. And then it was time to go give my speech.”

  Austin’s hand stilled on her arm. He pulled her closer.

  “It was in a big auditorium,” Frannie continued, “and it was nearly filled. Most of the people running for office were in fraternities and sororities, and their whole houses had come out to support them. It was kind of a rowdy crowd. I pulled myself together as best I could. The first candidate for treasurer gave a really good speech. He ended it by throwing candy that looked like little coins out into the crowd.

  “And then it was my turn. I walked out on stage, stepped up to the microphone and looked out at the crowd, and then, there in the back, I saw them. There was Joe, standing right beside my roommate.”

  Frannie’s throat started to close up at the memory. “I froze. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t move. I just stood there like a statue, paralyzed with fear and hurt. And the room fell completely silent.”

  Frannie fell silent now, just thinking about it. “And then someone laughed.” Her voice came out barely more than a whisper. “And then some more people. And then a guy yelled, ‘You want to be class treasurer? Show us how you count money!’ And he threw a piece of the candy money at me. And then all of a sudden, everyone was throwing it. I just stood there, getting pelted.”

  “Ah, Frannie,” Austin’s hand ran from her neck down her back, then up again.

  “It was awful. I finally managed to run off the stage. I felt like the biggest loser in the world.”

  Austin pulled her close, his arm around her. “But you know you’re not, right? You know that this Joe creep is the real loser, don’t you?”

  Frannie swallowed hard. “That’s not how I saw it. I felt like the homeliest, stupidest female on the planet. I decided that if life was a beauty contest, well, I just wouldn’t enter it. I wouldn’t even try to look attractive. I figured that if you don’t try, you can’t fail. So for years, I refused to do anything to call attention to myself. I tried to just blend in with the background.”

  Austin gazed at her, his heart heavy, his chest tight. This explained so many things about her. The prickly way she’d acted when he’d told her she’d looked beautiful the night of the ball, her fear of public speaking, the way she liked to hide behind her glasses even though she could see better out of her contacts. And it was all because of a conceited, air-headed jerk who obviously had no taste in women.

  A surge of rage pulsed through Austin. He wasn’t a violent person, but he’d give anything to be able to smash his fist through the creep’s stupid face right now.

  Frannie was staring up at the moon. “…And then my cousins started giving me a hard time about turning into a hermit,” she continued. “They wanted to make me over and fix me up with a blind date for the Whitehorn Ball. And then I met you, and…”

  Austin’s heart thudded hard. “And what?”

  “Oh, nothing.”
She looked away, and her voice lowered until it was barely audible over the swirling water. “That’s just the beer talking.”

  “One beer can’t say very much.”

  Frannie stared at the bubbling water. The color in her cheeks might be the result of the hot water, but the way she avoided his gaze spoke of embarrassment.

  The ache in his chest tightened. He shifted closer toward her, and gently rubbed her arm. “Let me guess. You were about to say that then you met me, and you could tell I didn’t see you the way you saw yourself.”

  She turned toward him, her eyes wide.

  “In fact, you could tell that I thought you had the sexiest legs….” Austin ran his right hand from her calf up her thigh, and was gratified to feel her tremble. “And the most beautiful, kissable lips…” His wet finger drifted to her mouth and softly traced its outline, carefully following the curve of her upper lip.

  Frannie’s lips parted. Austin leaned closer. “And the softest, warmest, most intriguing eyes…” His hand feathered up her cheek and worked its way into her hair. He was whispering now, his mouth close to her ear. “You could probably tell that I haven’t been able to get you off my mind since we met, and that I’ve lain awake nights fantasizing about you.”

  His face was close now, very close to hers, close enough to see that her pupils were dilated, her eyes filled with desire. A rush of need throbbed through him, hot and hard.

  “Austin,” she breathed. Her arms reached up and circled his neck.

  And then he was kissing her, devouring her sweet, salty mouth, and she was kissing him back, kissing him with a fervor that was hotter and wilder than the swirling water—hotter and wilder than the last lap at Daytona the time he was three abreast and fighting for the lead. She shifted onto his lap, pressing her bottom against his arousal, and he moaned at the sweet torture.

  The denim of her shirt rasped against his chest, making him ache to feel her skin against his. She must have felt the same need, because she reached for her top button. Austin covered her hand with his.

  “Let me.” He slowly unbuttoned her shirt, one button at a time, trailing kisses on her flesh as he exposed it. He eased the shirt down and off her arms, then tossed it on the deck behind them.

  She was wearing a tiny black bikini, and her nipples pushed at the wet fabric in hard, erect peaks. He took one of the tips into his mouth, fabric and all.

  “Austin,” she murmured.

  “I want…”

  He circled her breast with his palm, reveling in the soft weight, and kissed the peak again. “Yes, sweetheart?” “I want…”

  “Tell me what you want.” He ached for her, ached to do anything, anything at all that she wanted.

  “You,” she whispered. “I want you.”

  The blood roared in his ears. He put one hand under her knees, the other under her arms, and lifted her as he stood. He carried her out of the steaming tub to the chaise longue where he’d placed the stack of towels.

  Propping her on his knee, he picked up several towels, then carried her to a pair of French doors on the west wing of the house. Balancing her again, he turned the doorknob and carried her across the threshold, not setting her down until he reached his bed.

  Thirteen

  Frannie felt the give of a mattress beneath her, then felt Austin’s mouth settle softly upon her lips. She shivered, and he pulled back to settle a towel around her. “You’re cold. Let me light a fire.”

  “You’ve already lit it,” she murmured.

  He grinned as he leaned over her in the dimly lit room, rubbing her arms with the soft ends of the towel. “Well, let me light another one.”

  Frannie hugged the terry cloth around her and watched him stride across the room to a large stone fireplace, where logs were already neatly stacked, just waiting to be set afire. He squatted in front of it and touched a match to the kindling. Flames blazed and crackled, illuminating the room. Frannie glanced around. It was large and masculine and handsome, with taupe adobe walls, oversize Southwest-style furnishings and animal-skin printed fabrics. Frannie picked up the other towel Austin had laid on the bed beside her and padded across the thick cream carpet to the faux fur rug in front of the fireplace, where he was crouched to adjust a screen.

  He looked so masculine, so manly in the flickering firelight. A fresh rush of desire pulsed through her as she draped the towel over his muscled shoulders.

  He turned and looked up at her, his gaze hotter than the flames leaping in the hearth. “Come here,” he growled, pulling her to him.

  The next thing Frannie knew, they were lying on the thick, soft fur rug, and Austin’s mouth was working its magic, coaxing sensations from her that she never knew existed. She arched toward him, straining for every point of contact her body could make with his, intimately pressing against the rock-hard proof of his desire. She was on fire, aflame, ablaze with wanting, and she moaned softly against him.

  His mouth moved to her neck, to her throat. He slid the straps of her bikini top off her shoulders and pushed her top down around her waist. His gaze moved over her breasts, as warm as a caress, making the hardened tips swell still more. “Frannie… You’re even more beautiful than I imagined.”

  Beautiful. Austin thought she was beautiful. The thought hazily filled her mind and her heart. The words freed something inside of her, something she had always held back, something she had always been afraid to give. She wanted to give everything, everything in her heart and soul, to Austin.

  He bent his head and kissed her breast, pulling the sensitive flesh into his mouth. Sweet, hot arrows of pleasure shot through her, firing connections all over her body, pooling into throbbing need at the center of her being. Her hands played over his back, into his soft hair. “Austin,” she murmured.

  His mouth traveled down, down to her bikini bottom. His fingers toyed with the strings that held the fabric on her hips. “Just like a present, all tied up with bows,” he murmured. He tugged at the string with his teeth, unfastening one side, then slowly trailing kisses across her lower belly to the string on the other side.

  “Please,” Frannie moaned.

  “Not just yet.”

  His fingers moved lower and his kisses followed. Frannie lost all sense of place and time, all sense of anything but an aching, melting need.

  “I want you,” she whispered. “I want to touch you. I want…”

  He slowly slid up her body, trailing kisses across her belly and breasts. He pulled away for a brief moment and shucked off his swim trunks, then returned to reclaim her lips.

  He hovered enticingly above her. She reached out and closed her hand softly around the hard length of him, and was gratified to hear him moan. She arched against him, fitting herself against him. Austin gazed at her for a moment, his eyes dark and tender. “Frannie,” he whispered, then buried himself inside her.

  And then she was flying, racing through space and time, weightless and free, aware of nothing but the lusty, primal, urgent pleasure of loving Austin. She felt the love well up inside of her, felt it fill her to bursting, and when she finally shattered, she wasn’t sure if the words spilled out of her lips or were just shouted in her heart. “I love you, love you, love you.”

  And it was true. With all her being, she loved him, as completely, as fully as any woman had ever loved any man.

  She heard him gasp, felt him shudder, and held him close as he followed her into the star-strewn place they had created for each other.

  She loved him. And if he couldn’t love her back, well, she would just have to love him enough for both of them.

  Austin was dreaming of Frannie, dreaming that he was following her alongside a mountain stream. The stream magically turned into a waterfall. Frannie stepped under the water and started taking off her clothes, beckoning for Austin to follow. He reached out for her, and…

  Austin’s hand reached out, but instead of touching Frannie, it fell on an empty mattress. Opening one eye, he saw that the pillow next to him was empty. A f
eeling of loss fell over him like a painter’s drop cloth. He’d known the waterfall part had been a dream, but had the rest of it been unreal, as well?

  He pushed up from the pillow and opened his other eye. The bathroom door was closed, and the sound of running water was faintly audible through the wall. The shower. Frannie was in his shower. He leaned back against his pillow, an immense sense of relief pouring over him.

  It was strange—he normally couldn’t get women out of his room fast enough the morning after, but with Frannie, he’d felt panicked at the thought she’d left without saying goodbye.

  The shower shut off. A minute later, the door opened, to reveal Frannie in her jeans and one of his SeaBreeze Detergent T-shirts.

  She gave him a shy smile. “Good morning.”

  “Mornin’.”

  She crossed the room and stood by the bed. “I hope you don’t mind my borrowing your shirt. Mine was still wet.”

  Austin grinned. “Well, I sure as heck do mind.”

  Her eyes widened. “You do?”

  “Yeah. I think you should take it off immediately.”

  Frannie gave him a playful push. He grabbed her and hauled her back onto the bed.

  “You’re insatiable.” She laughed.

  “Me? Who kept me up till all hours in the kitchen?”

  “You promised me dinner. I was hungry.”

  “Yeah, well, so was I. And our steaks were just about cooked to perfection when you lured me away from cooking duties.”

  “You didn’t seem to mind at the time.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mind.” Not at all. He smiled at the memory of making love to her in the kitchen while she’d been perched on the countertop. “But our steaks burned to a crisp, and I had to start all over with fresh ones.”

  “Well, maybe I’m responsible for the kitchen episode. But who woke who up in the middle of the night?” She arched an eyebrow. “Not once, but twice?” She wagged two fingers at him.

  He was incapable of even pretending remorse. His grin widening, he pulled her down and gave her a thorough kiss.