ONE EAGER BRIDE TO GO

by Pamela Burford

  "Did you know you can connect the two tunnels with these nifty Velcro tabs?" he asked conversationally.

  No, actually, she hadn't known that.

  He added, "Something I learned from that instruction sheet you never glanced at."

  Sure enough, when Sunny cautiously crawled through the now curved tunnel toward what should have been the opening, she saw that it had been linked to the other tunnel to form one long loop. The cube was now the sole entrance and exit.

  "Trapped!" A laugh infected Sunny's voice as sensual anticipation surged. "Like a rat!"

  "That'll teach you to mess with a physicist."

  She heard him crawl back into the cube. Stifling a nervous giggle, she listened intently, trying to discern which branch of the tunnel Kirk would take to get to her, certain that he had no intention of waiting her out. She had a tactical advantage, though, being closer in size to the tykes this contraption was created for.

  The instant she heard him squeeze into the section of tunnel behind her, she scrabbled forward with all due haste. So intent was she on her goal that she failed to anticipate the classic fake-out. As the interior of the cube came into view, Kirk's arm abruptly appeared in the opening, snaking out to seize her wrist.

  She yelped and tried to wriggle backward. With a wicked cackle he captured her other wrist and hauled her out of the tunnel onto the square of grass inside the cube. In a flash he rolled on top of her, one-handedly shackling her wrists above her head. His breathless laughter echoed hers. A little thrill swept her as she realized that this time, she wasn't going to get away.

  The grass felt cool and prickly beneath her, in contrast to the welcome weight and heat of Kirk on top of her. Both of them were nearly naked, and the feel of skin on skin went to her head like potent wine. Sunlight suffused the colorful walls of their haven, casting rainbow hues everywhere. It was like being inside a kaleidoscope.

  Kirk leaned up on an elbow and looked at her. Whatever he saw turned his pale blue eyes to smoky slate. One long, hair-dusted leg pressed between hers as he lowered his head and kissed her. Sunny felt her body rise as she gave herself up to the kiss, felt her free leg slide up to hook over his. At that moment, she needed Kirk more than she needed air.

  He released her hands to unfasten her bra and toss it aside, before throwing himself into the kiss once more. His hot, thrusting tongue, the insistent ridge of his erection between them, spiked her excitement to new heights. When he relinquished her mouth, it was to press kisses to her throat, her chest, and lower, to her aching breasts, sensitized beyond belief. She emitted desperate little sounds as he stroked and nipped and sucked her, first gently, then with increasing force, until she was writhing against him, clawing his shoulders.

  He pulled back, his eyes darker than she'd ever seen them, his lips moist, his color high.

  "I can't wait," Sunny gasped, shameless in her need. She felt as if she'd been waiting twelve years for this very moment. "Please, Kirk, I can't wait any longer."

  He stripped off her panties with breathtaking speed. His running shorts followed, and suddenly he was inside her, high, hard and deep. Sunny bit her lip against the scream of pleasure that barreled up her throat.

  She wrapped her legs around him as he tilted her hips, fitting themselves to each other as if they'd never been apart. The feel of Kirk moving inside her, filling her with long, sure strokes, plumbing the deepest heart of her, obliterated the last vestige of Sunny's self-control. Raw instinct took over as she met his pistoning thrusts, clung to him, reaching, reaching…

  Kirk watched her, his eyes like banked coals, glowing with a hot blue light. Cords stood out in his neck. He leaned more heavily into her, angling her lower body for greater contact, nudging the tiny bud of her desire with every fierce lunge. Sunny's mouth opened on a silent scream. The tension in her body peaked as he held her on the enchanted brink of orgasm for one long, heart-stopping moment.

  Just when Sunny thought her mind would shatter from the pure, stunning pleasure of anticipation, her climax wrapped its long fingers around her and squeezed. Her back bowed sharply as she tumbled over the edge. Kirk plunged into her straining body, fast and rough, his eyes half-closed, his features tortured.

  Holding her in a steel grip, he rammed hard into her, groaning deep in his throat. She felt the potent intensity of his release, felt the pulsing salvo at the depths of her womb.

  They collapsed in a sweaty heap, gulping air. Sunny felt as if she were drifting outside herself. She squinted at the sunlight streaming through the bright-hued walls of the cube, savored the sweet aftershocks that told her how deeply she and Kirk were still joined. She felt a little raw where the grass had scraped the skin of her back, but she didn't mind. Kirk was here, her Viking, her golden lover, and that was all that mattered.

  He raised his head and grinned down at her. Sunny couldn't have said who started laughing first, or what they were laughing at. Not that the absurdity of the setting wasn't reason enough. She just knew it felt as if her life had only now begun, as if she'd just awoken from a twelve-year hibernation.

  Kirk kissed her and rolled off of her, cradling her against his steady heartbeat. Eventually he asked, "Is it like you remember?"

  She smiled. "Better." Kirk had been eager and inventive as a teenager, and devoted to her—everything a young girl could hope for. But the boy he'd been then couldn't hold a candle to the mature man she now found herself with.

  "Ditto," he murmured, nuzzling her hair.

  "We were in a pretty big hurry just now."

  His amused grunt said, No kidding.

  "And careless," she added.

  "Huh?"

  Men! Sunny leaned up to look at him, chuckling at his perplexed expression. "I'm talking about protection, Professor. You know, birth control?"

  Kirk went utterly still, his expression as sober as she'd ever seen it. He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he tucked her against his chest once more. His heartbeat was faster now, agitated. Perhaps he'd assumed she was on the Pill or something. If so, it was a hell of an assumption.

  "Look," she said, "I don't really think we have anything to worry about. It's not my, you know, fertile time right now." He said nothing. "Okay?"

  She felt him swallow thickly. "Okay."

  "So … do you want to take care of it?"

  "Take care of…? Oh, buying condoms. Yeah. Of course," he said dully. "You shouldn't have to do that."

  Sunny smiled against his chest, already fantasizing about some future time when she and Kirk would once again make love without birth control—by design rather than accident.

  * * *

  Chapter 6

  «^»

  "Ah, the ladies of leisure have arrived!" Amanda Coppersmith announced.

  Standing with Raven and Charli in the doorway of their friend's office, Sunny watched a grinning Amanda lean back in her burgundy leather executive chair and toss her Mont Blanc fountain pen onto the pile of papers before her. When the dark-haired man seated in front of Amanda's glass-topped desk turned toward the doorway, Sunny recognized Brent Radley, Raven's brother-in-law and the sales manager of Grasshopper, the children's magazine Amanda published. Brent's handsome features stretched into a welcoming smile.

  "Ladies of leisure indeed," he said, smirking at the many shopping bags they toted, printed with the logos of Saks Fifth Avenue

  , Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor.

  Sunny strolled into the office. "For your information, I'm off today. I'll be slaving away tomorrow and Sunday, though, while you get the whole weekend off, you lazy bum."

  Raven shoved her chin-length, dark blond hair behind her ear. "And both my hypnotherapy clients for today canceled their appointments. So there."

  "And school doesn't even start until next week!" Charli put in. "So double there!"

  "So be forewarned," Sunny said. "One more 'ladies of leisure' crack and you'll be wearing this." She wagged a hefty brown take-out sack.

  Amanda straighte
ned. "What've you got there? Smells like…" She sniffed the air. "Greek!"

  "Good nose," Raven said. "Gyros, spinach pie, souvlaki, and a little Middle Eastern thrown in."

  Charli said, "We figured we'd just spread it out in the conference room and share."

  "Looks like you exercised some restraint, Raven." Brent eyed the one tiny shopping bag his sister-in-law and onetime girlfriend had set in a corner. "Good news for my brother."

  "Yeah, well, don't be impressed yet." Raven nodded toward the heap of bags Charli and Sunny were piling next to it. "They wouldn't let me carry my own stuff. I'm just three months along. The way they fussed over me, you'd think I was about to give birth right there in the shoe department."

  "Trust you to complain about being fussed over," Amanda said, rising and coming around her desk to inspect the purchases. As always, she was elegantly attired, her pale blond hair pulled back into a sleek chignon. Her short-skirted suit in vivid raspberry showed off her willowy figure and long, slim legs. "Hey, if it were me with a bun in the oven, you can bet your baby bootees I'd milk it for all it was worth."

  "If it were you with a bun in the oven," Charli said, "I'd die of shock."

  Amanda had sworn off marriage the day her second divorce became final last year. Nevertheless, she was scheduled to become the fourth and final beneficiary of the Wedding Ring matchmaking pact when her thirtieth birthday rolled around on October 7, a mere six weeks away. Just how Sunny and the others would persuade her to cooperate had yet to be determined.

  Amanda hadn't always had an aversion to marriage—after all, she'd given it the old college try not once but twice! Even now, Sunny wondered how much of her friend's reticence was actually a self-protective impulse, a subconscious attempt to spare herself more pain.

  "My, my," Amanda said, pulling a pair of maternity leggings out of one of the shopping bags. She held them up, stretching the roomy elastic panel. "Aren't these fetching."

  Brent looked dubious. "You aren't going to get that big." He eyed Raven's midriff, just beginning to expand; his blue eyes widened. "Are you?"

  Raven laughed. "It's not a permanent condition. After the baby comes, I'll pass these things on to…" She waggled her eyebrows at Charli, who blushed to the roots of her dark brown hair.

  "We're—we're not—" Charli stammered. "What makes you think—"

  "We all see the way you and your gorgeous bridegroom look at each other," Amanda said, now rummaging through one of Sunny's bags from Lord & Taylor. "Don't tell me you guys aren't even trying. Will you look at this. Someone's going to be the belle of the beach." She held up a two-piece swimsuit, royal blue with silver trim. Inspecting the tag, she added, "Sunny's size. Half price! Good work, girl!"

  "Why don't you model it for us?" Brent suggested.

  "Yeah, that'll happen," Sunny muttered.

  Raven smirked at her brother-in-law. "Might I remind you, Mr. Radley, that you're married to a swimsuit model? As in a woman who is so drop-dead gorgeous she is paid to prance around in little triangles of cloth that make Sunny's new bathing suit look like it was designed by Omar the Tentmaker."

  "Gee, thanks," Sunny said.

  "So?" Brent said.

  "So," Raven continued, "what woman—what normal-looking woman—in her right mind would willingly model a swimsuit for you, knowing what you go home to at night?"

  "Oh, you can't be serious." Brent spread his hands. "You're all lovely women. And anyway, don't you know variety is the spice of life?"

  Sunny bit her lip and avoided looking at the others, knowing she'd never be able to keep a straight face if she did. Until recently, variety had been very much the spice of Brent's life, sexually speaking—until Marina, the swimsuit model, had come along. A canny lady who knew what—and who—she wanted, Marina had patiently waited out his doomed relationship with Raven and then put her roving man on a short leash. To Sunny's knowledge, he hadn't strayed since, and the two of them had been happily married since April.

  Amanda looked toward the open doorway. "Were your ears burning?"

  Sunny turned to see who her friend was addressing. If possible, Marina Radley was even more astonishingly beautiful than the last time Sunny had seen her. The olive-skinned young woman stood several inches taller than Amanda, who was a good five-seven. Marina's hip-length black hair and almond-shaped eyes gave her an exotic appeal that had served her well in the cutthroat world of modeling. But no one had to tell Marina that looks fade in time. Anticipating the inevitable, she'd begun pursuing a career in holistic medicine.

  Brent came to his feet and kissed his wife. Marina greeted everyone and gave Raven a warm hug. Despite the fact that Marina had once been "the other woman," she and Raven were now family, having married brothers, and in fact had become quite close over the past months.

  "Stay and have lunch with us," Raven said. "It's Greek, so it's partly veggie." Marina was a confirmed vegetarian.

  "Oh, thanks, but we have reservations at Sue Ann's," Marina said, naming a hot new health-food eatery.

  Brent's shoulders slumped. "I haven't had souvlaki in I don't know how long," he whined.

  "Sue Ann makes an outrageous grilled-veggie sandwich. Your conscience—and your arteries—will thank me." Marina slipped her arm through his and firmly ushered him out of the office. "Enjoy your lunch," she called by way of farewell, as her husband gazed longingly at the grease-stained take-out bag.

  Within two minutes the Wedding Ring pals had arranged their feast on the sprawling, glossy table in the conference room. Closing the door for privacy, Amanda took her seat. "Dibs on the spinach pie."

  "Down, girl." Sunny was busy prying lids off foil containers and unwrapping warm grilled pita bread. "There's plenty to go around. Help me get this stuff open."

  Charli handed out paper plates and napkins while Raven opened a bottle of diet soda. "Is Kirk all ready for the start of classes?" Raven asked Sunny.

  "Yep." Sunny scooped some hummus, a garlicky chick-pea dip, onto her plate and tore a piece of flat pita bread. "He'll be teaching introductory physics and a couple of more advanced courses. He's looking forward to it."

  Raven said, "So things are still good between you two?"

  Sunny couldn't restrain a grin. "They seem to be. We've really, I don't know, meshed. If anything, it's better than it was in high school."

  Raven squeezed Sunny's hand. "I'm happy for you."

  Amanda reached past Charli for the falafel, fried balls of seasoned, ground chick peas. "What about the sex? Is that better than in the old days?"

  "Amanda!" Raven barked.

  Sunny chuckled. "Kirk asked the same thing. The first time. I have no complaints. Let's leave it at that."

  "Say it." Amanda forked up a bite of savory spinach pie, with its golden-brown striations of papery phyllo dough.

  "Say what?" Sunny asked.

  "Say, 'You were right and I was wrong.'"

  "About me and Kirk?"

  Charli said, "You were pretty opposed to the idea at the beginning, as I recall."

  Sunny rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. "I thought you guys were nuts."

  "Sometimes," Raven said with a tender smile of her own, "your friends really do know what's best for you."

  "That was the idea behind this whole pact, wasn't it?" Charli poured herself some soda. "I mean, we've known each other since kindergarten. Who better to choose our husbands?"

  "Anyone want to split a gyro?" Amanda asked, pulling the sandwich of pita and spicy pressed lamb closer.

  Charli said, "I will. I fell so in love with Greek food on our honeymoon, I must've gained five pounds. I'm afraid to get on the scale."

  "Don't worry about it." Amanda sawed the sandwich in half with a plastic knife and handed Charli her portion. "You'll be preggers soon enough if you aren't already, and then you'll be in those big, ugly leggings with the elastic panels."

  Raven gave Amanda an exasperated scowl.

  "So back to Sunny and her high-school sweetheart," Amanda said
. "You've been together how long now?"

  "Seven weeks."

  "Has he told you he—" Amanda batted her eyelashes "—loves you yet?"

  Raven said, "That's none of your business, Amanda. Sunny, don't answer that."

  "I don't mind." Sunny pushed her food around on her plate. "He hasn't actually said he loves me." She looked at each of her friends in turn. "But I know he does. I mean, I just know it."

  Raven said gently, "What do you think he's waiting for?"

  Sunny took a deep breath. "I'm not really sure. Sometimes I get the feeling that something's troubling him."

  Charli drizzled yogurt sauce on her gyro. "Have you asked him about it?"

  "Once or twice." Sunny shrugged. "Whatever it is, he doesn't want to talk about it."

  "He did just lose his wife," Amanda pointed out. "Maybe that's it."

  "That was, what?" Charli said. "Eight months ago?"

  "Just about," Sunny said.

  A small frown appeared on Amanda's brow. "He could still be grieving. That kind of trauma … it takes a long time to get over it."

  The other three fell silent. This didn't sound like their brash friend. But on reflection, Sunny realized Amanda was no stranger to trauma herself, having endured two rancorous divorces in the space of three years. Not on a par with the death of a spouse, perhaps, but Sunny knew the experience had left its mark on Amanda. She'd always been mouthy, with a sarcastic wit not everyone appreciated, but lately she'd displayed a deep cynicism toward life that saddened her closest friends.

  "Well, that could be it, Linda's death," Sunny said, "but I don't think so. I mean, he still misses her, of course. He's still getting over it—that's only natural. But I really don't think that's the problem."

  Charli said, "You love him, don't you?"

  Sunny gave her a wry smile. "You have to ask?"

  "Then you should tell him. Why wait for him to make the first move?"

  Sunny caught the smile that Raven and Amanda exchanged. Before she'd met Grant, shy, mousy Charli Rossi would never have accepted such bold advice herself—much less offered it.

  "Things will happen at their own pace," Sunny said. "I'm in no hurry."