ONE EAGER BRIDE TO GO

by Pamela Burford

  The intensity of his gaze threatened to burn her. He squeezed her hands, almost painfully.

  Sunny swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. "If you still want me, then I need you to know … I can't imagine living my life without you. I'd rather have you and no children than a dozen kids with any other man. Please, Kirk. Take me back. I'm so sorry."

  She choked out the last words through a sob, but Kirk was already folding her in his arms, crushing her to his broad chest.

  "Don't be sorry," he whispered into her hair. "You have nothing to be sorry about. I love you, Sunny—God, I love you so much."

  He kissed her, and kissed her some more, and when they finally came up for air, Sunny was grateful for the physics professor's strong arms grounding her to the earth, the laws of gravity having been miraculously suspended just for her. Or so it seemed, as exhilaration and relief and unadulterated love lifted her toward the stratosphere.

  A voice nearby mumbled, "Uh … sorry…" They both turned to see a scarlet-faced youth snatching a textbook off the floor. "I left my, uh… Sorry." Head down, he bolted through the doorway.

  Kirk called after him, "Have that late homework in my office by three, Mr. Farber!"

  Sunny smacked him, laughing. "Leave the poor kid alone. He's been traumatized enough."

  Kirk wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. "Do you mean it? About us?"

  "I mean it."

  "I know how important it is to you, Sunny, having child—"

  She silenced him with a finger to his lips. "We already have a child. I couldn't ask for a more wonderful, precious son—even if it took me too long to realize how incredibly fortunate I am."

  Kirk stroked her back. "There's always that reversal surgery."

  "And there are other ways, too. I'm … well, I guess I'm more open to the options than I was. But the important thing is that we have each other. I need you, Kirk. As long as we're together, everything else will work out."

  The truth of that warmed her from the inside out, as if she'd trekked too long through the cold, lonely night and finally come home to the glowing hearth that had been waiting for her all along.

  She pulled his head down to kiss him, and this kiss quickly spiraled out of control, leaving them winded, clinging to each other.

  Kirk's smoky gaze lingered on the buttons he'd so recently refastened. "We've gotta find someplace private."

  * * *

  Sunny watched Kirk close the door to his office and turn the lock. She watched him cross to the lone window and close the cream-colored vertical blinds. He'd declined to turn on the overhead fluorescent fixture, which was fine with Sunny. Sunlight filtered through the blinds, bathing the room and the two of them in a soft, inviting light.

  He turned to her. "Take off your clothes."

  Sunny laughed. "Don't be shy, now. I know how difficult it is for you to say what's on your mind."

  Kirk stalked to the well-worn institutional-style sofa. He started heaving piles of books and file folders off of it and flinging them onto the floor. "It's been eighteen days since we made love, really made love—"

  "But who's counting, right?"

  "—and I'm more than willing to strip you myself, but if I try it, in my present enthusiastic frame of mind, I might just end up ripping that uniform to shreds. How will you explain that to your boss?"

  She plucked at the ugly pink fabric. "Polyester, remember? Not so easy to tear."

  He swept the last papers from the sofa and turned back to her, his expression more torrid than she'd ever seen it. "Try me."

  The sweet burn that had begun when he'd refastened her buttons in the lecture hall now flared hotter, deeper. Sunny forced herself to think in practical terms. "Seriously. Won't somebody come knocking on your door? I mean, the classrooms are right out there. You told me yourself how accessible the faculty is at Garrison…"

  As she spoke, Kirk started to unbutton his faded gray twill shirt.

  She said, "What will, um, what will people think if you don't answer the door?"

  He stripped off his shirt, revealing a broad, suntanned chest with a light covering of gilded hair. "They'll think I'm in here doing unspeakably erotic things to you." He loosened his belt buckle. "And they'll be right."

  Sunny took a deep breath. "Someone must have seen us come in here together."

  Kirk's smile was lopsided. "You're playing it mighty coy for a lady who, not ten minutes ago, practically did a striptease for a couple of hundred pimply freshmen."

  She bit back a grin. "I'd waited long enough to get you alone. I couldn't wait a minute longer."

  "Well, now you've got me alone." He dropped his jeans and kicked them away. His briefs followed. "So what are you going to do about it?"

  Kirk stood before her utterly naked and thoroughly aroused—her ravening Viking, all banked power and sinewy lines and potent, golden, glorious virility. He took her breath away.

  So. What was she going to do about it?

  Sunny leaned back against Kirk's desk, wearing a silky smile that told him she was pondering the possibilities.

  Slowly he approached her. "It's awfully warm in here."

  "Mmm, yes, I've noticed." She picked up a yellow legal pad from the desk and started fanning herself with it.

  He flicked the nameplate pinned to her uniform, just over her left breast. She felt her nipples tighten.

  "You're way overdressed for this heat." He slid his hands under the hem of her dress. "What's this? I thought you hated panty hose."

  "Silk stockings and garter belts don't exactly go with Reeboks," she said, indicating the comfortable white sneakers she always wore at work.

  "But think of the tips you'd earn if you flashed a frilly garter now and then. You could make a buck every time you leaned over to refill someone's coffee cup."

  "Gosh, I never considered the earnings potential of my underwear. What are you doing?"

  Deftly unbuttoning her dress again, that was what he was doing.

  "Can't have you expiring from the heat," he said.

  Kirk undid three buttons and spread the fabric, revealing the top of her floral-patterned bra. From outside the window came the sounds of students calling to one another as they entered and exited the building three floors below. Muted conversation drifted to Sunny's ears from nearby offices and classrooms. Her worries about privacy resurfaced, only to evaporate as Kirk placed a lingering kiss on the heated skin he'd just exposed.

  Sunny's breasts tingled. Suddenly her clothes did indeed feel too hot, too confining.

  "I have just what you need," Kirk murmured. "Stay right here."

  He crossed to the corner and extracted something from the small, cubelike refrigerator that sat on the floor. He returned to her, peeling white paper off the object, which she identified as a frozen juice pop. Orange.

  "Just one?" she asked. "What about you?"

  Kirk gave her a mysterious little smile. "We'll share." He sucked the end of the pop into his mouth for a moment, then lightly touched it to the hollow under her throat.

  Sunny flinched at the icy contact. She let out a shaky little laugh as he slowly, methodically, dragged it down, and down some more, letting it drip into her cleavage. Then he lowered his head and licked the trail of melted juice, paying particular attention to the shadowed valley between her breasts.

  "You see? I'm real good at sharing." He sucked on the pop once more, then placed it between her lips so she could do the same. The tangy orange flavor teased her tongue and excited her salivary glands.

  "How about it?" Kirk asked. "You all cool and comfortable now?"

  "Oh, no," she said. "Not by a long shot."

  He licked a drop of juice off the frozen pop. "Then speak up. Where else might I be of assistance?"

  Sunny unfastened more buttons, down her torso. She shrugged the top of the dress off her shoulders and let it pool at her waist. "I'm just so hot everywhere. It's driving me crazy."

  "That sounds serious." Kirk stepp
ed closer, crowding her with his naked body until she was forced to sit on the edge of his desk. She leaned back, bracing her palms on the desktop. He looked her up and down, taking in her inviting posture, obviously contemplating what part of her to "cool down" next. Kirk was generously endowed, and the sight of his erection springing high and proud between them made her light-headed with anticipation.

  Kirk painted a trail of orange juice across her collarbone with the frozen pop, nudging her bra strap down her shoulder in the process. By the time he'd licked up every drop, Sunny was breathing fast. Kirk's knuckles felt rough and hot and erotic as he released the front clasp of her bra and pushed it down her arms.

  He stared at her for long moments, and she felt the intensity of his gaze like the brush of a feather. Finally he stroked the juice bar down the side of her breast and around it. Sunny's back bowed; she sucked in a breath. He traced ever-smaller circles until raw sensation burst in her nipple as the frigid, wet pop touched it.

  Sunny bit back a startled cry, all too aware of how thin the walls were. She watched Kirk's head lower slowly, held her breath as his scalding mouth closed over the now frigid tip of her breast. She gasped, arching more fully against his voracious mouth. Patiently he devoured every last drop of the sticky orange juice. By the time he'd lavished the same loving attention on the other breast, Sunny was writhing on the desktop, tangling her fingers in his hair and pulling him hard against her.

  "Here, hold this." He thrust the ice pop into her hand, pulled her off the desk and propelled her toward the sofa, stripping off her uniform on the way.

  Sunny found herself lying on the lumpy sofa cushions, clad only in underpants, panty hose and her white Reeboks. She scooted over a little so Kirk could perch on the edge of the sofa near her hip. He stuck the pop in his mouth, grasped the waistband of her panty hose and pulled them down her hips. Then he held the frozen pop suspended inches above her navel. They both watched as a glistening drop materialized, hung quivering on the end of the pop and finally splashed into her belly button.

  Sunny chuckled, feeling her stomach muscles jerk in response. Patiently Kirk let the juice melt—another drop, and another—until a little puddle filled her navel. Only then did he bend down to lap it up. Sunny had to have the most sensitive belly button in the world, a fact that hadn't escaped Kirk, who held her still while he sucked out every drop.

  At last he straightened, thrust the pop into Sunny's mouth and worked the hose and panties over her hips and down her legs. Within seconds her underwear and sneakers had joined the pile of clothes on the floor.

  How bizarre, she thought, to be stark naked with Kirk in his office, of all places, while the life of the university carried on all around them. From a nearby classroom came a burst of laughter from what sounded like dozens of students.

  Sunny tensed. She took the pop out of her mouth. "Is this a really stupid idea? Doing this here?"

  "Are you kidding? It's my most brilliant research project yet. The thermodynamic properties of quiescently frozen confections. I should apply for a grant!"

  "Oh, you'll be duly compensated for your efforts, never fear."

  "So. Are you cool enough yet?" He commandeered the ice pop, now about half its original size.

  Sunny cocked her head consideringly. "Well, to be honest, the more you try to cool me down, the hotter seem to get. I'm just burning up. In certain places."

  "You don't say. This intriguing effect will have to be thoroughly explored."

  "Well, if you insist."

  "I must."

  "For the sake of science."

  "Naturally." Kirk lowered the dripping pop and painted a line of juice from Sunny's hip down her thigh. She folded her arms behind her head, content to lie there and be the very willing subject of the professor's "experiment."

  Kirk's hot mouth followed every icy stroke. Sunny bit her lips as he licked and kissed the juice from her thighs and the sensitive insides of her knees. In the process he raised one of her legs and propped her calf on the back of the sofa.

  A shiver of sensual excitement raced through her. She was ready now, right now; she needed him as never before. But something—an indescribable gleam in his eye—told her he wasn't yet finished with his thermodynamic research. Her suspicions were confirmed when he held the juice pop poised just above the juncture of her thighs. Sunny held her breath as he slowly, deliberately, lowered it.

  She gasped as it touched down between her legs, driving her hips off the sofa. Kirk pinned her to the cushions as he delicately stroked the cold, wet pop up and down and around her intimate flesh. Sunny was panting, laughing and whimpering all at the same time, fighting the strong arm holding her down, although she didn't want him to stop, not really. She'd never experienced anything like this startling sensation, fire and ice sliding wetly over the most sensitive, vulnerable part of her. He kept the frozen pop in motion, gliding, tapping, probing, so she never knew where she would next feel the slick and searing caress.

  Sunny was only vaguely aware of Kirk tossing the remains of the pop in the wastebasket and lowering his head—until the blistering heat of his mouth right there wrenched an explosive scream from her.

  She no longer cared if anyone else heard, and clearly neither did Kirk, who was wholly absorbed in the moment as his fingers opened her for his rapacious mouth. Sunny clutched handfuls of his hair, her own shrill gasps ringing in her ears.

  Swiftly he brought her to orgasm, with his lips and his tongue and his long, skilled, deliciously rough fingers. Sunny jerked half off the sofa, helplessly swept up by the all-consuming force of it.

  The aftershocks still pulsed deep within her as Kirk lifted her up to sit on the very edge of the sofa. Kneeling between her legs, he grasped her hips and impaled her in one smooth, bottomless, brain-liquefying thrust.

  Almost immediately, Sunny felt her body tighten once more, felt herself begin another heady ascent toward the pinnacle. She clung to Kirk's hard shoulders, wrapped her legs around his waist. He murmured to her as their bodies met and retreated, as he stroked the very depths of her—words of hunger and of love, of need and devotion and awe.

  He braced a hand on the sofa back, tilting them both while supporting her with one sinewy arm, filling her deeper, riding her harder, spurring her toward yet another bone-jarring climax. She clung to him fiercely as it overtook her, shock waves of pleasure racing outward from the place where they were one. Kirk joined her then, stiffening against her with a deep-throated groan.

  They remained like that for several minutes, locked together on the edge of the sofa, touching and kissing and reveling in the pure wonder of it. Finally they shifted to lie side by side, still entwined.

  A knock sounded on the door, jolting Sunny out of a near doze. Kirk didn't react, just continued to stroke her back in lazy circles.

  With a wry smile she mumbled, "Aren't you going to answer that?"

  "Sure thing." He yawned; his eyes remained closed. "I'll just hop up and pull open the door. What the hell. I don't need this job."

  Another knock, louder this time, as a youthful voice called, "Dr. Larsen?"

  Someone else said, "He's not in there, Snider. Let's go get something to eat."

  "Larsen's always in his office after class. I need an extension on those labs."

  "Again? Come on. Maybe the dining hall's still got some of those bacon-and-egg bagel sandwiches left."

  "Jeez, Cassell, you already wolfed down two stacks of pancakes and a ham steak—give that big gut of yours a rest." Snider knocked again, more insistently. "Dr. Larsen!"

  Cassell barked, "He's not in there!"

  "Anne-Marie Rasmussen saw him go in right after class," Snider insisted, "with that redhead from the back of the lecture hall."

  "The hot babe in the pink outfit? You dweeb!" Cassell snickered, his voice low. "Larsen's in there, all right—he's prob'ly got her bent over his desk right now."

  Kirk's eyes opened. He cast a speculative glance over his shoulder at his cluttered desk.
He asked Sunny, "When do you have to be at work?"

  On the other side of the door, Snider said, "Are you kidding? Larsen eats, sleeps and breathes physics. The guy wouldn't know what to do with a fox like that. She's gotta be, like, his sister or something."

  Kirk muttered, "Mr. Snider's cumulative average just dropped several points."

  "I'm going to breakfast," Cassell said. "You coming or what?"

  "Ahh, I'll catch him this afternoon." Snider's grumpy voice trailed off down the hall. "You ever think of getting your cholesterol checked, Cassell?"

  Sunny idly played with Kirk's crisp chest hair. "Are you going to give Snider that extension?"

  "Sure I am. Right after I figure out what to do with a fox like you."

  "His hungry friend seemed to have an idea." Sunny snuggled closer to Kirk, finding him hard already. So much for eating, sleeping and breathing physics. She smiled. "And since you asked—I don't have to be at work till noon."

  "You don't have to be at work, period." Kirk leaned up on an elbow. "You can quit now. Today. And don't tell me you love your job, because I know you don't. I can support us. It's only a professor's salary, but it's pretty secure and I get good benefits."

  "Well, I have to go in today—I can't leave Mike in the lurch. I have to give him notice so he can find someone to replace me."

  A wave of giddy anticipation suffused Sunny. She could quit her job at Wafflemania! Never before had she let herself even consider it.

  "We're really going to do it, aren't we?" she breathed, awestruck by the stunning knowledge that her lifelong dream was about to become reality.

  That dream had evolved from the simplistic fantasies of a starry-eyed adolescent to the more profound and enduring desires of the seasoned woman she'd become. Thanks to the patient love and devotion of one incredible man.

  "Never let it be said I didn't do the thing properly." Kirk sat up. He took Sunny's hand in his. His blue, blue eyes seemed to glow from within as he said, "You will make me the most ecstatically happy man in the world if you agree to marry me, Sunny. I can't perform miracles, but this I can and do promise. I will do everything in my power to make you happy in return."