Harlequin Special Edition July 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: Marooned with the MaverickHer McKnight in Shining ArmorCelebration's Bride

by Christine Rimmer

  They both laughed.

  She reached out and put her hand on his arm, loving the way his hard muscles felt under her fingers. She had a sudden urge to smooth the hair on his tanned skin and slide her hand down into his to see if their fingers still fit together as perfectly as she remembered. Instead, she took her hand away and put it in her lap.

  “Seriously, I appreciate you having my back,” she said.

  He nodded and turned on the radio. Notes of a soulful blues song spilled out into the empty space between them. They rode without speaking, listening to the guy sing, “Baby, please don’t go.” She watched him as he drove, taking advantage of the opportunity to drink him in. His square jaw was covered by a fresh crop of whiskers that had grown in during the day. He’d been clean-shaven this morning, but it was after five o’clock now and the sexy shadow that had sprouted during the day lent him a sexy air that was part dangerous and all man. His lips were not exceptionally full—more like just right. She had the sudden urge to taste them again. He was quite a guy, strong enough to stand up for what he believed in, yet he had enough heart to not let his views stand between him and what really mattered…his family.

  He was the kind of guy who, when he talked, people listened—people like Lenny who usually didn’t have enough sense to back away from a rattlesnake.

  Miles had defended her today. He’d stood up for her, and that made him even sexier than his great looks. Or maybe it added to them.

  When was the last time someone had really gone to bat for her?

  She sighed and entwined her hands to keep from reaching out and touching him again.

  “I’m sorry you had to find out about my interview the way you did. I did feel like I owed it to A.J., Caroline and Pepper to tell them first.”

  He stopped in front of the bride’s house, turned off the car and looked over at her. “I understand. But I’m not going to lie. I wish you weren’t leaving. I know it’s selfish of me to say that because it’s a great opportunity for you, but I just can’t help but think about how screwed up the timing of everything is. It’s been a long time since I’ve met anyone I’ve been this attracted to and now you’re getting ready to move to another continent.”

  His words took her breath away, and she wasn’t sure what to say. Actually, she wasn’t sure she could speak. Miles’s gaze snared hers as he opened his door. There was a tingling in the pit of her stomach, and she could feel the magnetism that made him so self-confident. It radiated from him in waves that were almost palpable.

  “Hold that thought,” she said as she opened her own door. “We’ll finish that conversation as soon as we’re finished with our bride.”

  “I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

  “I’m so glad y’all are here,” Lily Palmer said as she welcomed them into her modest home. She was the third of three candidates for Catering to Dallas’s Celebration’s Bride contest.

  Miles had let Sydney and her business partners choose the three finalist candidates from the thousands of letters they’d received after they’d aired the call for entries. Lenny and Aiden had to sign off on the choices, of course.

  Once that was signed and sealed, Miles had agreed to go along on the initial interviews to check out the brides’ homes and surroundings for taping purposes.

  The first finalist they visited was a nurse who looked in on geriatric patients on her days off; the second candidate was a violinist who gave free music lessons to underprivileged kids.

  Now here they sat in the modest living room of Lily Henderson, a schoolteacher who had started a program to ensure every child in her school received a hot lunch. Lily had also made sure Miles and Sydney didn’t go hungry during their visit. She’d prepared a feast of sweets for them, which she’d arranged on platters on the living room table.

  “I stayed up all night baking for y’all,” she said. “So please eat. How do you take your coffee? Or would you prefer tea? The water is ready. All I have to do is get the teabag.”

  “I’d love a cup of tea,” Sydney said. “Thank you so much.”

  “As soon as I heard your British accent, I figured you might,” Lily said. “I’ll be right back. Miles? What can I get for you?”

  “I’ll have coffee. Black, please.”

  “Isn’t she adorable?” Sydney said as soon as Lily was out of the room.

  She was nice enough and would work well for the show, Miles thought, but he only had eyes for one woman and she was sitting right next to him.

  Sydney smiled at him and he realized at that moment that he would move mountains for this woman. He planned to tell her so when they picked up their to-be-continued conversation after they left Lily’s.

  His phone buzzed, signaling an incoming text. He glanced at it. It was a message from his little sister Lucy:

  Have you decided whether or not you can come speak to my class for career day? I’m really counting on you.

  He must’ve been frowning because Sydney asked, “Is everything okay?”

  “Nothing earth shattering,” he said. “It’s just Lucy. She wants me to be a speaker at her school’s career day.”

  Sydney cocked her head to the side. “Why wouldn’t you? I’m sure you’d be a big hit with the kids and that would automatically qualify you for big-brother-hero status with your sister. Why the hesitation?”

  He shook his head. “That’s how it would be in a perfect world, but of course nothing is that simple. My father has his heart set on speaking, telling about his days in the army. Once a military man, always a military man, and he can’t resist the opportunity to recruit a young ’un into the service. I’m trying to find out if Lucy can bring two guests. If not, I’d better bow out and let the old man have his day. According to my mom, he’s been planning his talk for weeks.”

  Sydney’s mouth formed an O.

  Then Lily came back in with a tray complete with cups, saucers, a coffeepot, another china pot with warm water for Sydney’s tea, cream, sugar and lemon wedges.

  “I forgot to ask you how you wanted your tea,” Lily said. “So I went ahead and brought out all the fixings.”

  “Thank you,” Sydney said, as she added a splash of cream to her tea. “This is exactly how I like it. Your tea and coffee service is gorgeous. Where did you get it?”

  Lily settled herself in the chair across from the couch where they sat. Her legs were crossed primly at the ankle, her hands clasped on the skirt of her brightly flowered dress.

  “It belonged to my grandmother,” she said. “She raised me after both of my parents passed away. Car accident,” she added with a solemn dip of her head, as if answering the question of what happened before it was even asked had become a rote response. “She passed away about a month ago and that and the house are all I have left of her. I didn’t realize it until after she was gone, but she’d taken out a second mortgage on this house to put me through college. I never would’ve let her do that if I’d known. She always said she didn’t want me to worry about having to work while I was going to school.” Suddenly, Lily’s fingers fluttered to her mouth.

  “Listen to me just blabbing away. I’m so sorry. I’m sure you didn’t come here to listen to my tales of woe. So let me just say, I would be very honored and grateful if I were selected as Celebration’s Bride because the cash prize would not only give my fiancé, Josh, and me a chance to have our dream wedding, but it would help me pay off a little of the debt on this house.”

  She blinked at them sheepishly. “Please have some of the cookies. I promise I’ll quit blathering on and on. I’m sure you have a lot to tell me about the contest.”

  Miles picked up a plate and handed it to Sydney. She thanked him and helped herself to a chocolate cookie and a small sweet that was either a spongy cookie or a small cake. Miles stood to hand a plate to Lily.

  “Oh, no thank you,” she said. “I love to bake—it’s my stress release—but I’ve promised myself and Josh that I won’t eat a single sweet until we feed each other our wedding cake. Y
ou see, I found my dress on sale, but it was a size too small. But it really was my dream dress. I figured they could let it out as much as the seams will allow and I can lose weight—because I need to, anyway—and it will fit.”

  She sighed and looked longingly at the array of sweets on the table. “Do they taste okay? Usually I taste everything before I serve it, but I have to keep my no-sweets promise to Josh. He doesn’t want a fat wife.”

  That was a little harsh, Miles thought.

  But Lily giggled and that gave him hope that maybe “doesn’t want a fat wife” was Lily’s interference and not her fiancé’s words.

  Sydney set down plate on her lap. “Everything is delicious. How much weight have you lost? Because you look fine to me.”

  “Well, thank you.” Lily beamed at them. “I’m not sure. Our bathroom scale is broken. I didn’t replace it because I read something that said you should throw out your scale and simply go by how your clothes feel.” She tugged at the side seam of her flowered dress. “This is one of my favorite dresses and it feels great, but then again, the material has a little give to it, which is nice for when I’m in the classroom. But I guess I’ll know soon enough when I go in for my next fitting.”

  The woman was a talker. But better a talker than not for the show. She was so different from Sydney, but he had a feeling Sydney felt a connection with Lily. They had both been orphaned as children. Miles imagined Sydney might lean more toward her than the other two contestants.

  Miles glanced at Sydney and wondered how things might have been different for her if she’d had a grandmother to rely on rather than being shuttled through the foster-care system. But Sydney’s background—as flawed as it might be—was what made her the strong, fiercely independent woman for whom Miles had fallen so hard. At that moment, as he sat there listening to Sydney ask Lily questions about her life, job, fiancé and their future, he wished he could be the one to give Sydney the life she’d missed out on. Even though nothing could change the past, there was always the future.

  Chapter Eleven

  It was after seven o’clock when they left Lily’s house. Miles had insisted on taking Sydney to dinner to celebrate her good news about the job interview.

  He’d ordered a bottle of champagne and toasted her success. He was being so wonderful about it. Actually, if he’d sat down and strategized a plan to seduce her he couldn’t have done a better job. She wanted him, and everything that was genuine and true compelled her to show him.

  As they sat in the car in front of her house, each time she looked at him, the magnetic pull was stronger. Then, impulsively, she leaned over and planted a feather-light kiss on his lips.

  “Thank you,” she said. “And not just for dinner. For everything. For being on my side…for being you.”

  Miles sat very still and sucked in a breath. An ominous light smoldered in his dark brown eyes. Sydney knew she was playing with fire, but she couldn’t stop herself. She cupped his face in her hands, leaned in again and went in for a real kiss this time.

  The happenings of the past couple of days—meeting Miles and his family, getting the call about the job, talking to this fabulous bride-to-be who’d made her believe maybe, just maybe, there was such a thing as happily ever after—made her realize that it wasn’t going to be as easy to leave as she thought it would be. But she wasn’t going to think about that right now or everything else that had happened recently. Each event heaped another emotion on top of the one that came before it, making everything feel electric and volatile like a brewing tempest.

  Judging by the look on Miles’s face, this was the calm before spark that just might blow her carefully laid plans sky-high.

  As she deepened the kiss, Miles growled deep in his throat, and she knew she was right. Because suddenly, he was kissing her back.

  Kissing her hard. Holding her face in place with his palms firmly on her cheeks and his fingers tangled in her hair. He was moving his lips over hers so ravenously, even if she’d wanted to resist, she couldn’t. But she didn’t want to.

  Slowly, he pulled back and stared down at her. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  Self-preservation urged her to say no, but the word wouldn’t pass her lips no matter how she tried to force it. Even though she couldn’t form the words, she knew she could no more walk away from what was about to happen than she could stop breathing.

  She felt his breath against her hot lips, saw the voracious hunger that deepened the intensity of his brown eyes. She warned herself to be smart, to stop this while she could.

  Instead, she heard herself saying, “Yes. Kiss me.”

  A desperate kind of need clenched in her stomach, and the fact that she wanted him so much floored her.

  “I’ll kiss you,” he said, and it sounded more like a warning than a promise. “But I can’t promise that’s where it will end. Stop me now if this is not what you want.”

  She answered him with a kiss of her own. He responded with a take-no-prisoners reaction. His mouth was forceful and a little rough. He pulled her across the console onto his lap. She knocked into the gearshift and steering wheel and everything else that stood between them. But that didn’t stop the intense frenzy of kisses—mouth to mouth, mouth to neck, hands fisting in hair, tugging at clothing so that they could be skin to skin.

  His tongue thrust into her mouth and he slid his hands around to grip her bottom and direct her hips in a rhythm that moved her against his rock-hard erection. She shuddered as lightning flashed from her heart to the taut, throbbing core between her legs.

  “I think we better go inside,” he murmured through a kiss. “Or we’re going to be the talk of the neighborhood.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and sank into his chest. “The neighbors. They’re such a bother.”

  They walked to her door hand in hand. When they were inside, Miles picked her up and carried her into the bedroom.

  “How did you know which one was my room?” she asked.

  “Good instincts.” His lips closed around hers, eclipsing the words, and he gently lowered her onto the bed. He stretched out on top of her. Entwining their fingers, he swept their arms upward, until they were extended overhead, their linked fingers a symbol of two becoming one. Then he found her mouth and bestowed long, leisurely, soul-stirring kisses that melted her bones and set fire to the blood in her veins. She realized the appreciative little hum she heard was coming from deep in her throat, a response to his kisses and the weight of his body pressing her into the mattress.

  He caught her lower lip in his mouth and tugged at it with his teeth. He released it, then he raised up to look at her.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  She looked up at him through the hazy glow of want.

  “I can’t think of anything I’ve wanted more.”

  With a kiss to seal the deal, he tugged her red blouse over her head, rewarding her with open-mouthed kisses, which he dragged down her throat. She almost got lost in the sheer pleasure of it all, but at least had enough of her wits about her to follow suit and free him of his shirt so that they could finally lay skin to skin.

  The contact heated Sydney’s blood to a rolling boil. She was greedy for the feel of him. She ran her hands up his arms and across his shoulders. She sketched his collarbone with her fingertips.

  As she fanned out her fingers over his chest, Miles undid the button on her slacks and pulled down the zipper. She arched toward him and he pulled the garment off, leaving her in nothing but her matching red bra and tiny lace panties.

  She hooked her fingers in the waistband of his pants and tugged. He made short order of freeing himself from the last of his clothes. As he did, she saw him fumbling with his wallet. He took out a small foil packet and tossed it onto the bedside table.

  She was glad he had a condom. She wasn’t on birth control and the last thing she wanted was to get pregnant.

  He sprawled out on top of her, raking his fingers through her hair, pushing it
back away from her face, before he captured her lips again with his.

  The wall of resistance Sydney had built up crumbled to dust as he dominated her with his mouth, his tongue, his body. She was vaguely aware of the humming sounds that were once again reverberating in her throat, but she ignored them, returning his ravenous kisses with an appetite of her own.

  They clung to each other with lips and hands and arms and legs. Skin to skin wasn’t close enough. Their bodies bucked to be as close as possible. The feel of him drove her to the edge of control. That almost gave her pause, because all of her cognizant life had been built around maintaining control. She pulled back, searching through the haze of arousal for her emotional armor.

  “Trust me,” he whispered as if he’d read her mind.

  “I will… I do…” She hated feeling so vulnerable, but she didn’t know how to tell him.

  Perhaps the lesson she was learning now was that control was overrated.

  He gazed down at her bee-stung lips and her amorous eyes, which had darkened to the color of deep jade. “It’s okay. Trust me?”

  She nodded.

  He dipped his head and nipped at the soft skin at the juncture of her neck and the curve of her jaw. Sydney sucked in a breath. Shuddering, she raised her chin, providing him better access.

  She fisted her hands into his hair, reveling in the pleasure. He liked to see her let down her guard.

  His fingers cupped her breast, reaching into her bra to circle her nipple with his index finger. He caught her nipple between his thumb and finger, lightly pinching it until she sucked in a breath that hissed through her teeth.

  He unhooked the front clasp of her bra and freed her gorgeous breasts. They were creamy pale orbs that sat high and boasted lush bottomed curves. Miles leaned down to capture one in his mouth.

  He looked up at her and saw the ecstasy in her green eyes. Holding her gaze, he sucked on her nipple, working his tongue in a circular motion.

  Air burst out of her lungs in a sudden gasp.

  He hooked his fingers in her panties and tugged them down. He rolled onto his side, retrieved the condom from the bedside table, ripped it open and rolled it down the length of his erection.