The humor in his eyes eased the tight knot in her belly and unfroze her limbs. “I vote for the easy way.” She dropped onto the edge of the bed and stuck both feet into the air.
Connor grinned as he pulled off her boots and then her socks. Her boots hit the floor with two thumps, and he tossed her socks after them, then pulled her jeans down her legs, leaving her dressed in nothing but the sexy underwear that had been her only concession to the fact that this was her wedding day.
Eve told herself it was silly to feel self-conscious in front of Connor, but her heart didn’t get the message. She could feel her pulse thrumming wildly in her throat. He couldn’t help but compare her with Molly. To postpone the moment, she jumped up and gave Connor a little shove so he plopped onto the bed, then turned her back to him to pull off each of his boots, dropping them with much louder thumps. She pulled off his socks and threw them over her shoulder as though she were flipping her hair back behind her.
He laughed as she grabbed the legs of his jeans and pulled them off. He was wearing long gray Jockey shorts that fit him like a second skin and left nothing to the imagination. She no longer doubted that he wanted her. The proof was barely constrained by the fabric that covered him. She tried not to stare, but it was a few moments before she raised her gaze to meet his. From the visible pulse in his throat, she realized his heart must be racing as fast as her own.
Connor sobered as he stood and took the few steps to join her. In a low, guttural voice he said, “Just a few more scraps to go,” and released the front clasp on her bra.
Eve didn’t react quickly enough to stop Connor, but she instinctively caught the two halves and held them in place.
He dropped his hands to his sides and raised a questioning brow.
Eve wished she had enough confidence to tease him, to play the femme fatale, but she cared too much what he thought, and she was too aware that she wasn’t Molly. Molly had been short, with small breasts and narrow hips. Her shape was very different.
It took all of Eve’s courage to let go of the bra and allow the straps to slide down her arms. She lowered her gaze, unable to bear the tension of wondering whether she pleased him.
Eve felt Connor’s knuckle under her chin and lifted her head until their eyes met.
“You are so beautiful you take my breath away,” he said in a gruff voice.
Eve felt the knot inside loosening a little more. She laid her hands on his bare chest and said, “You’re beautiful, too.”
He shook his head. “That’s the wrong word for a man.”
She didn’t contradict him, just let him see the admiration in her eyes.
As he reached for her panties, she took a step back and said, “Let me.” Her gaze lowered shyly as she shoved them down over her hips. When they reached the floor she stepped out of them. Then, and only then, did she meet Connor’s gaze again.
His pupils were huge and dark in his blue eyes, his lips full. She felt her body flooding with the need to be held by him, to be touched by him, to be joined with him, and said in a voice she hardly recognized as her own, “Your turn.”
All his life Connor must have cursed his light skin, which revealed a sudden blush as he stripped off his shorts and kicked them aside. It took her a moment to realize that he was as anxious for her approval as she’d been for his. She tried to smile to show she was satisfied, or to say something to let him know that the sight of his body pleased her. But her mouth wouldn’t move, and her throat was too thick with emotion to speak.
Eve kept her gaze focused on Connor’s face as she took the few steps to reach him. She ran her hands across his chest, reveling in the feel of muscle and bone. “I’ve wanted to touch your naked flesh all day.”
She didn’t know where that low, throaty voice had come from, but she felt Connor’s muscles tense under her fingertips.
His hands circled her waist, urging her closer until they were pressed together body to body. She heard his low growl of satisfaction as she slid her arms around his neck. When she laid her cheek against his powerful chest she could hear his galloping heartbeat, which matched the pace of her own eager heart.
Connor used a fingertip to nudge her chin up so their lips could meet. His tongue searched deep for honey, mimicking the sex act and making her body throb. His hands were both gentle and insistent as they forayed across her back and up her spine. Without warning he picked her up and carried her to the bed. He reverently laid her down and then joined her there.
Connor held the weight of his body on his arms as he kissed her face, her throat, and finally found her mouth with his. One hand cupped her breast and teased the nipple before sliding down her belly toward the ache below. His mouth replaced his hand on her breast, and Eve found herself arching toward the exquisite pleasure. She bit his shoulder as his fingertips worked their magic on her body.
Eve hadn’t realized what a difference it would make to love the man caressing her. Hadn’t realized how much she would crave his touch. Hadn’t realized the joy she would experience when he made a guttural sound to express his appreciation as she searched out the places on his body that brought him the most pleasure.
“Molly, I—”
Eve froze as Connor spoke her best friend’s name, then shoved at Connor’s shoulders to move him away. “Connor, stop!”
Connor rolled over onto his back and slung an arm across his eyes. He was breathing as heavily as she was, and he was still aroused.
Eve’s throat tightened so it was hard to swallow. She grabbed for the sheet to cover her nakedness, as though she were that first Eve, hiding herself because she’d sinned.
Oh, God. She’d known this would happen! She’d feared this would happen. What did it mean? What should she do? Ignore it? Impossible. Discuss it? Impossible.
She heard him swallow noisily before he said, “Eve, I’m sorry.”
She said nothing. She had no idea what to say.
“You’re nothing like Molly,” he said into the silence. “I don’t know why I said her name.”
Eve cringed. His comment made it seem like she was missing something that Molly had. She wanted to run and hide, but where could she go? She was Connor’s wife. This was her home. This was her bed.
“I swear I wasn’t thinking of Molly,” Connor said.
“Except it was her name you said.”
He sighed but said nothing.
Molly would always be a part of their lives, a beloved wife and best friend. Neither of them really wanted her gone. So where did that leave them?
“Maybe you haven’t finished grieving,” Eve said.
Connor said nothing, just continued to lie beside her with his arm covering his eyes.
“Or maybe it isn’t me you really want,” she said into the silence. When he didn’t immediately contradict her she added, “It’s all right if you don’t.”
Connor lifted his head and looked down at her, his brow furrowed. “I hope you don’t mean that, Eve. I hope it matters to you whether I desire you.”
Eve blushed. “It’s just…I half expected something like this to happen. For Molly to be here with us.”
“I didn’t.” Connor’s eyes bored into hers. “I knew exactly who I was holding in my arms.” He shoved the sheet out of his way and slid his arms around her naked body, tucking her in a close embrace.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said.
“I don’t have to. I want to.”
A sudden raucous clash of metal on metal caused Connor to clutch her tighter, then roll them both off the bed. As soon as they were on the floor, he crouched on one knee, using the bed as a shield.
Eve grabbed at the sheet, pulling it off the bed to cover herself as she stared at Connor. “What just happened?”
He shot her a sheepish look. “I still haven’t stopped ducking for cover when I hear anything that sounds like a gunshot.”
Eve stared appreciatively at Connor’s lean flanks and buttocks as he rose and strode, completely naked, toward the win
dow. Before he got there, he retrieved his shorts and pulled them on.
The clamor intensified as he shoved open the window and stuck his head out. “I don’t believe it!”
“What is it?” Eve asked, her whole body tensed for action.
He turned back to her, shaking his head in disbelief. “A shivaree.”
“A what?”
“Old frontier custom,” he explained. “The neighbors get together to serenade a newly married couple—with pots and pans—and generally interrupt the wedding night.”
They’d done a pretty good job of that on their own, Eve thought. “Who’s out there?”
“No idea, but they aren’t going away until we give them something to eat and drink.”
Two small forms appeared in the doorway clutched together.
“What is that?” Brooke asked fearfully.
“I’m scared,” Sawyer said.
Connor pulled on his jeans as he said, “Some folks are wishing me and Eve noisy congratulations on getting married.” He grabbed his shirt and headed for the door. “Let’s let Eve get dressed while we go say hello. Then you two can head back to bed.”
Eve hurried to put her clothes on, regretting that they hadn’t made love, but feeling more encouraged than she had in a very long time. Connor might not love her, but he wanted her. She hoped whoever it was didn’t stay long, because she very much wanted to finish what they’d started.
Eve heard what sounded like a violent quarrel as she headed down the hall. She recognized Taylor’s voice. And Victoria’s. And several male voices arguing back. Connor’s brothers?
Eve ran for the kitchen, hoping she was in time to keep blood from being shed.
Chapter 19
EVE WAS APPALLED to discover her eldest sister, Taylor, with her balled fists on her hips confronting Brian Connor. Taylor was the beautiful sister, the one who looked the most like their stunning mother, Jill. Taylor was tall, with posture like a ballerina. She had long, lustrous, movie-star-blond hair and dazzling blue eyes that left men speechless when they met her for the first time.
Brian and Taylor weren’t alone. Leah and Victoria stood to either side of Taylor while Aiden and Devon braced Brian. They were all still wearing their coats. Connor was situated between the kids, who were sitting on stools at the kitchen counter.
“It doesn’t surprise me that you’d choose this way to celebrate a wedding between my sister and your brother,” Taylor said. “Bad judgment seems to run in your family.”
“What are you doing here? Tell me that?” Brian shot back.
“I came to wish my sister well.”
“I did the same for my brother,” Brian said. “Connor knows a shivaree is all in good fun.”
“It’s awful!” Taylor said. “Look at those two poor quivering children.” She pointed toward Brooke and Sawyer.
Unfortunately, at that moment the children were laughing at something Aiden was saying.
Brian snorted. “Yeah, they look real scared.”
Leah spoke quietly to Connor, and he helped the children down from their stools. After a single wave goodbye from Brooke in the direction of the adults in the kitchen, Leah escorted the two children down the hall toward their bedrooms.
As Taylor watched them go she said, “Well, they were scared when they showed up here in the kitchen. I guess you Flynns can be hilarious when you want to be.”
“You would know,” Brian said.
“How dare you bring that up!”
Eve saw tears spring to Taylor’s eyes and wondered what had happened between Brian and Taylor in the past that had caused her sister such anguish. Brian’s blue eyes were as dark as his soul seemed to be.
She wasn’t given the opportunity to sympathize with her sister, because the instant Taylor caught sight of Eve, she blurted, “I can’t believe you got married without inviting any of us!”
“Without giving us a chance to stand up with you,” Victoria added.
Eve’s only defense was the truth, that it was a marriage of convenience, and as such, anything fancier would have been absurd. But she didn’t know whether Connor wanted his brothers to know why they’d married so abruptly, and the more people who knew the real story, the better chance the truth would have of getting back to the social worker. “We both thought a simple wedding was best.”
“This wedding wasn’t just simple,” Taylor accused. “It was a travesty.”
Brian turned to Connor and said, “A speedy wedding without family present seems pretty suspicious to me.” He turned to Eve and asked, “Are you pregnant?”
Connor hit his brother in the jaw. “That’s my wife you’re talking about. Watch your mouth!”
Eve gaped.
Devon had caught Brian as he stumbled backward and kept him upright. Brian rubbed his sore jaw with his hand as his gaze shifted from Connor to Eve and back again. “I notice you didn’t answer my question.”
“Why, you—”
Aiden caught Connor’s cocked fist before he could punch Brian again. He let him go, then said in a voice that demanded obedience, “That’s enough.”
Eve was caught off guard when Leah asked, “Well, are you?”
She hadn’t seen her sister return to the room.
“No, I’m not!” Eve opened her mouth to explain that they’d gotten married so quickly for the sake of the children and snapped it shut again. They didn’t owe their siblings any explanation. “We had a lovely wedding and a lovely wedding day—that is, until the six of you showed up. Be happy for us.”
She crossed to Connor, slid an arm around his waist, and looked up at him with all the love she felt. “We want to be together. Is that so hard to believe?”
Brian snorted again. “Yeah, it is.” He shot a glance in Taylor’s direction before he said, “Grayhawks and Flynns are notoriously incapable of getting along.”
“That’s because all Flynns are liars,” Taylor snapped back.
Eve stiffened. “I can’t let you get away with that. Connor’s never been anything but straightforward with me.”
Leah put a comforting arm around Taylor’s shoulders and said, “I think we should wish the newlyweds well and take our leave.”
“Nothing good can come of this,” Taylor replied.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t hope for the best,” Leah said.
Eve’s stomach churned. Was it really so impossible for her sisters to believe that she could be happy with Connor simply because he was a Flynn? She wasn’t the only one of her sisters to have interacted with one of “those wild Flynn boys,” but it seemed she was the only one who hadn’t been wounded by the experience. Or at least, whatever pain she’d suffered because of falling in love with Connor wasn’t his fault.
“By the way, your buttons are off-kilter,” Victoria said, pointing to Eve’s shirt.
Eve looked down and self-consciously grabbed a handful of her shirt where a button was in the wrong hole.
“Your shirt isn’t buttoned at all,” Devon said to Connor with a grin. He quirked an amused brow as he surveyed the two gathered sets of siblings. “Looks like these two are getting along a lot better than the rest of us.”
Eve flushed to the roots of her hair. A quick glance at Connor’s fair skin revealed an equal rush of blood to his cheeks, although he did nothing to close the shirt that gaped open down the center of his chest.
“Let’s let these two get back to whatever it was they were doing,” Aiden said with a chuckle.
“We should go, too,” Leah said. She crossed to Eve and kissed her cheek. “If you’re happy, I’m happy for you.”
“Me, too,” Victoria said as she kissed Eve’s cheek.
“I wish I could believe this will end happily ever after,” Taylor said. “But I don’t.” She grimaced at the admonishing look Leah shot her and added, “I love you, Eve. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Eve watched Leah stiffen as Aiden stepped in front of her on her way to the door. He said something low that Eve couldn�
��t hear, which resulted in Leah’s looking up at him with troubled eyes. Her sister quickly lowered her gaze and moved past Connor’s brother without touching him and without saying anything. Aiden followed Leah with his eyes until she was gone from the house.
Devon shook Connor’s hand and said, “Congratulations. I wish the best for both of you.”
Then he did something that surprised Eve. He leaned over and kissed her cheek, much as her sisters had done. It was only then it dawned on her that none of her sisters had offered Connor their best wishes. She wanted to call them back and demand that they do so, but it would only have pointed a finger at their lack of courtesy.
She tried to make up for it by being especially cordial to Connor’s brother. She smiled as radiantly as she could and said, “Thank you, Devon.”
Her goodwill toward the Flynn brothers was quickly extinguished when Brian appeared before Connor, gripped his hand, and said, “You’re making a big mistake.” He turned to look at her and added, “Both of you.”
“Thanks for your concern,” Connor replied in what Eve thought was an amazingly level voice. “I know how unhappy you were in your marriage, so I understand your pessimism. I’m satisfied with the choice I made, and I hope you can be happy for me.”
Connor never let go of Brian’s hand the entire time he was talking. When he was done, he made the extraordinary gesture of hugging his brother. He whispered something in Brian’s ear that made his brother scowl. The moment Brian was free, he turned without another word and headed for the door.
Aiden was the last to speak to them. “This marriage of yours caught Dad by surprise. He knew you were engaged, but he never suspected you’d jump the gun like this.”
“How did he find out?” Connor asked.
“The magistrate called him.”
Eve made a disgusted sound in her throat. Nothing important that happened in Jackson Hole escaped the many eyes and ears devoted to keeping King Grayhawk and Angus Flynn informed. She’d wondered how her sisters knew about the wedding. It seemed logical to assume that if the magistrate had called Angus he would have called King as well. Either King had told Leah, who’d told her sisters, or Leah had intercepted the call and told them.
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