She bit back the question that immediately popped into her head. She knew he probably couldn’t afford it, but she wasn’t going to ask. Money had always caused a barrier between them, and she wasn’t going to stir the pot. Now that they were married, her money was his money anyway.
“Let’s go then.”
He took her hand and they walked over to where Nicki was opening more and more clothes for her favorite doll. “Nicki, we’re going now. You be good for Grandma, and we’ll see you on Monday, okay?”
Nicki nodded, jumping to her feet to hug her father and Amber in turn. “Did you see all my Barbie stuff?” she asked.
Amber nodded, smiling. “Mother, please make sure someone gets the Barbie stuff put into the house somewhere it will be out of the way. We’ll make arrangements for it once we’re home.”
Amber’s mother approached them with a smile. “I may have gone a bit overboard, but she is my first grandchild.”
“Yes, she is.” Amber hugged her mother, something she hadn’t done in a lot of years. “Thank you for everything you did today. The wedding was beautiful, and you’ve made Nicki the happiest child alive.”
“And you’ve made me very happy by letting us back into your life. We do love you, Amber, even though we’re not good at showing it.”
After several more goodbyes, they hurried to the truck and John drove off. “I didn’t think we’d ever get out of there!”
Amber grinned, resting her cheek against the back of the seat as she looked over at him. “I didn’t either, but I’m glad we did. It’s nice to finally be alone with you.” All week, every time they’d seen each other, they were surrounded by people. There had been no time to even talk, let alone be affectionate with each other.
“We’re about to be alone for two whole days. Room service will be the name of the game, and I’m not letting you out of the room for any reason.”
She laughed. “Do you really think I’m going to fight you on this?”
“Tell me about the new guy,” he finally said. “I want to know what it’s like for MaryBeth to have a love interest.”
Amber wrinkled her nose. “He’s a good actor, but I don’t like him very much as a person. If I have my say, they’ll find MaryBeth someone else or just keep her single.”
“So you don’t mind his character, but you don’t like Tony?”
“Right. Tony is—well, he doesn’t like you much. He keeps bringing up the fact that you didn’t propose with a ring.”
John shook his head. “That’s none of his business.”
“No, it’s not, and I’ve told him that repeatedly. He doesn’t seem to care.”
“Was he respectful when you filmed the kissing scene?”
She frowned for a moment, wondering how he’d known they’d filmed one, and then she remembered mentioning it to him on the phone. “Yeah, he was. It felt weird kissing someone other than you, though.”
His hand reached out and caught hers on the seat between them. “You’ve made me the happiest man alive by marrying me today. You know that, right?”
“I guess so.” She stared out the window, saying nothing else. She hoped she could trust him, but how could she know for sure?
He frowned, wondering what she was thinking. He was afraid to ask, though. Only she could break his heart with a word. “We should be at the hotel in about fifteen minutes. Are you hungry?”
“No, there was enough food to feed an army there.” She hadn’t eaten a lot, but not because her mother hadn’t given them a lot of choices. Food just hadn’t sounded good.
John grinned. “I don’t think there was anyone who wasn’t satisfied. Did you see the pigs in a blanket and mac and cheese?”
“Those were so Nicki would have choices if she ate only kid food.” Amber shook her head. “I was never given those choices. I was expected to eat whatever Mother had the cook make.”
“Nicki loved your mom. I can’t believe she’s the same woman who once chased me out of her house, threatening to throw a vase at me, because she caught us kissing.”
Amber laughed. “They were always catching us kissing. Remember that one time by the pool when Daddy saw you feeling me up over my swimsuit?”
“I swear I thought he was going to get a gun and shoot me right then.”
“Which is why you climbed over the fence and ran for it.”
They both laughed at the memories. “You were the first boy to ever kiss me and the first boy to ever feel me up. And now you’re the first boy to ever marry me.”
“The only boy to ever marry you!”
“You’re still the only boy to ever feel me up, too.”
“Really?” he asked, looking at her in surprise as he stopped for a traffic light. “Not even Brian?”
She shook her head. “Brian and I had an arrangement. He didn’t touch me, and I’d marry him. We’d both get our inheritances and then we’d go our separate ways.”
“So why were you so upset that he was cheating on you?”
“Because he promised he wouldn’t. We both agreed no one in the world would know that our relationship wasn’t real, but he made it very clear it wasn’t. It just made me mad.”
“I can understand that.” He pulled under the awning of the Omni Hotel and waited as one of the valets came over to get the keys. He walked around and opened her door for her, smiling at how absolutely beautiful she was in the wedding dress. It didn’t have the long train of most wedding dresses, but it suited her well. “Let’s go check in and find our honeymoon suite.”
“Honeymoon suite, huh? You really did go all out.”
“I had to. My wife deserves the very best.” As he led her into the hotel, a bellhop with their luggage following along behind, he clutched her hand in his, afraid he was going to wake up and discover it was all a dream.
Moments later they were in the elevator headed for their suite, and John was as excited as Amber was nervous. She wasn’t nervous about making love with him…well, maybe a little, but she was very nervous about messing up their relationship and doing something that would keep them from being happy.
After he’d tipped the bellhop, he smiled at her. “Do you need help getting out of that thing?”
She nodded. “I do.” She turned her back to him and stood still as he slowly unbuttoned each of the buttons at the back of the dress.
“Whose idea was it to put three million buttons on the back of the dress your husband will want you to get out of the quickest in his whole life?”
Amber giggled. “Not mine. I’m as anxious to be naked with you as you are to be naked with me.”
“Oh really? Not nervous?”
She shrugged. “Not very. This is something that I’ve known would eventually happen since a sweet, lanky twelve-year-old boy kissed me under the bleachers during a ball game.”
“I feel like that lanky twelve-year-old boy again. My palms are sweaty and my mouth is dry. I’m so afraid I’ll do something wrong, and you’ll run away screaming.”
Amber smiled at his words, feeling as if they echoed her feelings exactly. “When was the last time I ever ran away from a challenge, John Baynard?”
He smiled. “I don’t know that you ever have. Well, maybe on prom night.”
She sighed. “Maybe we shouldn’t bring up prom night right about now.”
“You’re not still angry with me for getting upset, are you? I’d saved for over a month to be able to rent a hotel room, and you told me after I’d already spent my money that you weren’t going to go through with it.”
“I didn’t think about the money. I’d have happily reimbursed you.”
“I know you would have, but it would have been your parents’ money you reimbursed me with, and they were against me from the beginning. I couldn’t let that happen. I shouldn’t have gotten upset. I have no excuse except that I was eighteen and hormonal. I wanted to make love with you so badly I thought I would die, and you turned me down flat.”
“It didn’t feel right that nigh
t. Not like it does now.”
“So you’re not going to run out of here screaming? You promise?”
She laughed. “I promise.”
He finished the last button and pushed the dress forward and off her shoulders, watching as it pooled on the floor at her feet. His hands immediately went to the corset she wore beneath the dress, unfastening it. “I’m not stopping until I get rid of all this white!”
Amber grinned. “You do remember you were the one who wanted me to wear white to marry?”
He sighed. “I remember. But not this much! The dress was enough. You should have been naked beneath it.”
“Do you have any idea how see-through white fabric is? It would have been almost as bad as parading around completely naked.”
“Yeah, and Tony was there.” He didn’t want Tony to see any more of her than he already had.
Amber shook her head. “Are you jealous of Tony? Really? I was engaged to you before I even met the creep.”
“Creep?” John asked, frowning. “Why creep?”
“I don’t know. He gives me the heebie-jeebies. He told me he auditioned because he was sure he could win me, and we’d end up like Valerie and Jesse. He was disappointed that I was engaged when we got here.”
“I wish you’d told me that.” He pushed the last of her slips off, leaving her in just her bra and panties.
She turned to face him, her hands pushing off his suit coat and laying it on a desk behind her. While she worked at his tie, she thought about how to respond. “I didn’t know how it would make you feel. I’m used to dealing with these things on my own, or having Bob or Jesse help me with them. It’s strange having a man in my life I can turn to again—one who’s not just a friend.”
“And you have no feelings for Jesse or Bob? You never did?”
Amber shook her head. “Not at all. Jesse and Bob have been my brothers. They’ve stood between me and crazed fans. Between me and would-be boyfriends. Bob and I used to attend all the events together so no one would try to come on to either of us. It sometimes worked, but I think most people realized there was never going to be anything between us.” She paused, thinking for a moment about how much she was willing to reveal to him. “I haven’t felt anything special for a man since my high school sweetheart.”
He caught her chin and tilted her face up to his, so he could look into her green eyes. “Are you sure?”
Amber nodded. “I’m sure. I’m happy for both of them, and I love their wives. Do you think if I had feelings for one of them, I would call their wives my best friends?” She pushed his shirt off and onto the floor. “You’re wearing altogether too many clothes, you know.”
He grinned. “Do you want me to help you with that little problem?”
She shrugged. “No, just stand there. It’s kind of fun unwrapping my own present this way!”
Within minutes she’d stripped off the rest of his clothes, even though she still stood there in her bra and panties. “I think it’s time we took this show horizontal, don’t you?”
“I would not be opposed to that idea. Not at all, actually.”
He took her hand, leading her over to the bed, and stripping the covers down. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve dreamed of making love to you?”
“Would the answer scare me? You were never very good at math…can you count that high?”
John chuckled, reaching around to unfasten her bra even as he lowered his head to take her lips with his. “Don’t bring high school into this. I’m not going to let you make fun of my math skills.”
“How exactly are you going to stop me?” she asked, cocking her head to one side and raising an eyebrow at him.
“Like this.” He caught her lips again, pushing her down onto the bed on her back. “I’m not going to let you talk until you promise to be nice.” One hand skimmed down over her bare torso, causing her to suck in a breath, even as the other moved up to cup her breast, his thumb toying with her nipple.
Amber moaned beneath his mouth, her arms embracing him as one leg wrapped around his. She nipped his lower lip, arching up against him. “I want you, John.”
“You do? Are you sure?” His eyes were filled with laughter as they looked down into hers. He couldn’t believe how happy he was to have her as his wife, in bed or out.
“I’m sure.” Her hands stroked over his back, gently raking it with her nails. When he sucked in a breath, she laughed. “So I can get under your skin too, huh?”
“You’ve been under my skin since the day I met you. When you conned me out of my Twinkie.”
“I’ll buy you a whole box of Twinkies if you’ll stop talking about them and kiss me some more.”
He lowered his lips to hers, his kiss more insistent than before. His hand slipped under the waistband of her panties and down between her legs, stroking her most secret place. One finger gently entered her, making sure she was ready for him, because he wasn’t sure he could wait a whole lot longer. He was finally getting to make love to her—something he’d dreamed about for ten years. No, there was no way he could go slowly. Not this time.
He slipped her panties off and threw them to the floor, before kneeling between her spread legs. He waited until her gaze locked onto his. “I love you with everything inside me, Amber. I hope you know that I’m never going to let you go, and I’ll do everything in my power to never make you cry again.”
She bit her lip, anticipating the pain she knew was to come. He slid deep inside her, holding her hips in his hands, stroking her. “You okay?” he asked, his voice hoarse with the effort it took to remain still while he checked to see if she was all right.
She nodded slowly. “All systems go.”
He grinned. “All systems go? Only my Amber.” He began to move inside her, leaning down to kiss her sweetly even as his body sped up.
Amber felt the building of the passion inside her, her legs going around his waist as her arms wrapped around him tightly. When she broke, she clutched him to her, crying out.
John followed quickly, rolling to her side. He held her to him, stroking her back, his eyes closed, because he wasn’t sure he could open them and deal with the emotions of the moment. Everything he’d wanted and needed in his life was right there in his arms. She would be the wife he needed, and the mother his daughter had begged for.
“You okay?” he asked finally, once his breathing had slowed enough he could speak again.
“Oh yeah. It was as wonderful as I knew it would be because it was with you. How is it that I’ve dated some of the men women around the world drool over, and never felt half as much for them as I feel for you? I’ve been kissed by Andrew Dailey, a man most women would give their firstborn to kiss, and I felt nothing. Nothing! One touch from you, and I feel like I’m on fire. Do you want to explain that to me, please?”
He grinned. “I wish I could. It’s always been the same for me too. I tried to recreate the feelings I had with you when I dated Kayla. I was sure I would feel it all if I just kissed her enough.” He closed his eyes. “Never. I thought of you every time, and it was never half as good. It’s like you’re the other half of me. I hope you know you complete me.”
She sighed. “I hope you know you’re not ever allowed to talk about your ex-wife and the mother of your child when you’re in bed with me again.”
He winced. “I’m sorry. That was insensitive, wasn’t it?”
She shrugged. “If you’d made the same comparison, and she’d come out on top, it would have been insensitive. This way was empowering.” Her hands stroked his back. “I don’t know how we’re going to make all this work, and all the hurt from the past years go away, but I know our relationship is worth whatever effort it takes. I don’t think I could make it through if you broke my heart again, John. Please be gentle with me.”
He shook his head. “I won’t hurt you again. I’ve already been threatened by Bob, Jesse, and your dad. I’m not taking on all three of them. Your dad alone maybe. Either of the other two alone
would be a possibility. All three of them? I’m not that stupid.”
“At least you know what scares you. I’ll take it for now.”
He kissed her again. “Losing you scares me more than anything else in the world. Go to sleep, my love. You’re going to need lots of energy.”
She smiled, kissing his bare shoulder. “I think you may find that you’re the one who needs energy. Not me.”
Chapter 10
Amber wasn’t sure what the reality of being a wife and mother would bring her, but when they got back to his ranch Monday, she got a good idea. “I need to go out and check on the horses,” John said with a quick kiss. “I had my friend, Cody, take care of them, but I need to check them out myself now that we’re back.”
“Do you want me to go get Nicki?”
“No, we’ll get her together after I check the horses. You figure something out for dinner!”
Amber frowned as the door closed behind him. He knew she could barely cook. What was she supposed to figure out for dinner?
She wandered into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, seeing nothing that struck her as something she could cook. She opened the freezer and found a few frozen pizzas. She knew John’s appetite, so she’d make two. Maybe she should take some cooking lessons. She wondered if there was someone who would come into her home to teach her to cook.
She shook her head. No, I’m not taking cooking lessons. If I have to, I’ll hire a good cook to make meals magically appear at my house every evening. She thought through the women in Jupiter who had a good reputation for cooking.
Five minutes later, she was on the phone. “Mrs. Morgan? This is Amber Knight.”
The woman, the mother of one of the boys Amber had gone to school with, seemed surprised to hear from her. “Amber! It’s good to hear your voice. We didn’t get much of a chance to talk at the wedding.”
“I was pretty busy. I wish we’d had a chance to chat.” Amber wondered how she was going to tell her what she really needed.
“I do too. You were always one of my favorite girls to see when I went to help out with Sam’s classes.”
Lying Love (Lazy Love Book 3) Page 10
