Her Secret Valentine

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “Before we go in, would you mind letting us have a look at your new car?” Hannah said, waylaying Cal, along with Emma.

  “I’ve been thinking about getting something a little safer, too,” Emma said.

  Cal waved Ashley, Janey and Lily on inside.

  As soon as the door shut behind them, he turned. “What the—?”

  “The black dress you left with the dressmaker has Lycra in it,” Emma said in exasperation. She opened her oversized shoulder bag and got out a small Ziploc bag with Ashley’s undies and handed it over to Cal along with Ashley’s black dress. “That’s what makes the fabric so stretchy.” Emma demonstrated before handing the dress over, too.

  “So?” Not wanting to get caught with either, Cal opened the back passenger door of his SUV and tossed the clothing onto the seat.

  “So we can’t get a valid measurement off it.” Emma threw up her hands in frustration. “We don’t know what her waist size is!”

  “What about the underwear?”

  Hannah rolled her eyes. “It was bikini, in case you hadn’t noticed. It doesn’t go all the way up to her waist.”

  Cal flushed. He hadn’t thought about that. “Oh.”

  “So, at the moment,” Emma continued whispering, “all we’ve got is her bra size, and given the fact she’s gained a little weight recently—”

  “In all the right places,” Hannah sighed enviously.

  “Realistically, her bust measurement could be off, too,” Emma finished.

  “So what do you want me to do?” Cal asked, embarrassed he had goofed this up to such a degree, when the surprise “wedding vow-renewal-ceremony” was only a week and a half away….

  Hannah removed a tape measure from her pants pocket. “We want you to take this tape measure and go upstairs and measure the waist and hips and inseam on a pair of pants that you know fits and give it to us. And while you’re at it, get us her shoe size, too.”

  “She only has two pair of pants that she has been wearing since she got back. One of ’em is on her right now. The other is hanging in her closet. But I’m not sure I know exactly how to measure…”

  “Can you get me up there without her seeing me then?” Emma asked.

  Nodding, he looked at Hannah. “But you have to stay downstairs with Lily and Janey and make sure she doesn’t come upstairs.”

  Hannah smiled, confident as ever. “No problem.”

  “SO WHY were they really here?” Ashley asked Cal an hour later.

  “What do you mean?” Cal asked, ducking his head as he rinsed the coffee cups and plates in the sink. He had never been any good at subterfuge. The fact the fibs were necessary to pull off the surprise anniversary celebration he was planning at the Wedding Inn wasn’t making it any easier. He didn’t want any secrets between them.

  Ashley positioned herself between Cal and the front of the dishwasher. She folded her arms in front of her. “I mean, it’s obvious they all wanted to talk to you. And I’d like to know what about. Did the men in the family send them over here?”

  Cal frowned and wrapped his arms around her waist. It was time this conversation took another tack. “Why would they do that?” he asked, gently rubbing his hands up and down her spine.

  Ashley narrowed her eyes at him as she splayed her hands across his chest. She tilted her head up to better search his face. “You said a few weeks ago the whole family was concerned about us. So was tonight more of the same?”

  Cal did not like the feisty look in Ashley’s blue eyes. That look always guaranteed trouble. And they’d had enough trouble up to now. “No.”

  She assessed him obstinately. “Then why did they all show up here and why did Lily and Janey and Hannah do their best to keep me occupied in the kitchen while you-all stayed out in the garage and then went up to the exercise room with Emma?”

  “Hey.” Cal aimed a thumb at his chest. “I know for a fact that Janey honestly wanted your opinion on those cake samples she brought over.”

  “And Lily?”

  Cal could feel her body melting against his even as her will remained as difficult as ever.

  “Why was Lily suddenly so interested in my opinion of various flowers she was thinking of doing for Polly Pruett’s wedding?”

  Cal shrugged and tried not to think about how much he enjoyed feeling the soft, feminine warmth of her body pressed up against him this way. He smiled, hoping to tease her out of her suspicious mood. “Because she thinks you have good taste?”

  Ashley frowned.

  “And anyway,” Cal continued, kissing the top of her head, “what does it matter why they were here as long as they’re gone now and we’re once again alone, ready to christen the car we just bought?”

  Ashley broke free of his light, protective grasp and whirled away from him. “You’re changing the subject,” she declared heatedly.

  “You bet I am.” Cal grabbed her arm and whirled her right back. “I’m tired of talking about my family,” he told her. Smiling, he stroked the pad of his thumb across the silken invitation of her lower lip. “When all I want is you.”

  Her lips parted under the pressure of his touch. He had her backed against the counter, and she leaned back, bracing her hands on either side of her, and putting as much space as possible between the two of them. Which wasn’t much, Cal noted. Maybe an inch.

  “I’m not going to forget this,” she warned.

  Deciding they had done far too much talking for one night, he threaded both his hands through her hair. “Then I guess I’ll just have to convince you.”

  The clip was in the way of his fingers. He took it out, and let her hair fall down around her shoulders, like tangled ribbons of dark brown silk.

  Ashley caught her breath as he moved his hands through the soft thickness of her hair. “Cal—” It was part admonition, part plea. He chose to obey the latter. Engulfing her with the heat and strength of his body, he lowered his head and delivered a breath-stealing kiss. She moaned, soft and low in her throat. His body responded, heating and surging to life. And he kissed her again, deliberately shattering what little caution she had left. Her lips parted beneath the pressure of his, and he enjoyed the sweet, hot taste of her. He groaned as their tongues twined urgently, and his body took on an urgent pulsing all its own, until there was no doubting how much they wanted and needed each other.

  Ashley sighed, trembling and cuddling against him, when they finally broke the kiss. “You are so bad for me sometimes.”

  He kissed her again, letting her take him where she wanted to go this time, not stopping until the last of the distrust between them had dissolved. “I take it you mean bad in a good way,” he teased, as he rubbed his fingers across the tips of her breasts, then slipped his fingers beneath the hem of her sweater and bra, to caress the pearling tips even more intimately.

  She shuddered as he traced the weight and shape. “Bad in every way,” she teased right back.

  “I want to make love to you,” he kissed his way down the nape of her neck, pushing the rolled collar of her turtleneck aside.

  “I want that, too.”

  “We could stay in front of the fire.”

  Ashley shook her head, stubborn as ever. Her hand dropped to his arousal. She enfolded him in her palm with the same tender care he was cupping her breasts. “I want to go back to our original plan and christen the car.” He grinned as she used her other hand to unbutton his shirt, and continued her role as aggressor. “You have to start thinking of that station wagon as sexy.”

  He reached around behind her to unfasten her bra, and fill his hands with her silky warm flesh. “Making love with you in it will do that all right,” he promised.

  Ashley stepped back, away from him. Knowing, as did he, that if they didn’t stop now, they’d never make it out of the kitchen. “You get the blankets and maybe a pillow or two. I’ll open up the back and put down the rear seat.” She started for the door to the garage.

  Cal watched the gentle sway of her hips, and wondered if s
he knew just how enticing she was, or how much he had enjoyed taming her and making her his. “Just don’t start without me,” he teased.

  Ashley turned and shot him a sultry look that upped his pulse another notch. “Don’t you wish.”

  He grinned.

  “Meet you in five,” she dictated cheerfully.

  “Or sooner,” Cal said, his spirits lifting the way they always did when he was about to make love to his wife. Only, when he gathered up the items she had asked for and met her in the garage, Ashley wasn’t standing in front of her new car, but rather his SUV. And she looked anything but pleased as she held up her sexy lace undies and black dress and drawled, “I can’t wait to hear the explanation for this.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “I just bet you can’t,” Cal said, walking past her and over to the new station wagon. He opened up the back and the sides, and began the process of putting the seats down.

  “You knew I was looking for this dress,” Ashley stormed, waving it around like a red flag in front of a bull.

  “Uh-huh.” Cal leaned into the car and spread the quilts out, making a soft cozy bed for them.

  “And the undies I usually wear with them,” she continued heatedly.

  His ash-blond brows drew together as he looked over at her in mock seriousness. “Right.”

  Ashley stomped over to him, her flat soles connecting loudly on the cement floor. She clasped the missing items in her hands. “So where were they?”

  “I could tell you,” he said, mischief glimmering in his eyes. He leaned toward her, his voice low and sexy. “But I’m not going to.”

  Ashley stiffened, aggravated at the way he’d had her searching high and low for her clothing when he had obviously known right where it was all along! “And you expect me to accept that?”

  “I don’t see that you have any choice,” he said good-naturedly. “Unless you want to hire a private detective.” He squinted at her thoughtfully and screwed up the corners of his lips in comical fashion. “Or perhaps grill your clothes on where they’ve been.”

  “Har de har har.” She watched him plump the pillows, remove his tie, and begin to unbutton his shirt. “And that’s it? That’s all you’re going to tell me?” she demanded in exasperation.

  He inclined his head to one side and thought about it some more. “Yep.” Somehow, he managed to pry the clothing from her hands and put it back in his SUV. “Now, are we going to have to do this in the dark again or shall there be light?”

  A look of distinctly male satisfaction on his face, he took her resisting body in his arms. Ashley stiffened, trying hard not to notice how warm and strong and solid he felt. She tossed her head imperiously. “Who says we’re doing it at all?”

  Cal chuckled and shifted her closer still. Giving her no chance to argue more, he lowered his head and claimed her mouth with his. Ashley tasted the masculine force that was Cal, felt his mastery in the plundering sweep of his tongue. She still didn’t want to give in to him, but his will was stronger than hers. She clutched at his shoulders as he moved his hips against hers and delivered a deep, demanding kiss. With a low moan of surrender, Ashley tilted her head to give him deeper access. His tongue mated with hers, and he delivered another steamy kiss that left her limp with longing and faint with acquiescence and wondering at the magical power he seemed to hold over her heart. They had been a couple for nearly ten years now, married for almost three, and yet every time he took her in his arms, every time he kissed her, her heart pounded and a shiver of unbearable excitement went through her.

  “With the lights or without?” he murmured.

  “Without.”

  He helped her into the back of the car, then went back to shut off the overhead light in the garage and returned to her side. He climbed in after her, shutting the tailgate. There was just enough moonlight coming in from the decorative half-moon windows across the top of the garage door to let them make out each other’s shapes. The mood went from slightly cantankerous to highly charged in an instant. The back of the wagon had been a little drafty as she first climbed in. When he joined her, it soon became hot and close. Ashley’s heart pounded with anticipation, as they turned onto their sides and tried and failed for several moments to get comfortable.

  Ashley began to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. And once started, she couldn’t seem to stop. He wanted to claim her, and she wanted him to claim her, and at the rate they were going, it was never going to happen; they were never even going to come close to making love in here and christening their new car. They weren’t going to be able to lie down, even if they did it at an angle. They were both too tall and the bed of the wagon wasn’t long enough, even with the two rear seats folded flat.

  “This is absurd,” Ashley decided, still laughing. She was ready to call it a wash and head upstairs.

  Cal caught her around the waist and brought her back to him before she could beat a hasty retreat. “Not so fast,” he told her. Laughter edging his low voice, too, his hands slipped beneath the hem of her sweater, to tenderly caress the bare skin of her ribs. “We haven’t tried everything yet.”

  She sucked in her breath as he reached around behind her to unclasp her bra. Her skin tingled and heated. “Well, almost—”

  Cal shifted onto his back, so he was lying flat against the blanket, and guided her on top of him. “You know what they say,” he whispered huskily.

  “What?”

  “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

  Ashley was about to counter that they’d never get comfortable enough, when his hands claimed her breasts, working the tips into tight, aching buds of arousal.

  Suddenly, the situation was seeming much more workable.

  Getting the idea of how he wanted this to work, she shifted her body until she was over him, straddling his torso, and then she framed his head with both her hands. His knees were raised, his feet flat on the cargo bed. The back of her hips brushed up against the wall of his rock-hard thighs. Nice, except their heads bumped against the back of the driver’s seat. Cal cursed and Ashley began to giggle uncontrollably. “Still no good.”

  “Patience, Ash.”

  “Cal—”

  He brought her head down to his for a slow, leisurely kiss, coaxing response after response from her. “I’m not giving up. Not yet.”

  When he put it that way…

  She went up on her knees to give Cal room to maneuver as he reached around behind him and grabbed the pillows. He stacked them one on top of the other and pushed them up against the driver’s seat, then sat up partway, his long legs stretched out flat in front of him.

  Maybe this would work…Ashley thought as he continued to kiss and caress her. She was certainly getting excited. Now if they could just figure out a way to enable him to enter her, make their bodies one.

  “Unzip me,” he ordered hoarsely.

  He caught her hand and guided it to him.

  She did as he bid. He was hard and hot and so damn large in her hand.

  “Now bring my pants down, just enough. Yeah. That’s it,” he said as she did his bidding. “And yours should go entirely.”

  A shudder went through her. She wasn’t sure she could wait for the time that would take. “Cal—”

  “I want you naked, Ashley,” he ordered gruffly. “At least from the waist down.”

  What did it matter? Ashley wondered as her body throbbed and burned with wanting him. He couldn’t see her in this shadowy light. Not enough to be able to figure out what was happening with her body, anyway. Wanting to please him as much as she wanted him to pleasure her, Ashley slipped over onto her side. Her fingers trembled as she complied with his wishes. When she would have moved over him once again, he caught her against him and held her so she was still curled up on her side, her head tilted just to the left of his.

  He found her mouth at the same time as his hand found her dewy softness. He kissed her and caressed her until the world faded away.

  She climaxed wi
th surprising speed. And then he lifted her on top of him once again, caught her waist in his hands, and entered her with one long, slow, incredibly sensual stroke. Ashley felt the heat. Passion. Need. All combined to fuel the fires burning within them, and soaring, they found the release they had been craving.

  “YOU’RE SORE, aren’t you?” Cal said the next morning as Ashley struggled to get out of bed.

  She nodded ruefully. “Not only where you might expect.” Given the heat and ardor with which they’d made love the previous night, she had expected—and was definitely experiencing—the residual tingling in the most feminine part of her that came with being well-loved. “But I’m feeling the effects of our rendezvous last night everywhere else, too,” Ashley lamented as she stretched her arms languidly over her head in an effort to work the kinks out. “Arms, legs, heck—” she chuckled and shook her head “—even my derriere hurts!” Which was what they got for never having—um—“exercised” quite that way before.

  “Well, if it will make you feel any better, I’m a little stiff this morning, too,” Cal said. He swaggered toward her, looking buff and fit, clad in nothing but his boxers. Muscles flexing, he helped her to her feet. “But we can feel good about one thing.” He favored her with a sexy smile that did funny things to her insides.

  “And what would that be?” Ashley luxuriated in the feeling of his arms around her.

  He looked at her gently, protectively. “Our new station wagon not only got christened, it has been established as one very sexy vehicle.”

  Ashley laughed at the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Just tell me we don’t have to do it again.” She ran her hand across the manly stubble on his jaw.

  He caught her thumb between his teeth and caressed it softly with his tongue. “We don’t have to do it again. The SUV on the other hand…”

  Ashley groaned in mock reluctance. She clapped both hands over her ears as if to shut out what he was saying.

  He pried her hands from her head and held them in his as he continued, all confident male “…has a larger cargo hold. Or we could try the front seats.”