Wild Fling or a Wedding Ring?
Page 17
The very tip of her tongue touched the full swell of that lush bottom lip of hers, lingering over a weighted pause that had his body less interested in where she was moving for work and more interested in moving her into the bedroom.
“Chicago. I’ve taken a permanent position as Midwest Regional Manager.”
He froze, struck dumb and immobilized by her response.
“I’ve met my promise to myself. Now all I want is to be happy, and in my whole life I’ve never been as happy as I was there.”
Her palms flattened against his chest, her gaze dropping in blatant appreciation of what she found there. His little Cali, who had a sweet tooth for man-candy and didn’t get kissed often enough. He leaned forward, caught her mouth with his, swept a teasing stroke of his tongue between her lips.
Her fingers balled in the fabric of his shirt as her velvety sigh warmed his mouth. “If you want,” she whispered, “we can be happy there together.”
“Marry me.” The words were out before he’d even thought to say them. But he had no desire to take them back. “More than anything, I want you to marry me.”
This time Cali froze.
This wasn’t the way he’d planned, but it wasn’t impulse or desperation either. It was right. “I’ll love you forever. I’ll make you happy, sweetheart. I swear I can.”
Her lips trembled and a single tear slipped from the corner of her eye. Her hands tightened in his shirt as though she were trying to contain him—as if he weren’t hers already. He pulled her against his chest, murmuring into the delicate curve of her neck, “Marry me.”
She pulled back to meet his stare, smile spreading, green eyes shining. “Yes,” she answered, her breath catching on something between a laugh and sigh. “Yes!” she said again, the sound of her voice so rich and sweet. Certain. “I’ll marry you.”
“Thank God,” he answered, with utter sincerity.
The laugh that had first snared his heart bubbled free, and then Cali was covering him with her body and her mouth, showering him in a flurry of kisses, tugging at his clothes, groaning at the sight of his bare chest and driving him wild as only she could.
He’d never have enough of her.
His hands were at her shoulders, his heart slamming against his ribs as he turned and pinned her to the cushions beneath him. His shirt hung open, half off his shoulders. He had to stop before they got any further.
“Wait right here.” Grinning, he tried to escape from the couch.
Her leg hooked around his hip, pulling him back to her, and a little pout formed on her mouth. “We’ve waited long enough.”
Braced on one arm above her, Jake let his head drop forward as he chuckled. “It’ll be worth it; just give me one second.”
Cali peered up at him through her lashes, an impish glint in her eyes. “I’ll give you my whole life….” She bit into that lush bottom lip of hers, pulled it slowly from the clasp of her teeth—damn, that worked for him—before she finished. “If you give me the next few minutes of yours.”
Swallowing hard, Jake glanced at where his coat lay, draped over the bags he’d carried in for her, then back to the woman running her hands over his stomach. “God, I love you.”
Her fingers caught in the waist of his pants and she tugged him down on top of her.
“I love you, too,” she whispered, holding him with her lustrous green-eyed gaze. The corner of her mouth curved as her knee skimmed up his side. “And I’m not letting you go.”
As a man committed to making his wife-to-be happy, Jake closed his lips over hers, then sank into a kiss that tasted like heaven and promised forever. The three-karat diamond ring parked in the interior pocket of his overcoat would have to wait…just a few minutes more.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5637-2
WILD FLING OR A WEDDING RING?
First North American Publication 2010.
Copyright © 2010 by Mira Lyn Kelly.
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