Page 37 of Bride Under Contract

She looked at him, lying with the sheet barely covering that gorgeous body that had been over hers, and deep inside.

‘Shower?’ Grace said.

‘Just through there.’ Carter pointed, watching as she climbed out of bed, seeing a little of the evidence on her thigh and her gorgeous bottom and hardening again.

‘Can I use...?’ she began.

She was as turned on as he, he could see the glitter in her eyes, the way she bit her lip, her thighs poised as if she might dive back into bed.

‘Shampoo?’

‘Sure.’

He was still pointing as she disappeared into the bathroom and Carter stared at his own finger and knew he’d been tempted to crook it...to beckon her back to bed.

And that was not him.

Oh, Carter partook in a lot of morning-after sex, but he viewed that as necessary...a little like brushing your teeth. You felt better for the rest of the day for having done it.

He wasn’t so used to straight-after-sex sex, though...or resisting joining a lover in the shower.

He’d also like to correct her. He was rather certain she could soon be a very noisy lover.

And she was funny—that was new—lying in bed dwelling on another...

He liked her company and that was a whole other type of new.

Climbing out of bed, he picked up a couple of sarongs from his dresser. Covering the evidence of their coupling with the sheet, he left one out for the prior virgin, the other he wrapped around his hips, then walked out through the French doors and onto the balcony.

The sky was still navy, the dawn inching towards breaking. The clouds had drifted away, and the stars were taking their final moments to shine in the moonless sky. The usually muggy air had a morning-fresh tinge.

The recklessness of the night was concerning, but for now, very deliberately, he dwelt on the actual reason he was here.

He had dreaded returning, but it had been made easier by Grace.

This whole situation would be made easier by Grace.

He was certain she needed money for her mother, and he found it endearing that she refused to say.

God knew, he wasn’t used to that.

He admired that she had come to his bed with purpose, wanting to lose her virginity. Hell, he completely got that a night that could go nowhere held appeal.

Certainly it had for him, on too many occasions.

And he knew that if there was such a thing here Grace Andrews would already have called for a taxi.

As for pregnancy...?

He closed his eyes. He would not cloud his thoughts with that.

For Carter that was a separate issue entirely.

It wasn’t concern about a pregnancy, or a sense of charity, nor guilt that she’d been a virgin that had him considering his options. If he wanted to stop his cousin in his poisonous tracks, then marriage for a year would take care of that.

A year, though?

It had seemed unfathomable—in truth it still did. Yet for the first time he dwelt on that clause he’d so summarily dismissed.

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