Page 40 of Bride for Keeps

Who was the man with these words? These promises? What had gone so warped in his head that he thought he should give them toher?

Still he hooked his fingers in the band of her panties and slowly slid them off her, and she didn’t stop him. Didn’t want to. As much as those words had reached inside of her and clawed at what little strength she had left, his touch was a balm. His gentle kiss against her knee, her thigh was warmth andpleasure.

She hadn’t felt good since the last time they’d done this. That had been fleeting too, but it had been a hope dashed. This wouldn’t be hope. It would just be goodbye.

Then his mouth wasonher and there was no thought, no goodbye considerations, just sensation and pleasure as he licked into her. She let it sweep over her, hot and greedy. She opened for him, gasped for him, reveled in something so simple.

Love was supposed to be this simple. Not hard and fighting and mistakes. It was supposed to sweep over you like pleasure. Make your skin warm and your body hum. What was the point if it didn’t work just like this?

But that was thinking and she didn’t want to think. She wanted tofeel. Carter’s mouth against the most intimate part of her, the rising tension of pleasure, and then that glorious break and uncoiling of perfect, untethered bliss.

She let out a dreamy sigh as he moved off of her. He pulled off his shirt, his eyes on hers, blue and blazing. She simply watched as he undressed himself the rest of the way.

Tears and sadness threatened because he was so beautiful and he’d been hers for such a short period of time. She thought she’d have forever to memorize the muscles of his shoulders, that square jaw and the way it clenched when he was desperate for her.

She thought she’d watch this man grow old and—

And she couldn’t think about it. She simply couldn’t. So she moved into a sitting position and took off her bra so she was completely naked for him like he was for her. He crawled over her as she lay back down, intense and so determined.

She held her breath, waiting for that moment when he’d enter her, when he’d make the whole world fall away and this horrible clutching pain in her chest would disappear.

His eyes were so blue and they took up the whole world. How she wanted him to be her world. If only she were enough.

“I love you, Sierra,” he murmured, sliding into her in a smooth, gentle stroke.

If only they could exist here. Perfectly joined. Her brain emptied and quiet as sensation took over.

Moving together, holding on to each other, breath and souls mingling. Where the outside world and real life didn’t matter.

It should be this easy, shouldn’t it? Wasn’t that the point? Things that were simple and easy and only brought joy.

But even as they moved together she knew that didn’t make any sense. Oh, she wanted it to, desperately, but his words from earlier were stronger and better somehow.

No. No. That was her insecurity talking and she had to be strong enough to protect herself. She had to be a good mother to this child inside of her and that meant not letting someone else guide her life or make her miserable.

“Sierra,” Carter murmured into her neck, sliding his hand down her hip, holding her there as he moved. “I love you.”

And he kept saying it, against her neck, against her lips, moving with her as she tried to shut it all out and focus on the building sensations inside of her instead of her heart swelling too big, too soft.

“Sierra.”

She met his gaze, so serious, sodetermined, and while he’d always been a goal-oriented man, a man who worked hard and went after what he wanted, she’d never seen this ferocity, thisfire.

“Say it back,” he said, on a growl. “Mean it.”

She blinked, trying to keep the tears at bay, trying to find this horrible instead of wonderful. Trying to ignore the way pleasure spread through her at that intensity, that demand. All the while moving, holding her and ratcheting her closer to that beautiful edge all over again.

“Sierra.”

She wanted to fight him, but how did you fight the ocean? Blue and ceaseless. Big and vast and swallowing her whole.

“I love you, Carter,” she said on a choked whisper, the orgasm ripping through her in a hot, tight rush, his following on a moan.

They lay there, her under the heavy, warm weight of him, holding on to each other as if they’d drift away without that link.

She must have fallen asleep, because when she woke up—tangled up in Carter, warm and happy and both of them still naked—a very dim light crept through the slight gap in the curtains he’d drawn afterward. It was just barely dawn, if she had to guess.

She moved her head and simply stared at Carter. He’d said so many things last night,doneso many things. She couldn’t wrap her head around why he didn’t seem different. Still handsome as an angel, still her strong, awe-inspiring husband.

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