Page 44 of Inventions of the Heart

“I’m going to change into my nightshirt now.” He wanted to add something.Don’t look. OrBeware...if you look you might wish you hadn’t. Or better yet, maybe he should say,I don’t mind if you look.

He almost turned and banged his head on the bedroom door. He might’ve if it wouldn’t have drawn Nick’s attention.

Nothing seemed at all right, so he just hurried to his small satchel. They had planned to stay in town overnight regardless, between the arrest, the trial, and the wedding, so they had packed a few things.

His temper flared when he thought of Jarvis being gone, but Michelle didn’t need a cranky man in the room with her.

He stripped out of his clothes and quickly donned a nightshirt. It was more common for him to sleep in his longhandles, though on warm summer nights, this nightshirt made sleep more comfortable.

He moved slowly to the bed, hoping for silence, which was stupid. He didn’t want to sneak up on her, but still, he tiptoed, then slid into the bed with a living, breathing wife. She was bound to notice.

He was glad he was lying down, or he might’ve toppled over from the sudden wave of dizziness.

The bedside lantern was still burning. Before he extinguished it, he turned to her, and doing his best to act like this was a normal and natural moment, when in truth it ranked up near the strangest and most wonderful moments of his life, he reached out a hand, hesitantly but wanting to saysomething before they went to sleep, and he rested his palm on the graceful curve of her shoulder.

“Good-night, sweet wife.”

She rolled onto her back and gave him a sheepish grin. “Good-night, husband.”

He remembered that they’d agreed to a kiss. “May I have my good-night kiss now?”

“You may.”

Leaning slowly, an inch at a time, so he could remember every moment, he pressed his lips to hers. Felt them warm and tender beneath his. The kiss deepened by the second. His arm came around her waist and pulled her close. She curled a hand behind his neck.

The kiss was perfect. The woman was perfect. Then what was sweet and warm caught fire. He wrenched away from her. Their eyes met and held.

With a startling suddenness, Michelle dove back toward his lips and kissed him with an enthusiasm that woke up all sorts of ideas in Zane’s muddled head.

Before long, Zane had another way to define perfection.

And his willing wife hadn’t hesitated over the intimacies for one heartbeat.

Being married was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

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