Barbara Dunlop - His Convenient Virgin Bride

“Why?” she finally whispered.

He gave in to complete honesty. “Because you’re everything I’m not.”

Her eyes went round, and he bent to kiss her smooth stomach.

“You hear that, kid?” His voice unexpectedly thickened. “You’re going to have the best mother in the world.”

She stroked her fingers through his hair, and he kissed her again, softly and leisurely. Then he pecked and suckled his way over her stomach to her breasts. She gasped as he took one pebbled nipple into his mouth, and his body instantly reacted to her taste and texture. Stephanie arched her back, and a small groan came from her lips.

He slipped an arm beneath the small of her back, moving to the other breast, while his hand went on an exploration of its own. After long minutes, he kissed his way to her mouth. She tasted sweet, hauntingly familiar, and he battled a dread of letting her go.

He thrust his tongue into her mouth, feeling a desperation to brand her as his own, wanting the memory of tonight to be seared indelibly into both of their brains.

She kissed him back, deeply and thoroughly, her palms sliding down his back, over his buttocks, along his thighs. He didn’t want to rush her, but the urge to push inside grew stronger and stronger.

Then he felt her thighs twitch. They eased apart, welcoming him. It was all he could do to fight the freight train of desire as instinct took over, and his hips automatically flexed forward.

She bent her knees and rose to meet him, the heat of their bodies searing against each other. He drew his head back, watching her wide eyes as he slowly eased inside. Her cheeks were flushed, her dark lips parted in small gasps, and her pupils dilated as she stared deep into his soul.

He stilled, his voice a rasp. “I could do this forever.”

“Please do.”

“Oh, yeah.”

He watched her intently, while his need built, and the tension in his muscles coiled to painful. Still, he refused to move. A single movement would be the beginning of the end. And he didn’t want this to end. He quite literally wanted to stay right here for the rest of his life.

“Oh, Alec,” she moaned, and a lightning flash of lust shot through him.

“I know.” He held fast.

But her eyes fluttered shut, and her hips flexed forward, and her legs wrapped around him, catapulting his subconscious into action. There was nothing he could do to stop the long strokes of pleasure propelling them forward.

Her nails dug into his back. Her gasps were music to his ears. He inhaled her scent, reveled in her hot, moist core, guiding them both as long and as high as he could manage. Then her cries rocked his world, and her body convulsed against him, and his name on her lips sent him over the edge into rhythmic paradise.

The scattered showers of the new day made the jump course heavy and less than ideal. But Rosie-Joe had excelled in worse conditions than this.

“Make sure you give her time to get her footing before the triple combination,” Stephanie told Wesley.

He was dressed, pressed, trimmed and ready to go, his round coming up in only minutes.

“The rain won’t spook her,” Stephanie continued. “Keep her balanced, and she should run clean. Just keep your head in the game.”

Wesley nodded, his gaze suddenly focusing on something in the distance. A smile grew on his face that seemed just a little too confident.

“Are you listening to me?” she asked, as horses, grooms and competitors shifted around them. The announcer’s voice was clear on the PA. The crowd applauded as Bill Roauge and Zepher made it cleanly over the water jump.

“You worry too much.”

“Wesley-”

He leaned in close, brushing her arm. “Just wish me luck,” he whispered. Then he brushed something from her cheek and tucked her hair behind one ear.

Suddenly a blur of movement crossed her vision. Alec’s big hand wrapped around Wesley’s arm. Wesley staggered backward, as Alec propelled him ten feet to stop abruptly against the wall.

Stephanie was too stunned to move.

Had Alec lost his mind?

She couldn’t see his face, and she couldn’t hear his words. But she could see the set of his shoulders, and the width of his stance, and his hand was clamped tight around Wesley’s arm. Wesley’s cockiness turned to shock, while most of the blood seemed to drain from his face.

The groom holding Rosie-Jo stared in stupefaction, while Stephanie finally spurred herself to action, marching across the floor.

“Do you understand?” Alec ground out in a harsh voice she’d never heard before.

Wesley gave a rapid nod, and before Stephanie could say anything, he broke away from Alec and brushed past her.

She turned, torn between going after him and demanding answers from Alec. But Wesley was already mounting Rosie-Jo, and she couldn’t think of a single thing to say to him that might help. So, she rounded on Alec.

“What is the matter with you?” she hissed, moving close to face him.

“Not a single thing.”

She gestured to Wesley. “He’s about to ride.”

“So what?”

“You’ve completely blown his concentration.”

Alec pasted her with a hard stare. “He should have thought of that before coming on to another man’s wife.”

“What?” she sputtered. What on earth was Alec’s problem? After last night, how could he possibly think she had any interest in Wesley?

“You going to watch him?” Alec grimly nodded to where Wesley was entering the ring.

She had to watch.

Of course she had to watch.

“We are not through here,” she warned Alec.

“We never are,” he sighed as she turned for the fence.

Alec fell into step beside her.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m coming with you.”

“It’s probably better if you-”

“This isn’t negotiable, Stephanie.”

“Then at least stop scowling.”

They stopped at the fence as Rosie-Jo cleared the first jump.

“He wasn’t coming onto me,” she muttered in an undertone.

“I agree,” said Alec.

And she turned to him with frank astonishment.

“He was testing me, ” said Alec.

The crowd cheered as Rosie-Joe cleared the next jump.

“Testing you for what? You were there last night, Alec. You already won.” She reflexively scrutinized Wesley’s lineup for the vertical.

“To see what I’d do if he made a move on you. He saw me coming, Stephanie. He looked me straight in the eyes, launched that smug grin and moved in on you.”

Stephanie clearly remembered Wesley’s touch and his whisper. “I had dirt on my cheek,” she defended.

“No, you didn’t. You had a husband within eyeshot and a young pup looking to test the waters.”

The crowd cheered again.

“You’re paranoid.” But she had to admit, something had seemed off about Wesley’s gesture. And there was no denying he’d been pushing the boundaries with her since she’d told him about being pregnant.

“I’m not paranoid. I’m realistic.”

“He knows it’s a marriage of convenience,” she felt compelled to defend Wesley. It was probably her own fault for not being clear with him three days ago.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to him.”

Butterflies formed in Stephanie’s stomach as Rosie-Jo lined up for the triple. She held her breath.

Oxer, vertical, vertical.

He’d done it. Stephanie let out a breath and applauded along with the rest of the crowd.

But on the next jump, Rosie-Jo rubbed a rail.

Stephanie swore under her breath as the announcer acknowledged the fault.

They made the last three jumps clean, their time putting then in eighth place. A respectable showing.