Lynnette Kent - Matt's Family

Their mood gradually eased as they ate fresh shrimp and coleslaw and hush puppies at a table overlooking the Cape Fear River. Then Matt talked Kristin into dessert. “At least split a piece with me. Would that be so bad?” He knew her weakness against the temptation of chocolate.

Kristin sighed. “Yes, it would. But I can’t resist.” She raised her head and looked at him across the table. “You fiend, you.”

But her brown eyes laughed at him. Matt felt a weight lift from his shoulders, just knowing he’d made her laugh. Especially after the way he’d blown it this morning in the car.

He’d just have to work harder in the future to keep the conversation away from minefields like Africa…Luke…Erin…Too bad the inn in Fredericksburg where they were going to stay the night was still seven hours away.

A mere seven hours of intimate, meaningful discussion but no controversy?

Mission Impossible. Matt pulled in a deep, doubtful breath and concentrated on his share of dessert.

FREDERICKSBURG TURNED OUT to be even farther than seven hours—a bridge on the main road had been washed out by flooding. The detour markers led straight into the dark Virginia wilderness and then vanished, without showing the way out again.

“We must have missed another sign,” Matt muttered at about 10:00 p.m. as they sat parked at a roadside picnic area in the middle of nowhere. He studied the map. “I don’t see state road 3407 anywhere on here.”

Kristin rubbed her eyes with her fingers. She’d been driving for the last three hours while Matt navigated.

“Let’s call the B&B,” she said. “Maybe they can help.”

But the owners of the inn confessed to being transplanted Yankees, still learning the country themselves. They promised a bed would be ready whatever time the Brennans showed up.

He clicked off the cellular phone, dropped his head back and yawned. “Man, I’m tired.”

“Me, too.” Kristin leaned her temple against the window. “We can rest for a little while, can’t we?”

Matt stared at her awkward position for a few seconds. Then he climbed out of the van and in again—onto the back seat. “Sounds great to me. Turn off the light and come here. We can stretch out and be warm.” He grinned and held out his arms.

Kristin’s smile was all the answer he needed. By the time she crawled into the back, he had stretched out on his side, his head pillowed on the armrest. With a sigh, she lay down in his arms, resting her cheek on his shoulder. He let his other arm curve across the dip in her waist just made for that purpose. “Better?”

“Mmm.” She wiggled a bit, slipped her knee between his and, finally, relaxed. “Wonderful.”

He pressed a kiss on the top of her head, catching the sweet berry scent of her shampoo. “Me, too.”

But minutes passed, and sleep didn’t come. Somewhere in the woods a whippoorwill called. An owl hooted, answered by a different one. Crickets and bullfrogs scratched and croaked.

Kristin lay with her eyes closed, listening to Matt’s even breathing and the beat of her own heart…a beat that became quick and unsteady as she soaked up her husband’s scent, his nearness, his sheer magnetism.

In another few seconds, she knew he was awake. The very air around them was like a force pressing on her skin, making breathing difficult.

Matt put a finger under her chin and lifted her face. As she closed her eyes, his breath brushed her temple and her cheek. When his lips finally settled over hers, Kristin surrendered completely to the firmness of his mouth, the graze of his teeth on her lower lip, the sweet pressure of his tongue against hers.

“We haven’t made out in a car in a long time,” he whispered when they broke for breath. “Feels good.” He rubbed his knuckles gently along her spine under her shirt. “You feel good.”

His touch created an unbearable ache. Kristin shifted even closer. “You make me crazy,” she murmured against the base of his throat.

“I hope so.” Somehow he unfastened her bra—Matt had always been good with his hands. He covered her breast with his palm. “I’m trying.”

She pulled his shirttail out of his shorts and smoothed her hands over his back, across his ribs and chest. “Let’s see if I can do the same for you.”

“Oh, yeah,” he groaned. “Whatever you say.”

Heated minutes followed, while the soft sounds they made pleasing each other filled the van. Matt’s shirt disappeared, and her shorts. Smiling, quivering, Kristin remembered that this wasn’t the old days. They were married now. They didn’t have to stop.

Or did they?

Drenched with reality, her mind cleared. Birth control. They needed to use birth control. “Matt,” she whispered against the soft, short hair on the top of his head. “Matt, wait.”

“Hmm?” He raised his head and looked at her, his blue eyes heavy with desire. “Waiting is fast becoming a non-option, lady.” His sweet smile as he came in for another kiss robbed the statement of any demand.

“Matt. We need to stop for a minute.” She closed her hands on his shoulders and pushed. “I need to…get ready.”

He blinked. “Oh. Yeah.” Sitting up, he ran a hand over his face. “Sure.”

Flushed with embarrassment, Kristin made her way to the second-row seat and leaned over the back to reach her suitcase. She snapped open the latch and lifted the lid. And stared.

Her makeup bag wasn’t there, on top, where she’d put it. How could it have gotten moved? Or did it just sift down through the clothes? Heart pounding, she felt her way through the entire case. She found her hair dryer, her curling iron, her clothes iron and her three extra pairs of shoes. But no makeup bag.

Kristin crossed her arms on the back of the seat and buried her face in them.

“What?” Matt put a hand on her back. “Kris, what’s wrong?”

“My makeup bag,” she whispered without lifting her head. “I left it at home.”

“And?”

“And my diaphragm was inside.”

“That means—”

“Yes, it does.” She turned around and sat facing him, pulling her shirt down over her hips. “We don’t have any protection. We can’t do…this…anymore.”

MATT SWALLOWED HARD. “Kris, we’re married. We can take the risk.” His body begged him not to debate the issue very long.

With her face hidden in her hands, she shook her head. The gold of her hair picked up a glint of moonlight.

His skin was beginning to chill. “Why not?”

“This…isn’t a…good time for a baby.”

The truth didn’t soothe his frustration or his temper. “Just when will be a good time?”

“I—”

“What exactly is it we’re waiting for?” His voice was too loud in the dark, and out of his control. “Can you give me a hint about how to recognize when we get there?”

Kristin looked up, her eyes round and dark. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to.”

Matt muttered a rude word. He found his shirt on the floor and shrugged it on, then eased back onto the seat beside his wife.

“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault I’m a jerk.” Slipping an arm around her shoulders, he turned her to sit next to him, then tipped her face up with a finger under her chin. “I just wanted you so much. For a minute there, I wasn’t thinking with my brain.”

The corners of her mouth tilted into a small smile. He breathed a sigh of relief. “You should put a pair of jeans on. It’s getting chilly.” He resolutely closed his eyes during the process. His system was still revved way too high to resist temptation.

“Done.” Kristin sat down again. “I guess we could start driving, try to find our way to Fredericksburg.”