Page 27 of Fairy Tale Marriage

“Where’s your office?”

He gestured toward a door off to her left. “Through there. I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

She smiled. “It’ll work out, Chaz.”

“Not likely.” He cupped the nape of her neck and drew her close. His mouth slipped across hers in a brief kiss. An instant later he returned for another, this one harder, edged with unchecked passion, aplea and a promise and a demand all wrapped up inone.

“I have an idea.”

For some reason her eyelids refused to lift. “What’s that?”

“Why don’t we let our unwelcome visitors sit and stew awhile. We can sneak upstairs and catch up on nine years of waiting. With any luck, they’ll be gone by the time we return.”

Her eyes flickered open at that. “Am I the lesser of two evils?”

“No. You’re the escape from two evils.” His mouth scalded a path along her jawline, found her ear and unhinged her with the warmth of his breath. “You’re an oasis, water in the middle of an endless desert, life in a barren jumble of rock and dust.”

Oh, God, she knew this man. He wasn’t the Chaz she’d married, but the one she’d fallen in love with once upon a time. She silently rejoiced at his return, relieved beyond measure to discover that he hadn’t totally disappeared. With a little effort, perhaps she could coax him from the hard, cold shell in which he’d encased himself. Maybe. If she were very, very careful.

“I wish we could go upstairs and hide there forever,” she confessed with devastating honesty. “Just the two of us.”

“We can.” He urged her closer into a sweet tangle of arms and legs. “Put on your mask, wife, and we’ll pretend we’re two strangers with no past and no future to torment us. Just the pleasure of the moment, for as long as that moment lasts.”

Pain returned, swift and sure. “And when it ends?”

“We’ll deal with that. But, later. Much later.”

“I wish—”

“Wish what?”

She fixed her gaze on him, wondering if he sensed all she found so difficult to express. “I wish last night meant more to you than a quick tumble in bed. Iwish today could, too.”

She’d said the wrong thing. His expression closed over and he pulled back, awintry breeze washing away the heat of passion. Any cracks in his shell had been swiftly repaired. The abrupt change brought tears to her eyes, tears she hid beneath a protective sweep of lashes.

“I warned you before we married.”

“I know.”

“Don’t ask for more than I can give.”

Her mouth tilted to one side, tender amusement easing the pain. “Sorry to disappoint you. But I’m going to keep asking.”

“Then brace yourself, sweetheart. Because I’m gonna keep refusing.”

“That’s up to you.” She gathered what remained of her self-control. “Why don’t we take care of business? Isuspect it will make our time together all the more special when we do finally indulge.”

He snagged the front of her blouse and tugged her close again, branding her with a final kiss. “Count on it. And count on the fact that I intend to indulge at our earliest convenience.”

A ferocious hunger sparked deep in his eyes, like that of a starving animal stumbling across an unexpected cache of food. Understanding dawned. Astarving animal would fall on the food with a voracious appetite that demanded instant gratification, knowing it could be taken from him at any minute.

“You think that what we feel for each other is going to vanish, don’t you?”

“There’s not a doubt in my mind,” he confirmed. “One day we’ll wake up and all we’ll have between us is hot desert and hard rock.”

“If that day ever arrives, you won’t have to ask me to leave. I’ll go of my own accord.”

He inclined his head in agreement, but something held her in place. Something that urged her to take him in her arms and swear her undying love. To promise the love she felt would survive anything. That now they'd found each other, nothing would ever part them again. But caution rode her every bit as hard as it didhim.

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