Page 44 of Fairy Tale Marriage

CHAPTER SEVEN

To My Long-Lost Bride,

I went to the Christmas Ball. It goes without saying that you didn’t.

I don’t know what to write anymore. Idon’t know what to feel I guess that’s because there aren’t any feelings left. Inever thought I’d give up. But right now...

I met someone, Shayne. Idon’t love her, but then, Idon’t think I’m capable of experiencing love anymore. Madalena and I have reached an understanding and she seems happy enough, even though I don’t have much to give her. Hell, if I were honest, I’d admit I don’t have anything to give her, not that she’s asking. But she fills a void that’s grown larger with each passing year. Avoid I suspect will someday consumeme.

So why do I feel like I’m cheating onyou?

I’ve failed you, honey, and I’m truly sorry for that. But this is it. Ican’t take anymore. And so, my long-lost bride, I’m saying a final goodbye.

If I could have found a Forever Love, it would have been withyou.

Chaz remembered the exact second the realization struck. He was on a ladder, pulling all manner of debris out of the gutters around the house. He could have losther.

He'd spent years searching for Shayne and she could have been permanently lost to him ages ago, killed in a car accident on a twisty mountain road in Costa Rica. And he'd never have known of her fate. Despite the frigid temperatures, he broke out in a cold sweat. He climbed off the ladder before he fell off and walked into the house. He found her upstairs, ordering the general destruction of all three spare bedrooms.

She paused mid-order and looked at him, an eyebrow raised in question. “Do you need something?”

“Yeah,” he said roughly. “I do.”

He waved the workers from the room, then stripped off his work gloves and dropped them to the floor. The second they were alone, he backed her up against the nearest wall and cupped her face in his hands. For a long moment, he simply looked at her, drinking in the delicate features.

She had such soft, creamy skin, the healthy flush of exertion. highlighting her arching cheekbones. As he watched, she moistened her full, lush mouth and fixed him with velvety dark eyes. Eyes that had haunted him for years. Eyes that continued to haunt him even when he stood perched on a ladder, cleaning out gutters.

“Chaz?” she whispered.

“Shh. Ijust had to do this.”

“Do what?”

Words escaped him so he let his actions answer instead. He slipped his hand around the nape of her neck and drew her up toward his mouth. And then he tumbled into sheer pleasure, the fall long and hard and endless. But it wasn’t painful. Not when he was caught by the most delectable set of lips he’d ever kissed. He inhaled her, consumed her, ate her up in quick, hungry bites.

She could havedied.

But she hadn’t and the evidence was lifting on tiptoe to return his embrace. His fears subsided, if not his desire. If anything, his desire had become so strong, he could barely think straight. He scooped her closer, relishing the feel of her soft breasts flattening against his chest and the rounded hips snuggling into the cradle of his. If there hadn’t been people nearby, he’d have taken her then and there.

Would she have wrapped her slender legs around him and allowed the wild storms to consume them? Or would modesty have prevailed? Their passion deepened with flash-burn intensity and he had his answer.

But how long would that passion last? How many days would he continue to crave the woman in his arms? How long would it be before his heartlessness destroyed their marriage? How many nights would pass before one or both of them became sated into dissatisfaction?

He kissed her again, harder and more uncontrolled this time, desperate to hold the future at bay and focus on the delights of the moment. He harbored her safe within his arms—if his arms could be deemed a safe harbor. Not that Shayne seemed to share his doubts.

For his wife, his sweet, precious wife, gave her mouth with such unstinting tenderness and generosity, so open to his every desire, that it threatened to utterly destroyhim.

If she lived to be a hundred she’d never understand the man. “I don’t understand you, Chaz. Ithought you wanted me to fix the place up.”

“Yes. Fix it.” His jaw worked in an odd way. “Fix means paint. Fix means doodads on the furniture. Fix means—” His arms made a few pinwheels in the air. “It means a rug here and there and maybe one or two of those useless colored pillows. It doesn't mean this!”

“I wasn’t going to leave the bathroom without plumbing for long. Ijust had to pick fixtures more suitable to a little girl.”

“Little girls need railings on their tub?”

She avoided his gaze. “And in the shower. Along with one of those cute seats in the corner. They’re perfect for holding all the shampoo bottles. Little girls use lots of different shampoo bottles. Awhole seat covered with them.”

He crammed his Stetson further down on his brow and clamped his back teeth together. “Fine. Have a shower with a seat. But two sinks? What does she need two for?”

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