Chapter 20 #2
Without seeming to exert an ounce of effort, he lifted her out of the chair and brought her back down on his lap. Lucy let out an inelegant squeak at being hauled around like a sack of potatoes. “Quit doing that!”
“What?”
“Picking me up and moving me around like I’m a sofa pillow or something.”
He snorted with laughter. “You’re much more important to me than a sofa pillow, as you well know. How about you tell me about this wedding you envision and how we might make it happen?”
“If I could have anything I wanted…”
“You can have anything you want.”
“What about a tent in your parents’ yard in the spring after your season is over? Nothing too crazy. Just our families and closest friends?”
“That sounds good to me. You’re sure you want to do it here and not in the city?”
“I’m sure. At some point over the last year, Butler has become home to me.”
“You have become home to me. I’m at home wherever you are, and I absolutely hate the idea that you’ve been stressing out about whether or not we were actually going to get married.”
“I haven’t been doing that. Not really…”
He raised a brow. “No?”
“Well, kinda. We never talk about it, so I didn’t know—”
He kissed her. “What didn’t you know?”
“If you still wanted to.”
“Lucy,” he said on a long sigh. “How could you wonder that for even one second when you have to know that my whole world revolves around you?”
“I let my old insecurities take over, I guess.”
“Don’t do that. You don’t have one single reason to be insecure in this relationship.” Suddenly, he was standing up and heading for the door with her in his arms.
“Colton! What’re you doing?”
“You’ll see.”
“You aren’t going to dump me in a snowdrift, are you?”
“Would I do that to you?”
“Ummm…”
He laughed, knowing she was right to be concerned about the unexpected with him. Rather than drop her in a drift, he walked her across the wide expanse of yard between the store and their cabin, kicking open the door and then kicking it shut behind them. “Slide the lock,” he said gruffly.
“What’re you up to, mountain man?” Lucy asked as she pushed the lock they rarely used into place.
“Apparently, I need to show my woman that she has nothing to be insecure about.”
“Colton, you don’t have to—”
Again, he kissed the words right off her lips as he deposited her on the bed and came down on top of her.
Lucy curled her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips, wanting him as close as she could get him.
When they’d first gotten together, she’d been under the mistaken assumption that the intensity of their relationship would wane over time.
But the opposite had been true. The more time she spent with him, the more she craved him—his smile, his laughter, his earthiness, his scent and the wild, untamed way he loved her.
“Yes, I have to, Luce. I have to show you right now. I can’t have you doubting me or our relationship.”
“I don’t doubt you or us.”
“Then why didn’t you just tell me you wanted to talk about the wedding?”
“I don’t know, but whatever the reason, it was more about me than you.”
“If something involving us is on your mind, it involves me, and I always want to know. I can’t bear the thought of you worrying about whether I actually want to get married.”
“You’ve hardly said a word about a wedding since we got engaged.”
“Not because I don’t want to marry you.” He shook his head in obvious disbelief.
“You’re the one thing in this entire world I can’t live without, Lucy.
My only explanation for not mentioning our wedding is that I’m so damned happy with what we already have.
I got comfortable and complacent, and I’m sorry if that hurt you. ”
“I feel like a jerk now.”
His smile lit up his eyes. “You’re not a jerk.
Don’t say mean things about my fiancée. She’s everything to me.
” He kissed her once and then again, never taking his eyes off her face.
“What do you think about the first weekend in May? We’ve never boiled past the thirtieth of April, so that ought to be safe. ”
“How about the second weekend in May so you have time to recover before the honeymoon?”
His eyebrows lifted. “Are you planning to wear me out on this so-called honeymoon?”
“You know it.”
“Then I suppose it would be a good idea to give me a week to recover my stamina after the boil.”
“And you can be away for a week or two after the wedding?”
“Uh-huh.” He nuzzled her neck. “I’ll leave Max in charge. It’ll be fine.” Rolling her earlobe between his teeth, he bit down and sent a charge of desire rippling through her body. “Where do you want to go on this honeymoon of ours?”
“Anywhere. I don’t care. As long as it’s just us for days and days and days on end.”
“Don’t forget the nights.”
“Mmm, that, too.”
“So second week of May,” he said. “It’s a date?”
“Yes, Colton, it’s a date.”
“Good, now let’s get naked to celebrate.”
Lucy laughed at his boyish glee as he said those words and started tugging at her clothes, which were removed with the impressive efficiency she’d become accustomed to.
Usually he was all about driving her out of her mind before they got to the main event, but today he skipped all the preliminaries and entered her in one deep stroke that had her gasping from the impact.
“Ah God, Lucy…” Raising himself up on his elbows, he gazed down at her, brushing the hair back from her face. “Don’t ever be afraid to talk to me about whatever is on your mind. Promise?”
“I promise. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to doubt you or us. I should’ve known everything would be okay.”
“You have nothing at all to worry about where I’m concerned, Luce. You’ve owned me from the first day I met you and every day since. I love you so much. You have no idea.”
“I think I do, and I love you just as much.”
“We got this, Luce.” He gathered her in even closer to him. “Don’t ever doubt that.”
With her hands on his face, she kissed him. “I won’t.”