Текст книги "A Highlander Christmas"

Автор книги: Джанет Чапмен

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 13 страниц)

He held his arms out to encompass their surroundings. “To put this in terms you folks canunderstand, life is really nothing more than an infinite, interconnected matrix. It runs on a rather simple equation for the most part, only appearing complex when you factor in free will. And free will always trumps Providence,” he said, giving Camry another wink. “So just take having a child out of the equation, both of you, as you look deep inside yourselves and acknowledge the miracle Fiona has asked you to be for each other.”

He dropped his hands to his sides with a shrug. “You can’t make a mistake if you follow your heart. Not if you have the courage to go where it leads you. There are no wrong decisions, only the consequence of not making any decision at all by running away from life instead of toward it,” he ended gently, his eyes warm and his smile encouraging.

Absolute silence settled around them.

Roger AuClair suddenly rubbed his hands together, his expression turning expectant. “So, people, are we having a wedding or not? ’Cause if’n I can’t have the dog, then it’s gonna cost you that fancy snow machine you drove up in, and that’s my final offer,” he declared, his old hermit persona suddenly returning.

He frowned when Cam and Luke continued standing silently, staring at him.

“Okay then,” he said, holding his hands up, palms toward them. “I can see you need to think on it some. I’ll leave you to discuss it between you then, ’cause I know you two people are intelligent enough not to take marriage lightly—seeing as how you each hold a handful of fancy school degrees.” He spun around and headed to the cabin, Max and Tigger bounding after him. “Just don’t take too long, ’cause if you’re not hitched before Survivormancomes on, you’ll be unzipping those sleeping bags and finding yourselves camped at opposite ends of my cabin.” He stopped at the door and looked back at them, his sharp green eyes gleaming with amusement. “ ’Cause until I give my blessing, the entireamusement park is shut down.”

Chapter Fifteen

“When did you tell him about Maxine?” Luke quietly asked when Roger disappeared inside the cabin.

“I didn’t.”

“Then how did he know what happened to Kate thirteen years ago?” He held the papers toward her. “And this license; how could Fiona have given it to him three weeks ago, before she even met me? Every bit of information on here is correct, right down to my biological father’s name.”

Camry said nothing, staring at the papers in his hand.

Luke lifted her chin to make her look at him. “How can Roger AuClair possibly know so much about us?” he asked, fighting the alarm tightening his gut. “Even your amusement park comment. It’s almost as if he’s been listening to our conversations for the past week.”

Luke suddenly drove his hand into his pocket and pulled out the transmitter. “This,” he growled, holding it up between them. “It’s not a transmitter, it’s some sort of listening device!” He wound his arm back and threw it, watching it shatter into pieces against a tree, then took hold of Camry’s hand and started toward the snowcat. “I can’t explain what’s going on, much less why, but we are getting the hell off this mountain.”

He opened the door and tried to lift her inside, but Camry pulled free and took several steps back.

“Oh, right. The dogs.” He headed toward the cabin.

“No, Luke!” she cried, grabbing his arm and spinning around. “Wait. I can explain,” she said, her eyes searching his. “I-it’s the magic,” she whispered. “I know you don’t believe in anything but cold hard facts,” she rushed on, clutching his arms to follow him when he took a step back. “But the very energy that powers you and meis the exact same energy that powers the universe. From the cradle, I’ve been taught that it’s the magicthat powers life—quietly, benevolently, and . . . and unpretentious in its desire to see each of us reach our full potential.”

She dropped her gaze to his chest. “And I’ve spent my entire adult life running from it.” She looked up, smiling sadly. “Until I woke up one morning to find a handsome, sexy, unassuming rocket scientist in my bed, who didn’t seem to take me anywhere near as seriously as I took myself.”

“I’ve always taken you seriously,” Luke barely managed to say.

She let go of him and hugged herself, her smile turning self-abasing as she shook her head in denial. “I’ve been so full of myself, it’s a wonder my head fits through doors. I’ve blamed all my problems on everyone but myself; my mother wouldn’t collaborate with me, some jerk in France was trying to steal my work, all my sisters were so damned happy I wanted to kick them, and . . .” She reached up and clasped his face in her shaking hands. “And then youmagically appeared. And for the first time in a very long time, I wanted to be damned happy, too. With you.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek to his pounding heart. “Over this past week, I found myself falling in love with a man who sees brick walls as opportunities, a belligerent colleague as a challenge, and a grumpy roommate as an intimate partner.”

She tilted her head back to look up at him, and Luke’s knees turned to jelly at the raw, unadulterated truth he saw in her tear-filled eyes.

“I want to spend forever with you, Luke, seeing life the way you see it. I didn’t need a few hours to consider your proposal; I only needed the courage to admit to myself that I love you so much, my heart hurts when I think about a future that doesn’t include you. I’ve never felt this alive, Luke. Normally that would scare the hell out of me, but youmake me brave.”

She covered his mouth with her fingers when he tried to speak. “There’s more,” she whispered. “A-and it’s important that you hear it from me.” She stepped out of his arms—making Luke’s knees nearly buckle—and squared her shoulders on a shuddering breath. “Roger AuClair’s eyes look familiar to you because they’re the mirror image of my father’s eyes, and mine, and those of every other MacKeage born since the beginning of time. Only Winter has blue eyes, like my mother. And Fiona.” She gestured toward the cabin. “If I had to guess, I would say Roger is one of my original ancestors, born in a time when the magic was honored instead of held suspect like it is today. Which is why he’s appeared to you—to us—as a harmless old hermit.”

She held her arms out from her sides. “I am of the highland clan MacKeage, and loving me means accepting the magic that rules our science.” She swiped away a tear running down her cheek, her beautiful green eyes locked on his, her vulnerability fully exposed. “So if you still want to spend the rest of your life with me after all you’ve seen today, and can wrap your mind around the notion that it’s only the tip of the iceberg, then I would ask that you let Roger marry us—right now, in this magical place.”

Luke’s legs finally buckled and he dropped to his knees, holding his arms out to her. Camry threw herself at him with a cry of relief, and hugged him so tight he grunted.

“Right now, right here,” he said into her hair. He tilted her head back. “But only because I happen to be insanely in love with you,” he growled, covering her mouth with his.

“Okay, then!” Roger AuClair called out as he walked to them. “Let’s get these vows said before you folks set these poor dogs to blushing!”

Luke forced himself to stop making delicious love to Camry’s mouth and looked up, only to blink at the man dressed in . . . wearing a . . .

Camry covered his gaping mouth with her hand. “Don’t ask, Luke, just accept,” she said, leaning her forehead against his with a giggle. “It’s a drùidh thing.”

“It’ll be a first for me,” Roger said, “but if you two want to give your vows on your knees, I don’t mind none.”

Luke scrambled to his feet, pulling Camry with him and immediately tucking her up against his side as he faced what he could only describe as . . . honest to God, the man looked like a fairytale wizard. Roger AuClair was wearing a black-and-gold spun robe that billowed to the ground, a thick leather belt encrusted with enough jewels to ransom a nation, and a pointed hat that looked an awful lot like the one Mickey Mouse wore in the Disney movie Fantasia—which Luke must have watched a hundred times with Kate.

“Would you folks be wanting the shortversion, or the really, really long one that will probably run over into my Survivormanshow?” Roger asked. He suddenly shot Luke a broad smile. “I see your fancy degrees areworth the paper they’re printed on, Renoir. I’m getting all my channels now.”

“Thank you,” Luke said. “And we’d like the short version, please.”

The old hermit started patting himself down, until his hand suddenly disappeared inside his robe, only to reappear holding a book that had to weigh fifteen pounds if it weighed an ounce. He started leafing through the pages, murmuring to himself.

Luke glanced down at Camry tucked under his arm, and found her smiling up at him. She patted his chest. “Don’t worry, the amusement park will be open all night.”

“I might be old, missy, but I’m not deaf,” Roger muttered, still leafing through his tome. “Okay then,” he said, his voice booming with authority as he launched into a guttural litany that sounded more spat than spoken.

“Excuse me,” Luke interrupted. “That’s not Latin.”

Roger shot him a dark look. “It’s Gaelic.” He looked back down at his book with a heavy sigh. “Now I have to start all over.”

Which he did.

“But how am I supposed to know what I’m vowing?” Luke asked.

Roger stopped in midsputter with a fuming glare aimed at Camry. “Shut him up, missy, or you’re going to find yourself married to a toad.”

Camry bumped Luke’s hip. “Quit interrupting him.”

Luke leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Can he really turn me into a toad?”

Roger sighed heavily again. “You have the whole rest of your lives for her to explain the magic, Renoir. Can we pleaseget this done?” He looked up at the sky, then back at Luke. “My show starts in twenty minutes.”

Luke suddenly realized the sun had set, and it was completely dark out. Except that the three of them seemed to be standing in some sort of glowing light, which appeared to be emanating from Roger. Luke wiped a trembling hand over his face.

The magic that rules our science,Camry had called it.

Whereas he was thinking insanitymight be more accurate.

Roger launched into his litany again for what sounded like a sum total of eight or ten sentences, then suddenly stopped and looked at Camry expectantly.

“I do,” she said.

Roger turned his expectant look on Luke.

Oh, what the hell. “I do,” he firmly echoed.

Roger closed his book with a snap. “You may exchange your rings now,” he said with a regal nod.

Luke felt Camry’s shoulders slump. “We don’t have rings,” she said.

“We didn’t exactly plan to get married today,” Luke drawled, giving Camry a bolstering squeeze. “We’ll go straight to a jeweler when we get to Pine Creek.”

“You should wear the rings Fiona gave you,” Roger said. “They’re her wedding present to you. She went to a lot of trouble to find just the right stone to make them.”

“Fiona never gave us any rings,” Camry said.

Roger’s eyebrows lifted into the rim of his pointed hat. “She didn’t? But she said she intended to present them in a container that had very special meaning to both of you. She even showed me the paper she was going to wrap it up in. It was deep blue, covered with glittering gold stars.”

Luke stiffened.

“The transmitter!” Camry said with a gasp. She bolted out of Luke’s embrace and ran toward the tree where he’d thrown it.

“Come on, AuClair,” Luke said, falling in behind the dogs bounding after her. “We need your light.”

Luke immediately got down on his knees beside Camry and started searching the snow. “Don’t worry, we’ll find them,” he assured her, picking up and discarding tiny pieces of metal debris.

“Here! I found one!” Camry cried, holding something up. She suddenly tossed it away. “No, it’s just a rubber O-ring.”

Luke shoved Max out of the way, then snatched something out of Tigger’s mouth. He held it up to the light Roger was emanating. “This could be one of them.” He handed it to Camry. “It seems to be made out of some sort of stone.”

She also held it up to Roger’s light, then looked at Luke. “It’s black-and-white-speckled rock, just like the stone Kate gave you. Where’s your pebble, Luke?”

“In my pocket,” he said, reaching into his pants pocket. Only when he didn’t find it, he reached into his other pocket. When he still didn’t find it, he stood up and started shoving his hands into every pocket he had. He suddenly stilled, looking down at her. “I lost it.”

“No, thisis the special rock Kate gave you,” she said, holding it up to him.

Luke took the smooth stone circle from her, which certainly appeared to have been cut from the tiny rock Kate had given him. “But that’s impossible. I distinctly remember it was in my pocket this morning.”

Roger snorted, looking at Camry. “You sure you want to marry a man who doesn’t believe in anything but cold hard facts? The deed’s not fully done, missy; I haven’t given my blessing yet. You can still back out.”

Camry dropped down onto all fours and started searching the snow again. “I’m not backing out,” she muttered. “Luke, help me find your ring. That one must be mine, because it’s too small for your finger.”

By God, he wasn’t backing out, either! He didn’t care if he waslosing his mind, as long as he lost it with Camry. Luke got down beside her and resumed searching.

“What I can’t figure out,” Roger said, peering over their shoulders—his light actually helping them—“is how Fiona’s thoughtful gift ended up over here in the first place, all smashed to pieces.”

Luke straightened to his knees, lifting a brow. “Don’t you have some sort of crystal ball you can look into that will tell you?”

Roger shot him a threatening scowl. “From what I hear, women aren’t all that fond of kissing toads.”

Camry grabbed Luke’s sleeve and tugged him back down. “Leave him alone and help me find your ring.”

The light suddenly started to fade, and Luke realized that Roger was heading down the mountain. “Where are you going?” he called out.

“To unzip your sleeping bags,” the old hermit muttered. “’Cause in ten minutes, I intend to be sitting in my chair, watching an all-night Survivormanmarathon.”

“I found it!” Camry cried, scrambling to her feet. She grabbed Luke’s hand and ran to Roger. “Okay, we’ve said ‘I do,’ so now what?”

“Well, now you slide the rings on each other’s fingers, and pledge your troths in your own words.”

“But we didn’t have time to write our own vows. Wait!” she yelped when Roger turned away again. She took hold of Luke’s hands and looked directly into his eyes. “I promise to love you forever, Lucian Pascal Renoir,” she whispered, slipping the smooth stone ring onto his finger, “uncompromisingly, unpretentiously, and unconditionally.” She shot him a crooked smile. “And I promise never to lie to you, or send you any more unladylike e-mails, or imagine ten different ways to make you beg for mercy, or—”

Luke covered her mouth with a laugh. “Let’s at least keep our vowsin the realm of reality.” He lifted her hand and slid the smooth stone ring onto her finger. “And I promise you, Camry MacKeage, to love and honor you with every breath I take, forever. And I promise never to steal your work,” he added with his own crooked smile. “Or lecture you until your ears fall off. And if you decide to go on any more crime sprees, I will definitely have your back.”

Roger snorted. “Okay then. I guess you two do deserve each other—seeing as how you won’t find anyone else willing to put up with either of you.” He held his hands up, encompassing them both. “So I give my blessing to this union and pronounce you husband and wife—may God have mercy on allour souls,” he finished with a mutter, heading toward his cabin.

“Wait. Don’t I get to kiss my bride now?” Luke asked.

Roger turned and shot him a scowl. “Not until you get back to your tent.” He spun back around and headed to the cabin again, patting his leg to call the dogs to him. He opened the door to let them inside, then turned back. “I’ll be keeping Max and Tigger with me tonight, so the poor beasts aren’t scarred for life.” He pointed at the snowcat. “And you’ll be walking to your tent. That fancy snow machine is now mine.”

“But you can’t actually keepit,” Camry said. “We really only borrowed it from my father. We have to bring it back.”

“Oh no, you don’t. A deal’s a deal, Missy MacKeage.” He suddenly gave Luke an apologetic nod. “Excuse me, I meant Missus Renoir. Which means she’s your problem now.” He looked back at Camry. “For which your papa will be so grateful, I’m sure he would want me to have the machine for my role in getting you off his hands.”

When Camry started toward the old man, Luke spun her around and started down the mountain. “Come on, MissusRenoir,” he said with a laugh. “Before he turns youinto a toad.”

Chapter Sixteen

With the rising, nearly full moon lighting their way and the crunch of the cold snow keeping rhythm with their breathing, their mile walk to the tent was made in silence. Cam assumed Luke was trying to assimilate all that had happened. And though she would have loved to explain Roger to him, and Fiona, and the seemingly unrelated chain of events that had brought them to be walking hand in hand tonight toward the rest of their lives together, she honestly didn’t know how to explain something she barely comprehended herself. The only thing she did know for sure was that she loved Luke more than she loved anything else in the world—even her beloved science.

She suddenly stopped walking.

“What is it?” Luke asked, stepping around to take hold of her shoulders. “Are you getting cold feet?” He chuckled softly. “Figuratively speaking, I mean?”

She looked up at him in wonder. “No. I suddenly just realized that the only thing more powerful than my mother’s love for her work is her love for Daddy. Because if I had to choose between you and my work, I’d choose you.”

“Ahh, sweetheart,” Luke said, hugging her to him, then squeezing her tightly. “Grace never had to choose between anything, because she knew she could have it all.” He leaned back to smile down at her. “I only spent a few days with your parents, but it was long enough for me to see that your father doesn’t have to be a scientist to understand your mother’s passion for her work. He appears to be her biggest fan, supporting her a hundred and ten percent. Didn’t he build her that beautiful lab?”

“Yes.”

“He didn’t steal anything from your mother, Camry, he empoweredher. And I bet he also encouraged all you girls to go after your own dreams, didn’t he?”

“Sometimes to the point that we wanted to scream.”

“And hasn’t your mother always supported your father’spassion? TarStone Mountain Ski Resort couldn’t have become a world-class destination on its own.”

She smiled up at him. “I guess that’s another thing we can add to our definition of love: its ability to expand exponentially. It’s not at all constraining, it’s unlimiting.”

He kissed the tip of her nose with a delighted laugh. “And are you ready to add one more passion to your expanding list, Mrs. Renoir? Say . . . something that involves our getting naked together?”

She toyed with the zipper on his jacket. “I-I’ve heard that when a person gets on a Ferris wheel the first time, the ride can be somewhat scary.”

He kissed the top of her head, then took her hand and led her toward the tent. “Naw, it’s only scary for the faint of heart. With your highlander genes, it’s more likely the person you’re riding with who’ll be scared.”

Cam stopped just as she was about to unzip the tent flap and looked up.

Lukewas scared?

Well, damn. She’d been so focused on her own worry about finally going all the way, she hadn’t even thought about what he must be feeling. Hell, what man wanted the responsibility of introducing a thirty-two-year-old virgin to lovemaking?

She unzipped the tent and crawled inside, then poked her head out to stop him from following. “Can you give me a few minutes?” she asked. “I’ll start the heater and warm up the tent.”

“Oh, sure. I’m sorry. Of course,” he said, jumping up and quickly stepping away. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You take as long as you need.”

Luke stood in the middle of the tote road, staring up at the night sky, and fingered the perfectly sized stone ring on his left hand as he thought about all that had happened this afternoon.

Or had it really started long before today? Could finding himself on this mountain, married to the woman of his dreams, have actually begun over a year ago, when he’d tapped the key on his computer that had put him in contact with Podly? At the time, he had assumed the sheer magnitude of what he’d just done was what had caused that spark to run up his arm, jolting him to his very core. Only now he wasn’t so sure it had been guilt making his heart pound wildly, but rather the distinct feeling that some tiny, unseen hand had pushedhis hovering finger down on that button.

Was it truly possible that an imp of a girl, with piercing blue eyes and a contagious smile, could already have been working her magic?

Luke looked over at the tent glowing in the cold dark night, the lantern inside casting the movements of a faint but decidedly feminine silhouette. After today, he had to believe that anything was possible, the undeniable proof being that he had just married the most remarkable, most outrageous, sexiest woman he’d ever met.

The true miracle here, as far as he was concerned, was that Camry loved him.

“You must be freezing, Luke. Come in here and let me warm you up.”

“I’ll be right along,” he called back.

Luke sucked in a deep breath of cold air, hoping to free the knot that had started forming in his gut during their walk down the mountain. For as focused as he’d been these last few days on actually getting to use one of his condoms . . . well, everything had changed in the maintenance garage, when he had realized that he wasn’t just in lust with Camry: he was in love with her.

But even in his wildest dreams, he hadn’t expected his honeymoon suite to be a tent, his wedding bed a sleeping bag, or his marriage to be blessed by a . . . wizard.

And he sure as hell hadn’t expected his bride to be a virgin.

“Vroom! Vroom!”

Luke snapped his gaze to the tent.

“Oh my God, Luke, did you hear that? The Ferris wheel is starting without you! Get in here before you miss the ride!”

Luke dropped his chin to his chest, the knot in his gut unraveling on a strangled laugh. What was he doing standing out here worrying about his lovemaking living up to Camry’s expectations, when he should be worried about surviving hers?

He unzipped his jacket and ran to the tent. “You keep your hands away from those controls, lady!” he barked out, dropping to his knees in front of the tent. “It takes an experienced operator who knows what he’s doing to start up that Ferris wheel.” He pulled his sweater and long-john top over his head, then unbuckled his belt and shoved down his pants. “If you push the wrong button, it could take me all night to get it running correctly.”

“Vroom, vroom,” she purred with a giggle. “Oh! I think I found it, Luke. Quick, get in here and tell me if this is the right button.”

He had to sit on his jacket to unlace his boots, but instead of undoing them, he ended up with a handful of knots. “Stop playing with the equipment!” He tugged on the mess he’d made of his laces, which only served to tighten them. “That’s my job!”

When her purr turned to a lusty moan, Luke pulled his multitool out of its pouch and cut the laces on both boots. He shoved off his pants and long-john bottoms, then turned and crawled into the tent. “Do you have any idea what the penalty is for messing with such delicate equip—” Luke snapped his mouth shut on an indrawn breath. “My God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she whispered back, opening her arms to him.

But instead of covering her body with his, he settled beside her, propped his head on his hand, and let his gaze travel over her beautiful, naked, inviting body. “Exactly which button did you push that made that wonderful noise?” he asked.

“The ‘vroom, vroom’?”

“No, that sweet little lusty moan.”

“Oh, that noise.” She pointed down at her belly. “You could try pressing here and see what happens.”

Luke dipped his finger into her belly button, and she gasped loudly.

“Nope, that’s not it,” he muttered, walking his fingers toward her breasts.

She immediately stopped him. “Your hands are cold.”

Luke flopped onto his back and folded his cold hands behind his head. “Then I guess the amusement park’s shut down until they warm up.”

“Maybe I can hurry the process along,” she murmured, rolling over and crawling on top of him. She walked her warm fingers up his chest to his shoulders, and leaned down and touched her lips to his. “I wonder what buttons you have,” she said into his mouth. “And what sort of noises I can get youto make.”

She certainly got a groan out of him when she wiggled her hips up the length of his shaft just as her mouth took possession of his. And while she made delicious love to his mouth, Luke tried to think where he’d put his ditty bag.

He suddenly bolted upright, wrapping his arms around her to keep her from falling. “Dammit, the condoms are in the snowcat!”

She leaned away to see his eyes. “We don’t really need them . . . do we?”

“That is one decision we are not making today.”

She shot him a smug smile. “Then we’ll just have to use the condoms I brought.”

Luke reared back. “ Youbrought condoms?”

“Don’t brilliant minds think alike? You’re not the only horny toad in this tent.”

Luke shuddered. “Let’s not refer to ourselves as toads, okay?”

“Ohhhh, do that again,” she said on a moan, wiggling intimately against him. “I think you just found one of my buttons.”

Luke held himself perfectly still. “The condoms.”

“Under my pillow,” she murmured, pulling his face toward hers so she could attack his mouth again.

Luke blindly felt behind him for her pillow while she conveniently worked herself into a really good frenzy, kissing him senseless and running her hands over his shoulders, her nails sending shivers coursing through him. But he suddenly stilled again when he found the condoms and counted out three sleeves.

Three packs per sleeve equaled nine.

Holy hell, did she think he was Superman?

He snatched up one of the sleeves, wrestled his mouth from hers, and set her away. She immediately snatched the packs out of his hand, tore one open, then scooted down his legs and started to roll the condom down over him.

Luke gritted his teeth against the explosion of sensation—both visual and tactile—that shot through every cell in his body as she awkwardly attempted to sheath him. The lantern cast its glow on her beautiful breasts, her movements making her peaked nipples brush his thighs. Her hands caressed his scrotum as her fingers slowly slid down the length of his shaft, and Luke felt beads of sweat break out on his forehead. Which was why just as soon as she was done, he snatched her hands away and rolled on top of her.

“My turn to drive you insane,” he growled, settling between her thighs.

She immediately lifted her hips, her hands clutching his shoulders. “Yes, make me insane,” she pleaded with ragged urgency. “I want to feel you inside me, Luke. Deep, where I ache.”

Her tension was palpable, her desire desperate. Searching for any sign of discomfort, Luke eased himself down until he was poised to enter her, then reached between them and caressed her intimately. She was surprisingly moist and slick and ready for him—except that she seemed to be holding her breath.

“If you pass out, you’re going to miss the best part,” he said with a forced laugh, feeling somewhat desperate himself. He kissed the tip of her nose, then locked his gaze back onto hers. “Close your eyes and picture yourself opening up for me. Feel me sliding into you this first time, Camry, and savor each little rippling sensation.”

He lowered more of his weight and pressed into her, feeling her stretch to accommodate him as he brushed his lips over her eyelids, then trailed tiny kisses across her cheek. “Lift your hips,” he said into her ear. “And meet me halfway.”

He felt her heels press into the sleeping bag beside his thighs, and Luke slipped deeper as she lifted toward him. “Feel yourself surrounding me, making me yours,” he continued soothingly when her breath caught on a gasp.

He seated himself fully, capturing her sound of distress in his mouth, then immediately stilled, lifting his head to smile into her wondrous eyes. “Hello, wife.”

She hesitantly smiled back. “H-hello, husband.”

“Are you okay?”

She thought about that, then nodded. “I’m okay. S-so that’s it? This is what I’ve been missing all these years?”

Luke arched a brow. “What exactly were you expecting?”

“Well,” she said, the corners of her mouth turning up, “I guess I expected fireworks or something. Or at the very least, some moaning and shouting.”

He raised his other brow. “I heard moaning.”

Two flags of red appeared in her cheeks. “I meant from you.”

“Oh. Well, Mrs. Renoir, just as soon as you give me the nod that it’s okay to move, I’ll see if I can’t scare up some moaning and shouting.”

“So that’s what’s wrong with this Ferris wheel? It’s not moving?” She made a tsking sound. “And you said you were an experienced operator. Um . . . why are you trembling?” she asked, her hands flexing on his shoulders.

“Because you are so damn hot and tight and beautiful, it’s taking every ounce of strength I possess not to drive into you like a mindless idiot.”

Her eyes widened, her mouth forming a perfect O.

Feeling his restraint slipping, Luke forced a smile. “Here’s an idea: Why don’t you move first?”

The second she tentatively squirmed—which sent rockets of pleasure shooting through him—Luke realized that had been a really bad idea. He dropped his forehead to hers with a groan. “No, don’t move.”

“I’m sorry. Am I toodamn hot and tight and beautiful for you?”