Page 110 of Life, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness

At least she wasn’t struggling anymore. So, he picked her up by the waist and set her on the counter, stepping between her dangling legs. It put his body at just the right level it wanted—needed to be. But not yet.

“Here’s the deal, sweetheart. You had, still have, two critical problems. They could take your parole away at the least provocation. And they could put Maggie into foster care at the least hint of an issue, real or imagined. I figured that marriage between you and me, with my eventually adopting Maggie, would be a way of permanently stopping the clock on any overzealous parole agents. We would be a family.” He couldn’t resist then. He rubbed the palms of his hands over her breasts bringing the nipples to obvious peaks.

She made a small gasp.

And she was listening.

So, he plowed ahead, both in speech and action. “I would continue working for the treasure hunting company. You could get the diner and motel going.” He raised the hem of her dress up to her waist and tugged off her panties.

She shifted so that he could tug them the rest of the way off.

“And maybe we could build a house out there on the bluff overlooking Bell Sound.” At the same time—God bless multitasking—he unzipped his pants and pulled out one very excited symbol of his rising affection.

Her eyes went wide, whether at what he’d said or what he was showing her, he wasn’t sure.

And wasn’t about to ask.

“You’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and planning, without consulting me.”

“Yeah, I have, and I admit it’s partly because I feared you would object because, face it, you’ve never said that you love me.”

She said nothing.

He decided to change direction and reached up to untie the bow at her nape, letting the fabric drop to expose her breasts.

“Have I told you how much I like this dress?” he asked in a voice husky with arousal. “Have I told you how much I like your breasts?”

Then he showed her by licking, then suckling first one breast, then the other. When he leaned back, he saw that the nipples were moist and rosy and turgid with the female equivalent of a hard-on.

She was breathing heavily through parted lips.

But she still hadn’t said that she loved him.

She still hadn’t agreed to his plans.

“How can we get married without a marriage license?”

He waved a hand airily. “Matt took care of that.”

She leaned forward and was about to kiss him, but she paused. “You mean those papers I signed were an application for a marriage license?”

He could feel his face heat with guilt. “Maybe.”

“Don’t those applications have to be made in person?”

“Matt knows people.”

She nodded her understanding and kissed the side of his mouth. Not nearly the kind of kiss he wanted, but at least she wasn’t shoving him away.

“Speaking of knowing people,” she started to say, the first time he took his tongue out of her mouth and came up for a breather.

Honestly, how can I be dumbstruck and practically babbling like an idiot and she just keeps talking, as if we aren’t about to engage in world-class monkey sex?

“Do you really know some senators and a governor who are going to put the press on Ms. Gardner?”

“Hell, no. It’s a case of six degrees of separation. I know someone, who knows someone, who knows . . . well, you get the picture.” His cock was at the brink of the happy tunnel, but first he rubbed against that part of her that looked like it would like a little attention.

She almost shot off the counter on a long groan. And then—amazingly—she resumed talking. “And so you decided that I would be pleased with a surprise pirate wedding?”