3 Brides for 3 Bad Boys (18 page)

Daisy didn't seem to notice either. Ignoring the minister and his earlier advice for her to stop and face him when she reached the front of the church, she walked right up to Carter, and put her hand in his.

It was so small, reminding him that it was his job to protect her. It was also cold.

He squeezed it. "It's going to be all right."

She smiled and laced her fingers with his, holding on tight. "I know."

Her voice only shook a little.

They turned to face the minister together.

Daisy's nerves got worse as the reception wore on. Carter was acting like a man who couldn't wait to get his bride to bed. Which she should have expected, but it overwhelmed her just the same. Right now, they were dancing so close she could feel his erection pressing against her belly. Physical evidence of what she was expected to deal with when they were alone.

Sex. Hot and consuming.

The closer the time came for them to leave, the more doubts she had about her ability to satisfy such blatant sexual urgency.

What if the passionate kisses they'd shared were a one-of thing? What if she was a dud when it came to actually having intercourse?

She might disappoint Carter like she had her first husband. Carter was so much more experienced than she was and probably used to a partner who knew what she was doing, knew how to make it good for him. Daisy was a sexual novice, and that wasn't the only place they differed.

Carter owned a multinational company, bought his suits from an exclusive tailor in London and had grown up rubbing elbows with the rich and famous.

She'd been in the workforce since graduating from high school, wore clothes she'd found on sale at local department stores and got a rash merely thinking about meeting someone famous.

Daisy couldn't get rid of the feeling Carter had come back to New Hope with the intention of renewing a relationship with Phoebe in order to fulfill his father's nutty will. Phoebe had hooked up with Rand, and Carter had been forced to go to Plan B. Or was she Plan C? No way would she have been his first choice. If it weren't for the sex thing, he would never have looked twice at her.

For some inexplicable reason, he wanted her, but if she messed that up, where would that leave her? Married to a guy regretting his choice even more than Jack had.

Carter should have married a woman like Phoebe Alexander.

Just looking at her sister-in-law smiling and dancing with her husband, Rand, made Daisy's teeth ache. Phoebe was everything she wasn't. Well-educated and beautiful in a regal, society princess sort of way. She was also much nicer than any woman so at home in high society had a right to be. She'd congratulated Daisy and welcomed her to the family and she'd meant it.

Daisy was sure Carter's mother didn't, even if she had made an attempt to be gracious. She'd air-kissed the space beside Daisy's cheek and told her they must do lunch at the country club. Daisy had never even been inside the place and had no burning desire to do so.

Carter's lips trailed a path down Daisy's neck, and she shivered. Heaven help her, she was going to explode from the combination of excitement and fear coursing through her before they ever made it out of the elegant reception hall Carter's mother had insisted on renting for the occasion.

"Are you about ready to leave?"

The feel of Carter's breath against her neck was every bit as tantalizing as his kisses had been. "R-ready?"

"Yes,
ready.
I know I am." The subtle increase of pressure of his body against hers left no doubt exactly what he meant.

"We don't want to offend anyone by leaving too early."

"Don't worry. They'll understand."

He pulled back from her and looked down, his blue eyes sending a message that both enthralled and alarmed her. "Let's go."

It didn't take very long to say goodbye because the guest list was so small, but even so, by the time they made it to his black Jaguar, she was a wreck.

He unlocked the passenger door and helped her inside.

"No limo?" she asked. Everything else about the wedding had been so traditional.

"I don't like other people driving me."

She remembered. "Not even limo drivers?"

He waited to answer until he'd gotten inside and started the car. "Not even trained chauffeurs."

"Well, that's something to be grateful for." She couldn't imagine a life of being carted from one place to another by a paid driver, and no way was she giving up her Xterra.

He looked at her briefly before turning back to the road. "How so?"

"I'm not used to having people around me paid to do stuff I usually do. You know, like a housekeeper, or chauffeur or anything." He hadn't said anything about hiring any kind of domestic staff, and she was hoping it would stay that way.

She'd been really relieved when he suggested he move into her house. He said he really liked the way she'd done it up, and that made her feel good. She also liked knowing he didn't expect her to jump into a whole different lifestyle all at once.

Thinking along those lines, another question popped out. "Do I have to join the country club?"

"Is this about you fitting in, Daisy? Because I have to tell you, the only person you have to worry about fitting with in this marriage is me. And we're going to fit like we were made for each other."

"We aren't going to spend our whole life in the bedroom, Carter!"

He flicked her a serious glance. "I wasn't just talking about bed. I don't care if you join the country club. I'm not interested in keeping up appearances. That kind of life brought a lot of pain to my parents, and I don't want it. Daisy,
I
like being
with you,
and I'm not interested in you becoming someone else to try to fit into what you think our marriage should be."

His tone was almost severe, like this was a major issue for him. It was for her, too, actually.

"I'm glad. I like being with you, too, but I don't think I'll ever have much in common with your mother."

"I don't have much in common with her either. I love her, but, honey, you married me, not her."

That sounded good, but she still had doubts.

"Phoebe looked beautiful." It was a blatant fishing expedition, but she had too many jumbled thoughts fighting for supremacy in her mind to be subtle.

"Not as beautiful as the bride."

Daisy looked down at her bridal gown, trying to ignore the almost scandalous amount of cleavage on display. "It is a pretty dress."

"The woman inside is gorgeous."

"You don't have to flatter me, Carter. I know what I look like."

"Yeah, my favorite wet dream."

She gasped. "I can't believe you said that."

His laughter filled the car. "You are so naive about some things, honey. I can promise you that you were the only woman in that reception hall that got my attention today."

"That's because you're on edge about sex. You've abstained too long maybe."

"Nothing like six years."

"Yes… Well… " She cleared her throat, not knowing how to answer that.

She was already feeling the worry about that six-year drought and the lack of practical application she had to bring to the
wedding night o f all wedding nights
he had planned.

"I'm pretty smart, you know?"

"You're very intelligent. Your supervisor thinks you're the best thing that ever happened to her department. She was really resistant to the idea of you moving out of it."

"Why would I move out of my department?"

"I didn't know how comfortable the wife of the owner or the company would feel working for one of my middle managers."

"I love my job, and I'm not giving it up. That's not part of the deal, Carter."

He spared her a quick glance. "You're a rich woman now, Daisy. I'll take care of you. You don't have to work."

That's what he thought. "I will repeat: I like my job. I'm not quitting."

He laid his hand on her thigh and squeezed. "Don't get upset about it. If you want to keep working, you keep working."

It was all she could do to remember what they were talking about with his fingers now fondling her leg. They were way too close to the apex of her thighs for any sort of peace of mind.

"I can't wait to get you out of this dress, Daisy."

"About that…"

"About what?"

"This whole sex thing."

"Sex thing?" He choked the words out around laughter, and she groaned.

"Yes. Anyway, you know I don't have a lot of experience, but I'm smart, Carter."

"We've agreed on that point, but I'm not sure where you're going with it."

"If I don't get things right the first time, I can learn how," she said, exposing her deepest fear.

If he would just be patient, she knew she could learn to make love the way that he needed and expected.

The Jag swerved into the far right lane, then off the road, coming to an abrupt halt that sent Daisy pitching forward against her seat belt.

Carter turned his body to face her, his expression incredibly intense.
"I am not
paying you to go to bed with me,
and I don't need you performing like a paid lady of the night in my bed. Got it?"

"I didn't mean—"

But he cut her off. "I want to make love to you until you can't walk, but there isn't a right way or a wrong way for us to go about making that happen. I do not want you trying to please me like some kind of
sex client."

She couldn't walk right now if her life had depended on it, so he'd already achieved his goal without even touching her. Her legs had turned to jelly at the fury in his voice, the frustration emanating off him in waves and the sensual threat in his voice.

"I'm not a prostitute, and I don't see you as a sex client." Whatever that was.

His teeth ground together. "Then what's all this crap about learning how to perform the way I like it?"

"I was pretty much a failure at the sex thing before you, and, Carter, I can't be sure that I'm good at anything beyond really wild kissing. In fact, I'm not even sure that wasn't some sort of aberration brought about by six years of abstinence and however long it has been for you."

"You're worried you'll disappoint me?" His teeth were still gritted, but he didn't look quite so ferocious around the eyes.

"Yes."

"But not because you want to give me full value for my half a million dollars."

She opened her mouth, but the denial wouldn't come. He had paid five hundred thousand dollars to her so she would marry him and sleep with him. There was a small part of her that felt that kind of thing deserved at least a moderate return on the investment. It didn't make her feel like a prostitute, though, and why that should be, she didn't understand.

Neither did Carter, by the look of him.

As her silence grew, so did his anger until he erupted into cursing that would have made her brother blush. And he had been an Army Ranger.

"Carter."

He ignored her and turned back to face front, twisting the key in the ignition to start the car, only realizing it was still going when an awful grinding sound accompanied the movement. He growled out another cuss word and pulled back onto the highway with squealing tires.

"I wanted you to have options, to be able to end the marriage if you felt you had to. Not to feel trapped."

He shifted into a higher gear, and the car shot forward at a truly breathtaking speed.

Daisy clung to the door.

"I did not pay you so that you would feel the need to earn the money in my bed.

I want you in my bed because you want to be there, damn it!"

"I
do
want to be there."

He acted as if she hadn't said anything, weaving through traffic with more skill than sense, and she gasped as he came particularly close to the rear bumper of another car.

"Slow down, Carter, you're scaring me."

"I'm mad."

"I can tell, but I don't want to be dead, or—" Her voice caught, and she screamed as he narrowly avoided a semi truck-trailer.

The Jag began to slow immediately. Carter went so far as to move into the right lane with the slowest-moving traffic.

"I'm sorry," he ground out. "I don't normally drive like that."

"I am, too. Sorry, that is. I'm scared of disappointing you, but it doesn't have anything to do with the money. Not really. Please believe me, Carter."

His grip on the steering wheel did not lessen, nor did his jaw relax at all. "You have no reason to be afraid. We've already proven that we're more combustible together than a match and a stick of dynamite."

"But that was just kissing."

"It was a hell of a lot more than kissing."

She could see that he was not going to understand her. She didn't even know if she understood herself. All she did know was that a woman who had the sexual past she did, did not have unfailing confidence in her ability to please her lover.

Only time and experience would tell if her fears were justified.

The silence in the car stretched until it felt like a rubber band pulled taut, ready to snap with sharp and painful impact at anyone in its radius.

"Do you want to call it off?" she finally asked, her voice choked with the failure she could not seem to evict from her life.

"No.
I want to make love to you so often and so long that you can't think of anything but me. Not the money. Not your insecurities. Not having to join some damn country club. Just me."

"Oh."

Neither one of them said another word on the remainder of the drive to the secluded cabin in the woods Carter had rented for their honeymoon.

He pulled up in front and cut the engine. "We're here."

"Yes."