Double trouble (19 page)

The prospect, which moments before had outraged her, now seemed so ridiculous she laughed even harder. "You're

a fiend!" She reached over to sock him. He swiftly moved out of her reach.

''Let me put your mind at ease, Kayla." He was still laughing. "I hate camping, probably more than you do. I wouldn't do it if I were paid to. I associate all those trees and forest flora in the great outdoors with massive sinus headaches. I have allergies," he explained. "All the Minteers do. Chances are the baby will, too. We can vacation at the beach, away from trees, grass and greenery."

He got out of the car. Kayla opened her door and was getting out when he appeared at her side to assist her. They stood together, facing each other outside the car. Both were still chuckling at his successful joke.

Their eyes met and they stared at each other, their laughter fading. Kayla gazed into his thickly-lashed dark blue eyes and suddenly felt shaky and breathless and wildly, excitingly aware of everything around her—the cool, fresh scent of the mountain air, the tree branches crackling in the breeze, the warmth emanating from Matt's tall, strong frame so very close to her.

"Forgive me?" Matt asked softly. His eyes flickered to her mouth. Her hps were full and beautifully shaped. He remembered their softness, their taste, and a sweetly sharp pain of arousal stabbed him. "I teased you. I shouldn't have."

Kayla swayed toward him. "I deserved it. I did sound awfully—uh—imperious."

His hands went to her waist. "As overbearing and dogmatic as you accuse me of being." He lowered his head and touched his lips to hers, a kiss that was much too brief to be satisfying. "I told you we were a good match. I need someone strong enough to stand up to me when I'm on my high horse. And you need someone you can't run all over."

"It sounds more Hke the clash of the titans instead of a marriage." She went up on tiptoe and wrapped her arms around his neck. At that moment, she realized how much

i

she wanted him to be right, how much she wanted to believe their enforced marriage really could work.

Matt responded instantly to her unspoken plea. His arms went tightly around her and he lifted her up against the hard breadth of his body as his mouth claimed hers for a deep, hungry kiss.

Soon, too soon for either of them, he released her. Kay-la's feet were back on solid ground once more, but her head was in the clouds. Matt took her hand and they walked inside in a silence laden with anticipation and arousal.

A huge mahogany desk ran the length of one wall of the inn and a big brick fireplace dominated the other wall where a fire crackled brightly behind the screened grate. An assortment of comfortable-looking couches and chairs were strategically placed, with the fireplace as the focus, giving the lounge a cozily inviting air.

"It's lovely," Kayla exclaimed.

Matt smiled. "We're near several ski resorts, but this place draws a clientele that prefers a more quiet and private atmosphere off the slopes. It's usually booked far in advance, but since there hasn't been much snow this winter we were able to get a last-minute reservation."

She could have asked him when the reservations were made—undoubtedly before he'd bothered to consult her about marrying her—but Kayla didn't feel like starting another argument. In truth, the last thing she was feeling was argumentative.

As she and Matt entered their room—a charmingly decorated suite boasting a canopied bed and an enormous claw-foot antique bathtub—she felt romantic and sexy and excited. And enormously touched that Matt had arranged to have their wedding night in a special, romantic place.

"Look what we have here." Matt was tugging the cellophane from a wide basket filled with fresh fruit, cheeses, small tins of crackers and cookies, and a sleek gold box of chocolates. "Are you hungry?"

"After all that food at the reception?"

Matt smiled. 'There was a lot of food but I didn't see you eating much of it. You've got to be hungry. After all, you're eating for two, remember?"

Kayla groaned at the cliche, but the food in the basket did look tempting. ''Actually, I am feeling kind of hungry. This is the first time all day that my stomach hasn't been tied in a knot."

She surprised herself. She was relaxed with Matt. Usually, she felt tense and edgy.

'There's a bottle of champagne," Matt said, opening the small refrigerator in a comer of the room. "That's off-limits for you, in your condition, though. I'll call the desk and ask them to send up some ginger ale."

"Thank you. That's very thoughtful of you." Kayla swallowed. "It was also thoughtful of you to get this room for tonight. I mean, it would have been practical and convenient for us to have spent the night in your duplex in Johnstown, but—"

"You're my bride, Kayla, and this is our wedding night. I didn't want it to be practical and convenient."

She smiled softly. "You have a romantic streak." The knowledge warmed her.

"If I do, you're the only one who's ever brought it out," Matt said wryly. He thought briefly of Debra who'd found him the epitome of all that was practical, convenient and controlled. Kayla brought forth facets of him he'd never known were there. And instead of being alarmed by it, he felt pleased.

After they'd eaten and drunk their fill, his romantic streak surfaced again, when he picked her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom. He laid her carefully on the bed and then came down beside her, taking her in his arms and kissing her with possessive hunger. She was his bride, his wife, the mother of his unborn child. An intense wave of

protective tenderness surged through him, combining irrevocably with the passion she evoked.

"You make me feel things no other woman ever has/' he confessed huskily. He molded her to the long, hard length of his body, making her achingly aware of his ardent male need. All rational thought was swiftly receding under the urgent onslaught of passion and emotion.

Kay la gazed up at him with wide, limpid eyes. She felt weak and soft and hot, completely pliant beneath his hands. The pleasure he so expertly gave her rendered her mindless and she luxuriated in the pure sensuality of their kisses and caresses.

Swiftly, they dispensed with their clothing, offering each other assistance when needed, sharing an intimacy that seemed seductively familiar, without any awkwardness or inhibitions. They were perfectly attuned to each other, united in an erotic rhythm that was both age-old and distinctively, uniquely their own.

"Oh, Matt, now, please now!" she said throatily. Her impassioned cry was both a surrender and command, and Matt was eager to accept both.

"Yes, baby. Yes, love." His body came down heavily on hers and their eyes, intense and revealing, met.

Their gazes locked. Matt surged powerfully into her and Kayla took him deeply inside, forging the bonds between them into a complex union of physical and emotional needs and desires.

And together they savored every moment, every nuance, every thrill until their passion reached flash point and burst into an intense, shattering climax, simultaneously thrusting them to the heights of rapture. They lingered there in brilliant timeless bliss before drifting slowly down into the warm sensuous seas of satisfaction.

"I wish we could've stayed longer at the inn," Matt said wistfully as he inserted his key in the door of his apart-

ment. It was shortly before two p.m.; they'd checked out of the inn late that morning to drive to Harrisburg. ''Unfortunately, the legislature is in session tomorrow and we have a vote on a bill that the governor has been pushing since his election."

He opened the door and ushered her inside. ''Well, this is it. My official Harrisburg residence."

Kayla took in the combined living-dining room with the miniscule kitchen tucked into a corner. The area was furnished with a huge beanbag chair, doubtless a relic from somebody's college days, a television set and a folding chair in front of a snack tray. It was possible to look into the small bedroom and bath when standing here at the front door. '*You actually live here?" she asked incredulously.

*'I—uh—guess it is a bit primitive," he admitted, seeing the place through her eyes. "But since the legislature is only in session Monday through Wednesday, everybody usually goes back to their home districts for the rest of the week. I have the duplex in Johnstown and I didn't want to spend a fortune on a place here."

"Well, if it suits you..." Kayla's voice trailed off. She didn't know how it could. Even three days a week in this dump was three too many.

"I do have a brand-new mattress on the bed," Matt offered. "It's the best piece of furniture I own."

"I think I remember you mentioning that at one time." She cast a quick, nervous glance at her watch. "Matt, I really should be heading back to Washington. I have some things I'd like to get done before Monday mor—"

"Back to Washington?" Matt interrupted, frowning. "But we were married yesterday! Should I remind you that it's traditional for husbands and wives to live together?"

"Live where?" Kayla felt a quiver of anxiety leap and grow within her. "You commute back and forth between Harrisburg and Johnstown. My home and my office is in

Washington." She gulped. "This is something we should have discussed and settled long before we married."

'There wasn't time. Anyway, it's not a problem. You're my wife and you'll live with me, Kayla. You may as well give up your apartment. After the election we'll have to live in D.C., but we'll need a bigger place with the baby and all."

She gaped at him. *'Let me see if I get this straight. According to you, I should simply close my office, move out of my apartment and into this... this dump?"

"We'll find a bigger place, a nicer place, as soon as possible," he cut in quickly. "We'll start looking tomorrow if you want. And next weekend, we can rent a trailer and move your furniture up here. You have much better-looking stuff than I do," he conceded.

"That's the only point you've made that I agree with." She cast a disdainful look around the room. A green velour beanbag chair big enough to seat three? But even that visual assault paled when compared to the bombshell he'd just dropped. "Matt, I can't simply quit my business. I have clients who've hired me, I can't just drop them."

She braced herself for the explosion she was certain would follow. The prospect of quarreling with him again left her gloomy and dispirited. TTiey hadn't exchanged a cross word since their arrival at the Keystone Inn. On the contrary, they had been particularly close and compatible in every way, right up until they'd entered this hole-in-the-wall that served as his apartment.

She didn't want it to end, not the closeness, not the affection, not the sex. Tears stung her eyes.

Matt heaved a sigh. "You're right. You can't drop them cold."

Her head jerked up and she stared at him, almost giddy with relief that the dreaded argument wasn't going to occur after all. "Oh, Matt, I-"

"I know you have to give them some sort of notice." He caught her hand and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms

around her. *'But, dammit, Kayla, I hate the thought of being away from you. I want you with me. All the time," he added, his voice husky and impassioned.

According to Penny and a slew of philosophical tracts, wasn't this the time to launch into a lecture about her rights and responsibilities to her career? Kayla knew it was, but the words wouldn't come. She found his need for her enthralling, his desire to have her with him nearly irresistible.

Had there ever been a time in her life when she'd been wanted and needed by anyone except her twin? Maybe while her mother was still alive, but that was twenty-one long years ago. Their father had panicked at the thought of raising his daughters alone, had quickly remarried, then conveniently died to escape them all, and Penny had taken a turn at being stuck with them. Certainly, Scott Ceres, her first and only lover, hadn't found the idea of permanence with a McClure appealing; he'd opted for media wizard Dillon's daughter Victoria instead.

But Matt had married her and not, it seemed, in name only. He wanted a real marriage, a wife who shared his home and his life. He wanted her, Kayla McClure... Minteer.

*'I want to be with you, too. Matt," Kayla dared to admit. She drew back a little and gazed up at him with shining, serious eyes. ''I understand that if it's going to work between us, things will have to change."

Kayla was astonished at just how willing she was to make those changes. 'Til tell my clients that I'm married and expecting a baby and will be living away from Washington for a while. But if any of them choose to retain me, I'd like to continue acting as a consultant."

"I don't want you flying all over the place on behalf of your clients. I don't want you spending too much time on them or with them. I want your first priorities to be our marriage and our child."

"I just told you they are," she said impatiently. "Realistically speaking, do you think many poHticians are going to stick with a consultant who puts them last, after her husband and family and his career? You're a politician. You know anybody working for one had better be willing to put everything and everybody else well after their boss's political career."

Matt's blue eyes pierced her. "Would you do it? Put your husband and family and my career ahead of your clients?"

"One thing I won't do is to be the stereotypical politician's wife," she countered fiercely. "I've observed their position up close, you know. I've^een the politician's staff shunt the wife aside as an annoyance to them and a distraction to their boss. I've even done it myself, I'm sorry to admit."

"I wouldn't let that happen to you!" Matt protested.

"I won't let it happen to me, either," retorted Kay la. "I'm going to take your career as seriously as I've taken any I've been hired to help work on. I'm going to share your life as your full partner, not your dependent spouse. And if that means giving you advice or arguing with your staff, so be it. I know your brother Luke is your closest adviser, but he is not going to relegate me to the sidelines of your career and your life."