Embraced (12 page)

He took a deep breath, surprised and amazed at what he’d learned this evening. If his ego got any bigger, he wouldn’t be able to fit back through the door. She was a very complex woman. At least he wouldn’t be bored any time soon. She’d keep him hopping.

Barrett put her back into her own bed and tucked her in as if she were a little girl, settling on the side of the bed for a moment.

“We keep coming back to control and trust issues, have you noticed?” She nodded. “Part of the beauty of sex is the spontaneity of it, and the control you give up to the other person.

You can touch me anywhere on my body. I can touch you anywhere. The only orgasms you have direct control over, Honey, are the ones you give yourself. You won’t have control over any of the ones I give you, and that’s kind of delicious, isn’t it? And vice versa. I like the idea of putting myself into your small hands, literally and figuratively. I trust you, and I know that the pleasure you give me will be just as fantastic as what we just did.”

“But no more anticipating our vows like that. I want our wedding night to be your first time, and I know I don’t have

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enough self-control to keep touching you like this and not making you fully mine.” Meg’s eyebrow raised. She’d half expected that he’d want her in his bed well before the wedding.

He gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead, then turned back to her as he stood by the door. “From now on, instead of running away from me, try running toward me. I’ll catch you and hold you, no matter how insane I make you. Eventually you’ll realize my arms are the safest place you can be.”

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BacksideOfLove.com

Carolyn Faulkner

he wedding would be a small but elegant affair, with Mandy as the maid of honor, of course, and Barrett T

with two best men, Hayden and David. Meg made arrangements to have her condo sold and move her stuff down to Texas, sorry to have to give such short notice to her Superintendent. She was already applying down here, but figured it was probably already too late to get a full time job teaching.

Shopping and organizing the wedding was monopolizing Meagan and Mandy’s time. Barrett’s only specification regarding the plans had been that the word “obey” be kept in the vows, but other than that, he just asked her to tell him what date and time to be ready.

He had already called and put her name on his credit card accounts, and had told her to buy or do anything she wanted. If she wanted him in tails, fine. If she wanted him in a gorilla suit, fine. As long as they ended up married, he didn’t much care beyond that point.

There should have been a hint in it for him when they went out looking for her engagement ring, intending to buy wedding rings at the same time. The jeweler he went to had known him for years, and showed velvet case after velvet case of the finest he had to offer. Meagan’s eyes bugged at the size of the gems – three to five carat of exquisite quality - she was being shown. She had always been a bit of a jewelry bug, and had a good idea how much those rings would cost Barrett. She didn’t want anything ostentatious or gaudy, and kept wandering away from what the

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gracious elderly gentleman was showing them to the much smaller rings in the display cases. Meg knew exactly what she was looking for in her engagement ring, and when she found it, she tapped her finger on the glass above it.

“May I see this, please?” Barrett wandered down to her, and was surprised at what she’d chosen. It was a heart shaped diamond solitaire set in 14k gold, just about one and a half karats, and not of the utmost quality. Both Barrett and the jeweler examined her choice.

“Miss, this is not one of the best stones I have,” the gentleman began, but Meg shook her head, handing the ring to Barrett.

He looked down his long patrician nose at her, “You’re sure you don’t want one of the bigger ones, Sweetheart? It’s not like I can’t afford a big honking ring.”

The jeweler cringed at his words, but held his tongue.

Meg nodded eagerly, and presented her left hand to Barrett, who slipped the ring over her finger a little too easily. It would have to be sized. Her taste in wedding rings was much the same and they settled on a set of matching plainish gold bands. As he squired her to lunch, he was amazed at her choices, but then, she rarely failed to surprise him with her behavior. Barrett knew how much she loved jewelry from Mandy, who said her best friend always haunted jewelry and estate sales, looking for a bargain.

Birthday, Christmas, and anniversary gift-giving was going to be extremely easy for him – all he’d have to do is take her shopping and watch what she drooled over at the jewelry stores. Frankly, he had expected to spend quite a bit more, and was sure that if she were almost anyone else, he would have.

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Carolyn Faulkner

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, and he hadn’t been aware that he’d been staring.

He seated her, then himself at the intimate bistro along the River Walk. “Just wondering why you didn’t like the bigger, better quality rings.”

Meg leaned toward him on her forearms. “When I buy jewelry, which is not very often because I can’t afford it, I buy what I like the looks of. Anyone who comes at me with a jeweler’s loop to examine my engagement ring is going to get a punch in the eye.”

He laughed, knowing it was quite possible she’d do just that. “You do realize that you can afford to buy whatever you want now?”

She cleared her throat and deliberately changed the subject.

“Do you have to go to work after lunch?”

Barrett paused and looked at her, letting her know that he realized what she was doing. “Yes, Hon, I’m sorry, but I do. Gotta get everything taken care of before our honeymoon.”

He was as eager as a child to begin their honeymoon, and although Meg knew that some of that was because he wanted to share a bed with her, a lot of it was because she had given him free rein to plan the honeymoon, much as he had done for her with the wedding itself. Barrett decided that, since Meg hadn’t traveled a lot in her life, that he’d start her (and him) out easy by seeing the States first. So they were going to two of his favorite places –

Washington DC and Disney World in Florida, taking about a month total. The same time next year, he would take her to Paris and Florence, then he thought they might explore one of those

“work at an archeological dig” types of vacations sometime. He

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made occasional trips to California and New York, and had even been to London, and it would be great to have someone to go with him.

Later that week, he was in his office, wading hip deep through paperwork when he heard a soft knock. “Come.”

Mandy appeared, biting her lip, which was a sure sign that either she or someone else had done something wrong.

“What is it, Manda?” he lay the papers down with a feeling of relief. Even a problem would be favorable to dealing with paperwork.

“Bear, I don’t want to be a tattletale –“

He snorted, then shut up. Mandy was the biggest tattler in the history of tattling.

She glared at him and started again. “Have you talked to Meg about the wedding plans at all?”

“No, why?” Her fidgeting was going to drive him up a wall.

“Well, you see, uh – “

“Out with it, Amanda, before I lose my patience,” it was the only warning she was likely to receive.

“Meg isn’t doing what she should with the wedding,” she blurted.

“You mean you two have had a difference of opinion on the colors or whatever?” he frowned.

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Carolyn Faulkner

“Noooo, Barrett. It’s – she’s economizing herself to death!!! There’s a gooorrrrgeeouss dress at the Bridal Boutique downtown, and it looks fabulous on her, and I know she loved it, but as soon as she saw the price tag, she made the girl take it back and bring her much less expensive dresses that weren’t half as nice.

Oh, Barrett, are we having financial trouble? You should have told me!”

If they were having money problems, it was news to him, and he was the one in charge of the money! “No, Mandy, we’re not.” He grinned at her audible sigh of relief. His little sister hadn’t known much want in her life, maybe that was good, maybe it was bad. He supposed her mercenary tendencies could be blamed on a tad bit of overindulgence on his part, but she did know the value of a dollar, and when she worked, she worked hard.

“I just figured you might have told her something that you hadn’t told me . . .” her voice trailed off.

“Nope. But I think I need to tell her a few things and right away, before she starts looking for a wedding dress at Woolworth’s. Can you send her in to me?”

He knew her knock and called her in, meeting her halfway on the flowered carpet with his arms opened wide. She was in a pair of baby blue, loose knit gym shorts and a cotton blouse with embroidered flowers. Barrett buried his face in her hair, nibbling her neck. “Mmmmmmm. You always smell so good, Baby.”

“Thank you, kind Sir,” she hugged him fiercely, then curled her arm into his. “Mandy told me you wanted to see me?”

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“Yeah, I do,” he motioned her into the seat in front of the desk. “But can you give me a minute to make a phone call?” She nodded, puzzled but patient.

He called someone named Pete that he appeared to know very well, and after asking about Pete about his wife and kids, he told Pete that he wanted to make sure that his fiancée, and he pronounced her name very carefully into the phone, spelling Honoria and O’Reilly, was added onto all of his accounts. “What’s your social security number, Sweetie?”

Force of habit, she told him the nine-digit number.

He plunked down the receiver after promising they would get together with Pete and his wife some time, and looked at Meg, who was completely befuddled. “Come over here with me, Doll.

There’s something I want to show you.”

She leaned on the arm of his big cushiony leather office chair while he went into the financial program on his computer.

“The password is ‘pooky’,” he said as he typed it into the box.

Meg grinned, but still wondered what this was all about. Before he let her get up, he’d shown her everything – all of his financial information, stock stuff, life insurance, investments, checking account balances, everything. If she didn’t have a good idea of what he – they – were worth after that, then she never would.

Meg sighed. “So what was that production all about, Cowboy?” The way she said it was not a compliment.

He replied in kind. “It was about the fact that I’m not poor, Meagan. And you’re not going to be either. It was about you scrimping and saving and worrying over the cost of this wedding, when, if you really wanted, I’m sure I could rent Westminster

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Abbey.” Barrett walked toward her, and she met him, arms folded across her chest belligerently, not backing down for a minute.

Her small, upturned nose would have bumped his larger more angular one if they’d been the same height, instead, she had to crane her neck back at an odd angle to glare up at him while he glared back down at her. “Whose wedding is it, anyway?”

“Well, from what Mandy was saying, I think we’re going to be outfitted by Wal-Mart!”

That comment hurt, as well as being ratted out by her best friend. Sick of getting a crick in her neck when she went up against him, she turned and stepped up onto the heavy wooden coffee table. “Come over here so I can look down at you for a change!” she growled, and he complied, trying to hide his grin.

He’d never looked up at a woman before; it was a novel position. His mouth was just above breast level, and the way her bosom heaved with each angry breath was distracting him. “Buy what the hell you want for the wedding, Meagan. I’m not going to say it again.” His mind had definitely gone on to better, more titillating things.

“You can take your money and stick it where the sun don’t shine, Barrett Costas! I’m not marrying you for your money!”

His head jerked back, causing an uncomfortable crick. “I never thought you were. And no, you’re not being kept, either. I just bared my financial soul to you; you’re on all of my accounts.

If I thought you were going to use my money to buy swampland in Florida, I’d never have proposed. You’re smarter than that.”

“Thanks,” she said grudgingly.

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“You’re also tighter than the bark on a tree, and you don’t need to be,” he continued. “When we marry, all that I am and all that I have is yours. No reservations. Maybe I’m anticipating things a little, but I want you to have the wedding you’ve always dreamed of, not some cheap imitation.”

Meg took a deep breath and sighed. “Don’t you see? I never thought I’d marry someone with money, Barrett. I figured I’d marry someone who makes the salary I do, and we’d build our lives together – struggle to pay bills, buy a small house, a bigger house when we had kids . . . I don’t want to use your money because it’s not mine, even when we’re married, I won’t have done anything to contribute toward it . . . “

Although he understood the gist of what she was saying, he had had enough. “This is the stupidest argument I’ve ever had with a woman. Why couldn’t you be like Mandy and spend money like water, like a normal woman?”

That was such a sexist remark she nearly hit him. “I will
not
spend
your
money, Barrett, and that’s my final word on the subject.”

He ran his hand through his hair in a deceptively casual manner then grabbed her around the waist and bent her over the edge of his big desk, whisking her elastic waisted shorts and panties down to her knees with terrifying ease. Her wrists were held against the small of her back by his thick fingers, effectively immobilizing and trapping her next to him. Before Meg had a chance to gather her wits, his big broad hand had smacked her bottom. “Meagan, you are the most –“ *smack*swat*slap* “ -