Ouch! “No comment. Please stop.”As they neared the car, the photographer followed, and Luc cursed and ran, urging Alyssa along.“I should follow you so you don’t have to drive me back here . . . after,” she suggested, keeping pace with him.“I don’t mind,” he insisted.She sent him a brittle smile. “You will.”What did that mean? Had Peter started misbehaving now that he was out on bail and awaiting his trial? Jack hadn’t said a word, damn it! He’d talked to Deke’s business partner nearly every day.“If we want to make a quick exit, it would be best if you just hopped in the car,” he pressed, unlocking it with his key fob.“I insist.”Stubborn to a fault. “Okay . . . Two blocks east there’s a quiet little Italian place. I don’t think the photographer will follow us there if we’re quick.”“They hound you like that a lot now?”He winced. “Just since I started doing the talk shows. I keep hoping they’ll go away. Does Italian sound good?”“Sure.” The word itself was enthusiastic, but the
“Yes. I want to be part of the whole experience. I’m ready to be a father. A great father.” Understatement of the millennium. “I will not let you down.”Luc hesitated before saying more. Would his enthusiasm lure her in? Or make her run in the other direction? A calculated risk. She was afraid, and he had to be careful.“Okay.” She nodded, looking slightly shocked. “Thanks. That would be . . . helpful.”He planned to be far more than helpful.“You know, there are advantages to being married,” he pointed out. “Financial, of course. But children are a lot of work. Having another set of hands would lighten your load, especially when they’re sick or up all night, or you need to work late. And what about safety? It’s been a concern for you lately. Having a husband around would add protection for you and the baby. You’d rest easier. The baby would have the stability of a two-parent family, a last name. The love of both a mom and a dad.”Alyssa froze. “You want me to marry Tyler?”Damn it! T
Alyssa took a deep breath and met his gaze. Her usually self-assured expression was gone. She looked shaken, anxious. Was she worried he’d discover her lie?Tamping down the ironic smile, he took her hands in his at the justice’s prompting. The older man paused and sent him a weighty stare.“Kiss your bride.”Now, this was something he’d been waiting for since she’d suddenly reappeared in his life last Saturday. Since that moment, they’d talked wedding details by phone and e-mail, the tone infuriatingly businesslike. Earlier this week, he’d had to take a damn PR trip to New York and hadn’t returned to Lafayette until yesterday. The simple ceremony hadn’t required a rehearsal, so he’d arranged a quiet dinner with his parents last night so they could meet her. He hadn’t been alone with Alyssa for a single minute this week. He hadn’t touched her since that disastrous night in her bedroom above the club.He was dying to kiss her.Luc cupped her face and leaned in. Alyssa clamped her hands
Luc frowned. “Aunts, uncles, cousins?”She shook her head. In truth, she hadn’t thought about them in years. She hadn’t dared contact them. Her cousins were likely married, had children. Her aunt Anna was probably retired from teaching school.“None. Could we drop it?”He looked ready to say something, then closed his mouth. A long, silent minute passed before he finally said, “If you ever want to tell me about your family, I’d love to listen.”“You said yourself we needed to look forward, not back. I think that’s an excellent suggestion.”Sighing, Luc gripped the wheel. “Are you hungry? You didn’t eat much lunch.”No, but she was starting to feel weak. Since becoming pregnant, she’d noticed that she couldn’t skip meals the way she used to. And most days until about two, she lived on crackers and apple juice.“I should eat.”He smiled. “I’ll take care of it.”Like he’d taken care of things this week. Most men would simply have asked when to show up. Instead, he’d arranged the invitati
As she chewed the chocolaty fruit, he tossed back the last of the champagne. The moment she swallowed, he consumed her mouth in a greedy kiss, tasting the sharp swirl of flavors, savoring the way she opened to him, accepted him deep inside her mouth. He wanted to be deeper.Clutching her hips in his hands, he probed her slick, creamy folds with his cock, then began to push his way in, straight to the haven he’d missed and yearned for over the past seven weeks.Tight. So damn tight. He always had to fight his way in, and tonight was no exception. One shallow thrust, another, a third . . . Each time he eased in a bit farther, her snug walls created a sinful friction that had him hissing in a breath. Teeth-gritting patience and destructive pleasure—both nearly undid him.Finally, he sheathed himself completely inside her. With an eager moan, Alyssa rose up to meet both his tongue and his cock. What was it about her? So lush, so perfect, so . . . whatever that he could never get enough?U
That, and barely surviving the ultimate betrayal of her feelings and trust. But he didn’t need those gory details.“Don’t be surprised if I ask you a lot of questions. I like knowing what’s going on with you and being involved in Bonheur or anything else you have going on. I’ll help however I can. You have only to ask. I won’t step in the middle of your business unless something seems dangerous or wrong. I know you’ve managed just fine for many years without me, and I’d never presume to think that’s changed.”God, just when she thought the walls around her heart couldn’t crumble anymore . . . “Thank you.”“If you think I’ve overstepped, we’ll talk. In return, I’ll ask only three things of you.”Was this the catch she’d been looking for? “What?”“First, no more stripping. The male population of Louisiana doesn’t need to see my wife naked anymore.”“Done.” The last thing she wanted to do was take her clothes off for a bunch of drunk, slobbering strangers again. The fact he cared about w
As he pinched her nipple and tunneled back into the tight channel, he panted at the back of her neck, “Come!”Her world exploded like a supernova again. Tears of relief and release burst forth. Luc had devastated her, scraped her raw. And still, he kept at her, thick and hard and demanding as tears streamed down her cheeks, until she possessed no more buffers between her husband and her battered heart.********THE Sunday following their wedding, Alyssa leaned against the doorjamb of the master bedroom and watched Luc pack the last of his suitcase. She’d lived alone for a decade or more. Solitude had always been a comfort. Luc had moved into her house the day after their wedding. It was logical, given that, between his upcoming TV show and his appearances, he’d be traveling, while she was tied to Lafayette by the club and the restaurant. But him living in her personal space, her making room in her closet, bathroom, and drawers, all seemed weird. He was neater than her. And he ironed,
“Would a run-of-the-mill burglar do all that?”He shook his head, then turned to trek down the hall, toward her bedroom. “They usually prefer something simpler. Open windows are an engraved invitation. But that’s not to say they won’t do whatever necessary to get past your fancy equipment if they think you’ve got something of great value.”“B-but I don’t. I never bothered to buy a flat-panel TV. My laptop is at Bonheur. I don’t keep cash in the house. I don’t have much jewelry.”“And you’ve been wearing your wedding rock, so it wasn’t lying around the house.”So Tyler had noticed her ring. And his grousing voice didn’t sound thrilled in the least. Then again, she wasn’t surprised.As Tyler opened the master bedroom, he paused. “Light switch?”“On the wall to your right, closer to the bathroom.”He hesitated, then shook his head. “Too far in the dark. Just in case . . .”Edging away from her bedroom, he backtracked to the guest bathroom in the hallway and switched on the little room’s