“Tanna. She’s on her way back to Texas. She was anxious to recap the events leading up to our nuptials.” Celia paused and cocked her head. “Evidently we wrote our own vows?”
Kyle half squinted at her. “We did?”
His surprise surprised her. “You don’t remember?”
“Nope. To be honest…most of the details are sketchy for me too.”
“But you told me…that we…” Had a smokin’-hot wedding night.
“I was yanking your chain, Celia.”
Completely floored, she said, “Why?”
“Because that’s what you and I do to each other, remember?”
“We’re beyond that juvenile behavior, remember?” she shot back with saccharine sweetness. “Isn’t that what you keep reminding me?”
“Well, us rolling around naked, sucking face like horny teenagers until we both passed out…without having sex on our freakin’ wedding night is sort of an anticlimactic end to the wild-night-in-Vegas tale, don’tcha think?”
She opened her mouth to tell him to quit being an ass, but he beat her to the punch.
“And there I go again, being a dick to you. But, dammit, you oughta know I’m not the kind of man to take advantage of a drunk and injured woman.”
Of course he had to throw in his chivalrousness. So she threw hers right back at him. “I’m not the type of woman to bail on a friend in need either. I offered to go home with you and the offer stands. Since we didn’t consummate the marriage, we can still get an annulment after we deal with your family thing in Cheyenne. Provided…”
His gaze turned shrewd. “Provided…what?”
Provided my brothers don’t kill you. “Okay. Here’s another wrinkle. Apparently Tanna, ah, told Lainie that you and I got hitched last night.”
“Shit. So your brothers know about us?”
Celia shook her head. “Lainie swears that she won’t spill the beans. But I—we—have to tell them. In person before they hear it from anyone else.”
He groaned. “I’m a f**king dead man.”
“Maybe they’ll think it’s funny,” Celia offered. “Especially since we haven’t had sex.”
Kyle scrubbed his hands over his face. “Or maybe they’ll cut my dick off to guarantee that never happens.”
“A bit paranoid, aren’t you?”
“Not after all the times they warned me away from you.”
Celia put her hand on his wrist. “What do you mean after all the times they warned you away from me? When did they do that?”
“When you were seventeen I made a comment about you filling out and I thought Hank was gonna throw me through the wall. Abe basically said you’re their princess and I’m a toad who’s not nearly good enough for you.”
Princess? Yeah, right. They treated her more like a stableboy than a princess.
“And they told me if I ever touched you, they’d string me up. By my toes because they would’ve already cut off my hands.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”
“Completely.”
“Maybe I won’t tell them we tied the knot,” she said with a huff. “Maybe I’ll just tell them that you f**k like a dream and I’m moving in with you until we get sick of nonstop kinky sex.”
Kyle smiled for the first time in an hour. “That works too. We would’ve had to tell them something anyway since we talked about traveling the circuit together. And we sure as hell wouldn’t have been just…friends.”
Unsure how to respond, and feeling strangely shy, Celia sidestepped him and looked out the window to the Vegas skyline.
“I’ll get packed.”
“My stuff is still at my motel,” she reminded him.
A quick zip sounded. “We’ll stop there on our way out of town. But before we leave here you’d better check on the other side of the bed to see if you forgot anything.”
Celia stepped over his bag on the floor and crawled across the mattress. “I doubt there’s anything because I’m wearing—” And she found herself flat on her back, staring into Kyle’s amazing green eyes.
“Thank you, for not running out screaming today. My mood swings, from happy to nasty, from sarcastic to silent, were annoying the piss out of me.”
“Most days you are pretty even-keeled.”
“Except when it comes to you. You make me crazy, Celia. In so many ways I can’t even begin to explain to you.”
Her heart jumped into her throat and she couldn’t speak.
“It’s getting to be a habit with us, sharing kisses one or both of us forgets. But I intend to fix that right now and make damn sure you remember this one. On the bed where we spent our wedding night.”
He lowered his face to hers. But he didn’t swoop in and blow her circuits with a kiss packed with tongue-thrusting power. No. He took his time. Whispering soft breath across her jaw. Letting his full, damp lips barely graze hers. Each almost connection of their mouths increased the rapid beat of her heart. Her breathing became erratic as her lungs emptied of air.
Kyle’s roughly murmured “Breathe” was far sexier, far more in tune with her body’s response to his than she’d imagined.
Then he rocked her to her core with a kiss so hot and sweet, so fierce and soothing, so completely unrestrained. She’d never been kissed like this. With all-consuming hunger. With pure eroticism. With a promise of total sexual fulfillment. Every pulse point in her body throbbed with anticipation.