Reunited with the Lassiter Bride

“You’re healing me.”

There was a smile in her voice as her lips brushed his skin. “I don’t think sex has any medicinal properties.”

“Let’s test that theory.”

Impatient to have her naked, he stripped off her little shorts and tossed them aside. Then he kicked out of his boxers. In seconds, they were full length, skin to skin. He rolled slowly onto his back, bringing her with him.

“Tell me if anything hurts,” he said.

“Nothing hurts.” She gave him a lingering kiss. “I can’t feel a thing.”

“That’s disappointing.” He slipped his hand between her thighs. “Can you feel that?”

She gave a low moan.

He caressed her more intimately. “That?”

“Oh, Evan.”

His breathing grew ragged as his arousal ramped up. “That?” he managed.

She hugged him more tightly, and buried her face in the crook of his neck. “Don’t stop. Don’t— Oh, my.”

Unable to wait a second longer, he guided himself inside. The moist warmth of her body closed around him, sending lasers of arousal sweeping through his brain.

He tried desperately to take it slow, but it wasn’t going to work.

It was impossible to talk. He guided her onto her back.

“It’s good,” she assured him as she sank back into the mattress. “So good.”

She arched her hips against him, and he braced himself on his forearms. He gazed at her beautiful, flushed face, as his body went on autopilot. Her eyes were closed, lashes thick against her creamy skin. Her hair was mussed and sexy. Her cheeks were pink, lips full, red and slightly parted. He could get aroused simply by looking at her.

A moan escaped from her lips, and her legs wrapped around him. She arched her hips further, ankles locking in the small of his back. He’d wanted to be gentle, promised himself he’d be careful, but his instincts had been hijacked by need, and his body pumped faster and faster.

“Evan!” she finally cried out, head tipping back into the pillow.

He felt her shudder and convulse. He was instantly over the edge, ecstasy pairing with oblivion in huge waves that rocked his body to the core.

It took a long time to recover, before he could move, before he had the presence of mind to turn them over so that he didn’t give in and crush her to the bed.

He lay back and dragged a quilt overtop of them. Her long hair tickled his neck as she rested her head on his chest. Her soft curves settled perfectly around the planes and angles of his body. Nothing hurt anymore, not in the slightest; he felt as though he was drifting on a plane of heaven.

He stroked her messy hair. “You’re amazing.” He wanted to say more. He wanted to marvel at how good they were together. Making love with Angie was like nothing else in the world. But that conversation would take them somewhere they couldn’t afford to go. For now, it was enough that she was here in his arms.

Her fingertips traced a pattern on his chest. “I can’t believe it was all for nothing.”

“What’s that?” He wondered if she meant the sandbags.

“Me, you, Conrad, the tabloids, my brothers, Marlene.”

“Oh, that. Yeah, well, who could have predicted the flood of the century?”

“If we hadn’t made up the story, hadn’t lied to a single person, everything would have turned out exactly the same.”

He disagreed. “If we hadn’t lied, I never would have followed you to Cheyenne, and you might have been swept away by the flood.”

“So our lies saved my life?”

“I’m going with that one.”

She seemed to ponder for a moment. “If we hadn’t lied, I wouldn’t have talked to Conrad, and I wouldn’t have come up with the idea of remaking the affiliate’s hit shows. Then Noah and I wouldn’t have disagreed, and I never would have been in Cheyenne yesterday.”

“But it’s a good idea,” Evan countered. “If you don’t do it, Lassiter Media could start losing market share. If you’d never come up with it, the company might have spiraled downward, eventually going bankrupt and taking the entire Lassiter empire with it.”

He felt laughter rumble through her chest. It was another sensation that was achingly familiar.

“We’ve just saved the Lassiter empire by lying to my family and the entire world?”

“We never lied to Deke and Tiffany. But yeah.”

Sleep was creeping into her voice. “You really do need to get yourself a white charger, Evan McCain.”

“Your horse Delling is a dapple gray. That’s pretty close.”

Her voice got softer. “Too bad you didn’t marry me. He’d have been half yours.”

As she relaxed into sleep, the words bounced around inside Evan’s brain. Too bad you didn’t marry me.

If he could go back in time, he honestly might have dragged her to the altar.

* * *

Angelica crept back up to her bedroom at 6:00 a.m. Evan had roused her from a sound sleep to give her the choice—staying with him a while longer or going back to her own room before the family got up. For a split second, she’d been tempted to stay. But she knew it was a ridiculous impulse. They weren’t a couple any longer.

She silently twisted her bedroom door handle, pushing the door inward on smooth hinges. Then she startled, sucking in a breath when she saw Tiffany sitting on her bed.

“You’ve been downstairs?” Tiffany asked, a suspicious expression in her eyes.

“Kayla called.” Angelica silently closed the door behind her, leaning back against it. “I had to talk to Evan. They’ve canceled the wedding.”

Tiffany rolled to her feet. “And how long did that take?”

Angelica thought about lying, but this was Tiffany. “About six hours.”

Tiffany’s expression softened. “You want to talk?”

“I don’t know.” Angelica honestly didn’t. She crossed the room to her dresser, sliding open a drawer, realizing the logical thing to do was get dressed and go on with the day.

“If you did want to talk,” Tiffany continued, moving toward her, “what would you want to say?”

Angelica gripped the half-open drawer, giving up on holding her emotions at bay. “That Evan is the best lover in the entire universe.”

There was a split second pause. “Okay. Well. That’s...uh...hmmm.”

Angelica turned. “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

“What are you going to do?”

Excellent question. “First, I’m getting dressed.” Angelica retrieved a pair of blue jeans and a hunter-green shirt from her drawer.

She stared at the clothing that she only used on visits to Big Blue. It suddenly felt like her past, and she tossed it onto the bed, not sure if she should wear it.

“No,” she decided. “First, I’m going to brush my teeth.”

“Okay. But what about the big question?”

“There is no big question. He didn’t ask, and I didn’t ask. Nothing’s changed, Tiff. We just couldn’t quite keep our hands off each other a couple of times.”

Tiffany was silent for a moment. “I meant with Kayla and Matt. But please do continue talking about your sex life.”

Angelica rolled her eyes, then pivoted and headed into the bathroom.

“They’re coming to Cheyenne to help out,” she called back. “They don’t want to host a splashy wedding party while people are recovering.”

“That makes sense,” said Tiffany. “When you think about it, what else would people like Kayla and Matt do?”

“I know.” Angelica nodded as she squeezed toothpaste onto her brush.

“Wait a minute.” Tiffany appeared in the doorway. “That means you and Evan don’t need to fake it any longer.”

“That’s what I told him last night.”

“Yet somehow, you ended up sleeping with him instead? You want to walk me through that logic, Angie?”

Angelica held her toothbrush under the faucet. “He doesn’t want it to be too sudden. For my family, mostly, especially for Marlene. He thinks we should let them down more gently. Plus, he thinks making up and breaking up in such rapid succession will make me look like a flake to the Lassiter Media brass.” She shut off the tap. “I’m not sure he’s wrong. I think I’ve already got trouble on that front.”

Tiffany had moved to lean in the bathroom doorway, talking while Angelica brushed. “You’re the Lassiter Media brass, Angie. You can tell them to stuff it.”

Angelica knew it wasn’t that easy. “My father handpicked those men. They’re the backbone of the company.”

“You’re the head of the company. They have to follow you now.”

Angelica spat and rinsed her brush. “I’m confident we’ll get there. But they have to respect me, not fear me. The faster I can make that happen, the easier my job gets. It’s true that looking like I have an erratic love life isn’t going to garner me any respect.”

“So, what’s the long-term play here? Are you going to have to marry Evan so you don’t look like a flake in front of the vice presidents?”

Angelica couldn’t help laughing. “That’s exactly what I said to Evan.”

“What did he say?”

“He told me I was being sarcastic. I was. It wasn’t helpful, but I was kind of rattled at the time.”