“If you help me out of this wedding dress, I’ll help you lose them.”
A joyous laughter bubbled from him. He whipped her around, pulled the zipper down from her waist, pushed the skirt over her hips. She stepped out of it, looking incredibly sexy wearing white lace French knickers and a lacy garter belt attached to the fine silky stockings she wore. For a moment, his eyes feasted on the graceful curves of her back, the lush roundness of her bottom, her lovely long legs. Every muscle in his body was taut, screaming to leap into action. He couldn’t wait for her to undress him.
His coat joined her clothes on the floor. His hands were tearing at his tie when she came to him, undoing his shirt buttons, fingers moving swiftly, unfastening his trousers. Neither of them cared about any sensual finesse in getting naked. This was not a journey of discovery. Urgency was uppermost. She wanted him. He wanted her. And the need to come together was a driving force that could not be contained.
He carried her to the bed. They sprawled on it together. She wrapped her legs around him, lifting herself in wanton invitation for him to plunge straight into the sweet, warm depths of her.
He did.
“Yes-s-s-s,” she cried out, the intensity of her pleasure coursing through him, making him wild to give her more.
They moved as one, rocking each other, pushing the excitement higher and higher. It was glorious. It was bliss. His woman, wanting him, needing him, loving him, giving herself with uninhibited passion and revelling in taking all he could give her. He felt the convulsive spasms and the gushing flow of her climax and plunged as deep as her arched body allowed, holding himself there, loving the sense of her melting around him.
Her hands stroked down his back, sliding over his buttocks, fingers digging in.
“Go on, Peter,” she urged.”I want to feel you come inside me.”
He did.
Incredible ecstasy.
He kissed her, and her mouth was gentle and loving, her hands in his hair, tenderly caressing. They stayed entwined, joined as one, even when he rolled on his side, her head snuggled to the curve of his neck and shoulder. How long they lay in this contented intimacy he didn’t know.
Time was meaningless. He was happy simply to hold her, to know that she was happy, too.
“I guess we should be getting back to the marquee,” she said on a rueful sigh.
He’d forgotten their wedding party.
Did it matter that they would be missed, guests commenting on their absence?
No.
Yet he and Erin had the rest of their lives to be together. Tonight was the night to show and share their happiness with everyone.
“Yes, we should,” he decided.”I want to dance with you, Erin.”
“I’d like that…our bridal dance.”
He heard the smile in her voice.
It was okay to move.
They would be moving in unison again very soon.
The photograph released to the media the next day was of the bride and groom dancing. They were gazing into each other’s eyes, smiling.
No-one who looked at that photograph was in any doubt that Peter Ramsey and Erin Lavel e were happy with their marriage.
Chapter 13
Los Angeles, fourteen months later…
Throngs of fans waved and screamed from the roadside as the limousine rolled slowly forward in the long queue of limousines delivering stars of the big screen to the theatre where the Academy Awards ceremony was to be held. Erin remembered the same intense excitement flowing from the crowd of spectators who had turned up at the premiere of The Mythical Horses of Mirrima, four months ago.
It amazed her that so many people cared enough to wait hours to catch a glimpse of their favourite celebrities. Even children had nagged their parents into coming to see her, simply because she was the author of stories they loved.
Before she’d married Peter, she’d hated feeling like a performing monkey in a zoo, but under his guidance, she’d learnt not to mind being stared at.
Just be yourself. Whatever buzz other people get out of seeing you doesn’t have to touch what you are inside, Erin. Think of it as brightening their day. Like a rainbow. That’s not a bad thing to do.
She’d even done a few interviews to promote the movie, managing them quite well because she’d followed his advice of saying only what she wanted to say and side-stepping the questions aimed at getting out of her personal stuff that she didn’t want to give.
Take control away from them if it’s not going the way you want.
Peter was so good at it. She’d learnt an enormous amount from him about how to deal with situations that had made her shrink inside herself or want to run away from in the past. Having him at her side made a huge difference. She wasn’t alone. And he was an extremely intimidating protector—too big a man for anyone to get offside with him.
She remembered the conversation they’d had when he’d queried her decision to be reclusive—his wry comment,” billionaires get to be performing monkeys, too. The difference between us, Erin, is that I’ve learnt to live with the zoo and not let it control me.” The criticism had stung.”I just don’t like it, Peter. Being paraded around like a trophy, people sniping at you because you’re lucky to be successful at what you do, and wanting you to give them the formula as though you can reduce your creativity to easily copied bits and pieces.”
“But you like control,” he’d replied seriously.”Withdrawing is the most negative form of it. Negative for you, too.” She hadn’t liked his perception of her decision not to court attention. It made her sound like a coward when what she’d been doing was avoiding the feeling of being a victim of other people’s interests.
But he hadn’t thought her cowardly. There’d been understanding in his eyes as he’d told her,” I was born to it, Erin. I had parents who taught me how to deal with it, how to let it flow past me and not let it tear at my sense of the person I am inside. I wasn’t suddenly hit with celebrity status and all that goes with it the way you were. But if you let me help you, I can and will widen your world and make it easier for you to ride through all that you hide from so it doesn’t affect anything that’s really important to you.” Her prince…rescuing her from her ivory tower…and he had.
She turned to him now, smiling her appreciation of the person he was, loving him.
He smiled back, gesturing to the window of the limousine on his side of the passenger seat.”You’re okay with this wild bunch of spectators?
Not nervous?”
“It’s a grand occasion. I don’t mind them sharing it with us.” She squeezed the hand that was holding hers.”Besides, I always feel okay when you’re with me.”