Created In Fire (Art of Love Series) (32 page)

“
See? I told you so,
” Ellen said plaintively, laughing and barely wincing when Jessica pinched her arm. “Ouch.”

Maggie thought it was strangest fight she’d ever seen two women have. She was suddenly very glad she’d never gone through with her plans for divorcing Ethan. As hard as her marriage seemed now and again, she’d take a relationship she was used to over Jessica’s and Ellen’s complicated lives anytime.

*** *** ***

Michael was doubly respectful at home later when he unzipped the lovely wedding dress to help Carrie out of it. He was shocked to discover her wearing white bridal lingerie beneath it. It both thrilled and humbled him that Carrie had gone all out on the wedding gear. He hadn’t really been expecting such a traditional bride act from her.

“Wow. I thought the dress was beautiful,” Michael said softly, watching a smile curve her mouth but not reach her eyes. “You look like a lingerie model.”

“You mean this?” Carrie asked, pointing to her white satin merry widow briefly, putting a hand on her still mostly flat stomach. Not even the most beautiful wedding dress could make her anything other than a reluctant bride. “Your mother insisted I needed all the trappings.”

Carrie hung up the beautiful dress and carefully closed the storage bag around it. Maybe she’d loan it to Darla or Alison one day and it would see a happier outcome.

It dawned on Michael as he watched his new bride walk around their bedroom in her three inch heels that in all the time they’d been together, he’d never seen her in anything so sexually alluring. She was his height in the heels. They would be eyeball to eyeball if he backed her into a wall. The thought sent a quiver of anticipation through all of him, which he banked quickly. He wasn’t rushing her this time.

“Never thought I’d be thanking my mother for my wife’s seduction wear,” Michael said. “Let’s never tell Shane about this, okay? My chapter in his book is full enough already.”

When that did garner a small chuckle from Carrie, Michael backed away to keep from reaching for his wedding fantasy come to life in his bedroom. And there was his big old bed with fresh sheets just waiting for them.

Michael wanted to be noble, to give Carrie choices, to tell his new bride that he could wait until she loved him enough, but his fear of losing her was too great not to use the only connection he had to keep her.

Not consummating their legal agreement wasn’t an option Michael could give Carrie, no matter how much guilt he had. He would just have to make it up to her some other way.

Decision made, Michael shoved his guilt aside to shed his suit coat and shirt.

Then stripped to his slacks and bare feet, he peeled the white layers from Carrie with as much reverent appreciation as he could show, kissing her into bed until she was just as needy as he was.

To his utter consternation, her complete compliance with his seduction annoyed him more than it thrilled him. Michael didn’t want making love to his wife to be just a matter of her giving in to him when he knew she was still upset. Moreover, he didn’t want Carrie doing the emotional equivalent of just lying there like she didn’t care one way or the other if they had sex on their wedding night or not.

“It’s too bad you’re not really as nice as you’re pretending to be right now. Still, I think it’s going to be exciting having a shrew for a wife,” Michael said, slipping hard inside Carrie’s aroused body, loving the way she thrashed under him, trying to resist as she got upset.

“
Shrew?
What are you saying, Michael? Do you consider yourself a prize husband?” Carrie asked sarcastically. “What is with you and fighting today, Michael? Maybe you should just try not talking for a while.”

“That’s the second time today you’ve told me to shut up,” Michael said, laughing as his mouth closed over hers while the irritation was still pouring out.

His tongue danced along hers in sync with the rest of him as he moved in and out of her. Eventually, he felt her body moving in time with his, felt the rhythm of her heartbeat.

“I’m definitely not a prize. That’s for sure,” Michael said at last, when he lifted his lips from hers with a satisfaction that did not make him proud of himself, but did make him more sure of her. He could tell she was being herself, and that’s who he wanted.

“That’s okay,” Carrie said. “I’m not looking for a prize, just a guy who can keep his mouth shut and his mind on what he’s doing. Is there any duct tape in the bedroom?”

Michael laughed and stopped moving. “No, sorry. There’s no duct tape in here.”

“Too bad,” Carrie said. “Why did you stop? I was very close. You’re usually more astute about such things in bed. I’d hate to think my
husband
couldn’t give me an orgasm.”

Michael put his face into her hair. He loved Carrie’s sense of humor, her irritation when he didn’t do what she wanted. “I have to tell you Mrs. Larson, no man is ever going to love you or want you or appreciate you as much as your
third
husband does. Congratulations on your marriage. You wed the right man this time.”

“You are so full of sh—,” Carrie began, only to have her angry words cut off as Michael’s determined mouth captured hers again. He kissed her over and over as if he had forever and nothing more important to do, which actually was the truth.

“Shush,” Michael ordered against her lips when he set her mouth free at last. “I’m trying to give you an orgasm, but you’re going to have to focus to get there. Did either of your other husbands ever complain about how much you talk in bed?”

Carrie shrieked loudly in her frustration, her scream echoing off the bedroom walls even when Michael chose that moment to double his efforts, which was difficult for him since he was laughing with every stroke.

She grabbed two handfuls of his streaming long hair and pulled until Michael stopped moving to stare fiercely back at her while he throbbed inside her, knowing they were both moments away from the final pleasure.

“
Carrie Addison Larson
. Legally all mine at last,” Michael gloated, his gaze saying she could do what she wanted to him, hurt him or hold him.

That much at least was completely her choice.

Though Carrie knew what the look he gave her meant, she also knew she had a lot less choice than Michael realized.

“Yes—damn you. You can say that for now,” Carrie hissed, yanking his head down with one hand in his hair as she found his mouth with hers in a controlling kiss of her own.

When she freed his mouth, Michael put his forehead on hers. “Your irritation with me just makes me harder. Is that why you do it? Do you think I still don’t have enough enthusiasm for you, lady?”

“Aren’t you taking that for better or
worse
stuff a little too literally? Better shut up while you can. I’m so angry I could scream again—or do something to genuinely hurt you,” Carrie hissed.

“Want to spank me again?” Michael offered. “I kind of liked that before.”

Carrie was so appalled at his suggestion that she froze beneath him, and then hysterical laughter overcame her. “My God, I can’t believe I actually married you! You’re such an ass at times. You’re either being perfect or being a jerk. There is just no middle ground with you, is there?”

“Yeah. Too bad for you,” Michael said, looping his fingers with hers, just in case she got violent. “I definitely got the better end of the deal in this relationship. You got some horny guy-guy, and I got the hottest, most obedient woman on earth.”

Carrie twisted and swore as Michael’s body pinned hers effectively to the sheets. “Why are you torturing me with insults on our wedding night?”

“Oh, is that what this is?” Michael said sarcastically, slowly stroking inside her with his heart beating hard at the thrill of hearing Carrie admit the significance of this joining. “So you do think this is our
wedding night
. I wasn’t sure how you felt about it. Did you want romantic and smooth? I guess I can do that. All you had to do was ask.”

Carrie glared at him, speechless with rage.

Michael kissed her eyes, down her face, and the hollow of her neck. “You smell like vanilla ice cream and taste like dessert. I want to bury myself inside you and never come out. I want to ruin the sheets with you and make you call my name over and over all night.”

“Michael,” Carrie began, but an orgasm of biblical proportion stole her ability to hear him. “Michael—
please
.”

“Yes, just like that. You say my name and it sounds so right to me. I like knowing that I have a legal right to make love to you. So love me back, Carrie Larson,” Michael entreated, his body straining to give hers everything it sought.

“
I already love you back, you moron
,” Carrie said harshly as wave after wave of pleasure tossed her body around the bed. The rest of the vitriol she’d intended to heap on Michael was sucked out of her when his mouth ravished hers again.

“Say you’re my wife. Tell me you’re mine,” Michael ordered, moving Carrie so much with his thrusts that her body bowed in answer.

“Yes. I’m yours. I’m yours,” she chanted, her body arcing with his.

“Carrie—I love you so much,” Michael said, practically sobbing the declaration as his body found blessed release in the haven of hers.

After he had calmed, Michael lowered himself down on her, knowing full well he’d extorted with sex the commitment he’d been desperate to hear from her on their wedding day. Part of him knew that she likely hadn’t really meant anything she’d said. But his heart was a little appeased and his body sated. His wife was sighing beneath him.

He’d take what he could get today and pray to make it real later.

Michael felt Carrie’s trembling hands gathering his long hair and smiled as she pulled it to the side and smoothed it down over his shoulder to stroke it lovingly. It was her little after glow ritual. Understanding her need to pet him, he kissed her cheek, thinking he was never cutting his hair without her permission.

“Michael Larson, I loved you the first time I was ever intimate with you,” Carrie said quietly, her heart open to the truth even as painful as it was to her to admit it, but her therapist had convinced her that admitting it was a healthy step toward easing the pain that lived in her. There would probably never be a more important time where the truth needed to be said, no matter what the future held.

She stroked his long hair, satisfied to have the right to do it now, no matter how many women had come before her. “I even loved you two months ago when we made the baby, though I couldn’t deal with it then. In fact, there hasn’t been a single time we’ve ever been together sexually that I haven’t loved you whether I wanted to or not.”

Michael felt tears come and didn’t fight them. He could hear the despair in Carrie’s voice. “I know I don’t deserve it, but I still want you to love me. I’m crazy with the need to know you do. I get scared thinking we’re not going to work out this time.”

“Well, I get sacred thinking that I’m stuck in another bad situation I’m not going to be able to change. My whole life is like that,” Carrie said, sniffling herself. “And I hate crying about every single thing that happens!”

“If I promise to do all your crying for you for the rest of your life, will you stay with me after the baby comes?” Michael asked, kissing her neck.

“Michael, I can’t even think beyond surviving next week,” Carrie said quietly. “My life is totally out of control. I don’t know who I am anymore, much less who you married today.”

“Let me help you figure it out, okay?” Michael pleaded, kissing her eyes until they closed. He couldn’t stand seeing her distress.

“Is there any other choice?” she answered sadly, drifting off into sleep as Michael moved off her and gathered her close.

Michael held Carrie as she slept, and studied her face in the glow of the nightlight.

She loved him. Carrie Addison had said on their wedding night that she had always loved him.

Every instinct he’d possessed had known that, but it was damn relieving to finally hear the woman he loved admit that she loved him too.

But loving him obviously didn’t make her happy. Whatever else it did, love was supposed to make you happy.

When Michael really thought about it, he realized Carrie hadn’t been really happy for a single moment with him. Even now, instead of being satisfied and peaceful in his arms, she was sad and sleeping restlessly. Their relationship was just one more emotional burden for her to bear. A burden, Michael conceded, that in his desperation he had forced on a reluctant bride.

Yet reluctant or not, Carrie had given him all he’d asked.

Now Michael had her as his wife, her confession of love for him, and legal rights to his baby. He’d had a beautiful bride who’d kept her word to him and a wedding night that had exceeded his expectations.

What did Carrie have? Nothing she wanted. She didn’t want him. She didn’t want the baby. All she had was a reluctant love for a man who had embarrassed her at her wedding reception because she’d nicked his pride.

Michael had admitted he was no prize, but that might have been an understatement.

No matter how he spun it all in his head, the whole situation was completely unfair to Carrie from every angle.