Created In Fire (Art of Love Series) (9 page)

“That’s fine. I know what to do. Ethan and Kevin are in the living room, Maggie. Why don’t you go and meet the rest of my family? They’re all here. You’re welcome to stay and eat with us. I’ve ordered pizza,” Michael said.

He watched Maggie blink in disbelief, and then scurry out of the room without another word.

Michael knocked on the bathroom door and called out to Carrie. The door opened immediately. Carrie was sitting on the toilet with the lid closed. Her face was in her hands. The sight of her brooding on the toilet made Michael laugh. It was so unlike her.

“Get in here,” she said urgently when she saw it was him, but had to stand up to let Michael into the small space, which was even smaller with the two of them in it. “Why is my mother here?”

“I have no idea,” Michael said honestly. “She may have come along to try and keep me from killing your father and brother.”

“
Oh God—are they here
too
?” she demanded, her voice rising until it was a disbelieving squeak. “Why is my crazy family in your house?”

Michael went to perch on the side of the tub, but the ledge was too small for him to sit comfortably. He gave up and leaned against the wall by the towel bar and crossed his arms.

“Well, your father came to say he was sorry about upsetting you earlier, and to give us his blessing. I accepted for both of us—hope that’s okay. Kevin and I have decided to call a truce, but I reserve the right to beat the crap out of your brother in the future. I think your mother just wanted to know you were okay,” Michael said, grinning as Carrie sank back down to sitting on the toilet again.

“Right now everyone is in the living room. Oh—and my whole family is here as well, though I’m still not sure how it happened. But I guess it’s a good thing, all in all.”

Carrie stared at him and blinked. It was surreal. It was impossible. No one in her family had ever come to check on her before when they knew she was upset. She blinked a few more times and shook her head trying to get her brain to absorb reality.

“So what’s going on now?” she asked.

“We’re waiting on pizza,” Michael said, laughing at her shock.

It wasn’t long before Carrie was hiding her face in her hands again. The sight of her sitting forlorn on his toilet made Michael too amused to feel sorry for her.

“This is insane behavior, even for them. How did we all go from fighting at my parent’s house to eating pizza as one big group in the space of a few hours this afternoon? All I did was take a nap,” Carrie said, whining. “I don’t understand. Why are they here again?”

Michael shrugged, his sense of humor kicking in at last.

“Maybe I was just so charming that they had to come by and make up with us. What does it matter why they came? Whatever their reasons—they’re here,” he said. “I know because I let them into the house. They’re all in the living room.”

“Well, I don’t want them here,”
Carrie said irritably, rubbing her face.

Michael snickered. At least she sounded like her old bossy self for once. “Okay. Since this is my house, I guess I could run them all off. If I do though, it’s going to cost you.”

Carrie looked at him hopefully. “Fine. Anything. I will definitely sleep with you again if you will throw my family out and make sure I don’t have to see or deal with them,” she said.

Sleeping with him was an easy promise for her to make. She was already having to accept how much she wanted to have sex with Michael. It wasn’t a good idea considering the big picture situation, but Carrie wasn’t going to be able to fight off his advances and her own desire for him. So really it was inevitable from a certain perspective, especially with them living together and practically stumbling over each other all time.

Plus Carrie figured she might as well make all the lemonade she could from the sorry bag of lemons her life choices had become in the last two months.

Coaxing Michael into evicting her parents would be a really good start.

“So? Do we have a deal?” she asked.

“Wow,” Michael said, grinning and pushing off the bathroom wall. “After all these weeks of nothing, I’ve had two offers of gratuitous sex from you in one day. Unfortunately, I have to ignore your heartfelt plea. As bad as I hate it, we need to be responsible adults and go be a
couple
in front of your parents.”

“But we’re not a real couple. And they have no business being here,” Carrie said adamantly, stomping her foot.

Michael had to fight not to laugh again. He would never have imagined Carrie as a foot-stomping tantrum thrower, but she sure looked cute when she was all huffy and indignant.

As he studied her face, the laughter escaped his control, the sound echoing in the bathroom.

“See that hunk of gold on your finger, Carlene. It’s called an
engagement
ring for a reason. So we are a real couple in the eyes of the world. Now tell me—are you sick or not?” Michael asked, walking the two steps to the toilet and looking down at her.

“No—I woke up feeling better like always. I lied to get away from my mother,” Carrie admitted, putting her face in her hands again. “And don’t call me Carlene.”

Michael laughed again, but tried to keep it soft enough so the rest of the house wouldn’t hear him.

It was very tempting to just hide in the bathroom with Carrie until they all gave up and went home, but he knew his family. Someone from his side of the mob would be pounding on the door in concern soon if at least one of them didn’t show up in the living room to say Carrie was doing okay.

“Carlene, you’re too old to be lying to your parents,” he said, trying to not to laugh and failing. Michael liked her name, though he knew better than to say so.

“Do not call me that horrible name. Not now. Not ever.” She sighed and the sound bounced around in the small room with no place to go—just like her, Carrie thought.

“Do you think I should just tell my family the truth about our arrangement? I doubt they could think worse of me than they do now anyway,” she asked, lifting her chin in defiance.

Michael shook his head, exasperated, laughing and putting his hands on his hips.

Carrie looked at his frazzled expression filled with more humor than irritation. She wasn’t trying to upset him. She certainly didn’t know what Michael thought was so funny about the situation.

“So just what do you think the truth of our situation is right now?” Michael asked soberly, trying for calm but having trouble finding it. The truth was it bugged the hell out of him that Carrie could throw herself at him one minute and throw their prenuptial agreement up between them the next.

Screw the truth, he decided. He obviously had one idea about it, and she another. However, Carrie was out of her freaking mind trying to deny they were in a relationship.

Carrie looked up when she heard the same fierceness in Michael’s tone that he’d used on her father.

“Why are you frowning at me? What has changed, Michael? Nothing has changed just because my family is pretending to go along with our marriage of convenience now,” she told him.

Michael made a loud sound like a buzzer in a game show, causing Carrie to jump in surprise.

“Wrong answer,” he said loudly and with great confidence. “Your father has given his blessing. I’m one up already on the other two guys you married.
That’s
the truth of our situation right now.”

“I’ll believe it when I hear it from Ethan Addison,” Carrie protested, but saw the triumphant glint in Michael’s eyes. “Even if he did agree to go along, that still doesn’t
change
our situation.”

“My God, you’re so stubborn,” Michael said, totally exasperated with her refusal to see any good that had come from today’s confrontations.

Obviously talking wasn’t convincing her.

Before he had time to think rationally about what more he could do, Michael was suddenly lifting her to her feet and pulling her tightly against him as his mouth unerringly found hers. His lips fit hers like a matching set, he thought. No engineer could have made anything fit more precisely.

Michael felt the same intense heat and out-of-control lust he always felt when he kissed her, but there was more now. There was a new bond being forged between them. It had been growing quietly and steadily since she had moved into the house. They were healing and starting to trust each other.

Like it or not, Carrie was going to have to admit it, Michael decided.

But there were ways to win her agreement without having to engage in a verbal battle that he always had a fifty-fifty chance of losing.

“Kiss me back, Carrie
Carlene
Addison,” he whispered against her lips. “You offered yourself to me twice today. I’ll settle for a kiss until I can collect on the rest.”

“All offers are now rescinded until you get rid of my parents,” Carrie said, shaking her head from side to side until Michael captured her face in his hands.

His mouth found hers again, and this time she moaned. She was forced by the needy desire of his kiss to open her mouth to the invasion of his tongue.

“I’m starved for the taste of you,” Michael broke away to whisper, his tongue plundering and retreating, only to find it’s way back inside.

He turned them and sat on the toilet, pulling her down to straddle his lap and up against his chest. When he felt her go limp, Michael put one hand up her shirt in the back, playing with the hooks on her bra, wondering what she would do if he released them. He wanted badly to cup her naked breasts in his hands, to feel her pressing herself against his hands in need. Remembering that she had once done just that further inflamed him.

In fact, he wanted Carrie naked and writhing again as soon as he could find the time to make her that way. He was now really sorry he’d turned her down earlier.

With his mouth on hers, he vowed he was never being that noble again.

“Michael, I can’t do
this
on the toilet,” Carrie said sadly, dissolving into laughter as soon as she heard the words leave her mouth. “Why couldn’t you have just said yes to me earlier?”

“Why didn’t you admit you wanted me yesterday in the kitchen?” he demanded in return. “Maybe we both want it to be perfect again. I know I definitely want your hands in my hair again. I want you wanting me that much. When is that going to happen, Carrie? It makes me harder than I already am just thinking about you touching me. I feel like I’m going to die if I don’t get back inside you soon.”

Carrie laid her forehead against his. “Damn it, Michael—I feel like I’m dying too.”

“Good—let’s go with that much honesty at least. We want each other, but it’s complicated, and neither of us has figured it out yet,” Michael concluded, frowning into her shoulder as he tucked his face into her neck. “It sucks being an adult. I told my father that, but he was no help at all.”

For some reason, Michael’s complaining about his father made her laugh and realize that she truly wasn’t the only one suffering.

When tears welled up from her empathy, Carrie let go of her resistance and wrapped her arms fully around Michael, hugging him genuinely. It was the first time she could remember just—well, liking him.

“You’re going to make me go talk to my crazy family, aren’t you?” she asked, her eyes still burning, but she blinked rapidly to stall the tears.

“No,” Michael said sincerely, wrapping his arms around her in return, trying to be as reassuring as he could be under the circumstances.

“I don’t have the heart to make you do anything. If you don’t come with me to see them though, I’m going to send my brother Shane in here to explain to you why it would be
much
healthier for you to talk with your family than to hide in the bathroom pretending to be sick. The future Dr. Larson is very annoying, but his nagging is also very effective,” Michael told her.

Carrie snorted against his shoulder, relaxing against him one more minute as she pretended to contemplate his threat. “That’s blackmail, Michael.”

Michael nodded, hugging her and loving the feel of her in his arms. It was probably the first time he’d ever touched her that there hadn’t been an emotional wall.

“Yes. It probably is blackmail, but I trust him completely. Shane’s a wise and good man, despite the fact he never cuts his hair or bothers to shave.”

Carrie laughed at the ridiculousness of Michael’s criticism of Shane. “Let me see if I get this right. My father thinks your long-haired appearance is too bohemian, and you think your brother’s uncut much shorter hair and lack of shaving is?”

Michael frowned. “Well, I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but yeah—I guess that’s right. Everyone needs to follow some standards, don’t you think?”

Carrie rolled her eyes and reluctantly slid off Michael’s lap to stand again. She missed the heat of him immediately and sighed.

“Now I feel sorry for Shane. How in the world did that happen?”

Michael stood as well. “I honestly don’t know. I almost never feel sorry for him. He annoys me too much. Are you ready now?”

Carrie shook her head. “No—I’m never going to be ready, but it’s not going to get any better. Let’s just go get it over with and done.”