The Marine's E-Mail Order Bride (Heroes of Chance Creek Book 3) (23 page)

“Because we don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

Zane reared back. “I know exactly what’s going to happen next. We’re going to get married. We’re going to spend the rest of our lives together. We’re going to raise this child among the people we love.”

“But—”

“But nothing. That’s how it’s going to be. You’re mine forever, Storm Willow. We pledged that once already, remember? We’re going to pledge it again.” A grin spread over his face. “At our shotgun wedding.” He lifted her hands in his. “Pregnant!” He kissed her again.

“There’s something else. Cheyenne plans to stay in Chance Creek.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Storm smiled. “I’m glad to hear that you’re glad to hear it, because she has some pretty good news, too.”

Zane sat down. “Don’t tell me she’s pregnant—”

“No! Heck, I hadn’t thought of that.” Storm shook the disturbing idea off. “No, she got an offer on the beach house and she took it. She made a lot of money.” She tugged at Zane’s hands. “Don’t get mad—I know we’ll figure out a way to save Crescent Hall, but if we don’t—”

“Don’t talk like that.”

“If we don’t,” she pressed on, “Cheyenne’s going to buy a ranch. A place for all of us to be together. So we’ll keep figuring out how to get to Kenna, and how to make Heloise happy, but we have a backup plan just in case.”

He thought about that. Realized as much as it riled him to think about losing, he couldn’t feel anything but grateful to have a fallback position.

“Cheyenne’s fallen hard for Hank,” was all he said.

Storm’s smile told him she understood that was as far as he could take things. “Yes, I figured that out today.”

“She could do a lot worse.”

“She sure could.” She tugged at his hands. “What did the minister say?”

“Well, he thinks the marriage can be annulled since I never actually met Kenna, and she didn’t speak the vows or sign the paperwork. The difficult part is the fraud aspect. Halpern’s no lawyer. He doesn’t know what to think, but it seems likely if the marriage is annulled and Kenna doesn’t press charges, nothing will happen.”

“But we need Kenna.”

“We need Kenna. I think it’s time to try to contact her.” He let go of her hands. “I even looked into flying to Nepal and going after her myself, but that would take too long. I’d never catch her in time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“So am I. But you know what?”

“What?”

“We’re going to be okay, no matter what. All of us are.”

“I know.”

He thought a minute. “I’ll tell you what else.”

“What?”

“First thing tomorrow, we’re going to go buy a ring. And we’ll talk to that wedding planner. Mia is probably going out of her mind.”

Bright and early
the next morning, Zane held open the door of Thayer’s Jewelers, and ushered Storm inside. She stopped in the entryway and scanned the brightly lit store.

“Wow—it’s got everything.”

She was right. Mia Matheson and Rose Johnson had recently bought the place together. Now in addition to jewelry, Rose exhibited her artwork and Mia ran her wedding planning business here.

Mia came out of a small office to one side of the showroom. She was short, slim, with dark hair pulled back in a high ponytail. She stopped dead when she spotted them. “Zane Hall—am I finally meeting your bride?”

“You are.”

Mia extended a hand. “I’m so happy to finally meet you, Kenna. I’m Mia Matheson. I’ve been trying to reach your assistant for weeks. Isn’t her phone working?”

Storm blushed and Zane bit back a curse. He should have seen that coming. “Actually,” he said, “This is Kenna’s assistant—Storm Willow. I’m marrying her instead.”

“Oh…well…” Mia seemed nonplussed. “I… uh… okay. We’ll have to redo a couple of things.”

“I’m so sorry. I should have let you know. I meant to call you,” Storm said.

“No problem. I’m sure things were… uh… chaotic.” Mia blushed. “I mean… not to say that your decision to marry was chaotic…”

“It was,” Zane said. “It still is. In fact, we might need to change the wedding date.”

“You have got to be kidding,” Mia blurted. She clapped a hand over her mouth. Struggled to compose herself. “I mean…”

Zane couldn’t blame her for losing her temper. “Unfortunately not. It’s a crazy story. I won’t bore you with it.”

“Please—bore us. We love crazy stories.” Rose Johnson appeared from a back room, a petite pixie of a woman with dark hair curling around her face. As always, she exuded good cheer and Zane relaxed a bit. He liked Rose’s friendly, matter-of-fact personality and felt like she was just the person to make this awkward experience easier for both him and Storm. Everyone said Rose was a whiz at helping people pick out the perfect engagement ring. In fact, he’d heard a rumor last time he came to visit that there was supposed to be something mystical about her. Zane cocked his head. She’d never looked mystical to him.

“Do you want to tell it or should I?” he asked Storm.

“You tell it. I’m going to look around.”

“Great, abandon me at my time of need.”

“You’re a big, tough Marine. You’ll get through it.” She reached up to kiss him, then moved away to look at the art hanging on the wall.

“Go on,” Rose said, leaning on a countertop. “We’re all ears.”

“Well, it started like this…”

“You’ll still need
an engagement ring, even if you do have to delay the wedding,” Rose said when Zane stopped talking. Storm, who was bent over a display case of engagement rings, shot her a conspiratorial smile.

Somewhere a baby began to cry. “I’m coming, Emily,” Mia said. “Let me make the changes I need to make and I’ll stop by the ranch to show you everything I’ve got planned,” she said to Storm, heading into her office.

“I can’t wait to see it all,” she said.

Mia shut the door behind her, but they could hear her crooning nonsense words.

“Mia brings her baby to work,” Rose explained. “Beats babysitters, at least for now; once Emily starts crawling we’ll have to figure something else out.” She moved behind the display case Storm was looking into. “Did you have something specific in mind?”

Zane touched Storm’s back. “Something beautiful, just like my girl here.”

Just like my girl.

Storm closed her eyes, basking under his attention. When she opened them again her gaze fell immediately on a delicate ring that reminded her of something a fairy would wear. It would look lovely on her slim fingers and she’d feel beautiful wearing it.

Before she could even point to it, Rose opened the back of the case and pulled it out. “Here you go.”

Prickles danced down Storm’s spine. How had Rose known which one she wanted?

“Try it on,” Rose urged when Storm made no move to do so.

“Hold on.” Zane took the ring. “She can’t just put it on. We’ve got to do this right.”

He got down on one knee and Storm’s heartbeat quickened. She heard Rose gasp and saw Mia hurry out of the office and come to stand beside her friend, her baby in her arms.

“Storm.” Zane took her left hand and held the ring to her finger. “I’m beginning to feel like Fate delivered you to me. Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the way my fiancée would come into my life. Now I can’t imagine spending a day without you. All I do is for you. My land, my ranch, my work, my home, my heart—it’s all for you. I want you to turn to me whenever you need for anything. I want you to know that I’ll be there for you until my dying breath. I need you to know that if we have to start all over again, I’ll gladly do it. It doesn’t matter where we live. All that matters is that I get to wake up beside you each day for the rest of my life. I love you, Storm Willow. Please, would you be my wife?”

Tears pricked Storm’s eyelids and for a moment she couldn’t speak. She could only nod. “Yes,” she finally gasped out. She was trembling as he slid the ring home.

When he stood up and pulled her into a soul-searing kiss, she felt as if the floor had fallen away beneath her. She clung to him as if to a lifeline, wondering how she had ever survived without him.

Maybe he was right; maybe Fate had delivered her to him. Maybe every moment in her life had led up to this one. She knew she was meant to be in Chance Creek. Meant to own a store. Meant to be with Zane.

Meant to wear this ring.

When they finally parted, Zane bent over her hand to get a better look. “Looks as if it was made for you.”

“It does,” Mia said, craning her neck to see.

“Yes, it does,” Rose said with a secret smile.

“I love it.” Storm turned to Zane. “I love you.”

Zane smiled and her heart throbbed in response. He slapped the counter. “We’ll take it.”

“Aren’t we going
home?” Storm asked when he led her from the store, but didn’t head toward his truck.

Zane shook his head. “Not yet. We’ve got one more stop.” He took her arm and walked along the sidewalk, turning the corner when they reached it.

Storm glanced up at him. “Are we going to Mandy’s?”

“You got it.”

“Why?”

“Shh. You’ll see.”

When they reached the store, he waited for her to fish her key out of her bag and unlock the door before he hustled her inside and locked it again behind him.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“I’m convincing my woman to have no-holds-barred, dirty, cheap, workplace sex.”

She giggled. “Really? That’s your plan?” She scanned the store. “This isn’t exactly romantic.”

“Let me put it this way. Neither one of us is ever going to work in an office, so boardroom sex is out. My workplace smells like manure. I’ll happily take you on a hay bale someday, but I’m afraid you’ll find that’s pretty scratchy. Back home, your sisters are bound to knock on our door the minute we get going. So store sex it is.”

“Where?”

He looked around, his gaze resting on the large front plate glass window. “Not in full view of the street, anyway.”

“Back room?”

“Fitting room!”

She allowed him to take her hand and tug her toward the rear of the store. “This is weird.”

“This is fun,” he corrected. “Wait. You need something to try on. Get out there and find the trashiest dress you can.”

“Trashy? Why?”

“So I can rip it off of you, what do you think?”

She did as she was told, refusing to show him what she’d found until she changed into it. “Go away,” she said, pulling the door closed on one of the fitting room cubicles. They were old fashioned, with space below and above the walls, but she told Zane not to peek and he obeyed her. A few minutes later, she flung it open again to show off her new outfit.

“Wow.” Zane was positive the item had to be from the eighties. It was a denim dress shaped to hug her curves, with a zipper in front from the neckline to the waist in addition to one in back that was actually useful to get the dress on and off.

“What do you think?” she said, striking a pose.

“It’ll be like scoring with a star from a vintage music video.” He hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her back into the cubicle with him. Shutting the door, he leaned her up against one of the partition walls and began to kiss her. At first he knew she was having a hard time taking any of this seriously, but when he tugged the front zipper down a few inches, parted the denim and began to sweep kisses along her neckline, Storm relaxed and began to kiss him back. She lifted her arms over her head to grip the top of the partition while he tugged the zipper down even further. Now he could slide a hand inside her dress and caress a breast.

“I don’t suppose you can do that trick,” he murmured, sliding his mouth along the edge of her bra cup.

“This trick?” She let go of the partition, wriggled around inside her dress for a moment or two and handed him her bra. “I’m not sure I ever got that last one back.”

“What are you saying?” he growled into her ear, then ducked down to take one pert nipple into his mouth.

“I’m saying… oh…” Storm leaned back and allowed him full access to her breasts, clearly enjoying what he was doing. He lifted her arms so she gripped the top of the partition wall behind her again, loving how that lifted her breasts, too.

She was magnificent.

When he skimmed his hands down her hips and under the hem of her dress, she sighed with pleasure and he found she wasn’t wearing panties. He pushed her dress up over her hips and lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his waist. The pressure of her hot, damp core against the front of his jeans was too enticing. He kicked off his boots, reached down between them, unbuckled his belt and pushed down his pants and boxers, groaning when his hardness slipped free and came in contact with Storm’s slick body. Stepping out of his pants, he settled her legs more firmly around his waist, entranced with how good she felt. Supporting her back, he bent down to lave her breasts, giving them the attention they deserved.

“I want you inside me,” Storm moaned.

“Be patient,” he said, bending back to his task.

“I don’t want to be patient.” Using her arms to lift herself up, Storm positioned herself so his hardness pressed against her core. Zane chuckled and gave in, allowing her to slide back down, pushing him inside of her. He moaned and moved with her, pressing all the way in, using his hands to guide her hips.

“Hang on,” he said and began to move. Soon both of them were panting, and Zane’s thrusts were bouncing Storm against the wall with a rhythmic slap. She arched back as he increased his pace, her dress parting to reveal her breasts, and as he pistoned in and out of her, she cried out, her release overtaking her. Zane bucked against her, gripping her hips and thrusting until he was spent. He caught Storm in his arms and held her tight. “Hell, woman. You are the sexiest thing.”

She peppered kisses over his neck and collarbone. “I hope you don’t think you’re done, cowboy.”

He laughed out loud. “Really? Not even a minute to rest?”

“Not even a minute. Let me down.” She steadied herself as he pulled out of her and helped her regain her feet, peeped up at him from under her lashes, made sure her front zipper was undone all the way, then turned around and lifted her skirt up to her waist again. “How about this?” she said, bracing her forearms against the wall.