Dream a Little Dream (Chicago Stars, #4)(228)

He squeezed his eyes shut. “Good. We’ll work out the details on the way.”

“What details?”

He pushed her into the car. “Where we’re going to live. How many kids we’re going to have. Who sleeps on what side of the bed. That sort of thing.” He slammed the door, rushed around to the other side of the car, and climbed in. “I also should tell you the reason your car wouldn’t start earlier was that I sneaked over to your condo and disconnected the battery cable so you’d have to ride with me. And I’m not sorry, so don’t think you’re going to get an apology!”

She didn’t ask for one, and, within minutes, they were back on the road.

Bemused, Kristy spent the next ninety miles listening to the strangest lecture she’d ever heard. Ethan had always been a stickler regarding premarital counseling for the couples he wed, and now he tried to condense everything he knew into the time it took them to cross the Kentucky border and make the arrangements. He talked and talked and talked.

Kristy smiled and nodded.

They found a Pentecostal minister who agreed to marry them, but Ethan conducted the ceremony. He was the one who asked her to repeat the vows he recited, and he was the one who spoke his own vows in a deep, intense voice that came directly from his heart.

It was Kristy, however, who spotted the Holiday Inn not far from the outskirts of the Cumberland Falls Resort State Park.

They’d barely set their suitcases down before she tackled him, and he fell backward onto the king-sized mattress. She looked so eager, so excited, so thoroughly pleased with herself, that he laughed.

“Gotcha!” she said.

While he tried to catch his breath, she tore at the buttons on his shirt, then lunged for his belt buckle.

He gazed up into the beautiful, intent eyes of his virgin bride. “Let me know if I’m scaring you.”

“Shut up and take off your pants.”

That cracked them both up. But they didn’t laugh for long; their mouths were too busy with hot, wet kisses. And since neither of them had the patience for slow disrobing, they were naked and groping each other within seconds.

“You’re beautiful,” she sighed as she stroked him. “Just the way I’d imagined.”

He cupped the spill of her breasts and tried to find his voice. “You’re even more than I imagined.”

“Oh, Eth . . . That feels so good.”

“You’re telling me.”

“I want you to do that a lot.”

“Remind me if I forget.”

She made a throaty moan as he ran his thumbs over her nipples.

“Do that again. Oh, yes . . .”

“Lie back, baby, and let me play with you.”

She did as he asked. His caresses grew more intimate, and she sobbed in her passion. “Oh, Eth, I want to do everything.” She moaned. “Yes. That. And I want . . . I want to say everything. Dirty words. I want to say dirty words. And dirty little phrases.”

“Go ahead.”

“I—I can’t think of any.”

He whispered a really good one in her ear.

Her eyes widened, and she climaxed beneath his hand.

Even though he was so hard he ached, he laughed because he was the only person in the world who knew her secret.

Kristy Brown Bonner was easy.

She calmed, but he was ready to explode. He longed to bury himself inside her, but, at the very last moment, he remembered something he’d forgotten to discuss in their hurried session of premarital counseling. He stroked her hair and noticed his hand was shaking from the effort it took to restrain himself. “Are we worried about getting you pregnant?”

“I don’t think so.” She regarded him searchingly. “Are we?”

He settled his weight between her thighs, kissed her, and thought of the babies they’d have. “No, we’re definitely not.”

She was tight and new and wet. He tried to take his time entering her, but she would have none of it. “Now, Eth . . . Please stop messing around. Oh, please . . . I want to remember this forever.”

He drove home, and, as he fully possessed her, he gazed down into her eyes. They were filled with tears of love.

His own vision blurred, and the depth of his love for this woman brought the ancient words of that first couple to his mind. “Flesh of my flesh,” he whispered. “Bone of my bone.”

She caressed his hips with her palms and whispered back, “Flesh of my flesh. Bone of my bone.”

They smiled. Their tears mingled. And when they came together, both of them knew that only God could have designed something so perfect.





“Don’ get too close, Chip.”


“What are you doin’?”

Gabe gritted his teeth. “I’m tearing off the porch so I can build a deck here.”

It was Saturday afternoon, and Gabe was supposed to be watching Chip. It was the first time Rachel had left him alone with the kid, but he knew she wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t needed to run some mysterious errand in town. Gabe suspected that she was glad to find an excuse to get away from him. Ever since she’d made her announcement that she was leaving, she’d done her best to keep her distance.

He rammed the crowbar underneath one of the old rotted boards and shoved down on it. He was furious with her. Just because she couldn’t have everything the way she wanted, she was deserting him. Deserting them! He’d thought she was tough, but she wasn’t tough enough for this. Instead of sticking it out and trying to solve their problems, she was running.