The Marriage Agenda(32)

He laughed. "Good luck getting that one by Toby."

"Can you please not say that name while you're naked?"

"What? He likes you."

"Knox?"

"Yes?" He didn't seem to want an answer. Not with his hands headed into  the kind of territory that seldom served as a conversation starter.

"Why did you do it?"

"Because you like it," he responded, clearly on a different page.

"No, not that." She swatted at his hand and got a deep, lingering kiss for her trouble.

"I know," he muttered. "But this is more fun."

"I'm serious!"

He sighed, but he was smiling. "I sent the story because you earned the  right to it. And because I meant what I said out there. Rex betrayed my  trust as much as he did anyone else's."

"But your name-"

"My name is what it is. It shouldn't define me-not the way I let it.  Having my grandfather's last name didn't make Rex a saint, and having  Rex's doesn't have to make me a bad guy. And at least now when I make  it, no one will accuse me of doing so on Rex's coattails."

"What about the election?"

"I'll worry about that later. Right now, you're looking a little needy."  His punctuated his husky words by closing his mouth on her breast, his  erection nudging her belly.

She wriggled against him, drawing her leg over his hip and feasting on  the groan he fed her. He was hers. Every inch of him. She couldn't  believe it. By now, the video evidence of his confession had to be all  over the internet. If they ever got out of bed, she'd probably watch it a  hundred times, waiting for it to sink in that his words were true. "I  love you," she said.

"I love you. With everything I have and then some." He kissed her,  slowly. Sweetly. "While I'm groveling," he said, "there's something else  I want to tell you."

"If it's bad news, you might want to protect yourself before you say anything further."

He cupped her face, melting her. "I'll take my chances. I owe you an apology."

"You sure you don't want to grab some protection?"

"That depends. Do you have anything in green?"

Oh, the memories. This one made her flush hot. "You had to remind me of that."

"Why not? It's a good memory."

She blew her hair from her face. She probably looked a mess. "You were saying?"

He put his hand over his mouth, unsuccessfully trying to cover a smile. "It's my mother."

His mother? "First Toby, and now your mother. Is this our bedroom?"

"Okay, you're right." He rolled off her and tugged the sheet to her chin. "Now that you're fully dressed, I'll talk."         

     



 

She rolled her eyes and fell back on the pillow. "Please do. Because I'm absolutely fully dressed."

He grinned. "And you wear sarcasm so well. Chloe, one reason I was so  afraid of marriage was I didn't want to put any woman in my mother's  position."

"You're not your father."

"And you're not my mother."

"Convenient right about now, isn't it?"

"No, I'm serious. Rex isn't the reason she spent so much time crying behind closed doors."

She toyed with his fingers, not quite holding his hand. "From what I've heard, I think he deserves at least some of the credit."

"He does … but so does she. It hit me last night, Chloe, that if my mother  had an ounce of you in her, she'd have had Rex's balls on the mantel by  now."

"That's a good thing to remember. You know, future reference and all."

He shook his head. "You're impossible."

She adjusted the sheet so she wasn't quite so dressed. "You married me."

"Yes, and I'd do it again and again." Powerful words spoken with his attention pegged on her breasts.

She touched his chin, drawing his attention to her face. "That's a  lovely thought, but you do realize this is something you should only  have to do once?"

He laughed. "I don't know why I worried you'd end up like my mother. And  that is my point. I spent so much time worrying I'd be Rex, it never  occurred to me you couldn't be my mother if you tried."

"Your mother is a lovely woman, but I'll take that as a compliment anyway."

He smiled, but his expression quickly turned serious. "I love you,  Chloe." Without missing a beat, he threw the sheet off the bed and  pulled her into one of those deep, thigh-drenching kisses that curled  her toes and made her think she could never get close enough.

"You should be inside me," she murmured. "Right now."

"I'm going for it," he growled, nudging apart her thighs and pushing between them. "By the way-"

"Seriously, the conversation can wait."

"This one can't. With yours and your grandmother's permission, I want to  buy her farm. We'll put it your name so you'll never have to worry  about losing it again. We'll keep the old house and live in it, or your  grandma can live there, and we'll build a new one on the property.  Whatever you want, as long as we have one of those porches and plenty of  room for our kids to run and get splinters and wreck a rosebush or  two."

"I'd like that," she said. She could have said a lot more but not  without sobbing. He was wonderful, and he was inside her and had the  whole grind thing down to a science. He'd spent half the day in there,  but still the exquisite pressure was intense and new, and she didn't  want to cry. Not now.

Then the doorbell rang, and she thought she might cry anyway.

"Ignore it," Knox said, tightening his hold on her and pushing deeper.

"It could be important." Please say it's not. Please don't stop.

"Nope. Can't be. I have everything important right here."

"I think under the circumstances … " She couldn't even get the sentence out.

"No circumstances." He rolled over onto his back, leaving her sitting on  top of him, her body fully exposed. He reached up and traced his  fingertips over her breasts. "Just this."

"I think you found my point of surrender," she said. The broad light of  day left her a little self-conscious, but she moved over him anyway.

"I told myself I'd never let you do this again," he said.

"That bad?"

"No. That good. I had a thing about giving up control."

"And now?"

"Shut up and ride me, woman."

She laughed. "So much for a lack of control."

"Trust me, it's coming."

She didn't have to ask what that meant.

She'd nearly forgotten about the doorbell until the sound of it was  replaced by pounding. At his insistence, they'd turned off their phones  that morning, the moment they'd closed the car doors. She'd wondered if  it had been a good idea, but he assured her the chaos would be waiting  if and when they decided to crawl out of bed. Apparently, not all of it  was willing to wait. "Maybe you should make sure it's not important."

"It might be. Doesn't matter." He put his hands on her hips and reminded her of what she was supposed to be doing.

"Well, in that case-"         

     



 

Tap … tap … tap.

The window. Chloe peered across the room, locking eyes with Toby through  the glass. "Knox!" she shrieked, covering her breasts with one hand and  reaching for the sheet with the other. She missed … they'd kicked it onto  the floor. At least her ass hadn't been in the air. Because this is so  much better.

Knox grabbed the comforter and yanked it over them both, but Toby had  already disappeared from the window. "I'm going to kill him."

"He's probably thinking the same thing about you," she said, untangling  from Knox and reaching for her clothes. She crawled out of bed on rubber  legs and slipped into her dress. She had to dig through the bedding for  her underwear.

Knox pulled on his pants and grabbed a T-shirt off a nearby chair.  "Yeah, well, when I see his wife naked, he can decide to kill me. Until  then-"

"When you see his wife naked?"

"He's not married." He took her hand and pulled her into a kiss.

Chloe could have drowned in the man, but she didn't want witnesses. "Why  don't you go see what he wants so we can finish this without  interruption?"

"Sounds like a plan."

She tried to pull free her hand, but he tightened his hold. "Come with me."

"Are you kidding? I think he just saw me naked."

"And for that, he will pay. But please come. I want you with me. Always."

She rolled her eyes but followed him to the entry without further protest.

Toby stood on the porch, having nearly worked himself into a lather. "Have you lost your mind?"

Knox took a step back. "What are you talking about?"

Toby charged into the entry hall. "You don't do something like that," he  muttered, "and not answer your phone." Catching sight of Chloe's  office, he said, "That's a damn lot of plants."

"Actually," Knox said with a grin, "I'm pretty sure when you do  something like that, that is precisely the point at which you ignore  your phone."