She laughed, not because she found his concerns amusing, but because none of those things mattered to her. And judging by the few conversations she’d had with her mother the past two weeks, her parents had warmed to him, too.

“Oh, Austin,” she said with a bright smile, one as warm and glowing as their future together. “First of all, I don’t give a damn what my parents, or anyone else, thinks about you. I love you, just the way you are. But I don’t think you have to worry about impressing my mother and father. I get the feeling that they like you. My mother has asked me twice now when I plan to bring you over for dinner again.”

“You love me?” he asked, his voice ragged, his gaze filled with pleasure and excitement, and just a hint of disbelief.

“Yeah, I do.” Finally closing the distance between them, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his, craving his heat. “And just for the record, Austin, I’ve never told another man that I loved him,” she said, repeating the same words he’d told her Christmas morning. Her feelings for Bart had never extended beyond caring. “You’re the first, and I don’t make the declaration lightly.”

A full-fledged, sexy grin claimed his mouth, and his hands found their way inside her lambskin coat, sliding around to stroke over her jean-clad bottom. “Damn, but you’re bossy.”

“Yeah, I am, so you’d better get used to it,” she said with an impudent smile. Twining her fingers through his thick, soft hair, she brazenly pulled his mouth down to meet hers. “Now shut up and kiss me, because I’ve missed you so much.”

His reply was a deep, thrilling groan that vibrated against her lips. Their time apart dissolved beneath the onslaught of a hot, needy, tongue-tangling kiss. They made magic. They affirmed their love. They both moaned in frustration when the melding of their lips was no longer enough to quench the burning, out-of-control desire that had ignited between them.

“Too many clothes,” she complained breathlessly as she stole another deep kiss to assuage her hunger for the taste of him, then slipped her cool hands inside his jacket and beneath his shirt so she could touch his heated flesh. She lost all sense of time and place-she could only think of this man and how he made her feel.

Her entire body tingled, causing her thoughts to shift to more urgent matters. Breaking their kiss, she said huskily, “I want you naked.”

His low rumbling laughter tickled her skin as his mouth found the soft hollow under her ear. He nuzzled the sensitive flesh, and she shivered. “I don’t think the neighbors would appreciate the public display.”

She bit her bottom lip, imagining that sensual mouth on her breasts. Knowing too well the delicious, exquisite sensation of her nipple being finessed by his tongue, she melted a little more. “Should we go back to my place?” she whispered.

He lifted his head, shaking it, his eyes feverish and impatient. “I can’t wait that long.”

The unmistakable erection pressing against her belly attested to his barely suppressed restraint. Excitement and awareness seized her. “Me neither.”

They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity to Teddy, both of them uncertain as to what to do about this awesome need they had for each other, and how to satisfy it. Then a reckless grin slashed across his features, and she sensed trouble was about to begin. He bent his knees, and in one fluid motion hefted her over his shoulder caveman-style.

A surprised shriek escaped her. By the time she’d dragged in a breath and could talk again, they were inside the house, and he was carrying her across the foyer toward a set of stairs that led to the second landing. Blood rushed to her head, making her dizzy. “Austin!” she said, choking back laughter, and managing to prop herself up by bracing her hands on his backside. “Put me down!”

He gave her thigh a loving, intimate squeeze. “In a minute.”

Jordan rounded the corner from the living room into the foyer at that moment, a comical expression on his face when he saw the two of them. Teddy blushed to the roots of her hair.

Austin didn’t stop his stride. “Don’t mind us, Jordan,” he said, then loped up the stairs, two at a time, giving Teddy a jarring ride. “We’ve got an itch that can’t wait to be scratched.”

A grin quirked Jordan’s mouth, and he reached for the set of keys on the small table by the front door. “Gotcha. I’ll take this as my cue to ‘get lost’ again, this time for a few hours.”

“At least,” Austin agreed wholeheartedly, shamelessly. Entering a room, he kicked the door shut behind them, then lowered her back to her feet.

Light-headed, she swayed slightly, and he grabbed her hand to steady her. As she gained her balance, Teddy glanced around, registering the warm, masculine tones of Austin’s room, and the big four-poster antique bed dominating the middle. Her pulse quickened, and she brought her gaze back to Austin, who was looking at her very intently, their earlier play replaced by something serious and intimate.

“Will you marry me, Teddy?” he asked, his voice strong, and clear, and infinitely tender. “If you need time, I’ll give it to you, but I need a commitment.”

“You’ve got it,” she assured him, smiling. “I don’t need any more time to know that you’re the perfect man for me. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Relief touched his expression. Framing her face between his palms, he brought her mouth up to his for a kiss that started out gentle and sweet, but quickly escalated into a full-blown seduction. Eager again, she slipped her hands into his jacket and shoved the heavy material off his shoulders and down his arms, letting it fall to the floor. He groaned, and rid her of her coat, too, then lifted her sweater over her head and tossed it aside. Less than five seconds later her bra followed, and he filled his hands with the warm, resilient flesh, rubbed his thumbs over the beaded nipples until her breath caught in her throat.

“Do you mind living here?” he asked, raising his arms so she could peel his shirt off while he toed his loafers off his feet.

She couldn’t imagine them living in her small condo when they had such a lovely place to call home. “I’d love to live in your house…and I’d love to have your babies.”

That stalled him for a moment, just as he’d unsnapped her jeans and started to unzip them. His gaze jerked to hers, hopeful and searching. “What about your career?”

Giving him a provocative smile, she went to work on his belt buckle. “Weren’t you the one who told me I could have it all?” Done with that first task, she took care easing his zipper over the full erection straining the fly of his jeans.

“Yeah, and I’m glad you believe it.” He released a tight hiss of breath when her hands slid into his briefs and she took all that hot, hard masculinity into her hands.

Grasping her wrists, he pulled them away from his body and walked her back toward the bed-until the mattress connected with her knees and she was forced to sit. Then he knelt before her and pulled off her leather boots and socks.

“You’ll make a great mom,” he said knowingly.

She believed that, too, especially when she had him by her side, supporting her, loving her. He hooked his fingers into the waistband of her jeans, and she lifted her hips so he could pull them off. Then he slowly removed her panties, trailing hot, damp kisses along her belly, her hip, her feminine mound, her quivering thighs…all the way down to her feet.

Dewy and restlessly inflamed, she struggled to keep her mind focused on important issues for just a few minutes longer. “How do you feel about eloping?”

The smoky gaze traveling leisurely, hungrily, up her long legs jumped immediately to her face. “Are you serious? You don’t want a big wedding?”

She exaggerated a shudder. “No.” She’d been that route before, and didn’t need all that pomp and circumstance to pledge her eternal love to Austin.

He raised an eyebrow, and with a tantalizing, calculated roll of his hips that was all for her pleasure, he shimmied out of his own pants. A smile curved her mouth. She planned to extract many more private performances in the future.

“I thought all women wanted a big, fancy wedding,” he said, curious and confused.

Anticipation and desire quickened her pulse as she took in his magnificent body. She wriggled back on the bed, until she lay in the center. “I’d strangle my mother before we made it to the ceremony,” she said jokingly. “Besides, I want to marry you soon. I don’t think I could wait months and months to live with you, and wake up to you every day…”

Grinning in obvious agreement, he moved up onto the bed, and over her, settling his hips between her welcoming thighs, teasing her with the tip of his shaft. “Is three weeks enough time to make arrangements, and schedule yourself a nice, lengthy vacation?”

“That would be perfect,” she murmured, wrapping her legs around his thighs to urge him closer, and drawing his head down so she could kiss him. “But I don’t think I can wait another minute for you to make love to me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he drawled with a sinful grin, and obliged her, taking her breath away in one smooth, silky thrust of his hips against hers. He touched her heart with his love, filled her soul with that unconditional faith of his, and in the process redefined the word perfect.

Epilogue

A MONTH LATER, Teddy and Austin eloped to Waikiki, Hawaii, where they were married by a minister on a bluff overlooking the crystal blue Pacific Ocean. The bride wore a simple cream silk dress complemented with a lei of orchids, and the groom sported dark brown slacks, a cream-colored shirt and an adoring smile as he exchanged wedding vows with the woman who’d stolen his heart.