"That's fine," he agreed. "We'll start in the morning." He pulled up in front of the hall.

The portico was lit, but Ashley had told Byrnes to go to bed because they would be late, and she didn't want her butler waiting up. They let themselves in and walked upstairs to their separate bedrooms. In the dim upstairs hall Ryan pulled her into his arms and began to kiss her. She slid her arms about his neck and ran her tongue across his lips. He followed suit.

"You've got the sexiest mouth," he told her. "Like that actress with the same name as my mother."

"Angelina Jolie," she said.

"Yeah, that's her." His hand began to fondle one of her breasts.

"Oh, don't," she said. "If we get started I don't know what will happen, Ryan."

"I miss the girls," he said softly in her ear. "You haven't let them come out to play since that night on the porch."

Ashley swallowed hard. His hands were big and gentle. She found she liked it very much when he touched her breasts. They were already growing firm, her nipples hardening, and she was absolutely getting wet between her thighs.

"I want to get naked with you," he whispered.


"No," she told him, but she didn't yet pull away from his hand.

"I took you to meet my mother and favorite sister. The prenups will be ready to be signed next week. I'm not gay, and I have no plans to go to Vegas or anywhere else in the near future." The hand fondling her breast slipped down, under her skirt, and up to caress the soft flesh of her thigh. "You're wet," he said. "You want this as much as I do."

Ashley whimpered. He wasn't telling her anything she didn't already know, but even if this was a marriage of convenience, she was going to do it right this time. Gathering every bit of her strength, she pulled away from him, her hand reaching for the doorknob. "On our wedding night, and not a minute before," she told him as she turned and stepped into her room, shutting the door behind her firmly, clicking the lock.

He was so hard he thought it would probably break off if he touched it. Damn! He really wanted her! Wanted to bury himself so deep he could touch her womb. What would she be like? he wondered. Would she cry out with her climax? Would she claw him? Or was she one of those silent types who just lay there? No. He didn't think she would be silent. Ryan rubbed his penis trying to ease the ache. That sexy mouth of hers could have tempered his discomfort. Would she do that for him? He sure wanted to go down on her. Wanted to peel back her labia, lick her clit, and then suck it until she was screaming with her climax. And she would scream. He entered his own bedroom.


***

In the morning it was as if the incident had never occurred. They sat at the table in the breakfast room and discussed the few guests who would come to the wedding. Ashley had decided to have the local calligrapher do the invitations on pale cream paper. The gentleman had been sworn to secrecy. They would do engraved announcements on cream as well, with elegant black script. The wording would be traditional, and there would be a separate card indicating their residence. The announcement cards were small.

Ashley Cordelia Kimbrough

and

Ryan Finbar Mulcahy

Announce Their Marriage on

Saturday, the Twenty-fifth of August

Two Thousand and Seven

The separate enclosure cards read: At Home After September First, with their address.

"My sisters are really going to be pissed," Ryan said with a broad grin. "And when they find out Frankie was there… well, Bride will split a gut. There goes her new big house, which she doesn't need. Betta ain't going to get her Ferrari, and Dee's spoiled brats are going to need loans to finish college. Considering their grades, I'm not sure they'll get them. My nephews like to party. As for Katy and Mags, their husbands are going to have to pay for those around-the-world cruises on the QMII they've planned."

"That is truly mean-spirited," Ashley said. "Your older sisters can't be that bad."

"Yeah, they can. Wait till you meet them," he said. "Those five bitches had already lined up a buyer for R &R, Ash."

"Well, then, let's hold a party at the end of September to celebrate our first month's anniversary," Ashley suggested mischievously. "Just family, okay?"

"You are a glutton for punishment." He laughed.

"I have to meet the wicked sisters sometime," she pointed out.


"True," he said, "and by that time you should have that well-fucked look that women get in the first month of marriage, and they'll know it's for real," he said softly, reaching out to take her hand in his. He nibbled at her knuckles.

Their eyes met, and Ashley felt her heart turn over suddenly. What was that all about? She had known him just a few weeks. She blushed, and he grinned.

"I like it when you blush," he said.

"And you seem to have a knack for making me blush," she told him. Then she drew her hand from his. "Let's decide on the menu for the wedding dinner."

"Are you a cock tease?" he asked her suddenly.

"No! I don't think so. Why would you ask a thing like that?" she demanded.

"I touch you and you retreat," he complained. "And yet if I can manage to kiss you, you're on fire almost at once."

"This started out as strictly business. But now sex is entering the equation," Ashley said slowly. "You obviously like sex, and I sure do, and yes, we're going to be married, but I don't want to jinx it this time, even if love is not part of the picture. I don't know how to explain it any better."

"This is the damnedest thing," he told her. "No, love is not part of this, and business is the reason we're getting together, but I can't believe how hot I am for you, Ash."

"You're flattering, but I meant it when I said not until our wedding night," she told him firmly. "You're a very healthy, lusty guy."

"You feel the same way about me as I do about you, and yet you are so cool about it as long as I don't touch you. But all I have to do is look at you and I want to pull your dress over your head," he growled at her. "How can you be so sanguine?"

"It's just a matter of self-discipline, Ryan," Ashley told him. That and having the Channel, she thought, and forced back the grin that was threatening to break out on her face. "I really want to do it this way, Ryan, please."

"I want to do it every way." He groaned.

"Then we should have one hell of a wedding night," Ashley said mischievously.

"I will make certain you don't walk for a week," he promised her menacingly.

"Ohhh, you are a very bad boy!" she teased him wickedly, and she waggled an admonishing finger at him.

"Are you a very bad girl?" he asked provocatively.

"I think I can be, with the right partner," Ashley said. Then she caught his hand up and began sucking on his middle finger. "Are you the right partner, Ryan?" Her tongue swirled about the finger slowly, and then she sucked hard on it. This was fun, she thought. She had never had this kind of a playful relationship with either of her two fiancés. It had been far more cut-and-dried. They had refrained from sex until she had an engagement ring on her finger, and then they had somehow fallen into bed. And both men had gotten far more out of it than she ever had, but she had assumed that was life. Now she was learning that it wasn't. She had never had a lustful attraction to any man until Ryan.

He closed his brown eyes briefly as he enjoyed the tug of her lips on his finger, and considered those lips fastening about his cock. Damn! He was hard again. He pulled his finger away from her. "If we're not going to fuck," he said, "then stop being such a bloody tease, Ash. You don't want Byrnes coming in and finding you on your knees in front of me with my dick in your mouth. The poor fellow would faint dead away."

Looking across the table at him, she considered. They could do a little sucking and licking. In fact, it would be very nice, and it would take the edge off of their appetites.

No! Was she out of what passed for her mind? The sexual attraction between them was much too hot. It wouldn't end with a little sucking and licking. That would be the beginning, and she damned well knew it. "You're right; I wouldn't," she admitted. "Okay, so we have done just about everything. Now, what do we wear? After the last three times I don't think I'm in the mood for another full-blown ninety-one-gun salute satin-and-lace wedding gown. I'd really like to keep it simpler, unless you want to see me in a 'Here Comes the Bride' outfit."

"Where are we doing the ceremony?" he asked.

"Garden if its sunny, and if it isn't, the ballroom," Ashley answered him.

"What time?"

"Four thirty? Very traditional, and Wasp. Good luck to have the clock hands sweeping up, and not down," she said.

"I've got a pale gray pin-striped suit," Ryan told her.

"Who will we ask to be witnesses?" Ashley said. "I don't think we need to do the best man-maid of honor thing, do you?"

"I'll get Frankie to be my witness," Ryan replied. "You?"

"I'll ask Mrs. B. I'm asking Byrnes to give me away," she told him. "They're really my only family, so to speak."

"What's your favorite color?" he asked her.

"I guess any shade of pink or lavender," she answered. "Why?"

"It's a surprise," he told her, grinning. "Okay. We've got invitations, and the announcements, the dinner menu, where, when, and who will sign the registry, and clothes. Have we forgotten anything?"