Captured In Ink (Art of Love Series) by Donna McDonald Page A

her company forgotten momentarily, Carrie walked to her husband, sat down on his leg, and put her mouth on his, tasting coffee and shock simultaneously on his lips. The rightness of their kiss rippled through both of them. When she left his mouth, she trailed a kiss across his unshaven jaw to his ear.
    “Wake me up next time,” she whispered, roughly pulling away, her voice husky with memories of last night.
    “Good morning to you too,” Michael said roughly back, running a hand up her back in a possessive stroke. This was the second time in a week that Carrie had come to him without reservations and just kissed him hello. It was the first time in front of a surprised audience that she seemed to be ignoring completely. He would definitely wake her up next time he felt so inclined.
    “Want some coffee, beautiful?” he asked, kneading her lower back, knowing the gentle aches there were partly his fault from what they did last night.
    “I want a whole pot,” Carrie told him sweetly. “You may want something stronger in your next cup. I may be spending my faux-divorce settlement today. Brooke and Jessica have some hot gallery space I’m going to look at this morning.”
    “Spend it. You need something to do so I can get some work done around here. It’s too distracting to work with you home all the time,” Michael teased.
    “Being with Michael and Carrie is like watching a reality television show,” Brooke said to her mother as she headed to the coffee pot to help herself. “This is much better than the argument stuff they usually do.”
    “They’re still in the honeymoon phase,” Jessica said. “It will wear off soon enough.”
    Brooke laughed. “Like the cooing you and Will do isn’t just as bad?” She looked at Shane and Michael. “Will was sighing over his instant coffee this morning and she promised him she’d buy him a coffee pot today. He kissed her so long I thought they would both run out of air and pass out before they broke apart.”
    “Brooke April Daniels—that’s quite enough,” Jessica said in warning, trying not to grin.
    “Unbelievable,” Brook said seriously, studying her mother’s pink face. “All those men and Will Larson is the only one that ever made you blush. You better marry him soon, Mom.”
    Michael, Shane, and Carrie all laughed at Jessica’s swearing.
    “I can’t get them to set a date,” Brooke said, handing Carrie the cup of coffee she poured for her.
    “Do you want me to make you some tea, Mom ?” Michael asked.
    Shane laughed from his end of the table, and Brooke sent him a look that teased him about why it had been Michael who ended up doing it in front of her.
    Surprising them all, Jessica walked to Michael and framed his face in her hands. “You are my favorite child,” she cooed. “You never harass me or make fun. You just offer me tea.”
    She bent and kissed his cheek, eliciting a sigh from him.
    “Please set a date soon,” Michael said. “I don’t want to lose you.”
    Jessica laughed. “I couldn’t be more committed to your father than I already am, but I know it’s important to him to get married. We’ll set a date when he’s ready. So you three will just have to start harassing him instead of me. I’d drive to Jellico tomorrow and be done with it if it were my choice.”
    “That’s not romantic,” Brooke said caustically. “You and Will need to have a real wedding like Michael and Carrie had.”
    Thinking of the tortuous day she had endured to get married, Carrie immediately starting choking on her coffee. She’d hoped never to have to talk about it.
    Laughing, Michael got up and walked to her to pat his wife on the back. She ended up laughing into his face.
    “What do you think, honey? Should Jessica and Dad have a wedding likes ours?” he teased, rubbing Carrie’s back as she laughed.
    If he had it to do over, Michael still would have wanted the kind of wedding they had, but he knew Carrie considered it the wedding from hell.