Forever His Bride by LISA CHILDS Page A

us…” He shook his head. “Maybe I am crazy.”
    “You’re not the only one. This isn’t me. I can’t, but I can’t not… ”
    “Can I see your tattoo?” he asked, his eyes wide with curiosity and hope, just like one of his sons using little-boy cuteness to con another cookie from Mama. Or her. God help her, she wanted to give him all her cookies.
    Biting her lip, she lowered her arms so he could see the small tattoo on the outer side of one breast.
    “It’s a cupcake?”
    “I have always loved sweets.”
    He dipped his head, and the tip of his tongue traced the pink-frosted cupcake. “Sweet,” he murmured.
    “Josh…”
    His lips slid over the slope of her breast right to the nipple, which he drew into his mouth.
    She bit her lip to hold back a moan and reached up, her hands catching onto the pot rack that was over their heads. She clutched the metal and held tight as his mouth moved to the other breast. His fingers stroked the wet nipple of the abandoned one. It wasn’t enough, and she wanted more. She lifted her legs and wound them around his waist, pulling his hips tight against hers. His erection strained his jeans. She shifted into him and he groaned.
    He obviously wanted more, too.
    “Josh…”
    He lifted his head, his gaze hot and hungry for her. “What do you want, Brenna?”
    Before she could answer him, the screen door slammed shut and someone stepped into the foyer. A soft, feminine McClintock voice called out, “Hello?”
    “Oh, God, it’s Molly,” Brenna gasped. Scrambling from the counter, she jerked the pot rack she’d been holding onto. Pots and pans rattled, and one fell…on Josh.
    On her way to the stairs she glanced back, taking in Josh’s stunned expression. From the pan or from the shock of what they had very nearly done?

Chapter Seven
    Josh pressed his palms flat against the granite counter, willing his breathing to settle and his heart to stop pounding.
    “You okay?” Colleen McClintock, his fiancée’s younger sister, asked tentatively as she joined him in the kitchen.
    Hell, no. Not after what had just happened—or had just about happened. While his body hummed with frustrated sexual energy, he also breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t even officially unengaged yet. He had no right to kiss Brenna as he’d kissed her. And certainly no right to want more. “Yeah, sure…”
    Colleen stepped forward and kicked one of the pans that had fallen to the floor when Brenna had rattled the rack, which still swayed on the chains suspending it from the ceiling.
    “It must have fallen,” he murmured.
    When Colleen turned away to put it in the sink, Josh surreptitiously rubbed the lump on the back of his head where the frying pan had made contact. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. He suppressed a nervous chuckle over the irreverent thought.
    “Where is everyone?” Colleen asked as she turned around to face him.
    “Mr. and Mrs. Kelly took the boys into town.” To the park. But he’d heard something about a promise of ice cream, too. They’d probably be gone a while yet, leaving him alone even longer with their daughter. He should be glad Colleen had arrived when she had.
    “And Brenna. Where is she?” her friend asked.
    “Uh, Brenna had to…” He noticed her emerald-green bra on the floor at his feet. It was too big for him to hide beneath his shoe, and Colleen might notice his kicking it aside. So he willed her not to look down. “Brenna went upstairs, I think,” he stammered. Because she’d thought the intruder was Molly. Guilt flashed through him over the horrible spot in which he’d put them both.
    Colleen narrowed her eyes and studied him thoughtfully. “Is everything okay here?”
    Josh’s gaze slid away from hers, to the bra lying on the hardwood floor. Heat rose to his face. He felt as he had as a teenager when his parents had caught him and his girlfriend necking on the couch in the basement rec room, embarrassed but also ready to explode with