A Special Kind of Family (17 page)

Sentimental? Maybe it was.

The wedding had been fantastic. They’d done the full bridal bit. Erin had let her somewhat bewildered mother indulge every last fantasy on her wedding dress and there’d never been such a magnificent frock. She had been all lace and flounces and swirling skirts.

It had been crazy. She’d loved it, and so had Dom.

Dom had looked pretty damned handsome, too. A tuxedo, no less. The sight of them together had made her mother cry, but the tears had been tears of joy.

Her parents loved Dominic. After the first shock…well, why wouldn’t they?

What else? Tansy was taking two of Marilyn’s pups. One for her and one for Charles. Erin was giving the third to her parents to keep Peppy company.

The thought made her chuckle—as so many things made her chuckle these days.

And now…This was the first night of their honeymoon.

They were about as far from Bombadeen as it was possible to be. ‘For I’m not sharing my honeymoon with anyone,’ Dom growled and Erin agreed entirely.

He’d found a wonderful tropical hideaway—a room built on stilts over a lagoon so beautiful she hardly believed it was real. They’d flown here in normal travelling clothes but Dom had
insisted they bring their wedding finery. Tonight, just for themselves, they dressed again.

‘For now is the time for us,’ Dom decreed, and it was.

So as the sun set over the water, they dressed in full bridal wear.

Erin needed help with the finishing touches. Dom helped her fasten the garland of tiny pink ribbon roses into her hair, then kissed the nape of her neck so gently she sighed with pure, erotic pleasure. There, it was done. Once again they were bride and groom.

A discreet waiter brought them dinner and ice-cold champagne. They dined out on their tiny balcony overlooking the lagoon.

The waiter disappeared. There was nothing but the water lapping gently underneath them, fireflies flitting over the water, moonlight and starlight reflected on the sea, and nothing else.

Except each other.

‘We fell in love at first sight,’ Dom said softly, raising his champagne flute in her honour. ‘We have all our lives to get to know each other.’

‘I believe I know you already,’ Erin said softly. ‘I knew you the moment I saw you. My heart knew you.’

‘That’s corny,’ he said, and smiled.

‘So it is.’

‘True, though.’ He pushed back his chair. ‘Would you like to dance, my love?’

‘I believe I would,’ she whispered, and they did, a long slow waltz with no music but the music that was inside them.

He held her close. Against his heart.

‘So where’s the man who walks alone now?’ she teased, holding him against her, savouring the feel of his body holding her close. Her dress was swishing around them in delicious folds of silk and lace. She was a white cloud on a starlit night. There was nothing and no one but man and wife. In love.

‘Maybe I never was alone,’ he whispered into her hair. ‘Maybe from the time Ruby took me in, from the time her care made me
want to take in kids, from the time you walked into my life, from the time I decided to be a dog breeder…Where does love start?’

‘Where does it end?’

‘It never ends,’ he whispered, swinging her round and round and round. ‘And you know the lovely thing about family?’

‘What?’

‘We can use ’em,’ he said in quiet satisfaction. ‘We may have kids and dogs but we also have your parents and Ruby and Tansy and Charles. That’s five great kid sitters. So whenever I want my wife entirely to myself…’

‘Why would you want that?’

He chuckled. ‘Why indeed? Let me show you.’ He lifted her high into his arms and held her against his heart. They gazed together out over the starlit water, and then, firmly, Dom turned his back on the loveliness of the night. He carried his wife into their luxurious room, where a great wide bed was waiting. There were crisp white sheets, mounds of down-stuffed pillows, and soft, soft duvets.

What more could two lovers want?

Only each other. He lowered her onto the sheets and started unfastening the tiny buttons at her breast, one by one.

‘Such a waste,’ she teased softly. ‘To take it all off again.’

‘And again and again,’ he whispered, slipping the dress from her shoulders and sinking to lie beside her. ‘For I’ll love you again and again, for as long as we both shall live.’

‘That sounds just fine to me,’ she whispered. She wound her arms around his neck and tugged him forward, so she could kiss him deeply, properly, wonderfully, as a woman should. As a wife should.

‘That sounds fabulous,’ she whispered. ‘As long as I can love you right back.’

ISBN: 978-1-4268-3964-1

A SPECIAL KIND OF FAMILY

First North American Publication 2009

Copyright © 2009 by Marion Lennox

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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