Carolina Girl (41 page)

She wanted that, too. She liked turning her head and meeting
Clay’s serious stare, or his amused smile, and knowing he was thinking
about her. She liked lying here, talking about the future with a man who
understood her ambitions. “Mandy will just have to be corrupted. I
don’t think I can leave this bed anytime soon.”

When Clay smiled, the sun rose in the sky and the birds
broke into song. Aurora sighed in thanksgiving. Life had been kind to give her
a man with the intelligence to look and listen and think for himself.

“There may not be much time for fancy weddings once
‘
Mysterious’
hits the shelves,” he warned. “The company could get pretty big,
pretty fast.”

“So could I,” she said with laughter, turning on
her side because she loved looking at him. Clay’s need for physical
activity to offset his intense mental work habits had developed nicely defined
abs and shoulders to die for, but it was his eyes that held her gaze. Surely
they were windows to the soul, as the poets said. Trusting the love she saw in
his, she revealed one of her fears. “I could turn into a blimp in months.
Are you ready for that?”

The ex-millionaire who’d had everything life had to
offer smiled like a kid in a toy store, his whole face lighting with joy.
“You wouldn’t mind? Having kids is kind of problematic for careers.
I’d understand if you didn’t want—”

“I want one just like Midge,” she declared happily,
snuggling closer. She shouldn’t have doubted that Clay would think of
making babies as a wonderful new process he could explore. He would be a
fantastic father simply because he’d have to figure out how kids worked.
Love poured through her at the thought of how his mind operated. “But
I’m not small.”

He deliberately lowered his gaze to her breasts. “Oh,
yeah, I noticed. Your point?”

She laughed in relief at his foolishness. When he looked at
her, he was seeing
her
, not her clothes or her attitude or her size, but
the woman she was and would be. Just as she didn’t see the man
who’d had it all but a man who wanted to understand how the world worked
so he could fix it.

“My point is the same as yours.” She jiggled a
little, just to keep him looking. She could see that more than his spirit was
rising to the occasion. “Banks might not want blimps on their staff.
Babies need mothers. I can work on your company and take care of myself and
babies at the same time. Am I following your thoughts close enough?”

Clay abruptly sat up, arranged her on his lap, and leaned
his back against the headboard. Gently cupping and lifting her breasts
together, he returned his focus to her face. “Will you mind? Your career
is important.”

She squirmed into a more comfortable position and basked in
satisfaction when she succeeded in diverting his focus for a fraction of a
second. She’d never liked men looking at her breasts until Clay came
along. Now she reveled in it. “My career is in financial management. I
help businesses grow. Can we have an office in Charleston?”

She had his full attention in a nanosecond. Understanding
lit his bronzed face, and she could almost see his brain kick into gear.
“How about a house with a tower overlooking the water, where we can spend
the day making love?”

“And locking out the world.” She wrapped her
arms around his neck and rejoiced in the crush of his muscled chest against
her. Understanding ran deep. He needed time out from the world, and she could
give him what he needed. In return, he would enthusiastically support the place
she would build in the community because he didn’t need the money for
himself. Who could ask for anything more?

“We could lock our families out,” he agreed with
a touch of dryness at the sounds of pounding on the front door and voices
rising from the porch interrupting their interlude.

“Lots of guest bedrooms so they can come visit us
anytime they like,” she countered.

“Vegas tomorrow and a big ceremony later?”

“I’m feeling lucky,” she murmured against
his neck. “Let’s gamble on it.”

o0o

It took nearly a week to reach Vegas.

They couldn’t skip the zoning meeting. When the
Binghams announced they’d sell a third of their acreage to the state for
a park and an equal amount to the Nature Conservancy for a wildlife preserve if
their descendants were allowed to remain on the land, the entire audience stood
up and cheered. The commission voted unanimously to allow restricted commercial
use on the remaining third along the highway for development of small
businesses.

Clay talked Aurora into running off for a quick wedding and
returning to tell their families later so they wouldn’t have to make a
big production of it. But she hadn’t been able to hide her engagement
from Cissy, who promptly told Jake, who immediately told the entire world.

Mara called on her Hollywood connections to rent a casino.
TJ and Jared notified family and arranged the logistics. Cleo organized
entertainment and caretaking for the kids.

By week’s end, their entourage could have filled the
plane to Vegas if they’d been efficient enough to catch the same flight.

“It’s better this way,” Clay intoned
solemnly in imitation of his big brother as he gazed around the casino filled
with their wedding party, still a little in awe at how quickly his private
wedding had turned into a circus, and a lot in awe at how good it made him
feel. “They’ll be much too busy gambling to know when we
leave.”

“I think it was the Vegas part that decided it.”
Tucking her arm around her husband’s, Aurora leaned against him to watch
Cissy laugh and flirt with a poker dealer. As her maid of honor, Cissy had had
her hair styled and tinted, and even consented to let Rory buy her a new dress.
She looked fabulous, and the handsome poker dealer seemed more than interested.
“Pops has always wanted to do Vegas.”

“He’s doing it in style.” Clay gazed over
the glittering lights of the casino to locate the older man in his tux, his
graying hair pulled back in a neat ponytail, his beard immaculately trimmed,
and two women clinging to his arms as he punched the buttons of an electronic
slot machine. “You’re not worried about losing him to the bright
lights?”

He liked Jake’s down-to-earthness. He hoped he could
rely on his new father-in-law to teach him the balance he needed in dealing
with family. And kids. He glanced down at his gorgeous wife—Clay noted
the solid gold band on Aurora’s finger with a good deal of pride and
satisfaction—and tried to imagine how she would look carrying his child.
Good. Very good, he decided.

She snuggled closer and almost purred with his attention. He
enjoyed knowing that the more he indulged in looking, the more she liked it.

She’d chosen a sleeveless, cream-colored gown with a
heart-shaped neckline that he couldn’t help studying—in pure
intellectual interest—to see what held it in place. The amber sunburst
dangling between her breasts distracted him into remembering last night, when
she’d worn only the amber he’d given her and nothing else.

“Pop’s already designing a set of gnomes for the
baby’s room,” she informed him, her eyes crinkling with laughter as
she watched him consider this.

Since it was much too soon to predict babies, Clay pondered
the image of cribs and dancing concrete gnomes. A burst of laughter diverted
him to his own family competing at the blackjack table. TJ and Jared were
teaching their wives the finer points of losing money. Cleo’s sister, a
teacher who ran a day-care center, had taken Mandy and the other kids under her
wing. The teacher’s husband already had a tall stack of winning chips in
front of him.

“Concrete gnomes?” Clay finally asked, since
even his creative mind couldn’t picture concrete Dopeys in juxtaposition
with cribs.

Aurora laughed and tugged him toward the door, where their
limo waited. She didn’t have to tug very hard. “Wooden ones.
He’s decided to expand his inventory with woodworking. Not all the pines
burned in the fire, and he figures to make lemonade out of what’s
left.”

That made absolute, perfect sense, probably because his
brain had checked out the instant she pressed a kiss to his cheek. He’d already
learned that once Aurora felt safe, she was a creative and enthusiastic lover.

The honeymoon suite at the hotel—in Reno, out of range
of their families—had a mirror over a whirlpool bath. He may have grown
up in highbrow, wealthy surroundings, but he was learning to appreciate popular
taste. He was learning to play, and Aurora was teaching him. He was looking
forward to Reno.

She was looking forward to Paris. He’d promised her
that, as soon as the game was making enough money so she felt comfortable
spending it.

He looked forward to lots of things, but right now he was
learning to live in the moment. He had the woman of his dreams on his arm, and
the future was too bright to see.

Behind them, before they reached the double glass doors, red
and blue lights flashed frenetically, sirens shrieked, and bells clamored,
accompanied by wild cheers and shouts.

Turning, Clay and Aurora watched as silver coins poured from
the slot machine Jake was operating, cascading into the bucket he held as he
yelled in surprise and exultation. More coins tumbled onto the carpet to the
tune of “We Are the Champions” on the speakers.

“Perfect,” Rory murmured. “It’s only
fair.”

Laughing, they escaped before anyone noticed they were gone.

I want to thank Angela Shrader, RN, and Joan Kayse for their
invaluable medical information. Any errors are entirely my own. They told me
so. And thanks to Roxann Fortenberry and the Carolina and Kentucky Romance
Writers for opening networks of information. You guys are the best!

And as always, my undying gratitude to Connie Rinehold and
Mary Jo Putney for their clear vision and immense patience. Without them,
I’d still be chasing the bottle cap under my desk.

With several million books in print and
New York Times
and
USA
Today’s
bestseller lists under her belt, former CPA Patricia Rice is one
of romance’s hottest authors. Her emotionally-charged contemporary and
historical romances have won numerous awards, including the
RT Book Reviews
Reviewers Choice and Career
Achievement Awards. Her books have been honored as Romance Writers of America
RITA® finalists in the historical, regency and contemporary categories.

A firm believer in happily-ever-after, Patricia Rice is
married to her high school sweetheart and has two children. A native of
Kentucky and New York, a past resident of North Carolina, she currently resides
in St. Louis, Missouri, and now does accounting only for herself. She is a
member of Romance Writers of America, the Authors Guild, and Novelists, Inc.

For further information, visit Patricia’s network:

www.patriciarice.com

www.facebook.com/PatriciaRiceBooks

https://twitter.com/Patricia_Rice

http://patriciarice.blogspot.com/

www.wordwenches.com

Book View Café Bookshelf

Carolina Girl

The Carolina Series Book Three

Patricia Rice

Book View Café edition May 2012

ISBN: 978-1-61138-133-7

Copyright © 2004 Patricia Rice

All the characters in this book have no existence outside
the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing
the same name or names. They are not inspired by any person known or unknown to
the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

All Rights Reserved, including the right to reproduce
this book or portions thereof in any form.

Originally published 2004 by Ivy Books, Ballantine Publishing Group

The Carolina Series

Impossible Dreams
Almost Perfect
McCloud’s Woman
Carolina Girl