In the Arms of a Stranger (17 page)

“You look so beautiful,” Miranda exclaimed.
 

Bri watched as her sister fit the wreath on the crown of her head and fluffed the short veil around her shoulders.
  “I feel like a fairy tale princess,” she said breathlessly.

“And you look it too,” Juliette beamed proudly.

Bri turned around in the chair to face her mother and sister.  “I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have you both here but…well, I have to admit I’m a little surprised neither of you has questioned why I’m marrying a man I’ve only known for a month.  And you haven’t even mentioned Chad or why we called the wedding off or…”

Miranda leaned over and gave Bri a big hug.
  “We didn’t have to.  I’ve never seen you look so happy or so in love before.”

“Your Dad and I are extremely pleased you’re marrying Jake,” Juliette told her.
  “The boy was crazy about you right from the start, you know, and it was pretty obvious you had fallen just as hard for him.”

Bri’s eyes widened in surprise.
  “Did he say that?  Did Jake actually tell you and Daddy how he felt about me?”

Juliette laughed.
  “Darling, that boy has been plotting to make you his wife from day one.”

Brianne’s face lit up, her hand moving subconsciously to her abdomen.
  “I think I knew right from the beginning too.”

Juliette’s eyes followed Bri’s hand as it moved protectively over her belly.
  “Miranda, would you mind grabbing the bag we brought from home and the smaller one Jake asked us to pick up?”

“Not at all,” she smiled, exchanging knowing glances with her mother.

“We’ve only got about ten more minutes so we’ll have to rush this a little.  First,” Juliette took the larger of the two bags and pulled out an antique cameo choker, “something old.  It belonged to my grandmother and I thought it would go well with your dress.”  She handed it to Miranda and asked her to help Bri put it on.  “Next, we have something new.  This is from your father.”

Bri’s eyes glistened with tears as her mother clasped the delicate diamond bracelet around her wrist.
  She held her arm out so they could both see. 

“It’s beautiful, I love it.”

“You can admire it later, darling, time is pressing.”  Juliette reached into the bag again and pulled out a set of keys and handed them to Bri.  “Something borrowed.  It’s the keys to our condo in the Florida Keys.  Since Jake didn’t have time to plan a honeymoon, I planned one for you.”

“Thank you, Mom.
  You’ve all been so wonderful to put everything aside and come rushing to my wedding.  I know Jake appreciates it too.”

“You’re quite welcome.
  And now for something blue.”  Juliette twirled a blue garter belt around her finger then tossed it to Bri and waited for her to slip it over her thigh before reaching inside the bag Jake had given her. 

“Before I give this to you, I just want to say that you don’t have to explain its significance if you don’t want to, but I must warn you that Miranda and I have already drawn our own conclusions.”

Her curiosity piqued, Brianne leaned forward.  “What is it?”

Juliette smiled and took out a can of ginger ale.
  She handed it to Bri then pulled out the remaining contents of the bag; a small box of soda crackers. 

“Jake said to tell you to eat these before the ceremony.
  He said it would settle your stomach.”

She starred at the items in her hand.
  “He…but how could he know?  I never told him and he couldn’t possibly have guessed.”  She looked up at her mother.  “You don’t think he’s marrying me just because…”

“He also instructed me to give this to you if you even suggested he was marrying you for any reason other than he loved you.”
  Juliette reached for her purse and dug out the note Jake had given her.  “I met with him briefly last night to give him his tux and a new…outfit I picked up for you to wear on your honeymoon.” 

Bri took the note and unfolded it.
  Her lips trembled as she read it out loud.  “
My beautiful Brianne
…”  She shook her head, unable to read the rest and handed it to Miranda.

“My beautiful Brianne,
”
Miranda read
, “I love you now and always.  I have loved you since that first morning when I woke up and heard your soft, sweet voice.”
  Miranda arched her brows.  “Are you sure you want me to read this out loud?”

Bri smiled, dabbing at her eyes.
  “I’m sure.  If I have to read it myself I’ll turn into a blubbering idiot.”  She took the a cracker from the box and started nibbling on it, loving Jake even more for his thoughtfulness, if that was possible.

“Okay,” Miranda shrugged.
  “
I knew even then that we were destined to be together and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done to make you mine.  What we shared, what we
created
together, only makes me love you more.”
   Miranda handed the note to Bri, her own eyes tearing up.  “Well?  Is it what we think it is?”

Brianne nodded as she popped another cracker in her mouth
, nearly choking on it when they both tried to hug her at once.  Laughing and coughing, she took a sip of soda and washed the crackers down.  She couldn’t have asked or hoped for anything more on her wedding day; she had her family with her, she was in love with the most wonderful man in the world, and best of all, Jake loved her and wanted their baby just as much as she did.  She stood up and brushed the crumbs from her dress.  It was time to go get married.

Brianne stifled the giggle that bubbled up in her throat when she held up the
outfit
her mother had given her for the honeymoon; a sheer black nightie with matching panties.  She peered around the bathroom door to make sure Jake wasn’t about to come barging in to see what was taking so long then quickly undressed and slipped the nightie and panties on. 

The wedding had been amazing, but the honeymoon was going to be even better.
  Bri still couldn’t believe her mother had managed to get so many people to attend on such short notice, but it helped that her father owned two private airplanes and was willing to pay to have everyone flown in.  Maybe money couldn’t buy love, but it sure came in handy for a spur-of-the-moment wedding!

The ceremony itself didn’t last long but the reception had gone on for hours.  She and Jake had their first dance as husband and wife, and then she’d been whisked off by one of his brothers for the dance that followed.  Chase, Derek, Brent, and Travis were as tall as Jake and devilishly handsome, each of them dancing with her in turn and
welcoming her to the family.  She also met his parents, who were just as warm and welcoming as his brothers had been.  Only his sister, Lydia, seemed a little aloof about their whirlwind romance and rush to the altar, but Bri confident she would win her over in time.

Bri flipped off the light and sauntered into the bedroom, hoping it wouldn’t take long to seduce Jake out of his clothes.
  They’d spent their wedding night in Las Vegas but she hadn’t gotten the chance to wear the nightie because he was on her the moment they stepped into their room at the hotel.  Jake had been tireless, taking her time and time again, and if she hadn’t already been pregnant, Bri was certain she would have been after the night they’d had.  

They slept half the morning away and woke just in time to grab a quick breakfast, pack, and head for the airport.
  Five hours on an airplane had exhausted her and they agreed to take a short nap as soon as they got to the condo.  The nap and dinner afterwards had eaten most of the evening.  It seemed like an eternity had passed since she lay in his arms and Bri was anxious to continue what they’d started last night.

Jake let out a low whistle when he turned away from the window to find her standing there.
  “Good God, woman, are you trying to kill me?”

Bri laughed and went into his arms, molding herself to his body.
  “Blame my mother, she’s the one who got it for me.  And you might just want to pace yourself anyway.  We have two whole weeks here.  If you make every night a marathon we’ll both die of exhaustion.”

“Or happiness,” Jake said, lifting her up into his arms.

He carried her to the bed and gently lay her down then started peeling off his own clothes.  His eyes raked over her body, pausing to admire the perfect shape of her breasts then moving down over her shapely legs and back up again.  A sexy smile curved her lips, and the way she was looking at him through half closed eyes made his pulse jump. 

Jake stretched out beside her and gave his wife a long, leisurely kiss.
 
His wife
.  She was really his, and inside that flat belly of hers was the child they had created together. 
His wife, his child
.  Emotion welled up inside him, and for the first time since he was a child himself, Jake felt the sting of tears behind his eyes.

“Jake, are you really happy?
  About the baby, I mean.”

He blinked, unaware that he’d drawn his head back and was propped up on one elbow just starring at her.
  His hand snaked across her stomach, feather soft, and lifted the nightie to expose only the small section of flesh that protected their unborn child.  Jake leaned over and pressed his lips to the soft spot just below her navel then turned his head and rested his cheek against her belly.  He closed his eyes for a moment, a contented smile lingering on his lips.  This was what dreams were made of.

“We’ll need to make an appointment with your doctor as soon as we get back so we know how far along you are.
  And you’ll have to stop wearing your clothes so tight so the baby has room to grow.  You’ll need to start eating right too.” 

Jake was thoughtful for a moment, trying to consider all the changes that would have to be made.
  “I suppose coffee is okay as long as it’s decaf, but there will be no more take-out pizza.  And I definitely think we should move to a suburban neighborhood or maybe even a place in the country so we can have our own vegetable garden.”

Bri would have laughed if he didn’t sound so downright serious.
  “Do I need to change my hair style or is it just my wardrobe and eating habits you’ll be dictating,” she teased.

Jake chuckled and crawled back up beside her.
  “At least I don’t have to shame or bully you into doing what I want.  I have other…methods that will make you more than willing to comply with my wishes.”

“Oh
, really?  Would you care to demonstrate some of these
methods
?”

“Gladly, Mrs. Malone.”
  Jake’s hand glided slowly down her stomach and delved between her thighs.  “About those skin tight jeans you wear,” he started, as his fingers curled into her heated moistness.

Brianne gasped.
  “Oh…oh, Jake…”

He lowered his head, letting his lips hover close to hers but not quite touching.
  “You’re so small, the baby is going to cramped as it is.”  He continued to stroke her intimately, watching her eyes, waiting for her body to tell him when she was close to climaxing.  “Promise me you’ll buy new clothes,” he said softly.

“I will, I will,” she said breathlessly.
  “When I start to show…”

“Now,” Jake persisted.
  Her hips arched into him and her body quivered.  She was almost there.  “Now,” he repeated.

Brianne whimpered, when his movements slowed.
  She was so close and yet so agonizingly far.  “Jake, please!”

He flicked his tongue across her lips then drew his head back when she tried to capture his mouth.
  “The clothes…”

“Okay, okay,” she cried, “I’ll buy new clothes and eat all my vegetables and give up fast food, just stop torturing me!”

With a low growl Jake attacked her mouth, his tongue plunging and retreating, taunting and teasing until he had Bri squirming beneath him like a fish caught on a hook.  Her desperate moans and gyrating hips just about did him in, and he all but tore the scant little panties off of her in his haste to remove the thin barrier. 

To say the earth shook when Jake drove himself into her was the understatement of the century.
  Stars exploded in his head, and a scorching heat like nothing he’d ever felt before surged through his veins.  Their bodies strained against each other, giving and taking, as the physical pleasures entwined with the emotional and sent them soaring to such unimaginable heights, neither of them was prepared for the fall.      

Brianne felt like a bowstring that had been pulled too tight, and each heavy thrust of Jake’s hips only wound it tighter and tighter until she wanted to scream.
  It was the whispering of her name that threw her over the edge; just a soft, barely audible whisper that spoke to her heart of love and laughter and a lifetime with this incredible man. 

The muscles in her abdomen contracted and locked, and for several agonizing moments Bri hovered over the precipice before the tension finally snapped and released her.
  Inanely, she thought of the Fourth of July and rockets rapidly ascending into the sky where they exploded with a thunderous boom to light up the night with their glorious colors before the burnt out pieces plummeted back to earth.

Afterwards, as they lay in each other’s arms her mind wandered back to that morning when she’d flipped on the light to find a dark haired stranger in her bed.
  With a start, Bri realized that she’d known all along it wasn’t Chad who had made love to her that night.  Consciously she’d denied it, of course, out of a sense of guilt and perhaps to keep from questioning her own morality, but deep down inside she’d known. 

There were too many differences between the two men for Bri to believe otherwise.
  Chad’s kisses had never stirred her heart the way Jake’s did, and his touch had never made her tingle or leave her aching for more.  And Chad certainly would have taken the precautions necessary to protect her from getting pregnant.  When she told Jake what she was thinking, he confessed that he’d also known she wasn’t Brandy.

“Maybe not at first,” he said, “but later, after I’d had time to think about it, I knew.”

 Bri snuggled closer, an unsettling thought beginning to form.  “Promise me something, Jake.”

“What’s that?”

“From here on out, when you’re working on a project and have to spend the night in a hotel…”

Jake’s whole body shook with laughter.
  “Sweetheart, you have my word.  I’ll turn on the light and see who’s sleeping in my bed before crawling in.”

“Good,” she yawned, “I have no intention of tempting fate.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in fate.”

“I do now,” she mumbled sleepily.

Brianne closed her eyes.  Call it fate, divine intervention, or just plain dumb luck; she didn’t care what it was that led Jake to her room that night.  All that mattered was they had found each other.  It seemed as if an eons had passed since she’d awoke to find she’d spent the night in the arms of a stranger.  But he definitely wasn’t a stranger anymore, Bri smiled to herself. 

Jake was her husband, her lover, her soul-mate, the father of her child.
  Life simply couldn’t get any better than it was at that precise moment.  At least that's what she thought until Jake’s hand moved up her thigh in a seductive sweep.  Oh, yes, she sighed as he lowered his mouth to hers.  Her life was already getting better, and Bri was going to take it one devastating kiss at a time.