Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,45
laugh. “You think I’m planning a wedding now? I’ve hopped into bed with you so I must be laying here dreaming of white dresses and pink flowers?”
He groaned. “You already know what color flowers?”
A smile broke over her face. “You’re seriously freaked, aren’t you?”
He had been, but was starting to realize he probably shouldn’t be. She seemed to find the thought of marrying him extremely funny.
She leaned close and murmured, “You just think you’re irresistible, don’t you?”
He snaked his arm around her waist, running his hand down her naked back. “I would like to refer to exhibit A.”
“Mm. And I would like to refer to the last two weeks of you trying to get in my pants. I simply couldn’t take it anymore.”
“Wore you down, huh?”
“It’s not really a compliment. I don’t know why you’re smiling.”
“I’ll take whatever works with you.”
She started to scoot away and he clamped his arm around her.
He said, “That was a compliment. I’ve never wanted to sleep with a woman more. I’d be happy no matter what made you change your mind.”
“That’s not as big a compliment as you think. You only wanted to sleep with me because you’re a horny bastard and you trapped yourself into being celibate for six weeks.”
Ethan blinked, trying to remember if he’d ever been called any kind of bastard before.
She said, “You could have gone and got yourself some strange but noooo. Ethan Howell O’Connor is a one-woman man.”
“I don’t know why you’re getting mad about it.”
She tried to pull away from him again but he kept her anchored. He was enjoying the feel of her breasts pressed against him. Enjoying her breath coming faster and faster, the flush returning to her skin.
She really was getting angry with him.
He stroked his thumb along the rise of her buttock. “I’m pretty sure it was you I wanted to sleep with. I don’t want you thinking any woman would have done.”
“I’m pretty sure it was you I didn’t want to sleep with. But you kept touching me–”
“So it was the touching that did it.” He brought his other hand up to stroke her shoulder.
Her eyebrows slammed down. “I should have bought you a hooker.”
He shook his head. “Never would have happened. I’m not the kind of man who cheats on a woman. I don’t ever want to be that kind of man, so I won’t let myself slip even once. Even with a woman who is only technically my woman. Even if that woman gave me permission.”
“Don’t ever call me your woman again. Not even technically.”
He laughed and she poked his side. She said, “Remember you have some unprotected soft bits within striking distance.”
He murmured, “It’s not that soft.”
At her outraged look, he said, “You’re threatening me. Seems to really get my motor running.”
“Sick bastard.”
“A horny bastard and a sick bastard? That seems unlikely. I would have heard something about it before now.”
She said, “I would like to refer to exhibit A,” and he laughed.
When she started to go for exhibit A, he pushed her onto her back, grabbing her hands and trapping them against the bed. She started to fight him for real and he was forced to drop his full weight onto her. Her breath whooshed out and he said quickly, hoping to distract her, “If I’m going to give half of the O’Connor fortune to my wife, I can’t give her any reason to destroy it. That’s why the O’Connors are one-woman men. Why I have to be.”
Mackenzie was panting shallowly and he eased off her rib cage slightly. She took a deep breath and said, “Or you could just not give her half your fortune.”
“It’s tradition.”
She raised one eyebrow. “That’s no excuse.”
It wasn’t an excuse. He didn’t have to give away half his fortune to get married. But ever since he’d started noticing girls he’d known that money changed things. Money changed how people acted around him, what they hid from him, and how they responded to him. Knowing he would have to give half of his shares insured he would take it slow when it came time to settle down. It was insurance against tricking himself into thinking he’d found a woman worthy of the O’Connor name when he really hadn’t.
Ethan said, “My great-grandfather thought he was in love when he got married. And realized too late that she’d conned him, that he’d let himself be conned. He never would have married my great-grandmother if he’d had to give her half his fortune.”
“I don’t know that