The Virgin Bride Said, 'Wow!'. Cathy Thacker Gillen

and stepped back, out of reach. “What do you mean?” she demanded, still able to feel the impression of his touch, even though he was no longer holding on to her.

      Brady’s eyes narrowed as he reminded her seriously, “Wade McCabe said if our marriage is nothing but a ruse to get his money—which, by the way, we’ve already taken—then he’s going to take the ranch from us.”

      “I remember,” Kelsey said irritably.

      “So how are we going to get around that?” Brady adapted a no-nonsense stance, legs braced apart, arms folded in front of him, that would have been very intimidating had Kelsey allowed it.

      She didn’t. Kelsey ran a hand through her tousled hair, pushing it off her face. “The way I see it, there are all kinds of marriages that are real as can be and yet…well, you know how it is after a while,” Kelsey continued as if she knew what she was talking about when she damn well didn’t have a clue. “The husband and wife don’t seem at all romantic anymore, or even much involved with each other physically, and yet they stay together.”

      “There’s a difference between being together and being happy,” Brady pointed out sagely.

      “That’s true,” Kelsey said, “but we could be together and be happy without having sex.”

      Brady lifted a brow and looked straight into her eyes. “Speak for yourself,” he said.

      KELSEY STARED AT HIM in silence. Brady wasn’t sure why he had started this. He just knew someone had to shake up Kelsey’s cock-eyed view of the world. It looked like it was going to be him. He edged closer. “I don’t know any man who is living under the same roof with a woman he lusts after, who is happy when the two of them aren’t sleeping together at least every once in a while,” Brady continued, and watched the way Kelsey’s freckled cheeks turned an even pinker hue.

      Kelsey studied him suspiciously as she slightly tilted her pretty head to the side. “Are you saying you lust after me?”

      Brady shrugged, seeing no reason to lie about it. Not that he could. Surely, she’d felt his arousal, pressed up against him the way she had been. “After that kiss, I sure do.” He hooked his thumbs through the belt loops on either side of his fly and rocked back on his heels. “And now we’re going to be living under the same roof.”

      Kelsey’s green eyes shot sparks. “Says who?” she demanded.

      “Says me.” Brady strode closer. No way was he going to be her puppet on a string and it was high time she realized that. He lifted a hand and brushed an errant strand of cinnamon-colored hair from her cheek, then cupped her face with his palm. The silky heat of her skin warmed him through and through. “We can’t make this look like a real marriage if I’m still sleeping in the stable and you’re sleeping in the house.”

      “Oh. Well.” Kelsey jerked in a breath and stepped back, away from him. “You can have one of the other bedrooms, then. There are three to choose from.”

      Brady knew that would only make things worse. After that kiss, he was going to keep wanting her. And not just as a platonic partner, either. And unless he missed his guess, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself, Kelsey was probably going to keep wanting him, too. “That doesn’t solve the problem of lust,” he told her frankly, meaning it.

      KELSEY KNEW WHAT HE expected here. Like Wade McCabe and everyone else who knew her, Brady expected her to cry uncle, and declare this impetuous marriage of theirs a mistake. Sooner, rather than later. He may have even figured that she would beg Wade McCabe’s forgiveness for trying to pull one over on him, and possibly even get it. Well, she wasn’t going to do that. People thought she was fickle enough as it was, without adding fuel to the fire. Which left her only one option. Which, under the circumstances, wasn’t nearly as untenable an idea as she would have expected it to be.

      Kelsey shot Brady a glance, letting him know she was as reckless and impulsive as ever, and proud of it. “Fine then, we’ll sleep together once, and then that will be it. At least until we decide it’s necessary to do so again. It’ll be a good thing,” Kelsey continued, picking up steam as she went along. “I’m no good at lying. Everything I feel or think is right on my face, anyway.”

      Brady rolled his eyes. “No kidding about that,” he said dryly.

      Kelsey lifted her shoulders in an indifferent shrug and kept her eyes on Brady’s. “Now that we’re married, everybody is going to be trying to figure out if we’ve slept together or not, anyway,” she told him with as much outrageous brazenness as ever. “So we might as well do it, get it over with, and out of the way, so to speak.”

      Brady narrowed his eyes at her thoughtfully. To Kelsey’s disappointment, he didn’t back down one bit, either. “That’s a very typically male view of things,” Brady said, mocking her too-casual tone to a T.

      “What?” Kelsey propped her hands on her hips. The way he was challenging her was making her mad. Worse, it was exciting her, too, in a way unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Stubbornly, she kept her eyes locked with his, even as her heart began to race like a wild thing in her chest. “You don’t believe I’m serious?” she asked very softly and coolly.

      Brady clamped his lips together. A new, worried light came into his eyes. “I’m not sure what to believe right now,” he said seriously, after a moment, suddenly seeming all of his twenty-nine years. “I mean, I know you’re a tomboy—”

      “Thank you.” Kelsey flashed him a tight, mocking smile.

      “But this…” Brady continued, clearly at a loss as to what to do next.

      Kelsey shot him a sultry smile, already toying with the top button of her shirt. “Don’t you want to satisfy your curiosity?” she goaded playfully.

      Brady’s chest and shoulders suddenly looked hard as rock. “Well, sure…”

      Telling herself she didn’t need or want to look below his waist, lest she lose her nerve, Kelsey challenged, “Then let’s go. Upstairs. Now. You and me.”

      Brady laughed. Kelsey could see he didn’t take her any more seriously than her sisters or the McCabes had. She slowly unbuttoned her shirt and started up the stairs. When she reached the top, she shrugged it off, whirled it lariat-style over her head, and then rocketed it Brady’s way.

      BRADY STARED AT THE SHIRT fluttering past the stairwell to the floor. The next thing he knew Kelsey had turned the corner into the upstairs hall and a very lacy, surprisingly transparent black bra had followed.

      Feeling as if he were in the middle of the wildest, most erotic dream he’d ever had, he moved to pick up the bra. It was still warm from her skin and scented with orange-blossom perfume.

      Brady swallowed around the sudden dryness in his throat. Lower still, there was an insistent ache he sure as heck didn’t want to be feeling. His fingers closing on the fabric, Brady stared in the direction Kelsey had gone. Damn it all if this new wife of his wasn’t serious.

      He couldn’t believe it.

      Not once in the entire time they’d been partners had Kelsey so much as offered him even a handshake. In the space of a few short hours she had proposed marriage, rushed him to city hall, held his hand and kissed him like there was no tomorrow. Now she was taking off her clothes. He swore again as a boot clattered to the first floor. Then another. Then her belt and jeans sailed down from the upstairs hall. A pair of socks followed. Brady swallowed. The only thing she had left was her panties. Before he could even make a move, those followed, too, and they were just as lacy, just as transparent as her bra.

      He heard her laughing, then the sound of her footsteps moving toward her bedroom. His lower half surging to life, Brady headed for the stairs.

      KELSEY WAS ALREADY BENEATH the covers in her bedroom. Her cheeks were flushed but there was a telltale devilry in her eyes, and a challenging tilt to her chin. “Are we going to get this over with or not?” she said.

      Brady