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

around,” he warned, wanting there to be no mistake about his intentions. “If we do this, if we begin a sexual relationship with each other, there’s no going back. I expect exclusive rights to your bedroom and I’ll give you the same to mine.”

      “Fine,” Kelsey said as she watched him methodically take off his shirt, boots and jeans. Her pretty green eyes widened as he stripped off his socks and low-slung red briefs, too. “But I reserve the right to say when and where it’ll happen.”

      Brady had no problem with that. Once she was his woman, he figured he could convince her to make love with him anywhere, anytime the need struck. And if not, he thought as a smile curved his mouth, he’d sure have fun trying.

      Naked, he climbed beneath the sheets.

      To his frustration, although she was naked, too, Kelsey kept her arms on top of the blankets, the covers pressed tightly against her. She had a funny look in her eyes, too. Sort of excited and scared and nervous and yet ridiculously brazen and full of bravado, too. “If I didn’t know better,” he teased, “I’d think you’d never done this before.”

      “Ha, ha, very funny.” Kelsey gave him a withering look. “Can we just get on with it, please?”

      Irritated at the way she kept calling all the shots and ordering him around, Brady frowned. “Sorry for the delay, ma’am.” And with that, he lifted the barrier of sheets still between them, shifted over top of her and lowered his head to hers.

      THE FEEL OF HIS LIPS against hers was even more tantalizing and electric than before. Kelsey gasped as Brady’s mouth brushed against hers. She quivered all over as he slipped his tongue inside her mouth and rubbed it against hers with lazy, sensual strokes. His hands moved to her breasts, and still kissing her, he shifted his weight, so he was lying beside her, one arm beneath her neck, one leg thrown over hers. When he’d brought her nipples to hot, aching peaks, he let his hand trail lower still, across the flat of her abdomen, and that was when panic, unlike Kelsey had ever felt, set in. Kelsey broke off the kiss and, hands splayed against his chest, pushed him away with all her might. “Stop!” she said. “I can’t do this!”

      Chapter Three

      “What the…?” Brady said, looking every bit as shocked and upset as Kelsey would have expected him to be, given her abrupt change of mind.

      “I’m a virgin.” Kelsey tugged the covers to her chin and scooted as far away from him as she could without leaving the bed. She hated to disappoint him, but she knew she couldn’t go through with it, not feeling the way she did. “I thought I could,” she continued, trembling from head to toe. “But I can’t. I—” She swallowed hard around the growing ache in her throat. “I’m sorry.”

      “A virgin,” Brady repeated, still looking as stunned as if she’d hit him over the head with a board.

      “Yes.” Keeping the sheet wrapped around her like a shield, Kelsey eased from the bed. “So now you know.” She took a breath, and kept her eyes from Brady’s naked, gloriously sexy body. Doing her best to build on what little dignity she had left, she said, “I trust you won’t tell anyone else.”

      Brady shook his head. “Then what…what was that striptease about?”

      “I thought it might be nice to go to bed with you.” Kelsey tried her hardest but could not keep her eyes from straying to his long, sturdy limbs and glowing golden skin and the wealth of curly black hair. He was solid muscle from head to toe. And lower still, below his waist… Oh, my. My!

      Aware he was still glaring at her, waiting for her to continue, she moved her eyes from his arousal, back to his face. She gulped in great amounts of air. “After all, we’re married,” she said hastily, wishing he would do something besides lounge there, so expectantly, on her bed. “And it would solve some problems. And…and I’ve never done it before and all my sisters obviously have, so…”

      “So you thought you’d use me to get some experience,” Brady said grimly. “And in a roundabout way keep up with all of them.” Lips set, he bounded from her bed and snatched up his jeans.

      Not about to let him make her into some villainess, when all she had done was make a simple error in judgment, Kelsey stomped closer and shot right back, “Listen, cowboy, it’s not like you weren’t using me, too. To…to…”

      “Experience some pleasure?” Brady filled in the blanks.

      “Right.” Kelsey tore her eyes from his rigid lower half.

      “Only we didn’t get anywhere near that, Kelse.” Brady stomped closer yet, his strong, tall body exuding so much heat he could practically have started a prairie fire all on his own. “All we did was frustrate ourselves.”

      Like she didn’t know that? She was still tingling all over, still wanting something indescribable, still scared. But she would be damned if she would show Brady Anderson, her new husband, any of that, especially when he was being so sanctimonious. So Kelsey merely went over to her vanity and sat down on the bench. Aware he was watching her every move even as he tugged on his jeans, she crossed her legs at the knee beneath the toga-wrapped sheet, and offered him a sassy smile, pretending an ease she couldn’t begin to feel. “Better luck next time?”

      “There’s not going to be a next time,” Brady vowed, grabbing his shirt.

      Panic filled Kelsey’s soul. She’d gotten used to having Brady around. “What do you mean?” Despite what had just happened between them, she still wanted him in her life.

      But, oblivious to her feelings on the matter, Brady jerked on his boots, one after another. “I mean I don’t enjoy being played for a fool,” he stormed.

      “I didn’t do that!”

      Finished, Brady stood and advanced on her so deliberately and methodically he took her breath away. He didn’t stop until he towered over her. “Then what do you call it?” he asked very softly, looking down at her.

      Kelsey swallowed but didn’t back down. “A mistake.”

      His lips compressed thinly. “I agree with you there.”

      Remorse filled her, followed quickly by the need to behave responsibly and make amends. “Brady…”

      He put up both hands before she could touch him. “Just don’t, Kelse. Just don’t.”

      Without another word, Brady stormed from the room. Kelsey had just started to run after him when the phone rang. Frowning, she went to get it. Rafe Marshall was on the other end of the line. An old school chum of Kelsey’s, and former boyfriend, he was now principal at the elementary school and father of eight-year-old twins. “I really need to talk to you,” he said. “I’ve got a big favor to ask. Do you think you could come over to the school and meet me?”

      “Now?” She couldn’t imagine what Rafe would need to see her about.

      “Well, yes,” Rafe said, “if it’s convenient.”

      Why not? Kelsey thought, her curiosity piqued. All she was going to do here was sit around and feel bad about what had not happened with Brady. “Be right there,” Kelsey said.

      She went to her closet, put on a fresh set of clothes, retrieved her boots from the bottom of the stairs and headed out the door. She saw Brady come out of the barn just as she was climbing into her pickup truck. Ignoring the way he was looking at her—as if he’d had second thoughts and wanted to talk to her after all—she gunned the truck and sped off.

      Rafe was waiting for her when she entered the empty halls. He led her into his office and gestured for her to have a seat. “Shouldn’t you be home having dinner with your twins?” Kelsey asked. Since his wife had died a couple of years ago, Rafe had tried to give his kids as much stability as possible. Most nights that meant he was with his kids.

      “My mom is visiting and with them. I told her I’d be late.” Rafe sank down behind his desk. He was a handsome man, given