“Oh no, you don’t. A deal’s a deal, Missy MacKeage.” He suddenly gave Luke an apologetic nod. “Excuse me, I meant Missus Renoir. Which means she’s your problem now.” He looked back at Camry. “For which your papa will be so grateful, I’m sure he would want me to have the machine for my role in getting you off his hands.”
When Camry started toward the old man, Luke spun her around and started down the mountain. “Come on, MissusRenoir,” he said with a laugh. “Before he turns youinto a toad.”
Chapter Sixteen
With the rising, nearly full moon lighting their way and the crunch of the cold snow keeping rhythm with their breathing, their mile walk to the tent was made in silence. Cam assumed Luke was trying to assimilate all that had happened. And though she would have loved to explain Roger to him, and Fiona, and the seemingly unrelated chain of events that had brought them to be walking hand in hand tonight toward the rest of their lives together, she honestly didn’t know how to explain something she barely comprehended herself. The only thing she did know for sure was that she loved Luke more than she loved anything else in the world—even her beloved science.
She suddenly stopped walking.
“What is it?” Luke asked, stepping around to take hold of her shoulders. “Are you getting cold feet?” He chuckled softly. “Figuratively speaking, I mean?”
She looked up at him in wonder. “No. I suddenly just realized that the only thing more powerful than my mother’s love for her work is her love for Daddy. Because if I had to choose between you and my work, I’d choose you.”
“Ahh, sweetheart,” Luke said, hugging her to him, then squeezing her tightly. “Grace never had to choose between anything, because she knew she could have it all.” He leaned back to smile down at her. “I only spent a few days with your parents, but it was long enough for me to see that your father doesn’t have to be a scientist to understand your mother’s passion for her work. He appears to be her biggest fan, supporting her a hundred and ten percent. Didn’t he build her that beautiful lab?”
“Yes.”
“He didn’t steal anything from your mother, Camry, he empoweredher. And I bet he also encouraged all you girls to go after your own dreams, didn’t he?”
“Sometimes to the point that we wanted to scream.”
“And hasn’t your mother always supported your father’spassion? TarStone Mountain Ski Resort couldn’t have become a world-class destination on its own.”
She smiled up at him. “I guess that’s another thing we can add to our definition of love: its ability to expand exponentially. It’s not at all constraining, it’s unlimiting.”
He kissed the tip of her nose with a delighted laugh. “And are you ready to add one more passion to your expanding list, Mrs. Renoir? Say . . . something that involves our getting naked together?”
She toyed with the zipper on his jacket. “I-I’ve heard that when a person gets on a Ferris wheel the first time, the ride can be somewhat scary.”
He kissed the top of her head, then took her hand and led her toward the tent. “Naw, it’s only scary for the faint of heart. With your highlander genes, it’s more likely the person you’re riding with who’ll be scared.”
Cam stopped just as she was about to unzip the tent flap and looked up.
Lukewas scared?
Well, damn. She’d been so focused on her own worry about finally going all the way, she hadn’t even thought about what he must be feeling. Hell, what man wanted the responsibility of introducing a thirty-two-year-old virgin to lovemaking?
She unzipped the tent and crawled inside, then poked her head out to stop him from following. “Can you give me a few minutes?” she asked. “I’ll start the heater and warm up the tent.”
“Oh, sure. I’m sorry. Of course,” he said, jumping up and quickly stepping away. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You take as long as you need.”
Luke stood in the middle of the tote road, staring up at the night sky, and fingered the perfectly sized stone ring on his left hand as he thought about all that had happened this afternoon.
Or had it really started long before today? Could finding himself on this mountain, married to the woman of his dreams, have actually begun over a year ago, when he’d tapped the key on his computer that had put him in contact with Podly? At the time, he had assumed the sheer magnitude of what he’d just done was what had caused that spark to run up his arm, jolting him to his very core. Only now he wasn’t so sure it had been guilt making his heart pound wildly, but rather the distinct feeling that some tiny, unseen hand had pushedhis hovering finger down on that button.
Was it truly possible that an imp of a girl, with piercing blue eyes and a contagious smile, could already have been working her magic?
Luke looked over at the tent glowing in the cold dark night, the lantern inside casting the movements of a faint but decidedly feminine silhouette. After today, he had to believe that anything was possible, the undeniable proof being that he had just married the most remarkable, most outrageous, sexiest woman he’d ever met.
The true miracle here, as far as he was concerned, was that Camry loved him.
“You must be freezing, Luke. Come in here and let me warm you up.”
“I’ll be right along,” he called back.
Luke sucked in a deep breath of cold air, hoping to free the knot that had started forming in his gut during their walk down the mountain. For as focused as he’d been these last few days on actually getting to use one of his condoms . . . well, everything had changed in the maintenance garage, when he had realized that he wasn’t just in lust with Camry: he was in love with her.
But even in his wildest dreams, he hadn’t expected his honeymoon suite to be a tent, his wedding bed a sleeping bag, or his marriage to be blessed by a . . . wizard.
And he sure as hell hadn’t expected his bride to be a virgin.
“Vroom! Vroom!”
Luke snapped his gaze to the tent.
“Oh my God, Luke, did you hear that? The Ferris wheel is starting without you! Get in here before you miss the ride!”
Luke dropped his chin to his chest, the knot in his gut unraveling on a strangled laugh. What was he doing standing out here worrying about his lovemaking living up to Camry’s expectations, when he should be worried about surviving hers?
He unzipped his jacket and ran to the tent. “You keep your hands away from those controls, lady!” he barked out, dropping to his knees in front of the tent. “It takes an experienced operator who knows what he’s doing to start up that Ferris wheel.” He pulled his sweater and long-john top over his head, then unbuckled his belt and shoved down his pants. “If you push the wrong button, it could take me all night to get it running correctly.”
“Vroom, vroom,” she purred with a giggle. “Oh! I think I found it, Luke. Quick, get in here and tell me if this is the right button.”
He had to sit on his jacket to unlace his boots, but instead of undoing them, he ended up with a handful of knots. “Stop playing with the equipment!” He tugged on the mess he’d made of his laces, which only served to tighten them. “That’s my job!”
When her purr turned to a lusty moan, Luke pulled his multitool out of its pouch and cut the laces on both boots. He shoved off his pants and long-john bottoms, then turned and crawled into the tent. “Do you have any idea what the penalty is for messing with such delicate equip—” Luke snapped his mouth shut on an indrawn breath. “My God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered.