He grabbed my hand and pressed it to his burgeoning erection. “What’s this one called?”

I thought for a moment as I palmed him. Despite his claim of exhaustion, it was already growing firm under my touch. “This one is called…Robocock.”

“That’s right,” he said with a wide grin.

“How many wife points do I get for that?”

“Right now, you get all the wife points. You’re a top scorer.”

Then he hooked an arm around me and pulled me on top to straddle him, his hands wasting no time to find my breasts, palming them. “Definitely at the top of the leaderboard right now.”

“Only for now?”

We managed one more time before we both collapsed in exhaustion. An hour or so later, when I awoke for a few minutes, I realized with a tired smile that we were spooning.

***

Adam was already up, showered, and dressed before I even stirred. Bright light through the open doorway hit me straight in the eyes, and I rubbed them, rolling over.

“Time to get up, sleepyhead,” he said from the desk where he, unsurprisingly, sat in front of his laptop, sipping at a mug of coffee. “Happy New Year.”

“Are you seriously working? On the first day of our marriage?”

He gave me a benign smile. “Down, girl. I’m tying up the last loose ends before we leave. I’m not even taking the laptop with me. Nor am I taking my phone.”

“Oh?” I perked up. “For three weeks? You’re going completely without?”

“I went two months without sex, and let me say I’d rather have sex than my cell phone, so this should be cake.”

I folded my arms behind my head and settled back against the pillow. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Which means you are one hundred percent responsible for my ‘entertainment.’ We have to be up and out of here in an hour, so you’ll see it soon.”

“And where are we going?”

“You’ll find out soon.”

I gave a long-suffering sigh as I slipped out of bed and scooped the shiny lingerie from last night off the floor. “I hope there are more where that one came from.” Adam nodded to it. “We’ll be making good use of them.”

I shook my head, depositing the lingerie on the dresser before hitting the bathroom and the shower.

Adam Drake and his mysteries…I guessed I’d known what I was getting into, didn’t I?

 

 

Chapter 23

Adam

She had no idea the amount of planning that had gone into this surprise and why I was unwilling to give it up until the very last minute.

I was sure she was irritated with me, but hopefully, her delight would make up for it.

We raced toward Port Castries, the port of St. Lucia, in a high-speed boat that had taken us from the beach at Emerald Sky. A select group of people from the wedding—our closest friends and family who had wanted to get up early enough to see us off—were with us. Emilia still thought we were headed to the airport.

But as we rounded the last point, the harbor, with all of the white boats and bare masts lined up like soldiers, came into view, and her beautiful brow crinkled into a frown.

Soon, all would become clear. But she turned to me, clearly puzzled behind her dark sunglasses. I reached out and grabbed her hand. Her long, dark hair whipped behind her as we slowed and crept to a stop near one of the docks. The boat driver helped us out one by one, and I led the group to walk toward where the captain told me it would be.

“That looks like your yacht, Adam,” Uncle Peter pointed out.

I glanced up at my boat, my hundred-foot yacht that had been taken from our home about three weeks before—”for repairs,” I’d told her.

It had actually been taken for a few minor additions and changes and then brought around to the Caribbean, via the Panama Canal, to meet us here.

“Adam’s boat doesn’t have a name,” Kim said. “That one is named Eloisa.”

I watched Emilia, who was staring at the boat with an open mouth. On the transom, newly painted in gorgeous script, it read:

Eloisa

Newport Beach

Her hand twitched inside of mine, as if she wanted to pull it free. My hold tightened around hers. I hoped that she appreciated the gesture—that I’d named the boat after her Dragon Epoch character rather than her real name.

She stopped. “What is this? Did you have your boat renamed?”

“It was never named before. Now it is.” I stopped beside her.

“Why Eloisa?” Kim asked, and I didn’t bother to answer. Heath was already explaining. Emilia stared at me with wide eyes behind her sunglasses.

“You had it brought all the way over here? Why?”

I smiled. “For our honeymoon. We’re leaving on our own private cruise through the Windward Islands.”

“Woo-hoo. Way to go, Mia!” Kat said from behind us.

“At last it’s no longer a mystery!” She smirked at Kat. “I have a pretty awesome husband—though I’m sure the itinerary will remain a mystery.”

Shaking my head, I filled her in. “We have some bigger ports scheduled, like Dominica and Grenada, but we also have a few privately owned islands and, for a few nights, a deserted island all for us.”

“See,” Kat jumped in. “He’s giving up his secrets.”

“Not all of them.” I chuckled.

Emilia let out a long-suffering sigh. “Of course not.” I brought her hand up to my lips and kissed it. “You like surprises too much.”

“Only when I’m the one doing the surprising.”

Our friends and family all came on board with us to wish us well while my yacht captain completed a final check before departure—and ran us through a mandatory evacuation drill.

The speedboat that had brought us here would return everyone to the resort, where they would stay a few more days. But first, we all enjoyed champagne and snacks, courtesy of a chef I’d hired for our cruise—as my usual executive chef hadn’t been able to commit to the length of our trip. The food—Caribbean fusion canapes, creole-spiced crayfish, shrimp cocktail—was delicious.

With our family all disembarked, we left port while they stood on the pier cheering.

Once they were out of earshot, I pulled her close against me and kissed her gently. That familiar thrill tickled the back of my awareness. But this time it was more acute. Instead of kissing a woman I was powerfully attracted to or my girlfriend or even my fiancée…I was kissing my wife.