All Night Long (24 page)

"Says who?"

"Matt, be reasonable. You know I'm ri—"

"I'm sick and tired of being reasonable," Matt said forcefully. "I've been reasonable all my life. I've done everything that's expected of me. What's required. What's sensible. Well, this is one time I am definitely
not going to be reasonable, dammit."

He turned the Lincoln into his driveway as he uttered the last words, braking so hard that Susannah's seat belt locked, snapping her back against the seat.

"My feelings for you aren't reasonable, Susannah."

He slammed the gearshift into
Park
and killed the engine.

"They never have been, not since the first day I met you."

He released his seat belt and reached out to release Susannah's, too.

"And I'm not a reasonable man when I'm around you," he said, dragging her across the leather seat and into his arms. "I'm not practical. Or rational. Hell, I'm not even
sane,"
he growled furiously, and crushed his mouth to hers.

Susannah's response was as explosive as if she were a keg of dynamite and his kiss a burning match. She locked her arms around his neck like a vise, holding him as closely, as tightly, as he was holding her. Their mouths plundered recklessly, their lips open wide, their tongues engaged in a heated, sensual duel where both combatants came out winners.

He was hard and hot.

She was soft and wet.

They were both breathing hard, aching with intemperate need and a heedless, reckless passion that drove them to find the surcease that came only in each other's arms.

"Say you want me for more than just a night," Matt demanded savagely, dragging his mouth down the slender column of her neck.

"I want you for more than just a night."

"Say you love me."

"I love you," Susannah moaned, gasping as he pushed back the trench coat out of the way and nipped her bare shoulder in a blatant act of possession.

He moved his hands to her head, threading his fingers through her hair, holding her head tilted back so he could gaze deeply into her eyes. Piercing, peerless blue stared into eyes as soft and warm as bubbling chocolate. Searching endlessly. Beseeching sweetly. Finding passion. And need. And a love so deep and strong it couldn't be denied.

"Say you'll marry me," Matt whispered.

"I'll marry you," Susannah whispered back.

He smiled.

And she smiled.

He gentled his hands in her hair, cupping the curve of her head between them, and brought her lips to his. The kiss was tender this time. Soft. Sweet. Endlessly beguiling. Smiling lips pressed to smiling lips. Silken tongue tips delicately exploring. Fingertips dancing over a stubbled jaw and a satin throat, tracing the whorl of a dainty earlobe and the hard curve of a Nordic cheekbone. They sighed and murmured, nuzzled and nestled, fondled and caressed and cuddled joyously, wordlessly expressing the wonder and magic of being in love.

"The windows are fogged up," Susannah murmured when Matt finally freed her mouth.

"Hmm?" he said, his lips pressed against the soft skin of her throat.

"The windows. They're fogged up."

Matt opened his eyes to look. "So they are." He lifted his head to grin at her. "The last time that happened, I was in the back seat of my dad's car with the head cheerleader. Cindy, I think her name was."

Susannah raised an expressive eyebrow. "Would you like to re-experience your heedless youth and climb into the back seat now?"

Matt twisted a bit to glance over his shoulder. "It's very tempting," he said, after a moment's consideration. "But I'm not seventeen anymore—thank God—and there's a perfectly good king-size bed in the house."

Susannah stuck her bottom lip out in a pout. "No sense of adventure," she teased.

"You're looking for adventure?"

Susannah smiled her witchy smile.

Matt grinned and adjusted their position on the front seat, pushing her down beneath him. She felt his hand skim up her leg, up under her dress, reaching for the moist delta between her thighs.

She caught at it, stopping him before he reached his goal. "It's six o'clock in the morning," she reminded him. "And we're parked in your driveway. Anyone could walk by and see us. Some eager beaver reporter might decide he has one more question he wants answered."

"What happened to that wild sense of adventure?"

"Well, really," she said primly. "One of us has to be reasonable."

E
pilogue

Ten years later

Sacramento, California

"
We couldn't ask for a more perfect day for a swearing-in ceremony, could we?
" the news commentator asked his co-anchor as the scene that filled television screens all over California gave proof to his words. "
The temperature is a balmy seventy-two degrees on this winter's day. There's a light breeze out of the West. Governor-Elect Matthew Ryan is at the podium. His wife Susannah Bennington Ryan has just been handed the Bible to hold while he takes the oath of office
."

"
Oh, look
," enthused the female co-anchor, "
their two children are going to share the honor. Ben Ryan is eight years old. His little sister Milly is almost six
," she informed the television audience as they watched Susannah gather her children to her, lowering the Bible until they could each place a hand under it. "
Although there's been no official word as yet, it's rumored that Mrs. Ryan is expecting the couple's third child sometime next summer. This will be the first time we've had children living in the governor's mansion in quite a few years. It will be quite a change—
"

"How do they find out about that stuff?" Susannah groused, punching the remote control to pick up the evening news on another channel. "We haven't even announced it to the family yet."

"Well, look at it this way," Matt said, grinning at his disgruntled wife. "Now we won't have to."

"
Matthew Ryan's first run for office ended in scandal when his then-fiancée Susannah Bennington was arrested in connection with a prostitution ring."
The newscaster's voice ran over old file footage of Susannah's arrest and Matt's statement to the press when he ended his campaign for district judge
. "The charges were later dismissed, but—
"

"Oh, please," Susannah said, punching the remote again. "There were never any charges filed and there wasn't any scandal. You quit the campaign because you didn't want to be a district judge. Didn't anybody listen to your speech?"

"
...and doesn't Mrs. Ryan look stunning? The unusual lapel pin she's wearing is one of a kind, made especially for her by the young California designer Heather Lloyd. Ms. Lloyd is a long-time personal friend of the Ryans—
"

"Heather said she's already been swamped with orders," Susannah said gleefully. "I told her to just wait until everyone sees the gorgeous earrings she designed to go with my inaugural gown."

"Shouldn't you be getting into that inaugural gown?" Matt asked, passing between his wife and the television set on his way to the bathroom to shave.

Susannah glanced up at him from her seat on the edge of the bed. "Not until just before we're ready to leave," she said, and clicked the remote control again. "I don't want to wrinkle it."

"
During his two terms on the City Council, Matthew Ryan was no stranger to controversy, even within his own home. An outspoken advocate of programs for women and children, gay rights and gun control, Mrs. Ryan was often heard voicing opinions contrary to those of her husband. During the summer of—
"

Susannah clicked the remote control.

"
The Ryan-Bennington marriage appears to be one of strange bedfellows—
"

"Who's he calling strange?" Susannah demanded loudly, forgetting that she had once said the very same thing about their relationship. "You or me?"

"Got to be you," her loving husband hollered from the bathroom.

Click.

"
...although having a strong-willed, outspoken wife doesn't seem to have hurt Matt Ryan's political career with the women voters of the State, political analysts say that on a national level it—
"

Click.

"Don't you care what the political analysts have to say about my career?"

"Every one of them says something different and, so far, they've all been wrong."

"...Governor-Elect Matthew Ryan has just placed his hand on the Bible....
"

"Why don't you turn that thing off?" Matt said, as he came out of the bathroom. "You've watched the swearing-in at least a dozen times already."

"It's a terrific ceremony," Susannah said, her eyes still on the television screen. "You look so noble. So dedicated. So gubernatorial." She gave him a slanted, sideways glance, her gaze raking down his long, well-formed body as he stood there beside the bed, freshly showered and shaved. She raised an eyebrow. "If they could only see you now."

Matt looked down at himself. "What? Blue boxer shorts aren't gubernatorial?"

"Maybe we should get you some with the State Seal printed on them."

"The State Seal, huh?" He frowned. "I don't know abo—" He broke off as he caught the expression on her face. "Is there something about California's State Seal that turns you on?"

She shook her head. "There's something about California's governor that turns me on."

"Is that so?" Matt set a knee on the edge of the mattress next to his wife's hip, and nudged her onto her back on the bed. He braced his hands on the bed on either side of her head. "Maybe we should do something about that."

"Maybe we should." Susannah looped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him invitingly. "Any ideas, Governor?"

"Plenty of ideas." Matt leaned down and nuzzled her throat. "I've been having fantasies all day about getting you naked in the official gubernatorial bed," he said, his voice a low, sexy growl.

"Naked? Right now? When we're supposed to be getting ready for your Inaugural Ball?"

Matt bare chest expanded in an exaggerated sigh. "Maybe not right now," he said craftily. "When I finally get you naked in this bed, I'm going to make sure you stay naked all night long. I can wait."

"I can't," Susannah said, and tightened her arms around her husband's neck. "Kiss me."

The End

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