* * *
About a day and a half later, they repeated the same exact dialog to each other, but for a totally different reason.
Lying exhausted and bathed in sweat in a huge double bed in a beachfront hotel in Cancún, they could barely move.
“And I thought you danced well!” she laughed. “You’re just amazing!”
“Why, thank you,” he drawled, grinning. “May I return the compliment?”
“Yes, well, I think I’m a quick study,” she sighed.
“Not so nervous anymore, I notice,” he murmured.
She laughed. She was almost a basket case of nerves when they checked into the hotel that afternoon. She loved Bentley, but she had no real idea of what it was going to be like when they were alone together. But he was understanding, patient and gentle as he cradled her in his arms in a big easy chair and fed her shrimp from a big platter of seafood that room service had brought up. Of course, he’d also fed her champagne in increasing amounts, until she was so relaxed that nothing he suggested seemed to disturb her.
Slow, tender kisses grew slower and more insistent. He coaxed her out of her clothing with such ease that she barely noticed until she felt the cool air on her skin. Even then, the way he was touching her was so electrifying that her only conscious thought was to see how much closer to him she could get. There was one little flash of pain, easily forgotten as he kissed her with delicate sensuality and lifted her back into the fiery hunger the hesitation had briefly interrupted. Her mind had gone into eclipse while her body demanded and pleaded for an end to the tension which he built in her so effortlessly. Finally, finally, she fell over the edge of it into a blazing heat of fulfillment that exceeded her wildest expectations.
“And I used to think you were reserved!” she laughed.
“Only when I’m wearing a white lab coat,” he murmured drowsily. He opened his eyes, rolled over and studied her pretty pink nudity with lazy appreciation. “Would you like me to get up and put on a lab coat, and be reserved?”
“I would not,” she retorted, pulling him back down. She kissed him intensely. “I’d like you to be unreserved all over again, starting right now.”
He slid over her, his hair-roughened chest grazing the hard tips of her pretty breasts. “I can’t think of anything I’d enjoy more, Mrs. Rydel.”
She would have answered him back, but she was much too involved for speech.
* * *
They wandered through the ruins at Chichen Itza hand in hand, fascinated as they strolled around the wide plain that contained the pyramidal Castillo and the other buildings that made up the Mayan complex.
“It must have looked much different when it was occupied, all those hundreds of years ago,” Cappie mused, her eyes everywhere.
“There were probably even more people,” he chuckled, glancing at the crowds of tourists that abounded, even this time of year. He handed her his huge water bottle and waited for her to take a sip before he followed suit. The bus trip here was hours long, and it would be after dark before they got back to their hotel. It was something they’d both wanted to see.
“It’s a lot different, being here, than seeing it on television,” she remarked.
“Most things are,” he replied. “Until they can discover a way to let you touch and smell distant ruins, it won’t be as much fun to watch it on a small screen.”
She stopped and looked up at him with her heart in her gray eyes. “I never thought being married would be so much fun.”
He hugged her close. “And we’re only at the beginning of our marriage,” he agreed, his blue eyes soft as they scanned her face. “I hope we have a hundred years ahead of us.”
“Me, too.” She pressed into his arms and closed her eyes. “Me, too, Bentley.”
* * *
She went back to work for him in the practice. She’d argued that if Keely, who was happily married and well-off, could keep working, she could, too. He hadn’t protested too much. It delighted him to be able to see her all day long.
“Don’t you want a cat?” Keely coaxed the week after they came back from their honeymoon. “I’ve got six little white kittens that Grace Grier asked me to find homes for, and I’ve only placed four of them.”
Cappie laughed. “I’d love one.”
“Me, too,” Bentley agreed, poking his head around the corner. “Did Cy Parks call back about that new bull of his that got cut on the barbed wire?”
“He did. He said if you’d drop by on your way home, he and Lisa would feed you both,” Keely chuckled. “They’re having homemade chili and corn bread.”
“My favorite,” Bentley said.
