Cupping her jaw in my palm I tilt her chin up as she gasps. I keep the kiss gentle, the hesitant way her lips slide underneath mine telling me everything I need to know. I’d bet every last dollar that’s ever hit my bank account that she’s never kissed anyone.
My brilliant wife is a virgin.
The realization shouldn’t make my cock hard but the traitor presses against the zipper of my jeans. Just the thought of being the only man to ever kiss her, to touch her, to love—
I jerk back with more urgency than strictly necessary, and I grab Tabitha to steady her as she sways.
“Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Kent.”
“Actually it’s Dr. and Mr. Carter,” I correct. Tabitha has worked hard to establish her name in her field. I’m not about to take that away from her. My last name only mattered when it was on my uniform.
The judge doesn’t miss a beat.
“Of course. My apologies Dr. Carter.”
My wife’s startled green-eyed gaze leaves me to focus on the elderly man who married us.
“It’s quite all right. It happens all the time.”
“See that it doesn’t,” I tell the judge.
“Marshall!”
Tabitha looks scandalized, a second away from clutching her pearls at my tone. She doesn’t remotely resemble the fierce woman who was ready to rip out my throat on the ride up the mountain for misaddressing her.
“This is a small town,” I tell her. “By lunch half of the residents will know that I married a doctor and by dinner so will the rest.”
“It’s no big deal,” she mutters even as the judge catches my eye and nods his understanding. I won’t tolerate anyone disrespecting or diminishing my wife’s success.
She’s used to correcting strangers but very soon there won’t be any more strangers to correct. Not in Crescent Ridge anyway.
I’ve barely gotten her back to the truck when I bring up the kiss. If I were a better man I wouldn’t speak on it, but no one could ever accuse me of being a gentleman. As it is, I blunder into the conversation with the usual amount of grace.
“Was that your first kiss?” The question comes out harder than I mean it to, my tone almost accusatory.
Her blush is pretty but the way her green eyes avoid mine makes me feel like an asshat for embarrassing her.
“I didn’t have time to worry about boys,” she says with a shrug. “I was too young to date any of my classmates in school and afterwards I was busy making a career while they were learning algebra.”
“Too busy being brilliant,” I agree. “Shame that they don’t have the same excuse.”
She doesn’t reply but she looks pleased. The faint blush lingers on her cheeks as her lips twitch upwards in the shadow of a smile. Sliding my hand across the seat I interlock our fingers as she tries like hell not to let her smile show.
“I wouldn’t have let a beauty like you slip through my fingers.”
The red color of her cheeks darkens to a deep crimson, but her green eyes finally meet mine. She better get used to it. I’m not going to stop flirting with my wife.
Chapter Six
Tabitha
We don’t get far before Marshall’s phone rings. He glances at the screen, face twisting into a grimace before he answers.
“Scotty, what’s shaking?”
I can’t hear the other side of the conversation clearly, but the man is loud enough for me to hear small snippets.
“Shaking?” the man repeats, his tone incredulous.
