"Ready," she replied, clutching her bouquet of zinnias and daisies and drawing a deep breath.

The wedding march began, but before Slade and Kendra could take the first step, Hutch left the platform and started toward her.

A hush fell over the guests and the music dropped away, one jumbled note on top of another, into silence.

Kendra held her breath as she watched Hutch approach. He looked impossibly handsome in the tux he'd reluctantly agreed to wear, just for today, and love welled up inside her.

Reaching her, he smiled and offered her his arm.

"I'll take it from here," he told Slade, who grinned and shook his head as he stepped aside.

The congregation let out their collective breath, and the music started again, faltering at first and then filling the little sanctuary to its walls in a joyous flood of sound.

Hutch and Kendra walked arm in arm to the front of the church and stood together before the pastor.

They'd written their own vows, though they hadn't shared them with each other, and Kendra was so overcome with joy and with love for the man standing beside her that she was sure the carefully prepared words had slipped her mind forever. She'd have to wing it, she supposed, but that was all right.

Hutch spoke first, turning to Kendra, taking her hands in his, holding her gaze through the billowing softness of her bridal veil.

"Sometimes," he began, his voice husky but strong, "a man is lucky enough to get a second chance, whether he deserves one or not, and that's what's happened to me. I love you, Kendra. I always have and I always will. I'll be faithful to you and I'll listen to you. I'll protect you and provide for you, and-"

"You'll be my daddy!" Madison piped up, beaming.

That brought on more laughter and a smattering of applause.

Hutch slanted a look at the little girl, grinned and confirmed in a clear voice, "And I'll be your daddy." He paused, asked amicably, "Do you have anything else to say, shortstop, or can we get on with this?"

Madison considered for a moment, finally shook her head, curls flying, and chimed, "No, that's everything!"

The whole congregation chuckled.

Hutch turned back to Kendra and finished his vows.

Kendra swallowed, looking up at his face, loving him with all she had and all she was and would ever be. "I love you, Hutch Carmody," she began, never taking her eyes from his. "I'll be your friend and your partner, as well as your wife, from this day forward, in good times and bad and everything in between. I'll be the best mother I can to Madison and to all the other children I hope we'll have together, and I promise to trust you, always, and to be worthy of your trust in return."

When she'd finished, there was a short silence, during which she and Hutch simply looked at each other, exchanging further vows, silent ones, deeper ones, ones that went far beyond words.

Dr. Beaumont asked them the usual questions then, and they answered with "I do," and slipped wedding bands onto each other's ring fingers.

Finally, in a booming voice of jubilant authority, the minister p.r.o.nounced them man and wife.

"You may kiss the bride," he added, pretending it was an afterthought, though by then Hutch had already raised Kendra's veil, smoothed it back away from her face and covered her mouth with his own.

The organ soared back to life.

The congregation rose as one, cheering and clapping.

Madison dropped her flower basket, rushed over and wriggled in between Kendra and Hutch, and they each took her by the hand, walking back down the aisle together, a family.

THE RECEPTION, HELD IN the community center, took the better part of forever to go by, as far as Hutch was concerned. There were endless pictures to pose for, hands to shake, a big, fancy cake to cut into. There was food and music and enough presents to fill the back of a semitruck.

Hutch enjoyed the festivities, but he was ready for the honeymoon to start, and he knew Kendra was, too. For various reasons, they'd decided to not have s.e.x again until after the wedding, and they'd stuck to the plan-not an easy matter and now that the finish line was in sight, he wanted to cross it.

They'd be staying on the ranch instead of going on a trip, with Madison spending the first night at the Barlows' place with Opal, who'd just moved back there, and of course, Shea, Madison's own personal teen idol.

The time pa.s.sed like mola.s.ses in January, as the old saying went.

They danced, he and Kendra, and holding her close was sweet torment.

"I can't wait to get you alone, Mrs. Carmody," he whispered in her ear.

"You'll have to wait, Mr. Carmody," she teased.

Another hour went by before Kendra agreed to slip away. They said goodbye to Madison, who was on the piano bench beside Shea, learning to play the ba.s.s part of "Heart and Soul," and dismissed them with a happy grin and "See you tomorrow!"

The new truck was waiting outside, decorated from front to back with streamers, streaks of shaving cream, and all manner of other stuff, including a big, hand-lettered sign that read Just Married.

He hoisted Kendra into the pa.s.senger seat, taking what seemed like an extra five minutes to stuff the skirts of that big dress in behind her. She laughed the whole time.

What a sight they must make, Hutch thought, getting in on the driver's side, him in a tux, and Kendra in all that lace and silk, leaving their wedding in a pickup truck.

Eager as he was to get home to the ranch house and be alone with his bride, to unwrap her from that fancy gown and everything underneath it, he was struck dumb for a long moment, just to look at her.

She was so unbelievably, impossibly beautiful.

And she was his.

Peering out of the billows of white surrounding her, she laughed again, maybe at his expression and maybe for sheer joy.

"I feel like a giant cupcake," she said.

He c.o.c.ked a grin at her before starting up the truck. "Good enough to eat," he replied, driving away from the church.

When they got home, the house was lit up, even though the afternoon was still bright with sunshine. The night before, he and Slade and Boone had spent hours putting up strings of white Christmas lights, and the whole place twinkled.

Hutch parked the truck near the front gate, got out and came around to lift Kendra off the pa.s.senger seat.

He didn't set her down, but looked straight into her eyes and said, "Welcome home, Mrs. Carmody."

Her eyes filled with tears, causing her mascara to run a little. "I love you," she said. "So, so much."

He replied in kind and kissed her to seal the bargain.

Getting the gate open with an armload of woman and wedding dress was tricky, but Hutch managed it, carried Kendra up the walk and the porch steps and over the threshold to boot. Leviticus was right there to greet them, though he soon lost interest and wandered off into some other part of the house.

In the foyer, he set her on her feet, pretending to be winded by the effort of lugging her that far.

She smiled, picked up her voluminous skirts and started up the stairs, looking back at him over one shoulder. She knew where the master bedroom was-he'd shown it to her, along with the rest of that big and formerly empty house-but today was different. Today, and tonight, and every night that followed, they could make use of it.

"Aren't you going to help me out of this dress?" she asked coyly.

"It's the least I can do," Hutch answered, then he bolted up the stairs after her, undoing his tie as he went, shrugging out of his tuxedo jacket and leaving it behind on the rail of the landing.

His c.u.mmerbund went next and, by the time he caught up with Kendra inside the bedroom, he was undoing his cuff links.

Kendra, a vision in white, stood looking around, taking in the antique four-poster bed, the old-fashioned fireplace, the built-in bookshelves, bare at the moment because Hutch had been sleeping in a room down the hall since he was younger than Madison was now.

She moved to the mantel, ran her hand along the face of it, turned to him. "Our room," she said very softly, almost reverently. "The place where our babies will be conceived."

Hutch watched her, etching her image into his mind so he could remember, years and years from now, when they were an old married couple, how she'd looked at this moment. "Some of them," he agreed. "I plan on making love to you in plenty of other places, too."

Kendra came to him, stood on tiptoe, and kissed him lightly on the mouth. "This will do for a start, though," she said with mischief in her eyes. Then she turned, indicating the long row of tiny b.u.t.tons on the back of her dress with a gesture of one hand.

Hutch began the slow, delicious process of unb.u.t.toning Kendra's wedding gown. He fumbled a little, now and then-what was the point of making b.u.t.tons that small when a man had big fingers?-but he finally got the thing open, and she stepped out of it, draped it carefully over the chair in front of the fireplace. It looked like a fallen cloud, resting there.

"Madison will wear this dress someday," Kendra said. "And maybe other daughters, too."

The thought warmed Hutch's heart, but it was soon gone. At the moment, he wasn't thinking long-term, he was thinking right now.

Even without the gown, Kendra was still wearing a lot of gear-a big, lacy petticoat-type thing, and a camisole with a bra underneath it. She kicked off her satin shoes and shed the petticoat, unfastened her stockings from the s.e.xy garters that held them up, bared her legs and stood there in panties and the camisole, looking like an angel trying to pa.s.s as a pinup girl.

For a moment, he couldn't speak.

She walked over to him, unb.u.t.toned his shirt, pulled it out of his pants. "Do I have to do all the undressing around here?" she asked.

He shook his head, pulled her close and kissed her again, deeply this time, thoroughly, holding nothing back. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed her warm softness against him and kissed him back.

He groaned, consuming her, unable to get enough.

At some point, they both got naked, though Hutch was too far gone by that point to say when it happened. He lifted Kendra in his arms, carried her to the bed and laid her down.

"No foreplay this time," she whispered, gazing up at him with sultry eyes and a wicked little smile. "I want you inside me, Hutch. It's been too long since we were together-like this-"

"No rush," he ground out. "We've got all the time in the world." He kissed her mouth, her neck, found her nipple and took it into his mouth. "All the time in the world," he repeated, using his tongue.

Fire shot through Kendra as Hutch took his sweet time at her breast, caressing her all the while running a hand over her other breast, down her side, across her belly to the place where her pa.s.sions lived.

She whimpered, giving herself up to pleasure. There would be no hurrying this husband of hers-he believed in taking her by inches, by millimeters, a touch, a kiss, a teasing brush of his fingertips at a time.

Her voice was ragged when she said his name, rose to a low shout when he put his head between her legs and took her into his mouth.

He suckled until she was near the breaking point and then withdrew to nibble at the insides of her thighs, even the backs of her knees.

Her breath came deep and fast, and she commanded him to take her, d.a.m.n it, but he only took her into his mouth again, and alternately sucked on her and teased her with his tongue.

Kendra's hips began to rise and fall, faster and faster, and she plunged her fingers into Hutch's hair, holding him to her even as she pleaded to be taken.

She was on the verge, whispering, "Don't stop-

oh, G.o.d, don't stop-" when the eruption finally came. She exploded against an inner sky, like fireworks, and dissolved into flaming sparks that took a long time to fall.

By the time she'd settled back into herself, Hutch was poised above her on the bed, his forearms braced against the mattress on either side of her still-quivering, exquisitely sated body.

He moved inside her, slowly that first time, throwing his head back as he reached her depths.

Instantly, she needed him again and more desperately than before. This time, however, he didn't hold back, but gave her all of himself, one long, hard thrust following another.

Kendra found the ever-rising ecstasy almost more than she could bear. She tossed her head from side to side on the pillow, and their bodies collided, again and again, until they reached the same pinnacle at the same moment. Hutch went still, deep inside her, and she felt the surging warmth of him.

This time, there was no condom.

They'd wasted enough time and both of them wanted a baby.

When it was over, he collapsed beside her, one leg sprawled across her thighs, his breathing ragged.

A long time pa.s.sed before either of them spoke.

"What is it with you and foreplay?" Kendra asked, her head resting on his shoulder.

He chuckled. "Get used to it," he said, kissing her temple. "Some things shouldn't be hurried, and making love to you is one of them."

She made a slow circle on the taut, washboard flesh of his belly with the fingertips of her right hand. "Really?" she purred. Then she closed her fingers around him, and he groaned, instantly hard again.

"Woman," he gasped, "you are playing with fire."

She worked him harder, faster, but gently, too.

"Am I?"

He pulsed against her palm, huge and hot, and gave a raspy moan.