Heaven Can't Wait Read Free Page A

hot.
    Then he saw the look in her green eyes.
    He set the plastic bag on the sideboard. “What’s wrong?”
    She turned toward him, hair spilling over one soft shoulder, and walked into his arms. “Nothing really. My mother called.”
    He ought to have known. He pulled her closer, felt the tension in her body, reined in his own temper. “What was it this time? ‘He’s marrying you for the money,’ or ‘He’s marrying you for sex’?”
    “Both. Maybe we should just elope so she’ll give up.”
    “Since I’m after your money and your body, I’ll do whatever you want to do.”
    She laughed. “What I want to do is eat! I’m starving.”
     
    It wasn’t until hours later, when the pad thai was long gone and other appetites had been temporarily satisfied, that Will got an idea as to what her mother must have said to upset her.
    She sat before him in the tub, her back against his chest, her head resting limply against his shoulder, her damp hair clinging to his skin, while he lazily fondled a lush breast.
    “Do you think it’s possible for a couple to have too good a sex life?”
    He managed not to laugh out loud. “Hell, no. Are you kidding?”
    “What I mean is could a couple get together and end up getting married just because they had a great sex life? Could they mistake hot sex for love?”
    She wasn’t kidding.
    There were times Will wished he could rip the phone line out so Lissy’s mother could never call again. The woman had all the misery her late husband’s money could buy, and she seemed to be doing her best to make sure her only child was miserable, too. Thank God she hated snow and lived in San Diego!
    A wealthy attorney and his useless trophy wife, John and Christa Charteris had led a cold life, not a shred of affection between the two of them, as far as Will could tell from the stories he’d heard. John had wanted Christa for sex and looks, and Christa had hooked onto him for money and prestige. Their marriage had generated very little love in which to nurture a child.
    Lissy’s relationship with her father, never warm, had soured after she’d left the pre-law program at Cornell to double major in art and English. Her father had cut her off, both financially and emotionally. Though he’d eventually resumed paying her tuition, he’d died of a heart attack without making amends. Her relationship with her mother, a calculating woman who clearly did not approve of her daughter’s independent streak or her choice of man, wasn’t much better.
    Lissy Charteris. Poor little rich girl.
    Growing up, Will wouldn’t have thought it possible to be wealthy and unhappy. He’d watched his mother literally work herself to death to feed him and keep the overpriced roof over their heads and had thought having money must be the solution to everything. He’d planned to earn millions through football, only to have that ripped away from him. It was his mother’s illness and death that made him see money for what it was—a convenience, but no substitute for health or life or love. Eventually he’d come to disdain those who’d had the way paved for them, preferring to spend time with people who’d earned their way through life.
    Lissy was both. Born to privilege, she’d turned her back on it in order to live the life she wanted. It was just one of the things Will cherished about her.
    Feeling the frustration he always felt when he thought of how her mother treated her, he said the first thing that came to mind. “Hot sex is a better reason than most to get married. Look at all the people who marry for money or power or property.”
    Like your parents.
    He felt her stiffen, knew he’d somehow said the wrong thing, so he hastily added, “Of course, when it comes time for me to walk down the aisle, it will be for the right reason, the only reason that matters—my bride’s cooking.”
    Her snort, followed by giggles, told him he’d been reprieved.
     
    Lissy lay with her head against Will’s