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"You want erly

Charlotte, too, was curious to see as inside "Go ahead" It was almost ten, and under normal circu to bed so she’d be ready for work in the , but her teeks’ notice was up and she was officially a the unemployed

She had the entire week free, or as free as any bride’s ti

Carrie returned a few minutes later with Jason in tow He shtly on the lips, then bent to stroke an ecstatic Higgins "What’s this I hear about Mrs Bondi sending ift?"

"She insisted you open it yourself"

Jason’s look was skeptical "Is it a gag gift?"

"I don’t know Why don’t you find out?" Charlotte leaned against the kitchen counter and crossed her arms "When you’re finished, I’ll show you all the loot we collected I had no idea everyone would be so extravagant"

"Don’t get any ideas about spending our honey but she caught a serious undertone

The honeymoon

She wanted to talk to Jason about that, needed to talk to him about it, but there’d been so little tiht up in a ind of activity Since the evening he’d taken her to dinner and proposed, she hadn’t spent any uninterrupted tiood, either He was tired and so was she Perhaps they could arrange to have lunch one day later this week

Jason tore at the paper

"You wouldn’t believe Mom," Carrie said, her hands on the back of a kitchen chair as she looked on excitedly "She doesn’t tear a single piece of wrapping paper"

"It’s all so pretty," Charlotte defended herself "And I can use it again"

"It takes her forever to unwrap anything I had to help her tonight, or we’d still be there"

Jason paused when he uncovered a plain white box He raised his eyes to Charlotte

"Don’t look at me I have no idea what Mrs Bondi sent you"

Carefully he raised the lid and folded back the white tissue paper, but Charlotte couldn’t see as inside with Carrie bending over the table

"All right, Mrs Bondi," Jason said, eled before glancing at her mother

"What is it?" Charlotte asked

"Wait until you see this, Mo on to the thin straps, Jason lifted the sheerest, slinkiest, blackest nightie Charlotte had ever seen

Charlotte forced a sh the older woman had slapped her in the face

Charlotte knew better than to even try to sleep

The next e her life to Jason Manning She would vow to love and honor this man who’d come to mean so much to her

To love him…

What would happen if she couldn’t love him properly? What would happen when he realized she was incapable of satisfying him sexually? Would he claim he’d been cheated the way Toratification she couldn’t?

Oh, please, not that, not again--she couldn’t bear it

Charlotte didn’t kno Jason would react, but she knew she’d find out soon

She stared at the bright green nu became two and then three

The alarhtened and a cold sweat broke out on her forehead Her happiness had been supplanted by her fears, her anxieties and the certainty that her heart would be broken once again

She’d made an effort to talk to Jason several times, she reasoned It wasn’t like she’d planned it this way In the past week alone she’d called hi up the loose ends so he’d have two uninterrupted weeks for their honeymoon in Hawaii

The honey

What was she supposed to do? Wait for Jason to say "I do," before she whispered in his ear that she wasn’t sure she could satisfy hi on her finger?

It seeot to their honey like that wearing the sheer black nightie Mrs Bondi had sent?

The tightening in her stoht actually throw up

She shouldn’t have left it to the last minute like this, but she’d had no other options