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Maria's gaze moved upward. Her heart pounded against her ribs. “And what is that thing… called… ?”
she whispered.
Michael looked upward. “That is the ‘Observation Wheel,'“ he said. “One can climb aboard those seats and make a circle into the sky and see for miles and miles. Want to board it? Experience it?”
Maria swallowed hard. She could vividly remember her feelings about the moving box at the hotel. She knew that this ride that moved in a circle into the sky could be even more dangerous. “No, Michael, I think not,” she said. “Please. Let's move onward. There's so much to see. The buildings. Each one is so very beautiful.”
Michael chuckled and led her away from the squealing passengers. Their day was then spent moving from one building to the next, seeing exhibits, checking out the flags that waved atop each of these buildings, seeing that Michael's seamstresses had done quite well for the Hopper Shoe Company, that was soon also to be known as Hopper's High Fashions.
And when the sun began to dip toward the horizon in brazen oranges, Michael guided Maria back to the carriage, to head back to the hotel. He smiled when he found her head resting on his shoulder. The day had exhausted her. But he knew that his surprise waiting for her would quickly awaken her. He only hoped that Maestro Von Heifschmitz hadn't let him down. . . .
The carriage came to a halt and the coachman opened the door. “Maria?” Michael whispered, touching her softly on the face. “Darling? Wake up. We've arrived back at the hotel.”
Maria's eyes fluttered open and looked around her. She smiled warmly when she found Michael's face so close to hers. “Michael? Are we back at the hotel already?” she murmured.
Michael laughed softly. “Yes. You've been asleep. But now it's time to step down from the carriage.”
Maria sighed heavily, then reached a hand to the coachman and let him assist her down. She swirled the skirt of her dress around, waiting for Michael, then locked her arm through his as they went inside the hotel and once again traveled inside the moving box to the fourth floor of the popular Planter's Hotel. When they were finally inside the hotel suite, Michael swept Maria into his arms and kissed her long and lingering, then stepped back, smiling sheepishly.
Maria giggled, lifting her hands to her hat. She removed first the pins, then the hat. “What's wrong with you, Michael?” she said. “You look as though you might be the cat who swallowed the canary.” She walked to the couch and dropped onto it, so very, very tired. She placed her hat beside her and threw her head against the back of the couch, breathing heavily.
“I've got a surprise for you, darling,” Michael said, removing his suit jacket, placing it on the back of a chair. He moved toward the bedroom. “I'll only be a moment,” he said from across his shoulder.
Maria leaned forward, watching. A surprise? What could he be talking about? She had been with him almost every hour of the day and night since having arrived in Saint Louis. How could he have .. . ?
When he reentered the room, carrying a black case, Maria's heartbeat quickened. She rose quickly and rushed to Michael, all eyes. “It looks like .. . it. . . is . . . my violin case,” she gasped, taking it from him. She stood still for a moment, hugging it to her. “Michael, how . . . ? What . . . ?”
“You've talked of having missed your violin? Well, Alberto brought it to Mama Pearl one day while we were out. Then I contacted a Maestro Von Heifschmitz, the director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He said that he would arrange to have it repaired.”
Gasping, Maria rushed to the couch and placed her violin case on it. With trembling fingers, she released each lock, then raised the lid, feeling tears surfacing as she lifted her instrument into her arms. She hugged it to her, feeling as though a part of her had been returned . .. and all in one piece. She held it away from her once again, letting a finger trace its highly varnished body. The crack was no longer there. By some miracle, it had been removed. She plucked at the strings, filling the room with a soft, sweet sound, then placed the violin back inside the case and flew to Michael and into his arms.
“Oh, Michael, this is the best surprise you could have handed me,” she cried, clinging. “I just didn't think anything could ever be done for my cracked violin.” She looked upward into his eyes. “How can I ever thank you? Darling, how can I?”
Michael laughed hoarsely, his fingers already working with the buttons of her dress. “There's always a way, darling,” he said quickly. “And you know what that is, don't you?”
Maria reached back and continued to release her buttons, watching as Michael began to release the buttons of his shirt. “But we must move to the bedroom, my love,” she purred. “Mama Pearl. We must remember we're not the only ones occupying the small space of this hotel suite.”
“Mama Pearl?” he laughed. “She'sjust down the hall for this entire night. She's staying in another hotel suite that I've purposely arranged for her so we could have this place all to ourselves. Shall we take advantage of it?”
Maria's gaze lowered. “Before we're even married, Mr. Michael Hopper?” she teased.
Michael stepped from his shoes, then his breeches, laughing. “Even before we're married, wench,” he said. His underthings were quickly discarded, then he moved to Maria and aided her with her corset, laughing when he heard a loud breath of relief when it fell to the floor in a heap. He lifted her into his arms, smothering her lips with kisses as he carried her to the bedroom.
When they reached the bed, Maria clung to his neck, savoring the soft warmth of his lips. His hands began caressing her, causing the pleasure waves to splash around inside her, a storm of passion rising and falling with each of her erratic heartbeats.
As he placed her on the bed, he leaned over her with his blue eyes burning with desire, then with a fierceness, he was beside her, holding her, his mouth bearing down upon hers in hot demand.
Moaning with sensuous pleasure, Maria's fingers moved over his body, feeling the familiarity of it. . . the wide expanse of shoulders tightened now as he held her in rapturous imprisonment against him … the soft, velvety skin of the curve of his buttocks . .. then the fuzz of hair that led her fingers around to where his manhood lay throbbing against her thigh.
The wondrous desire for him was now causing her to writhe, trying to position herself, when he suddenly released his lips from hers and lowered them to a breast, as his manhood slowly entered her.
?
?My darling,” he whispered. “I thought I had lost you for sure.”
“I was always yours,” she murmured. “From that very first instant that I looked into the blue of your eyes.”
He laughed amusedly. “Do you mean that day on the ship when I discovered that you wer.e indeed a female?”
