“So that’s what the look she gave me earlier was about. She’s sweet, and she really loves you guys. It shows when she talks about her family.”
They followed a narrow path up the mountain, where Shannon had hung lanterns every few feet to light their way.
“She’s a great person. I’m glad you’ve had a chance to meet her. She’s leaving soon to go back to Colorado, and then I think it’ll be a while before she’s back again.”
“Is this my mountain climb?” she asked as he held branches to the side for her to pass.
“It is. I hope I didn’t assume too much. This is where I used to come when I wanted to get away, and the summer before I left for college I brought Ty and Shannon here, so they’d have a place to disappear if they wanted to.” He remembered that summer, and the excitement in Shannon’s eyes. It was the type of excitement that only a younger sister could bestow on a brother she looked up to. He’d been proud to see it in her eyes. Ty, on the other hand, had been only about eleven years old, and he’d always found mountains cool. To him it was just another fun adventure.
“I can’t imagine wanting to disappear from a family like yours. Everyone’s so supportive.”
“Yeah.” A soft laugh escaped his lips. “Along with that ever-present support comes the presence of family twenty-four-seven. Sometimes I needed a little solitude.”
The woods smelled like pine and dampness, and as they came to the ridge of the mountain, a picnic blanket surrounded by more lanterns came into view. His guitar sat at an angle at the edge of the blanket.
Leesa gasped with delight, and her beautiful green eyes widened with excitement. He’d never tire of seeing her smile.
“You and Shannon did this? For us?”
“We did. I got everything ready last night and ordered dinner for tonight. She picked it up and set it all up. She made it happen, so she should really get the credit.” He kissed her again as they left the trail and sank down to the blanket.
“Don’t sell yourself short. You thought of this. It’s…” Her eyes warmed. “No one has ever done anything like this for me. Thank you.”
He leaned over and tugged her into another kiss. “You’re worth so much more, Leese. This is just the beginning.”
She didn’t do anything more than smile, but the look in her eyes gave her emotions away.
He opened the picnic basket and took out a bottle of wine and two wineglasses. Leesa peered into the basket, her eyes skimming over the containers of fruit, the carefully wrapped fresh baguette, jar of olive tapenade, and containers of cheese, and finally came to rest on the dishes.
“You brought real plates and glasses?” She sat back as he handed her a wineglass, then filled it and one for himself.
“Sure, why not?” He held up his glass and toasted. “To our second date.”
“Gosh, it feels like we’ve known each other a lot longer than we have, doesn’t it?”
“Most definitely.”
They drank their wine and talked about the view of the river and how pretty the setting sun was in the distance. Cole picked up his guitar and strummed out a tune, but he couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said about missing her students. He wanted to help her get her life back, and if he were honest with himself, he’d admit that he’d also like to get her to stick around Peaceful Harbor.
“Leesa, I’m close with the principal of our middle school, and I’m sure there are tons of kids who could use a good tutor. Maybe you should give the idea some thought.”
***
LEESA DIDN’T KNOW how to respond. Cole made no bones about his feelings for her, and she knew her references would be fine, but that wasn’t what she feared the most. “I don’t think I’m ready to face those challenges yet. I still feel like I’m looking over my shoulder at every turn, and I have a job waiting for me back in Baltimore.”
“Baltimore,” he said more to himself than to her. His eyes filled with disappointment. “What exactly are you looking over your shoulder for?”
She finished her wine and set her glass aside. “For someone to out me in public, I guess. Like today, I was serving an older couple, and the husband kept staring at me. He finally said he thought I looked familiar, and my mind went directly to Towson. I thought he’d read about what happened online or something. He was looking at me so intently that even now my heart is racing just thinking about how nervous I was. I felt like I wanted to run.”
She tried to smile but couldn’t muster it as he reached for her hand and squeezed it.
“Please don’t run.” His eyes pleaded with her as he kissed her knuckles. “I already know that my life would never be the same without you.”
She lowered her eyes, feeling her throat thicken and her heart swell. “I’m not running, and it turned out that the customer thought I looked like Naomi Watts, of all people. He was complimenting me and I was totally freaking out.” And still am.
“I understand that fear, and I wish there was some way to stop it from creeping up on you. Is there anything I can do to help?”
She shook her head. “There’s nothing anyone can do, and I don’t want to ruin our wonderful picnic with my past. But I thought you should know the truth. I do worry about it, every minute of every day. Every time I’m in public I feel like I’m watching everyone for signs of recognition.”
“I don’t know if that will ever change for you, but maybe you just need to bite the bullet at some point and get back into doing what you love.”
She tried to laugh it off. “That’s so much easier said than done. It’s not in the least bit funny, but when I think of where I was—at a solid place in my career, well respected by parents, my peers—and then in one afternoon the rug was pulled out from under me. It’s kind of crazy that things can happen that quickly.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t help to know this, but if I had been there, I would have stood by your side, fought for your reputation, and done everything within my power to make sure you never felt like you had to hide. Look at us, Leese. Good things can happen that quickly, too.” He began strumming the guitar again and humming the tune to Jason Mraz’s “I Won’t Give Up.”
Leesa couldn’t stop emotions from clogging her throat as he sang about her eyes, and learning about who he was. She pressed her lips tightly together to stave off the tears as he sang about how he’d always be there for her—and he barely even knew her. She was no match for her emotions, which had given her whiplash over the past week. She wiped a lone tear as it rolled down her cheek.
He set the guitar aside and gathered her in his arms again, which had quickly become her favorite place to be.
“You barely know me,” she said, even though she felt like he knew her better than any man ever had, besides her father. “You only know of my past.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” He lifted her chin and gazed into her eyes. “I know you’ve got a big enough heart to not hold a grudge against the boy who set into motion an event that changed your whole life. I know you have a best friend who cares enough for you to warn me not to hurt you.”
“Tegan?”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “The night of the auction. She pulled me aside when I first arrived and said I was free to date you, but if I hurt you, she’d ‘kill me.’”
“But we weren’t even seeing each other then.” She made a mental note to have a talk with Tegan.
He held a palm up toward the sky. “Take it up with her. Leesa, people don’t protect those who don’t deserve it. Not like that. You’re right. I don’t know everything there is to know about you, but I want to. I know you lost the one man who knew you best, and I can only imagine what that feels like. I want to be there for you and to get to know you just as well. I want you to feel safe and secure in our relationship. Most of all, I want you to never feel alone again.”
“How have you stayed single all this time?” She couldn’t imagine anyone dating him and not wanting to stay with him forever.
He laughed at that.
<
br /> “I’m serious. You’re handsome. You’re romantic. You’re too good to be true in lots of ways.”
“I told you there was good with the bad. I’m a workaholic. I go in early, and before meeting you, I worked late every night. And I’m sure I’ll be working late nights again. That’s just who I am. Hopefully less so, now that we’re together, but…” He shrugged.
“Those are hardly reasons for a town of pretty beach girls not to vie for your attention.”
He dropped his eyes in a shy way that tugged at her heart. “They do. I don’t mean that in a bragging way, but I get my fair share of offers.” He handed her the guitar and moved behind her, wrapping his arms around hers and helping her hold it properly as he spoke. “I can’t explain why no one has made me feel the way I do when I’m with you.”
She liked the feel of his chest against her back, his arms circling her, and his big hands guiding hers onto the neck of the guitar and around the base.
“There are things about the heart no research in the world will ever figure out.” He kissed her cheek. “Maybe you were destined to experience that awful accusation and I was fated to be on call the night Tegan injured her ankle.”
“That’s a depressing thought.”
He arched a brow.
“Not the meeting you part,” she explained. “That I could have been working so hard and all that time the accusation was looming in my future.”
He placed his fingers over hers and helped her strum the guitar. “Yes, if you think of it that way, it is. But what if there’s more to it? What if our destiny has nothing to do with the difficult things we go through and everything to do with the effect of our actions on other people?”
She chewed on that while Cole explained about frets and tuning pegs and feeling, rather than reading, music. And she wondered, what if she was looking at the whole mess too selfishly? Was there such a thing? She worried about Andy often, but her mind always came back to the devastating effects his actions had on her life.
“Do you believe that?” she finally asked.
“I don’t know what I believe. I’d like to think that everything bad, everything you went through, has some sort of silver lining. For example, if Kenna hadn’t wanted a different lifestyle, I might never have met you. Selfishly, the upside of what happened to you is that I was able to meet this amazing woman, who I might never have had a chance to meet otherwise. I have to think there’s a reason things happen, because the idea of you enduring all that you have and losing everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve kills me. If there’s no good to come of it, and bad things just…happen, well, isn’t that worse?”
Leesa stilled his hands and leaned back against his chest. She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the steady beat of his heart.
“I think you’re my silver lining, too,” she said. “This whole thing scares me. How fast we’re moving, how much I’m feeling. My past looming, like it’s going to come out of the shadows at every turn.”
She turned to him, letting the guitar slide to the blanket. She didn’t want to tell him that ever since hearing his father’s thoughts on the past, she’d been wondering if she should try to gain some closure. Maybe go back to Towson and at least try to get Andy to admit that he’d lied, which she had to believe would help them both on some level. A heavy conscience was no good for someone trying to heal—emotionally or physically. Instead she pressed her lips to his and let the depth of his kiss, the exploration of his hands, and the intensity of their emotions transport her away to a dreamy state where nothing else existed.
Chapter Thirteen
LEESA LAY IN Cole’s arms, listening to the sounds of the sea as they sailed in through his bedroom window. Once they’d started kissing, she hadn’t wanted to stop, and when he’d invited her to come back to his place, she hadn’t hesitated to accept. It was still dark out, and she should probably get up, go back to Tegan’s, and try to sleep for a few hours, but she didn’t want to move. Not when Cole was holding her so lovingly against his warm, naked body and she was happy for the first time in ages. Too happy to care about how tired she’d be in the morning.
Cole’s house was exactly how she’d imagined it would be, open and understated, with more reading materials than anyone could ever dream of—from medical journals and novels to magazines featuring sports, boats, and news. The furniture was clearly high-end, but it wasn’t flashy or ornate. It had the subdued elegance of masculinity that came from dark wood and warm colors. Hardwood floors were home to large planters, and every bookshelf was littered with family photographs between rows of books.
Her eyes skipped across his dark wooden dresser, where bottles of cologne were placed next to his watches—two with dark bands, one with gray, which she’d noticed when they’d first come into the bedroom. There was an oversized chair built for two by the French doors that led out to the deck off the bedroom, and she wondered how many women had cuddled up in it beside him like she wanted to. As she lay there thinking these things, drinking in his private oasis, her mind traveled to his family. How strange it was that Cole would be so monogamy minded while his brother Sam, he’d said, was anything but. She wondered if that had something to do with their birth order or if it were something more.
Her thoughts moved to his parents. She’d noticed how they were always catching each other’s eye, smiling, touching every chance they got. Cole obviously had loving role models, as she’d had with her father. She’d been working so hard since she’d lost her father that she hadn’t realized how alone she’d felt. And since being here, she hadn’t felt lonely at all.
Cole stirred beside her, tightening his grip around her middle and nuzzling against her. She could get used to this, falling asleep draped in Cole, drenched in his open, giving self. He’d been so happy that she’d agreed to stay over, and still, somewhere deep inside her, his father’s words bounced around, unsettling her reverie. We can run from our past, but we can’t really move forward until we accept it. Pain and all. Would she ever be able to accept it? Put it to rest? Move forward without fear? Was it fair to be with Cole if she couldn’t?
The breeze picked up Cole’s scent, and Leesa closed her eyes and breathed him in. When she opened her eyes, she gazed at Cole’s sleeping face. There was kindness there, even while he slept, in the soft lines of his lips and the lack of grooves across his forehead that angry people sported even when relaxed. For the millionth time in too few days she thanked her lucky stars that she’d taken Tegan up on her offer and come to Peaceful Harbor. She’d been at her wit’s end in Towson, struggling to figure out the right thing to do: take the job in Baltimore and try to make a go of it despite what had gone down, change careers but remain in Towson, or move away altogether. Every day she spent with Cole she felt herself inching in the direction of making this move permanent—and in the next moment she’d second-guess herself. They were in the early stages of their relationship. The honeymoon stage, everyone called it. Could this kind of happiness last? More importantly, could it ever erase the lingering fear of her past ruining it all?
She closed her eyes again, this time pushing those uncomfortable thoughts away and focusing on the feel of Cole’s nakedness against her. The hair on his legs tickled her skin. His chest was pressed firmly against her side, every breath bringing a whisper of hot air across her bare breasts. His muscled forearm rested over her ribs, brushing along the underside of her breasts. One of his feet was tucked beneath hers, and the eager press of his arousal, which never seemed to go fully flaccid, warmed her outer thigh. Her nipples tightened with the memory of his tongue sweeping over them, the gentle suck of his mouth that had nearly made her come before they’d even made love. Breathing harder now, she felt herself go damp between her legs. Lord, what this man did to her was sinful. Sinfully delicious.
“Can’t sleep?” Cole pushed up on one elbow, his eyes heavy with sleep, his hair askew from her fingers fisting it earlier when they’d made love, and a sexy smile graced his luscious lips.
/> “I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said, touching his whiskers. “I love your scruff.”
He turned and kissed her palm, trailing his tongue over the center and causing her pulse to quicken.
“Yeah? Maybe I won’t shave in the morning.” He pressed his lips to hers, and she moaned with pleasure, her body aching for more of him. “I’m glad you stayed over.”
“Me too.”
Her fingers trailed along his back as he pressed against her. His erection was firm and enticing against her leg. Lust simmered deep inside her as his hand skimmed her hip and tickled across her thigh to the heat between her legs. He sealed his lips over hers as he dipped his fingers inside her, pulling another needy moan from her lungs. He knew just how to touch her, which was so different from the way Chris had been. Chris had seemed to fumble through their intimacy, looking for guidance, approval, while Cole was confident, virile, and eager. She reached for his hard length, stroking its wide shaft to the curve of the sensitive head and using the bead of dampness to moisten the slide of her palm.
He groaned, tugging on her lower lip as he drew back, his eyes dark as night.
“Jesus, what you do to me every time you touch me.” He sealed his teeth over her shoulder and bit down just hard enough to send shocks of want between her legs as he expertly sank his fingers deeper inside her and stroked over the spot that made her eyes slam shut and her hips buck off the mattress.
“Cole—” She gasped as the orgasm rocked through her, tightening her inner muscles around his fingers as he took her in a demanding kiss, keeping her at the peak for so long she could barely breathe.
“Ohmygod,” she said as she tore her lips away. “I can’t…I can’t breathe.” His fingers began their talented movements again, his thumb gliding over her sensitive clit, and she gripped his wrist, holding him still.
“Too much?” He kissed her again, and her hips rocked against his hand.
She groaned at her body’s betrayal.
Surrender My Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens): Cole Braden Page 13
