She shifted slightly and turned so he was next to her. “Keep your arm around me?” she whispered.
“I’m right here,” he said, his voice low and gentle.
He had the patience of Job right now, and she wondered why he was so willing to go through this with her.
She shifted a bit more to take in the whole store and saw Ryan standing near the front counter. He smiled at her. Her body shook slightly, but she managed a small smile in return. “Sorry,” she said to him. “I have a bit of a...problem...with...um...public places.”
Ryan nodded. “Take your time. It’s good seeing you both out and about.”
She’d met Ryan the two times he’d delivered groceries to the house. He was an older gentleman, probably in his early sixties, with a shock of white hair and a gentle demeanor. She was glad his was the first place they had come to.
Mike shifted a bit and turned toward Ryan. She glanced up at him and found him smiling with what could only be pride. In her. Those tears threatened again. She knew he must be uncomfortable, too, being out in public, but his only concern was for her, not himself. She tried to remember her first reaction to his face, his scars, but right now all she saw was the man she loved with all her heart.
“Is there anything in particular you’re looking for?” Ryan asked.
She held up the bag of apples from outside. “I need some spices for making pie.” Because Mike only had the basics of onion, garlic, salt and pepper in the kitchen cabinets.
Ryan picked up a basket from in front of the cash register and brought it to her, held it out to her, yet kept his distance. A soft, breathy laugh slipped out of her. She wasn’t afraid of him. Walking through the door was what had put her over the edge, not the nice man who owned it.
She took the basket and set the apples inside. “Thank you.”
“Baking supplies are against the far wall.”
Mike cleared his throat, his hand flexing against her side. “We also need some...”
Christy glanced around the store from where they stood near the door, and said, “I think what we need is on aisle five.”
Ryan’s face broke into a wide grin. It was probably obvious what they needed, since from what she could see, aisle five held the pharmacy type stuff, feminine hygiene products, and...whatnot.
“Take your time,” Ryan said. “Just holler if you need anything.” He stepped back behind the high counter and picked up his newspaper.
She wanted to thank him again for his courtesy. For not making a big deal about her problem, and for giving them space. Now she just had to get up the courage to move deeper into the store and away from the safety of the door.
The shop was small, with only seven aisles. She could see cold cases for frozen foods against one back wall, and the spices were all the way down at the other end on another wall.
“I can do this,” she whispered to herself.
Mike’s reassuring grip on her side encouraged her.
Bins of Halloween candy were on the aisle end caps. Bags of chocolate mostly. “Should we get a couple bags of candy for trick-or-treaters?” she asked.
“Honey. They don’t come to my house.”
She turned and frowned at him. “Why not? There’s other houses near yours. Surely—”
“Christy,” he said, sounding a bit irritated. “I’m the monster that lives on the hill. The only time kids come to my house is to play ding-dong-ditch and dare each other to run up on my porch and ring the bell.”
Christy gasped. “No.”
He nodded. “They think I’m a monster, and that the house is haunted.” With a shrug, he said, “Maybe they think I’m the undead.”
She couldn’t believe that. He wasn’t that...bad. She bit her lip. Well, maybe to a child he was scary looking. And as for the house being haunted... She had her own suspicions about that.
“It’s because you never leave the house. You’re never seen in public. If they saw you as a normal person, maybe—”
Mike chuckled. “Then you better hang around, honey. Because unless I’ve got you to cling to...” He tightened his arm around her. “...I can’t leave the house.”
Her heart twisted. “I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered as she went up on tiptoes and brushed her lips over his.
He laid his palm against her cheek and deepened the kiss just a bit. “I like the sound of that.”
She did, too. Maybe she could return to some normalcy in this little town, with its lack of crime and kind people like Ryan.
“Okay,” Christy said. “Let’s get what we need and go. I’m...” She thrust her tongue into his mouth just once, letting him know exactly what she wanted.
He cleared his throat and whispered, “Is Ryan watching?”
She turned her head and looked over at the storeowner, still perched behind the counter. He raised the newspaper a bit, but not before she saw his grin.
Her face heated with embarrassment. “Yes. And enjoying the show, too, I think.”
Mike chuckled. “Let’s get our stuff and go, then, before we make a spectacle of ourselves.”
“Too late,” Ryan said from the counter, humor lacing his tone.
She groaned, and Mike chuckled—probably the sweetest sound Christy had heard in her life.
* * * * *
After a few tense moments when a couple of other patrons entered the store, in which Mike held her and talked her through another round of deep breathing and concentration, they made it to the counter with their purchases.
“Could you add this to next week’s bill?” Mike asked Ryan.
“Sure. No problem.”
Christy tried not to be embarrassed by the three boxes of condoms in the basket, but it was impossible. This wasn’t some big, faceless drugstore in downtown L.A. where she normally bought such items. Moonlight Cove was tiny, and she wondered if Ryan was a gossip.
Even if he wasn’t, she was pretty sure those other two ladies that had come in for milk and eggs would be. Once her brain kicked back in after she calmed—the jingle of the bell over the door had set her off that time—she’d heard them whispering about Mike. One had said she hadn’t been sure he was even real. The other said she hadn’t seen him for years, and wondered why he’d come out in the light of day now. Good thing they hadn’t seen what was in their grocery basket or the answer would be all too obvious.
Christy didn’t know these people, but Mike probably did. Or had. If his wife had worked in the only clinic in town, everyone must have known her.
Ryan wrote down the items on a notepad then put the items into two plastic bags. “It really is great to see you out and about, Mike. I hope you’ll come by more often.”
Mike smiled, but she saw the strain on his face. He’d obviously heard the old biddies, too. Her heart cried for him. Maybe if they did make more trips into town, not only the kids would come to accept him, but the other townsfolk would, too.
“We will,” she told Ryan. “Thank you.”
His smile was warm and congenial. “My pleasure.”
Christy picked up the bags and took Mike’s hand. He followed her out the door onto the sunny sidewalk. The joy of their small adventure seemed to have deserted him. His shoulders were now slightly slumped, and he kept his head tipped forward, as if trying to hide his face.
“Mike?”
“Hmm?” He didn’t turn his head in her direction.
“You can’t let stupid old women like that bother you.”
He nodded but didn’t raise his head.
She stopped walking as they came to the end of the sidewalk. When they crossed the road, they’d be heading back up the hill toward his house. “Listen to me, sweetheart,” she said, stepping in front of him and laying her hand over his heart. “If we make more trips to town, they’ll get used to you.”
“No one should have to get used to this.” He trailed his fingers down his face, over his scars. “They’re right. I shouldn’t show my face in public in the light of day.” He gave a dry,
harsh laugh. “And I’d wanted to take you to the—”
Christy fisted her hand in his shirt and gave him a little shove. “Would you stop feeling sorry for yourself? For God’s sake, Mike. You’re acting like a child.”
His fingers wrapped around her wrist, and he shoved her away. “It’s not me I’m worried about,” he all but growled. “Why the fuck would you want to be seen with me? God, you’re gorgeous. You could have any man you wanted. Why me? Why let people talk about you like that?”
She narrowed her eyes. “What the hell are you talking about? They weren’t talking about me. And you’re blind. You don’t know what I look like.”
He scrubbed his hand over his face.
Had they said something about her before she clued into their conversation?
She huffed out a breath. “Even if they were, so what?”
“You don’t get it. No matter where we go, there’s going to be talk. And you shouldn’t have to be put through that.”
“You’re being stupid now. Doesn’t it matter to you that I want to be with you? That I went through going into a public place so that we could get...” She shook the plastic bags so they rattled. “Why is it okay for you to stand by me and help me through my hang-ups, but not the other way around?”
“Shh. You’re going to draw attention.”
Christy shut her eyes for a moment and bit her tongue. Standing on a street corner yelling at him wouldn’t solve anything. She blew out a harsh breath then opened her eyes. He was so handsome. She barely noticed his scars anymore. If she could take them away, make him whole, inside and out, she would in a heartbeat. Even if she had to take them upon herself.
“Come here,” she said, grabbing his hand and tugging him up to the outside wall of Ryan’s Grocery. She pushed him back a step, until he leaned against the faded cedar siding. “You want a spectacle? Let’s give them one.” Dropping the bags to the concrete, she wound her arms around Mike’s neck and melted against him, pulling his head down so she could press her lips against his.
Chapter Ten
He stiffened in response for an instant, but then he wound his arms around her, crushing her against his chest, his tongue delving into her mouth. Inside she smiled as her body heated, and the lust she always felt when he touched her spiked through her.
When she broke the kiss—because she needed oxygen—Mike’s heartbeat thrummed against her hand, and his cock pressed hard against her belly.
“I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks,” she said. “I...” Love you, she finished silently. She wasn’t sure he was ready for declarations of love yet. “I want you,” she whispered, nuzzling her lips against his jaw, his ear. “Only you.”
Mike panted in her ear, and she knew he was as hot as she was. When they kissed, it was like spontaneous combustion. He groaned and thrust his hips once, grinding his hard-on against her belly. “I want you, too. Now.”
“Only me?” she teased, trying to break the tension.
He nodded then captured her lips again. “Only you.” Leaning his head back against the side of the building, he groaned. “It’s going to take forever to walk home.”
She grinned, knowing it wouldn’t take that long. But it must be rather...uncomfortable...walking around with that thing in his jeans. She giggled, and he pinched her butt, making her gasp.
“You’re a cruel woman.”
“How’s your leg holding up?”
“What leg?”
She laughed. “Come on.” Feeling wicked, she picked up her bags, took his hand, and led him across the street to the public beach access just a block away.
“Where are we going?” He gripped her hand harder, and she made sure when to tell him to step up or down.
As they came to the end of the road to a small parking lot overlooking the beach, she grinned as she looked out at the shore. “Ever have sex on the beach?”
“Uh...”
She laughed again. “It’s deserted, and I think I see... We’re going down a slight incline. There ya go. Now onto the sand.”
He stumbled slightly as his feet sank into the soft sand, but she wrapped her arm around his waist.
“Fifty yards,” she told him as they slowly made their way toward a rock outcropping with a towering boulder on the end, just yards from the foamy fingers of the waves. They were at the edge of town, and she didn’t see any buildings set up against the hill. She scanned the cliff as it rose over them and could see his house at the top, a ways off still. A few other houses dotted the top of the cliff, the ones they’d passed on their way into town, but she knew, if they tucked up against the base of the cliff, no one would ever be able to see them.
“Maybe I’m glad I’m blind, so I can’t see you leading me to my doom.”
“You think sex on the beach is doom?”
He shook his head and wrinkled his brow at her. “No, but a jail cell for public indecency is.”
She laughed and hugged him tight. “Trust me.”
He stopped walking and grabbed her up against his chest. “I do trust you, Christy. With my life.”
Her breath caught at his sincere declaration. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You’ll never know what that means to me. And...I feel the same.” He cared about her more than anyone ever had, she realized. More than any man ever had. She went up on tiptoe and kissed him with just a soft press of lips against lips. “But right this second,” she said against his mouth, “I want your body.”
Mike laughed and squeezed her tight, his heart soaring. He didn’t understand why, after all these years, luck, or Cupid, or blind fate had led Christy to his house, into his heart, but she was there, and he was sure that was where she’d always be for as long as he lived.
As they slowly made their way along the beach, Christy’s arm wrapped snug around him for support, he contemplated the incident on the street. When he heard those women whispering from an aisle away, wondering what such a beautiful woman was doing with him, all his fears and insecurities reared up. He knew they were right, and hadn’t he asked himself that same question a thousand times since last night?
Had it only been last night? It seemed as though he’d known Christy a lifetime. He couldn’t deny his physical attraction to her any more than he could deny that hearing her say she wanted only him had opened his heart the rest of the way to her. He wanted to tell her how much he loved her. How he never wanted her to leave him. But how could he make such a declaration when...when comments such as he’d heard those women make in the store rang so loud in his memory?
He didn’t know why she chose to see past his scars. He found it hard to believe that eventually, if they did make more trips into town, if he reentered the daily life of Moonlight Cove with Christy by his side, that the comments wouldn’t get to her. How could they not when they tore him apart?
“Turn,” Christy said, steering him to the left, which was away from the water. The sand grew softer and more difficult for him to trudge through.
“Almost there.”
“Where is ‘there’?”
She laughed, and the happy sound softened his troubled thoughts. “Right here.”
Taking his hand in hers, she pressed his palm against a boulder, the cold, rough texture unmistakable, and he thought he had an idea where they were. A small, almost hidden stretch of beach behind a short jetty of rocks stretching from the cliff face.
“No one can see us here,” she said, leaning into him. “And the rocks block the wind, so it’s nice and warm.” She nibbled on his neck, which made him grow hard in less than a heartbeat.
He grinned and speared his fingers through her hair. “You are a naughty, naughty girl,” he said as he brushed his lips over hers.
She nodded. “I know.” A giggle slipped out of her, the curve of her smile against his lips.
He laid one hand against the boulder and turned her until she pressed back against it, his body aligning with hers as he ate at her lips, nibbling and suckling. She tasted of everything good. Pure. His.
His breath hitched, and he buried his face against her shoulder. Could this be real? Could she be for real? Or was she just a dream? A figment of his imagination because he’d been alone so long?
Christy fumbled with his buttons until they popped open in quick succession, and then her cool, soft hand reached into his briefs and freed his cock.
He groaned and pressed himself into her palm. This was too real to be all in his head. Christy was real, as was his love for her. “Yess,” he hissed as she stroked him from tip to base then fingered his testicles.
“Can you sit on the ground?” Christy said between quick, shallow breaths as she nipped at his neck. “I don’t want sand up my ass.”
He burst out laughing and wrapped his arms around her. Her humor warmed him almost as much as the pleasure her touches and kisses did. He loved that she stood up to him and knew her own mind, and he wondered how difficult her anxiety condition must be on her—to so completely lose control.
“Give me your hand,” he said, pulling away, realizing he didn’t mind her seeing his weaknesses, either. He’d never let anyone, including his parents, know about his discomfort or inability to do something. “Help me down.”
Going down on his good knee and keeping the other leg straight out in front of him, he was able to roll onto his ass and bring his other leg out from beneath him. “Getting up will be the hard part,” he informed her with a grin. “Now get down here, woman, and make love to me.”
“I’m taking off my pants. Hold on.”
And that he did. He wrapped his hand around his dick and slowly pumped, keeping himself hard while he waited for her to join him. He leaned on his elbow and tipped his head back, reveling in the cool breeze flowing over him, the warm sun on his face, the knowledge that within moments, he’d be inside Christy for the first time.
“Don’t you dare come yet,” she said as she straddled his legs.
He chuckled and reached for her, finding her arms first. She still wore her sweatshirt, so he grazed his hands up underneath it and pushed her bra up, freeing her soft, lush breasts to his hands. “I’m not coming until I get inside you. After that, I make no promises.”
Chailali’s Curse Page 11
