I Want to Hold Your Hand

by Marie Force

  “Oh yeah. Positively adorable the way a skunk in heat is adorable.”

  That set her off again.

  Shaking his head and filled with overwhelming joy to hear her laughing again, he walked around to the driver’s side. Before he started the truck, he stared at her for a long, breathless moment.

  “What?”

  “I missed you. Even though it was only one day, I was going crazy without you.”

  “Nolan,” she said softly as she slid across the bench seat to lay her hand on his face. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Stop. No apologies for doing what you needed to do.”

  “Then I won’t apologize for doing this either.” She drew him into a warm, soft, sweet kiss that would’ve brought him to his knees had he been standing.

  “You never have to apologize for doing that either.”

  “I missed you, too.”

  Nolan reached around her to find the center lap belt, which he clipped around her waist to keep her sitting right next to him as he pulled out of the parking lot. He’d never been so sorry that his garage was right across the street from the Abbotts’ store. Otherwise, he might’ve sat right in his parking lot and made out with her until their lips were numb.

  As it was, he was already hard as a rock despite wet, cold pants that were becoming tighter by the second. And then her hand landed on his thigh, and the last thing he was thinking about was the cold. “Don’t get too close. I’m dirty and wet.”

  “I don’t care.”

  The slap of the windshield wipers kept pace with the gallop of his heart. “I do.”

  She leaned over to speak directly into his ear. “Have I ever told you how sexy I find men who get dirty from hard work? Huge turn-on.”

  “Hannah . . .”

  She bit his earlobe, and the truck swerved.

  “Hannah!”

  Her soft laughter had him pressing the accelerator much harder than he should have in his haste to get home. The twisting, winding roads that made up the Butler Mountain foothills had never intimidated him until Hannah was next to him, filling his senses with the scent he’d become addicted to. Turning into the dirt road that led to his house, he sped through puddles that splashed mud all over his truck. He’d worry about that some other time.

  He braked hard, and the truck fishtailed in the mud. “Come on.” Releasing both their seatbelts, he took her hand and all but pulled her from the truck.

  The heavens chose that moment to open in a freezing torrent.

  Hannah squealed with laughter as they splashed through mud on the way to his front door. “Wait. Stop.” She pulled on his hand.

  “Are you crazy? We’re getting soaked.”

  “We’re already soaked.” She slid her arms around his neck and kissed him. “What’s a little more soaked?”

  “You are crazy.”

  “Apparently so.” The rain came down hard as they stood in his yard, wrapped up in each other, the heat of their kiss warming him from the inside. Only when he felt her shiver in his arms did he break the kiss to lead her inside. They kicked off boots in the mudroom.

  “Shower,” he said. “Now.”

  Hannah’s lips had a bluish tinge as she nodded in agreement.

  “This way.”

  As he led her through the small house to his bedroom, Nolan said a silent prayer of thanks for the woman he paid to keep the place clean. Every dime he’d paid her for years had led to this moment. The bathroom attached to his bedroom sparkled as he turned on the water and helped her pull the soaking sweater over her head. Steam from the shower soon filled the small room as they tugged at clothes and laughed at the difficulty of removing wet denim.

  Nolan followed her into the shower and wrapped his arms around her from behind. “This, right here, has to be what heaven feels like.”

  Hannah leaned her head back against his shoulder. “Definitely.”

  They stood under the hot water until Hannah stopped shivering, and then she turned to him, flattening her hands against his chest. “Hi, there.”

  “Hi, yourself.”

  “I’m having déjà vu. Seems like we’ve been here before.”

  “Two whole days ago, even if it feels like two years have passed since then. We’ve got a lot of time to make up for.” He bent his head to kiss her. “Starting right now.”

  “Want me to wash your back?” Hannah asked.

  “As long as you do the front, too.”

  She smiled as she held out her hand for the liquid soap he squeezed from a bottle and proceeded to fire every nerve ending in his body with a sensual massage that had the muscles in his legs quivering. And then she slid her soap-slicked hand up and down his rigid shaft, and he gasped from the almost painful pleasure that coursed through his body.

  “My turn,” he said abruptly.

  Her hair hung in wet strands around her face, which was rosy red from the heat of the shower. “No fair! I was just getting to the good stuff.”

  “More good stuff to come after I get my turn with the soap.” The first thing he did after he filled his hands with the liquid was to ensure her breasts were nice and clean. Her shuddering responses had him hurrying as he rinsed them both. Reaching behind her, he shut off the water and then grabbed two towels. “Allow me,” he said when she would’ve taken one of them from him.

  He dried her slowly, reverently, tending to every inch of porcelain skin before towel-drying her hair.

  She returned the favor and drove him mad with the drag of the cloth over his straining erection.

  Nolan took the towel from her and dropped it on the floor as he directed her from the bathroom into the bedroom, where he moved quickly to pull down the navy and cranberry plaid quilt he’d bought at the Abbotts’ store.

  The matching navy flannel sheets were warm and cozy as he followed her into bed.

  “Am I ruining your business with all the distractions lately?”

  “I couldn’t care less if you are.”

  “You do too care.”

  “Right now all I care about is you. In fact, most of the time all I care about is you.” He kissed her with all the pent-up passion of the last few difficult days. “I desperately need to be inside you.” His hand slid over her belly and down to test her readiness with two fingers.

  Hannah arched into him, her legs falling open to welcome him. “I dreamed about this the other night,” she whispered in his ear when he’d moved on top of her. “I woke up throbbing and needy.”

  “You should’ve called me. I do house calls.”

  Laughing, she said, “I almost did.”

  He aligned their bodies and thrust into her tight heat in one long stroke that had them both gasping. “You can call me any time—day or night—and I’ll come to you and give you anything you need.”

  “Anything?” she asked as she wrapped her legs around his hips.

  Pushing harder into her, he said, “Anything.” He intentionally moved slowly, intending to draw out the pleasure for as long as he could. But she had other ideas, moving her hips, squeezing him from within and running her tongue over the outer shell of his ear.

  “Slow down,” he whispered desperately.

  “Can’t.”

  He pulled back and withdrew completely from her. “Yes, you can.”

  “Nolan!”

  Bending his head, he latched on to her nipple, licking and sucking until it stood up tall and proud and very red from his ministrations. Then he turned his attention to her other breast, drawing a keening sob from her as he worked to regain his own control.

  Her fingers dug into his back as she moved under him, trying to get him back where she wanted him, but he refused to be rushed. Skeeter had the garage covered, and they were somewhat slow today anyway because of the lousy weather. There was really no reason at all he couldn’t spend the rest of the day in bed with Hannah. The realization calmed him and gave him the patience he needed to kiss his way to her belly, focusing on each hipbone and loving her reactions, which ranged from
breathy sighs to moans to begging.

  He parted her legs and propped them on his shoulders, her thighs quivering as he pushed them farther apart. Cupping her bottom, he lifted her to his mouth and feasted on her sweetness. She came almost instantly, calling out his name in the throes of intense release. He’d never heard anything he loved more than the sound of his name on her lips at that moment.

  “Again,” he whispered against her most sensitive flesh.

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can.” He squeezed her bottom and went back for more, taking her up slowly this time as his cock throbbed under him, wanting in on the party.

  Hannah fisted the sheets, her head thrown back as the desire once again peaked in a shuddering, trembling climax that nearly consumed him, too.

  He quickly lowered her legs and moved up to enter her, prolonging her release with deep thrusts that finished him off in a tidal wave of pleasure that topped anything he’d ever experienced before, even with her. Their eyes met and held, and he grasped her hands, propping them over her head as he continued to move inside her.

  “Let me have my hands,” she said.

  He released them and wrapped his arms around her, wanting to keep her as close as he could get her.

  She curled her arms around his neck, her fingers combing through his hair in soothing strokes.

  “I love you, Hannah. I love you more than anything.”

  “I love you, too.”

  After hours and hours of uncertainty, Nolan could finally breathe again.

  CHAPTER 23

  Thank goodness for Hunter and Will and the rest of my family, but particularly them. They sleep here every night, taking turns, so I never have to be alone. Homer sleeps next to me, whimpering in his sleep. I think he knows.

  —From the diary of Hannah Abbott Guthrie, age twenty-eight

  Despite her concerns about his business falling apart because of her, Hannah didn’t protest when Nolan insisted they spend the rest of the rainy afternoon in bed. They made love again to the sound of raindrops beating against the roof and then fell asleep wrapped up in each other for a couple of hours.

  After another shower, Hannah donned one of his flannel shirts and insisted he show her around his small but tidy home. On his desk in the living room, she found a roll of architectural plans and asked him what they were.

  “The house I’d like to build on this property. Someday.”

  “Show me.”

  He unfurled the plans for the post-and-beam house he’d envisioned.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said of the architect’s rendering of the finished product. “When are you going to build it?”

  Shrugging, he rolled the plans back into a tight cylinder. “I don’t know.”

  She felt the wall go up around him, the same one he’d erected when she asked about his family. While she desperately wanted to know what he was thinking, she didn’t push him, hoping he’d open up to her when he was ready to. Wandering to the window that overlooked the yard, she noticed a huge pile of freshly split firewood. “What’s with all the wood?” The burning season was all but over for now.

  “Takes a lot of wood to keep your fire pit going for an entire Sultans weekend.”

  She turned to him. “You did that for me?”

  “I had to do something with all my extra energy while I was waiting for you to do your thinking.”

  “I’m sorry I put you through that.”

  “I told you not to apologize to me.”

  “I still feel like I should.”

  “Well, don’t. As great as things are between us, I know we don’t live in a bubble, and there will be some bumps as people get used to us together. I just hope you know . . .”

  She went to him in the kitchen, where he’d put soup on to warm, and wrapped her arms around his bare torso. “What do you hope I know?”

  “That no matter what anyone says or does or thinks, it doesn’t have to change things for us. We may not live in a bubble, but perhaps we should build one around ourselves and our relationship so other people’s crap can’t get to us.”

  “That’s a really good idea,” she said, leaving a line of kisses between his shoulder blades as his belly fluttered under her hands.

  “Glad you think so, because this weekend is going to be another test. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said with a sigh.

  “If you want to play it cool until after it’s over, you won’t hurt my feelings.”

  Dropping her hands to his hips, Hannah encouraged him to turn to face her. “I don’t want to play it cool. I don’t want to hide what we have together from our friends.”

  “They were Caleb’s friends before they were your friends or mine,” he reminded her.

  “True, but they’re ours now, too, and there’s never going to be a perfect time to ease them into the idea of me dating again. Or falling in love or anything that doesn’t involve Caleb. So there’s no time like the present.”

  “And what if one of them says something like Gavin did?”

  “I’ll be ready for it this time.”

  “We’ll both be ready for it, and we’ll deal with it together.”

  Hannah nodded in agreement and went up on tiptoes to kiss him.

  His arm banded tightly around her as the kiss went from light and sweet to hot and sultry in the span of three seconds. “Food first,” Nolan said when he came up for air. “Then more of that.”

  “You’re a spoil sport.”

  “I’ll make it up to you.”

  After a lunch of delicious vegetable soup and thick turkey sandwiches, he spent the rest of the afternoon making it up to her in every way he could think of. “I hate to say it, but I have to go soon,” Nolan said as their bodies cooled and their breathing returned to normal. “My crew chief was able to finagle a couple of hours of practice time on a track in New Hampshire that’s more than ninety minutes from here.”

  “This was a very nice and very decadent day.”

  “Indeed it was.”

  “I won’t come near you during your workdays anymore. I’d hate to be responsible for running you out of business.”

  “No chance of that, babe. The business is very flush despite my inattention recently. You can bother me any time your tires need checking.”

  Hannah giggled with mirth at her flimsy excuse. “I figured that was quicker than an oil change.”

  He cupped her backside with one big hand and squeezed. “I’ll give you a complete lube and filter job any time you need it.”

  “I might need it tonight after you get back.”

  “It’ll be late.”

  “I’ll wait up.”

  “Mmm,” he said, losing himself in another kiss. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  • • •

  They spent that night and every night that week together. After he dropped off the wood for the weekend on Thursday afternoon, he took her with him back to his place to shower and change his clothes after the long workday, and they never made it out of bed again until pounding on the door woke them out of a sound sleep at four in the morning.

  “What the heck?” Hannah muttered as she came to.

  They’d been up late and had only gone to sleep around two.

  Knowing exactly who would be pounding on his door in the middle of the night, Nolan was immediately awake and in motion, pulling on a pair of jeans and zipping them. “Stay here. No matter what you hear, please . . . If you care about me at all, stay here.”

  As he shut the bedroom door behind him and went to deal with his drunk and belligerent father, Nolan tried not to think about the stricken expression on Hannah’s face after he spoke to her so harshly.

  “Open the goddamn door, boy. I know you’re in there.”

  Nolan opened the door and gave his father a shove to get him away from the house. He pulled the inside door shut and went out into the chilly night, oblivious to the cold even though he was barefoot and shirtless. “You need to ge
t the hell out of here.”

  “Not until I get what I came for.” Vernon’s words were slurred, and he smelled like he’d fallen into a vat of gin.

  “I’m all done. You’ve gotten the last penny you’re ever going to get out of me.”

  “Is your fancy lady putting those ideas in your head?”

  “Hardly. You think I’d be foolish enough to tell her about you? If you want to get yourself cleaned up, I’ll gladly pay for that, but that’s the only thing I’ll pay for where you’re concerned. I’ve been paying my whole life, and I’m done.”

  “You’re done when I say so, and not one second before.”

  “I’m done now. If you think I don’t mean it, push me on this and I’ll have the cops out here before you know what hit you. You’re trespassing on my property and causing a nuisance.”

  “Listen to you all high and mighty. Your property. This was my father’s place.”

  “Yeah, and he left it to me, not you. So you’d better get your ass out of here or deal with the cops. I’m all through with you and your brand of emotional blackmail.”

  Vernon seemed to realize all at once that Nolan was dead serious. “You got some nerve talking to me like that, boy.”

  “You’ve got some nerve showing up here time and time again and acting like I owe you anything. Now get going or go to jail. Your choice.”

  “You never talked like this ’til you took up with that fancy Abbott girl.”

  “She’s made me realize I deserve better than what I’ve gotten from you. Don’t you ever get tired of living this way? Why don’t you let somebody help you?”

  To Nolan’s immense dismay, Vernon broke down into deep, gulping sobs. “You don’t know how hard it is.”

  “No, I don’t, but I do know if I continue to enable you, you’ll never have a good reason to get help. You know where I am and the offer of help has no expiration date. But don’t come around here again looking for a handout. I’m tapped out in every possible way.” It took everything Nolan had to turn his back on his father and walk up the stairs to the porch.

  “Nolan.”

  He kept his back to his father. “What?”

  “She’s too good for you.”