by Cindy Kirk
“Looks like we’ve both been cleared for active duty.” Hadley offered him an impish smile. “If you’re okay with not holstering your gun, we’re good to go.”
He laughed. “You say the darnedest things.”
Heat rolled up Hadley’s neck in a rush. She attempted to pull her hand from his, but he held on and brought it to his lips.
“I find it an endearing quality.” David pressed a kiss in the center of her palm, and when his eyes met hers, they seemed to glitter in the moonlight. She saw her own desire reflected in the smoky gray depths, and a question.
Hadley responded by inclining her head ever-so-slightly and was rewarded with a slow, slightly wicked smile.
Without uttering another word, his mouth closed over hers. There, under the branches of a large oak, the moon casting a golden glow, she kissed him with all the love in her heart.
Her fingers toyed with the buttons on his shirt. His chest was broad beneath her palm, his body as firm and hard as an athlete’s. The citrus scent Hadley had come to associate with him teased her nostrils.
Leaning close, Hadley nuzzled his ear, then planted a kiss at the base of his neck, his skin salty beneath her lips. But when she reached for his belt buckle, David’s fingers closed over hers.
“Inside.”
“It might be fun out here.”
“Tempting, but someone driving down the road might decide to turn in.”
Laughing, they sprinted down the drive, hand in hand. Hadley had to stifle her laughter as she reached the house, not wanting to wake Brynn. “Which room?”
“Yours. It’s the farthest from Brynn’s bedroom.” Still, when he took her hand, they tiptoed down the hall as if Brynn slept mere feet away.
Ruckus followed behind them, slipping into the room before David closed the door to her suite behind him.
David pointed to the dog, then to the red plaid dog bed. “You. Over there.”
Hadley trailed a finger up his arm. “What about me? Where do you want me?”
“You’re right where I want you.” He pulled her to him. His warm, husky voice reached inside her to a raw, tender place. “Now, we take this slow and enjoy.”
Before Hadley could draw a breath, his lips were back on hers, exquisitely gentle and achingly tender.
She wound her arms around his neck and lifted her face, sighing with pleasure as his mouth caressed her lips.
His hair was a jumble of waves, one lock falling rakishly across his forehead. That was her last coherent thought as they tumbled down on the sofa cushions.
David pressed his lips lightly to hers, teasingly, his mouth never pulling away. Hadley kissed him back, forgetting everything in the pleasure of the contact. A smoldering heat flared, a sensation she didn’t bother to fight.
“I want you naked.” Desperation made her voice husky. Hadley pressed her body against him, moving seductively against his erection.
“What happened to slow?” His voice was a throaty rasp.
“Next time.” With fingers that trembled with urgency, she started on buttons. Their shirts hit the floor at the same time. One flick of the closure and her bra joined the shirt at her feet.
She started to unzip her skirt, but then his broad hands closed over her breasts. She squeezed her eyes shut when he cupped them high in his hands, circling the peaks with his fingers. Thumbs teased the tips for several excruciating seconds before his mouth replaced his hands.
She curved her fingers against the back of his head, not wanting the exquisite sensations coursing through her to stop.
Hadley prided herself on her calmness under pressure, but she couldn’t wait to run her hands over his body, to feel the coiled strength of skin and muscle sliding under her fingers.
She couldn’t wait for him to touch her in the same way, longed to feel the weight of his body on hers. Wanted to feel him inside her.
Hadley pulled his face to hers and gave him a ferocious kiss. The type of kiss that said, I want you now.
In seconds, David’s pants joined her skirt on the floor.
Trying to calm her unsteady breath, Hadley took a moment to study him in his black boxers. She tapped a finger against her lips. “It’s a good look. But I think I’d like you better naked.”
“Ditto.”
Emboldened by his quick response, Hadley hooked a finger in her lace panties, watched his eyes drop from her breasts to the tiny triangle.
She took a step closer. “You show me what you have, and I’ll reciprocate.”
His gaze never left hers as he stepped out of his boxers and his erection sprang free.
“You’re beautiful,” she murmured.
He pointed to her panties. “You’re still dressed.”
“This”—she eased the tiny triangle of silk down an inch—“hardly counts.”
His eyes glittered. “We had a deal.”
She gave a little laugh and closed her hand around the length of him.
“Keep doing that,” he growled when she began to stroke him, “and this will be over before it begins. I’m ready to self-combust.”
Pulling her hand away, he pushed her up against the wall and kissed her with an intensity that had her squirming with pleasure.
“Touch me,” she whispered, “like I touched you.”
With eyes still on her face, David reached down and gave a swift jerk on the silky fabric. In tatters, her panties fell to the floor.
He looked up. “Sorry.”
“No, you’re not. Neither am I.” Her lips curved. “They were in the way.”
“I could have worked around them, but having them gone makes this much easier.” David cupped her, and one long finger slid inside.
Hadley’s body clenched around his finger, her breaths now coming in pants. She surged against the pleasure swelling inside her like the tide. Just when she thought she would implode, he pulled back.
Easing her down to the rug, he continued to kiss her while those magical fingers, now on her breasts, sent shock waves of feeling through her body.
His mouth lingered there—licking, sucking, tasting—before beginning a downward journey. She squirmed when his tongue circled her navel, those magic fingers still on her breasts.
Consumed by the pleasure, she let her head fall back. When he asked her to open for him, she didn’t hesitate. She wanted him inside her.
Then his mouth dipped lower.
Her heart began to pound. As his tongue circled, her breathing grew shallow. Hadley moved her hips, but not to push him away. No, she didn’t want to push him away.
She simply couldn’t remain still, not when he was making her feel…
The orgasm slammed into her, and she cried out.
David continued to stoke the fire until the heat dropped to a simmer.
“Ohmigod.” She expelled a ragged breath, her skin still tingling. “I never—”
David planted a kiss on her belly. “I’m glad it was good for you.”
She propped herself up on her elbows. “You sound as if we’re done.”
“Aren’t we?”
Hadley gazed pointedly at his erection.
Suddenly, his arms were around her again, and the intense pleasure was back, rolling like large waves propelling her to great heights.
She wanted him inside her, needed him inside her. Just when she thought she couldn’t go one second longer, David sank his hard length into her.
Hadley’s legs swept around his hips, holding him to her. She met him thrust for thrust. Trust—and love—made the joining even sweeter.
It was as if she and David had been transported to a world made up of just the two of them, one filled with warmth and caring and incredible need. Hadley had never experienced anything like the emotions and feelings David stirred in her.
Her pleasure began to build. Hadley told herself to hold on, to make the feelings last, but her passion was so strong she couldn’t stop it. She clung to him, riding the waves until she shuddered.
As her body relea
sed and muscles contracted, she tightened her hold on him. She never wanted to let him go.
David continued to stroke, to caress, until he’d wrung every last drop of pleasure from her before he took his own release, plunging deep once more and crying out her name.
She was still breathing hard when he rolled off of her. But instead of getting up, he pulled her to him, kissing her neck, her face her lips.
Content and sated, Hadley laid her head on his chest and snuggled against him. Her eyes drifted shut, then popped open when Ruckus growled.
She might have scrambled up if David hadn’t placed a restraining hand on her arm.
“It’s only the wind.” David shot Ruckus a reproving look.
The dog plopped back down on the rug and began to gnaw on his foot.
“Why did he growl?” Hadley linked her fingers with his.
“Apparently, he doesn’t like seeing two people having fun.”
Hadley laughed and planted a kiss at the base of David’s throat. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d been this happy.
“This has been the best day.” Her arms remained wrapped around his warm flesh, reveling in the feel and scent of him.
“An amazing evening.” David’s voice rasped, deep and unsteady.
After several minutes of cuddling, Hadley sat up and stretched. “I should clean up.”
David pushed to his elbows and admired the long, lean body with curves in all the right places.
With blond hair tousled and lips swollen from his kisses, she couldn’t have looked any lovelier.
“Please don’t tell me you’re getting dressed.”
She answered by scooping up her clothes from the floor and flashing him a cheeky smile.
David expelled an audible sigh. What he’d always suspected was true.
All good things did come to an end. At least for this evening.
Chapter 23
Silence really could be deafening, David realized.
He sat with his mother and two siblings in the parlor of the family home. David and Clay had each confiscated a chair, while his sister and mother sat on the pretty floral sofa.
David told them the whole story. He expected a barrage of questions. He hadn’t expected them to simply stare in disbelief.
His mother cleared her throat. Wearing a silky blue dress with pearls, she appeared overdressed for what was supposed to be a simple family dinner. Her hair, worn for years in the same stylish bob that suited the shape of her face, sported fresh blond highlights.
When she’d greeted him at the door with a broad smile, he’d been hopeful. There was nothing his mother liked more than having her entire family under the same roof. With his revelation, the bright smile wavered, then disappeared.
“Does she plan to fight you for custody?” Lynn’s voice held a steel edge.
“What?” Hadn’t she listened to anything he’d said? “No. Of course not.”
“I don’t understand why you sound shocked.” His mother’s blue eyes were ice. “She admitted she came here with a specific purpose. Over the past three years, she’s wheedled—”
“Stop right there.” David didn’t care if he sounded harsh. His mother’s tendency toward knee-jerk reactions was the primary reason he’d insisted on telling his family without Hadley present. “Hadley did not wheedle her way into anything.”
“I think Mom is concerned Hadley may have a hidden agenda.” Greer, a younger version of their mother, kept her voice soft and conciliatory. “She loves Brynn. We all do. We don’t want to see you—or her—hurt.”
“Hadley loves Brynn, too.” David leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs, searching for a way to convince his family there was absolutely no reason to worry. “She wants to be a part of her daughter’s life. I want that, too.”
“And your life?” Greer smiled. “I’ve seen the looks between the two of you. Definitely not PG-rated.”
Despite the lightness of his sister’s tone, David saw concern in Greer’s eyes. He hadn’t planned on getting into his plans for the future with Hadley, but right now it didn’t feel as if he had a choice.
“I care very much for Hadley,” he began. “She’s a wonderful—"
“Are you sleeping with her?”
David didn’t know who was the most shocked by his mother’s question, him or his siblings.
“Mom.” Clay shook his head in warning. “I hardly think that’s our business.”
“It most certainly is our business.” Lynn’s voice went shrill. “Your brother is a wealthy man. And a lonely one. A smart woman knows how to take advantage of—”
“Enough.” David’s voice cracked like a whip. “My relationship with Hadley is not open for dissection. You need to accept that, as Brynn’s birth mother, she’s now part of our family.”
Lynn’s blue eyes flashed. “Or what, David?”
Only under extreme duress did the normally implacable Lynn Chapin snap. David had seen it after his father died when she’d lashed out at the funeral director who’d messed up the memorial service. She’d done it another time when Whitney had forgotten to pick up Brynn from kindergarten.
The forgetting part his mother might have forgiven, but not the way Whitney had acted afterward, as if leaving a five-year-old waiting alone for nearly an hour was no big deal.
David had underestimated how the news of Hadley’s tie to Brynn would affect his mother. Forgotten how fiercely protective she was of her only grandchild, and yes, of him, too.
Forget the ultimatums.
“Mom.” He kept his tone low and fixed his gaze on her face. “Hadley loves Brynn. And Brynn loves Hadley.”
David held up his hand when she opened her mouth to protest. “As far as Hadley and me, well, I realize we haven’t been together long. While I can’t explain it, she and I share a special bond, too.”
“I’ve seen the connection, Mom,” Clay admitted.
David was grateful for his brother’s support. There were already too many adversaries in the room. David needed an ally.
“Hadley and I are taking this slow.” David reached over and took his mother’s hand, his gaze never leaving her face. “You have my word that Brynn will remain my number-one focus and her happiness my number-one priority.”
“I’m happy you aren’t rushing into a commitment.” There was a hint of apology in his mother’s tone. “I only want the best for you and Brynn.”
Greer slipped an arm around her mother’s shoulders in support. “David is too sensible to rush into anything permanent.”
“It seems my brother has this situation under control.” Clay pushed to his feet. “Now, what time are we eating? I’m starved.”
“Steve asked me to marry him.” Lynn cast a loving look at the lanky man at her side. “I said yes.”
Hadley added her own voice to the cheers coming from the family surrounding her. Beside her, Brynn jumped up and down.
Hadley liked Steve Bloom. From everything she’d witnessed in the past three years, the man was a stellar father. According to Ami and her sisters, he’d also been a wonderful husband, caring for his cancer-stricken wife until her death.
Now, he’d been given an opportunity for happiness once again, with Lynn.
David’s hand captured Hadley’s. He brought it to his lips. The obvious show of affection made her blush, but she didn’t pull away. She loved this man and liked it when he touched her. Liked it very much.
On their way to personally congratulate the happy couple, David was waylaid by Cade, who had a couple of questions about the blueprints David had drawn up for him and Marigold. Hadley waited, but after a minute, then two, passed, she reminded herself she and David weren’t joined at the hip.
Everyone attending the party this evening now knew she was Brynn’s birth mom. Not much had been said, though Hadley had caught Lynn studying her thoughtfully several times during the meal.
Earlier, when dinner had concluded and they’d been feasting on the cherry pies she and Br
ynn had made, Hadley thought Lynn might say something. But she’d only complimented her and Brynn on their baking skills.
When she reached the smiling couple near the doors to the terrace, Hadley extended her hand. “Congratulations. I know you’ll be very happy together.”
“Thank you, Hadley.” Steve’s hazel eyes sparkled behind silver wire-rimmed glasses. He pressed her hand between his and gave it a squeeze. “I was glad to hear you’ve been reunited with your daughter. I can attest there’s nothing like a daughter.”
The sincerity in his words brought tears to Hadley’s eyes.
“We’re both happy you’re here,” Lynn echoed.
While his fiancée looked cool and chic in blue silk and pearls, Steve was comfortably rumpled in khakis and a madras shirt.
“Speaking of daughters.” Hadley glanced around the room. “Have either of you seen Brynn?”
Lynn’s brows pulled together. “The last time I saw her, she was headed to the backyard to play with Callum and Connor.”
“Hanging with a bunch of grown-ups tends to be tedious for children that age.” Steve smiled indulgently.
Connor burst through the French doors with a clatter.
The older man’s gaze sharpened.
“Brynn’s in the pool.” The boy’s freckles shone bright against his skin’s pallor. “We were playing, and she hit her head. We tried to—”
Hadley went cold all over. Brushing by the boy, she raced for the door. She reached the terrace, scanning the deck of the kidney-shaped pool. She spotted Brynn facedown in the water. Her heart gave a solid thump.
“Call for an ambulance.” Without breaking stride, she scooped up a kickboard and dived in. She reached the unconscious girl in seconds.
With quick moves, Hadley placed the kickboard between them and tilted Brynn’s head back, effectively keeping her mouth and nose out of the water. By the time she approached the edge, David had joined her in the water and began mouth-to-mouth.
Numerous hands—she wasn’t sure who they all belonged to—pulled Brynn from the water to the deck.
“See if she’s breathing,” Hadley ordered.
Kneeling beside the child, Cade opened her airway, then placed his ear close to listen for breathing. Hadley went lightheaded when he pinched Brynn’s nose shut and placed his mouth over hers and blew.
