by Jill Shalvis
Heaven.
She watched the moon and stars and sipped wine for a while, wondering if this counted as fun. It felt decadent and different. But fun?
Maybe if she wasn’t alone.
Maybe if Josh was with her…
That was a disconcerting thought, so she took another sip of the wine, set the bottle at her hip, and slipped into the pool with hardly a ripple.
It felt so good that she dived deep. The deliciously cool water rushed over her body, instantly bringing down her body temp. She swam a few laps, then lazily floated to the far side of the pool. She leaned on the edge, kicking gently, looking out at the rising moon, sipping more wine. Eventually she realized that some time had gone by and that there was now a light on in the big house. Her dreamy haze was interrupted by a disturbance in the water at the other end of the pool, and suddenly Josh was there, emerging at her side.
Her heart stopped, then started again when he leaned close, the heat of his body instantly enveloping her even as the chlorine-scented water rushed off his face and shoulders. He could stand up here where she couldn’t, the water hitting him midchest.
Their eyes met. His lashes were wet and spiky, his eyes dark and deep and intense. He didn’t speak, and neither did she. Reaching out, he stroked the wet hair at her temple, drawing his finger slowly down her cheek to the corner of her mouth, his gaze following the movement.
Suddenly the cool water felt as heated as the air around them, and she shivered. “Josh—”
He put a finger over her lips, then paused for a beat before lowering his face to hers. Replacing his finger with his mouth, his tongue traced the line of her lower lip.
She heard a moan. Hers, of course, low and throaty as Josh’s hands slid up her back. Using the water’s momentum to curl her into his chest, she fell into him willingly. He nuzzled her neck, his lips warm against her now-chilled skin, and she sucked in a breath.
Lifting his head, he met her gaze. His fingers cradled her head so he could run his lips along her jawline to the soft skin of her neck. Oh, God. His tongue there, right there on the vulnerable spot beneath her ear, and just like that, he had her.
Whatever he wanted…anything. Because she wanted it too.
He kissed her, slow and hungry and powerful, and the night, the moon, the stars, everything spun all around her. He deepened the kiss, turning it into a second one and then a third, and then so many more she lost count, his warm hands brushing her breasts and then her bare nipples.
He’d untied and removed her bikini top.
He raised his head, and she arched in the moonlight, wanting him to touch her some more, wanting his mouth on her.
But he just looked at her, and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Needing some more liquid courage, she reached for the wine bottle, but he took it gently from her fingers. Watching her intently, he took a sip from the bottle, and then another, drinking more deeply. Catching up.
She couldn’t take her eyes off him.
He set the bottle down and kissed her. His mouth was chilled from the wine, but fiery desire flamed through her, through him, too, if the groan that rumbled up from his chest meant anything. He offered her another sip from the bottle, then drank again himself. Lifting her up, he put his lips to her nipple, his fingers dancing down her spine, making her shiver. Everything he did felt so sensual, so slow and dreamlike.
Erotic.
She nearly went over the edge right then and there. With one more touch she might have, but his eyes met hers. They were dark, showing nothing but a reflection of the moon.
Nothing of the man.
She slid her hands up his delicious abs and up to his chest, humming in pleasure at the feel of all the firm muscle at her disposal. It wasn’t enough. She needed more. “Josh—”
He kissed her throat, her collarbone, her shoulders as his fingers trailed down her belly, caressing her through the fabric of her bikini bottom. It didn’t deter him. He merely slid the material aside and then his fingers touched her, knowingly caressing, then dipping inside her as he kissed her deeply, his tongue mirroring his hand’s motion.
Grace pressed tight to him, loving the feel of his hard, wet body against hers, and he was hard. Everywhere. She palmed him gently, using her thumb to tease him, and his hips jerked into her touch. Fisting a hand in her hair, he kissed her harder, his mouth searing and very serious. “Out of the pool,” he finally said, his voice low and commanding. And then he lent his hands to the cause, vaulting himself out in one easy economical movement that had all his muscles bunching. Reaching back for her, he pulled her out with no effort at all. “Come on.”
She had no idea where to, and she didn’t care. She willingly followed.
Josh pulled her wet bod in close. Her skin was deliciously chilled against his and her breath warm against his throat. They ground against each other, and he wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but he was sure of one thing.
They were finally doing this.
He kissed her again, swift and rough, and she moaned and clutched at him eagerly.
“Now, Josh,” she whispered. “Please now.”
Hell yeah. He pulled back and eyed their surroundings. There was the patio table, but one of the legs was faulty. He had two plush lounge chairs only a few feet away, just beneath the terrace, protected by the bushes he’d yet to prune back for the year.
Perfect.
He pulled Grace over to one, nudged her onto it, and followed her down. Her mouth caught his attention first, and he kissed it long and hard, leaving it swollen and wet as he shifted down toward her breasts. He laved at one gorgeously pebbled nipple, loving how that made her gasp. She was making little panting whimpering sounds that were fueling his lust and need to the point of no return. He should stop this and get them inside, but he didn’t want to move. The cool air, her hot body squirming beneath his, her hands running over him everywhere she could reach, it all felt so good. He slid a hand to the small of her back, then to her ass, tilting her so that her sweet spot caught his thigh as she rocked her hips. They were still learning about each other, but he was starting to know her body now, and what she needed. Mouth on hers, he set a rhythm, and her legs tightened on him like a vise.
“Josh.”
“I know.”
Her nails dug into his biceps as she squirmed some more, her breathing gone heavy. Close, he thought, so close, and then she tore her mouth from his. “Oh, God. I’m going to—”
“Come. Do it.”
She burst into wild shudders in his arms. Absorbing her cry, Josh held her to him and watched as she rode out the waves of pleasure.
She was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.
When she finally sagged back onto the lounge, she tugged him down over the top of her. “Tell me you have a condom. You’d better have a condom!”
“In my pocket.”
This caused some trouble since his shorts were still drenched from the pool, but she managed to get her fingers on the packet when he sat up a little. Slapping his hands away, she insisted on doing the honors herself, which meant that by the time she’d painstakingly rolled the condom down his length, he was quivering, vibrating with need.
“Now,” she said, and guided him home.
Nothing had ever felt so good. Then she arched her hips and he saw fireworks. “Grace,” he whispered hoarsely, nipping at her jaw. “We’ve got to slow down.”
“Later.”
She was completely out of control, he thought. And she wasn’t alone. Already breathing crazily, he set his forehead to hers with a little groan as she continued to rock up against him as he moved within her, trying to get him to speed up.
“Please,” she whispered sweetly, her fingers in his hair, her body straining and moving with his in a way that took him straight to the edge. He could feel everything tightening within him as he barreled like a freight train to the end of the line. “Grace, Christ. Don’t move.”
But of course she kept moving. His fingers dug into her hip
s, but there was no hope of reining her in. He didn’t even know why he’d tried. She drew him deeper into her body, and, he suspected, into her heart and soul.
There was no holding back, not then, and not when she cupped his face and looked up at him, letting him see everything as she burst again. Her eyes went opaque, his name torn from her lips as her muscles contracted, clenching him so tightly it was his undoing. He came right along with her, thrusting hard into her body before finally falling over her in a boneless heap. He tried to pull back but she wouldn’t let him, keeping her arms and legs wrapped tight around him. Finally she allowed him to shift his hands from her ass to the lounge, to support his own weight again.
They remained like that for a few long moments, his head resting beside hers on the cushion, breathing the same air, their damp limbs entangled.
It was the most perfect moment he could remember, and he planned to rewind and repeat the entire experience. Just as soon as he could move.
Grace lay there wrapped up in a big, warm, sated Josh, thinking she’d never felt so amazing when she heard the slider open.
“Hey, Josh?”
Anna.
Grace’s head shot up and bashed Josh in the chin hard enough to cause stars to dance in her vision.
“Josh,” Anna yelled. “I’ve been calling you for ten damn minutes!” Oblivious, she rolled outside, staring down at the cell phone in her hand, grabbing up Josh’s cell as she passed the patio table where it lay discarded.
“Oh my God,” Grace whispered, staring up at Josh in horror, shoving at him, trying to get the big lug off of her.
Josh, of course, didn’t budge. There was no budging him unless he wanted to be budged. With his still sleepy, heavy-lidded gaze locked on hers, he spoke over his shoulder to his sister. “Give us a minute.”
Anna finally looked up. She had no way of seeing much. The night was dark, only a sliver of a moon. They were in the shadows, and Josh still had his shorts on, preserving most of his modesty. He was completely covering Grace, not that that helped any.
Anna narrowed her eyes as if trying to see through the dark, then slapped a hand over her eyes. “Eww! Are you kidding me?”
“A minute,” Josh repeated in his no-nonsense, calm but steely voice.
“Fine. But call your son, who’s been demon-dialing you for half an hour.” With that, Anna whirled, then wheeled back to the house, dropping Josh’s phone onto the table without further word.
Josh dived into the pool’s depths to find Grace’s bikini top. Once he’d retrieved it, he tied the straps at her back and neck while she adjusted her bottoms. He helped her make sure everything was back in place because she was pretty much a bowl of jelly. Then he strode directly to his phone and called Toby.
“Well?” Grace asked worriedly when he’d hung up.
“He’s fine. He just wants to come home.” His gaze met hers. “Grace—”
“If you’re going to say you’re sorry, please don’t. Or if you regret it, or if it was just plain awful and—”
He shut her up with a kiss. A really great kiss, with lots of heat and tongue. When they ran out of air, he pressed his forehead to hers. “I was going to thank you. I needed you tonight. You were there for me.”
It took her a moment to understand he didn’t mean the sex on the lounge, but when she’d come to his office. What didn’t take a moment was the realization that he’d said he needed her. Not someone. Or anyone.
Her.
That this big, strong, proud man who never needed anyone had said such a thing moved her far more than she’d expected. Reaching up, she cupped his jaw. “You were having a bad day?”
“A bad year.” He hesitated, then covered her hand with his. “I sold my practice to the hospital tonight.”
She controlled her instinctive gasp. “You did?”
“Yeah.”
She was blown away. “Are you okay?”
He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm. “At the moment, I don’t have much blood in my brain to be anything but very okay.”
She smiled.
He smiled back, then kissed her. “’Night, Grace.”
“’Night.”
Chapter 17
Chocolate is nature’s way of making up for Mondays.
Josh went through several straight days of craziness at work. He never second-guessed his decision to sell, but there was no immediate magic opening of his schedule. After the smoke cleared, there were a hell of a lot of people who wanted to talk to him. His staff was safe; that had been a nonnegotiable condition of the contract. Everyone still had jobs, status quo.
But even though he’d discussed it ahead of time with everyone in his office, now that it had been done, they all needed reassurance. Josh understood that, but it didn’t help with the insanity, which also included more hospital board meetings. The board had been ecstatic about his decision, and as planned, they brought in another doctor to lighten the load.
Dr. Tessa McGinley. Josh knew her. They’d gone through residency together. Though they were the same age, Tessa had a warm, almost grandmotherly appeal to her that made her seem twice his age. She wasn’t made for ER work, but that was a benefit as far as Josh was concerned, since he coveted the ER. The bottom line was that Tessa had been tailor-made for a practice like his, where patient care was the number-one priority.
Best yet, starting tomorrow, she’d be splitting Josh’s days at the office, giving him room to add more ER shifts. More time for Toby.
A life.
He thought about that as he dealt with four flu sufferers, three routine physicals, two cases of strep, and a partridge in a pear tree. He thought about a lot of things, such as Grace. He hadn’t seen her since the night they’d christened his lounge chair. He had no idea what her plans were, but his were leaning toward Operation: Get Her Alone in the Pool Again.
But he was gritty-eyed with exhaustion. He thought maybe he could lie down on his bed and sleep for the rest of his life.
Going to get better now, Josh told himself. Starting tomorrow. Tomorrow he wouldn’t be too tired to give something more to the people in his life.
For now, he left work and headed to the pier. It was the night of the Summer Festival, an annual event featuring music, food, and booths from the local merchants. He’d promised Mallory that he’d put in an hour at the Health Services Center booth, making nice and taking blood pressure readings for the passersby.
In exchange, and since Grace had gone for another interview in Portland—something he didn’t want to think about too much—Mallory had arranged for a babysitter for Toby. Thanks to the teen center that she ran as a part of the HSC, she had lots of money-hungry teenagers at her disposal, and tonight she’d lined him up with Riley. Riley wasn’t a local girl but a teen Amy had rescued from the streets not too long ago.
Toby loved her.
So with Toby taken care of, Josh arrived at the pier. The hot, muggy day had turned into a hot, sultry night, and he rolled up his sleeves as he walked through the salty ocean air. He spent an hour in the booth, taking the blood pressure of every senior citizen in Lucky Harbor. When it was Lucille’s turn, she merely winked at him when he suggested her blood pressure was a little too high and that she needed to slow down some.
“I’ll slow down when I’m dead,” she said, and waved in her entire blue-haired posse for their turn. Mrs. Tyler asked how Josh felt about cougars, and he really hoped she meant the kind in the wild.
Mrs. Munson grabbed his ass.
Mrs. Dawson asked him for a breast exam.
Josh was thinking about moving to the South Pacific and living on a deserted island beach when Dr. Tessa McGinley showed up to relieve him.
“Careful,” he warned her. “They bite.”
She was just over five feet, adorably round, and had one of those contagious smiles. “Want me to defend your honor?” she asked, laughing at him.
“You think I’m joking. I’m telling you, stay on your toes.”
She didn’t look perturbed in the slightest. “I think I can handle anything that comes up.”
Josh was thinking good luck when Matt and Ty rescued him. The sun was sinking on the water, and the festival was kicking into high gear as the three of them sat on the pier near the dance floor.
“Hey,” Ty said, toasting Josh with his beer. “Heard you got lucky.”
Josh scowled. “How the fuck did you hear that?”
Ty went still for a beat and then laughed. “I meant regarding getting Dr. McGinley as a partner. But let’s talk about what you thought I meant.”
Josh slouched in his chair. “Let’s not.”
Ty and Matt were grinning at him, the assholes. “Shut up,” he said without any real heat, and watched the dancers. Amy and Grace were dancing together in the center of the rambunctious crowd.
Matt was watching Amy. “Amy’s worried that Grace’ll take the first decent job to come along simply because it’s what she’s been told she should do,” he said. “Rather than follow what makes her happy.”
Josh had worried about the same thing. But it wasn’t his deal to decide for Grace what made her happy. “And?”
“And so, if something or someone is making her happier than a fancy job but is being a pussy about saying so, he should step up.”
Josh shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Matt laughed. “I’m currently ‘getting lucky’ every single day because I stepped up. I think I know what I’m talking about.”
“I’m not you,” Josh said. “And Grace isn’t looking for that kind of relationship. Being here is a diversion for her, nothing more.”
“Bullshit,” Matt said. “Women don’t work that way.”
