by Natalie Ann
Kayla came by next, escorted down the aisle by Hunter’s Grandfather Stephen. That had been a nice touch since Kayla had no family of her own.
The ceremony was fast, the wedding party leaving to get pictures taken, the guests moving to another small room for hors d’oeuvres and drinks while the ballroom the ceremony was held in was changed around quickly for the reception.
“Amanda looks lovely,” his mother said, coming over with a glass of champagne in her hand. She eyed his soda. “Are you going to behave today?”
He knew she would have heard what happened on New Year’s Eve. “Of course. I learned my lesson.”
“We thought you learned it years ago but obviously not.”
“Don’t you think it’s an inappropriate time for a lecture?”
“It’s never a bad time for a lecture from a mother,” she said.
“Helena,” his father said. “Leave Drew alone. He knows what he is doing. If he messes up, it’s on his shoulders.”
“Thanks, Dad. I think.”
As much as he wanted to rush through the wedding and get Amanda back to his place, he was enjoying the way she looked tonight.
When he was finally able to get his hands on her on the dance floor after dinner, he pulled her in tight to his body. “You look just gorgeous tonight. You’re taking my breath away.”
“I think it’s my leg that is taking your breath away. You can’t seem to take your eyes off of it. I’m starting to think I’ve got the Angelina Jolie leg thing going on. If it’s stealing the show Kayla is going to be so upset after we searched high and low to find her a dress that didn’t make her look like she was ready to pop that kid out any minute.”
He laughed. “Your leg is stealing the show for me and that is all you should be concerned about.”
When she lifted her eyebrow he started to wonder if maybe he put his foot in his mouth. “Are you going to help me out of this dress later?”
“Only if you help me out of my suit,” he said, his lips going to her neck. She smelled almost as good as she looked. “What are you wearing?”
“What do you mean?”
“You smell good enough to eat on this floor.”
She laughed. “Bri bought me perfume for Christmas. I don’t normally wear it, but she said it would bring you to your knees. How could I resist an endorsement like that?”
“You are going to test my limits, aren’t you? We can’t leave early because you are in the wedding party.”
“We can leave once the bride and groom do. Kayla didn’t want a long wedding. She doesn’t like being the center of attention.”
“When are they leaving for their honeymoon?” he asked.
“Tuesday. They aren’t going long or far. Kayla didn’t want to fly anywhere. She just wanted them to have some time alone before the baby came. Time alone sounds like a wonderful idea. Too bad you’ve got to work on Monday or we could have spent two days locked up in your house.”
“I’m calling in sick on Monday,” he said.
“I was joking.”
“I wasn’t,” he said. “You brought it up and I’m going to keep you locked in my house for two days. We can run around naked all we want. I’ll make sure there is enough food and water and we’ll be set.”
She laughed and nuzzled his neck a bit, then kissed him tenderly in front of everyone. She hadn’t done that once yet. Not like this. Not where everyone could see them.
Two hours later Kayla and Hunter said their goodbyes and several people were getting ready to leave. He made his way to Amanda. “So...can we leave?”
“We can,” she said. “Do you mind if we stop by my place to get another change of clothes? I’ve only got this dress and clothes for tomorrow. If I’m staying until Monday I need more.”
“Stay until Tuesday morning,” he said. “Go to work from my house.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Absolutely.”
“Let me go tell Sidney. Bri is somewhere here. I saw her dancing with someone, but I’m not hunting them both down. I just want them to know I won’t be home until Tuesday.”
They barely made it in his front door before his hands were going for the zipper on her dress. “I know we’ve got days but I figured why not leave our clothes here and let me chase you around naked now?”
“I guess you weren’t kidding.”
The zipper went down, followed by her dress pooling at her feet. “Nope. I wasn’t. Catch up.”
Her hands went for his tie and sent it flying in the living room chased by his shirt and pants. When they were both standing there in their underwear, he reached for her bra.
“No comment on my matching set? I bought this to match the dress.”
He did notice that the lace bra and panties matched and were close in color to the dress she’d had on. “Very pretty. I thought maybe it was for me, but I guess it was just for the dress.”
“Yes and no. What’s under the panties is for you.”
“Oh man. You know I can’t wait to see what that could be.”
His fingers went into the strings by her hips and lowered them down. “Shit,” he said.
“Do you like it?”
He picked her up in his arms and brought her to the couch. In one motion he was down on his knees and between her legs, his mouth going right to the bare skin flashing at him.
“This is one hell of a treat,” he said. “I need to let you know how happy it’s making me.”
She laughed and then squealed when his teeth came out to nip at her. “Oh God. I should have done this sooner.”
“I’m glad you waited. It’s better this way.”
His tongue went to work licking her up and down, probing at her, sucking her tender flesh, wanting to taste as much of her as he could.
Her legs started to shake and he knew it wasn’t going to be long before she was shouting out his name.
“That’s it. Let me know how much you love it,” he said, pushing two fingers in her, her hips bucking up, his mouth going right back to her swollen nub and sucking none too gently.
“Drew!” she shouted, her hands going to his hair and holding his head in place while he absorbed every pulse her body had to give him.
She was panting on the couch, giving him time to get up and find his pants and wallet, grabbing a condom and slipping it on.
He sat next to where she’d pulled herself up, then shifted her onto his lap.
She spread her legs, her knees on each side of him, then lowered herself down. “You did something for me, I think it’s time you sit there and just enjoy this.”
“You said you were going to bring me to my knees,” he said. “Guess it worked on both of us.”
“I’ll have to thank Bri later. Without details of course.” She rose up on her knees a bit, then slid back down. “Am I going to get you to shout out my name like I did yours?”
“I don’t know. I guess you will find out once you start to work for it.”
“Now you are putting a challenge on my shoulders. I like a challenge.”
She placed her hands on his cheeks, lowered her mouth to his and started to kiss him like they were two teenagers making out on the couch just fantasizing about losing their virginity.
Then she started to move with a speed he’d never seen before. Pistons in a car came to mind and he could do nothing more than sit there and take it while it built so fast he was almost out of breath just feeling it.
She continued to devour his mouth while she rode his cock like it might be the last one that was in her body in her lifetime.
At this moment, he didn’t care if it was the last woman he made love to, he’d die a happy man.
Her mouth moved away from his, her body still bobbing up and down, her own breath starting to catch.
She was working herself up for another orgasm and that alone was enough to start to send him over.
Not before he brought her with him.
His hands went to her breasts where he flicked
and pinched her nipples. Her inner muscles squeezed around his cock causing him to be rougher than he planned.
She didn’t seem to mind as her head fell back and his name escaped her lips again followed by his body bucking up into her, her name ripped from his mouth.
They were sitting there on the couch when Amanda turned her head. “It’s midnight. Exactly midnight.”
“Is it?” he asked. “Time just seems to stand still when I’m with you.”
“If only we could freeze this moment.”
He wanted to ask what she meant by that, but part of him didn’t want to know.
33
Own Little World
“When are you going to finish the office visits?”
Drew looked up to see Bode standing in the doorway. He’d had a hard time getting out of bed this morning with Amanda snuggled into his chest. But he’d called in “sick” yesterday and spent two days with her like they planned, never leaving his house.
They had every meal together, cooking in a joint effort, they walked on the cold beach and raced back to his room and took a hot shower to warm each other up. They sat in front of the fire and binge watched shows on TV.
He couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t leave his house for two days straight. Maybe when he was sick.
Not only that, he didn’t touch his phone or computer once and neither did she. It was like they were in their own little world to themselves.
Here he’d been trying to not take that last big step but found his foot just itching to rise up and make the climb.
“I’ll schedule the ones around Plymouth next week if the weather holds. I’ll check it out. I hate taking the ferry over in bad weather. I’ll do Boston the following week. Since we just saw most of the staff at the party I won’t spend as much time at these places as I did on the Cape.”
“You’re the idiot that put it off so long and then the holiday got in the way. You should have done these in the fall when it was brought up.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “But I was busy.”
“We’re always busy,” Bode said. “That was just your way of trying to get out of it. Ask Egan to fly you over, it will be faster. Find out what he’s got going on and just stay the night and then figure out when to come back.”
Eli’s younger brother, Egan, had two helicopters on the island for his tour company. Family didn’t use it often, but enough since he was always flying off the island.
“You’re trying to rile me up and I’m in too good of a mood for that.”
Bode walked in and shut the door, then sat across from his desk. “Feeling better from your twenty-four-hour flu yesterday?”
Drew laughed. “I never said I had the flu. I just said I was taking the day off.”
“I bet you stayed in bed all day though.”
“Not quite. Close though,” he admitted.
“You’re trying to make me jealous.”
“Is it working?”
“No clue. She’s a good person though. Nothing like anyone else you’ve dated. You know that, right?” Bode said.
“Yeah, I do. I’m still trying to get a read on her though. I don’t know much about her past other than she hasn’t seen her family in years. They had some fallout, she’s hinted toward. She ran into her sister in Boston a few weeks ago when she was shopping and it kind of rattled her.”
“Rattled her how?”
“I don’t have all the details. Just that they hadn’t talked in over ten years and Amanda had the feeling her sister regretted it.”
“Why doesn’t Amanda reach out to her sister now then?”
“I get the impression they kind of disowned Amanda. Or her parents did.”
“And you have no idea why?” Bode said. “Maybe you should look into her past after all.”
“You just admitted what a great person she was.”
“I did. I think so but wouldn’t you want to know? After what happened with Cassandra I’m surprised you take any kind of risk without knowing what you could.”
“I was with Cassandra for years,” he said.
“You were and still had no clue.”
“It’s only been a few months. If—”
“When,” Bode said, laughing.
“When I’m ready to move forward I’ll ask her. We’ll have that conversation. She knows about Cassandra. I’m not keeping it from her. I can lead with that and see if she’ll open up. I’d rather hear it from her mouth. She’s made comments before about not wanting to be or do what her family wanted. It could be nothing more than controlling parents.”
“That’s true. We’ve never had that problem when we know damn well in our ancestry it was an issue for many. There were a lot of narrow-minded Bonds back then.”
“Not so much now,” he said
“Don’t forget it either,” Bode said and walked out.
“How was the wedding?” Celeste asked Amanda the minute she walked in the door. So much for wanting to just get to work, but she didn’t have anyone scheduled until noon today even though she’d told Drew she had someone first thing.
She’d had to get up and get ready and go home. She’d never been gone from home two nights in a row.
It wasn’t that she thought there was a problem in the house or that her roommates needed her for anything. It was just she thought of that place as hers.
The only place she found such a connection to.
Was it the island or the house? She really wasn’t sure, but it was almost instant when she’d walked into the rental house. It was like she’d found the place that might be hers after moving around so much. She didn’t need to own it to feel it.
She’d never gone too far from her hometown when she moved around, just a day’s drive tops but she landed here and it’s where she’d like to stay.
“It was beautiful,” she said. “Kayla was glowing.”
“Baby glow,” Celeste said. “All women glow when they are pregnant.”
Amanda smiled. She wasn’t sure if that was true or not. She hadn’t even known she was pregnant at first and there was no glow in her life at that point.
Maybe in private when she was imagining holding her daughter in her arms.
“I’m not so sure about that,” she said back. “But Kayla looked stunning and Hunter didn’t look too bad himself. They make a lovely couple. He dotes on her. She struck gold there.”
“Bond gold,” Celeste said, wiggling her eyebrows. “Just like you.”
She let out a breath. “I’m not looking to strike gold that way.”
“I’m sure, but you can’t deny it’s a pretty nice side benefit.”
And this was why she didn’t talk too much about her personal life. “I’m more concerned with how Drew makes me feel.” She leaned in close “And he’s fabulous in bed.”
“That a girl,” Celeste said, following Amanda back to her station. So much for getting rid of her. She’d thought for sure that little tidbit would be enough. “It took you long enough to come out of your shell. Even more reason to love the guy.”
“We have fun together. Isn’t that what it’s about?”
“At your age, it should be much more. You aren’t getting any younger.”
“Thanks for reminding me,” she said.
“Your ovaries are going to dry up and wither away soon too,” Celeste said, laughing.
“That’s a little crude,” Amanda said back. She didn’t normally lose her temper but felt it bubbling at the brim of a witch’s cauldron and if she could cast a spell she would. Celeste would have no idea how hurtful that statement would be even if she was joking.
“I’m just kidding. I thought you wanted children someday.”
“I do,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to either. I’ll know when the time comes.”
She walked away after that, having said more than she intended. She needed to get her head on straight for her client.
What Drew and she had was good. It was strong. And it was m
oving fast.
She wasn’t stupid and saw it all in Drew’s eyes.
He told her a part of his past weeks ago and she could see he was waiting for her to volunteer more about hers. At some point she would have to, but how much she told him and when was yet to be decided.
There was no reason to say it all at once. No reason to say any of it if things didn’t go much further than fun.
And when did she turn into an ostrich looking for a pile of sand?
34
Find A Balance
The following week, Drew took Bode’s suggestion and had Egan fly him over to Boston where he grabbed one of the family vehicles they left there so that they didn’t always have to board the ferry with cars.
He was going to drive to the Plymouth office first, then two of the outlying ones a little further out. Spend the night and visit the last few offices in and around Boston before heading back to the island.
To Amanda.
Since when did he start thinking of home and Amanda as one and the same?
“Thanks, Egan,” he said when the engine was cut. “This was good timing.”
“I’m here almost every day. Never a problem. I’ve got business to take care of. Hit me up if you need a lift back tomorrow. I’ll be here at some point.” He pulled his phone out. “I’ve got a tour scheduled around eleven and should be ready to head back around one but can hold off if you want.”
“I think I’ll take you up on it. I’ll be in touch,” he said, the two of them getting out of the chopper and making their way toward the big buildings the family owned. Egan had an office out of one of the buildings; Drew was going in another one for a car.
He hated leaving town today knowing that Amanda was off but figured it was best to get this out of the way. He used to love getting off the island now and again, but the truth was in the winter months he didn’t care for the travel.
His first two visits were faster than he figured they’d be. Most of the staff he’d met or talked to at the party. He was good with names and faces, thankfully.
