It was an all day affair that kept her from returning Joey’s phone calls…and texts. Finally around 7pm, once she had everything set, she drove over to his house. True to his word, the lights were on. She walked to the front door and knocked. He came to the sidelight, saw that it was her, and opened it with a frown.
“I know I didn’t return your calls or answer your texts,” she began apologetically. “I had to change my plans for going to Vermont. He started calling and texting at 4:30 this morning.”
“Is that when you left me?” He asked. His voice was unmistakably sad.
“Yeah. I was upset and I didn’t want to wake you. And his lawyers gave me 48 hours to move everything out. So, I’ve been trying to work that out all day.” She sighed. “I hope you understand. That’s why I wanted to talk to you in person.”
He wrapped a protective arm around her. “So, when are you leaving now?”
“I have to leave in the morning. I have to drive. I have a POD being delivered. I still don’t know how I’m going to do this…”
“Who’s helping you load?” He asked.
“Oh, you know…me. And then there will be…me…” She laughed, but knew it was hollow even before it escaped her mouth.
“Well, I can fix that.” He made some phone calls. And while he worked on that, she wandered around the house. She looked at this place that he clearly hadn’t worked on at all to personalize. He loved color, warm color. She knew that from the choices she had made on her home. This style…well, there was no style. It was like he didn’t care.
In the living room once more, he turned to face her. “I have three big strong guys who are going with you. They will be here at 7am. You will all take four hour shifts behind the wheel so everyone gets a chance to rest. This will be a super quick trip. You are going to have to pack and load, pretty much through the night in order to make this deadline and then be able to drive back. Think you can make this work?”
“With that much help? Shoot, I could be back before you even know I’m gone.” She smiled. “Thank you for that.”
“Anything for you.” He stared into her eyes. “I mean it.”
She shivered. “Yes, I know. Well, I gotta go get ready, I guess.” She turned and headed out the door. She didn’t know what to say. She stood outside for a moment and stared up at the night sky. There was not a single star to be seen . She could tell even without sunlight that the clouds were dark and menacing. She pulled her fleece up around her neck and walked across the road. Just as she was about to open her vehicle door, he stopped her.
“What is your problem?” He looked utterly annoyed. “I do everything for you.”
“I said ‘thank you.’ What do you want me to say?” She was confused. “You want undying gratitude? You may get that, but not tonight, not right now.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“I don’t know what to do here. I don’t know what this is. And I don’t like the way it feels not knowing.” He gestured wildly in frustration while he spoke. He ran his fingers through his hair. “All I know for sure is that I went to bed holding you last night, and then I woke up this morning alone in a dark room. I hated it. I didn’t like the way it felt one bit. Oh, and I hate that, too!”
She was stunned by his admission. He missed her. He liked having her close. And he was all unbalanced because he didn’t know where he stood. “What? You want me to define this? We’re friends. We’re friends and more. I don’t know how I feel yet.”
There was thunder rumbling in the distance. She looked at him. She knew nothing of southern storms. This would be her first. He stood silently. He was more interested in what she was going to say next.
“Okay, I guess that isn’t entirely true,” she admitted. She watched as his face took on a smug look. “I feel like I’ve had the rug ripped out from under me.” She glared at him.
“I feel pressure. And I’m mad as hell because this is my first chance to be free, to be finally independent.”
“How can you claim to be independent and need me as much as you do?” He crossed his arms and stared at her as though he had made some statement that should have sparked an epiphany for her.
“What are you talking about? I’ve been doing fine on my own.” She glared at him and waited for him to back his claims up.
“I had to pull you out of your porch. You fell through. If I hadn’t been there who knows what would have happened to you!”
“That doesn’t count. That could have happened to anyone!” She could just throttle him for bringing up that incident.
“Well, what about the bathroom. By the time I stopped you from demo-ing the tile, you were already a bloody mess.” He leaned towards her while he spoke for emphasis.
“I think we should leave the demo out of this. What about you? Without me, you would have ended up in the hospital last night!” She could see that was a sore subject by the way he straightened.
In the background, lightening flashed. A few seconds later there was more thunder, followed by even brighter flashes of lightening. She paused to watch and worry before starting again. Then she mumbled under her breath, “I don’t know why you want to define this when you can’t even stand to be seen with me in public.” She turned to open her door once more. “It’s like Blaine all over again.”
He stopped her. “What are you talking about? I’m not afraid to be seen with you.” He walked closer, determined to take her in his arms. “How can you even think that?”
“Ha! Simple.” She shook her head. “So far you’ve thrown yourself out of a gazebo and into the bushes to avoid being seen with me.”
He laughed. “Is that what you think?”
“Well, what else is there?” She shook her head. “I like you. You feel like home. You and me…we seem to fit in so many important ways. Only…I can never settle again. And if you are just going to be a rebound, I’d rather wait because you are the kind of guy I’d like to try for so much more with, but not the way things are, the way that they should be.”
“What are you talking about?” He closed the gap between them and pulled her into his arms just as the rain started to come down. He started to lead her to the porch, but she made him wait.
“I don’t want you bossing me around all the time. I don’t want you changing me. I like me. I’m comfortable with me. And if change anything, it’s going to be on my terms.”
“Is this about the makeover?” She nodded. “Babe, I thought girls loved days of beauty. I thought it was good for the soul. I wasn’t trying to change you.”
“Not even just a little?” She raised her eyebrow at him and pushed her already wet hair back from her face.
He thought for a moment, then sighed. “Maybe a little, but for all the right reasons.”
“I don’t know anything about love, but I thought that the basis of a relationship was finding someone and accepting them for who they are. Instead, you are trying to remodel the house and me.” She looked down and water started to run into her eyes, so she threw her head back again.
“Can we go talk on the porch or inside?” She just looked at him. “Please.”
“Fine.” There was a nearly simultaneous clap of thunder and a lightening strike all at once. She scrambled a little faster. The storm seemed more powerful than any she could recall back home.
“Is it always like this?” She asked as he passed her a few bags from the car when he met her on the porch.
“Yes, whenever I see you, whenever I’m with you, it’s always like this. I’m always tied up in knots. I’m always bossy and protective. I’m always looking out for your best interests. That’s the basis of a good relationship. I think in a good relationship you begin by liking the person for whom they are, but if you are going to last, you have to evolve, you have to expect change. And you work to make each other better.”
She was staring up into those blue eyes, like the Caribbean waters on a clear day. The house shook with the power of the next resounding thunder clap. She shook, too. This wa
s too much. All of it was too much.
He wrapped his arms around her. “And you can’t say that you haven’t done it, too. I saw you looking around, imagining remodeling me and my father’s house.”
She hung her head some at the truth of his statement. “I know. You’re right.”
“Of course, I’m right.” He leaned in to kiss her. It wasn’t a simple grazing of the lips. It wasn’t a sweet peck. This was passion to the nth degree. This was lip crushing madness. This was tongues thrusting. This was what she had read about but never experienced. And when he finally released her, she discovered her knees had the consistency of jelly and were equally sturdy. He was prepared for that though, scooping her up in his arms and carrying her into the house while she clung to the bags he had passed her.
“Strip,” he urged. “Time to get out of these wet clothes.” He brought her into the bathroom where she discovered that progress meant that a shower rod had already been installed. And that was where he intended for them to place their clothes. They stood there, naked, in the dark. While the house had electricity, it didn’t have light fixtures yet. The room would be intermittently lit by the lightening flashes.
She shivered and he pulled her close. “Come on,” he urged, as he opened her bags from the back of the Escape. He had seen the towels in there when they transferred everything from the Vue to the Escape at the dealership. And since she had nowhere to keep them for the time being, it worked out rather well. They could dry off.
She cocked her head to the side as he towel dried her. “Did you plan this?” She asked as he worked on her hair.
“How could I plan this?” He paused and looked about. “And I might as well warn you now that there’s a blanket in the closet that I brought over on the off chance we ever decided to have a picnic here during the construction.” He shook his head at his motives being called into question.
That response made her feel better. She didn’t object in the least when he went to the closet, spread out the blanket and walked her onto it. He started kissing her, while laying her back on it, his hand cradling her head in the process. There was something in her that just didn’t want to hold back any more. She had been so uptight for so long. Blaine had created that Martha. Yes, she was that way by his design, but now with Joey, she could be different. She just had to surrender. In her mind, the Dido song started playing.
Now his look changed again. He was calmer, completely at ease. He lay with her, covering her nakedness with his. And the effect was so exciting. His touch was electric. He ran a hand down the side of her face, found her lips and cupped her head, drew her closer. Then he shivered held her tight and asked a question she could tell had been plaguing him for some time. “What are we doing?”
Smiling, Marti pulled his lips to hers, she stared into his eyes for a moment. She wanted to remember every second of this, every bit of this time between them. Pressing her lips to his, she murmured, “We’re finally starting to live. Let’s make a memory.”
Apparently that was all the encouragement he needed. Soon Joey had taken the lead once more. He was caressing her, holding her close, warming her rain chilled body. Together they made more than adequate heat. And outside the window, the storm raged on. They paid little attention, instead concentrating on one another.
In the back of Marti’s mind, she couldn’t imagine anything more perfect. No one would venture out in this weather. No one would bother them. There would be no crazy Miss Gracie to hose them down, no Keely or Laurel showing up with disapproving glances. All they needed to concentrate on was each other.
At first, relaxing, just simply being, surrendering to all the feelings was so frightening for her that she didn’t think she could do it. She had only been with Blaine her entire life and although the romance novels she read suggested that this experience was supposed to be so much more intense, so much more passionate, so incredibly moving…they had barely moved the mattress. Now there was this…Joey with his hands touching her and setting little blazes wherever her stroked or licked, nibbled or sucked. She might have admired the way he worked with his hands on the job, his confidence running the project…while bedding her…everything…more so. He knew just where to touch and how much pressure to apply when squeezing and caressing. He knew how to start that raging inferno inside.
Though she had little experience in this area, she followed his lead. She touched him the way she wanted to. She explored his bare chest with sparse hair. She ran her fingers down, down his ribs, over his abdomen until she could trace his happy trail. Obviously he believed in manscaping. His ginger pubic hair was virtually gone. She rubbed his furry muscular thighs, gripped his smooth pale buttocks, and while she explored, she was aware for the first time how much she wanted this man.
She wanted him in every position that she had ever read about and more. She wanted to try everything with him, like toys and lotions and lingerie. She wanted years and years of being as close as two people could be. They were on their sides all intertwined, and she pushed him onto his back. He seemed a bit surprised, but was completely willing to roll with it. And that’s when she climbed on top. She had to. The urge to lick and suck and taste him was so great. She was throbbing. There was a good deal of discomfort as her body longed for him to be deep inside her.
Now that she had the dominant position, she could see to it that it happened, when she was ready, on her terms. She took him in her mouth and felt him jerk in shock and then pleasure. She heard him gasp as he arched his back. She looked at him to see if his eyes were open or closed. The near dark was making her braver than she normally was. The man lying beneath her made her comfortable and secure, more fearless than she had ever been during sex before. She licked off the liquid beads at the end of his penis and then smiled as she crawled up him, letting her body graze his as she moved.
His eyes were wide open now, watching her as she drew closer to his face, as she straddled his pelvis, as she reached between her legs and took him in her hands. She smiled, realizing he was holding his breath in anticipation. Emboldened as she was, she wasn’t going to make it easy on him. Instead, she rubbed the head back and forth inside her velvety wet folds. When she met his eyes again, he was smiling. Fascinated, she tried new approaches, letting him sink slowly into her, then pulling back before he was completely buried inside her. It was agony, she could see from his face. Suddenly, he opened his eyes wide, grabbed her hips, and pushed as far as he could, then he rolled her over onto her back.
“Your turn,” he whispered into her ear, his breath warm and making her tingly.
Because she was afraid that her eyes would reveal too much, she closed them, she turned her head, and she faced away from him. That’s when he stopped thrusting, stop gliding in and out of her. Her body was so tight around him. Every sense so heightened, so aware of everything he did, everywhere he touched, that it overwhelmed her. He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her up until she was sitting, impaled on him.
“Baby,” he murmured against her neck as he kissed and sucked and nibbled his way to her ear. “You have to tell me if I’m hurting you. Okay?”
She nodded and held his face against her throat. She couldn’t get enough of him, not of his warmth, his touch, his scent. She was downright greedy for him. Every move was sweet torment.
“Open your eyes,” he commanded gently.
She shook her head, ashamed of how intense her emotions were at the moment. She had never felt so connected to anyone before. It wasn’t until he started to withdraw, to ease out of her that her eyes flew open. “No,” she whimpered. “In. In.”
He smiled. “Okay, in. Just smile for me.”
And so she did. She smiled and smiled. She smiled as a completely unfamiliar pressure built. She smiled through her first orgasm, an experience so intense that she cried out as her muscles rolled and contracted around him. With two thrusts more, he joined her, burying himself deep as he spilled into her. Instead of crying out like she had done, or growling as he did in the pa
st, he clutched her as close as their bodies would allow and all he could say was, “Mine.”
They stayed connected for just a moment before he pulled out and rolled her to her side so they could spoon. Her wrapped them in the blanket, used a couple of the remaining towels as pillows, and urged her to rest.
“I guess I could close my eyes for a couple of minutes,” she said, in a weak voice.
“You are going to need it, love. I haven’t had nearly enough of you yet.” He laid his head on hers. The storm outside still raged, although they were practically oblivious to it, wrapped in their warm happiness bubble.
They might have stayed there, too, had it not been for the sirens that soon permeated the air. Joey was the first one to stand up and peek out the front window. What he saw shocked him. “Dammit! My house is on fire!” He rushed to the bathroom to yank on his wet jeans and damp t-shirt. He pulled on his still soaked socks and Lugz. Then he raced out the front door.
It didn’t take long for Marti to be behind him, but she soon realized that may have been a mistake. When she made it out the front door, she saw that there were more people gathered together than she had seen to date anywhere in the town. And every single one of them had just seen Joey and Marti rushing out of her house looking incredibly disheveled. This was the biggest walk of shame ever. Strangers, neighbors, firemen, and police…they were all there. Even Laurel and Keely were walking up with big coffee urns. There was a tall, thin, balding man walking behind Keely carrying bags of supplies.
“Mind if we set up on your porch?” Keely called. “We need some place covered.”
“Come on up!” She shouted.
The rain was still pouring down. The damage to the house was considerable. Marti watched from the porch, helping her friends pass out coffee, and giving away Laurel’s day old baked goods. It was nice to see that this town was everything she had imagined it to be, a place where they truly loved one another and rallied around their neighbors. She watched as Joey raked his hands through his hair again and again. He was angry, frustrated, judging by his actions. Her heart hurt for him.
Stormy Surrender (New Hope #1) Page 18
