by Lacey Baker
“I know,” Heaven continued for Cordy, “he’s the smooth one.”
The way she said that had Preston frowning, only to instantly smile as Zyra spotted her sister’s balloon and happily reached for it. Mimi, being the older sister, of course pulled the balloon away, which almost made Zyra fall out of Preston’s arms. Instead he held on to her tightly and kissed her chubby little cheek. “Want to go and get a balloon, Zyra?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Zyra cheered then looked over at Cordy for permission.
“The clown’s right over there, you’ll be able to see me the whole time,” Preston said, figuring Cordy was thinking whether she should let her daughter out of her sight with him.
“I know you’re not going to steal her, Preston. Hell, I’d be surprised if either of the Double Trouble Cantrells wanted children at all,” she said with a smile.
Walking away, Preston tried not to feel the sting of that comment. Cordy was only speaking from her prior knowledge of him. He was certain her words weren’t meant with any animosity. Still, he acknowledged that this was precisely one of the reasons he didn’t want to come back to Sweetland for good. Everybody knew everybody else, and if they didn’t, they knew of them. Preston’s reputation from years ago still followed him around as if he’d been caught just last week making out in the back of his car with Avonlea Grant … two days after he’d taken Marsha Hindley to the sophomore dance. He wasn’t that guy anymore, but he doubted anyone in this small backward town would care to know that.
By the time he returned with Zyra, a yellow balloon twisted into the shape of a flower and another festive-looking tie-dyed balloon tied with a blue string to her tiny wrist, Heaven and Cordy had both gotten ice cream cones. Mimi had a cup with a mountain-sized scoop of ice cream and whipped cream smoothed on top. She stuck a full spoon into her small mouth and sighed with glee at how good it tasted. Preston smiled right along with her, even though he doubted he would have liked peanut-butter-and-jelly-flavored ice cream.
“There’s a dunking booth over near the pond,” Cordy was telling Heaven. “That’s where I’m headed with the girls. My brother Caleb volunteered to sit for an hour, and I don’t want to miss my chance to see him fall into the well of ice-cold water.”
“Poor Caleb,” Preston said, setting Zyra down on her feet.
“Flowa,” the little girl said to Cordy.
“Yes, a very pretty flower, honey. Thank Mr. Preston for being such a gentleman and getting the female flowers.”
Preston did not miss the playful sarcasm in Cordy’s tone. Nor did he miss the wink she gave Heaven before gathering her daughters and heading toward the pond.
“Buying flowers for two-year-olds is very smooth, Preston,” Heaven said when they were alone.
She didn’t look angry—her words had come across as lighthearted banter—but as always, he sensed so much more where she was concerned.
“I’m glad you like that because I brought you one also,” he said, reaching around to his back pocket and pulling out the pink-flowered balloon he’d stuck there since he’d been holding Zyra in his arms.
She smiled, that very pretty, very genuine smile he found himself looking forward to on a daily basis.
“Thank you,” she said, taking the balloon from him and holding it up to her nose as if it were a real flower and she could actually smell it.
“I wanted to apologize for last night. I was rude and out of line,” he told her.
“And I was probably defensive and cranky. So I’ll accept your apology if you accept mine,” she said, looking as if she hadn’t really planned to say all that to him.
Preston nodded his agreement. “Then we’re even,” he replied. “Wanna go check out the dunking booth?”
“Sure,” she agreed and took the hand he’d extended to her.
Later, Preston would think that this was definitely not the way he’d planned to spend his day. But it hadn’t been such a bad idea after all.
Chapter 13
Heaven had a stomachache.
A candy apple, a hot dog dripping with chili and cheese, and cotton candy all moved around inside her in their own private revolt. She’d been walking for hours, and her right baby toe rubbed painfully against one of the straps of her sandals.
Still, this had been the best day of her life.
Now she sat in the passenger seat of Preston’s truck hating for it all to end. But they were back at the B&B and it was just a little past nine at night. The wonderful time she’d had walking along the park and talking to him was over. The games they played and all the food and snacks they ate would probably catch up with them later, but for a couple of hours she’d felt just like a teenager on her very first date.
“I like that you didn’t go home as planned,” he said, snapping her quickly out of her thoughts.
“When I thought about it, there really wasn’t much to rush back for,” she replied.
“Right, you told me no boyfriend.”
And he remembered. A soft smile touched her lips as the thought of Preston Cantrell remembering something she’d told him about her personal life touched her—even if that something was as dismal as the fact that she was thirty-two years old without any special person in her life.
“Right. How about you? I mean, I know it’s a little late for us to be asking this considering what almost happened last night. But do you have someone special you have to get back to in Baltimore?”
“No. Just my job.”
“And that’s very special. Michelle told me how you’re almost like a famous person with your reputation as a defense attorney in the city.”
He’d shifted so that he was sitting sort of sideways in his seat, looking at her. A small smile appeared as he shook his head. “Michelle talks more like my grandmother every day.”
“I wish I had met your grandmother.”
He looked at her for long seconds after that. So long that Heaven moved uncomfortably in her own seat, unbuckling the seat belt as if she were getting ready to get out.
“She would have liked you,” he said quietly. “She would have liked you a lot.”
Heaven sat back in the seat then and simply stared at him. “I’m on leave from my job,” she said from out of nowhere. “You wanted to know why I stayed in Sweetland, it’s because I’m on leave. I don’t have a boyfriend probably because I work so much. I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I thought if I got a dog I’d finally have someone in my life, a companion, a friend. Sounds really lame, I know, but there it is.”
The look he was now giving her could be classified as startled, stunned, amazed, or maybe disbelieving or unsure. Either way, it made her even more nervous than his silence had. She immediately reached for the door handle this time and was about to open it when he touched her arm.
Actually, he wrapped his fingers around her elbow to hold her still, she figured as she looked back up at him.
“I’m going to kiss you,” he said seriously. “I’m telling you this so you won’t try to get out of the truck until I’m done.”
Well, okay, she thought hesitantly.
One thing she’d learned in the short time she’d known Preston Cantrell was that he was a man of his word. He said he would sign the adoption papers and he did. Last night he said they would take things slow and they had—so slow he’d ended up leaving. So when he’d said he was going to kiss her, guess what? He did!
His lips closed over hers about three seconds after he leaned over the console, one hand gripping the back of her neck to pull her closer. His other hand was still on her elbow as she leaned in. Her lips parted expectantly, as kissing Preston had become one of her favorite new hobbies.
This kiss was slow and explorative as his tongue mingled with hers, his fingers sifting through her hair. She leaned in closer, placing her hands on his shoulders loving the feel of his broadness beneath her fingertips. She clenched his shirt, pulling at the material as the kiss grew deeper and more urgent. When his hand moved from her elbow to he
r breast, she moaned and he tilted his head, his tongue dueling with hers.
His palm gripped her breast, his thumb grazing over her nipple, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing herself further into his grip. He kissed her neck, mumbling her name or something that sounded like her name as he continued to knead her breast. His other hand joined its counterpart, so that now both her breasts were being fondled, her world being rocked, just a tiny bit.
He had this sort of hungry power about him, one that said I take what I want loud and clear. And yet, she felt like he was holding back. Maybe it was all she’d heard about the famous Double Trouble Cantrells and their infamous reputation with the females. Well, she didn’t want him to hold back. For once in her life she wanted to go all the way, no questions asked, no recriminations.
With that thought in mind she repositioned her arms so that now, while he still massaged her breasts in that sinfully delicious manner, her hands were lifting the hem of his shirt until her fingers were greeted by the warmth of his skin. His mouth found hers again as he moaned and Heaven licked at his bottom lip, then sucked it deep inside while pushing her hands farther up his torso until the curve of his pectorals was beneath her palms. She flicked his nipples and was rewarded by a deep groan and a deepening of their kiss. She burned all over, wanting him with a desperation that was borderline scary.
His hands moved quickly, grasping her at the waist. She gasped as he pulled her over the console until she was straddling him. He pushed her blouse all the way up until her scantily covered breasts were revealed.
“Heavenly,” he sighed before dipping his head to kiss one tender mound.
The touch of his tongue to her skin sent Heaven’s mind and body to a place she didn’t think she’d ever been before. She arched back, pressing her breasts further into his face while her bottom leveraged backward. Until it pressed right up against the car horn.
The blaring sound startled both Heaven and Preston. She jumped, hitting her head on the interior’s roof while Preston tried to quickly shift her off the horn. She tumbled sideways, her thigh catching the gearshift—which wasn’t good since his foot must have still been planted on the brake. The truck drifted forward, stopping only after the bumper had connected with Parker’s motorcycle … which tumbled horrifically to the ground on contact.
* * *
Heaven was still pulling down her blouse when Nikki pulled open the passenger-side door. Preston watched from where he had just picked up Parker’s bike as Nikki questioned Heaven. To her credit, Heaven looked more composed than Preston felt.
Or than Parker was acting.
“You wrecked my bike!” Parker yelled, stepping lopsidedly around to feel along the side of his bike.
He acted as if it were human and might possibly be bleeding from the collision.
“The bike’s fine. Nothing broke,” Preston replied tightly.
“You don’t know that,” was Parker’s comeback. “What if she doesn’t start? There might be some internal damage.”
“To your bike or to Preston?” Quinn asked.
The oldest Cantrell stood on the curb, hands tucked in his pockets. He looked at Preston’s face, then nodded down to his midsection, then back up to his face again with a knowing grin.
Thoroughly embarrassed and not liking one minute of it, Preston turned to the side and adjusted the telltale arousal.
“Were you making out? Is that how my bike got busted?” Parker, who was still inspecting his bike, had looked over his shoulder to ask the question.
Preston dragged his hands down his face, wishing a hole could magically appear on the ground and suck him completely under.
“Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that you two were—” Savannah stood about five feet away from Preston, which equated to about seven feet in the opposite direction from where Nikki and Heaven where now standing.
As if the proximity and Savannah’s loud voice weren’t suggestive enough, she pointed from Heaven to Preston as she reiterated “you two.”
“Hold it, I don’t want to know what the two of them were doing in that truck,” Michelle said, holding her hand up as if to stop all other talking. “I just need to know if all the humans involved are okay.”
“I’m fine,” Heaven said softly.
“It wasn’t that big a deal,” was Preston’s contribution to the conversation.
“Not that big of a deal yet,” Parker added. “But if something is wrong with my bike, you’re buying me a new one. A better one!” he said, slapping the seat of his bike and simultaneously knocking his helmet—the one he’d just picked up—to the ground once more.
Heaven came forward and picked the helmet up, almost bumping into Preston as he’d been about to bend down and do the same thing. Their gazes locked and held for a second too long, because he heard a kissing sound from someone in the peanut gallery—what he was now dubbing his siblings who stood around gawking at them like they were the evening movie. Somebody else yelled, “Get a room,” and he figured that was Savannah who had already begun walking back toward the house.
“Well, I don’t think we’re needed here, honey,” Nikki, who had gone to stand beside Quinn, said with a smile.
Everybody seemed to be holding secretive or knowing smiles. Preston’s teeth gritted. He wasn’t a teenager and yet this was precisely how he’d felt when he was caught with Avonlea in the backseat of the car he and Parker had shared.
“Don’t forget we’re leaving early tomorrow morning for Queenstown, Heaven,” Nikki said.
“I’ll be ready,” Heaven said. “I’m heading up to bed now.”
She moved to walk away but Preston stopped her. He should have let her go, he knew. Touching her again was a mistake, and in front of his brothers was even worse.
“Hold up, man. At least wait until we’re all inside,” Parker said with mock disgust.
“Be quiet,” Preston said, finally fed up with the intrusion. “We’re heading to bed as well.”
He’d already laced his fingers through Heaven’s by the time he said those words, which, again, was a mistake.
He opened his mouth to try to make it better, then closed it abruptly figuring that wasn’t such a good idea.
* * *
“You’re going to break my arm,” Heaven said with a huff the minute they were in her room.
Preston was closing and locking the door, pushing her back up against it. His body was flush with hers, heat cocooning them. “I’m not going to break your arm, but I am going to make love to you,” he said on a whisper just before he took her mouth hungrily.
He’d been trying like hell not to go this route with her again. Last night had shown him a side of himself he’d never thought he possessed. His control had slipped and he’d been about to take her like a horny teenager. And after twenty-four hours, a cold shower, a day at the park, and almost totaling his brother’s motorcycle, Preston found himself right back in the same position.
Clearly this was something he needed to get out of his system. And that’s exactly what he planned to do.
Heaven didn’t resist, which was like music to his ears—he wasn’t sure stopping was an option for him this time. He cupped her bottom, lifting her thighs until they wrapped securely around his waist. Her arms twined around his neck as she tilted her head to meet the demand of his kiss.
Nipping at her chin, he turned them around and headed straight for the bed. “This is going to be fast. I’ll apologize for that right now,” he told her as blood pounded through his body, landing in a heated pool at his groin.
“That’s fine,” she whispered, her breath coming in quick pants. “Just hurry up!”
Preston chuckled, loving the sound of her words. At the bed he set her down with as much care as he could considering he was ready to rip her clothes off and ravage her.
“I don’t want you to get the wrong impression.” He talked while hurrying to pull his shirt up and over his head.
Tossing it to the floor, he looked at he
r just as her eyes fell to his chest and she licked her lips. Preston groaned as his erection pressed persistently against the zipper of his pants. When she lifted tentative hands and planted her palms on his pectorals, Preston wanted to roar like something primal about to claim its territory.
“You’re gorgeous,” she said, coming so close her breath whispered over his bare skin.
Before he could reply, she’d lowered her head and captured his flattened nipple between her lips. Preston grabbed her shoulders, holding her tight as she kissed the width of his chest to find the other nipple. One hand went to the back of her head where he held her close, loving the feel of her tongue on his flesh.
When it was more than he could stand he pulled at her shirt, and since she was determined to keep her lips on him and Preston was determined to get her naked, he pulled until the material ripped.
Heaven, startled, pulled back to look down at her shirt, then up at him.
“I’ll buy you a new one,” he said as he gave another tug and the shirt was ripped all the way up the side.
She dropped her hands from his chest and lifted her arms. Preston pulled what was left of it up and over her head. He’d gotten a glimpse of what was supposed to be a bra, but looked more like a piece of lace pasted over the rounded mounds of her breasts. After a flick of his wrist to the front clasp, her breasts spilled free and his mouth watered.
He touched her nipples lightly before pushing the bra from her arms then reaching for the button on her shorts. When she was gloriously naked, Preston could only stare. Inch after inch of olive-toned skin was before him, generous curves in all the right places making his body harden further.
He was speechless.
She obviously realized that and reached out to undo the snap of his pants, pushing them down his legs until they were stopped by his shoes. Seconds later he was standing before her clad only in his boxer briefs.
