by Marie Force
"I can't wait to be married to him, but I just keep worrying that something's going to happen to mess it up before we say I do."
"Nothing's going to happen."
Right on cue, Mac walked into the yard with Thomas on his shoulders. Talk about meant to be… Janey couldn't get over how easily her stubbornly single brother had slipped into life as a family man.
"There're my guys," Maddie said, glowing at the sight of them.
"I got your text that you'd be here, so we're making the transfer." He hugged and kissed Thomas and lowered him to his mother. "See you later, buddy."
Thomas let out a wail of protest.
"It's so not fair," Maddie said with a pout. "You carry him for nine months, you practically kill yourself giving birth to him and then he picks his new daddy over you every time."
Thomas squealed with delight when the dogs sniffed and licked his outstretched hands.
Mac squatted down to kiss the pout off Maddie's lips. "Daddy picks Mommy every time."
"Well, I guess that's something," Maddie said with a teasing glint in her eye.
Chuckling, Mac kissed her again before he stood. "Got any coffee, brat?"
"Sure. Help yourself."
"I need a travel mug."
"Oh, I, um, left mine at work."
Mac studied her for a long moment before he said, "Never mind, then. I'll get some more at the marina. Oh, by way, Mom was powwowing with Kay Lawrence at the diner just now. I think they're conspiring to get you and David back together."
"Fabulous."
"I reminded Mom that the guy cheated on you, and you're better off without him."
"Thanks."
"Still, watch out for them. They're up to something. And, oh, man, is Kay pissed at Joe! If looks could kill!"
"Joe was there, too?" Janey asked, making a supreme effort to sound casual and unconcerned.
Mac gave her a knowing look that set her nerves on edge. "Uh-huh. Well, I'd better get to work. You ladies have a nice day."
"Love you," Maddie said.
"You, too, babe." He waggled his fingers at Thomas and walked around the side of the house to the street.
"What was that all about with the coffee?" Maddie asked.
"He might be on to me and Joe. I gave Joe my cow mug this morning, and I'll bet my mother said something about it."
"You might want to tell Mac the truth now rather than letting him find out later."
"Not until after the wedding. We all know Mac is going to be pissed with Joe over this, so let's get through the wedding before we go there."
"If he finds out I kept this from him, there might not be a wedding."
"Oh, there'll be a wedding. Neither lying sisters nor disapproving mothers nor wild horses nor randy best men could keep my brother from marrying you."
"Let's hope you're right."
Janey decided to call on Doc Potter to take care of the animals, rather than give Maddie anything more to keep from Mac. She did, however, let her future sister-in-law know where she'd be in case of emergency. As she packed for her night with Joe, Janey's hands trembled with excitement and anticipation. She might not be certain how she felt about him, but she was damned sure she couldn't wait to see him again.
Her conversation with Maddie kept running through her mind. Was she in love with Joe? Had she ever really loved David? Did she even know what it meant to be in love? It worried her that she'd gotten over David so quickly. She knew that was probably due to the shock of seeing him with someone else, but still… Thirteen years was a long time, and whatever love she'd felt for him had died a quick and sudden death.
She spent a last minute with each of her beloved pets, grabbed her bag and skipped out of the house.
"Going somewhere?"
Janey about jumped out of her skin. "Jesus, David. You scared the heck out of me."
"You're looking awfully excited for a woman who just called off her engagement."
"I'm in a hurry. I can't talk right now."
"Where're you going?"
"That's none of your business. You lost the right to ask me things like that when I saw you in bed with another woman."
He winced. "I wish you'd believe me when I tell you how sorry I am about that."
"You're just sorry you got caught."
"That's not true! If you'd just talk to me—"
"I have nothing to say. Now, I've got a boat to catch. Please let me by."
"Why are you going to the mainland?"
Janey decided she had to humor him if she was going to make the boat. "To get my car. It broke down after I saw you in bed with another woman."
"Where are you staying tonight?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"With a friend."
"What friend?"
"I'm not telling you that!"
He grabbed her arm and held it tighter than he should have. "Have you got someone else, Janey? This whole time you're making me feel like shit, and you're probably doing the same thing. Who is it?"
Infuriated, she shook him off. "I was never unfaithful to you," she spat at him. "Never. Just like our relationship, this conversation is over." Pushing past him, she made her way down the sidewalk, resisting the urge to look back. Her future was in front of her, not behind her. Joe was expecting her, and she couldn't wait to see him.
Joe paced back and forth on the ferry landing. Where was she? The boat was minutes from departure, and because he was the captain on this trip, he had to go with or without her. After waiting hours to see her, Joe couldn't imagine what was keeping her. A deep fog had descended upon the island, and the hours he'd spent navigating the boats through the soup had left him tired and tense.
The final warning horn sounded just as he saw her come dashing through the parking lot, her blonde ponytail streaming behind her.
"Janey," he whispered.
Since the landing was crowded with people, he couldn't greet her the way he wanted to. Instead, he grabbed her hand and all but dragged her onboard the ferry.
"I'm sorry," she said, panting from exertion. "I had an unwelcome visitor just as I was leaving."
"Again?"
"I wish he'd go back to Boston."
"Me, too."
Janey squeezed his hand. "We don't have to think about him tonight."
"That's right."
"Will we be okay in this fog?"
He glanced down at her, feigning indignation. "You doubt me?"
"Never." She looked up at him with those captivating blue eyes. "I trust you with my life."
"Thank you," he whispered, stealing a kiss in one of the darkened passageways. Just when he thought she couldn't move him any more than she had before, she managed to top herself. "Since you're such a major distraction, I can't have you up top with me tonight. I'll come find you when we get in."
She smiled as if being called a major distraction was a compliment. "I'll be waiting."
"You'd better be."
"Be careful, Captain."
"Always, but especially with such precious cargo onboard." He kissed her once more. "See you in a bit." He watched her choose a table and withdraw a book and her iPod from her tote bag. Like any native islander, she'd come ready to kill an hour on the ferry.
With seconds to spare before departure, he bolted up the stairs to the wheelhouse. Since he'd completed a safety check earlier, he ignored the raised eyebrow of his first mate, Rob. "Ready?"
"Whenever you are, Cap."
"Then let's do it."
By the time Joe backed the ferry into its berth in Point Judith, his head was pounding and his shoulders were stiff with stress. Following their usual protocols for zero visibility, Joe had stationed two deck hands on the bow as lookouts and had sounded the horn every thirty seconds. They'd relied on radar to scan for other vessels in the area and GPS to lead them to port. No matter how many times he safely guided a ferry full of passengers through the fog, however, it never became routine.
"Nice job, Cap," Rob said when Joe returned
to the wheelhouse after locking up the aft controls he'd used to back the ferry into port.
"A team effort as always." Joe shut down the electronics and secured the wheelhouse. "See you tomorrow."
He parted with Rob on the second level and went to find Janey. At some point during the trip, she had curled up on the bench and gone to sleep with her overnight bag tucked under her head. Before waking her, he took a moment to just take her in. Sometimes it was hard to believe that she was real—that they were real. At least they were for right now. He tried not to think about how it might end, but that sense of doom hovered just above his head at all times, waiting to swoop down and take her away from him. Well, now that was a pleasant thought…
Determined to not let gloom or doom ruin their precious time together, he leaned over to kiss her awake. "Hey, baby. We're there."
She smiled up at him, a sleepy, sexy smile that stopped his heart. "Mmm," she said, stretching. "My hero."
"Nothing to it."
"Somehow I doubt that." Sitting up, she combed her fingers through her hair and retied her ponytail.
Joe took her bag and reached for her hand. He was so anxious to be alone with her that he didn't bother to make his usual stop in the office before leading her to his truck.
Janey shivered. "The fog makes it so chilly. It's hard to believe it's July."
"I have just the thing for that at home."
She smiled at him. "I can't wait to see what it is."
In the truck, Joe took her hand again, needing to touch her, wanting her close to him. This, he decided, was heaven. Taking her home with him, talking to her at the end of a long day, anticipating a night of passion and love. If this were all he ever had—if she was all he ever had—his life would be more than complete.
"What are you thinking over there?" she asked.
He glanced at her. "That I like having you here with me."
"I like being here."
He told himself that her pleasure had nothing to do with escaping from David and all her troubles on the island. It had to do with him, with what was happening between them. Of course it did.
They reached his house within minutes. "Damn it," he said as he killed the engine. "I just realized you must be starving. I know I am." He'd been so focused on getting her home that he hadn't given dinner a thought.
"How about we order a pizza?"
"We can do that. A veggie for my veggie?"
Janey cracked up as she followed him inside. "If that's what you like. I can do plain cheese, too."
"I like veggie."
"No olives, though," she said, wrinkling her cute nose.
"You got it." While she stashed her stuff in his room, Joe called in the pizza and wondered how long it would take for her family to come looking for her if he kidnapped her and kept her here forever.
As he ended the call to the pizza place, she returned to the kitchen and slipped her arms around him from behind. "I'm freezing. Warm me up?"
"Right this way." He took her hand and led her into the family room that overlooked the deck and harbor, but the view tonight consisted of pea-soup fog. Squatting before the stone hearth, he had a roaring fire going in no time.
"Mmm," Janey said from the sofa. "Perfect."
"Told you you'd like it. Come down here with me."
Janey crawled over to him.
Joe put his arm around her and breathed in her sweet scent.
When she leaned into his embrace and released a sigh of contentment, all the tension of the day seemed to leave his body.
"The heat feels so good," she said.
He kissed the top of her head. "So do you."
Titling her face up, she studied him intently.
"What?"
"I couldn't wait to see you tonight," she said softly.
Joe's heart turned right over in his chest. Did she have any idea what she did to him when she looked at him that way or said such amazing things to him? "I couldn't wait, either. Today was a bitch with the fog. You start to feel like you're hallucinating after staring at it for hours."
"I can't imagine. It's so cool how you can get the ferry from point A to point B without being able to see a thing."
"It's stressful."
"It's very sexy."
Joe laughed. "Is that so?"
"Uh-huh."
"I need to take you out in the fog more often, then."
Janey raised a hand to his face, sliding it over the stubble on his jaw.
"I should shave," he said, staring down at her.
"I like it." She followed her hand with her lips. "Also very sexy."
A tremble rippled through him. "Janey—"
The doorbell interrupted the intense moment.
While she chuckled at his distress, he groaned and got up to greet the pizza man. Joe unearthed a bottle of merlot, and they ate picnic style in front of the fire.
"I look at you sitting here in my house with the firelight dancing on your beautiful face, and I think I have to be dreaming. Tell me I'm not dreaming."
Rising to her knees, she pushed the empty pizza box out of the way and closed the distance between them, resting her hands on his shoulders. "If it's a dream, don't wake me up, okay?"
He reached for her and fell backward, bringing her with him. "Deal."
The hair she'd let down from the ponytail made a curtain around them, sealing them off from the world as she lowered her head and captured his mouth in a soft, sensual kiss.
Even though he wanted to devour her, Joe cupped her face and let her take the lead. She seemed freer tonight, less concerned about where all this might be leading and more interested in seizing the moment—their moment. Her tongue traced a trail from bottom lip to top before dipping inside to flirt with his.
Joe couldn't seem to draw a breath as he responded to her gentle strokes. And then she was gone, shifting her attention to his jaw before rolling his earlobe between her teeth. He sucked in a sharp deep breath as the sensation traveled from his ear straight to his cock. "Janey."
"Hmm?" Now she was at his neck on her way to his chest. She worked his shirt up and over his head without missing a beat in her game of sensual torture. "You're so tense. Relax, Joe. Let me take care of you for a change."
Would he survive her brand of caretaking? Her lips were soft and smooth on his chest, and he had to remind himself to keep breathing. She shifted lower, pressing her belly against his straining erection.
"Baby, you're driving me crazy," he whispered, running his fingers through fine strands of golden hair.
Massaging his shoulders, she licked his nipple. The sensation zipped through him like an electrical charge he felt in every cell. Then she was at his belly, teasing and tempting him with her tongue and lips.
Joe hadn't been this close to an embarrassing accident since high school—and that was before he felt his zipper travel down over his straining shaft. He bit his lip—hard—hoping to regain some control.
"You smell so good," she whispered against his belly, causing an outbreak of goose bumps on his overly sensitive skin.
"What do I smell like?"
"The sea and fresh air and sexy man."
"All that?"
"Mmm hmm." This she muttered against the head of his penis, which had somehow found its way to her mouth.
"Janey, honey, wait…"
She looked up at him with innocent blue eyes that were mocking him. "Why?"
"You're a vixen, aren't you?" he asked, laughing softly. "You know exactly what you're doing to me."
The gentle strokes of her hand quickly had him on the verge of explosion.
"Are you complaining?"
Joe released a ragged breath. "No." He broke out in a sweat when she took him deep into her mouth while using her tongue and hand to caress him. "Janey … honey … God."
She laughed, and the vibration almost finished him off.
"Baby, come up here. Let's do this together."
Joe got a second lease on life when she released him
to shimmy out of her skirt and panties. Watching her pull her top over her head and remove her bra, however, had him right back at the brink. He reached for her, certain he'd never been more turned on in his life.
With her hand on his chest, she eased him back, letting him know she was still in charge. She straddled him and rubbed her moist heat over him.
He grabbed her hips, desperate to be inside her, but she wasn't done playing with him.
Apparently, she didn't care that she was making him crazy, because she tossed her head back and laughed. Sliding his hands from her hips to her ribs, he cupped her breasts and ran his thumbs over her nipples. That finally seemed to get her attention. She stopped tormenting him and took him in.
"Ahhh," she sighed, gazing down at him through half-lidded eyes. "That feels so good."
Joe linked their fingers and held on tight, expecting her to ride him hard. But once again she surprised him by stilling the movement of her hips. He groaned. "Janey!"
"Tell me something about you that I don't know."
He stared up at her, incredulous. "Now?"
She bit her lip and nodded. "You know me so well. You know how I take my coffee and that I'm a vegetarian. You even remember my injured pet squirrel and the Strawberry Shortcake overalls. I need to catch up."
His fingers traveled over her back to cup her bottom, bringing her in tighter against him. "And we have to play get-to-know-you right this minute?"
Tilting her hips ever so provocatively, she nodded again. "Just one thing, Joe. That's all I'm asking for."
"I can't believe you expect me to think right now."
She squeezed his shoulders. "You can do it, and when you do, you'll be richly rewarded."
"Well, when you put it that way…" He squirmed beneath her, needing more and needing it now. Somehow, he managed to say, "I like to paint."
"Walls?"
"Canvas." He gasped when she rolled her hips and bent to drag her breasts over his chest. "Landscapes."
"Oh! You mean paint paint."
"Right. Can we have sex now?"
"We are having sex."
"Can we do it my way?"
Her lip came out in a pretty pout. "You don't like my way?"
"I love your way." He sat up and curled her legs around his hips. "But I'm about to explode. You wanna come with me?"
