Her head dropped back. She sighed. “I can see why he’d think that. What a lousy first impression to make on them, but you forced me into it.”
“He thought you were pretty, too, by the way.”
She tossed her head and snorted. “Get out of town.”
He couldn’t resist, so he kissed her cheek. “Not without you.” She didn’t push him away. Progress.
Kasey was a breath of fresh spring air after a long New England winter, and a welcome change in his life. He was definitely ready for a change.
After she chose a red bell pepper, she assigned him the job of choosing the crimini mushrooms, as she’d moved on to the fingerling potatoes. On the way to the butcher counter, he grabbed a bottle of white wine, a pinot grigio, as she picked out some chicken cutlets. His mouth was already watering and, watching her, the Pavlovian reaction wasn’t all from food. She shopped with confidence, sure of what she wanted. If only she could feel the same about him.
It wouldn’t be easy, but he was determined to convince her to give him a chance. He wouldn’t be like the other men in her life.
Would he?
Back at her apartment, he was banished to the living room while she prepared dinner. The aroma emitting from the kitchen piqued his appetite. He nibbled a pretzel or two from the dish on the coffee table by the sofa, took an occasional drink of the not great but very drinkable wine, and scratched behind Miss Daisy’s ears while watching the news on TV. From the loud purring, and insistence about his continuing on with the petting, he gathered the cat liked it.
He needed to come up with a plan to make Kasey purr tonight.
“Dinner’s almost ready,” she said. He sure hoped so because the combination of garlic, parmesan, olive oil, and pan-seared chicken was driving him crazy with hunger. So was she.
“At least let me set the table,” he said, jumping up and disturbing Daisy, who’d settled in his lap. The cat protested with a protracted meow.
After Jared washed his hands and set the table, Kasey brought out the dinner on a single large platter. The chicken cutlets were lightly breaded and browned to perfection drizzled with a thickened lemon sauce and placed in a row down the middle. The sautéed veggies were on one side, and the golden brown buttered and herbed roasted fingerling potatoes lined the opposite side.
“I think I need to take a picture of this,” he said, smiling.
“You going to post it on your social network page?”
He made a goofy face. “I might.” Never occurred to him. He didn’t even have a social network page.
As beautiful as the food looked, it tasted even better. “You’ve been holding out on me,” he said, using the stabbed potato on his fork for emphasis. “This is delicious. And the chicken, wow, great, just great.”
“There’s so much you don’t know about me,” she said, teasing him with a flighty expression while sipping her wine.
She’d fed him an opening line, and he needed to take advantage of it. “I’d like to know everything about you,” he said, feeling as earnest as all hell, wrists resting on the table as he leaned toward her.
She paused and gazed at him.
“I’m serious,” he said.
“You’ll be leaving next year, Jared. What’s the point?”
He was well aware that she didn’t need a lecture on taking it one day at a time and seeing where it led when she could very well be the one left behind. That had happened once too often to her, and though he couldn’t predict what the future held for them, beyond what he wanted it to, nothing was certain in life. “So you can read the future? Are you a fortune teller?”
In mid-bite she stopped to give him an annoyed glance.
“I’m just saying,” he continued, “we don’t know what the future holds for us. All we can do is enjoy what we can of it.”
“Is this the part where you try to talk me back into our nostrings fling?” She cut off a piece of chicken with extra vigor. The suspicious stare wounded him. He hadn’t made any headway in the trust department with Kasey.
He should have waited until after dinner, because the conversation was affecting his sense of taste. Great dinner or not, he needed to get some things off his chest. Before she kicked him out of here tonight he needed to make sure Kasey knew where she stood with him. “No. This is the part where I tell you exactly how I feel.”
He glimpsed an alarmed look in her eyes as she rapidly chewed her food. He refilled his wine glass and topped off hers, then took a long drink as he’d suddenly developed a deep thirst.
“We’ve done everything backwards, Kasey. We hopped right into bed without getting to know each other, discovered we really dug each other in there…” he pointed through the dining-room wall to where her bedroom was “…and we, I at least, realized how much I liked you. How I admire your dedication to your job and how you’d pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps and made something of yourself. Hell, I discovered that the first day I’d met you.” He watched her pushing her food around her plate instead of eating, listening to every word. “At the coffee bar that night, when you’d let slip how you’d been handed a lousy diagnosis from a father you’d never even met, I knew you weren’t any ordinary lady. Yet you still held your head high and refused to let it get you down. That was amazing.” Their gazes met and fused. “You’re amazing.”
She quickly glanced away. He took another bite of food and drank more wine, waiting for his words to sink in. “The thing is, you’re my game changer, Kasey.”
Her head shot up, she nailed him with her stare. For someone who didn’t usually hold back her thoughts, she’d gone eerily quiet. If he could only read her mind.
“Remember,” he said, “you told me to be the game changer in my relationship with my ex-wife. You told me to fight for what I wanted with my kids.” He pushed out his chair, stood, and walked behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders, then whispered, “You’re my game changer. I didn’t think I wanted another relationship for as long as I lived. Now I understand I’ll never be truly alive if I don’t have another relationship. And I want that relationship to be with you.” He squeezed her shoulders, hoping she’d understand. “I want to be with you, Kasey. I want to find out what happens when you and I quit hiding behind our walls and instead start pulling them down brick by brick.” He knelt beside her so he could look into her eyes, which were welling up. “I know what may happen with you, Kasey, and I’m dead serious about seeing you through it.” Big, fat tears brimmed in her eyes and some dropped over the lids. “Give me the chance to prove myself, sweetheart. I love you.”
Her fork clinked onto her plate. She shook with emotion. He thumbed her tears away and hugged her close, then kissed her hair.
“I do love you. Even though I don’t totally know you yet, I already know enough about you to fall in love.” He kissed her cheek. “You’ve got to believe me, because I’m not a liar.”
Kasey let go a ferocious cry, flinging herself into his open embrace. He’d risked it all, and reaped an amazing result.
“I love you, too, Jared,” she said, burying her face in his shoulder.
He’d finally heard the sweetest words on earth, and it made him feel as though he was floating in the air.
Kasey used the cloth napkin to wipe her face and eyes. Smiling, and refreshed from a long-overdue cry, she shook her head. “I must look frightening.”
“You look beautiful.”
Her knees turned to butter, seeing the sexiest man on earth with eyes only for her. Her fingers trembled as she gave one last swipe under her eyes.
Her body had just gone through the entire list of life’s emotions and now a warm pooling between her legs added another. Lust. She wanted him. “What do you say we clear the table and have dessert in bed?” she said.
Every cell in her body was marked to want Jared. He looked longingly at her—so long and sexily she could count it as foreplay. Jared held out his hand, she took it, accepting the warmth and electricity of his touch, and together th
ey walked to her bedroom.
The instant they passed the threshold he grabbed her shoulders, held her still and kissed her yielding lips. His tongue soon made love to hers as they held each other so tight she could already feel his arousal. Could anyone else’s body ever feel as right next to hers as Jared’s? He kissed her again. Easy answer. No.
She caressed his hips and pushed him tighter. Why did they have to have clothes on? Pulling away, she tried to unbutton his shirt, but he stopped her. His firm stare communicated without a doubt that he planned to take charge of this party.
She’d never surrendered completely to anyone, couldn’t trust enough to let it all go, but this was Jared. The man had just told her he loved her, and she knew he’d meant it. There was something else she knew without a doubt. She loved him back.
With her breathing steadily mounting as he delicately removed her sweater and slacks, and with tingles and shivers rushing over her skin from the dome of her head to her nearly curling toes, she let him undress her garment by garment until she was naked and positioned on her bed.
Jared was fully clothed when he leaned over the bed and started applying butterfly kisses to every erogenous zone she possessed, beginning at her neck. Her breasts tightened and pebbled as his mouth found each one, teasing the nipple with his feathery tongue lashes. With each kiss and suckle, she gave in to him, riding the beautiful wave of excitement from a whole new perspective. She wanted to close her eyes to enjoy it more deeply, but didn’t want to stop watching him. His kisses moved to her stomach, playfully nipping at her navel, making her squirm, before he continued south to her core.
The sweet torture went on until she twisted and writhed on the sheets, fisting them tightly, while he kissed her most sensitive spot as thoroughly as he’d kissed her mouth.
Not usually one to beg, she pleaded with him, called his name as if it was all she had left to hold onto now that he’d taken complete control of her body. Tension built steadily, the sensation so delectable she selfishly never wanted it to end. She indulged in the exquisite pleasure, her body coiling tighter and tighter, until she couldn’t bear it any more. Jared took her to the tipping point with his loving tongue, and she dove into the releasing waves as they rolled from gentle to tsunami in strength.
“Now,” she said, “I need you now.”
Jared removed his clothes in lightning-quick time, and while she still rocked with the climax he’d given her he climbed onto the bed and thrust inside, immediately heightening the already amazing sensation. She wrapped her legs around his hips and he filled her, finally satisfying the missing link to her total satisfaction. He continued to take complete control as he held her hips tilted just so and they rocked together at his pace, a hard and driving tempo. The deeper touches awakened new points of awareness that heated up, spilled over, and traveled her body like rogue waves of pleasure. Her head frantically moved from side to side as he pushed her against the mattress time and time again.
Nothing had ever been like this, giving in completely to her man—the man who loved her. He worked her and drove her ever closer until the sublime moment where she felt him turn rod solid, throb, and with a wild groan spill inside her yet never let up on the piston pace. His massive climax swept her over the edge as she tightened in deep blissful spasms around him and let herself go to a place she’d never been before. Complete abandon. Completely at one with him. Completely his.
*
It was midnight before they ventured out for dessert. Famished from their nonstop lovemaking, they ate leftovers from dinner instead. Kasey had never felt happier in her life.
“So what happens now?” she asked, mouth full of chicken cutlet.
“You let yourself trust me as much outside the bedroom as you just did in there, and I promise I won’t let you down.”
She got up and nuzzled his shoulder. “I’m beginning to realize that.”
“Then I’ll just have to help you figure it out the rest of the way, too.” He kissed her cheek, a greasy kiss from the potatoes. “What do you think about living together for a while before we make the big move?”
“What big move?”
“The one that takes vows and official papers and all that kind of thing.”
“Hold on. This is moving way too fast for me.”
“You’re the one who just asked what’s next. I’m only being honest with you. Like I promised. Remember?”
She shook her head. “You’re blowing my mind.”
“I thought I already did that in the bedroom. Let’s see, about three times as I recall, give or take a whimper.”
Kasey pummeled him with her palm, and he faked being hurt. “You’re brutal when you’re satisfied, you know that?”
“Are you kidding?” she said. “I can hardly lift my head.”
They laughed and delicately danced away from the commitment conversation, and when they’d eaten their fill, they went back to bed. This time, since both had to be at work in the morning, to cuddle and sleep.
*
Kasey and Jared strolled into the Everett Community Clinic the next morning holding hands. Vincent shot up from his desk, his look of interest so obvious his mouth was open.
“Well, well,” he said.
“That’s only half of it,” Kasey said.
Vincent’s eyes bugged out and Jared laughed.
“Yes, we are,” Jared said.
“Are what?” Vincent seemed to have trouble forming words.
“A couple,” Jared said. “I finally convinced her about the shallowness of superficial sex.”
Vincent clapped his hands, eyes sparkling. “Congratulations. And would you mind talking to my steady guy about that shallowness bit, too?” Vincent asked.
“Sure thing. Bring him to the bar on Friday when we celebrate. I’ll clue him in.”
Jared kissed Kasey lightly on the lips. “I’ll be here tonight to pick you up.”
“You will?” she asked, still amazed by the change in her circumstances.
He nodded and smiled as he backed toward the clinic exit. “And tomorrow night, and the night after that, and the night after that, and…”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Ten years later…
JARED pushed Kasey in the wheelchair up the incline towards the car.
“What a beautiful graduation, Jared. Weren’t you proud of Patrick?”
“Couldn’t be prouder. Pre-med is a huge undertaking, but since he’s interested in getting both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in research, that near free ride for medical school will help us out a lot.”
“You would have been thrilled to pay every penny for him to go to med school, you know it.” She smiled over her shoulder at him and he leaned forward so he could give her a quick kiss. “You need to let up on Chloe a little, though.”
He shook his head. “She isn’t even trying, Kase.”
“By your assessment maybe, but not everyone is cut out for higher education.”
“If she’d just applied herself a little more in high school, she could have gone to a four-year school instead of junior college.”
“There’s nothing wrong with junior college. That’s how I started my nursing education.”
“I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, it’s—”
“She’s pursuing her interests, so get over it. Chloe needs to find out who she is, and that won’t happen if you push her in a direction she doesn’t want to go. You need to get it through your head that she wants to be a hairstylist and not a chemist.”
Jared sighed. “Why do you always have to be the voice of reason?”
Kasey offered another bright-eyed smile. He still lived for those looks.
“One of us has to,” she said.
He feigned shock. “If I’d listened to the voice of reason, I never would’ve ignored you asking me to leave you alone and not come back. I never would have asked you to marry me on the spur of the moment.”
“And under different circumstances, I might have taken life for g
ranted and decided you were like every other guy and blown you off, too.”
“Sometimes bad things happen to great people, and good things come from it,” he said, wheeling her over a particularly bumpy patch of parking-lot pavement.
“Going all philosophical on me, are you?”
“Just trying to put this Chloe business in perspective,” he said.
“Give her time, darling. She’s coming off a bad relationship. Her heart is broken. She’s trying to stretch her wings and be independent. Give her time. That’s what it took for you to get used to living in Boston, right? Time?”
“Time and the right lady. Heck, if a south shore girl like you could move to the north shore and get used to it, the least I could do was handle leaving the west coast for Bean Town.”
He sighed, then spotted their car and rolled her to the handicapped spot for easy access.
“Before I met you,” she said, “all I wanted to do was run my little clinic in Everett. If you’d told me back then that one day I’d be in charge of six community clinics, I would have laughed in your face. Hell, I could hardly handle one.”
“You laughed in my face a lot back then, remember?”
“Only when you deserved it, dear.”
When he bent over and reached down to put the brake on the wheelchair, Kasey grabbed his hand and squeezed. “If I hadn’t been diagnosed with the Huntington’s marker I might never have opened up to life or hung on for this wild ride with you. I’ve loved you fearlessly since you took the risk of telling me how you felt, and for asking me to marry you when you didn’t have a clue what the future held for me, Jared. For us.”
He hugged her and kissed her again. “And I’m incredibly grateful you took the gamble.” He helped her stand. “Think of what we would have missed out on if you’d let pride win.”
“I can’t bear to think about it. I’d be a sad and lonely person who’d missed her chance of a lifetime.” She hugged him with all her might. “And I would have missed watching Patrick and Chloe grow up, graduate from college. Well, one of them anyway. Didn’t he look handsome today? Just like you did, I bet, at that age. Tall. Dark. Gorgeous. Some poor unsuspecting girl’s worst nightmare.” She looked wistfully at him. “Or dream.”
Dr. Tall, Dark...and Dangerous? Page 15
