B
She plucked the note off the mirror and pressed it to her mouth, imagining his hands on her lips again. He was a sweet man, a gentleman in a world where people were stuck in social media, on electronic devices, and devoid of true warmth and closeness. Claire had been leaving her phone in her bedroom for the last week. It had become an unnecessary appendage in the world she’d become part of.
With a nearly permanent grin, she got ready for work and left the cottage with a spring in her step. The sky was plump with white puffy clouds floating across the rich blue of a summer sky.
When she walked into the kitchen, the rich scent of coffee tickled her nose. She took a deep breath. “It smells wonderful in here.”
Pearl and Manny sat at the huge island with mugs of coffee in their hands. The older couple smiled at her. Their wrinkled visages were as friendly and welcoming as the Blackwood clan back in Texas. She had been pushing away the idea she could bond with another family, as though it would violate her relationship with her own.
Now she understood developing a relationship with her distant cousin and husband was a privilege, a way to be part of something special. Life was too short to push away the goodness, and Manny and Pearl were nothing but good.
“Good morning.” She made a beeline for the coffee.
“You’re full of happiness this morning, young lady,” Manny teased. “Did someone give you a bouquet of sunshine to start the day?”
She smiled at the memory of Boyd’s note. “Something like that.”
“It seems the Peach Bellini is good for you.” Pearl got to her feet. “I hope you decide to stay here for more than a few weeks.”
As her cousin turned on the oven to bake the morning’s treats, Claire remembered when Pearl had first invited her to come to the bed and breakfast. It had been a temporary haven until she could decide on what to do, whether to leave Atlanta, or to rebuild her life again, this time alone.
However, she wasn’t alone. Not anymore. The truth was, she had fallen in love with the city when she’d visited two years ago. Living here wasn’t a chore, and she loved the history that was around every corner. Now she had a nontraditional family perhaps to love and be loved by.
“I don’t want to take advantage of your generosity.” Claire knew the eight dollars an hour was a great deal of money to the couple who ran the business. Each day Manny had to make some repair to the hundred-and-fifty-year-old house. It had to be expensive to keep cool and heat in the winter.
Claire wouldn’t be a cook and horse caretaker forever, but for now, it was enough. “I’d like to stay, but I have some money saved up, so I can forego my salary until I go.”
“Absolutely not.” Manny smacked his hand on the soapstone counter on top of the island. “We pay our employees’ wages no matter what.”
Claire inwardly winced at the fact she’d insulted his pride. “Of course, I meant no disrespect. It’s that I love working here, and you two have been amazing.” To her surprise, Pearl pulled her into a hug. Surrounded by the scent of vanilla, Claire let herself hug the other woman back.
“Good, because we love having you here.” Pearl swiped at her eyes. “Now, let’s get to work on the pastries before the guests wake.”
There was only one couple staying at the bed and breakfast, but Pearl and Manny did as much if there were twenty guests as they did two. That was the mark of their dedication to the business and their honor as hosts. Yet another reason to respect and love them.
Claire got busy, and before she knew it, time had passed and eight thirty arrived. Time for their breakfast. She cooked up some eggs while Pearl cooked up sausage gravy and biscuits. The smells of the food made Claire’s stomach yowl like a coyote.
“Somebody’s hungry.” Boyd’s low voice in her ear made every hair on her body stand up. She looked at him through her lashes and his sensual grin made her heart thump hard.
“You’ve no idea,” she heard herself response. His brows went up, and she was pleased to see his lips twitch.
Oh, yes, they both had it bad.
Chapter Five
‡
Boyd stared at the horizon as the sun set, his thoughts a thousand miles away. The truth was, he was distracted by Claire. They’d known each other less than three weeks, and he’d spent a good portion of that time falling for her. His mother used to say all the strays followed him home, that he had a penchant for finding the weak and sick creatures to nurse them back to health.
Not that Claire was a weak and sick stray, but she was hurting. She’d been jilted and abandoned by the man she’d thought to marry. She’d arrived at the Peach Bellini to heal. Boyd might have interfered a bit with that.
“Everything okay, Boyd?” Manny stepped up beside him. The older man was quiet in comparison to his more loquacious wife, but when he spoke, folks listened. His hair was like a steel wool pad, all silver and crinkly, perched atop a face full of wrinkles from years of working outside. Manny was an extraordinary handyman who kept the Peach Bellini and all its buildings in tip-top shape.
Over the years, Boyd had learned quite a bit about building, plumbing, electricity, and carpentry from the man. No matter what, both Manny and Pearl were the finest people he’d ever met.
“I’ve taken a shine to Claire, and I’m not sure that’s the right path to take.” Boyd leaned the shovel against the fence he’d been repairing.
“She’s special.” Manny put his hands on the fence. “Pearl has just about adopted that girl. Even called her Mama to let her know Claire was safe here.”
That didn’t surprise Boyd, because the older woman had a heart of gold. “Glad to hear that. I’m sure her family misses her.”
The sound of bird song filled the air as silence descended on the two men. A bee droned by, lazily landing on the loropetalum bush nearby. It was a perfect summer day even if the humidity was thick and heavy in the air.
“What are your intentions about Claire?” Manny asked after a few minutes had passed.
“I’m not sure.” Boyd wiped his hands on his pants, but he just smeared the dirt around. “I like her a lot.”
“You kiss her?”
Somehow Boyd’s cheeks warmed. Was he a twelve-year-old talking to his first date’s father? “I did.”
“Good. I think she’s a woman who needs to be kissed.” Manny looked at him square in the eye. “Don’t hurt her, and don’t take advantage. The right woman only comes along once in a lifetime.”
Boyd couldn’t reply. His pulse had thundered into a fast trot. The right woman? He’d not considered the path of his life to have intersected with someone he could love. The breath whooshed out of his body, leaving him lightheaded.
“You okay, boy?” Manny patted him on the back.
Boyd held up one finger and sucked the air back in his body. “Yeah, I just, what do you mean ‘the right woman’?”
Manny smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “I saw Pearl on Saturday, February sixth in nineteen sixty. She was working at the five and dime. The prettiest thing I ever saw in my life. I went back to that store every day for two weeks buying this and that, things I didn’t even need. When I was looking at new handkerchiefs, she stomped up to me and said. ‘Why don’t you just ask me on a date already?’ She stuck out her hip and put her fist on it, daring me to do just that.”
Boyd chuckled. “I can see Pearl now. All full of sass and life.”
“She was, and I never even looked at another woman after that. I knew I was gonna spend my life with her. It was like a spark went off inside me.” Manny stepped back. “If you feel that spark, son, you let it burn, because she might be the woman you didn’t even know you could love.”
With that, Manny left him by the fence. Boyd stared after the older man and wondered if he’d just had an out-of-body experience. How the hell did Manny turn kissing a woman into falling in love with her? Or, in his case, just seeing a pretty girl at a Woolworth?
Boyd shook his head and picked up the shovel. It
was nearly time to get showered for supper and he was hungry enough to gnaw his arm off. The next thirty minutes passed by in a flash. He finished the last repairs to the fence and put the tools away in the barn before heading to the cottage.
When he opened the door, he heard singing. The first night Claire had arrived, he’d heard her beautiful voice. Now she was singing something different. Not the “Yellow Rose of Texas” this time.
He stood in the hallway, immobile as she sang Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”. A song he knew word for word.
It had been his mother’s favorite song.
Perhaps Manny’s spark had just roared to life. Boyd followed her voice to the open door of her room and leaned against the doorframe. Damned if his hands weren’t shaking.
He didn’t want to stop the song, so he stood and watched as she brushed her hair back into an elastic, singing as she did. Claire had a lovely voice, one that rivaled even his gypsy mother who could sing the birds out of the trees with her lovely soprano.
To his surprise, Claire threw out her arms and bowed to an imaginary audience. A laugh burst from his throat and she whirled around with a start.
“Holy shit, Boyd.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “You scared me.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why are you spying on me?”
“I wasn’t spying. I was enjoying your voice. It’s lovely.” He was sincere and her expression softened.
“It’s one of my favorite songs. Sometimes I need to sing to feel better. I spilled sauce all down my shirt so I had to change.” She flapped her hands in the air. “I need to get back to the kitchen.”
He touched her arm. “I like you, Claire. And I’m glad you came here.” He wasn’t ready to profess undying devotion, but he wanted her to stay, to know she was already special to him.
She tilted her head. “Thank you. I know I’m not a breath of sunshine most days, but I’m glad I came, too.”
The air crackled with tension and he waited. This time it was up to her to kiss him. She was the one healing, and he would go at her pace. A little flame could continue to smolder for quite some time.
She sidled up to him and pressed her breasts into his arm. His dick felt that spark from top to bottom.
“I want to kiss you.” She leaned toward him.
“Good, because I’m thinking I want to kiss you. A lot. Like, a whole lot.” He smiled when she kissed his cheek then fled through the door with a laugh. “Vixen.”
Boyd grinned like an idiot as he headed for the shower. He was more than glad Claire had come into his world.
*
Claire’s stomach danced with excitement, like there was an entire herd of butterflies doing the cha-cha inside her. It had been nearly four weeks since she’d arrived at the Peach Bellini, and her day off had arrived. She’d spent the morning in town buying a few things at the store and treating herself to a fancy coffee.
She’d driven back with the windows down and the radio blasting. For the first time since the hurricane disaster in her life, she’d felt good, almost happy.
Each day, she flirted with Boyd, and each time the impulse to do more grew stronger. He was letting her set the pace. His sweetness was a balm to her wounded pride.
He reminded her that there were good men in the world, men who treated a woman as though she were special. The word he’d ascribed to her, and she felt it down to her bones.
She wanted to do more than simply flirt. She needed to prove to herself that she would be okay again. That she would make a new life for herself. Aside from her personal journey to being whole, she expected that sex with Boyd would be spectacular. Like the Fourth of July fireworks that would light the sky tonight.
It was why she’d bought a box of condoms in town.
They were in a small paper bag, nearly burning a hole in the seat. It was risky and completely unlike her. All her life, she’d taken the safe path, never one to take a risk without assessing the outcome and potential danger. Those condoms were a flag she was flying. Today she had stepped out of her comfort zone and deliberately ignored the risks of what she wanted to do.
Claire knew she was flirting with danger by being with someone so soon after Richard had dumped her. However, she’d come to the realization that he’d done her a favor.
The entire three years they’d been together, she had always felt like she wasn’t good enough for him. He would find her flaws and point them out each time in the guise of encouraging her to do better. And Claire, being the perfectionist who planned every aspect of her life, had spent every moment analyzing how she could be better.
Now she knew she would never be better in his eyes.
Claire was a strong woman, but he’d weakened her. She had been fresh out of college, in her first marketing position, and his darkly handsome smile had dazzled her. The job in Dallas had led to the job in Atlanta. There had been good to come of all of it, though. She’d discovered her new life.
She shook off memories of the man who had, for all intents and purposes, controlled her life for three years. Today, Claire had emerged from her cocoon and she was ready to fly free.
When she pulled her car into the driveway of the bed and breakfast, clouds had obscured the sun and there appeared to be a storm brewing. She’d been surprised at the afternoon thunderstorms that would roll through. Downpours followed by wisps of steam rising as the heat from the emerging sun evaporated the water.
She closed the windows in the car and grabbed her bags. Three feet from the cottage, the skies opened up. She screeched and dove forward, scrambling for her keys. The door swung open and she ran into the house. Boyd closed the door and smiled.
“You got a little damp.”
“Thanks for coming to my rescue.” Claire shook the rain off the bags and moved to put them on the island in the kitchen. The paper bag she’d gotten at the pharmacy burst open and the condoms toppled out, landing on the floor by Boyd’s feet.
Well, shit.
His brows reached for his hairline. Her stomach dropped to her knees. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He reached down and picked them up, the box small and shiny in his big, callused paw.
“You, uh, dropped something.”
“Thanks.” She took the box from him. “Wishful thinking, I suppose.”
“Dare I hope you’re wishing for me?”
Claire’s courage deserted her, but she took a deep breath and reached deep to find it again. “Yes, I was.”
The storm raged around them, plunging the cottage into shadows. No lights burned, and the windows only allowed murky gray light inside. He moved closer and cupped her cheek. She closed her eyes as a thousand sensations slid down her body from the simple touch.
“I’ve been doing some wishing of my own.” He kissed her, a whisper of touch on her lips. “Maybe we can stop wishing and start doing.”
“God, yes.” Her breath rushed out, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. Hot, drugging kisses followed, mouths fused as her skin heated and her heart galloped.
Lightning lit up the room, followed by a rumble of thunder that shook the floor beneath her feet. Nature was urging her on, telling her to take a chance. She ran her hands up and down his muscular back, the lines and symmetry beautiful beneath her touch. She couldn’t wait to feel his skin.
“Let’s find my bed.” She broke the kiss and felt breathless and lightheaded. Blood rushed through her body, banging through her veins and arteries at a frantic pace.
Boyd’s breath gusted past her cheek as he walked backward, tugging at her hand. She followed, eager, aroused, and excited. They stumbled into her room as a bolt of lightning lit the room. The expression on his face must’ve matched her own. They’d flirted with each other for too long, and their hunger had grown to near epic proportions.
She hardly remembered taking off her clothes, but the rush of cool air told her she was naked. He scooped her into his arms, and she squealed. Squealed! Claire hadn’t made that noise ever in her life.
“I’m not t
oo heavy?” Cognizant of her size-ten frame, she knew she wasn’t light as a feature.
“You’re perfect.” He laid her on the bed with what felt like reverence and slid above her.
The heat from his body slid across her skin and she opened her legs, pulling him closer. The contrast of his hard, sculpted form with the coarse hairs against her softness made her crave more. Closer still.
“God you feel good.” He kissed her neck while his hands traced her curves, squeezing, caressing, touching. His mouth closed around one nipple and suckled, sending goose bumps up and down her skin.
Her pussy clenched when his callused finger found her eager clit. “God, yesssss.”
He slipped a finger inside her as his thumb pleasured her hot button. Her body screamed for more and she arched her back, pushing her nipple farther into his mouth. He seemed to know what she needed and pinched her clit. An orgasm slammed into her so hard, she saw stars.
Boyd gentled his touch as she came down from the heights of coming. He left her for a moment and returned, all suited up for more. She couldn’t be more glad she’d bought condoms. A box of them.
She reached for his cock. “I was hoping to taste you.”
He groaned and removed her hand. “Tasting you, seeing you come… Damn, girl, I gotta get inside you.”
Claire opened her legs and he settled between them, the blunt head of his erection teasing her sensitized flesh. She closed her eyes as he pushed inside, inch by inch.
“You’re torturing me.” She wanted him inside. Now.
“Good. Then it’ll feel even better.” He found a nipple again and nibbled at her as he thrust inside her, embedding his throbbing cock inside her welcoming pussy.
A wave of pleasure washed over her at the sensation. He was big, which she already knew given her early morning voyeurism. Yet the actual experience of having him in her body surpassed any fantasy she might have had.
She scratched at his wide back. “Move.”
He chuckled against her breast. “Give me a sec, or we’ll be done before we get started.”
She squeezed him with her internal muscles, and he groaned. So she did it again. And again. Finally, he started to move, his thrusts gaining speed as she tilted her hips to meet his.
Hurricane Bride Page 5
