by Jule McBride
“You’re still too far away,” he murmured, his voice breathless, his every touch calculated to bring her back to her self, back to him, back to this potent physical thing they shared. His blood quickened as she panted harder. Suddenly, she leaned back, as if to get up. Instinctively, he reached to stop her. “Don’t. Where are you going?”
“The condom.”
“Oh.” His breath catching, he watched her rip the package. Trying to steady himself, he rested his elbows at his sides, determined to let her take control even though he wanted nothing more than to make her submit to his will, too. He wanted her to yield as he plundered. His fingers itched to help as she fumbled with the condom. He was hard and as she rolled it on, his heart squeezed, since each touch made him want to cry out. How could she make the most mundane things, like sheathing him, so incredibly hot?
“Ride me,” he whispered, her warm fingers circling him, the touch a hair-trigger threatening to bring him off. Guiding him into a swimming sea of heat, she sank down, opening for him, taking the shaft, enveloping him, wiping coherent thought from his mind. When she started really moving, he gasped. Lips he’d bruised with kisses parted. Amber eyes that had roved over each nude inch of him glazed and rolled back, half—closing.
Hungry and yearning, he slid both hands around the smooth, quivering skin of her backside, then he tightened his fingers, pulling her closer, pulling her down each inch, his every last nerve dancing. A switch inside turned on and heated jolts pulsed to his groin. Impressions crowded in on him. The soft torture of her palms on his chest. The burning agony as her fingers brushed his nipples. She was grasping his chest hairs by the fistful as she lowered herself, taking him all the way. Suddenly, she leaned, crouching forward, her breasts touching his chest—swaying, grazing, sweeping. Nipples on nipples. He gasped. She was tighter. Wetter. Hotter. About to come. When her internal muscles clutched, he gritted his teeth, fighting not to explode. She was so close.
“Can you get off, Ari?” he managed, his voice barely audible. Maybe she was too lost tonight, her mood not right. “Come on, baby.”
Brushing hair from her face, he clenched the strands, using them to drag her mouth down to his for an all-tongue kiss. “Nobody ever made love to me like this,” he assured, his voice energizing her, quickening her movements. Her thigh muscles rippled, each brush of skin reducing him to carnal need, and yet it wasn’t just lust, but so much more.
He moved to put a foot on the floor, to anchor himself, but he couldn’t. His pants were around his ankles, trapping them. Helpless, he could only lift his hips, pushing his cock deeper. Tilting his chin up, he pressed his head into the armrest, uttering a nonsensical sound, then his hands found her waist. How could he hold back when she gloved him in hot, liquid heaven? Suddenly, she went slack all over, and just as suddenly, convulsed. On a wave of palpitations, the luscious relief of release claimed him, too.
Even more than lust, they’d expended emotion, and he stayed inside her, barely moving, his arms around her back, her legs stretching, twining around his. Laying her cheek on his chest, she steadied her panting breath, and was asleep in minutes. Later, the lights flickered back on, and he awakened. The heat was on, too, so there was no need to stay by the fire, but he couldn’t bring himself to wake her. He pulled a gray afghan blanket his mother had made around her shoulders and finger-combed the tangled strands of her hair.
When he woke again, his shoulders ached. At first, he thought only minutes had passed, but as his eyelashes fluttered, he realized it was light outside and he’d slept all night. Amazing, he thought. When he slept with Ari, he could go a full eight hours, like a normal person, but how had she gotten off the sofa without awakening him? Had she gone to bed? “Ari?”
When no answer came, he sat up. A year fell away, and once more, it was the day before Christmas. He was watching his father walk down the hallway at the hospital. One look at his his face on that particular day, and Bruno had known his mom was gone. He had the same sinking, anguished feeling now. Ari was gone, and maybe there was no point in chasing her. Maybe she wouldn’t come back. Maybe she would keep leaving him. Maybe she’d never learn to really stand up to her folks and live her own life. A lot of people never really learned how to do that.
Yes...she might keep leaving him over and over, until it was truly the end. She’d left every man before him, after all. No matter how much he’d vowed to himself after his mom died, that he would live in line with his true emotions, it would not matter. He was only half of the equation, and maybe Ari’s plans weren’t going to include him.
“Damn,” he muttered.
Then he got up. He might be only half the equation, but he was a damn important half. And he wasn’t like the other guys she’d known. He wanted her too badly. And he was not going to let her go without a fight.
Chapter Ten
Bruno had told her about the cardboard, so Ari found it easily, wedged it under her tires for traction, then drove the truck out of the ditch. She had to get away from him this morning. Had to think. Yes, something had to give. None of this was Bruno’s problem. Ari had let Mom Mad ruin things last night. She hated her this morning, she really did! Dad Mad, too, for letting Mom Mad be so overbearing. Someone had to put a stop to it.
“But I need coffee first,” she muttered. She was trying to drive carefully, too, since the roads were slicker than they had been the previous night. Pulling into one of Rick Holding’s minimarts, she got out of the truck and went to the coffee stand. “Whoa!” she exclaimed, sputtering after a first drink that tasted like rocket fuel. Returning to the truck, she winced, and forced herself to sip the wretched coffee. Yes, she needed to wake up and compose herself for the job ahead. She couldn’t go off half-cocked.
After finishing the coffee, she got back on the road, still stewing over last night. Bruno had made everything better, of course, but he shouldn’t have to play Mr. Fixit. She was tired of Mom Mad raining on her parades, and Ari had better things to do than go through life with her whole family acting like wet blankets. No way was she even going home to change. She’d worn this dress to dinner the previous night, but it was nobody’s damn business that she hadn’t made it home, was it?
As soon as she saw her parents’ stone house through the trees, her temper spiked. “What the...” Her voice trailed off when she saw fresh tire tracks by the cypress trees. Gavin? Last night, she’d told him to go home! Was he going to camp outside wherever Lizzie lived? Rather than park by the road, she drove up the driveway, then she got out and slammed the door. She still didn’t know what to say. All these years, she’d been pushing men away, but last night, she’d realized the problem was Mom Mad. Never again was Ari going to let her undermine her confidence. As she approached the house, an unseen hand grabbed her heart and squeezed. The place was picture-postcard perfect in the snow. Straight out of a Thomas Kinkade painting, with white-tinged ivy vines sprawling over a stone façade. Years of good memories were here, especially of playing with Lizzie when they were little. Birthday parties. Cookouts.
Inside, she stopped in the foyer long enough to shrug out of her coat and hang it on the doorknob of the coat closet. Through an archway, she saw Mom Mad, and before she thought it through, she was taking angry strides toward her, words pouring out. “Last night, you made me feel like crap. Total crap,” she began. “After I left here, I finally realized I keep pushing people away, just the way you say I do, but it’s really you I want to get away from! You, and the way you made me feel last night! So, I don’t want to see you for a while. Dad Mad, either. You both act like I can never measure up to Lizzie, to the point I start to hate her, I really do!”
Just as she finished her speech, she passed through the archway into the living room, only to realize Gavin and Jack The Dentist were both in the room, facing off on either side of the mantle. Lizzie wasn’t paying attention to them, however. She was glaring at Mom and Dad Mad, looki
ng as angry as Ari. In fact, she looked exactly like Ari, since she was wearing Ari’s black silk blouse with the red poppies. She’d painted her nails blood red, too.
Sitting next to each other on the sofa, holding hands, Mom and Dad Mad looked super upset, and for once, it wasn’t because of Ari. They hadn’t even looked at her, although she’d been yelling. Definitely, no one noticed that she, like Gavin, was wearing yesterday’s clothes.
“That’s what I was saying, Ari!” Lizzie burst out. “But they won’t listen! They keep saying I’m just nervous about the wedding! But it’s not true. I can’t stand it anymore! I can’t! Why does everybody act like I’m perfect? I am not perfect! I hate people treating me with kid gloves like I’m so prim and proper!”
Before Ari could respond, Lizzie stalked in front of Mom Mad. “Everybody always liked Ari more than me, anyway. She was a lot more fun while we were growing up. Like at school. I don’t care what you say. She’s always going out with interesting people. You know that. You’re the one with the big, fat file on her new boyfriend! You don’t keep files on Jack or Gavin, do you?
“I have the exact same voice as Ari, too—we’re twins!—but only she made a career out of having a great voice. I listened to your advice, instead, about doing what’s practical. But that just means you wind up safe and boring!” Now she started mocking Mom Mad, doing a surprisingly good imitation, in Ari’s opinion. “Oh, no, Lizzie, you didn’t get a four-point-oh grade average? You’d better get married or you’ll wind up like Ari.”
Lizzie sucked in a breath, then plunged on. “Actually, I like this blouse a lot. It looks really hot. And I could move to Raleigh like Ari, too. Have sex in elevators! Whatever!”
Ari’s eyes widened. Whoa! Her sister was really losing it.
“When Bruno came onto me in the elevator,” she rambled on, wrapped up in her monologue, “I realized how screwed-up my life is. Why do I always have to be perfect little Lizzie, altar girl?” Lizzie whirled on Gavin. “And you! You even admitted that’s why you never proposed to me, even after years of us being together. Mom Mad told you nobody could measure up to perfect Lizzie, right? And so you’re going to let me marry somebody else!”
“On that point, I’d like to interject something,” Jack The Dentist cut in, dragging a hand through his short, red hair. “Gavin was in the yard last night, wasn’t he? And he’s here this morning. He was at the mall elevator, too, because he is in the mall every single day. He has been a constant shadow, Lizzie. Robby and Alice Shoemaker told me they saw you together in a back booth at Boondocks, too, and also at the coffee stand at one of Ray Holding’s minimarts. What I realized—if anybody cares about my feelings, which they don’t—is that I’m not in love with you anymore. I’m a respected professional in Blackwater Inlet, and I refuse to be made into a fool.”
Inhaling sharply, he continued, “Lizzie, I’m sorry, but I can’t go through with the wedding. I know it’s less than a week away, but it’s a huge mistake for us both. When Cheryl and I broke up, I wanted to fill the void. You got me on the rebound, but it’s just not working out. And frankly, I would prefer if everybody in the Inlet knows I broke off with you, instead of the other way around.”
Mom Mad’s eyes were bugging. “What?”
Then Dad Mad started yelling. “What did I tell you, Emily? You have meddled in our daughters’ lives for the last time. For once, I’m putting my foot down. Our girls are grown women now. They are out of school, have lives, careers, men, friends, the works. And you’re going to leave them alone from here on out. As soon as school’s out for the summer, we’re leaving. Just you and me. We are going on a long vacation. Alone. In fact, we won’t even wait for summer. We’re going somewhere for spring break, and you have no say in the matter.”
Mom Mad looked stricken.
Ari could only marvel at the scene, since she couldn’t have planned it better. Somehow, it reminded her of the first night she’d slept with Bruno. There was the day before Bruno, when he wasn’t even on the radar. Then TMA had opened up a whole new world. Now, in the Madden household, everything had turned on its axis. Lizzie wanted to be like Ari, Dad Mad wanted to wear the pants, and The Dentist had called off the wedding.
“Bruno,” Ari suddenly whispered.
In bed wasn’t the only place he exhibited his knack for perfect timing. Seeing him peer in a window of the entry door, she waved for him to come in. As always, he looked incredibly handsome. His hair was a tousled mess, his unshaven jaw peppery with whiskers, and under his fancy camel hair coat, he was wearing the same rumpled sweats and hoodie he’d slept in. With her. Images of the night they’d shared teased her consciousness, and even now, she could scarcely believe the heat they generated by firelight during a power outage. Chalk it up to him being Mr. Electricity.
“I came here to tell Mom she has to straighten up or get out of my life,” Ari announced as he approached.
Lights flickered in his eyes, as if a switch inside him had just been turned on, and he smiled, stepping next to her, the brush of his body sending jolts of awareness through her. “I thought you were running away.”
Slowly, she shook her head, her eyes saying she was done with running. He looked at her a long moment, his expression so full of relief that she felt suddenly breathless. He was falling in love with her, he really was, and suddenly her heart felt full to the point of bursting.
“I went to your house first, and when you weren’t there, I let myself in to leave a note. I played your messages, hoping to find a clue as to where you were. And guess what?” Before she could answer, he continued, “Your agent called to say you got the job with the National Federation of Teachers.”
Her smile broadened, but landing the account no longer mattered the way it would have only twenty-four hours ago. She felt absolutely no need to redeem herself. She was fine the way she was. Bruno liked her this way. Loved her, probably. And all the approval she needed was in his eyes right now. Mom Mad would just have to learn to deal with her own controlling behavior, because Ari wasn’t going to let it interfere with her life. Definitely, she wasn’t going to be railroaded into pushing Bruno away. “Dad’s right,” Ari said to her mother now, more gently. “You’ve got to change, Mom.”
“And Ari is perfect, by the way,” Bruno added.
Ari grinned as he caught her fingers in hands that had pleasured every inch of her. As he brushed her knuckles with his lips, she studied the long, thick fingers, the supple wrists. Robby Shoemaker’s theories about her intimacy problems sucked, but he had been right about her liking guys’ hands. Especially Bruno’s. Every time she looked at them, she imagined their soft, silken touch and wanted to shudder.
Keeping his broad shoulders straight, he bent his knees slightly, in the unique way he’d evolved to compensate for his height, until his gray-blues were lasering into hers. Something switched on inside her. The next thing she knew, she was crooking a finger and simply walked outside, wanting him alone, not even minding when she found herself on the porch in the freezing cold without a coat. Given the heat she and Bruno generated, it wouldn’t matter. He shrugged out of his coat, though, and snuggled her inside. Something about the way he touched it made her think...
“It was a gift from your mom, wasn’t it?” she suddenly guessed.
“Last Christmas,” he said, squinting down at her, emotion in his eyes. “The day after she died was Christmas, and Dad and I forced ourselves to open our presents from her. She would have wanted us to.”
He was such a sweet man. A kind man. Sexy, too. She stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed him.
He wrapped his arms around her. “You really weren’t walking out on me?”
She shook her head. “No. Last night, you made me think about things. I felt so bad. Really depressed. You helped pull me out of it, but I’ve let Mom Mad railroad me for years when it comes to my relationships. I need to take responsi
bility for that. I have to stop letting her do that to me, or else...”
“What?”
“I might lose you, Bruno.”
“You’re not going to lose me.” He smiled. His hand traced the lapel of the coat. “Listening to you spin all those irreverent holiday songs in Boondocks brought me out of my own funk, too, you know.”
“Guess good things can happen around the holidays sometimes.”
“This year they did.”
“Maybe next year, too,” she promised, feeling a sudden explosion of butterflies in her belly. There was a real chance they’d still be together then. She could feel it in her bones. They’d both changed. And they wanted each other. She could only marvel at the unstoppable heat rising between them. “I saw the generator in your garage this morning, by the way.”
“I didn’t want you to leave last night. I figured I could keep you warm.”
“You do keep me warm.”
“So, let’s get out of here. Why don’t you follow my Road Rover.”
“And get off the grid?” Inside the house, a whole new Chapter was unfolding for the Maddens. Who knew? Maybe The Dentist would wind up with Cheryl again, and Gavin would close the deal with Lizzie, after all. That was none of her and Bruno’s concern, however. Especially not now, when he was doing his hot lean-dip thing again. He pressed his lips to hers with slow, steady pressure, then plundered with his tongue, making heat tunnel through her veins. As it spiraled deliciously, she whispered, “I don’t know all detours, but it’s a foregone conclusion where we’re going to wind up next.”
