Longing for Love

by Marie Force

  “Is my girl not as sick as she pretends to be?” he asked with amusement in his voice.

  Her heart beat faster when he called her his girl. “I’m never too sick for this.”

  He pressed his fingers deeper into her, surprising her when he used his free hand to tweak her nipple.

  She shuddered and came the second his fingers made contact with the heart of her desire.

  “So, so beautiful,” he whispered as he continued to stroke her sensitive flesh.

  “Blaine…”

  “What, honey?”

  “I want you to…” Tiffany stopped herself, unaccustomed to asking for what she wanted from a man. His sweetness had left her feeling raw and exposed to feelings she’d only recently tried to deny. How foolish that seemed only a few minutes later, after he’d proven her powerless to resist him.

  “What, baby? Anything you want.”

  “Will you hold me?”

  “God, yes. There’s nothing I’d rather do. Let’s get you out of there.”

  He helped her to stand and ran a towel over her reverently, leaving no part of her untouched, and even towel-dried and brushed her hair. Watching him tend to her made her heart melt and her sex ache with the need for more. Even though she still felt lousy, she wanted to be close to him. She needed to be close to him. When had he become her anchor? When had he become so necessary?

  “Steady,” he said when her legs wavered under her. His hands on her shoulders kept her on her feet until he scooped her up and carried her into the bedroom, depositing her gently on the bed. When she began to shiver, he pulled the covers up and over her, surrounding her with his appealing scent. She watched him drop his shorts and held out her arms to welcome him into bed.

  “Oh, you’re so warm!” she said as he wrapped himself around her.

  “Snuggle closer to get the full impact.”

  The “full impact,” she discovered, was indeed quite full and pressed insistently against her belly. She couldn’t resist reaching down to stroke his heated skin and reveled in the groan that seemed to come from deep inside his chest.

  “That feels so good.”

  “I want you.” Why be coy? Why pretend otherwise? Why pretend that hadn’t been the case from the first time she ever laid eyes on him?

  “You’ve been so sick, honey.”

  “I’m okay. I need you.”

  He cupped her bottom, holding her even tighter against him as he pushed rhythmically into her hand. “You have me,” he said gruffly. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

  “There’s nothing you could say that would mean more to me than that.”

  He captured her lips in a breathtakingly intense kiss that had her straining against him, begging for more. “How could he ever let you go?”

  “I wasn’t like this with him.” She squeezed him to make her point. “I was always afraid to take what I wanted.”

  “Don’t ever be afraid with me. I’d give you anything. All you have to do is ask.”

  Encouraged by his sweet words and the even sweeter sincerity behind them, she wiggled down to kiss his chest, giving special attention to his nipple, which made him gasp and expand in her hand. She moved farther down, running her tongue over muscles in his belly that quivered in response. When she took his straining erection into her mouth, she kept up the steady strokes of her hand at the base.

  Her free hand traveled around to his rear, squeezing and running her nails over his cheeks. That seemed to make him a little crazy, so she let her middle finger delve into the crease, which was all it took to make him come—hard. She licked up every drop of his intense release before she let him slide from between her lips.

  “Wow,” he said. His eyes were closed, and his chest heaved.

  Tiffany loved that she’d done that to him. Maybe it would never work between them in the long run. Maybe it would blow up in her face the way her relationship with Jim had. Maybe, maybe… She couldn’t remember being so content or happy. Even the threat of eviction hanging over the store couldn’t dampen the sweet feelings Blaine inspired.

  “Come here,” he whispered.

  “Where?”

  “Up here.”

  She worked her way closer to his face. “I’m here.”

  “As beautiful as this face is,” he said, cupping her cheek for effect, “it’s not the part of you I want.”

  Tiffany’s eyes widened with surprise—and a tiny bit of alarm. “What part do you want?”

  His hand coasted over her back to cup her bottom. “This part. If you feel up to playing some more, that is.”

  At some point in the last half hour, she’d forgotten all about being sick—and that she’d planned to leave him. “Ah… What do you want with that part of me?”

  “Come find out.” His tone was heavy with desire and challenge.

  Never one to back down, Tiffany was at once curious and anxious. He seemed to possess endless ways to arouse and stir her. Filled with trepidation—and excitement—she knelt and turned her back to him. “Like this?”

  His hand traveled from her shoulder to her bottom in a light caress that made her insides flutter and her sex ache with anticipation. “It’s a good start.” He gripped her hips and encouraged her to keep her back to his face when she straddled him. When he had her arranged the way he wanted her, his hand on her back encouraged her to bend over him. She felt horribly exposed and terribly aroused by a position that was all new to her. Waiting to see what he would do made her skin tingle.

  “Mmm,” he said as his lips coasted over her inner thigh. “What a lovely, lovely sight.”

  She was glad he thought so, because she was about to die of embarrassment. Tiffany had no idea what she was supposed to do with her hands, so she rested them on his thighs and felt his muscles jump in reaction, letting her know he wasn’t unaffected by this new game.

  And then his tongue was outlining her sex, laying a tantalizing path of sensation over her bare skin that turned her muscles to water.

  “Don’t move,” he ordered.

  “I’m trying not to.” She sounded breathless and positively wanton as she tried to wriggle closer to his questing tongue.

  “Try harder.” His hand came down on her right buttock in a light smack that made her moan. Before she had a chance to recover from the spank, his tongue was delving inside her and she was on the verge of an explosive release.

  “Don’t come yet.”

  “But I—”

  This time his hand landed on her left cheek, leaving a fiery sting in its wake.

  Tiffany gasped and panted, pushing her sex against his face. She started to imagine how she must look, naked and spread out on top of him, and then realized she didn’t care how she looked. He liked what he was seeing, and that was all that mattered.

  His finger at the base of her spine roused her out of her musings to pay close attention as it traveled down, down, down. He paused only to press against her back entrance before continuing on to slide into her slick heat.

  “Don’t come,” he said again, more harshly this time as his tongue teased her and his fingers slid into her, pressing against that spot deep inside for a brief instant before retreating once again.

  She noticed he was hard again and decided to even the score by using her tongue on him, teasing the tip with the same darting strokes he was giving her.

  His growl was the only sign he gave that she was getting to him, so she kept it up, cupping his balls for added effect.

  “Do not come,” he said, sounding less fierce this time as he raised his hips. “Suck me.” He punctuated his harsh command with another stab of his tongue.

  She wrapped her lips around the head of his penis and sucked as hard as she dared.

  Growling, he returned the favor by tightening his lips around her and sucking just as hard as he pressed his fingers into her.

  A sharp cry escaped from her lips the second before she exploded, shattering into a million pieces in an orgasm that went on for what
felt like forever. Every time she thought it was over, he proved her wrong, taking her up and over again and again until he finally joined her, filling her mouth and throat with his essence.

  She came down from the incredible high to the feel of his tongue soothing her sensitive skin and his fingers still embedded deep within her.

  He wiggled them just to make sure she knew he was there, and Tiffany nearly came again from that alone. Finally, he withdrew from her and encouraged her to turn toward him.

  “Ride me.”

  She looked down, shocked to realize he was already hard again. The man was positively insatiable!

  “Please.” He sounded so desperate that Tiffany moved faster than she thought she could to give him what he needed. Even though she was more primed than she’d ever been in her life, it still took a few torturous minutes to take him in. The whole time, his lips were parted, his eyes were closed, and his hands gripped her hips so tightly she had no doubt there’d be bruises.

  “Yes,” he whispered when she sank down on the final inch. Keeping his hands on her hips, he set the pace. “Tiffany, God, Tiffany…” He cupped her breasts, tweaking her nipples as he seemed to get harder and bigger inside her. His eyes opened slowly, and he looked up at her. What she saw in his eyes told her everything about how he was feeling, and she couldn’t look away.

  He thrust up and into her, stealing every thought from her mind that wasn’t about ultimate pleasure. After the last orgasmic frenzy, she would’ve bet her life she couldn’t do it again. She would’ve been dead wrong because once again she was climbing as he kept up the steady and relentless pace. She was supposed to be riding him, but he’d taken control of her mind, her body and her heart. To deny that would be foolish. She loved him. How could she not? But she couldn’t tell him. Not yet. Not until she was absolutely certain he wouldn’t leave.

  He stole the last remaining thoughts from her mind with a mighty thrust that sent them both into release. For the longest time, she lay on top of him, pulsating with aftershocks. With his strong arms tight around her, she felt safe and adored. And loved.

  Chapter 20

  “Are you going to tell me why you were crying before?”

  As Tiffany shook her head, a tear escaped from the corner of her eye.

  Blaine used the tip of his index finger to brush it away. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Tiffany…”

  After the intense way he’d loved her, she couldn’t possibly tell him she’d been planning to leave him.

  “Are you still upset about what my mother said? I told you, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care what anyone thinks.”

  “I’m afraid that eventually people like your mother will convince you I’m not worth the aggravation—”

  “Stop. Please don’t do this. Don’t be driven by fear or worries about what other people might say. I’m not Jim. I’m not your dad. It’s not fair to expect me to do the same thing they did.”

  How did he do that? How did he zero in on her deepest fears and allay them so effortlessly?

  “Do you think I don’t understand?” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Your father left you, your husband left you, so naturally, if you let yourself have feelings for me, I will, too, right?”

  Tiffany’s throat tightened with emotion. “Maybe.”

  “Please don’t worry about that. I’m right where I want to be. I waited so damned long to be able to hold you and kiss you and make love with you. I thought I’d go crazy waiting for you.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “I don’t want you to lose your job because of me.”

  “If I lose my job, it’ll be because of me, not you. I’ve been pushing the mayor’s buttons since the day I got here. He’s up my ass all the time about everything, including the length of my hair.”

  “I like the length of your hair,” she said, running her fingers through it.

  “All the more reason not to cut it,” he said, holding her still for his kiss. “Why are your brows still furrowed?”

  Once again, she was unsettled by the intense way he paid attention to her. “Are they?”

  He ran a finger from one eyebrow to the other. “Uh-huh.”

  “What your mother said—”

  “I told you not to pay any attention to her.”

  “I was wondering how you lost your last job.”

  After a long pause, he said, “I don’t like to talk about that.”

  “You don’t like to talk about anything.”

  The fingers that had been combing through her hair stilled. “That’s not true.”

  “I don’t know anything about you other than what you do for work and who some of your friends are.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  Tiffany tried to think of some innocuous questions she could ask to work up to what she really wanted to know. “Do you have siblings?”

  “Two brothers, two sisters.”

  “Where are they?”

  “My younger brother is in college, but the others are scattered around New England.”

  “Are you close to them?”

  “I talk to them all just about every week. Does that count as close?”

  Tiffany, who used to yearn for a big family, would’ve loved to have four siblings she talked to every week. She’d often been envious of the closeness she’d witnessed among Mac and his siblings. “Yes, that counts. Are you the oldest?”

  “Second oldest. What else do you want to know?”

  “I want to know everything. I’ve told you about my bad stuff. Are you going to tell me about yours?”

  “I hate to think about it, let alone talk about it. It’s all in the past. I’d like to leave it there.”

  Tiffany started to protest but thought better of it. Despite his tender care and intense lovemaking, she felt stung by his unwillingness to share his past with her.

  He kissed the top of her head and squeezed her tightly. “Do you remember the first time we met?”

  The abrupt shift in the conversation caught her off guard.

  “In Maddie’s hospital room after the accident at the marina,” he said. “Remember?”

  “Yes,” she said with a secretive smile.

  “What?”

  “I thought you were hot and said as much to Maddie.”

  “Funny, I thought the same about you—that day and every time I ran into you afterward. When I saw Mac, the first thing I asked was if you were single. I thought I’d die when he said you were married.”

  “Is that so?”

  Nodding, he traced the outline of her lips with the tip of his index finger. “But then he said your marriage was on the rocks, and I was filled with foolish hope. The night you handcuffed yourself to Jim, and he called the police… Seeing you…naked…” His finger moved in a tantalizing path over her chin to her chest, between her breasts and back up to circle her nipple. “It was all I could do to function professionally when I wanted to unlock those cuffs and drag you away from him. I wanted you all to myself, which is why I acted so unprofessionally when I took you home that night.”

  “Is that what you call it? Unprofessional?” she asked with a laugh, remembering the earth-shattering minutes in her kitchen.

  “What would you call it?”

  “Incredible. Amazing. Life changing.”

  He brought her hand to his lips, and she suddenly realized she was no longer thinking about how to leave him. Rather, she was thinking about how she might try to keep him forever. “It was all those things for me and so much more. I thought about you all the time. I had no idea divorces could take so long.”

  Tiffany’s mind raced as she tried to process what he’d said. He’d thought about her all the time. Her heart stood up to do a happy little dance at that news.

  For a long time, he was silent, and then he curled a lock of her hair around his finger. “I know I’m not the easiest guy in the world to be with, but I hope you’ll be p
atient with me and give me a chance. I waited so long for you.”

  While he hadn’t given her what she wanted, he gave her something else she hadn’t known she needed—hope.

  “I’m not ready to go home yet,” Dan said as he drove Kara back to North Harbor.

  “What do you want to do?”

  “What is there to do around here?”

  “Not much.” Kara was quiet for a minute before she said, “I know something we can do.”

  “Sounds promising,” he said in his best suggestive tone. Dan knew it wasn’t wise to needle her, but he couldn’t seem to help it.

  “Not that.”

  “Oh, damn. Can’t blame a guy for being hopeful. What, then?”

  “How about a ride on the Salt Pond?”

  “In the dark?”

  “You’re not afraid, are you?”

  “Of course not, but how will you be able to see where we’re going?”

  “I have exceptional night vision.”

  “This I have to see.” A few minutes later, Dan parked in the lot at McCarthy’s and followed Kara to the floating dock where he got on first and held out a hand to help her aboard.

  “I’m only allowing you to help me because I’m wearing a dress.”

  “I’m only helping you because you’re wearing a dress.”

  She tried to hold back a smile and failed, shaking her head at him.

  Under the bright lights from the main pier, he watched her unlock the console and start the boat. After letting it warm up, she cast off the bowline and gestured for him to get the stern. The night was clear and very dark. Dan gazed up at a star-filled sky that got more spectacular the farther they got from the lighted docks.

  “It’s quite something, huh?” she said from her post at the helm.

  “Indeed. Something tells me this isn’t the first time you’ve been out here late at night.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t sleep very well, so it’s something to do.”

  Without thinking through the implications, he came up behind her and sat on the seat, urging her to lean back against him.