by Sara Daniel
The more he caressed her, the weaker she became, until she had to admit, “I can’t keep standing.”
“Good, because I want to take you lying on your bed.” He flicked off the water and snagged a pair of towels, wrapping her first.
A moment later, she lay on her bed with her wet hair spilled across the pillow, her skin still damp but not chilled. No chance she could become cold as long as she kept her gaze on him. He dropped his towel and leaned over her, kissing first her lips then her neck, showering attention on her breasts then down her navel to between her legs.
“What are you—” She stopped as his plan to love her with his mouth became obvious. She’d always wanted to experience the intimacy and beauty and had all but given up hope of getting the chance.
Lifting his head, he gazed up her body at her. “I’ve dreamed of loving you like this. Please let me.”
His poignant words unraveled her. “Yes.” With her fingers tangled in his hair, she guided him down to touch her with the intimacy they both wanted. She bent her knees and arched her hips, giving him access. Everything belonged to him. Not only did she trust him with her flesh, her heart lay open for his taking, too.
Kissing first, he brought truckloads of pleasure and an insatiable need for more. With each lick and suck, he delivered her to a delirium she’d never known. “Please.” She lifted her thighs higher.
He thrust with his tongue, and the orgasm rolled through her. She cried his name, but the wave of pleasure left her greedy to have more of him. Reaching into the nightstand drawer, she grabbed a condom. “I want all of you in me. I want you to come, too.”
As soon as he suited up, she grasped his waist, pulling him down to her. But unlike the fast and hard connection she’d initiated outside, he slid in gradually, drawing out the pleasure until she strained toward him, begging him to give her everything. And he did, filling her with a satisfaction that transcended any physical need.
Balancing his upper weight on his elbows, he cupped her cheeks in his palms. “Luci, you make me whole.”
He lowered his head and kissed her with a sweetness and reverence both rare and beautiful. With her arms wrapped around him, she held him in a tight embrace, riding an earth-shattering orgasm while they came together.
For one night, he offered her everything.
But only for a night.
Chapter Seven
Bright light shone around the edges of the heavy curtain, proof Blake had slept late in the morning, not surprising since he and Luciana had stayed awake most of the night, unable to get enough of each other.
Luci. He rolled over but encountered an empty bed. Maybe, while he cooked breakfast, they could talk about what last night meant. He needed to see her again. Of course, she couldn’t walk away from her responsibilities, but they had to find a compromise. Despite craving more than a long-distance relationship, he’d start there if she couldn’t handle more yet.
Sitting up, he scanned the room. His clothes lay folded at the end of the bed. He frowned, pretty sure he’d left them scattered in the bathroom. Stretching across the mattress, he snagged the pants between two fingers and drew them to him. After turning the fabric several times, he located the rip, sewn so well the thread blended with the fabric, no pleats or pucker to give it away.
Luci had been working while he’d slept. He would have preferred to keep the tear as a reminder of their unbridled passion. He dressed and emerged from the bedroom to an empty house.
A glance at the clock assured him even with the time difference, the workday would be in full swing in San Diego, so he picked up the house phone and called Marcia. “It’s Blake. How did the presentation go?”
“Not great, but okay. Mr. Sunburst had a lot of questions I didn’t have the answers to. I promised we’d get him all the information as early as possible today. I forwarded the questions in an email.”
He checked his phone, but of course he didn’t have service. “Let me see if I can get an Internet connection with my air card and log in on my computer. Can you work on booking me a flight out of Des Moines and a ride to the airport?”
“Of course. I can’t wait for you to get back. We’re lacking direction without you in the office.”
“Thanks.” He didn’t smile as he hung up. Unable to entertain the option of working from a remote location, he needed to be present for his job.
Trying not to disturb the manila envelopes and papers scattered across the desk by the living room window, he set his laptop on the surface. While he waited for the machine to power up, he wandered out of the house, needing at least a good-morning kiss.
A chainsaw lay next to the fallen tree beside the barn, the smaller limbs already cut away and piled in preparation for a bonfire. He must have slept like the dead to not have heard the saw running. He stepped around the tree trunk. A hole in the ground replaced Sam’s memorial. Four dirt-stained, fist-sized chunks of plaster lay in a pile next to it.
He picked up the top one and traced his finger over the bottom half of the letter M.
“If you want to keep a piece, you can,” Luciana said from behind him.
He spun to face her. “Are you sure?”
She nodded, her gaze sober. “I’ve decided to take the pieces inside and put them away in a box. I’m never going to forget the past, but I need to move on, too.”
His heart quickened, as he hoped for her to consider her statement beyond the figurative context. “Do you ever think about moving on from the farm? My condo has plenty of space, and you’d never have to milk cows or worry about fixing fences or getting rid of fallen trees.”
She shook her head before he finished speaking. “You know I can’t.”
He did. Asking had been selfish of him. “I have to leave soon, but I don’t want to go without firming up when I’ll see you again. What if I buy you a plane ticket to visit me later this month?”
Her gaze shifted to a point beyond his shoulder. “Don’t make this hard, Blake.”
Fear bubbled through him, morphing into anger. “Is that what I’m doing? Because it would be a lot easier to walk away knowing I’m going to see you again.”
“I’m not in a position to make any promises.”
“Because I’m not Hispanic?” he demanded. “Am I still only good enough to sneak around with?”
Her eyes flared with anger. “I never snuck around. God, I thought I was the luckiest girl alive to have you. If you were my boyfriend again, I’d believe the same thing. It’s not about my family’s approval. It’s the fact that they need me.” She met his gaze, her expression so sad he had to fight the urge to weep. “And you don’t.”
“Don’t I?” he challenged. “Of course, I can live and work without you, but inside”—he thumped his chest—“I’ve been dead for the past fifteen years. That’s the real reason my ex-fiancée dumped me. I don’t want to go back to soul-sucking survival mode.”
He took another step toward her. “We’re amazing in bed together, Luci. I’ve never stopped caring for you. I want to raise a family with you. You’re my heart and my soul.”
She stared at him for so long, he feared the heart in his throat would choke him. Then she whispered, “I’m sorry. But I don’t need you. You can have all the pieces of Sam’s memorial. That’s all I have to give.”
She turned and jogged around the tree where she picked up the chainsaw and yanked the starter rope. The engine whirred, and she attacked the trunk with a vengeance.
Hoping she’d reconsider, he stood immobile. As she continued to work without glancing at him, tension radiating from every movement, he picked up the broken plaster pieces and trudged to the house. He might still be in love with her, but she had other things in her life that mattered more, leaving him so far down her priority list he might as well mean nothing to her.
He needed a miracle to get to the top of her list, if, in fact, he rated a place on it at all.
***
Luciana’s arms and back ached by the time she finished cuttin
g the tree and moving it into piles for firewood and a brush pile to burn as soon as the wind died down. Plodding inside the house for a glass of water and a sandwich, she froze at the sight of the long black limousine coasting down the gravel road away from the house.
“Blake.” Her heart pounded. She’d been abrupt with him earlier, trying to sort out a way for him to be part of her life and hitting a dead end with every option. Letting him go had been the right choice, her only option. But she hadn’t expected him to leave without saying good-bye.
She also hadn’t expected him to proclaim her as his “heart and soul.” How ridiculous to think she meant something to him. One night of sex did not allow enough time to fall in love.
Unless he’d never stopped loving her, just like she’d never stopped loving him.
Refusing to cry, she blinked away the blur of tears. After choosing her family and the farm years ago, she should be thankful for the opportunity, rejoicing over the second chance to have him in her life for a brief evening.
Inside the too quiet, too empty house, she moved to each room, but he’d left no sign he’d ever set foot in her life. She ate a sandwich containing all the flavor of dust, doubting she’d ever rejoice again.
The phone rang as she took her plate to the sink, and she lunged for it. Hearing Alejandro’s greeting, she swallowed her disappointment and asked, “How’s Mama?”
“Sleeping. The doctors still want to watch her for another day, but her function is improving. How’s the farm?”
“I’m holding it together, like always.” She tried to sound cheerful, but her throat hurt. She was holding the farm together. How much longer she could hold herself together remained to be seen. Despite surviving Blake leaving her once, she didn’t find the second time easier.
“What happened?” Alejandro knew her too well.
“The cows broke through the fence again.” True enough, and it allowed her to answer his question without lying. “Trevor, of course, wanted to start a pissing match. Nothing to worry about. Don’t let Mama get worked up over it.”
“Speaking of Mama, she got a new roommate last night, a total hottie.”
“Don’t tell me you’re scoping out women in the hospital.”
“I’m not scoping, but I’m not dead either. Anyway, the hottie in the next bed is an agriculture professor at the university. She wants to start an organic dairy farm for research and stuff. Mama told her we might be interested in selling.”
Luciana bobbled the receiver. “Selling? We can’t sell Papa’s dream.”
“Why not? He’s not here to live it. I’m not going to live it. You’re killing yourself trying to keep up with all the work. And it makes sense for Mama to live closer to medical facilities.”
“Don’t make any promises right away.” The glittering possibility faded as quickly as she entertained it. They owed more on the mortgage than the farm would sell for. Even if she could unload it, she’d have no money left after the sale to buy or rent a home for her mother or pay the medical bills. Based on her education and past work history, Luciana had no illusions she could offer a better life than their current one.
“Pick me up after the morning milking tomorrow,” she told her brother. “I have an appointment with the hospital billing office, and if Mama continues to improve, we should be able to bring her home.”
She hung up the phone then trudged out to tackle the chores that had taken a backseat to the fallen tree. Instead of freeing her, her conversation with Alejandro weighed on her. She’d given up the possibility of claiming her only true love to tend to the responsibilities around her.
For what?
Yes, Mama needed her, but Luciana already did a lousy job meeting those needs.
Chapter Eight
“How was your one-night stand?”
Luciana blinked at her brother as he jumped from the cab of her truck. How the hell had he guessed about Blake? Did she have “I had great sex the other night” tattooed across her forehead? “What are you talking about?”
“The one-night stand. I forgot to ask you when I called yesterday. Did the guy shower you with diamonds we can pawn to pay the bank?”
Oh, right. Alejandro’s stupid scheme. “Of course not. I didn’t leave the farm for any hookup. You need to get a refund.”
His eyes widened. “The guy didn’t come? I mean, to the farm. I don’t need to know if some random guy came for you.” He cringed.
“He didn’t.” Blake did not count as a random guy, and he’d shown up to scout a hotel location, not because he’d signed up for a one-night stand with her. She frowned. Arriving at the farm for a one-night hookup with an old girlfriend made more sense than the hotel mumbo-jumbo.
She grasped her brother’s arm. “Call that Madame Eve service and ask who they sent to meet me.” As much as she hated to admit it, if they’d sent Blake, she wouldn’t demand a refund or give Alejandro grief for taking the money. Being with Blake again, even for a single night, had been worth it. “Does your ag professor have her own livestock, or does she want to buy the cows with the farm? If she’s willing to purchase the animals first and let them continue living here until the rest of the sale goes through, we’ll have enough money to pay the mortgage plus all the back amounts we owe.”
“She’s not my professor.”
“You said she looked hot in a hospital gown. Nobody can pull off looking hot in one of those. I say you’ve fallen in love,” she teased. Somebody needed to get a happily ever after. If it couldn’t be her, she wanted one for her brother.
“I’ll love anyone who saves the bank from foreclosing on us.” He sighed. “I’m sorry I screwed up again. I thought this time I would really help.”
She touched his cheek. “You did. You helped me to see what’s important, and saving the farm isn’t.”
An hour later, she and Alejandro went their separate ways with him heading for Mama’s hospital room and her entering the billing department, clutching the manila envelope with her emergency cash. After a few minutes, a supervisor ushered her to a private office and closed the door.
With trembling fingers, Luciana laid out the money on the laminate desk. “I know the bill is enormous and our income is limited, but we’ll make good faith installments every month for as long as it takes.”
Instead of sneering at the paltry sum in front of her, the woman smiled. “We don’t need to make a payment plan. In fact”—she nudged the bills toward Luciana—“you can take all this back.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your mother’s bill has been paid in full.”
She blinked. “How? I haven’t given you anything. We’ve talked multiple times about how I contribute so little compared to how much I owe that I’ll never pay off our past invoices let alone this new one.”
“Everything on your mother’s account has been taken care of,” the supervisor assured her. “Your father’s old bill, too. A gentleman came in yesterday afternoon and settled up everything on the spot with a wire transfer. He didn’t so much as blink at the total, which gave me a great view of his amazing blue eyes.”
Luciana gasped. She had to know more than one person with blue eyes, but only one man came to mind.
“I admit my reasons were less than professional when I asked him out to dinner, but unfortunately, he turned me down flat.” She sighed. “If you’re dating that guy, you’d be a fool to let him get away.”
The supervisor continued chatting as she led her out of the office, but Luciana didn’t hear another word. Blake had been there? He’d spent his money to cover her obligations? Why would he do such a thing? Her family had done nothing for him but exclude and threaten him. Worse, she could never return the mega-favor.
She entered the hospital room behind a volunteer. “Flowers for Mrs. Cortez.”
Mama beamed and held out her arms at the cheerful bouquet of black-eyed Susans and yellow and orange tulips. “From you, Alejandro?”
“Not me. What do you need flowers for when you have me
in the flesh?” He winked as he shifted the bouquet on her tray.
She batted his arm with affection then reached for the accompanying card and read silently. Bypassing him, she held the paper toward Luciana, her gaze inscrutable.
Almost terrified to read the words, she took it in trembling fingers.
Mrs. Cortez, call me if you need anything. I’ll do whatever I can to provide it. Blake.
Pressing the card to her chest, Luciana sank to the floor. “He didn’t just send you flowers. He paid your hospital bills, all of them, and the ones left over from Papa, too. It’s all covered.”
Mama gasped. Eyes overflowing with tears, she crossed herself and held her rosary above her head. “I’ve been praying for a miracle. Thank you, Blessed Mother.” Lowering her arms, she reached over the side of the bed toward her daughter. “Why would he do this? We haven’t heard from that boy in years.”
She squeezed her mother’s puffy fingers. “He got in touch with me two days ago.”
On the other side of the bed, Alejandro inhaled sharply.
“But don’t worry,” Luciana continued. “I’m not leaving you.”
Mama shook her head. “I’m not worried about that, not with a man who takes care of my hospital bills and sends me flowers. Your papa and I were hard on him all those years ago. We had a vision of you settling down with a Hispanic Catholic boy, but I haven’t seen you truly happy since you two were together. It breaks my heart to think I had something to do with keeping you apart.”
Hugging her knees to her chest, Luciana said nothing. She’d chosen to part ways this time, and Blake had disappeared without a good-bye.
“Good news, Mrs. Cortez,” a nurse said, entering the room. “The doctor’s very happy with your kidney function, and he says you are good to go home. He’s already signed your discharge papers, so we’ll spring you from here and let you sleep in your own bed tonight.”
