by R. C. Martin
Theodora took one step into the gallery, her foot hitting the beginning of a narrow pathway that weaved through the open floorplan. The smell of roses was so overwhelming, she couldn’t tell if it was their scent or her shock that made it difficult for her to take a deep breath. There were roses everywhere. The floor looked like a field full of flowers—hues of red, pink, and white as far as she could see. She imagined there were hundreds upon hundreds of them, the stems peeking out of vases of all different shapes and sizes.
“Hi.”
It wasn’t until she heard him speak that she jerked her head up and spotted him headed her way. Geoffrey smiled at her unsuspectingly, and she blinked slowly as she gaped at him.
“What—what’s going on?” she managed.
“You’re not in Kansas anymore, Freckles,” he replied. Gently, he extracted her purse from her grasp. “Let me have your coat, baby.”
He acted before she could make sense of what was happening, making his way behind her as he eased her out of the garment.
“I—Geoff—what’s happening? What is all this?” Her voice was breathy, her tone dazed and confused.
“Follow the wooden-paved road,” he replied, his lips pressed to her temple.
She looked up at him, hardly comprehending, and he jerked his chin in front of them. Somehow understanding he wasn’t going to offer her more—as he hadn’t offered her much of anything in the first place—she obeyed. The narrow pathway guided her past her desk and toward the far-right side of the gallery. She walked slowly, twisting her neck constantly, wondering if there was an end to the flowers at some point. There wasn’t. Then, turning around a corner, she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of him.
There—standing where she stood the first time they met—was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen in her entire life.
Chapter Forty-Six
I drew in a slow, deep breath at my first sight of her. She looked paler. Thinner. Exhausted. And yet, she was still beautiful. She was still all I wanted.
Teddy stopped when she saw me. She stopped and stared, her mouth falling open as if it had a mind of its own. I knew I should speak, but it took me a moment to find my words. Staring at her, sharing the same space as her, breathing the same air as she was—it reminded me how foolish I had been to think I could be without her. Noting the way her eyes appeared darker, emptier, it triggered something inside of me. Something familiar and yet unlike anything I had ever felt before.
In that moment, I knew I needed to fix it. It was why I was there—and yet, until our eyes locked, I couldn’t fully comprehend. How she felt mattered to me. Right then, in my chest, it hit me that how she felt mattered more than anything. It meant everything. She meant everything to me.
“Wh—what are you—what are you doing here?” she asked, breaking the silence, her voice fragile and unsteady.
I took a step toward her, deciding then that I wished only to get straight to the point.
“Marry me,” I stated.
Her whole body jerked, like I’d reached across the distance between us and shook her with both hands.
“What?” she whispered.
I took another step toward her and repeated, “Marry me.”
“I—you—what?” she stammered, her eyes growing glassy with unshed tears.
“Marry me,” I said once more.
“Wha—I—stop. Stop saying that.”
I shook my head once and took yet another step toward her. “Marry me, Theodora.”
She choked on a sob, then seemed to swallow it before she cried, “We…we broke up.”
Another step was taken as I assured her, “I’m standing right here, sweetheart.”
Her shoulders shook with her muted cry as she stared at me helplessly. “You haven’t—you haven’t spoken to me—in—in two weeks.”
With only a couple feet between us, I stepped closer, gently sliding a hand around the back of her neck as I told her, “I wasn’t planning on getting down on one knee, baby, but I will.”
“What?” she squeaked, fresh tears now rushing over her freckled cheeks.
“Marry me, sweetheart,” I semi-repeated.
“Judah!” she muttered with a scowl, pressing her hands against my chest weakly.
“Say yes.”
This time, she pounded the sides of her fists against my abdomen and demanded, “Tell me you love me!”
“I love you,” I replied instantly.
Teddy gasped, her hands falling away from me as she breathed, “What?”
“I love you.” My eyes danced around her face before I muttered, “I love the adorable way you stammer when you get flustered, and the way your eyes shine so fucking bright when you’re happy. I love your freckles. These,” I began, reaching up to hold her face as I brushed my thumbs across her cheeks, “and the ones you hide. I love how you have marked your skin in ink, making art of your deepest scars—and I love the way you melt when I kiss them.”
She leaned into me then, resting her hands in the middle of my chest like she needed me for support. Emboldened by her touch, I slid my hands around the nape of her neck, cradling her as I went on to confess, “I love how sweet and shy you get when you feel vulnerable—and how wild you get when you let yourself go. I love you so much, I can barely think straight without knowing you’re mine. The silence between us…it kills me. And if I’m telling you the whole truth—which I know you deserve—I love you so much it pisses me off.”
Her fingers tried to find purchase on my pressed shirt, her eyebrows knitting together as she murmured, “Pisses you off?”
“Swore I’d never feel this way again, sweetheart—but here I am, heart in my fucking hands, asking you to tell me you love me—today, and again tomorrow, and every day after that.”
She pressed into me even further, and I dropped one of my hands to hold her around her waist. “Say it again,” she breathed.
I bent down, touched my forehead to hers and repeated, “I love you.”
“Yes, that,” she whispered, her voice trembling as she lifted up onto her tiptoes. “But not that. Ask me again.”
I traced the tip of my nose alongside hers and declared, “I love you, Theodora Fitzpatrick. And I’m sorry, sweetheart. You were right. It’s not a choice—but you are. Marry me.”
Wrapping her arms around my neck, she pulled me closer and brought her lips to mine as she spoke, “Yes.”
She barely got the word out, my mouth sealed with hers in a hard kiss before her next breath. She whimpered, and the sound went straight to my crotch. Hauling her against me closer, I traced my tongue across the seam of her lips, and she opened up for me. We both sighed as we savored one another. She tasted of coffee and Theodora; and she kissed me like she was mine.
I kissed her until she started to cry. As soon as I pulled away, she buried her face in my neck, gripping me tightly. I held her to me, holding the back of her head with one hand as I rubbed my other up and down her back. Sensing movement out of the corner of my eye, I glanced behind my woman and saw Andrew as he came to a stop beside Geoffrey. I met Geoffrey’s stare, then watched as he gave me a subtle nod before they both turned and made their way through the roses and out of sight. When we were alone, I pressed a kiss into Teddy’s hair and waited a moment longer for her to calm down.
“I don’t have your ring,” I started to say, gently squeezing the back of her neck.
“I don’t care,” she sniffled. She pulled away from me enough to look into my eyes. “I don’t care about a ring.”
“Yes, well, I do.” I let go of her neck and reached into my pant pocket to pull out the simple, rose gold, micropavé diamond ring. “This’ll do for now. I couldn’t show up empty handed.”
She gaped at me and then twisted her neck as she surveyed the space around us. She didn’t say a word as her gaze connected with mine once more, but she didn’t have to. I smirked and then demanded, “Your hand, sweetheart.”
Teddy offered it to me. As I slid the ring over the kn
uckle of her left ring finger, I was relieved to find it fit. When it was on, she rested her hand against my shoulder and stared at it for a moment. It was nothing compared to the engagement ring I had custom ordered a couple days before—but she looked at it like it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
“What now?” she murmured, searching my face.
“Much as I’d like to take you home right this second, I’ve got to get to work.” She nodded, but I saw the flicker of light that came back to her eyes dim a little at my words. Pressing my lips to her forehead, I mumbled, “A truck will be by in an hour. Promised Geoffrey I’d have the roses gone before noon. Tell the crew what you want to keep, and they’ll deliver them to the house. Marta’s standing by.”
“Okay.”
“Soon as you get off, come over.”
Nodding this time, she said, “Okay. I’ll just stop home and—”
I removed my mouth from her skin and reached for her chin. I then tilted her head back a fraction before I repeated, “As soon as you get off, come over. We’ll worry about moving your things later.”
“What?” she breathed.
Tightening my hold around her waist, I leaned down until my nose grazed hers. “I’ve spent the last two weeks without you. That’s never going to happen again.” I felt her shiver in my arms, and my chest swelled in response. Holding her tighter still, I went on to say, “You’ve got my ring on your finger, you’ll be in my bed from here on out.”
She drew in a shaky breath, and I heard the tears that clogged her throat when she whispered, “Okay.”
“I’ve got to go.”
This time, instead of responding with words, she pressed up onto her tiptoes and circled her arms around my neck. When her mouth touched mine, it was like a match to a flame, and I didn’t deny her. I followed her lead and parted my lips when she flicked out her tongue, allowing her to take what she needed. After all—I was hers, and there was no denying it.
Epilogue
The alarm clock sounded, and I was quick to reach over on my nightstand to silence my phone. Only, with a frown, I realized it wasn’t my alarm that sounded at all. It took Teddy a minute to crawl out of the drudges of sleep, but when I curled my body around hers in an effort to reach her device, she inhaled sharply. Covering my hand with hers, she pushed up onto her opposite elbow and went about shutting off her alarm. I pulled away only slightly and rested my hand on her hip, my fingers coming in contact with the t-shirt she’d slept in.
“You don’t work today,” I muttered, giving her a squeeze. It was three days after Christmas and the gallery was closed—Andrew having shut down the business for the week leading up to New Years.
“No, I don’t. And you shouldn’t be working, either.” As she said the words, she rolled toward me. Then, to my surprise, she pushed me until I was on my back and she propped atop my chest. “Don’t go.”
“Sweetheart, I’m sorry, but my birthday is not a holiday,” I insisted, again, sweeping my fingers through her hair.
Even in the pre-dawn darkness, I could sense her disapproval. I didn’t have to see the finer details of her face. I could feel it as it poured out of her and onto me.
“Teddy? Are you going to tell me why you set your alarm to go off before mine?”
“Because,” she started to say, moving once more. My dick jerked when she straddled me, her hands resting on my bare chest. “I have less than twenty-four hours to celebrate you, and you’re robbing me of eight of those hours by going to work.”
“Theodora…”
She said nothing else but leaned down and kissed the side of my neck. Her wavy locks fell all around us, tickling my skin as she moved her mouth from my neck to my chest. It wasn’t long before she was curled up on her knees between my legs—her tongue swirling around the head of my shaft. I muttered a curse when she finally took me into her mouth, moaning as she sucked and licked.
My fingers found their way into her hair as my eyes fell closed. She felt sensational—and the longer she was down there, the greedier she became. Knowing she’d be wet for me, I sat up, tugging on her locks as I did so. She made a disgruntled sound, as if bothered she’d been interrupted, but I reached beneath her arms and dragged her up my body. The second she was in my lap, her naked sex came into contact with mine, and I could feel her arousal drenching her skin.
I yanked the shirt she wore over her head, blindly dipping my head to find her breast with my mouth. With one nipple in between my lips, I sucked her deep and hard—my other hand pinching her opposite nipple. She whispered my name, her hands at my nape as she rocked her hips. I couldn’t deny either of us any longer.
Grabbing her hips, I lifted her up and then brought her down on my dick—hard. She mewled, and I grunted. It had been two weeks since we made up; two weeks since she’d agreed to marry me; two weeks she’d been sleeping in my bed—and yet I still felt like I couldn’t get enough of her. Every fuck felt just as desperate as it did two weeks before—like neither of us could get close enough.
When Teddy came, her body trembling around mine, I knew I wasn’t far behind. Without losing our connection, I tossed her onto her back and bucked my hips until I found my release. As I came down from the high of my orgasm, I gave her some of my weight and rocked my hips slowly all the while. She wrapped herself around me, locking her ankles across my ass and her hands around my neck.
“Stay,” she breathed.
“I’ll leave early,” I offered as I pressed a kiss to her neck.
“Noon?”
Chuckling quietly, I lifted my head and found her earlobe. I tugged the soft flesh between my teeth and countered, “Four.”
“Twelve-thirty?”
“Four.”
“Okay, fine—one o’clock.”
“Baby…”
“Two?” she whispered.
“Sweetheart…”
“Two. Final offer.”
“Three,” I said through a smirk.
“Fine.”
“What am I going to do with you?” I teased, speaking affectionately into her ear.
She hitched her legs around me higher and murmured, “Love me.”
I was silent for a moment, the truth of her statement more profound than she knew.
“Yeah,” I finally replied.
It was then that my alarm sounded, and I pressed another kiss against her neck before I moved to silence it. When she tightened her limbs, keeping me captive, I understood it would be a wonder if I ever managed to get out the door.
“Teddy—”
“Skip your workout. Make love to me instead,” she pleaded.
That I couldn’t refuse.
Think there’s more to their story? You’re right.
Judah and Teddy’s story continues in Fools in Love, the conclusion of the Foolish at Heart series – live October 14, 2020.
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Also by R.C. Martin
Foolish at Heart
Fool for Him
Fools in Love (October 2020)
The Savior Series
Guarded
Tethered
Severed
Mountains & Men
Encore Worthy
Worthy of the Harmony
Worthy of the Dissonance
Worthy of the Melody
Tennessee Grace Series
Background Noise
Backwoods Belle
Rock-N-Roll Christmas
Made for Love Series
The Promises We Keep
Reckless Surrender
So Much More
Chasing After Me
Standalone Novels
Heartless
The Bridgewater Case
About the Author
R.C.'s journey into the world of publishing began like so many of her peers – with a big dream and a basket full of rejection. Confident she’d one day pen a book someone would
say yes to, she spent years crafting stories which became the foundation of her craft. When she’d finally written “the one,” she just knew – and there was no rejection strong enough to stop her from sharing her novel with the world. In 2015 she published her debut, and the rest, as they say, is history – only far more romantic.
In a voice all her own, she strives to capture the magic of a kiss, the passion in a lovers’ embrace, and even sometimes the breathtaking ache of a broken heart. A true believer in the power of love and the grace found in redemption, you can trust this hopeless romantic to take you on an emotional ride that leaves you forever changed.
Stay Connected!
www.rcmartinbooks.com
