by Marie Force
He was not his father’s son. He would never be his father’s son. Owen finally fell asleep, taking those thoughts with him into slumber.
This was a huge mistake, Sarah thought as she changed out of the outfit she’d worn to the clambake into the summer-weight nightgown she’d brought with her to sleep in. Earlier in the day, when she’d packed a bag to spend the night with Charlie, she’d been excited and filled with anticipation of spending hours alone with him.
Now that those hours were upon her, however, she was as nervous as a virgin on her wedding night. She felt ridiculous for allowing nerves to derail her determination to move forward with a man who’d been an amazing friend to her for nearly a year now. He’d been patient and kind and gentle with her from the very beginning. He’d shown her how a real man treated a woman when he cared about her, and now she wanted to show him how she felt about him.
Except, she wasn’t sure she could. It had been so long since she’d experienced the kind of feelings Charlie aroused in her just by looking at her across the table with that sly smile and those piercing blue eyes. He never had a whole lot to say, but he managed to convey his affection for her with his actions, which spoke far louder than the loudest of words ever had.
She brushed her hair and teeth and summoned the fortitude to leave the bathroom, to get into bed with him, to hold him and touch him and kiss him. He’d told her he didn’t expect anything from her that she wasn’t ready to give, and she appreciated that he’d known those words would matter to her. But the nerves were present nonetheless.
Taking a deep breath, she put her folded clothes into her bag and stashed it in a corner of the bathroom. Rubbing her damp palms over the soft cotton of her gown, she emerged from the bathroom to find Charlie already in bed. He was propped up against several pillows, his chest bare and the covers pulled up to his waist. She knew a moment of complete panic when she wondered if he was naked under there.
The thought caused a nervous giggle to escape from her tightly clenched lips.
“What’s so funny?” he asked in the gruff tone that might’ve sounded harsh to someone who didn’t know him as well as she did. Despite the extreme injustice he’d endured during fourteen years in prison, there was nothing harsh about her Charlie.
Her Charlie. How long had she thought of him as her Charlie? For quite some time now, if she were being honest with herself.
He folded the bed covers back and patted the mattress next to him. “Are you going to tell me?”
“This whole thing is funny,” Sarah said as she slid into bed next to him while willing her hammering heart to settle down before she hyperventilated or did something equally embarrassing.
He turned to face her, propping himself on an upturned hand. “You wanna let me in on the joke?”
She fixated on his muscular chest, the intricate tattoo that encircled his bicep, and the mat of dark chest hair that had begun to go gray in places. He was a finely built man, and she suddenly wanted to touch him, to feel his soft skin under her hands, to examine every hill and valley of the muscles that had fascinated her for months. “I’m nervous,” she said, keeping her gaze fixed on his chest rather than looking at his face.
“It’s just me, Sarah. Your friend Charlie.”
“Who’s now in bed with me and at least half naked.”
“Only half,” he said with a gruff chuckle.
“Are you nervous, too?”
“Hell yes, I’m nervous.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re here, finally, and I don’t want to do the wrong thing or scare you off.”
“You could never do the wrong thing.”
“Don’t be too sure. It’s been a long time since I was in bed with a woman. A long time.”
“So you haven’t, with anyone… Since you got out of prison?”
“Nope.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, so I’ve got my own set of worries, especially knowing what that bastard you were married to put you through. I want to give you everything you deserve, everything you should’ve had all along, but I don’t want to rush you—”
Sarah caressed the face that had become so dear to her. “Kiss me, Charlie.”
He put his arm across her middle and tugged her closer. “Is this okay?”
She nodded.
Leaning over her, he studied her for a long, breathless instant before he lowered his face to hers, his lips soft but persuasive. “This is all we have to do. It would be more than enough to have you sleep in my arms.”
“Why don’t we see what transpires and try not to worry too much about anything?”
“That sounds like a good plan to me.” He kissed her again, more insistently this time, his tongue seeking hers in deep thrusts that made her want so much more of him.
She took advantage of the opportunity to touch him, to learn the planes and textures of his muscular chest and arms.
Her touch seemed to inflame him, and he ended up on top of her as one kiss became two and then three. She couldn’t get close enough to him, even with her arms and legs around him, her fingers pressing into the muscles of his back as his lips and tongue continued to devour her. His arousal pulsed against her, hard and insistent, a reminder of where their heated kisses could be leading if she wanted to go that far.
It had been so long, so very, very long, since she’d wanted anything the way she wanted this man. With desire strumming through her entire body, setting her on fire with an almost painful need for more, she moaned against his lips.
He gasped as he broke the kiss. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lose control. It’s too much.”
“It’s not enough.”
Looking down at her, he appeared stunned by what she’d said. “Sarah…”
“I need you. I need more.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Charlie. Yes, I’m sure.”
Chapter 9
After sneaking away from Carolina and Seamus’s wedding, Grant and Stephanie went home to their cozy cottage on Shore Point Road and talked for hours about all the things that had been on Stephanie’s mind for months now. With the floodgates open at last, the words poured out of her in a steady stream of worries and fears that she’d kept from him for so long that she was afraid he’d be hurt by her reluctance to share them with him.
“I can’t tell you how badly I wish you’d let me go through this with you, rather than feeling like you had to keep it from me,” he said when she finally ran out of things to say. They were curled up together on the sofa with lit candles on the coffee table casting a warm glow over the small room.
“You’ve had your own stuff to deal with, after the accident and everything. You were so undone by what happened that day, how you couldn’t save Dan and Steve, too, all while you were trying to finish the screenplay. I didn’t want to add to your burden.”
“You’re never a burden to me.”
“I was afraid it would change how you felt about me to hear I was having doubts about being a wife and mother.”
“Steph… God, how could you be afraid of that? Don’t you know how essential you are to me? Everything that happens, from the minute I get up until the minute I go to bed with you, I want to share with you. A thousand times a day I wonder what you’re doing, what you would say about whatever I’m doing, things I need to tell you… Your voice is in my head—always. There’s nothing you could say or do or feel that would make me want anyone else’s voice in my head. When are you going to realize that?”
She blinked back the tears she’d worked so hard to keep at bay while she bared her soul to him. But, as always, his words had incredible power over her. The things he said to her… “Deep inside, I knew it was wrong of me not to share my worries with you. I also knew that you’d want to fix what was wrong, because that’s what you always do. From the very beginning, you’ve wanted to fix what was wrong for me.”
Because she couldn’t resist touching him when he was lying so close to her, she unbu
ttoned his shirt and laid her hand on his chest. The steady beat of his heart under her palm calmed her like nothing else could. “Charlie took Sarah home with him tonight.”
His hand covered hers. “Really? Good for them.”
“He has this amazing second chance because of you.”
“I just made a phone call. Dan gets the credit for freeing him.”
“You get half the credit, because without that phone call, there would’ve been no Dan Torrington to the rescue.”
“We’re both glad we were able to right a terrible wrong—for Charlie and for you.”
“I don’t want to be afraid anymore, Grant, but it’s almost like I don’t know how not to be. I’ve spent most of my life afraid of one thing or another. It’s a hard habit to break.”
“I have every confidence that you’re capable of anything you set your mind to doing. If you decide that fear isn’t going to run your life anymore, then I have no doubt you’ll make that happen. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. You have no idea how much everyone admires you for what you’ve been able to accomplish all on your own.”
“You admire me,” she said with a laugh. “Who’s the one with the Academy Award?”
“That’s nothing compared to the huge accomplishment of fighting to overturn a conviction that never should’ve happened in the first place.”
“At which I was hugely unsuccessful until you came along and made that phone call.”
“Steph… Come on. Why can everyone see this but you? You’re the hero of this story, not me. Not Dan. You. If you hadn’t kept fighting, I would’ve never known about Charlie or his situation. If you hadn’t cared about him more than you cared about yourself, he’d still be sitting in that prison. You need to take most of the credit for freeing him, and you need to free yourself by letting go of the past and embracing the future.”
“I’m trying. You have no idea how hard I’m trying.”
“I know you are. When you and I are together, there’s nothing we can’t handle.”
“I was on my way to believing that when the accident happened, and I had a whole day to contemplate how I’d ever manage to live without you.”
“Ah Christ,” he said with a sigh. “And then I came back a total wreck, and all the focus was on me when you were dying inside. I’m sorry, honey. I should’ve paid more attention to how traumatizing it was for you.”
“It was way worse for you.”
“That’s not necessarily true.” He pulled her in closer to him, his lips pressed to her forehead. “God, I love you so much. I had no idea it was possible to love anyone as much as I love you. And the thought of you worried or afraid for all this time, and me not even knowing it… I feel like a selfish bastard.”
“You’re not. It’s not your fault. I went out of my way to hide my worries from everyone. No one knew until today.”
“Will you promise me you won’t suffer in silence anymore?”
She nodded.
“Say it. I want to hear the words.”
“I promise I won’t suffer in silence anymore.”
“And do you promise to remember every day that I love you more than I love myself and all that matters to me is that you’re safe and happy?”
“If you promise to remember I feel the same exact way about you.”
His smile filled her with giddy joy. It was okay. He knew all her darkest worries and loved her anyway. “Promise.”
“Me, too.” She drew him into a soft, sweet kiss. “Let’s go to bed.”
“Not before we set a wedding date.”
“Oh, I thought you’d forgotten about that,” she said with a coy smile to let him know she was kidding.
“I haven’t forgotten and neither have you.” As he spoke, he pulled her top up and over her head, released her bra and removed it. “What’s it going to be?”
“Whatever you want is fine with me.”
Nuzzling her breasts, he said, “How about next weekend, then?”
Her mouth fell open in shock, and she tugged at his hair to get his attention, which was fully on her breasts. “What? Next weekend?”
He looked at her briefly before stroking her nipple with his tongue. “Why not?”
Stephanie squirmed as desire shot through her, hot and insistent, until she throbbed from wanting him. “We can’t get married next weekend.”
“How come?” he asked as he sucked her nipple into his mouth.
She gasped and squiggled, forcing him to release her. “First of all, that’s right before Laura and Owen’s wedding, and I don’t want to upstage them. Second of all, it’s still high season at the restaurant, and it took a lot of juggling to get today off. I don’t want to be worried about work when I should be focused on you. Third of all… I can’t think of a third reason, but the first two are enough.”
He cupped both her breasts and ran his thumbs over her nipples until they were hard and tingling. “Okay, then Labor Day. We’ll get married on the last day of the official summer season when everyone will be headed home and we get the island back—for the most part.” The season lingered these days until Columbus Day, but things definitely quieted down on Labor Day.
“Fine. We’ll get married on Labor Day.”
“Where?” he asked as he unbuttoned her shorts and slid his hand down the front of her until he was cupping her sex.
“On the beach.”
His fingers pressed and probed until they encountered the well of moisture that awaited him. “And then what?”
“We’ll have a party at the restaurant.”
“Good. It’s a plan.” He sat up suddenly, pulling her shorts and panties off her in almost frantic motions that indicated how badly he wanted her. After removing his own clothes, she expected him to help her up and lead her to bed. But he came down on top of her, apparently in too much of a rush to change locations.
“I love you, too, you know. Unreasonably.”
“There’s not one thing about it that’s unreasonable,” he said, kissing and touching and caressing her until she was on the verge of begging him to take her.
“You’re often extremely unreasonable, but I love you anyway.”
His huff of laughter preceded the press of his erection against her sensitive opening.
Stephanie raised her hips, needing to get closer, to take him in, to show him what he meant to her. She wanted to give him everything, including the family he wanted so much. If it meant making him happy, she would swallow all her remaining fears and have faith that the future he promised would be as bright and as glorious as he said it would be. As long as she had him, she couldn’t imagine her life playing out any other way.
With a hard thrust, he entered her fully, and every thought that didn’t involve the exquisite pleasure they found together was pushed from her mind, swept away on a wave of desire that required her full attention.
“Nothing has ever been like this, Steph,” he whispered against her ear as he pushed deep into her before withdrawing and doing it again. “You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Listening to him, feeling him, surrounded by him, Stephanie finally was able to let go of the past, of the fears that had ruled her, and embrace the future that would revolve around him and the love they’d found together.
“You can’t ever leave me,” he said. “You’d ruin me.”
“Where would I go when the only thing I need is right here?”
Her words seemed to light a fire in him that had him picking up the pace, until they both cried out from the power of what they’d created. She clung to him, her anchor in the storm, and took everything he had to give until he was spent and lax in her arms, his heart beating fast and his breathing rapid.
“So Labor Day it is?” he asked after a long period of silence.
“Labor Day it is.”
Mac and Maddie arrived home from the day’s festivities to find a party going on at their
house. Daisy and David, who’d been babysitting for them while they attended what they thought would be a clambake, were entertaining Jenny Wilks and her fiancé, Alex Martinez, as well as Jared James and his new wife, Lizzie. With them was another woman Maddie didn’t know.
“Hey,” Daisy said when they came in through the sliding door. “Mom and Dad are home, and we’re in so much trouble for having a party.”
“Oh stop it,” Maddie said to her friend. “As long as no one was drinking, there’s no trouble.” The kitchen table was littered with beer bottles, wineglasses and snacks.
“Um, well,” Alex said, trying to hide his beer bottle.
Mac laughed at his lame effort. “Are there more of those somewhere?”
“In the fridge,” David said. “Help yourself.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Mac said.
“It is your house after all,” David replied.
“Do you want us to go?” Daisy asked Maddie when she pulled up a chair to the table.
“No need to break up the party,” Maddie said, even though she was beyond exhausted. Since discovering her third child was on the way, exhaustion had been her closest friend. She’d never been this tired with Thomas or Hailey. “How were they?”
“Thomas didn’t want to go to bed, as usual, but he’s out cold now.”
“He didn’t give you a hard time, did he?”
“Nothing like that. He and Uncle David were having fun with the trucks, and he didn’t want to stop playing.”
“I can picture that. We have the same issue with Daddy most nights. How was Hailey?”
“An angel, as always.”
“That’s good to hear. She is a nice, easy baby.” Maddie rested her hand on her belly, which was just starting to expand. “I hope this one is, too.”
“Maddie and Mac,” Jenny said, “this is my friend Erin Barton. She’s interviewing with the town council Monday to take my place at the lighthouse.”
