Gansett Island Boxed Set Books 1-16 (Gansett Island Series)

by Marie Force

  “Huh?”

  “She’s getting me back for what I did to her when we were dating.”

  That set Maddie off into fits of giggles that had him laughing at her delight. “Oh my God, I love that! Good for her!”

  “Good for her? You can’t be on her side and be married to me, too.”

  “What’re you going to do? Divorce me?”

  “I just might.”

  “Oh hush. You couldn’t live without me. Why two bags?”

  “Look at the sizes.”

  Maddie examined the boxes and then burst out laughing again. “What’re you up to?”

  “She told me to get the extra-large ones. You’ll see.”

  Chapter 19

  Mac drove to his sister’s house, which was located close to theirs. P.J. had been fussy earlier, so they’d decided to skip the party. Since Mac had texted Janey to tell her they were on the way over, the outside lights were on for them. At the front door, Mac knocked quietly, not wanting to wake a sleeping baby.

  “Funny how you never would’ve thought to knock softly a few years ago,” Maddie said.

  “I’m fully domesticated now.”

  “Not fully, but I haven’t given up yet.”

  “You’re full of beans tonight, Mrs. McCarthy. You’ll be made to pay for that later.”

  “Oh I do so love your threats, Mac,” she said, patting his backside. “You know I do.”

  “Keep that up and this is going to be a very quick visit.”

  “Based on what you’re bringing them, I think they have other plans for tonight anyway.”

  “Eww. Don’t remind me.” He opened the front door and poked his head in. “Brat,” he said in a loud whisper.

  “Just go in.”

  “No way. Not when there’s a chance they’re in there ‘getting back to normal.’”

  “For crying out loud.” Maddie pushed past him and walked straight into his sister’s house.

  Hesitant to stumble upon anything that would leave permanent scars on his psyche, he followed behind her, taking the coward’s way out. He was fine with that. They found Joe and Janey in the screened-in porch, where they spent most of their time since they bought the house in the spring. P.J. was asleep in a rolling bassinette next to the sofa.

  “There you are!” Janey said, getting up to grab the bag from him as her pets circled around their feet, wanting in on the excitement. “I thought you’d never get here.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Joe said with a grin. “This was all her idea.”

  “I have no doubt about that,” Mac said to his oldest and closest friend, who was now his brother-in-law. He liked how that had worked out, except for times like this, when he was reminded that his oldest and best friend was now legally allowed to have sex with Mac’s baby sister. Ugh.

  “Look at him,” Joe said, laughing at Mac. “He’s all in a tizzy.”

  “You would be, too, if you got called in on a mission like this one.”

  “Turnabout is fair play.” Janey looked into the bag and then at him. “You only got the small box of three? That’s barely enough for tonight.”

  Joe took the box from her. “Extra small? Seriously?”

  “That’s what she told me to get,” Mac said.

  “I did not! I said extra large, you ass hat.”

  Behind her hand, Maddie snorted inelegantly.

  “So you’re saying those won’t work?” Mac asked, enjoying this far more than he’d expected to.

  “They definitely won’t fit,” Joe said with predictable male ego.

  Mac pulled the second bag from behind his back and tossed it at them.

  Joe caught it in the air and peered inside. “Ahhh, much better. Extra large and lots of them. Too bad you’ve got to go now, Mac.”

  “Yeah, you’re welcome. No problem. Anything else I can do for you? Wait. Never mind. Forget I asked that.” He’d learned not to challenge Janey when she was feeling vindictive.

  “You think you’re pretty damned funny, don’t you?” Janey asked. “Bringing extra smalls.”

  “Those are for P.J.’s sock drawer,” Mac said. “Never too early to be prepared.”

  “Get out,” Janey said with a growl. “Now.”

  He kissed her cheek. “Love you, too, brat. Go easy on poor Joe. He’s out of practice. Things might happen quickly.”

  Joe took him by the arm and escorted him to the front door. “Sorry to throw you out of my house, Maddie, but that’s what you get for marrying him.”

  “I understand,” Maddie said dramatically. “I want to throw him out of my house sometimes, too.”

  “You do not,” Mac said. “You’re always like, ‘More, Mac, harder, Mac, no, there, Mac…’”

  “I’m going to kill you when I get you home.”

  “She doesn’t mean that,” he said over his shoulder to Joe and Janey, who were laughing in the doorway.

  “Yes, she does!” Maddie said. “You call her brat, but no one is a bigger brat than you are.”

  He held the car door for her and then leaned in to kiss her. “You love me. Admit it.”

  “Yes, Mac,” she said with a long-suffering sigh. “I do love you.”

  “And the extra-small thing was pretty funny. Admit it.”

  “I’ll do no such thing. I refuse to encourage you.”

  “You’ll be encouraging me, all right. In about thirty minutes if it takes that long. ‘Harder, Mac, oh thereeeeee.’” The kids were spending the night with Ned and Francine, and he had big plans for his wife tonight.

  She pulled his hair. “Shut up and drive before you find yourself sleeping alone on the deck tonight.”

  He grinned at her and stole another kiss before he walked around the truck, whistling as he went. “You’re only mad because you know I’m right,” he said as they pulled out of Janey’s driveway.

  “Mac, I swear to God, if you don’t stop talking and drive this car, I’m not going to be responsible for my actions.”

  Thrilled with her and everything about their life together, he did as she directed. But he’d have her screaming his name in thirty minutes flat or his name wasn’t Malcolm John McCarthy Junior.

  “Upstairs,” Joe said to his wife the second he closed the door behind Mac and Maddie.

  “It’s only five thirty,” Janey reminded him.

  “So?”

  She crossed her arms as she took a long look at him. “Do I have time to retrieve my baby from the patio before you drag me upstairs?”

  Joe held up his hand to tell her to stay put and went to get the baby. “I’ve got to say,” he said as he carried the bassinette upstairs, his eyes trained to the gentle sway of his wife’s rear end as she went up ahead of him. Their pets followed dutifully behind and took to their beds, seeming to know what was about to happen and taking shelter. “I honestly didn’t think Mac would do it.”

  “I knew he would. I gave him no choice in the matter.”

  “You’re a rare and special woman, Janey Cantrell.”

  “And don’t you forget it.”

  “As if I ever could.” Joe put the bassinette down in the corner of the bedroom, not next to the bed where Janey preferred it.

  “That’s too far away.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “Joe…”

  “Shhhh.” He put his arms around her and quieted her with a kiss. “All day, you’ve been walking around with those yoga pants on, flaunting your cute little ass, bending over to tend to the baby, taunting me…” He cupped her buttocks and squeezed for emphasis. “I can’t wait any longer to have you, Janey.”

  She looked up at him with the bottomless blue eyes he adored. “Is everything in working order?”

  “Why don’t you check for yourself?” After last night’s disaster, he’d been a walking, talking hard-on all day.

  “Oh my,” she whispered, giving him a thorough examination that had his head rolling back on his shoulders. “That feels like it might hurt.”

  “It ache
s. For you.” The time for fooling around was over. The time for action was right now. He all but ripped the tank top off her body, leaving her naked from the waist up.

  “Wait! I need a shower! I smell like sour milk and baby puke.”

  “No shower. No delays. Only this.” He ground his hard cock against her belly, needing relief and needing it right now.

  “Joe… Seriously.”

  “I’m dead serious. Right now, Janey.” He cupped her breasts and bent his head to tongue her nipple.

  “Um, you might not want to do that…”

  “You love when I do that.”

  “Normally, yes, but they don’t belong just to us right now. I might leak, and that’ll be kind of gross.”

  “You think I’d find that gross? No way. I think it’s incredible.”

  “You won’t think so when it’s all over you.”

  “I don’t care about that, Janey.”

  “I do,” she said, sounding miserable, and he couldn’t have that.

  He laid her back on the bed. “Don’t worry about anything. Just let me love you. I’m dying for you.”

  Sighing, she stretched her arms over her head, which made her breasts thrust upward. Everything she did turned him on, and that was no exception. He kissed her everywhere, giving special attention to the stretch marks that marred her otherwise flawless skin. “Don’t look at them.”

  “Hush. Close your eyes and relax. Let me have my fun.” As he spoke, he removed her yoga pants and panties and then quickly shed his own clothes.

  “You have an odd sense of fun.”

  “Any time I get to touch any part of you, I’m happy.”

  “My body is different than it was.”

  “It’s better. You’re a goddess.” His words were whispered in a husky voice as he nibbled her hipbone and gently kissed the pink line of her cesarean scar, making her squirm beneath him. “My goddess. This body gave me my son, and it’ll never be anything other than perfect to me.”

  She reached for him, pulling at him to come up to her.

  “I wasn’t done down there,” he said, smiling at her.

  “I need you. Now.”

  “What’d you do with those condoms your brother was good enough to get for us?”

  “Bedside table. Hurry.”

  Joe moved quickly to suit up and returned to her, loving the way she wrapped her arms and legs around him. “Tell me if anything hurts?”

  “Nothing hurts, I promise.”

  He entered her slowly, watching her closely for any sign of distress, but all he saw was the smile that occupied her lips.

  “Feels so amazing,” she whispered. “I’ve missed you—and this.”

  “Me, too, honey. You have no idea…”

  “I think I have a teeny tiny idea.” She combed her fingers through his hair and met his every stroke with the upward thrust of her hips. “Let’s turn over.”

  “Not this time. That’s too much for you.”

  “No, it’s not. Please? I know how much you love that.”

  He could deny her nothing when she asked him that way, so he grasped her bottom and turned them so she was on top. “I wish you could see what I see when I look at you.” Her hair had gotten long—so long it nearly covered her breasts. Her nipples peeked out from between the strands, and her kiss-swollen lips were pouty as she rode him slowly but intently. “So hot, Janey.”

  She started to say something, but her face twisted in distress. “Oh crap.”

  “What? Does it hurt?”

  “No… My breasts are tingling—and not in a good way, at least not for this.”

  “Any way is a good way.” He reached up to cup breasts that were much bigger than usual, running his thumbs over the moisture that gathered at the tips. If the clamp of her internal muscles around his cock was any indication, it turned her on when he did that. So he did it again.

  Her head fell back as she groaned and picked up the pace of her hips.

  Joe pinched her nipples between his fingers, making her cry out.

  “Shhh, don’t wake him up.”

  “You made me forget he was here,” she said with a choppy, breathless laugh. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

  Knowing they were on borrowed time where P.J. was concerned, Joe decided to move things along. He banded an arm around her waist and turned them over, taking control once again.

  “Speaking of hot,” she said breathlessly.

  “You liked that, huh?”

  “I like it all, Joe. Any time we get to be together like this…”

  “I love you so much,” he whispered against her lips as he reached between them to coax her. It didn’t take much to get her there, and he’d been primed all day. They came together, clinging to each other, and he drowned out her cries with hot, openmouthed kisses that had him ready for round two before round one was even over.

  Despite their efforts to be quiet, they’d failed miserably, so Joe wasn’t surprised when P.J. woke with a squawk of protest at having been so rudely disturbed. Joe laughed even as he continued to pulse with aftershocks.

  “Game off,” Janey said.

  Joe withdrew from her to let her up. “At least our boy has good timing.”

  “I hope we didn’t permanently traumatize him.”

  “Nah.” Joe lay on his side, his head propped on his upturned hand, enjoying the sight of her walking across the room naked to bend over P.J.’s bassinette.

  “Are you hungry, my love?” she asked the baby as she picked him up and carried him to the bed. It had taken weeks for her to recover to the point where she was allowed to pick him up, and now she did it every chance she got. She sat against a pile of pillows on the bed and guided the baby to her breast.

  Joe watched her every move, consumed with love for her and the son she’d given him.

  “What?” she asked when she caught him staring at her.

  “You… You’re just…” There were, he discovered, no words adequate enough to describe this kind of love. “Mine. All mine. And nothing has ever made me happier.”

  She smiled at him, her eyes bright with emotion. “Me, too, Joseph.”

  “He’s so perfect, isn’t he?” Sarah asked Charlie as they watched Holden sleep on the sofa next to them.

  “He’s beautiful, all right.”

  “It’s funny… Of course I know Owen isn’t his biological father, but that doesn’t make me feel any less like a grandmother than I would if he had fathered him. That’s weird, right?” Sarah had loved watching Charlie play with the baby earlier. He’d been right down on the floor with Holden and his toys until the baby began fussing and rubbing his eyes.

  “Nah. I get it. I’m not Steph’s real father, but I’m the only one she’s ever had and she’s the only kid I’ve ever had. Biology doesn’t matter when you love someone.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed a line across her knuckles. “She asked me to give her away at her wedding.”

  “Oh, Charlie. That’s wonderful! I’m so happy for you—for both of you.”

  “You know,” he said tentatively, “after all this business with the trial is over and your divorce is final… I mean, it’s probably way too soon and all, but really, when you think about it, we’ve been together a while now. Ah geez, I’m making a mess out of this.”

  She turned to face him, surprised to see his normally relaxed expression twisted with unusual tension. “Making a mess out of what?”

  “Afterward, when you’re free… I hope you might consider… Well, I’d like to marry you, Sarah. I’d like to live with you and wake up with you every day. I’d like for your family to be my family and for my daughter to be your daughter. Would you, I mean, down the road when you’re ready… Do you think you might want to—”

  Laughing and crying, she kissed him. “Yes, Charlie, I will want all of that.”

  “You will? Really?”

  “Yes, of course I will. The time I’ve spent with you has been the happiest time I’ve ever spent with a man.
Until I met you, I didn’t even know there were men like you out there. I was so accustomed to a whole other kind of man.”

  “You’ll never have to worry about anything like that again. Not as long as I’m still drawing a breath.”

  His fierce assurances were nearly as endearing as his bumbling proposal. “Does this mean we’re engaged?”

  “This means we’re pre-engaged,” Sarah said. “Let me get past the trial and get the divorce finalized. Then we can talk about it again.”

  He put his arm around her and drew her into another kiss.

  Sarah was amazed by how quickly she’d gotten over her hesitancy to be touched by him. In only a few days, she’d become addicted to his kisses and the way he held her. He made her feel safe and protected and desired and loved, all things that were so new to her. Her only other romantic relationship had been violent and unpredictable, so being with Charlie was a revelation in every possible way.

  When he began to pull back from her, she curled her hand around his nape, keeping him from getting away. He looked at her for a moment before he continued the kiss, this time running his tongue over her lower lip.

  Her mouth opened to his tongue, and Sarah pressed against him shamelessly as the need took over and every thought fled her mind except for one—she wanted him. Their kisses had become more heated over the last few days, and the desire had grown to the point where it couldn’t be denied any longer. In bed the night before, they’d kissed until her lips were numb and swollen, but he hadn’t pushed her for anything more.

  Sarah didn’t know if she could handle another night that began and ended with kissing, but she lacked the ability to come right out and tell him what she wanted. She knew he was being careful with her because of her past, and she loved him for that, but she wanted much more of the edgy, needy way he made her feel.

  “Charlie,” she gasped as she broke the kiss.

  “What, honey?”

  “We shouldn’t do this in front of the baby.”

  Laughing, he nuzzled her neck, firing her senses with kisses and nibbles to the sensitive skin there. “He’s asleep, and I doubt he’d remember even if he was awake.”

  “Still…”