by Marie Force
She forced herself to meet his gaze. “I’m thinking about the last man I was seriously involved with. It was a long time ago. During law school. I thought I was going to marry him and have it all—a family and a career and a home.”
He took her by the hand and led her to the living room.
Drink in hand, Erin curled her legs under her and sat on the sofa while he plugged in the tree lights and killed the lamp before settling next to her.
“What happened?”
“9/11 happened. He tried. God knows he tried. He stuck it out for more than a year afterward, but…” She sighed, the weight of the difficult years that followed her brother’s death still heavy on her soul after all this time. “I’ve avoided anything that smacked of entanglement ever since.”
“Whatever became of him?”
“He graduated from law school, and last I heard he’s a partner in a firm in Philadelphia. He married one of our law school classmates, and they have a bunch of kids. Four at last count.”
“So you keep in touch?”
“I get Christmas cards with pictures of his beautiful family.”
“That must be hard to see.”
“It’s not, really. When I look at him and his family, I don’t feel anything other than happy for him that things worked out.”
“That’s awfully generous of you.”
She shrugged off the praise. “I don’t care about him. Not anymore. I stopped caring about him the day my brother died. It was like every emotion inside me died with him, and it took years—literally years—to feel anything other than numb. What guy wants to be around that?”
“If he truly loved you, he would’ve stuck it out.”
“I think he truly loved me, but I don’t blame him for leaving. I never have. It was almost a relief when he finally pulled the plug. There was one less thing that needed my attention when my grief required all my energy. I had nothing left to give him or anyone else. It was all I could do to be somewhat available to my parents.” She looked directly at him. “I’m not numb anymore. Not like I was. But I still don’t know if I have what it takes to do something like this, because I haven’t tried again since then.”
He brought her hand to his lips, and the caress of his skin against hers set off a reaction she felt everywhere.
“I’m not looking to pressure you, Erin. And I can’t possibly understand or even fathom what you’ve been through losing your only sibling—your twin, no less—in such a horrible way. But when I look at you, I don’t see grief or loss. I see resilience and fortitude and a stunningly beautiful woman who deserves to be happy after all she’s been through. I don’t know if I’m the guy to make you happy, but you make me want to try—and that’s a big deal for me, too, in case you were wondering.”
Erin smiled at his adorably vulnerable expression. “So what you’re saying is you want to try to make a go of this?”
“I think I do, but only if it’s what you want, too.”
“And what would ‘making a go of it’ entail? We’re not exactly babes in the woods here. We’ve got established lives that don’t intersect for a big part of the year.”
“A, you are most definitely a babe, and B, those are details that can be worked out later if it comes to that. God knows I’m no expert on relationships, but it would seem to me that two people who are relatively new to them might want to take it slow and not get ahead of themselves worrying about what happens down the road.”
“I can’t help but worry about that. In eleven days, you’re headed back to Florida for months.”
“And I’ll remind you again that you’re more than welcome to come with me.”
“What if you’re sick of me by then?”
“That won’t happen.”
“How do you know?”
“Because.”
She raised a brow. “Care to elaborate?”
“I couldn’t wait to get back to you tonight. Every minute I was gone felt like pure torture.”
Okay, that was a pretty damned good answer.
Before she could formulate a reply to such a stark statement, he said, “What if I forget to put the toilet seat down or leave my wet towels on the floor? And the underwear… That could end up anywhere. You might be ready to give me the heave-ho days before I’m due to leave.”
Erin shook her head.
“You seem awfully certain.”
“I was awfully glad to see you at Jenny’s.”
He leaned in, his intentions clear, and even though she knew what it was like to kiss him, this felt like the first time all over again now that they’d declared their intentions to give it a whirl. He kept his eyes open as he kissed her, so she did the same, watching him watch her.
Outside, the frigid wind howled and the waves crashed against the rocks below, but inside the cozy confines of her lighthouse, it was getting warmer by the second. His lips were soft but insistent, his eyes closing when their tongues met in a sensual caress.
Though the last thing she wanted was to stop what had only just begun, Erin broke the kiss. “Let’s go upstairs where it’s more comfortable.”
“I’m perfectly happy to sleep right here if you’re not ready for that.”
“If I wasn’t ready to sleep with you, I wouldn’t have asked you to come upstairs with me.”
“Well, all righty then. After you.”
Once again, Slim followed her up a spiral staircase, his eyes drawn to her sexy ass in the tight jeans she’d worn to Jenny’s party. Those jeans were a thing of beauty, but they had nothing on the woman who wore them. She was beautiful inside and out, and the more time he spent with her, the more hooked on her he seemed to become. Her brutal honesty about the end of her last significant relationship had touched him deeply.
And earlier, when she’d let him know he had the power to hurt her… Whoa.
“I’ll be right out,” she said. “Make yourself at home.”
“Thanks.”
The bathroom door closed behind her.
As he unbuttoned his shirt, it amazed him to think of how far they’d come from the night in September when he’d rescued her and then slept next to her in a chair so he could be nearby if she needed him during the night.
Everything since then had been leading to this moment. From finding out he shared a name with her late brother to attending Jenny’s wedding and meeting her parents to hours on the phone and FaceTime to their reunion last night, they’d been building something rare and fragile, something to be treasured and nurtured.
His worries about shackles now seemed foolish in light of what she’d shared with him. This, the way he felt when he was with her, was why men allowed themselves to be caught. He sat on the foot of the bed, waiting for his turn in the bathroom and debating whether he should leave his shirt on or take it off. To hell with it. She’d seen him shirtless earlier. He shed the shirt, laying it over a chair when he might’ve dropped it on the floor at home.
Returning to the foot of the bed, he propped his elbows on his knees and dropped his head, rolling it from side to side to relieve the tension in his neck. He felt like he was on unsteady ground with her, which was rare. Usually there were few mysteries in his dealings with women. They went out, they had fun, sometimes they had sex, sometimes they didn’t. That routine had worked for him. But now… Everything was different, and this situation reminded him of being with the only girl he’d ever loved, back in high school, when he hadn’t the first clue what she expected from him.
Unlike then, when the uncertainty had led to anxiety, now it turned him on. Being with Erin felt brand-new, like he was just waking up from a nearly twenty-year nap to find a whole new world waiting to be discovered. And now she had him waxing poetic, he thought with a grunt of laughter at the direction his thoughts had taken.
She came out of the bathroom wearing an oversized T-shirt that left her long legs bare for his perusal. “I don’t own anything that might be considered sexy,” she said, her expression so vulnerable his chest ached
with longing.
“Yes, you do. You’re wearing it.” He stood and went to her, kissing her forehead on his way into the bathroom, where he splashed cold water on his face and brushed his teeth. Then he took a minute to catch his breath, to calm the rapid beat of his heart. His attraction to her was unprecedented.
This whole situation was unprecedented for him. He didn’t go out of his way for women, and he certainly didn’t stay with them. One of his cardinal rules of dating had always been never to spend the night, and here he was planning to spend twelve nights with Erin—and more if she agreed to come home with him.
Rather than feeling constrained by the idea of a real relationship, he couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. And he couldn’t wait to kiss her and hold her and…
Stop. Don’t get ahead of yourself. One step at a time.
He took a deep breath and left the bathroom. Since he hadn’t planned to stay with her, he hadn’t brought anything to sleep in, which presented another unique dilemma.
Erin was in bed, head propped on her upturned hand, watching him as he made a snap decision to leave his jeans on—for now—and stretched out next to her, turning on his side. He traced a fingertip along the V of her T-shirt, which ended just above the deep valley between her breasts. “How can you say you don’t have anything sexy?”
“This is just a T-shirt. I used to have some slinky stuff, but it didn’t make the cut when I downsized to the lighthouse.”
“You like the slinky stuff?”
“I used to love it, but I haven’t had much use for it lately.”
“Now I know what to get you for Christmas.”
“Oh. Are we doing that?”
“What fun is Christmas if you don’t have a present under the tree to open?”
“Don’t go crazy, you hear me?”
Keeping up the subtle movement of his fingertip, he shifted closer to nuzzle her neck. “You make me all kinds of crazy. So crazy I have to remind myself that I shouldn’t tell you all my dirty thoughts about you.”
“Why not?” she asked, sounding as breathless as he felt.
“Because you’d stop thinking I’m a charming gentleman.”
“When did I think you’re a charming gentleman?”
“Ha-ha.”
“I won’t stop thinking that.”
“Yes, you will. You’ll think I don’t respect you when that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“Tell me one thing.” Her eyes glittered with excitement and desire that made him hard as a rock.
“Mmm, how to choose just one when there’re so many to choose from?”
“Try.”
“Your lips.”
“What about them?”
“When we would FaceTime, I became obsessed with your lips.” He rubbed his finger over her lips. “I would think about your mouth and how badly I wanted to kiss you and how much I wanted…” No. Too far. Too much.
“What did you want? Say it.”
“I wanted to see your lips wrapped around my cock. I wanted to see your mouth fall open in surprise when I made you come. I wanted to hear you screaming my name and leaving scratches on my back. I thought about your mouth obsessively. But not just your mouth.”
“What else?” she asked, her voice a faint whisper.
“Your gorgeous breasts.” He cupped them and teased her nipples, which were already hard and tight under his palms. “I wanted to see them and kiss them and suck on your nipples until you begged me to fuck you.”
“Yes, I want that. I want you to do that.”
“How much of it?”
The intensity of her gaze slayed him. “All of it.”
Chapter 9
Erin was done thinking about the many reasons it might not be a good idea to get swept away by him. It was far too late for such worries. She was already caught up, and hearing him speak so bluntly about what he wanted cleared her mind of everything other than the intense desire for the things he’d described.
He flashed a wicked, sexy grin. “Does this mean you like it when I talk dirty to you?”
“Find out for yourself.”
“Ahhh…”
She fell to the pillow, laughing at his befuddled response. “I’d think that a man of your advanced years would know how to tell whether or not his dirty talk was having the desired effect.”
“Sweetheart, are you laughing at me right now?”
She pinched her fingers together. “Maybe just a little. Mostly I’m trying to decide if you’re all talk and no action.”
Uttering a low growl, he pounced, kissing her face off with deep, sweeping strokes of his tongue. Gone were the tentative touches and the light caresses. They’d thrown gas on a fire that had been set to simmer for months, and the flame scorched her from within.
The T-shirt disappeared over her head, baring her breasts to his greedy gaze. As he watched, her nipples tightened to the point of pleasurable pain.
She rested her arms on either side of her head, giving him tacit permission to take what she offered.
“So fucking sexy,” he said as he drew her left nipple into the heat of his mouth.
Erin gasped and raised her hips, colliding with the rigid length of his erection against her sex.
“Erin.”
“Hmmm?”
“You’re so hot. I can feel how hot you are.”
“You made me that way with your dirty talk.”
He kissed his way down her body, then looked up at her, his chin propped on her belly. “Just to be completely clear, this isn’t the only thing I want from you or with you.”
“No?”
“Definitely not.”
The emphatic way he said that made her heart leap, and that was before he resumed his journey toward the waistband of her pink bikini panties.
“These need to come off,” he said, tugging at them.
Tentatively, Erin raised her hips and let him slide them down her legs, which quivered madly.
“Still okay?”
She bit her lip and nodded, even though alarms were sounding in her head. This will change everything. Are you ready to change everything? Will you be able to cope when he leaves again?
“Are you overthinking again?” he asked, watching her carefully as he ran his hands over her legs, subtly moving them apart.
“I’m trying not to.”
“You know what the advantage of being our age is?”
Perplexed by the odd question, she said, “Um, not really.”
“Wisdom,” he said, kissing her inner thigh. “Perspective, patience.” Each word was punctuated by another kiss. “We’re smart enough now to know that when we click with someone, really click the way you and I have, it’s something to hold on to, something to value.”
His words of wisdom were almost as much of a turn-on as the dirty talk had been. Before she could formulate a response to the profound insight, he opened her to his tongue. Erin buried her fingers in his hair and held on tight. He played her like a maestro with his tongue and fingers, taking her up so fast she had no time to prepare for the climax that rocked her.
“Yes,” he whispered. “So beautiful, so hot.”
She whimpered when he withdrew, but he was back a second later without his jeans and rolling a condom over his erection. Erin took a long look at his sexy body, noting the muscles, the scars, the tan lines and the big cock that stretched to above his navel. She held out her arms to him, and he came down on top of her, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss that started the tingling between her legs all over again.
He pushed into her slowly and carefully, watching for signs of distress, but there was no distress, only desire.
No one had ever made her feel the way he did—in bed and out. No other man had ever made her laugh the way he did, turned her on the way he did or made her feel sexy and desirable the way he did. He was one of a kind, and he was right about the way they’d clicked.
She held on to his shoulders as he went deeper, both of t
hem gasping from the impact.
He dropped his forehead to hers, seeming to collect himself.
Erin caressed his back and wrapped her legs around his hips.
“Wow,” he whispered. “I knew you’d feel good, but this is a whole other level of good.”
“Mmm, for me, too.” She lifted her hips to encourage him, and he took the hint, pressing deeper while kissing her with soft, easy strokes of his tongue. The tenderness devastated her and brought tears to her eyes. God, what was he doing to her?
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, so okay.”
“You sure?”
She looked up at him and nodded. “Don’t go slow. It feels so good.”
He took her words to heart, picking up the pace while pressing his fingers to her core, the combination leading to a screaming orgasm that made her thankful for the isolation of the lighthouse. There was no one around for miles to hear how he made her scream.
Reaching beneath her, he gripped her bottom in his big hands as he drove into her to find his own pleasure, coming with a deep groan as he heated her from the inside with his release. When his arms gave out, he came down on her, his body heavy and warm from exertion.
“I think you might’ve just ruined me for all other women.”
Wrapping her arms around him, she laughed. Leave it to him to make her laugh after that.
“No, really. That was… Wow.”
“Yes, it was.”
He raised his head to look at her. “Yeah?”
She nodded and then smiled when he kissed her.
“I knew you were going to be big trouble the night I picked you up by the side of the road.”
Erin smacked his shoulder. “Don’t say that like I was a hooker on the prowl or something.”
His laughter rocked his big body. “So I shouldn’t have told my mom that’s how I met you?”
“You did not!”
Grimacing, he said, “Oh, um, is that going to be a problem?”
“Be serious. You did not tell her that.”
“I had to tell her something when she asked what I was doing for Christmas. I said hopefully spending it with the woman I picked up on the side of a Gansett road last September.”
