by Marie Force
She glared at him.
“After she got a flat on her bike and sprained her ankle in the dark. Of course I told her that part, too. What do you take me for?”
She poked her index fingers into his ribs, making him startle. “That was not funny.”
“It was, too. You were about to laugh. Admit it.”
“I’ll admit no such thing.” She pushed at his shoulder. “Get off me, you wildebeest.”
“Wildebeest? Not even five minutes ago, you were screaming my name, and this is the thanks I get for that stupendous orgasm?”
“Oh my God! You’re so full of yourself, it’s not even funny.”
“Was that or was that not a stupendous orgasm?”
“It was okay.”
His eyes widened and his mouth went slack, but for only a second. “So you’ve had better?”
“I refuse to answer that on the grounds that your ego is on the verge of not fitting into my little lighthouse.”
“My ego fits just fine in your little lighthouse, baby, and that was a stupendous orgasm. I don’t care what you say.”
She tried to contain the laughter but couldn’t stop the gurgle that seemed to explode from her throat.
“See, I am funny.”
Rolling her eyes, she pushed on his shoulder. “Let me up.”
“Only if you come right back.”
“I’ll come right back.”
“Because you want another stupendous orgasm.”
She pinched his rear—hard—and got him to move, groaning as he withdrew from her. That was when she realized he was hard again.
His sheepish grin made her smile. “I can’t help if he thinks you’re ridiculously sexy.”
Trying not to think about his eyes on her ass, Erin went into the bathroom and closed the door, needing a moment alone to contend with the emotional firestorm unfolding inside her. It had been a stupendous orgasm, but more than that, the connection she’d shared with him had been unlike anything she’d experienced before, not to mention the laughter afterward. She laughed more with him than with any guy she’d ever known, except her brother.
Toby would’ve liked him. She had no doubt whatsoever about that. Her brother had disliked most of the guys she’d dated, including Mitch, whom he’d declared not good enough for her. That comment had led to one of the few really heated fights she and Toby had ever had, the last time she ever saw him, no less. He and Slim… They would’ve been the best of friends.
After using the facilities, she washed her face and brushed her hair before putting on the robe that hung on the back of the bathroom door. She tied it tight around her waist and opened the door. He was lying on his side, watching for her. At some point, he’d disposed of the condom, and her eyes were immediately drawn to the fact that he was still hard.
She went to her side of the bed to stretch out next to him.
“What’s up with this?” he asked, tugging at the knot at her waist.
“I was cold.”
“I can warm you up a lot faster than a robe can.” He untied the knot and pushed open the front of the robe. “Sit up.”
Erin did as he asked and let him slide the robe from her shoulders and then draw her into his warm embrace under the comforter.
“There. Isn’t that better?”
It felt so damned good to be held by him, to breathe in his alluring scent, to feel his chest hair under her cheek, his whiskers rubbing against her forehead and his hard cock against her belly. She loved it all.
“You okay?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Don’t be shy around me, Erin. I love the way you look, and I love looking at you. You’ve got nothing at all to be shy about. You’re gorgeous and sexy, and I want to see you.”
How did he go from outrageous humor to heartfelt sincerity without missing a beat? If she didn’t know him so well, she’d wonder if he was for real. But after months of long conversations, she knew he was exactly what he appeared to be. “Thank you.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.” She dragged a fingertip over his chest. “Did you really tell your mom about me?”
“She wanted to know what I was doing for the holidays.”
“You don’t go home for Christmas?”
“Home is Florida in the winter and here in the summer.”
“You don’t talk about your family. Ever.” She looked up at him. “That’s why I’m sort of surprised you told your mom about me.”
“I talk about them.”
“Not to me.”
“Never?”
“Nope.”
“Hmmm, well, what do you want to know?”
“Do you have siblings?”
“I have a brother, Jack, who’s two years younger than me. He’s married with a couple of kids and lives in Orange County, California.”
“Jack Jackson?”
“His real name is Jonah, but his high school football teammates called him Jack, and it stuck.”
“Are you close?”
“We don’t see each other very often, but we text a lot and catch up whenever we can on the phone. I also FaceTime with his kids, who are the cutest kids ever.”
“Were you close growing up?”
“Yeah, we were. Our folks split up when I was six and he was four. They fought over us for years, which was as fun as you might imagine. By the time they finally settled on joint custody after years of battling, we were all set with both of them.”
Erin’s heart broke at the thought of two little boys stuck between battling parents. “At least they both wanted you. That’s something, isn’t it?”
“They wanted us until they remarried and started new families. Then we were just a couple of teenagers in the way at both houses.”
“So you have half siblings, too?”
“Yep. Two half sisters, two half brothers and three stepbrothers. I’m not really close to them, though. Jack and I were so much older that we didn’t spend much time with them growing up. He was driving by the time the last one was born. They’re all good kids, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t feel like siblings to us.”
“What do you normally do for Christmas?”
“Hang with my friends in Florida, go to the beach, fly people to their families. Nothing special. Christmas stopped being a big deal to me years ago.” He slid his hand from her shoulder down her arm to take hold of her hand. “Until this year. This year it feels pretty damned special.”
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too, sweetheart.”
Chapter 10
Dr. Kevin McCarthy sat at the bar at the Beachcomber and watched Chelsea work. Watching her was one of his favorite things to do, second only to being naked in a bed with her. She was tall and lean with curves in all the right places, lovely gray-blue eyes and a long blonde braid down her back, the sexiest woman he’d ever been with, hands down. Yes, he was a bit obsessed with her, but so what? Who was he hurting by indulging in a deeply satisfying relationship?
That he was also having the best sex of his life with a woman sixteen years his junior was no one’s business but his—and hers. Nursing a beer, he thought about his sons, Riley and Finn, and the odd vibe of disapproval he’d been getting from them in the last couple of weeks. It was funny, in a way, when you thought about the many nights he’d sat up waiting for them to come home over the years. Now it was his turn, and they weren’t happy about his new relationship—not that either of them had actually said so.
He was trying to be sensitive to how hard it was for them to see their father with someone other than their mother, but ending the marriage hadn’t been his idea. Maybe they needed to spend some time with their mother so he wouldn’t be the only one taking heat from them.
As much as he wished it didn’t, their disapproval irritated him. He’d worked his ass off to support his family. He’d been a faithful, if sometimes inattentive, husband. His wife of nearly thirty years had left him, not the other way around. What right did his sons ha
ve to make him feel guilty for moving on with someone new?
They didn’t. They had no right at all to make him feel this way when he was enjoying himself enormously with Chelsea.
“What’s on your mind, Doc?”
He looked up to see her standing before him, eyeing the shredded mess of paper on the bar in front of him. He’d been tearing up a cocktail napkin without realizing it. Scooping up the scraps, he balled them into a wad. “Nothing. Sorry. Almost done?”
“Just have to clean up. You want one for the road?”
“Nah, I’m good, thanks.”
She gave him another curious look before moving on to finish up.
Kevin rolled the ball of paper between his palms. If he were one of his patients, he’d be telling himself to talk it over with his sons. Except, he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to hear the reasons why his relationship with Chelsea was a bad idea, doomed to fail before it even got off the ground.
They’d been together a couple of months now, and it was working just fine, as far as he was concerned. And she seemed happy, too. They’d begun to talk about where they were going and how their relationship was about more than just sex, which was a step forward in his mind. What else mattered?
The final stragglers left the bar shortly after midnight, and fifteen minutes later, Chelsea was ready to go.
Kevin held her coat for her and then put an arm around her shoulders as they walked to his car. She rented a tiny, cozy house in town, so they didn’t have far to go to get to her place. They’d fallen into a comfortable routine over the last few months, spending time together every night at her place, which gave his sons the full run of the house he had rented for the three of them.
He and Chelsea rarely spent a full night together, and sometimes he rolled in after three or four in the morning. Maybe his sons were pissed about that, too, since he’d made them come home at a reasonable hour until after they graduated from college and got their own homes. The three of them had been living together again since the fall, when they’d come out for Laura’s wedding and ended up staying for the winter—Kevin because he’d needed to regroup after the split with Deb and his sons because their cousin Mac hired them to work for his construction company for the winter.
After a short drive, Kevin followed Chelsea into her house, removed his coat and went into the kitchen, where she poured a glass of wine for herself and opened a beer for him.
“Thanks, hon.” Since he’d had only two beers much earlier and was still fine to drive, he downed a hearty mouthful and leaned back against the counter to look his fill at the gorgeous woman who’d captivated him so completely. He certainly hadn’t expected that when Chelsea invited him to come home with her one night in September. At that time, he’d figured they might have a fun one-night stand, and that would be that.
But that night had turned into three of the best months of his life, and he was in no rush to see it end. As recently as last night, he’d tried to talk Chelsea into committing to more, but she wanted to wait until his divorce was final to make any decisions. After Christmas, his first order of business would be to get in touch with Dan Torrington about speeding up the divorce.
“You want to talk about it?” she asked as she worked her fingers through her hair, releasing the braid she’d worn to work.
“Talk about what?”
“Whatever’s bugging you.”
“Nothing’s bugging me. I’m fine.” He forced a smile for her benefit. “Tired.”
“Just last night, you told me you want more than a hot roll in the sack, but when you’re obviously upset about something, that’s not my concern?”
He stared at her, stunned by the forthright statement. That sort of communication had been missing in the latter years of his marriage, and it was one of many things he appreciated about Chelsea. Kevin put down the beer and took a few steps toward her. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he looked into her eyes. “You are so much more to me than a hot roll in the sack. If you don’t know that by now, I need to do a better job of telling you so.”
“I’m not fishing for compliments, Kevin. You told me last night you want us to be about more than sex. You haven’t been yourself tonight, and I’m asking why.”
He appreciated the effort she was making and was encouraged that she’d taken what he said last night to heart. “It’s nothing to do with you. It’s the boys… I’ve been sensing a little pushback from them.”
“About us?”
“Among other things.”
Her brows knitted the way they did when she was thinking something over. “Hmm.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s just… Don’t take this the wrong way, but you know they aren’t boys anymore, right? They’re fully grown men, as are you, and all of you are free to do whatever you want, within reason, of course.”
“I do know that, but old habits die hard. I’ve always called them ‘the boys,’ and I probably always will. And I do know that we’re not doing anything wrong. Believe me, I know that. They’re still getting used to their mom and I breaking up, and they’re having a hard time processing it. That’s all it is.”
“The breakup wasn’t your doing. They know that, right?”
“Yes, they do, but we’re still their parents, and our split has had an impact on them. I see it all the time in my practice. I swear divorce is easier on little kids than it is on grown kids. It tilts their entire world out of alignment. Everything they believed to be true is challenged.”
“And they get over it. In time. It’s not fair for them to make you feel bad about doing something that makes you feel good, especially when it wasn’t your decision to end your marriage.”
“It was in some ways,” he said with a sigh. “I knew she wasn’t happy, and I didn’t do a damned thing about it.”
“Because you wanted out, too?”
“Yeah, but I was never going to leave her.”
“I don’t get that. If you were unhappy, why would you stay?”
“Loyalty, tradition, the boys… Lots of reasons.”
“And not one of them is about being happy. Don’t you have a right to be happy? Don’t we all?”
“Yeah, we do. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time. And that’s all thanks to you.” He raised his hands to her face and compelled her to look at him. “That’s what I was trying to tell you last night when I said I want this to be more than just the best sex of my life.”
“I thought about what you said. That’s all I thought about today.”
“Yeah?” His heart fluttered with hope. He was so gone over her and was looking for something, anything other than screaming orgasms to indicate the feeling was mutual.
She nodded. “I don’t want you to think…”
“What, hon?”
“That I don’t want the same thing you do. I do. More than I expected when we started this. I’m just wary, that’s all. You’re going through a huge life change, and as great as this has been—and it’s been amazing—I don’t want to get ahead of myself when you’re not divorced yet.”
“I understand that, and I thought a lot about what you said last night, too. I get it. In a few months, the divorce will be final, and we’ll see where we are. Until then, no pressure, just fun. Okay?”
“Okay, but I still want to know if something’s bugging you. Just because we aren’t making declarations of forever together doesn’t mean I want you to feel like you can’t talk to me.”
“I love talking to you. You’ve become my favorite person to talk to.”
“About stuff that matters, Kevin. Not just surface things.”
“I hear you, and I want that, too. I want it all with you, Chelsea Rose, and I’m going to keep telling you that until you believe me. In fact, I want you to join the boys and me for Christmas dinner, and I want you to come with me to my nephew’s wedding in Anguilla.”
She eyed him skeptically. “Seriously?”
“Dead seriously.”
&nb
sp; “Would your sons… They’d be okay with that?”
“Sure.” As he said that, he hoped he was right, but he had a few days to smooth things with them before Christmas and weeks before the trip to Anguilla.
“You have no idea if they’d be okay with it, do you?”
“I don’t care if they are or they aren’t. Like you said, they’re grown men, and I have to stop treating them like kids. You’ll be there as my guest, and they’ll be polite, or I’ll ask them to leave. Okay?”
“If you’re sure…”
“I’m sure I want to spend Christmas with you, and I’d love to have you with me in Anguilla.”
She smiled, and his heart fluttered with more hope. Everything was new with her, like he was falling in love for the very first time. That thought stopped him cold. Was he in love with her?
Before he had a chance to process that possibility, she was kissing him, her mouth opening under his, their tongues meeting in a dance that had become so familiar and so necessary to him. God, he was in love with her. Had been for a while now, if he was being honest.
With her hands on his chest, she pushed him backward toward the living room, stopping him before he could sit. She unbuttoned his pants, and working together, they got rid of his pants and then hers. She helped him out of his sweater, and he was happy to return the favor. Then she gave him a gentle nudge that sent him into an upholstered chair with no arms. She straddled him, her wet heat against his cock making him harder than he’d already been. She was so hot and sexy and willing to do anything if it felt good.
He cupped her ass and pulled her in tighter. “You make me feel like the luckiest guy to ever live that I get to be with you this way.”
“We’re both lucky to have found this.”
“Mmm.” He nuzzled her neck as she moved on his lap with the deliberate intent of making him insane. “That’s why we need to hold on to it.”
She tightened her hand around his cock. “Hold on to it like this?”
Kevin gasped as he laughed. “Just like that.”
Chelsea raised herself up and came down on him, taking him in slowly, torturing him with the tight squeeze. Since she was on birth control, they’d stopped using condoms after both had produced clean bills of health, and he loved the way she felt against his bare skin.
