Butler, Vermont Series Boxed Set, Books 1-3

by Marie Force

  Holding back a laugh, Mia turned so she could see his face. “It’s not my ribs. This ache is a little bit lower.”

  His eyes widened with understanding. “Oh.”

  Mia’s cheeks flamed with heat. She’d never been one to be forward with a man, but everything about this man was different. He’d made it so easy for her to be entirely herself with him, even before they were able to be anything to each other but friends.

  He ran a finger over her cheek. “Does it embarrass you to tell me that?”

  “A little.”

  “Don’t be embarrassed. I’ve been nursing a very similar ache for quite some time now.”

  “I’m sure you’ve had plenty of willing candidates to help you with that.” Mia was surprised by how furious it made her to think of him with other women, even if she had no right to feel that way.

  “A few here and there, but since I met this gorgeous woman at a yoga retreat a couple of years ago, I haven’t been able to work up enthusiasm for any of them.”

  It took a minute for his words to register, and when they did, she looked up at him, shocked. “Does that mean… in all this time…”

  Cupping her face gently, he kissed her. “There hasn’t been anyone else.”

  “Wade! Oh my God. You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s been two years since we met.”

  “I’m painfully aware of how long it’s been,” he said with a playful grimace.

  “What were you going to do… if I hadn’t come here?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose eventually I would’ve had to get back in the game, but as long as I knew you were out there somewhere, I didn’t want anyone else.”

  Mia rested her forehead against his chest, overwhelmed by his devotion to her even when he’d had no good reason to be devoted. “Wade… I’m so sorry I put you through such a difficult ordeal.”

  He drew her in closer to him and buried his face in her hair, breathing her in. “Now that I know where it was leading, every second of that ordeal was worth it, because it brought you to me.”

  “I want to be with you, Wade. I feel like we’ve already waited so long…”

  “We’ve waited forever, or so it seems.”

  Wade kept his arms around her and steered her toward his bedroom. “Give me a minute to throw some wood on the stove and lock up.” He kissed her and had to tear himself away from the sweet taste of her lips to see to practicalities. They would freeze in the night if he didn’t stoke the fire, and now that she was here and possibly in danger, he would start locking his doors.

  He made quick work of tending to the fire, and then locked the front door, for the first time employing the dead bolt the previous owner had installed. Then he did the same on the back door and checked every window to make sure they were locked. He’d never once, in all the years he’d lived in Butler, felt the need for that kind of security, until he had something more precious than his own life to protect.

  When he returned to the bedroom, she was already in bed with the covers pulled up to her neck. “Are you cold?”

  “No. I’m okay.”

  Standing beside the bed, he unbuttoned his flannel shirt and pushed it off his shoulders, draping it over a chair in the corner. Now that he was sharing his living space, he couldn’t drop it on the floor the way he would’ve when he lived alone. He pulled off his long-sleeved thermal and unbuttoned his jeans.

  Mia watched his every move, her gaze flickering from his face to his chest to his groin and back up again. When she licked her lips, he went hard as stone, like he used to when they’d sit across from each other in coffee shops and the movement of her tongue over her lips had tortured him.

  He kicked off his jeans and ducked into the bathroom to brush his teeth and get a condom. Realizing once wouldn’t be enough, he grabbed a strip of them. Maybe that was wishful thinking, but now that he could touch her and kiss her and make love to her, he wanted to gorge on her. Splashing water onto his face, he tried to calm himself. He wanted her so badly, but after what she’d been through, he needed to be careful with her. The last thing he wanted was to scare her by letting her see the full extent of his desire for her.

  He’d had his share of women, but never one who mattered to him like she did. For a time, he’d wondered if there was something wrong with him, because he never got emotionally involved with women. Until he met her and was instantly captivated in every possible way. So while he’d certainly had plenty of sex, he’d never before made love.

  He took a couple of deep breaths, changed into pajama pants and left a nightlight on so she could find the bathroom if she needed it during the night. Emerging from the bathroom, he half expected to find her asleep, but her eyes were open and fixed on him as he put the condoms on the bedside table and got into bed.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Never better. You?”

  “The same.”

  “You’re too far away over there.” He held out an arm to invite her to come closer to him and gasped when she pressed her naked body against him. “Jesus,” he said on a long hiss. “A little warning would be nice.”

  Laughing, she said, “And miss that reaction?”

  He turned on his side and pulled her in tighter to him, until her breasts were flattened against his chest and her leg was tucked between his. “This must be what heaven feels like.”

  “Mmm,” she said, her lips vibrating against his neck. “Definitely.”

  “I still can’t believe you’re here with me, married to me, naked in bed with me.”

  “Well, I hate to be technical, but one of us isn’t entirely naked…”

  He released his hold on her. “Feel free to rectify that oversight.”

  “Don’t mind if I do.”

  Wade thought he would go mad when she sat up on her knees and gave him his first view of her bare breasts. Tight pink nipples peeked out from behind her hair, and a vine tattoo he’d missed the night before curved from her hip to the unbruised side of her ribs. She was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen, and he wanted her fiercely. But he forced himself to stay still while she worked the pajama bottoms over his straining erection and down his legs, reminding himself he needed to go easy with her. She was injured, and the last thing he’d ever want to do was cause her more pain.

  “You’re very, very sexy, Wade Abbott. I watched you that first day in yoga class. I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”

  “I didn’t know you watched me in class. You never told me that.”

  “I felt like a weirdo because I couldn’t stop staring at this incredibly hot guy who could do every move, even the ones no one else could do. And PS,” she said, resting her hands on his thighs as his cock throbbed. “All the women in the class were watching you.”

  “You’re the only one I remember from that retreat.” He reached for her and brought her down on top of him. The feel of her lush body pressed against his had him sucking in a sharp deep breath. “I dreamed about this.”

  “About me?”

  “Every night since I last saw you, I would think about what it would be like to be with you this way.”

  “And?”

  “My wildest dreams couldn’t have done it justice.”

  For the longest time, he simply held her, breathing her in and wallowing in the sensations that had every nerve ending in his body alive with desire and love and relief. He couldn’t recall ever being more overcome by emotions. They came at him so fast and so furious, he could barely process one before another hit him.

  “When we were in yoga class,” she said after a long period of quiet, “I used to think about all the things I’d do if I got you naked in a bed.”

  Wade nearly swallowed his tongue. “Like what?” he asked gruffly.

  “Like this,” she said, kissing his chest and using her tongue to drive him mad. “And this…” She moved down to fully explore his abdomen. “I wanted to kiss every well-defined muscle you have.”

  Her hair brushed against his cock, and he held his
breath. “Mia…”

  “Hmm?”

  “It’s not going to take much to…”

  As she took him into her mouth, she looked up at him with those big navy-blue eyes, and he wanted to freeze that image so he would never forget it. He buried his hands in her hair and tried to control the looming explosion. Goddamn… “Mia, honey…”

  “Let me, Wade. I’ve wanted to for so long.”

  Dear God… He relaxed into the mattress and let her have her way with him. Pleasure zinged through him as she licked and sucked and stroked him with unbridled enthusiasm. “Mia…” He tried to warn her, but the words were trapped in a brain that wasn’t firing on all cylinders. The climax, when it hit, was a full-body event that engaged every muscle.

  She never let up on him until he was completely drained—in every possible way.

  Son. Of. A. Bitch. Wade could only breathe as his heartbeat roared in his ears. He couldn’t have moved if he tried.

  Kissing a trail from his belly to his chest, she returned to her perch on top of him.

  He forced his eyes open.

  She looked rather pleased with herself, her lips plump and swollen, her cheeks flushed with a rosy glow. Then she smiled, and his heart skipped a beat. “How’s it going down there?”

  “Umm, can I let you know when my brain starts working again?”

  Her low, husky laugh sent a charge of lust boiling through him. He would’ve thought he was done for the time being. He would’ve been wrong.

  “That was a quick recovery,” she said, releasing that sexy laugh that made him crazy for her. Then she squirmed on top of him and took him from half hard to desperate once again.

  Cognizant of her bruises, he turned them so he was on top and waited a second to make sure she was with him, that there was nothing about the position that frightened or pained her. When he recalled what she’d said about Brody forcing her…

  “What is it?” she asked, her brows knitted with concern as her hands cupped his face.

  “I don’t want to do anything to scare you.”

  “You couldn’t. Everything is different with you. It always has been.”

  Moved by her words and the knowledge that all this time, she had felt the same way he did, he studied her intently. “Will you promise to tell me if I do something that makes you uncomfortable?”

  “I promise, but you should know…” She raised her hips, pressing her heat against his cock. “I’m already quite uncomfortable.”

  “I’m not going to survive you,” he said, gritting his teeth against the already insistent need to come again.

  That laugh… Dear God, that laugh. He wanted to hear it every day for the rest of his life.

  He kissed her with deep thrusts of his tongue.

  Her arms encircled his neck while her legs curled around his hips. One slight move by either of them would seal the deal. Condom. He needed a condom. Now. Before this got any more out of hand. He wanted to kiss her everywhere—and he would. But he needed to be inside her more than he’d ever needed anything. “Hold that thought,” he said against her lips.

  Reaching for the bedside table, he grasped a condom and had it on in record time. He was about to make love to his wife. His wife, Mia. Best. Day. Ever.

  She welcomed him back into her arms, her tongue meeting his as he settled on top of her, mindful not to put too much weight on her injured ribs.

  This was love. This was what drove sensible people to do crazy things such as marry a woman they hadn’t seen in more than a year. The only thing that mattered to him now was that she was here, in his bed and in his arms and in his life to stay, if he had anything to say about it.

  He entered her slowly, giving her time to accommodate him.

  She gasped. “Wade…” Her hands slid over his back to grasp his ass, dragging him deeper into her.

  Fuck. Even though she’d taken the edge off, this would be over fast unless he managed to find some control—and quickly. Then she began to move under him, and he decided control was overrated.

  Her fingers dug into his ass, and he gave in to the burning need she aroused in him. All thoughts of being gentle with her were forgotten in a sea of desire so intense, it drowned out everything but the pleasure.

  She never stopped kissing him or touching him or responding to him.

  Nothing had ever felt this good. Ever. Reaching between them, he pressed his fingers to her clit. “Come for me, sweetheart. Let me hear you.” He drew her nipple into his mouth and sucked hard as he coaxed her.

  Her sharp cry of completion had her muscles clamping down hard on his cock.

  He pushed into her and gave in to his own release.

  “Holy crap,” she whispered.

  Wade laughed and gathered her into his arms as he rolled onto his side, taking her with him. Still joined with her, his body hummed with satisfaction and bone-deep pleasure. “Wow.”

  “I knew it would be good with you, but… Damn.”

  “We might need to do it again really soon, just to be sure that wasn’t a one-off.”

  “That would be the responsible thing to do.”

  She was everything—sweet and sexy and funny and easy to talk to. She liked yoga, was vegan like him and enjoyed the same things he did, even rock-climbing. His dream woman was now his wife, and he’d never been happier in his life.

  Chapter 9

  “Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet; a happy marriage has the tranquility of a lovely sunset.”

  —Ann Landers

  Wade dragged himself out of a sound sleep when his alarm went off at seven, the usual time he got up every day. He and Mia hadn’t gone to sleep until well after four, and his body ached from the decadent workout. The lack of sleep and the aches were well worth it to finally make love to the woman he’d fallen for so long ago. It had been everything he’d hoped it would be and more than he ever could’ve imagined.

  She was facedown asleep next to him, her golden hair spread out on the pillow.

  For a long moment, he simply stared at her, drinking in every detail as a pang of fear struck his solar plexus when he recalled that she had to testify against Brody and that the police were coming this morning to take her statement about the beating she had withstood at his hands.

  Their “honeymoon,” such as it was, would be short-lived, with real-life concerns intruding to remind him of what had brought her to him in the first place.

  No doubt Brody had friends who would be more than willing to fight his battles for him if he got locked up again, which meant neither of them would be safe when word got out that they were married.

  The thought of her in any kind of danger made Wade crazy, because the reality was that he couldn’t be with her every minute of every day. He had to work and could take a day or two off, but not much more than that with the big rollout of the store’s intimate line coming soon. Not to mention the catalog shoot that was also on the docket for later in the month. His dad had roped him, his siblings and cousins into “modeling” the store’s clothing.

  Wade cringed at the thought of that shit show, but his dad had argued that they couldn’t have hired a better-looking group of men and women to represent the family business. Even Caden and Callie had been recruited to model the baby clothes. It would be a true family affair, Abbott-Coleman style.

  He could bring Mia to work with him, he thought, brightening at the possibility. There was always plenty to be done at the store, especially now with the catalog in production, the warehouse being built in nearby St. Johnsbury and more business than ever flooding into the store since the website had gone live.

  They could find a job for her. Hell, they’d created a whole new department for Will’s wife, Cameron, when she’d joined their staff as webmaster. Surely, they could find something for his wife to do. His wife. A day later, the words were still surreal. The most beautiful words he’d ever uttered.

  Wade got out of bed and brewed a pot of coffee. Then he called his brother Hunter,
the company’s chief financial officer.

  “Mmm, what?”

  Wade glanced at the clock and winced. “Sorry. Call me back when you’re awake.”

  “I’m awake. What’s up?”

  “I need some time off this week.”

  “What’s the occasion?”

  “You didn’t hear what happened yesterday?”

  “Um, no. Megan and I… We took a snow day off the grid.”

  In other words, Hunter and his new wife had spent the day in bed.

  “So, what happened?” Hunter asked.

  “I got married.”

  “You did what?”

  “You heard me right the first time. I’m going to be out tomorrow and possibly Tuesday, too, but I’ll let you know for sure. And if you could, find a job for my wife, Mia. There’s got to be something she can do. She’s got office experience and some retail. I think.”

  “Wade… What the hell? You got married? Who is she?”

  “Someone I’ve known a long time. You can ask Hannah. She knows about her.”

  “You married someone the rest of us have never even met?”

  “It’s a long story that I don’t have time to tell right now.”

  “Wade—”

  “Find her a job, Hunter.”

  “Have her come in and fill out an application so we know where to put her. And PS, you can’t be off this week with Amanda coming for training on the new product line from hell.”

  Wade groaned. How had he forgotten about that? “I’ll come in for that, but I won’t be around much otherwise.”

  “You have to be there for that. We can’t do it twice. Once will be bad enough.”

  “I’ll see you then, if not before.” Wade ended the call before his older brother could reply. If he knew Hunter—and he knew him well—he’d be on the phone with his twin, Hannah, within thirty seconds. If it took that long.

  Long after it went dead, Hunter stared at the phone, still trying to wrap his head around what Wade had told him.

  Megan turned over, awakened by the phone. They’d decided to close the diner after getting another foot of snow overnight. “Who called?”