50. Chapter 50
fifty
“What are you doing?” Rowan screeched as Chris slammed the door shut behind them.
Chris backed her into the door, let his instinct take over, and covered her mouth with his before she could launch into a tirade.
“Ow!” He recoiled sharply. The damn woman bit his lower lip—not in a fun, sexy way, but in a painful way.
“You deserve that,” Rowan snapped, clearly incensed, before snatching him by the shirt and kissed him back. Hard.
Chris sank into her, pressing her against the door, weaving his hands through her hair. She tasted like limeade, all tangy and sweet—just what a man needed on a hot, sunny day. He eagerly drank her in, their tongues meeting and tangling in a passionate tussle. He’d prefer to battle it this way if they had to fight.
Feeling for the doorknob just by her hips, Chris locked the door.
Rowan abruptly grabbed his face and broke their kiss. “This doesn’t change things. I’m going home.”
“Uh-huh.” Chris nodded and dove in again to her inviting mouth. His hand on her hip pulled up the skirt of her dress. “Is that why you dressed up for me?”
Rowan pulled away from his mouth, opening her jaw for him to explore. “I didn’t dress for you.” She ran her hands down his sides and rounded to his ass.
“I like it,” he said against her throat as his fingers found the hem of her panties at the top of her thigh and ran the tip of his thumb along the underside of it. He felt her shudder as he caressed her sensitive skin. “Easy access.”
“Goddammit. How are you doing this to me every time?” She cursed, frustration in her voice.
“Don’t you get it? We do this to each other,” Chris said, hoping she understood this thing between them wasn’t just heat. Heat sizzled out. But what they had lit brighter each time they connected.
“Stop,” she asked. “I can’t think straight when you touch me.”
Chris reluctantly pulled back his rising desire and placed his hands on safer ground, and stepped back. Some things shouldn’t be discussed during a tumble of passion.
“Don’t go, Rowan,” he asked.
“I did what I came to do.” She adjusted her dress with shaky hands.
“You didn’t come all the way here just to return the ring,” Chris insisted. “Or to yell at my father.”
Chris smiled as the image of Rowan confronting George Sullens flashed in his mind again. “Bravo, by the way.”
“He was an ass,” she scoffed.
“That’s why I love you,” Chris said with a huge grin.
Her gaze sharpened as she locked eyes with him.
“You have more guts than most people I know. I’ve known many strong women, but none is quite like you,” he said.
“Sorry,” Rowan took a step toward him. “What did you say?”
Chris raised an eyebrow. “Which part?”
She glared at him, her mouth a thin line. “The first part.”
“Oh, the I love you part?” he asked.
Rowan’s mouth opened as if she was about to say something, but it closed again. She lifted a hand as if she was about to make a point, but she just stared at him.
“Wow, I think this is the first time I’ve seen you speechless,” Chris said, watching her with an amused smile.
Taking her hand in his, Chris told her again, “I love you, Rowan. I don’t know when I started loving you, but I do. Maybe I fell in love with you from that first moment you blew me off. Or maybe when you showed me how determined you are to preserve your family legacy.
“Though that night when you stood up against the bullies in front of the whole town was pretty badass,” Chris said. “But I know for sure that I was in fucking trouble when I kissed you that first time. Because I didn’t want to stop kissing you. I still don’t, and I never will.”
Chris pulled her closer so he could run the back of his fingers over her cheeks. He took in the details of her face—her bright eyes framed by her auburn eyebrows, the sprinkle of freckles over her nose, the light tan over her skin, and the way she bit her bottom lip when she was thinking. Even if she was often grumpy, she also made him laugh. And he could listen to that sexy voice any day, whether she was talking about renovation or cursing him to love her harder. He loved everything about her.
“We met three weeks ago, Chris,” Rowan finally found her voice. “We barely know each other.”
“The heart knows what logic can’t explain,” he said. “I don’t take these words lightly, Rowan. But I understand if you don’t feel the same way. I know it was a temporary arrangement. I thought I could be there for you and walk away after. Falling for you was never a part of the plan. But I want you to know how I feel about you.”
“I love you, too,” Rowan blurted out.
There. I said it. I love him.
Rowan blew out a breath. “But this can never work.”
The bright smile on Chris’ face turned into a questioning frown. “Why not?”
“The same reason I told you to leave Vinalhaven,” she explained. “You can’t stay there as much as I can’t leave Bright Head. You have a life in New York, a business that requires your full focus. And I have mine. As much as I want us to be together, I can’t see how it would work.
“I left a relationship because I felt my dreams and goals had to take a backseat to his. I can’t be in the backseat again—I won’t. But I also won’t ask you to take a backseat for me," Rowan finished.
Undeterred by her skepticism, Chris grinned. “Honey, the only backseat I’m planning to be in is when I’m there making out with you. ”
“The rest of the time, we’ll share the driver’s seat,” he added. “When I’m driving, I want you there next to me. And when you take the wheel, I’ll be right there with you.”
Rowan shook her head with a sad laugh. “Easier said than done, Christopher.”
“We can work on our dreams together, Rowan,” Chris insisted. “A wise friend of mine, who happens to be your sister, told me that when the heart wants it badly enough, the brain will find a way to make it happen. I think between you and me, we can figure this out.”
“It’s that easy, huh?” Rowan scoffed sarcastically.
Chris pulled her into his arms. “It is if we don’t make it complicated.”
Rowan’s eyes stared unblinkingly at Chris, seeing the conviction in his face. This man who kept her on her toes from the first day he’d mistaken her as a guy. He uplifted her when she felt defeated and took every challenge she threw at him with a sunny smile on his face. The fact he could easily turn her on like a light switch was a bonus.
“You’re not one to let fear make your decision for you,” Chris challenged. “Come on. Where’s that girl who told a room of old men to go fuck themselves?”
Rowan laughed.
“We can do this.” Chris’ smile was full of confidence. “You know we can.”
He lights you up, sweetheart . She heard her dad’s voice as if he was still there with her.
“Tell me again,” Rowan asked.
Chris didn’t ask which part this time. “I love you, Rowan Kelly. I want to spend my life with you.”
“And I love you,” Rowan said.
“But?” Chris checked.
“No but.”
Rowan had seen many smiles on Chris’ face, but this one took the prize. His face was lit up with it.
“Never stop looking at me that way,” Chris said.
“Like what?” Rowan asked innocently.
“Like you want me to kiss you.”
“Well, what are you waiting for? ”
Chris captured her lips. And the need was as ardent as the first moment they touched. Rowan responded with every cell in her body and felt the excitement of facing a new adventure.
“Are we crazy?” Rowan asked.
“Absolutely,” Chris replied with a straight face.
Rowan laughed, but she sobered up to look at the man who could always set her ablaze. One look. One touch. One word.
She realized their need for each other went beyond the physical. The need to stand next to each other facing life. The need to lean on each other when things got tough. The need to laugh with each other when things go right. Even the need to know they would always have each other’s back, no matter what, even when they were mad at each other.
“I’m gonna up the crazy,” Chris said and pulled out the ring with a flip of his fingers.
Rowan gasped. “How did you do that?”
“Wear my ring, and you’ll have a lifetime to learn all the tricks I have up my sleeve.”
“Chris—”
“You see the inscription here?” He tilted the ring.
Rowan could only nod.
“For love. For life,” he echoed the inscription. “It’s my pledge to you. See, I didn’t even know why I told Walt to get this ring from my safe. It was the first time I ever felt compelled to have it with me, as if deep down I knew before I even realized how I feel about you.
“I’d like to be your fiancé for real this time,“ Chris continued. “But if that’s too much and too fast for you, and you’d like to mull it over for the next five years—”
“Seriously?” Rowan laughed.
“You have this track record,” he teased.
“That’s the old Rowan. This Rowan knows what she wants,” she said. “I want a partner in life who loves me as much as I love him, who will support me while I build my dream as I support him. I want to be that person you lean on when things get tough, Christopher.”
“I’m counting on it, babe.” Chris touched his brow to hers.
It was crazy, but it felt right. Standing here with Chris as he slid the ring back onto her finger. Like the first time he’d done it, it felt like a part of her. It had once been his mother’s, and now it was hers .
“Will you tell me more about your mother?” Rowan touched the ring that felt warm on her skin.
“I’ll tell you all about her, but not right now.” Chris looped his arms around Rowan’s waist and pulled her to him. “Because I’m about to make love to you.”
Rowan threw her arms around his neck with a laugh. “Right here? In this study?”
“Right here.” Chris hauled her up in his arms, and Rowan locked her legs around his waist.
Rowan looked around the large study, its walls lined with shelves filled with books. Her eyes caught on something, and she grinned. “Over there.”
Chris glanced at where she was looking and matched her grin. He walked them to the sliding ladder attached to the shelves. Rowan didn’t wait and started kissing him as they were still en route. She felt him place her on a rung, and his hands, now free, got busy pulling her panties down her legs.
This had always felt right. From the first time they’d tumbled together onto that tarp-covered mattress, Rowan had wanted no one this urgently. Her craving for him became more intense each time they’d been together.
Fumbling with the fastening of his pants, Rowan and Chris never broke their kiss, needing the connection before they could fuse into each other.
His hand cupped her breast and thumbed the peak through the thin fabric of her dress and bra while the other ran up her leg. His touch triggered goosebumps over her skin, like a cool wave lapping over her legs on a hot summer day, and it felt heavenly.
Like always, without hesitation, his thumb found the exact spot she needed him to touch. Sliding it through her damp slit, he ran moisture to lube her clitoris and made her moan loudly into his mouth. If she’d been locked all this time before she’d met him, Chris held the key that opened her wide.
Rowan’s hip thrust forward to his touch, seeking the pressure from his thumb. Chris broke away from her mouth and ran his lips down her throat, along her collarbone, to the top of her breast. Without much finesse, he pulled down the bodice of her dress and bra to expose her breasts. Rowan didn’t care if he ripped her dress. She only cared that his mouth was on her, creating delicious frictions that shot straight to her center. Grabbing the ladder handle just above her head, Rowan arched her chest to him, offering him to suck harder. Chris read her like a book and did just that.
But Rowan didn’t want to always be at the receiving end. She needed to give as much as she took. They were in it together, after all. She pushed his pants and underwear off his legs and cupped him, even when his thumb and mouth on her had almost rendered her unable to move.
At the touch of her hand, Chris groaned her name as a warning, “Rowan.”
“Partners, right?” Rowan whispered as she fisted his hard length to its tip. “I think you’re ready for me.”
Chris straightened to gaze into her eyes while he let her guide him to her warmth. “That I am, love.”
He thrust into her and filled her fully, triggering a moan. She didn’t even try to suppress it—didn’t care if anyone could hear them. He was hers.
They moved together like surf coming into shore. Rowan felt every inch of him inside her like the ocean’s caress against the earth. With each stroke, the strength of the wave became more intense as it built in volume. With each thrust, they rolled in a massive swell, closer and closer to their destination. Until they finally crashed onto the beach in a shattering splash.
The orgasm hit her as an almost violent but reviving jolt of energy surging through her body. Her cry equaled Chris’ grunt as he buried himself deep inside her.
Like a ship landing on a beautiful, tranquil beach, Chris felt his body calming from the satisfying release that had slammed into him.
“Every time,” Chris said in awe, as he caught his breath.
Against him, Rowan suddenly got an attack of the giggles. She tried to cover it by burying her face in his chest, but he felt the rumble even more.
“It was that good, huh?” Chris teased. He loved she could laugh while he was still deep inside her, which turned him on again .
Curbing her laughter, his fiancée—his real fiancée—lifted her face to look at him. “I’m laughing at life. I should’ve known life can take a complete one-eighty at any moment.
“One night changed my life forever,” Rowan added. “My father’s death turned my life upside down. I’ll miss him every day, grieving for what he’ll miss. But I’m also grateful for what he gave me: the courage to forge my path, Bright Head, and a sister, which ultimately led you to me.”
“Life takes you by surprise sometimes.” Chris smiled and kissed her nose. “I set out on this trip as a favor for a friend. I never thought I’d be unexpectedly entangled with this woman who makes my very being yearn for her.”
Rowan chuckled as Chris trailed his lips along her jaw. “Are we going to do this for the rest of the day? If so, we probably should find a more comfortable and less risky spot.”
“We can do this all weekend if you’d like. Though we have a wedding to go to.” Chris’ lips continued their exploration.
Alarmed, Rowan pulled Chris’ head away from her neck. “Whose wedding?”