Chapter 10
Pearce pulled into my driveway,and we walked into the house.
“Wear something warm and bring a sweater and a jacket,” he called to me.
“Come in and tell me what’ll be best.”
He searched my closet and pulled out a light sweater and then a heavier one to layer on top. Then he looked through my coats and pulled a jacket off the rack and said, “Let’s go.”
We headed to his car when I remembered that I promised Lisbeth I’d check in on her. “Oh wait. I promised I’d check on Lisbeth today. Part of my job. Do you mind?”
“Not a bit.”
“Come on, then. She’d love to see you,” I said with a grin.
We entered through her back door. I had a key, so we let ourselves in.
“Lisbeth. Are you here?”
I walked through and found her in her favorite sitting area, reading the paper. She was thrilled to see Pearce, especially since he flirted shamelessly with her. We didn’t stay too long, and I promised to check on her the next day. “Call me if you need anything,” I told her as we left.
We got in his car and Pearce made a couple of stops, one at the grocery store and another at a local wine shop. Then he drove to the City Marina and parked.
As we walked along the dock, everyone recognized Pearce. I had a fairly good idea of where we were headed, but when I saw the final destination, I nearly wet my pants.
“Um, you could’ve given me a little warning, Pearce.”
“Why?”
“Well, this is huge.” I gestured to the giant yacht that sat there.
“Don’t worry, I have someone captaining today. We can sit back and enjoy the ride.”
“Pearce, I’m not worried. I’m intimidated.”
He immediately stopped what he was doing and set all the stuff he was carrying on the dock. Turning to me he took me into his arms and said, “Don’t ever be intimidated by any of this. It’s nothing but stuff. Materialistic, replaceable stuff. You, on the other hand, are priceless. If anyone should be intimidated, it’s me.” Then he hugged me and held me in his arms for a moment. That familiar warmth in my heart returned.
Suddenly we heard a voice from above saying, “Dr. Middleton, do you need a hand?”
“Hey, Jack! No, thanks, I’ve got this. We’ll be up in a second.” Then Pearce looked at me and said, “Ready?”
I nodded and he helped me board the “TSCSC.”
“I have to ask. What’s TSCSC?”
“Promise not to laugh?”
“I promise.”
“When I got this thing, I couldn’t figure out what to name it. I suck at picking out creative names, which is why I used the initials for trauma surgeon, Charleston, SC. I know, it’s pretty lame.”
I couldn’t help it. I bit my lips trying to hold the laughter in, but it didn’t work. I ended up spurting it out of my mouth.
“You too, huh? I’ve gotten more grief from everyone I know about that. I’ll make a deal with you. If you can come up with anything better, have at it. I’m tired of getting hell from everyone.”
We walked aboard and I gasped at the sight before me. The boat wasn’t like anything I’d imagined. You could live on this thing. It was huge and beautiful. Soft colors, comfortable furnishings, modern kitchen appliances. There were two staterooms, but the master bedroom was amazing. It was large with its own en suite.
Pearce put all the food away and Jack readied the boat for departure. I sat on the upper deck and watched. We headed out into the Charleston Harbor and made our way past the jetties. The weather was beautiful, warm with clear blue skies with a gentle breeze making the seas very calm.
We finally passed the C2 buoy, which was the final marker of the passage into Charleston. We were in open water, and I stood out on the deck next to Pearce with his arm circling my waist. The feeling of freedom as the boat skimmed across the sea was extraordinary. Sea birds soared in the air above, and in the distance, every now and then, you could see fish jump.
“Are you hungry?”
“Starved. We forgot about breakfast.”
A sparkle lit up his eyes. “No, we didn’t. You were my breakfast.”
Heat infused my face in remembrance of our early morning lovemaking session.
Pearce leaned closer to me. “I love saying things that make you blush.”
I opened my mouth to respond but was met with his lips as he quickly kissed me. I turned in his arms and kissed him back. His moan encouraged me, so I entwined my fingers in his hair.
He pulled back and asked, “Are you trying to distract me because you’re doing a damn fine job of it?”
I laughed and said, “You deserve it after that remark.”
“Come on, let’s eat. I can’t have you starving on me.”
We went below and he pulled out all sorts of food from the bags. Cheeses, crusty breads, some she-crab soup, fruit, and benne seed wafers.
He heated up the soup in the microwave and served everything else.
“Wine, San Pellegrino, regular water?”
“Wine and Pellegrino, please.”
He poured our drinks, put everything on a tray, and carried it up top for us to enjoy the view and the lovely day.
As we ate, we talked. I asked about his family, and he told me he had two brothers and a sister. He was the oldest and his sister was the youngest. That’s who he was with the night I saw him in Camellia’s. She was spoiled rotten by the brothers, but he thought we’d get along great. He adored his family; it was easy to see how happy he was talking about them.
I told him about mine and how they dumped me after Peter’s death. Didn’t even want to know anything about what happened. They just knew I was driving, we’d been fighting, and that was enough for them. That was why I left Virginia.
He wanted to know how I ended up in Charleston. I told him it was because of Terri. “We were college roommates at the University of Virginia. She was from here and always claimed she would move back to Charleston after she graduated. She did. After Peter died, she was the only one who stuck by me. She persuaded me to move here.” I looked at him and smiled. “You know, it took me a while, but now I know it was the best decision I ever made.”
He tucked a piece of flyaway hair behind my ear and kissed me there. Then he whispered, “I couldn’t agree with you more.”
We ate some more but he noticed I hadn’t touched my soup.
He dipped his spoon in his and held it out and said, “Open up.”
I did as he ordered, and he slipped the spoon in my mouth. I instantly thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
“Oh gosh. This is unbelievable.”
His brows shot up. “You’ve never had she crab soup?”
“No! I didn’t know what it was but was too embarrassed to ask.”
He slipped another spoonful into my mouth.
“Oh my God. This is orgasmic.”
He threw back his head and chuckled, then pounded the table with his fist. I thought he was going to break it.
“Give me that bowl and spoon.” I grabbed it from him and wolfed down the rest of the soup.
He stared at me wearing a stupid grin. “Babe, I love to see a woman who’s not afraid to eat.”
“Well then, you’ll be thrilled with me because as I’ve just demonstrated, I have absolutely no table manners and I’m unashamedly proud of my appetite when I taste something this good.”
“Kiss me,” he suddenly demanded.
I did as he asked, and he pulled me over to his lap. My hands tangled in his hair as he slid his hands underneath my sweater. Then he was standing up and carrying me down below where we found ourselves in one of the staterooms, naked, in bed, making mad, crazy love.
I was on top, straddling him when he suddenly sat up, putting us face-to-face. He scooted to the edge of the bed to drop his legs over the side.
“I need to be close to your face. I want to touch your mouth, your lips, your neck. God, Alexia, I’m crazy with need for you.”
“I can’t begin to tell you how I feel. I don’t think there are words for it.”
He moved within me, sending heat throughout me.
“I’m already addicted to the sounds you make when I’m inside you.”
A deep groan escaped from him sending shivers up and down my spine. If he wasn’t the sexiest man alive, there wasn’t one.
My arms were around his neck, and I bent my head to his shoulder.
“No, I want to see your face. Don’t hide it from me.”
I lifted my head and held his face in my hands. “I’m not hiding from you. I would never hide from you. I love you, Pearce.”
What did I just say? I hadn’t meant to say that. It just slipped out. My eyes widened and they probably looked like a cartoon. I froze.
“Say it again,” he said hoarsely as his gaze penetrated mine.
“Say what?” I evaded him. Maybe if I pretended it didn’t happen, he wouldn’t notice.
“Don’t you dare run from me now, Alexia. Say it again!” he commanded.
All the while he was still moving inside of me, bringing me closer to an orgasm. I couldn’t believe I had said that. But worse, I couldn’t believe he was demanding I say it again.
“No. I can’t. I didn’t mean it. Oh God, Pearce,” I moaned, as my orgasm slammed into me and consumed me for the moment. Unfortunately, clarity returned too soon.
What was I going to do? I honestly hadn’t meant to say it. The words slipped out in the heat of the moment.
I still panted and he was still moving inside of me when his body tensed as his orgasm hit him. Liquid heat rushed into me, and his eyes wouldn’t let mine go. I didn’t have the will to look away. Watching him climax should have been one of the seven wonders of the world. His expression was nothing short of spectacular. Then the dreaded questions came.
“Why won’t you say those words again?” he whispered. “I know you want to. I can see it in your eyes. Remember how I told you they’re very expressive? They’re telling me now. Please say them again.”
“Pearce, I ...”
“Don’t think about anything else, except this moment. Just you and me. If there weren’t any societal norms on the amount of time two people needed to spend together before they fell in love, or if there weren’t any rules dictating the number of days it was appropriate to know someone before you could say those words, how would you feel? Think about that and then tell me again what’s in your heart.”
I couldn’t deny it when he put it like that.
“Fine.” I dragged the word out. I was still uncomfortable with this. “I love you, Pearce! There, are you happy now?”
He grinned and said, “Very. And I love you too. That’s why I want you to marry me.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, my mouth formed a monstrous O. I sat there stupefied, not knowing what to do or say. We didn’t move or say anything for a while. Then he hugged me, and my head hit that perfect place on his neck.
“I’m not going anywhere, Alexia. I won’t leave or stray. I’ll always be yours, faithful to the very end.”
This was too good to be true. He was too good to be true.
My cheeks became slick with tears, as they dribbled out past my eyelids.
He cupped my cheeks and said, “I mean it, Alexia. I’ll be yours forever. You see, it doesn’t matter if you say yes or no, if we take it slow or fast. You have me whether you want me or not.” He wiped my tears away with the pads of his thumbs. “Don’t cry, beautiful. It hurts my heart when you do.”
“Pearce, I’m scared. I’ve never gotten anything right in my life. I want to marry you but I’m afraid I’ll screw it up, just like I’ve screwed up everything else. The last thing I want is to mess things up with you.”
“Why do you think you’ll mess it up?”
I shrugged. “I have this knack for doing that.”
“No, you don’t. You only think you do. But tell you what. Let’s take it a day at a time. When you’re ready, you say the word. But like I said, I’m not going anywhere. Okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” I sniffed.
“You know something?”
“What?”
“You have the greatest nipples.” And he grinned that super sexy smile of his and I laughed and just shook my head.
He lifted me off him and stood me up between his legs. Then he pulled me closer and kissed my stomach. His mouth roamed over to the two scars from the stab wounds and kissed those next.
He lifted his head and said, “I never told you this, but that night the call came in and I got to the OR, when I saw it was you, I flipped out. I went into the locker room and punched a hole in a wall and then followed it with a vicious kick. They had to replace a section of sheetrock. I was freaking out until all the scans came back and I knew you were going to be okay. Alexia, I really did hold your hand throughout the entire surgery. I told my partner if he fucked it up, I’d kill him. I was a big pain in the ass while he fixed you up. We had some words, you might say.”
I couldn’t breathe for a moment. “I didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t. You acted like you didn’t want to have anything to do with me. I wasn’t going to tell you how psycho I went. Like I said last night, I think I fell in love with you that first time I saw you in Camellia”s. When you took my drink order.”
“Grey Goose extra dirty martini with extra olives. My favorite.”
“I couldn’t stop watching you. That’s why I acted like I was ignorant about the menu choices. I loved the sound of your voice. You made the food sound absolutely delicious.”
I laughed. “It was my job.”
“No, babe, it was all you.” He kissed my stomach again and lifted his eyes to mine. “Look, I’m not gonna lie. I could stay naked with you in here forever. But, since this is your first time on the TSCSC, let’s go back up so you can enjoy the day.”
The rest of the day was perfect. Jack made a huge loop, and when the sun started to sink into the horizon, he headed back to the marina. It was super dark by the time we docked, and Pearce asked if I wanted to spend the night on the boat.
I declined because I didn’t have anything with me. I wanted to go home and gather some things because he’d already informed me I was staying with him again. He was on call the next day, Sunday, but he wanted me all for himself that night.