Chapter 5 #2
Sweat beaded on his brow and back as he thrust into her, still holding back.
Aware of what it took to break him, Maddie grasped his firm ass and squeezed. As she’d known it would, that shattered his control. He let go, surging into her and taking them both to the place they could only go together.
For a long time afterward, he lay on top of her, heavy and solid and throbbing with aftershocks.
“I’m crushing you,” he muttered.
“Don’t go yet.” She tightened her hold on him.
“I’m all yours, baby,” he said, his lips soft against her neck.
The words only added to the glow of contentment that surrounded her.
“I’m sorry I was so rough,” he said.
“You weren’t. You were exactly what I wanted. I’ve missed this as much as you have.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible.” He raised his head and kissed her while gazing deep into her eyes. “I was like a horny teenager getting lucky for the first time. I skipped over all the preliminaries.”
Maddie giggled at the look of disgust on his face. “Mom’s not bringing the kids home until they wake up from their naps. You’ve got plenty of time to make it up to me.”
“Have I mentioned lately how much I love your mother?” He withdrew and kissed his way down the front of her. “So much time to make up for.”
As his lips left a trail of sensation on her belly, Maddie closed her eyes and gave herself over to him, body and soul.
After Mac and Big Mac left for the day, Luke spent a couple more hours at the marina, winterizing the fuel system, bleeding gas lines and securing pumps.
This time of year usually filled him with melancholy as the long, lonely winter stretched before him. This year, however, everything was different. Syd was back in his life, living with him, sleeping with him, filling his days and nights with her sweet love.
Nothing could’ve prepared him for the changes her presence had brought to his sparse existence. Whereas life without her had been satisfying in its own way, life with her was a vivid landscape full of endless possibility.
He snorted to himself as he tightened a bolt. “Look at you, spouting poetry.” But that’s what she did to him—what she’d always done to him from the time he was a boy in the throes of first love.
Over the last few months he’d watched her blossom out of the fog of grief and into the land of acceptance.
She would always miss and mourn the family she’d lost to a drunk driver, but she laughed more freely and more often now.
She took pleasure in her work as an interior designer, and she gave herself to him with the kind of passion that left him speechless and humbled.
Thinking of the passion they shared had him closing up early and heading home to her.
The only thing in the world he wanted now that he didn’t have was a commitment from her to marry him.
He’d asked her back in early September, after they attended the sentencing hearing for the guy who’d killed her family and moved her out of her former house and into his island home.
His timing, he now saw with hindsight, hadn’t been the best. With the raw wound of her loss reopened by the court proceeding and the painful weeding out of her family’s possessions, she hadn’t been ready to take the next step with him. He should’ve known that.
His intent had been to show her he was in it for keeps and to make her feel more secure in their relationship as they moved in together.
He’d realized his strategic error when his marriage proposal had resulted in a stricken expression on the gorgeous face that had haunted his dreams for so many years.
She’d told him then that she needed more time, and they hadn’t spoken of it again since.
The unanswered question hung in the air between them.
Kara’s arrival at the marina and the additional work their deal with her would generate in the off-season also cemented his decision to turn down the offer from the yacht restoration school.
He and Mac had too much going on for Luke to leave the island for a month, and, with Syd busy and happily engaged on the hotel project, this wasn’t the time to uproot them.
There’d be other opportunities to teach the class.
When he pulled into the driveway, he was relieved to see her Volvo parked in its usual spot. He had no doubt she was happy with him and their life on the island, but he wouldn’t be truly satisfied until the one who’d gotten away had his ring on her finger.
It was old-fashioned, he knew, to think that way, but he needed to hear her say “I do.” In the meantime, he kept waiting for something to happen that would screw it all up, and that was no way to live.
Reaching into the glove compartment, he withdrew the jeweler’s box he’d hidden there more than a month ago.
He’d bought the ring in Newport, the same day he’d gone to talk to the boat restoration people about the course they wanted him to teach.
Syd had been too busy with the hotel project to come with him, so he’d taken advantage of the opportunity to shop for a ring.
The large emerald-cut diamond was housed in an elaborate antique setting that had seemed right for her somehow. It was strong and fragile at the same time, like her. He wanted to put that ring on her finger in the worst way, but more than anything, he wanted her to want it as much as he did.
Even her father had given his blessing over beers on the Donovans’ porch. Mr. Donovan had come right out and asked Luke if he planned to marry his daughter.
“As soon as she’s ready,” had been Luke’s reply. They’d come a long way from the time when Mr. and Mrs. Donovan hadn’t thought he was good enough for their only child.
“Good,” Allan Donovan had said. “She seems happy again since she’s been with you. I like seeing that light back in her eyes.”
“So do I,” Luke had said.
He couldn’t risk extinguishing the light with another clunky attempt at a proposal. He had to do it right this time. With that in mind, he reluctantly returned the ring to the glove box and locked it up until she was ready. He hoped he would recognize ready when he saw it.
Her dog Buddy came rushing out to greet Luke with sloppy wet kisses to his face. “Hey, pal, did you have a good day?”
Buddy barked in response, which made Luke laugh. They had the same exchange every night when Luke got home from work, and it was another part of his new routine that he looked forward to each day.
He stepped into the living room that Syd had spent most of the summer redecorating.
What had once been a dark and gloomy space had been painted a bright shade of cream.
The new furniture was navy with maroon accents.
Syd had removed the blinds on the windows to take full advantage of the sweeping ocean view.
By letting in the light, she’d done the same thing for his home that she’d done to the rest of his life.
They planned to attack the kitchen next, and there was talk of eventually adding on to the house.
He liked that she was making long-term plans for the place and took that to mean she planned to stay.
Everywhere he looked, he saw her touch as he made his way to the back bedroom she’d turned into an office for her decorating business.
She was bent over a book of swatches, making notes in the sketch pad she carried with her everywhere she went.
You never know, she would say, when inspiration will strike.
Her strawberry-blonde hair was pulled back into a high ponytail that exposed the tender curve of her neck, one of his favorite places to kiss.
He zeroed in on that spot and pressed his lips to her soft skin.
She gasped and then relaxed, tipping her head to give him better access. “You’re home early.”
“I was missing you.”
“That’s very sweet of you to say, but I hate to tell you, pal, you stink like gas.”