Chapter 4 #2
“Absolutely not. Mark is a violent, controlling monster who will never change. I don’t think there’s any comparison between his brand of evil and whatever sins David Lawrence may have committed, but you’ll have to be the judge of that.
Something tells me that a man who is capable of the sort of kindness and compassion he has shown both of us is someone worth spending time with. ”
“That’s what my gut is telling me, but my gut has been wrong before. More than once.”
“I bet your gut has gathered some wisdom over the years and is more trustworthy than it used to be.” She covered Daisy’s hand on the table with her own.
“The bottom line is you have to decide if you can live with whatever he tells you. If you can’t, there’s no shame in walking away, if that’s what’s best for you. ”
Daisy knew Sarah was absolutely right, but the thought of walking away from David filled her with an aching sadness.
Piece by piece, Carolina Cantrell removed the china from the hutch in her dining room, cleaning and dusting each item before adding it to the growing pile on the dining room table.
How so much grit and grime managed to get inside a closed cabinet was beyond her.
It had been somewhat appalling to realize how dirty her house had gotten while she’d been busy carrying on a wild affair with an Irishman young enough to be her son.
The Irishman in question came banging into the house, home from work after a long day captaining the ferries.
Even though Joe and Janey were back on the island for the summer, Seamus continued to run the Gansett Island Ferry Company that Carolina and her son Joe had inherited from her parents.
With the baby due in August, Joe wanted to work as little as possible this summer so he could spend as much time with his wife as he could.
That left Seamus working from dawn until dusk seven days a week as the tourists began to descend on the island in droves.
“What in the name of hell are you doing?” he asked, surveying the mess in the dining room.
“I’m cleaning. What does it look like I’m doing?”
“It looks to me like you’ve lost your bleeding mind, love. Why are you cleaning your mum’s china?”
“Because it’s filthy, and what if your mum decides she wants a spot of tea and takes one of these cups out of the cabinet and discovers that not only am I too old to ever bear her grandchildren, but I’m also a horrible housekeeper? What if that happens?”
“Caro, love.” His green eyes danced with amusement that irritated her as he placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed her forehead. “You’ve seriously gone around the bend.”
“Why? Because I want my house to be clean when your mother gets here?”
“The house is clean. It’s so clean my nose is burning from the smell of bleach and ammonia. If you keep this up, we’ll need respirators to continue living here.”
She reached for another plate to dust. “Look at this dirt! It’s not clean enough.”
He took the plate from her and put it on the table. “It is more than clean enough.”
“It isn’t. You’re not a woman. You can’t possibly understand this.” She reached around him for the plate he’d taken from her. It hadn’t been dusted yet. “I’m running out of time, so if you’d please get out of my way, I need to finish this.”
“I’m not getting out of your way, and this is finished. I can’t bear to see you doing this to yourself all because my mum is coming to visit. I never would’ve let you talk me into inviting her if I thought you were going to go crazy cleaning and cooking.”
“I’m not going crazy.” Carolina was starting to get mad with him. “I’m doing what needs to be done.”
“You’re going crazy.”
“No, I’m not!”
“Yes, you are! And it’s going to stop right now.”
“You can’t tell me—” Before she could begin to gauge his intentions, he had her tossed over his shoulder and was moving through the house as she beat on his back. “Put me down! Damn it, Seamus! This is not funny!”
The crack of his hand on her backside made her see red.
Did he seriously just spank her? Oh, he was so going to pay for that!
As soon as she was standing upright again, she was going to punch his lights out.
With standing upright in mind, she began to fight against his tight hold, which only got tighter.
And then he spanked her other cheek. “Settle down before I drop you.”
“Are you serious? You want me to settle down?” If he was going to play dirty, she could, too. Since she was in perfect position, she shoved her hand into his khaki shorts and pulled hard on his underwear.
He grunted out a laugh that turned to a groan when she used her other hand and pulled even harder. “If you hurt my boys, I won’t be much good to ya, love.”
“If you don’t put me down right now, your boys are never going to see my girls again.”
“Now don’t make idle threats. Your girls love my boys.”
“Not anymore they don’t.”
“I bet the boys can change the girls’ mind right quick.”
“Not happening. Will you please put me down? All the blood is rushing to my head, and I’m going to throw up on you.”
“Since you were very nice and said please, I’ll put you down.”
As quickly as he’d scooped her up, he put her down and held her arms until she got her balance. The second her head stopped spinning, she punched him in the belly as hard as she could. Her fist bounced off his rock-hard abs, and she howled in pain.
“Now, love,” he said in the condescending tone that had made her want to punch him in the first place, “that wasn’t very smart.” He took her hand and kissed her stinging knuckles.
“You make me so damned mad. Who do you think you are—”
He kissed her hard and fast, giving no quarter until the starch left her spine. “I’m the man who loves you and who refuses to watch you do this to yourself.”
“You don’t understand.” All at once, she noticed he’d carried her to the woods at the far end of her property. “What are we doing here?”
With his hands on her shoulders, he turned her to face a campsite, complete with a tent and a stack of wood encircled by stones. “This is what we’re doing here.”
“We’re camping? Why?”
“I had to get you out of that house and away from your cleaning products. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
“But your mother is coming tomorrow! I have so much left to do!”
“If it’s not done, it’s not getting done. For the next fourteen nights, we’ll have a guest underfoot. Tonight,” he said, sliding his arms around her, “is all ours.”
She pushed on his chest, trying in vain to break free of his tight hold. “I don’t have time for this! You don’t get it—”
Once again, his lips came down hard on hers, possessing her the way only he could with sensual strokes of his tongue that made her forget all about why she was so annoyed with him.
Then she remembered that he’d spanked her—twice—and she pushed harder on his chest. “You’re not getting off that easily.”
He nuzzled her neck. “I’ll get you off, too, love. Don’t worry.”
“Seamus! You’re not funny!”
“Yes, I am, and you’re all done cleaning and cooking and preparing. Whatever will be will be. She’s just a person like you and me.”
“She’s your mother.”
“I’m painfully aware of that, and if you’ll recall, I told you it was a bad idea to invite her here, because I was afraid of this very thing.”
“What very thing?”
“That you’d turn into someone I don’t even recognize getting ready for her.”
“So you don’t love me anymore? Good, then we can call off this whole thing and—”
He kissed her again, backing her up to the tent and pushing her through the flaps without missing a beat with his lips or tongue. Somehow she ended up on her back, lying on a cushy air mattress that easily absorbed the weight of both of them as he came down on top of her, still kissing her.
“Don’t ever, ever, ever say I don’t love you anymore,” he said, punctuating the words with more kisses. “Ever, ever.”
“You spanked me.”
“And I quite liked it. Let’s see if you liked it, too.” He reached under her skirt, pushed her panties aside and pressed his fingers into her dampness. “Mmm, looks like you weren’t as put out as you pretended to be.”
“I was too put out, and if you do that again, I’ll never put out again.” As she spoke, she let her legs fall open, encouraging his gentle caress.
He slid his other hand under her to cup her buttock. “I may have to take my chances, because I rather liked spanking you.”
“Seamus! You can’t just do this stuff and think you’re going to get away with it.”
“Seems to me,” he said, pressing his fingers into her and finding the spot deep inside that made her go wild every time, “I’ve already gotten away with it.”
She pulled his hair—hard—and the bastard only laughed as he drove her to a quick, powerful orgasm.
“I love you more than life itself, Carolina. That’s what my mum is going to see when she gets here. She’s not going to notice the dust or all the so-called imperfections. She’s only going to see the love.”
Carolina’s brain was scrambled from the orgasm and the press of his fingers between her legs. “You don’t think she’ll notice that I’m old enough to be your mother?”
“Nah. She’s going to take one look at you and know exactly why I love you.”
“Sure, she is.”
“Am I going to have to spank you again, love?”
“You might have to, because I’m not at all convinced that everything is going to be just fine and dandy the way you are.”
He squeezed her cheek with his big, work-calloused hand. “If I see you acting all nutty while she’s here, I’ll bring you out here and spank your bottom until it’s pink and rosy, and then I’ll fu—”
“Seamus!”
He shook with silent laughter. “You’ve been warned, love.”
Janey and Joe took advantage of his full day off to invite her parents to lunch for a conversation they’d been putting off for quite some time.
She’d yet to speak directly to either of them about her plans to take a year off from veterinary school.
It had been weighing on her, so Joe had encouraged her to invite them over to clear the air.