Chapter 19 #2
He moved fast, so fast she had no time to anticipate his intentions before he was devouring her mouth in a hot, breathtaking kiss. Wincing, he turned his head so he could delve deeper.
“Wait,” she gasped. “Your cut. You’ll split it open again.”
“Don’t mollycoddle me.” Unbuttoning her blouse, he worked quickly to get rid of her clothes. When she was naked, he stepped back to look his fill.
Carly trembled under the heat of his gaze.
He kissed the palm of her hand but never once looked away from her. “You make me want like I’ve never wanted before, Carly.”
“Then take.” She reclined on the bed and reached out to him. “Don’t go slow. Just take.”
He tugged the shirt over his head and dropped his shorts. He covered her, held her, took what she offered, and lost himself in her.
Her nails scored his back, fueling the flame that blazed through him. Filling his hand with a breast that was fuller now than it had been when she was younger, he laved at her nipple and sent her into a soaring climax.
Sweat stung the cut under his eye, but it didn’t slow the frantic beating of his heart or the rapid-fire pace of their coupling.
She must have sensed he was hurting, because she forced him onto his back, straddled him, and took him in. Arching her back, she cried out when she was surprised by a second orgasm.
“Carly,” he moaned, burying his hands in her waterfall of curls and bringing her down to him to give her a moment to recover from the rush. “I love you so much. So very, very much.”
She kissed him, a sweet, innocent brushing of her lips against his that undid him. “I love you, too,” she whispered. “More than you’ll ever know.”
He held her tight against him and came with a choked cry of release.
The happiness, the bone-deep satisfaction of having everything she’d ever wanted, had Carly floating through her routine over the next week.
Every time she turned around, Brian was there.
She woke up to him every morning, went to bed with him every night, shared every meal, every thought, every dream with him.
Nothing, not even the threat of the man who would do them harm, could detract from her joy.
Brian had finally succeeded in convincing her to quit her job at Molly’s. On Thursday morning, the day of her last shift, he walked with her to the coffee shop and then lingered for a while to have breakfast and read the paper.
Carly’s regulars were delighted about her engagement but sorry to hear she was leaving the shop. She would miss seeing them and would miss the women she worked with, too. Miss Molly’s had given her more than just a job for all the years when she’d had nothing else.
The people there—both her coworkers and the customers—had been like a second family to her.
That one of them might be the man terrorizing the town was a thought she wouldn’t allow in today, not on a day that signaled the end of one phase of her life and the start of a new, exciting phase with Brian.
He stood and dropped a twenty on the table. With a cute nod of his head, he called her over to him. Will my heart still skip a crazy beat when he does that five years from now? Definitely.
“Can I get you anything else, sir?” She reached up to caress his cheek, which was still bruised. The swelling around his eye had gone down, and the cut had scabbed over. They hoped it would heal in time for the wedding.
He hooked an arm around her waist, pulled her to him, and surprised her with a passionate kiss.
Miss Molly’s patrons hooted and hollered.
Carly’s face burned with embarrassment. “Stop,” she whispered.
“I will, but I don’t want to.” He kissed her again, a light touch of his lips that was somehow more than the first one, which had said, “I want you.” This one said, “I love you.”
“What’re you doing today?” she asked, flustered by him. She was still getting used to the feelings he had resurrected in her, feelings she had never expected to experience again.
“I’m going over to bother my mother for a while, and I need to check in with my office to make sure they’re not hosing up my cases.
I’ll be back by two.” He took a measuring look around at the people sitting in booths and at stools at the counter.
“Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t talk to anyone, for that matter, and don’t step foot outside that door until I get back. You hear me?”
“Yes, dear.”
He smiled at her easy obedience. “We’re still on for your niece’s game, right?”
Carly nodded, her stomach fluttering with nerves.
“Good. She’s the only new member of the Holbrook family I haven’t met yet. Looking forward to it.” He kissed her one last time. “I love you.”
“Love you, too. Have fun with your mom, and be careful.”
“I will.”
Carly watched him go out the front door, hating the trip of fear that came with letting him out of her sight. Only the knowledge that the police were keeping a close eye on both of them made it possible for her to start bussing the table he had vacated.
“It does my heart good to see that some things never change,” Molly said.
Carly turned to her.
Molly shook her head and smiled. “You and that Westbury boy, just as cute as you were when you were kids.”
The description of Brian as “that Westbury boy” amused Carly. “You’ll come to the wedding, won’t you, Molly?”
Resting her hand on Carly’s shoulder, Molly said, “You bet your life I will. I’ll miss you like crazy around here. We all will, but I’m so delighted for you, Carly. So very, very delighted.”
Carly’s eyes burned with tears as she hugged Molly. “Thank you so much for everything, for giving me a place in the world when I had nowhere else to be.”
“There’ll always be a place for you here.”
As the coffee shop bustled around them, Carly held the older woman for a long moment. When they finally released each other, both brushed tears from their cheeks. With a sheepish smile for her friend, Carly went back to work.