Chapter Ten #2
When she got back out to the party, Annette and Miles were saying good-night. Riley hugged her mother-in-law, and Josh appeared at her side to shake Miles’s hand and say how pleased he was that Miles and Annette had been able to come.
Half an hour later, Riley stood side by side, waving goodbye as the last of the Bravos drove off toward the highway, their taillights disappearing around the second bend in the narrow road.
Josh turned to her. “Come inside,” he said.
She should go, and she knew it. “It’s getting late, and I—”
“Riley.” His voice was so gentle. It sent a sweet shiver racing over her skin. “Do you know what I wished for when I blew out my candles?” As she stared up into his eyes, he answered his own question. “That you would stay the night.”
“Josh,” she began and had no idea where to go from there. She wanted to stay. She missed what they used to have. Sometimes at night, half asleep in her own bed, she would reach for him. And then wake up to find herself lying there all alone.
He asked so gently, “Riley, will you please stay the night?”
“I…”
“Will you?”
She shouldn’t. Everything was changing. They were supposed to be moving on… But right now as she gazed up into his shining eyes, moving on seemed like a terrible idea.
Why move on when she wanted exactly what he wanted?
“Stay,” he whispered.
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll stay.”
He took her hand. “Let’s go inside.”
She followed him willingly. It seemed like forever since they’d shared a bed. She’d missed him so much. And the effort it took to deny what she felt for him… She just couldn’t do it.
Not tonight.
He led her up the steps, into the house and across the wide great room floor. They mounted the stairs.
It was like a dream, a beautiful dream she wished she would never have to wake up from.
Once they reached his bedroom, he shut and locked the door.
“Riley…” He said her name so tenderly as he cradled her face between his hands.
“Happy birthday, Josh.”
“Thank you.” He gave her a rueful smile. “I lied.”
“About…?”
“I said no presents. But I didn’t really mean it. I wanted this, you and me alone right now. This is my present.”
“Well, then…” She had no idea what to say next.
But that was okay. Because he kissed her. And as he kissed her, he walked her backward. When they reached the side of the bed, he started undressing her.
She gave herself up to him, to the wonder of his hands on her body, to the glory of his mouth pressed to hers. As he kissed her, he took her shirt away, unhooked her bra and slid the straps down her arms.
She kissed him back, her tongue sliding against his, her hands hard at work now undoing his buttons, shoving his shirt to the floor over those smooth, hard shoulders of his.
This business of undressing, it went on and on. And the whole time, his mouth owned hers, and his hands were all over her. It felt so good, like a deep thirst finally quenched, a desperate hunger satisfied at last.
He pushed her down. She dropped to the bed and fell back across it, arms outspread. He took off her shoes, got rid of her socks, slid her panties down and off.
“Riley. At last…”
She opened her eyes. Dazed with pleasure, she stared at him, standing above her—at his broad, bare chest lightly dusted with dark hair, at his shining hazel eyes, his full mouth curved in a smile just for her.
“Let me see you.” He toed off his boots and shoved down his jeans, stepping on them to get out of them, jumping on one foot and then the other to yank off his socks. And then finally, he shoved down his boxer briefs and kicked them away.
She reached up both arms for him. “Come down here…”
“Just look at you,” he said. “You are so beautiful…” He came onto the bed with her.
Knees planted to either side of her, he brushed his long fingers over her breasts and lower, stopping at her belly, cradling it with his big palms, bending close to whisper to the baby, “Hello in there. It’s me, your dad… ”
Riley sighed at his sweet words, at the warmth of his touch.
He looked up and met her eyes. “It’s been too long,” he accused so tenderly.
All she could say to that was, “Oh, Josh. Yes. Much too long…”
And then he was kissing his way up the center of her body, his lips brushing the space between her breasts and moving higher, into the hollow where her collarbones met and then up the side of her throat.
He dropped a chain of kisses along the line of her jaw, and then finally he claimed her mouth again.
She opened for him with a hungry moan as his tongue swept beyond her parted lips.
She could go on like this forever, kissing him, stroking his shoulders, running her hands up and down his hard arms…
But he had other ideas. Once again he was on the move, his lips trailing down and down…
He guided her thighs apart and settled between them.
Oh, she had missed him. It felt so good, so exactly right, to be here in his bed, begging for more as he kissed her so intimately, as his warm, rough palms skated tenderly over her skin, as she buried her fingers in his thick brown hair and kept right on pleading, “Josh, more… Yes, like that…”
What she begged for, he gave her. The pleasure built. Stars danced behind her eyelids, and her climax seemed right there, close enough to touch, yet just out of reach.
She tossed her head and cried out.
“Shh,” he whispered, reaching up, his big hand gently covering her open mouth, silencing her needy cries. “You’ll wake the boys…”
“Right,” she said, laughing a little and then moaning again as he kept right on driving her toward the edge.
It didn’t take much longer. Suddenly, she was going over, riding the pleasure all the way to sweet release.
When she finally went limp, she reached for him. He let her pull him up to her, so they were face to face.
“That was…” The right words eluded her. She touched his cheek and then idly finger-combed the thick hair at his temple.
He kissed her, a light brush of a kiss. Staring at his flushed face, she realized she wanted him all over again.
“What?” he asked.
“This…” And she kissed him. As he sighed against her parted lips, she made her move, easing out from under him, pushing him down onto his back. He blinked up at her as she straddled him.
“Well, all right, then,” he remarked with a grin when she wrapped her fingers around him and rose to her knees again so that she could take him in.
So carefully, he clasped her thickened waist between his hands. Slowly, she claimed him. And then she was moving, rocking him. He picked up her rhythm and moved with her. It was so good. She wanted to make it last.
And she did—they did—for a while, anyway.
But her body was so ready. It would not be denied. She let her head drop back. A low cry escaped her as she hit the crest again. Dazed, she tipped her head down. His glazed eyes were waiting. They nodded at each other.
Now they were racing to the finish together. She felt him pulsing within her, and she let go again. Another climax shimmered through her. With a soft, drawn-out moan, she collapsed on top of him.
For the longest, sweetest time, she rested, using him as her pillow—and her mattress, too. He stroked her hair and ran his hand up and down the curve of her back. It was so good, being there with him, his strong arms holding her close. But it had to be well after midnight.
“What’s going on?” he asked as she shifted on top of him.
“Bathroom…”
He kissed the top of her head and released her.
When she returned to the bedroom, she started gathering up her clothes.
Still on the bed, he braced up on an elbow. “Come back here,” he coaxed and held out his hand.
She shook out her underpants and then paused before putting them on, captured by the look in his eyes. “I should get going…”
“No, you shouldn’t. Come over here.”
She dropped the panties and went to him.
“Stay,” he whispered as she took his outstretched hand. “You’re off tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah…”
“And you keep saying you miss me.”
She nodded. “I have missed you. So much.”
“Well, I missed you, too. Stay over. We can hang out for a while in the morning, too. I’m not taking Shane to Lenore’s until noon tomorrow.”
“But, Josh, I…” She tried to find the right words.
“Riley. Just say whatever it is you need to say.”
“I don’t want to mislead you…”
“About you and me, you mean?”
She felt so very naked right then. Folding her arms across her breasts, she nodded. “Yeah. About you and me.” He looked at her for the longest time. Until she begged, “Please. Just say it. Whatever it is you’re thinking, just tell me.”
“It’s okay, Riley. I know where we stand.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive,” he said firmly. “Yeah, I want more than you do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t meet in the middle and just…make the most of the time we have.”
“Josh, I…” She really didn’t want to say it again. But she needed to be certain that he understood. “I’m not going to change my mind about the marriage thing.”
“Got it. Loud and clear.” He held out his hand. “Come here.”
She hesitated. But only for a moment. And then she covered the short distance back to the bed and took his outstretched hand.
He pulled her toward him. She went, sliding under the covers with him, sighing in contentment when he wrapped her up in his arms.
“Look,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to lie to you and say I’m over wanting to marry you. I’m not. But I don’t want to lose you, either. I miss what we had. I want it back for as long as you want it, too.”
Her throat clutched, and her eyes misted over. “Oh, Josh. I’ve been missing you so much.”
“And I’ve been missing you,” he said. “I don’t see why it has to end. Not now, anyway. Yeah, the day may come when one of us, for any number of reasons, honestly wants out. But that day isn’t here, not yet—not for me, anyway.”
She answered truthfully, “Not for me, either.”
“Stay the night,” he whispered.
“Yes.” She dared a smile then. “I’ll stay.”
“That’s what I needed to hear.” He stroked a hand down her arm.