Chapter 5 #2
He kept his eyes open, watching her, wanting to absorb every detail as she loved him with her mouth.
Despite the erotic visual, he managed to keep a firm grip on his control for several sexually charged minutes until she dragged a fingernail lightly over his balls, sending him over the edge.
“Jesus,” he muttered when he could finally speak again.
Kissing her way up, Janey rested her head on his chest. “I take it you liked that.”
“Yeah,” he said, gathering her in close to him. “You could say that.”
“I can’t stay, Joe. As much as I’d like to.”
“I know.” He decided to celebrate the half victory—at least she wanted to stay.
“We’ve got all day though,” she said with a small smile, ever the optimist.
His heart skipped a crazy beat. “And what would you like to do?”
“This,” she said as she kissed him. “Just this.”
From his vantage point on the bridge, Joe looked down at Janey on the bow.
She leaned against the rail lost in thought, the cool sea breeze blowing through the blonde hair he’d shampooed in the shower earlier.
He could only imagine her thoughts as she headed for home.
Exhausted from the sleepless night, his body ached in a number of unique places thanks to a day of erotic pleasure.
After those amazing hours with her, he was more certain than ever that his life would never be complete without her by his side.
But now he had to take a step back and let her do what she needed to do.
Until she worked things out in her heart and mind, he could only wait and hope and pray that she’d come to the same conclusion he’d reached years ago.
His cell phone rang, jarring him out of his pensive thoughts. With a few words to the captain, Joe stepped outside the wheelhouse, extinguished the first clove cigarette he’d had in days and took the call from Mac.
“Hey, man,” Mac said. “Where are you?”
“On the boat.”
“Is Janey with you?”
Joe’s eyes were riveted to her. Even though he wasn’t working this trip, he’d insisted on seeing her home. “Uh-huh.”
“David’s looking for her. He tried her cell a bunch of times, but I guess it was off, so he called my mother.
Of course she told him she thought Janey was with him.
Now she’s all up in arms about where Janey has been the last few days.
” Joe wondered if it was also possible that David had figured out what Janey might’ve witnessed in his apartment.
He suppressed a groan. The last thing Janey would want was Linda McCarthy all over her about what had happened during her eventful trip to the mainland. “Do me a favor,” Joe said. “Don’t let your mom swoop down on her tonight. Janey is kinda fragile right now.”
“I’ll do what I can, but you know how my mother can be.”
“Which is exactly why she’s the last thing Janey needs tonight.”
“I hear ya. I’ll talk to her.”
“Are you meeting the boat?”
“Yep.”
“Mac. . .”
“Yeah?”
Joe cleared the huge lump of emotion that lodged in his throat. “Take good care of her, will you?”
“You know I will.”
“Thanks.” He hated the idea of turning her over to anyone else, even her doting older brother.
“Everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine,” Joe said with forced cheer.
As much as he’d love to unload on his best friend, he couldn’t.
Not about this. Not if he wanted to live through the night.
Mac would assume Joe had taken advantage of his sister at her lowest moment, and Joe couldn’t deny that if the roles had been reversed, he’d probably see it the same way.
He and Janey knew how it had happened, which was all that mattered.
“We’ll see you at the party?” Mac asked.
Joe’s heart did a small happy dance at the reminder that he’d see Janey later in the week at the Fourth of July cookout Mac and Maddie were hosting at their new house. “I’ll be there.”
“Thanks for everything,” Mac said.
“It was my pleasure.” Surely that had to be the understatement of the century, Joe thought as he ended the call and took the metal stairs to the lower deck.
Approaching Janey, he noticed tears on her cheeks that could probably be blamed only in part on the brisk sea breeze.
It pained him to think that her time with him might’ve added to her torment.
“Hey.” He squeezed her shoulder and ran a hand down her back, aware of the watchful eyes of his employees. The second to last thing she needed was to be the brunt of the island’s vicious gossip machine.
“Hi.” Her wan smile said it all.
They stood together at the rail, watching the bluffs on the island’s northern coast emerge from the fog.
Joe took a deep breath and told her about Mac’s call.
Janey winced. “I can’t believe David called my mother. That’s just what I need.”
“I guess he was worried when he couldn’t reach you.”
Her snort was loaded with sarcasm. “Should I feel honored he cares enough to worry?”
“You’ll have to talk to him at some point.”
“Not until I’m good and ready.”
“I’m sure your mother told him you’d gone to surprise him. He may have figured out why you disappeared.”
“Good. Let him wonder.”
At some point in the last few days, her disappointment had turned to anger.
Joe supposed that was healthy, but he wouldn’t be satisfied until she’d officially ended it with David.
He didn’t expect her longtime fiancé to go without a fight and couldn’t bear the idea of him causing her any more pain than he already had.
As the ferry steamed toward South Harbor, Joe wanted to stop time, to go back to this morning when he’d held her naked in his arms, to when they’d had a whole day to spend in bed together.
A tremendous sense of foreboding came over him as they got closer to the island.
He wanted to howl and rage and grab hold of her and never let her go.
“Janey.”
She looked up at him with those bottomless blue eyes, and he lost the words he’d been prepared to say. All he could do was stare at her and drink her in.
Mindless of the prying eyes that surrounded them, she dropped her head to his chest and rested her hands on his hips. “I never would’ve survived this without you.”
Joe ached. How could he tell her he’d never survive the rest of his life without her? He couldn’t. It would be so unfair to add to her burden.
He drew her into his embrace. “You know where I am. You know how I feel. You know what I want.”
He felt her nod.
“No time limit, no statute of limitations, no pressure.”
She looked up at him again, slaying him with the array of emotions that danced across her expressive face. “Thank you.”
Gratitude was the least of what he wanted from her, but being the needy fool he was, he took what he could get. He kissed her forehead, and even though it cost him more than he could bear, he let her go.