Chapter 20 #3
He scooped up a handful of her fragrant hair and brought it to his face, breathing in the distinctive scent, committing it to memory so he would never forget this night.
As if that was even a remote possibility.
Deacon caught a glimpse of something on the back of her neck and lifted himself for a better view of a tattoo of a turtle, looking back over its shoulder as its shell seemed to blow away, leaving the rest of its body unprotected.
He immediately understood the significance of a turtle without its shell, but he wanted to hear it from her. “Tell me about the turtle.” With his index finger, he traced the outline of the turtle’s fragile body.
“The turtle is me. I walk around without a shell to protect me from the pain of being alive.”
Deacon had no idea how to respond to that except to vow, to himself for now, to protect her from ever being hurt again.
He wanted to be her shell. Leaning over her, he placed a kiss on the turtle’s body, and then, easing her onto her belly, he kissed down her back to the dimpled indents at the base of her spine, to her soft ass cheeks and below.
He kissed her until she was squirming beneath him.
He reached for another condom and entered her from behind this time, coming down over her, grasping her hands and raising them above her head.
“Let me be your shell.” The words were out before he could decide to say them, because the thought of her walking around unprotected was unbearable to him.
As he kissed her shoulder, the back of her neck and then her other shoulder, the words poured out of him as he made love to her.
“I’ll protect you. No one will ever hurt you again. ”
A sob erupted from her chest that had him holding her closer to him. “I’ve got you, darlin’. I’ve got you.”
She held on tight to his hands as he moved in her and discovered the fundamental difference between having sex and making love.
Much later, the longest after-sex kiss in history was interrupted by an obnoxiously loud growl from Julia’s stomach.
They broke apart laughing.
“That was mortifying.”
“Someone is hungry.”
“For the first time in months.”
When he heard that, his brows furrowed with concern, but he already knew she wouldn’t appreciate him picking apart her issues with food and eating. “Let’s get you some dinner.”
“I need a shower first.”
“Mind if I join you?”
She hesitated, but only for a second before she nodded.
He ran a finger over the hint of blush on her cheek. “Still shy after what we just did?”
“A little.”
“That’s okay. You go, and then I will.” He noted a flash of relief in her expression before she quickly corrected herself.
She wrapped the sheet around her body and got up. “I’ll be quick.”
“Take your time. I’m not the one who’s hangry.”
“Not hangry yet, but getting there.”
She picked up the robe from the floor and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
While he waited for her, Deacon looked up at the ceiling, watching the mesmerizing spin of the fan while trying to process the remarkable events of the last few days.
He’d heard Blaine say something about a wedding at the newly reopened Wayfarer and had decided to stop by to see what the McCarthys had done with the old place.
If he’d also managed to irritate his annoying brother by crashing the wedding, that would’ve been a bonus.
He hadn’t been there five minutes when he’d noticed the stunning bridesmaid standing on the sidelines, looking lost and alone in a sea of people. He’d watched her for quite some time before he approached her, inexplicably drawn to her.
Only a few days later, he was relaxing in her bed after the best sex of his life. It would probably take until the end of time to reconcile the head-spinning events that had led him to this moment.
The puppy let out a pathetic whimper that had Deacon rising from the bed to retrieve him from the crate. “Hey, buddy. Sorry you had to hear that, but Mommy is just too sexy.” He snuggled the puppy into his chest and was rewarded with a warm stream of urine.
Deacon laughed. “I suppose I deserved that.” He really was too cute.
Julia came out fully dressed and put together, stopping short at the sight of him sitting naked on her bed with the puppy.
He dug the way she looked at him—as if she liked what she was seeing so much, she couldn’t look away. “I really need a shower now. He peed on me.”
“Pupwell! Don’t pee on Daddy!”
Hearing her call him that did strange things to his insides, making him feel elated and slightly freaked out at the same time.
It had never occurred to him that he would meet someone who made him want to be a daddy—to a puppy or a child.
But now… Jesus. He needed to get his shit together.
Deacon took the towel she’d gotten him and handed the puppy to her.
“I’ll take him out while you shower. Just in case there’s more where that came from.”
They shared a smile full of parental pleasure in their little boy. Deacon stole a kiss before heading for the shower. Freak-out aside, he was falling hard for her, and falling had never felt so good.