Chapter 17
Piper walked Jack to the second floor of the Sand & Surf just after midnight and handed him a key to one of the empty rooms on the street side. “We’re leaving the ocean-view rooms empty during the storm,” she told him.
“Probably for the best.”
As they stood in the hallway, the hotel creaked and moaned as the storm got closer.
She glanced up at him, feeling incredibly anxious. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Piper wrapped her arms around her middle, suddenly as anxious as she’d been in a long time. The feeling reminded her of the day she’d been attacked, making her shudder.
“Are you all right?”
“Just scared.”
“Why don’t you sleep here with me, so neither of us has to be alone during the storm?”
“I… uh…”
“Just sleep.” He flashed that lethal grin as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I promise you’ll be safe with me.”
“Will I, though?”
His brows furrowed. “You’re not afraid of me, are you?”
“Not physically.”
“How, then?”
“My heart’s been through a lot. Not as much as yours, but it’s been a lot for me.” She forced herself to look up at him, to make eye contact. “I’m not sure I’m prepared for you.”
“I didn’t think I was prepared for you either, until I was gone for a couple of weeks and thought about you every day.”
The confession left her breathless. “Every day, huh? That’s a lot.”
“Yeah, it was, and now that you’re standing right in front of me, so sweet and beautiful, I can’t seem to think of anything but you.”
“Oh. Well…”
“Yeah, so, I was hoping you might hang out with me during the storm since there’s no reason for you to be scared or alone when I’m right here.”
He was asking her to trust him, to put her faith in him, to take a chance on him. Was she ready for that? Probably not, but he was standing right there, strong and sexy and obviously as interested in her as she was in him.
The building took that moment to let out a particularly loud groan that had her stepping forward into Jack’s waiting embrace.
As his chin rested on top of her head, she couldn’t help but note how perfectly they fit together, like two pieces of a puzzle that had somehow managed to find each other in the great jigsaw of life.
As soon as that thought registered, Piper nearly laughed at the direction her thoughts had taken. He’d offered her comfort during a storm, not a white picket fence and happily ever after.
“You want to come in?” he asked softly as he ran his hand over her back in a soothing caress that made her knees weak.
“I’d like to get changed first.”
“You know where to find me,” he said, seeming reluctant to release her.
“Yes, I do.”
“I’ll be right here waiting for you. Will you come back?”
She held his gaze for a moment so charged, she wondered if he felt the powerful attraction simmering between them as keenly as she did. “Yes, I’ll be back.”
“Dan is stealing from the bank,” Grant said. “That’s the only possible explanation for how he’s beating all of us so badly.”
“Is that what you think?” Dan sipped from a glass of whiskey as he surveyed his kingdom on the Monopoly board. “I hate to break it to you, chump, but what you see before you is raw skill and financial wizardry.”
“More like chicanery,” Grant muttered.
“Oh my God,” his wife, Kara, said on a moan. “Will you listen to him? How does he come up with such bullshit?”
“I only speak the truth, my love.”
“Whatever,” she said, throwing her shoe token at him.
It hit him square in the forehead, which set off a wave of hysterical laughter among Grant, Stephanie and Kara.
Dan frowned as he rubbed the red spot on his forehead. “That hurt.”
“Boo-hoo, ya big baby,” Grant said.
“This is the worst hurricane party I’ve ever been to,” Dan said indignantly.
“This is the only hurricane party you’ve ever been to,” Grant reminded him.
“Well, they’re overrated if this is how it goes.”
“I quit,” Stephanie said, standing to stretch and peek out the window at the storm.
Grant came over to put his hands on her shoulders to knead out the tension that gathered there any time she was worried or upset.
“Are you sure this place won’t fall down around us?” she asked for the umpteenth time that day.
“I’m sure. We’re well protected this far inland. Nothing to worry about, except for maybe you took down too many walls.”
“I only took down two.”
“We’ll find out if that was two too many.” He kissed her neck. “Just kidding. We had the house surveyed before we bought it, don’t forget. They said it was solid as a rock.” Despite his reassurances, her shoulders were still tight with knots. “Do you want to try to get some rest?”
“I guess.”
He didn’t think either of them would sleep much with the wind making the house shake and the rain coming down so hard it sounded like a freight train coming for them.
“We’re going to turn in,” Grant said to Dan and Kara. “Do you guys have everything you need?”
“We do,” Kara said. “Thanks again for taking us in for the storm.”
“Happy to have you,” Grant said. “Him? Not so much.”
“Hey!” Dan said, sputtering. “You wouldn’t even know her if it wasn’t for me!”
“And you would’ve blown it with her if it wasn’t for me.”
“That’s hurtful but true.”
“Don’t leave me alone with him,” Kara said pleadingly. “We’ve got enough problems with wind without the windbag making it worse.”
“You love me,” Dan said, grinning at his wife.
“On that note, see you in the morning,” Grant said.
“Night, guys,” Stephanie added.
“Hope you can get some sleep,” Kara called after her.
“You, too.”
When Grant slid into bed with Stephanie a few minutes later, he reached for her and made her comfortable in his embrace, picking up where he’d left off with the massage of her tight shoulders. “I don’t like all these knots in my love’s shoulders.”
“Can’t help it. This shit is scary.”
“I know, but we’ll be fine.”
“I keep thinking about Joe and Seamus out to sea, and my stomach starts to ache.”
“They’re fine, too. Janey said he called her a little while ago, and everything is fine. They’re east of the storm now and riding it out.”
“Still. They’re out to sea. In a hurricane.”
“If they hadn’t gone, we might never have seen Deacon again.”
“I keep thinking of him and Julia, too, and all our family and friends, and my dad and Sarah in Italy while this is happening. He’s frantic with worry for us. I hate that for him, for both of them, when they’ve so looked forward to the trip.”
“I know, but hopefully by tomorrow, we’ll be able to reassure him and Sarah and Janey and everyone else who’s worried about us that we’re just fine.”
“I really hope so.”
“Have you ever had hurricane sex?” Dan asked Kara when they were alone in the living room with only the candles Stephanie had lit earlier for atmosphere.
“What if I say I have?”
His brows lifted almost to his hairline. “Who is he, and how do I have him killed?”
Kara laughed helplessly. She did that a lot with him.
It was the thing she loved best about their relationship.
Well, that and the great sex and the tender love and his total devotion to her.
That last one had annoyed the hell out of her at first. Now she wondered how she’d ever lived without him and his kind of devotion for the first thirty years of her life.
“I’m serious. Who is he, and more important, where is he?”
“You don’t know him, and I have no idea where he is.”
“But you shagged him during a hurricane?”
“I did.”
“This is truly shocking news. How old were you?”
“Eighteen.”
“Where did your parents think you were when you were shagging some limp dick during a hurricane?”
“At my grandmother’s. I told a lot of lies in those days.”
“So you’re a liar and a charlatan. I want my money back on this marriage.”
“You do not, and PS, his dick wasn’t limp.”
“This is an outrage!”
Again, she laughed so hard, she made no sound. Had she ever had more fun than she did pushing his buttons? Nope. Never. “Does this mean you don’t want hurricane sex?”
“When did I say that?”
“You only seemed interested when you thought it was my first go-round with hurricane sex.”
“I’m always interested, as you well know.”
“But you asked for a refund. How am I supposed to know you’re still interested?”
“The refund has been canceled.”
“I see how it is.”
Smiling, he said, “I love you, Kara Torrington.”
“For some strange reason, I love you, too, Dan Torrington.”
“Nice how that works out, huh?”
“Very, very nice.”
“Nicest thing ever,” he said, kissing her. “Why don’t you take me to bed and have your wicked way with me?”
“We can’t do that here.”
“Uh, yes, we can.”
“They’ll hear us.”
“We don’t hear them, and PS, if I’d known that hurricane sex was off the table if we came to stay with them, we’d still be at the cabin. And PPS, this is further proof that we need to buy a real house here.”
“PPPS, stop with the PS.”
“I’ve got a lot of postscripts to share with you.”
A particularly strong gust of wind had the house shaking and groaning, the rain beating against the roof sounding like a million marching feet.
Dan put his arm around her. “Let’s go to bed.”
“You heard that, right?”
“Heard what?”
Kara elbowed his ribs as they blew out the candles and walked toward the bedroom and bathroom on the opposite side of the house from Grant and Stephanie’s room.
Her phone chimed with a text. “It’s my mother again, wanting to make sure we’re okay.”
“Tell her your big, strong, heroic husband is taking very good care of you.”
“I will not tell her that.”
“You want me to?”
“That’s okay.” She typed her reply and then plugged the phone in to charge on the bedside table. “Did you charge your phone and laptop?”
“Yes, ma’am. Grant said if we lose power, we can go to Big Mac and Linda’s. They’ve got a generator.”
“I’m sure they’ve also got a full house. They don’t need more people.”
“We’re not just people. We’re family.”
Kara rolled her eyes at him. “Last time I checked, your name wasn’t McCarthy.”
“I’m a McCarthy by osmosis.”
“Meaning you’ve ingratiated yourself to the point that you consider them family, but they’ve probably had more than enough of you.”
“Baby, they love me. What’s not to love?”
“Well, there’s your propensity to speak of yourself in the third person. There’s your enormous ego. There’s your—”
“Enormous penis?”
Kara lost it laughing. She laughed so hard, she had tears in her eyes. “I can’t even with you. I just cannot.”
“That’s what you were going to say, right?”
“Stuff it, Torrington.”
“Oh, I’d love to stuff my enormous penis in your—”
She kissed him and pinched his lips closed. “Shut it.”
“If I shut it,” he said, wiggling out of her grip, “then I can’t lick you in that place you like so much.”
“I swear to God, if you don’t shut up, I’m gonna…”
“What?” he asked, his eyes glittering.
“Forget it. You’d like that too much.”
He walked her backward toward the guest room bed and came down on top of her, mindful not to put too much weight on their baby. “Now you have to tell me.”
“Nope.”
“Yup.”
She pulled him into an openmouthed, tongue-twisting kiss that was one of the few truly effective ways of shutting him up.
His hand landed on her face as he kissed her with hours’ worth of desire.
As he pulled back, he kept his lips moving lightly over hers.
“Before you made me fall in love with you, I thought the most exciting thing in the world was arguing a case I knew I would win before I even arrived at the courthouse.”
“I made you fall in love with me? Are you rewriting history now, Counselor?”
He shook his head. “Nope. You gave me no choice but to fall in love with you. But as I was saying, arguing a slam-dunk case has nothing on hanging out with my gorgeous wife.”
“Just when you’re on the verge of becoming completely insufferable, you go and say something sweet. And PS, you made me fall in love with you by being a relentless pain in my ass.”
He pinched her ass for emphasis. “I’m so glad you fell in love with me. I’m not sure what I would’ve done with myself if you hadn’t.”
“I’m sure your insufferableness would’ve gotten even worse without me around to keep you humble.”
“No doubt.” He caressed her face and gazed into her eyes. “Now, about that hurricane sex you promised me.”
“When did I promise you that?”
“Earlier. I heard you.”
“Can you prove that?”
“I’ll have the stenographer read back the transcript.”
Again, she rolled her eyes.
“It would be easier to have the sex than to argue about it.”
“Easier for whom?”
“Oh, I love when you’re all proper with me.”
“You love when I breathe.”
“That’s true. I need to keep you breathing. So, about the sex you promised me…”
“Once again, you’re wearing me down in a desperate effort to make you stop talking.”
“That’s what I do best. Made a whole career out of it, in fact.”
“It’s a good thing you married me, because anyone else would’ve stabbed you in the eye by now.”
“Aw, baby, I’m so lucky you love me so much.”
Kara pulled him into a kiss, and as the wind howled and the rain beat down on the roof, he showed her that hurricane sex with him was much different from what she’d experienced in the past. She had to bite her lip to keep from screaming more than once, especially when he buried his face between her legs and brought her to a quick, sharp orgasm with his tongue and fingers.
Lord have mercy, the man was good at that, not that she could ever, ever, ever tell him so.
He moved up, dropping kisses on her abdomen and breasts as he slid into her in one deep stroke that had her gasping from the impact. “Tell me the truth… Was it this good with Limp Dick?”
“Shut up, Dan.”
“Tell me, Kara.” He moved in her as his lips slid over her neck, electrifying her from head to toe with sensation. “This is way better, right?”
“No comment.”
He stopped moving and withdrew from her so suddenly that she was left gasping. “What the hell?”
“Is it better than Limp Dick or not?”
“Honestly, Dan, you’ve lost your ever-loving mind.”
“I need to know.”
“Yes, it’s better! Everything is better with you than it’s ever been with anyone. You already know that, so why are you making such a big deal out of this?”
Grinning, he entered her again, holding still for a long time, so long that she started to squirm from wanting him to move. “Just making sure.”
“You’re so ridiculous.”
“This is what you do to me. You make me into a lunatic.”
“You were a lunatic long before you ever met me.”
“You took me to a whole other level.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Of course it is.”
“Now how about you finish what you started while we’re both still young?”
“Was that a complaint?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I didn’t think so.” He reached beneath her and cupped her ass to hold her tighter against him as he picked up the pace and had them both straining to reach the peak at the same instant. “Ah… Yes, Kara. Yes.”
As he came down on top of her, she kept her arms around him, making soothing circles on his back. A minute or two later, he rolled to his side, bringing her with him, their legs intertwined. “Best hurricane sex ever.”
“It’s right up there in the top ten.”
His laughter rocked them both. “You love to drive me crazy.”
“It’s so easy.”
“I love you anyway.”
“Thank goodness for that.”