Chapter 20
Piper wondered if it was possible to kiss so much, her lips could become injured. If so, she and Jack had crossed the threshold for lip injury quite some time ago and were heading into surgical-repair territory, a thought that made her giggle.
“What’s so funny?” Jack asked, keeping his lips close to hers.
“I was wondering if you can overuse your lips to the point of injury.”
“If so, we must be nearly there.”
“I think ‘there’ was passed about an hour ago.”
“Sorry.”
“I’m not, so you shouldn’t be either.” She reached up to comb her fingers through his hair. “You want to know something funny?”
“Yep.”
“The first thing I liked about you was your hair.”
“My hair?”
“Uh-huh. Hair is very important to me.”
“So if I lose it, is that game over?”
“Are you losing it?”
“Nah,” he said, grinning. “All the men in my family have lots of hair. On my mother’s side, too. I should be good to go.”
“Oh, phew. That’s a big relief.”
He bit his lip as he smiled at her and then winced. “Wow, my lips actually hurt.”
“Told you.” She continued to play with his hair now that she was allowed to touch him any way she wanted. “There’re other things we can do besides kiss, you know.”
“Are there?”
“I know it’s been a while for you…”
He laughed. “Don’t worry. I remember how.”
She dropped her hand to his face, caressing his cheek and rubbing his whiskers with her thumb. “Do you feel ready for that?”
“I think so?”
“You’re not sure?”
“There’s no way to be entirely sure about something like that, except to do it and hope for the best.”
“I see.”
“I want you to know… When I’m with you, I’m not thinking about her or wishing you were her or anything like that. But all the time, always, I wish she was still here.”
“Oddly enough, I understand what you mean.”
“It’s a lot,” he said, frowning. “I know it is, and if it’s too much for you, I get it.”
“It’s not, or at least I think it’s not. If you’re open with me and talk to me about what you’re feeling, I think maybe we can try to figure it out together.”
“I can do that, or at least I can try.” He played with a strand of her curly hair. “It’s just that I worry about where the line is between you being understanding and my sad past interfering with our very nice present.”
“It’s not interfering. It’s part of who you are, and in case you haven’t noticed, I like who you are.”
“I noticed.” He dragged a fingertip gently over her bottom lip. “I want to be ready for you, Piper. I really, really do.”
“I’m right here.” Before she’d run into him on the ferry, she would’ve said she wasn’t ready for any of this, but after seeing him again, learning more about how he’d cared for his sick wife and kissing him, all she wanted was more.
They’d lost power at some point, but the streetlights must’ve been on auxiliary power, because they cast a faint glow into the room.
Piper sat up in the bed and peeled the tank over her head and tossed it aside. Then she returned to his embrace, pressing her bare breasts against his chest and smiling when he sucked in a sharp deep breath.
“Damn, that feels good,” he said. “You feel so good.” His hands seemed to be everywhere as he explored the flesh she’d bared to him. Then he replaced his hands with his lips, and she had to remind herself to be quiet so they wouldn’t be overheard.
Once he started touching and kissing her body, it was like he couldn’t stop until he’d touched her everywhere. Kissed her everywhere. Her shorts and panties were removed in an impatient tug, and then his tongue was between her legs, and her fingers were buried in his hair.
Good Christ Almighty, he was good at that and had her rushing toward release before she had the chance to worry about all the things she usually did when this was happening.
Jack didn’t leave a single brain cell left for worrying, as they were all cheering him on and sending her flying toward the kind of climax she’d read about in books but had never experienced for herself.
Holy. Shitballs.
She came so hard, she might’ve passed out for a second.
Before she had a second to regroup and prepare for the next part of the program, he was ripping open a condom and rolling it onto his impressive erection.
Everything about this was different from what she’d had before, including the sheer size of him.
For a hot second, she panicked, thinking she couldn’t do it, but then he slid home, stretching her to the point of pleasurable pain and touching her in places she hadn’t known existed until he showed her.
He was ruining her for all other men, one deep stroke at a time, and she was there for it. Ruination had never felt better.
“Thank you so much for coming over to keep me company,” Kelsey said as she let Jeff Lawry into the apartment she called home on the island. The converted barn was shaking so hard, she was afraid it might collapse. And when she’d lost power just before midnight, she’d immediately called Jeff.
“I’m glad you called.” He glanced up at the high ceiling over the big open room. “I can see why you were worried,” he said as the building creaked and groaned. “We could go to my mom’s house.”
“How was the driving?”
“Kind of scary. The wind was pushing the car all over the road.”
“I’m so glad you got here safely. Maybe we should stay put and hope for the best?”
“Whatever you want to do is fine with me.”
“Mr. McCarthy brought me these battery-powered lanterns in case we lost power. I’m so thankful to have them. It was scary dark for a minute there after the power went out.”
“I heard it’s out all over the island. That’s another thing we have at my mom’s—a generator.”
“Can we go there tomorrow? After the storm passes?”
“Sure. We can do that.”
She realized she’d just asked him to spend the night, but she sort of hoped he’d planned for that when he came over.
“In case I haven’t told you, I hate hurricanes.
My parents are calling every thirty minutes to check on me.
They wanted me to come home before the storm, but I couldn’t leave Maddie to care for five kids, including infant twins, while Mac was working twenty hours a day. ”
“I’m sure she appreciated you sticking around.”
“She did, but she sent me home early so I wouldn’t be driving in the storm.”
“That was nice of her.”
“It was, especially since she had no idea what time Mac would make it home.” Kelsey went to the sofa and took a seat, curling her legs under her.
“I could’ve stayed there or with Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy.
They also invited me. But it’s been a long week with the kids, and I was ready for some downtime. ”
“Can’t say I blame you. I’m exhausted after this week. Mac had us going from sunup until nine o’clock some nights.”
“Were you asleep when I called you?”
“Nope.”
“Are you lying?”
“Maybe?”
“Jeff! You shouldn’t have taken the call.”
He linked his fingers with hers. “Don’t you know by now that when you call, I’ll always take it?”
She still couldn’t believe he’d given up an apartment and a perfectly good job in Florida—in his field of computer science—to stay on Gansett Island with her and to work with Mac. “You need to sleep.”
“I assume you’re planning to sleep at some point?”
She nodded. “I’m cooked after this week.”
“If you want to go to bed, I can make myself comfy right here,” he said of the sofa.
Kelsey appreciated that, even after the sacrifices he’d made to stay with her, he never pressured her for more than she was ready for. “There’s no sense in you sleeping on the sofa when there’s plenty of room in my bed.”
“I love this hurricane,” he said with a smile.
“Stop! It’s terrible.”
“There’s nothing terrible about getting to sleep with you.” He got up and gave her hand a gentle tug. “Lead the way.”
She crossed the wide-open room to the screened-off area in the back corner.
“Do you have a pillow fetish I need to know about?” he asked as he took in the huge assortment on her bed.
“I like pillows.”
“I see that. What do we do with them when we want to actually sleep in the bed?”
“We move them,” she said indignantly. Her pillows were nonnegotiable.
“I like this one.” He held up the pillow that was in the shape of Gansett Island with the saying “Living on Island Time” embroidered on it.
“That was ridiculously expensive in town, but I wanted something to remember my time here, so I spent the money.”
“You’ll have me to help you remember your time here.”
“I know, but the pillow was calling my name.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about this pillow situation.”
“You get me, you get my pillows.”
“Hmm.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m going to need to think about this.”
She stopped what she was doing with the pillows. “Really?”
“I’m done thinking.” He stood to help her finish clearing the pillows off the bed.
“Don’t throw them,” she said. “Some of them are delicate. That one belonged to my grandmother.” She pointed to a lacy pillow with an embroidered pattern.
“Are there other pillow rules I need to be aware of?”
“Nope. That’s it. Be gentle with them.”
With a huge stack of pillows sitting on both sides of the bed, Jeff stretched out on top of the down comforter that she slept with year-round because she was always cold.
Kelsey got under the covers and turned to face him.
“Hey there, what’s up?”
“There’s a boy in my bed.”
“Scandal.”
The building creaked and groaned as the wind beat against it.
Kelsey glanced up at the ceiling. Had that water spot been there before? She wasn’t certain. “Storms freak me out. They always have.”
“I’m here to keep you safe.”
She looked over at him. “I’m so glad you’re here, and not just because I was scared of the storm.”
“I’m glad to be here, too. This is much better than sleeping alone.”
Kelsey had something else she wanted to say to him, but now that the moment was upon her, she was nervous. “I… I wanted to tell you… that I, um… I appreciate that you haven’t been pressuring me for, you know…”
“Sex?”
Was it possible for an entire body to blush? If so, hers just did. “Yes. That.”
“I told you… Whatever happens between us will be on your timetable. I’m here for the long haul.”