15. Her Priority List
15
HER PRIORITY LIST
P atience wasn’t one of her virtues.
Charlotte was waiting for Foster to return home from work on Tuesday.
She’d gotten home a little after one, having gotten on the first ferry off the island this morning.
This afternoon, she’d done her laundry, she’d shopped for food, and she walked Marco to Foster’s beach.
He wasn’t home and she didn’t know why she thought he would be.
After talking to Amanda, she started to realize that Foster was probably waiting for her to take that next step.
He knew what she’d gone through and that she was making a change.
She’d even joked weeks ago about men being low on her priority list.
Then why was she so intrigued by the man she knew very little about?
Because her sister was right. She knew what she needed to know to feel what she was.
When she saw a movement out the window around six, she turned to see Foster pulling into his driveway.
Should she rush out the door and go down to talk to him? Or should she give him time to settle in?
Charlotte hated that she was acting and feeling as she had prior to moving here.
That all her actions had to be planned out with men and nothing could just be spontaneous.
She liked all the spontaneous actions with Foster.
By six thirty, she was still pacing around the house and driving Marco insane.
Her puppy was jumping around her legs and running to the door. “Do you need to go out?” she asked.
He barked at her, which was a new thing, but it did make her laugh.
She clipped his collar on him that was attached to the leash she hung up and opened the door.
What she didn’t expect was that Marco would tug so hard that he would yank the leash out of her fingers when she turned to shut the door behind her.
She tried to step on the leash, but he was too fast and took off on a dead run down Foster’s driveway.
She was as fast on his heels as she could be in flip-flops yelling at him to stop.
At Foster’s front porch, she found Marco, who was quicker than she’d thought he was, sitting on the steps with Foster next to him. Her dog was in heaven getting his head pet.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “He was jumping around and barked so I thought he had to go out. He’s never bolted when I open the door and I wasn’t prepared and the leash was yanked out of my hand.”
She was sucking in a breath from her sprint. She didn’t even want to guess how long the driveway was but longer than a sprint she’d ever done in gym class on a track.
“It’s fine,” he said. “I heard the barking before I heard the yelling.”
“Maybe he just wanted to see you,” she said.
“Could be he missed me,” he said.
“It looks it,” she said.
“How is your sister doing?” he said. “I’m assuming she had the baby?”
“Yes,” she said. “Thank you for asking. Harper was born on Friday about six hours after I got there. I’m glad I left Thursday night and spent the night in Plymouth to get on the first ferry. Otherwise, I might have missed the birth.”
He nodded. How could he look so handsome to her?
He was in a black T-shirt that was more fitted to him than most shirts she’d seen on him. His shorts were gray, just flat front cotton ones with a button and zipper. Nothing fancy or special. His feet were bare.
He had some big feet on him that she hadn’t noticed before in his sneakers.
“But you still got to visit,” he said, looking up at her.
“I did. It was nice. You got your hair cut.”
“What?” he asked, his hands going up to his hair. “Yeah. I’ve been putting it off and couldn’t any longer.”
She liked it a little long and messy. It was still a bit wind-blown but trimmed around his neck and ears now.
“How was your holiday weekend?” she asked.
“Fine,” he said. “I went to visit family on Sunday too. Just a few of them.”
She smiled. “I thought you didn’t like being around family.”
“I don’t have a problem with it most times. It’s when everyone is together,” he said. He picked Marco up and put him on his lap. The pup barely fit now. “I can’t believe how big he’s gotten in a few days.”
“Been more than a few days since you’ve seen him,” she said without thought.
Guess her words had more bite to them because his head snapped up. “Sorry about that.”
“What are you sorry about?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“For kissing you,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
Her mouth opened and closed a few times while he stared at her. Not what she expected he’d say.
It only made her think that Amanda was right.
He was making moves off what she’d told him about her past.
“Maybe I wanted you to do that,” she said.
“You did?” he asked. Now he looked slightly shocked.
“Yes. Why do you seem surprised?”
“Because as you pointed out it’s been over a week. I thought I offended you.”
She ran her hands through her hair, then bent over and shook her arms and lifted her head back up, flipping her hair.
She just had to get the agitation out of her system.
“We’ve got a communication problem here,” she said.
He was smirking. “It seems it.”
“We know you don’t like to talk,” she said. “I feel as if I do most of it and maybe this time I was waiting for you.”
“I was waiting for you,” he said.
“Because you thought you offended me by pulling me into your arms and kissing me like I’ve never been kissed before?”
“Yes,” he said.
“I’ll admit it caught me off guard, but it’s not as if I was fighting you off. I believe I participated, if I remember correctly. You might need to refresh my memory though.”
He stood up after he set Marco down. “I can do that.”
He pulled her forward again, his mouth landing on hers just as rough as he’d been the first time.
Oh yeah, this was what she wanted and never knew it.
Her arms went around his neck just like last time, her mouth opened, his tongue slid in and they were going at it while Marco jumped up first on her legs and then Foster’s.
Neither was stopping what they were doing to pay attention to the dog though.
“Ouch,” she said and looked down to see Marco had scratched her skin enough to draw some blood. “Guess I should have paid attention to him when he was jumping.” She bent to pick her dog up. “Bad boy. Don’t be jealous.”
Foster smiled. “I think he might be more protective.”
“Protecting me from you or you from me? I’m the one he scratched so I think he’s protecting you.”
“Maybe you’re the jealous one,” he said, reaching for Marco. “Do you want to come in?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I can run him home first.”
“No,” he said. “He can come in. It’s fine.”
“I hope he doesn’t go to the bathroom in your house.”
“He went before he joined me on the porch,” he said and turned to go in the front door.
He set the dog down after he unleashed him and Marco started to sniff around.
“Kiss me again,” she said.
“If I do I’m not sure I’m going to want to stop there.”
It was the cocky smirk on his face. One she hadn’t seen once.
Maybe the fact he knew where she stood now, he was opening up more.
She didn’t even know if she wanted to analyze it like she had in the past and instead yanked him forward this time.
Their mouths were angling back and forth, both trying to get more of the other.
Her hands went under his shirt, stretching it from his body. She just had to touch his skin.
Damn, it was firm, and told her he had a lot more muscle than she realized.
He pulled her shirt out of her shorts and slid his fingers around her waist.
Where he touched, she’d felt a scorching burn like never before.
“Take me to your room.”
“Now?” he asked.
“Now,” she said.
He turned and went to the back of the house and up the stairs. Marco followed them, but she shut the door in her dog’s face. Nope, he wasn’t watching.
She had no time to even look at Foster’s room before he had her back against the closed door, his mouth on hers, her shirt lifted over her head and flung to the floor.
She did the same to him and then stopped. “Wow. You work out.”
“Another time for that conversation,” he said.
They both started to attack the other’s clothing until they were standing in the same spot by the door naked and kissing, grinding against each other.
He moved away and got a condom. When she went to go near the bed, he stopped her. “What?” she asked.
“I’m going to fuck you against the door. Got a problem with that?”
She’d never done that before. The thought of him talking to her this way and doing what he’d said sent a flood of moisture between her already damp lower lips.
She barely had the ability to gulp and shake her head no.
He strode right back to her, pinned her to the wall, put his mouth on hers and lifted her up.
She was going to wrap her legs around his waist, but he held her under her hamstrings, spread wide, found her opening and thrust in fast.
“Ohhhhh,” she said, her head going back.
He wasn’t kissing her now. She just realized that.
Instead he was watching her as he positioned her against the wall, his body inside of hers, moving in and out.
The feeling of being out of control was nothing like she’d ever experienced with a man.
Not in this situation.
She started to wonder if Foster even had control of what he was doing, but when she looked into his dark eyes, she realized he knew exactly what he was doing.
He was making her come undone in the most glorious way a woman could feel.
Every time he thrust into her, her body moved up and almost sighed with relief while it wanted to beg him for more.
And he kept it up as if he knew what she needed.
Then he wrapped her legs around his hips, her ankles crossed, her arms locking behind his neck.
His mouth landed back on hers and they were kissing feverishly as he was bucking into her. She was trying to match him and only ended up grinding.
It was working because everything in her body hurt at the same time it felt wonderful.
She normally needed a lot of slow tender work for her to come. Or maybe she was used to that.
This was so erotic and sexy that the orgasm hit her without warning.
She started to screech out his name. He was moving faster into her. Her back might be bruised when this was done, but she didn’t think she was going to care.
He grunted out a few times and then just stopped moving, his head landing on her shoulder.
“Tell me I didn’t hurt you,” he said after a few seconds.
“I’m not sure. I’ll let you know after I come off of this high. Right now, if you said you wanted to do it again, I’d say, please do.”
He started to laugh but moved away from the door and put her on the bed while he walked into the bathroom.
She lay there looking about the room and just realized she had sex with a man that she still only knew by his first name.