Chapter 17
Mac knew Ellie had never liked surprises, but his enthusiasm for this one had proved contagious. She tugged at her blindfold. “Where are you taking me?”
“No peeking. Now, watch your step,” he said, guiding her over an outcropping of rocks and into the waist-high grasses. A tall bunch of daisies gently scratched his thigh.
He’d spotted this field from a distant roadway on his way home from the hospital yesterday, the stark blue sky and puffy white clouds both dead ringers for the vivid dream he’d experienced in the hospital after he was shot.
He’d spent three days there after his gunshot wound, feeling almost completely healed by the time they sprung him from that terrible place.
But the time had been good for him, giving him a chance to talk to each of his children at length about the past, what had gone wrong, and what he wanted to happen now.
Ellie was the answer to two of those questions.
Callie was the most open to forgiving, but even Lewis had teared up and given his old man a hug, confiding that he was worried about his own drinking and wanted to learn how to stop. Mac was proud of him. Wanting to stop was three-fourths of the problem.
He’d woken early this morning and driven Callie to school, coming back to an empty house with just Ellie and himself for the first time since his discharge.
And had talked her into taking a drive with him.
And now here they were. Walking into the field that was as close as he could come to his dream setting.
“Macintyre O’Brady, you know I hate surprises,” she scolded.
He laughed. “And you know I hate being called Macintyre.”
He looked around, judged it good enough, and stopped walking. “Remember the dream I told you about in the hospital, where we were standing in a field full of wildflowers?”
“Yes.”
“Open your eyes.”
She pulled off her blindfold and gasped, “Oh, Mac. How beautiful. Is this what it looked like in your dream?”
“Yes, ma’am, and I knew it was heaven because you were there.”
Mac spread out a bright blue blanket he’d kept over his arm, and set down a basket full of fresh fruit, cheeses, and some sandwiches he’d packed before she got up that morning.
“When did you have time to do all this?”
Back when they’d lived together, he’d slept the days away in a hungover fog. “I don’t sleep much anymore. Can’t seem to make it past three or four AM.” He stood up and hauled her against him. “Though maybe if I had a pretty girl like you to keep me company at night, I might sleep much better.”
She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You think so?”
“I don’t know, missy, but it’s certainly worth trying.”
She went up on her tiptoes and kissed him, her lips opening beneath his in sweet invitation.
He deepened the kiss. How many times had he dreamed of this, of Ellie being back in his arms, soft and tender and begging to be loved by him?
His hands skated down her back to caress the small of her back, then followed the flare of her hips around to the sweet, round cheeks of her ass, and pulled her tightly against him.
She moaned and fitted herself more snugly to him, the tips of her fingernails raking the back of his neck and into the hair at his nape, the tingling sensation shooting down his spine and straight to his groin.
She tugged him toward the ground and he followed her invitation, pressing her back against the blanket and covering her with his eager body.
If he wasn’t careful, he wasn’t going to last long enough to say so. He needed this to be good for her, needed her to know how precious she was to him, how much he adored her and always had. He made a deliberate effort to hold himself in check while he concentrated on her pleasure.
He slipped the shoulder strap of her dress down, revealing the swell of her breast and the lacy edge of her pale pink bra.
He had to see all of it, had to see all of her, every inch exposed to the sunlight and his desperate, seeking gaze.
He rolled onto his back, taking her with him.
He found the zipper that ran along her spine and slid it down, peeling the sides forward as she straddled him and sliding them down her arms.
God, she was gorgeous. “Let me see you, baby.”
She bit one side of her full lip as she unhooked her bra, his fingers clawing at her shoulders as he pulled it from her body. Then she was completely bare from the waist up, her dress bunched around her waist, the heat of her body palpable through her panties.
He reverently touched her breasts, grazing her flesh with his calloused hands until she begged for more, his big hands squeezing and rolling her sensitive globes. She was riding him though he was still dressed, her driving pace telling him she was ready for more.
Grabbing the hem of his shirt, he pulled it over his head with one motion and rolled her over on her back, settling between her legs. “You don’t know how much I’ve wanted this.”
He kissed her nipples, drawing first one, then the other into his mouth and lavishing it with his tongue. “How much I’ve missed you.”
She trailed kisses down his neck as her hands squeezed between their bodies to fight with his belt-buckle. “Now, Mac. I want you now.”
He stood up and shucked off his pants and boxers, pushing them down his legs and freeing his cock. He dropped to his knees between her legs and pulled off her dress and panties, then kissed the inside of her thigh as his fingers explored her body.
She bucked beneath him. “I want you inside me,” she hissed, but he only smiled, settling his mouth over her sensitive bud and suckling her sweetness.
She cried out, panting. “Mac,” she pleaded, but he remained focused on the task at hand, licking her to a frenzied pitch before sliding his finger inside her.
She arched her back as her body clenched around him, her breath catching in her throat on a cry. He could hold back no longer. Climbing up her body, he settled himself at her entrance as her took in her heavy-lidded features. “Open your eyes for me, baby.”
She did as he asked, their gazes connecting as he thrust inside her, the sounds they made in perfect unison. Mac was lost, driving into her with a desperation he’d never before experienced, needing to be as deep within her as possible when he came.
Then his body took over, all control gone.
There was only need, burning white hot and bright, his body plunging into hers as he exploded into a million pieces and collapsed on top of her.
Aftershocks rippled through his body, tiny mews coming from Ellie’s throat as her hips moved and her body milked him dry.
Mac turned his head into the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent, feeling her breathing level out and return to normal.
This was the only woman he had ever loved, and he needed her with him like he needed to breathe.
He kissed her heated skin. “I want you to be my wife again.” He leaned back so he could see her face.
“Marry me, Ellie. I’ll get it right this time. I swear.”
She smiled, those shapely lips curling alluringly toward her rounded cheeks, rosy red from their lovemaking. She nodded. “Yes, Mac. I’ll marry you again.”