Chapter Fourteen #2
“She’s in significant pain, she’s not in her own home, and she’s probably mortified that this whole thing happened,” Charity told him.
“You can’t be mad or upset at anything she says right now because even one of those factors would make a person irritable.
All three combined? Doesn’t make for anything good.
Just be patient with her and understanding.
” Her voice hardened just a tad, making him turn to her.
“And don’t judge her or be mad at her for what she does or says. Just love her.”
His stare was intense across the cab, the blue in his eyes stark against the late afternoon sun shining down on them through the windshield.
“How do you have such compassion for someone you’ve never met until a few minutes ago and who treated you so rudely?”
She smiled, the gentle compliment seeping through her. “Drive, and I’ll tell you the story of Aunt Minnie and Uncle Preacher.”
“Preacher? What kind of name is that?” He put the truck in gear.
“His real name was Zacharia, but when he found Jesus as a teenager, no one ever called him that again.”
By the time they’d arrived back at his mother’s house, she’d been able to lift his mood, to the point he’d laughed out loud at some of the stories she’d related about her mismatched aunt and uncle and their tumultuous life.
The house was warm when they arrived, the July heat making itself known.
“I’ll go set the air conditioning,” Kolby told her.
Charity poured two glasses of water and added ice from the refrigerator to them. She offered one to Kolby when he came into the kitchen and took a giant chug from her own.
“It should be cooler in here soon.” He downed his glass, then filled it again while Charity checked her phone.
She had two texts from Colleen and one from Tom.
She opened his first.
Are you sticking around Concord? I’d like to see you again.
She hadn’t given any thought to when she was heading back to Heaven until now.
They had a wedding on Friday evening and one again on Saturday and she needed to be on top of the details since the days before an event were the ones where things started to fall apart if they were going to.
Aside from that, she had a new client couple scheduled for tomorrow afternoon she’d forgotten about.
Opening her email reminded her of the meeting.
When she read Colleen’s texts, she resolved to make the trip back home sooner rather than later.
“Listen,” she said to Kolby. “I need to get back to Heaven. I forgot that I’m meeting with a new couple tomorrow, plus I’ve got a million things to do to get ready for the work week.”
It was brief, but she saw disappointment skirt across his face. Just as quick it was replaced with acceptance.
“I wanted to help you return everything, but it looks like I can’t,” she added.
“No worries. I can do that. I’m sticking around for a few days, but I’ll be back before Friday’s event so I can get my equipment ready. I just wanna make sure everything is set here; go to the bank tomorrow; pay the bills; get the house settled and cleaned.”
“Of course. Plus, you want to be available for your mama."
“Yeah.” He plopped down into one of the kitchen chairs and ran his hands through his hair.
“After today’s outburst, I don’t know how much she’s gonna want to see me.
She’s pretty pissed about everything. You saw that, firsthand, when she threw the milkshake at me.
” His laugh had a caustic bite to it. “She only missed because she can’t use her dominant hand. ”
Charity put her empty glass on the table and crouched down in front of him, gently placing her hands on his knees.
“Doesn’t matter,” she said, “whether or not she’s mad at you.
You still go visit her every day you’re in town.
No excuses. You call her when you’re not there.
She needs you, Kolby, whether she says the words or not.
She needs to be assured that you love and support her. ”
He lifted a hand and cupped her cheek. The warmth of his palm cradling her face struck her mute.
Nothing she wanted to tell him made its way to her mouth.
While his gaze gamboled between her eyes, her breathing went shallow and her heart sped up like she’d just completed a series of vigorous katas in karate class.
She watched him swallow, the notch at his neck working with the effort, and had an uncontrollable craving to put her lips over the spot and suckle.
“You are a revelation, Charity Quinlan.” His voice, hushed and raw, had her stomach muscles clenching as if she’d just done one hundred sit-ups without a break.
His thumb caressed her cheek, skimming the corner of her mouth.
With no will to prevent it, her lips parted, silently begging him to pay them attention.
He must be a mind reader because he complied, the thick pad of his thumb gliding across her bottom lip while his eyes dipped down to watch his motion.
Charity could count every single individual lash as they hooded his eyes. The notion to plant butterfly kisses across his lids had her shifting, lifting, so she could.
In a move she never saw coming, Kolby gripped her arms and hauled her up onto his lap, straddling him, as if she weighed no more than a breath. His hands settled at the dip in her spine as she braced herself over him, their gazes locked and heated.
She never knew if she said his name aloud or merely thought it, but in the next instant his lips found hers and she lost the capacity to think at all.
From the deep recesses of her mind, the notion to thread her fingers into his hair bloomed and she put action behind the thought.
Her hands skimmed up the sides of his face, rested against his temples and then wove into all that shaggy, thick, mane.
In so doing, she pushed his head backward, giving her more access to his mouth, which she greedily took advantage of.
The hands at her back flexed, pulling her closer, as his lips parted hers and then dove. His tongue mated, sipped and sucked hers. A feeling of ultimate power shot within her so fast it rocked her to her core when his body trembled underneath hers.
She’d been kissed innumerable times by boys, then men, whom she’d thought knew what they were doing.
She was wrong. So very wrong.
They hadn’t.
Because no kiss she’d ever received had made her want so desperately, so frantically, so feverishly, before Kolby’s.
No kiss had destroyed all rational thought and turned her mind into a pile of her Granny Quinlan’s porridge.
And no kiss had ever – ever- made every inch of skin on her body beg to be touched; caressed; worshipped.
He’d done all that with a simple kiss.
No, her mind screamed. There was nothing simple about this.
Nothing at all.
Kolby shifted and squirmed as he adjusted her on his lap, his lips fused with hers, never parting from them. She knew what was happening to his body – hells bells – she could feel it. Every delicious, long, hard part of him pressed so intimately against her.
That flame of desire he’d stoked within her grew. Her hands grew restless merely fisted in his hair. She wanted to touch and explore every part of him, every muscle trench, every angle and plane.
Kolby’s hand moved to her thighs, slid beneath her shorts to stroke her bare skin, moving higher, slowly; tortuously.
It was Charity’s turn to squirm as the sensation of his long, adept fingers skimmed along her skin, setting it on fire.
Just as his kiss was one of a kind, his touch equaled the label.
Charity was no stranger to a man’s touch. Kolby’s, though, made her wonder how she’d ever existed without it. Every brush of his fingers against her skin fed her heart; nourished her soul; made her want...more.
His lips left hers to skim across her jaw, lick at her neck, murmur her name in her ear. Taking advantage of the angle of his head, she bit down on the fleshy part of his ear, drawing it into her mouth and feasting.
With a groan she felt crawl up from his soul, he captured her lips again, his hands cupping her jaw to keep her in place. Charity was a willing prisoner.
The abrupt, sharp, loud blast of his phone ringing from where he’d dropped it on the table tore their lips apart.
Charity had a split second to take in his swollen mouth, hooded eyes, flushed high cheeks.
They were both breathing hard and fast, her breasts flattened against his shirt.
She’d fisted his T in one of her hands, the other snaking below the collar to caress his neck.
The phone’s insistent and unexpected ringing propelled her from his lap. She jumped up and all but ran to the other side of the kitchen, hands bracing herself against the counter, her back to him.
She couldn’t take a full breath, her lungs fighting against the effort.
The drumline banging in her heart beat against her temples and forced her to shake her head to quiet it.
When she lifted her hands to her cheeks, she found her face hot as a poker iron.
She could only imagine how flaming red they were.
Kolby’s clipped questions told her it was the hospital calling.
While he spoke and listened, she kept quiet and still, trying valiantly to understand what had just happened.
She could come up with no reason, no excuse for her behavior, except she wanted Kolby.
Had for some time, despite her efforts to fight it.
Just one move toward her and she’d readily allowed herself to be kissed and fondled.
Allowed? Lord save her and grant her redemption. She’d been an active participant, willing and complicit.
She wouldn’t sugarcoat this. She could have pushed him away, stood upright the moment she recognized what was in his eyes.
She could have done so many things to avoid what just happened.
She was an almost thirty-year-old third-degree black belt who knew dozens of ways to get herself out of sticky physical situations.
But she’d employed none of them because she’d wanted what was happening between them as much as he, apparently, had.
And wasn’t that something to think about?
“Charity?”
She squared her shoulders and turned around. Kolby stood, his phone in his hand, a look of abject desolation on his face.
“I have to go back to the hospital.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, standing firm across the room from him.
His cheeks puffed as he blew out a heavy breath, then dragged one hand through his hair.
“She had an episode after we left. Screaming at the staff and trying to leave. Said they were keeping her prisoner against her will, and she was going straight to the police station to file a complaint. It got loud. She took a swing at one of the nurses and a doctor. They had to sedate her.”
His voice broke. He shook his head and then dropped his gaze. “They want me to come back and be with her when she wakes up. The doc said something about transferring her to the psych wing earlier so she can be better monitored and medicated.”
He was hurting so bad and everything in Charity pushed her to cross the room and take him in her arms to try and ease some of his pain.
Fifty reasons why she shouldn’t banged through her mind, all of them centering around what they'd just done. She ignored every one of them.
In a heartbeat, she crossed and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him to her. His head rested on the top of hers as his breathing, fast and choked, echoed around her.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “But,” she rubbed a hand across his back, “maybe it’s for the best. Get her somewhere her mental status can be evaluated and addressed in a proper manner by the right kinds of doctors.”
He nodded.
They stood, embracing, for a few beats until Kolby was the one to break away. Shifting back, he slung his hands into his pockets and stared down at her.
“I can’t drive you back to Heaven,” he said simply.
“I never expected you to. You’re needed here. I can get myself back.”
He nodded again. “I wish—”
She cocked her head.
He shook his. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter.” He pulled his keys from his back pocket. “Will you be okay if I leave?”
“Yeah. I’ll pack up my things, probably call car service.” Or Tom. “Keep me updated, okay?”
“I will, and don’t worry. No matter what happens, I won’t miss Friday’s event.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
His brows tugged together.
“Keep me updated on what’s going on with your mama. I meant what I said before, Kolby. I’m here for you if you need a sounding board.”
His gaze swept her face for a few seconds, then he nodded.
“I should go.”
With her arms crossed in front of her, she rooted in place while he left.
Alone now, she took her first full breath in what seemed like hours, dragging in gulps of air, then pushing them out again.
It took her a few more moments until she could quiet her heart rate down to normal, for her hands to stop trembling. Her body under control again, she reached for her phone.
I need to get back to Heaven. Are you free to drive me back? If not, I can take car service.
She hit the send button.
Tom’s response came back immediately.
Free and willing. Name the time.
She replied, then ran back up to the guest room to pack, all the while wondering what would have happened between them if Kolby’s phone hadn’t rung.
And why she was so disappointed it had.