Happily Ever His

by Delancey Stewart

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “Point Lookout State Park,” she said. “It’s a state park right on the tip of the peninsula. A lot of people come down here to camp or hike or picnic. This was a civil war prison camp.” She said this the way most people announced that we’d be getting ice cream.

  “Exciting,” I said, my tone mocking her slightly. Though the idea of a prison camp did not sound at all romantic or like a good place to get to know someone, the scenery was actually beautiful. There were few other cars in the parking lot, and no one in sight. The birds were calling to one another from the treetops, and I could smell the salt of the ocean.

  She sniffed as she parked the car. “It is pretty exciting,” she told me. “And if you can’t appreciate Maryland’s history, this is gonna be a long day for you. I’ve got plans to show you the state’s first capital and about sixteen different churches all built before California was even a state.”

  I loved the edge of teasing in her voice, her clear fascination with her home state.

  Tess led me on a tour of the park, pointing out where a civil war hospital once stood, and ushering me around the site of a prisoner-of-war camp where the Union held Confederate soldiers through the last years of the war.

  “It had to be horrible for them,” Tess said, looking out over the water that surrounded the tip of the peninsula where the park was situated. “That’s Virginia right across the Potomac. If they could just get there, they’d be home, safe in Confederate territory.”

  “Quite a swim,” I said, gazing across the wide river but finding my eyes drawn back to the woman beside me. “I bet some tried it though.” I wandered around a bit, sweating in the dense close air of the woods, glad for the occasional breeze off the water. “Wait a minute. Wasn’t Maryland part of the Confederacy? You’re south of the Mason Dixon.”

  “Switched sides,” Tess said, gesturing for me to follow her back to the trail. We walked in silence for a moment then, picking our way along beneath arching branches and over the slightly muddy path. I walked behind her, unable to keep my eyes from following the sway of her hips in her jeans, the way her ponytail seemed to bob in time with her steps.

  I was just about to step a bit closer, try to find words to tell her how happy I was to have a day with her, a chance to get to know her, to explore this feeling I had around her, when a family appeared on the trail in front of us.

  A man and a woman were leading two bored-looking teenagers around the park, and I shot them a smile as they were about to pass us. The teenaged girl was just stepping past me when she glanced up, and her face went from bored to excited in a split second, her mouth opening and her eyes going wide.

  “Oh my God,” she said. Then she squealed, and turned to her mother, grabbing her hand. “Mom! It’s Ryan McDonnell.” She turned back to me. “You’re Ryan McDonnell!”

  I was rarely recognized these days, and Maryland was the last place I’d expected someone to know me. Surprise and a hint of embarrassment washed through me, and I felt the color rise in my neck. “I am,” I said. “Or was, last I checked.”

  Tess stepped slightly away as the family bunched closer together, staring and smiling.

  “Can I take a selfie?” The girl asked, holding out her phone.

  “Sure,” I laughed, shooting Tess a quick look. She stood to one side, looking amused.

  The girl moved in close and I leaned in over her shoulder as she took the picture, and then the woman pulled something out of her purse. “Will you sign this?” she asked, handing me a pen.

  “Of course,” I said. As I signed my name on an envelope for the lady, her husband found his voice. “That last movie you made, the one in Antarctica? With the zombies?”

  I cringed and braced myself for him to tell me how awful it was. I knew how terrible it was, but it hurt any time someone agreed with the critics’ assessment, and for some reason I didn’t want him to say it in front of Tess. “Yeah?”

  “I loved that movie, man.” The guy grinned at me and slapped me on the back. “Don’t listen to those Hollywood jerks man, you’re good. Really good.”

  Now my blush grew hotter. I was definitely not used to praise from unexpected places. “Wow, thank you. That really means a lot to me.” It did. It was almost embarrassing how much.

  “You’re awesome, dude,” the other kid said, maybe feeling left out.

  The mother looked at Tess suddenly, as if realizing for the first time I wasn’t here alone, just waiting for them to find me in the woods. “Oh, guys. We’re interrupting. Sorry,” she said to Tess. “We’ll let you get on with your day. Come on,” she said, gathering her family together again. “So nice to meet you. Have a good visit.”

  The teenaged girl followed her mother, but kept glancing back over her shoulder and smiling, and finally waved at us as they disappeared around a stand of thick trees.

  I turned to Tess, stuffing my hands in my pockets and hoping it hadn’t ruined whatever might have been building between us so far.

  “You were so nice to them,” Tess said, smiling at me. “That was really good of you. I bet you made that girl’s year. Her mom’s too.” She stepped back to my side, closer than she’d been before, and we continued walking in the direction the family had come from. “Does that happen a lot?”

  “No,” I said. “Not like with your sister. I can still stay under the radar most of the time. Especially lately.”

  “Does it bother you? Do you wish you were more famous?” She looked up at me over her shoulder, her brows wrinkling as she posed the question. I wanted to make her smile again, make the line ease away.

  “Not really,” I said. “Honestly, I’d rather have the anonymity, but fame does kind of equal success, and I don’t think anyone starts out at something and doesn’t wish to be successful.”

  She bobbed her head. “Fair point. So it’s kind of a tradeoff. Your privacy for money and good roles.”

  “I guess so. The money is really the key thing, unfortunately. But I kind of hope I can save enough to take care of the things I need to take care of, and then maybe do something else.” I thought about my dad, stopping myself from wishing things were different. He was family—the only I had—and it was my responsibility to take care of him.

  “Something else, huh? Like what?”

  “I used to think I might open a restaurant,” I said, feeling like I was making a confession of sorts. I didn’t talk about it often, but I missed the quiet meditation working in the kitchen had always brought me.

  “A restaurant?” Tess was smiling up at me, almost leaning into my side as we wandered beneath the arching green trees, flowers blooming at our feet on either side of the trail. It was almost like walking through a painting now.

  “Nothing big. Just a small fine dining place. A few signature dishes. Just a few tables. Or maybe my own production company.”

  “Hmm,” Tess said, and I wondered what she was thinking. I glanced down at her, glad to see a look of calm contentment on her smooth pretty face. My blood warmed at the perfection of her profile, my nerves jangling as I thought about what it would be like to touch her, to kiss her.

  “Hey,” I said, stopping our progress.

  She turned, a question in her eyes, and I realized I had nothing specific in mind to say.

  “I just … thanks for coming out here with me today,” I tried. My voice was lower than it had been a moment ago, almost a whisper.

  She stared up at me, her dark lashes lush against her pale skin, her plump pink lips slightly apart as she considered me. “Yeah,” she said. Her lips parted like she was going to say something else, but no words came out. Instead, she stepped a tiny bit nearer, and every nerve in my body went to full attention.

  “The park is really …” I trailed off, my mind going blank as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and then let it go. My skin was buzzing and my dick was suddenly straining inside my jeans, no doubt thinking about those perfect lips the same way I was.

  Hell
, I wanted her, but I couldn’t make a move here. She’d already made it clear I shouldn’t muddy the waters by touching her, and I wasn’t a guy who was going to touch a woman who’d asked him specifically not to. But when she reached between us and took my hand lightly in hers, I swear a fuse in my brain burned right out. She was touching me and that simple touch felt better than any sex I’d ever had in my life. There was something here. Something incredible. I hoped she could feel it.

  “Hey,” I breathed, unable to manage much more with the incredible buzz in my mind at the contact of her skin between my fingers. I was slipping into caveman mode, instinct taking over. Did cavemen say, “hey”? Maybe surfer cavemen.

  I let my fingers graze gently up her wrist, stepping nearer until we were just inches from one another, each of our chests rising and falling with shallow breaths. Anticipation hung in the air between us, along with a rich fecund scent that reminded me of sweat, sex, and earth. God, I wanted to drop to the ground right here and bury myself in Tess. I wanted to feel that supple body in my hands, beneath me, on top of me, around me. But I needed to move slowly. Let her set the pace.

  She was staring up at me, a fierce look in her eyes, a burning dare that I knew I’d take.

  I bent my head forward and she closed the distance between us, grazing her lips against mine and then lifting her eyes again. I kissed her softly, mimicking her shy touch, her hesitation. When I pulled back, her eyes were shut, her cheeks glowing with high spots of color, and those petal pink lips were slightly open as she breathed. She was perfect. She was everything.

  She tilted her head up more, inviting me back, and I didn’t hesitate this time, dropping my lips to hers again as my arms slid around her perfect body. I devoured her then. I should have been gentle, tentative. I should have waited for her to take the lead, to tell me this was all right, that this was what she wanted. But I didn’t wait. I didn’t ask, and her answer came in her actions, not in her words. I teased those lips open with my tongue and crushed her body against me, felt her panting breaths as she came alive beneath my lips, my hands. Every part of me was straining to get closer to her, and when she ground her hips into the aching swell in my pants I nearly lost it.

  After a few moments—a few hours?—I broke it off, pausing to pull myself back together.

  My head was spinning with desire, my hands possessively sunk into her body, caging her to me. I released her, running a hand through my hair, suddenly nervous as Tess just stood there, regarding me as she gasped for breath, making those glorious breasts beg for my attention.

  And then she attacked me.

  Chapter Twelve

  Tess

  Chalk it up to a long-unplanned celibacy, or life with Gran. Call it overexposure to sunscreen and bug spray. We can call it whatever we want, but the plain simple truth was that I had a movie star kissing me like he’d never get enough of me and I wasn’t about to push him away just because it made no damned sense at all. I’d figure that out later. But for now, desire was ricocheting around inside my body and Ryan McDonnell was pressed up against me—all hard and firm and muscled—and I never wanted it to end.

  Maybe this was nothing but pretend to Juliet, but it felt a hell of a lot like heaven to me.

  Ryan’s hands were all over me, massaging my back, gripping my ass, fisting my hair. He trailed kisses over my jaw, nibbling at my neck and making me gasp and wrap myself around him, trying to get closer and needing friction, needing something I couldn’t even define.

  I pressed myself hard into him, feeling his erection at my center and gasping without meaning to—it was heady knowing I’d caused that. And ‘that’ was impressive, I was pretty certain. Unless he had a flashlight in his pants, and I didn’t think he did.

  After a few moments, I stepped back, trying to catch my breath.

  Ryan did the same, rubbing a hand through his now very mussed hair, a slow sexy smile spreading over his lips. My heart leapt into my mouth as I looked at him, my brain attempting to process that I’d just been kissing Ryan McDonnell. Who was not, I reminded myself, Juliet’s boyfriend.

  It was a lot to wrap my head around.

  “That was better than a Sasquatch sighting,” he said, as I moved back to his side and took his hand, heading for the lighthouse out on the beach.

  “Really?” I asked, feeling a little shy suddenly, even though my heart was bobbing around excitedly inside me. I kissed Ryan McDonnell. I was holding his hand. Was this actually my life?

  “Way better.” He bumped my shoulder lightly as we walked. “I’d still like to see him though.”

  The packed dirt trail beneath our feet turned to sand as we walked, holding hands, meandering.

  The wide swath of beach that curved around the southern tip of Maryland’s peninsula jutted into the water where the Potomac met the Chesapeake. Ryan plopped down in the sand, grinning up at me as he took off his shoes and then nodded for me to do the same as he stood back up. I did, rolling my jeans up to my knees, and then we stepped together into the cool water lapping at the edge of the beach.

  “Look at that,” he said, looking out to the east. “It just goes on forever, doesn’t it?”

  I bit my lip, unsure whether he needed correcting. Today didn’t seem to be about teaching Ryan Maryland’s geography, but I couldn’t help it. “Well, it goes until it hits the eastern shore, so I guess it depends on your definition of forever.” I lifted a hand to turn his chin to point southward instead of east. “There, look that way. That pretty much goes on forever.”

  “Geography was not my strong suit in school.”

  “What was?” I wanted to know more about him. I knew what the magazines wrote, I knew him as the hero I’d seen in the theaters, but I didn’t know much about the real guy besides what he’d told me today.

  He took my hand and threaded his fingers through mine, the warmth of his palm soaking into my skin and contrasting with the coolness of the water swirling around my ankles. “School was not my strong suit in school,” he said. There was a low sadness in his voice that made me look up into his face. Given what little he’d told me about his childhood and his father’s work, I had the sense he might have had other things to worry about besides homework and classes.

  “Switching schools a lot is hard, I bet,” I offered. I was speaking from experience. I’d had to switch after my parents died.

  I couldn’t see his eyes because we were both wearing sunglasses against the glare of the sun reflecting off the water all around us, but I could guess at the sad acceptance they might hold. He nodded and then moved closer to me, his body pulling me like a magnet. His arms slid around my waist, and he pulled me into him, one hand coming up to cradle the back of my neck and the other staying low, holding me near. “How is it that you fit me so perfectly?” he asked, in a low whisper that made it seem like a rhetorical question.

  My mind had been working on a similar question as my hands slid up the firm broad planes of his back, my breasts tightening as they pressed against his hard chest. My head nestled beneath his chin, and in the circle of his arms I had a strange sensation of shelter, of a safety I really hadn’t sought, but was comforted to find. “I don’t know,” I answered.

  We stood there for several minutes, our bodies pressed together, the sweet sting of salt on our lips, and then Ryan dipped his head and kissed me again. This kiss was slow and sweet, his lips soft and his tongue teasing, not demanding. Where he had taken before, back on the trail, now he asked permission, sought acquiescence. And I gave it willingly, molding my body to his, opening my lips to his seeking tongue.

  It sounds cliché, but the kiss really did make me dizzy. Maybe it was the angle of my head, or the way my body felt like it didn’t fully belong to me now that his arms were supporting it, but the world alternately slowed and sped up, the bay roaring in my ears and the sand slipping beneath my toes as water washed it from under us. When Ryan released me, my heart hammered and my breathing felt erratic. I stared at him next to me for a long minute
, unsure what was happening here, totally confused about how to proceed. What did one do when one was suddenly forging a completely unexpected romantic interlude with one’s movie-star crush? This was uncharted territory, at least for this Manchester sister. Sightseeing did not seem to be an appropriate focus at this point. “Want to get a drink?”

  He nodded, but angled his head toward the lighthouse, a two-story building with a light tower on the top. “We don’t get to see the lighthouse first?”

  “You can’t go inside unless you’re on a tour,” I told him. “Plus, it’s haunted.”

  He dropped his chin and grinned at me. “Maryland is rife with supernatural beings, isn’t it? Sasquatch, ghosts, and a woman who I’m pretty sure is a figment of my imagination.”

  I shook my head. “What?”

  “You can’t be real.”

  We turned to walk back toward where we’d left our shoes. “Why not?” I asked. “Why can’t I be real?”

  “Because I’ve been dreaming about you my whole life.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, but my chest warmed. I pretended to focus on putting my sandals back on my feet, pretended my stomach wasn’t turning flips and my mind wasn’t spinning at Ryan’s words.

  As we got back into the car, I stilled just as I was about to throw it into drive.

  “Do we need to worry?” I asked him. “What if you’re seen with the wrong Manchester sister in public?”

  He frowned, but shook his head lightly. “I honestly don’t get recognized often, but I guess it’s a concern. Do you know any place kind of off the beaten path? Maybe not too busy?”

  I did.

  We drove for a while then, up the peninsula and out a long road to a quiet café with its own dock. It was a local’s joint, not one tourists ever found, and they made great margaritas.

  “Are you looking forward to the party?” Ryan asked me once we were settled.

  I nodded, though a little ball of anxiety rolled around in my gut as I sipped the drink that had just been delivered. “I am, but Gran is a little tough to please, really. I don’t think she wanted to have this big party.”