by Bella Andre
“Okay,” he finally agreed. “We’ll go together.” Duncan turned back to her cousins, Moira, and Ethan. “Thank you, again, for all you’ve done to help. If any of you ever need anything from me, anything at all, it’s yours.”
“Actually,” Malcolm said from London, “while I was digging into your brother, I also dug into you, and I have to say I quite like the look of your investments. They’re smart, forward-thinking, and you’re working in sectors that I’m interested in moving into. Once this mess is dealt with, let’s talk about possible ways we can work together.”
“Ditto from me,” Ian said from his Seattle office.
Duncan was honored by the possibility of working with Ian and Malcolm. “They’re the first meetings I’ll put on my calendar after this investigation wraps up.”
“Now,” Ethan said, “before everyone signs off, when can I expect the five of you and your families back in Bar Harbor? It’s been far too long since we’ve had all of the Sullivans together in Maine.”
“You know exactly what you need to do,” Sophie put in. “Just throw a wedding, baby shower, anniversary, or birthday party, and we’ll be there!”
As they all laughed and nodded in agreement, Lola said, “Actually, you should all keep an eye out for an invitation with a Maine postmark coming your way very soon.” Then, realizing she’d already said too much about Cassie and Flynn’s upcoming announcement to their extended family when everyone started peppering her with questions, Lola mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
After saying good night to her father and Moira, Lola and Duncan all but sprinted from the studio to her cottage. Though they still had the FBI and SEC investigations hanging over them, they knew three things for certain.
Lola loved Duncan.
Duncan loved Lola.
And tonight, for a few precious hours in the dark, nothing mattered but loving each other.
Once they were inside, Lola led Duncan straight to her bedroom, barely pausing to shut the front door, throw her bag on the counter, and kick off her heels.
“At last,” she said in a husky voice, “I have you exactly where I want you.”
Her hands trembled with anticipation as she reached for his shirt, yanking open the buttons. He was so broad, so muscular, so beautiful, that she had to kiss every inch of skin she exposed, until she had his shirt all the way off.
Though she could tell he was as overwhelmed by desire as she was, he took her face in his hands, staring into her eyes as though he was trying to read her every thought. “Promise me you won’t regret this.”
“Never. The only thing I could ever regret is letting you leave again without making love with you.”
Relief shone from his eyes, before increasing need quickly replaced it. The same unquenched need that had driven Lola crazy since the day they’d met. “You have no idea how many times I’ve dreamed of making love to you,” he said, his deep voice sending thrill bumps all across the surface of her skin.
“You’ve been in every single one of my dreams too,” she whispered back. “Dreams we can finally make a beautiful reality tonight.”
Together, they moved to the bed, and he lay her back on it, gazing at her with such heat, she thought she just might go up in flames. He leaned over her, levering himself up on his forearms as he pressed his mouth to hers, kissing her so gently that his lips were barely brushing against hers.
Within seconds, however, their kiss spun out of control as their intense desire for each other swept them away. He smelled so good, tasted like heaven, and when he said her name in his low, rumbly voice that was so full of love, the very last vestiges of her self-control—and any remaining fears she had about giving all of herself to him—disappeared.
His hands were no steadier than hers had been as he slid her silk top from her torso, quickly followed by her bra. And then his lips were on her again as he pressed kisses over her bare skin. Every other man she’d been with had told her she was beautiful, but as Duncan whispered how sweet she was, how giving, how wonderful, Lola truly felt beautiful for the first time. Inside and out.
Together, they removed the rest of her clothes, and then they rolled over so that she was straddling his hips. Lola had to stop to stare, and to appreciate, the utter male gorgeousness beneath her. The breadth of his chest, his rippling abdominal muscles, the strong muscles of his arms and shoulders.
“You’re mine,” she said, claiming him as she’d wanted to claim him from the first.
“Always, Lola. I’ve always been yours.”
She leaned forward to kiss him again, the tips of her breasts aching from their delicious friction against his bare chest, while his hands felt big and deliciously rough where he was clasping her hips. A low moan emerged from her throat as she rolled her pelvis against his.
Beyond desperate, she quickly undid his pants and pulled them off, along with his boxers. Their first—and only—night together, he’d given her such pleasure, touching her, tasting her. She’d longed to give him the same pleasure, but he hadn’t wanted her to think that they were nothing more than a hot one-night stand.
Now that they both knew they were forever, she finally had the intense pleasure of kissing her way down his chest, nipping at him with her teeth, before laving the love bites with her tongue. His breath came in harsh pants, his muscles jumping beneath her fingertips, as she made her way lower. And lower. Until, at last, she wrapped her hands around his hard heat, her name on his lips as she lowered her mouth to him, swirling her tongue over his erection.
He was so big, so hard, so incredibly beautiful that her arousal jumped even higher. So high that she thought she might go delirious if she didn’t have him soon.
Seconds later, she found herself on her back again, with Duncan’s weight pressing her into the mattress. He slid his hands into her hair as their tongues tangled in breathless desire. She wrapped her legs around him, wanting to pull him closer.
With his mouth, he roamed her skin, licking over her breasts, circling her flesh slowly until he was teasing the taut peaks with his tongue and teeth. One hand was still threaded in her hair as he slid the other over her stomach and hips, her legs instinctively parting for his touch.
They both moaned as she bucked her hips against his hand, their mouths finding each other again, their kisses growing even wilder. Her inner muscles clenched reflexively around his fingers, and she couldn’t catch her breath.
“Come apart for me, Lola.” His eyes, voice, hands all urged her to ever-increasing pleasure. “Come for me now…and then again and again and again.”
His promise of never ending pleasure tipped her all the way over the edge, her climax breaking through her body as heady waves of ecstasy rippled from the top of her head to her clenching toes.
She was still catching her breath when she heard the tearing of a condom wrapper and forced her brain to clear enough that she could sit up to help him slide the latex down over his gorgeously hard erection.
He lifted her up onto his lap at the same time that she moved over it, their minds, their bodies, their hearts perfectly in sync.
And then…oh God…it felt like she’d been waiting for this forever…she lowered herself over him, taking him so that he filled her completely. So completely that she cried out his name.
They remained that way, with his hard heat throbbing inside her, their hearts beating against each other’s chests as they stared into each other’s eyes. Until she couldn’t wait another second to lift her hips, the incredible sensations building as he cupped her bottom, his thrusts growing more and more wild while she moved against him. Faster. Harder. Both of them beyond desperate as they greedily drank in each other’s moans and kisses.
Before she knew it, Lola was coming again, taking Duncan with her over the edge of ecstasy into a world so shockingly beautiful that she gasped aloud at the wonder of it all.
Not only the wonder of finally learning just how much joy and pleasure had been
waiting all along inside their carefully guarded hearts…but also the wonder of true love.
* * *
Duncan loved Lola’s spirit. She had more energy, more determination, and more joie de vivre than anyone he’d ever met. No matter how hard she worked, or how much she gave of herself, her inner light never dimmed.
He also loved her just like this—languid and sated from their lovemaking, her muscles pliant and loose from the pleasure they’d given each other, her eyes closed and a smile on her lips as she remained on his lap, naked and happy.
“Let’s take a bath together,” she murmured, her voice husky and lush with pleasure.
Her suggestion was a damned good one. Responding first with a playful nip at her bare shoulder, Duncan lifted her off the bed with her arms and legs still wrapped around him.
“Don’t forget to bring another one of those,” she said, pointing toward the condoms on her bedside table.
After scooping up protection, Duncan carried her into the bathroom, stunned all over again by her beauty, and also the look in her eyes. A look of such devotion. Devotion he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel worthy of…but that he’d go to his grave trying to earn.
After turning on the taps, he reached out to run the backs of his knuckles down her cheek. He could see the pulse point at the side of her neck move faster, especially when he swept his thumb over her bottom lip. She reached for him, too, tracing the lines of his jaw with her talented hands, a beat before their mouths met in another urgent kiss, their desire for each other unquenched despite the intense pleasure of their lovemaking.
Duncan might have forgotten about getting into the bath altogether had the water not filled high enough to splash them as it fell from the tap. He turned off the faucets, then climbed into the water, holding out a hand for Lola to follow, drawing her hips and back against his chest.
Lying in the tub with Lola was every one of Duncan’s most sinful visions rolled into one. She was utterly, beautifully uninhibited as she took his hands and curved them over her body, arching into his touch.
Duncan’s whole world came down to Lola. To the feel of her slippery skin against his. To the little sounds she made as he played his fingertips over her aroused breasts. To her sweet scent, a tantalizing hint of vanilla and spice.
Picking up the bar of soap from the side of the tub, he slowly ran it down her arm, from her shoulder to her hand. He soaped up her other arm before moving to her legs, instructing her to lift them one at a time from the water, loving the way the tiny bubbles ran down her smooth skin.
Her hips began to move, grinding against his. But though it took him to the edge of his self-control, he continued to tease them both, moving the bar of soap along her collarbone and then her upper chest, without ever touching her breasts.
At last, he ran the bar from soft flesh to the taut peaks, making Lola’s breath come out in a rush. He dropped the soap into the water, using his bare hands to trace a sensual path down from her chest to the vee between her legs.
Her head fell back against his shoulder as she gave herself up to his touch, her hips moving in time with his fingers as he played over her hot, slick sex.
“Again, Lola.” He spoke the words into her soft hair. “Come for me again. Show me how much you love it when I touch you.”
In the wild abandon of her climax, his name was on her lips as she cried out in release. Duncan wanted to give Lola a million orgasms, take her to the brink of ecstasy, then bring her over the edge of bliss, again and again and again.
But she obviously had plans of her own, because the next thing he knew, she had spun around in the tub and was raining kisses over his face, neck, and chest. Between kisses, she said, “I have an idea. Let’s lock ourselves in my cottage and never leave.”
“One day soon,” he promised her, “that’s exactly what we’ll do. We’ll make sure no one knows we’re here so that we can make love all day long.”
“And all night too.”
He captured her mouth in another kiss as they sank deeper into the fantasy of a world where nothing could touch them, where nothing could ever go wrong again. And where kisses, and pleasure, and these oh-so-sweet hours of simply holding each other, were the most important things of all.
This time, she was the one ripping open the condom wrapper, and when she slowly slid it over him, it was nearly more than he could handle. The very second it was on, he curved his hands around her hips, lifted her over him, and thrust into her. Taking, teasing, loving Lola over and over and over while they gave each other fierce kisses.
Duncan matched Lola’s cries of pleasure with his own hoarse groans, their hearts pounding in unison as they leaped together into their shared hopes and dreams of a long future together full of laughter, family, and boundless, unconditional love.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Waking up with Lola in his arms was the greatest feeling in the world. And as she yawned and stretched against Duncan, it didn’t matter that he would be facing the equivalent of a Colosseum full of man-eating lions today at the FBI. He was happy.
The happiest man in the entire world.
Lola was the kind of woman painters immortalized and men fought wars over. A woman so beautiful—and brilliant—that jaws dropped whenever she walked into a room. And she loved him.
It was a miracle.
“Good morning,” he whispered against her hair.
She snuggled in closer. “Good morning.” Her words were a little husky as she came slowly awake.
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I love you.”
She tilted her face to his so that he could see her sleepy smile. “I love you too.”
Despite the evidence they’d compiled against his brother, Duncan knew there was still a chance the FBI would file charges against him instead. Nonetheless, just being with Lola right here, right now, made him feel so damned good.
The alarm buzzed, loud and insistent, and though they both knew there was no chance of lingering in each other’s arms today, it wasn’t a slow seduction that either of them needed this morning. They simply needed to be as close as possible to one another as they hit the snooze button and reached for one another.
When they kissed, the air between them felt as though it would go up in flames. Their mouths were hot and desperate as their passion spiraled even higher and sweeter than it ever had before. Every cell in Duncan’s body fought to get closer to Lola as she wrapped her limbs around him, then cried out his name as she held nothing back. “I love you,” he whispered against her mouth and as she whispered it right back, he gave himself over to the greatest pleasure he’d ever known.
It took everything inside Duncan to finally tear himself away.
“The sooner we get to Boston,” Lola said in a deliberately cheerful voice, “the sooner your name will be cleared and your brother will finally be taken out of commission.”
Appreciating her positive attitude, no matter the hurdles ahead of them, he kissed her again, one more heady brush of his lips against hers before they went to shower and dress.
A short while later, they dropped into the Sullivan Café to grab croissants and coffee on the way to the airport. Beth gave them both huge hugs. “If you need anything, call us, and we’ll be on the next flight to Boston.”
“I have half a mind to go with you,” Ethan said. “But you’re going to be fine. I feel it in my gut.”
Two and a half hours later, Duncan and Lola boarded their flight to Boston. As soon as they took their seats, Lola pulled a pencil box out of her bag, along with a notebook, just the way her mother had all those years ago in the park. “When I’m stressed out, nothing makes me feel better than drawing.” She handed him a pencil and a blank piece of paper. “I don’t know if it will do the same for you, but—”
He kissed her before she could finish her sentence. “It will. Thank you.”
She put her hand on his cheek. “I know how hard it’s been hearing all over again that your brother isn’t the man you h
oped he was. But I hope it helps, at least a little bit, knowing you have all of us now.”
“It does help.” Thanks to Lola’s cousins, father, and Moira, they now had reams of evidence to take Alastair down. “The question is whether he’ll find a way to circumvent the system like he has before.”
“This time, we’ve made damned sure he can’t!” she proclaimed.
During the flight, Lola sketched textile design ideas, while Duncan worked on a map of Bar Harbor that highlighted the places where his life had changed. Lola’s studio. The Sullivan Café. The Maritime Museum. Lola’s cottage. Her parents’ house. The stone wall where they’d kissed in the rain. The bench in the park where he’d had a heart-to-heart with her father.
It wasn’t until the flight attendant asked them to put up their tray tables in preparation for landing that Lola looked over at his paper.
“I love the way you’ve drawn your own unique map of Bar Harbor where it’s not just about the nuts and bolts of the town, but what each location means to you. It’s such a perfect way to bring a personal touch to traditional cartography.”
He was just as impressed by her designs. “You are so gifted at expressing beauty. You’re a remarkable woman, Lola Sullivan. In every single way.”
“I’m just glad I finally met someone who sees it too,” she said, making them both laugh.
She deliberately kept him laughing with stories from her childhood during the taxi ride to Lyman Ventures’ corporate headquarters. Where Duncan had made the decision five years ago to work in a small building with a pared-down staff so that he could give each client his individual attention, Alastair liked nothing more than sitting at the top of a skyscraper with his name on it while hundreds of employees below him scurried to do his bidding.
Once they were standing on the sidewalk, Lola looked up at the tall building and raised her eyebrows. “Looks like your brother is compensating for something.”