by Force, Marie
“What I’d like to know is where you get off thinking it’s all right to take up with my mother.”
Seamus knew it wasn’t wise to laugh right then, but damned if he could help the chuckle that escaped from his lips.
Joe’s expression grew even stormier, if that was possible. “I fail to see what’s funny about this situation.”
“No, I bet you don’t. There’s nothing funny about it, trust me. What’s amusing is that you think I somehow had control over it.”
“Of course you had control over it! You’re a grown man, for Christ’s sake.”
“’Tis true, I am, which is why for a whole year I hid the instant attraction I felt for your mum from everyone—even her. The day I met her…” Seamus shook his head in amazement. He’d never forget the moment her eyes met his for the first time and the absolute certainty he’d experienced that she would somehow change his life. “It was quite something,” was all he said to Joe.
“I don’t understand—”
Seamus tilted his head and smiled. “Don’t you?”
Joe snorted with disgust. “Don’t even try to compare this to me and Janey.”
“Why not? Didn’t you too yearn for a woman you couldn’t have?”
“Yes, but—”
“Love is love, Joe. I love your mom. I want to be with her. I want to make her happy and take care of her. How is that any different from what you feel for Janey?”
“She’s a lot older than you, for one thing.”
“Is she?” Seamus asked, feigning shock. “I had no idea!”
“Stop trying to be funny. This isn’t funny.”
“Stop acting like a little boy who’s miffed because his mum got a boyfriend behind his back.”
Joe stood and seemed to be fighting the urge to charge at Seamus. “I’m not doing that!”
“Don’t you want your mum to be happy?”
“Of course I do! But what happens a few years down the road when you decide being with an older woman isn’t working for you anymore? Or you want kids of your own? What happens then?”
“What happens a few years down the road when you decide being with Janey isn’t as great as you thought it would be?”
“That’ll never happen! I love her with everything I am. What does that have to do with what we’re talking about?”
Seamus only smiled and watched as the realization settled into Joe’s expression and his demeanor.
“You love her that much?” Joe asked in a whisper.
“I love her that much.”
They stood for a long time, hands on hips, neither of them blinking, until Joe finally looked away, eyes cast downward. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about this.”
Seamus was trying to think of what he should say to that when Carolina rushed into the office.
“Oh thank God,” she said, breathing as if she’d been running. “You didn’t hit him.” This was directed at Joe, who scowled at his mother.
“No, I didn’t hit him.” Glancing at Seamus, he added, “But I wanted to.”
Janey waddled in, red-faced and panting. “Did he hit him?”
“Not you, too,” Joe said.
“Sorry.” Janey went to her husband and put her arm around him. “You do have a bit of a history.”
“One broken nose doesn’t make for a history, and PS, that guy deserved it.”
“And I don’t?” Seamus edged closer to Carolina. No time like the present for her son to get used to seeing them together. Since Joe hadn’t, in fact, murdered him, Seamus was filled with irrational hope.
“I never said that,” Joe said. “I chose not to hit you.”
“And I thank you for that,” Seamus said gravely, which earned him yet another scowl from Joe.
When Seamus tried to take Caro’s hand, she shook him off.
Baby steps.
Carolina focused on her son. “Are you going to be able to live with this?”
“You haven’t given me much choice.”
“Actually,” Seamus said, “that’s not true. You know as well as I do that if you disapprove or express your disappointment or in any way seem put out by it, she’ll throw me over like yesterday’s news. So it does matter. If you’re going to do any of those things, I, for one, would appreciate you doing them now before this goes any further.”
Carolina started to say something in protest, but the challenging look Seamus tossed her way had her closing her mouth.
Everyone looked to Joe, waiting breathlessly to see what he would say or do.
After a long moment, Joe said, “I’m not going to do any of those things.”
“Are you sure?” Seamus asked. “You don’t get to change your mind in a week or a month or a year.”
“Neither do you,” Joe said pointedly.
Seamus, who understood what Joe was saying, nodded in agreement. “Neither do I.”
“It might take me a while to get my head around it, but I won’t stand in the way.” To his mother, he said, “I’d never want to be the cause of your unhappiness. I hate that you thought I would.”
Tears filled Carolina’s eyes as she went to her son and hugged him. “Thank you.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Seamus caught Janey wiping away a tear. “Caro?”
She pulled back from her son and turned to Seamus. “Come here.”
The glance she directed at her son was filled with trepidation.
Joe nodded and squeezed her shoulder.
Carolina took a couple of halting steps toward Seamus.
He held out his arms to her. “Come to me.”
She seemed hesitant to get close to him with her son and daughter-in-law watching, but Seamus knew it was vital that she take this first most important step in front of them.
“It’s okay, love,” he whispered. “Everything’s going to be okay now.”
A sob escaped her as she moved into his embrace and buried her face in his shirt.
As his heart pounded erratically, Seamus closed his eyes, said a silent prayer of thanks to the Lord above and closed his arms around her. “Shhh, don’t cry, my love,” he said, running a hand over her back. “Please don’t cry.”
He opened his eyes to find Janey leading her husband from the room. Joe met his gaze, and the message was clear—hurt her, and you’ll answer to me. Seamus gave a small nod to show he understood and then refocused his attention on Carolina. “There, love, it’s all good. Joe knows about us, and nothing bad happened.”
She rested her hands on his hips, her fingertips pressing into his back as her sobs became hiccups. “Nothing bad happened.”
Seamus smiled and tightened his hold on her. “Do you know what that means?”
She shook her head.
“It means,” he said, tipping her face up so he could see her eyes, “there’s nothing standing between you, me and this.” He kissed her softly when he would’ve preferred to kiss her much more intently. But now they had a lovely future stretching before them, and he could afford to be patient.
Carolina, however, wasn’t in the mood to be patient and surprised him with her passionate response. Her fingers clutched his hair—almost painfully—as her tongue tangled with his.
Seamus was on the verge of doing the unthinkable at work when he came to his senses and broke the kiss. “Not here.”
“Where, then?”
Startled by the urgency he heard in her voice, he took her hand. “Come with me.”
“Don’t you have to work?”
“I’ve got three hours until my next run.” All thoughts of the paperwork he’d plan to do had been abandoned.
“That won’t be enough time.”
“We’ve got all the time in the world, love. All the time in the world.”
When Kara’s alarm went off at six, Dan wanted to weep. He’d only been asleep a short time and was sincerely sorry he’d ever agreed to sail this morning. But Mac and the others were counting on him, so he wouldn’t renege. However, he wanted to. All
he wanted was more of what he’d had during the night—the best sex of his life.
He glanced over at Kara, asleep next to him with her hair spread out on the pillow and her lips pursed in her sleep. She was so damned gorgeous, and he felt like the luckiest bastard on the face of the earth to have spent the night with her.
Where they’d go from here was the big question. Would this be one magical night, or was it the start of something more? He wanted very badly to know the answer to that question but wouldn’t wake her to ask. Instead, he slid out of bed and got busy gathering his clothes, which were flung about the room.
She hadn’t changed her mind about inviting him home. If anything, she’d been even more enthusiastic when they got to her place. The missing buttons on his dress shirt were an indication of just how enthusiastic she’d been. To Dan, the gaps in his shirt were like hard-won trophies. Now he had to ensure that he didn’t mess up what had been a promising start.
“Are you leaving?”
Dan turned, surprised that she was awake. “I’ve got to be at the dock in an hour.” He sat on the edge of the bed and kissed her exposed shoulder.
She shrank away from him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You promised you wouldn’t hate me.”
“I don’t.”
“But?”
“Nothing,” she said again.
“Why do you keep saying that?” he asked as anxiety worked its way down his backbone.
“Because that’s what I want—nothing. Last night was fun. I enjoyed it very much. But it doesn’t mean we’re a thing now.”
“So you were just using me to get laid?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“How would you put it, then?” Needing to channel the hurt and anger, Dan stood and grabbed his belt off the floor, jamming it through the loops with unsteady hands.
“I don’t want to be involved with anyone,” Kara said, looking remote and closed off, the way she had for weeks, before he finally got through to her. “I told you that from the beginning.”
“I knew we shouldn’t have had sex. I suspected I’d regret it when it was happening, and now I know it for sure.”
“I’m sorry you regret it.”
“The only thing I regret is that we’re back to square one.” He snapped his watch on his arm and grabbed his coat off the chair in the corner of her bedroom. “And I regret that I don’t have time now to discuss it further because I have somewhere to be.”
“That’s fine. There’s nothing left to discuss.”
He stared at her, incredulous. “I’m disappointed in you, Kara. I thought you had more guts than that. I guess I was wrong.” He made the mistake of taking one last look at her face, which was how he discovered she was stunned and hurt. Though he regretted hurting her, he didn’t regret saying it, because she’d hurt him, too.
In the car, he pounded on the steering wheel until his hand was sore. “Goddamn it!”
Chapter 22
“You never went back to work,” Carolina said when she opened her eyes from the deepest sleep in recent memory to find Seamus watching her.
“You noticed that, huh?”
“Uh-huh.” In the span of a few seconds, images from their interlude flashed through her mind, indelibly imprinted upon her memory—Seamus all but dragging her across the street to the small room on the third floor of the Beachcomber, the thud of the door as it closed behind them, the abandon with which they’d torn at each other’s clothes, coming together frantically at first and then slowly and reverently a second and third time.
His hand landed on her shoulder and moved slowly down her arm to link their fingers. “I called the office to tell them I had a personal situation, and they brought in one of our backup captains to cover for me for the rest of the day.”
She felt her face heat as she continued to relive the erotic hours they’d spent together. And now they had a whole day together. For that matter, they had the rest of their lives.
“What’re you thinking, love?”
“I can’t believe this has happened. That we get to be together. I never thought…”
“I always hoped, but I didn’t think it’d happen, either. And now that it has…” He dipped his head to kiss her. “I may not let you out of my sight for at least a year, if not longer.”
“Stop,” she said with a hand to his chest. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“If you marry me, I won’t have to worry about you slipping through my fingers or meeting someone you like better while I’m over on the mainland.”
Her eyes widened as his words registered. “Marry you? I just agreed to date you!”
He cupped her breast and squeezed her nipple, making her want him all over again, as if she hadn’t already had him three times. “Is that what we’re doing here, love? Dating?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Aye, I know what you mean, and I also know you’re not a hundred percent sold on the idea.”
“What does that mean? I’m here, aren’t I?”
“You’re here this way,” he said, squeezing her breast for emphasis, before releasing her to tap a finger against her forehead, “but up here, you’re still worried what everyone will think of Carolina Cantrell taking up with a much younger man.”
Perturbed by his analysis, she said, “You don’t know that.”
“Am I wrong?”
Cornered and uncertain of what she should say, Carolina shifted her focus to the wall over his shoulder.
“We could always go away from here to a place where no one knows either of us,” he said.
“This is my home. I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
“Are you prepared to deal with the people who won’t understand this? Who won’t understand us?”
“Yes,” she said haltingly. “Of course I am.”
“If we got married, everyone would know we’re serious.”
“That’s no reason to get married.”
“The fact that we love each other is a pretty good reason, too.”
Carolina thought about that.
“You do love me, don’t you?” he asked.
Her gaze shot up to meet his, looking down at her with a wary, expectant expression on his handsome face. “You know I do.”
“Do I? You’ve never said it.”
“I… I meant to.”
His face lifted into an adorable half smile. “I’m listening.”
“Are you always this pushy?”
“Only when it really, really matters.”
Listening to him talk was almost as sexy as making love with him. “I love you, Seamus O’Grady, giant pain in my ass.”
Laughing, he pushed his imposing penis against her hip. “I’d happily be a giant pain in your ass, if you’d like.”
Shocked to the core by the implication, she stared at him.
“I want to do everything with you.” He moved over her and brushed the hair back from her face as he stared down at her. “Everything. Most of all, I want to marry you and have a life with you.”
As if she’d always loved him, Carolina’s legs parted to admit him. She was sore and achy and still tired, but she’d wanted him so badly for so long, she couldn’t imagine denying him.
“Ah, Christ,” he muttered as he sank into her. “There’s nothing in the whole world better than this.”
Carolina could hardly disagree as he filled her and stirred her and surrounded her with his love.
“Marry me,” he whispered in her ear as he thrust into her. “Marry me, marry me, marry me.”
She kept her face buried in the curve of his shoulder. “I can hardly think when you’re doing that.”
“What’s there to think about?” Without losing their connection, he turned them so she was on top looking down at him, unable to hide from him any longer. His green eyes were sharp and intense and filled with love and longing and so many other things she couldn’t begin to process it all. “I love you,
Carolina. I’ll always love you.”
“I love you, too.”
His fingers dug into her hips to keep her from moving. “But?”
“I need to think about it.”
The disappointment registered in his expression for an instant before he rallied and surged into her, stealing the breath from her lungs. “You do all the thinking you need to do. In the meantime, I’ll keep you entertained until you decide.”
With him moving inside her, it was hard to think about anything other than how badly she wanted to feel this way every day for the rest of her life.
This, Tiffany decided as she dragged herself to the store, must be what it was like to get hit by a truck. The worst of the flu symptoms were gone, but her body ached from being sick and from having sex with Blaine for half the night. What did it say about her that even when stricken with the flu, she couldn’t keep her hands off that man?
She hung out the Open flag and pulled out a mannequin dressed in a see-through teddy with matching black panties to the sidewalk. As she went about her opening routine, her mind wandered to Blaine and the evening they’d spent together. When she thought about the things they’d done… Even the owner of a shop like hers could still be embarrassed, remembering being face down on top of him with her bottom and other important parts right in his face. And the stuff he’d done!
A flash of heat tingled between her legs, making her shudder from the impact. She couldn’t wait to do it all again.
Her cell phone rang, and she took the call from Dan. “Please tell me you have good news.”
“I have good news.”
The din of voices in the background made it hard to hear him. “What’s all that racket?”
“Oh, sorry, I’m sailing today with a bunch of very loud guys who’ve been razzing me about working when I’m supposed to be helping them. I wanted to let you know I called your landlord this morning, and he’s willing to accept a new check, provided this doesn’t happen again.”
“It won’t,” Tiffany said. “I promise.”
“That’s what I told him.”
“I can’t thank you enough for this.”
“The landlord told me it was Jim’s idea to begin eviction proceedings.”