I grab her hand and walk her to the car. “We better get on the road or we won’t make it in time.”
*********************************
An hour later, I pull on to the dirt lane that leads to my family’s cabin. The ride started off quiet, but eventually, Wyn pulled out of her funk and started grilling me with questions about the surprise. Her earlier worries slipped away and I was left with the fun, caring girl that I know I’m starting to love.
I put the Challenger into park and get out and cross to Wyn’s door to help her out.
“Linc, this place is breath taking.” She says, turning in a slow circle to take the whole view in. And she’s right, this place is. I’ve been here hundreds of times with my family, but each time I stop to admire the view. A cozy log cabin sits at the end of the driveway with a deck that wraps around the entire house. To the right, you have a view of the mountains. To the left and back, you can see the dark blue waters of the lake with more mountains in the background. But tonight, I don’t take in the glory that is barely touched nature; I watch Wyn and her reaction to one of my favorite places.
She completes her circle right in front of me and the smile that’s lighting up her face makes the days I spent planning and the hour I spent driving us here, completely worth it.
I hold out my arm for her to take as I ask, “Ready to see the inside?”
“We better or I might freeze in this dress.” She laughs as she takes my arm. She had to bring my mind back to that dress. Damn! The only thing I can see of it is a hint of black lace showing from beneath her coat. But if how much leg is showing is any indication, it’s short and sexy as hell. I’m trying to be a gentleman, but that mystery dress is going to make my goal near impossible to complete.
“Well, that’s the last thing I want to happen. But if it does, I’ll gladly warm you up.” I say as I guide her into the cabin, kicking the door shut behind us, and pulling her to my chest. Placing a gentle kiss to her lips, I confess. “I’ve missed not seeing you every day.”
“Me too. Thankfully, school starts back in a few days and we’ll be able to see each other more.”
“Who would’ve known we’d be thankful for Christmas break to be over?” I chuckle. Taking a step back, I say. “Here, let me help you with your coat.”
She turns her back to me as she unbuttons the coat, slowly sliding it down her shoulders and revealing the see-through, black lace covering her right shoulder and the bare skin of her left. Her curls have been twisted into some intricate design so they’re off her shoulders, except for a few that have worked their way loose. Those loose ones are like arrows, drawing my attention to the soft exposed skin below. I pull myself together and help her take the coat the rest of the way off and hang it on the coat rack by the door. I take a deep breath in an attempt to control myself before I turn around to see the whole dress, but no amount of deep breaths would’ve prepared me for the sight that meets my eyes when I turn back to face her.
The black lace clings to every perfect inch of her delicately, curved body. The lace sleeve on her right arm starts right above her elbow and reaches the top of her shoulder before it slices at an angle across her chest. The material is completely sheer until it hits a satiny material that lies underneath the lace at her chest and stretches down to the top of her thighs. The lace continues a few inches below the satin material. Her long, bare legs take over from there, stretching on for what seems like miles before you hit the delicate material of her black lace heels. I have no clue how anyone can walk in shoes that tall, but she does. And somehow, she does it gracefully.
My eyes trail back up her body and I stop at the neckline of her dress where I notice the four leaf clover charm. “You wore it.”
Her fingers lift to touch the fragile charm and she smiles at me. “I haven’t taken it off.”
I lift the dog tags out from underneath my button up shirt. “Neither have I.”
She sucks in the corner of her lip and releases it before asking. “Are you going to show me around, or are we going to stand in the doorway all night?”
I take her hand in mine and tell her honestly. “Sorry, that dress distracted me from the surprise.”
She giggles at my honesty and follows me towards the back of the house where the great room is located. The back wall of the house is made up of nothing but windows that show off the view of the lake and mountains. To the right side of the room is a huge stone fireplace that already has a fire roaring in its hearth. Directly in front of the fireplace, like I planned, is a table set for two: white linen table cloth, a bouquet of white roses in a vase at the center flanked by lit white pillar candles, and real silverware wrapped in cloth napkins.
Wyn releases my hand and crosses to the table. She runs one manicured finger along the table cloth, and then lifts it to touch the petal of one of the roses. Turning to look at me over her shoulder, she asks. “How did you do all of this?”
“I’ll never reveal my secrets.” I say as I join her by the table and pull out her seat.
“I have ways of getting even the strongest man to reveal his secrets.” She teases, taking the offered seat.
“Try your best.” I lean in and whisper close to her ear. The light hint of her perfume hits my nose and takes over my senses. It smells of blackberry with a little bit of vanilla mixed in.
Good god!
This girl smells like berry cobbler; my favorite freaking dessert!
She’s making it hard to be a gentleman, wearing that dress and smelling like that. I want to peel the lace from her body and lick every inch of her to see if she tastes as sweet as she smells.
Dammit! I have to get my head straight.
“Umm…I’m going to get our food from the kitchen. I’ll be right back.” I step away from her seat to put some distance between her and my inappropriate thoughts.
“Let me help.” She moves to get back up.
I hold up my hand and practically shout. “No!”
She stares at me, shocked by my outburst.
“I mean, you just relax. I’m at your beck and call tonight, so let me serve you.” I try to smooth over my mistake.
She eyes me cautiously, but nods in agreement. I move to the kitchen and as soon as I’m out of sight, I grab on to the edge of the counter and take a deep breath to clear my head.
“Come on, Linc. You need to keep your cool.” Easy enough, if my teenage hormones would stop going into overdrive at the sight and smell of my dream girl. If I keep this up, I’ll end up humping her perfectly, tanned leg like a horny, little lap dog before we can make it through the salad.
Chapter 10 – Wyn
~Make You Feel My Love~
As soon as Linc is out of sight, I get up and move over to the wall of windows that make up the back half of the house. I’m looking at the view, but I can’t stop myself from seeing an absurdly large diamond ring that’s hiding in my purse. I planned on telling him about the engagement tonight, but I can’t make myself ruin the evening he’s taken so much time to plan for us. I’ll wait till we’re back at school. Only a few more days of keeping this a secret and I’ll come clean.
Goodness!
What am I going to do? I don’t love Shay and I know I never will, just like I know I’m falling head over heels in love with Linc. How can I not fall for him though? He’s been nothing but sweet and understanding with me since the moment the counselor pushed us together. Most boys take one look at my over protective brothers and lose interest instantly, but not him. I think he’d fight them all if they tried to take me away.
Oh, heck!
They are going to take me away. Well, Shay’s going to take me away, in five very short months. I know it isn’t fair to put Linc through this, even if I’ve been up front with him about everything. But right now, I can’t stop myself from being selfish. I want to spend every moment I can with him until I’m forced to walk down that aisle. I know it’s not enough time to satisfy my need for Linc, but forever wouldn’t be enough either. So
I have to settle for what I have.
I’m going to need these memories to get me through a lifetime of being married to a man I don’t love.
The kitchen door opening pulls me out of my tormented thoughts and I spin around in time to watch Linc cross the room carrying two plates of salad. He went all out tonight, replacing his usual faded jeans with a pair of black dress pants, his normal white t-shirt is now covered by a light blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his usual pair of black boots finish the look, but I can tell they’ve been freshly scrubbed. Watching the way he moves, so sure and steady, knowing strength hides beneath those proper clothes, makes me wish I could slowly strip the clothes from his body and trace my fingers over each muscle until I have every inch of him memorized.
I look away to hide the heat that takes over my cheeks at my thoughts. When did I become such a hussy? I’m going against everything I’ve ever been taught. A good gypsy girl should never hold hands, kiss, or be alone with a boy. And she definitely shouldn’t be having the dirty thoughts I’m having about Linc right now. I’m a freaking hussy! A dirty freaking hussy!
I sneak a look back at Linc. He’s standing by the table, watching me as he pours the sparkling apple cider into our champagne glasses. I see the love he has for me clearly etched on his face. We haven’t said those words, but I know he does as surely as I know I love him.
He’s worth the tarnish to my good girl reputation.
I walk directly to him, take the bottle out of his hands and place it on the table. I take his face in my hands and pull his mouth down to mine. My tongue slides across the seam of his lips and he opens his mouth to offer me what I want. I slip into his mouth to join our two tongues together in a sensual dance. His hands grab my waist and pull me so we’re touching from hip to head. I feel every hard ridge of his body, and I do mean every hard inch. And still, I can’t make myself pull away. I want to stay connected to him like this forever, or the next five months. Or at the very least, all night.
He pulls back and I swear to God I whimper like a baby at the loss of his body against mine.
“How’d you know what I planned for dessert?” He asks, breaking through my sex clouded thoughts and making me laugh.
“I thought I was bringing the dessert.”
“Oh, you brought the dessert alright and it was…”
“Sweet.” I complete his sentence for him.
“I was going to say hot, but sweet works too.” He says around a grin, which happens to be ten times better than his drop you to your knees gorgeous smile because his lips are swollen from kissing me.
“What’s for dinner?” I ask as I change the subject, hoping dinner will rid my brain of the very bad thoughts I’m having about his lips.
“Salad first, then I have steak and roasted potatoes with asparagus. And even though your dessert was much better, we have sprinkle cupcakes to finish the meal.”
At the mention of sprinkle cupcakes, my eyes light up and I make an O face. Those little cakes of sugary goodness are my greatest weakness and better than any anti-depressant on the market.
“Can we start with dessert?”
********************************************
Ok, I was completely wrong about dinner stopping the dirty thoughts. If anything, it increased them by a trillion. We made it through the salad and main course fine, but as soon as he brought out those cupcakes, I was a goner. And I haven’t even touched my own! The first swipe of his tongue against the white icing froze me solid. Or I guess a better description would be, melted me to a puddle in my seat. Needless to say, it was hot! I ignore my own cloud of deliciousness to take in the sexy floor show that is Linc.
He takes his time licking the icing around the edge of the cupcake before he finally peels away the wrapper and takes that first, satisfying bite of the moist cake inside. A few crumbs stick to his bottom lip and his tongue darts out, making a painfully slow swipe to catch them.
OH.
MY.
GOD!
I wish I could be a cupcake. Ok, not any cupcake. I wish I could be Linc’s cupcake!
“Are you full?” Linc asks, drawing my eyes from his lips.
“What?”
“You haven’t touched your cupcake.” He states, trying to hide his grin. He so caught me ogling his lips.
Real smooth, Wyn, real freaking smooth!
I grab my cupcake and take my first bite to hide my embarrassment. As the sugary sweetness hits my taste buds, I let out a soft moan. “Oh my…….that’s so good. Did you make these or did you pick them up in heaven?”
“I’ll forward your compliments to my mom.” He says chuckling.
“I do believe you gave away one of your secrets, Mr. Tatman.” I grin around another bite of my dessert.
“And what secret did I give away?”
“Your mother fixed our dinner.” I say after swallowing another bite.
“Oh, I guess I did. I had to enlist her help or we’d be having frozen burritos and store bought cookies.” He explains as he picks up his apple cider to take a drink.
“You can give her my thanks. This was a perfect meal.” And a perfect night, but instead of saying that, I sit my now empty cupcake wrapper back on my plate and check out my fingers to make sure I didn’t miss any stray icing.
“I’m glad you liked it. She’ll be happy to hear it too.” He sets his glass down, picks up our dirty dessert plates, and carries them to the kitchen. On his way back in, he stops and turns on the stereo. The piano starts the song and then slowly, Adele’s voice fills the room singing the opening lines of “Make You Feel My Love”.
Standing in front of me, Linc holds out his hand. “Will you dance with me?”
I nod and take his hand. As soon as my feet are under me, he pulls me tight against him. My arms slide around his neck as his circle around my back. We sway together with our eyes locked, but by the second verse, my head is on his shoulder and he’s singing the words in my ear. And I know he chose this song on purpose. The words are his plea and promise to me wrapped up in one heart wrenching song. When he whispers the line “I know you haven’t made your mind up yet”, I want to tell him I have, because I know everything he’s trying to tell me with this song is the truth. He’d do anything to make me feel his love.
It’s not that simple and we both know it. But tonight, I’m going to force myself to forget the barrier keeping us apart so I can enjoy the memory he’s creating for us. Adele sings the last two lines and the song fades out. I pull my head from his shoulder so I can look into his eyes.
“I love you, Linc.” I quietly confess.
He searches my face and then his voice is full of hope as he whispers. “I love you too, Wyn.”
A loud boom breaks through the silence, causing me to jump. Linc chuckle as he guides me to the glass wall. He points at the sky above the tree line and says, “And that’s our final surprise of the night.”
“How?” I ask, admiring the firework display lighting up the sky.
“There’s a resort on the other side of the mountain. They always set off fireworks for the New Year.”
I turn my attention back to him and ask shocked. “It’s after midnight?” The night has gone by way to fast, but it always does when you’re with someone you love.
He looks down at his watch and then back at me. “It’s 12:01.”
I circle my arms around his waist and press my lips to his. Pulling back to look into his eyes, I smile and say. “Happy New Year.”
“Happy New Year, Wyn.” He whispers against my forehead before placing a kiss there. Circling his arms around my back, he holds me tight as we watch the rest of the fireworks light up the night sky.
January
Chapter 11 – Linc
~Kiss You Myself~
“What would you really like to do after school?” Wyn and I are sitting with our backs to the arms of the couch, feet on the cushion between us, facing each other. A large afghan is thrown over our legs.
We lost our shoes not long after Wyn helped me clean up the dishes from dinner. I told her she didn’t have to help, but she insisted and I, of course, gave in. I can’t deny her. She could ask for the moon and I’d work till the day I die trying to invent something to get it for her.
“I wish I could go to nursing school.” She replies, rubbing her cold feet against mine. She does it every time I ask her a question, like she needs to warm them or she can’t think straight. But I haven’t said a word about it because I’m enjoying this tiny way we’re staying connected.
“Have you tried to talk to your parents about it?”
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