Rebel in a Small Town

by Kristina Knight

  He was hard, but when her hand went around him, he felt himself harden even more. Her thumb found the small opening at the tip of his shaft and caressed gently.

  “You have no idea what you’re doing to me right now,” he said, trying to hold it together so that this moment on the beach wasn’t over too quickly.

  She chuckled in the darkness. “Are you sure about that?”

  “Not even remotely sure,” he said, and then she took him in her mouth and James thought he might lose it. Her tongue replaced her finger, toying with his tip for a breathtaking moment. And then she was placing light kisses along his length, teasing him gently with her teeth. Her mouth on him was hot, the water at their feet hot. Hell, the whole damn beach felt like it might combust from their heat, and still he wanted more.

  He loved the feel of her mouth on him, but he wanted his mouth on her. Wanted to give to her as much as she gave to him. With his hand still buried in her hair, he urged her back up, before flipping her onto her back.

  “Was this all part of the plan?” she asked. “Invite me to a barbecue, have some kind of mind-reading conversation with my grandmother so that we’re childless for a few hours and have your way with me?”

  James grinned. “I already told you it wasn’t.”

  “Ah, but you were always the responsible one, and even if you have a condom hidden away in a treasure box under the sand, this is still not the most responsible move either of us has made. Maybe, in addition to irresponsibility, you’ve turned into a liar.”

  “And what if I have turned into the biggest liar in Slippery Rock, Missouri?”

  She put her hand in his. “Then I guess I’ll just have to reform you.”

  “Oh, reform school sounds like fun.” James pushed his knee between her thighs, and then tugged the strings of her bikini top, flicking it aside so he could look at her. Just look. With his index finger, he traced the swell of her breast, and felt her belly tremble against his. He drew a slow circle around the tight areola, liking the pebbly feel of this part of her. And then he dipped his head to place a feather-light kiss on her breast. “You could wear a nun’s habit or a Catholic schoolgirl outfit and smack my ass with a ruler.”

  Mara laughed, the sound musical in the still night. “You’ve turned kinky over the past two years. I’m not sure I like this side of you.”

  “You’re going to love this side of me,” he said, his tongue nearly tripping over the word love. This wasn’t about love. It was about lust. Lust and attraction and chemistry and having Mara in his life one more time. James had no idea what happened when the job with Mallard’s was over; he didn’t know how custody would work or visitation or any of the rest of it. He just knew that if he had only a couple more weeks with Mara, he was going to make the most of them.

  “James,” she said, the word echoing breathlessly in his mind. She traced her hands over his face, as if she could see him despite the dark night. “I’ve missed you. So much.”

  He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose and then her mouth. “I’ve missed you, too,” he said. He kissed down her neck, liking the erratic feel of her pulse beneath his lips. Felt her body tighten when he traced the contour of her collarbone with his tongue.

  He couldn’t tell what she wanted if he didn’t have contact with her big blue eyes, even the disjointed contact skewed by moonlight. He needed to look into those eyes, into her, to make sure he was what she wanted. So he made himself stop kissing her, just for a minute.

  “What is it that you want, Mar?”

  “For the next couple weeks, until the job with Mallard’s is over, I want everything. Something has been building between us for a long time, and it scared me. So much that I walked away and I kept walking until I couldn’t any longer. The tornado, the therapy, the...missing you. All of those things worked together until coming back here seemed like the most natural thing I could do. I don’t know where this leads, and I don’t want either of us to get hurt, but I don’t want to be alone. Not anymore.”

  “I don’t want to be alone, either,” he said, and although he wanted to add more to that thought, he stopped. This wasn’t the moment, not yet. They both needed time to think about what they wanted, and maybe releasing some of the heat between them would help them come to a decision. Still, he had to give her one more out. “No matter what happens, I’ll still be there for Zeke. I’ll still be your friend. And I’ll drive you home now if you want.”

  “I think that kiss kind of blew friendship right out of the water,” she said. “And I always hoped you would be here for Zeke, from the beginning. Maybe it’s the holiday. Maybe it’s being back here that makes me want to be the rebel again—and, yes, sleeping with the sheriff is a rebel thing to do for a girl like me—but I don’t want you to drive me home.”

  “I don’t want to drive you home.”

  “Then don’t.”

  “Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

  Mara pressed her mouth to his, and none of the questions about the future that were still circling his mind seemed to matter.

  “You will always be my best friend. Maybe, for a few days, we can see if there is something more.”

  “You’re sure about this?”

  She nodded. James’s heart beat a little faster in his chest.

  “You threw caution to the wind on the lawn chairs a while ago. Stop trying to get it back.”

  In the dark, he found the thin triangle of fabric covering her center and pulled it over her hips. He found the bundle of nerves hidden behind the lips of her vagina with his thumb and flicked gently. Her body tensed, and he felt her nails score his back. James sucked her nipple into his mouth, alternately teasing the tight bud and then soothing it with his tongue.

  This wasn’t enough. Touching her, feeling her body tense because of his hands wasn’t enough. He wanted to be inside her. He wanted to feel her fall apart around him, and then he wanted to fall apart, too.

  “I don’t have protection,” he said, his voice muffled as he tried to speak and kiss at the same time.

  “What?”

  “We need to go inside. I don’t have protection on the beach.” How they were going to make it inside the house he had no idea. He wasn’t sure he could walk at this point, much less get Mara inside, too.

  “I’m on the pill.”

  “You were on the pill and I used a condom in Nashville. And look where that got us.”

  She pressed a kiss to his chest. “I’m also not ovulating, and I’m not going to ovulate for at least another eight days.”

  “You know your ovulation cycle?” He leaned his weight on his elbow, while his free hand continued to tease its way across her abdomen, playing with the sensitive spot at her hip, and coming within a centimeter of her core. Mara shivered.

  “Having a child, especially an unexpected child, teaches you things.” She pressed another kiss to his chest. “I don’t want to go inside, James. I don’t want to wait. I just want you. We’re safe this time. I swear.”

  That was all he needed to hear. Mara wasn’t a reckless woman. She was smart and careful. Besides he didn’t think he could make it inside the house and up the stairs to his box of condoms, either.

  James positioned himself over her, found her opening with his length and pressed inside.

  She was warm and wet and velvety and hugged his length like a second skin. James found the rhythm he wanted, and Mara followed, her hands hot at his shoulders, and her legs tight around his waist.

  Her body tightened around him, and her back bowed before he felt her go boneless beneath him. A sated smile spread across her face, and James followed her into oblivion.

  * * *

  MARA KEPT HER arms and legs wrapped around James in the darkness, not wanting to let the moment end. James kissed her collarbone, then rested his head beside he
rs. He eased from her body, rolling onto his back, but keeping her pressed firmly to his side. Before she could figure out what to say to him, she heard his soft snores beside her.

  How could he sleep at a time like this?

  Gradually her heartbeat slowed, and she pressed her hand to her heart. She could hear the night birds calling from the trees high above. In the distance, cars drove along the road that led out of Slippery Rock. Mara closed her eyes, willing the emotions washing over her to go away.

  She opened her eyes, but nothing had changed. Her hand tremored against her chest, she felt tears welling in her eyes, and fear warred with the feeling of contentment that hadn’t lasted nearly long enough.

  She didn’t want to leave. Not just his home, and not just tonight.

  Mara bit her lip, listening to the gentle waves brush against the sandy shore. She didn’t want to leave, at all.

  “I want to stay,” she whispered into the night. No one answered. James shifted slightly beside her, as if he might pull her body inside his while he slept.

  She wanted to stay.

  To forget her past and his future and just be with James. To raise their son together. To have barbecues with both their families and all their friends, and to make love with him after in the quiet of this beach, of their bedroom.

  She wanted to wake up on a Sunday morning knowing she didn’t have to pack her bags for a new assignment in a new city, and that scared her. Most of her adult life had been spent keeping herself intentionally apart from friends, from her family. Because if she didn’t depend on anyone, no one could hurt her.

  And then she’d had to go and fall in love with James Calhoun. Not once, but twice.

  Cicadas buzzed in the yard, and somewhere in the distance a car door slammed. In the sky, stars twinkled as the smoke from the fireworks show finally dissipated. These were ordinary sounds, ordinary sights. Things she’d heard all of her life, on a thousand different nights.

  Somehow, though, she knew nothing would ever be the same.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  JAMES THOUGHT HIS body might combust beside Mara’s. Which was ridiculous since he’d just combusted inside her.

  He took off the condom and dropped it in the trash can beside the bed.

  The two of them had dozed on the beach for a little while before making their way inside to make love in his shower as they cleaned the lake water and sand from their bodies.

  A few minutes ago her hand on his hard length woke him from a dead sleep. And he didn’t care.

  Her breasts were as perfect in his mouth as he remembered. Her skin as soft under his hands. The muscles of her belly still shivered when he brushed his palm over her hip bone, and although the curve of her hip was wider and her belly was more rounded than he remembered, he didn’t think he had ever seen a woman as stunning as Mara Tyler. The curve of her hips, the rounded area of her belly were results of her carrying his child. He was in awe of that.

  She sighed beside him, her breasts pressing against his side. This was what he’d been missing. Not just the sex, but the closeness.

  Mara knew things about him that no one else knew, and not only the events of graduation night. She knew how much he wanted to continue the Calhoun legacy in town, knew how much he’d hated playing football. He traced his fingertips over her hip and felt her shiver against him. Her fingertips drew shapes over his chest.

  “I should drive you home.”

  “I know,” she said, but didn’t make a move to separate her body from his.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  She was quiet for a long moment. Her breathing grew deeper, and her hand stilled against his chest. James thought she might have drifted off to sleep. He closed his eyes. There was plenty of time to drive to the orchard. According to the book Mara gave him, as well as Gladys’s insistence, the little boy would sleep through the night. The clock on his bedside table said they had at least a couple of more hours, and he intended to spend every moment of them with Mara in his arms.

  “I was thinking that I wish I hadn’t waited two years to come back home,” she said.

  James’s eyes snapped open, and he twisted her hair around his hand, holding her in place. Beyond that he didn’t dare move, wondering if he’d heard correctly. Moments passed. Then she sighed, and her body relaxed against his. She made the soft sound that he remembered, the one that signaled she had fallen asleep.

  “I wish I’d followed you to wherever it was you went,” he said to the dark room. Then he closed his eyes and slept.

  * * *

  SUNLIGHT TRICKLED THROUGH the open window, teasing James’s eyes open. He glanced at the clock. Just after six. He should wake Mara. He flipped over on the bed, but she wasn’t there. He sat up, looked around. No sign of the red bikini, no sign of her.

  He got out of bed, pulled his still damp shorts from the night before over his hips and wiped a hand over his eyes.

  Gone. Again.

  Damn it, why did he keep making the same mistakes with her?

  He checked the bathroom, but it was empty. Padded downstairs, but there was no sign of her in the living room or the kitchen. There was, however, fresh coffee in the pot on the counter. He poured a mug and stepped onto the deck.

  Mara stood at the water’s edge, the tank and capris from the day before covering her body. Relief washed over him. Not gone in the night, then. Not gone at all. Just not in his bed.

  He could live with that.

  Slipping his feet in the flip-flops he’d left in the grass the night before, James started across the yard.

  “Good morning,” he said when he reached her side.

  “Hi.” She sipped from her own mug of coffee, watching the gray sky as it shifted to pink in the distance.

  “Want me to drive you home?”

  She nodded, and the fact that she wasn’t talking made him cold despite the warm morning.

  They were outside the city limits, his Jeep eating up the miles between Slippery Rock and Tyler Orchard too fast for his liking. He glanced at her, but couldn’t read her expression. He thought he caught a bit of regret in her eyes, but her feet tapped along to the happy song on the radio.

  He slowed as he neared the driveway to the orchard. Mara put her hand on his and said, “Stop.”

  James pulled the Jeep to the side of the drive and waited.

  “I’m not sorry about last night.”

  “Neither am I.” He was only sorry he hadn’t made a move sooner, because if he had just a few weeks to convince her to stay, he would need every second of every day to do it.

  “I’m not sorry about any of it,” she said. “Not the weekends we stole, not that we kept it only between us. Not any of it.”

  He wasn’t sure where she was going with this, but he thought he wasn’t going to like the ending.

  “I am sorry about one thing. I’m sorry I walked out in Nashville, and I’m sorry that it took me so long to tell you about Zeke.”

  “That’s two things.”

  She shook her head. “They’re linked. One doesn’t happen without the other. It just doesn’t.” James’s heart beat a little faster with that admission. Because if the two events were linked, it meant if she’d stayed in Nashville, she’d have stayed permanently. He could work with that knowledge.

  “You can’t keep apologizing for that.”

  “And you haven’t really gotten stupid-mad about it yet.”

  “I may not have made accusations.” He shrugged. “Besides, what’s the point in getting stupid-mad?”

  She shot him a confused look, that line forming between her eyebrows again. “The point is yelling, getting all those feelings out so they can be examined and dealt with.”

  “I can examine and deal with those emotions without the yelling or the accusing
or the fighting.” He’d never seen much point in either yelling or fighting. Making a case, being calm in the delivery—those were the things that got him what he wanted. What he wanted now was Mara, and he didn’t need to yell or fight to get her. He only needed to convince her that she wanted to be with him. Based on last night, he was more than halfway there.

  “You’re a better person than me, then.”

  “And that is a very good thing,” he said, teasing her. She smiled at that. “And we can’t keep going over the same details or we’ll never move forward. You walked out in Nashville. I got over it. You didn’t tell me about Zeke until now.” That was still sticky. He’d missed more than a year of his son’s life, and that hurt. “You did what you thought you had to do. I can deal with that.”

  She was quiet for a long moment. Then she opened her door. “Okay. I’ll walk the rest of the way, in case they’re all still sleeping.”

  “I think they know we spent the night together.”

  “Yeah.” She shrugged and got out of the vehicle. “Do you still want some company at darts tonight?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Then I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  She closed the door and started to walk up the drive. She turned at the little path that led around the house toward the plum orchard and the backyard. When the two of them and Collin were kids, how many times did they sneak into the kitchen to steal cookies using that path?

  He watched her until she was gone, then reversed out of the drive and turned onto the highway.

  Halfway there, he told himself. Just keep making your case.

  * * *

  MARA GATHERED HER hair in her hands and secured it to the top of her head with a red elastic. She sat in the security office of Mallard’s, making a few more adjustments to the new program she’d been writing for the place. Because the store was so small, the program was coming together more quickly than she’d imagined.