Sea of Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens, Book 4) Contemporary Romance

by Melissa Foster

  Dane sat on the bed and pulled Lacy onto his lap. She ran her finger along the dark, sexy stubble that speckled his cheeks.

  “It doesn’t matter if we have a day, a week, or a year together, Dane. Whatever’s possible, I want it. All of it. Every scary, risky second of it.”

  “Oh, Lace, so do I.” He brought his lips to hers and kissed her gently. “I’m afraid I’ll hurt you,” he said.

  “I’m okay, just sore. I still can’t believe you’re here. This last week has been like a nightmare.”

  “No more nightmares, Lace. Not ever.”

  “My eyes are open. I know the risks of being with you, and I know the way it feels not to be with you. I’ll take the risks any day of the week,” she said.

  “I had two hours to think on the way over here, and I want you to know that I don’t expect you to give up your job. I’ll work my schedule around yours, and if you want us to be together every other week, then we’ll make it happen. My job matters, Lace, but without you, nothing has much meaning.”

  “I’ve had a lot of time to think, too. I don’t want visits every other week. After spending every day with you and then being yanked apart, I know how it would feel to be separated, and it’s not a feeling I want to experience again,” she said. “I want…”

  “What are you asking?”

  “I’m not asking, Dane. I’m offering. If the friendship proposal still stands, I would like to accept it,” she said with a smile.

  He searched her eyes, and she knew he was searching for surety.

  “I’m certain, Dane. I want to be your friend-with-benefits.” I want to be so much more.

  He pulled her to him.

  “Ouch, ouch, ouch.”

  “I’m sorry. Oh, Lace, you’ve just made me the happiest guy on earth. But I want more than friends-with-benefits. Can’t you at least be my girlfriend?”

  The sparkle in his eyes told her he was teasing. She kissed his lips. “I suppose I can do that.”

  “I almost forgot.” He lifted Lacy up and set her on the bed beside him. “I’ll be right back.” Lacy listened as he crossed the floor and went out the front door, then returned a minute later and sat beside her.

  “It occurred to me when we were in Wellfleet that you really are my shining light, Lacy. I love you and I wanted to give you something so you would always remember our first night together.”

  “Do you really think I’d ever forget our first night together?”

  He handed her an eight-by-ten envelope. She withdrew a certificate from the International Star Registry, and as she read it, she ran her finger over the embossed gold star at the top.

  Her eyes filled with tears. “You named a star after me?”

  “The Lacy Star.”

  “This is the most romantic, thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me. Oh, Dane, I love it.” Lacy leaned over too quickly to kiss him again and winced.

  Dane took her face in his hands and met her lips with his in a soft, tender kiss. “You need a warm bath and someone to love you until you feel better. I’ll run the tub; you relax for a minute.”

  She watched him walk into the bathroom. Into my bathroom. She’d dreamed of him being in her apartment for so many months, and now that he was there, she realized she never could have dreamed how right it felt.

  LACY RESTED HER head against Dane’s chest. Bubbles surrounded them like clouds that had fallen to the bathtub from heaven. Dane closed his eyes, relishing in the weight of her against him, the feel of the silky skin of her legs against his.

  “I could lie here all night,” Lacy whispered.

  “Mmm.” Dane nuzzled against her neck. “I don’t care where we lie as long as we’re together.”

  “Thank you for coming here,” Lacy said.

  Dane lifted his head, gathered her hair, and laid it on her other shoulder. He kissed her glistening skin. “Lace, I tried to do the right thing. I wanted to protect you, but I never wanted to be without you. This whole being-in-love thing is new to me, and I’ll probably make mistakes, but there are two I’ll never make. I’ll never be unfaithful, and I’ll never ask you to leave again.” He cupped water in his hands and released it on her shoulders, watching it ride the curve of her breasts, then disappear into the bubbles.

  “I know.” She traced circles on his thigh. “I’m learning, too, about you and me and about us. I knew how close we had become after Nassau, but it was all one-step removed—always through electronics. This.” She wrapped her arms around his thighs. “Being here with you, spending those days together on the Cape, it’s like you crept into my chest and sank into my heart. And when we were apart, I felt like you’d left this big, painful hole inside me. I can’t imagine life without you.”

  Dane wrapped his arms around her waist and laid his head on her shoulder blade. “You’ll never have to.” He was careful not to hold her too tightly or move too suddenly. He worried about her pain from the accident, but every ounce of him wanted to love her. His hands moved up her belly until they skimmed the underside of her breasts. She rested her head against him and closed her eyes. Dane cupped her breasts gently, finding her taut peaks with the pads of his thumbs. Lacy sucked in a breath, and that little sound, that acceptance of his touch, brought a rise between his legs. He ran one hand down her belly to the crease between her thigh and followed it to her center. Lacy arched into his hand, and Dane stroked her, finding the swollen, sensitive area that he knew would send her over the edge and lovingly touched her, softly at first. She moaned and turned her head to the side, leaving the milky skin of her neck exposed, perfectly poised for Dane to lower his mouth and kiss, then lick. Lacy grabbed his hand beneath the water, nudging his fingers inside her, and at the same time, Dane opened his mouth and took her neck in a passionate hold between his teeth. He ran his tongue along her skin, nipping as he went. Her body trembled against him.

  “Dane,” she whispered. Her legs tightened, her hand grasped his wrist, and when she tried to say his name again, it came out as a demand. “Dane!”

  He drew her face toward him and took her in a deep, insatiable kiss. He breathed air into her lungs as an orgasm seized her, swallowing her moans, feeling the needy thrust of her hips against his hand and feeling the thump, thump, thump of her heart against his chest. He stoked her until the tightening in her thighs eased and she released a gratified breath. He moved his hand from her breast. A little cry filled with disappointment escaped her lips, and when he pulled his fingers from her, she sucked in another breath. His own need for her heightened by the second, but he held back.

  “I’m trying to be gentle. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  She kissed the inside of his biceps. “You don’t have to be.”

  “You are so beautiful, Lace,” he whispered. “Everything about the way you love is graceful.”

  She kissed the underside of his chin, then shifted her body, exposing his eager erection. She wrapped her slender fingers around him, and Dane groaned. Her hand felt so good. She held him tight and stroked him as she kissed his neck, trailing kisses down his chest to his nipple. The sensation of her teeth grazing that sensitive skin and the strength of her hand inflamed Dane’s already ravenous desire. His hands found her waist, and he lifted her onto him in one quick, gentle movement. She grabbed his shoulders as he slid between her swollen folds and fed his need. Lacy’s blue eyes were dark and covetous as she rode him with the help of his strong hands on her thighs, matching his rhythm. She lowered her mouth to his, and Dane moved his tongue along the furrows of her sweet mouth, his release building more with each flick of her delicious tongue against his. He pulled back from the kiss only out of need to look into her bewitching eyes as he came. A smile crept across her lips. Her eyes bloomed wide, then narrowed as she reached behind her and cupped his balls. Dane threw his head back with gritted teeth and groaned as the orgasm clutched him. Lacy kept up their sensual pace.

  “My God, Lace. You feel so good.”

  She took his cheeks in her hands a
nd lowered her mouth to his, forcing all that clenched energy down below in one frenetic thrust after another, as she ravished his mouth with hers, then drew away slowly with one last lick of his lower lip.

  “You don’t feel so bad yourself,” she said, then kissed him again.

  Dane wrapped his arms around her and gently pressed her to him. “I love you, Lacy Snow, and I will never let you go again.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Four weeks later…

  DANE LAY BACK with his iPhone in his hand. The bed rocked with the gentle caress of the Atlantic Ocean. The sun-kissed skin between the open buttons of his dress shirt gleamed in the flickering light of the candle on the bedside table. He read the message on his screen. Lacy wants to FaceTime. The excitement of seeing Lacy hadn’t dimmed one iota. If anything, the desire to see her grew with every call, every wink. He accepted the request and was met with her lust-filled blue eyes, her wayward curls framing her face. She’d never looked so pretty.

  “There’s my beautiful friend-with-benefits.”

  “Just one push of a button away,” she teased. “I miss you.”

  “How much?” he asked.

  Lacy looked behind her, then back into the phone. “I can’t show you how much right now, but I think you can conjure up an image in your mind.”

  “Mmm. Yes, I think I can, of your naked body beneath—”

  “Hush,” she said, shooting a look behind her again. She sighed. “When are you coming?”

  “You’re not here. How can I?”

  “You’re such a pig,” she teased. “Seriously, I’ve been waiting for you forever. Don’t make me wait too much longer.” She blew him a kiss, and Dane saw a male hand cover the spaghetti strap that rode her bare shoulder. “I gotta go.” The screen went blank.

  An ache of longing ran through his chest. Every minute away from Lacy felt like an eternity. He rose and looked at the framed certificate beside the bed from the International Star Registry. The Lacy Star. Dane hadn’t even realized a person could name a star, but leave it to Treat, master of romance, to clue him in. God, I love her, and I’m so lucky that she loves me. Dane pushed the jealousy aside and went to the closet. Before reaching for his jacket, he ran his fingers over Lacy’s clothes. They’d had to make a few changes to the closet setup to fit her clothing, and now Dane couldn’t remember what the closet had looked like before she’d moved in. It was like she’d always been there, or maybe he’d just always been waiting for her to come into his life. He laid his jacket on the bed and went to brush his teeth. Seeing her toothbrush next to his still gave him a warm feeling.

  He passed through the galley and reached out to touch the metal fish on the wall, remembering Lacy’s sweet face when she’d said she could almost feel them breathing. The way that night had ended was something that at one time Dane had wished he could forget. He’d slowly come to realize that they’d made it through. We made it through. They’d gone back to Wellfleet and purchased the sculpture and all those tiny fleeing fish as a way to remember that no matter what they encountered, their love would pull them through.

  Up on the deck, he spotted her with Rob and Sheila, each holding a glass of ice water. Dane was pleased that Rob had pulled himself together and fully recovered from his accident. He would be attending AA meetings for a long time to come, and Dane was proud of him. Lacy stood with a drink in one hand and tossed her head back. Her feminine laughter filled the night air. His father approached her from behind and laid his arm across her shoulder, as if she’d always been part of the family. Savannah and Hugh sidled up to him.

  “I don’t know how you convinced her to leave her job and move onto a boat,” Savannah said.

  “She didn’t really leave her job. She’s still working for World Geographic. She’s just working remotely. The great thing is, Fred gave her the promotion she was after, so she calls the shots on which companies she works with,” Dane explained.

  Savannah had a drink in one hand and she put her other around Dane’s waist. “I’m so jealous. All of my brothers are finding their soul mates, and I’m floating around wondering when my time will come.”

  “Hey, I’m not biting the couple bullet,” Hugh said. He held his drink up in Lacy’s direction. “She’s a good egg, Dane, and boy, is she head over heels for you. It must be that shark hunting thing women love.”

  “I think that’s the least of what she likes about me,” Dane said. He took a sip of Savannah’s drink. “Savannah, it’s like Dad said to me. You’ll know you’ve found the right person when your heart can’t live without them.”

  “Well, my heart is thirsty, and New York feels like a desert of dry, egotistical men.” Savannah retrieved her drink from Dane’s hand. “Don’t mind me. I just need a vacation or something.”

  “What about Connor Dean?” Hugh asked.

  “Please.” She rolled her eyes.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I know Rob and Sheila will start their renewal vows soon, and I want to have a minute with Lacy.” Dane made a beeline for Lacy.

  “That dress is truly sinful,” Dane said, running his hand along the curve of her hip.

  “Behave.” She giggled. A flush rushed up her cheeks.

  “Son, have you noticed that every time you get near your sweet gal, she gets all flustered?” his father teased.

  Dane kissed Lacy’s cheek. “I hope that never changes.”

  His father took his arm from Lacy’s shoulder and raised his glass. “Before Rob and Sheila begin their ceremony, I just want to say that y’all have been a part of our lives for ten years—a good part of our lives and a tremendous part of Dane’s—and I hope that will continue for years to come.”

  “Thank you, Hal,” Rob said. “Actually”—he took Sheila’s hand in his—“We’ve made a decision. We’re going to accept Dane’s offer, and I’ll remain with Brave. I’ll run the boat for Dane when he’s closer to home, or gone for only a few days, and when he’s out longer, I’ll run the office. Brave has been too big a part of my life to leave it behind and, Dane, how could I leave the brother my mother could never give me?”

  Dane lifted his glass. “And the run continues. Love you, bro.” Then he whispered in Lacy’s ear, “And our run has just begun.”

  The End

  Please enjoy a preview of the next

  Love in Bloom novel

  Bursting With Love

  The Bradens, Book Five

  Love in Bloom Series

  Melissa Foster

  Chapter One

  THE ENGINE OF the small bush plane echoed in Savannah Braden’s ears as they flew past the edge of a colorful forest and began their rapid descent into the Colorado Mountains. September didn’t get much prettier than the bursts of red, orange, yellow, and green foliage that were quickly coming into focus. The plane veered to the right and then cut left at a fast speed, shifting Savannah and the other five passengers in their seats. Savannah clung to the armrest and looked out the window as the dirt landing strip came into view. The too-short landing strip. She’d been flying her whole life, and never had she seen such a short landing strip. Great. I’m gonna die before I even get to clear my head. She hadn’t seen the pilot’s face before takeoff, and now all she could make out was the back of his wavy brown hair, thick headphones over his ears, and a black T-shirt stretched tight over burly shoulders. She wondered what the man who was going to kill her looked like—and why the hell he thought he could land on a freaking Band-Aid–sized landing strip.

  The couple in the seats across from her appeared far too calm in their hemp clothing and scuffed boots. They’d introduced themselves as Elizabeth and Lou Merriman, and they were traveling with their six-year-old son, Aiden. They seemed pleasant enough, but Savannah couldn’t help staring at the reddish brown dreadlocks that hung past their shoulders, as if it weren’t hair at all but thick, clumpy strands of the same prickly rope her father used back home on his ranch in Weston, Colorado.

  “Do you mind?”

  “Oh, sor
ry,” Savannah said, pulling her clenched fingers from the armrest that separated her from the younger, sullen man next to her with his tuque pulled down low and his shoulders rounded forward. He hadn’t said two words to her the whole flight, and she wondered if he was escaping civility and had sworn off the opposite sex, too.

  Savannah’s emotions were fried after finding her on-again off-again celebrity boyfriend, Connor Dean, in bed with another woman—again. Her eyes stung as she remembered the evening their relationship had come to a stormy end. A final end. On the recommendation of an article she’d read about how to reclaim one’s life after a breakup, she’d taken Friday off from work to go on this damn four-day survival retreat that the article touted as The best way to regain your confidence and reprioritize your life! The timing had been perfect. There was no way she was ever going back to Connor, and in order to accomplish that, she had to get the hell out of Manhattan. Connor was just charming enough to make her forget that she deserved more than a guy who still acted like a high school jock, always looking for the next good lay.

  The plane descended rapidly, and Savannah pulled her seat belt tighter across her hips and closed her eyes. She felt her stomach flip and twist as the engines rumbled in agony. Then the wheels of the plane made contact with the dirt and the brakes screeched, sending her forward, then slamming her back against the seat.

  “Shit!” Savannah’s eyes flew open. Everyone looked at her: the granola couple and their young son, and of course attitude boy sitting next to her. Everyone except Josie, the young woman who sat across the aisle behind Elizabeth and Lou. She had her eyes clenched shut and was white-knuckling the armrest. I should have sat next to her.