In Full Force: Badges of Becker County
Page 35
Before she even finished that last sentence he was standing in front of her, the wariness in his expression giving way to a relief so profound, it made her dizzy.
“I’ve waited a long time to hear you say that again.” He caught her up against him and kissed her with an enthusiasm she had no trouble matching.
By the time Grady lifted his head, sweat dampened his neck and desire tugged at his eyelids. He rested his forehead against hers and stroked a finger over the bump on her nose.
“It’s been killing me, not getting to see you. Touch you. Hear you. I wanted to call so badly, but I thought maybe you needed the space. All bets were going to be off when I flew back to get Matt, though.”
“Yeah?”
“Hell, yeah.”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t have waited that long.”
“Thank God you didn’t.” He slid his hands under her sweater, smoothed his palms over her back and lowered his mouth to her neck. “Char?”
“Yeah?”
“Why do you smell like tuna?”
She huffed a laugh against his ear. “I’m wearing part of your dinner.”
“We should get you out of these dirty clothes.”
“I like the way you think.” Suddenly her eyes went liquid, and she latched onto his shirt as if her knees had disappeared. “I’m so sorry I put you through this.”
“We’ve been hard on each other. But, hey. We’ll figure it out.” He lifted his head and stared a promise. “We can stay in Becker County until you’re ready to leave the sheriff’s department. Then we can come back and give Seattle a try. Or Denver, or DC, or wherever you want to go.”
“We can’t yank Matt around. He needs stability.”
“He’ll have us. As long as we’re together, we can make any place our home.”
“I always envied you your escape, you know.”
Grady stilled. “Is that what I am to you? An escape?”
Charity framed his face with her hands. “You always have been. An escape from dishonesty and greed and addiction and loneliness and insecurity. You make me feel special. Like I matter. Like I can make a difference without even trying.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and scraped her teeth across his chin. “I love you.”
He palmed the backs of her thighs, lifted her up, and swung toward the hallway. “I love you, too.”
In his room at the end of the hall, Grady laid her on the bed and followed her down, elbows bracketing her head, hips settling between her open legs. He dipped his head, and she smiled.
“Did you hear about the man who joined a nudist colony?”
Grady urged her legs back up around his hips and spoke against her mouth. “Tell me.”
“The first day was his hardest.”
He chuckled as he worked her sweater up over her ribs and her bra up over her breasts. “I don’t know how I ever managed without you.” He shifted his hips against hers, rousing a hot, rippling need, rendering her breathless.
Her head fell back against the pillow. “Tell me something,” she gasped.
His murmur was incoherent. Understandable, considering his mouth was full of nipple. She gathered herself and rolled, pushing him onto his back. He snarled when the motion tugged her breast from between his lips. She straddled his hips, yanked her cardigan over her head and let her bra slide down her arms and off her hands. She planted her palms on his pecs and began to rock.
“What is it with men,” she panted, “always having to be on top?”
“No idea,” he groaned. Rearing up, he slid his hands down her back. He worked his fingers past the edge of her panties and squeezed her ass. “But they don’t know what they’re missing.”
Dear Reader
Here’s the part where I get to thank you VERY sincerely for reading IN FULL FORCE! I hope you enjoyed Charity and Grady’s story, and I appreciate that you chose to spend your valuable reading time on my book.
Would you like to help other readers find this book, and at the same time earn my eternal gratitude? Please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else that readers may visit. Reviews have a genuine impact on book discoverability and author income, and it would mean so much. Many thanks in advance!
You can check out my website for my latest romance fiction reviews for USA Today’s Happy Ever After blog, and for extra content like deleted scenes and to-die-for recipes. And don’t forget to visit my Facebook page—and if you feel so inclined, please give it a like while you’re there.
Oh, and keep an eye out this winter for Force of Nature, book #2 in the Badges of Becker County series!
Acknowledgements
Heartfelt gratitude goes to clever, generous, and super-talented writer friends Robin Allen, Toni Anderson, Carolyn Crane, Rachel Grant, and Jenn Stark, for encouraging me to give this self-publishing thing a whirl. You ladies are my kind of crazy. And I appreciate your story savvy, too—I can’t thank you enough for the Wisconsin plotting session!
Truly, I do not know what I would do without my critique partner Toni, and not just because every morning of that Wisconsin retreat she brought me a cup of Earl Grey. I appreciate her relentless support, her passion for writing, her amazing work ethic, and her mastery of story. Her British accent’s rather adorable, too.
About the Author
Kathy Altman writes contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and the occasional ode to chocolate. She’s also a regular contributor to USA Today’s Happy Ever After blog. She prefers her chocolate with nuts, her afternoons with wine, and her love stories with happy-ever-afters. Find Kathy online at www.kathyaltman.com. She’d love to hear from you!