She was perfect. Round heavy breasts, tipped in pebbled rose. Small waist, taut stomach, hipbones curvy, wide, leading down to the neatly trimmed hair covering her sex.
“You’re so beautiful, Maddie. I’m not sorry I’m the only man to have seen you like this. I ache for your broken heart, but right now, I can’t regret the circumstances that saved you for me.”
His gaze met and held hers. “You’re mine. All mine. Give me your heart—you won’t regret it, I promise.”
She smiled her surrender. “Then take me, I’m yours.”
At her words, he brought his hands to her face and framed her beauty. “No more doubts? I want you to be sure. This is forever, sweetheart.”
“Forever…”
It was all he needed to hear. Stealing her breath with his mouth, Gideon put an end to their long, lonely nights apart. Igniting the flame, building the fire, burning the past to ash. And still he wanted more.
Moaning with pure pleasure, his big, work-worn hands moved over her body, finding the core of her femininity, exploring her tight channel until the sounds coming from her throat signaled he’d found her pleasure center.
“Gideon,” she begged, and he answered. Grabbing a condom from the night table, he quickly covered himself. Her foot climbed up his leg, over his butt, and nestled in the hollow of his back.
He wanted to take his time, didn’t want to hurt her, but his body refused to cooperate. Filling her with one deep thrust, he forced himself to pause, letting her body adjust. Lost in the warm, silky feel of her closing around him. Paradise.
He felt her tighten, heard her whispered words of love, and began a wild ride to a place he’d never thought to find.
Her eyes closed, an expression of rapture blooming over her face. God, he loved watching her, the way her eyes widened, the way her skin blushed, her neck, her face, the way she lost herself in pleasure. And most of all, like now, the way her hands gripped his back as she went over the edge and his name poured from her lips as she came.
“Gideon!”
His name on her lips sealed their love, and for the longest time, they lay locked in a fierce embrace, their bodies fused and their hearts beating frantically. And time stood still.
****
Maddie woke to the sound of birds singing and cattle lowing.
“Good morning,” Gideon nuzzled her neck. “You okay?”
“Umm.”
He laughed. “Is that ‘umm’ yes or ‘umm’ no?”
Lifting her hand to stroke his silky hair, she smiled without saying another word.
Gideon rolled over and settled half of him on top of her. His weight anchored her—safe, secure, tingly, and all things good. The morning air felt cool on her naked chest, but the warm hand that palmed her breast chased the chill away.
His fingers played with her nipple, sending shivers over her skin. Tilting her chin with his forefinger, he lowered his mouth for a kiss. All night long they’d loved, dozed, loved again. Her body ached from him and for him, and she wondered at the calm assurance that she was right where she was intended to be.
Her leg tangled with his. “What you said last night—about not letting me go, what exactly did you mean?”
An enigmatic smile crossed his handsome face, and he reached across her to the nightstand and opened the drawer. It wasn’t a condom he pulled from its depths.
Her heart trilled like the wings of a hummingbird as the sun shining through the window sparkled on the stones of the ring Gideon held in his hand.
“This is what I meant.” He smiled. “It was my mother’s, and she would approve.”
“Bu-but we’re naked,” she sputtered. “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere romantic, on bended knee, someplace more…appropriate? Candles? Flowers? Music?”
“What could be more romantic than you and me together, on this beautiful morning, after having made love all night long, sealing that love with a ring and a promise? I love you, Maddie Mae Lowry, and I will for all eternity. Marry me and let me prove that love. I’ll never leave your side. I’ll devote my heart, my strength, and my hours to providing for you and our family. Give me the chance to be the once-in-a-lifetime man you deserve. Let me make your days happy and your nights burn. I’m a little battle-worn—I admit it. But I love you with everything in me, and what’s left of me is yours.”
Not waiting for her answer, he slid the ring onto her finger. Bringing her hand to his lips, he pressed a reverent kiss on the stone.
The ring was beautiful. She could only imagine how his mother—and hers—would feel about having the heirloom passed to Gideon’s intended. It felt right. Good. This was what she had waited for and dreamed of. She glanced up with a watery smile in her green eyes, fierce with passion.
His touch burned her, his love surrounded her, his promise obliterated all her doubts.
Naked or not, how could she say no?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
They showered, dressed, and had breakfast, and Gideon headed out to the barn.
Maddie had taken longer than usual getting dressed. For one thing, her body felt every muscle and then some—for another, she kept stopping to admire how enchanting her engagement ring appeared on her finger. The weight of it filled her heart with warmth, with indescribable joy. A symbol not only of his love but his claim. That it had belonged to Gideon’s mother made it precious in a way that a more modern ring would not.
Stopping by the barn, she took a few minutes to watch her husband-to-be. His strength was coming back. Zack and his Marine version of PT had added more muscle to his upper torso—not that he needed it. Her home-cooked food had added to his bulk. It looked good on him—really good. And the way he filled out those jeans…wow.
And he belonged to her.
All hers.
Day and night for years to come.
Coming up to him, she bumped his shoulder. “Hey.” He smiled and propped the rake against the stall door. “You needed something?”
“This.” She stood on tiptoe and pressed a soft kiss on his lips. His arm caught her to him, and he answered with a proper response that left them both panting.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to stop by the house and pack a few things, then head into town.”
Gideon’s smile widened, and he fingered her ring. “Stopping by Loretta’s, by any chance?”
“You know me so well,” she teased.
“Yeah, I do. But when you two girls start planning the wedding, keep one thing in mind.” His hand traveled down to her bottom, which he caressed and squeezed while a wicked grin tilted his mouth.
“What’s that?”
“We can do anything you want except for one thing.”
“And that is?” she asked with one brow sliding up on her face.
“You’ve got three months to make it happen,” he said emphatically.
“Three months? Afraid I’ll change my mind?”
“Don’t give me sass over this. By the holidays, you’re going to be my wife. No more waiting, no more playing around. Think you can manage that?”
Maddie didn’t want a reminder of her first attempt at the “perfect” wedding; short, sweet, and to the point was just fine with her, this go-round. “I think I can manage that without any trouble.” And this time, his kiss was long and deep and mouthwatering.
“Get on with you, then,” her groom-to-be growled as he popped her on the rear. She giggled. “Let Buddy and Russ do the heavy lifting.”
“There won’t be any heavy lifting—just a suitcase, for now. See you later.” She patted his chest as he grabbed the rake and leaned on it. Maddie could feel his eyes on her as she walked away, so she put a little extra wiggle in her walk for his enjoyment. The laughter that rang through the building prompted her to toss him a wave over her shoulder as she exited the barn. He sounded happy—he sounded well. He sounded like a man in love.
Pulling to a stop before her newly painted home, Maddie breathed in the familiar scents, overwhelmed with memories fro
m her childhood. Running barefoot through the summer grass, playing tag and, later, touch football with Harrison. Sitting on the front porch and rocking while they planned and dreamed of a future together. Planting beds of flowers in the stubborn earth and watering from a rusty can when the heat refused to allow a drop of moisture to fall. The laughter of her grandmother and Pap, loving, teasing, living life in all its goodness and fullness.
And then she saw him. Tall and beautiful and looking like a sports model. Harrison McCall in all his glory, staring at her from the front door of what had once been his second home. His gaze caught hers, joy lighting the creases from the corners of his eyes, morphing into wariness as he slowly descended the steps.
Maddie noted the creak of her truck’s door as she slid out and slammed it shut. Everything else was silent. Just her and Harrison, the man she’d thought she loved, the friend she missed.
Funny, she didn’t feel that old rush of excitement, the urgent desire to run to him and throw her arms around his shoulders. Or wrap her legs around his waist and smother him with kisses. The old Maddie would have done just that.
The new Maddie stood rooted to the ground and watched him with the realization that she loved him still. But with the love of one friend for another. The love of a woman who had shared a lifetime of experiences with a man she’d thought she loved, thought she’d wanted, but in reality cherished as something entirely different.
“I’ve missed you, Maddie,” he said, extending his arms, patiently and cautiously waiting.
A slow smile creased her face. “I’ve missed you, too, Harrison.” And then she ran to him, and hugged his shoulders…then stepped back, keeping his hands tucked firmly in her own.
“You’re not angry with me anymore?” Hesitation. Regret. Apology. All of it evident in every part of him.
“No,” she said softly. “I’m not angry. I’m sorry.”
At his puzzled frown, she led him to the porch and they sat side by side, as they had so many times past.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Maddie. I shouldn’t have let things go as far as they did with us. To tell you the truth, I fought who I was, what I felt, for months before the wedding. We’d planned our entire lives to be together, and a part of me wanted it to be real. I thought I could go through with it—for you—because I do love you. But in the end, I couldn’t. It was a shitty way to treat a woman who had done nothing wrong, only wanted me and loved me. I’m the one who’s sorry. Not you—never you.”
“It seems we both have a few things to apologize for, Harrison. The signs were there. I should have recognized them and given you a chance to explain. The only excuse I have to offer is my own stupidity. I never once considered that you didn’t feel the same way about me as I felt for you.”
“I have so many good memories of this place,” he said, as she nodded in agreement. “I think Pap suspected the difference in me, but he was too circumspect to call me on it. All he asked was that I take care of you and treat you well, as you deserve. In the end, I couldn’t even do that.”
“Stop.” She held up her hand, and it was then he spotted the ring on her finger.
Finally, a light gleamed in his eyes. “You’re engaged?”
Maddie grinned and thrust out her hand so he could inspect her ring. “Yes, just recently.”
Harrison kissed her hand. “God, I’m glad, Maddie. So glad you found someone to love. You do love him, don’t you? I couldn’t stand it if you married just to settle, or because you didn’t want to live alone.”
“No,” she assured him. “I love him—real love, this time, not blind infatuation. Not because it was expected or assumed. You know him—Gideon Branch.”
Harrison straightened, surprised. “The older brother? The war hero?”
Maddie grinned. “One and the same. Took us both by surprise, I think. I certainly wasn’t looking for love, but in spite of my best intentions, he got to me. And I’m glad he did. He’s a fantastic man, Harrison. Strong, capable, dependable.”
Harrison nodded, staring to the pastures beyond. “All kinds of love, Maddie. What we shared was just as real. I screwed up. Ruined us, and I’ll always regret that. A woman like you deserves better, but, as God is my witness, I loved you and love you still.”
Her turn to nod, digesting his words. Yeah, they loved each other, just not the way they’d planned. “It wasn’t all your fault, Harrison. I should have known, should have suspected.”
“No. Looking back, I see now that we were young, inexperienced, plunging headlong into a future we thought we wanted but hadn’t truly considered. I never dated anyone but you. It never occurred to me that I would love someone else.”
“Ditto.” She nodded.
“So…forgive me?” His brows drew together, with sadness, concern, hope—all three shining in the depths of his clear, blue eyes.
“Yeah—forgiven. If you’ll forgive me for the horrible things I said to you that day. There’s no excuse. A part of me will always love you. I suppose that’s inevitable, first love and all that. But I understand what happened, and now that I have Gideon, I wouldn’t want things to be any different.”
“Is he hot?”
Her head popped up, and he laughed as she socked his shoulder with her fist.
“Hey—hands off my man! Yeah, he’s hot—very hot, and totally into women.”
“Just my luck,” Harrison teased before a sober expression shadowed his face. Holding out his hand, palm up, Maddie hesitated for a fraction of a second before taking it and curling her fingers around his.
“I’m glad for you, Maddie,” her lifelong friend said, his voice low and thick. “You deserve the best. When’s the happy day?”
“Sometime around Christmas, I think. He doesn’t want to wait, and neither do I.”
“Another ‘perfect’ wedding?” Harrison asked with a skeptical grin.
“Oh, no, never again.”
In the rush of a breeze, Maddie could almost hear Pap’s laughter.
Never say never, girl. That’s the very thing that’ll come up to bite you in the end.
He was right—never is a long time.
Instead, she had the peace of forgiving, the joy of loving, the contentment of knowing her world was as it should be. She held the hand of the man she first loved as her heart soared toward her forever love.
Perhaps there was no such thing as perfection in an imperfect world, but with Gideon Branch loving her, it was pretty darn close.
A word about the author…
South Florida author Elayne Cox, writing as A. E. Easterlin, loves spending time at her computer putting down in black and white her stories of heroes and heroines living and loving, and learning in the process.
An interest in music and performing led her to major in vocal performance at Alabama College and in Music Education at UAB. Married 49 years to her husband, Clyde, they have three children and two grandchildren, as well as three grand-dogs. While rearing a family and since, Elayne and her husband have worked at their family business, which they have owned since 1986.
Writing has always been a secret passion until her debut novel, Sonata by Moonlight, first in her Heroes and Half-notes series, published in 2015 The second novel in the series, A Little Night Music, released in 2016. A historical western, A Necessary Woman, was also published that year. Her books deal with universal conflicts experienced by exceptional characters, and always with a happy conclusion.
Traveling is another passion Elayne loves to indulge, having visited the enchanting capitals of Europe and Canada, as well as motor-coaching throughout the USA in search of story lines and real people to inspire her creativity.
She’s an active member of Romance Writers of America as well as the local chapter, Florida Romance Writers, and is busy refining her craft and offering the reading public “a taste of love, a touch of heat, and a story that captivates the heart.”
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