“I can’t keep seeing you just a couple days at a time.” She pushed him back another step. “I can’t keep crying myself to sleep at night.”
She came at him again. He cringed, sure she might shove him again. I get the point. I’ll just go.
She didn’t. Instead, she grabbed the open zipper of his jacket and pulled him close, all her sweet peppermint breath in his face again. “So I’m going home with you.”
He couldn’t jump tracks fast enough, so he said it out loud. “W-w-what?”
By then, Judy had his tall, lanky body flattened against the beige-tiled terminal wall while she gripped his head with one hand and smothered him in kisses and hugs. The long, delicate fingers of her other hand peeled open the collar of the already too-loose and comfortable golf shirt beneath his jacket. His heart started beating again when her hand smoothed over his collarbone to grip the bare skin of his shoulder. Her hips kept pushing and he kept agreeing with her. Yeah, that’s the spot. Push. Keep on pushing.
“Do you have room for me or not? Do you want me or not?” Her words tumbled out in a heated rush over his lips. “I love you. Do you hear me? And I miss you too much to keep living so far apart. Would you please take me home with you this time? Would you do that?”
They’d talked about this a couple times before, but leaving her job and family behind seemed such a big thing for a man to ask a woman to do. She had a way of making it sound like the perfect solution all of a sudden.
Hell, yeah.
He lifted her off her feet. She nipped his bottom lip, growling in that sexy, feline way she had. With suffocating warmth, he devoured her lips like he’d never kissed her before.
Oh, hell yeah.
Breathlessly, he backed her against the same beige-colored tile wall, his heart a pounding freight train coming down the Mortimer track. This was the bravest thing he’d ever done, no doubt about it. He was pretty sure there was nothing in all of his past life to compare with the words that were going to come out of his mouth next.
“Judy.” Regardless of the passerbys watching, his hands roamed her body like they were the only two people in the world. Hands that had done so many stupid things in the past finally did something worthwhile when they cupped her ass and squeezed. If love was what she wanted, love was what she was going to get. Right here. Right now. Well, okay, so maybe not exactly right here, but he wasn’t letting her go.
“Yes?” She planted burning kisses in his neck that echoed all the way to his groin, her feet still off the ground and those luscious breasts pushing warm and friendly into his chest. Thinking was getting more and more difficult.
“Sweetheart. Honey. Judy, darling, I have to know.” He kissed her hard, pouring every ounce of promise into her lips that he could without catching a full breath.
“Yes?” she asked, just as breathlessly.
“Do you like chocolate?” Okay, that wasn’t what he had meant to ask. It was important, yeah, but not what he meant. Why did his dumb old brain trick him like this?
“What?” She pulled back, trying to read him like the idiot he was. She had to know by now. He wasn’t going to grow any more brainpower overnight.
But Harley did start over, his forehead pressed to hers, their noses touching. The ring could wait. Chocolate could wait. His heart needed to say its piece first. “I love you, Judy O’Brien, and yes. If you’re willing, I’m taking you home with me. I’ve got two weeks. We’ll load up a truck and get you moved. Is that what you really want?”
The fire in her eyes melted a welding link between them. Something sizzled deep inside. It might have been his soul to hers.
“I’ve loved you since our first dance,” she murmured, her fingertips gentle on his cheek. “It’s all I want, Harley. To be with you.”
Why did he feel the need to say thank you? Harley didn’t know why, but that’s what he felt. His mantra settled in warm and right, alongside that other warm feeling in his heart: the courage to know the difference and the smarts to recognize love when he saw it. He finally got something right. And her name was–Judy.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed this short story about Harley and Judy. It is not a preview of the book as much as a glimpse into Junior Agent Harley Mortimer’s personal life to get you in the mood for more.
HARLEY, In the Company of Snipers, will be available in time for Christmas, December 2014.
Watch for it at Amazon, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.
Upcoming books by Irish Winters:
Alex (2013)
Mark (2014)
Zack (2014)
Harley (2014)
Connor (2014)
Rory (2015)
Taylor (2015)
Gabe (2015)
Maverick (2015)
Cassidy (2016)
Adam (2016)
Lee (2016)
Hunter (2016)
About Irish Winters
Irish Winters is an award-winning author who dabbles in poetry, grandchildren, and rarely (as in extremely rarely) the kitchen. More prone to be outdoors than in, she grew up the quintessential tomboy on a farm in rural Wisconsin, spent her teenage years in the Pacific Northwest, but calls the Wasatch Mountains of Northern Utah home. For now.
The wife of one handsome husband and mother of three perfect sons, Irish divides her time between writing at home, and travelling the country with her man while – writing. (Seriously, what else?)
She believes in making every day count for something, and follows the wise admonition of her mother to, “Look out the window and see something!”
To learn more about Irish and her books, please visit www.IrishWinters.com.
Table of Contents
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
EPILOGUE
A Hint of Things to Come…
Author’s Note
Upcoming books by Irish Winters:
About Irish Winters
Zack (In the Company of Snipers Book 3) Page 31