Season for Love

by Marie Force

  “That’s crap. Yours is way better than most. I should know. I did a lot of shopping before I bought.”

  “Mac!” She sputtered with laughter as she smacked his shoulder. “Oh my God! I can’t believe you said that! You’re outrageous. Don’t forget ‘that guy’ saved your daughter’s life.”

  “I’ll never forget that, but it doesn’t mean I want his face in my wife’s hoo-ha.”

  She squished his lips together before releasing them. “You really need to stop talking now.”

  “Why? Is there something else you’d rather be doing?”

  “Definitely.” She kissed him fully, deeply, letting him know exactly what she’d rather be doing.

  Mac pushed himself off her and held out his hand to help her up. He lifted her and headed for the stairs.

  Maddie looped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. She’d never felt truly at home anywhere until Mac McCarthy put his arms around her and refused to let go.

  He put her down next to the gigantic bed he’d insisted they needed. That they occupied about three feet of it was a source of endless amusement to her. Sleeping in his arms had become as necessary to her as air and water.

  For a long time, he only ran his hungry gaze over her, taking in every detail and heating her from within.

  “I never get tired of looking at you, Madeline.”

  She released a nervous laugh and put her hands on his superbly formed chest. “I could say the same to you.”

  “I want you to know…” He combed his fingers through her long hair. “These last few weeks, watching you care for our baby, watching you feed her, you…” His voice faltered, and he rested his forehead on hers, collecting himself. “You take my breath away.”

  “Mac…”

  He drew her in closer to him. “You positively glow when you’re looking at that baby. Do you know that?”

  “You should see yourself with her. So big and protective. She’s a lucky girl to have you as her daddy.”

  “She won’t think so when I refuse to let her date until she’s thirty.”

  Maddie laughed. “I’ll be around to manage you on her behalf.”

  He raised a rakish brow. “Manage me, huh? I could use some of your brand of management. I thought I’d die waiting for this day to get here.”

  She dragged her hand from his chest to his belly and pulled the towel off him, licking her lips as she tried to figure out where she wanted to kiss him first.

  Mac let out an unsteady-sounding laugh. “You’re going to finish me right off if you keep looking at me that way.” He got busy removing her robe and nightgown in quick, well-practiced movements.

  Maddie was always astounded at how competent he was at divesting a woman of her clothing. He’d had plenty of practice in his bachelor days.

  “What are you thinking?”

  Feeling guilty, she met his intense gaze. “About how you got so good at getting a woman’s clothes off so quickly.”

  “The only woman whose clothes I want off—quickly—is the one I was smart enough to marry.” He kissed her then, hot and sweet and full of the love and passion they’d shared from the day they met. His hands were everywhere, combing through her hair, smoothing a path on her back, cupping her bottom, coasting over her ribs to her breasts.

  Maddie was mortified when the stimulation made her leak. She tried to pull back from him, but he let out a tortured moan and used the moisture to slide his fingers over her tender flesh.

  She wrapped a hand around his throbbing cock, stroking him the way he liked, harder than she would’ve done without his guidance.

  He stopped her. “Can’t,” he gasped. “I want to be inside you when I come.”

  “Hold that thought.” She went to the bedside table and retrieved a condom leftover from their dating days. When she handed it to him, he moaned.

  “Seriously?”

  “I don’t want to be pregnant again anytime soon.”

  “But you’re breastfeeding. You can’t get pregnant.”

  “That’s a load of crap. Suit up or no nookie.”

  He took the condom from her. “Fine. Be that way.”

  “Want me to do it for you?” she asked with a coy smile.

  “Absolutely not.”

  Maddie loved it when he pouted. He was so used to getting his own way that when he didn’t, he acted like a petulant little boy—an adorably petulant little boy.

  He rolled the condom on and reached for her. They landed on the bed in a tangle of arms and legs, lips fusing, tongues mating in a frantic, familiar dance.

  He tore his lips free and bent to lave her sensitive nipples with his tongue.

  “Mac… Wait, I don’t want you to… Oh God.” She wanted to die when her breasts tingled with the familiar sensation of milk letting down. “Mac. Don’t. Please.” She worried about him being turned off by the flow of liquid, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.

  “Wow, look at that.” His tongue dabbed at the moisture on her nipple in a moment so erotically charged, Maddie knew she’d never forget it. The shocking intimacy, the reverent expression on his face… The images etched indelibly into the growing album of memories that made up their beautiful life together.

  She wrapped her arms around him, holding his head to her chest. She’d spent most of her life hating her oversized breasts, but he managed to make her forget all about that with his worshipful treatment. “I love you, Mac. More and more every day. Just when I think I’ve reached the outer limit of how much it’s possible to love you, you go and top yourself, and I discover there’s even more.”

  When he raised his head to meet her gaze, she was stunned to see his shockingly blue eyes swimming with tears.

  “That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” He pressed his lips softly to hers. “In fact, I know it is.”

  She combed her fingers through his damp, dark hair, leaving it mussed and sexy looking. “I mean every word of it.”

  “I know you do. And I feel the same way. I never imagined anything like this happening to me. I love you so much sometimes I feel like I could burst with it.” As he spoke, he shifted so he was poised between her legs, his cock pressed against her, without demanding anything she wasn’t ready to give. “Speaking of bursting…”

  Laughing softly, Maddie cradled him between her legs and ran a soothing hand down his back. She cupped his muscular rear end and tugged, urging him to take her.

  He let out a ragged groan. “I want you so bad, but I’m afraid of hurting you, babe.”

  “You won’t.”

  “After what you went through…” A shudder rippled through him.

  “Don’t think about that, or you’ll never want to have sex with me again.”

  Laughing, he kissed her with sweet reverence. “No chance of that.” He reached between them and used his fingers to test her readiness. “Oh God,” he gasped when he found her slick and primed for him. “Will you tell me to stop if it hurts?”

  “Yes,” she moaned when his fingers pressed on the tight bundle of nerves that pulsed with desire. “Mac, please. Hurry.”

  Moving slowly, he slid into her in small increments, giving her time to adjust and accommodate him. “Is it okay?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  “It’s divine,” she whispered. “Nothing hurts. I promise.”

  That seemed to snap his control, and he surged the rest of the way in one thrust. “Oh shit, sorry. Sorry, I can’t help it—”

  She raised her hips in encouragement. “Love me, Mac. It feels so good.”

  Sweat beaded on his brow and back as he thrust into her, still holding back.

  Aware of what it took to break him, Maddie grasped his firm ass and squeezed. As she’d know it would, that shattered his control. He let go, surging into her and taking them both to the place they could only go together.

  For a long time afterward, he lay on top of her, heavy and solid and throbbing.

  “I’m crushing you,” he
muttered.

  “Don’t go yet.” She tightened her hold on him.

  “I’m all yours, baby,” he said, his lips soft against her neck.

  His words only added to the glow of contentment that surrounded her.

  “I’m sorry I was so rough,” he said.

  “You weren’t. You were exactly what I wanted. I’ve missed this as much as you have.”

  “I don’t know if that’s possible.” He raised his head and kissed her while gazing deep into her eyes. “I was like a horny teenager getting lucky for the first time. I skipped over all the preliminaries.”

  Maddie giggled at the look of disgust on his face. “Mom’s not bringing the kids home until they wake up from their naps. You’ve got plenty of time to make it up to me.”

  “Have I mentioned lately how much I love your mother?” He withdrew from her and kissed his way down the front of her. “So much time to make up for.”

  As his lips left a trail of sensation on her belly. Maddie closed her eyes and gave herself over to him, body and soul.

  After Mac and his dad left for the day, Luke spent a couple more hours at the marina, winterizing the fuel system, bleeding gas lines and securing pumps.

  This time of year usually filled him with melancholy as the long, lonely winter stretched before him. This year, however, everything was different. Syd was back in his life, living with him, sleeping with him, filling his days and nights with her sweet love.

  Nothing could’ve prepared him for the changes her presence had brought to his sparse existence. Whereas life without her had been satisfying in its own way, life with her was a vivid landscape full of endless possibility.

  He snorted to himself as he tightened a bolt. “Look at you, spouting poetry.” But that was what she did to him—what she’d always done to him from the time he was a boy in the throes of first love.

  Over the last few months, he’d watched her blossom out of the fog of grief and into the land of acceptance. She would always miss and mourn the family she’d lost to a drunk driver, but she laughed more freely and more often now. She took pleasure in her work as an interior designer, and she gave herself to him with the kind of passion that left him speechless and humbled.

  Thinking of the passion they shared had him closing up early and heading home to her. The only thing in the world he wanted now that he didn’t have was a commitment from her to marry him. He’d asked her back in early September, after they attended the sentencing hearing for the guy who’d killed her family and they’d moved her out of her former house and into his island home.

  His timing, he saw with hindsight, hadn’t been the best. With the raw wound of her loss reopened by the court proceeding and the painful weeding out of her family’s possessions, she wasn’t ready to take the next step with him. He should’ve known that.

  His intent had been to show her he was in it for keeps and to make her feel more secure in their relationship as they moved in together. He’d realized his strategic error when his marriage proposal had resulted in a stricken expression on the gorgeous face that had haunted his dreams for so many years. She’d told him then that she needed more time, and they hadn’t spoken of it again. The unanswered question hung in the air between them.

  Kara’s arrival at the marina and the additional work their deal with her would generate in the off-season also cemented his decision to turn down the offer from the yacht restoration school. He and Mac had too much going on for him to leave the island for a month, and with Syd busy and happily engaged on the hotel project, this wasn’t the time to uproot them. There’d be other opportunities to teach the class.

  When he pulled into the driveway, he was relieved to see her Volvo parked in its usual spot. He had no doubt she was happy with him and their life on the island, but he wouldn’t be truly satisfied until the one who’d gotten away had his ring on her finger.

  It was old-fashioned, he knew, to think that way, but he needed to hear her say “I do.” In the meantime, he kept waiting for something to happen that would screw it all up, and that was no way to live.

  Reaching into the glove compartment, he withdrew the jeweler’s box he’d hidden there more than a month ago. He’d bought the ring in Newport, the same day he’d gone to talk to the boat restoration people about the course they wanted him to teach. Syd had been too busy with the hotel project to come with him, so he’d taken advantage of the opportunity to shop for a ring.

  The large emerald-cut diamond was housed in an elaborate antique setting that had seemed right for her. It was strong and fragile at the same time, like her. He wanted to put that ring on her finger in the worst way, but more than anything, he wanted her to want it as much as he did.

  Even her father had given his blessing over beers on the Donovan’s porch. Mr. Donovan had come right out and asked Luke if he planned to marry his daughter.

  “As soon as she’s ready,” had been Luke’s reply. They’d come a long way from the time when Mr. and Mrs. Donovan hadn’t thought he was good enough for their only child.

  “Good,” Allan Donovan had said. “She seems happy again since she’s been with you. I like seeing that light back in her eyes.”

  “So do I,” Luke had said.

  He couldn’t risk extinguishing the light with another clunky proposal. He had to do it right this time. With that in mind, he reluctantly returned the ring to the glove box and locked it up until she was ready. He hoped he would recognize ready when he saw it.

  Her dog Buddy came rushing out to greet Luke with sloppy, wet kisses to his face. “Hey, pal, did you have a good day?”

  Buddy barked in response, which made Luke laugh. They had the same exchange every night when Luke got home from work, and it was another part of his new routine that he looked forward to each day.

  He stepped into the living room that Syd had spent most of the summer redecorating. What had once been a dark and gloomy space had been painted a bright shade of cream. The new furniture was navy with maroon accents. Syd had removed the blinds on the windows to take full advantage of the sweeping ocean view. By letting in the light, she’d done the same thing for his home that she’d done to the rest of his life.

  They planned to attack the kitchen next, and there was talk of eventually adding on to the house. He liked that she was making long-term plans for the place and took that to mean she planned to stay. Everywhere he looked, he saw her touch as he made his way to the back bedroom she’d turned into an office for her decorating business.

  She was bent over a book of swatches, making notes in the sketchpad she carried with her everywhere she went. “You never know,” she would say, “when inspiration will strike.” Her strawberry-blonde hair was pulled back into a high ponytail that exposed the tender curve of her neck, one of his favorite places to kiss. He zeroed in on that spot and pressed his lips to her soft skin.

  She gasped and then relaxed, tipping her head to give him better access. “You’re home early.”

  “I was missing you.”

  “That’s very sweet of you to say, but I hate to tell you, pal, you stink like gas.”

  He immediately pulled back from her. The stockbroker she’d married the first time around had certainly never come home stinking of gas. As soon as Luke had the thought, he regretted it. How pointless to be jealous of the dead man she’d chosen over him. That was ancient history, and it was better left in the past where it belonged.

  “But that’s okay,” she said, turning to smile at him. “Because I was missing you, too.”

  “I’ll grab a shower.” He went into the laundry room and stripped off his work clothes, dumping them directly into the washer with a healthy dose of detergent. When Syd’s arms came around him from behind, it was his turn to startle.

  “I didn’t mean to be insulting,” she said, punctuating her words with kisses to his back.

  “I know. I should’ve left the clothes outside.” He turned to her and looped his arms around her, instantly aroused by her nearness. Studyi
ng her face, he ached with wanting her. He kissed her and rested his forehead against hers. “Let me take a shower, and then we can finish this conversation.”

  She replied with a mischievous grin and released him. “You’re on.”

  Luke rushed through a shower and shave, emerging from the bathroom to find her reclined on the bed, waiting for him.

  She held out a hand to him.

  Knotting the towel around his hips, he took her hand and stretched out next to her.

  She snuggled up to him, her head on his chest and her hand on his belly. “You worked hard today.”

  “Always do this time of year, getting the marina ready for winter.” He took her wandering hand and brought it to his lips. “How was your day?”

  “It was…interesting.” She told him about breakfast with Linda and the girls and the letter from Jenny. When she mentioned what she’d volunteered to do, Luke immediately tensed.

  “Why does it have to be you?”

  “Why not me? I certainly understand what she’s been through.”

  Luke chose his words carefully. “You’re doing so much better. Is it wise to reopen that wound?”

  She looked up at him. “I hear what you’re saying, and I love you for being concerned, but now that I know she’s out there and hurting, I have to see her. I can’t explain why, but when I heard her story, I knew I had to do something.”

  As he thought about what she’d said, Luke combed his fingers through her hair.

  “Can you understand that?”

  “I think it’s great that you want to reach out to her, but I want you to be careful you don’t set yourself back in the process. You’ve seemed so much better lately. Happier, lighter.”

  “I have been happier,” she said, caressing his chest. “So very happy. In fact, I wanted to talk to you about that.”

  “About how happy you are with me?” he asked with a teasing smile.

  “Yes.”

  Luke all but stopped breathing while he waited to hear what she had to say.

  “That question you asked me a while back…”

  “I handled it all wrong. I know that now. You weren’t ready.”