Kit didn’t know which was more exhilarating, more fulfilling; the way he naturally matched her thrust for thrust, going harder and faster, taking her to greater heights than she’d known she could reach . . . or that he’d trusted her enough to cut himself loose of his natural desire to protect, even while possessing.
She wasn’t sure who cried out first, who shattered first. All she knew was that she was wrapped around him, and he around her . . . and both held on until all there was left to do was reclaim their breath and let their shuddering, spent bodies revel in what had just happened.
He finally rolled to his side, taking her with him, her leg wrapped over his, his arm around her as if it was a particular comfort they’d sought a hundred times before.
“I think my eyes are permanently crossed,” she murmured, her cheek pressed against his chest, feeling every beat of his rapidly thumping heart. She managed to lift her head just enough to prop up her chin and look at him. “You give great most carnal desire, do you know that?”
“I’m sorry,” he managed, “I’m still having an out of body experience. I’ll be back with you in a minute.”
She snorted and felt him chuckle as he tucked her against him, wrapping her up snugly in his arms.
“It’s funny,” she said, moments later when their breathing finally slowed.
“What’s funny?” he asked, sounding drowsy and sexy and very content as he traced lazy circles on her lower back with his fingertips.
“This was so . . . crazy. Crazy good, but definitely in some other realm. And . . . we’re new to each other in so many ways yet.”
“But?” There was not a tense muscle in his body at the moment, and she smiled against his chest, glad he still trusted her, believing in the good and not worrying about wherever she was leading him.
“I feel like there is so much I want to know, have yet to find out . . . but, at the same time, I feel like we’re already closer than . . .” She trailed off, unable to find the right words.
He shifted her effortlessly on top of him and opened his eyes so he could look into hers. “Even before this . . . crazy good part, I felt that.” He searched her eyes, as serious as she’d ever seen him. “I couldn’t say that, of course. I was already pushing so hard, and—I know you won’t believe me—but that’s not something I’ve ever been compelled to do.” He brushed at the hair still clinging damply to her forehead and looked at her the way a man might when he couldn’t quite believe his good fortune. “But that was the reason I pushed. It was like I’ve known you for so very long, and I’ve been looking for you and looking for you and then, one day, there you finally are. Even in that first moment, it was like, ah, there you are.”
He lifted his head, kissed her lightly on the mouth, making her smile against his lips, even as tears—the very best kind—formed in her eyes. “And, every time we spoke, every moment we’ve spent together, has felt like I was reacquainting myself with someone I already knew so well. We already get it, already know, and are finally just teaming up and getting on with where we’re supposed to be.”
Her smile grew, and, glassy-eyed, she leaned down and kissed him, tenderly. “If you’d told me that at any other time, I would have convinced myself you truly were a crazy man. A part of me would have had to call myself crazy, too . . . because you’re right. It’s like the connection has been there all along. It was just a matter of figuring out how in the hell I was going to be okay with accepting it. I knew it was big, or would be, and I wasn’t ready. It was the wrong time. Why now? Couldn’t you have found me when I had my life together?”
His smile had spread slowly to a grin, and he rolled her slowly to her back, leaning over her, looking down into her eyes. “And then you realize that when you finally meet, when you finally find each other, it doesn’t matter. All the rest of it doesn’t matter. Life scattered, life together. . . it’s just where things begin. It’s where the story is when you jump into it. It doesn’t stay there. You start writing the next chapter from that moment on.”
“Seriously”—she sighed softly, charmed and grinning at the same time, her heart so full she thought it might burst—“you really should be in front of juries, like, every day. Your clients would get off scot-free. Every single time.”
“I’m just glad the jury is still not out where we’re concerned. It feels like it took an awfully long time to find each other. And I don’t want to waste any more of it.” He leaned down and kissed her, lingering, and then continuing on a little longer. Then they were laughing and saying meaningless things and kissing, then laughing again.
She was considering if her body was up to another round of most carnal desire, but his phone chirped—from somewhere in the room—with a text message.
To his credit, he didn’t go diving off the bed looking for it, even though her first thought was Lilly, so she knew it had to have been his as well.
He rolled off her and they sat up, searching the room in the moonlight, waiting for the phone to chirp again. When it did, Morgan got up and went over to the pile of clothes and retrieved his phone from his pants pocket. “Birdie,” he said, confirming her suspicions. He looked up, and even in the dim light she saw his shoulders sag in relief. “She’s just letting me know Lilly woke up, had to use the bathroom, asked for some water.” He grinned as he scrolled down, the light from the screen illuminating his face. “And didn’t seem at all surprised to find Birdie there to help her sort things out before she climbed back into bed.”
Kit slipped off the bed and crossed the short distance to him. “That’s so good.”
“Well, she’s probably half sleepwalking, but yes, it’s . . .” He sighed, and she could hear the relief and happiness in it.
“Yes,” Kit said, slipping her arms around his waist. “It sure is.”
She watched as he texted Birdie back, saying he’d be home soon and thanking her for being there and helping out.
Kit leaned her head against his shoulder as he closed the phone and dropped it back down in the pile of clothes, before turning and pulling her more directly into his arms. He kissed her once, then again.
“I know you need to get home, and I want you to go be with Birdie, be there for Lilly,” she said between kisses, “but I will selfishly say that, at the same time, I wish this night could go on forever.”
“Me, too.” Morgan mercifully left the light off as they dressed, fumbling a little to find everything. Their vision had adapted to the moonlit darkness and anything brighter would have felt too harsh.
“My God, how did I not realize how sandy we were,” Kit said, finding everything she picked up gritty.
“Because it wasn’t sandy where it was important.”
She laughed at that and brushed at her pants, though they really needed a good shaking outdoors. And a dry cleaner. A bonfire and a match, perhaps. “Can we come back here and clean up when it’s light outside? I mean, the floor is covered in sand and the bed—”
Morgan twirled her around and up against his chest, making her laugh, then silencing her with a kiss. “I’m sure these bungalows have never had a grain of sand in them nor been mussed up a little. But yes. . . I’ll get back here and remove any evidence that Goldilocks and her most carnal bear were here.”
She giggled. “It might be easier if I did it, since you’ll probably have baby bear with you.”
“You do have a point.”
She sighed deeply and appreciatively. “No, no . . . you’re the one with the point.”
He chuckled. “I suppose we need to return from our walk down the beach, report in, see how the turtles are progressing.”
“We should.” She glanced down. “But you realize I have not a hope in hell of not looking like . . . well, exactly like what I look like.”
“They’re going to know eventually.”
She pushed up to her tiptoes and kissed him, meaning it to be a hard, fast kiss, but somehow getting a little caught up in it. He helped it along by wrapping her up in his arms and urging her
to continue.
When she finally broke the kiss, he was the one who spoke. “But, not tonight. This one is all ours.”
She smiled. “Exactly. And thank you.”
“I’ll call Gabe, let him know we’re heading out. He’ll understand, and he’ll . . . come up with something. There’s a path from here that winds back to the center and the parking lot.”
“I rode here with you, so—”
“We’ll go by Riley’s and get your car; then I’ll drop you off. Where are you staying, anyway? I’ve never asked.”
“Well, nowhere permanent yet. I’ve kind of squirreled myself away in the half apartment-half storage space over Lani’s shop. I keep meaning to go look for a place, but haven’t gotten to it yet. Riley told me today that she’d get listings for me to look at, not that there’s much to choose from if I want to stay on the island. Which I do.” She leaned her cheek to his chest. “It’s funny, but it already feels like my place, this island. Like if I’m not going to be in Atlanta anymore, in the house I grew up in, then I want to be here. Not even over the bridge, but . . .”
“I know. Sugarberry is like that. I was going to have my office in Savannah, thinking Lilly would be in school and I could do the short commute, but once I got here, I realized I don’t want to be that far from her. Honestly, even that was an excuse, because Savannah’s only twenty minutes away. The island, the people remind me a lot of how I felt in Colorado. Savannah doesn’t.”
“When does Lilly start school? I hadn’t even thought of that, but she is kindergarten age, right?”
“Well, she’s only been taught privately—”
“Didn’t she just turn five? How much could she have been taught?”
Morgan’s lips twisted in a wry grin. “Oh, you don’t even want to know.”
“Oh, right. Oil paintings versus watercolor impressionists, or something like that. But . . . four or five years old?”
“That’s why I want her art experience to be more about Gabe’s turtle coloring book and finger painting—for now. I haven’t talked to the school here yet, but I did look into it before we moved. It’s just one school from kindergarten through eighth grade; then they go over the causeway for high school. It’s small, with only one class per grade and sometimes even those are joined together when there aren’t enough students to warrant teaching the grades separately.”
“Wow, that is small. But it is a small island. I never thought about that. But, I think it’s kind of cool. She’ll make the dearest friends in her whole life and still get almost a private school level of attention. No overly crowded classrooms.“
“I thought the same thing. I know there are pitfalls in having the same small group to deal with for so many years, especially if there are any problems.”
“Nowhere to hide.”
“Exactly. But, I think . . . all in all . . . that Lilly would do really well with the more relaxed, low key environment and a smaller group rather than a larger one. She’s very assertive and chatty on the one hand, but she’s still painfully shy, too. Especially in big crowds.”
“I think she’ll fit in well. Would she start now, or next fall?”
“That’s what I need to figure out by Christmas. I wanted her to get to know more people on the island first, maybe find a way to meet some of the kids, if possible, but take it slow. I had been thinking I’d wait and let her have the summer to adjust, make new friends, so she’d feel more comfortable about belonging here before starting next fall. But . . . seeing her today . . . now I’m not sure.”
“Well, maybe take her to the school, meet the teacher she’d have, watch how she is there. You’ll know what’s right.”
Morgan chuckled. “Well, that would be a first. I’ll do whatever feels right at the time anyway.”
Kit hugged him and they slid their arms around each other’s waists as they left the bungalow and started down the path to the parking lot. “That seems to be working out pretty well so far.”
He paused beside the passenger door to his SUV and she looked up into his face. How was it that he’d become so dear to her, so quickly?
“Happy Thanksgiving, Kit. I am so thankful for this amazing, unexpected day. Actually, it warrants an ah-mazing, as Lilly would say.”
Kit grinned. “Me, too. Thank you for being so sure. About us. For not letting it go. For not letting me go.” She tipped up on her toes, kissed him. “My most carnal desire.”
He laughed against her lips. “You know, if you’re not careful, my ego will swell, and the next thing you know I’ll be having Dre make me MCD T-shirts with my own logo or something.”
“I’m happy with the things you already have that swell,” she said, tugging him close so they bumped hips. “And quite nicely, too, thank you.” She laughed outright when he spluttered a surprised laugh at that. Then winked at him as she climbed in and started to pull the passenger door closed. “But, at least now I know what to get you for Christmas.”
Chapter 19
Morgan knocked on the door to Babycakes, then stuck his head inside. “Kit?”
There were no saws buzzing, no hammers pounding, no music pumping, but it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so he wasn’t surprised. Actually, it was because no workers would be in the place that he and Lilly were there.
He opened the door and shuffled the two of them inside, closing the door behind them against the rain that had begun the night before and wasn’t showing any signs of lightening up. “Be careful,” he told Lilly. “There’s buckets and tarps, ladders. Just walk around them, okay?” He held on to her hand. She had her turtle journal clutched to her chest in the other.
“Where’s Miss Kit?” she asked, looking ridiculously adorable in her little green boots and matching raincoat with the turtle-head hood. Where Birdie had found them yesterday when she and Lilly had taken a little jaunt together while he caught up on some work, he had no idea.
“I’m right here!” Kit came out from the back, smiling as she wound her way through the clutter. “Ooh,” she winced when she caught her elbow on a ladder.
Morgan stepped across the tarp and balanced her by taking her other elbow. “You okay?”
“Yes,” she said on a laugh. “It’s just . . . well—” She gestured to the front room.
Morgan did a quick scan of the torn-out walls, scraped paint, half-removed wallpaper and the various construction detritus. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”
“I know,” she laughed. “It’s a good thing I’ve seen the drawings on how it will eventually look or I’d begin to wonder if the transformation was even possible.” She turned to Lilly and crouched down. “Do you want to see the drawings of how it will look when it’s done?”
Lilly nodded, but her attention was focused, quite raptly, on Kit’s apron. Kit noticed the direction of her gaze and straightened, so Lilly could see the full effect of the apron Dre had designed.
She’d described it to Morgan, but, as she’d said, it truly defied description. As a work of art, it was stunning—rich in detail, colorful, and whimsical. Of course, Morgan was thinking how nice it would be to slip Kit right back out of it, but he suspected he’d be thinking that no matter what she was wearing.
“Isn’t it cool?“ she asked Lilly, untying the apron at her waist so she could open it up fully.
“Ah-mazing,” Lilly whispered, making Morgan and Kit smile at each other.
Kit pointed out each fairy, and Lilly could guess who most of them were. “Miss Dre drew these, did you know that?”
Lilly’s eyes went wide. “Really? You can draw on your clothes?”
Morgan made a half-choking noise, and Kit just laughed. “Well, Miss Dre is an artist, and you know how artists can make a painting on canvas?”
Lilly nodded, but Morgan wasn’t sure how much she understood of that.
“Well, Miss Dre used an apron as her canvas, so I’d have something beautiful and special to wear when we open the shop.”
“Oh,” Lilly said, then see
med to consider. “Can Miss Dre color on my clothes?”
Both adults chuckled at that. “Well, we’d have to talk to her about that. Maybe we can get you your own apron,” Kit said. “Would you like that?” Before Lilly could answer, Kit went on. “Because, I was thinking, since it’s raining so hard and no one is shopping for cupcakes much today, maybe Miss Lani and Miss Alva would let us use their kitchen next door.”
Lilly wasn’t immediately sold. “And I get to wear an apron? With pictures on it?”
Kit looked over Lilly’s head at Morgan. “I’m pretty sure you have a budding artist here. She’s all about the drawing.”
Morgan smiled. “You may be right.”
Kit looked back to Lilly. “You liked the peanut pie I made, right?”
That got an enthusiastic nod.
“Well, when I was your age, my great-grandma taught me how to make piecrust. My first official job was to help sprinkle the flour on the countertop so my great-grandma could roll the piecrust out really smooth.”
“I have a great grandma, too. Gramma Birdie.”
Kit smiled. “Aw. I think she’s great, too.”
Neither Morgan nor Kit attempted to explain what great-grandma meant, too charmed by Lilly’s sweet sentiment to risk ruining the moment.
“She got me this raincoat.” Lilly tipped her head forward, muffling her voice. “It’s a turtle.”
Kit laughed. “It’s fantastic.”
Lilly lifted her head and smiled. “Ah-mazing,” they said at the same time and laughed all over again.
“I love it,” Kit said. “I wish it came in my size.”
“I could ask Gramma Birdie to find you one,” Lilly said seriously.
“Aw, that’s the nicest thing. Well, maybe we can. I heard you and your grandma went shopping.”
Morgan and Kit had talked on the phone several times the day before. His intention to see her during the serendipitous shopping excursion had fallen through, as Kit had ended up helping Lani in the cupcake shop when the Black Friday hoards had descended. Sugarberry wasn’t exactly a shopping mecca, but there’d been quite a hustle and bustle all through the shops surrounding the square. Without being obvious, there was no way she could duck out.
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