by Shayna Ryan
Well, this was a new side of Will I hadn’t seen before. I was grateful for his interference, but even more than that, I was a bit turned on by his aggressive side. I hadn’t known he could be like this, and for one split second I felt the tiniest bit sorry for Mikey and Dean. Just for a second. They hadn’t planned on risking Will’s wrath, but now they were getting what they deserved. I tried not to smile smugly as I watched the scene further unfold.
“Sorry, Will. We didn’t know she was yours.” I think Dean meant it as a sincere apology, but Will sure didn’t take it that way.
He stood up from his crouch next to Mikey and got in Dean’s face, eye to eye. “It doesn’t matter if she’s mine or someone else’s or no one’s at all…you leave her be.”
“Yeah, no problem, you got it.” Dean tried to sound all casual about it, but I caught the quiver in his voice. The whole café probably did. All was silent as every single person in there as watching what was happening at the counter. No one moved to help Mikey, who was still lying on the floor, cupping his bloody nose.
“C’mon.” Will turned back to me, “let’s go home. Ginger, I’ll get her bill tomorrow morning, if that works for you?”
“No charge, Will. Go, just go now!” Ginger shooed us away, eager to be rid of us, but I didn’t get the impression that she was angry, just anxious to avoid any more trouble.
Will held the door open for me and put one hand on the small of my back as he guided me out. A familiar yearning spread through me at his light touch.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” And I was, now that he was by my side.
Will held the cruiser’s door open for me and I settled into my seat, suddenly nervous about being alone with him.
“Thanks, Will,” I told him when he climbed into the driver’s seat.
“It was nothing. Those two idiots, well, I don’t know how they’re not in prison already. I’m really sorry that you had to go through that! There’s no excuse for it.” After a pause, he added, “I hope you understand that most of the guys in town aren’t like that at all.”
“Most guys everywhere aren’t like that,” I pointed out. I had dealt with pushy suitors before, but none that had taken it that far.
“That’s true, thankfully.”
“How’s your hand? That looked like a helluva punch.”
“A bit sore,” Will admitted with a grin, “but not as sore as his face’ll be in an hour or two. Well worth it, I’d say.”
“You’re not worried that he’ll go to the police?” In reality, what Will did to stand up for me was considered assault, and the last time I checked, the law frowned on that. If he got into legal trouble because of me, I’d never be able to live with myself.
“Naw, he won’t. If he wanted to press charges against me then he’d have to explain why I punched him in the first place. I doubt that he wants a sexual assault charge on his record.”
“It’d serve him right, though, wouldn’t it?” I mumbled.
“Do you want to press charges against him? We can head over to the police station right know if you do.”
“Not really,” I sighed. “I’d prefer to put the whole thing behind me, honestly.”
When we arrived at the Inn, I insisted on inspecting Will’s hand. I played it off like I wanted to make sure that he hadn’t broken anything, but that wasn’t exactly it. It was just an excuse to touch him again.
His hand was puffy and red, but he could move his fingers with only minimal pain.
“Nothing’s broken, it’s just a little bit sore,” he assured me. “Well worth it, as far as I’m concerned.”
His eyes caught mine and I smiled at him as my heart fluttered, but I quickly toned it down a notch. I was supposed to be keeping him at bay, not encouraging him. But whatever had begun between us was still there, simmering under the surface.
“I’m going to run Dottie to her friend’s house. I’ll be back in about 20 minutes or so. Do you want to come along, or are you comfortable staying here by yourself? I can lock everything up before I go, if it makes you feel safer.”
“I’ll stay, as long as this place is locked up. I don’t imagine I’ll be hearing from Mikey or Dean again, but I would feel better if this place was secure.” As far as I could tell, they never locked the Inn, but given what had happened at the café tonight, I would feel better with some locked doors between me and the rest of the world.
“Okay, if you’re sure. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
No sooner had Dottie and Will left than I wish I had gone with them. The big, old Inn was a little bit spooky when I was there by myself, even with all of the doors locked. I was glad to hear his keys in the door a little while later.
He found me in the kitchen, drinking a beer and reading my novel, right where he’d left me. I kept reading as I heard him rustling around in the fridge, looking for a beer of his own. He must have been successful in finding one, because a moment later he came and sat across the table from me.
I felt his eye boring into me, but I did my best to pretend that I wasn’t aware that he was staring at me.
Finally, he spoke. “So how are you doing?”
“I told you, I’m fine, really. How about you?”
He gently pushed down the book I was trying to read so that he had my full attention. “I want you. I want you so badly that it’s like a physical pain, seeing you but not being able to have you.” His voice was husky and strained with need.
“We can’t,” I said simply. But even I could hear the doubt in my own voice.
“We most certainly can, and you know it.” His eyes were smoldering with barely contained lust, and as much as I knew that I should look away, I couldn’t. I was transfixed.
“I don’t want to,” I whispered.
“I don’t believe you.” He leaned across the table and laid his palm against my cheek, and I closed my eyes to savor the feel of his touch. I should have pushed him away and reminded him that we were no more. But I couldn’t, because he was right–it was nothing but a lie. This thing between us wasn’t done, not nearly. It was growing hour by hour, minute by minute, and no matter how hard either of us tried to ignore, it refused to remain unanswered.
“I don’t want to hurt you. You’ve already been through so much!” I cried, still struggling to do what I knew I should.
His hand moved away, and I could barely hold back the cry of longing that rose to my lips when his touch faded away. His hurriedly pushed his chair back and came to me. I rose to meet him, knowing that I shouldn’t but unable to stop myself.
“Calista.” One word, that was all it took, and I was back in his arms again. He held me, and stroked my hair while I clung to him. All my hurt and confusion fell away there in his arms as I laid my head against his chest.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I had been wrong. This was right, as it was meant to be. There was nothing more perfect than the two of us together, and to deny it was impossible.
His fingers found my chin, and lifted my face to meet his gaze. His lips grazed mine, lightly, and I came undone. I pulled him back to me, straining to recapture what I had so foolishly denied myself, and he readily met me.
He broke our steamy kiss just long enough to whisper, “I missed you already,” and my heart plummeted at the thought of what this meant for both of us, when our lives went back to normal. I selfishly pushed the thought away as I reveled in what I wanted most–Will.
As our embrace became more heated, he started moving us towards the stairs, but we didn’t make it that far. Impatiently, he pushed me down on the dining room table and anxiously pulled at my fly with his uninjured hand while I fumbled his work pants. Once I undid the buckle and fly, the pants slid right down his hips with no assistance.
“Now,” he commanded urgently, unable to wait another minute. He pulled me to the edge of the table and slid down his boxers while his eyes eagerly drank in the sight of my most private place. He leaned over me, nipping at my breasts through m
y shirt, and I felt the bulk of him nudging my inner thigh, seeking what he most desired. I rotated beneath him, eager to give him what we both so yearned for, and with a low, throaty growl, he dove inside of me.
He was right. There was no denying this. As our bodies became one once more, a sense of peacefulness washed over me. This was where I was meant to be, with this man, right here and right now. It was futile to try to deny it anymore.
It was over all too quickly, and as he leaned down to kiss me, a sheen of sweat across his brow, I realized that it was out of our hands at this point. Either one of us could pretend like we could just call it quits and stop this passion between us, but we’d only be lying to ourselves. What had started as an innocent romp had turned into something far more.
“Sorry,” he grinned sheepishly, “Guess I couldn’t wait long enough to make it upstairs.”
“I don’t mind. But…” Oh, God. I just realized what was missing. “We didn’t use protection!” My mind reeled as I searched through the recesses of my brain to pull out last month’s critical dates. “Wait…we should be okay. My period’s due next Monday.”
“So we’re in the clear?”
“Well, you can never say for certain but…it should be close enough that my fertile time this month has already passed.” At least I hoped so.
The last thing I needed was an unwanted pregnancy. How could we have been so stupid? We let our passions overcome us, and it couldn’t happen again. It was probably nothing, but I knew I’d spend the next week obsessing over the ‘what if’.
“So it’s probably fine.” He didn’t seem the least bit concerned about it. “And if it’s not, well, then, we’ll deal.”
I could only guess what he meant by that. Did he assume that I’d have an abortion? Did he assume that I would have his baby if I found myself pregnant? I didn't know and didn’t want to ask, either. No sense in making an argument where there didn’t need to be one–at least for now. Besides, I had no idea what I would do if I ended up pregnant from my time in Maine. I would cross that bridge when I came to it. If I came to it at all.
“That can’t happen again, Will.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry, guess I wasn’t thinking.”
Now that was the understatement of the year. But it was hard to be angry at him when I was equally responsible for our lack of protection.
He must have sensed my panic, because he added, “It won’t happen again, okay? So try not to worry too much. You said yourself that it’s unlikely that anything will come of it.”
“Probably not,” I sighed.
He straightened out and pulled up his pants before checking his watch. “I’ve got another hour before I’m supposed to pick up Dottie. What do you say we take a shower, then I can grab us a pizza when I go to get her?”
“Sounds good to me.”
This time we made it upstairs in one piece, and Will and I undressed each other as we waited for the water to heat up.
“I see that look in your eyes!” I teased him. “No way. We’ve got to get cleaned up so you can go get Dottie, and dinner.”
“You’re no fun,” he grumbled playfully. He paused to push a few errant strands of my hair off my face as he became serious. “I’m glad you’re okay, after what happened down at Ginger’s tonight. When I walked in there, and saw those two guys bothering you…well, let’s just say I’m surprised that I stopped when I did, especially when you told me that Mikey put his hands on you.”
“While I can’t say that I’m sorry you showed up when you did, I could’ve handled it, you know.”
“I know. But Mikey crossed a line there, touching you like that.” I saw the fresh anger simmering behind his eyes.
“It’s okay, it’s done with. Forget it.”
“I’ll try, but I can’t promise that I won’t want to beat him to a pulp every time I see him,” he warned.
“You don’t strike me as the violent type,” I mused as I stepped into the shower and he followed me.
“I’m not. But I can be, if someone’s threatening what’s dear to me.” He pulled me close as the shower beat down upon us, but there was nothing sexual in his embrace this time. I snuggled against him, inhaling his marvelous scent. Even though I already knew that I meant a lot to him, to hear him say it out loud made my soul leap for joy.
He grabbed the shampoo and washed my hair, massaging my scalp as he went, stopping occasionally to pepper my bare shoulders and back with light kisses. After he rinsed my hair and put in the conditioner, I grabbed the soap and washed him, sliding my hands over his exquisite body. Will was amazing, inside and out, and I counted myself lucky that of all the women he could have, it was me that he wanted. Me.
After out shower, we went to our rooms to dress. I was done before him, and he had left his door ajar, so I walked in just as he was putting a hoodie on over his t-shirt.
“Do you want to come to get Dottie in a few?” he asked.
I remembered just how lonely it had felt to be alone in the Inn before, but now I looked forward to the time alone. I just needed a few minutes to mull things over by myself. Everything had changed in the last hour or two, and I needed time to digest it.
“I’ll stay here, thanks. But you better hurry back with that pizza–I’m starving!”
“Worked up an appetite, did you?” His eyes twinkled as he smiled at his own joke.
“I blame you!”
“I’ll take that blame, gladly.”
As we stood there teasing each other, I noticed that something was different in his room. It took me a minute to figure it out, but after a moment’s scrutiny, I realized what it was. All of Theresa’s pictures were gone. Where there had been practically a shrine to her was now just empty space. Every last picture had been removed.
I was dying to ask Will about it, but I didn’t dare. I sensed that this was a huge step for him, and I didn’t want to pry into his personal struggles. He would talk to me about it when he was ready to, if ever.
I hung out in my room while he went to grab Dottie and a pizza. Once he left, I checked my cell phone. I had a few messages from friends, just checking in to see how I was surviving my undeserved sentence in the backwoods of Maine.
It was hard to resist replying to brag about Will. I was dying to tell everyone I knew that I had met the man of my dreams up here, and that hitting that deer was turning out to be one of the best things that had ever happened to me, but I refrained. Somehow what I shared with Will felt private, as if to share it with the world would be to sully it somehow. I was in my own little bubble of happiness here with him, and I didn’t want anyone to burst it.
Dottie was full of fresh stories about her quilting club when she got home, and Will brought back a pizza, as promised. Dottie wasn’t hungry, but she sat with us at the kitchen table, chatting away as usual, while Will and I filled our bellies.
“Well, I’ve talked your ears off long enough! Guess I should be getting to bed now; it’s been a long day for me.”
We wished her goodnight and she shuffled off to her room, leaving us alone in the kitchen.
“You ready for bed?” Will asked when we were both done eating.
“It’s a little early, don’t you think?”
“Well, we could always find something else to do upstairs.” The smirk on his face confirmed that he was thinking exactly what I suspected he was thinking.
“Is there anything in this world you want half as much as sex?” I teased him with a grin. The man was an animal. Not that I was complaining.
“You,” he answered simply. “What I want most of all in this world is you. All of you.”
-15-
We spent the night in his room instead of mine. I have no idea what time we finally fell asleep, but I knew that it was late, very late, after another rambunctious round of making love. We slept tangled up in each other, a great jumble of intertwined limbs. Neither of us had bothered to put our pajamas on.
I awoke early in the morning to the feel of Will’s hand
caressing my bare ass.
“Do you even know how beautiful you are?” he whispered as he caressed my pale skin. “I’ve never seen anything like you.” He was dressed in a clean uniform for work, so I doubted that this would go very far, even though my body was already hungering for him again.
I rolled over to face him, completely exposed, and he traced a finger lightly down my sternum and then my stomach before he trailed off down to my inner thigh.
“This is going to be a very long day at work, I’m afraid.”
“Why? When will you be home?” I mumbled sleepily.
“Oh, most likely the usual time. It won’t be long in that sense; it’ll just drag on because while I’m at work all I’ll be thinking about is being back here, with you.” His lazy finger worked its way back up my center, stopping for a moment to tease my left nipple into a rock-solid point. I moaned softly and pushed my hips up towards him, begging him to further explore me.
“Oh, I’m afraid I don’t have time for that right now,” he mocked as he released his grasp on my nipple and slid his hand down to sample my wetness. He slid a finger into my hot inner core, and I rocked my hips to meet him. When he slid his finger out, I gasped in protest, but a moment later his mouth was there, sampling me.
The pressure within me quickly built up as he explored me with his lips and tongue. Just when I thought I was about to shatter, he pulled away and smirked at me.
“Oooh, would you look at the time? I’ve gotta get to work.” He caressed me with his tongue one last time before standing up.
“I hate you,” I muttered angrily. I didn’t mean it, of course. What I hated was how he was leaving me in a lurch, right on the brink of orgasm. I could swear that he did it on purpose.
“But you’ll love what I’m going to do to you when I get home. For now though, I’ve got to run. I’ll leave the truck keys for you again, and you call me if you need me, okay?”