by Force, Marie
“I don’t care.”
They gazed at each other with hungry eyes for a long, breathless moment before Colin hooked a hand around the back of her neck to bring her to him. The kiss was full of tender restraint, but it packed a powerful punch to the gut. He kept the kiss chaste until her tongue sought out his. That was when he angled his head to go deeper.
She moaned.
Lifting her legs over his, Colin pulled her onto his lap.
She wrapped her arms around him, and when he cupped her bottom to keep her anchored to him, she rewarded him with a provocative tilt of her hips.
The kiss was broken when Colin groaned and swore softly. He kept one hand firmly on her bottom while his other hand ventured under her shirt in search of warm soft skin. Nudging her silky dark hair aside, he trailed his tongue lightly over her neck. “Are you going to take a chance on me, Meredith? On us?”
She shivered from the attention he was paying to her neck. “Oh, Colin, I want to, I really do, but nothing’s changed.”
“One thing has changed,” he whispered.
“What?”
“I’m in love with you.”
“Colin…” She pulled back from him. “You aren’t. You can’t be.”
“I am and I can. I’ve thought of nothing but you since I saw you last.” She looked down, and he rested his hand on her face to bring her gaze back to his. “Tell me what it is—what’s standing in our way. Tell me who you thought I was earlier and why you were afraid.”
She gripped his wrists and dissolved into tears.
“Oh, honey, don’t.” He hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me. I don’t want you to cry.” He held her for a long time, until her sobs finally subsided.
“When you pulled up on the motorcycle,” she said, brushing the tears off her face, “I thought you were the man who almost killed me when I was nineteen.”
Colin gasped.
“He’s out of jail, and he wants to see me.”
Chapter 27, Day 74
Brandon carried their bags from the car and led Daphne to a guesthouse behind the inn. “You were only supposed to bring a toothbrush,” he said, pretending to be burdened by the weight of her bag.
“I snuck in a few other necessities,” she said with a sexy grin that made his blood boil with lust.
“That sounds interesting.”
“Where’d you get the key?”
“I came over to get it yesterday. I wanted to get all the ‘how’ve you been for the last twenty years’ small talk with my friend out of the way, so I wouldn’t have to waste half an hour of my night with you on that.”
Daphne’s giggle was tinged with nerves. “You’ve put a lot of thought into this. I hope I don’t disappoint you.”
He dropped his shoes and their bags inside the door and turned to her. “It’s not possible for you to disappoint me.” Running his fingers through her long blonde hair, he dipped his head to kiss her. “I love you so much, Daph,” he whispered. “So much.” He kissed her again. “And I love this dress. I can’t believe you made it yourself.”
“I make them every year.”
“Even when it was only the two of you who’d see them.”
“We had our own celebrations.” She gave him a quick kiss and reached for her bag. “I need ten minutes in the bathroom.”
“It’s right there,” Brandon said, pointing to a door off the sitting area.
“This is a beautiful room.”
It was decorated in bold floral patterns and white lace. An antique cherry sleigh bed with a lace canopy was the room’s focal point.
“Your friend left us a note,” Daphne said. “Dear Brandon and Daphne, Welcome to Rock Harbor! The champagne is on me. Breakfast is served in the main house beginning at nine, or we can bring it to your room, if you’d prefer. Stay as long as you’d like tomorrow. Good to see you yesterday, Brandon. Enjoy!”
“That’s nice,” he said. “Do you want some champagne? It won’t bother me if you have some.”
“But then you won’t be able to kiss me, and we can’t have that, now can we?”
Riveted by her softly spoken words, Brandon shook his head.
“I’ll be right back,” she said.
Brandon removed his suit coat, unbuttoned his shirt, and tugged it free of his pants. Using a book of matches on the mantel, he lit the fire that had been laid for them in the fireplace and then the candles that were scattered about the room. In the kitchenette, he ran cold water over his face, brushed his teeth, and splashed on a touch of cologne.
He turned on the radio and traced a finger over the condensation on the bottle of champagne floating in the ice bucket. In his old life, he would’ve needed a shot or two of Jack Daniels right about now to calm his nerves. In his new life, he didn’t want anything to take away from the exquisite pleasure of this moment with the love of his life.
“Brandon.”
He turned to her.
She leaned against the doorway, wearing a long silk nightgown in the palest shade of peach. The firelight cast a warm glow upon her face and hair.
Brandon couldn’t take his eyes off her as she moved toward him like a dream come true.
She pushed his unbuttoned shirt off his shoulders, and it fluttered to the floor behind him.
He brought her into his arms. “After I first met you,” he said gruffly, “I thought of you as ‘the goddess.’ But now I’m in need of a better word, because that one doesn’t do you justice.”
She laughed softly as she nuzzled his chest hair.
With a finger on her chin, he lifted her mouth to his. Calling on patience he didn’t know he had, Brandon kept the kiss light. “Dance with me,” he said, raising her arms to loop them around his neck.
His hands never stopped moving over the silk gown as they moved together.
“Oh, this is the song Declan sang to Jessica when he proposed,” she said after they’d danced to several songs.
“Who is it?”
“Keith Urban.” She sang along in a quiet voice about love and making memories.
“I like it. I’ll bet Dec’s version was awesome. He can really sing. Aidan can, too. And you ought to hear him play the piano. He’s amazing.”
“What about you?”
“I got none of it.”
“Come on,” she cajoled.
Waggling his eyebrows, he said, “I have other skills.”
“Such as?” she asked with a coy smile.
A groan rumbled through him as he leaned down to mold his mouth to hers, this time exploring every corner of her sweet warmth. When her tongue mated with his, Brandon tightened his arms around her and lifted her. He walked them to the bed and gently laid her down, stretched out next to her, and picked up the kiss where he’d left off.
She rolled into his arms, her hand cruising over his back and then clutching his biceps as he caressed her breast through the silk gown. Her fingers in his hair urged him to replace his hand with his mouth.
He suckled her through the silk barrier before he slid the fragile straps off her shoulders and nudged the gown to her waist. “God, you’re so beautiful,” he whispered against her breast.
“Brandon,” she gasped, tugging at his pants. “I want you.”
He took her hand to stop her. “Wait, baby. This time’s for you.”
But she had other ideas. Smiling, she sat up and pushed him onto his back. “No, my love, this time’s for you.” She kissed her way to the waistband of his pants.
The soft drag of her hair over his chest and stomach had him gasping for air. “Daphne, honey…” He groaned as she quickly removed the rest of his clothes and let her nightgown drop to the floor.
A fine sheen of sweat covered his skin as she stretched out naked on top of him.
“There’s a condom in my pocket,” he managed to say.
“We’ll get to that.” She skimmed her tongue over his ear. “Eventually.”
Brandon had no choice but to lie there and tak
e it as she set out to drive him wild. Her lips and hands were everywhere—on his face, his neck, his chest. When the tip of her tongue teased his nipple, he buried his fingers in her hair and fought the urge to flip her over and take what he wanted so desperately. But since he could see how much she was enjoying her power play, he resisted the urge and let her have her way with him.
She cupped his pectorals. “You’re so strong, Brandon. I always feel safe when I’m with you.”
As he exhaled a long deep breath that was one part emotion, two parts desire, a tremble rippled through him. “You won’t be safe for much longer if you keep that up.”
She dragged her tongue over his belly. “Keep what up?” Stroking him with her hand, she looked up at him. “This?”
“Daph…”
“What?”
At the exact moment her tongue swirled over the head of his penis, he reached his limit. Wrapping his arms around her, he turned them over.
“Hey,” she protested. “I wasn’t done.”
“I was.” He leaned in to kiss her, his tongue thrusting deep, his arms tight around her. When he finally came up for air, he kept his lips close to hers. “I’ve never felt anything even close to this. My heart feels like it’s going to burst through my chest.”
Her eyes were bright with emotion as she reached up to lay her hand on his chest to feel for herself. “I’ve never felt like this before either, Brandon.”
Her confession fueled his already rampant desire, but since he was anxious to regain some semblance of control, he started all over again at her lips. He nipped, sucked, and teased.
She moaned, and when her hand closed again around his erection, Brandon went blind with lust. All thoughts of slowing things down were abandoned. “Let me get the condom,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“Hurry.”
A minute later, he returned to her.
She held out her arms to him.
He sank into her embrace, overwhelmed by emotions that were all new to him. “I love you, Daphne. It took me so long to find you and to say those words. Now it’s like I can’t say them enough.”
“I’ll never get tired of hearing them.”
He bent his head for a kiss that was more about love than desire.
“Brandon?”
“Hmm?”
“Turn over.”
Startled, he looked down at her.
With her hands on his shoulders, she urged him onto his back.
“Daphne…”
“Shh.” She straddled him and took him in. Tilting her head back, she sighed with contentment.
The effort to hold back, to wait for her, had him trembling as he gripped her thighs. Her skin was so silky smooth, her scent so intoxicating, and the wet, hot sound of their loving so enticing, Brandon had to bite his lip—hard—to keep from exploding.
Her sighs drifted into moans. The sway of her hips became more urgent. Her nails scored his chest.
“God,” he groaned. “Daphne…”
Suddenly, she stopped. Her eyes closed, and her lips parted, she climaxed with a mighty shudder.
Feeling her clutch him hard from within, he gripped her hips and finally let himself go.
Brandon couldn’t have moved even if the place was on fire. So much for his big talk about two or three times—he’d be lucky to ever recover from this first time with her. “I found a new word.”
“For what?”
“To replace goddess.”
Since she was still stretched out on top of him, her laughter echoed through him. “What’ve you got?”
“Witch. You’ve cast a spell over me and left me paralyzed.”
She nibbled on his lip. “That way I can have my way with you over and over again, and you can’t stop me.”
The one part of him that wasn’t paralyzed came back to life. “Stopping you isn’t in my plans, don’t worry.”
Laughing, she kissed him lightly. “Was it different, Brandon?”
“I’ve never been rendered paralyzed before, if that’s any indication.”
“It seems not all of you is paralyzed.”
Brandon rolled them over so he was on top of her. “Everything about you is different from anyone I’ve ever known.” He gazed down at her. “I think I knew that the first day when you yelled at me—twice.”
Daphne laughed and hid her face in embarrassment. “Your father had driven me to it. You were just the one who answered the door.”
“Best thing I’ve ever done,” he said, reclaiming her lips, “was answer that door.”
“Brandon,” she gasped when he moved in her.
“What?” he whispered.
“I thought you were paralyzed.”
“Looks like it was temporary.”
Colin ignored his ringing cell phone as he tried to process what Meredith had said. Someone tried to kill her? When the phone rang again a minute later, he pulled it from his pocket with impatience to check the caller ID. “I’m sorry, I have to take this. It’s work.” He flipped open the phone. “O’Malley.”
“Hey, Colin, it’s Jesse,” said Chatham’s director of public works. “We’ve got a break in the sewer main. We need someone right away. Can you guys do it?”
Pulled in two directions at once, Colin’s head spun. It was a big job, and the town had called them first, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to refuse. “I’ll see what I can do and get right back to you.” He ended the call and clutched Meredith’s hand. “I’m sorry, honey. Give me one minute to deal with this, okay?”
She nodded, still wiping tears from her face.
Colin wanted to toss the phone onto the beach, but instead he called Declan.
“What?” Dec growled.
“I need a favor. Can you round up a crew and get in touch with Jesse Silvia? They’ve got a broken sewer main.”
Declan groaned. “I’m in bed, Col. Come on…”
“It’s eight thirty.”
“I didn’t say I was sleeping.”
Colin took a deep breath to summon patience. “I wouldn’t ask for help if I didn’t really need it. I’ll explain tomorrow. Will you do it?”
“All right,” Dec grumbled. “But this had better be good.”
“It is. Thanks.” He turned off his phone and put it back in his pocket. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Meredith said. “You’re running a business.”
“This is much more important—you’re much more important.”
She swiped at the tears that spilled down her cheeks.
“Tell me.”
Hesitating, she seemed to be making a decision. After a long pause, she took a deep, rattling breath. “He was my high school boyfriend. Kevin was quarterback of the football team, everyone’s best friend, a great student, you know, the whole package. I had the biggest crush on him, but I didn’t want to be like the girls who were always throwing themselves at him. Maybe that’s why he picked me over all of them.”
Colin tucked a strand of long dark hair behind her ear. “I’ll bet you were the prettiest girl in school.”
“I wouldn’t say that. But anyway, we dated our whole senior year and all that summer before we went to college.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Boston College. He went to MIT, so we stayed together while we were in Boston. The only thing about him I didn’t like was the way he drank. It was never a social thing. The goal was always to get drunk, and when he was drunk, he could be mean.”
Colin held her hands and waited for her to go on.
“I finally broke up with him at the end of our sophomore year of college. By then, he was drinking every day, and one time he got rough with me when we were…” A tear rolled over a cheek that had turned red with embarrassment.
“What?” He brushed away the tear as his stomach clutched because he already sensed what she was going to say.
“In bed,” she whispered. “He hurt me, and I told him it was over between us. I gave him a choice—he could either drink or he cou
ld have me. He said some really awful things to me that night, and it was clear he wasn’t going to pick me.”
Colin pulled her back against him. “He was a fool.”
“He was an alcoholic, but he didn’t know it yet. After we broke up, a friend told me about Al-Anon. I went to my first meeting that summer, and I’ve been involved ever since.” She took a deep breath to calm her emotions. “Anyway, I didn’t see him again for about three weeks, and then he turned up at a party one of our mutual friends was having. He begged me to talk to him, and for once he didn’t seem drunk, so I did. I know I was so naïve, but I hoped we could be friends after spending three years together.”