And that was exactly what he did.
He thrust in and out of me in steady strokes. The sound of our sweaty bodies coming together was like an erotic soundtrack to our encounter and amped my arousal with each pounding beat.
I found myself in awe as I stared up at his rugged face, he really has no idea how sexy he actually is. He was the sexiest man ever to walk God’s green earth, and he was oblivious to it…and he was mine.
I sighed, leaning back and reveling in that truth and in how he made me feel.
As those thoughts and sensations flowed through me, I felt the waves of a building orgasm in my belly without even trying. That was something else that was so different with him, compared with every other experience I ever had. It didn’t feel like work. It felt organic, like everything just grew on its own, developed and happened exactly the way that it was meant to, with no intervention on my part and it took me to places I’d never dreamed of.
I squeezed my arms and legs around him tighter and tighter as I called out his name. The climax claimed me like a tidal wave sweeping me away. It was so strong and powerful that I almost didn’t even notice when I felt the same bunching tension in Sawyers’ muscles that I felt in my own.
The realization that we were both being claimed by powerful orgasms at the same time was overwhelming, but I thought that it was exactly right. So perfect. Everything about our lovemaking was characterized by being perfectly in sync, and this was no exception. It was a kind of connection that I’d never known and always craved. And there was nobody else I’d rather share it with than Sawyer.
When we’d both collapsed back on the couch, panting and sweaty, completely spent from our shared climax, Sawyer looked over at me. He ran his fingers through my hair, wiping damp strands off my forehead and tucking them behind my ear. As he spoke, he graced me with one of his rare smiles. “You’re perfect, and I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I breathed, finding it hard to inhale and exhale as my chest constricted from emotion. Hearing him say those words was going to take some getting used to, but that was a challenge I was definitely up for.
Chapter 29
Sawyer
“The only force stronger than fear is love.”
~ Grant Turner
The sun was setting as Delilah and I drove back to Wishing Well for Harmony’s wedding reception. So much had changed so fast that it didn’t seem like it could be real.
My baby sister was officially a married woman. My dad was expected to make a full recovery and was set to be released from the hospital in the next few days.
Not only had Harmony said I do, but I’d also had a date to the nuptials that took place in my dad’s hospital room. When Edith had sarcastically commented that if that were to happen, she would check her pigs for wings, I’d been right there with her.
Never, in my wildest dreams, would I have thought that I’d not only have a date, but it would be with the woman that I now went to bed next to every night and woke up to every morning. Since I’d removed my head from my ass, Chewy and I had spent every night at Delilah’s. I had no desire to be at my house. It didn’t feel like home. Now that I knew what home felt like, I wasn’t sure it ever had.
Delilah was my home.
I’d never felt so close to someone. It was like she was the piece of me that had been missing. I’d told her everything that had happened in my past that led me to be so closed off, so scared to hurt her. She’d assured me that nothing was going to happen to her but that if it did the difference this time was, whatever challenges she faced, I’d be by her side. We’d face them together.
I’d never thought of it that way, but it made sense and was a much more positive way to look at things. That was just one of the many things that I loved about her. She was always looking at the bright side of things. Where I was pessimistic, she was optimistic. Where my mind went to everything that could go wrong, hers focused on everything that could go right. She was the light to my darkness.
I heard a sniff from beside me, and I turned to see a single tear falling down Delilah’s cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she smiled brightly as another tear fell down her face. “Nothing’s wrong. Everything is right. I’m just so happy.”
“Me, too.” I squeezed her hand, and a strong impulse overtook me.
Yanking the wheel to the left, I put my arm across Delilah’s lap as I made a sharp turn off to my spot.
When I pulled to a stop, Delilah shifted towards me, her eyes were wide with excitement. “I like where you’re head’s at, but I’m not sure we have time. Don’t we need to get to the reception?”
I reached past her, the same way I had the first time I’d brought her here, to open the glove compartment. This time, I wasn’t reaching for a bottle of water. Instead, I pulled out a ring box. As the oldest grandchild, my grandmother had left me her ring. For a long time, I’d been sure that I’d never have any need for it. But, I’d asked my mom for it two days ago thinking that it would still be awhile before I’d use it, before the time would be right to use it. But this was it; this was the right time.
When she saw the box, her eyes shot up to mine in shocked disbelief. Then I opened it, and her hands flew to cover her mouth. She gasped as moisture formed in her eyes.
I smiled at her sweet reaction.
“Eight years ago, when you fell off that bridge and into the water, you might think that I was the one that saved you. But you’re wrong.”
Her brows wrinkled in confusion, and I knew that this wasn’t coming out right.
“I did save you,” I clarified. “But you saved me, too. I was dead inside. I’d given up on love, on feeling…anything, and you resuscitated me. You brought me back to life.” A half smile pulled at my lips. “I wasn’t happy about it at the time, and I did my damnedest to fight it. For years I resisted coming back to life, but you just kept saving me. You kept reviving me. Every time I’d see you smile. Every time I’d hear your voice. Every time I looked into your eyes, my heart would start beating again.”
She sniffed as more tears fell down her smooth cheeks.
“The last time we were here, you told me that you loved me.”
Her head moved up and down as she nodded emphatically.
“You also said that you didn’t need me. That you’d be fine without me and your life would go on.” Emotion started clogging my throat, but I pushed past it. “And I know that’s true. You don’t need me. You would be fine without me, and your life would go on. But the thing is, mine wouldn’t. I won’t be fine without you, and I do need you. Life without you isn’t living, it’s just existing.
“You make me a better man, a better person. You are the light in my darkness. I love you, Delilah Margaret Turner.”
Her nose scrunched adorably at my use of her middle name.
“I would ask if you’d make me the luckiest man in the world and be my wife, but just having your love already makes me that. So I’m just going to say that I want to marry you. I want to be the man that makes sure you remember to eat when you get busy. I want your smile to be the last thing I see every night and the first thing I see every morning. I want us to keep saving each other, every day for the rest of our lives. Will you marry me?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Ye—”
I crushed my mouth to hers, cutting off her exclamations and I kissed her. I poured every ounce of pent-up love, desire, and need that I’d tried to deny and suppress into it. She matched my fevered passion with her own urgent hunger. When I finally broke our devouring kiss, I rested my forehead on hers as I slipped the ring on her finger, which was shaking.
“Umm…”
Her tentative tone sent a thread of panic ribboning through me. I’d always loved my grandmother’s ring. It was a solitaire round diamond. Its beauty was simple yet stunning. This was the first time I’d considered it might not be Delilah’s taste and she was the one that was going to be wearing it for the rest of her life.
“I can get you anoth
er ring.”
“What?” She pulled her hand away protectively. “No. I love it.”
Happiness and pride swelled in my chest, but if it wasn’t the ring that she was uncertain about, then I needed to find out what it was. “Then what were you umming about?”
“Oh, that.” Her eyes glimmered mischievously as faint pink rose on her cheeks. “I know we have to get to the reception, but I was wondering if we had time to—”
Once again I crushed my mouth to hers. This time though, it didn’t end with just a kiss. I made love to my soon-to-be wife and we were late to my sister’s reception. But Harmony forgave me when she saw the ring on Delilah’s finger. She grabbed the microphone and announced to the entire town that I’d finally removed my head from my ass and asked Delilah to marry me, and the entire place erupted in cheers. For once I didn’t mind being the center of attention. I didn’t even mind all the people coming up and congratulating us.
As long as Delilah was by my side and she was smiling, my world was right. She was my right. She was my light. She was my everything.
Epilogue
Delilah
“The key to happiness is having faith somethin’ wonderful is about to happen.”
~ Grant Turner
“No peeking.” Sawyer’s hand covered my eyes as he led me into our house.
Our house.
It was still so strange that this wasn’t just my house, it was our house. Mine, Sawyer’s, and Chewy’s. I’d thought that he was kidding when he’d said that he wanted to move in here, especially since his house was so much larger and he’d had it so much longer, but it turned out he was serious.
He’d packed up his clothes and put his house on the market in a matter of hours.
The day after his sister’s wedding, I’d gone to work in the morning, and by lunch, Jan Jenson, the sole real estate agent in town, came into the shop to order an arrangement for a client and told me that it had been a busy morning because Sawyer had listed his house. I’d come home that evening to find that Sawyer had not only moved in—which consisted of one dresser and enough to fill up half of a closet—he and Chewy had made me dinner.
Then, four days later, we’d gotten married. The day after Walker was released from the hospital, Sawyer asked me if I’d marry him that day. He hadn’t wanted to wait and neither did I. I’d never dreamed of a big wedding. After being in the floral business all my life and seeing what brides went through, I’d always hoped I could just elope. That hadn’t happened, but we had a relatively small ceremony at the courthouse with our families and a few close friends as witnesses. Which, still ended up being around fifty people.
We’d left from there and gone on a ten-day honeymoon in the Bahamas. It was heavenly. We’d spent the entire time in bed, making love and talking. I’d confessed to him my plan to seduce him, including the apprenticeship being my idea and the intimacy questions. I’d been a little nervous about how he’d take it but he’d just kissed me and told me that I hadn’t needed questions for him to feel intimacy with me. He told me that he’d loved me for years and even given me examples of times he’d fallen more in love with me when I hadn’t known he was watching, at my graduation, when I was volunteering at the convalescent home, when I’d offered to watch his niece so Destiny could have a girls night. I didn’t doubt Sawyer when he told me he loved me, but it was nice hearing evidence that his feelings had been there almost as long as mine had.
He’d also admitted to being the one that covered my donation. He’d said that he’d written the check the second he dropped me off after we ate. He wasn’t what I’d describe as a classic romantic, but he was a romantic nonetheless. He was my dark romantic angel.
And now we’d just got back into town, and Sawyer said that he had a “surprise” for me. He covered my eyes with his hands.
“Chewy down.” I heard him say as I felt paws and fur jumping up against us.
“He missed us,” I defended him. “We’ve been gone a long time.”
He guided me through the house before stopping. I knew we were in the kitchen area because I heard Chewy’s nails clicking on the tile beside me. When he dropped his hands, I saw that we were standing in the dining area and I looked over at the kitchen to see what the surprise was. But I did a double take when I noticed the view through the sliding doors. Or should I say French doors that were open to my brand new outdoor space that looked exactly like what I’d drawn, down to the last detail.
I sucked in a startled breath as my jaw dropped.
“How did you…?” I spun around to look up at Sawyer, who was still standing behind me.
“I didn’t. Your parents and sisters did.”
“What?” I shook my head.
“This was their wedding gift. They wanted to do something to show you how much they love you and how much you mean to them.”
“Really?” Tears formed in my eyes.
“Really.” He grinned down at me.
I’d talked to them about this project, but I honestly never thought they were listening.
Sawyer scooped me up and carried me out to the patio just like Richard Gere had carried Debra Winger. But this was better than the ending of An Officer and a Gentleman, not just because we had Chewy barking at our feet, but because this was just the beginning and it was my real life. And I couldn’t wait to spend it with the man that had saved my life and had let me save him right back.
THE END.
Coming Soon
August 2017
Fire and Love (A Hope Falls Novel Book 13)
Eli & Mackenzie’s Story
September 2017
Fire and Foreplay (A Hope Falls Novel Book 14)
Glenn & Adriana’s story
October 2017
Fire and Romance (A Hope Falls Novel Book 15)
Marco & Sydney’s story
November 2017
Fire and Seduction (A Hope Falls Novel Book 16)
Evan & Shay’s story
Excerpt New Series: Whisper Lake Romance
Introducing our new series that is a Crossroads Spinoff
Whisper Lake Romance
Starting with
Allison & Kade’s story in
Whisper of Love
Coming Spring 2018
Unedited Excerpt
Chapter 1
“Are you looking at porn!?”
“What? No!” Kade’s brow furrowed as his eyes remained glued to the device he was clutching in his hands.
The grunts and groans she’d heard in the hall that had caused her to go where no man dared to go—a teenage boy’s bedroom—were silenced now. In the dark room the only thing she could see through the small crack in the door was her nephew’s face that was illuminated by the screen of the iPad he was holding. It was too bad he didn’t wear glasses so she could have seen the reflection of what he was watching in them.
“Give it to me.” Allison Walsh did her best to sound as authoritative as possible as she leaned into the door with her shoulder pushing it open. The task was made more difficult due to an enormous pile of laundry halting its path. After putting her back into it, she was finally able to move inside the darkened room.
The first thing that hit her was the overwhelming, pungent smell. The combination of dirty socks, rotten food, and a distinctive funk that, in her experience, was uniquely teen-boy aroma. Lifting her hand to cover her mouth, she instantly regretted the fact that she’d let the room checks slip over the last few months.
That’s not the only thing you’ve let slip, her inner—somewhat judgmental—voice chimed in.
Shaking off that truth she pushed ahead into the funk cloud and expertly navigated through the minefield of dirty laundry, pizza boxes and general debris that covered his floor. When she reached the bed, she snatched her nephew’s iPad out of his hands.
“Hey! What are you doing!?” he shouted angrily.
“You’ll get it back when your room is clean and the yard is mowed, K-man.”
“Don’
t call me that,” her nephew shot back as he sat up on his bed and extended his hands to her like he was Oliver asking for ‘some mo’ please, except in a much more belligerent and rude manor. “You can’t take that, I need it for schoolwork.”
Shit. Ali’s mind raced as she searched her nephew’s light green irises for any hint of deception. Was he lying? Was he telling the truth? She had no idea.
Over the past year since she’d become legally responsible for her then pre-teen twin nephews she still hadn’t developed any kind of parent radar skills. She was officially in over her head and since the boys had both officially become teenagers the week before, she knew she hadn’t even hit the hard part yet.
With no clue as to whether he actually needed the device for scholastic reasons, she looked down to see if she could at least figure out what he’d been watching. It didn’t take much detective work since the YouTube video was still playing. It was an MMA fight that she’d seen at least a dozen times, which for her was a dozen times too many.
“This is not schoolwork.”
“Yes, it is! I have to write an essay on who my hero is.”
No. Not that. Not him.
Of course she knew that her nephew looked up to the man that he was named after. His godfather who happened to be a MMA fighter who got more press for his extra-curricular behavior than he did for his profession. Kade Donovan had been the reigning Bad Boy of MMA for nearly ten years, which was not an easy title to hold. That line of work didn’t normally attract choir boys. To stand out as trouble was quite a feat.
Hoping she could guide him in a different direction, she suggested, “Why don’t you write it on—”
“I already emailed him questions and told him I was! I’m writing it on Uncle Kade!” he screamed as he pulled the iPad from her hand.
“He’s not your uncle.” She knew that she was being petty by pointing that out but it was better than what she wanted to say which was, “He’s not your uncle, he’s an asshole who showed up at your dad’s, his best friend’s funeral drunk with a stripper and then when he found out that he was as legally responsible for both of you as I was he disappeared, leaving me to raise you and your brother alone.”
Seducing Sawyer (Wishing Well, Texas Book 7) Page 18