“Did he say what he was calling about?” she asked, hoping Russell hadn’t clued Grant in to their troubled relationship.
“He said something about his clinic wanting to buy some of your paintings.”
“Really? That’s good news. I’ll give him a call,” she told her brother, relaxing when she realized he was none the wiser. “Thanks for letting me know.”
“No problem. Is everything okay with you?” Grant asked in his usual big brother tone of voice.
“Yes, everything’s fine.”
“Okay. Good luck selling your paintings. See you later.”
“Yeah, see you later.” She hung up the phone and grinned. She’d managed to deflect Grant’s suspicions and keep the fact she was in Chicago a secret. Score one for the little sister!
She glanced at the clock on the wall and estimated she had a little over an hour before Russell would be home. They needed to talk, and they might as well do it over dinner. Cooking would busy her hands and mind.
When she opened the fridge and saw it fully stocked, a happy smile spread over her face.
Chapter 26
Russell hurried home after finishing up in the surgery room. His thoughts revolved around Allison the entire time. One question in particular had plagued him and he needed to get an answer before they went much further. Why hasn’t she trusted me enough to tell me the truth?
As he entered his place and heard her moving around in the kitchen, a warm feeling took hold of him. Like the sunshine has come back into my life again.
“Hello, Sunshine.”
She gave a start and turned around. The way she glanced at him with rosy cheeks and tenderness in her eyes, the sadness from earlier in the day gone, overwhelmed him and he couldn’t anything but love her.
I love her. The feeling was so complete, so overwhelming he knew there was no way to avoid it or try to run away. And it felt good. Awfully good.
He walked into the kitchen, grabbed her around the waist, and gave her an impassioned kiss. But as he set her upright once again, guilt overshadowed his passion. “Sorry, Ally. I guess I should be more careful with you now.”
“I’m pregnant, Russ. Not sick. The doctor told me for the next four or five months I can do just about anything I like. Including sports and sex.”
She flashed him an inviting smile and plastered herself against his body, teasing the hard bulge in his pants with her hips. “Your colleague said there’s no reason to be careful.”
When Russell didn’t immediately respond, she pressed a hand between their bodies and asked, “You did hear me when I said there was no reason I shouldn’t have sex, right?”
Russell groaned as she wrapped her small hand around him, massaging his raging hard-on through his pants. “Yeah I heard.”
He sighed; he hadn’t wanted to ravish her like a starving man, but now that she was all but begging for it, how could he say “no” to her? He scooped her up into his arms and carried her towards his bedroom. “Be careful what you wish for, sweetheart.”
Allison giggled. “Why would I want to do that?”
Russell shook his head at her silliness, loving this side of her. He laid her down on the bed and kissed her face, starting with her lips and continuing all the way to her earlobes. He nibbled them until she made those sexy little moans he’d missed so much. Their plans to talk had to wait, as raw desire for her overtook him. He unbuttoned her blouse and kissed her stomach, which was as flat and beautiful as the week before.
His fingers slid down her stomach and he kissed his way to the waist of her skirt, murmuring “Hello, little darling, close your eyes and ears while Mommy and Daddy are making love.”
Allison giggled. “The baby can’t hear you, it is about three inches long by now.”
It still felt somehow odd, but as soon as he unhooked her bra and caressed her wonderful lush and firm breasts with his lips, he forgot everything other than the need to please her.
His tongue explored every inch of her breasts, taking extra time to tease her nipples by circling his tongue around them and slowly closing in to the taut and hard peaks.
Another sexy moan slipped from her throat and she squirmed beneath him, while she dragged his t-shirt over his head and let her hands wander over his back and his chest.
With his free hand he removed her skirt and found her panties already damp. His fingers slid up and down the silky material of her panties, her upper thighs, and back, trailing up her stomach to her other breast
While kissing up her stomach and down again, he squeezed both of her nipples between his fingers until he felt them growing even harder. His mouth reached her panties and he grabbed them with his teeth to drag them down her hips. Allison helped him to get them off, and a hiss of admiration escaped his lungs when she was lying naked beneath him.
She squirmed beneath him, naked and beautiful, hot and wet. He probed one of his fingers into her wetness, and found her more than ready for him. He’d never been more painfully erect in his life as he took off his pants and boxers briefs.
Allison tried to grab his head and have him kiss her on her mouth but he resisted. First he had to taste all of her. His hungry lips wandered down into her wet folds and kissed her. She tasted so sweet and full of promise. He took his time and teased that little love bud of hers that was already big and swollen. He felt her blood rushing and her arousal rising.
Her thighs tightened around his waist and she convulsed into a chain of spasms. Russell stilled until she calmed down from her earth-shattering orgasm before he started licking her again.
“No, Russell, please…” But she couldn’t finish the sentence, because the very same moment she burst out in another climax even more powerful then the one before.
When her breathing had returned to normal frequency, he reached for a condom out of habit. She shook her head at him, leaving him puzzled – even concerned.
“It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”
Russell looked at the condom in his hand and then to her still flat belly. His child was growing inside of her. Yeah, way too late for protection.
He tossed the unopened prophylactic into the drawer and then lowered his body over her own, caging her in with his arms and his legs. “I guess you’re right.” He kissed her. “What about STDs?”
“I’m clean.”
Russell sighed. “So am I. I’ve never gone without protection.”
Allison giggled again. “Well, I wouldn’t say never…”
“Hey, we did try. It just didn’t work. And before you ask, that’s the only time it has ever happened.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I believe you. Are you done talking yet?”
Russell growled at her and nipped her shoulder where it joined her neck, causing her to moan in pleasure. He took her up the precipice once again, leaving her hanging there for long moments as he relearned her body. He’d missed her so much, and the outlook of sleeping with her without the extra layer took his breath away.
“God, you feel good,” he told her as she wrapped her legs around his thighs and pressed her hot core against his hard body.
“You’d feel even better if you quit tormenting me and got inside me,” she groused at him when he still didn’t claim her.
“Impatient, aren’t we?”
“Yes.” She arched up, grinning from ear to ear when she reached her prize and felt his body join with her own. “I need to be yours.”
Russell didn’t have to be asked twice. His throbbing erection longed for release. He drove into her, and the delicious sensation of her wetness around him threatened to crumble his self-control to dust. Allison wrapped her legs around his waist and held him there, buried deep inside.
After a few moments he recovered part of his control and thrust into her with a steady rhythm. They were both so close to the edge, it only took a few strokes of his body inside hers before she was screaming his name and digging her fingernails into his back.
When his breathi
ng returned to normal, he gazed into her brown eyes with those cute little green spots. Her satisfied smile warmed him, and the walls he’d carefully constructed around his heart during the last years fell crumbling down.
She snuggled up against him and said, “Russ, I’m never leaving your side. Not ever again.”
Russell’s chest wanted to explode with joy, as a dreadful thought entered his mind. I’m supposed to go to Angola. Not prepared for dealing with it, he pushed aside all thought of Angola, and asked, “When do you have to be back in Sandy Beach?”
“I have to work tomorrow, but not till later in the day. I’ll drive up there first thing in the morning.”
“Mmm. Sounds perfect to me. We can eat dinner and then maybe repeat?”
***
The next day, Russell called Toni from work. He invited her to join him for a beer at the end of the workday, excited to tell her about Allison.
“I’m so happy for you, Russell,” she said with a big sisterly hug. “Allison is the perfect woman for you.”
“Why do you say that?” he asked, curious as to what his sister saw in the woman he loved.
“She’s the exact opposite of you. You can be so serious and grumpy at times, but Allison is lighthearted and happy. You two will be good together. Opposites attract.”
Russell didn’t explain that he’d decided to leave the grief and pain behind him and move on, but she seemed to understand without words.
They left the bar and he dropped her off at her home. Then he decided he might as well deal with the elephant left in the room and called Cole.
“Hey, I was wondering if we could postpone my trip to Angola?”
“Man, not really. A few days, maybe. All the planning has been done; we assigned the nurses and have even booked your accommodation and flights already. Why? Do you have to stay longer in your clinic?”
Russell wasn’t ready to talk about Allison so he gave a noncommittal answer. “No. Just a birthday party, but it’s not that important.”
“Good.”
“Great. Talk to you again soon.” Russell hung up the phone, his heart heavy as he tried to figure out how to tell Allison about the Doctors Without Borders gig.
He struggled with it all week, knowing she wasn’t going to like the idea, especially since he’d have to leave her alone during her pregnancy. It was only for three months, but that was going to seem like a lifetime.
They spoke on the phone every night, but he never mustered the courage to tell her. He’d discuss it with her in person; that was how he justified waiting until the weekend when he’d drive up to Sandy Beach.
Chapter 27
Russell came to Sandy Beach for the weekend and it was a magical time for both of them. They walked along the beach, swam, and made plans for the future.
“I quit my clinic,” he told her Saturday afternoon as they walked along the shoreline holding hands.
“You did? That’s terrific.”
“Yes. I’m looking for something else right now, but don’t worry about money. I have plenty of that to spare.”
“I wasn’t worried,” she said. After a while she added, “I don’t want to pressure you, but isn’t that a wonderful opportunity to move to Sandy Beach? You could get a new job somewhere around here as well.”
Russell shrugged his shoulders. “I have already thought about it, but I didn’t want to take rash decisions. You might not want to have me around all the time.”
She boxed his biceps, but his grin told her he was teasing her. “I want to have you around, and you know how much I’d hate to move to Chicago.”
“I’m not sure Sandy Beach is big enough…”
“It isn’t, but Milwaukee is only twenty miles away, and I happen to know the hospital there is looking for a chief surgeon.”
“And how would you know that?”
“Russell. This is Sandy Beach. I know everyone here, and it just so happens the hospital administrator lives on the other end of town.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Isn’t it? Anyway, the commute is fairly non-crowded and you could easily drive it in under half an hour.”
“It takes me longer than that to get from my apartment to the little community hospital I volunteer at, and it’s in the same city.”
“See, you should really give it some consideration.”
“I don’t know. Chief surgeon?”
“Yes. And think about the added benefits.”
“Benefits…?”
She now openly grinned at him; it was time to use her strongest weapon. “If you live in Sandy Beach, I’ll promise to cook breakfast and dinner for you. Every single day.”
He hugged her tight. “Hmm, that sounds like a true benefit to me. Taking about dinner…what are we going to eat tonight?”
“You are incorrigible, Dr. Barkin.”
They stopped for dinner at one of her favorite little diners and then he bought her ice cream along the Promenade. The small gazebo had a live band playing and on a whim, he twirled her into a dance and they spent several minutes swaying together under the stars as the moon came out and the sun dipped below the horizon.
Life was simply perfect.
Later, as they arrived at her small apartment, she saw her brother Terrence coming out of the small storage unit she used to store her paintings and supplies. He held a painting in his hand and she immediately knew which one it was.
Terrence walked towards her and held the painting up. “Who’s this…?” His voice trailed off as Russell walked up behind her.
Her brother obviously recognized Russell from the portrait he held in his hands and stared at him with hostility. Now she had to deal with a severe case of brotherly protectiveness.
Russell saw his image painted across the canvas and paled. She took a deep breath and then introduced the two men, even though she knew they’d already met.
“Terrence, this is Russell. He’s Toni’s brother. You might have met him at Grant’s party?
“Russell, this is my brother Terrence.”
The two men nodded but kept their distance, assessing each other like boxers before a match. They wouldn’t start a fight, would they? Allison stepped from one foot to the other until her brother finally took a step aside.
Terrence pointed his chin at the painting and said, “Something you need to tell me, sis?”
“Well, yes. But we’re going to tell everyone tomorrow at lunch. Please don’t say anything. We want it to be a surprise.”
Terrence looked from her to Russell and then grinned devilishly. That infernal brother. Allison knew she was in for it. “So what’s it worth to you?’
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you want?”
“Dessert,” was his immediate and familiar reply. Terrence could live exclusively on sweets, and he’d take every opportunity to have her cook for him.
Allison sighed dramatically. “Fine. You win. But I’m not making it this weekend. You’ll have to wait until later in the week.”
Terrence shook his head. “I can’t wait that long, unless...you make it two desserts.”
She almost choked. Her brother was beyond shameless. “Okay. But if you say as much as a single word, I’ll prepare you a dessert you’ll never forget in your life.”
“My lips are sealed.” He licked his lips and handed her the painting before he insinuated a bow in Russell’s direction and took off. “Nice to meet you again. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Allison turned to Russell, who had kept quiet during the interaction with her brother. Finally, he spoke up: “Boy, am I glad I only have one sister to deal with.”
She laughed. “You are one lucky guy.”
He looked at the painting. “May I?”
She handed it to him, nervous about his response.
“When did you do this?”
“The day after the party. I think some part of me knew I loved you, even then.”
Russell locked eyes with her. “I love it. And I love you. Swe
et Ally.”
***
As Sunday afternoon approached, Allison grew more nervous by the minute. Russell noticed her state of mind and took her into his strong arms, running his fingers through her hair.
She tried a small smile, but anxiety and tension knotted inside her.
“This is very important to you, isn’t it?” Russell said.
“Yes. What if my family doesn’t like you?” That was a rather irrational fear, because her family had met Russell at Grant and Sam’s party and they’d all liked him back then.
He cocked her his crooked grin. “What’s not to like about me?”
She boxed him playfully on the chest. “Don’t take this lightly. My brothers can be overprotective at times. They still think I’m ten years old and need them to watch out for me.”
He hugged her tighter and soothed her anxiety. “Ally, Sunshine, everything will be fine. Stop worrying, okay?”
A few hours later they arrived at her parents’ home, Allison holding onto Russell’s hand as if it were a life belt. Their entrance drew raised eyebrows from everyone, and a dark stare from Grant.
Grant moved his lips soundlessly in her direction and Allison could decipher something similar to “So this was the reason.” Saying he wasn’t pleased at her hide-and-seek with him would be an understatement. She just hoped he’d come around soon enough.
Thankfully her mother stopped any further animosity. Much to Allison’s surprise, Mom opened up her arms to hug Russell effusively. “Welcome to our family, Russell, this is such a wonderful surprise.”
Russell looked a bit uncomfortable but hugged her back and said, “Thank you, Mrs. Paxton.”
“Bridget. Please call me Bridget.”
“Bridget. Thanks for the warm welcome.” He turned towards the others again and added, “Allison and I have decided to live together here in Sandy Beach.”
While everyone applauded, Allison almost fell backwards. What did he just say?
Her mother exclaimed, “That is wonderful! Let me hug you, Ally, darling. I knew it from the very beginning. You two look so good together.”
Russell came back to Allison’s side and whispered into her ear, “Your offer to cook for me every day convinced me.”
Momentous Kisses: Love in Sandy Beach Page 10