“Yeah?”
He swiftly removed that one last piece of gauzy material between them, then he kissed her in the middle of all that heat. He worked his tongue and lips on her, doing incredible things and driving her right out of herself. She clutched at the sheets, rocking her hips.
“Levi—” she gasped. “I’m going to...”
“No. Not yet. Don’t come yet.”
“But—”
She couldn’t speak. Could barely formulate a thought in her head. Holding back was costing her so much. She was on the edge of a precipice, hanging on and wanting to fall. Let go. Levi continued with his slow torture, his tongue and mouth on her, doing wicked but wonderful things that made her feel...everything.
Finally, finally, when she thought she would scream, Levi said, “Come.”
Then he did something incredibly wicked with his tongue and she was gone. Just gone. Her body shook and trembled and she cried out his name.
When she’d come back down to earth and remembered how to breathe again, she found that he’d crawled up her body and had a condom packet in his teeth.
He ripped it open with an easy, slow smile, then a moment later, he slid into her, long and deep. “Stay with me.”
She did, meeting him thrust for thrust in incredible pleasure. The delicious pressure built up quickly inside her, Levi sliding slowly into her in a rhythm that worked for both of them. Oh, how it worked. He gripped her hips and drove into her, his own breathing becoming ragged and uneven.
“I can’t stop it. I’m coming,” Carly said.
“Do it,” Levi said, and just like that they both went tumbling over the edge, falling hard.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
LATER, CARLY LAY spooning with Levi, trying her damnedest to push away all the anxiety that crowded her mind. Thoughts of her father’s injury, New York and all her unfinished business were taunting her because, for the first time in a long time, she was happy. Too happy, for a change. She deserved this, damn it. It didn’t matter for how long. She had this now, and it was so easy with Levi.
But maybe easy isn’t what I need.
She should tell him right now. Explain that, while she’d be going back to New York City, it didn’t have to be the end of this. He could visit her. Often. Eventually she’d return, and they’d pick up where they left off.
“I can hear you thinking,” Levi said, his deep voice utterly sexy and muffled against the nape of her neck.
“Huh?” She turned on her back to face him.
“Something’s on your mind.”
Maybe the guilt she felt, realizing that everything had changed between them. She was no longer fooling around, and she sensed he wasn’t, either. This little fling between them had taken on a life of its own, and she still wasn’t being completely honest with him.
“Just so much on my mind.” Is it technically a lie if I don’t tell him I’m thinking of leaving? “I...wish I hadn’t given up on my degree at the Fashion Institute.”
“What do you think? Why did you give up?” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gave her a slow smile.
“What I think,” she said on a long exhale, “is that I’m not good at school, and that’s why I didn’t finish.”
“No other reason?”
“I thought I was doing pretty good.” She thought back to that exciting time in the city she’d come to love. All that energy and excitement crackling through the very oxygen she breathed. She’d been young and alive. So many possibilities. “Actually, I was sort of the teacher’s pet. One of my instructors took me under his wing. We dated, too, a couple times.”
“Yeah? So how old was this guy?”
She lowered her head to say the rest of the hard truth into his chest, because, even after all this time, it was still a little embarrassing. “He wasn’t old. Seven years older than me. I slept with him.”
“I don’t need to hear that.”
“Only once. It was a stupid mistake and things were weird after that. But I thought we were doing okay at school. Then one day I made a mistake, just a small one, easily corrected. It wasn’t anything no one else had done before. Alec went ballistic. He screamed at me in front of the entire class. I couldn’t show my face for days, but I did go back. It wasn’t the same, though.”
Levi’s arms tightened around her. “I don’t like where this is going.”
“I didn’t finish. My confidence was wrecked, and my mom sent me a one-way ticket home. She said I just needed some time to regroup and think about my next move. Of course, I never told her about Alec. She would have wanted to sue the school.”
“She would have sued, but all I want to do is beat his ass.”
“It’s not all his fault. I shouldn’t have slept with my teacher.”
“Bullshit. I don’t want to hear that.”
“I take responsibility for my actions. I was young, and maybe I liked the attention he gave me.”
“Yeah, and he was seven years older than you and a teacher.”
Everything Levi said was true, and she’d heard it all before. Jill and Zoey had wanted her to write to the school to complain. And now Carly realized that she should have. She could have stopped him from making any other girl feel so small.
Levi kissed her shoulder, then lingered there while his hand skimmed down her spine. “Is that loser still there?”
“He’s not. So either he was fired, or he left on his own.”
“I could find him.”
“No.” She sat up straight and met his gaze. “You’re not going to do anything.”
“I’ve got skills you don’t know about.” He simply lay back, a wicked grin on his face, hands splayed behind his head. Nothing but the thinnest white sheet covered him, just below his abs.
“I’m sure you do.” But if he hadn’t shown her all his skills, she hated to think he’d been holding back. Any more of those skills and he’d give her a stroke. “Special service skills?”
“Yep.”
“Seriously?” She straddled him, hands splayed across his abs. “You’re going to hold out on me?”
“Only until you beg. Then I won’t be able to resist.”
“You think I’m going to beg?”
“I know you’re going to beg.”
“Try again. I don’t beg.”
He locked eyes with hers, his own gaze blazing hot. “I’m going to do that thing I do. Then we’ll see how you beg.”
“What thing?”
“That thing where I ruin you for any other man.”
“Oh. That thing.”
Then he flipped her, rather skillfully in fact, displaying some of those skills. “I’m going to make you feel so good that you’re going to forget anyone who ever made you feel less than the gorgeous, sexy, smart woman you are.”
Her heart ached just hearing those words. Another thing he couldn’t do, but how she loved that he wanted to try.
“Promises, promises.”
And then he proceeded to show her, inch by inch, and kiss after mind-blowing kiss, just how well he kept his promises.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“GIRL, YOU NEED to stop smiling like that,” Jill said from behind the counter at the Drip. “You’re making me wish I had a boyfriend.”
“Sorry.”
“Just hope I meet someone that makes me smile like that someday.”
Carly yawned in response, and Jill glared at her. “Oh, stop it. You couldn’t be more obvious.”
“What happened to your good-looking neighbor?” Carly said, paying for her mocha latte.
“Men are dumb.”
Fortunately, Jill said this over the loud cacophony of the espresso machine, so Carly thought most of the customers sitting nearby probably hadn’t heard her.
Hopefully. She walked over to the other end of the counter to wait for her drink, pushing Grace’s stroller forward. The Drip was fairly empty after the lunch rush. It was a good place to do homework or write and there was a long bench table in the back usually filled with students and writers.
Jill slid the mocha in Carly’s direction. “He’s married. I took his stupid dog to the pet wash and walked him three times. The last time I brought him back he thanked me for walking his wife’s dog while she was on a business trip. You’d think he could have told me that the first time, don’t you?”
“That’s terrible, but it was very nice of you to do that.”
Jill rolled her eyes. “And a little mocha for the baby girl!” She handed over a small paper cup filled with whipped cream for Grace.
“That’s the organic whipped cream, right?”
“Of course.”
Grace squealed in delight when Carly put it in her hands. Carly had started the training early, but for now it was a mocha-free zone for Grace.
“What time is Grandma coming?” Jill asked.
“She should be here any minute.”
“You’re going tell her today?”
“That’s the plan.” Carly pushed the stroller to an empty two-chair table and set her drink down.
She hoped that Irene was as open-minded as she seemed to be, because Carly wanted her to walk out of the coffee shop rethinking all of her plans. Despite the fact that Levi thought it was none of their business, Carly couldn’t, in good conscience, allow Mrs. Lane to walk out of her marriage of more than twenty years without a fight. Real love was always worth fighting for. It was worth overcoming every obstacle. She’d make Mrs. Lane see that, one way or another.
Irene wanted to take Grace to the local petting zoo, and Levi had agreed. This would give Carly some free time today, as well. Since Grace had started to sleep less during the day and more at night, Carly’s days had become difficult to juggle.
It wouldn’t be much longer before RockYourBaby was sold. They’d recently received an adequate offer, and though it was for far less than she’d hoped, they now had a solid and viable option. Kirk had agreed they should sell at the lower figure. It was time. Now they simply had to take care of the paperwork and contracts. RockYourBaby would become part of a larger and more profitable baby website. Apparently, Your Beautiful Baby even hired professional journalists to write their articles. They’d decided not to buy the RockYourBaby trademark name, and instead, planned to capitalize on Fashionista Baby because of the popularity of the viral post.
The door chime dinged, and Carly looked up to see Mrs. Lane walking toward them. She had a backpack slung over one shoulder and wore a windbreaker, long pants and hiking shoes.
“Hey, you two.” She bent to pat Grace’s head and took the empty chair. “I bought diapers and I’ve got water bottles and snacks. I didn’t want you to go to any trouble.”
So much for the diaper bag Carly had packed with fresh fruit and healthy organic snacks. “That’s okay. Take this anyway.”
“Thanks,” Mrs. Lane said, accepting the bag. “And thank Levi for me again, too. I’ll take lots of photos of her today because I’m going back home next week.”
No. That wasn’t enough time to get these two to come to their senses. “Do you have to?”
She smiled then, kind and reassuring, and patted Carly’s hand. “Oh, I see what you mean. That’s kind of you, honey. But I’ve got a house to get ready to sell and so much to do. More than twenty years of marriage. I’ll probably need one of those big green metal trash bins.”
“But...but what about Mr. Lane?”
“What about him? If he wants to give up, that’s his business.”
“Maybe you should talk to him.”
She leaned back in her chair. “Talk? I’ve talked until I ran out of words. He doesn’t want to hear me jibber-jabber anymore, as he calls it so eloquently.”
“But twenty years. Don’t you...love him anymore?”
“Oh, honey. You’re so young. Well, of course I love him. But sometimes that’s not enough.”
Since when?
“What if I talk to him?”
“You?” Mrs. Lane seemed to consider it, then shook her head. “I can’t stop you from wasting your breath, but if you want to, go ahead.”
“How do you know when it’s over? Really?”
Most of Carly’s relationships had ended before they’d even started. But she’d never seen her parents even get close to the point where they’d give up on such an...investment.
“How do you know?” Mrs. Lane dropped her gaze to the table. “You know when you stop talking. When there’s nothing left to say because everything has already been said. And said. About eleven thousand times. I’m tired.”
“So it sounds like you need him to do some of the heavy lifting for a change.” They’d finally gotten to the heart of the matter. Now all they needed was a solution.
“That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?”
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Lane. I’ve got this.”
“I see you’re an eternal optimist. Just like your mother.”
She nodded, though that was far from the truth. Pessimism had clouded most of her life. It was just always easier to handle someone else’s problems. “I’ll talk to him.”
“If you can work your magic with that stubborn man, then more power to you. Twenty years is a long time. Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t looking forward to the dating. I looked into a seniors online matchmaking site, but I won’t put up my profile just yet.”
Crisis averted!
Now for the next bit of news. Carly hoped that Mrs. Lane would understand and forgive this last part. Because Carly was a bit nervous about it. Sometimes good things did come to an end, and so it was with RockYourBaby.
“I also wanted to tell you something about RockYourBaby. It’s being sold. But don’t worry, it’s going to a good home.” She took a breath. “I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
Mrs. Lane nodded. “I saw the strain it’s taking on your relationship with Levi. And, honey, please. You’ve got to let him help more. Don’t kill yourself every night doing all the cooking and cleaning.”
“That’s... Yeah.”
“Maybe now you’ll be able to put all your efforts toward raising Grace.”
“I’m still going to work.” She’d never thought of herself as the stay-at-home-mom type. Her mother had worked. Her grandmother had worked.
“What are you going to do?”
Well, that was the fifty-thousand-dollar question, wasn’t it? She still had no idea. She wanted to continue to design and sew, because that was her heart. Or at least, it always had been. And even if she never went back to New York City, she’d find a way to make it work.
“I’m still looking at all my options.”
“I’m sure it will still be something having to do with babies, right?”
“Um, sure. I wouldn’t rule that out.”
“You are your mother’s daughter.”
But that wasn’t true, and never had been. She’d always marched to the beat of her own drummer, as her father said. The entire family had been left-brain thinkers, and she’d been the odd one out. She’d been the one with dyslexia, which at times was her curse and at other times the one thing that made her unique. Because she’d been drawn to creative pursuits and found her success there. For the most part, anyway.
“Actually,” Carly said, “I adored my mother, but we were nothing alike. This baby business was her thing, and I never understood it. When she died, I tried my best, but I’m a poor substitute. And that’s okay.”
It felt freeing to say the truth. She’d been selling and pretending to be someone she wasn’t for so long that she’d almost forgotten who she was. Now so plainly stated and simple, the t
ruth sat between them, clearing the air. Mrs. Lane didn’t look shocked or at all surprised. But then again, if she was a mother and a grandmother a few times over, she’d probably already seen and heard it all.
“You’re good with Grace.” Mrs. Lane glanced at her granddaughter with clear adoration in her eyes. “And that’s all I care about.”
Grace cooed from her stroller, where she sat swinging and kicking her chubby legs. Carly didn’t know how it had happened, or when, exactly, but she did understand Grace. She was in tune with her mood swings and her needs. The way she liked to be held when outside, so that she got a clear view of the whole world in front of her. The way she seemed to understand Carly’s words, and the sound of her voice talking to her through the day. Levi had been right. Carly might not be the most informed nanny around, but she was an encyclopedia when it came to Grace Lambert.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
LATE IN THE AFTERNOON, Irene pulled back the lacy white eyelet curtains of her room at the Whispering Rose Bed and Breakfast on the outskirts of Fortune. Away from town, it was so quiet the only sounds she heard were crickets. The B and B was on several acres of a beautiful working vineyard. Just the kind of place where she’d wanted to stay with her husband. Said husband could be in here right now enjoying the beautiful ambience of the soft lighting and the wine tastings every evening, but instead he sat outside in the rental sedan spying on her.
Yep. Still there. She had her own stalker. Her husband.
He’d called and texted since she’d left their room at the Budget Inn. She hadn’t responded. But the next day, she’d noticed him parked in the small visitors’ lot of the B and B for hours. It hadn’t taken a genius to find her, as she’d used his credit card to book the place.
“Frank,” she muttered. “What are you doing?”
He wouldn’t come to the door and knock. She told herself he was simply respecting her space. If nothing else, she’d distracted him from his machinations with the California family court system.
After spending most of the afternoon with Grace at Happy Hollow, the local petting zoo, Irene had come away firmly convinced that her granddaughter was well cared for. Clean. Healthy and alert. Levi and Carly had done a wonderful job, and Frank should be happy with this knowledge. But Irene now worried that nothing on this earth would be good enough for him.
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