Free Fall

by Karen Foley

  Just thinking about doing those things to him caused something hot and needy to unfurl low in her womb. His leg was still wedged high between hers, and it was all she could do not to ride the big muscle of his thigh. Instead, she kept still except for the rhythmic stroking of her hand over his stiff erection. Slowly, she became aware that his breathing had changed, and his body had tensed. Glancing at his face, she saw him watching her through his lashes, his hazel eyes glittering hotly.

  “Don’t stop now,” he said, his voice roughened with sleep and arousal. “Not when it seems the dream I was having is actually real.”

  Maggie let out a soft huff of laughter. “Oh, this is real, I promise,” she said, rubbing her cheek against him as she continued to touch him, running a thumb over the wide head of his penis. When she encountered moisture, she felt an answering flood of liquid heat between her own thighs. Raising herself up on an elbow, she bent over Jack’s prone body and pressed a moist kiss to the center of his chest, before slowly dragging her mouth to his nipple. He moaned as she flicked her tongue over the small nub, teasing him the way he enjoyed teasing her.

  “Do you like that?” she asked, squeezing him beneath the covers.

  “I’d like to wake up like this every morning,” he assured her, and ran a hand over her shoulder and down her back.

  “You feel so good,” she said in awe, stroking him. “I’ve been thinking about all the things I’d like to do to you and getting pretty worked up.”

  “Really?” His voice sharpened with interest. “I can help you with that.”

  Before she realized his intent, he rolled on his side toward her, pushing her flat on her back and pulling both her legs over his hips, so that her bottom was pressed against his groin.

  “Oh,” Maggie breathed, understanding his intent. “This is...nice.”

  “You bet.” He smiled. “This way, I can still hold you, and yet I have unimpeded access to everything.”

  He demonstrated by bending his head and kissing her, while simultaneously stroking her breasts and then moving his hand over her stomach and lower. Nudging her thighs open with his hand, he cupped his hand over her, caressing her. Then, shifting his hips, he was right there, easing himself into her. Whereas the previous night there had been an urgency to their lovemaking, and Maggie had been desperate to have him inside her, this morning was different.

  Jack took his time kissing her, exploring her mouth in an almost leisurely manner, while he established a rhythm that was slow and languorous and drove Maggie wild.

  “Don’t rush it,” he soothed, as if sensing her rising need. He skated his mouth along her jaw and caught her earlobe between his teeth, never stopping his maddening pace. “Just enjoy it. Let yourself go.”

  He punctuated his words with another long, lazy thrust of his hips, but this time he reached down and pressed his fingers against her, and Maggie came apart. Jack kissed her hard, capturing her muffled cries of pleasure. Her own release triggered his, and with one last, bone-melting thrust, he stiffened and Maggie could feel him surge inside her.

  The lay entwined and breathless for several long minutes, until Jack withdrew himself from her body and disentangled himself from her limbs.

  “Lady,” he growled softly, bending over to plant another kiss on her mouth, “you are going to kill me.”

  Maggie smiled, feeling satisfied and ridiculously pleased with herself. She waited while Jack left the bedroom to clean up, then returned with a warm washcloth for her. She tried not to blush when he insisted on cleaning her himself, but it was impossible to be embarrassed around Jack. He was unabashedly comfortable with his own nudity, and he made no pretense of the fact that he preferred to have Maggie nude, too.

  Now he climbed back into bed with her, bunched the pillows behind his broad shoulders and pulled Maggie up beside him. “How are you doing this morning?” he asked.

  Maggie knew he referred to the incident from the previous night, when she’d admitted to being completely freaked out by running into Nathan Stone.

  “I’m good,” she assured him. “Part of the reason I didn’t want to come back here was because I knew I’d run into people who remembered what happened. I just didn’t want to deal with it, but I guess you can’t hide from your past forever.”

  “Nope,” Jack agreed. “Better to accept it and move on.”

  “I’m trying.” Maggie was silent for a moment. “What about you? No skeletons in your closet?”

  Jack laughed softly. “Oh, sure. Everyone has skeletons.”

  Maggie couldn’t imagine Jack having anything in his past that he might be ashamed of. “Tell me.”

  He shrugged and traced a lazy pattern on her arm with his fingers. “I told you my dad was gone a lot when I was a kid. His air-force career required that he move every few years, but after doing that a couple of times, my mom put her foot down. She didn’t want to keep relocating, not with a kid. So she stayed in Colorado with me, and my dad continued with his career.”

  “Why didn’t they just get divorced?”

  “I don’t know. He came home whenever he could, but I remember them sleeping in separate rooms.” He shrugged. “I knew they were having problems, but I always thought they would work it out. I never expected them to get divorced.”

  “I’m sorry,” Maggie murmured. “That must have been hard on you, only seeing your dad every once in a while.”

  “Well, not as hard as the time I came home early from school and found my mom in bed with the neighbor.”

  Maggie swiveled her head to look at him. His expression clearly reflected the remembered hurt and anger he had felt. “How old were you?”

  “I was almost twelve. Our school had a water main break, so they sent everyone home early.” He looked down at her. “The thing is, I really liked the guy she was with, but I was furious that she’d betrayed my dad. I was so pissed off at her that I called my dad and told him.”

  Maggie drew in her breath. “Oh, wow.”

  He gave a bitter laugh. “Yeah. That got him home in a hurry, but it was too late. They got divorced and I started spending my summers in Washington State.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Maggie said, because looking at his face, she could see that even after all this time, he blamed himself.

  “Wasn’t it? If I hadn’t made that call...”

  “They were already having problems,” she reminded him.

  He sucked in a breath and blew it out hard. “But I knew how my dad felt about infidelity. He had this thing about divorce, and how he’d never let it happen to him. Even though he and my mom weren’t close, he believed that marriage was a forever commitment. He could have gone on the way they were indefinitely, I think.”

  “But your mother couldn’t. She was lonely. She needed someone.”

  Jack gave a huff of bitter laughter. “But did it have to be our neighbor? And why couldn’t she have had the decency to divorce my dad first before she got involved with another guy? I might have been able to forgive her, if that was the case.”

  Okay, so he definitely had issues with infidelity. Good to know, not that she’d ever give him any cause for concern. Any woman lucky enough to have Jack Callahan in her life should have her head examined if she so much as looked at another guy.

  “Maybe, on some level, she knew that having an affair was the only way your dad would ever let her go,” she ventured.

  “Yeah, well, my phone call sure got the ball rolling.”

  Raising herself on one elbow, Maggie traced his mouth with her finger. “Think of it this way—if they hadn’t gotten divorced, you might never have spent your summers on Whidbey Island.”

  “She sent me out here because she didn’t want to leave me alone during the day, but I always wondered if it was because she wanted to be alone with him.”

  “So she and th
e neighbor never got married or anything?”

  Jack shook his head. “No. When I was about fifteen, he moved away. I never saw him again.”

  “Are your parents still alive?”

  “Yes. My mom still lives in Boulder, and my dad retired from the air force and lives in Texas now. I see him a couple of times a year. Actually, we have a pretty good relationship.”

  “And your mom?”

  Jack shrugged. “I had a harder time forgiving her. Don’t get me wrong, I love her a lot. But our relationship has always been a little distant.”

  Maggie stroked his arm, trying to imagine what it would be like to be married to a man who cared more about his career than he did his family. That had to have caused an enormous amount of hurt and resentment. In retrospect, maybe it was better that her own father hadn’t stuck around. How much worse would it be knowing that your own father didn’t love you enough to want to be with you? At least her dad had left before she and Eric had been born. When she was a little girl, Maggie’s mother had often said that if he’d stayed long enough to actually meet Maggie and Eric, he never would have left, because he would have fallen instantly and completely in love with them.

  “You’re not very much like your dad,” she said softly. “I mean, from what I can tell, you love your career, but I don’t think you’d put it ahead of your family.”

  Jack looked at her in surprise. “You’re right, I do love my career. There’s nothing quite as exhilarating as flying, and the guys in my squadron are like family. But if I get married, my wife and kids will always come first, no question.” He hesitated. “I made a promise to myself that if I ever had kids, they’d never have to wonder about my feelings for them, because I’d tell them every day. And I’d never cheat on my wife. If there’s one thing I could never tolerate or forgive, it’s infidelity.”

  “Ah, so maybe you are like your dad.”

  He turned to look at her. “I just think that if you’ve committed yourself to somebody, then you don’t disrespect them by screwing around behind their back. I would never do that.” Reaching out, he stroked a finger along Maggie’s cheek. “When I give myself to someone, I do it completely. And I expect the same in return.”

  Maggie swallowed hard, feeling a lump forming in her throat. Not trusting herself to speak, she simply nodded and laced her fingers with his. He’d made it clear that he intended to remain on Whidbey Island. He was building a house. He had plans to run a charter flight business after he left the military. He had his life so perfectly mapped out, and Maggie was beginning to hope that there might be some room in that life for her.

  13

  THE DAY BEFORE the festival, Maggie found herself too busy to worry about anything except getting their tent ready for the opening day of the fair. She and Carly spent the morning arranging the items they would sell at the festival. They had hired a local girl to help them out with the sales, and while Maggie and Carly prepared the tent, she oversaw the shop. Meanwhile, hundreds of exhibitors poured into the tiny town of Coupeville, and the waterfront streets were soon lined with festive tents. Maggie had brought her collection of wildlife photos to the shop, and when Carly had first seen them, she’d been speechless.

  “Maggie,” she said, standing back to admire a photo, “you missed your calling. You’re wasting your talents in wedding photography. You should always be doing nature or wildlife photos. Look at the colors you captured in that sunset! And I don’t know how you achieved that particular effect with the whale—he seems to glow against the sky.”

  “I can’t take all the credit,” Maggie commented, although the effusive praise was heartening. “I just worked with what nature provided.”

  “Oh, no,” Carly protested. “You took what nature provided and brought it to the next level.”

  Maggie smiled, pleased in spite of herself. “I actually enjoy portrait photography. Especially the babies. I can’t wait until Danielle and Eric have the twins. I plan on documenting every minute of their lives with my camera.”

  Carly made a disgruntled noise and arched one eyebrow. “That’s going to be a little difficult to do from Chicago,” she noted sourly.

  “Well, that’s just it. Since I told Eric I would stay here until after the twins are born, I thought I might as well come back for good. You know, find a place to live, hang my shingle and all that.”

  Carly gaped at her for a minute as if unable to comprehend what she was saying. “Are you serious?”

  Maggie nodded. “I am. I’m going to try it, at least for a year, and if it doesn’t work out then I’ll reevaluate and decide what to do from there. But I could use the change, and I think Eric and Danielle could use an extra hand, at least for that first year.”

  Carly’s expression turned sly. “And your decision doesn’t have anything to do with a certain sexy pilot, does it?”

  “It might,” Maggie acknowledged with a smile. “But for now, I’ve only told him that I’m here until the twins come home.” She shrugged. “I don’t want him to think that the only reason I’m staying is because of him. That might freak him out.”

  “Or it might not. Did you think that he might be holding back a little because he knows that eventually you’re going to return to Chicago? You should tell him that you’ve decided to stay.”

  Maggie made a sound of disagreement, recalling his views on commitment. He’d said that when he made a commitment to a woman, he did it completely. She knew that he was ready to commit himself to her. The knowledge both thrilled and terrified her. She didn’t know if she was ready to reciprocate. Not yet. She was almost there, but taking that last step and telling him how she felt about him scared the hell out of her.

  She hadn’t seen Jack since the previous day, and she acknowledged that she missed him. He’d called in the early afternoon to say he was having dinner with his architect, and had invited her to join them, but she’d refused, not wanting to intrude on business. Despite having woken up at five-thirty, his Land Rover had already been gone, and she was feeling the effects of not having seen him for twenty-four hours. She’d slept poorly without him, and felt tired and cranky. The knowledge that she wouldn’t see him tonight either only intensified her sour mood.

  She just needed to get through the festival, and then she could begin making some solid decisions about her future.

  About him.

  As she and Carly put the finishing touches on the tent, she thought about how she would get her new photography business up and running. Thankfully, her brother knew just about everybody on the island, and he’d display her work in his shop. But she’d need to establish her own clientele, and maybe open a small studio on the island. The prospect was both unnerving and exciting.

  As the late afternoon stretched into early evening, Maggie stood on the main street and gaped at the transformation. Both sides of the street were lined with tents, and even though the fair didn’t begin until the next day, small groups of people made their way down the center of the streets for an advance viewing of the items for sale. Soon, the police would herd them out of the festival area, and the waterfront would become off-limits until the morning. Food vendors had also set up their booths by the famous pier, and Maggie’s mouth watered in anticipation of funnel cakes and cotton candy. The weather promised to cooperate, and Maggie found herself looking forward to the festival.

  “I’ve never seen so many exhibitors before,” observed Carly, who had come to stand beside her. “Tomorrow is going to be standing room only.”

  Maggie silently agreed. She hadn’t attended the annual festival in over ten years, and the last time she had, there’d been half as many exhibitors as there were now. Suddenly, her gaze sharpened on a couple who slowly made their way down the center of the street. She frowned, and then quickly ducked back into the tent. She’d recognized Nathan Stone immediately, and he was with the same woman he’d been wit
h at the restaurant.

  “Are you okay?” Carly asked, stepping into the tent behind her.

  “Yes. I just saw somebody that I’d rather avoid right now.” Stepping past Carly, she jerked the flaps of the tent closed and began tying them securely. Through the opening, she could see Nathan and the woman coming closer. They looked relaxed and happy, and with a sense of relief, Maggie realized they hadn’t seen her.

  She tried to recall what she knew of Nathan. He’d been a pilot, too, and had been Phillip’s closest friend. Maggie hadn’t known him well, as Phillip had tended not to introduce her to his friends very often, but what she knew of him, she’d liked. He’d always been kind to her. But no way did she want to get into any discussions with him, not when the only thing they had in common was Phillip. As they drew level with the tent, Maggie stepped back, out of sight.

  “Who is that?” Carly asked, peering over her shoulder through the opening. “Why are you hiding?”

  Maggie grimaced. “That’s Nathan Stone. He was Phillip’s best friend, and was supposed to stand up at our wedding.”

  “Ah.” Carly put a sympathetic arm around Maggie’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “You’re bound to run into people who knew you from those days. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

  Maggie nodded. “I know. But I keep thinking that if Nathan is still in the area, maybe Phillip is, too.”

  Curly looked curiously at Maggie. “You don’t know where Phillip is living?”

  “Of course not. Why would I? That’s part of the reason I moved to Chicago, so I wouldn’t ever have to worry about running into him. Or his wife. I assumed they’d stayed here on Whidbey Island until he was reassigned somewhere else. But where that was, I have no idea.” She snorted. “Maybe he got some cushy assignment in Washington, D.C.”

  Carly shrugged. “I don’t know where he went, either, and trust me when I say that nobody who cares about you ever asked.”

  Maggie gave her a grateful smile. “Well, at least he reimbursed my mother for the cost of the caterer and the band.”