It had worked out okay for Faith and Harmony. Sure, both women had paid some heavy dues to the relationship gods, but in the end, they’d found that one man that completed them. And Abel….she knew he was that man for her. He was the person that made her feel safe and whole (not that she’d shared those pertinent tidbits with him yet). She’d known since that asshole, Tanner, had shot her that Abel would always put her wellbeing ahead of his own. He’d thrown his body on top of hers in a bid to protect her that day. He’d been too late, but he’d tried. It was a hell of a lot more than any other man had tried to do.
After he realized that he’d been unable to protect her and she’d been hurt, he’d been furious. And scared. She still remembered how his face had looked while she’d lain in that hospital bed getting stitched up. Pale and shaken, he’d stood tall and silent beside her hospital bed, gripping her hand tightly while the doctors and nurses had sewn her up. And when she’d looked into his eyes that day, she’d seen just how deeply he cared for her. On some level, she’d recognized that he loved her even then, but she’d diligently tried to convince herself that it was a familial love, not a romantic one.
And she’d successfully buried her head in the proverbial sand right up until Harmony’s engagement party. After their shared night of passion, she’d known it would be impossible to fool herself any longer about what she felt for Abel Turner and what he’d felt for her in return.
So, she’d commenced running.
But, he’d caught her now. And if the look on his face was any indication, he was never letting her go again.
“You know, it’s really not fair. You’re a lawyer. You’re automatically gonna be good with your words. I’m just me, Abel. A bartender. That’s it. I’m always just gonna be….”
“Perfect,” Abel supplied in a hard voice that dared her to argue. “You’re always just gonna be perfect, Patience,” Abel interjected as he cupped her cheek in his hand and met her gaze with his.
“I’m a long, long way from perfect,” Patience scoffed, shaking her head slightly against the cushion as Abel braced his weight on his elbows on either side of her.
“You’re perfect for me, Hellion,” Abel growled. “And that’s all the hell that matters here. You and me. Nobody else.”
“Abel,” Patience called softly, lifting a hand to touch the bristly scruff on his jaw, “I won’t fit in. Not with the wives of all your fancy friends and colleagues. I’ve got a two year degree from a community college and am a bartender, for heaven’s sake. You’re a freaking member of the Tennessee Bar Association! How exactly is this gonna work?”
Abel’s fingers tightened on Patience’s cheek and his eyes narrowed. “You’re looking for roadblocks where none exist, Patience,” he informed her in a deep voice. “First of all, you aren’t just anything. If that’s how you see yourself, we’ve got real problems because you, darlin’, are an accomplished college graduate who is part owner of one of – if not the- most successful businesses in Paradise County. You’re beautiful. You’re smart. You’re sassy and you’re savvy. But, by far, most importantly of all is that you’re mine. Anybody that has a problem with either you or us can kiss my fuckin’ ass. I don’t need them in my life if they don’t support me and the woman I love! I won’t give you up. Not for a friend. Not for a colleague. Not for fucking anyone. Not now and not ever. You get me? Or do I need to somehow be clearer?”
She couldn’t even begin to fool herself. Patience was pretty certain that declaration of his had melted her panties right off her body. “Abel,” she whispered shakily, unable to tear her gaze away from his blazing eyes. “I don’t know what to say to that.”
“Say that you understand me, woman,” Abel urged her heatedly. “I won’t let anyone keep us apart. Not even you, Patience. You’ve got my love. You’ve got my heart. You’ve got my kids. You’ve got my fuckin’ soul, Hellion. What more can I offer you?”
“It’s not about what you can offer me, Abel,” Patience replied tremulously. “It’s about whether or not I can give you enough in return.”
“You’re giving me a chance onto hold you, darlin’. I’d be nine kinds of a fool if I didn’t know how lucky I was to get that shot. Baby, you just try and trust me with your heart, and that’ll be more than enough. You are more woman than any man could ever deserve, but I’m damn well gonna try and be worthy. Just let me love you, Patience.”
Hooking her hand around his neck, Patience pulled his mouth down to hers and quieted him the only way she knew he’d let her. It took no coaxing at all to get Abel to part his lips and let her tongue dance with his. Desperate to feel his skin against hers, she grappled with the buttons on his shirt. In her haste, a few of those tiny little buggers snapped under her fingers, falling to the floor like casualties of a brutal war. Finally reaching heated bare skin, she drove her fingers through the dark springy hair on his chest, her nails dragging against his skin sensually as she felt Abel’s hands behind her back working to release her breasts from the confines of her bra.
She moaned when he finally pulled the silky fabric from between them and tossed it carelessly to the floor, baring her full twin globes to the chilly night air. Her nipples pebbled as his warm hands cupped her breasts, guiding them toward his mouth. “Oh, God,” Patience whimpered as she experienced the acute pleasure of feeling Abel’s tongue sliding around her areola before sucking the hardened tips of her breasts between his lips. “That feels so good,” she breathed, glorying in the sheer beauty of the moment as her pleasure magnified with every slow, torturous pull of his lips.
For the first time in her life, she wanted to celebrate her sexuality and relish being a women in Abel’s arms. He worshiped her body with a reverence that threatened to steal her breath, each touch carefully designed to bring the maximum amount of pleasure.
“Lift your hips up for me, darlin’. You’re wearing way too many clothes,” Abel ordered gruffly.
“I’m only wearing a damn thong, Abel,” Patience retorted, hiding her smile against his shoulder as she felt him release one of her boobs in order to reach for the elastic waist on her panties.
“Like I said, baby, you’re wearing way too many clothes,” Abel countered with a wicked smile as he eased the material down her long legs and tossed the scrap of silk over his shoulder.
Patience threw her head back against the arm of the sofa as Abel’s fingers danced over her slick folds, reacquainting himself with all her secrets. Pressing her lips together to keep from releasing a needy whine, her fingers dug into the cushion below her while his thumb circled her swollen bud with an aching slowness.
“How’s that feel, Sweetness?” Abel husked as he dropped a trail of kisses down her body until he reached her core. “You ready for my mouth on that sweet little pussy of yours?”
Patience closed her eyes and wondered how the hell to answer his question. Should she tell the truth and share how she felt like she’d explode into a million pieces if he didn’t hurry up, bend his head and put his mouth on her throbbing pussy? It wasn’t very ladylike, but then again, she was naked with her legs spread in front of a man who’d already knocked her up. Ladylike was just a pipe dream for her at this point, wasn’t it?
She was saved from further internal debate when his heated open mouth suddenly dropped against her core. Moaning when his sneaky tongue slid forward to lazily lap over her shiny, plump folds, she quit breathing altogether when he found her clit and flicked it quickly back and forth with the tip of his tongue. “Holy shit, Abel!” she cursed, reaching down to grip his hair as he continue to feast on her. The pleasure was almost painful as his mouth worked her over, his hunger engulfing her as he settled between her splayed thighs.
Abel growled against her, licking furiously as her thick juices coated his tongue ratcheting up his appetite for her to a whole new level. “You’ve got the sweetest pussy I’ve ever tasted, Patience, and it’s all mine now. So fuckin’ addictive, baby. I’m never gonna get enough of you,” he groaned before pierced her puss
y with his tongue, pushing it into her snug little channel and fucking her with slow, deliberate strokes. Taking her hips in his hands as she thrust back against his face, he pulled back only far enough to suck her clit between his lips.
“Oh, fuck,” Patience gasped, lifting her head to stare down her body at where his mouth ate at her pussy. “That feels so good,” she cried out as his growl vibrated against her clit, sending waves of intense desire pulsing through her. “Don’t stop,” she implored him raggedly, her nails burying in the skin of his broad shoulders. “Please, don’t stop!”
Abel lifted his face, damp with the evidence of her desire, and grinned at her. “I knew I could make you beg,” he teased her as he slid two blunt fingers into her wet passage, curling them slightly to stroke her inner wall.
Patience’s eyes dilated as sharp shards of pleasure radiated through her body. “Oh, sweet Jesus,” she panted, arching her back as she lifted her hips and met the thrusts of Abel’s hand. “That feels soooo good,” she whimpered as he continued to finger her, thrusting deeper with every twist of his hand.
“Fuck, yes, it does. You’re so hot, baby. That sticky syrup of yours is just burnin’ my fingers up. Your tight little cunt is suckin’ on my fingers so sweet. I can’t wait to feel it suckin’ at my dick again,” Abel agreed, licking her clit again as he found her G-spot and tapped his fingers against it, pulling another scream from Patience’s sweet lips.
“Abel, I’m gonna…I’m gonna come,” she babbled almost incoherently as the most delectable sensations built within her womb, threatening to break her apart with the strength of their intensity. She could feel every muscle in her body coiling tight as Abel pulled his fingers from her pussy and moved over her. “No!” she wailed as the pleasure ebbed. Clutching his shoulders, she shook her head. “Don’t you dare leave me like this!” she sobbed desperately.
“I’m not leaving you, baby,” Abel promised, claiming her lips for a deep, wet kiss. “But I’ll be damned if you’re gonna cum without taking me with you,” he warned before quickly pulling back his hips and thrusting his hard length inside Patience’s blistering heat. “Ah, fuck!” he bit out, slamming deep as he sheathed himself inside the searing bliss that was Patience’s body.
“Abel! Fuck, Abel!” Patience called shrilly, moaning as his thick cock filled her. Closing her eyes, she turned her head and searched blindly for his mouth. Moaning as both his tongue and dick penetrated her simultaneously, she dimly recognized that this was what it meant to feel whole – like the last piece of her puzzle had finally snapped into place and her picture was finally complete. Rocking her hips against his as he surged inside her, she met his violent kiss with one of her own, needing to feel connected to him in every single way she could.
Patience keened as she drenched Abel’s cock in her juices as he hammered into her throbbing pussy with heavy, measured strokes of his cock, slowly filling the emptiness she’d lived with for way too long. Meeting every lunge of his dick with one of her own, they both searched for fulfillment, clawing and clutching at each other as the passion swelled between them. Wrapping her legs around his hips, she dug the heels of her feet into his flexing ass. “Deeper, Abel! Fuck me harder!”
“Don’t wanna hurt you, Hellion,” he muttered into her sweating neck as his dick jerked eagerly inside her.
“You won’t,” she wailed. “Fuck me, Abel! Fuck me like we both need it,” she pleaded as her nails scored the corded muscles of his back.
Abel snarled as his control snapped, his hips battering hers as he drilled into her. “Is that what you need, Hellion? Is that how you want it?” he bit out at her ear before lowering his head to suck at where her pulse beat a staccato rhythm in her neck.
“Yes!Yes!Yes!” Patience screamed as the most acute, pulsating pleasure flooded her bloodstream. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears as Abel’s body slapped against hers, his cock lengthening and pulsing within her. “Oh, God, YES!!!!!” she wailed as the metaphorical string inside her snapped and her body was inundated with the most blissful release she’d ever experienced. She was awash with ecstasy and drowning in a sea of rapturous delight.
So blissed out that she barely knew her own name, she almost missed Abel’s long, low groan of completion as his body trembled above her own. Stroking his damp back as he slowly came down from his own high, Patience could only smile sleepily as he kissed her neck gently.
“I love you, Patience,” she heard Abel breathe against her ear as he rolled off her, his hand settling over the tiny mound of their children. “This right here was our beginning, darlin’.”
Nodding, Patience turned her head to gaze into his satiated gray eyes. “Our beginning,” she echoed quietly, her blue eyes soft as she stared at him. She only hoped that it wasn’t the beginning of the end.
Chapter Seventeen
Almost Three Months Later
His end was nigh. That much was certain in the small town of Paradise.
In fact, there was a running bet among the residents of Paradise County that Abel Turner would, in fact, meet his untimely demise before the end of Patience McKinnon’s second trimester of carrying his offspring. At almost six months pregnant, she was a force that most people were wise enough NOT to reckon with.
Sadly, he wasn’t one of those wise souls.
Nope. Most people watching him right now would swear he was dumber than a box of rocks. And as he stood in the dining room of the I Don’t Care Café, Abel idly wondered just who had taken today’s date in the betting pool. He hoped it was somebody he liked. Because of the way Patience was glaring at him, it would seem they might be coming into a tidy sum before the end of the day.
Patience slowly moved her eyes from the brand-spanking-new keys lying on the bar to the grinning man standing a few feet away from her. She swallowed hard, suddenly having lost the ability to form words in her throat.
“What. The. Hell. Have. You. Done? She managed to choke out the question before clearing her throat. “What do you mean you bought me a new vehicle this morning?” Patience roared, causing several customers in the diner to cast anxious glances toward the exit.
Abel merely raised an eyebrow at her response to his news. “Alright, Fireball,” he said with a deep sigh, using his newest nickname for her, “Go ahead and get it out of your system.”
“Get it out of my system?” Patience repeated with a shriek. “Get what exactly out of my system, Abel?” she asked with a heated glare in his direction as she waddled out from around the counter to peer out the window into the parking lot. Yes, waddled! Daffy Duck had nothing on her these days. “Oh my God!” she yelled. “Is that a Hummer parked out there?”
“You know for such a tiny thing, you’ve got a surprisingly formidable set of lungs,” Abel noted in a bored voice as he leaned against the counter watching the mother of his unborn children as she almost vibrated with the force of her anger. He ignored her question since the answer was obvious. Of course he’d bought a Hummer; it was the safest vehicle on the road these days. And above all, he wanted his growing family to be safe. Heaving out a long suffering sigh, he straightened his shoulders and took a step toward the irate woman he’d fallen in love with. Sure, he was risking life and limb by moving closer, but he’d never been real smart where Patience was concerned. “Now, Hellion, you had to know this was coming.” he began in a placating tone.
Lifting a hand to stop him from getting any closer, she shook her head. “First,” she spat, “There is nothing tiny about me anymore, you asshat, and you damn well know it since you’re the one that did this to me,” she accused, gesturing down at her burgeoning belly. “I’m like Bertha the Beached Whale over here, damn you! I should be an attraction at SeaWorld by now,” she wailed, lifting and dropping her arms against her sides several times before her shoulders sagged.
Of course, time and experience had taught Abel that this was not the gesture of a helpless woman. Oh, no. On the contrary, Patience was simply flapping her arms to build momentum. One day, he fully
expected her to go airborne during one of her rages.
“And second,” she bit out after she’d taken a moment to center herself. “I neither need, nor want a new vehicle….and certainly not some repurposed Army tank! Take it back,” she demanded, jabbing a finger toward the parking lot. “And just where in the hell is my Mustang?” she shouted, squinting as her eyes scoured the parking lot for her beloved car.
Glancing over his shoulder at the audience watching them, he asked out the side of his mouth, “Anybody in the peanut gallery wanna offer me a little backup here?” Looking from his brother, Cain, to his best friend, Zeke, he watched both men shake their heads as they sat at the counter having lunch.
“No way in hell. I’ve got enough problems with a certain McKinnon woman. I’m not adding your woes to mine, my friend,” the Sheriff mumbled before shoving a forkful of salad into his mouth, keeping his head down as Honor came out of the kitchen to stand behind the counter.
Cain shook his head, too. “I’ve got my own hormonal pregnant McKinnon sister to contend with, brother. You’re on your own,” he muttered, reaching for his glass of lemon water.
Meeting Honor’s amused eyes, Abel hung his head. He knew he’d get no assistance from her. The sisters mostly always stood together. Even if Honor agreed with him, she’d never go against Patience in front of a diner full of people. Besides, lately Patience and Honor were thick as thieves. It was more likely that Honor would help hide his dead body than support his play to put Patience in a safer mode of transportation. Now, if Harmony or Jake was here, he might have had some support. They seemed to be the most reasonable couple in the family these days. Unfortunately they were both at Heaven’s school for some kind of parent/teacher conference.
“Where is it, Abel?” he heard Patience rap out, her hand slamming down on one of the empty tables in the middle of the restaurant as she faced off with him. “What did you do with my car?”
Ready, Willing and Abel (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnon Sisters Book 3) Page 27