She ripped the divorce papers in half and handed him the two pieces. “What I want is for us to start over. Marry me because you love me, Owen. That’s the only reason I’ll accept for being married to you.”
“I love you, Maggie. Marry me,” he said, then he wrapped his arms around her and hauled her close for a kiss filled with the promise of so much. He kissed her over and over, and it was only when she was out of breath and nearly dizzy with joy that he broke the kiss.
As they turned, arms around each other’s waists, it was to find their family of sorts gathered on the lawn, smiling. Jonathan, Connie, Emma, Tracy, and Mrs. Patrick all stood there, clearly delighted with what they were seeing.
They walked toward the group together, and as they got there, Maggie shared a knowing look with Owen.
He grinned, dimples winking at her, and said to Emma, “Do you think you could plan a small, intimate wedding for immediate family for next weekend?”
Emma shook her head with mock outrage. “I’m not sure. Do you plan on making it stick this time?”
Owen peeked at her, smiling, and said, “Forever this time, Emma. No doubt about it.”
* * *
His hands shook as badly as if he had never made love with her before.
Owen wanted to make this night special. Wanted every kiss, every touch, to show her just how extraordinary she was to him. To show her how much he loved and adored her.
He ran his hands down her back, his touch as light as if she were a piece of fragile crystal. He bracketed her waist with his hands before inching upward to cradle her breasts.
“You are so very beautiful. So special to me,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion.
* * *
Maggie trembled at his words and leaned into his caress, needing his touch like nothing she had ever needed before.
She splayed her hands on his chest and swayed toward him, her knees growing weak as he tenderly tweaked her nipples and bent his head to kiss her.
His kiss was gentle, an invitation to more, and she answered, opening her mouth and accepting the slide of his tongue. Tasting him and pushing her hips against his erection as damp and heat erupted between her legs.
“I’ve missed you,” she said and reached between them. She encircled his erection and stroked him, dragging a rough groan from him.
“I can’t wait, Maggie.”
“I don’t want to wait either,” she said and took hold of his hand. Guided him toward her bed.
They fell down on it together, kissing and touching. Passion building with every breath and caress. Each heartbeat pounding out a declaration of love until it was a continuous rhythm without beginning or end.
He joined with her, and they climbed higher and higher until, with a final thrust, they tumbled over the edge together, their love stronger now that it had been tested and survived the challenge.
Chapter 36
Only the closest friends and intimate family were invited to the Saturday afternoon wedding where Maggie and Owen intended to reconfirm their vows. About two dozen people gathered on the lawn on an unseasonably warm mid-November day as the minister walked down to the arbor decorated with various fall flowers, foliage, and fruits. Like ducklings following their mother, the guests chased after him and then drifted to the rows of seats beside the center aisle and took their places.
The bridal party had already gathered at the arbor, along with Maggie’s father, waiting for Maggie and Owen to walk down the aisle together. There was just one thing missing, or rather, one person still missing.
As Owen scanned the people gathered outside, his lips thinned into an anguished line.
Maggie squeezed his arm and rose on tiptoes to brush a kiss across his cheek. Lovingly, she wiped away the slight trace of lipstick from his skin and said, “I know we both hoped your father would show up after my dad talked to him, but maybe we were being unrealistic.”
He nodded and said, “Maybe.” He gazed at her, his dark eyes filled with love, and his features brightened as he said, “Are you ready to do this, Mrs. Sinclair-Pierce?”
“I am, Owen. I’ve never been more ready.”
Owen motioned to the two waiters at either side of the french doors, and they opened the doors so Maggie and he could once again begin the journey to their life as husband and wife. But as they stepped out onto the patio, motion from the privet hedges caught their attention, and they stopped their stroll down the aisle.
Owen’s father slipped through the gap in the hedges and stopped to straighten his jacket before marching straight up to them.
He wasn’t smiling, Maggie thought, but then again, there was a softness to his normally dour expression that hinted at a possible change of heart.
“Father. I’m glad you could make it,” Owen said, his voice thick with emotion.
His father dipped his head in greeting and stared hard at Maggie. “You’re the spitting image of your mother, Maggie. She was a beautiful woman and bright as anything too. I know she would have kicked me in the pants for being a fool for so long. I’m sorry for all the hurt I’ve caused. I hope you and Owen have a long and happy life together.”
He turned to walk down the aisle to a seat but stopped short as he realized his old friend and partner had approached and stood just a foot away.
“Bryce,” Robert Pierce said with a hesitant nod.
Maggie’s dad held out his hand. “Robert. We’re all very glad you could make it.”
Robert glanced at the three of them and then at the gathered guests. “I guess it’s time to do this thing right, Bryce,” he said and eased his arm through Owen’s.
Bryce Sinclair smiled at his old friend. “I guess it is,” he said and slipped his arm into Maggie’s.
She looked up at her husband, smiling while tears streamed down her face. He was grinning too, his gaze watery as he said, “Let’s do this. It’s long past time for the Sinclairs and Pierces to be together.”
“Damn straight,” his father muttered, and as one, they walked down the aisle for the start of their new life.
Order Caridad Pineiro’s next book
in the At the Shore series
What Happens in Summer
On sale June 2018
Read on for a sneak peek of At the Shore book 2
What Happens in Summer
by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Caridad Pineiro
Available soon from Sourcebooks Casablanca
Prologue
Sea Kiss, New Jersey
Playing it safe was far worse than taking a risk on what you wanted.
Jonathan Pierce knew just what he wanted.
He grabbed hold of the gnarly branch of the decades-old wisteria vine that climbed the side of the Sinclair mansion and boosted himself up. He’d made the journey so many times this past summer, he could do it blindfolded.
He scrambled up the vine, finding the familiar foot- and handholds until he vaulted up and over the second-floor railing and landed on the balcony as silent as a cat burglar. The balcony ran the length of the immense oceanfront mansion, with elegant french doors offering views of the sea.
The first darkened doorway was Maggie Sinclair’s room. He rushed past it quietly; Maggie belonged to his older brother, Owen. Not that Owen had acted on it yet, but Jonathan had known for years that the two were meant to be together, family feud be damned.
The next doorway was usually Maggie’s dad’s, but the old man had stopped coming down to the Shore as often as he once had, so it was a good bet that room was unoccupied.
Reaching the third room, he saw the curtains wafting in the summer breeze and the dim light from behind the partially closed french doors. He smiled and his heart raced with pleasure.
Connie was waiting for him. Ever responsible, ever loyal Connie had broken her own rules to fall in love with him. Or at leas
t he thought it was love. It definitely was on his part. With barely a week left before the girls all went back to school, he intended to let her know just how he felt.
He slipped carefully through the open doors and shut them behind him. He’d gone no more than a step when she launched herself at him, laughing and kissing him as she said, “What took you so long?”
“I missed you, too,” he said, knowing it was more about the separation to come in a week and not about the long hours since last night.
He bent his head and kissed her, his touch tender and caring, and she answered in kind, her lips soft and coaxing.
Although Maggie had been bringing her friends to the Jersey Shore every summer since they’d met freshman year in college, he’d never really paid much attention at first. He’d had his share of girls from his high school class fawning over him.
But when Maggie and her friends had come back the next year, he had finally, gratefully, noticed what a real woman should be. Like Connie—all luscious curves, plus proud, smart, and independent.
As impatient as he might be to make love to her tonight, he wanted her to know how much this meant to him, how this wasn’t only a summer romance for him.
He leaned over her, his gaze locked on her face. He wanted to say the words—Lord, how he wanted to—but they stuck in his throat and so he let every kiss and touch tell her what he couldn’t voice.
* * *
Connie’s heart thudded almost painfully in her chest as she wondered how, in a week’s time, she could leave him. The ache deepened beneath her breastbone and she put her hand there and rubbed to assuage the hurt.
What had started as a summer fling with a funny, smart, and beautiful boy had turned into something so much more, with an incredibly amazing man. Falling in love with Jonathan hadn’t been in her game plan, but he was just too hard to resist.
She should have resisted. He was a Pierce. She wasn’t a Sinclair, but Maggie was like a sister, and that stupid family feud was still going strong, as far as she knew.
He was going back to Villanova in a week and she’d be returning to Princeton. The colleges were not all that far apart, but if she was to execute her game plan, she had to stay in the game, which meant studying and more studying. Not nights spent in bed making love and days spent daydreaming about the nights. But like Eve with Adam, now that she’d had a bite of such delicious forbidden fruit, she didn’t know how she could go on a Jonathan-free diet.
At the moment, she could just admire his sun-streaked light-brown hair waving wildly around a masculine face with chiseled features. A sexy dimpled grin was on his lips and his eyes glittered with a blue as enchanting as a Sea Kiss summer sea.
That ache in her heart rocketed to life again, together with an almost unbearable lightness in her soul. For so much of her life she’d been driven to accomplish more and more, but with Jonathan, she could just be herself. No goals or responsibilities. Just…happy.
And so, in the blink of an eye, her game plan altered. She could see it all so clearly, only now Jon was there beside her at each step. Finish college. Head to law school. Pass the bar. Get a job in a big New York City law firm so she could help her family financially, as well as others who had legal problems and couldn’t afford representation. Become a partner. Marry Jonathan. Or maybe marry Jon and then become a partner. She didn’t want to wait too long to be with him forever.
Not that she’d ever pictured getting married to anyone before, since her home life hadn’t been anything great. But for Jonathan, she’d make an exception.
As she snuggled into the curve of his arm and pillowed her head on his broad shoulder, she sighed and said, “I can’t believe the summer’s almost over.”
He grunted his reply in a too-typical male way. “Sucks.” But then he surprised her by adding, “I’d like to keep on seeing you once you’re back in school.”
She smiled, pleased by his admission, and glanced up at him. There was a contented smile on his full lips and the first hint of a dimple. The hard line of his jaw had a bit of blond stubble from an evening beard. She ran her hand up to brush away a lock of his hair.
“I’d like that, too,” she said.
His smile broadened and the dimple fully emerged, drawing attention to that luscious mouth. She couldn’t resist reaching up to skim a kiss along that dimple and the corner of his lips.
“What was that for?” he asked.
She wanted to say because he made her happy, but she hesitated. She’d seen what could happen to a woman whose happiness depended on a man, as she’d watched her mother lose herself and her dreams.
“As a way for you to remember me until we visit each other at college,” she said instead.
Tension crept into his body, impossible to miss. Enough to worry her. She pulled back from him. “I thought you wanted us to see each other. At least, that’s what you said a minute ago.”
A chagrined look passed across his features, stirring the worry inside her.
“I do, only…I won’t be at college this year. I’m not going back to Villanova.”
She searched his face, finding it hard to believe, but he appeared deadly serious.
“What do you mean, you’re not going back? Did something happen? Are you transferring to another school?”
* * *
She was freaking out and Jonathan understood. To someone like Connie, college meant everything, including the stability she’d not had in her early life because her father had abandoned her family. But he wasn’t like her. The whole predictable route that she and her friends—and even his brother—were taking was not the path he wanted to follow.
“I liked Villanova—the people, the place, even some of the classes—but the whole college thing is not for me.”
Shock registered on her features and she shook her head, either not comprehending or, worse, not wanting to. “What do you mean, it’s not for you? So what do you plan to do? Spend the rest of your life surfing? Or working at the bar?”
Her words were too much like those his father had shouted at him when he’d told him a week ago of his decision. His father, a bitter, angry old man who never had a kind word for either of his sons.
Her words, the look she gave him, stoked the anger in his belly. He tried to keep it banked, because he understood where such anger could lead. In as calm a voice as he could muster, he said, “I have plans, Connie. They’re just different from yours.”
“Was I ever in your plans? Or was this just a summer hookup?” she said, the upset evident in her gaze, but his own pain was just as alive. Just as sharp.
He snorted a breath and said more roughly, “You act as if I’m the one who wanted this to be just fun, but who’s the one who didn’t want her friends to know she’d been seeing me?”
She laid her hand over his heart. “It’s not what you think.”
The pity in her tone unleashed something inside of him. Something ugly and hurtful. “Don’t tell me what I think, Connie. I think you’re ashamed of me. That I’m not good enough for someone like you.”
Now, that is rich, Connie thought. For someone like him, who’d grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth, to think that she, who’d grown up on the edge of poverty, would think he wasn’t good enough. But in a flash of insight, it occurred to her that their differences had nothing to do with money.
“I care for you, Jon,” she said, unable to fully commit because the idea of falling in love and changing her game plan was still too new. “But I know what it’s like to want a man you can’t rely on. A man who doesn’t fulfill his responsibilities. I won’t have that in my life. I can’t have that in my life again.”
Angry color blossomed on his features and his hands clenched at his side. “If that’s what you think I am, I guess it’s a good thing the summer’s over so this can be over.”
He marched to the door and stood there for a long
moment. The delay gave her hope, then he turned back to face her. “I love you, Connie. My bad. I should have known better than to give my heart to someone like you.”
His words cut deep and that ache in her heart became almost unbearable. Her throat choked up and she almost couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t get the words out as he stormed through the french doors and slammed them shut. But somehow through the pain and the tears that slipped unheeded down her face, she said what she hadn’t been able to before.
“I love you, too.”
Chapter 1
Jonathan Pierce stared hard at the mirror, wondering what Connie Reyes might see tonight when she and her friends came over for dinner. What she might think after so much time had passed.
The teen she had known seven years earlier was gone, replaced by a man who had known his share of hardship and success. Barely perceptible laugh lines that hadn’t been there that last summer bracketed his mouth and eyes. A thin scar above one brow was thanks to a crash while testing a new vehicle prototype on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Another jagged white line on his jaw was courtesy of shrapnel when a hydrogen fuel cell had unexpectedly exploded in their lab.
He looked away and leaned heavily on the edge of the vanity, noting the other assorted nicks and scars on his hands. They were the hands of a man who had lived life to the fullest and made himself what he wanted to be and not what others expected. He knew he’d sometimes hurt people with his choices, especially his older brother, Owen, who’d had to shoulder the burden of the family business as well as their father’s ire whenever one of Jonathan’s escapades caught the attention of the media.
He’d gotten used to the interest the press had in him. After all, he was the renegade son of a wealthy family. A self-taught inventor who had sold his first small invention for millions. He was revolutionizing the motor vehicle and battery industries with his innovative designs, unconventional methods, and fearless experiments.
He had brought idea after idea to life with detailed research and hard work. There had been failures along the way, but that had only made the successes that much more enjoyable. He had celebrated those successes with his team, his brother, and a bevy of actresses and models who were only too keen to be seen on the arm of a rebellious multimillionaire who might soon be a billionaire if his company’s stock prices continued to climb.
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