Third Time's the Charm

by Liz Talley

  “No, they’re staying the night with my parents at the big house,” he said, motioning to the house sitting far off to their right.

  “Good,” she said, sliding past him.

  She caught a whiff of his cologne and felt his warmth as she brushed against him. A set of stairs she knew went up to the loft lay to the right. She set her helmet on the glass table in the small entry. Henry turned, closing the door behind him.

  Sunny reached over and twisted the lock. Then she started up the stairs, pulling her shirt over her head as she climbed.

  Henry’s first thought while watching Sunny Voorhees David climb his stairs as she removed her T-shirt was that this was a test.

  His second thought was hot damn. Finally.

  And because he hadn’t had sex in over a year and the woman climbing his steps, presenting him with a delicious back and red lace bra, was the woman he’d been in love with for longer than he could remember, he went with his second thought.

  But even so, as he followed her up the steps, he wondered if he should use his head… and not his penis to figure out what in the hell was going on. Obviously, something was wrong with her, and he didn’t want to make things any worse between them by doing something stupid like stripping off the rest of her clothes with his teeth and then doing stuff to her he’d only seen done in dirty movies.

  When he reached the top step, he found her next to his neatly made bed, shucking out of her jeans. He stood for a moment, shocked that she was actually undressing. In his room. By his bed.

  Sunny pulled her hair loose and it fell in a scarlet, seductive mass around her shoulders. Her pale belly was flat, her breasts still amazingly plump and her hips, though lean, rounded the way a woman’s hips should be. She looked like his best teenaged wet dream as she came toward him.

  He needed to say something. To figure out what the game was. “Sunny, baby, what’s—”

  She silenced him with her finger, pressing it so firmly against his lips he could do nothing more than close them and drop his eyes to her mouth. To those lips he’d dreamed about far too often. Then he lowered his gaze to the breasts filling the push-up bra. Then to the curve of her womanhood in the matching red thong. At that point, he lost his will to do anything other than whatever she wanted him to do.

  “Don’t,” she said, taking his hand and placing it on her waist. Then she wound her arm around his neck and lifted onto her tiptoes. Her mouth brushed against his and she whispered, “Give me what I want, Henry. What we’ve both wanted for too long.”

  That he could do.

  He lowered his head and captured her mouth as he hauled her against him. He’d unbuttoned his too-tight shirt earlier as he worked on figures for a project, and her flesh meeting his felt like falling into heaven. She opened her mouth, twisted her fingers in his hair, and surrendered herself to him.

  For several seconds, the world stood still. There was only him and this woman he’d once loved, their breath mingling, their bodies pressed so close there could be nothing between them.

  Sunny broke the kiss and looked up at him, her lips glistening and her eyes dilated with desire. She plucked the pencil from behind his ear and tossed it toward his bedside table, then slid his readers from his nose, folded them, and set them beside it. Then she sank back on his bed, a pinup girl striking a pose.

  And she waited.

  Henry shrugged out of his shirt and went to her, stopping when his denim-clad knees bumped her bare ones. “I want you more than you will ever know, Sunshine, but are you certain?”

  Her blue eyes flashed with brief annoyance. “You sure are trying hard to stop this.”

  “I don’t want to screw up any more than I already have.”

  “I want this. I need this.”

  So he put his knee on the bed and laid her back, the same way he’d imagined it in his dreams for so many years. His Sunshine, her gorgeous body his playground. He covered her with his body, capturing her lips with his, bringing himself down so that all the good parts lined up.

  Coming home.

  Sunny’s breath caught as his body settled against hers, and he ground his pelvis to remind her he was a man and she was his, at least for the next little while. Her body felt so good he thought he might actually cry. Instead, he buried his face in her hair, inhaling the scent of warm vanilla and honey.

  Then his body took over. His fingers found her bra clasp, and her breasts spilled from the lace. They were as perfect as he remembered with dusky pink nipples and a porcelain plumpness that made him hard as a steel post.

  “You’re so damn pretty,” he murmured against her neck as he filled a hand with her flesh. Sunny groaned and wriggled her hips. “Slow down, Sunshine.”

  She opened passion-dazed eyes. “I can’t. It’s been so long, Henry.”

  Henry nibbled his way to her mouth, dropping a soft kiss upon it. “I know. Me too.”

  Sunny caught his mouth with hers and kissed him hard. Her hand came up to caress his shoulders, and her touch on his bare skin stoked the lust spiraling out of control inside him. He kissed her back, their tongues tangling, their hands gliding over each other’s bodies.

  He pulled his mouth from hers and made his way down her neck to her breasts, and with each millimeter, his body amped higher and higher. He’d gone too long without release, and her scent, the feel of her body, her magnificent, gorgeous softness tipped him over the edge.

  And Sunny must have felt the same. She tugged at his waistband, no longer content to remain passive. He caught one of her nipples between his teeth and nipped her before pulling back and shucking his jeans, kicking them free. His belt gave a satisfying clunk on the floor.

  Lifting her butt, Sunny slid the scrap of lace from her hips and tossed them onto the floor. She lay back, totally nude and so gorgeous he felt his body actually tremble at the thought that she would be his… finally.

  Making short work of his own boxers, he joined her.

  “Babe, I want to savor every moment of this, but I’m not sure how much longer I can wait,” he said, unable to stop himself from running his hands over the hills and valleys before him. She was too thin, but still so soft in all the right places. He wanted to feed her, protect her, kiss every inch of her body. She was the woman he’d waited too long for.

  “I don’t want to go slow,” she said, rising onto her elbow and pushing him on his back. Her greedy hands covered him, and her lips followed over his collarbone, down between his pecs, brushing his sensitive belly. Then she rose and straddled his hips, her hair falling forward and covering her face.

  He reached for her waist, holding her still. “We need protection.”

  She shook her head. “It’s okay. I don’t need it.”

  “But…”

  Her hand encircled his erection, and he gasped at the pleasure, rational thought fleeing. Sunny lifted herself and sank down on him.

  “Oh shit, Sunny.”

  She threw back her head, pleasure evident on her face as she rocked her body. Her eyes closed, but he couldn’t close his own at the image of her above him, her beautiful face almost reverent as she moved, her breasts heaving with her quickened breaths, her thighs clasping his hips. He’d be content to watch her forever, but the heat of her body clenching around him drove him to action.

  Henry clasped her waist and turned her over.

  “Oh.” She sighed as he caught her mouth with his and began to slowly drive into her. She was warm, wet, and perfect. Absolutely perfect.

  “You don’t know how much I’ve dreamed of this,” he whispered into her ear, nipping her lobe and dropping hot kisses against the warmth of her skin. She smelled so good, felt like satin against him, and the little pants she issued only heightened the lust starting to spin out of control.

  Sunny lifted her legs to clasp him, moving with him, her eyes still closed. And then she opened them, her blue eyes entirely engulfed in passion.

  “Henry,” she said, her hand cupping his cheek, which was raspy with five-o�
�clock shadow. “Henry.”

  He smiled at her, then closed his eyes and lost himself. She surrounded him so completely, the warm scent that was hers alone, the little moans in the back of her throat. She was everything he’d ever wanted, everything he’d ever need.

  Sunny quickened her pace, and he felt her tighten around him, her back arching, and he couldn’t slow down. He wanted this moment to last forever, but his body refused to listen. As Sunny shattered, he felt himself coming apart, millions of pleasure fragments vibrating in every recess of his body.

  Eventually the orgasm faded, leaving him spent and heavy atop her. He rolled off with a huge sigh and stared up at the ceiling, his ragged breath echoing hers.

  Sunny lay silently beside him, seemingly lost in a moment neither of them had expected or thought would ever happen.

  Henry felt her body start to shake.

  “Hey,” he said, lifting onto an elbow. “You okay?”

  But she wasn’t. Sunny was crying.

  Tears slid from the corners of her eyes to disappear into her hairline. For a second or so she lay there, staring at the fan. Then she rolled toward him and buried her face in his shoulder. Her body shook harder as she dissolved into sobs.

  Henry couldn’t say he was the best lover in the world, but he had never envisioned a woman sobbing after having sex with him. But this was Sunny. And something inside her was broken. He’d known that from the moment he first saw her again.

  And if Sunny needed to cry in his arms, well, he was the absolute best person to hold her.

  So he did.

  Sunny couldn’t stop the sobs that wracked her body. One moment she was shattering into a breathtaking orgasm; the next she was engulfed in a sea of emotion that demanded she release everything she’d crammed deep into her soul. The wave was uncontrollable, the same way it had been when she’d been taking progesterone shots and dissolved into tears at every Christmas commercial or when she dropped jar of jam.

  Henry held her, his embrace so familiar and yet so foreign. As he comforted her, he murmured endearments against her hair, his hands caressing her, letting her empty herself of all the heartbreak she’d carried around for too long. Like lancing an ulcerated blister, the bad stuff poured out. No way to stop it this time.

  “Shh,” Henry whispered, his body rocking her slightly.

  “I’m… I’m sor-sorry,” she managed through her tears. “I shouldn’t do this. I’m—”

  “Just let it out. Let it all go, Sunshine.”

  After a few more seconds of shuddering sobs, Sunny stilled. Her hands clutched Henry’s waist as she buried her head against his now-damp chest. Her head hurt even as her body felt oddly loose. She felt as if she’d run a marathon.

  “Hey, you okay?” he asked, lifting her slightly so that he could see her eyes.

  “I think so.”

  “Good. I’ve never had that reaction after sex. My ego has taken a hit.” He was teasing her, trying to take away her sadness.

  She managed a chuckle. “You weren’t that bad.”

  Settling back against him, she lay in the dimness, soothed by his teasing. Henry always wanted to make things right. After a minute or so, she pushed back the hair that stuck to her face and ran her fingers beneath eyes that were no doubt swollen. “I don’t know what happened. The sex was amazing. I mean, if you couldn’t tell.”

  “I could. I mean yeah, it was good. And it’s okay to feel overwhelmed. You’ve had a rough year, Sunny, and coming home to all these memories isn’t easy,” he said, shimmying toward the edge of the bed. “Let me grab a towel and get you a tissue. Stay here.”

  He padded to the bathroom and must have done a quick cleanup before returning with a fingertip towel and a box of tissues. While he’d been gone, Sunny had slid beneath a soft quilt folded at the end of the bed. She combed her fingers through her hair and tried to regain some of her dignity, as if what had just happened hadn’t affected her. She was embarrassed that she’d come here, pretty much forced him into sex, and then fallen apart afterward.

  God, what had possessed her to do what she’d done?

  But she knew. She’d been close to the edge of a breakdown for a while, and Eden and the bracelet had tipped her over the edge.

  Wordlessly, Henry handed her the towel and then slid beneath the quilt. Once she did a manageable job of cleanup, he pulled her into his arms.

  “Uh, Sunny, I’m… Well, I always use a condom.” He sounded worried.

  “I can’t get pregnant, Henry.” She tried to keep the emotion from her voice, but any talk of her inability to carry a child to term was too raw to dismiss.

  “What do you mean by can’t?”

  “My progesterone’s so low that I can’t get pregnant without taking shots, and then if I do manage to get pregnant, my uterus is inhospitable. I think that’s the term the doctor used.” Sunny swallowed the pain. She didn’t want to cry again, and those damn tears were so near the surface. Talk about something else. “I guess I should have asked for protection for other things though. STDs?”

  His expression faltered. Nothing for ruining postcoital glow like a breakdown and then an ensuing discussion of miscarriage and the herpes virus.

  “Shouldn’t be an issue. I’ve never had unprotected sex except when I was married.” He resettled her against him, and that soothed her. His hand cupped her hip, occasionally offering a little rub of comfort.

  “I didn’t figure you’d be one for giving me the clap, but you never know, I guess.” She curled into him, her legs twining with his.

  “So let’s see, you lost your husband, lost your child, lost your ability to have children, moved in with your mother, and you’re wondering why you had to cry? Hell, I would have cried over just moving in with my mother. I think you needed to release all that as much as you needed what came before. Which was very, very good, by the way.”

  “Yeah,” she said, running her fingers through his chest hair. “It was very good.”

  “And you’re still okay that we went there? I mean, we’d decided on a sort of friendship. That’s not usually something friends do. If so, I’d probably have more lady friends.” He grinned, giving her a little pinch.

  She wriggled, just as she’d always done when he teased her.

  Then he pressed his lips against her hair. “God, you feel so good here beside me.”

  “I think we had to do this,” she said against his neck, catching the faint scent of his cologne with an underlying saltiness. “Or maybe I just needed to be with someone who… I don’t know. Maybe it was about what we lost, the never-meant-to-be, or maybe I just needed to get laid and you were here.”

  “So you were using me? That’s what this was?” Hurt shaded his voice.

  “No.” She paused, trying to figure out why she’d done what she’d done. “I don’t know, Henry. My sister and her friends came to Mom’s house and some of the things they said made me angry and… hurt.”

  “What did they say?”

  “It’s not important. Or maybe it was. Maybe I needed to know what others see when they look at me. Maybe I needed to face the truth about myself. If I accept that I lost everything, maybe I can get something back for myself.” She wasn’t sure if that was true, but she had to do something to move herself to a better place. Of course, being home in Morning Glory had done some of that—she had a job, she was doing something worthwhile in helping create an animal rescue, and she’d at the very least tried to put the hurt between her and Henry aside. She wasn’t totally hopeless.

  He lay silent as if examining her words.

  She waited for him to say something to her admission, but his next words were totally unexpected.

  “Tell me about Alan. About the life you had.”

  She lifted her head and peered at him. “Why?”

  “Because you said a while back that I didn’t know you anymore. Maybe I need to know who you were.”

  “You want to know about Alan? ’Cause I can tell you I don’t give a rat’s a
ss about Jillian.” She’d hated Henry’s ex for a long time. Jillian had gone after Henry, making no bones about the fact she wanted him. Sunny had even wondered if the pregnancy had been intentional, and every time she’d pictured Henry lying in bed with his wife, their cute-as-a-button children romping around them as the morning sunlight slanted inside the imaginary room, she’d felt sick to her stomach. She’d lied and told herself Henry and his perfect little family didn’t matter to her. She was over him, after all. But still, she couldn’t stop the jealousy every time she thought about him with Jillian. So how could he want to know about Alan?

  Henry gave a shrug. “He was part of who you were.”

  “I guess that’s true,” she said, still feathering her finger through his chest hair. “I met Alan at the bus station.”

  “When?”

  “When I left Morning Glory.”

  “Yeah, about that. Why did you leave in the first place?” he whispered, his voice anguished.

  “You know why. Because you were marrying her,” Sunny said. She wasn’t going to mention Annaleigh and her directive to forget about Henry all those years ago. She knew he had a love-hate relationship with his mother. No need to tip the scales toward the hate side.

  “I didn’t want to. I was going to fix things between us, but my parents insisted. They used guilt to manipulate me. And Jillian did the same thing. She wanted to keep the baby, and she didn’t expect to be a single mom. I was backed into a corner by familial obligation and cries of moral duty.”

  “Sounds like exactly what you would do.” She didn’t want to talk about the past. They should leave it behind and not turn over that particular stone. Too many icky things she didn’t want to examine.

  “Yeah, my mother essentially asked if I wanted a bastard in the family. My dad was quick to offer the old adage about dancing and paying the fiddler. They weren’t going to give up until I did the ‘right’ thing.” He crooked the fingers of his free hand.

  “So you did.”

  “Yeah, but at the time I figured I would marry Jillian and provide the baby with the protection of my name, and then I would divorce her. I didn’t want to spend my life with someone I wasn’t in love with.”