Mac couldn’t speak. His heart was beating so quickly that he couldn’t pull it together enough to form a sentence, so he lifted his hand, grabbed Susana’s, and pulled her towards him with all of his strength.
Susana landed next to him on the bed, surprised, and left with what little courage she still had and before she could say another word, Mac kissed her.
He kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her.
He slid his tongue around the inside of her mouth and didn’t let escape a single breath. He kissed her bottom lip because he needed to remind her that between the two of them, besides an undeniable passion, there was love and there will always be, and he let her feel him tremble so she knew that he was scared, too.
Mac could have kissed her for hours, for days. He could have kissed her forever, but someone interrupted them by clearing their throat.
“Good morning, Mr. MacMurray. I’m glad to see you awake,” said Dr. Denton.
Mac didn’t take his eyes off Susana, and when she blushed and tried to get up off the bed, he stopped her with a smile and held on to her waist.
“Good morning, doctor,” said Mac, turning his head slowly.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to let Ms. Lobato get out of the bed, Mr. MacMurray. Everything is showing that you’ve recovered, but I would like to do some tests before letting you go.”
“Alright, doctor. Give me a second. I have to do something very important first,” said Mac.
He then turned slowly toward Susana, and he kissed her in front of the doctor and whoever else dared to enter that room. And when he finished, he whispered to her:
“I love you.”
They released him two days later, and he and Susana left the hospital hand in hand. Thanks to a scandal related to a famous singer, they weren’t confronted with any journalists and were able to make it to Mac’s cabin without any problem. Tim and Amanda had gone to visit Mac the day before, and although the first few minutes were a bit awkward with the four of them stuffed in that small room, it didn’t take long for them to start laughing.
Actually, Amanda was the one who made the situation less awkward, planting the seeds for a future friendship.
“Well, Susan, it is a pleasure to meet you,” she said, moving closer to the other woman to give her a hug.
“Same here,” she answered, sincere but confused.
“Don’t worry. I know that there is no competition between us. It is written all over your face that you’re crazy about Mac. And it is embarrassingly obvious that Mac will rip the head off anyone who tries to take you away from him.”
“Thanks,” muttered Susana.
“What I don’t understand —said Amanda, looking first at Tim and then at Mac who was still laying in the hospital bed— is how these two idiots didn’t realize it before.
Mac didn’t say anything then, but he was convinced that if Tim hadn’t broken his engagement with Susana to go to Paris to get Amanda back, he would have stopped the wedding. Deep down inside Mac knew that he would have never let Susana marry Tim. Never.
“What are you thinking about,” asked Susana, on their way home. She was driving and they were leaving the city headed for Mac’s place.
“That if Tim hadn’t left you I would have never let you marry him.”
Susana took a hand off the wheel and reached for Mac’s knee. There she found his hand and hold it. She couldn’t hear a phrase like that without touching him.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“For saying that.”
“It’s the truth. That night in L’Escalier I wanted to kiss you. When you touched me in the hall I had to really hold back so I didn’t rip your clothes off and go at it right there. I would have lost control sooner or later. I don’t know when or how, but I assure you I wouldn’t have let you marry him. ”
“I…—she licked her lip— when you came to the T.V. station and brought me the box of chocolates, I thought that I would die if you didn’t kiss me. I kicked you out because my hands hurt from how hard I had to clench them to resist the urge to touch you.”
Mac simply nodded and kept holding and caressing her hand. He couldn’t speak or breathe. He needed to focus on keeping calm and not kissing her right there while she was driving.
Luckily, they arrived home in less than five minutes, and Susana quickly but efficiently stopped the SUV in the driveway. Mac turned and when he saw how she was looking at him, his heart stopped again.
How the hell could he had spend the last year without knowing who she really was, or what she meant to him? He should have known that she belonged to him the first time he saw her.
You knew.
He got out of the vehicle without saying anything and went to the other side to get her. He opened the driver’s door and picked her up to kiss her. He walked to the cabin without separating his lips from hers and without putting her down. When they got there, he slightly leaned Susana against the door so he could look for his keys with his right hand, and when he found them, he opened the door and kissed her passionately again.
He kicked it closed and for a second thought about taking Susana to his –their– bedroom to make love to her with the desperation that ran through his veins. But he changed his mind.
He put her on the floor for a second and looked her in the eyes.
“I love you, Susana. You are everything to me, now and forever. I began to feel the first time you touched me and I’ll die the day that you stop. Without you I would have never know, so please believe me when I say that I would have never let you belong to anyone else.”
“Kev…”
She stood on her tippy toes and kissed him. His lips moved along with hers and Susana too was able to feel again, just like she did every time she kissed him. She had found her place in this world. She ran her tongue around the inside of his mouth, stroked his hair and caressed the back of his neck. Mac trembled and grabbed her by the waist, bringing her closer to him. Susana let her fingers slide down his muscular back with the intention of taking off his sweater.
Mac surprised her by taking a step forward, then another, and another, until Susana backed into the wood door. She opened her eyes and found him smiling at her.
“Of all the things that have happened between us…”
“Yes?” She encouraged him to continue when he paused and began to slide down the zipper on the side of her dress.
“There are two that I’ve always regretted.”
“Which two things?” She couldn’t breathe as she felt him slip his hand under her dress and place it on her skin.
“Not undressing you the first time we made love.”
Susana barely got her breath back.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes,” answered Kev, before kissing her.
“And the second?” she asked. Her heart was beating frantically against her rips and she really needed for Kev to star kissing her.
“Not ever making love to you with that pearl necklace that fell down your back that night at L’Escalier,” he confessed, running his fingers precisely over that part of her body.
“The necklace is at my apartment —she said trying to focus— but we can go get it.”
Kev kissed her neck slowly.
“No, I don’t think I can wait that long,” he whispered.
Susana ran her fingers through his hair and felt him tremble.
“I think I’m going to undress you and make everything I dreamt that night come true,” he promised her with his lips pressed against hers.
“What did you dream of doing to me?”
Kev moved back and looked into her eyes. With his hand that wasn’t injured, he caressed her face and whispered:
“This.”
And he professed his love with a kiss.
After that kiss, sincere, stripped, complete, Mac moved away only to undress them both. And when they were skin on skin he made love to her just like he did the first day, against the door of his h
ouse, as if his life depended on it. But when they finished, she didn’t grab her clothes and leave frightened. Instead, she hugged him, kissed him, locked hands with him, and told him that she loved him, always had and always will. Kev, of course, needed to kiss her again and after taking them both to their room, and making love one more time they fell asleep in each other arms.
L’Escalier, a few months later.
The celebration dinner was going to take place in the most exclusive restaurant in Boston. The club’s administration had reserved the entire place in order to treat the players and their families, and the entire coaching staff of the Patriots, after one of the best seasons in history. However, the staff at L’Escalier was smart enough to not decorate the place until finding out the results of the game. The dinner would take place even if the team didn’t win the famous Super Bowl, but the atmosphere would be different, as well as the banners and the rest of the surprises planned for that night. The menu would be the same.
They won.
It was a great game. They fought for victory until the end, and they got it.
The New England Patriots had won the Super Bowl.
Author’s note
Rules aren’t always what they seem and there’s no doubt that the love story between Kev and Susana would have had a very different ending if they hadn’t been willing to break them.
If Kev hadn’t decided to change his life and risk his heart, or if Susana had decided to continue to hide her feelings, I wouldn’t have been able to say that sometimes passion, even the most unbridled, is the best way to take a chance on love.
I hope that you got excited about the chocolates, that you laughed about the tequila, and that Kev and Susana’s love stole your heart… and if you’re wondering why you didn’t hear anything else about Tim and Amanda, why I didn’t tell you what happened in Paris, or what happened years ago that made Amanda leave Tim and break his heart, the only thing I can say is that you’ll find out very soon.
Just rules is the story of Kev and Susana and it’s only theirs. Their chaotic love and their unstoppable passion didn’t leave enough room for anything else. And actually, Tim and Amanda deserve their own story and as many pages as they need to tell it. I promise that soon you’ll be able to read it should you wish it. And I assure you that if you give them a chance you will also fall in love with them.
And as for Harrison, all I can say is that Harry is not at all what you think, and the bullet wound he suffered from the woman he loves isn’t the worst thing she’s done to him. Or maybe she didn’t do it. I have been told that things are not always what they look like.
Before going, I thank you for having chosen Just rules, and I thank the entire team at HQÑ for taking such good care of Kev and Susana’s love story. I especially thank M. Eugenia for advising me to trust in my characters’ feelings and for encouraging me to listen very carefully to what they needed to say.
I hope we meet again in the next novel.
Just Rules Page 21