Discovering Harmony (Wishing Well, Texas #3)

by Melanie Shawn

“You have ten seconds and then show and tell is over.” His voice sounded pained.

  “You really want to boss me around when I have you by the balls?” I reached my other hand up and cupped beneath his shaft. “Literally.”

  He stared down at me, his gaze intense and fixed, like a lion about to pounce on a cheetah. “Five…four…three…”

  My heart was pounding in time to his countdown and my body was once again strung tight with lust. By the time he got to one I was vibrating in anticipation.

  Okay, so maybe him being all demanding-sexy-alpha was going to work just fine after all.

  In less than a second I was flat on my back, my hands pinned above my head, and his large body hovering over me. I tried to pull my arms down, but they weren’t going anywhere.

  “Did you learn that move in the academy?” I asked, trying not to let the fact that this new position was majorly turning me on show.

  I’d dabbled in bondage before, but it just wasn’t for me. It didn’t excite me, it was limiting and frustrating. I could never relax enough to enjoy myself. Maybe it was because I never really trusted my partners. Not implicitly. Not like I did with Hud.

  He ignored my clever inquiry and lowered his head, pressing his lips first to my jaw, then lower onto my neck, covering it in hot, wet kisses. Then he moved even lower onto my collarbone, taking his time to brand every inch of my skin with his lips, his tongue. This wasn’t foreplay. Hud was worshipping me, making love to me with his mouth.

  By the time he made it to the top swell of my breast I was about ready to come for a third time. A familiar tension was coiling in my center and I was dizzy with roaring urgency.

  When he traced my nipple with his tongue, my back came up off the mattress and my arms tugged down. His grip tightened, holding them securely in place, which served to heighten my pleasure to overflowing. In unhurried exploration he took his time kissing, licking and sucking each of my breasts. Just when I thought he would bring me to the brink with one he would move to the other.

  As much as I was enjoying the buildup, my body was aching, throbbing for more.

  “Hud, please,” I whimpered.

  Before I’d even got to “please,” I heard the tear of a condom wrapper and felt the broad head of his shaft at my entrance. When he started to push in a sharp sting snapped me out of the bliss clouds I’d been floating in and back to reality. He immediately stilled and I opened my eyes to find him staring down at me with concern.

  “Sorry, it’s just…it’s been a while,” I explained.

  “How long is a while?”

  “Umm,” I wasn’t sure why I felt a sudden bout of shyness. It’s not like it was a bad thing that I hadn’t had sex in a year and a half. It was a conscious choice. “A year.”

  He stared down at me, his expression unchanged.

  “And a half,” I finished.

  “Why?” he asked, and I didn’t know why, but I felt like the answer really mattered to him.

  “Because I wanted…more.”

  “Me too,” he said.

  “You want more, too?”

  “No…well yes…but that’s how long it’s been for me, too.”

  “What?” I felt my face scrunch up in surprise. Unlike Hud or Lady Gaga, I didn’t not have a p-p-p-p-poker face. “That means you haven’t been with anyone since Ali.”

  He nodded.

  It was odd saying the name of his last serious girlfriend while he was partially inside of me, but not because it was awkward. It was just, it made me feel…jealous. Was it because he’d been so in love with her he couldn’t move on? Had his heart been broken? Had it taken him a year and half to get over her? Was he over her?

  I was scared to ask, but I heard the words come out of my mouth anyway. “Why? There are girls lining up to be with you.”

  He didn’t answer right away, and I was trying to shore up my defenses to deal with him saying that he loved her. That he still loved her. I tried to remind myself that it wasn’t like Hud and I were in a relationship. In fact, he’d specifically said he wanted “one night.” So why did it matter to me so much?

  He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nose, when he opened them again, I sucked in a startled breath at the depths of vulnerability in them.

  His gravelly voice rolled over me as he said, “Because none of them were you.”

  Tears filled my lower lids and I sniffed as I tried to pull my hands free of his grasp. I wanted, no, needed to touch him. To kiss him. To hold him.

  When he held me in place, I searched his eyes. “Hud?”

  He didn’t respond. Not verbally, anyway. His jaw clenched and his eyes traveled down to where our bodies were intimately joined. My gaze followed and the erotic sight sent a shock of bliss erupting from my core. With firm, slow ease he pressed farther inside of me and my entire world shrunk at the sensation of him filling me completely. My mouth opened on a gasp and before I’d even taken in a full breath, Hud began to pull out slowly. I could feel every inch of his rigid shaft as it slid against my inner walls. Fiery, exquisite sensations burst through me at the pressure and friction as he pushed into me again, this time faster, deeper.

  With each thrust, my body accepted him further, and we fell into a rhythm that had me quickly rushing towards completion.

  “I’m going to…don’t stop.”

  He didn’t. Instead he lowered over me, his large hand tilted my hip up as he whispered against my ear. “Come for me, Harmony. Come for me.”

  The new position and the oral encouragement was all it took for me to explode into a thousand tiny pieces. I shuddered uncontrollably as I came with soul-shattering intensity. It was the longest release of my life. Every time I thought it had reached its peak, another wave of rapture would crash over me. I let go and rode the wild and glorious frenzy until the final spasm claimed me.

  When my senses began returning, the first thing that I became conscious of was being held tightly in Hud’s arms. He was on his back, cradling me as his fingers ran through my hair.

  Happy birthday to me.

  My mind was louder than the NYSE; so many questions demanded answers. He’d said things tonight, things I never, even in my wildest dreams, would’ve imagined he felt. I knew he would never lie to me, but none of it made sense. How could the things he said be true? And if they were, why hadn’t he done something about it sooner?

  I could’ve said something, but I didn’t. I remained silent, not wanting anything to pop the intimate bubble we were floating in. Being this close to Hud, being in his arms, skin to skin, was the best feeling in the world. As amazing as the sex had been, this was the more I’d been waiting for.

  “Harmony?” Hud’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

  My heart sank at the thought that this was going to end. That he was going to leave. It was my birthday, was it too much to ask for a little cuddling?

  “Yeah?” I breathed.

  “Why did that bear’s eyes just close?”

  Oh shit. I froze.

  “Oh, that’s the, um, nanny cam. I ran to the store for ice cream earlier and forgot to disable it when I got home.”

  His fingers never stopped massaging my scalp as he asked, “Does it only have a live feed?”

  I swallowed over the lump in my throat. I’d heard of creepy guys videotaping girls without them knowing, but I’d never thought I’d be the creepy guy in that scenario. “It has a three hour save window. But it’s on a secure server that only I have access to,” I rushed to explain as I tried to sit up. “I’ll go delete it now.”

  Hud’s arms tightened around me. “Have you ever made a sex tape before?”

  “No!” Did he think that I was a pro at this, or something?

  My eyes shot up and the wickedly naughty smile that I saw on his face sent a warm rush flooding through me. “You did now, might as well check it out. See what we need to improve on for round two.”

  Round two?

  Oh yeah. Best. Birthday. Ever.

  Chapter 2
0

  Harmony

  “If the world made sense, men would ride sidesaddle.”

  ~ Loretta Reed

  As soon as I opened the car door, heat hit me like a slap in the face. Texas summers were no joke, and this one seemed to be revving up to break records. If my palms weren’t already sweaty from nerves, they would’ve been before I made it to the front door.

  With each step I took up the walkway of Cara and Trace’s house, dread built in my stomach like a snowball rolling down a mountain in an avalanche. It’d been gaining momentum from the second I’d seen the 911 text on my phone, not even five minutes ago. Destiny, Cara and I reserved that code for real emergencies.

  Well, at least Cara and Destiny did. I’d been known to abuse that power every once in a while when something was just really important, like when my brother JJ, who Destiny had been in love with since she was five, moved back to town and I didn’t think that Destiny knew…she did. But, before I was privy to that information, I’d sent out an emergency text to Cara to meet me at Destiny’s so we could tell her.

  The group text that had been sent out just minutes ago had been from Cara and she never abused that power. Which meant this was urgent. It was from Cara and it was urgent!

  The second the code had lit up on my screen, tears began streaming down my face. Hudson, who had stayed the entire night and made about fifty percent of my recurring fantasies a reality, was at the stove making pancakes. When he noticed I was crying he’d shut off the burner and rushed to my side. Kneeling in front of me, he wiped my tears away before the first one had even had a chance to hit the floor.

  When I told him I needed to leave, he offered to take Romeo out for his morning walk before he headed to the station. I nodded, threw on sweats, grabbed my purse and here I was.

  And I was pretty sure I was going to throw up.

  I paused and pressed my hand to my rolling stomach. How could this be happening? Cara had been through so much. She’d just really started her life with my brother.

  Oh, God. I hadn’t even thought about Trace. This would destroy him. Cara was his whole world, his life, his everything. They just found each other. They were getting married in six months.

  Anger started mixing with the fear and sadness.

  This wasn’t fair. How could this be happening? How was I going to face this again?

  No. I shook my head.

  This was not about me. The only thing that mattered was Cara. Cara and Trace. I needed to be strong for them.

  Lifting my hand, I wiped my cheeks, which once again had trails of tears covering them. In an effort to shake it off I blew out a breath and shook my shoulders.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Destiny’s shaky voice sounded from behind me.

  I turned, and when I did, I saw that she wasn’t doing that much better of a job holding it together than I was.

  “Wanna rock, papers, scissors to see who’s going to be the strong one?” I teased.

  She grinned as a tear fell down her face. “Sorry. I just had a baby. My emotions are all over the place. You’re going to have to take the L on this one.”

  Just having Destiny by my side was already making me feel stronger. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it. Cara’s strong. Everything will be okay.”

  I hoped…

  “Wow,” Destiny sniffed. “That was pretty good. I almost believed you.”

  “Almost and pretty good are going to have to work, because that was my A game.”

  We took a moment, drawing strength from each other, before we nodded and made our way up the steps of the front porch to the door.

  “Remember, just be normal. Natural,” Destiny reminded me. “That’s the rule.”

  After about a year into Cara’s diagnosis and treatments, she’d called a meeting in which she’d forbidden us to treat her any differently because she was sick. She demanded that jokes still be made at her expense, that we called her out when she was being too sappy or naïve—and that we never, under any circumstances, look at her with pity. She told us that as long as she was breathing, it was a good day. The rule Destiny mentioned was that we were to treat her exactly the same as we had before she was diagnosed. She was still Cara. Not sick Cara.

  We’d all been thirteen at the time, so I hadn’t appreciated just how wisely and gracefully she was handling the situation. Now, as an adult, there was no way I would handle it anywhere close to as well as she did. We might’ve nicknamed ourselves Charlie’s Angels, but Cara truly was an angel.

  “Right.” I nodded as I tried to get back in that headspace.

  I’d given some Oscar worthy performances over the years of her illness. Now, I was out of practice because, thankfully, she’d been in remission for five years.

  After two knocks, the door opened and Cara smiled sweetly. She didn’t look upset or happy. She looked…blank. Kind of like a Stepford wife.

  Showtime.

  “This better be good, I left a man in boxers making me breakfast at my house.”

  Shit!

  I had not meant to divulge that information. It had just slipped out when I tried to come up with something witty and “natural” to say.

  Both Destiny and Cara stared at me. Or, more accurately, gawked.

  “So, what’s the emergency?” I brushed past Cara and the damn declaration I’d just made.

  We all took “our” places around Cara’s front room. Cara in her corner chair. Me on one side of the couch and Destiny on the other.

  “We will be circling back around to the boxer-clad man in your house,” Cara promised before taking a deep breath and sitting up straighter. “So last night, Trace forced me to go the hospital—”

  “What?! Why didn’t you call us?” Destiny and I chorused in unison.

  “I didn’t want to worry you. I only went because Trace insisted,” she explained. She glanced down, resting her hands over her belly as she took a deep breath. “The reason I called you is after my trip to the E.R. we’ve decided to move up the wedding. It’s in three weeks.”

  My heart broke into a million pieces as moisture filled my eyes. My entire body went numb and all I could hear was a high ringing in my head. She was sick again. They were moving up the wedding date because she was sick.

  I looked to Destiny, whose head was tilted to the side. She didn’t seem even close to the kind of emotional breakdown that I was about two seconds away from having. Evidently, she was the strong one after all.

  “Why?” Destiny asked as casually as if Cara had told her she decided to remodel her kitchen.

  Here it came. The words that I’d dreaded hearing for five years.

  It’s back. The cancer’s back.

  I gripped the chair and looked at my frail best friend seated across from me. She was crying, which I understood. But she was also smiling…which I didn’t.

  “Because I don’t want to be fat in my wedding dress.” Her smile grew even larger.

  Was the treatment going to make her fat? Why would she be happy about that?

  “I knew it!” Destiny shot out of her chair like it was spring loaded and tackled-hugged Cara.

  “Knew what?” I wanted to scream with frustration, but I managed to ask in a normal volume range.

  Cara looked over Destiny’s shoulder, her smile still spreading from ear to ear. “I’m pregnant.”

  “You’re…” Oh, thank God. “Pregnant.”

  I said it aloud in hopes that my brain would hear it and give the order to abort the emotional breakdown mission. My tear ducts didn’t get the signal, it was like a dam broke and the water was spilling over my bottom lids.

  Destiny and Cara were crying too, but they were also laughing and talking about how far along Cara was and what symptoms she’d been having. I sat in place as a waterfall fell down my cheeks.

  When Cara noticed my condition, concern replaced the pure joy that was shining from her face. “Are you okay?”

  I dipped my chin in a sorry attempt at a nod. “I just…I thought
you…”

  “Oh no!” Cara rushed over to me, pulling me into her arms. “I’m so sorry. I just wanted it to be a surprise. I didn’t think…I just thought you wouldn’t worry until you had all the facts. I was just so excited, and I wanted to tell you right away. I’m not sick. My blood work looked great.”

  I held onto her as I tried to pull myself together. “Maybe you should’ve led with that.”

  Destiny’s laugh filled the air and I felt myself chuckling. Cara leaned back as she apologized again, “I’m so sorry, Harmony. So, so sorry.”

  Not wanting my breakdown to be the wet blanket on this festive occasion, I smiled. “That’s okay, laughter—”

  “—through tears is my favorite emotion.” We all finished Truvy’s line from Steel Magnolias together and laughed.

  When our giggles died down, I had to say it out loud again, this time with much more enthusiasm, “You’re pregnant!”

  “I know, I’m pregnant!” Cara exclaimed, sounding a little bit in disbelief as she rubbed her belly. “And I’m getting married in three weeks! I’m going to need a lot of help. Destiny, I know you just had Lilah, so don’t worry about—”

  “Stop. I’m making your cake and doing whatever else you need. I’m fine, and she’ll be a month old by then.”

  We all let out an aww. It was crazy how that a baby that had just entered this world ten days ago was already growing up too fast.

  “I don’t want you overdoing it, so we’ll see,” Cara said to Destiny before turning her attention to me. “Now, back to the really important news today. You left a man in boxers in your kitchen.”

  “You’re pregnant and getting married in three weeks and you think that’s the really important news of the day?” I shot back.

  Cara nodded, so I looked to Destiny for backup.

  She moved her hands up and down like she was weighing something. “I think they’re tied.”

  “Oh, please.” I rolled my eyes, which I hadn’t done since I was probably sixteen.

  “It’s Hud, right?” Cara asked expectantly.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” I could feel my cheeks flush at just the mention of his name. Now that Cara was out of the woods, my mind instantly reverted back to spending all of its energy fangirling over Hud.