“Did you like her?”
A hint of a smile played at the corners of his mouth. “I like her but not for David. She’s a party girl, while David is a homebody. You talk about David when it would be no different with us.”
Vertical lines appeared between her eyes when she frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“We date each other for five years; then one day you tell me you’re going back to New York. Would you expect me to remain faithful to you if I know what we have isn’t going to last?”
“It’s not the same, Jeff,” Kara argued softly.
“Because you say it isn’t, darling, but actually it is. Can you stand here right now and tell me you’ll commit to staying longer than five years?”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“If that’s the case, then we’ll drop the subject and head over to the theater before the movie begins.” She opened her mouth to come back at him, but Jeff placed his thumb over her parted lips, shushing her. “We’ll discuss this later.”
Kara smiled as if she’d won a small victory. “Fine. Later. What’s playing?”
“The Help.”
Her eyebrows lifted a fraction. “I’ve read the book but missed seeing the film.”
They made it to the theater with time to spare. Jeff paid for the tickets, ignoring the stares of moviegoers looking at Kara. He knew they were curious about her and even more curious about them as a couple. Plus, it was the first time any of them had seen him with a woman.
He looped his arm around her waist. “Would you like popcorn?”
“Only if you’ll share it with me.”
Kara watched Jeff as he stood in the concession line. She noticed the sidelong glances directed his way by several women, who whispered to one another, and she wondered how often he came to movies. He’d admitted that he had never dated a woman from the island, so there was no doubt tonight would spark talk about him being seen with Taylor Patton’s daughter.
She saw him turn around and speak to a man with Deborah Monroe, assuming the tall man with salt-and-pepper hair was Dr. Monroe, Deborah’s husband. Kara smiled when Deborah waved to her, mouthing hello. Kara nodded, returning her smile. It was Saturday night, date night, and couples were filing into the movie theater.
The Cove Theater claimed a single screen, unlike the cineplex theaters in New York City and its suburbs where moviegoers could choose from up to a dozen films. And for someone who’d spent the past fifteen years of her life in the big city, small-town life was beginning to appeal to her. She’d become accustomed to smelling fresh air and damp earth rather than exhaust fumes from cars and buses. Sitting on the porch had become a luxury when she was serenaded by the sound of crickets rather than the sirens from first responders and other emergency vehicles.
Moving to Angels Landing had given Kara a chance to restart her life. She was still a social worker at heart, but she wasn’t forced to get up every day and go into an office. She no longer had to share an apartment with a roommate because she couldn’t afford to live alone. A twenty-room antebellum mansion went beyond anything she could’ve ever imagined.
When she listed all of the reasons why she’d been so amenable about leaving a lifestyle she’d become accustomed to, Kara knew Jeff had a lot to do with it. He hadn’t done more than kiss her, yet she’d come to look for his kisses. They’d shared a bed, and he hadn’t tried to coerce her into making love.
She was a normal woman with normal urges, urges she’d forgotten existed until she’d sat across the table from Jeff in Jack’s Fish House. Though Jeff was a friend, the feelings she was beginning to have for him weren’t very friendly.
Kara’s gaze lingered on his strong, distinctive profile. A myriad of emotions assailed her, and she refused to acknowledge that she could be falling in love with him. She closed her eyes and shook her head as if banishing the notion. She couldn’t and wouldn’t, not when she could not commit to living in Angels Landing beyond the five-year mandate.
Jeff beckoned her, and she took a large tub of popcorn from him as he picked up two cups of soda. Kara rarely drank soda, but soda and popcorn at the movies was like peanut butter and jelly. They just went together.
“I hope there’re still some seats in the balcony.”
They made their way into the theater where the screen was filled with images of trailers for upcoming movies. Kara followed Jeff as he climbed the stairs to the balcony. There were two seats but not together. Jeff leaned down and whispered to a young man who nodded and moved to another seat.
“Thanks, Wes.”
“No biggie, Sheriff,” the teenager mumbled.
Kara sat down, smiling at Jeff when he dropped down beside her, anchoring the drinks in the cup holders. “Did you get napkins?” she whispered. He’d added butter to the popcorn.
Rising slightly, he took a handkerchief from the pocket of his slacks. “You can use this.”
Seconds later the lights dimmed and the filled theater settled down to view the featured film.
Jeff cast a sidelong glance at Kara as she pressed her head to the car’s headrest. “Did they do the book justice?”
“Yes. I can’t tell you how many times I read a book, then go and see the movie only to be disappointed. This time I wasn’t.”
He downshifted as he approached the road connecting the Cove with the Landing. It was scheduled to be paved at the end of the month, and that couldn’t come soon enough for Jeff. He never complained publicly because there was a time when the Landing was virtually inaccessible except on foot. And there weren’t too many people brave or reckless enough to attempt to drive or walk through the swampy area with poisonous vipers, quicksand, and alligators.
“My parents are coming here for Easter, and if you and Miss Corrine aren’t planning anything, I’d like for you to join us,” Kara continued when he didn’t respond. “I told my father that I’d introduce him to several marines.”
Jeff gave her a quick glance. “How long are they staying?”
“Just for the weekend. They plan to arrive on Friday and leave Monday.”
“I’ll make certain to join you.” He’d given Kara’s suggestion about a corps’ week a lot of thought. He’d even called one of his buddies and ran the idea past him, who promised to contact the others in their group for their feedback.
“What about Miss Corrine?”
“I’m certain she’ll also come with me. I usually give my deputies off on Christmas and Thanksgiving because they have families. Easter’s the only family holiday I claim for myself. So if there’s someplace your dad would like to see, let me know.”
“I’ll give Daddy your cell number, and the two of you can talk.”
A deep chuckle filled the interior of the small car. “Are you saying you don’t want anything to do with the corps?”
Kara’s laughter joined his. “Just say I’ve heard enough corps stories to last several lifetimes. I don’t know what it is about marines that make them—”
“Don’t go there, baby,” Jeff warned softly. “The corps is sacred.”
“And that is sacrilegious,” she countered with a laugh.
Jeff winked at her when she met his gaze. “We’ll get along just fine as long as you don’t dis the corps.”
Fisting her hands at her waist, Kara gave him a “no you didn’t” look. “Are you saying you like the corps more than me?”
Jeff didn’t want to believe, couldn’t believe Kara had just repeated what Pamela had asked him when she’d issued her ultimatum. Six months into their engagement, they’d begun making plans for their wedding, and without warning his fiancée revealed she wasn’t cut out to become a military wife. When she’d asked if he’d loved the corps more than her, she took his slight hesitation as an affirmative and gave him back his ring. What Pamela failed to realize was that the military was all he knew. It’d been ingrained in him like involuntary breathing.
Before he’d left the Cove to attend college, Jeff wasn’t certain what he
wanted to do with his life. He’d always excelled in math and science and had thought of becoming a doctor. It was when he was approached by a recruiter to enroll in the NROTC that he realized the military suited his temperament.
He’d come to love all things military, the corps becoming his wife, mistress, and child, his fellow officers brothers and sisters, and the men under his command his extended family. But that all changed when he got the phone call that his grandmother had been hospitalized due to a heart attack. Twenty years of drills, parades, and two tours in a war zone were forgotten when he stood at his grandmother’s bedside, holding her hand while promising to take care of her. And he had.
“No, Kara. I don’t like the corps more than you. In fact, I like you much more than I’d planned to.”
“Are you saying you didn’t want to like me?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. David asked me to check on you after the Pattons threatened you, but you and I know my checking on you has progressed beyond protection. One of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do was not make love to you last night. For a few minutes I forgot that someone tried to frighten you into leaving. And I wanted to forget the images from my dreams… men being blown apart by explosive devices, some whose bodies and minds would never be whole again.”
Kara rested her hand over Jeff’s on the gearshift. “I don’t want you to want me to chase away your demons, Jeff. I want you to want me for me because I know in my heart I want you, not the marine or the sheriff.”
He drove along the allée of oaks, slowing and driving around to the rear of the house. Kara had left on lights on the first and second floors, giving the appearance that the house was occupied.
Jeff felt an indescribable emotion of rightness. It was the first time he’d become involved with a woman where he felt a gentle, soothing peace. The only other time he’d experienced a similar feeling was when he’d stepped off the ferry at the Sanctuary Cove landing as a civilian. His decision to resign his commission had become a no-brainer. Nothing, not even the corps, was more important to him than his grandmother. But unknowingly Kara had also become important to him, much more important than she could’ve imagined. There were times when he couldn’t keep his hands off her, and he found any and every opportunity to kiss her when he’d wanted to do so much more.
The one thing that kept him from aggressively pursuing her was the disclosure that she hadn’t planned to stay on the island. And Jeff had to ask himself whether he was willing to engage in a relationship with a woman with an expiration date. His grandmother had begun to nag him that he was getting older, not younger, and it was time he think about his future. Did he want their branch on the family tree to end with him? Was he really so selfish that he refused to share his life with a woman? He’d given her a lethal stare when she asked if perhaps he preferred men to women. Corrine knew he was heterosexual, but she admitted she was just repeating some of the gossip she’d heard from those in the Cove.
He parked the car, shut off the engine, and turned to look at Kara. “There will only be Jeffrey and Kara, not Captain Hamilton or Sheriff Hamilton.”
Unbuckling her seat belt, Kara leaned into him. “And there will only be Kara, not the social worker who must analyze everyone and everything.”
Laughing, Jeff held up his hand, pinkie extended. “Pinkie swear?”
Kara looped their pinkies together. “Pinkie swear,” she repeated.
“Don’t move. I’ll come around and get you.”
Reaching for the small automatic strapped to his ankle, Jeff pushed it into the small of his back as he got out of the car. He held Kara’s hand in a firm grip as he helped her to stand. All of his senses were on full alert when he walked with her to the side entrance, waiting as she unlocked the door. Within seconds of walking into the house, they heard Oliver barking.
Kara glanced at Jeff over her shoulder. “What did I tell you about my early warning system?” Kneeling, she opened the crate and Oliver launched himself at her, wiggling and whining in his excitement to be let out of confinement. She kissed the top of his head as she cradled him to her chest. “Hi, baby. Mama’s glad to see you, too.”
Jeff knew Oliver was a dog, but he tried to imagine Kara with a child. She and the dog had bonded instantly, and it had taken a very short time for her to spoil her pet. Would it be the same if she had children? But then he remembered her statement that she wasn’t ready for marriage and children, and he wondered if she would ever be ready for it. Some women were destined not to become wives or mothers. Maybe Kara was one of them.
“I’m going to check around to make certain there’re no more broken windows.”
“As soon as I change Oliver’s pad, I’ll be up.”
Jeff started at the third floor, opening and closing doors to closets and looking under the beds in the bedrooms. He repeated the action on the second floor, knowing the action would be unnecessary once the security company wired the house and property.
He’d just set the automatic on the bedside table in Kara’s bedroom when she walked in. He extended his arms and wasn’t disappointed when she walked into his embrace. He held her, heart to heart, man to woman, silently communicating feelings he couldn’t put into words. The scrappy, intuitive woman in his arms had captured a part of himself he’d withheld from every woman in his past, including Pamela.
Jeff hadn’t stopped to ask himself whether it was because he was different, that his focus had changed when he’d become a civilian for the first time in two decades. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to spend time trying to analyze himself or why he felt so strongly about Kara. Burying his face in her hair, he pressed a kiss to her scalp, when she anchored her arms under his shoulders.
She lifted her head, and he stared at the serene expression that had spread across her delicate features. “I want to make love to you. Will you allow me to do that?” The question had come from some place Jeff was totally unfamiliar with. In the past he’d never asked. It was something that just happened.
Kara’s eyelids fluttered as she blinked back unshed tears. “Yes, Jeff,” she whispered. “Make love to me.”
One minute she was standing, and seconds later she was on the bed. He removed his shoes and socks, then lay over her, his body pressing hers down to the mattress. Time stood still, and the earth stopped spinning on its axis as Jeff slowly, methodically undressed Kara, his mouth charting a course over her silken flesh from the scented column of her neck to her slender feet. Her clothes had concealed a curvy, womanly body that had shocked him with its lushness. Her firm breasts were full, perched high above a narrow rib cage and flat belly. Her hips were rounded, thighs firm, legs shapely.
Her eyes were wide, trusting as he sat back on his knees and removed his own clothing: pullover sweater, belt, slacks, and underwear. He paused long enough to remove a condom from the pocket of his slacks and placed it on the table. They shared a smile when she held out her arms, and he sank into her perfumed embrace. Jeff lay between her outstretched legs.
“Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do this?” he confessed in her ear.
“No. How long?” she whispered.
“Since the first night I came here, and you opened the door wearing next to nothing.”
She laughed softly. “That’s what you get for making unannounced night calls.”
“I find myself losing control whenever I’m around you.”
“Since we’re into true confessions, I have one to make.”
“What is it?”
“Since meeting you I’ve had a few erotic dreams and—”
He stopped Kara’s words when his mouth covered hers in a smoldering kiss that left him feeling light-headed. Jeff had thought he’d been the only one harboring erotic fantasies, but apparently he was wrong.
He realized he was falling in love with her. What he didn’t want to think about was losing her like every other woman he’d lost in his life.
He didn’t know his mother, but she had to love he
r unborn child to hold on long enough to give birth to him. Then there was Pamela—the only woman he’d confessed to loving and she’d left him. Jeff didn’t want to think of his grandmother, who, at seventy-nine, had most of her life behind her. And now there was Kara.
Could he afford to walk into a situation where he was certain of the outcome? As much as he’d tried to stay away from the pull, it was too strong to resist because he discovered that he wanted her in and out of bed. And if she’d insisted they wait a year before making love, Jeff knew he would’ve waited. She’d come to mean that much to him. “Having you here with me is good,” Kara admitted. A small gasp of surprise escaped her when Jeff fastened his mouth to her breast, suckling her like a starving infant, and her body responded, arching up to meet him.
Nothing was rushed. His kisses started at the base of her throat and trailed lower to her belly. His teeth grazed over her nipples, turning them into hard buds. But everything changed when he placed his hands against her inner thighs, spreading her legs, sending a rush of moisture between them. Then the sensual assault began.
Kara rose off the mattress as he searched for the tiny bud of flesh at the apex of her thighs, and once finding it, laved it with his tongue until he knew she was close to climax.
She gripped the sheets, swallowing the moans trapped in the back of her throat, gasping as if unable to take a breath.
Cupping her hips in both hands, Jeff plunged his tongue into Kara’s quivering flesh over and over until he lost count of how many times he’d drank deeply. He felt her entire body trembling and heard her plea for him to stop, but he couldn’t. He’d wanted to brand her as his possession like a permanent tattoo and make her forget all the other men who’d been in her life. And for a brief crazed moment, he wanted to be the last man in her bed and in her life.
He did heed her pleas to stop, but it was to open the packet, remove the condom, and roll it down his tumescence. Taking her hand, he stared at her and together they guided his erection inside her. She gasped, going still until he was fully sheathed inside her hot throbbing flesh.
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