“For those who need more?”
“They’ll be in trouble soon enough,” Gage said, glancing at her as he paused near an open door. “Ready?”
She nodded, then braced herself for plenty of shrieking and tears. Gage stepped past the threshold and stalked toward the center of the room.
“Evening,” he said calmly, as if he’d been invited.
Several teenagers screamed.
Kari followed him in. Kids were in various stages of undress. Two girls ducked into an adjoining room and quickly closed the door behind them. Two boys were brave enough, or drunk enough, to challenge Gage.
“We’re not doing anything wrong, Sheriff,” a skinny boy with dark hair said belligerently. “This is private property. You ain’t got no right—”
Gage stood directly in front of the boy. “You talking to me, Jimmy?”
The teenager took a step back. His too-long hair hung in his eyes. He still wore a shirt and tie, although both were undone. The color faded from his face.
“Uh, yes, Sheriff. We’ve been quiet. We haven’t made any trouble.”
“That’s good,” Gage said evenly. “Your mama called me because she was real concerned. You’re eighteen now, but your girlfriend is still only seventeen. Your mama was afraid you’d have a bit too much to drink and then things might get out of control.”
Jimmy took another step back, which brought him in contact with the wall. “My mama called you?”
“Uh-huh. She’s waiting downstairs in the parking lot.”
One of the other boys snickered. Kari almost felt sorry for Jimmy.
Gage turned to those laughing. “Your mamas are here, too, boys. So let’s all get dressed and head downstairs.” He motioned to the adjoining room. “You want to see to the ladies?”
Kari nodded. She walked through the doorway and found herself in a living room. This must be the suite the Possum Landing Lodge was always advertising. The decorations were early tacky, with a gaudy red couch and fake oak coffee and end tables. Three velvet paintings decorated the walls.
“At least there’s no Elvis,” she said, passing a picture of dogs playing poker. She followed the sound of heated conversation.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” one girl said, as Kari entered the bedroom. “Tonight Jimmy and I were going to go all the way.”
“Guess that will have to wait,” Kari said, leaning against the door frame. “I realize you don’t know me from a rock, but for what it’s worth, my advice would be to make that very special occasion a little more private.”
Two girls, both young, pretty and blond, glared at her. She could read their minds. What could an old lady like Kari possibly know about having fun?
As Kari waited, they scrambled into dresses and high heels. When they hurried past her, she went to check the bathroom, where another girl sat on the floor. Her pale cheeks told their own story.
“You done being sick?” Kari asked.
The girl nodded and slowly got to her feet.
“Want some help?”
The teenager shook her head, then ran out of the bathroom. Kari turned to leave, then stared at the ice-filled bathtub. There had to be at least a dozen bottles of cheap liquor and wine chilling there.
“Great,” she muttered, and went to find Gage.
She found him lecturing the last of the boys. The teenager escaped with a grumbled promise to think before acting next time.
“At least we got here in time,” Gage said with a sigh as he closed the door of the suite. “All the girls gone?”
“Yes. One had been throwing up. She’s not going to feel too great in the morning. Apparently, a big party was planned. There’s a bathtub full of liquor in there.”
He headed for the rest room. “Let’s dump it, then we can head out of here.”
“You don’t want to keep any for yourself?” she teased, as he bent down and grabbed a couple of bottles.
He glanced at the labels and shuddered. “My tastes have matured.” His gaze slid to her. “In nearly everything.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant, but she liked that he finally seemed to have noticed she was there.
Gage poured while Kari handed him bottles. They worked quickly and soon the bathroom reeked of cheap liquor. It was only when they finished and moved back into the bedroom that he realized where he was.
The honeymoon suite.
The big round bed dominated the floor space, leaving little room for much more than a small dresser and a TV on a stand. Thick drapes kept out the night. The wood paneling had seen better days, as had the carpet. But eight years ago, Gage had thought this was just the place to secure his future with the woman he loved.
“What are you thinking?” Kari asked. “You have the strangest expression on your face.”
He shrugged. “Ghosts.”
“Ah. You liked to bring your lady friends here for a big seduction scene?”
“Not exactly. But I had planned to bring you here. I was going to propose, and after you said yes, I was going to make love to you.”
Kari’s smile faded. Several emotions skittered across her face, but he couldn’t read them. Or maybe he didn’t want to. Maybe it was better not to know what she was thinking. After all, she’d skipped town rather than marry him.
“You had it all planned out,” she murmured.
“Down to the smallest detail, including proposing before we made love so you wouldn’t think it was just about sex.”
“I wouldn’t have thought that. Not about you. I know the kind of man you are.”
“Yeah, well…” He suddenly felt awkward and stupid for mentioning anything and headed for the door. But before he got there, Kari spoke again.
“Daisy and I practically had a fistfight over you in the produce aisle.”
That brought him up short. “What are you talking about?”
She smiled. “Your wannabe girlfriend tried to warn me off. She said you weren’t interested in me and that I could never have you back.”
“What did you say?”
“A lot of things.”
Which told him precisely nothing. Before he could figure out if he wanted to continue the conversation, she crossed to the nightstand and flipped on the clock radio. Tinny music filled the room. She fiddled with the knob until an oldies station came in, then crossed to stand in front of him.
“Dance with me,” she said.
Then she was in his arms, and he found he didn’t want to refuse her. Not when she felt so right pressed against him. Whatever might have gone wrong emotionally between them, physically they’d always been right together.
They moved together, swaying in time to the old ballad. He thought about what should have happened in this room all those years ago.
“I’m sorry you never got to your prom,” he said, resting his cheek against her soft hair.
“Me, too. I would have liked to have those memories.” She sighed. “I’m sorry I ran away. You were so good to me. I should have realized I could talk to you about anything—even being scared.”
Past and present blurred. Gage closed his eyes. “Nothing is easy,” he told her. “If I didn’t know it before, I’m learning it now.”
“Because of your mom?”
“Yeah. She loved her husband. I know she did. Yet there was this other man. She loved him, too, and I never figured it out. I want to be angry, but if she hadn’t gone back to him, Quinn wouldn’t exist.”
“Sometimes life isn’t as tidy as we would like.”
He agreed with that. His life had changed forever. What had once been taken for granted wasn’t a part of him anymore. A single piece of information had changed him forever. Changed him in a way that made everything else different.
He pulled Kari closer, enjoying the familiar heat of her body, the way she felt and the scent of her skin. Being with her allowed him to forget the issue of his father, for at least a short time. He could get lost in the past, in remembering something much sweeter. How he�
��d loved Kari more than he’d ever thought he could love someone. How he’d loved her long after she’d left, when he should have let go. The things he’d loved about her hadn’t changed—her spirit, her generosity, her determination. She was the same woman—more mature, more experienced, but fundamentally the same.
The information could have been dangerous. Under other circumstances it would have been. If things were different he might think the reason he’d never been able to fall for anyone else was that he was a one-woman man and Kari was that woman. He might have worried about falling in love with her again.
But not anymore. Seeing her now, having her back in town, reminded him of all that might have been, but couldn’t be now. Even if she wasn’t leaving, they couldn’t possibly be together. Everything was different now. Himself most of all.
“I’m glad we didn’t get married,” he said.
She raised her head and looked at him. “What are you talking about?”
Wasn’t it obvious? “What if we’d married and had kids together? Eventually, I would have found out about my father.”
“So?”
“It changes everything.”
“Not for me. I feel badly that you’re in pain and I want you to get your questions answered, but aside from that, it has no impact on anything. You’re still the same man I knew eight years ago. If we’d married, you’d still be my husband and the father to my children. I would still love you.”
Her blue eyes held his gaze. He could read her sincerity. She believed what she was saying, even if she was wrong.
“It changes everything,” he said.
“You are the most stubborn man. I can’t decide what to do with you.”
Then she raised herself up on her toes and kissed him.
Chapter Thirteen
The soft pressure on his lips stunned Gage into immediate arousal. Need pulsed through him in waves that threatened to drown him in desire. Without thinking, he pulled her close and deepened the kiss, plunging his tongue inside her mouth, tasting her, teasing her, stroking her, wanting her.
She responded in kind, her body pressing against his, her hips against his arousal. She rubbed against him, as if they weren’t close enough. When she closed her lips and sucked, he thought he was going to lose it right there.
“Oh, Gage,” she breathed, making it clear that the heat wasn’t being generated all on one side.
He’d made love with her enough times to know the joining would be spectacular, but not enough to have expectations of a sure thing. Kari’s obvious interest excited and pleased him. She’d been a virgin their first time and he’d worried later that things hadn’t gone well for her. Clearly, she’d decided she very much liked the act of making love. He started to back her toward the bed.
The bed. He raised his head and stared at the round mattress. How many times had he imagined them together here?
She turned and saw what had caught his attention. “Is it too weird to be here?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Do you want me to convince you, or just stop?”
He swung his gaze back to her. “Are you offering to seduce me?”
Color bloomed on her cheeks. She cleared her throat. “Yes, well, I’m not saying I could—just that if you were intrigued by the idea, I would be willing…” Her voice trailed off. “You did say you liked to watch.”
Desire slammed into him like a truck going eighty. He didn’t know why every single man in New York hadn’t begged her to marry him, but somehow they’d missed the amazing jewel glittering in their midst. Somehow he, Gage, had gotten damn lucky.
Not only had Kari never been with another man before making love with him, but she was now offering to seduce him. As if he needed encouragement or persuasion.
He reached for her, determined to show her exactly what she did for him without even trying, when reality intruded.
“I don’t have anything with me.” He groaned. “Damn.”
A slow smile teased her mouth. “Are we talking protection?”
He nodded.
Her smile broadened. “Our young friends might have been foolish about some things, but they were well prepared for others.” She motioned to the television. “Exhibit A.”
He turned and saw what he’d missed before. Sitting on top of the television was a jumbo box of condoms. There had to be at least a hundred inside.
“Somebody was planning on getting lucky in a big way,” he said, pulling her back into his arms.
“Looks like it’s going to be you.”
“Looks like.”
He lowered his head and kissed her. Despite the raging need inside him, he was determined to be gentle and take it slow. That mental promise lasted right up until Kari gently bit down on his tongue at the same time she slipped a hand between them and rubbed his arousal. He swore.
Kari shivered slightly at Gage’s explicit language, but not out of shock. Instead she felt bone-melting need. She didn’t know if it was the past intruding, or Gage’s emotional vulnerability or her own emotional state, but something had happened tonight. Something that made her want to rip both their clothes off and make love to him.
She wanted to be taken. She wanted his body in hers, their hearts beating as one. She wanted the touching, the pleasure, the shared breath, the trembling aftermath. She wanted to bare her soul to him and stare down into the depths of his.
Her need made her bold in a way she’d never been before. When he jerked down the back zipper of her dress, she shrugged out of it as if she spent most of her day undressing in front of him. Before he could unfasten her bra, she did it for him. The scrap of lace slid to the floor. She brought his hands to her breasts, then gasped when she felt the heat of his touch. The ache between her thighs intensified as he cupped her curves while teasing her already tight nipples.
She reached for the buttons of his shirt while they kissed. Her fingers fumbled, but she kept at the task until she could rub her palms against the hair on his chest. From there she went to work on his belt, then his trousers. When she’d undone the zipper, she eased her hand inside his boxer shorts and wrapped her fingers around his hardness.
Such soft skin, she thought, deepening the kiss and beginning to move her hand. Soft skin around pulsing hardness. She eased back and forth, moving faster and faster until he caught her wrist and pulled her away.
“Not like that,” he said with a smile.
She delighted in his confession—that she could have made him lose control with a simple touch.
While he stepped out of his shoes and pulled off his socks, she slipped off her panties. He continued to undress while she crossed to the condom box and removed one square packet. She turned to find Gage standing in the center of the room. He was naked.
She looked at him, from his dark eyes to his mouth, then to his chest, his flat belly and finally to his jutting maleness. He held out his hand for the condom. She handed it to him, then watched while he slipped it on.
When he moved to the bed, she followed. He stretched out on his back. “I thought you might like being on top,” he said, his expression faintly wicked.
Kari thought about the position—her sliding up and down while he filled her. She thought about his hands on her body, touching, moving, stroking, delighting, and nearly stumbled in her eagerness.
She slid onto the bed, then stretched one leg over him. He filled her completely as she eased onto him.
He sucked in a breath, then instructed her not to move. “We need to get you caught up,” he said, then proceeded to show her what he meant.
He touched her everywhere—from her ears to her breasts, down to her legs and between her thighs. He stroked the arc of curves, found secret places of delight and teased her into a frenzy. Tension filled her, making her want to ride him, but he held her back.
“Not yet,” he whispered.
They kissed. He moved one hand to her nipples and tickled them until the pulsing inside her grew. Her thighs clenched and u
nclenched. Her breathing grew ragged. Finally, when she ached and perspiration dotted her back, he moved inside her.
She responded instantly, sliding up and down. On the first round trip, she felt herself falling off the edge. He made sure she went all the way by slipping his hand between her legs and rubbing her dampness until everything shattered.
Her climax overtook her, making her cry out. She leaned forward, bracing her hands on the bed, riding him faster and faster, each up and down movement sending new waves of pleasure through her. She lost herself and didn’t care about anything but her passion and her need.
There was more and more until nothing existed but the feel of him inside her. Then his hands settled on her hips, steadying her movements. His thrusts deepened as he collected himself. Kari forced her eyes open so she could watch her lover’s release, only to find him watching her.
Then as he stiffened and called out her name, she saw down into his soul. For that one endless moment in time their hearts beat together. Then the pulsing of his climax carried her off on another mindless round of pleasure, and they lost themselves in the glory of their lovemaking.
When they finally disentangled, Kari expected Gage to roll away. He’d been distant from her ever since he found out about Ralph not being his biological father. But instead of sitting up or reaching for his clothes, he drew her close and wrapped his arms around her.
“Pretty amazing,” he said quietly. “Even better than I’d imagined. And I’d imagined a lot.”
“I know what you mean. I’m still trying to catch my breath.”
He shifted so he was facing her, but kept an arm on her waist. “I haven’t seen you in a few days.”
She thought about explaining that it had actually been a whole week, but didn’t. “I’ve been working on the house. And you?”
“Work. Other stuff,” he said casually.
“Is that getting better or worse?”
“About the same.”
She wasn’t sure she agreed with him. Not when he’d made the ridiculous statement about being glad they hadn’t married and had children, based on some secret from the past.
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