Oh, hell.
From the freckles on her nose to the ruched tips of her breasts to the slender legs decorated with sheer diamond-patterned stockings, she was incredible.
“It’s ugly,” she whispered. “It didn’t heal great.”
From the top of her breastbone to the bottom, the scar was gnarled dark tissue.
His hands demanded her. They cupped her tits, unsnapped her garters, drew down her stockings…
“Listen to me,” he said, turning her again and lowering slowly. He tongued the hollow of her throat, each of her nipples. “It’s a scar. It’s not supposed to be pretty to look at. You, damn it, are beautiful. This scar is the reason you’re here with me. It’s your second chance, Sofia. And you know what? That’s what makes it the most beautiful thing about you.”
She seemed hopeful yet afraid of that hope. “It is?”
“Yeah.” He picked up her hand, kissed it. “Touch it. I want to see you do it.”
She bounced her fingertips along the trail, her lips parted as if something he’d said mesmerized her. Had she never known she was a friggin’ treasure?
He nudged her until she was flat against the mirror and gazing down at him. On his knees, he peeled down her panties. “Is this underwear or floss?”
Laughing, she ruffled his hair. She held the sides of his face, held his attention. “I can’t believe we’re doing this. I wanted this.”
But there was hesitation in the nervous way she caught her breath and the shyness of her touch.
“What’d you want, Sofia?” He stretched up, licked one nipple and then crossed her scar to the other. “Me to kiss you here?”
“Mm-hmm,” she said, melting into a moan when he sucked on her. “I thought about you holding me, putting your mouth on me, tasting me. I don’t want to think about it anymore. I want to live it.”
Smiling, proud of her for telling him plainly what she expected, he peppered kisses down her abdomen at the same time that he slipped a hand between her thighs. “You touched yourself thinking about me.”
She nodded. “A lot.”
“Tonight, let me take over.”
Another nod. “Okay.”
Burke watched her, kissing her belly as he firmly inserted a finger into her damp heat. When she moaned and opened herself further, he withdrew and sat on the floor. “Get over here. Straddle, all right? Keep standing and just put a foot on either side of my legs…I really like how you follow my directions, Sofia.”
Trembling, she gulped whatever retort she had ready for him. “Then what?”
“Enjoy.” Burke pushed her thighs apart wide and licked her mound. He suckled her, his tongue learning her clit and memorizing her taste. The firmer the pressure, the slicker she became. His index and middle fingers alternated inside her, and her sharp sighs punctuating the wet noises of his feasting had his cock straining ruthlessly in his jeans.
“Put both in,” she said eventually. “Take care of that and we can keep going. It’ll be easier for you.”
“I don’t care about what’s easy.”
“We need to both take away something good from this, Burke. That’s fair.”
“I don’t care about what’s fair, either.” He looked up at her. She was everything. Redemption, forgiveness, love. Everything he needed but wouldn’t dare ask for. “This is about you right now. Can you let me show you that?”
Rocking impatiently on his hand, she whispered a swearword and hell, did it turn him on.
His tongue and fingers worked as a single unit—strumming her, exploring her—and the music of her tense cries fell on him.
“Come.” A one-word demand, infused with so much power. He took his mouth away so he could see her eyes, but continued to stroke. “Come, with my finger in you. I want to feel it.”
Gripping his hair, she uttered a sharp keening sound and grinded violently on his hand. Her body pulsing around him, clenching him, he felt her take what she wanted.
Burke gathered her on his lap as she continued to ride out the intensity of the orgasm, but suddenly she began flapping her hands and scrambling away.
“Sofia?”
“H-h-help! The hospital.” She pressed against her scar; her breath was short. Fear and panic thickened inside him, solidifying the blood in his veins. “Something’s wrong.”
CHAPTER 17
The nurse said you showed up naked.”
Sofia, freshly returned from a battery of tests and a shower, lounged on a hospital bed. The patient gown was uncomfortably crisp and the soap rising from her skin smelled sterile. A blood pressure monitor clipped onto her finger refused to stay put and the IV drip attached to her arm made maneuvering awkward. She forgot all those inconveniences when she saw Joss carrying bundles of balloons and blooms. “That’d be funny if it weren’t true. Gretchen and Richard were here earlier. They brought a card and sweats—which don’t fit, unfortunately.”
“Word travels fast.” Joss placed the balloons in the corner and set the flowers on a table. “These are from Caro and Evan. They were here this morning, waiting for you to come back from testing, but she had to take off for a client appointment. Evan made me promise to give you this.” She retrieved a plush bear from a gift bag.
“Aww.” Sofia hugged the stuffed animal and propped it on the pillow beside her. “That kid’s ridiculously sweet.”
“Isn’t he?” Joss emptied a shopping bag. “Outfits. I’m liberating you from that gown. Can’t stand the thought of you in hospital chic for three days.”
Last night Sofia had been admitted for a seventy-two-hour observation period, accommodating her cardiologist’s arrival from New York to consult with the Eaves Community Hospital staff and coordinate treatments. IV fluids were addressing her dehydration. The hypertension and heart palpitations weren’t fully under control yet and required further study, though the attending physician’s current impression attributed her symptoms to stress.
“Here’s your purse. Your meds are inside.” Joss gave her a sidelong glance. “I took care of the clothes I found in that dressing room.”
“Oh. About that.”
“When Burke called to tell me he’d brought you in, he asked me to make sure no customers found your stuff on the floor like that. He’s rough around the edges, but chivalrous.”
There was never a good time to experience a cardiac emergency. But to experience it precisely in the middle of sex? In a dressing room? With a man who was already a hair trigger away from bolting? Seriously?
Sofia picked up a pillow and smashed it against her face. “I’m mortified.”
“Care to fill in some blanks? Burke calls the apartment, tells me you’re in the hospital with chest pain and your stuff’s in a dressing room. Then I find out he brought you here naked.”
“I wasn’t naked,” she cried through the pillow.
“The nurse said you were half-naked with a guy’s shirt wrapped around you, and that Burke Wolf was half-naked, too. So I figured two half-nakeds may as well make a whole naked.”
“Where is he?” She hadn’t seen him since she was wheeled away from her emergency-room cubicle for labs and an ECG last night. “Did you see him?”
“Shh. Calm down—your BP’s going to soar again.” She pointed to the untouched breakfast tray. “Is that a cracker or a hockey puck?” When the quip failed to soften Sofia’s frown, she sat at the foot of the bed. “I’m not going to lie. I told him to leave.”
“Let me get my phone,” she said, dropping the pillow. “I have to call him.”
“Sofia, he was exhausted. He paced the waiting room for hours, hassled staff for information they wouldn’t provide. So I told him to go to his boat and sleep, that I’d be here. Now please tell me what the hell happened.”
“All the test results haven’t rolled in and my cardiologist hasn’t had his say yet, but the doctors here think the cardiac event and the dehydration are stress related. It all hit while Burke was going down on me. There—blanks filled.”
“Holy.
Shit.” Joss swung her legs up to cross them akimbo. “Why then?”
Sofia shrugged. “Sex is cardio. It triggers all sorts of physiological reactions. You get hot. You sweat. You breathe hard. Your pulse leaps like crazy.”
“All pros…except you’re in a hospital, and that’s a big glaring con.” She opened Sofia’s purse and thrust out the phone. “Fine, call him.”
Dialing with the IV and blood pressure monitor in the way was awkward, but she managed.
“Sofia. You okay?” No greeting, just a gravelly demand.
“Better. The tests are still out, but on first impression it’s just dehydration, elevated BP, and mild palpitations.”
“Just? It was worse than anything I saw happen to you. You couldn’t breathe. You said your chest hurt.”
“I’m sorry I scared you.”
“Don’t apologize. Hell, you’re in a hospital because of me and you’re apologizing.” Silence stretched. “Joss told me to take off and rest, but we’ve got to talk about this. We went too far. I knew this wasn’t good for you.”
“What about our promise at Bellini Beach?”
“It doesn’t matter when being with me put you in the hospital.”
“Stop, Burke. You’re tired. I can hear it. Rest. Come back later. If you’re going to end things with me, okay. But you’ll do it face-to-face. Visiting hours are over at eight.” She ended the call and dropped the phone onto the mattress.
Joss glanced from the phone to Sofia. “End things?”
“He says he’s to blame for this, but I feel he’s afraid to get closer. It’s more convenient to feed the fear.” She uncurled her body and pressed her face into the pillow.
Joss smoothed her hair back in a manner that was motherly and a faint comfort. “Hey, you’re preaching to the choir here. It’s so hard to trust, to give, and when you think you’re with someone who’s different and he pulls away, too, it hurts.”
Sofia sat up again. “Peter was never different. Same all-polish, no-substance as the others who lifted you up with promises and then dropped you.”
“No, you’re right. Peter wasn’t different,” her friend said quietly, and Sofia was momentarily confused. Who besides Peter Bernard had hurt her? “So when this happens, we need to bounce back every time.”
How had Sofia managed to bounce back from losing Burke before? She might’ve been tougher then—loving him, yes, but not in love with him.
She was configured to love him. Stubborn despite its vulnerabilities, her heart wanted him. But it was careless, impractical, to reach for a damaged soul who kept a dangerous career and panicked in the face of her ugliness.
This scar is the reason you’re here with me. It’s your second chance, Sofia. And you know what? That’s what makes it the most beautiful thing about you.
She hadn’t conjured those words wrapped in a husky voice that tickled her ears the way his beard tickled her skin. Burke had said them, to her, and he’d meant them.
“Stop thinking about Burke,” Joss said. “Just for a while. A reading popped up on your machine. One forty-three over eighty.” Searching for what to say next, she commented, “Nice of the Pruitts to visit.”
“Gretchen said they were having breakfast at the general store when someone told her I was brought to the ER. I can’t believe a nurse told you I was half-naked. Is patient confidentiality not a thing in Eaves?”
“She didn’t tell me directly. She was speaking with a white coat. I eavesdropped at the nurses’ station. Stranger circumstances have happened. This would hardly make it on Untold Stories of the ER.” When Sofia giggled despite herself, Joss exaggerated a Whew! That was close! gesture. “Although I think you might end up on a church prayer list.”
“Prayers are appreciated.”
“Gracious of you. A little too gracious.” She eyed the IV pouch. “What’s in that bag?”
“Fluids.” She picked up the teddy bear. “A kid sent me this because he cares about my well-being. Gretchen and Richard visited for the same reason. Yes, there’s gossip—tons of it—but some people give a damn.”
“And Eaves, does it feel like home again?”
“Not totally, but I was expecting it to feel like the home it used to be. Changes.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I want to go to the windows.”
“Careful. Does this BP monitor transport?”
“It’s on wheels. C’mon.” Slowly, she got to her feet and Joss helped her wheel the IV and monitor across the hospital room. She raised the shades and sighed, looking out past the hospital’s grounds to the sun-touched sand and water in the distance. “For the next three days I’m going to be wishing I was out there. Have you swum in the ocean yet, Joss?”
“The ocean? Oh, actually, no. I laid out tanning.”
“Swim. It’s amazing.”
“You sound so sad, Sof. Three days is nothing. It’ll go quickly.”
“What about Blush? Yesterday was the grand reopening. It’s going to be closed for the next three days.”
“Paget and I will hold it together. We won’t let you down.”
What’d she do to deserve friends like this? “Thanks, Joss.”
“Well, good morning! Even better to see you up and about,” a male announced, knocking, and when they turned to him, he had a smile prepared. She’d met him before. Aeneas Strayer.
“Mr. Strayer, hi.”
He carried a long-stemmed bouquet. “Call me Aeneas. A word with you ladies?”
“Okay.” With Joss’s aid, Sofia settled onto the visitor chair. “What can I do for you?”
“Start by accepting these.” Settling the flowers across her lap, he reached into his suit jacket for a card. “I’m not aware of the particulars of your illness, Sofia, but it concerned me to know you’re not well. So I thought of the best possible way that I can lighten your burden.” He handed the card to Joss, who shared it with her. A figure was written on the back. A sizable figure. “I’m a real estate investor, and my client has authorized me to present their opening offer for your property on Society Street. In light of your health issues, we can appreciate that you’d be a motivated seller, but fairness is a virtue—particularly in delicate business transactions such as this.”
“Wait, wait.” Sofia tried to return the card, but he made no move to accept it. “My property isn’t on the market. I have no plans to sell it. I reopened Blush yesterday.”
Aeneas Strayer dropped his voice. “And today you’re here. Sofia, let me speak plainly. I put my ass on the line to convince my client to offer what’s clearly in your financial favor. Don’t make an emotional decision. Think it over while you’re here eating your Jell-O.” His smile had slipped and his words felt like contempt. “Luz was interested in streamlining her obligations, trimming some fat. She wanted Blush off her plate.”
“It’s on my plate now. Please don’t pressure or lecture me, Mr. Strayer.”
“Aeneas. We’re all friends here.”
“Good-bye, Mr. Strayer.”
He took his cue to get the hell out. Joss shut the door behind him and set aside the flowers he’d brought. “Creep. I’m seriously regretting that I let him pour me a cup of tea. He’s downright insulting.”
“Desperate. Not to mention the figure on that card. It’s a lot of money with room to negotiate. It’s the second generous offer someone laid down for that property. Remember the man from Omni?” Omni Commercial Development of New England. Or, according to Caro, Beelzebub. “I could sell Blush and be wealthy. I could keep it, work my ass off, and still somehow fail.”
“Sounds like an easy choice when you put it that way.”
It was an easy choice. “I’m keeping it.”
Joss knelt. “You’re the craziest, most badass chick I know.”
“Doubt not.” Sofia laughed. “People will think I’m a complete idiot for passing up money like this. I could retire early and live a life of leisure in the tropics someplace. I could buy you a new construction.”
“I
t’s not their place to judge, but who cares? Caro must be receiving similar offers, and this kind of money could put her son through college a dozen times over. She said no. Burke Wolf said no.”
“He said no to me, too.”
Although, if their agreement made at the lighthouse was null and void, then she could pursue the Cape Foods building again with a clear conscience.
“Just relax and congratulate yourself on batting away another vulture. I want to remind you, you’re not in this alone.” Joss went to the breakfast tray, peeled open the cherry Jell-O, and spooned out a dollop. “I’m willing to secure a bank loan to go in on Bautista’s bar with you and Caro.”
“Joss, no. I’m sitting here turning down huge money and you’re putting yourself in debt? It’s wrong.”
“It’s my decision to be part of something, to have something real. I’m tired of being told no and watching doors swing shut on me. Ideally Burke would sell and we can convert the bar into a legit club where people can dance, for God’s sake, because this town’s suffering a nightlife crisis.”
Sofia had no argument. Caro had been spot-on in her early thoughts about opening the basements. Aphrodisiac foods, nude photography, and kink upstairs. Liquor and dirty dancing downstairs. New York was full of similar dens.
“Only, Burke won’t sell to me any more than he’ll sell to Omni.”
“Men can be swayed. It takes the right kind of persuasion.”
Sofia cocked her head. “Okay, what’s that supposed to mean?”
“You and Burke have more than some teenage memories. If he truly cares about you, he’ll want what’s best for you. Remind him of that.” She started playing with the zipper pull on her purse. Random charms and a tiny plastic container holding a penny clanged together. “I’ve given it a thought. Men throw the word care around too lightly, and sometimes they need to be reminded that care is a commitment, not a group of letters that means nothing.”
But it wasn’t for Sofia to come from a place of aggression. She wanted Burke to sell the building from a fair business perspective, not under duress.
She was about to express this to her friend, but a nurse entered and Joss departed, saying, “I’ll check on Tish, and Paget and I’ll manage the store. Need anything at all—call.”
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