Searching for Sea Glass: BEST-SELLING AUTHOR (Sea Glass Secrets Book 1)

by Wingate, Teal

  “Before you say another poisonous word, you’d better think twice. Sunny holds solitary custody of your only grandchild,” the man chided in a low whisper.

  “You’ve truly got a bastard?” Helene hissed in horror.

  “No, Willow had a son.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Had? Willow’s dead?” The words might have been heartbreaking, if there’d been any hint of warmth or grief in them. Instead, they just translated into irritation. “I wondered about that when the brat on the phone interrupted your wedding. He mentioned her name. I should have known the girl would end up being more trouble than she was worth. So now we’ve got a half-breed bastard on our hands?” Her straight shoulders slightly rose and fell as if finding out you had a long-lost grandson was a pesky, minor inconvenience. Helene shot her next words to Sunny. “Well, it seems I was wrong. We will gladly pay you anything you ask, Miss Murphy. If you’ll just disappear, with the brat and never come back.”

  “No, we won’t,” JD said. He articulated each emotionless word. “Sunny and her son, Billy, are welcomed to stay here as long as they will. Billy is a McIntyre. And he’ll be treated as one. There will be no under-the-table payments and no disappearances.”

  “But… but…,” sputtered the old lady.

  JD ignored her. He spoke to the pale young woman under his arm, “It’s getting stuffy in here. Why don’t you let me take you out on the terrace for some fresh air?”

  He didn’t wait for her assent. He just powered them through the fascinated crowd. Several times a stately matron or rotund gentleman tried to force the pair to stop and make conversation. JD wouldn’t allow it. He’d merely shake his head, smile like a hungry wolf, and continue easing Sunny through the milling throng. He pushed open a glass door. He led the girl out onto a wide dark balcony overlooking the pool and an extensive formal garden.

  Sunny breathed deeply of the dry, sagebrush scented air. She looked up at the vast dark sky overhead. The stars seemed bigger here than they did at Sea Glass Point. And closer. So close she felt like she could reach up and pluck one down. As far as the eye could see, there was flat country marred only by a scant few low, rolling hills. It felt peaceful. Not in the same way that the empty midnight beach did. But this land held its own special beauty.

  “You look incredible,” his voice rumbled down to her.

  For a serene minute she’d let herself forget where she was. And with whom. She couldn’t afford to make that kind of mistake again.

  “Incredible good or incredible bad?” she asked lightly.

  His deep, slow laughter rolled over her senses like melted caramel. “Fishing for compliments?”

  She shook her head. “Not from you.”

  One of his hands began to thread through the long hair tumbling in waves down her back. He drew her closer to his taunt muscled body. She felt the rasp of his fingertips as they drew a lazy figure on the bare sensitive skin at the base of her spine. She tried to pull away from him. But his arm tightened to hold her fast. She felt the length of his solid arousal against her belly. She started to speak.

  “Shhh…,” he whispered into her ear. “Just let me hold you.”

  Her whole body shuddered as his lips traced a line around the pink shell of her ear. When his dangerous mouth began worshipping the delicate erotic spot right under her earlobe, she gasped. She would have pulled away.

  But his seductive voice gentled her into staying. “Sunny, I want you. Can you feel how much?”

  He opened her stance by dividing the skirt of her gown with a subtle movement. Their bodies were now intimately entwined. One of his hands settled in the small of her back. The fire of it branded into her naked flesh. Her whimper made him smile.

  “You like this, don’t you?” he growled against the slender column of her throat. “You’re so damned responsive. I could give you pleasure this way. Out here in the open, with the chance that we might get caught. Is that what you want?”

  Sunny’s lifted eyes pleaded with him. But she couldn’t form the words. She knew the bliss he could give her. She wanted it, craved it.

  “I want to be buried so deep inside you, neither of us knows where the other begins or ends. I want to muffle those sexy little sounds you make with my mouth while you shatter in my arms. I want to taste your sweet wild honey on my tongue. I want to take you so many times, in so many ways, we’ll both be too exhausted to move the next morning.”

  “JD, please,” she begged as he inched the thin strap of her gown off her shoulder. She felt the cool night air on her exposed skin. She couldn’t stop herself from arching up towards his searching mouth. She moaned in anticipation as he licked and suckled his way down to the straining tip.

  “So sweet and delicate,” he murmured as he looked his fill. He drew the hard little pebble into his mouth. “I wonder if you’re as delicious down here?”

  With a languid, controlled roll of his hips, he ground himself against her core. As he did, he blew a steady stream of almost electric air across the throbbing peak.

  Sunny’s threw her head back. She choked off a tiny sob. Her body was pleading with her to surrender to him. The familiar earth-shattering experience only he could give her was building. She felt a powerful sensual anticipation flooding her- body, mind, and soul. Her legs refused to support her. She would have buckled to the ground, if he hadn’t pressed her more firmly to the railing of the balcony.

  His hand moved to the remaining strap of her dress. With one slow seductive movement he pulled it off her shoulder. From her narrow waist up, she was completely bare. He watched her as his fingers leisurely dragged down the graceful slope of her breast and circled its up-tilted crown.

  He felt a victor’s triumph when her hand slid behind his neck to draw his lips closer to hers. Her mouth opened for him like a flower eager for the morning sun. He stiffened his tongue and invaded her sweet depths with long, languorous penetrations. Teaching her body how he would give her the ultimate satisfaction, if she’d but let him. When the fingers of her other hand burrowed into the fabric of his shirt, he knew she was nearing her pinnacle. He caught her fierce little cry of passion with his mouth.

  “Shatter for me, baby. Let me watch you break into a thousand crazy little pieces. It’s so damn sexy watching you,” his voice was a suggestive rasp.

  Sunny felt him cup her mound through the black silk of the gown. Soon his hand was replaced by the steel imprint of his arousal. His hips set into an endless rhythm of deep, slow rocking motions. She gladly fully opened to receive the silk’s abrasions against the most intimate part of her. Soon he had her teetering on the keen knife’s edge of ecstasy.

  Then he suddenly stopped. She heard the wheezing bellows of his breath against her forehead. She felt the tightly leashed strength in his hard body. And then she heard his cold grated words.

  “I can push you over the edge. Or I can walk away. It’s your choice. But if you want this… me, there’s something I want in return.”

  “Billy?” she pushed the name past her own panting.

  He shook his head. He ground his teeth and sent a tense muscle jumping the length of his jaw. “You. I want you. In my bed. For one night.”

  “But…”

  “Yes or no?” he snarled. “I can leave you here hurting. Unsatisfied and aching like you are now. Or I can give us what we both want. For one night.” When she didn’t answer, he canted his hips slightly to remind her of what he was offering. Her sexy little whimper almost had him spilling his seed right there.

  “I… I…” she responded weakly.

  “Yes or no, Sunny?” He gritted out the words again.

  When her passion-filled eyes finally opened and focused on his, JD was uncomfortable with the tenderness he saw in them. Why did women always confuse honest animal lust for something else? Something far more complicated and binding? But no matter what fairy tale she’d spun to lull her conscience tonight, he would have her. One night. That’s all it’d take. One night to get her out of his s
ystem. Then he could negotiate visitations with his nephew and send Sunny Murphy back to her sleepy one-horse town.

  He leaned farther away from her. He felt the sudden chill of the night air between them. She must have felt it too, because the tiny little hitching sound she made was one of loss. She quickly drew her dress back up, covering herself. It would be the hardest thing he’d ever done, to leave her, shaking with unspent passion, if she rejected him. But he’d do it. Somehow, he’d find the strength to do walk away.

  “Yes or no, Sunny?” He heard the desperate demand in his voice.

  She lifted a jerky hand to her hair. She pushed it away from her hot face. She nodded. “Yes,” she said.

  “You’re sure?”

  He was giving her every opportunity to escape. And he was troubled by his new altruism. With any other woman he’d still be manipulating her. He’d still be drugging her with his potent sexuality. He’d be making promises. The kind a man could keep with a checkbook. But he realized he didn’t want to coerce or bribe this woman into sleeping with him.

  She was already going to forever be plagued by regrets and self-recriminations. He knew her well enough to recognize that fact. Even knowing she would suffer, after they were thoroughly sated, didn’t stop him from craving her. The raging desire he felt for Sunny was like a living thing. A thing he couldn’t control. A thing he wouldn’t want to curb, even if he could. It needed to be explored and conquered. Like the way a man faced a prairie fire, with his eyes wide open and using every method at his disposal to extinguish the flames. For if a man continued to let them burn out of control, he would be consumed. And JD was sure he’d smile and welcome Sunny’s passionate, uninhibited fire until his very flesh charred, if he allowed himself that luxury.

  “I’m sure,” she uttered the soft words.

  But she couldn’t look at him, when she spoke them. No, for if she did, the lack of love she’d see might dampen her reeling emotions. His eyes might tell her he was just planning on using her up until there was nothing left that mattered. The stern line of his mouth might imply that she wasn’t at all special, even on this magical night. That she was just a warm, willing body to assuage his hunger. A forgettable woman whose name would escape him once she stumbled, broken and bereft, from his bed. Sunny didn’t want to see any of that. She wanted to deceive herself into believing, that if she could please him, he’d become as addicted to her as she’d always been to him. That JD McIntyre would be so charmed by the gift of her untried body, he’d fall to one knee and beg her to stay with him. To marry him. To live with him in a happily-ever-after she knew, she knew, was unrealistic. This wild and completely naïve fantasy was one of her own making. One that was as old as time. One that almost never played out like the woman hoped.

  If she didn’t want a relationship solely based on sex, why was she going down this particularly rocky and dangerous road? Because you love him, a strong voice echoed through her brain. Because if this is all you can have, you’ll grab it with both fists and howl for more. Because you’ll only ever love one man. And that man is John Deacon McIntyre. Because being with him for one night, even when you know he’ll probably scrape you off his shoe in the morning. Is so much better than the wasteland your life would be if you’d never loved him, never given yourself to him at all.

  “I’m sure,” she said once more.

  She opened her eyes when she heard his gusty sigh of relief at her answer. She was glad when she saw none of the detachment in his face she’d so feared. Instead, she saw hunger. It glittered in his eyes and showed in the satisfied curve of his mouth. She started in surprise as he grabbed her hand. Before she could form a question, he had them both down the steps and across the dark fragrant garden.

  “Where are we going?” she asked breathlessly.

  “To my bedroom.”

  “Now?” she was horrified. She wasn’t ready for that, not yet. “What about the dinner party?”

  He turned and paused, looking down into her face. A shaft of pure silver moonlight lit her perfect features. He couldn’t stop himself from falling into the depths of her brilliant eyes. The night, the necklace, and the moon had transformed them into a deep warm turquoise. A color unlike any he’d ever seen before.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  She shook her head. The tip of her tongue darted out to moisten the corner of her mouth. He groaned. She looked up at him quizzically. In her innocence, she had no idea he was suffering the tortures of the damned just by watching her. If he didn’t somehow gain some control, and quickly, he would end up ravaging her like some kind of Medieval barbarian. He took a deep breath. Then another. He rubbed a consoling thumb over the back of her cold hand where it lay with so much trust in his.

  “I think my mother can manage the dinner party without us. If you get hungry later, I’ll have something sent to us from the kitchen. If that’s agreeable with you?” He was glad the words sounded so civilized. Because at the moment, he knew he was half-wild and feral. He was a rutting beast, clamoring to claim his mate.

  Sunny nodded. She wasn’t hungry in the least. In fact, she was so anxious she felt a little queasy. She wondered if this was how a bride felt on her wedding night. But she was no bride. She was just a lovesick fool willing to exchange her old-fashioned morals for the chance to experience Heaven in the arms of the man she loved. She decided she’d better be honest with JD about her apprehensions.

  “It’s just… it’s just,” she tried to make some sense of the myriad emotions racing through her brain. “I’ve never done this before.”

  His lips twitched. But he refused to laugh at her fears. She was the bravest person he’d ever known. The way she’d shouldered the responsibility for Billy alone at eighteen, was evidence of her strong will. Now she stood, facing him in the moonlight, confessing her fears. How could he not admire her? How could he not want her?

  “I won’t hurt you,” he vowed. “I’ve told you this before. I’d never hurt you, Sunny.”

  “How can you not?” she blurted out. Her face reddened. “I mean, I’ve felt your… I’ve felt you through your clothes. I know how big it… you are,” she mumbled, embarrassed to be having this awkward conversation.

  His low, seductive laughter made her stricken eyes shoot up. The tenderness in his face reassured her. He wasn’t mocking her. He was just finding the humor in their very strange exchange.

  “You’re good for my ego, Sunny Murphy,” he teased as he began leading her, once again, through the garden.

  The narrow skirt of her gown made their progress slow and halting. They were out by the pool before she forced them to stop once more.

  “I’m telling you the truth, JD. I know next to nothing about how to please a man. In fact, you’ll be the first naked male I’ve ever seen. If you don’t take Billy, when he was a baby, into account. What if we don’t fit? I’m not exactly tall or sturdy.”

  JD decided a little friendly persuasion would calm her fears. He gathered her up into his arms. He teased the edges of her mouth open with his tongue. He began kissing her in a soothing, easy, non-threatening way. When he felt his desire rise and drive him to demand more of her, he stepped back. He was thoroughly gratified by her dazed expression.

  “Sunny?”

  “Yes?” she answered. “That was nice,” she added for his benefit.

  “Nice?” Not exactly the response he’d been hoping for. “Nice?”

  “Yes, nice. I felt safe.”

  That was better. He wanted her to feel safe. Even though he knew he was going to hurt her, both when they made love the first time and when he left her in the morning. He didn’t want her afraid. Strange that he’d feel that way, when he’d never stopped to worry about a woman’s fear or lack of it before.

  “You are safe. You don’t need to be anxious about pleasing me. You don’t have to dread anything we’ll do together tonight. You don’t need to think. You just need to feel.”

  “I can do that JD. I trust you.”

&nbs
p; She’d never know that her soft affirmation hit him with the force of a sledgehammer. She trusted him? He’d learned to never trust anyone. Especially not a woman he was about to bed. Especially not some small-town girl who’d managed to keep her virginity until she was twenty-three-freaking-years-old. He felt just as much an old letch as his father had been.

  “I’m thirty-three, Sunny.”

  For some asinine reason he felt like she should know he was ten years older than she was. He was ten years physically older, but eons older as far as sexual experience was concerned.

  “OK,” she said.

  Why was he telling her how old he was, Sunny wondered? Did he think that would make a difference? It wouldn’t, not to her. He was JD. It wouldn’t have mattered if he was ninety-five. She loved him.

  “I’ve not been… as discriminating over the years as you’ve been.”

  Damnation, he cursed himself. What are you doing McIntyre? Trying to run her off?

  “I know you’re not a virgin JD. If that’s what you’re trying to say.”

  He gritted his teeth. “That is not what I’m saying. Don’t put words in my mouth. It’s just that, well, a nice girl like you… maybe you deserve a man who’s cleaner… shit, I don’t know why I’m rambling like this.” He shut his mouth. But he did know. It bothered him to think about her ending up feeling used. It bothered him a lot. “If you want to back out, I’ll understand.”

  Sunny came closer to him. She smoothed an errant lock of black hair away from his eyes. “I don’t. I want you to be my first.” My only, the sober voice in her head corrected. “I trust you JD. You won’t hurt me. You said so, and I believe you.”

  “I lied,” he said.

  “What?”

  “I lied. When I breech your maidenhead, it’ll be painful. There’s no way to stop that. And you’ll bleed. Not a lot, but enough.” He swore under his breath. He wondered where all this impulsive honesty and integrity were coming from.

  Sunny cocked her head. She let her dress dip low over her cleavage and walked her fingers up his chest. She gave him a sultry female look as old as Eve in the Garden of Eden.