Beach Reads Boxed Set

by Marie Force

  Carly trembled under the heat of his gaze.

  He kissed the palm of her hand but never once looked away from her. “You make me want like I’ve never wanted before, Carly.”

  “Then take.” She reclined on the bed and reached out to him. “Don’t go slow. Just take.”

  He tugged the shirt over his head and dropped his shorts. He covered her, held her, took what she offered, and lost himself in her.

  Her nails scored his back, fueling the flame that blazed through him. Filling his hand with a breast that was fuller now than it had been when she was younger, he laved at her nipple and sent her into a soaring climax.

  Sweat stung the cut under his eye, but it didn’t slow the frantic beating of his heart or the rapid-fire pace of their coupling.

  She must have sensed he was hurting, because she forced him onto his back, straddled him, and took him in. Arching her back, she cried out when she was surprised by a second orgasm.

  “Carly,” he moaned, burying his hands in her waterfall of curls and bringing her down to him to give her a moment to recover from the rush. “I love you so much. So very, very much.”

  She kissed him, a sweet, innocent brushing of her lips against his that undid him. “I love you, too,” she whispered. “More than you’ll ever know.”

  He held her tight against him and came with a choked cry of release.

  The happiness, the bone-deep satisfaction of having everything she’d ever wanted, had Carly floating through her routine over the next week. Every time she turned around, Brian was there. She woke up to him every morning, went to bed with him every night, shared every meal, every thought, every dream with him. Nothing, not even the threat of the man who would do them harm, could detract from her joy.

  Brian had finally succeeded in convincing her to quit her job at Molly’s. On Thursday morning, the day of her last shift, he walked with her to the coffee shop and then lingered for a while to have breakfast and read the paper.

  Carly’s regulars were delighted about her engagement but sorry to hear she was leaving the shop. She would miss seeing them and would miss the women she worked with, too. Miss Molly’s had given her more than just a job for all the years when she’d had nothing else.

  The people there—both her coworkers and the customers—had been like a second family to her. That one of them might be the man terrorizing the town was a thought she wouldn’t allow in today, not on a day that signaled the end of one phase of her life and the start of a new, exciting phase with Brian.

  He stood and dropped a twenty on the table. With a cute nod of his head, he called her over to him. Will my heart still skip a crazy beat when he does that five years from now? Definitely.

  “Can I get you anything else, sir?” She reached up to caress his cheek, which was still bruised. The swelling around his eye had gone down, and the cut had scabbed over. They hoped it would heal in time for the wedding.

  He hooked an arm around her waist, pulled her to him, and surprised her with a passionate kiss.

  Miss Molly’s patrons hooted and hollered.

  Carly’s face burned with embarrassment. “Stop,” she whispered.

  “I will, but I don’t want to.” He kissed her again, a light touch of his lips that was somehow more than the first one, which had said, “I want you.” This one said, “I love you.”

  “What’re you doing today?” she asked, flustered by him. She was still getting used to the feelings he had resurrected in her, feelings she had never expected to experience again.

  “I’m going over to bother my mother for a while, and I need to check in with my office to make sure they’re not hosing up my cases. I’ll be back by two.” He took a measuring look around at the people sitting in booths and at stools at the counter. “Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t talk to anyone, for that matter, and don’t step foot outside that door until I get back. You hear me?”

  “Yes, dear.”

  He smiled at her easy obedience. “We’re still on for your niece’s game, right?”

  Carly nodded, her stomach fluttering with nerves.

  “Good. She’s the only new member of the Holbrook family I haven’t met yet. Looking forward to it.” He kissed her one last time. “I love you.”

  “Love you, too. Have fun with your mom, and be careful.”

  “I will.”

  Carly watched him go out the front door, hating the trip of fear that came with letting him out of her sight. Only the knowledge that the police were keeping a close eye on both of them made it possible for her to start bussing the table he had vacated.

  “It does my heart good to see that some things never change,” Molly said.

  Carly turned to her.

  Molly shook her head and smiled. “You and that Westbury boy, just as cute as you were when you were kids.”

  The description of Brian as “that Westbury boy” amused Carly. “You’ll come to the wedding, won’t you, Molly?”

  Resting her hand on Carly’s shoulder, Molly said, “You bet your life I will. I’ll miss you like crazy around here. We all will, but I’m so delighted for you, Carly. So very, very delighted.”

  Carly’s eyes burned with tears as she hugged Molly. “Thank you so much for everything, for giving me a place in the world when I had nowhere else to be.”

  “There’ll always be a place for you here.”

  As the coffee shop bustled around them, Carly held the older woman for a long moment. When they finally released each other, both brushed tears from their cheeks. With a sheepish smile for her friend, Carly went back to work.

  Chapter Twenty

  A police officer trailed behind them at a respectful distance as Carly and Brian walked hand-in-hand through town on their way to Columbia Park to watch Zoë’s game.

  “You’re sure you don’t mind if I have all the kids in the wedding?” Carly asked him.

  “Whatever you want, hon. I told you that.”

  “Julia’s only two. She’s apt to freeze up.”

  “She’s so cute.” Brian chuckled. “She’ll be fine.”

  “Lilly’s over the moon about going dress shopping this weekend. Craig’s boys, on the other hand, begged me to leave them out of the whole thing. Mark actually called my mother and said, ‘Please ask Auntie Carly if I can just come and watch.’”

  Brian laughed. “How old is he?”

  “Almost fifteen. Allison was expecting him that last summer, remember?”

  “Yeah.” He brought her hand to his lips. “That seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?”

  “That’s because it was. Anyway, his brother Peter, who’s thirteen, apparently feels the same way. So that leaves me with Zoë, Lilly, Julia, Justin, and Steve. You’re sure about this?”

  “Absolutely. So then Zoë would be your maid of honor?”

  “I think that would be better than trying to choose between my sisters or having them both. I don’t want the wedding party to outnumber the guests.”

  “True,” he said, amused by her excitement. “Speaking of guests, I was wondering . . .”

  “About?”

  “What would you think of inviting the Garretts, Randalls, Townsends, and the other parents? I was thinking they might like to see us get married, after everything.”

  “That’s a wonderful idea, Bri.”

  “Would you mind terribly if I also invited Beth and her husband?”

  “She’s your friend. You should invite her.”

  “Wow. You didn’t even have to think about that.”

  Carly shrugged. “She’s no threat to me.”

  He dropped her hand and slung an arm around her shoulders to pull her close to him. “I adore you, Carly Holbrook.”

  “Which is why I couldn’t care less if your ex-wife comes to our wedding.”

  “She’s getting along in her pregnancy, so she may not be able to fly by then.”

  “Invite her anyway.”

  “I will. Thanks for understanding.”

  “You k
now what I’ve got to get busy practicing?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Saying Carly Westbury loves Brian Westbury. It doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as smoothly.”

  He laughed. “As long as it rolls off regularly, I don’t care if it’s smooth or not. Carly Westbury,” he said. “That’s got quite a ring to it.”

  “Sure does. I used to write it all over the inside covers of my notebooks in high school. I never imagined it would take this long for it to happen.”

  “We couldn’t have imagined a lot of things.”

  “Even Hollywood couldn’t have come up with our story,” she said with a smile.

  “No kidding.”

  They arrived at the field as the two teams were warming up. None of Carly’s family was there yet, so she lingered with Brian at the chain-link fence that lined the field.

  “There she is.” Carly pointed to the tall girl standing in the infield.

  “The ponytail was kind of a giveaway,” Brian said.

  “Cate keeps hoping she’ll outgrow her baseball phase, but so far there’s no sign of it.”

  “I can’t see her face with the hat on.”

  “She’ll come over to say hello before they start.”

  Zoë was engaged in a series of stretches and didn’t notice them watching her. She swung her arms around in windmill style and then walked onto the mound to throw to her catcher.

  “Damn,” Brian muttered when Zoë unleashed a fastball that snapped into the catcher’s mitt. “That’s outrageous.” He looked down to find Carly watching him anxiously. “What?”

  “Nothing.” She turned back to Zoë, who had an equally impressive curve ball and sinker.

  “She’s really good.”

  “I know. At her last game, she slammed into the other team’s second baseman and knocked the wind out of him. I thought Cate was going to expire on the spot.”

  He laughed. “That’s awesome. I love it.”

  “Hey, guys.”

  They turned to find that Matt Collins had replaced the other officer.

  “Hi, Matt.” Brian extended his hand. “What’re you doing here?”

  Matt shook Brian’s hand. “Shift change. We’re shorthanded with everyone working overtime, so it’s all hands on deck. How’re the wedding plans coming?”

  “Getting there,” Carly said.

  “That’s your niece, right?” Matt said, referring to Zoë.

  Carly nodded. “Oh, here come Tom and the kids.”

  “I’ll let you visit with your family,” Matt said. “I’ll be right over there if you need me.”

  “Thanks,” Brian said.

  Carly’s niece Lilly ran the short distance from the parking lot. “Auntie Carly, Auntie Carly, check out my new shoes!”

  Carly reached down to scoop up the girl. “Oh, they’re so pretty.”

  “They’re jellies,” Lilly said solemnly.

  “I see that. Do you remember my friend Brian, who you met at Grammy’s the other night?”

  “Uh huh. You’re going to marry my Auntie Carly, aren’t you?”

  “Would that be okay with you?” Brian asked, his face set into a serious expression that tugged at Carly’s heart.

  “My mommy says you’re a nice guy, so I guess it’s all right. But you aren’t going to take her back to New York with you, are you?”

  “Nope.” He played with a lock of Lilly’s hair. “I got a job today with the Rhode Island attorney general, so we’ll be staying right here, or at least somewhere nearby.”

  Carly almost dropped Lilly as she stared at Brian. “Really?”

  He nodded.

  Before she had a chance to absorb the news or jump all over him for keeping secrets, her brother-in-law Tom strolled up to them with Steve in tow.

  “How’s it going?” he asked Carly.

  She kissed his cheek and mussed Steve’s hair. “Pretty good. You remember Brian, right?” They had met briefly the other night at her mother’s house.

  “Sure.” Tom extended his hand to Brian as he sought out Zoë on the field.

  Brian shook his hand. “Good to see you again.”

  “You, too. We’re going to grab some seats.” Tom nodded toward the bleachers. “Are you coming?”

  “In a minute,” Carly said.

  The moment Tom had walked away with the kids, she pounced. “When were you going to tell me?”

  Brian flashed a big satisfied smile. “I was getting around to it.”

  “Oh, I should be so mad at you.” She punched his shoulder playfully. “But I really just want to kiss you right now.”

  “Please feel free.”

  “Later,” she said with a meaningful look that made his blood boil. “Tell me everything. How did it happen?”

  “I called the attorney general and told him I was looking to relocate to Rhode Island. He said he’d followed the Gooding trial and asked if I’d be interested in heading up the criminal division. The whole thing took, I think, four minutes.”

  “Are you sure, Bri? You love your job in New York.”

  “You’d hate it there, hon. Your family is here, and I’d like to be closer to my parents, too. This is where we belong.”

  Carly hurled herself into his arms and kissed him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She sank into the kiss, oblivious to where they were or who was watching.

  “Gross.”

  Carly tore her lips free of Brian’s and laughed at the look of total disgust on her niece’s face. “Um, Brian, this is Zoë.”

  He turned, and his heart stopped. She was the very image of Carly, right down to the auburn curls, and the light dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Only her hazel eyes were different.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said.

  He released Carly to reach over the fence for Zoë’s hand. “You, too. I’m sorry to stare, but you look so much like Carly. It’s crazy.”

  Zoë wrinkled up her nose at her aunt. “How many times have we heard that?”

  “A few,” Carly said with a small smile. “Have a good game, honey. I’ve told Brian what a great pitcher you are, so strike out the side for me, okay?”

  “You got it.” She put her hat back on and trotted over to the dugout to join her teammates.

  “She’s lovely,” he said in a hushed tone, his eyes glued to Zoë across the field.

  “Yes.”

  It seemed too impossible to fathom, too outrageous to believe, but suddenly he had to know. His heart in his throat, he looked down at Carly. “Is she ours?”

  She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Yes.”

  The roar in his ears all but deafened him as he stood perfectly still and tried to contain the urge to scream, to run, to strike out at someone. At her. At Carly.

  “Bri—”

  “Don’t say a word,” he managed to say. “Just don’t say a word.” Carly’s shattered expression failed to move him. He couldn’t think of anything but the girl on the field, the girl with his windup, his fastball, his hazel eyes. His daughter. A sudden overwhelming urge to be sick had him turning away from the fence.

  Carly followed him.

  “Does she know?”

  “No.”

  “Who does?”

  He walked so fast that Carly had to trot to keep up with him. “Only my parents and my siblings. And Dr. Walsh, who delivered her.”

  Suddenly he stopped. “How could you do this? How could you keep something like this from me? From my parents? Do you have any idea what this would’ve meant to them after losing Sam?”

  “If you’ll let me explain—”

  He held up his hand to stop her. “Save it.” He snorted harshly. “No wonder why your brother-in-law, the man who’s raising my daughter, can barely bring himself look at me. He must be thrilled that I’m back in town.”

  “Brian, please,” she begged, tears streaming down her face. “Let me tell you—”

  “There’s nothing you can say, Carly! Go back with Tom and th
e kids. I need to get out of here before I say something I’ll regret.”

  She grabbed his arm. “Please, Bri. You don’t understand.”

  “You’re right.” He shook her off. “I don’t. I can’t do this right now, and I can’t leave you here alone. I’m asking you to go.”

  “Will you come home later? Will you talk to me? You have to let me explain. We can’t let this ruin everything!”

  “Too late.” Knowing Matt would see Carly safely home, Brian turned and walked away.

  Carly stood sobbing in the field and watched him until he was out of sight. Wiping her face, she turned to find Cate waiting for her.

  For an endless moment, the sisters stared at each other before Cate closed the distance between them. “He knows.”

  “He took one look at her, Cate.” Carly wiped the dampness from her face. “I know I promised you and Tom I’d never tell anyone, but when he asked me straight out, I couldn’t lie to him. I just couldn’t.”

  “I always knew this day might come.” With tears running down her face, too, Cate put her arms around her sister and held her. “When you explain everything to him, he’ll come around. He loves you too much not to. He just needs some time to absorb it.”

  “I don’t know. He’s furious, and I don’t blame him.”

  Cate took her by the shoulders. “Listen to me, Carly. You did what you thought was best for him, for Zoë, for all of you. Remember the way things were back then? You couldn’t talk, you couldn’t leave the house, he was halfway across the country in college. You were both traumatized by an unspeakable tragedy, and neither of you were in any condition to raise a child. You did the right thing—the only thing you could do. You can’t question everything just because he reacted badly.”

  “He’ll want to know her.”

  “And he will. She’ll be his niece.”

  “What if that’s not enough for him?”

  “It’ll have to be. He’s not capable of destroying the life of a child he doesn’t even know just so he can have the satisfaction of hearing her call him Dad. She has a dad, one she loves very much. He’ll see that.”