by Marie Force
That seemed to please him. “Whatever it takes.” He gestured to the horse and carriage Mac had sent for Maddie earlier. “Madame?”
Reaching up, she attempted to bring order to hair that had broken loose from the pins she’d used to hold it up for the wedding. She didn’t want to think about how scary she must look with a red face and crazy hair. “What if I don’t want to go with you?” she asked, giving him some of his own medicine.
“I can still spank your ass, so you’d better stop talking and get in the carriage.” His brows narrowed over those amazing eyes. “Now.” The last word was uttered with such uncharacteristic menace that Janey did as she was told, even though she’d much rather keep fighting with him.
“This whole caveman act is highly unattractive,” she huffed. While that was true, Joe in a tuxedo was among the most attractive sights she’d ever beheld.
He got in behind her and signaled to the driver. “You know what’s unattractive? You. Lying to me, blowing me off, making decisions for me. That’s really unattractive.”
“I did what I thought was best for you!”
“Who are you to decide that?”
Janey stared at him, shocked by the outburst. “So you’re mad.”
“Seriously pissed is more like it.”
“Joe—”
“Don’t talk to me right now, Janey. I don’t know if I can trust myself to not give you that spanking you so richly deserve.”
While she didn’t think for a minute he’d do any such thing, she’d never seen him quite so furious. She was appalled, in fact, to realize she was rather turned on at the moment.
Sitting as far apart as they could get on the wide bench, they rolled along in the carriage with only the horses’ hooves clomping on pavement to break the silence. The driver took the long way around the island before pulling up in front of Janey’s house.
“Thanks very much,” Joe said, slipping the driver a fifty as he jumped down from the carriage.
“My pleasure, Captain Joe. You folks enjoy the rest of your day now.”
“Oh, we will.” Joe reached for Janey’s hips and swung her down as if she weighed twenty pounds rather than a hundred and twenty. Okay, maybe the caveman act was a little bit attractive, not that she’d ever tell him that.
Janey went in ahead of him and took a moment to greet her pets. Then she turned to let him know what she thought of him pushing her around this way. Before she could say a word, however, his mouth was feasting on hers, and he’d sucked the breath from her lungs. His strong arms came around her, lifting her right off her feet as his tongue engaged in a fierce dual with hers.
He kissed her straight into submission. At that moment she was so grateful to be with him again that she would’ve given him anything he wanted if it meant he would never stop kissing her. Her fingers sifted into his hair, anchoring him to her.
Many heated minutes later, he tore his lips free, set her back down and went to work on her neck. “Let’s go back to the other night,” he said, dropping hot open-mouth kisses on her collarbone. “When I asked what had happened to upset you.”
“I got into vet school for this year,” she said without hesitation. “I freaked out about what it would mean for us.”
“And you thought it would be easier on both of us if you ended it now rather than later.”
“Yes,” she said, moaning when his clever fingers molded her breasts through the silk of her dress.
“And was it? Easier?”
“No, it was horrible. I missed you so much, and it was only four days. Oh, Joe, how will we ever be apart for four years?” The idea alone was enough to reduce her to tears.
He raised his head and found her eyes. “Who said anything about being apart?”
“But you live here. Your business, your whole life is here.”
Staring down at her, he shook his head, his eyes filled with what looked an awful lot like regret. “I guess I haven’t done a good enough job.”
“Of what?” she asked, confused.
“I thought you’d know by now that everything I want, everything I need, is right here in my arms. The rest is just details, Janey.”
She melted into his tight embrace. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“That’s okay. I knew you didn’t mean it.”
“How did you know?”
“I figured if you really didn’t want me, you wouldn’t have been bawling your head off.”
Janey smiled. He knew her so well, and there was such comfort in that, even if he had a shocking bit of caveman hidden beneath a usually cool exterior.
With his arms tight around her, he lifted her again and walked them through the house to the bedroom. By now, her obedient pets had the routine down and headed for their own beds, knowing they’d be locked out of her bedroom for a while. Joe put her down next to the bed and started with her hair, tugging each pin free while never taking his eyes off her face.
As she reached up to release his bowtie, Janey’s heart hammered at the intense expression on his face. “I need to tell you something else,” she said.
“What’s that?” He unzipped the gown, pushed it off her shoulders and let it fall into a puddle at her feet. His eyes went wide when he got a look at the sexy teddy she’d worn under the dress.
With both hands on his face, she directed his eyes up to meet hers. “I love you love you.”
He sucked in a sharp deep breath. “Really?”
She nodded.
“Since when?”
“Since the second I thought I had to give you up.”
“You don’t have to give me up, Janey.”
“But what about—”
His mouth came down on hers, a frantic meeting of lips and tongues and teeth. His hands were everywhere, pulling at buttons and hooks and vests and pants. “Goddamned tuxedos,” he moaned against her lips. “Too many pieces.”
Janey laughed and helped him get rid of the last of his clothes. The second they were both naked, he lifted her and slid into her.
“Oh!” she cried, her arms wrapped tight around his neck. “Joe.”
“You really thought you could live without me?”
She shook her head. “I knew I couldn’t, but I wasn’t about to ask you to give up everything for me.”
Without losing their connection, he brought her down to the bed and hovered over her, moving his hips slowly, just enough to make her crazy. “Yesterday, I hired someone to run the business in my absence, and I made two of my part-time captains full-time.”
Janey stared at him, trying to comprehend what he was telling her. And then he pushed hard into her, and she ceased to think at all.
“Nothing,” he whispered against her neck, “means anything to me without you. I would go anywhere in the world if it meant I got to be with you.”
“It’s four years, Joe. You can’t be gone that long.”
“Yes, I can.” He withdrew from her, leaving her bereft and wanting. His lips laid a trail from her neck to her breasts. “I can do any damned thing I want to. I own the freaking company, Janey.” His tongue circled her nipple, and she tried to direct him, but he wouldn’t be rushed. “That freaking company makes a lot of freaking money, which gives me the freedom to do any freaking thing I want to.” He tugged hard on her nipple, making her cry out from the sensations that darted through her. “And what I want, what I really want, is to go to Ohio with you.”
His lips shifted to her belly, his tongue flirting with her belly button as his broad shoulders pushed her legs apart. He had her so ready, so primed, that just a few strokes of his tongue over her most sensitive area sent her flying higher than she’d ever gone before. A cry that sounded more like a sob erupted from her throat, and then he was back inside her, riding her hard and fast.
Janey had no choice but to hold on tight and go with him to the place that only he could take her.
“Tell me again,” he said, breathing hard as he looked down at her. “Tell
me.”
“I love you love you, Joe, and I always will.”
“I love you love you, too, Janey McCarthy. More than anything in this whole damned world, and I always will.” He pushed into her one last time and threw his head back as he came. His powerful release triggered another for her.
For a long time afterward, he rested on top of her, still joined with her.
“You’re really going to come with me?” she asked, her hands caressing his back.
“I really am. Someone has to take care of you and the menagerie while you’re studying.”
“And you’re sure that’ll be enough for you?”
“I figure we can come back here in the summer so I can get my fix on the boats, and I’ll have the rest of the year to paint and help you study.”
“You can’t help me. You’ll be too much of a distraction.”
“We can fight about that later. In fact, I’ll look forward to it.”
Janey let out a little squeal.
“Jeez, you gotta do that right in my ear?”
“I’m just so happy! I get to have vet school and you, too. I never imagined I’d get both.”
He raised his head to press a soft kiss to her lips. “I never imagined I’d get you.” One kiss became a second and then a third. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“That dream wedding you planned for next summer—how much of that was you and how much was him?”
“One hundred percent me.”
Joe rested his forehead on hers. “Don’t cancel it.”
Her eyes widened. “What are you saying?”
He withdrew from her and shifted onto his belly to reach for his suit jacket on the floor. When he came back up, he held out his hand. A diamond ring sat on his palm. It was easily twice the size of the one David had given her. This one came with everything that mattered most to her—things that had been woefully lacking last time.
Janey covered her mouth as tears sprang to her eyes.
“I think Dr. Janey Cantrell has an awesome ring to it.” He reached for her hand, slid the ring onto her finger and kissed the back of her hand. “Don’t you?”
“Yes, I think so, too.”
“I’ve loved you for so long I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love you.”
“It took me a little longer to catch up, but now that I have, I can’t imagine my life without you.”
His face lifted into that sexy grin she so adored. “You’ll never have to.”
Janey reached for him and held him close. “Thanks for waiting for me, Joe.”
“You were well worth the wait, my love. Very well worth it.”
Turn the page to read Luke and Sydney’s story, Ready for Love, next!
Chapter 1
“Are you ever going to say anything?”
Her familiar voice electrified Luke, startling him as he squatted in the dark beside her parents’ porch.
The peal of laughter that followed her question reminded him of the happiest time in his life, when she’d laughed at all his corny jokes, before she’d gone away to college and met someone she liked better.
“Luke?”
He stood slowly, not sure if he was more relieved or mortified to have been caught watching her. “How long have you known?”
“Since the first time you came last summer.”
Okay, mortified. Definitely mortified. Luke released an unsteady laugh. “And here I thought I was being so sly.”
“As if I could ever forget the sound of your boat scraping against the beach. I used to listen for it every night.”
The reminder of those unforgettable summer nights made his heart race. When he’d heard through the island grapevine that she’d arrived on a ferry earlier in the day, he’d told himself to stay home, to leave her alone. But knowing she was here, knowing she was just across the pond... Like the summer before, he’d been unable to stay away.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You must think I’m some sort of creep. I swear I’m not. It’s just when I heard about what happened... to your family... I had to come. To make sure you were okay. Well, of course you weren’t okay...” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Jesus, I’m screwing this all up.”
She smiled, and he was relieved to see it reach her expressive eyes the way it used to, back when she smiled at him every day. He took it as a sign that she’d recovered, somewhat—as much as anyone ever could—since he last “visited” her a year ago.
“Do you want to come up?” she asked.
“Oh, I don’t want to bother you or your parents—”
“They’re off-island for a few weeks. Family reunion in Wisconsin.”
“You didn’t want to go?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’d rather be here than anywhere else in the summer.”
Somehow he worked up the fortitude to climb the five steps to the porch, his heart pounding so hard he wondered if it would burst through his chest. Keeping his hands in his pockets so she wouldn’t see them tremble, he was unable to remember the last time he’d been so nervous. Speaking with the love of his life for the first time in seventeen years would make any man nervous, he supposed. “You always did love it here.”
“It’s my favorite place in the world.”
“I wondered if you were going to come this year.”
Her smile faded a bit. “I had some stuff I had to take care of before I could come out to the island.” She gestured to the rocker next to hers. “Want to sit?”
“Um, sure. I guess. For a minute.” Under the glow of the porch light, he took a furtive glance at her. He was relieved to see that she did, in fact, look a thousand times better than she had a year ago, just a few months after the accident. “Who’s your friend?” he asked, referring to the gorgeous golden retriever who lay between their two rockers. The dog had taken a long, measuring look at Luke as he approached the porch but had remained silent.
“This is Buddy.” She reached down to scratch his ears, and even as he clearly enjoyed the attention, the dog never took his solemn eyes off Luke. “We gave him to the kids the Christmas before... the accident... He loved them both, but he and my son Max had a very special bond. I thought poor Buddy would die himself of a broken heart after what happened. He whimpered and cried for months.”
Luke’s heart ached at the pain in her voice and at the image she painted of the devastated dog. “He wasn’t with you last summer.”
“I was still recovering from my own injuries, and we worried I’d trip over him or he’d knock me over without meaning to. He stayed with our neighbors at home for a few months. I’m so glad to have him back with me now. The poor guy has been through a lot.”
So have you, Luke thought but chose not to say. As if she needed the reminder.
“I owe you the world’s biggest apology,” she said, startling him.
“I was the one stalking you. How do you owe me an apology?”
“You were checking on me. Big difference.” She curled her legs up under her and turned to him. “The apology I owe you is for seventeen years ago.”
“Oh. That.”
“Yeah. That.”
“Sydney—”
“Luke—”
He cleared his throat and folded his hands tight in his lap. This was far more excruciating than he’d ever imagined it would be—and he’d imagined it plenty of times. Thousands of times, to be honest. What he might say. What she might say. If either of them would have anything at all to say. “Sorry,” he said. “Go ahead.”
“What I did to you was unconscionable. I know it’s no consolation, but I thought of you so many times. I wanted to write to you or call you or something, but what does one say in that situation? I’m really sorry I left for the school year and never came back? Would that have made anything better?”
“It helps to know you thought of me.”
“Oh God, Luke, how could I not think of you? Those summers... The time we spent together... Other than when my kids were b
orn, it was the most magical time of my entire life.”
No, he decided, this was far more excruciating than anything he’d ever imagined. “If that’s how you felt, then why—”
“I was an idiot.”
Shocked by her bluntness, he gave up any pretense of trying not to stare at her. The thick strawberry-blond hair he’d loved running his fingers through was shorter than it used to be, but the summer freckles that had popped up on her nose after long days in the sun were still there. The bright blue eyes that had been so tragically sad last summer seemed to have recovered some of their sparkle.
“I had this idea, you know, of how my life should be. Who my husband should be. What he would do for a living. Where we would live. I was a snobbish fool.”
“I suppose the boy you’d left behind on the island, who worked at a marina and never made it to college, didn’t quite fit the bill.” Luke tried like hell to keep the bitterness out of his tone, but after so many years of suspecting what had driven her away, hearing confirmation of what he’d most feared was hardly a balm on the still-open wound.
“I know there’s nothing I can say to change what happened all those years ago, but I want you to know I regretted the way I treated you. I always regretted it.”
Hearing that didn’t help as much as he’d thought it would.
She looked down at her hands. “Sometimes I wonder if what happened... to me... was payback...”
“Don’t say that. No one deserves what happened to you.”
“Karma can be such an awful bitch,” she said ruefully. “Maybe I asked for too much, you know?”
“I can’t believe in a God or any higher power who’d take the lives of innocent children to pay their mother back for being cavalier with the feelings of an old boyfriend.”
Sydney winced. “Cavalier. Ouch.”
“What would you call it?”
“Horrible. I was horrible to you.” She leaned her head back on the rocker and studied him. “You haven’t changed at all. I’d know you anywhere.”
“Your hair is shorter, but otherwise, you look exactly the same, too.”
“Tell me you found someone else, got married, had a boatload of kids. Tell me it all worked out well for you.”