by Marie Force
She laughed even as tears filled her eyes. “How did I land such a fabulous husband?”
“You were very, very, very lucky.”
“Yes, I was.”
“We both were. And I’ll tell you what, if it turns out you aren’t pregnant, we’ll try again next month.” As he spoke, he removed her T-shirt and panties as well as his own pajama pants.
“I thought you never wanted to go through that again.”
“I never again want to see you in any sort of pain or danger. That’s the part I object to. Not the baby. So we’d do things differently this time. Make sure we’re where we need to be way before you’re due so there’s no chance of any drama.”
“Do you have any idea what it’d be like to have three kids under the age of five?”
“Worse than having two kids under the age of five?”
“I’ve heard it’s way worse.”
“You go from a man-to-man defense to a zone.”
“Huh?”
“Sorry, basketball joke. Basically, it means they’ll outnumber us.”
“Yes, they will. And how about when they’re all teenagers at the same time? What will that be like?”
“Will you be here with me?” Mac asked.
“Where else would I be?”
“Then it’ll be as fantastic as the rest of our lives will be. It’s all good, honey. As long as we have each other, they can’t defeat us.” As he spoke, he arranged them so he was behind her, his arm secure around her waist and his cock snug against her ass.
Maddie squirmed, trying to get closer to him, the position new and unfamiliar to her.
“It’s getting sweaty around here,” he said as he slid against her, the movement aided by the slight sheen on their skin.
“Mac… Hurry.”
“I’m not in any hurry tonight.”
The combination of the stifling heat, his nearness, the glide of his erection and the erotic thrill of making love outside had Maddie reaching for completion before he’d even touched her. He flattened his hand over her belly and worked his leg between hers. His hand slid from her belly to play with her breasts, tweaking her nipples and setting her on fire.
Her breasts were so sensitive that she almost begged him to stop touching her there, but he moved on, sliding his hand down to cup her mound as his cock nudged at her from behind. Maddie gripped the corner of the lounge pad, looking for something to hold on to as he inched into her in small increments that were nowhere near enough.
“Easy, honey. Relax against me.”
“It’s so hot,” she said, moaning as the warm air heated her from the inside with every breath she took.
“Yes, you are.”
She pushed her bottom backward, aching for more. “I meant the air is hot.”
“That, too.”
No matter how hard she pushed back, his hand on her hip ensured that he remained wedged just inside her. And then his fingers slid through the dampness above where they were joined, teasing and coaxing her toward release. He made her crazy with a combination of shallow thrusts and the small circular movements of his fingers.
She was on the verge of pleading when he rolled them to the left until she was facedown and he was on top of her, plunging into her now with deep thrusts and insistent fingers that swiftly took her straight to heaven.
He collapsed on top of her, both of them sweating profusely and breathing hard as he continued to throb inside her.
“Anything you want, sweet Madeline,” he whispered in her ear, his breath making her shiver. “I’ll give you anything you want.”
Completely surrounded by him, she sighed with contentment. He always knew how to make her feel better. “I have everything I need as long as I have you and our family.” As she said the words, she decided that no matter what the pregnancy test showed, she’d remember to count her many blessings.
Chapter 5
“That was freaking amazing,” Josh Harrelson said through the microphone that linked the soundboard to the studio where Evan McCarthy had just recorded the first song for release under the Island Breeze label. “That’s the one, man.”
“You’re sure?” Evan’s insecurities were never far from the surface, especially when considering his own music.
“Ab-so-freaking-lutely. If that’s not a huge hit, I don’t know jack shit about this business.”
“I thought you’d given up swearing,” Evan said, relieved by the praise and amused as always by Josh’s colorful dialogue.
“What did I say that was a swear?” He seemed genuinely baffled, which made Evan laugh.
“Not a damned thing.” Evan checked his watch. Crap, it was getting close to two in the morning. “I gotta split before Grace sends out a search party.”
“Wait till she hears that song you wrote for her. You’re gonna get so lucky, dude.”
Evan couldn’t imagine getting any luckier than he already was, engaged to the most beautiful woman—both inside and out—he’d ever known, running his own business and getting ready to launch his own record label, right from his home on Gansett Island. Life was as good as it got, and Grace was the reason for most of his contentment these days.
High off the successful recording session, he wanted to see her and be with her and breathe in her intoxicating scent, even if she was sound asleep. He’d take her any way he could get her, he thought as he rode his brother Mac’s ancient motorcycle home to her. Another bike went by in a blur on the other side of the road, passing him at high speed on the island’s winding roads. Evan hoped the driver was someone local who knew the twists and turns, or he might end up wrapped around a tree if he didn’t slow down.
Evan’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket, but he left it there until he pulled into the parking lot at the pharmacy Grace owned in town and parked the bike at the foot of the stairs that led to their place behind the store. He pulled the phone from the front pocket of his jeans, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw a text from his manager, Jack Beaumont. He hadn’t heard from Jack in months, since his once-promising recording career blew up in a mess of bankruptcy filings, leaving his debut album locked in a court battle.
Are you up? Jack’s message said. If so, call me. Urgent.
Evan glanced at the stairs, longing to be with Grace after sixteen hours at the studio, but he knew he’d never sleep until he found out what was so important that Jack had to text him in the middle of the night. He found Jack’s number in his contacts and placed the call.
“Hey, Evan. Sorry to reach out in the middle of the night, but I just got the most incredible call, and I didn’t want to wait to get in touch.”
The unusually effusive tone in Jack’s voice put Evan immediately on guard against whatever he might say.
“Are you there?”
“Yeah,” Evan said. “I’m here. What’s up?”
“I heard from reliable sources that the judge is going to issue some rulings tomorrow in the Starlight Records bankruptcy case. One of the rulings is about your album. He’s going to allow it to be acquired by Long Road Records.”
Long Road Records was owned by Buddy Longstreet, the reigning king of country music. A year ago, Evan would’ve sold his soul to the devil for this news, but everything was different now.
“Evan? Did you hear me?”
“I heard you. I’m just trying to process it.” Visions of Grace, their incredible life on the island, surrounded by family and friends, the studio he’d poured his heart and soul into, the friend he’d persuaded to come to the island to be his sound engineer, the artists they’d booked through October to record there, the plans to turn their indie studio into a major hit machine… All of it ran through Evan’s mind like film on fast-forward.
“I thought you’d be ecstatic.”
“I am. Of course I am. It’s just that I’m not sure what it all means.”
“It means that Buddy Longstreet is going to get behind your album and your career and make you into a star like we always planned
. That’s what you want, right?”
Evan suddenly felt incredibly nauseated as memories of crippling stage fright came back to remind him of one of the reasons he’d been so relieved to watch his career go in an unexpected direction. “Um, I…ah… Listen, could we talk in the morning?”
“Sure.” Jack sounded baffled and rightfully so.
“I’ll talk to you then.” Evan ended the call and sat on the bottom step, his mind racing with implications and scenarios and complications he hadn’t anticipated. He’d considered the recording a lost cause and had tried to let it go during the months when he’d been too busy getting the studio off the ground to think about things he had no control over.
“Ev?” Grace’s sexy, sleepy voice permeated the silence. “Are you down there?”
He stood and started up the stairs. “I’m here, baby.”
Under the light of the moon, he saw her yawn as she tied a silk robe tighter around her waist. “I heard the bike, but then you never came up. I thought something was wrong.”
At the landing, he hooked an arm around her and lifted her. “Nothing’s wrong when I get to come home to you.”
She squeaked with surprise and looped her arms around his neck, holding on tight.
Inside, they landed in a jumbled mess of arms and legs on the bed that was still warm from her body. The heat fired him up and cleared his mind of everything except for her.
“You’re all charged up tonight.” She ran her fingers through his hair in a gesture intended to calm him, but all it did was feed the fire. She knew his moods so well. Often after performing or recording, he was high on adrenaline. Tonight, he was high on her and everything she brought to his life.
“It’s you. You do that to me.”
“Right,” she said, laughing. “It’s all my fault.”
In the faint glow of a nightlight, he gazed at her, drinking in every detail of her gorgeous face. “You know I love you more than anything, right?”
Her brows furrowed. “Of course I do. Are you worried I don’t know that?”
He shook his head. “Just making sure.”
With her hand curled around his neck, she drew him down to her. The instant his lips connected with hers, he forgot about everything but her. There was only her.
“You need to sleep,” she said.
He tugged at the belt to her robe. “I need you more.”
“Evan…”
“What, honey?”
“I love you more than anything, too. I love everything about our life.”
“So do I.” And he was loath to do anything that might endanger that life, even if it meant exchanging one dream for another. He didn’t want to think about that now, though. Not when he had some precious time with his love.
A year ago, he’d thought his life was perfect. As he freed himself from his clothes and sank into her warm, welcoming body, he found true perfection. Every time he touched her, he knew perfection, and he couldn’t imagine a day without her, let alone weeks or months on the road, promoting an album from a previous lifetime. All the years before her felt like they’d happened to someone else rather than him.
She caressed his shoulders, zeroing in on the tight knot of stress at the base of his neck. “You’re so tense, Ev. Are you okay?”
“Mmm, I’m better now.” Nothing in the world could compare to the sweet pleasure of making love with Grace. Everything about her appealed to him and had from the very beginning. They’d been together more than a year now, and every day was better than the one before.
Her hands slid over his back, clutching his ass to hold him deep inside while she climaxed. The tight squeeze of her muscles annihilated his control, and he cried out as he followed her. “Damn, that’s so good.” He captured her mouth in a deep, sensual kiss that revved him up again, like he hadn’t just come as hard as he ever had. “It’s always so damned good.”
“I don’t have anything to compare it to,” she said lightly, “so I’ll have to take your word for it.”
Evan smiled as he kissed her again. “Trust me when I tell you, it’s never like this.” He kissed her again. “Ever.”
Her arms encircled him, surrounding him with her love and her addictive scent. “When are you going to marry me and make a decent woman out of me?”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that and asking around about the best place to go in the dead of winter when everyone will be ready to get off this island. I heard about a place in Turks and Caicos that I want to look into.”
“We need a place that allows kids,” she reminded him.
“That was on my list of criteria.”
“I can’t believe we’re really talking about this.”
“Let’s do more than talk about it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Stay there.” He withdrew from her, got up and went to fetch her laptop from the desk and brought it back to bed with him.
“What’re you doing?”
“Looking up the place I heard about.” He typed into the search engine and clicked on the link to the resort. “Oh, look at that.”
Grace sat up for a better look, oblivious to the fact that she was naked. A lot had changed in the last year, and now they were actually making wedding plans.
“I want to get married on the beach at sunset.”
“That sounds perfect,” she said with a sigh of contentment that pleased him.
He glanced at her. “Should we go for it?”
“Right now?”
“Why not?” He began to fill out a destination wedding questionnaire. “How many people? You do the count: my parents, your parents, your brothers, my brothers, my sister, Joe, Abby, Stephanie, Maddie, Thomas, Hailey, P.J. Who am I forgetting?”
“Laura, Owen, Holden, the twins, your Uncle Frank, Shane.”
“I have to invite my Uncle Kevin and his family, too.”
“Aunt Joann?”
“Nah, she never leaves Gansett.”
“Friends?”
“Tiffany, Blaine and Ashleigh. Oh my God, Ned! You have to invite him!”
“Jeez, he should’ve been at the top of the list—along with Francine. Getting to be a lot of people, though.”
“We know a lot of people. Jenny, Syd, Luke.”
Evan laughed as the numbers grew. “What’s the count?”
“I lost count. Fifty adults, six kids.?”
Evan typed the numbers into the computer and hit enter. Then he clicked on the “Beach wedding at sunset” option from a pull-down screen, along with the month of January as his preferred month and hit Enter again. “Let’s see what they’ve got.”
They stared at the screen until the date of January eighteenth popped up as available.
“January eighteenth,” Grace said.
“Are we going for it?”
She blew out a deep breath and looked at him. “You’re sure about this?”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just ask me that.”
“Go for it.”
Evan clicked on the link to Book This Date. “I need a credit card. Hand me my wallet, will you?”
Grace reached for it on the bedside table and gave it to him. “How much do we have to put down?”
“Twenty-five hundred to hold the date.”
“That’ll make it official.”
“Certainly will. They’re going to email us tomorrow to talk details.”
“I can’t believe we just did that,” she said as he returned the laptop to the desk and got back in bed.
“What will your parents say?” he asked, accustomed now to how unsupportive they could be of their only daughter when she didn’t fall in line with their idea of how her life should unfold.
“They won’t approve, but who cares? It’s not their wedding.”
“Will they come?”
“I hope so.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then they’ll miss the best day of my life. Their loss.”
“I wouldn’t wan
t anything to spoil it for you, Gracie.”
“I’ll be marrying you, right?”
“Damn straight.”
“Then nothing, and I do mean nothing, could spoil it for me.”
“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. I can’t wait to put another ring on your finger and make it official.”
“I can’t wait either. January eighteenth.”
“Be there or be square.”
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
Evan stifled a yawn. He didn’t want to sleep yet. Running two thriving businesses, they got so little time to spend together, especially this time of year when the island was so busy. He hated to waste a minute of their time sleeping, especially now that they’d taken this huge step toward the next stage in their life together.
“You can’t get out of it now that we’ve got it booked,” she said in a teasing tone.
“Getting out of it isn’t the goal.”
“I really can’t wait.” Her arms tightened around him, keeping him close as she drifted off to sleep.
“Me either, baby.” Evan lay awake for a long time, thinking about the news Jack had relayed earlier. What the hell was he going to do about that?
Before six o’clock the next morning, Alex was back at work, driving one of the company trucks to the new home of Island Breeze Studios. The idea of a recording studio on Gansett Island had struck Alex as odd at first, until he heard his old friend Evan McCarthy was behind it. From the time they were in middle school, Evan had been obsessed with music, and Alex firmly believed the studio would be a huge success in Evan’s hands.
Evan had called the office weeks ago asking for someone to come deal with the overgrown vegetation on both sides of the driveway that led to the studio. As he pulled up to the address Evan had given them, Alex groaned at the sight of the jungle that needed to be tamed.
“That’ll take all damned day,” he muttered, sending a text to Paul to let him know that the job was bigger than they’d thought.
Sorry, Paul replied. I’m already fucking roasting.
The heat was as killer as it had been the day before, beating down on him with vicious intensity. Today Alex had actually worn sunscreen, which he normally didn’t bother with as his complexion was so dark he rarely had to worry about burning. But this heat wave was something else altogether, thus the sunscreen. Before he started on the bushes, he also applied a healthy dose of bug spray.