by Zoe York
She looked at him almost shyly, and he kissed her until they were both panting. “Fucking genius.” Heat swirled low in his belly. “It won’t be a one-off, I promise you. You can’t get rid of me a second time.”
“We’ll figure it out?”
“Over and over again.” He claimed her mouth. “Get one of those condoms.”
She rolled over, and the curve of her bottom and the slice of her sex peeking at him from between her thighs undid him completely. With a growl, he caught her hips and lifted her up on her knees.
“Just let me taste you,” he panted as he got behind her.
She cried out his name as he buried his face against her pussy. He breathed in her scent, the sweet animal essence of her blooming heat, and suckled on her clit until she was grinding back against him.
When he reared up to take the condom from her, she tackled him, flattening him onto his back, and crawled down his body. “I need to taste you, too,” she said, locked her gaze onto his as she swallowed his length.
He throbbed against the warm, wet heat of her mouth. She slicked him up, then focused at the slit on his crown, where he was leaking seed for her now.
“Get on me,” he growled.
Together they rolled on a condom, their fingers sticky with the lubricant, and then her pussy was on his and their fingers were tangled. She pressed him down into the mattress and rode him, slow and fierce.
It was part exorcism, part prayer, and all love.
“Catie,” he said, panting her name. “Fuck, you’re gorgeous. I love you. Yes. Ride me. Just like that, my love. God, I’m going to fill you up. Pump you so full. Always.”
She threw her head back as he gripped her hips, taking over the rhythm. Her first climax took him by surprise, suddenly milking him, pulling him with her. Into a storm, and then through it, to the calm on the other side.
She slumped on top of him, and he stroked his fingers up her back. “That’s one,” he whispered. “How many more times can we do that before dawn?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nothing could pierce the floating high Catie woke up on. Not even opening the front door, after making Will breakfast and coffee to take with him to school, to realize Frances Schmidt was sitting on her porch across the street.
Evil eye locked on Will’s truck.
“What do you want to bet she noticed you were here all night?” She grabbed her coat and shoved her feet into her boots, now intent on seeing Will off properly on her front step.
Will tugged the door closed behind him and slowly kissed Catie’s temple. “So what if she did?”
She squirmed. He was right.
He turned and leaned in, wrapping her in a much needed warm hug as she shivered. “Catie, did Frances ever say anything mean to you about your mom when you were a kid?”
Hot, surprised tears appeared behind her eyelids. She ducked her head and blinked them away. Nope. Uh uh. “She gossips about a lot of people.”
‘But you lived here when you were little, and she’s a nosy bitch. Has been since she was a young housewife and there was a pretty single woman living across the road, right?” He was vibrating now, and it suddenly occurred to her that Will was angry.
Not with Catie.
For Catie.
“How did you—”
“A little bit from Frank. A little bit from Owen. Most of it from you. In what you say, and what you don’t say.” He brushed an errant strand of hair off her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. “I don’t usually care about gossip. I don’t care who knows I want to spend every night in your bed. But if you care, then I will care, too. I’m sorry that she’s watching us right now. But I’m not sorry for last night.”
“Neither am I.” Her voice was small. “I hate that she’s my neighbour.”
“Want to move in with me?”
She laughed. “You’re funny.”
“Or I could move in here. I mean, we have all those kids to make.”
Now she was giggling. “Right, I forgot.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “I never forget.”
She reached out and patted his shirt. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
He stilled, then leaned in. “You know what? I didn’t know that. Thank you. If you think so, that’s going to carry me far today.”
“Shut up.”
“You shut up.”
“Make me,” she whispered.
“The neighbours might see.”
“That one already thinks we did terrible things all night.”
He laughed and brushed his lips against hers, lightly at first, then again, pausing to deepen the kiss with a growl before stepping back.
She pressed her fingers to her mouth, and he grinned.
“Come here,” he said, hooking his arm around her shoulders. “We’re going to get there.” His next kiss for her was gentle and sweet, on her forehead.
A promise.
She closed her eyes and leaned in to his warmth.
Then, after he had safely pulled out of her drive and was on his way to school, she flipped Frances the middle finger.
After Will left, Catie crawled back into bed for a couple of hours. When she woke up again, she went to the bakery for a late breakfast.
As soon as she walked through the door, Isla’s eyes grew big and round.
“Oh no,” Catie groaned. “Seriously?”
“Frances just left,” her friend said.
“That woman is a menace to society.”
“So it’s true? Will spent the night at your place?”
Her pink cheeks would betray her even if she wanted to hide the truth. Which the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to. “Yes,” she finally said. “He sure did.”
“Was this a heat of the post-rescue moment, or….”
“Or.” Catie tried to contain herself, but she couldn’t. She hopped up and down and did a little dance. “We’ve been circling each other for weeks, and then we kind of… and then…”
Isla swooned. “I love and then…”
“Right?” Catie shrugged. “So okay, people know now. I guess we’ll see what they say when they know we’re sleeping together.”
“Is that what it is? Casual?” Isla held up her hands. “That’s cool. Whatever floats your boat. I’m just bracing myself to manage the Kincaid brothers and their expectations.”
“It’s not casual.” Catie shook her head. “I mean…I guess everyone will find out that we’re dating.”
She laughed out loud.
Isla looked thrilled. “Hey, maybe if you get serious, we would be sisters-in-law.”
Catie stopped laughing. “Holy shit.”
Isla blinked at her. “Are you okay?”
She wasn’t ready to tell her friend about the baby talk. Or the moving in together talk. That had just been…jokes. Of a sort.
A serious sort.
That night, Will came over to her place again. He waved cheerily at Frances as Catie opened the door for him. He had a duffle bag on his shoulder.
She kissed him deeply before closing the door. “We’re wicked,” she whispered.
“Wicked people don’t whisper about perfectly reasonable joy when they’re alone,” he whispered back. “Missed you today.”
“Does your niece mind that you’re not there again?”
“Nah, Becca’s happy to have the place to herself. And Josh is there for dinner tonight, anyway.”
“Speaking of that, I didn’t know what you would want.” She gave him a complete rundown of the options from her fridge, and he told her it was her choice, but he wanted to help cook.
It was an absolutely perfect second date.
She told him that when they were tucked into bed for the night, naked and sated after a slow, emotional fuck.
He trailed his fingers over her collarbone. “Speaking of dates.”
“Mmm.”
“I need a date for the winter carnival.”
“Aren’t you going to be working?” There
was a school dance component to the community event. It sounded like a mess, but the business club was now in charge of the snack shack at least.
“All work and no play makes the principal a very sad man.”
There was no avoiding the point he was making. “You want to go legit legit. Out in public together legit.”
“You make it sound like our relationship is a criminal enterprise. I’m not Josh.”
“Does Josh do—”
“No, that was just a knee-jerk Kincaid snark attack, ignore I said that.” He rolled her onto her back, and the sheet slipped down her body. He cupped her breast with one hand as he braced his weight on the other. “Come with me to the carnival.”
She caught his hand in hers, and nipped at his fingertips. “I was thinking about this earlier.”
“What?”
“You and me. Being serious. It freaked me out a bit.”
“Just a bit?” He smiled. “That’s progress.”
“It occurred to me that you have this big family, and your expectations for a relationship—your understanding of what that is—it might be different from…”
He waited.
She shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m saying.”
“You’re nervous.”
“Yep. But I love you. So I’m in for exploring what this is. I want to be clear about that. I just also have some tiny bits of stress around anyone thinking I’m trying to snare you.”
“So snare me. Yes, please.”
“Will—”
“What? We’re not back to this, right? You don’t see us going anywhere?”
Of course she did. It was just scary. “Are you ready for that?”
“To get serious with you? I’m so ready for that it hurts.” He jumped out of bed and pulled on underwear, then jeans.
Catie pushed herself upright, then slowly stood, gathering the sheet around her.
He held out his hands. “I’m messing this up.”
“What is this?”
“I’m asking you out on a real date. A serious date. Not our first one, but our most important one. The kind of date that people notice, because I want people to know I’m head over heels in love with you. The kind of date that gets people whispering about how I feel about you, which is the only narrative anyone in this town needs to worry about. I love you, Catie. I want to ask you to marry me one day soon, but before I do that, I need to take you on some better dates.”
“Serious dates.”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” She smiled, but it was tremulous.
“Fuck, are you crying? Baby, don’t—”
“It’s all right. Not all tears are bad,” she whispered.
“I’m head over heels for you,” he repeated. He scooped her up and planted her butt on the bed, then pressed his face to her belly. “In. Fucking. Love. Got it?”
“Got it.”
He crawled on top of her. “Lemme prove it to you again.”
The school was decked out with balloons and streamers and both Halloween and leftover Thanksgiving decorations. It was a chaotic aesthetic, one that would have prompted Catie Of the Past to immediately volunteer for next year’s organizing committee so the winter carnival could have a proper winter theme—
“Are you redecorating in your head?” Will asked as he wrapped his arm around her waist, maybe to hold her back from taking a horn o’plenty helium balloon out of a skeleton’s hand and putting it anywhere else. The garbage, maybe.
“Did they raid the clearance rack at the dollar store?”
He laughed. “Yes.”
“Will.”
“Catie.” His voice was rich with laughter, no disguise.
She sighed and leaned into him, letting him tighten his possessive hold on her. Because maybe he was holding her back, but he was also holding her close. “I love it. It’s very Pine Harbour.”
“You can be on the planning committee next year.”
“Just an advisory position. I can attend a few meetings and get them on the right track…”
He stopped under what looked like a glitter bat holding…mistletoe? “You can take the whole thing over if you want.” Then he dipped her backwards, leaning over her as he planted a kiss right on her mouth, a good lingering smooch, before swinging her back up and spinning her around.
Maybe she didn’t care.
Maybe the horror show decor was some kind of good luck.
Inside the gymnasium, Will made the rounds, holding Catie’s hand the entire time. They had two slow dances together, which Sam informed her after had been well documented and shared on Instagram by at least six students.
She took a sneak peek when Will went up on stage to make some announcements, and just about died in the best way when she realized they were all using the hashtag #PrincipalBae and #FutureMrsKincaid.
They weren’t wrong on either count.
There was nothing conventional about how she and Will were diving into their relationship. He pointed out regularly that he was no spring chicken. She figured one day they would decide to elope, like his brother Adam did, and that would be that.
One day soon, probably.
She snapped a picture of her handsome boyfriend up on stage, then put her phone away so she could focus on what he was saying.
“The final part of tonight’s official winter carnival celebrations is an unveiling of a plaque. As most of you know, this fall has brought some significant changes to Pine Harbour Community School. I’ve learned a lot about what it means to be a principal to a school population that ranges from kindergarten to grade twelve. There have been challenges along the way, but many rewards. One of those rewards has been in reinvigorating our Reading Where You Are program, which was first implemented more than twenty years ago by Suzanne Berton.”
Catie pressed her fingers to her mouth and willed herself not to cry.
“There are not very many people who have the patience and the understanding and the relatability to sit down with a teenager who is struggling to read because of a learning disability or a second language or lack of reading material at home and relate to them on a peer level. Suzanne Berton did that and more. She found other volunteers and brought them in, and worked with my mentor, Patrick Hoffer, to build this program. That wasn’t properly recognized in the past. I’m rectifying that tonight.”
Someone had pushed a fabric-covered stand forward, and he lifted the cloth now. “Everything that I have heard from former teachers at this school and from some people in our community who read with her on a weekly basis is that Suzanne Berton set the bar exceptionally high. She was non-judgemental, funny, and supportive. And she did all of that without ever asking for any recognition. This year, her daughter Catie filled a similar role by becoming our business club advisor.”
Someone yelled out, “The Future Mrs. Kincaid.”
Will leaned in to the mic. “I sincerely hope so. If you know her, please put in a good word for me.”
That got him a laugh.
Beside Catie, someone appeared with a tissue. She glanced sideways at Sam, who had sprouted up over the last month and was now taller than her. “Thanks,” she whispered.
“He’s probably marrying material,” the teen muttered. “Responsible and all that.”
She giggled and nodded. “Yeah.”
Will glanced in her direction. “Catie, do you want to come up here?”
She shook her head no. Then nodded, yes.
With a deep breath, she climbed the stairs and joined him on the stage.
“Tonight, we are announcing the Suzanne Berton Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is in two parts. One thousand dollars for moving expenses for a student to move away from Pine Harbour to attend college, university, or a vocational or trade school of their choice. And another thousand dollars will be available to them, at any point thereafter, for them to move back to Pine Harbour should they wish to. It’s a unique scholarship designed to honour a unique woman who gave this town more than we ever apprec
iated.”
The gymnasium erupted into deafening applause. It seemed spurred on by the business club, not that Catie minded.
Will gave her a tight hug before leading her off the stage. The DJ returned to playing music, and they drifted to the edge of the dance floor.
“No more surprises,” she whispered to him as they swayed back and forth. “But I’m so very happy right now. Thank you.”
“Then I should warn you that I’m going to propose tonight when we get home.”
She smiled happily. “Spoiler alert. I’ll say yes.”
It was the best school dance she’d ever attended. One of those forever memories that she would hold precious for the rest of her life, in this place that she had once had more complicated thoughts about.
Now there was nothing complicated about how much she loved this town.
Some of that was about the man beside her, who regularly brushed his lips against her forehead, just to remind her how much she was adored.
But it was also because Pine Harbour was full of memories of her mother, more than she had ever known. And Catie knew that one day, it would hold memories of her for her children. Hopefully mostly good, very few bad, and if any were confusing, that they might lead her kids on wild adventures of their own.
If you want a little more Wild at Heart, click here to get a bonus epilogue, when Will takes Catie camping and they go skinny dipping in a private cove…
* * *
The next Kincaids of Pine Harbour book is Fearless at Heart, coming in June 2022. Turn the page to learn which brother falls in love next…
Want more Pine Harbour?
Fearless at Heart is coming in June 2022
For twenty years, Seth Kincaid has kept his visits to his home town brief. He’s not avoiding January Hill, exactly—he’s giving his high school girlfriend space. But that distance evaporates when she takes over her family’s marina for the summer. Which means every time he flies his floatplane into the harbour, she’s there, and the temptation to fall into her sunny smile and forget about the past is stronger than ever. He can’t resist lending a hand, though. Not when she needs the help.