“Her house is like a hotel. There’s an entire wing for visitors. Everybody will be there before we head to the Belmont Stakes the first Saturday in June. If you feel up to it, maybe you’d like to go.”
“That’ll be too soon, I think. Let’s wait and see how my recovery goes.”
They climbed the steps and stopped in Rick’s room to pick up her suitcase. “You’re welcome to stay with me.”
“I know,” she said. “But let’s wait. I need to get out of New Orleans and let things settle before…you know…before—”
“Before we make love. It’s not so hard to say, Penny.”
She pulled up the handle of her spinner suitcase and rolled it back and forth. “It is for me.”
When Rick blew out a long breath, her heart corkscrewed against her ribs. She could see how much he wanted her. It was as evident now as it had been earlier when she accidentally brushed her hand over his erection. But she wasn’t ready to leap from his arms into his bed—not yet.
He reached around her waist and pulled her close to him. “As long as I can hold and kiss you, I’ll survive. I’m not going anywhere. Whatever you need”—he moved closer still, so their bodies were flush, his chest against hers—“I will give you.”
He dipped his head to kiss her, and her entire body pulsed with awareness and longing. When he broke the kiss, she said, “Give me fifteen minutes, then come to my room. We’ll watch a movie, or I don’t know, make out. Just as long as you don’t push.”
He smiled. “I won’t, babe.”
She rolled her suitcase down the hall and into the unoccupied room, where a full moon shone through the window. She closed the bottom shutters for privacy but left the top ones open so she could see the sky. Then she turned on the bedside lamp before jumping into the shower for a quick rinse. After moisturizing and brushing her teeth, she slipped into a nightshirt and pajama shorts and pulled down the comforter on the bed.
A knock on the door preceded Rick asking, “Can I come in?”
“Sure.”
He wore gym shorts and no shirt, and a scattering of hair grazed his well-defined pecs. He smelled of cedarwood and oakmoss from the soap he used. He swooped Penny up into his arms and swung her around, and she latched her legs around his waist, her arms around his still shower-damp shoulders.
“You look cute and sweet enough to eat. If you had pigtails, I’d think you were sixteen.”
“I’m not sure what to think of that.”
He chuckled. “I don’t think of you as being that young, but you look it right now.”
“Is that going to feed your fantasies?”
“Damn, Penny. I don’t need any fantasies. I just look at you and almost—”
“Penny,” Kenzie said, knocking on the door. “Is Rick in there? David wants him.”
“Come in,” Penny said. “He’s here.”
Kenzie opened the door and held onto the doorknob. “David wants to see you.”
Penny slid out of Rick’s arms, dropping to her feet.
“Tell him I’ll talk to him in the morning.”
“Get yer ass down here!” David yelled from downstairs.
“Look, Kenzie. We don’t need babysitters. I’m not going to take advantage of Penny. Now go away and leave us alone.”
Kenzie gave Penny a penetrating look. “Is that what you want?”
“I’m thirty-five years old. My mistakes are my own. I trust Rick not to go too fast right now, and he knows if he does, it’ll ruin everything. You don’t need to guard my door.”
Kenzie sighed. “Okay, but if you change your mind.”
Penny reached for the doorknob. “I won’t. Good night.” She closed the door, then sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.
“If you want me to go, I will.”
She scooted up on the bed and patted the other side. “I don’t want you to go.”
Rick climbed in beside her and rolled over onto his side, propping his head on his hand, leaning on his elbow.
She mimicked his pose and put her hand on his bare, flat stomach. His abs flexed, making her palm itch for more. She slid her fingers up his chest to the scar beneath his nipple.
“What happened here?”
“I’ll tell you sometime, but not tonight. I don’t want to bring ugly stuff in here.”
“And I guess you won’t tell me about your other scars, either.”
“Not tonight, and I won’t ask about yours.”
She melted when his tongue traced down her neck, and his full lips slowly caressed the slope. “I don’t want you to leave, but I’m not sure either one of us will get any sleep. Why don’t you kiss me like you mean it and then say good night?”
The kiss he gave her felt so soft, while his lips were so firm, and she wanted to memorize the press of his mouth on hers and the slide of his tongue as he parted her lips with ease to intensify their contact.
“God, I want you in a fuckin’ fierce way.” His fingers threaded into her hair, and his mouth took hers again. “Have I said that before?”
“A couple of times,” she said, nibbling on the corners of his mouth, and mewing for his touch. He stroked her lips, her tongue until she was drunk with how much she wanted him. He rolled over on top of her, and the heaviness of his dick pressed against her. Visions of the ogre flashed in her mind, and she shoved him. “Get off me! Get off me!” She gasped for breath as he freed her. She jerked away and hit the floor, prepared to run.
Rick shot up out of bed and reached for her, but she ducked and ran toward the window. “Oh, my God, Penny. What’s wrong?”
“You’re huge!” she gasped. “Just like…just like that asshole…at Barataria who tried…to rape me.”
“Penny, babe.” He reached for her again, but she backed up until her heels hit the baseboard. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just let me hold you.”
“No!” She pressed her shaking hand against her mouth. “You’re so…big.” She was dizzy and disembodied, and her legs trembled, barely holding her upright.
“I don’t want you to be scared of me.” He stumbled away from her, running his fingers through his hair, making tunnels in the dampness. “I don’t know what to do. What do you need? Do you want me to get Kenzie?”
“No, I want you. But I don’t want that bastard torturing my mind.” She clutched her head and groaned. “I don’t want him in here, in my head,” she wailed. The depth of her need for Rick expanded in her belly on an endless wave, but her head was someplace else. “I’m too damaged to be a loving partner—ever.” Big, fat, sobbing tears poured out as she curled into herself.
“Let me hold you.”
She slid down the wall and pulled her knees up to her chest and wept. These were the tears she’d been too busy to cry when she returned to Napa. She cried over leaving Jean and for the thousands who died in battle. She cried because—damn it—she just needed to cry.
“Take a breath, babe.”
“I can’t.”
Rick sat beside her on the floor as she sucked in short gasps and then longer ones until eventually, the tears stopped. He went to the bedside table for tissues and returned with the box. She pulled out several and blew her nose.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to him. “I’m not. That’s the first time you’ve cried since all this started, isn’t it?”
“I did an ugly-cry when I discovered Jean had lied to me. But so much has happened since then.”
“You never have to hide your feelings from me. Whatever it is, Penny, we’ll deal with it. If my dick scares you, we’ll find a way to make it friendly. I’ll draw a face on it. I’ll walk around naked. I’ll take a cold shower so you can see it soft and hanging loose—and, believe me,” he chuckled, “it gets small. Out of all the guys, I’ve got the smallest one.”
Penny rested her head on his shoulder and hugged herself to him, snickering.
“Are you laughing at my dick?”
&
nbsp; “I know guys don’t like that, but yeah, I am.”
“Babe, you can laugh all you want. If you think it’s funny-looking, then it won’t scare you. Wait”—he held up his hand—“I’ll dunk it in cold water.”
Imagining him dunking his dick in a glass of cold water somehow didn’t seem so threatening.
He stood and helped her stand, then carried her to bed. When he lay down next to her, she reached out for him, and he wrapped her in his arms. The play of the hard angles of his muscles and bones jumped beneath her fingertips. Neither of them moved, remaining anchored, locked in the slow intensity of the moment.
He didn’t say anything else, and she didn’t either. Not with words, anyway. But she heard him clearly—or maybe she read the desire in his eyes, and she knew he would be patient and wait as long as she needed to feel safe in his arms.
“I think I need a safe word, so you’ll know if I’m panicking.”
“Okay. What’s the word?”
“I don’t know.” Then she spit out the first word that came to mind. “How about topaz? If I say topaz, please stop what you’re doing, and I won’t have to push you away.”
“Got it,” he said. “But you might have to give me a shove anyway. A man has a point of no return—the point of inevitability—beyond which ejaculation will automatically occur. But I’ll do everything I can to stop what I’m doing.”
And with that, her heart said, “I love you, Rick.” And for some reason, she chuckled.
“Are you still laughing at my dick?” he asked, nuzzling her ear. “It’s going to get a complex.”
“It’s not at all threatening when I picture it dunked in a glass of ice water.”
He rolled over and clasped his hands behind his head. “Here’s what we’ll do.”
“I’m listening.” She watched his dick, thick and fully erect, press against the fabric of his shorts, and even though she knew she was staring, she couldn’t tear her eyes away.
When she glanced at him, his brows lifted slightly. “Would you like to give him a name? I’m serious. I’ll do anything to make you more comfortable.”
She covered her mouth and giggled.
“I might get a complex from this after all.”
“Kenzie told me about finding all of you guys on the houseboat sitting around with your junk hanging out.”
“I remember that. She didn’t crack a smile. She just told us not to let the kids see us and walked away. What’d she say about it?”
“Just that. And she told me not to ask who was the biggest, and then she confessed Braham and Remy tied for first.”
Rick stroked her face. “She’s right, but she was looking at flaccid dicks. Who has the biggest erect one? I couldn’t say. We’ve never compared them.”
“I have a question.”
“I’ll answer even uncomfortable ones. What do you want to know?”
“Remy’s comments. Why was he giving you a hard time tonight?”
“I couldn’t figure it out at first, but then I realized he was hoping to spur a conversation between us.”
“So it was planned?”
“Remy has a sense of things. He knew we were struggling, and that was his way of putting the topic on the table. It worked.”
“This whole conversation is to make me comfortable, isn’t it?”
“Yes, ma’am. Is it working?”
She decided to take a chance and touch him over his shorts. His dick pulsed in her hand, and it didn’t make her nervous because it wasn’t being forced on her. It was her choice. “Yeah, it’s working.” Then she smiled. “I think I’ll name him Oliver.”
Rick laughed and gently tugged on her hair to pull her down for a kiss. “Please, ma’am, I want some more.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Oliver. I played the leading role in the musical, and that line, or a version of it, was in the show. Oliver wanted more gruel.”
“Of all the names I could have picked.”
“It’s a good name,” Rick said. “You can laugh at him, kiss him, suck him, whatever you want, but one day I hope you’ll let him inside you.”
Her face heated, and so did her body. He was pushing her out of her comfort zone, trying to get a reaction, and damn, he got one, and if he touched her right now, she’d ride his hand until she screamed his name.
For the first time since Bowes raped her all those years ago, she envisioned a day when she would gladly welcome Rick inside her.
As Penny Lafitte would say, “Fuck, yeah.”
62
New Orleans—Penny
Penny woke up alone, with no idea when Rick left her. She’d closed her eyes, relaxed in his arms, and his soft crooning lulled her to sleep much like it had the night before the battle. The last song she remembered was “When a Man Loves a Woman.”
When a man loves a woman / Can’t keep his mind on nothin’ else.
She rolled over and sniffed the fading scents on the pillow he used—oakmoss and cedarwood. Damn, he smelled good.
She stretched, smiling, thinking about Oliver. Turning Rick’s dick into a joke had to be emasculating, but he handled it well, and all for her benefit. Yeah, right. He was sacrificing to ultimately get what he wanted or get where he wanted to be—between her thighs. If it happened…when it happened…it would be what she wanted just as badly.
The aroma of coffee wafted up the stairs and down the hall to her room, and her nose dragged her butt out of bed. She quickly showered, dressed in fatigues and Army boots, and was downstairs searching for coffee twenty minutes later.
“Hello… Where is everybody?”
“In here,” Elliott called.
She entered the den and found him working on a laptop at Kenzie’s desk. “Where is everybody?”
“Kenzie and Remy went for a run, and David and Rick went to the airport to rent a van and grab the gear from the plane. We didn’t want to haul it out here until it was needed.” Elliott sat back, arching one dark brown brow. “Did ye sleep well?”
She nodded. “Rick and I had an awkward conversation, and then he sang me to sleep.”
“The lad has a voice that would win him a Grammy if he ever turned professional. Out of all the O’Grady kids, he’s most like his mother in both talent and temperament. I’m sorry I never met her.”
“Me too,” Penny said.
Elliott closed the laptop and packed it away in a computer bag. “I talked to Meredith earlier. She’s looking forward to getting to know ye. She’ll be at the plantation for a while.”
Damn! Just the person I want near me while recuperating.
“I doubt we’ll have time to chat. I won’t be there very long.”
Elliott zipped up the computer case and packed the cord in a separate compartment. “Give her a chance, Wilhelmina.”
“Is that an order?”
“No, it’s a request.” A muscle rippled along the hard line of his jaw, and while the expression would have encouraged most people to tuck tail and run like hell, she just planted her feet and smiled.
“She wasn’t herself during the reopening gala,” Elliott continued. “But her stress doesn’t justify the way she treated ye.”
Well, I’ll be damned.
“She wants to make it up to ye.”
“Maybe next time she comes to Napa, we can meet for lunch.”
“My advice, Wilhelmina, is not to wait. Yer relationship with her needs mending as soon as possible.”
“Seriously, Elliott—”
He held up his hand to stop her. “My advice is, don’t wait.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not doing a good job of reading between the lines. Why don’t you spell it out for me?”
“Ye’re part of this family now, and yer relationship with Meredith is paramount to yer success. If ye and Rick have a future, and he continues to run Montgomery Winery, Meredith will be in and out of yer lives constantly. She’s not a wicked stepmother. She’s a loving and intelligent woman, and will be a trusted
friend if ye let her.”
“Answer me one question. How does Meredith get along with Kenzie? Are they BFFs?”
He folded his glasses and slipped them into his shirt pocket. “All the men and women in the family adore Meredith and appreciate her advice and wisdom, but Elizabeth Kelly, Charlotte, and my goddaughter, Kit, are her contemporaries and are closest to her.”
Penny sighed. He didn’t answer her question, but his answer was the best she was going to get. After all he’d done for her, she couldn’t deny his request. “Okay, Elliott, I see how important this is to you. I’ll do my best to get to know her. Will that make you happy?”
“This isn’t for me, lass. It’s for ye.” He crossed the room to where she stood in the doorway and surprised her with a hug. He smelled fresh and woodsy with a little bit of spice, and there wasn’t a soft spot in his embrace. He was as hard and solid as Rick, although leaner, and she sensed deep emotion welling up within him.
The door opened, and Rick bounded in. When he saw her in Elliott’s arms, he growled. “Get your hands off my woman.” But a smile, tugging at the corners of his mouth, ruined his attempt to look fighting mad.
Elliott dropped his arms, laughing. “Don’t let me get in yer way.”
Rick nudged past Elliott and pulled her into the den, into his arms, and the familiarity of his embrace made her heart sigh with relief. The tenderness in his fingers as he lifted her chin, and the hot, deep wonder of his kiss when his lips found hers, made the spot between her legs shudder until it became a full-on quake, her inner muscles clenching and releasing as she came with a keening gasp.
He gazed at her with the same hot, deep wonder he had in his kiss. “God, woman. Did you just come?”
She gasped softly, “I don’t know what happened.”
“Damn, I do.” He kissed her again, devouring her mouth, sucking her bottom lip, his beard stubble rasping her face. “If you can come when we’re just kissing, I can’t wait to hear you scream when you have my dick inside you.”
Her belly did some serious flipflops. “I think it was a delayed reaction to last night.”
The Topaz Brooch: Time Travel Romance (The Celtic Brooch Book 10) Page 69