Love After Dark (38 page)

Had she dressed hoping for this outcome to the evening? Not intentionally, but judging by the flare of desire in his eyes, he liked what he saw.
 

She began unbuttoning the dress shirt he’d worn with khaki shorts. The rest of their clothes fell away until they were both naked.

“Just give me this for one minute,” he whispered, his arms tight around her.
 

Hope gave him what he needed, because she needed it just as badly.
 

Paul raised his head off her shoulder to kiss her, a soft, sweet caress that made her want so much more.

There was that word again—
more
. He always made her want more of him, and she’d begun to suspect that she’d never get enough. With his arms still tight around her, he eased her onto the bed and leaned over her. “I thought I’d memorized every detail, but I forgot a few.”

“Like what?”

“This,” he said, laying his finger over the mole on her breast. He replaced his finger with his tongue. “I don’t want to forget that or the way you go crazy when I do this.” With his thumbs on her hipbones, he pressed down.
 

She cried out, and her legs fell open.

Paul dropped to his knees next to the bed, his hands flat against her thighs.

“Paul… Wait…”

“I don’t want to wait. I only got one little taste of you while we were away, and I kept thinking I didn’t get nearly enough.”

All the air left her body in one long exhale that he took as permission to proceed. Holding her open with his thumbs, he stroked her with his tongue until she was writhing on the bed and pulling his hair so hard, he worried he’d have bald spots. But that didn’t stop him. He slid two fingers into her, going slowly to draw out the pleasure.

“Are you still sore?”

“No,” she said, sounding breathless. Her legs trembled, and her internal muscles clamped down on his fingers.

Blowing on her clit, he said, “Mmm, so hot.” He sucked on her clit, and she screamed as she came.

Paul stayed with her until she began to relax. Then he replaced his fingers with his cock and triggered a second wave. “Hope…”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him into a kiss as he worked his way into her slowly.
 

He was so afraid to hurt her by driving in hard the way he wanted to.

Her hands moved down his back to cup his ass, pulling him toward her.

Groaning, he began to move in her while keeping his lips close to her ear. “Hope… You feel so good. This feels so good. Stay with me. Be with me.” He kissed away the moisture that leaked from her eyes. “We’ll figure it out together. Don’t leave me.”

A sob escaped from her lips as she continued to move with him.
 

“Do you feel how great it is, too?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “God,
yes
.”

“I can’t let you go.” He pressed into her, looking for the spot that had set her off before and knowing he’d found it when he felt the telltale tightening of her internal muscles. “Yes, sweetheart, come for me. Let me feel you.”

Her release led to his, and he came down on top of her, gathering her in close to him. “Don’t go, Hope. We’ll make it work.”

She shook her head. “I have to get another job.”

“I’ll take care of you and Ethan. You’ll have everything you need.”

“You’re wonderful and sweet to want to do that, but I can’t.”

He wanted to scream with frustration. “What we have here doesn’t come around every day.”

“I certainly know that.”

“We can’t give up without a fight.”

“We’re not doing that. We’re acknowledging that it can’t go anywhere.”

“What if I came with you?”

“You can’t do that, Paul. Your life and your business are here.”

“I don’t want to be here if you and Ethan aren’t here with me.”

She caressed his face with both hands. “I wish things were different. You have no idea how much I wish that.”

“I bet I do.” He forced a smile for her benefit and withdrew from her. Lying on his back, he stared up at the ceiling as if he might find the answers there.
 

“I should go,” she said after a long period of silence.

“Not yet.” Paul turned on his side and put his arm around her. “Spend the night with me.”

“It won’t make anything better.”

“Maybe not, but it’ll make tonight better.”

She turned into his embrace, her hand resting on his chest over his heart. “You have to know if I could have anything I wanted, it would be you.”

“You can have me. We can have it all.”

“I can’t have you and a job, too. There’re no jobs here for nurses. I have to go where the work is.”

“There’re other jobs here. Maybe you could find something else.”

“I’m still digging out of the hole Carl put me in. I can’t afford to take a pay cut.”

Paul took hold of her hand. “I hate that it seems so hopeless.”

“Ha. No pun intended.”

“I don’t want to be hopeless or Hope-less.” As he played with her fingers, he tried to gather his thoughts. “In all the time I’ve lived here, I never looked forward to the day I could get out of here the way Alex and so many of the other kids we knew did. They all counted down the days until they could get the hell out. That was never me. But now, with the thought of all that water between where I am and where you are, I want out of here for the first time.”

“I hate that I’ve caused that to happen.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I’m sorry it’s worked out this way, but I’m not sorry it happened.”

Paul pulled her in closer to him so he could kiss her. “I’m not sorry either.”

Chapter 24

Sitting around the fire outside Seamus and Carolina’s house, Big Mac took it upon himself to keep the fire fed since Seamus was preoccupied tonight.
 

“It’s so good of you guys to come by to check on us,” Carolina said.

“The bachelor and bachelorette parties ended a little prematurely,” Big Mac said, “so we hoped we’d find you still up.”

“It’s such a wonderful thing you’re doing for those boys,” Linda said. “How are they?”

“They’ve gone back to school,” Caro said. “Returning to their routine seems to be helping.”

“Just like it did for Joe,” Linda said.

“Yes.”

Linda glanced at Big Mac. “We just want you to know that we’re here for you like we were then. You’re not in this alone. Everyone wants to help.”

“It’s so nice of you to say that,” Caro said. “We’ll take all the help we can get.”
 

Seamus stood suddenly. “I’m going to get a beer. I’ll grab one for you, too, Mac. Ladies?”

They demurred, and he walked toward the house.

“Poor guy is wound up,” Caro said. “He’s so afraid he’s going to mess things up for the boys. I’ve tried to assure him he’ll be great, but he’s still stressed.”

Big Mac got up. “I’ll have a chat with him. See what I can do.”

“Oh, Mac,” Caro said. “Would you? That would help. I know it would.”

He squeezed Caro’s shoulder. “I’ll do what I can.” Big Mac went into the house and found Seamus in the kitchen, beer in hand, staring out into the darkness through the window over the kitchen sink. “Is that one for me?”
 

“Oh yeah, sorry.” Seamus twisted the cap off and handed it to him.

“Here’s to fatherhood,” Big Mac said, raising his bottle to Seamus. “Best thing to ever happen to me.”

Seamus touched his bottle to Big Mac’s. “That’s good to hear.”

“It will be for you, too.”

“Wasn’t quite how I pictured it happening when I was growing up in Ireland.”

“Ahhh, yes, plans. They make a mockery of us, don’t they?”

“Indeed,” Seamus said with a chuckle.

“I’m a big believer in things happening for a reason. There’s a reason you ended up in this house next door to those boys.”

“I thought that reason was Caro.”

“She wasn’t the only reason. They’re part of the master plan, too.”

Seamus took a swig from his beer. “Yes, I guess they are.”

“You aren’t having regrets about taking them in, are you?”

“No. God, no. Nothing like that.”

“Then what is it? Something’s nagging at you.”

“It’s the enormity of the responsibility.” He rested a hand on his chest. “I feel like there’s an elephant sitting right here when I think about how it’s my job now to protect them and keep them safe. They like to be outside and to run wild, and when I think about all the ways they can get hurt… Are you
laughing
at me?”

Big Mac had tried to hold it back, but the laughter wouldn’t be contained. “You think you’re different from any other man who gets handed a little bundle of joy? We
all
feel that way, Seamus. Every one of us. It’s called parenthood. The good news is the panic passes in time. You realize they aren’t as breakable as you think they are at first.”

“These guys aren’t babies.”

“No, they aren’t, and you’ll need to keep a close eye on them so they don’t get hurt or find trouble. But that’s the easy part. Wait until someone breaks their heart, or they leave home and don’t come back for a good long while. That’s worse.” He put his hand on Seamus’s shoulder. “One thing I know for sure, knowing you as I do, is that they’ll get one hundred fifty percent from you, and one day they’ll look back with gratitude at the incredible stroke of luck that brought you into their lives.”

“You think so?” Seamus asked, seeming to battle his emotions.

“I know so. Right now, the task before you seems monumental, and it is in many ways. But it’ll also be the most fun you’ll ever have in your life. And when they grow up and become your friends as well as your sons…” Big Mac’s voice broke. “That’s the ultimate joy.”

“Thanks for this. Means a lot to me coming from you.”

“You’re not in this alone, Seamus. You and Caro have an entire island full of people who want to help make sure those boys are well loved. I love having kids over to the marina to go crabbing and out on the boat and lots of other fun stuff. You’ll teach them how to drive the ferries and the best Irish swear words. You’ve got a lifetime worth of wisdom to share with them. It’ll all be okay.”

“I’m going to take your word for it.”

“I’m rarely wrong about anything. Just ask my family.”

“And they say I’m full of blarney,” Seamus said with a laugh as he extended his hand to Big Mac. “Thank you.”

Big Mac shook his hand. “My pleasure.”

“You and I are in the biggest fight we’ve ever been in,” Mac said to Maddie as he drove them home.

She covered her mouth to keep from laughing, because she knew he wouldn’t appreciate that when he sounded genuinely pissed.
 

“If you laugh at me, I swear to God, Madeline…”

“What’ll happen?”

“I’ll take you to bed and spank your ass until it’s hot pink.”

“Mmm, can we do that even if I don’t laugh at you?”

When his head spun around to look at her, he nearly drove off the road.