Perfecting the Odds (30 page)

“
Oh, please, Michael.”

“
Shh, darling. You’ll come when I’m ready for you to.” He continued his onslaught of licks and nips.

“Oh, my God, please Michael. Please.”

“Fuck, I love it when you beg, sweetheart.” He sucked her clit in to his mouth then released. “Come, Karis. Now.” His permission and one more small bite rocked her core as she fell over the precipice with such force, she released a sound wholly animalistic. Wave tumbled into wave as the convulsions seemed unending. She whimpered as tremors settled to an aching throb. Michael stroked her quivering thighs. She felt his body shadow her as he untied her wrists. Resting on his forearms, he pressed a soft kiss to her nose before humming his satisfaction against her mouth.

“Beautiful
. You’re so damn beautiful, Karis.”

He rose from the bed, and almost immediately, a huge beam of light radiated from the window. Her eyes adjusted to the light and she gasped. He stood in the ray. Sunlight surrounded his magnificent naked body.
Overwhelmed by both the previous act, she felt tears begin a steady stream down her face. She dashed her hands across her cheeks.

“
No, Michael, you’re beautiful.”

A shadow crossed his face and he studied hers. If he wanted to say something about her tears, he didn’t.
He smiled.

“I prefer manl
y or handsome, but I’ll take it,” he teased. She giggled through the little sobs. He knelt on their bed and sheathed himself with a condom. He pressed his large, round head to her entrance.

“Michael, I
--” He captured her words with one gentle kiss to her mouth and clutched both her hands in his. He gazed at her, a small smile playing on his lips. The transparent vulnerability glimmered in his eyes, luring new tears down her cheeks.

“
Please, sweetheart. I
need
to make love to you. Okay?” His eyes glimmered with desperation, and her heart clenched. How could she ever deny him of anything? Because even though he said needed it, she couldn’t ignore his tone, his eyes that conveyed he needed to make love to her…for her, for them.

Karis nodded and sniffed. “I need you to make love to me, Michael.” He blinked once, twice, then slid into her, lengthening her name within a low moan. He stared down at their union as he pistoned languidly deeper and deeper. She watched along with him, reveling in every unhurried inch of him that glided along her inner walls.

“You’re so soft after you come, so fucking perfect,” he whispered. Then he kissed her so sweetly, so gently, another sob escaped with a moan. He buried his face in her neck and increased his pace. She arched with the rapid sensations. He bent down and worshipped her breasts and every so often whispered praises in her ear. Finally, he lifted his head, his deep eyes gazing into hers, contentment gracing his lips. At that moment, although he hadn’t said it, she was sure this man loved her, and that acknowledgement was the brightest light now filling their semi-dark room. Her body jerked in response to her next thought.

She was
undeniably in love with Michael. She stared at him with awareness as his deep, rhythmic thrusting brought their release together. She bit her tongue so as not to scream that she loved him.

On
ce their breathing steadied to a normal pace, they laid side by side, searching each other’s eyes for answers, waiting for the silence to break and welcome the newly acknowledged love. She placed her palm on his face, and her mind jumped to one night in her childhood memory.

In her great aunt’s house,
Karis had just watched
Practical Magic
with Eve. The child characters in the film had put together a spell to attain their dream men. At only nine years old in the attic of her aunt’s house, she and Eve mimicked the scene together. Eve wished for a cute, smart, dangerous boy with bright blue eyes. The girl was destined for trouble before she even knew it. Karis pined after a tall, strong, mysterious boy, who loved books and poetry. She didn’t specify eye color, but she said she wanted to be weak in the knees when she first set eyes on him.

Karis
smiled at the memory.

“Why are you smiling, darling?”

She pressed her forehead to his. “Were you not here a few minutes ago?” she teased.

He
laughed. “Your smile graced that pretty face
after
you were in deep thought.”

“
It’s too embarrassing,” she admitted and instantly blushed.

“Just say it,” he whispered, nuzzling her nose with his.

“Fine. You already know I’m crazy.” She hid her face in her pillow. “I think I cast a spell for you when I was a child,” she muffled.

“
How do you know it worked?”

She lifted her head from the confines of the pillow. His eyes glimmered with genuine interest.
God help me, I love you
, she declared within. Any other man would have called her weird or ridiculous.

“Because you’re exactly what I wished for, Michael.” Tears welled, and she knew the truth would tumble out of her mouth. Michael was her Apollo, her image of truth and light. “So many nights, I prayed for someone to ease my loneliness. When my parents died. When I found out I was pregnant with Robby. God, when I just wanted to flunk out of college and wallow in self-pity. When Robert was deployed. And then when Robert died. I prayed for someone to rescue me from the solitude. I didn’t realize that someone was you. Until now…” Tears now streamed down her face.

He stroked her cheek with his thumb, resting
it under her chin. “Please don’t cry.”

“
Michael?”

“
Mm-hmm?”

“I—.”

“Talk to me, Karis. Even if it hurts. You can tell me anything.”

“I know
.” She sniffled. “I loved the idea of you my entire life…So I
know
I’ve loved you since that night outside the bar.” She clutched him around the neck and sobbed, letting out everything she had amassed inside of herself, years of sorrow, resignation, guilt. Her sobbing went on until all her tears seemed to dry and nothing but love and anxiety remained.

Keeping her face pressed into his neck, s
he wasn’t sure she could look at him. What had she done? She had told him over and over that her heart wouldn’t heal and then proceeded to profess her love for him. Without meeting his eyes, she grabbed the sheet and rolled out of the bed. She headed for the bathroom. This time he didn’t stop her.

And w
hy should he? She had seriously fucked up.

Michael lay in bed stunned, unable to speak the words he’d wanted to say more than his next breath. She had just shocked the hell out of him. He never expected her to admit her love for him, not yet. But he also knew what had him in a frozen state of astonishment. Telling her he loved her would be the most honest words he could utter, and his guilt—that damn secret—choked him into silence.

How could he
expect her to believe his love for her and keep secrets from her at the same time? Shit. He had seriously fucked up. If he confessed, it could go only two ways: forgiveness or resentment. Each one still made him a damn liar, but only one ensured she stayed with him.

When she returned, her
face red and puffy, he stared at her at the foot of his bed. God, she was so fucking beautiful, all mused up and well-fucked, possessed by the man who loved her. He knew her heart was fragile. He couldn’t have her thinking he didn’t feel the same way about her.

“I’m sorry, Michael. I shouldn’t have said that. I know it must scare the shit out of you. Jeez, every man’s greatest fear: a blubbering female who confesses love after amazing sex. I really am a mess.” She turned and went to grab her clothes. “I warned you about me, about everything…about—.”

“Shut up,
Karis. Just shut the hell up.” She audibly gasped at his words and hunched over, clutching her face in her hands.

“Michael, I
’m so sorry—.”

He wrapped his arms around her then turned her
gently. He prayed his eyes spoke his intentions before he opened his mouth. “Karis, I’ve loved you since the moment I watched you walk down those stairs at that shitty bar.” He used the pads of his thumbs to wipe away her tears then nodded at her disbelief. “I was about to leave. I hated the bar, the people, and most importantly my fucking empty life. But when I saw you, I felt”--he inhaled deeply--“God, Karis, you confused the hell out of me. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted you, this hot body and all that sass. But I was scared…the feelings…they were that strong so suddenly. Then when you said you were married—fuck—I thought my world had broken into a million pieces. I couldn’t understand how I could feel so drawn to a stranger who was completely off limits. So I tried to leave, to shake you from my mind, but when I escaped, you burst through those doors like a bat out of hell.” Karis shook her head. He cupped her chin again, and she saw the tears lining his eyes. “When you confessed all your pain, all I wanted to do was comfort you.”  Breathing one more time, he declared, “You give my life passion, Karis. Purpose. You’re mine, and I will love you until the day I die and after.” Then he took her mouth, uniting their desire and shared love for one another.

Karis
nuzzled into his neck and inhaled deeply. She could stay there forever, consuming his scent as her own breath, but she had more to say. “Michael, I do love you, but….” But she couldn’t utter the unsettling thought that she may have used Robert, like he wasn’t the real thing, just a pit stop on the way to Michael. And she quickly realized that was one truth Michael didn’t need to know. It was her burden to bear.

Michael
pulled Karis closer said what only Michael would know. “Any man who truly loves his woman would wish for her happiness.” He stroked her back as he spoke. “I know I would if anything happened to me. And I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s true. When the person you love is happy, that’s all you need.”

Karis
escaped her haven in the crook of his neck. She gazed lovingly at him. “How did you get to be so damned smart, Michael?”

“
You know those chocolate Dove hearts?” She nodded and furrowed her brow in confusion. “They have some great words of wisdom inside of the wrappers. Got my super smarts there I think.” Karis threw her head back and laughed, and he joined her.

Mr. Break the Tension was back.

Still laughing, she placed her palms on either side of his face and kissed him lightly. “Your father must have been a great man.” Her statement shocked him enough to stop his laugh, and he pulled away slightly. “Michael, no man as special as you could come from a poor role model. He must have loved your mother very much.”

He shuddered
. “Thank you, love.” He bent to return the kiss. “I think we have some celebrating to do.”

Karis
laughed as he lifted her into his arms with graceful ease. She wrapped her legs around his waist. He had a way of making her long body feel tiny, and she loved it.

“Again?”
she squeaked as he tossed her onto the bed.

“I’ll never get enough
of you, darling.”

This time they loved each other as soul mates, relishing in each other’s sounds of pleasure and familiar movements.
Completely sated, they drifted into a mid- morning nap, and the last voice that resonated in Karis’s head unsettled her bliss...
Nothing good lasts, Karis
.

At nearly ten o’clock in the morning, Karis’s blaring cell phone rang through the silence, a hauntingly familiar feeling swept over her before she reached over and fumbled for her phone from the nightstand. She could only assume her children were driving the Lewis’s crazy.

She stared at the unfamiliar number.
“Hello,” she said groggily.

“M
rs. Bennett?”

“
This is she.”

“M
rs. Bennett, I’m sorry if I woke you, but you need to get to Johns Hopkins as soon as possible. Eve Quinn has you as her next of kin.”

Karis
shot out of bed. “Next of…? Oh my god, what happened!” She began groping the floor for her clothes.

“We
can’t disclose that information over the phone, Mrs. Bennett. Please come to the hospital as soon as you can.”