Sterling's Reasons (17 page)
Her small hands smoothed over his body, trailing fire, drawing beads of moisture to his skin.
The tips of her breasts blossomed under his hands. She shuddered as he moved one hand and replaced it with his mouth. He nipped, he let his tongue trail over, then back again. He suckled.
Sterling dove her hands into his hair, then trailed her fingers down and across his broad shoulders. She never wanted him to move, to put space between them again. His muscles were hard and flowing beneath her palms. She wanted him. Wanted him now.
He made her wait. Made himself wait. If he took her now, it would be fast and furious. She deserved better than that. He took her hand and guided it down, over his chest, his flat stomach, and down. He heard her gasp as she found him. Her fingers curled around him.
She turned to her side and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. Her mouth trailed to his stomach and lower. She heard his moan of rapture and it pleased her. She wanted to make him happy. She wanted him to forget everything except her. She wanted to be the reason he couldn’t get his breath. Demanded that he know how very much she loved him.
132
Sterling’s Reasons
They rolled together across the bed, the sheets becoming twisted and lost.
Gently, he pushed her away from him to blaze a path of fire with his mouth.
His tongue darted down the side of her breast, her waist, over her hip.
She didn’t want to wait any longer. Couldn’t. Sterling whispered his name and brought his face back to hers. There was something different in his eyes. Not just the passion that brought beads of perspiration to his forehead, though it had his eyes dark and sleepy; there was a reverence, a sweetness, and a vulnerability she had never seen before.
He moved until he was poised over her. She accepted his full body weight with a low sigh and opened for him. Instantly, and then slowly, she was filled with him as he slipped inside her. Nerves that had been forced to the edge of her skin became so alive that she was aware of every sensation possible. She heard his moan, felt his body shudder with the contact. His mouth softened on hers, then became ardent and guiding.
He pushed her further, drew her back to him, and then led her along the path of a new world, one of heat and dark, of colors and cooling, one of sparks and fire. “Sterling,” he whispered.
She wrapped her arms and legs around him and gave him what he needed, what
she
needed.
He wasn’t going to hurry. He wasn’t going to let the tempo take him. And then he no longer had a choice. It built in him quickly, savagely. As she rose to meet him, stroke for stroke, as she arched toward him and dipped her tongue into his mouth, to taste, to explore, he went with her into the haze and heat. As she said his name against his lips, he took her over the edge, locked together, giving and receiving.
133
Joey Light
She awoke to the small stream of light wafting through the slit in the curtains. She didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to risk disturbing him. It felt so right to wake up with his arm pinning her against his chest. She heard the light, even thud of his heart and smiled when she remembered the sound of it pounding double time during the night. Her left leg was lodged beneath his. The sheets were twisted and coiled around them. A cool breeze coming in from the deck door chilled her. She snuggled closer to him.
His hand came off her shoulder and brushed her hair back. “I thought you were going to sleep the day away.”
The sound of his deep, rumbly voice excited her. Just the gentle touch of his hand made her want. “It’s only daybreak,” she remarked as she tilted her head so she could look at him.
He smiled. A bright and wonderful smile. “I don’t like wasting any time I have with you, Sterling. You’re more beautiful right at this moment than I have ever seen you.” His finger traced her lips. She nipped at him. Taking his hand between both of hers, Sterling uncurled his fingers and ran her tongue across his palm. For now, right now, those hands that she admired so much belonged just to her. She kissed his knuckles, held the back of his hand to her cheek. In his work, they were quick to react to decisions and, with her, they were sure at getting reactions.
“I suppose you don’t remember a thing that happened last night. The spaghetti, you didn’t even say it was good.”
“The best. I didn’t think I had to tell you.” His hair was tousled and falling across his forehead. She brushed it back.
He took her hand and brought it to his mouth reveling in her instant response. She leaned close and brushed her lips across his cheek, catching the 134
Sterling’s Reasons
night’s growth of beard and enjoying the soft, sensual caress of his mustache. He turned his lips to meet hers.
“You don’t have to tell me anything, Joe.” She nuzzled his neck, tasted his shoulder. Her mouth roamed over his chest.
“How about if tell you to be quiet?” he asked softly. “You talk too much. I want more action.”
She smiled as he turned on his side and cradled her. Lifting her mouth eagerly to his, she teased; “Action, huh. You asked for it.” She pulled the sheet away and threw it on the floor. Sterling reached for him and he grabbed her hands, bringing her hard against him.
When she awakened this time, it was to the smell of bacon and eggs. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Noon. She opened her eyes wider. Noon!
And she didn’t have bacon and eggs in the house. Pulling the sheet loosely around her, she padded into the kitchen.
He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that advertised he-man drinking habits. He had sneakers on and his hair was combed neatly. He had dressed and gone to the store. As he stirred what she knew would be a terrible mess of scrambled eggs, her heart nearly gave way. She was in love with this man. There was no more question. No more doubt. No more wondering. As she stood there watching his movements about the kitchen, he turned and saw her, towel-wrapped frying pan handle in his grip and a warm smile just for her.
He glowered at her lazily. “If you don’t want all my efforts to prepare your breakfast to go for nothing, don’t stand there in that sheet and look at me like that.” He moved toward her.
135
Joey Light
He was so sure, so cocky. She walked to him and opened the sheet and cocooned him inside with her. He swiveled to set the pan back on the stove.
Turning the knob, the flame under the burner died.
He held her an arm’s length away. Grinning, his gaze swept down and then up. She pulled his T-shirt up and placed a kiss on his chest. Yanking the shirt over his head, she pulled him closer and kissed him just above the snap on his jeans.
Joe took the sheet from her, wanting nothing between them. The need to be in her arms was overwhelming. He allowed it to guide him. He picked her up, the sheet trailing to the floor, as he carried her back to bed. He was happy. More than that. He was at peace.
“You were right. It tastes the same heated or freshly cooked—terrible.” He pushed his plate away.
She nibbled a piece of cold bacon and shoved the rubbery eggs around on her plate. “The toast and the bacon are perfect. You’re perfect, Joe.”
Her words touched his heart, made it jerk in his chest. He smiled at her.
Sometime during the night, and now, his life had changed. Where it had been dark and uncertain before, it was now bright and sure. As quickly as it had become destroyed on the night he shot Red, it began its road to reconstruction.
He wanted to tell her what she had done for him, but words would never be enough. He took the plates and set them in the sink. When he turned around he did a double take. “What the hell are those for?”
“They’re called kites, Joe. Always after a rainy night, there is a good rush of wind. Ready?” She took a step toward him, one bright kite in each hand, their tails trailing on the floor.
136
Sterling’s Reasons
He left the sink and swept her up in his arms and round and round, tripping over the knotted tail. “I’m ready, Sterling. Let’s go fly your dumb kites. Why not?”
She laughed and tried to regain her balance. “Set me down before we both fall.”
He looked deep into her eyes and lowered his mouth to kiss her smiling lips.
“Would it be so bad if we both fell?”
“No.” She rubbed her mouth against his. “Unless we broke something and ended up in one cast and unable to move.” She teased him, tracing his mouth with her tongue.
He set her down gently and took her face between his hands. She stood there, her arms outstretched, holding the kites. She could tell he wanted to say something. Deep down, where feelings begin their journey to become words, something stirred in him. She could see it in his eyes, feel it in his touch. Time.
Time and her love. He needed both. And she would give it to him. That and more. Everything she had was his.
He planted a kiss on top of her nose. “Bet my kite goes higher than yours.
You don’t know who you’re playing with, little girl.”
She shook her head as he followed her out onto the deck. “Nope. Not possible. My ball of string is longer than yours. I’m not stupid. I already thought of that.”
“That’s cheating.” he swatted her playfully.
She cast him a sly smile over her shoulder and all but danced down the deck stairs onto the warming sand. “You got that right, cop. It is definitely fraud. Isn’t that a felony? How many years would I have to serve for that?”
137
Joey Light
He kissed the back of her neck. “However many you want.” Then, jerking the kite out of her right hand, he started running down the beach, kicking sand behind him. The kite took to the air and began its ascent.
“Hey, no fair. You got the one with the longer string. That’s mine.” She ran down the beach after him, her heart about two feet out in front of her. She had never been so happy.
As she tried to get her kite to take flight, she kept her eyes on him. He was her whole life. From now on, from this time on, he would belong to her. They would have a family someday… She looked back as her kite caught on the breeze and lifted. She gave it slack and at the same time let her imagination wander.
Yes, they could share the years to come, but for right now, this was enough.
“Look out, MacDaniels. Our strings will get tangled. You’re such a show-off.”
And once you tangle with me,
she thought smugly,
you’ll never get loose.
A solitary figure stood behind the front angle of the cottage and watched as Joe and Sterling scampered down the beach. From under the watcher’s feet, grains of sand shifted slowly down the hill.
138
Chapter Ten
They played like children on the beach. Sterling flew her kite until her arms ached. Finally, she ran to the deck and tied the string around the railing, admiration shining in her eyes as she watched Joe.
He was grinning up into the sky as he watched his kite respond to his maneuvering. It dipped, it soared, it looped at his command. Right now, at this moment, his mind was cleared of his haunts. He was as free as the balsa wood and plastic that flew overhead.
This is as it should be,
Sterling thought.
The kite fluttered and dropped erratically. He saved it at the last moment with a good flick of his wrist, and it soared, straining wildly against the thin length of string. Sterling heard his laugh travel on the breeze. She propped her chin in her hand and leaned against the railing. She cursed herself for not bringing a camera. Fighting a sudden uneasiness in her mind, she prayed she never had to depend on pictures for memories.
He looked up and saw her watching him. “Hey, lazy, that’s a cop out.”
“That it is. I’m fine. I’m enjoying watching you.” And she was. She was content for the first time in years. Really content and feeling competent to handle anything that came up. Being with Joe had opened doors she hadn’t realized she had closed. Being with him had awakened her from a self-imposed deep sleep.
She could never close her eyes again.
Joe took his kite to his own deck and tied it there. The two kites flew over the top of the cottages and hovered on the brink of crashing. He jogged down the steps and she came down hers to meet him.
Joey Light
They ran ankle-deep in the water, splashing each other. Laughing, they waded out farther, where he proceeded to dunk her. When she came up, he lifted her over his head and swirled her around and then dunked her again.
Spitting and sucking in air, Sterling rammed him, pushing him under the water and holding him there. He grabbed her ankles and pulled them out from under her. Both under the water, he pulled her to him and they bounced to the top.
“I give up,” she surrendered breathlessly, holding her hands up high in the air. “I know you’re stronger than I am. I admit it.” Then with a devilish smile on her lips, she pushed for him again, laughing. “But I’m faster.”
Body rubbed body, hands held hands, mouth found mouth. They laughed, they teased, they held, and they enjoyed each other. She leaned into him and he let her. He held her gently so that they floated on the waves.
Later that afternoon, they found a faded, warped Frisbee under his deck and they chased that around for a while. When they’d exhausted each other, they collapsed on the lower steps of her deck. She leaned her tired body against him, her cheek resting on his arm. Content, he kissed the top of her head.
“I want to cut my kite loose.”
“What? Why? Then you can’t run it again.”
“You want to let yours go?” She rubbed her face against the warm strength of his body and sighed.
“Not really. I sort of enjoyed that. Dumb as it is.”
She laughed but didn’t move. She was too comfortable. Too aware of the swell of feelings the two of them were enveloped in.
“Well…” she jumped up a few moments later, and went up the stairs. “I’m going to. They’re cheap. I’ll buy another one if I want it.”
