Swoon (26 page)

Jace cleared his throat and glanced around. “I should probably go pay my respects to your family.”

“It’s not a funeral, dude,” Lawrence said.

“Potato, potahto.” Jace shrugged and sauntered away.

I laughed as I watched him go, probably harder than I should have.

Lawrence raised an eyebrow at me. “Don’t tell me you feel the same way.”

“No.” I shook my head in amusement. “Not exactly. I think Chrissy and Jeremy are great together, and it’s good to celebrate that. I guess when you have all the history your family has around here, everyone wants to share in it.” I shrugged. “I’m just more of a one-on-one type of girl. I don’t need all the pomp and circumstance.”

Lawrence smiled, his blue eyes soft and shining. He reached out to take my champagne glass, brushing our fingertips together softly as he pulled it away and set it aside.

“Dance with me?” He took my hands, pulling me to the empty dance floor set up in the middle of the living room.

There was a string trio playing sweetly at the side of the room. Lawrence drew me closer than strictly proper and swept me around the floor, his steps confident and beautiful as he moved in time to the music. We started to draw attention from around the room as he twirled me around and made me laugh. Eventually a few other couples joined us, including Lawrence’s parents, causing him to draw me close and simply sway back and forth. As the song drew to a close, Lawrence dipped me back, kissing me soundly on the lips. Everyone started to clap as we left the floor, grinning like idiots.

“Nice job, queenie. You might just be able to keep up with me.”

I opened my mouth to retort when a soft Southern voice interrupted. “May I cut in?”

I turned to see a petite woman with straight, jet-black hair looking past me to Lawrence, who looked irritated.

“I’m not interested in being cut,” he said, stepping close to my side. “Steph, this is Tina. Tina, Steph.”

My eyes widened in realization. I smiled and we shook hands, but she was glaring at Lawrence’s grip on my waist. I felt a little bad for her. I didn’t know the details of their relationship, and I really didn’t want to. But I did know that Lawrence had broken things off with her to be with me, and that would sting the hell out of me.

She cocked her head to the side and looked up at Lawrence. “It was good to see you the other day. I’ve missed you.”

Suddenly I wasn’t feeling so bad for her. My eyes narrowed at her blatant skankiness.

“Really? That seems to be a running theme today.” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “This conversation doesn’t concern you. I was speaking to Lawrence.”

Both my eyebrows rose. I looked up at Lawrence, who wore a grim expression.

“Tina,” he said. “Don’t do this. It’s not worth it. It never was.”

A small gasp parted her lips. “How can you say that? We had something.”

He shook his head. “No, we didn’t. And I never lied to you about that. I’m sorry if you felt differently.” He looked down at me and tightened his grip on my waist. “Steph and I are the ones with the history together. There’s no getting away from that, and I’d never want to.” She blinked rapidly as he continued. “Please don’t make any more of a scene.”

With that he led me away. We walked around the room, saying polite good-byes to everyone he knew, which was pretty much everyone. Finally we were alone outside, walking hand in hand to the Mule.

I settled into the passenger seat with a heavy sigh. No words were uttered for a few minutes.

“All right.” He finally spoke up. “Out with it. What’s wrong?”

I shrugged, not entirely sure why I was in a sudden funk. “Probably just tired. Too much alcohol. No pants.”

He laughed and squeezed my knee. “Come on. There’s more. Don’t let it fester.”

I sighed again. “I don’t know. It’s weird seeing your life here, all the history, the family. Those weird girls. It makes me feel like maybe I don’t know you that well. I don’t know you like the people who grew up with you.”

“That’s because you don’t. You don’t know me the same way. You know me better than any of them.”

“Maybe,” I mumbled, playing with the hem of my dress. “I feel like we’ve gone really fast.”

He looked over at me, eyes wide. “Fast? Really? We met over two years ago, Steph.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like we were together that whole time.”

“That’s my point. We should have been. How much more time should we waste by going slow and getting to know each other? We already know what we want. Let’s just go for it. And stop worrying about the fucking time line and let’s just live it. Some people never get that opportunity. We’ve been given so many chances, and we managed to fuck most of them up. I’m afraid if we blow it this time, God’s gonna get fed up and move on to pestering a new couple, and we’ll be done.”

I smiled as I absorbed his words.

“We could die tomorrow. Shit, we could die tonight. I probably shouldn’t even be driving.” He playfully swerved on the driveway. We were only going six miles per hour, so I didn’t feel too much concern. “Shane died without ever having the chance to care for someone like I care about you, but I know that if he’d found that girl, he would have given anything and everything to keep her. That was just the way he was. He never held anything back. Your dad died without ever getting to know you, with a lifetime of regrets and missed opportunities hanging over him. So how would you like to go?”

We pulled up to his house, and he shut the vehicle down as I considered everything he said.

“How’d you get so… well-adjusted?” I asked finally.

“Love. Love makes me well-adjusted.”

“But love makes me crazy and jittery.”

He laughed. “That’s because you have to just accept it and not question it. Love is simple. Life interferes and makes it seem complicated. But it’s one of the clearest emotions to have. For instance, I love you.”

“Why?”

He was quiet for a moment as he thought. “There’s no real reason. That’s how I know it’s real.”

“You can’t think of a reason why you love me?” I frowned, not sure if that was good or not.

“Well, that’s an ego-driven question, don’t you think? I mean, sure, I can give you a list of things that I love about you, of all your wonderful and amazing qualities, both inside and out. But all those things aren’t why I love you. Why do you love me?”

“I have no idea.”

He laughed and helped me stand. “See. That’s how we know.”

* * * *

Lawrence

I pulled Steph to her feet, letting my hands linger on her waist. With a kiss to the tip of her nose, I took her hand and led her into the house and up the stairs, into the bedroom. She balanced on my shoulders as I bent to remove her heels. I was a little reluctant do so—they were hot.

My hands drifted up her thighs, under her dress where everything remained bare. I was on my knees, looking up at her standing over me, but as I stood, I gathered her dress in my hands, raising it farther up her body until I was standing and she had to lift her arms over her head to allow me to remove it, leaving her in just a black lace bra. Her hair was falling in crazy curls around her shoulders, and she remained still, letting me take in the sight. And what a sight it was.

I reached behind her to unclasp her bra, drawing it down her arms and tossing it aside. I was still wearing all my clothes, even my jacket. She smirked at me and let her hands drift down and grip my lapels, pushing the coat off my shoulders. Her eyes met mine as she unbuckled my belt and pulled it out of the loops. It was tossed across the room, landing with a clank against the hardwood floor. She tugged my shirt free of my pants, the backs of her fingers brushing against the skin of my abdomen, making me tense in anticipation. Rising up on her tiptoes, she pressed soft kisses to my neck while her fingers lazily worked the buttons free.

I took a step back to hurriedly shrug off my shirt and free myself from my pants and shoes. She could pretend to be lazy all she wanted. All I felt was urgency.

I took long steps to push her against my bed, grinning as she tumbled backward and fell softly into the comforter. She pushed herself to the head of the bed, where she rested on a pile of pillows, watching me. One of her hands started to move up her side, up between her breasts, then back down and around. Her lower lip was caught in her teeth as she teased herself, teased me. I started to stroke myself as I watched her fingertips travel lower and lower, circling and always just passing where I’d like to be.

Her thighs fell apart, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “You just gonna make me do this all by myself?”

Her question made me smile and I raised my eyes to hers. I shook my head silently and crawled onto the bed, easing myself on top of her till our chests brushed together. I lowered my lips to hers, sweeping her mouth open with my tongue at the same time I pushed inside her, feeling her rush of breath as I did. My hips moved in long, slow motions; our kiss matched the tempo. Her nails raked down my back, leaving a burning trail in their wake. We pushed together forcefully, intensely. There was no way we could be closer, but God, I wanted to be. My hands fisted her hair, anchoring her in place so I could thrust harder, deeper, until her knees squeezed my hips and her breathing halted, her release freezing her in place. My body started to shudder with the strain of holding myself back, so I gave in to the sensations and lost myself in her.

Our lips never parted.

* * * *

The next morning we were going fishing.

Oh, I was fully aware that Steph had zero interest in actually going fishing. But we were going anyway because it was a relaxing way for us to be together, away from family and horses, and also because skinny-dipping. I really wanted to cross that off my bucket list as soon as possible.

I was waiting at the door for Steph. She eventually appeared, grumbling her way down the stairs in a tank top and very small denim shorts. Things were already looking up, for me anyway.

There was a picnic packed in the Mule to last us to the early afternoon, so we hopped in and I sped off to the back portion of our property where a large pond was secluded from any possible family members or staff. The water wouldn’t be warm, but the sun was shining, heating our skin quickly.

I laid a blanket on the edge of the pond and set our food down along with a thermos of coffee. The air was misty, but instead of looking eerie, everything was peaceful, sleepy. We sat down and leaned against each other for a few minutes, enjoying the quiet. I kissed her hair and then stood to get the fishing poles and my tackle box. She watched me, not even pretending to be helpful.

“You know how to cast, queenie?” I asked, handing over a pole.

“Of course,” she scoffed, then batted her eyelashes. “But I will have you bait my hook.”

“Yeah, I’ll bait your hook, sweet cheeks,” I muttered under my breath, but she just laughed and held the tip of her pole toward me.

I got her rigged up and we walked to where the water was touching the shore, ripples disturbing the surface here and there, letting us know where to throw out our lines. Steph cast gracefully, her hook arcing through the air and landing softly on the other side of the water. Within seconds of reeling it in, she got a bite and pulled in a small bass. I rolled my eyes as I brought in an empty line.

Cast, reel. Cast, reel. Over and over Steph brought in fish and tossed them back. Or I tossed them back for her, I should say. I got nothing. Not one. She kept stealing glances at me, trying to hide her smile.

“Gosh, babe, I’m so glad you came up with the idea to come fishing. You’re so right. It’s fun and relaxing. Therapeutic almost.” She looked to me with a wide-eyed, innocent expression.

Keeping my face bland, I slowly reeled in my line. I turned from the pond and set my pole aside. Then I took the one from her hands and set it next to mine. I looked at her with my hands on my hips for a long moment. She was studying me with a curious expression.

I sighed, long and hard, then jumped forward, picking her up around the waist and tossing her into the pond. Her shrieks were probably heard all the way back at the barn, but I almost couldn’t hear them over my own roar of laughter. I was doubled over, unable to breathe as I watched her find her footing and stomp her way back to shore. Her white tank top was transparent. The outlines of her nipples were showing, even through her bra. Her shorts were dripping and looked very uncomfortable. Her flip-flops were now floating in the middle of the pond.

I knew I was in trouble, but it was so damn funny.

“That was not funny, you asshole!” she hollered at me, leaping into my arms and soaking my clothes. My arms automatically reached around to support her, but I fell to my knees because I was still laughing so hard. Pretty soon, she joined me. I’d known it was only a matter of time.

“You owe me new shoes,” she pouted, still laughing.

I leaned back a little and peeled her top off over her head. I pushed her to stand above me and I shimmied her shorts off her legs. Pressing a kiss to her belly, I stood up and stripped myself, then winked as I ran out and dove into the water. I was right. The water was not warm.

I swam to the middle of the pond and fetched her floating shoes, then turned to tread water and watch her standing naked on the shore, hands on her hips.

“Come on in, sweetheart. It feels good in here!”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to touch the bottom!”

She baffled me. “You just did a minute ago.”

“Only because I was forced. I can’t willingly touch.”

“You can’t touch mud?”

She shook her head. “Not if I can’t see it. What if something’s lurking under there?”

I chuckled as I swam back to shore. “I didn’t want to have to do this,” I said as I started to walk out of the water, tossing her flip-flops aside.

“Do what?” she asked warily, holding her hands in front of her.

“I didn’t want to have to reveal just how cold the water is.” I laughed and ran forward, covering my boys with one hand and throwing her over my shoulder with my other.

She yelped and slapped me on the ass, kicking and screaming as I carried her back into the water. Once we reached a spot deep enough to swim, I dunked her under and swam away as fast as I could. She caught me quickly and, with two hands on my head, dunked me as well. I let myself sink deeper, then grabbed her ankles and tugged her down with me. We both surfaced, gasping and laughing, wiping water out of our eyes.

Steph’s legs wrapped around my waist, and just like that, the water didn’t seem so cold.

“Mmmm”—she pushed her hips close to mine—“seems you can rise to the occasion despite any challenges.”

“I told you fishing was a good idea,” I whispered into her lips.

She smiled against me. “Looks like you finally caught something.”

I nodded and took a breath. “Marry me,” I said quietly.

She leaned back to look in my eyes. I searched hers, which were pretty wide, but she started to smile and relief washed over me.

“Really?”