Blind Love (The Complete Box Set Romance Series) (16 page)

I reached into his boxers and grasped his
erection. His shaft was hard and soft at the same time. “Yes.”

He grabbed me and took possession of my
lips. I felt that kiss to my toes. He let me go, his chest heaving. “You need
to be sure about this, Taylor. I don’t want you to hate me.”

“I won’t. I promise. I want this. I want
you.”

I shoved his boxers down his legs, and he
stepped out of them. He reached into his nightstand and pulled out a condom
package.

He was beautiful – hard and all man. As
strong as the kiss had been, it hadn’t hurt. He’d been gentle, and I knew he’d
be gentle with me.

I let go of him and lay back on the bed.
He crawled in beside, me kissing me again. “Taylor, you’re beautiful.”

I blushed a little as he put one hand on
my breast. He rubbed his thumb over my nipple and it was a cascade of
sensations. I didn’t know if it would always be this way, but right now, I
couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

The whole world faded away. There was no
father in a coma. No former friend blackmailing me. Only Dylan and I. Nothing
between us. Nothing stopping us.

“Tell me what to do,” I said.

I wanted to please him.

“How about we make this all about you
because it’s pretty easy for me to get off. It’s hard when you haven’t done it
before.”

How did he know so much? “Okay. I kind of
know what I like.”

“Yeah? Tell me. That would help.”

I was embarrassed to tell him, but this
was Dylan. I was safe with him. “Touch me. Down there.”

He smiled and slid his hand down my body.
I’d hugged Dylan. He’d touched me in non-sexual ways, but being here, in his
bed, naked, everywhere his hand touched lit me on fire. I felt a tension
coiling in my middle. I wanted to move or I would explode.

Then, he touched me. It was so much better
than when I touched myself. “A little to the right.”

“As you wish.”

He adjusted and that tension became
tighter. My eyes fell closed. He kissed my neck as he played down there. He
rubbed in a circle, and I almost lifted my butt off the bed. My knees had
fallen apart, and his erection nudged at my side.

My fingers flexed and bunched as my hands
rested on his shoulders. And then it was there. I was falling. It must be how
it felt to go over a waterfall. My body was weightless, and I heard a high
keening sound.

It was coming from me. Holy shit. I had
trouble catching my breath as Dylan slowed down his movement. When I finally
was able to open my eyes, he was smiling at me.

“That was the best orgasm I’ve ever had.
So much better when someone else is doing it.”

He chuckled. “You’re very wet, Taylor. So
ready. Are you ready?”

“I am.”

He snagged the condom.

“Let me put it on.”

“I might explode if you touch me,” he
said.

A part of me felt powerful that I had that
effect on him. I laughed. “Dylan.”

His eyes became darker – with passion. For
me. Wow.

He shifted to be on top of me. “I’m going
to take this as slowly as I can, Taylor. You tell me to stop if you need me
to.”

I nodded. He leaned on his elbows, his
body above mine. I spread my legs wider. I had never wanted anything so much in
my life as I wanted Dylan Cabot at that moment. He slid partway into me. My
body tensed.

“Relax, Taylor. It will hurt less.”

I took a few deep breaths. He was right.
He slid into me and finally, he was all the way in. He stayed there for a
moment, his eyes closed.

“You feel so good. Warm and wet and tight,
Taylor. Amazing.”

“I’m okay now. You can move.”

“Just tell me if it hurts.”

“It won’t.”

He began to move, and my knees slid up his
body. After a few thrusts, my body met his and we set up a rhythm. I didn’t
have that tension inside anymore, but this felt good. It felt right.

“I’m not sure I can hold on much longer,
Taylor, but you haven’t come yet.”

“
It’s
okay,
Dylan. I don’t think I’m going to.”

“I’m sorry.”

He thrust into me a few more times, then
he groaned, his teeth clenched. He slumped over onto me. I didn’t want to move.
I didn’t want him to move.

Then I heard a door.

“Shit.”

He jumped off of me. “Your mother’s home.”

“Shit.”

I grabbed my nightgown and ran to his
door. I listened, but I didn’t know where my mother was. I glanced back at
Dylan who stood, his erection waning. “I’m going to run to my bedroom. Thank
you, Dylan.”

I left him there, hoping I would make it
back to my room before my mother found us.

PART 3

Chapter Twenty Three

Taylor

I slipped in to my room, turned off the
light, then slid under the covers. I was still humming from sex, but I couldn’t
have stayed with Dylan – not with my mother in the house. I caught my breath
when her footsteps stopped at my door. She couldn’t have seen me cross the hall
in the dark and I’d closed the door quietly.

I squeezed my eyes shut and steadied my
breath. She opened my door. Shit. I hoped that I wasn’t sweating. She’d know I
hadn’t been sleeping, but I pretended to be.

She sat on the edge of my bed. Could she
even see me in the dark?

I guess if she sat there long enough.

She began to hum a song she used to sing
to me when I was a little kid. Should I pretend to wake up? I was a notoriously
deep sleeper, so her singing shouldn’t wake me up under normal circumstances.

Did my mother want to talk? I rolled over.
“Mom?”

“Did I wake you? Sorry, Taylor.”

I sat up, rubbing my eyes. “Is everything
okay?”

“Yes. Your father is awake, and he’s going
to be okay.”

“Wow, that’s great, Mom.” I was excited. I
hugged her. This was great news. “Can I go see him in the morning?”

“After school. He’ll be in the hospital a
few days before he can come home.”

“What about his car?”

“It’s totaled,” she told me.

I nodded then realized that she couldn’t
see me in the dark. “Do you need to talk?”

“I just need some company.”

“You want to crawl in here with me?”

My mother and I hadn’t been close in
years, but she was still my mother. She loved me and my father. Maybe she’d
even learn to love Dylan.

“Thanks.”

She crawled in beside me, her head on my
shoulder. Kind of role reversal as I used to always lean on her. She was all
alone in the world without me and my father. She had been an only child and her
parents had died a few years ago.

“Did you talk to Dad?”

“I did. He’s coherent and knew what day it
was. The docs say he’ll make a full recovery.”

“That’s good.”

“What did you and Dylan do?”

It was an innocent question and shouldn’t
make me pause, but it did. She had no idea that we’d had sex. I felt so
different and I was just trying to act like I didn’t.

“He heated up some leftovers for dinner
and made me eat, and then I came to bed. I don’t know what Dylan did after
that.”

“He must have cleaned the kitchen because
it was spotless,” she said.

“He must have after I came to bed.”

“He isn’t so bad.”

“I know that, Mom. Why don’t you give him
a chance?”

She lifted her head off of my shoulder,
putting it on my other pillow. “I’m just worried that he’s going to snap and do
something.”

“He’s never been violent.”

“He got into a fight.”

“That’s not fair. He was defending me.
That should give him some points in your mind,” I said.

“I guess. I guess I resent that your
father just tilts at these windmills and I have to be the practical one. He
always gets to be the fun one.”

“What would you do if you were the fun
one?”

She laughed. “I don’t know, I’d have to
think about it. I’ve just always taken on the serious role.”

“Maybe when I go to college you can be fun
again.”

She laughed. “For the record, I was fun
before you came along.”

“Sorry.”

“No, Taylor, you shouldn’t be sorry. I
wanted you and I wanted to be home to raise you. It’s just so easy to get so
focused on raising a child that you lose yourself.”

“Do you think you lost yourself?”

“Yes, I do, but that’s on me. Not on you.
I made these decisions.”

“Then try to get that woman back.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“How hard can it be, Mom?” I said. “Just
remember the person you were and do things that she would.”

She laughed again. “The optimism of
youth.”

“Try it. Would you go back to work? Write
a book? What? Dream, Mom.”

She shifted onto her back. “I think I’d
like to get my real estate license and sell houses.”

“That’s great, Mom. Don’t you think Dad
would support that?”

“Oh, he probably would.”

“I’m sure he wants to see you happy. He
isn’t an ogre.”

“No, he isn’t, Taylor. He’s a good man,
but I think he likes to come home to me here.”

“Well, he can adapt.”

“He’s going to miss you when you go off to
college.”

“I’m going to miss him, too.” And so I
didn’t hurt her feelings, I added, “And you.”

“I think we will get along better when you
are far away.”

I didn’t want to go far away. I wanted to
go to nursing school right here. I wasn’t ready to tell her. She might be
amenable to it at the moment, but I didn’t want to break the magic of this
moment – my mother and I getting along. It didn’t happen often, so we usually
avoided each other. Peace in the house was kept that way.

Maybe my parents should have had another
child so my mother could have had someone close to her like Daddy and I. Then
she might not feel so alone. “You seem lost.”

“I guess I just got scared with your
father in the hospital.”

“They say life is short.”

“You can’t know that. Your life is ahead
of you. This is an exciting time,” she said.

It was and made more so by Dylan in my
life. I had strong feelings for him – ones that I had never experienced with
someone else. Feelings that I wanted to explore, even if my parents didn’t
approve.

“You must be tired.” She kissed the side
of my head. “I’ll let you go back to sleep.” She climbed out of bed and in the
darkness, I could see her turn to me. “Thanks, Taylor.”

“You’re welcome, Mom.”

***

Daddy came home a few days later. He was
supposed to go to a rehab facility, but he wanted to be home. He was still sore
and the stitches on his face were still in. He looked like a battered version
of my father.

Dylan helped him into his favorite chair
in the living room.

“What can I get you, Daddy?” I said.

“Nothing right now, kitten. Just sit with
me.”

My mother left us alone, as did Dylan. Dylan
and I hadn’t had a chance to talk seriously about what happened the other
night. I wanted it to happen again, but he seemed to be avoiding me.

I sat next to my father. The living room
had no television per my mother’s orders. She thought the living room was for
family or entertaining guests. She didn’t entertain guests, but still, no
television in the living room.

My father looked thin, but his color was
better than it had been in the hospital.

“You getting a new car?” I said.

“Yes, but it’ll be a few weeks before that
happens. I need to get the money from the insurance company.”

I nodded. “Your insurance company or the
other person’s?”

“The other person’s because they were at
fault,” he said.

“That’s why you buy insurance.”

“Right, kitten.”

I nodded then fell silent.

“Tell me about school.”

“Well, the prom is coming up,” I told him.

“Who are you going with?”

I laughed. “I haven’t been asked yet.”

“Do you have someone in mind?”

I did. I wanted to go with Dylan, but I
wasn’t sure how that would work. He was avoiding me and I doubted that he’d ask
me. I doubted that my father would be okay with it, unless he thought Dylan was
doing me a favor.

Hm. I would have to think about that
angle. I might be able to make this work.