Cabin Fever (28 page)

I start laughing and then Cassie joins me. She and I are both cracking up. When Jeremy starts running around the room with the dog chomping at his heels, Cassie gets hysterical.

Jeremy and Jaws stop only for the two seconds it takes them to realize they are her entertainment, and then they go again. Around and around the room they chase one another as Cassie’s peals of laughter bounce off the walls. I swear I can see a ghostly presence in the corner of the room laughing with us.
 

Chapter Forty-One

CASSIE IS FINALLY ASLEEP. THE energy that we built up waiting for her and then enjoying her first day with us kept her awake well beyond her normal bedtime. I look at my watch. It’s 10:00pm and I still have laundry to do. I wonder if Jeremy is going to try and grab it from me again and insist I’m not allowed to lift dirty clothes.

“What are you doing?” he asks, standing in the entrance to my bedroom.

“Sorting laundry for the wash.”

“You know you’re not supposed to lift heavy things.”

I smile to myself. “Two shirts and a pair of jeans aren’t heavy.”

He’s at my side now. “Still, I don’t mind doing it. We need to be careful while your eyes are healing.”

I look up at him, the glasses finally gone now that my eyeballs aren’t horrible anymore. “You know you can’t keep acting like my servant, right?”

He smiles. “Sure I can.”

I shake my head. “You’re crazy.”

His hand comes up and his fingers trace the outline of my jaw. “Crazy about you.”

“Corny,” I say, laughing.

“Sexy,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows.

My laugh falls away as I recognize the look in his eyes. I know what he’s thinking; it’s the same thing that’s been going through my mind all day. Seeing him be a father to Cassie has awakened a fire within me. He could not possibly be sexier to me now.

His hand drifts down, his finger lightly sliding along the skin of my neck and then my collar bone.

“You’re so pretty,” he says softly. “I love your red hair.”

“Kids used to call me penny head.” I always considered my hair a curse, but Jeremy’s been playing with it regularly since I moved in here and telling me how many pretty shades of copper he sees in it, so I believe him when he says he likes it. I’m even starting to like looking at it in the mirror. Something about Jeremy’s constant compliments have boosted my confidence; I actually feel as beautiful as he claims me to be.

“Tell me their names,” he says. “I’ll go beat ‘em up.”

I move to step into the hug he’s offering. “You can’t beat up everyone who’s mean to me.”

“Oh no? Watch me.”

“What if that person is you, though?” A bite my lip as I realize that a piece of my past has risen to spoil the mood.

“Me? Are you crazy? Why would I ever be mean to you?”

I shrug, looking at his chin instead of his eyes. “It happens. People get comfortable with one another and then their good manners slip away, little by little.”

“These aren’t manners, silly girl; this is love. Love is what makes me want to stroke your beautiful hair, do your laundry for you, cook your dinner, hug you, touch you, make love to you…”

My face flames red. “You haven’t done that last part yet.”

He pushes his hips forward so I can feel his hardness against me. “Not for lack of will, let me tell you.” He leans down and kisses my neck. “It’s taken all my strength to hold back, you know.”

I run my hands up his arms and wrap them around the back of his neck. “It has?” I drop my head to the side to give him better access to my collar bone. I had no idea until I spent time with Jeremy that this was a sensitive spot for me. His hands slide up my ribs, his thumbs resting just beneath my bra. Then he lifts them just the tiniest bit, stroking the sensitive skin on the underside of my breasts.

“Yes. Pure torture. I can’t wait anymore.” His kisses cease for a moment and the room is completely silent as he waits for my response.

“You don’t have to wait if you don’t want to,” I whisper, staring into his gorgeous blue eyes.

Next thing I know the world is turning sideways. “Whoop!” I yell, and then start giggling. He’s carrying me into his bedroom.

“Say no more,” he says in a booming voice. “You don’t have to tell me twice. No ma’am.”

“Shhhh! You’ll wake the baby.”

He places me on top of his bed and quickly removes his shirt. It goes flying out behind him, and his pants are already halfway off by the time it hits the ground.

“What are you doing, you maniac?” My face is flushed and I’m breathing heavily. This is what we’ve both been waiting for. If we’re as compatible in bed as we are everywhere else, I have no reason to keep pushing his proposal off. Everything feels so right with him.

“Watch and see.” He drops his pants, his boxers, and last, his socks. Then he stands there, looking at me, smiling.

I stare at the perfect form of the most attractive man who ever walked the earth. “Wow.” You’d think with me being an artist, I’d have a better vocabulary for beauty, but not today. Not right now. “Just wow.”

He grins even harder and then gives me a double-bicep flex. “What do you think?” He looks at one bicep and then the other before turning back to me. “Should I do some more pushups?”

I reach out with grabby hands. “Come here and start taking my clothes off or I’m going to force you into my studio so I can draw you.”

He drops his muscle pose and comes closer, reaching for my shirt buttons. “Mmmm, sounds kinky.”

I laugh, I’m so happy to be with this man. “Believe me, it’s not. Not at all. You’d fall asleep from boredom.”

My blouse falls from my arms and he starts to work on my bra. “Oh no, I wouldn’t. Want to know why?” He leans over to see the back of me and his breath tickles my neck.

“Yes,” I say, no longer laughing, “tell me why.” My nipples have grown taut under my bra, anticipating his hands on them.

“If I’m naked in that studio, you have to be naked too. Trust me, that’ll keep me awake.”

The erotic image appears instantly in my mind. “I’ve never drawn while naked before.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

My bra falls away and his big hands slide from my back to my front, taking both breasts. He kneads them and leans in for a kiss.

I meet him halfway, my hands sliding down to run the length of his hardness. This kiss goes deeper than any before it, our tongues slipping along one another while our mouths move for better angles. His lips are full and soft. We match rhythms so perfectly. He nips me all of a sudden and I go after him to nip him back. He laughs.

“Easy now, I still have to take those pants off you.” But he doesn’t move away; instead, he presses himself into my hand more fully and closes his eyes.

“You like that?” I ask in a whisper, stroking slightly faster.

“Oh yeah.”

A few seconds later, he pulls away. He stands there, staring at me, his expression going dark, unfathomable.

I start to get embarrassed under the pressure of his gaze. Is he regretting what we’re doing? Remembering another woman in my place? Does he wish he’d never asked me to marry him?

“I want to do this the right way,” he finally says.

“And what way is the right way?” I’m hoping beyond hope that he’s not going to bring me to the brink like this and then just throw me into the abyss.

“Stand up.”

I slide off the edge of the bed and stand there, naked from the waist up, waiting to see what he’s going to do.

He moves closer, looking down at me as he gets near. “I want you to know that it’s just you and me in here.”

I look to my left, confused. “Okay.”

“I don’t mean Cassie coming in. She can’t escape that crib. I mean… I mean Laura.”

I nod, waiting to find out more. Obviously, I figured she would come up between us. How could she not? Jeremy loved her very much and it should be her here, not me. Maybe he’s not ready. I’ll be okay with that, if that’s the case. Just like he said he could wait for me to be ready, I can do the same for him. I’m not with him for the sex.

“I’ve been thinking about this since you moved in here. I didn’t want her to be between us, her memory to keep us from being able to enjoy this second chance I’ve been given.”

I slide my hands up his shoulders as he unbuttons my pants. “Second chance?”

“Yes. Second chance at love. And a couple in love has to be able to make love.”

“I agree.” And I smile. He has to work through this, I can see that now. I’m going to do whatever I have to do to make this easier for him. It’s a big step making love to another woman when you thought you’d never be with anyone else ever again.

“Laura wouldn’t be upset at me moving on. She told me so many times that if she died first, she’d want me to get married again.”

“You said she was always saying she was going to die young.”

“Yes. And she told me that if I found someone who loved me as much as she did, I had her permission to remarry.”

“I do love you, you know,” I say, my heart lurching at the emotion that rushes in. “Very much.”

“I know you do. I can feel it in my bones. I can see it when you hold my daughter. Our daughter, if you ever say yes to my proposal.”

I grin slowly, as my pants and underwear fall to the floor and I step out of them. “I guess we’ll find out now whether we’re truly compatible.”

“And then I’ll have my answer?”

I hold my breath for a few seconds, wondering if I should commit to committing.

Say yes,
says a voice in my head. I’m not entirely clear whether it’s my voice or another woman’s, but I go ahead and obey it anyway.

“Yes.”

Jeremy smiles at me and I swear I can see a light beaming out of those blue eyes of his. “Well, alllll riiight.” He sweeps me off my feet and place me on the bed, climbing up next to me.

“So how much foreplay are we talking here?” he says, winking.

I reach up and grab him, pulling him to me. “Why don’t you just come on over here and find out.”

That’s pretty much the last conscious thought I have about what we’re doing. Then it’s all hands, and mouths, and tongues, everywhere on my body and then his. His fingers go inside me and I’m so wet. I stroke his length and taste him. And when I can’t stand the anticipation anymore, I grab him and pull him over me.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” he asks me, breathless, hovering over my body.

“Yes. Absolutely. And you? You’re sure?”

He reaches down, places himself at my warmest spot, and smiles. “Oh yeah, baby. I’m ready.”

I cry out with pleasure as he slides into me, stroking me from the inside, filling me and bringing our lives full circle. It doesn’t take long before I’m feeling the rush of orgasm and floating away on cloud nine with the man of my dreams. He cries out with me and his body flails with the power of his finish.

When we finally come down, covered in sweat and the scent of our lovemaking surrounding us, he slides off to my side with his heavy arm resting on my stomach.

His hand moves to my abdomen, his fingers spread enough to cover it completely.

“We could make a baby, you know,” he says, out of breath.

“Someday.”

“Maybe we just did.”

“Maybe.” I can’t stop smiling.

“I love you, Sarah Booker.”

“I love you too, Jeremy Oliver. And Cassie. And Laura.”

He leans up and looks down at me. “And Laura too?” His eyes are full of unshed tears.

I start crying, but they’re all happy tears coming out of my eyes. “I do. She brought us together. I know she did. And I sense her happiness in this house. If I’m going to love her daughter and her husband, I have to love her too. How could I not?”

“Other people won’t understand what you mean, but I do.”

“Other people don’t have to know our business.” I reach up and stroke his beard-roughened cheek. “It’s just us here. You and me. No one else.”

“You don’t think Laura is watching over us?” he asks.

“Do you?”

“No.” He holds my hand against his cheek, turning to kiss my palm. “I don’t feel her right next to me anymore.”

“Does that bother you?” I feel sad for him until I see his smile.

“No. It’s fine. I know she loves me. It’s just time for her to move on. It’s time for me to move on too.”

I reach up with my lips to kiss him. He presses my head back into the pillow with his responding kiss. “You need to relax now,” he says against my mouth.

“I am relaxed,” I say, wrapping my arm around his neck.

He swings his leg over mind and rests himself against my hip. I can feel him growing hard.

I look down and laugh. “Already?”

He grins at me. “I plan on continuing until you submit.”

I bite my lip trying to hold in peals of happy laughter. “I guess I’m going to have to hold out a little longer, then.”

He growls and rolls on top of me and then we start all over again. I cannot think of a single time in my life when I’ve been happier or felt more fulfilled.

Chapter Forty-Two

“I can’t believe you’re getting married before I am,” Leah says, scowling at me for two seconds before she grins again. “This is so exciting and romantic!”

I look around the courthouse and roll my eyes. “We’re getting married by a judge. What’s so romantic about that?”

She spanks me on the butt. “Shush. You know falling in love in a cabin and everything you did with Cassie and whatever is totally romantic. And you get to be all skinny and gorgeous.” She points to her belly which has grown very, very round. “I’m never going to be skinny again.”

I pat her baby bump. “Yes, you will. Just wait. After this angel is born you’ll be back to your slim, flower child, incense-loving self.”

“Have you thought of where you’ll honeymoon yet?” she asks.

I open my mouth to answer her, but then my words are stolen away when I see who’s come in the courtroom door.

“Jana’s here,” I whisper to Leah.

Leah turns around and then runs as fast as her pudgy legs will take her. “Jana! You made it!”

She walks towards us, her expression cautious.

I step forward with my hands out in a gesture of welcome, or at least I hope that’s how she’ll take it. She stops just in front of me, and I let my arms drop to my sides. I’m not going to force her to like me. She has to get there on her own.