Finally a Bride (16 page)

She arched, rising up from the mattress. “Eric!”

“Shh…” he soothed her, his hands moving up her body to close over her breasts. His palms scraped across her nipples as he continued his intimate exploration.

The pressure inside her body built in intensity until tears leaked from her eyes. Then she shuddered as an orgasm slammed through her. “Eric!”

He stood up and tore off his clothes. Then his body, hot and hard and naked, covered hers. He lifted her legs and buried himself inside her.

Molly rose up, kissing his chest, his throat, locking her arms around his neck as he thrust inside her—the pace fast and furious. Another orgasm ripped through her, more powerful than the first. She sobbed at the intensity. Then he joined her, screaming her name as the world shattered around them.

E
RIC SPRAWLED
across the mattress, his chest heaving as his breathing returned to normal—or as normal as it ever was around Molly.

A soft fingertip traced his satisfied smile. “You look happier now than when I walked in,” she observed. “Who was on the phone earlier?”

The tension returned to his body as he replied, “My uncle’s doctor.”

“Is he all right?” she asked with obvious concern.

He shook his head, his hair rustling against the pillow. “It won’t be long now.”

“I’m sorry…”

He let her say it this time, and added, “Me, too.”

“But he lived a long, full life,” she assured him.

“He’d want to go this way, before his mind gets any worse,” Eric agreed, trying to find the positives. Molly had taught him that when he’d first moved to Cloverville. And even when her father had gotten sick, she’d stayed positive, trying to find a purpose in what had happened to her dad—to her family. But she’d been wrong—the purpose hadn’t been for her to become a doctor, to save people like she hadn’t been able to save her father. Her heart was too sensitive to survive such a vocation.

But Eric could save people. “When he’s gone, I’m going to reenlist,” he warned her.

Her body stiffened against his side. “You’re what?”

“I’m going back.”

“But, you, you can’t,” she stammered. “You were discharged. You got a medical discharge.”

“I can be a medic.” The limp, the scars, might keep him from active duty, but he could find other ways to help. He had to.

Tears dripped onto his skin, spilling from her big brown eyes. “You can’t do this. Not again.”

His guts wrenched at the fear and pain on her face. He tried to explain, “I accused you of being selfish, but if I don’t go back, I’m being selfish. I owe it to the friends I lost over there—I owe it to them to go back.”

“I love you, Eric,” she said. “That’s why I couldn’t marry Josh, why I panicked at the thought of being with any man but you.”

“Molly…”

Her voice cracked with a sob, but she cleared her throat and added, “And if you love me, you owe it to me to stay.”

His heart shifted, then opened, with her declaration. “I love you, too,” he admitted. “I’ve loved you for so long….”

“But,” she said, having heard the word in his voice.

“I can’t be who you need me to be,” he pointed out.

“And who do I need you to be?” she asked.

“Someone like Towers. Someone with whom you can start a family, build a life. I’m not that guy,” he said, hating that he wasn’t. “I haven’t had a family for so long I don’t know how to be part of one. I
can’t
be part of one.”

“Eric,” she said, blinking more tears from her eyes. She ran her fingertips around his bicep, tracing the barbed-wire tattoo. “I always wondered why you’d chosen this. But it was to keep everyone out. You should have added a No Trespassing sign so I would have known not to risk my heart on you.”

“Molly…” He hated hurting her; he hadn’t meant to.

“You’re still a coward,” she accused him.

Even though he was going back into war, he silently agreed with her. He was scared of trying to be the man she needed.

F
ACE WARM
with the sunlight streaking through the blinds, Molly opened her eyes. Then she stretched, her arms sliding across the empty space next to her. He was gone.

No note. He’d left her. Just like last time. It didn’t matter how much she loved him, how much she wanted him. She had to accept that this was one fight she couldn’t win—no matter how stubborn she was.

Eric would never love her as much as she loved him. If he did, he wouldn’t be able to leave her again. She turned her face into his pillow and she wept as hard as she had the day her dad died, her heart just as empty and broken.

This was the loss she’d tried to avoid, the reason she’d accepted Josh’s proposal instead of going after the man she really loved. Because she had known then, she would only get hurt.

Could he do it again? Could he really leave her? Eric wondered as he poured himself a much-needed cup of coffee. Yet the pot in the staff lounge had burned low, leaving only sludge. He grimaced as he took a sip, but he needed the caffeine. He hadn’t slept at all the night before; he’d watched her sleep instead, watching her lashes flutter against her cheeks as she dreamed.

Of what? Of him? Of the life they might have had if he wasn’t a coward. She was right. Despite the medals he’d locked away in a drawer, he was no hero.

A real hero would step up, would be the kind of guy she wanted, she deserved.

“Eric?” a gruff voice called his name.

Drawing in a ragged breath, he turned only fractionally, meeting Nick Jameson’s gaze over his shoulder. “Yeah. Hey, Doctor, do you need something?”

“I thought you were off the clock.”

He shrugged. He had stopped by the VA hospital that morning, checking on his uncle before his shift started. He’d probably stop by again, before he headed home. Molly would be gone, the last of her things packed up. “I’ve got no place else to be.”

“I hear you,” Jameson commiserated, his green eyes dark with his own regrets.

Eric sighed again. “But I’ve got no one but myself to blame.”

“I hear you,” Nick repeated.

The doctor’s raw honesty surprised Eric, who recognized a man suffering his own heartache. “You know my name—Eric South.” He turned fully and extended the hand not holding a coffee mug to Nick.

Dr. Jameson hesitated a moment before taking his outstretched hand, his gaze drawn to Eric’s scar. Finally he offered his name, “Nick Jameson.”

Eric released his hand, then touched his scar. He was used to people staring at it. With a weak attempt at humor, he said, “You should see the other guy.”

The doctor shook his head. “A fist didn’t do that damage. I’d say jagged metal, maybe glass fragments. Car accident?”

“It was no accident,” Eric told him the same thing he had Molly, but he wouldn’t—he couldn’t—share much more. “Afghanistan,” he added, knowing that was probably explanation enough.

Nick nodded. “How long have you been back?”

“I’ve been back a couple of years.”

The doctor nodded again. “You were a medic over there,” he surmised.

“Yes, with the Marine Corps.”

“You did a good job with Westin.”

“Heard you did, too.” While Eric had delivered the accident victim to the E.R., Nick had performed the surgery that had saved the guy’s leg.

The doctor shrugged off the comment.

“Couldn’t have been easy,” Eric remarked, noting the rash on Nick’s forearms.

His voice defensive with pride, Nick began, “No…”

“Because of your poison ivy,” Eric explained, soothing the arrogant surgeon’s obviously wounded pride. “I break out every time I set foot near Cloverville Park.”

He remembered the blond-haired guy carrying the picnic basket, then spreading the blanket across the grass. Colleen must not have stayed outside the gate watching him.

Nick glanced down at his rash, which was already dried and healing. “I gave myself a cortisone injection and made sure I wasn’t contagious before I came back to work.”

Eric nodded. “Still damn uncomfortable. So where’d you get it?”

“Cloverville Park. But you knew that,” Nick surmised, his green eyes narrowed.

Eric grinned. “You’re the other one of the
GQ
docs.”

A muscle jumped in Nick’s jaw. He obviously didn’t appreciate the nickname.

“You’re the best man,” Eric continued. “Gossip around town is that you were spending time with Colleen McClintock.” Not that he listened to gossip.

Nick sighed. “I should have known someone would hear about us.”

“There are no secrets in Cloverville.” Except his and Molly’s. No one had ever guessed what they’d done before he left for the Marines. No one but them knew they had been each other’s first. Him Molly’s only. If he left her, she would find someone else—eventually. She wouldn’t wait for him again. His chest ached with the realization.

Nick grinned. “No, there aren’t. You were supposed to be in the wedding party, too.”

Eric nodded. “Yup, but there was no wedding.”

“No, there wasn’t.” Jameson studied him, as if trying to figure him out. “So you’re where Molly McClintock was staying.”

Eric nodded. “She’s gone home now.” His house—his bed—his life—would be so empty without her.

“So you’re in love with her,” Jameson guessed.

“For almost twenty years,” he admitted, not bothering to lie to Nick or himself.

“Then how come she almost married my friend and not you?” the surgeon wondered aloud.

“She was engaged to me first,” Eric shared.

“So she’s done this before, promised to marry a guy and then ran off?” Nick asked, his voice sharp with disapproval.

Eric shook his head in defense of the woman he loved. “I was the one who ran off.” He sighed and admitted, “And I was just about to do it again.”

“You’re leaving? Just Cloverville or the hospital?”

“The country,” Eric shared. He understood why Towers had chosen this guy as his best man—he was easy to talk to. Or maybe Eric just needed someone, anyone, to talk to since he’d pushed away his best friend. Molly.

“Now, that’s really running…”

“Yeah.”

“It would be a damn shame if you left the hospital,” Nick said. “I’ve noticed your work before. You’re the best damn EMT we’ve got.”

Eric nodded, accepting the compliment. He was good at his job. “That’s why I wanted to go back. Maybe I could do more good this time.” Maybe he could save more soldiers.

“You’re doing good here,” Nick praised him. “You’ve saved a lot of lives.”

“You’re the surgeon.”

“But you’re the one who keeps them alive until I can help them,” Nick pointed out. “We need guys like you
here,
too.”

As long as he was saving people, did it matter where he did it? Could he keep his job here, could he build the life here that he had been scared to imagine? A life with Molly? His heart thumped against his ribs as he let it fill with hope.

“Somehow I think Molly McClintock needs you, too,” Nick suggested. “And I think I finally have the answer to my question.”

“What question?”

“Why she stood up a great guy like Josh,” he explained. “She was already in love with another man.”

“That’s what she said,” Eric admitted.

“And you didn’t believe her?”

“I think I was afraid to believe her.”

“This is scary business,” Nick agreed with a heavy sigh. “This falling in love…”

And it was about damn time Eric stopped being a coward and running from his feelings and from Molly.

M
OLLY BREATHED DEEP
, inhaling the dusty aroma of books as if it were an expensive perfume. “I’m home,” she declared—with pride. Yet not enough pride to fill the emptiness and longing inside her.

To find her dream, she had gone back to second grade, to the career she’d envisioned for herself then. To find her true love, she had also gone back to second grade—to Eric. But he’d made it painfully clear that he didn’t want her love or her.

Her breath caught and then shuddered out in a ragged sigh. If he loved her, he wouldn’t leave her. Again.

The front door rattled, then clanked as it opened and slammed shut. Even though no one else was in the library to disturb this near closing time, Molly stepped up to the duties of her job. “Shh…”

Her irritation faded, replaced with pain, as the person stepped into her view. Clad in the white shirt and navy blue pants of his EMT uniform, he must have come directly from work. “Is it your uncle?” she asked. “Is he…”

Eric shook his head. “He’s alive.” He walked closer until only the checkout desk separated them. “And thanks to you, so am I.”

“For now.” She closed her eyes to hold in the tears. She’d already wept too many over him.

“Hopefully for a long time,” he said.

Her eyes still closed, she shook her head. “It’s too dangerous…”

“You don’t have to tell me,” he agreed.

“No.” She opened her eyes, and resignation pulled her shoulders down as if she carried a stack of encyclopedias on her back. “I don’t have to tell you because you won’t listen to anything I say. You didn’t last time, and you won’t this time.”

“No, I won’t,” he admitted. But he reached across the desk, brushing his fingertips along her jaw.

“Eric…” Emotion choked her, but she swallowed it down and summoned her pride. “Just leave me alone. Please, just leave me alone.”

His gray eyes warm, he shook his head. “I can’t…”

“Eric, please,” she murmured, her chest aching with a pain so intense she feared it would never go away—even if he did.

“I’m not going to reenlist. I can’t leave you again, Molly.”

Did she dare to hope he spoke the truth? Eric had never lied to her before. The pressure on her chest began to ease. “Really? You’ve changed your mind?”

“I may be a little slow, but I’m not stupid,” he joked.

She reached across the desk and smacked his shoulder. “Don’t tease me. Not now…”

“I hate that I hurt you,” he said, his voice thick with regret. “I’m sorry, so sorry.”

She pressed her fingers across his lips. “Quit.”

He shook his head, knocking her hand from his mouth. “I can’t quit. I tried,” he admitted, “but I never got over my crush on you.”

Molly ducked around the desk. “Is that all this is? A crush?”

He shook his head again as he closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her waist. “It was never just a crush.”

She drew in a breath, having to ask the question that had haunted her the past eight years. “Then how did you leave me?”

“I didn’t trust that you really loved me,” he explained. “We’d known each other since the second grade, and you never once acted like anything more than my friend.”

“But that night…”

“You didn’t want me to go.” He sighed, his eyes dark with regret for having hurt her. “You’d just lost your dad. We were close. You didn’t want to lose me, too. You had to have known how I felt about you—how I always felt about you.”

“Colleen and Brenna and Abby all insisted that you loved me.” Her breath hitched as she relived that night. “But still you were going…”

“So you came to me, you made love to me.”

“Didn’t that tell you something?” she wondered. “Didn’t that prove my love?”

“It proved your friendship,” he said. “It proved that you didn’t want me to get hurt. But I hurt you instead. And I’ve spent the past eight years regretting that. But I never regretted what we did. It was right that we were each other’s first.”

“Because we were each other’s first loves,” she said. “
Only
love. I wish you would have realized that then. I wish you would have trusted my love.”

“But you’ve always been so generous, Molly, so giving…”

“It was more than that.”

“I know that now.” He kissed her—just a light brush of lips across lips. Then he murmured against her mouth, “It was true love.”

“Still is.” But she pulled out of his arms.

His eyes filled with confusion at her reaction as his empty arms fell back to his sides. “Molly?”

She lifted a set of keys from the desk and jangled them in the air. Then she walked over to the front door and locked it. “The library’s closed.” There had always been something she’d wanted to do in it after dark—something that had nothing to do with reading.

She returned to him and reached for the buttons on his shirt. “As much as I love you in uniform,” she said as excitement quickened her pulse, “I’d love you more out of it.”

“Molly…”

She rose on tiptoe and pressed her mouth to his—to silence his protest. But Eric wasn’t protesting as he reached under her dress and pulled down her panties. They made love fast and furiously, standing up with her legs locked around his waist as he drove deep inside her.

But even when they weren’t making love he was deep inside her. He had always been.

His mouth imitated what his body was doing to her, his tongue sliding in and out of her lips. His hands gripped her butt, then slid up her back under her dress—pressing her against the chest she’d bared. The shirt hung from his shoulders, only the zipper of his pants undone.

She tensed, then shuddered as an orgasm rippled through her. Then Eric shouted, joining her in sweet release.

“That was crazy,” he murmured as he dropped onto a chair with her in his lap, held close to his madly pounding heart. “I’m sorry it was so fast….”

“We’ve gone slow before,” she said. “We’ll do it slow again.”

“We’ll do it all night—every night.”

She grinned at his ambition. But she wouldn’t try to stop him from achieving his dream. “Besides, we’ve already taken too much time.”

Time wasted like Mrs. Hild had wasted time she could have spent with her Ernest.

“So it’s true,” Eric said, gesturing around at the shelves of books. “You’re the new librarian.”

Molly nodded, bumping her forehead against his throat as she burrowed against his neck—never able to get close enough to him. “I was going to tell you the other day, but…” He’d shared his devastating news first. “I have to take a few more classes and get a degree in library sciences.”

“But they still gave you the job?”

“They trust me to take the classes and finish the degree. I hope you trust me now, too, Eric.” Running her fingers along his jaw, she tipped his face to hers and held his gaze, as she promised, “I will never leave you like the other people in your life have.”

“I know.”
He not only spoke the words; he meant them. He knew Molly—better than anyone else. “And that’s good because I’d hate for you to go out a window on our wedding day.”

“Oh, we’re going to have a wedding day?” she asked with mock innocence as she blinked her thick lashes.

“Don’t act surprised,” he said with a grin. “We’ve been engaged for twenty years. I think it’s about time we make it official.”

“Yeah, it’s about time.” She kissed him, her lips silky soft against his. “You know everyone else is getting married, too. Abby and Clayton. He finally gave her my mother’s engagement ring.”