Gansett After Dark (28 page)

“What?” she asked when she could speak.

Holding himself up on his elbows, he cupped her shoulders and held her as close to him as he could get her without squeezing the part of her where their babies rested. “You freaking ruin me every damned time.”

She pushed the shaggy blond hair back from his forehead. “
I
ruin
you
? Let’s talk about what you do to me.”

“Tell me what I do to you.”

“First of all, you make it so I can’t walk properly for days afterward.”

“That’s not true.” He raised her legs one at a time until they were wrapped around his hips. When he had her arranged the way he wanted her, he retreated slightly before advancing again, drawing a keening moan from her as she arched into him.

“It is true, but I love it. I love that I can feel you inside me long after we make love.”

“You can? Really?”

She nodded.

“You’ve never told me that before.”

“Hours later, I can still feel you, and everything is still pulsing and quivering.” As if to make her point, she contracted around him, making him groan. “It feels like mini-orgasms that go on and on.”

“God, I love it when you talk dirty to me. Tell me more.”

She laughed at his playful commentary, thrilled and relieved to see him relaxed and fully involved in what they were doing. “I love how big you are.”

He snorted with laughter. “Now you’re just lying to me.”

“No, I’m not. I do love it. I don’t love that it takes me forever to let you in, but I love the way you feel when we get there and I’m totally impaled by you.”

He growled against her neck, nibbling and sucking on her skin as he rocked deeper into her. “You’re going to make me come just from listening to you.”

“I love the way you hold me and kiss me. I love the way you smell and the way your cute butt flexes when you make love to me.” She sent her hands down his back to squeeze his cheeks, which sent him surging into her. “And I absolutely love when you lose control and really let go.”

“I’m always afraid to do that. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t. You couldn’t.”

“But the babies…”

“Are fine.” She lifted her hips, daring him to give her what she most wanted. “Please, Owen…”

“Tell me what you want.”

“You know!”

“Say it.”

“I want you to make love to me.”

“Oh so polite, Princess. Say what you really want.”

Her entire body was on fire for him, with every pressure point throbbing and tingling. “I can’t.”

“Then I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

“Owen!”

His soft chuckle made her smile, but her smile quickly faded when she realized he was withdrawing from her.

“No!” She grasped his ass and pulled him back. “I want you to fuck me.”

“There we go,” he said with a satisfied grin that had her averting her eyes in mortification.
 

“I’ve never said that in my life.”

“I love that you said it to me. I fucking love it.” He curled his hands around hers. “Hold on tight, babe.” He squeezed her hands. “Ready?”

“
Yes
.”

He started slowly, looking down at her and watching her closely to make sure she was with him before he picked up the pace, driving into her with deep strokes that made her scream from the full-body pleasure that overtook her. “Good?”

“Mmm, more. Faster.
Harder
.”

He released her hands to put one of his under her, lifting her to him as he possessed her. There was simply no other word for it. She was possessed by him, owned by him and captivated by him in every possible way. Their bodies were slick with sweat as they moved together, breathing hard and racing toward the finish line.

“Come for me,” he said pleadingly. “
Laura
…” He stroked into her and triggered another release, this one bigger and stronger than the other two put together, taking him with her this time.

Sagging against her, he continued to protect her abdomen until his arms began to tremble from the effort. He rolled to his side, bringing her with him, still embedded in her. “I love you. That was… I don’t even have the words.”

“Astonishing.”

“Yes. Yes, it was. You are astonishing.”

“You’re pretty damned astonishing yourself, and I love you, too.”

“When I’m making love with you, there’s no way I can think about anything but you and me and what we have together.”

“I’ll keep that in mind over the next few days. I see a
lot
of sex in your future.”

“I like the sound of that.”

She rested her hand on his face and smiled at him. “Anything I can do to help the cause.”

On the way home from the eventful engagement party, Mac and Maddie rode with the windows down in her SUV, letting in the warm summer breeze. “What a crazy-ass stunt on Jim’s part,” Mac said, disgusted by the asshole who’d once been his brother-in-law. “He’s all but ruined any chance he ever had to practice law on this island again.”

“I know. I’m so glad Tiffany isn’t with him anymore, but I hate that he did this to Ashleigh.”

“He never has had the proper respect for either of them, if you ask me.”

“He’s no Mac McCarthy, that’s for sure.”

He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “That’s nice of you to say, and really, when you think about it, who is?”

Maddie groaned. “I’m not going to dignify that with a response.” She looked over at him and then leaned across the center console to kiss his cheek. “Seriously, though, I mean it. Every day I feel like I hit the jackpot with you, but never more so than when I’m reminded of how awful my sister’s first marriage was.”

“I’m the one who hit the jackpot, babe, and as for Tiffany, at least she’s happy now with Blaine.”

“That she is, although he didn’t look too happy when he came back in for her.”

“I’m sure he’s pissed that she tried to confront Jim, and I don’t blame him. I would be, too, if you ever put yourself in that kind of danger.”

“I don’t blame her for what she did. She wanted him to stop before things got out of control.”

“Things were out of control the minute he walked in there and started knocking stuff over.”

“True. What do you suppose will happen to him now?”

“He’s going to face charges for sure. If he hadn’t grabbed the knife, it might’ve been a misdemeanor, but waving a knife around in front of a cop probably qualifies as a felony, and he actually stabbed Dan.”

“Jeez.”

“If he’s convicted, he could get disbarred, too.”

“I’ll never understand what’s wrong with him. He had everything and threw it all away.”

“His loss.”

“Definitely. Did you ever talk to your dad about the woman who came to the marina today?”

“I didn’t get a chance to with so many people around. I’ll ask him about it in the morning. I’m sure it’s nothing, or he would’ve told me.” He glanced over at her. “So I had this absolutely brilliant beyond brilliant idea today that I wanted to run by you.”

“I can hardly wait to hear this.”

“Ned was grousing this morning about how Seamus and Carolina stole their idea.”

“Stole their idea?”

“Apparently, he and your mom were planning to pull off a secret wedding disguised as a cookout.”

“Seriously? They were going to do that, too?”

“Yep, and he’s all bummed out because he really wants to be married to your mother, and it’s almost impossible to find a time when there isn’t something else going on. Then Grant showed up and announced that he and Steph are getting married on Labor Day. That really set Ned off.”

“I’m so glad Grant and Steph finally set a date. I was starting to worry about that.”

“So was he.”

“So what’s your brilliant idea?”

“Let’s give
them
a surprise wedding.”

“You want to surprise them with a wedding.”

“Yes.”

“Mac, when we got married, what exactly did you do to help plan the wedding?”

He thought about that for a moment. “I bought the house where we had the wedding.”

“
And?
”

“And I um… Well… I ah… I got married?”

“Exactly,” she said with a laugh. “You don’t have the first clue as to what it takes to plan a wedding, which is why you think this is such a brilliant idea.”

“How hard can it be? We can do it at our place. We need food and flowers and music. We invite everyone over for a party, and Uncle Frank marries them. Voilà. Done.”

“What about a license and rings?”

“Huh… Um, we can do that for them, can’t we?”

“As I recall, there’re signatures involved.”

“Come on, Maddie. There’s got to be a way. I’ll talk to Uncle Frank about how we get around the license thing. Will you talk to Tiffany to see if she approves of this and if she’ll help us? You two know what your mother would like. Let’s just do it.”

“It’s a nice idea. I’ll give you that.”

“It’s a
brilliant
idea.”

“Whatever you say, dear.”

Mac pulled into Grace’s pharmacy and turned off the truck.

“What do we need here?”

“I’ll tell you after I get it.” He left her with a kiss. “Be right back.” Mac went into the store and straight to the condom aisle in the back, which had been in the same place since he was a horny teenager on Gansett. Back then, the Golds had owned the store that now belonged to his future sister-in-law, Grace, who was fortunately not working tonight. In fact, he didn’t see anyone he knew. Thank God for small favors.

Grimacing, he grabbed an economy box of the extra-large ones, and then, laughing to himself, he got a box of the small ones, too, and went up to pay for them. “Could I get two bags please?”

“Sure,” the teenage girl at the register said, blushing to the roots of her hair when she realized what he was buying.

Even as a married man of thirty-seven with two kids and a third on the way, this transaction never got any less embarrassing. “Thanks.”

He walked out of the store with his bags and got back in the truck.

“What’d you get?” Maddie reached for the bags before he could explain. “Something you want to tell me?” she asked with that arched brow of hers.

“They’re for Janey. And Joe.”

“Huh?”

“She’s getting me back for what I did to her when we were dating.”

That set Maddie off into fits of giggles that had him laughing at her delight. “Oh my God, I love that! Good for her!”

“Good for her? You can’t be on her side and be married to me, too.”

“What’re you going to do? Divorce me?”

“I just might.”

“Oh hush. You couldn’t live without me. Why two bags?”

“Look at the sizes.”

Maddie examined the boxes and then burst out laughing again. “What’re you up to?”

“She told me to get the extra-large ones. You’ll see.”
 

Chapter 19