Miracle Pie (9 page)

“She called me the day she left her husband,
ready to forge ahead.”

Katie shrugged. “Life doesn’t add up like
sums all in a row. Life adds up sideways. Like a recipe. You add
this and that, and then you think how much wonderful another flavor
would do inside. And it’s like magic.”

“She should listen to me. My idea is the
magic ingredient.”

“Maybe what’s magic for you isn’t magic for
Rosa.” A small frown line creased Katie’s forehead. “She watched
the cooking shows for years, and I think it’s been festering inside
her that if she had the chance, she could do it as well as the
other chefs. And she could.” She nodded sharply. “In fact, she
could do better. “

“It would be a great way to show her husband
that’s he’s a fool.”

Katie made a rude sound. “He’s been a fool
for many years. The whole village knows it.”

“His kids?”

She looked down, and he could practically
see invisible barriers shoot up around her. “It’s hard having a
parent that behaves badly.”

“You sound like you know something about
it.”

“It was a long time ago. My mom
had...problems. I’ve lived with my dad since I was almost six, and
I’m okay now.” She gave him a tight smile. “We were talking about
Rosa. She’s afraid to change her dream. She doesn’t know anything
about videos. She’s probably afraid it will be too much for her and
she won’t have any control.”

“Everyone is afraid. Everyone worries they
won’t have control. Everyone is concerned that it might be too much
for them.”

“Even you?”

“When I was a kid, I almost died.” He
frowned. Now they’d reached his discomfort zone. “Something like
that, it makes you feel you must be here to do big things.”

“Yet here you are in a small village.”

“This is temporary. I’m not staying
here.”

“I keep forgetting you’re leaving soon.” She
looked down at her hands folded on her lap. “Two of Katie’s boys
are here. Her oldest is at a culinary school in New York. The
second works in the restaurant she and her husband started. The
third was working for him but quit when he found out what his
father did.”

“Good for him.”

Katie nodded. “As long as Rosa’s two sons
are here, she won’t leave. And unlike me, she’s ambitious. She
outdoes me by about one hundred to one. Compared to her, I’m a
slacker.”

“That’s not true,” he said.

She gave him a sharp glance. “You’re just
saying that.”

“I’m not the kind of guy that just says
things.”

“When men want something, they all turn into
that kind of guy.”

He wanted to laugh but what she said was too
close to the truth. He rested his arm on top of the backrest, his
fingers about two inches from her hair. “What do you think I
want?”

“The video.”

“I didn’t have to come here for that. Not
tonight.”

Her expression looked trapped. She picked up
her drink, brought the rim of the glass to her mouth, sipped, then
put it on the coffee table again and turned to face him, her chin
raised defiantly. “You’re a man and I’m not. I’d say you want the
usual.”

“Affection,” he said.

“Sex,” she said, and her defiant look
morphed into an I-dare-you-to-lie glare.

A smile built inside his chest. “Connection
with another person.”

“Sex,” she said, her glare lightening.

The smiled widened. “Companionship.”

“Sex,” she said, and now her eyes laughed at
him.

Exhilaration fizzed inside him. He slid over
to the middle cushion. “Affection,” he repeated.

“Sex.” Her voice turned raspy.

He slid his arm around her shoulders,
watching her face carefully. As if she were a bird who might fly
away any second.

Like a bird in a pair of hands, she
trembled. Then she looked into his eyes. Her face softened. With a
sigh, she seemed to melt against him, boneless, like Alice sliding
down into Wonderland.

He leaned forward to catch her mouth with
his and felt himself sliding, too. Sliding into her embrace.
Sliding into her kiss. Mouth to mouth. Tongue to tongue. Chest to
chest.

He held her tight, as if to keep them from
slipping away from each other. Because what they were doing was a
slippery thing, and anything could happen. The worst and the
best.

She tasted like rum and smelled like
vanilla. He wanted to lick her skin and see if it would taste as
good as she smelled. Taste like pie. A Katie pie.

He moved down from her mouth, giving her
small kisses along her jaw. She wrapped her arms around his neck
and made small noises as he kissed down to her throat, his mouth
above her pulse. She seemed so clean and so fresh. So pure in her
heart and soul. But the way he felt right now was anything but
pure.

She made a protesting sound and jerked away
from him. Breathing heavily, she put her hands on her cheeks. “I
told you that you wanted sex.”

His mind howled. Howled loudly like a dog
that had lost his nice, chewy bone. “What about you? What do you
want?”

Chapter Thirteen

The silence stretched out too long, and her
mind was blank. She needed a pie to answer this, but sometimes pie
wasn’t enough. Sometimes she needed more. Arms. A hard body. The
thrust and pull of a man. Sometimes the need came upon her like the
need for a lemon meringue pie, normally one of her least favorite
pies, so overwhelming she felt she would die if she didn’t get
it.

And then when she did eat a piece, she would
think
That’s all? That’s it?

That’s how men were for her. Every time.

The need was once again drawing her back to
Gabe. All her body cared about was that it wanted him with an
overwhelming hunger, the way a vampire wanted blood. If she didn’t
satisfy that sexual hunger, her soul would starve.

Yet after she had it, she was always left
with a bitter taste in her mouth. Sex stopped the ache of the
hunger, but it never satisfied her half as much as a plain apple
pie like Gram used to make. Sex was always a disappointment.

While pie...well, pie never
disappointed.

“Love?” he asked, staring at her. “Is that
what you want?

Her heart thumped. Love? No! For one thing,
he was leaving. And just the thought of leaving Miracle made her
feel sick and lost and scared.

Even if he weren’t leaving, she hardly knew
him.

She stood. Her hands shook. Her body shook.
As though an earthquake had traveled through the village when she
wasn’t looking.

“Not love. I just want you,” she whispered,
knowing when push came to shove—or man came to woman—it would be no
different than the other times. But the knowledge didn’t matter.
Her body was in charge, and it was demanding this. Like a child
having a tantrum in the grocery store, the hunger was voracious.
Demanding. Taking over her mind and body. Probably because it had
been unfed for too long. A sexual starvation. That’s why she felt
if she couldn’t have him she would die.

“You’re killing me,” he said.

Oh God, she knew how he felt. “Then let me
heal you.”

He froze for an instant, looking at her as
if she were a witch. It felt as if the world stopped for that
instant. “I swear you told me that before.”

“In your dreams?”

He shook his head, and the heat in his face
lessened, his brow furrowed as though figuring out a math
equation.

She could give him a math equation. One man
plus one woman equaled pretty damn good fun.

Or at least it would get rid of the
soul-itching
need
that shouted so loudly,
Feed me! Feed
me now!

“You should be the star in a video,” she
said. “Not me.”

“Why?”

“You’re...mesmerizing. You’re like the
sun.”

He smiled slowly. Warming his face and eyes
like the slow fire burning inside her. “Right now I feel as hot as
the sun.”

“So what are we going to do about all this
heat?” she whispered.

“This,” he said. His eyes lighting up even
brighter, he took her hands in his and pulled her down onto his lap
so she faced him, her knees spread on either side of his thighs.
Their lips met, melded, loved.

Small sounds came out of her mouth and their
upper bodies came together. His hands slid under her top and up her
back. She murmured with satisfaction. Her skin loved the contact,
the warmth of his palms and fingers making her nerve ends purr.

With a twist of his body, he toppled her
onto the couch with her thighs still around him. Then he was on top
of her, pressing down on her most sensitive spot as he kissed her
again and again. She squirmed and pressed her hips up, wanting
more. Much more.

She wanted everything.

His hands continued their caressing.
Slipping up the sides of her ribcage and onto her breasts.

Small whimpers came out of her mouth. She
pressed her hips up more and held on tight. If she kept this up,
she would explode soon. Explode into a thousand pieces.

Then his lips left hers and she felt lost,
disoriented. He rained small kisses down her face, then down her
neck, and now she felt found. Wonderfully, amazingly found.

“I want to kiss every inch of your body,” he
murmured.

She moaned in need. She moaned in agony.
Grabbing his shoulders, she pushed him up and away, though he
resisted.

“Now,” she said. “I want you
now.
”

His face stilled and then tensed. He rolled
off her, standing on the carpet. Without a word, he unsnapped and
unzipped his jeans. As if in an erotic dream, she slid from the
sofa then pulled off her clothes. Usually neat, she tossed her
pants and top onto the carpet. Her bra landed on the coffee table.
Her panties on the chair across the room.

They both stood there, and she looked him up
and down and tried not to think he looked better than she did. But
it was the truth. His legs, arms and chest were leanly muscled.
Though he didn’t have a six pack, his stomach was flat. His
package... Her breath sucked in, and her skin heated. No complaints
there.

But more than anything else, his skin
gleamed golden, making him look like a statue come to life.

Almost afraid, she reached out and touched
his arm. “It feels real,” she whispered.

He put his hand over hers. His blue eyes
blazed. “It’s all real.” He drew her hand down over his hard
pectoral muscle, his nipple drawing a line on her palm. The contact
sent a current through her arm and downward.

Her hand went downward, too. Down over his
ribcage, down over the flat stomach, then down onto his erection
that twitched under her hand.

“Does that feel real?” he asked.

She braced her legs to keep from crumbling
to the floor. Closing her eyes, she explored him while he explored
her. He started with his hand on her shoulder. And then her breast.
And then lower, between her legs.

His fingers were magic.

She felt so much and so deeply, she couldn’t
contain herself. Her body shook crazily, but still she didn’t stop
touching him and he continued to touch her and rub her and touch
and rub her some more...

Oh God, oh God, this is wonderful.

Oh God, oh God, never stop.

He stopped. A protest mewled from her mouth,
the need inside her raging. Her eyes opened to see him rolling on a
condom. All she could think was
Thank you, God.
Though she
suspected God didn’t really have anything to do with
this
.

Before she could think any more crazy
thoughts, Gabe grinned and stepped forward to kiss her again,
bending her backward.

Then she was falling, a crazy, wild
free-fall, clutching him tightly. They landed on the sofa and he
was on top of her, her knees bent to keep her feet from dangling
over the sofa arms.

“Are you ready?” he asked and his eyes, his
beautiful eyes, were melting her. Everything about him was melting
her, as if she were caramel about to drizzle onto crisp slices of
apples.

“Yes. Yes, yes, yes.”

He entered her laughing. A triumphant,
glorious laugh. That same triumph swelled inside her. This was the
most wonderful feeling in the world.

Immediately he found her G-spot, her joy
spot, the fireworks-inside-her spot. She clenched him with her
inner muscles and gave a little scream. Once, twice, three times,
staring into his glowing eyes as he moved in and out, in and out,
sliding along that same wonderful spot. She pushed up and her
little scream escalated into a loud scream. Over and over, and it
was wonderful, it was fabulous.

Then he collapsed on top of her, grunting
and huffing. His skin slick and hot.

She reached up and curled her arms around
him, holding him tightly. They remained clasped together. She felt
the hammering of his heart, and she knew hers was thumping just as
fast and furious. They held on to each other for moments as their
thundering hearts slowed and an overwhelming tiredness slugged
through her body.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes. It was
like a fairy tale come true... Only it wasn’t a prince she’d just
made love with.

“You’re my angel,” she murmured. “My angel
Gabriel.”

Chapter Fourteen

The sleeping dog snored softly and the
sleeping woman curled on the sofa moaned in her sleep. Gabe stood
by the sofa, his clothes on now but not ready to leave yet. It felt
too right being here in this small house in this tiny village with
this one woman. At the same time, the rightness unsettled him. He
was a big city boy, and he had big city boy plans. This was a
temporary place, a one-time gig.

A long sigh came from Katie, and it echoed
the unspoken sigh in his mind.

“Shh.” He tucked the throw he’d grabbed from
the chair around her, as if she were a child.

Not that he’d imagined she was a child when
he made love to her. But in his mind he saw a girl child. Thin and
serious with brown hair, big eyes and a big heart.