Starting Over (Treading Water Trilogy) (31 page)

“Brandon,” she gasped, tugging at his pants. “I want you.”

He took her hand to stop her. “Wait, baby. This time’s for you.”

But she had other ideas. Smiling, she sat up and pushed him onto his back. “No, my love, this time’s for
you
.” She kissed her way to the waistband of his pants.

The soft drag of her hair over his chest and stomach had him gasping for air. “Daphne, honey…” He groaned as she quickly removed the rest of his clothes and let her nightgown drop to the floor.

A fine sheen of sweat covered his skin as she stretched out naked on top of him.

“There’s a condom in my pocket,” he managed to say.

“We’ll get to that.” She skimmed her tongue over his ear. “Eventually.”

Brandon had no choice but to lie there and take it as she set out to drive him wild. Her lips and hands were everywhere—on his face, his neck, his chest. When the tip of her tongue teased his nipple, he buried his fingers in her hair and fought the urge to flip her over and take what he wanted so desperately. But since he could see how much she was enjoying her power play, he resisted the urge and let her have her way with him.

She cupped his pectorals. “You’re so strong, Brandon. I always feel safe when I’m with you.”

As he exhaled a long deep breath that was one part emotion, two parts desire, a tremble rippled through him. “You won’t be safe for much longer if you keep that up.”

She dragged her tongue over his belly. “Keep what up?” Stroking him with her hand, she looked up at him. “This?”

“
Daph
…”

“What?”

At the exact moment her tongue swirled over the head of his penis, he reached his limit. Wrapping his arms around her, he turned them over.

“Hey,” she protested. “I wasn’t done.”

“I was.” He leaned in to kiss her, his tongue thrusting deep, his arms tight around her. When he finally came up for air, he kept his lips close to hers. “I’ve never felt anything even close to this. My heart feels like it’s going to burst through my chest.”

Her eyes were bright with emotion as she reached up to lay her hand on his chest to feel for herself. “I’ve never felt like this before either, Brandon.”

Her confession fueled his already rampant desire, but since he was anxious to regain some semblance of control, he started all over again at her lips. He nipped, sucked, and teased.

She moaned, and when her hand closed again around his erection, Brandon went blind with lust. All thoughts of slowing things down were abandoned. “Let me get the condom,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“Hurry.”

A minute later, he returned to her.

She held out her arms to him.

He sank into her embrace, overwhelmed by emotions that were all new to him. “I love you, Daphne. It took me so long to find you and to say those words. Now it’s like I can’t say them enough.”

“I’ll never get tired of hearing them.”

He bent his head for a kiss that was more about love than desire.

“Brandon?”

“Hmm?”

“Turn over.”

Startled, he looked down at her.

With her hands on his shoulders, she urged him onto his back.

“Daphne…”

“
Shh
.” She straddled him and took him in. Tilting her head back, she sighed with contentment.

The effort to hold back, to wait for her, had him trembling as he gripped her thighs. Her skin was so silky smooth, her scent so intoxicating, and the wet, hot sound of their loving so enticing, Brandon had to bite his lip—hard—to keep from exploding.

Her sighs drifted into moans. The sway of her hips became more urgent. Her nails scored his chest.

“
God
,” he groaned. “Daphne…”

Suddenly, she stopped. Her eyes closed, and her lips parted, she climaxed with a mighty shudder.

Feeling her clutch him hard from within, he gripped her hips and finally let himself go.

Brandon couldn’t have moved even if the place was on fire. So much for his big talk about two or three times—he’d be lucky to ever recover from this first time with her. “I found a new word.”

“For what?”

“To replace goddess.”

Since she was still stretched out on top of him, her laughter echoed through him. “What’ve you got?”

“Witch. You’ve cast a spell over me and left me paralyzed.”

She nibbled on his lip. “That way I can have my way with you over and over again, and you can’t stop me.”

The one part of him that wasn’t paralyzed came back to life. “Stopping you isn’t in my plans, don’t worry.”

Laughing, she kissed him lightly. “Was it different, Brandon?”

“I’ve never been rendered paralyzed before, if that’s any indication.”

“It seems not
all
of you is paralyzed.”

Brandon rolled them over so he was on top of her. “Everything about you is different from anyone I’ve ever known.” He gazed down at her. “I think I knew that the first day when you yelled at me—twice.”

Daphne laughed and hid her face in embarrassment. “Your father had driven me to it. You were just the one who answered the door.”

“Best thing I’ve ever done,” he said, reclaiming her lips, “was answer that door.”

“
Brandon
,” she gasped when he moved in her.

“What?” he whispered.

“I thought you were paralyzed.”

“Looks like it was temporary.”

Colin ignored his ringing cell phone as he tried to process what Meredith had said.
Someone tried to kill her?
When the phone rang again a minute later, he pulled it from his pocket with impatience to check the caller ID. “I’m sorry, I have to take this. It’s work.” He flipped open the phone. “O’Malley.”

“Hey, Colin, it’s Jesse,” said Chatham’s director of public works. “We’ve got a break in the sewer main. We need someone right away. Can you guys do it?”

Pulled in two directions at once, Colin’s head spun. It was a big job, and the town had called them first, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to refuse. “I’ll see what I can do and get right back to you.” He ended the call and clutched Meredith’s hand. “I’m sorry, honey. Give me one minute to deal with this, okay?”

She nodded, still wiping tears from her face.

Colin wanted to toss the phone onto the beach, but instead he called Declan.

“What?” Dec growled.

“I need a favor. Can you round up a crew and get in touch with Jesse Silvia? They’ve got a broken sewer main.”

Declan groaned. “I’m in bed, Col. Come on…”

“It’s eight thirty.”

“I didn’t say I was sleeping.”

Colin took a deep breath to summon patience. “I wouldn’t ask for help if I didn’t really need it. I’ll explain tomorrow. Will you do it?”

“All right,” Dec grumbled. “But this had better be good.”

“It is. Thanks.” He turned off his phone and put it back in his pocket. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Meredith said. “You’re running a business.”

“This is much more important—you’re much more important.”

She swiped at the tears that spilled down her cheeks.

“Tell me.”

Hesitating, she seemed to be making a decision. After a long pause, she took a deep, rattling breath. “He was my high school boyfriend. Kevin was quarterback of the football team, everyone’s best friend, a great student, you know, the whole package. I had the biggest crush on him, but I didn’t want to be like the girls who were always throwing themselves at him. Maybe that’s why he picked me over all of them.”

Colin tucked a strand of long dark hair behind her ear. “I’ll bet you were the prettiest girl in school.”

“I wouldn’t say that. But anyway, we dated our whole senior year and all that summer before we went to college.”

“Where’d you go?”

“Boston College. He went to MIT, so we stayed together while we were in Boston. The only thing about him I didn’t like was the way he drank. It was never a social thing. The goal was always to get drunk, and when he was drunk, he could be mean.”

Colin held her hands and waited for her to go on.

“I finally broke up with him at the end of our sophomore year of college. By then, he was drinking every day, and one time he got rough with me when we were…” A tear rolled over a cheek that had turned red with embarrassment.

“What?” He brushed away the tear as his stomach clutched because he already sensed what she was going to say.

“In bed,” she whispered. “He hurt me, and I told him it was over between us. I gave him a choice—he could either drink or he could have me. He said some really awful things to me that night, and it was clear he wasn’t going to pick me.”

Colin pulled her back against him. “He was a fool.”

“He was an alcoholic, but he didn’t know it yet. After we broke up, a friend told me about Al-Anon. I went to my first meeting that summer, and I’ve been involved ever since.” She took a deep breath to calm her emotions. “Anyway, I didn’t see him again for about three weeks, and then he turned up at a party one of our mutual friends was having. He begged me to talk to him, and for once he didn’t seem drunk, so I did. I know I was so naïve, but I hoped we could be friends after spending three years together.”

“Anyone would want that.”

“We went for a ride in his car, and I didn’t realize he had beer with him until it was too late. He was drinking in the car, so I asked him to take me home.” She started to cry again, her face resting against Colin’s chest. “But he said we were going to talk first, and he drove to the beach. He kept telling me how sorry he was and how much he loved me. Then he started to cry and said he couldn’t live without me. He made me cry, too, and one thing led to another… I was so mad at myself after. I’d made a clean break with him, and it took him all of five minutes to get me back.”

“You loved him.”

“I really did.” She took a deep breath. “I insisted he let me drive to my house, and when we got there, I took the keys and got out of the car. I was going to talk him into sleeping on the sofa in the basement. My parents liked him, but they had no idea how much he drank. They were always lecturing my sister and me about drinking and driving, so I knew they wouldn’t care if he stayed. We went through the gate to the backyard, and he started wrestling with me for the keys. The whole thing escalated into a screaming match, because I knew if I gave them to him, he’d go meet his buddies and get even drunker. More than anything, I was afraid he’d kill himself in a car accident. So I threw the keys into the pool.”

She began to tremble in Colin’s arms. He wanted to tell her to stop, but he knew if she didn’t finish this, there’d be no chance for them.

“He went crazy,” she said in a small voice. “He was screaming and swearing, calling me every name you can think of. He grabbed me by the hair to drag me into the pool and held me under the water, screaming, ‘Get those keys, you fucking bitch!’ He just kept saying it over and over again and was so loud I could hear him underwater. I was struggling to get away from him, but he was so strong. I started to see spots in front of my eyes and knew I was going to drown if he didn’t let me go soon.”

Listening to her, Colin had tears running down his face, too.

“That’s the last thing I remember. I woke up in the hospital a week later. Apparently, my sister, Melanie, heard us fighting, but by the time she came outside to see what was going on, he was gone, and I was floating facedown in the pool. We had air-conditioners in our bedrooms, but she hadn’t turned hers on that night, so she was able to hear us. That’s the only reason I’m alive today. She pulled me out of the pool and did mouth-to-mouth to get me breathing again. When I came to and told them what happened, Kevin was arrested and charged with attempted murder.”

“Jesus,” Colin whispered.

“I had to testify against him—the first boy I ever loved, the only boy I’d ever made love with. I put him in jail for ten years, Colin.”

“But you got a life sentence, didn’t you? This is why you don’t date. It’s why you won’t let yourself take a chance on another relationship. He took so much more from you. Ten years was the least he could do.”

“He was released four months ago. He got sober in prison, and he’s working the program, making his amends. That’s why he wants to see me, but I can’t see him. I just can’t.”

“You thought I was him tonight when I pulled up on the bike.”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, brushing his lips over her hair.

“I was so glad it was you—and not just because you weren’t him.”

“I’m not him.” Colin tilted her face to receive his kiss. “I’d never, ever hurt you.”

“I’m starting to believe that.”

“You
can
believe it.”

“This last month, knowing you were out there somewhere, it was just…”

“Torture?” he asked, using his own word for it.

She nodded.

“I’m right here, Meredith, and I love you.” He kissed her with a new sense of urgency, knowing if she sent him away this time he’d never survive it. “Has there been anyone else? Anyone since him?”