Summer's Road (21 page)

“Ian...”

“Shh. We’ll get there.” He tugged my shirt up and, with his palms on my back, he sucked one nipple into his mouth and swirled his tongue around the hardened peak. As if anticipating me crying out, he slapped a hand over my mouth to contain the noise and moved to the other breast.

I ground against him, hands fisted in his hair, legs shaking as they banded around his back. “Ian,” I pleaded, wondering who was doing it, because I’d never been reduced to begging.

A groan deep in his throat, he grabbed my ass, lifted me until I was positioned over his shaft, and brought me down on him. Before I’d even fully acknowledged him filling me, he cupped my head, brought my lips to his, and barked a hoarse cry into my mouth. He stilled, muscles vibrating, panting. His chest rose and fell, his arm around my back tense. He stayed like that long moments as if unable to move.

I opened my eyes to find him watching me. Raw animal hunger and caged aggression. My breath caught.

“Summer...” His broken whisper cut me. But he didn’t finish his thought.

Gaze never leaving mine, he wrapped his arms around me and thrust. Breaths rasping, he did it again and again, locking me in his gaze, in his arms, and I splintered. Clenching him inside me, I buried my face in his thick, dark hair as tremors wracked my body. He opened his mouth against my throat, his stubble deliciously abrading. He came with another shout against my skin, arms banding tighter like he thought I’d disappear.

Breaths soughing, we held each other, tangled, as the waves lapped below us.

“
W
ill you sit down, please?” Dee waved an impatient hand at me.

We were holed up together in the small bathroom upstairs, staring at the pregnancy test. I fidgeted, wringing my hands, pacing, making Dee more nervous. I couldn’t help it. “Sorry.” I sat on the edge of the tub. “You should be doing this with Rick.”

“No, I should be right here with you, so we can tell them after if I’m…” She let the statement hang for a moment. “How much longer?”

“Thirty seconds.” I closed my eyes tight, blew out a breath.

The week had gone by so quickly, like it usually did when we were here. An emotional roller coaster, but quick. Tomorrow, we’d be heading home. I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen with Ian and I when we got back to Wylie. Would the dynamic change? We’d been in our own world here, but returning home was a slap of reality.             

And wow. Dee pregnant? It would be wonderful to be an auntie. A pang of jealousy and longing filled me. I wanted us to raise our children together, to give our kids even a glimmer of what we had growing up. Summers by the creek, catching bullfrogs, climbing trees. There was nothing more heady, more concrete, than turning around and seeing my friends always there, covering my back. The camaraderie and loyalty and security only a true bond could hold.

I didn’t even know if Ian wanted kids. We’d made love, had our friendship, but there were so many things left up in the air. Matt’s proposal, too. Selfish as it seemed, I kept that in the back of my mind as a backup plan, as if expecting Ian and I to fail. Matt deserved better than that, and no matter what, I knew in my heart I’d say no when the two weeks had expired.

But every time a woman walked by on the beach, I’d wondered if Ian was checking her out. When we curled up after making love, I’d worried he was getting bored. He never gave me any indication that was the case, but yet the thoughts kept needling me.

“Okay, you do it.” Dee looked at me with wide eyes.

I stood, taking the test in my shaking hand. Two lines. We’d read the box a hundred times, but I checked it again. “You’re having a baby.”

“I’m what?” A little denial edged her voice.

My smile turned into a full grin. I took her shoulders and shook her. “You and Rick are having a baby.” I said the words slowly, over-pronunciating.

“Oh, my God.” Dee screamed. She grabbed her stomach and jumped. Laughing. “Oh, my God!”

Rick’s concerned knock and shouts through the door startled us both.

I leaned against the door, laughing. “He’s going to go crazy,” I whispered, then raised my voice so he could hear. “We’ll be out in a second.”

We squealed again for good measure.

When we got downstairs, Ian was stalking the living room, his parents were calmly sitting on the sofa, and Rick was staring out the patio door.

“What was the hold-up?” Ian barked. “We’re going to miss our dinner reservation.”

Ruth sighed. “You’re going to wear a hole in my carpet if you don’t calm down.”             

“Hey, Rivers?” I held up the pregnancy test wrapped with paper towel.

Rick faced me. His confused gaze met mine, then darted to his wife, jaw unhinged and a hopeful question in his eyes.

Dee smiled and ran into his arms.

Rick glanced at me over her shoulder as if seeking confirmation, proof.

God, my heart was so damn happy. “You’re going to be a daddy.”

He pulled Dee away from him, holding her at arm’s length, eyes wide with shock. “Are you serious?”

She nodded.

I nodded.

Ian laughed like a hyena. “No shit? Congrats, man.”

Mark chuckled and smacked Ian on the back while Ruth hugged Dee. “Well, how ‘bout that. Uncle Ian. Has a nice ring to it.”

Ian sat with a stupid grin and scratched his jaw. His parents, flanking him, wrapped him in an embrace on their old sofa, which creaked underneath the weight of them. It dawned on me, with hurricane force, that I’d never have a moment like this. My parents were gone, and I wasn’t sure where Ian and I were headed. I might never ever have kids.

Regardless, I watched my friends at the happiest I’d ever seen them, my heart so full it hurt. I think fell in love with Ian at that moment, suspended it in time for memory’s sake. I had suspected the shift after that first time we’d made love, but this moment clenched it. From birth, we’d loved each other. But this feeling in the pit of my stomach wasn’t for the friendship I had with the boy next door. It ached deep inside me, burned with blue fire, and consumed.

His gaze met mine from across the room, and it was like being leveled and erected in the same breath. I nodded, understanding.

I
bit my lip and stepped away from the easel, assessing the painting of Wylie that was mostly finished. My gaze skimmed over the other works, partially finished, and I made mental notes, gearing myself up for the week.

I hadn’t planned on painting tonight. I’d had a busy day sitting down with Rick to discuss a business plan, visiting my student Jon in the hospital, and finalizing details with Eric for the benefit. Plus, my attorney Tim and I had gone back and forth via phone regarding the issue of the house. It seemed Sharon was not going to back down on signing over the deed. I was wiped, but I needed to get my head back into the game. I’d been standing here for an hour, playing with color ideas and brush strokes, and I thought I finally had my mojo.

Sighing, I pulled my phone from my back pocket as a text chimed.

Ian: I have a problem. Can u come over?

My stomach bottomed out as my thumbs flew over the keypad.
What’s wrong?

Rushing into my bedroom to grab clean clothes, I threw them on as I waited for his response. My heartbeat a sickening thud, I glanced at the screen.

Ian: Just come
.

Oh God. Flipping lights off along the way, I bolted down the stairs and out the back door. Visions of him injured from a saw in his workshop or shooting a nail through his foot swam to mind as I raced across the grass. I waved the mosquitoes away from my face and skidded to a halt at the shed behind his house.

Dark. Crickets chirped.

I turned for the house, calling his name. Not in the living room. Or kitchen. “Ian?”

“Up here, in the bedroom.”

Taking the stairs two at a time, I rounded the landing and jerked to a stop over the threshold. Breaths soughing, I found him sitting cross-legged on his big bed, book in his hand. A quick glance around the room showed nothing amiss.

I refocused on him. “What’s wrong?”

He set the book aside and rose. His dark eyes zeroed in on me. With a naughty twist to his mouth, he ate the distance in three strides. I had the impression of being his prey a heartbeat before he cupped my face and kissed me. Long, languid strokes of his tongue stole whatever breath I had left and I instinctually leaned into him. My hands settled at his waist. Hard muscle shifted under my palms, and I traced a path around to his back.

After a nip to my lower lip, he pulled away to look down at me, pupils swallowing his irises. “Nothing’s wrong.”

I blinked. “You texted. You said you had an emergency.”

He stroked my jaw with his thumb, the calluses scraping my skin. “No, I said I had a problem, which is fixed now.”

“What?”

His grin was wicked hot, and I followed the sensual curve of his mouth to the dark stubble over his jaw, clenching my thighs.

“I missed you and had this fierce need to kiss you. A big problem in my book because you weren’t here.”

I pulled away, eyes narrowed. “Let me get this straight. You texted me that you had an emergency—“

“I said I had a
problem
.”

“—scaring the life out of me that you might be hurt—“

“Aw, sweetheart, I’m fine.”

“—and all so you could
kiss me
?”

He glanced at the ceiling and nodded, lower lip jutting. “Sounds about right.”

I slapped his chest and he laughed. “Jerk.”

“Worrywart.” He sobered, hand skimming over my hair and pulling out my ponytail. “Were you in the middle of something? Did I interrupt?”

Sort of. “Yes.”

“And you dropped what you were doing to come over. Because you thought I needed you or I was hurt.” Not a question and his tone indicated he was baiting me.

“Yes.”

He dragged his fingers over the back of my neck and heat infused every cell in my body. “What if you’d been covered in paint and on a breakthrough masterpiece of your adult career? Would you have come if I called?”

It was really hard to concentrate when his hard chest was pressed to mine and he was teasing me with gentle touches. “Yes.”

“And if you were teaching a class or across town saving the homeless, would you have come then if I called?”

Saving the homeless? “Of course, I would. You know that.”

A
gotcha
look lit his eyes and his lips curved.

I sighed, jarred back to a squabble we’d had in the car on the way home from visiting my student at the hospital. I’d been distracted and had mentioned I feared I got way more out of our friendship than he did. Needless to say, he hadn’t liked that. He’d jerked the car to the side of the road, threw the car in Park, and glared at me.
Don’t you ever, ever say something so stupid again.
We clear on that, Summer? Good.
Gear back in Drive, he’d peeled back onto the road.

Torn between pissed off and moved, I stared at him. “So the text was a ruse to prove your point from earlier today?”

A slow shake of his head. “No, I really wanted to kiss you. Proving my point was an added perk.” When I said nothing, because no words would come, he brushed his nose with mine. “You did make me pretty irate with that comment, though. I don’t know what in the hell put that notion into your head.”