Heartstrings (22 page)

She set her fork on her plate and picked up her wine glass. As she looked into the slightly amber liquid, she said, “I’ll never forget the first time I heard it. I was driving Emily to the doctor for a checkup when the DJ came on and said that he’d just got a new single in from you.”

“What was wrong with Emily?”

She blinked and met his narrowed eyes. “Oh, nothing. It was just a well-child visit. She was scheduled to get an immunization. That’s all.”

“She wasn’t sick?”

His concern made her sinuses burn. “No, but I almost missed the appointment. I still get goose bumps when I think of hearing you on the radio back then. I had to pull over because I started crying. I was just so damned proud of you.”

He looked away, but not before she caught the shadowy emotion in his eyes. What it meant, she couldn’t tell.

She grabbed her chest at the bitter-sweetness of the memory. “It took me twenty minutes to get myself under control after the DJ announced your name. But in those twenty minutes, the radio station buzzed with people calling in about the song and about you. They loved you, and I knew I’d made the right choice. I would’ve only held you back.”

He swallowed so hard his throat moved, and his voice dipped low. “After it was released, I often wondered if you ever got its meaning.”

“I think maybe I’ve always known it was about us, but convinced myself it wasn’t. It was easier that way.”

“Why?”

“Because I never wanted to admit I might have been wrong. I didn’t want to admit I’ve always loved you.”

Seth laid his fork down and tossed back his second glass of champagne. He picked up his plate and headed to the sink, dumped his uneaten dinner in the garbage and set the plate in the sink with a clank.

* * * *

Abby had admitted to loving him, but it hadn’t made him feel any better. If anything, her admission made things worse. She’d lied to him.

He braced his arms against the edge of the sink and leaned over them. The scrape of her chair against the plank floor grated against his ragged nerves. Damn, he shouldn’t want her so much. His entire body was on fire with need. He shouldn’t love her so much his heart ached.

But he did.

When she moved in beside him, he closed his eyes against the floral scent of her skin. “Why did you lie to me about your feelings?”

The implications of her confession hung heavy in the air between them.

“I knew you’d stay. And I knew it would’ve destroyed you. But I couldn’t go with you for the same reason. Even if you would’ve married me. I wasn’t even eighteen yet. What would all those people out there who voted for you, who supported the clean-cut Texas kid, have thought of you then?”

“Damn it, Abby! I loved you.” He turned to look at her.

She leaned her backside against the counter and met his gaze with eyes full of painful regret. She’d known him better than anyone. She knew about his mother and his fear of becoming like her. He didn’t agree with her reasoning for not going with him, but he understood why she’d think the way she did. The people of McAllister never had much tolerance for her. Why would she think the rest of the world would be any different?

He’d show her they had a future. Show her how much he loved her. Moving away from the sink, he wrapped his hand around the back of her head. He pulled her to him and possessed her lips with a kiss meant to claim her, to brand her.

Her hands went around him to his ass, clenching at his flesh through his boxer briefs. She tasted of champagne and salty tears when she opened her mouth under his. He groaned and ran his free hand over the silk of her top to cup her breast. Her nipple hardened under his fingers as she arched into his touch.

He plunged his tongue deep into her sweet mouth. Her tongue caressed his and dueled with him. She pressed her soft curves into his over-sensitive erection and ground against him. When she slipped her hands under his waistband and scraped her fingernails over his bare skin, his cock went beyond hard.

He growled and grabbed her top. Breaking the kiss, he pulled it over her head. She pushed his briefs over his hips, and he yanked her sexy little shorts to the floor. With the side of his hand, he shoved the dishes off the counter into the sink with a clang of broken glass and lifted her onto the edge.

He slid his lips over her chin to her neck, stopped to suckle at the racing pulse, then rained nipping kisses down to her breast. The dark brown peaks stood atop beautiful full breasts. He sucked in one of the luscious buds and fingered the other one.

She arched her back, and her head lolled to the side when he scraped his teeth over the rock-hard pebbles. Her legs surrounded him and pulled him closer. “Seth...”

Deep in his soul, he heard the plea in her breathy call. With love and desire for her, he’d do anything to please her. Slipping his lips over her belly, he knelt before her, then draped her long, shapely legs over his shoulders. He looked up into her passion-darkened eyes and parted the dark curls covering her weeping sex.

* * * *

Abby fisted her fingers into Seth’s hair as he placed open-mouthed, sucking kisses over her inner thigh to her most intimate place. His lips and the brush of his beard on her were pure decadence. He flicked his tongue over her, and she cried out at the jolt of sweet pleasure. Her breathing hitched when his hands stroked up her body to cover and knead her breasts. As he rolled her hard nipples between his fingers, he suckled her, taking her to a place so high she couldn’t breathe.

When the orgasm started, she gasped and screamed his name. Grasping at his hair with her hands and tightening her hold on him with her legs, she didn’t want to let the pleasure go. She didn’t want to let him go.

The last shudder quaked through her, and her sated body relaxed. She opened her eyes and her cheeks heated at the sight of him still between her legs, his green eyes bright with the fire of his own desire, and a cocky, sexy grin curving his moist lips.

“You’re a wildcat, woman.”

She smiled and brushed her fingers over his stubble-roughened cheek and into his wavy, silky hair. “You make me wild.”

Cupping the back of his head, she bent and captured his lips. He stood, wrapped her up, and lifted her off the counter. She bit his bottom lip and thrilled at her power when he growled low in his chest. He caught her tongue and sucked, and then thrust his deep into her mouth in direct imitation of what she wanted him to do to her.

By the time they made their way into the alcove holding a king-sized bed, she was breathless, the ache to have him inside her unbearable.

He laid her on the soft mattress, reached for a condom from the shelf beside the bed and sheathed himself. She pulled him over her, and his lips found hers again. As he cupped her breast, his thumb maddeningly fanned the sensitive nipple.

She moaned, moved her hand between them to his long, thick erection. She stroked him with one hand while her nails raked his back, pulling him to her. He rose over her and stared down at her.

The love she saw in his hungry eyes filled her with deep and overwhelming joy. She’d never felt anything so profound before. He lifted her legs and draped them over his shoulders. When he filled her with a single, powerful thrust, the sense of completion, the connection so intimately shared with this beautiful man, almost shattered her.

He pulled the whole way out and pounded into her, deeper than before. Each thrust came quicker than the one before until he set a frantic rhythm.

He tossed his head back and gritted his teeth as her orgasm washed over her, hot, wild, and amazing. She met him thrust for thrust, her inner muscles grasping him and pulling him deeper with each turbulent wave. As she’d expected the storm to subside, she gasped when the sensations swept her higher than before.

Her cry of ecstasy matched his shout of triumph as she tumbled over the pinnacle again–this time, taking him with her.

She’d never give him up without a fight and would do anything to keep him by her side.

Chapter 11

“I met with an architect Frank recommended and a contractor Tucker Cowley suggested, yesterday.” He took Abby’s hand and led her around the house on the Double K to the backyard. “If we can believe the contractor, he said he’ll have the renovation done by the end of November.”

Maybe by then he’d know if they had a future.

God, he hoped so.

They stopped at the back of the kitchen. “What do you have planned?”

The past week had been pure bliss. He’d practically moved in with her since their return from the cabin Sunday night, but he knew it was short-lived. Emily would return Sunday, and they both agreed they had to cool things off a little when she came home.

They also planned to sit down with her Sunday evening and tell her the whole truth.

As much as he wanted her to know, the prospect scared the hell out of him.

“I’m going to completely redo the kitchen and add a studio over there.” He pointed to an area at the back of the house behind the study. “Over the new addition, I’d like to add a master bedroom suite.” The moment the words were out, he glanced at her.

“Sounds nice.”

“I think so. I hope you’ll help me with the house.” He studied her and held his breath. “I’m meeting with the architect Monday to finalize my plans before he draws anything up. I’d like you to be there.”

What would she say if he asked her about that future?

“I don’t know how much help I’d be. I’m no good at that kind of thing.”

“I’m not either. Mainly because I don’t have time to be. If you’d like, I’ll hire an interior decorator. I want a place to come home to after being on the road for long stretches of time.”

I want to come home to you
.

The wind seemed to get a whole lot colder within a heartbeat. As she folded her arms in front of her, she faced him. She was good at burning hell-fire hot one moment and polar cold the next. “How much time will you be living here if you’re on the road so much?”

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I’ll be gone a lot. I can’t deny that. But I hope by adding the studio, I can do a lot of my recording here instead of having to go to Nashville.”

“How much time away are we talking about?”

She wouldn’t like his answer. Hell, he didn’t like his answer. “At least six to eight months. I’m planning a world tour early next summer. This will be the longest time. Australia and Europe, then Canada before hitting the States again in the late fall. I’ll be able to come home between dates, but those stays won’t be long.”

She nodded and looked over the pastures beyond the fence. Somewhere a cow lowed and a bird flew past them, making the silence stretch all the longer. “I heard your new song on the radio this morning.”

That love song with Amanda. “What did you think of it?” He already had a pretty damned good idea from the way she was acting.

She shrugged and rubbed her arms. “Did you write it?”

He sighed and looked at the dirt. If he lied, she’d only learn the truth anyway. “Amanda and I, along with another Nashville writer, wrote it together.”

“Oh. Will she be going on this world tour with you?”

“We’re planning a few dates together in Australia in June.”

Looking at her watch, she said, “I’d better get going. I have to work this evening.”

“Abby.” He reached over and took her by the arm to turn her toward him. “Amanda and I have a professional relationship and nothing more.”

“I guess I just need to get used to that.” She smiled, but it didn’t fully reach her eyes.

He held her close and covered her mouth with his in a passion-laced kiss. When he finally pulled away, he feathered the back of his fingers over her cheek. “I love you, Abigail. No one else. Remember that.”

She seemed to relax into him, and her smile lit her face. “I love you, too.” She kissed him again before moving out of his arms. “Now, I really have to go. I’m meeting Jenny Lynn and Darlene for lunch before I have to be at work.”

He walked her back to her truck. As he opened the door for her, he said, “See you tonight.”

She got in and turned to him. Her eyes brightened as she cranked the engine of the big Chevy. “Definitely.”

* * * *