In Love and Rescue: When love is the perfect rescue... (35 page)

“Oh really?” Doug asked. “Which part?”

Ivor stroked his chin and thought for a second. “It is right there in
Puh-salms
.”

The room erupted in laughter and Ivor soon joined in, doubling over in amusement. Desmond
looked over at Larke to find her gaze steadied on him, the corner of her mouth slightly upturned, and the noise in the room drowned out to a low buzz as their gazes locked. Wren noticed and ushered everyone out of the room to give them privacy, but even as they left, neither Larke nor Desmond seemed to notice.

When the door closed, Desmond moved back to the edge of Larke’s bed. He leaned down and pressed a kiss against her lips which Larke readily reciprocated. Then, he placed his forehead against hers.

“Des?” She called.

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

He leaned back. “What’d you say, girl?”

She laughed. “I said that I love you.”

“I love you too, Larke.”
He traced his fingers over her eyebrows, lids, nose, and lips before kissing them again. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“
When I saw Jarvis pointing that gun at you, I thought the same thing,” she added. “That I don’t know what I’d do without you either.”

He smiled. “I’m sorry I left you
.”

“And I told you that I forgive you.”

“I’ll never do it again. I promise.”

“Oh, I know you won’t,” she said with a laugh. “Matter of fact, you’re going to start making it up to me right now.”

She pulled him in for a kiss, this time longer and deeper. Cradling the back of his neck, she drew her sustenance from his lips. She tasted and ladled, gently nipping his bottom lip until he pulled away at the sound of her shallow breath.

“I can’t wait for you to get better,” Desmond said.

“Me either,” she honestly replied. “I want you to show me what the ‘hard’ stands for in ‘Harding.’”

Desmond burst out with a laugh that reached all the way to
his eyes. “You bad girl.”

She innocently shrugged in response.

“But I do know something that we can do in the meantime.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

Leaning back, he tucked his right hand behind his back and held her hand in his left.

“
Mrs. Harding, I would love it if you did me the honor of having dinner with me sometime.”

Larke’s eyes clouded.
“Dinner? With my husband?”

He nodded. “Dinner with my wife.”

Just one year ago, she’d assumed that her marriage was over and that her world would be turned upside down. But, just like that, fate had put them through all these circumstances just to bring them back together.

“It would be my pleasure,” she answered and he leaned in and took her lips once again, her scent and taste intoxicating him.
Larke had saved him from being content with eternal solitude and had shown him that there were people in the world willing to give up their time, their comfort, and even their lives, for someone else. For him.

From the boy who’d spent almost the last two decades thinking that there was no love in the world, to the man who now understood that it had been
there all along, waiting for him to uncover it.

Little did he know,
saving the beautiful woman crossing the street in Washington DC would lead to one of the greatest missions of his life.

His own rescue.

Epilogue

Six months later…

Larke could never get tired of making love to this man.

He tasted and touched every aching crevice of her body, and moved inside of her with such a sensuous rhythm that she no longer cared whether anything around them existed. All she knew was that he was coupled with her body in a way that it was as if there was no line separating them.

Although focused, he was still tender enough to place wonderful kisses along her neck before nipping the one spot where he knew she was ticklish, then pretending that he didn’t know what she was tal
king about when she told him, and wonderful enough to laugh along with her when she accidently bumped her head on one of the boxes strewn across the floor, before placing a gentle kiss where she’d hit her head.

She melted as she reached the peak of ecstasy, and it washed over her body and pooled between her legs in warm, delirious delight. Poised over her, Desmond’s slow, purposeful rhythm continued until his conclusion surged from his body and into her heated flesh. He then turned so that she was on top of him, and she fell onto his chest to bathe herself in the radiant heat emanating from his skin.

What had begun as a moving expedition had turned into their third lovemaking session, and neither Larke nor Desmond saw any reason to change anything about it.

“At least we finished g
etting your boxes inside,” he declared, raising her fingers to his lips. “And it only took us four hours.”

She placed a kiss in the center of his chest. “We spent three of those hours on this floor, in the kitchen, and in your bedroom.”

He kissed her index finger.

“You owe me a dollar,” he told her. “You said ‘your’ instead of ‘our’ bedroom.”

In the past six months, Larke couldn’t believe how much had changed. Charges had been brought against Dr. Lindholm, Gano, several members of Eddie’s entourage, including Senator Dillinger, a few members of Congress, those who held executive positions in Customs and the DEA, and even some well-known names in the banking industry.

She’d also officially resigned from her position in the US Attorney’s office and had taken a job with the Department of Justice in their Office of Violence Against Women, inspired by Desmond’s, and interestingly e
nough, Eddie’s mother’s stories. She’d also helped Wren and Jay settle into their new lives on the East Coast, but perhaps the biggest change of all was her move back home.

For their date, Desmon
d had taken her downtown to the Atlas Performing Arts Center to see an African Dance performance that was both artistic and passionate, leaving them both at the edge of arousal. Afterwards, they grabbed a very quick bite to eat at the Atlas Room before rushing back to the house. She’d pounced on him first because of his prior hesitance to make love to her, uncertain that her body had been ready, but he eventually succumbed when she took him into her mouth and caressed him with a tortuously slow tempo.

Before his knees buckled, Desmond had tossed her over his shoulder, carried her upstairs, laid her on the bed, and peeled her clothes off slowly, swallowing every square inch of her flesh. When she was completely naked, he took a step back and devoured her with his eyes, taking in the beauty of her curvy hips, breasts and thighs. They then spent half the night making love, fell asleep, and Larke woke up to feeling of his fullness moving inside of
her once again the next morning. Not only was she in love with this man, but she could also see, plain as day, the love that he felt for her. No longer did he hide his feelings, and that security was the greatest reward that she could have ever imagined. It was the assurance of his love, and the assurance of his protection.

“I got you a gift,” he told her, reaching behind his head to pull a box towards them. Opening it, he pulled out a smaller white box and sat up to rest his back against the living room sofa while she continued to straddle his waist.

“It’s for your new office.”

Larke opened the box and pulled out an elegant crystal box. Inside the box were a pair of beautifully carved wooden rings.

“I’ve had those since Ivor and Eva’s,” he told her. “He gave them to me and said he wanted us to have them. I had them placed inside the crystal so they would look nice on your desk.”

Tears welled up in Larke’s eyes. “Desmond, these are beautiful,” she cried, throwing her arms around his neck. “Thank you. I love it.”

He cupped her face and kissed her until she was breathless before lifting her into his arms, carrying her upstairs to the master bedroom, and laying her on the bed.

He trailed a line of kisses down her
body and then placed a loving kiss on her stomach, right below a nearly unnoticeable mound just beneath her bellybutton, and looked forward to new beginnings.

So…
what’s next?

Austin stood and grabbed Sommer’s hand, giving it a little tug to indicate that he wanted her to join him. Sommer’s eyes trailed down over the buttons of his casual black shirt and his dark rinse jeans, both which she knew hid an impeccable physique underneath. Her eyes then found his ruggedly handsome face and she gave herself quick reminder of who Austin was—a famous athlete that probably picked women like people picked daisies—in an effort to reign in anything that she thought she was feeling. The last time she’d given in to a man who’d said and done all the right things, she’d ended up walking home alone and barefoot, embarrassed and hurt to the point where she could no longer find words to describe her shame.

She stood and Austin followed her out to the restaurant’s deck and down the steps. They removed their shoes and joined them with numerous other pairs on a rocky area ahead of the sand. Austin held out his hand towards her again but she pretended not to see it and walked ahead of him, sure that if she felt the roughness of his palms again, it would prove to be her undoing. He didn’t seem to notice, however, and followed her until they were standing
at the water’s edge. They stood side by side, Austin with his hands in his pockets and Sommer’s hands cupping her elbows.

“You’re a mean one,
Sommer Hayes,” Austin sang, and she tried to elbow him in the ribs for comparing her to The Grinch.

After a few more seconds of silence, she mustered up the courage to face him. Unfortunately, his face was even more handsome in the moonlight.

“So, you adored me?” She began.

“Everything from the hair on your head, down to the birthmark on your left ankle.”

Self-consciously, Sommer looked down at her feet.

“Bet you didn’t know I knew that was there?”

“Lucky guess,” she shot back. “If you so adored me, why didn’t you ever, I don’t know, tell me? Do something about it?”

Austin’s brows shot up. “If my memory serves me, I’ve thrown roses at your feet, recited Shakespeare to you, and all but declared my feelings for you at the game before the state championships.”

Sommer turned away. “Yeah right, Austin.”

“Yeah
right, Austin? So, you’re telling me that you don’t remember any of that?”

“I remember it, but you weren’t being serious.”

Austin tossed back his head and laughed, then gently grabbed her forearms:

“
It is my lady, O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were! She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that? Her eye discourses; I will answer it. I am too bold, ‘tis not to me she speaks: Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, having some business, do entreat her eyes
.”

Then his head fell briefly before he found her gaze again. “And please, don’t ask me to recite any more than that. In fifteen years, those are still the only lines from Romeo and Juliet I remember.”

Sommer steadily held his gaze for a few seconds, then rolled her eyes and pulled away from his grasp.

“And there it is,” Austin announced. “The famous Sommer Hayes eye roll. I was wondering when that would show up.”

She walked until there was a few feet of distance between them. “Shakespeare? Really? You’re going to recite the Shakespeare that we learned in middle school to prove that you’re not a liar? How many times has that actually worked for you?”

Confused, Austin moved towards her. “What are you talking about?”

“No, Austin.” She pointed a finger towards him. “No.”

She started towards her shoes on the rocks, but Austin grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him. Sommer wished that just once he’d let her storm out the way she’d seen it in her head.

“You’re going to have to stop doing that,” he warned. “I won’t let you run away. Trust me.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “I know men like you.”

Visibly intrigued, Austin folded his arms across his chest and gave her his full attention.

“You say a few sweet words to get all in a girl’s head,” she continued, “and before you know it, she’s head over heels in love with you. Then, once you get her into bed, you use her up and toss her aside like trash.”

Austin continued to stare at her and realized that even when she was angry, he still found her irresistibly cute as can be.

“I haven’t said a thing about sex,” he replied. “And in all the years I’ve been dating, I’ve never invited a woman into my bed with the sole purpose of hurting her. I grew up with an older sister and would never want any man to do that to her, so if I don’t plan on pursuing a relationship past the physical with a woman, we both have to agree on it. Contractually.”