Love After Dark (31 page)

“You love that about me.”

“I love everything about you, but you know what I love best?”

“What’s that?” he asked, slayed by her sweet words and the power of her love.

“I love how badly you want to do right by those boys.”

“I want that so much. I don’t want to screw it up. I want to make everything better for them.”

“You already have, Seamus. It was your idea for us to take them in. What would’ve become of them otherwise?”

“Someone would’ve stepped up.”

“We have no way to know that for sure. They could’ve ended up wards of the state or in foster care or God knows where. Who know if they would’ve been allowed to stay together?”

Seamus shuddered at the thought of any of those scenarios.

“You saved them from an uncertain future. The reason they’re ready to go back to school so soon is because they know you’ll be here and I’ll be here, waiting for them to get home. We’re going to make this work.”

“It means so much to me that you fully embraced my desire to have them, love. At this point in your life, you probably want to be relaxing and sleeping in and doting on your grandbaby, and I’ve made you a mum to two small boys.”

“I had plenty of years to relax and sleep in before you stormed your way into my life and ruined my sleep. I’m as thrilled as you are to be able to make a difference for those little guys. Don’t think for a minute I’m not.”

He pushed himself up onto an elbow and leaned over to kiss her. “Let’s go get our boys up for school.”

Hope came awake suddenly at six o’clock, the time Ethan usually got up. For a moment, she couldn’t remember where she was, but the heavy weight of Paul’s arm around her waist and the hairy leg wedged between hers was a reminder of what’d transpired between them.
 

They’d been up most of the night and had ended up making love in the shower at three a.m. She’d never had shower sex before and had to say there was something to be said for the way he’d pressed her against the wall and surged into her while the water came down upon them.
 

Sexiest night of her life, hands down. It pained her to think of what she’d missed out on when she’d thought she was happy with Carl. But in all those years, he’d never paid the kind of attention to her that Paul had in one night.
 

Her eyes blurred with tears that frustrated her. What in the world did she have to be teary-eyed over when she was having such a marvelous time with a hot, sexy guy who cared about her son as much as he cared about her? Her belly tightened around the grinding sense of dread she’d carried with her since Carl was arrested, while she waited for the next disaster to strike.
 

Surely nothing that felt as good as she did with Paul could possibly last. With tears sliding down her cheeks, she eased herself out of Paul’s embrace and got up to go to the bathroom. Every muscle in her body protested against the movement, and the soreness between her legs was indicative of an overly indulgent night. She hadn’t ached like this since her first time with Carl.
 

She’d been just a kid then. What did she know about what truly mattered in life? She brushed her teeth and caught sight of the rat’s nest her hair had dried into after going to bed with it wet from the shower and ran a brush through it. Her jaw was covered in red spots from where Paul’s whiskers had rubbed against her skin. She brought her fingers up to touch them, amazed by the passion that had resulted in her skin being rubbed raw.

How could she have lived for so many years without knowing it was possible to do and feel the things she’d experienced last night?
 

She startled when his arm slid around her waist from behind.
 

“I woke up, and you were gone.” He kissed the back of her shoulder. “Scared me.”

“I woke up at my usual time after almost eight years of six a.m. wake-ups.”

“That’s brutal.”

“That’s my life.”

“Not today it isn’t. Come back to bed for a little while.”

She let him lead her back to bed and tuck her in.
 

He leaned over to kiss her. “Be right back.” He went into the bathroom, closing the door and returning with the fresh taste of toothpaste on his lips when he kissed her again. “You going to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong.”

“Why do you look so lost, then? Was last night too much? I kept telling myself to let you sleep, but you kept looking so sweet and sexy.”

“It wasn’t too much.”

He slid his hand up her thigh to cup her intimately, making her gasp. “Are you sore? Here?”

“Yeah.”

“It was too much, then.”

“It was perfect. I loved everything we did. I’m sore because it’s been such a long time since I did anything like that. Forever, if I’m being honest.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve never had sex like that, Paul. I didn’t even know it was supposed to be like that.”

His brows narrowed with displeasure. “He didn’t take care of you?”

“Not the way you did.”

“Well, that’s a goddamned crime. They should’ve put him away for that, too.”

His vehemence made her laugh, and then the tears were back, once again pissing her off with the way they appeared out of nowhere to remind her that her heart had once been shattered. It had healed, but she was different now than she’d been then, less trusting, more cynical.

With gentle strokes of his fingers, he brushed them away. “Why the tears?”

“I don’t know exactly. Emotional overload maybe?”

“If this is happening too fast for you, we can dial it back a notch.”

“What would that entail?”

“Whatever you want it to. The last thing I want to do is overload you—physically or emotionally.”
 

“I kind of liked the way you overloaded me last night.”

“Only kinda?” He pushed his erection against her leg. “I gotta work harder.”

“Please don’t,” she said with a laugh. “You’ll kill me.”

“Since I have no desire to kill you, how about we go find some breakfast and then hit the beach?”

“You want to get up this early on a rare day off?”

“I’m already up.” He pressed against her again, making her laugh. “May as well seize the day. We can nap later.”

“Mmm, a nap. What’s that like?”

“You haven’t lived until you’ve had the Paul Martinez nap special.”

“I’ll look forward to that all day.”

“Hey, Hope?”

“Hmm?”

“It’s okay to relax and enjoy yourself a little. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

There was nothing he could’ve said that would’ve meant more to her in that place and time. After they checked in at home and called the hospital to learn Marion had spent a quiet night, they set out to take full advantage of their scenic location. Hope did as directed and threw herself into enjoying a blissful day with Paul. He was funny, charming, solicitous and affectionate—the same way he’d been before they had sex.
 

It was a relief to realize he wasn’t going to turn into someone different because he’d gotten what he wanted.
 

By the time they returned to their room later that afternoon, she was drunk off the sun and the thrill of being the subject of his undivided attention. He made her feel important by listening carefully to everything she had to say. His unwavering focus made her feel
seen
in a way she never had been before.
 

She wanted to dive into bed with him and pick up where they’d left off in the early morning hours, but her body wasn’t having it.

“I know what you need,” he said.

“I told you. I don’t think I can.”

“Such a dirty mind! That’s not what I was suggesting at all.”

Hope eyed him skeptically.
 

“Take off your bathing suit and get on the bed, facedown.”

“And I have a dirty mind?”

“Trust me?”

Oh God, what a loaded question! “I want to.”

He kissed her forehead and tugged at the tie to her bikini top. “I promise you won’t be sorry.”

“Okay then…” She removed her top and then her bottoms, feeling her skin tingle as he took a long, leisurely look at her. Averting her gaze, she went to lie on the bed as directed, telling herself that everything that’d happened so far had been awesome. Surely this would be, too, right?

Paul had sensed her underlying tension all day. It was a huge step for her to become intimate with him, and it was almost as if she expected him to turn into a dick today or something. After everything she’d been through, that was understandable. But he was determined to prove that she could trust him and that he was nothing like the man who’d hurt her so badly.
 

He went into the bathroom to get the bottle of bath oil he’d noticed there earlier. It wasn’t exactly what he wanted, but it was close enough in a pinch. Filling a sink full of steaming hot water, he put the plastic bottle in the water to heat up and took a moment to settle himself.

Here she finally was—the woman he’d hoped to someday find, the one who challenged and intrigued him and turned him on like no one else ever had. It wasn’t lost on him that he faced an uphill battle in convincing her that she could let go of past hurts and allow herself to love and be loved by someone new.

He was well on his way to falling in love with her and had been for quite some time, if he were being entirely honest. Thinking back to the recent day when he’d contemplated jumpstarting his dating life, he’d initially considered everyone but her because she was technically an employee. That was the only reason she hadn’t been at the very top of his list.

And then she’d kissed him and changed everything. One taste of her sweet lips had left him hungry for so much more of her. Add in the adorable, precocious son who came with her, and they made for one very attractive package deal. She’d said she would never get married again, and he hoped he could change her mind about that.

But he had to go slow, or she’d run as far away from him as she could within the tight confines of their living arrangement. The small space of yard that separated their homes could become an impenetrable distance if he wasn’t careful.
 

With the oil heated, he took it with him to the bedroom, where she was right where he’d left her—facedown on the bed with her smooth back and supple ass on full display. He went immediately hard at the sight of all that gorgeous skin, but kept his bathing suit on when he climbed on the bed next to her.

“What took so long?” she asked.

“You can’t rush quality.” He tested the temperature of the oil before dribbling it over her back.

She took a deep inhale that evolved into a sigh when he began kneading her tight muscles. “Oh God, Paul. That feels so good.”

“Relax. Let me take care of you.” Starting at her shoulders, he worked his way down slowly, giving careful attention to every inch of her back and then her legs, saving her sexy ass for last. As he ran his hands over her cheeks, squeezing and massaging, he noticed the subtle lift of her hips, the slight squirm of her body, and realized she was fully aroused. “Everything okay down there?”