Love Bites (16 page)

Dear Lord, she thought, as she drove home after her shift, Wade King’s headlights in her rearview mirror. What am I doing? This isn’t me. I don’t have sex with hot men I barely even know, no matter how single, healthy, trustworthy and…well,
hot
…they are.

But Molly didn’t kid herself.

That’s what she and Wade were going to do. Eventually. But apparently only after she slept enough to be well rested for the upcoming festivities.

True to his word, he’d picked her up after her shift and escorted her to her car.

After arriving at her house, he silently walked her to her front door, where he took the key from her shaking hands and unlocked it.

She turned to him. “Thank you for seeing me home. Are—are you sure you don’t want to come in now?”

He shook his head. “I have to take care of a few things. But I’ll be back.” He smiled and she knew he was thinking of Gator. “Just…think of me while I’m gone, okay?”

He lowered his head and kissed her. It was nothing like a first-kiss type of kiss.

It was deep. And long.

Intimate in a way that shouldn’t be possible.

His tongue skillfully swept inside her mouth, intoxicatingly certain of its welcome. It made her think of how thoroughly he’d take her in other ways.

If there’d been any doubt as to his intentions, his kiss decimated it.

He wouldn’t be coming over later for coffee or conversation. Oh, they’d likely get around to both those things, too, either initially or after they did the deed, but he was going to take her. Make love to her. With Wade, she didn’t doubt the experience was going to be raunchy and divine. Multilayered and intense.

Hot. Sweaty. I’m-aching-and-only-you-can-fill-the-void sex.

After two years of going without, Molly Peterson was going all-in.

And she’d never looked forward to anything more.

Hours later, with Gator in his covered cage, she answered the door to let Wade inside. To her surprise, even as nervous and excited as she’d been about seeing Wade again, she’d actually fallen asleep. She was now well rested, showered and dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans. If she’d been more daring, she’d have put on the sexy teddy she’d bought several years ago and never worn, but she hadn’t. She’d have felt silly, for one. And two, she knew Wade didn’t need the visual stimulus.

There was no doubt in her mind that he wanted her just as she was.

Just as she wanted him.

His eyes took in her casual clothes and bare face as if she was a beauty queen.

“Hi,” she said lamely.

“Hi, darlin’,” he said softly.

“I, uh—do you think you can—can kiss me?” she rushed out. “Because that’s all I’ve been thinking or dreaming about since you left.”

His eyes widened and his jaw clenched. He cupped her face with his big hands and lowered his mouth to hers.

They’d only kissed once before, but the feeling of his lips meeting hers was a lot like coming home, though this home was one she’d only ever dreamed of owning. His tongue tangled with hers in a frantic rush of need and heat. In response, she opened her mouth wider, pulled him closer and pressed herself into him in the hope he’d never let her go. And he didn’t. He cradled her against him even as he swept his hands down her body, exploring the soft give of her curves while pressing her against his own hard planes and muscles.

When his hands crept under her T-shirt to touch her bare back, she gasped and pushed her chest into his, trying to ease the throbbing ache in her nipples. He immediately ripped his mouth away from hers and sucked in several breaths. At the same time, he placed his hands at her waist and gently pushed her back despite the way she automatically resisted.

“I have to—I need to—” He kissed his way down her neck and gently cupped her breasts. She hissed in pleasure and arched into his touch. “You feel so good,” he said.

“You
make
me feel so good,” she corrected.

She felt him smile against her throat. “I'm going to make you feel a whole lot better.”

She laughed, liking how naturally the sound came out of her. “Promise?”

He pulled back to stare at her, and for a brief second she wondered if she’d said the wrong thing. But then he grinned. “I absolutely promise,” he said. “And I think you’d feel a whole lot better if you took off some clothes. As in all of them.”

“Oh, do you now?” she teased. “Is it that I’d feel better, or you could
feel me
better?”

His eyes darkened and he slipped his hands underneath her shirt to cup her breasts through her bra. He drew maddening circles around her nipples but never quite touched them.

“Both,” he rasped out.

She grabbed his wrists and directed his movements so that he rubbed against the tight points aching for his touch. “Both,” she echoed with a sigh.

He eased her shirt over her head and admired her pink lacy bra for all of three seconds before unhooking the front clasp and pushing the material away. Immediately, he covered her breasts with his big palms and rubbed her nipples again. His touch was electrifying.

When she whimpered, his dazed eyes met hers. He kissed her again, then trailed his lips down her neck until he latched onto one nipple. He sucked gently before increasing the pressure. She relished the sharp sensations for several minutes, but when his hand tried to insert itself between her thighs, she pulled away.

“Don’t you think you’ll feel better without your clothes, too?” she asked.

“So long as I get to touch and taste you, I’m feeling great.”

“But I want my turn,” she said with a mock pout.

Gaze fastened to her lips, he flushed slightly, then backed away to begin ripping off his clothes.

“Fine. But I hope we agree I’m not done with my turn yet.”

“Oh, I’m not about to argue with you there,” she said and reached for her own pants. In seconds, they were naked. Stunned, she ogled his fit, sinewy body. But he didn’t let her look for long. He swept her into the cradle of his arms and cocked a brow. “Bedroom or somewhere else?”

“How about bedroom first, then everywhere else next?”

He laughed. “Remember you said that when you’re ready to cry uncle.”

“Uncle?” she said with dramatically rounded eyes. “That must be another one of those southern terms I’m not familiar with.”

“Gotta love you yanks,” he said before he hightailed it to her bedroom, where he tossed her on the bed. Even before she stopped bouncing, he was braced over her.

“Right now, just concentrate on loving one yank,” she murmured. Her hands clutched his thick biceps, and her eyes trailed down his big, beautiful body. When her gaze returned to his face, she smiled and kissed the underside of his jaw, then leaned down to kiss each of his shoulders.

“Come back up here,” he growled.

She eagerly obeyed and kissed his mouth, then groaned when his hand slipped between her thighs. Almost instantly, her hand found his hard shaft and he groaned, as well.

“Wow,” she said.

“Yeah,” he choked out. “You can say that again.”

“So you like…this?”

“Your hand wrapped around me? What’s not to like? Do you like this?”

He ran his fingers through her moist cleft and circled her with his thumb.

“Your fingers on me? I love—love it,” she gasped.

“Good,” he whispered. He slowly penetrated her with a single finger. “How about this?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her lips together, but didn’t respond.

“Molly? Do you like this? Am I hurting you?”

“Yes. I mean, I like it. You’re not hurting me. But I—I don’t think I’ll be able to talk much longer.”

When she tightened her fingers around him and swirled her thumb over his wet tip, he shuddered. “Me either,” he said. “S’okay. This is one case where I definitely prefer action to words.” He added another finger, then curled each of them so he stimulated a pleasure point inside her.

She cried out. “Wade. Oh God, that feels so good! Please—please don’t stop.”

“I’m not going to stop, darlin’. We’re just beginning.”

True to his word, he lavished attention on her entire body, then gave her the same opportunity to learn his. When they were shaking and breathing hard and sweating and unable to hold back any longer, he slid on a condom, settled himself in the cradle of her thighs and slowly pushed himself inside her. He didn’t stop until he was embedded to the hilt, groaning at the way her internal muscles milked him.

He pulled back and pushed in. Back, then in. Over and over again, he used his body to entice and entrance hers, and when she finally fell over the edge, he swallowed her cries of pleasure in another deep kiss. Only then did he let himself go.

And even then she didn’t cry uncle.

Not for a good long time.

Wade couldn’t remember a time when he’d been happier.

Except maybe when he’d actually been in Molly’s arms. Inside her body.

Damn, that was probably going to become his favorite place in the whole entire world.

They’d spent hours in bed together. Learning each other. And everything he’d learned about her had told him she was someone he could love. For a lifetime. He’d hated having to leave her, but he’d needed to check in with his grandfather and finish up some reports at work. Now he had
the next two days off with nothing but time to spend with her. First, however, he had one more stop.

He drove to Molly’s medical clinic but parked in front of the adjacent convenience store. Although the security tapes from the clinic’s cameras had been useless, the business adjacent to clinic, a little twenty-four-hour market, had video surveillance that might have captured Molly’s assailant lurking around or cutting through the property on his way to her. When Wade entered the market, the cashier, a middle-aged woman with a smoker’s voice, told him he’d have to come back in the morning when the manager was there.

Wade pulled out his business card and handed it to her. “Would you have your manager call me in the morning as soon as he comes in?”

“Sure,” she said.

Wade turned to leave when his eye caught the racks of candy and gum next to the front counter. He turned back. “You happen to sell licorice here? Or a fancy licorice-flavored liqueur called sambuca?”

“Nope. Nothing like that. Just the gum. And someone already bought me out several days ago.”

Wade froze. “Gum? There’s a licorice-flavored gum?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to get. Called Black Jack. Like the card game, you know.”

“Sure. And you said someone bought you out? Someone you know?”

“I don’t know him. He’s just a regular customer. I tell him when I get in my shipments and he buys up the lot.”

“You know his name?”

“Danny. His name’s Danny. He’s a guard at the medical clinic next door.”

When she woke, Molly’s body still thrummed with the excess pleasure Wade had heaped on her, yet she instantly mourned his absence from her bed. There was a rose from her garden and a note next to her on the pillow.

Raising herself on her elbow, she picked up the rose, inhaled its sweet scent and then read the note. “I’ll be back. W.”

She laughed. Instinctively, she knew Wade was teasing her with the famous movie line, once again using his familiarity with Gator as an inside joke. She got out of bed, used the bathroom, then let Gator out of his cage. Next, she retrieved a small vase from the kitchen, filled it with water and placed Wade’s rose inside it. She set the vase next to her bed, then climbed back in and under the covers to wait for Wade.

They had an inside joke, she thought as she stared dreamily at the rose.

Despite their short acquaintance, she actually knew some important stuff about him. That he was a wonderful grandson. A dedicated cop. That he was a generous lover. That he shivered when she kissed a spot on his right shoulder blade and trailed her fingers down his thigh to—

She
shivered, then sank deeper into her sheets, thinking about Wade until she started to drift off again.

“Bastard.”
Squawk
. “Bastard.”

Molly jerked fully awake at Gator’s squawks. Was Wade back already?

“Bastard. Bastard.”

Frowning, Molly slipped out of bed. Gator never repeated himself like that. His voice sounded panicked, almost as it had on the night she’d been attacked in the parking lot and had dropped his cage.

“Bastard.”

This time, Molly understood.

Gator was warning her.

Someone was in the house with them, and she was pretty sure it wasn’t Wade.

Wade went straight from the market to Molly’s clinic. However, Danny McKinney wasn’t on duty, so he tried calling Molly. She didn’t pick up. Considering where he’d left her, that had his panic spiking. It escalated out of control when he pulled into her driveway and saw the bicycle discarded on the sidewalk in front of her house.

As he got out of his car, his heart thundered with fear. In the house, the lights were still off. One high-pitched scream after another blasted through the windows. Wade pulled out his gun and ran to the front door. Simultaneously, he radioed into the station and called for backup.

When he got inside, he could hear crashes and thumps coming from the bedroom. Gator’s cage was empty. When Wade barreled into the bedroom, Gator was attacking a man lying prone on the floor. The screams he’d heard were not only the bird’s and Molly’s, but the intruder’s.

Gator bit the man’s face even as his body bounced and shook on the floor. A naked Molly stood over the man, her face filled with both horror and determination. In her hand, she held a Taser and the prongs were still embedded in the body of Danny McKinney, the guard from the medical clinic and the man who’d dared to threaten her in her own home.

“Holy shit, Molly. Are you okay?”

Her eyes were slightly dazed as she stared at him. She nodded. “I got your rose,” she said weakly.

Several weeks later, Molly woke to a game of hide-and-seek.

Only, she wasn’t the one hiding or seeking.

“Where’s Gator? Where’d Gator go?”

Wade’s crooning voice drifted into Molly’s bedroom from the living room. Three seconds later, she smiled when she heard the flap of Gator’s wings and his squawking reply, “Here I am!”

It had taken less than three days for Wade to teach Gator that one. The two had become fast friends. And she and Wade…

Stretching, she rolled over and buried her face in a pillow—Wade’s pillow—and inhaled his wonderful scent. It was just one of the things she loved about having him stay with her. Of course, she also loved his kindness and affection, his playfulness with Gator, his strength and intelligence, his devotion to his family, and the way he pleasured her and completely relished the pleasure she gave him in return. In short, she’d fallen in love with him. The whole package. And for a second, that scared her.

In such a short time, he’d come to mean so much to her. Granted, the first few days of their acquaintance had been intense, even after Danny McKinney had been arrested and locked up. Apparently he’d recently broken up with his girlfriend and his only consolation had been fantasies about Molly. He’d sworn he’d had no intention of hurting Molly, that he’d just wanted her to talk to him and give him a chance, but Molly and Wade had both known that, despite his lies or delusions, he would have done far worse than punch her in the face if he’d been given the chance. Of course, thanks to the three of them—Gator, Molly and Wade—Danny was in jail and finally getting some psychiatric help even as he dealt with the legal ramifications of his actions.

Wade walked into the bedroom. He was bare chested, with soft gray pants hanging low on his waist and Gator propped on his arm. “Hey. You’re awake,” he said with a smile. “Perfect.”

She sat up and tugged the sheets up around her. “Perfect for what?” she said.

“Perfect for me. I’ve been missing you.”

She cocked a teasing brow. “Really? Sounded like you and Gator were doing just fine without me.”

“Surviving without you,” he corrected. “Isn’t that right, Gator?” he crooned.

Squawk
. “Say hello to my little friend,” Gator called.

Molly laughed with delight. “You taught him to say the whole thing.”

“It just took a few more viewings before he got it right. I have a few other movies in mind for him, too. Do you mind? Me teaching him new tricks?”

Her eyes narrowed. “What other new tricks have you taught him?”

Wade shrugged, then pursed his lips and made kissing sounds. Gator immediately placed his beak against Wade’s cheek. “Thanks, little guy,” he said. “Now, it’s time for the adults to have some private time.”

“Hmm. And what’s this private time for?” she called as he walked Gator into the other room.

When he came back, he shut the door behind him.

His serious expression wiped the smile off her face. “Wade. What’s wrong?”

“Shhh. Nothing’s wrong, darlin’. In fact, everything’s great. I told Grandpa Paul we’d stop by for brunch today. Does that sound good to you?”

“Of course. I love your grandfather and I’m so glad he’s doing better. No relapses, right?”

“No relapses. And he loves you, too. You and Gator. Why, he told me flat out I’d be a fool to ever let you go.”

She swallowed loudly. “And what do you think?” she whispered.

“I think my granddad’s just about one of the smartest men I know.”

She wondered if her face reflected the sheer happiness she was feeling. “Just
one
of the smartest?”

“Yup.” He sat beside her on the bed and cradled her cheek in his palm.

She closed her eyes, relishing his touch. “And who’s the smartest?”

“Why, the man who got you this, of course.” He shifted even as her eyes sprang open.

Slowly, he brought his hand out from behind his back. In it, he clasped a small ring box. He opened it up, revealing a simple but gorgeous diamond engagement ring. Molly’s breath caught and all she could think was
Am I dreaming?

But Wade took her hand, knelt beside the bed and said, “Molly Peterson, I know we’ve only known each other a short time, but I can’t think of any woman, let alone any yank, I’ll ever love more. Nor one I’ll ever want to spend the rest of my life with. Will you marry me?”

Molly gazed at him. She thought about her parents’ marriage. Her own bad luck with men. The differences in their background and social status. How people would think she was insane for rushing into marriage when she and Wade hadn’t known each other long at all. But she knew everything about him that mattered. He wasn’t perfect, but he was good. He loved fiercely and loyally. He had honor and humor and, despite coming from money, he worked hard and tried to help those less fortunate than him. He’d even understood her desire to visit Danny McKinney and get him some private help.

That told her a lot.

It told her she wasn’t dreaming.

It told her Wade was her dream come true.

After she’d said yes and after he’d placed the ring on her finger and after he’d wiped her tears and his own away and started to make love to her, she dimly heard Gator from the other room.

“Make my day,” he called.
Squawk.
“Make my day.”

He already has
, Molly thought. And together they’d make every other day count, too.