Only You (25 page)

K
evin told himself for the tenth time that watching out the bedroom window to see if Holly had gotten home didn't make him a stalker.

“I'm just being a concerned friend,” he told Whiskers, who looked up at him like he wasn't buying it for a minute.

Of course, it was early for Holly to be home from a date. She could be gone for hours. Or she might not come back at all. She hadn't told him she was on a date, but Kevin had seen the guy Tony from the grocery store pick her up. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. He didn't like the burning in his gut at the thought, but he reminded himself that he couldn't make her choose him. Maybe she'd rather be with the shit head from the grocery store.

But that didn't mean he had to like it.

He didn't blame her for leaving him at the grocery store. He'd been an ass, which Megan had been eager to point out multiple times the night before, after he'd caved and asked het to pick him up. He'd started to go to Holly last night, but he'd decided to apologize tonight and maybe try again to make her dinner.

Of course, she came up with other plans.

It occurred to him that he'd told her what
he
wanted for them, but he'd never asked her what
she
wanted.

He was looking out the window for the third time in ten minutes when he saw the guy's car in the driveway.

She'd been gone an hour and twenty minutes, which included drive time. The date must not have gone very well.

He bolted down the stairs, making sure the front door was closed behind him, and stopped on his porch, his chest squeezing when he saw the two in an embrace, Tony's face lowered to hers.

Was he kissing her good night?

Kevin might have to move in with his mother after all, because he wasn't sure he could handle watching Holly with another man.

Tony walked back to his car and Kevin warred with himself. Should he go to her, making it obvious he'd been watching for her? Or should he wait for her to come over like she'd asked before her date?

His feet decided for him.

He was halfway across the yard when she started down her porch steps, stopping short when she saw him.

God, she was so beautiful. She was wearing a peach dress that made her skin glow and her blonde hair was down, loose and wavy. She wore a pair of white sandals with a small heel that made her calves look incredible. He was blown away that Tony had brought her home so soon when she looked this amazing.

“You went on a date.” It wasn't a question.

She hesitated. “We went to dinner and caught up.”

“Do you like this guy?” He struggled to get the words out. “You want to see him again?”

“Yeah, I plan to see him again,” she said quietly, looking into his eyes.

A vise tightened around his chest, cutting off his oxygen.

She paused. “We're friends.”

“Friends.” He climbed the steps and stood in front of her, his voice husky. “Friends like you and me?”

She backed up a step, the front door stopping her as she looked up at him with so much emotion in her eyes he couldn't make heads or tails of it.

She shook her head slowly. “No, Kevin. Nothing like you and me. I've never had anything like you and me.”

He reached for her and pulled her to his chest, kissing her with a raw hunger that caught him by surprise. He started to pull back, worried that he'd scared her with his intensity, but her fingers threaded through his hair, holding him firmly against her mouth.

He cupped her cheek and tilted her head back, his tongue searching for hers, which made her cling tighter. She slid a hand down to his chest, grabbing his T-shirt in her fist.

Encouraged by her response, he had run his hands over her ass, then down to her outer thigh, and he started to bring her leg up to his waist when he realized what he was doing. On her front porch.

“God, Holly. I'm sorry.” He dropped her leg and tried to step back, but her hold on him tightened.

Her eyes blazed with passion and defiance. “I'm not.”

He wasn't sure he'd heard her right.

She took a breath. “I like you. I
really
like you.” Her voice trailed off as she reached for his face, then trailed her fingers along his jaw.

He searched her eyes. “I told you I would wait for you until your big wedding, and then we can be open about being together. But it occurred to me that I never asked if that was what you wanted.”

She studied him, her expression giving nothing away. “Are you asking me if I agree with your proposition—that we wait two weeks before we announce to the world that we're together? And we only kiss until then?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

She slowly shook her head. “No. I'm not okay with that.”

He struggled to deal with the disappointment cascading through him, and he took a step back. He
had
to be okay with this.

Her hands fisted the material of his T-shirt, and she tugged him back to her. “I'm not finished.”

Kevin rolled his head back, releasing a defeated groan. “
Holly
.”

“I don't want to be with you for two weeks with the rule that we kiss.”

His hope latched on to her words. He could work with this. “We don't have to kiss. We can—”

But she cut him off as she placed a small kiss at the corner of his mouth, then left a trail of kisses as she moved to the center of his mouth. “I
want
to kiss.”

His erection throbbed against the tight confines of his jeans. “I'm confused about your opposition.”

She held his face between her hands, their mouths inches apart. “Let me tell you what I
do
want.”

Her voice was so sultry that a wave of desire surged through him, and he fought the urge to press himself against her. Which was definitely against the rules he'd proposed yesterday. “I am dying to hear what you want.”

“I agree to your two weeks together before the wedding.” She kissed him again, covering his mouth with hers.

“Okay.”

“I agree to go public if the wedding goes well.”

“It will.”

“But I want more than first base during our two weeks. I want it all.”

He leaned back, taking in her hooded eyes and her swollen lips, her words making him ache to be inside her. “You want it all?”

“Everything.”

He pushed her against the door, kissing her as his hands roamed her body, but then he stopped. “Inside. Now.”

“Yes.”

He opened the door and nudged her backward into the living room, then shut the door. He grabbed her ass and tugged her flush against him as he kissed her. She pulled his shirt up and over his head, leaving him bare chested. She let out a tiny breath as her palms covered his pecs.

“I love your chest,” she said, pressing her lips over his sternum. Then she placed open-mouthed kisses down to his left nipple and drew it into her mouth.

“Holly.”

Her mouth moved across his skin to his other nipple.

Her hands found the button to his jeans, unfastening, then unzipping. Then she pushed the fabric over his hips and down, pulling his briefs with them. When she got to midthigh he tried to take over, but she pushed his hands away, bending to pull them down the rest of the way, then dropping to her knees. He'd kicked off his shoes and had just stepped out of his jeans when she reached for him and ran her tongue along his tip.

“Oh, God.” He grunted, he hands sinking into her hair.

She sucked his tip into her mouth, licking, then taking him deeper.

His grip on her hair tightened, and he forced himself to be gentler—easier said than done when she was driving him out of his mind.

It didn't take her long to bring him to the brink. He grabbed her upper arms and hauled her up, his mouth searching hers. He reached behind her, finding the zipper of her dress. He had it down to her waist within seconds, before he came to his senses. “Your cousin?”

It took her a second to understand what he meant. “She's at work.”

Her words set him free. Her dress was at her feet, her bra quickly following it, leaving her in only her lacy panties.

His palm pressed flat against her abdomen, sliding down to her mound as he lowered his face to the nape of her neck. He backed her up to the sofa and pushed her down. “You're so beautiful, Holly.”

She gave him a shy smile.

“I want you.”

She pushed out a breath, her breasts rising and falling. He wanted to kiss every inch of her body. He hooked his fingers on the top of her panties and tugged them over her hips and down her legs, leaving them on the floor. He knelt between her knees, spreading her legs apart, then lowering his mouth to her breast, finding her nipple and drawing it into his mouth. Sliding his hand down between her folds, he found her slick and wet. Her hips lifted up as she released a tiny moan.

He smiled as his mouth glided over her abdomen, his tongue leaving a trail to her mound. He pressed her legs wider, his hands firm against her inner thighs as he lowered his mouth between her folds, his tongue finding her sensitive spot.

Leaving a hand on her thigh, his other hand moved to her core, then he pressed two fingers inside her as his tongue brought her higher.

He looked up at her, the peaks of her breasts rising and falling with her rapid breath, her mouth parted. Her hands held on to his head, then pulled him up.

“I want you,” she said breathlessly as she looked at him. “I want you in me now.”

He loved her confidence, his erection twitching with the ache to be inside her. “I need to get a condom.”

Her eyes found his. “I'm on the pill.”

He grabbed her shoulders and turned her so she was lying on the sofa, then he climbed between her open legs. “Are you sure?”

She grinned. “That I'm on the pill?”

He grinned, too. “I trust you on that. I meant are you sure you trust
me
?”

She looked deep into his eyes. “I trust that you would never hurt me.”

He sucked in a breath at the significance of her gift. Her trust was everything.

Hooking his hand around her thigh, he lifted her leg around his waist and entered her slowly, losing himself in the sensation.

She lifted up to him, taking him deeper as he buried himself inside her in slow, deep strokes.

Writhing beneath him, she pressed herself to him and he increased the pace, holding her hips to steady himself. She tightened even more around him as she climbed higher, releasing soft moans that drove him mad.

He leaned over her, then gave in to his desire, thrusting fast and hard, so close he had to grit his teeth until she cried out beneath him, calling out his name.

And that was when he came, burying himself deep inside her, his name on her lips. He slowed his pace until he rolled to his side, pulling her to his chest, still inside her.

He brushed her hair from her sweaty face, searching her eyes. This was too good to be true. His fingertips softly stroked the side of her cheek. He'd never felt this tenderness before, and it caught him by surprise. “What made you change your mind?”

She smiled at him. “My grandmother.”

He laughed. “She told you to have sex with me?”

“No.” She grinned. “She told me once I found a love that I felt all the way to my toes to never let it go.”

His breath caught on the L word.

She released a soft chuckle. “I don't know what this is between us, but I've only felt it with you. I'd be crazy to let you go, Kevin. I want you. I want this. We'll make it work.”

He kissed her, still in disbelief that she was his, but now that she was, he would do everything in his power to keep her.

T
he next two weeks were bliss. Kevin and Holly spent every night together, they'd wake up in the morning, and then he'd kiss her good-bye as they left to start their days—although Kevin was only working half days while Matt's company worked through the embezzlement issues. Tyler had found an investor who was willing to give Matt's company the capital it needed to stay afloat for several months, including retaining Kevin's position. They were just waiting for the funding to come through. In the afternoons, Kevin came home and worked on his house. The pipe in the kitchen had been fixed and the cabinets had been installed, but there was still a lot left to do.

And later in the evening, Holly and Kevin would spend hours exploring each other. Sex with Kevin was amazing, more amazing than Holly could have ever imagined, but it wasn't just sex. He made her feel like she was the most cherished and adored woman in the world. Some nights they sat in her backyard, surrounded by her grandmother's flowers. Wrapped in his protective arms, she wondered how she almost gave him up.

As the Johansen wedding grew closer, Coraline Johansen became more demanding and harder to please. Holly tried to chalk it up to nerves, but the crabbier Coraline got, the more worried Holly became.

One night before the rehearsal dinner, she and Kevin lay in bed talking. Her head rested in the crook of his arm while his fingertips lazily stroked her arm, and she finally found the courage to ask, “What will we do if this wedding goes wrong?”

His fingers stilled. “What could go wrong?”

She didn't want to worry him, but she had to know what he wanted. “Coraline is becoming unstable. I'm worried she might cancel the wedding.”

He turned slightly to study her face. “Do you think she will?”

She sighed. “I don't know. Maybe?” She tried to push down her fear. “What will we do if it happens?”

“We'll tell my mother.”

“She'll fire me.”

His eyes hardened. “Not if I tell her that she'll lose me as a son if she does.”

She shook her head. “I can't let you do that, Kevin.”

“Holly.” He lifted her chin so she would look up at him. “I would do anything for you. Haven't you figured that out yet?”

She had. She just couldn't live with the guilt. “I would give anything to have my mother. I will never let you willingly give yours up.”

“Holly.”

“I'll quit.” She'd already given it some thought. Too bad she didn't have the financial details worked out yet.

Kevin gave her a gentle kiss. “You love your job.”

I love you more
was on the tip of her tongue, but thankfully she kept it to herself. Could you love someone after three weeks? Was it real? But one look into his worried face was all the confirmation she needed. She loved Kevin Vandemeer.

She'd give up her job to keep him. She just had to figure out how to take care of her grandmother if she did.

Nicole was feeling the stress of the wedding, too. Holly realized her boss had a lot riding on the wedding as well. The reputation of her business was on the line.

On the morning of the rehearsal, the tension in the office was thick. Holly was making sure she had everything prepared for the rehearsal dinner when the phone on Nicole's desk rang.

Nicole answered, then entered a very one-sided conversation.

“Uh-huh…yes…uh-huh…I see…yes, I'll take care of it.” She hung up and turned to Holly.

Nicole's mouth was puckered as though she'd eaten a lemon, which was always the first clue that Holly was in trouble. Holly steeled her back, preparing for the brewing storm but not sure how much more stress she could take. She already felt close to snapping.

“I just received an interesting call,” Nicole said.

“Oh?”

“From Coraline Johansen. She's very unhappy with you.”

Holly sighed. “I'll call her and smooth things over.”

“You were late to an appointment with the caterer yesterday.”

“There was an accident on the highway, Nicole. Traffic was at a dead standstill. I got there as quickly as I could.”

“You should have planned for such events.”

Holly had had enough. “I know for a fact you were late to a meeting last week. A half hour late. The client called looking for you, and I covered for you, telling them I wrote down the wrong time. And we won't even mention that you were late to the Johansen meeting due to a car accident. Maybe you should have planned for such an event.”

Nicole gave her an indignant look. “The first incident was probably your fault. You must have written it down wrong.”

Holly was losing her patience. “How could I write it down when I don't have access to your digital calendar?”

“Well…I don't know.” She looked flustered, then turned angry, pointing her finger at Holly. “You've been distracted the last several weeks, and I know that you've left early several days.”

“I do work at home, Nicole. Often hours of it to get everything done.”

“What you do at home is not my concern. What about the call you received a few days ago and then you went running out?”

That had been the care center calling about Holly's grandmother. She'd had an episode of memory loss that had made her violent, something that had never happened before. Holly left to try to calm her grandmother down. But there was no way Holly would tell Nicole that. She lifted her chin. “I took some personal time.”

“Well that personal time is coming from your paycheck.”

“That's not fair.” Holly had easily put in fifty hours the week before and gotten paid a salary for only forty hours. This week—including the wedding—would be around sixty.

“It most certainly is.” Nicole's jaw tensed. “You're seeing a man, aren't you?”

Holly froze. “
What?
” Did she know about Kevin?

“I know that look…the look of a woman in love.” Her eyes narrowed. “I don't have time for you to be in love. I need you focused at work.”

“Nicole, my love life is none of your concern.”

“It is if you're taking personal time to meet your lover.”

“What?”

“I'm sorry. That was so uncalled for, even from me.” Tears filled Nicole's eyes. “I'm sorry I've been impossible. I just can't afford for anything to go wrong, Holly. You have no idea how much I have riding on this wedding.”

Nicole had hinted at it multiple times over the last two weeks, but this was the first time she'd been this direct. Holly's anger softened. “I assure you that I'm doing everything I can to make sure this wedding goes perfectly. I know your reputation is on the line.”

“It's not just my reputation, Holly. I have multiple clients threatening to cancel if this doesn't go well. They don't want to be known as hiring the event planner who wrecked the Johansen wedding.” Her mouth pursed. “Trust me, Coraline has a reputation. There are a lot of eyes on this, and if anything goes wrong, we risk losing over half our future income.”

Holly gasped. “What?”

“If this wedding doesn't go well, you'll lose your job, not because I'm firing you, but because I'll have to lay you off.”

Oh. God. “Nicole,” Holly said, starting to panic. “I assure you I'm doing everything I can to—”

“I know.” Nicole sank back in her chair. “And I know Coraline Johansen is a self-centered brat who is impossible to please. That's why
I
wanted to be the planner. So
I
would take the credit if it failed. So you could get a job somewhere else without the failure of a high-profile wedding on your résumé.”

Holly shook her head in disbelief. “Why didn't you tell me?”

Grabbing a tissue, Nicole dabbed the outer corners of her eyes. “At first, I was hurt and furious they chose you over me. And I confess that part of me felt relieved that I wasn't dealing with her.”

“Then why did you want the job in the first place?”

“It was a gamble. One I was willing to take. I set my son up on a date with that twit of a girl all in an effort to get on that stupid country club committee, with no return on that risk, and now this. And I didn't tell you any of it because I didn't want you to deal with the added stress along with the stress of the wedding.
I
was the one who went after the Johansens. This is
my
doing.”

“I swear I'll do my best, Nicole.”

Nicole turned her back to Holly, staring at her computer screen. “You wouldn't be handling the wedding if I didn't think you could. Now you better head out to the vineyard if you're going to have everything set up in time.”

A couple of hours before the rehearsal, Holly was on a ladder replacing a burned-out bulb on a string of twinkle lights hanging from a tree branch at the vineyard. She had just gotten the bulb shoved into the socket and the strand had come to life when she heard Kevin's voice behind her. “Isn't that a job for your assistant?”

Her mouth parted and she looked down at him in shock as he moved next to the ladder. “What are you doing here? I thought you and Matt were having an impromptu meeting about his new investor?”

“Yeah…well…” He grinned. “It finished early, so I figured I'd head over to my second job.”

“Third job, when you count fixing up your house as your second,” she said with a frown, climbing down. “If you insist on helping me, why don't you go home tonight and get some rest and you can help me tomorrow after you've had a good night's sleep.”

“I'm already here and you need help. Besides, this job has perks.” He pulled her to him, and she acquiesced, meaning to make it a quick kiss, but his lips lingered longer than she'd planned.

“I needed this,” he murmured against her lips. “I need you.”

“I need you too.” And not just sex. He made her believe everything would be okay. No matter what they faced.

“Someone could see us,” she said against his lips.

He lifted his head. “Is my mother here?”

“No.”

“Then I don't care.” He tugged her against him and deepened the kiss.

She leaned back and swatted his chest. “If you want to help me, I need less kissing and more light hanging. The wedding party's going to be here for the rehearsal in less than an hour.”

He grimaced. “The last wedding rehearsal I went to didn't go so well.”

She cocked her head and sounded worried. “And whose wedding was that?”

“My sister's, but it all worked out in the end.” He shrugged. “Although I might have threatened the groom.”

Her brow furrowed. “I heard her wedding reception was a disaster, too. Maybe I should send you away.”

“I'm feeling lucky. Let's see what happens.”

Holly shook her head. “I really need this wedding to go well.” She considered telling him how much his mother's business needed this wedding, but it fell into that murky no-man's-land of what was appropriate to share—while he was her boyfriend, she thought it was up to his mother to tell him that her business was flailing. “I'm about to start looking for four-leaf clovers to help make that happen.”

He took the strand of lights from her. “No luck needed. You've got this. What are we doing standing around here talking, then? Start bossing me around.”