Redhead Blitz (25 page)

“Well, I appreciate you telling me all this.
 
Rest assured, I won’t repeat any of it.
 
Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
 
Her hand was on the knob but he stilled the door in its frame above her head.

 
“Annie, please.”
 
With him now scant inches away, the timbre of his deep baritone poured over her like a liquid embrace.
 
She closed her eyes, fighting the urge to lean back into him.
 
His breath stirred the short hairs at her temple, and she was afraid to turn her head.
 
Surely he would read the desire in her eyes if he met her gaze.
 
She needed to get him out of here before she burst into tears.

“You said you’d leave when you were finished.
 
You swore.”
 
Thankfully her voice was steady, although everything inside her quivered.

“I said when I’m finished, but I’m not.”
 
His hands went to her arms and the electricity of his touch stunned her into stillness.
 
He turned her like a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey participant to face him.

“I haven’t told you the second thing I was wrong about.”
 
The intensity of his blue gaze bound her more forcibly than his grasp, and something she saw in his eyes ignited a flicker of hope within her chest.

“What?”

“It was wrong, not to mention incredibly stupid, to pretend that I haven’t been in love with you for a very long time.”
 
There, he’d said it out loud.
 
After denying his feelings for years, proclaiming them to
Annie
had been surprisingly easy.
 
Admitting them to
himself
had been the terrifying notion.

Although she hadn’t said a word, her eyes glistened with moisture.
 
Probably tears of frustration for all he’d put her through.

“Annie, I know now that I’ve been the biggest fool on the planet. I love you more than my life and pray to God that you haven’t given up on me.”

Her silence dragged on, but when the corners of her mouth curled up, it was like the rhino that had been sitting on his chest got up and lumbered away.

He gently squeezed her upper arms.
 
“And so help me, if you don’t let me kiss you soon I’m going to break down and cry like a baby.”
 
He waited for her to speak.
 
To say
something
.

Finally, her lips parted.
 
“Well, we can’t have that.”
 
Her teasing mouth spread into a wide smile.
 
He eagerly circled his arms around her waist, lowering his head.

Annie lifted her face to meet his.
 
Their lips fit together as if they’d done so for years.
 
He stroked her back; she pressed her body closer to his, wrapping her arms around his neck.
 
When his tongue slid across the seam of her lips she opened to him, gifting him with a deeper intimacy.
 
A sigh escaped her and he breathed it into his lungs, wanting to seize hold of every single aspect of this moment.
 
She tasted of wine, and the thought of her drinking alone—something he’d done plenty of times over the years—made him ache for what he’d put her through.
 
From now on they would raise their glasses together.

When her fingers threaded through the hair at his nape, he forgot about guilt and growled with primitive enthusiasm.
 
His hands slid lower to cup her bottom and press her to his arousal.
 
God, she felt so good.
 
So soft and fragile.
 
He would have to be careful with his Annie.

And she was his.
 
Thank God she had lost her temper with him those weeks ago and let the cat out of the bag, cluing him in to her feelings.
 
Otherwise they might have lost out on what he hoped, no,
knew
would be many happy years.
 
And he wanted those years to begin now.
 
Al broke the kiss and met her starry gaze, needing to hear her vow more than he needed air.

“Annie, will you marry me?”

Annie’s eyes rounded with surprise.
 
Should she be concerned about whether this was what he really wanted?
 
But the thought dissolved as swiftly as it arrived.
 
No one made Al Matthews do anything he didn’t want to do.
 
Moments ago when he’d declared his love, she’d believed him.
 
She wasn’t forcing his hand.
 
It had just taken him way too long to decide he had good cards to play.

“Yes.”

Smiling wider than she’d ever seen, he lifted her and spun in a circle. Their laughter blended together until she began to dot his face with tiny kisses.
 
He set her back on the floor and enfolded her in a snug embrace.

“So, you’re not going to string me along?
 
Make me suffer a bit before you answer?”

Annie tilted her head back to meet his gaze.
 
“Heavens, no.
 
We’re too old to play those games, aren’t we?”

“I don’t know about the old part, but I know I’ve wasted too much time already.”
 
He bent and nibbled the side of her neck.

It felt so good, Annie found it difficult to speak.
 
“Al?”

“
Mmm
?”
 
He continued his playful ministrations and she angled her head to expose more skin for his exploration.

“Are you going to make love to me, or do I have to wait until after the wedding?”

His head popped up and a grin spread across his face.
 
He locked his hands behind the small of her back.
 
“Annie, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not waste one more minute of our lives waiting for anything.”

Amen.
 
“I couldn’t agree more.”
 
She loosened his arms and took his hand, pulling him toward the bedroom.
 
Perhaps there was time for a tiny bit of teasing on the way.

“Are you sure marrying me isn’t just a ploy to get me to come back to work for you?”
 

As they entered the bedroom, he took hold of her waist and dragged her against him.
 
His arousal pressed against the small of her back as he leaned forward to kiss her neck below her ear.

“Why would I want you back at the school when I’m planning to retire next month?”
 
His warm breath on her skin felt so arousing it took a second for his words to sink into her lust-addled brain.

She spun to face him.
 
“Next month!
 
When did you decide that?”

“A couple minutes ago, when you decided to make me the happiest man on earth.”

Again, no one could make Al retire unless he wanted to, but she’d hate for him to regret the decision later on.

“But you love your job.”

“Correction.
 
I
used
to love my job.
 
But things have changed so much in the last few years, I’d be perfectly happy to let someone else take over.”
 
Al widened his stance and pulled her into the
vee
of his legs.
 
“The only thing,” he kissed her forehead, “I’ve loved,” he kissed her temple, “for a very long time,” he lightly touched his lips to hers, “is you.”

She couldn’t help it.
 
Tears welled up in her eyes.
 
For the first time, this big, brusque, bossy, man’s man was saying all the things she’d dreamed of hearing.

“Hey now, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“You haven’t,” she sniffed.
 
“You’ve made me so happy I just can’t hold it all inside.”
 
She hugged him, burrowing against his chest.

His arms tightened around her and he spoke into her hair.
 
“There’s no need to hold anything inside.
 
Ever.”

Her heart felt ready to burst.
 
“I love you.”

“I love you, too, Annie.
 
And I always will.”
 
He stroked her back, but then the mood changed as his hands went lower to palm her bottom.

She lifted her chin and met his mouth in a kiss so full of desire she might forego breathing, so their lips would never have to part.
 
The feel of his arousal against her belly burned a trail of fire from Annie’s core throughout her body.
 
A deep growl rumbled out of him, as she tugged his t-shirt shirt from the back of his trousers and skimmed her hands up the firm surface of his back.

Al had always made use of the weight room at the school so there were no spare tires on this physique.
 
Al kissed a burning trail down the side of her neck.
 
As she leaned her head, Annie worried about the faint stretch marks on her belly.
 
Although she probably weighed close to what she did before Josh was born, nursing a child and gravity had done a number on her breasts.
 
And her butt would never be the same.
 
But her dismay dissipated as his determined squeezing communicated his satisfaction.
 
Too soon he straightened.

“Come here.”
 
He backed up to sit on the edge of the bed and pulled her between his parted thighs.
 
His big hands were gentle as they pushed her sweater off her shoulders and tossed it on the steamer trunk.
 
Their gazes met as he began to inch her t-shirt up her sides.
 
His progress was excruciatingly slow.
 
Annie bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out in frustration.
 
Finally he slipped it over her head.

“Oh, no,” she said, halting his fingers as they toyed with the button at her waist.
 
“Your turn.”
 
She grabbed the bottom of his sweatshirt and t-shirt, thankful he was amenable.
 
He was so big his cooperation was a necessity.
 
Together they yanked them over his head, their gazes parting only when cloth momentarily covered his face.
 
She leaned forward for another kiss, even as her hands slid over his shoulders and across the breadth of his upper back.
 
Their tongues mated; her brain fogged.

It had been so long since she’d felt this way her legs betrayed her first, leaving her wobbly as a newborn colt.
 
Al’s hands tightened around her, supporting her weight against his bare chest.
 
He was strong, hard, and her ideal for what a man should be.
 
Totally male to her female.

This time she broke the kiss, pulling back enough to reach behind her back to unhook her bra.
 
His pupils dilated as she pulled her arms through the straps and dropped the unimaginative white
demi
-bra on the floor.
 
His gaze fixed on her breasts, as she boldly offered them for his pleasure.

“Jesus, Annie.
 
Are you trying to put me into cardiac arrest?”
 
His smile was short-lived as he pulled her forward and took one puckered nipple into his mouth.

Omigod
, yes!
 
She held the back of his head, sifting her fingers through his lovely, thick hair.
 
As he licked and suckled her breast, shock waves rippled down her belly straight to her womb.
 
Delicious tension coiled inside her.
 
An urgency of impending orgasm came about so rapidly, it was too late for her to even want to fight it.

“Al!”
 
She stiffened, helpless to do anything but rock back and forth in his muscular arms as he suckled harder.
 
Her moans of pleasure rose higher and higher in pitch until she sighed and crumpled in utter satisfaction.
 
He swung her around to lie on the bed, propping himself up on one elbow to smile down at her.
 
She felt limp as a well-loved rag doll.
 
And happy.