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“No!” She grasped his ass and pulled him back. “I want you to fuck me.”

  “There we go,” he said with a satisfied grin that had her averting her eyes in mortification.

  “I’ve never said that in my life.”

  “I love that you said it to me. I fucking love it.” He curled his hands around hers. “Hold on tight, babe.” He squeezed her hands. “Ready?”

  “Yes.”

  He started slowly, looking down at her and watching her closely to make sure she was with him before he picked up the pace, driving into her with deep strokes that made her scream from the full-body pleasure that overtook her. “Good?”

  “Mmm, more. Faster. Harder.”

  He released her hands to put one of his under her, lifting her to him as he possessed her. There was simply no other word for it. She was possessed by him, owned by him and captivated by him in every possible way. Their bodies were slick with sweat as they moved together, breathing hard and racing toward the finish line.

  “Come for me,” he said pleadingly. “Laura…” He stroked into her and triggered another release, this one bigger and stronger than the other two put together, taking him with her this time.

  Sagging against her, he continued to protect her abdomen until his arms began to tremble from the effort. He rolled to his side, bringing her with him, still embedded in her. “I love you. That was… I don’t even have the words.”

  “Astonishing.”

  “Yes. Yes, it was. You are astonishing.”

  “You’re pretty damned astonishing yourself, and I love you, too.”

  “When I’m making love with you, there’s no way I can think about anything but you and me and what we have together.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind over the next few days. I see a lot of sex in your future.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  She rested her hand on his face and smiled at him. “Anything I can do to help the cause.”

  On the way home from the eventful engagement party, Mac and Maddie rode with the windows down in her SUV, letting in the warm summer breeze. “What a crazy-ass stunt on Jim’s part,” Mac said, disgusted by the asshole who’d once been his brother-in-law. “He’s all but ruined any chance he ever had to practice law on this island again.”

  “I know. I’m so glad Tiffany isn’t with him anymore, but I hate that he did this to Ashleigh.”

  “He never has had the proper respect for either of them, if you ask me.”

  “He’s no Mac McCarthy, that’s for sure.”

  He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “That’s nice of you to say, and really, when you think about it, who is?”

  Maddie groaned. “I’m not going to dignify that with a response.” She looked over at him and then leaned across the center console to kiss his cheek. “Seriously, though, I mean it. Every day I feel like I hit the jackpot with you, but never more so than when I’m reminded of how awful my sister’s first marriage was.”

  “I’m the one who hit the jackpot, babe, and as for Tiffany, at least she’s happy now with Blaine.”

  “That she is, although he didn’t look too happy when he came back in for her.”

  “I’m sure he’s pissed that she tried to confront Jim, and I don’t blame him. I would be, too, if you ever put yourself in that kind of danger.”

  “I don’t blame her for what she did. She wanted him to stop before things got out of control.”

  “Things were out of control the minute he walked in there and started knocking stuff over.”

  “True. What do you suppose will happen to him now?”

  “He’s going to face charges for sure. If he hadn’t grabbed the knife, it might’ve been a misdemeanor, but waving a knife around in front of a cop probably qualifies as a felony, and he actually stabbed Dan.”

  “Jeez.”

  “If he’s convicted, he could get disbarred, too.”

  “I’ll never understand what’s wrong with him. He had everything and threw it all away.”

  “His loss.”

  “Definitely. Did you ever talk to your dad about the woman who came to the marina today?”

  “I didn’t get a chance to with so many people around. I’ll ask him about it in the morning. I’m sure it’s nothing, or he would’ve told me.” He glanced over at her. “So I had this absolutely brilliant beyond brilliant idea today that I wanted to run by you.”

  “I can hardly wait to hear this.”

  “Ned was grousing this morning about how Seamus and Carolina stole their idea.”

  “Stole their idea?”

  “Apparently, he and your mom were planning to pull off a secret wedding disguised as a cookout.”

  “Seriously? They were going to do that, too?”

  “Yep, and he’s all bummed out because he really wants to be married to your mother, and it’s almost impossible to find a time when there isn’t something else going on. Then Grant showed up and announced that he and Steph are getting married on Labor Day. That really set Ned off.”

  “I’m so glad Grant and Steph finally set a date. I was starting to worry about that.”

  “So was he.”

  “So what’s your brilliant idea?”

  “Let’s give them a surprise wedding.”

  “You want to surprise them with a wedding.”

  “Yes.”

  “Mac, when we got married, what exactly did you do to help plan the wedding?”

  He thought about that for a moment. “I bought the house where we had the wedding.”

  “And?”

  “And I um… Well… I ah… I got married?”

  “Exactly,” she said with a laugh. “You don’t have the first clue as to what it takes to plan a wedding, which is why you think this is such a brilliant idea.”

  “How hard can it be? We can do it at our place. We need food and flowers and music. We invite everyone over for a party, and Uncle Frank marries them. Voilà. Done.”

  “What about a license and rings?”

  “Huh… Um, we can do that for them, can’t we?”

  “As I recall, there’re signatures involved.”

  “Come on, Maddie. There’s got to be a way. I’ll talk to Uncle Frank about how we get around the license thing. Will you talk to Tiffany to see if she approves of this and if she’ll help us? You two know what your mother would like. Let’s just do it.”

  “It’s a nice idea. I’ll give you that.”

  “It’s a brilliant idea.”

  “Whatever you say, dear.”

  Mac pulled into Grace’s pharmacy and turned off the truck.

  “What do we need here?”

  “I’ll tell you after I get it.” He left her with a kiss. “Be right back.” Mac went into the store and straight to the condom aisle in the back, which had been in the same place since he was a horny teenager on Gansett. Back then, the Golds had owned the store that now belonged to his future sister-in-law, Grace, who was fortunately not working tonight. In fact, he didn’t see anyone he knew. Thank God for small favors.

  Grimacing, he grabbed an economy box of the extra-large ones, and then, laughing to himself, he got a box of the small ones, too, and went up to pay for them. “Could I get two bags please?”

  “Sure,” the teenage girl at the register said, blushing to the roots of her hair when she realized what he was buying.

  Even as a married man of thirty-seven with two kids and a third on the way, this transaction never got any less embarrassing. “Thanks.”

  He walked out of the store with his bags and got back in the truck.

  “What’d you get?” Maddie reached for the bags before he could explain. “Something you want to tell me?” she asked with that arched brow of hers.

  “They’re for Janey. And Joe.”

  “Huh?”

  “She’s getting me back for what I did to her when we were dating.”

  That set Maddie off into fits of giggles that had him laughing at her delight. “Oh my God, I l
ove that! Good for her!”

  “Good for her? You can’t be on her side and be married to me, too.”

  “What’re you going to do? Divorce me?”

  “I just might.”

  “Oh hush. You couldn’t live without me. Why two bags?”

  “Look at the sizes.”

  Maddie examined the boxes and then burst out laughing again. “What’re you up to?”

  “She told me to get the extra-large ones. You’ll see.”

  Chapter 19

  Mac drove to his sister’s house, which was located close to theirs. P.J. had been fussy earlier, so they’d decided to skip the party. Since Mac had texted Janey to tell her they were on the way over, the outside lights were on for them. At the front door, Mac knocked quietly, not wanting to wake a sleeping baby.

  “Funny how you never would’ve thought to knock softly a few years ago,” Maddie said.

  “I’m fully domesticated now.”

  “Not fully, but I haven’t given up yet.”

  “You’re full of beans tonight, Mrs. McCarthy. You’ll be made to pay for that later.”

  “Oh I do so love your threats, Mac,” she said, patting his backside. “You know I do.”

  “Keep that up and this is going to be a very quick visit.”

  “Based on what you’re bringing them, I think they have other plans for tonight anyway.”

  “Ewww. Don’t remind me.” He opened the front door and poked his head in. “Brat,” he said in a loud whisper.

  “Just go in.”

  “No way. Not when there’s a chance they’re in there ‘getting back to normal.’”

  “For crying out loud.” Maddie pushed past him and walked straight into his sister’s house.

  Hesitant to stumble upon anything that would leave permanent scars on his psyche, he followed behind her, taking the coward’s way out. He was fine with that. They found Joe and Janey in the screened-in porch, where they spent most of their time since they bought the house in the spring. P.J. was asleep in a rolling bassinette next to the sofa.

  “There you are!” Janey said, getting up to grab the bag from him as her pets circled around their feet, wanting in on the excitement. “I thought you’d never get here.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Joe said with a grin. “This was all her idea.”

  “I have no doubt about that,” Mac said to his oldest and closest friend, who was now his brother-in-law. He liked how that had worked out, except for times like this, when he was reminded that his oldest and best friend was now legally allowed to have sex with Mac’s baby sister. Ugh.

  “Look at him,” Joe said, laughing at Mac. “He’s all in a tizzy.”

  “You would be, too, if you got called in on a mission like this one.”

  “Turnabout is fair play.” Janey looked into the bag and then at him. “You only got the small box of three? That’s barely enough for tonight.”

  Joe took the box from her. “Extra small? Seriously?”

  “That’s what she told me to get,” Mac said.

  “I did not! I said extra large, you ass hat.”

  Behind her hand, Maddie snorted inelegantly.

  “So you’re saying those won’t work?” Mac asked, enjoying this far more than he’d expected to.

  “They definitely won’t fit,” Joe said with predictable male ego.

  Mac pulled the second bag from behind his back and tossed it at them.

  Joe caught it in the air and peered inside. “Ahhh, much better. Extra large and lots of them. Too bad you’ve got to go now, Mac.”

  “Yeah, you’re welcome. No problem. Anything else I can do for you? Wait. Never mind. Forget I asked that.” He’d learned not to challenge Janey when she was feeling vindictive.

  “You think you’re pretty damned funny, don’t you?” Janey asked. “Bringing extra smalls.”

  “Those are for P.J.’s sock drawer,” Mac said. “Never too early to be prepared.”

  “Get out,” Janey said with a growl. “Now.”

  He kissed her cheek. “Love you, too, brat. Go easy on poor Joe. He’s out of practice. Things might happen quickly.”

  Joe took him by the arm and escorted him to the front door. “Sorry to throw you out of my house, Maddie, but that’s what you get for marrying him.”

  “I understand,” Maddie said dramatically. “I want to throw him out of my house sometimes, too.”

  “You do not,” Mac said. “You’re always like, ‘More, Mac, harder, Mac, no, there, Mac…’”

  “I’m going to kill you when I get you home.”

  “She doesn’t mean that,” he said over his shoulder to Joe and Janey, who were laughing in the doorway.

  “Yes, she does!” Maddie said. “You call her brat, but no one is a bigger brat than you are.”

  He held the car door for her and then leaned in to kiss her. “You love me. Admit it.”

  “Yes, Mac,” she said with a long-suffering sigh. “I do love you.”

  “And the extra-small thing was pretty funny. Admit it.”

  “I’ll do no such thing. I refuse to encourage you.”

  “You’ll be encouraging me, all right. In about thirty minutes if it takes that long. ‘Harder, Mac, oh thereeeeee.’” The kids were spending the night with Ned and Francine, and he had big plans for his wife tonight.

  She pulled his hair. “Shut up and drive before you find yourself sleeping alone on the deck tonight.”

  He grinned at her and stole another kiss before he walked around the truck, whistling as he went. “You’re only mad because you know I’m right,” he said as they pulled out of Janey’s driveway.

  “Mac, I swear to God, if you don’t stop talking and drive this car, I’m not going to be responsible for my actions.”

  Thrilled with her and everything about their life together, he did as she directed. But he’d have her screaming his name in thirty minutes flat or his name wasn’t Malcolm John McCarthy Junior.

  “Upstairs,” Joe said to his wife the second he closed the door behind Mac and Maddie.

  “It’s only five thirty,” Janey reminded him.

  “So?”

  She crossed her arms as she took a long look at him. “Do I have time to retrieve my baby from the patio before you drag me upstairs?”

  Joe held up his hand to tell her to stay put and went to get the baby. “I’ve got to say,” he said as he carried the bassinette upstairs, his eyes trained to the gentle sway of his wife’s rear end as she went up ahead of him. Their pets followed dutifully behind and took to their beds, seeming to know what was about to happen and taking shelter. “I honestly didn’t think Mac would do it.”

  “I knew he would. I gave him no choice in the matter.”

  “You’re a rare and special woman, Janey Cantrell.”

  “And don’t you forget it.”

  “As if I ever could.” Joe put the bassinette down in the corner of the bedroom, not next to the bed where Janey preferred it.

  “That’s too far away.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “Joe…”

  “Shhhh.” He put his arms around her and quieted her with a kiss. “All day, you’ve been walking around with those yoga pants on, flaunting your cute little ass, bending over to tend to the baby, taunting me…” He cupped her buttocks and squeezed for emphasis. “I can’t wait any longer to have you, Janey.”

  She looked up at him with the bottomless blue eyes he adored. “Is everything in working order?”

  “Why don’t you check for yourself?” After last night’s disaster, he’d been a walking, talking hard-on all day.

  “Oh my,” she whispered, giving him a thorough examination that had his head rolling back on his shoulders. “That feels like it might hurt.”

  “It aches. For you.” The time for fooling around was over. The time for action was right now. He all but ripped the tank top off her body, leaving her naked from the waist up.

  “Wait! I need a shower! I smell like sour milk
and baby puke.”

  “No shower. No delays. Only this.” He ground his hard cock against her belly, needing relief and needing it right now.

  “Joe… Seriously.”

  “I’m dead serious. Right now, Janey.” He cupped her breasts and bent his head to tongue her nipple.

  “Um, you might not want to do that…”

  “You love when I do that.”

  “Normally, yes, but they don’t belong just to us right now. I might leak, and that’ll be kind of gross.”

  “You think I’d find that gross? No way. I think it’s incredible.”

  “You won’t think so when it’s all over you.”

  “I don’t care about that, Janey.”

  “I do,” she said, sounding miserable, and he couldn’t have that.

  He laid her back on the bed. “Don’t worry about anything. Just let me love you. I’m dying for you.”

  Sighing, she stretched her arms over her head, which made her breasts thrust upward. Everything she did turned him on, and that was no exception. He kissed her everywhere, giving special attention to the stretch marks that marred her otherwise flawless skin. “Don’t look at them.”

  “Hush. Close your eyes and relax. Let me have my fun.” As he spoke, he removed her yoga pants and panties and then quickly shed his own clothes.

  “You have an odd sense of fun.”

  “Any time I get to touch any part of you, I’m happy.”

  “My body is different than it was.”

  “It’s better. You’re a goddess.” His words were whispered in a husky voice as he nibbled her hipbone and gently kissed the pink line of her cesarean scar, making her squirm beneath him. “My goddess. This body gave me my son, and it’ll never be anything other than perfect to me.”

  She reached for him, pulling at him to come up to her.

  “I wasn’t done down there,” he said, smiling at her.

  “I need you. Now.”

  “What’d you do with those condoms your brother was good enough to get for us?”

  “Bedside table. Hurry.”

  Joe moved quickly to suit up and returned to her, loving the way she wrapped her arms and legs around him. “Tell me if anything hurts?”

  “Nothing hurts, I promise.”

  He entered her slowly, watching her closely for any sign of distress, but all he saw was the smile that occupied her lips.