Time for Love , The McCarthys of Gansett Island, Book 9 Read online

  “You can’t make important career decisions based on what’s happening with us.”

  “Why the hell not? Would you take a job somewhere else and not consider me or how I might feel about it?”

  “Well, no, but that’s different.”

  “How so?”

  “You’re a doctor, David.”

  “Oh, right I forgot that.”

  She poked him in the belly, making him startle and gasp.

  Chuckling, he brushed his lips over the top of her head. “Your logic sort of stinks, you know.”

  “How so?”

  “Your job, your life, your dreams, your goals are no less important than mine.”

  “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but your job is way more important than mine. Today, for example, they brought Laura McCarthy to the clinic. I bet you helped her to deal with the dehydration and the nausea.”

  “Maybe.”

  “And I heard Carolina Cantrell fell into a thorn bush. I’m sure you had something to do with treating her, too.”

  “Possibly. You’re shockingly well informed.”

  “I was there when they took Laura from the hotel in the ambulance, and Mrs. McCarthy is good friends with Mrs. Cantrell, so she mentioned that at work today. Are they both okay?”

  “They will be.”

  “I ordered more cleaning supplies, put the laundry staff on notice that they’ve got to be quicker in getting the linens washed this time of year and set the schedule for next week. You save lives. I supervise maids. Your job is more important.”

  “Maybe my job is more important to people who are sick, but yours is more important to people looking for a clean bed and a break from their daily grind.”

  “You should’ve been a lawyer. You missed your calling.” She sighed and propped herself up on an elbow so she could see his face. “If you want this job in Boston, you should take it. It sounds like a great opportunity.”

  “It could be. Would you miss me if I went?”

  “Yes, I would miss you.”

  “Would you consider coming with me?”

  “I don’t know. I really like it here. What if I left my job and my friends and everything to go there with you and it doesn’t work out between us? What would I do then?”

  “I’d never leave you high and dry, Daisy. No matter what happens between us.”

  “Still… I’d be starting all over. Again. I don’t know if I could do that.”

  “Then we won’t do it.”

  “You can’t make a decision like this based on the whims of a woman who can’t even have sex with you!”

  Damn if he didn’t laugh, hard. He laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes when he finally caught his breath.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “You are funny.” He tweaked her nose. “You’re happy here. I’m happy with you. We’ll stay put. There’ll be other jobs if we get sick of island life.”

  She stared at him, unable to fathom that he would actually make a decision of this magnitude based on what she wanted rather than what was best for his career. “David, listen to me. You’re acting crazy—”

  He shifted suddenly, pitching her onto his chest and into direct contact with his lips.

  While she had many other things she wanted to say to him, the kiss suddenly demanded her full attention as his tongue pressed into her mouth and his hands in her hair anchored her to him. By the time he finally lightened his hold on her, she’d forgotten what she wanted to say, which she suspected was his goal.

  He turned his focus to her neck, kissing his way to her throat and along her collarbone, nudging her tank top off her shoulder.

  “I know what you’re doing.” He was making her breathless with strategically placed kisses as he held her on top of him in the waning daylight.

  “What am I doing?” he asked, dragging the tip of his tongue along her collarbone.

  She’d had no idea that was such a turn-on. “You’re trying to distract me so I won’t get to tell you it’s nuts to make a career decision based on what I want.”

  “Why?” His hands found their way to her breasts, cupping, shaping, arousing.

  “David,” she said with a protracted moan. She dropped her head to his chest, unable to hold it up any longer. “Will you please listen to me?”

  “I’ve heard every word you’ve said.”

  “But you’re not listening.”

  “I most certainly am too. You think I’m being ridiculous for making a career decision based on what’s best for you rather than what’s best for me. Do I have it about right?”

  She raised her head to look at him. His eyes were alight with amusement. “Yes!”

  “Okay, good. Can we go back to kissing and stuff now that we’ve cleared that up?”

  “We haven’t cleared up anything.”

  “You’re starting to make me feel like you want to get rid of me.”

  “I don’t. You know I don’t, but you need to think about this and make the right decision.”

  “I did think about it, and I’m happy with the decision. Okay?”

  “Is it really because of me that you’re turning down the offer?”

  “Um, may I decline to answer that on the basis that I want to end this conversation and get back to the other one I was enjoying far more?”

  “Answer the question.”

  He sighed deeply and brought his hands to the top of his head, running his fingers through his hair.

  As his erection pressed against her belly, she tried to move off him. Quick as lightning, he had his arms around her again, keeping her from getting away. “It’s a combination of things, but mostly it’s you.”

  Daisy shook her head. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on me.”

  “No pressure. Think of it as me saying I like being here because you’re here. Nothing more than that.”

  “Sure, nothing more than that.”

  “Can we get back to making out now?”

  “Could I ask you one more thing?”

  He moaned dramatically. “As long as it’s not about my job.”

  “Did you hear Tiffany and Blaine are getting married tomorrow?”

  “I did hear that. I saw him after work.”

  “Will you go with me?”

  “Since I’m giving up a job in Boston to stay here with you, I suppose I’ll have to go places with you once in a while.”

  She took a good long look at his face and realized that despite his playful aggravation, he looked more relaxed and at peace than he ever had before.

  “Do I have something on my face?”

  “You look good.”

  “So do you,” he said with an incorrigible waggle of his brows. “Good enough to kiss, in fact.”

  “You always look good enough to kiss. I’ve thought that from the first time I met you. I meant you look relaxed.”

  “Wait, back up… You met me almost two years ago when you were stung by a bee and broke out in hives.”

  “You remember that?”

  “I remember thinking how very lovely you were.” As he spoke, he combed his fingers through her hair.

  “Even covered in all those ugly red welts?”

  “Even then.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “You’d just started seeing Truck back then. I didn’t want to mess anything up for you.”

  “God, I wish you had.”

  “So do I. I’d give anything to have spared you what happened with him. Could I ask you about him?”

  “What about him?”

  “What did you see in him? I want to understand.”

  Daisy thought about that for a minute, allowing her mind to drift back in time to when she first met Truck. “He was fun and funny, and he really seemed to like me. I was lonely, and he was there.” She shrugged, hating to think now about how naïve she’d been—again. “He hid his demons really well for a long time.”

  “I didn’t mean to upset you by asking about him.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “Let’s talk about you and your sexy lips and the way your eyes get very big when you’re surprised and very narrow when you’re mad at me. Let’s talk about this insanely sexy tank top that’s been driving me crazy since the second I got to your house. And let’s talk about where we’re going to sleep tonight. Your place or mine?”

  That simply, he got her mind off the past and focused firmly on the future. “Yours.”

  “All right, then. Should we head there now before it gets dark?”

  “Mmm,” she said, leaning in to kiss him. “In a minute.”

  With his arms wrapped firmly around her, Daisy lost herself in the kiss. She squirmed on top of him, wanting to get even closer. His tortured groan and his hands on her bottom made her crazy with longing. By the time she drew back to look down at him, the daylight had begun to wane. “Could I ask you something?”

  “Anything.”

  “It’s kind of weird.”

  “I can handle weird.”

  “I try really hard not to think of that night when I was hurt.” She licked her lips and watched his eyes zero in on the movement of her tongue. “But when they brought me to the clinic, you saw what he’d done to me. And that makes me wonder if you ever think about that when you touch me there.” She lifted her eyes to meet his gaze. “See? I told you it’s weird.”

  “I don’t think of that. I think of how sexy and hot you are, how wet you are for me, how much I want to make you come. But I never, ever, ever think about what I saw that night. I swear to you.”

  His bluntly spoken words made her heart race with desire and love. How could she not love him? He wasn’t perfect. Not by a long shot. But it was becoming increasingly clear that he was perfect for her.

  “Thank you for letting me ask you that.”

  “You can ask me anything you want, anytime you want.”

  Emboldened by his words and the affection in his eyes, she said, “Have you ever had sex on the beach?”

  He smiled, as she’d hoped he would. “The drink or the act?”

  “The act.”

  “The beach is one of the only places I had sex until I went to college. The first time we got to do it in a bed was quite something.” When he realized what he’d said, he looked almost stricken. “And you didn’t need to know that.”

  “I like hearing about your life.”

  “But you don’t need to hear about my ex.”

  “She was a big part of your life.”

  “Yes, she was, but she isn’t anymore. You believe me when I say that, don’t you?”

  Daisy bit her bottom lip and nodded.

  “I love when you do that,” he said, touching the tip of his index finger to her lip. “Incredibly adorable.” His finger moved from her lip over her chin and down her neck, making her shiver. “What about you? Ever had sex on the beach?”

  “Nope, but I think I’d like to sometime.”

  “We’ll have to put that on our to-do list. But right now, I want to take you to my house, have a nice hot shower with you, if you’d like that, and hold you close to me all night long.”

  “That sounds like heaven.”

  “Then let’s get to it.”

  Chapter 14

  David was trapped in hell. The shower with Daisy had been among the most erotic encounters of his life. Watching the water slide over her curves and cling to her rose-colored nipples had made him hard enough to drive pilings. Pressing her against the wall and kissing her until his lips went numb and his oxygen-starved lungs screamed for mercy hadn’t helped the situation very much, nor had the heated make-out session that had continued in his bed after the shower.

  Though they didn’t speak of it, both of them were spooked by what’d happened the night before, so they kept their hands and lips above the waist, which was why he was awake next to her thinking about cold showers and ice baths.

  The sheet brushing against his cock was almost more than he could take, so he shifted to find a more comfortable position and moaned out loud when her soft belly pressed against his erection.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked in a sleepy voice.

  “Nothing. Go back to sleep.”

  “You’re restless.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

  “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “It’s nothing. I’m just feeling a bit…tense. That’s all.” Tense was a good word for it.

  “Want me to rub your shoulders?” she asked through a yawn.

  “That’s okay.” He hoped she would go back to sleep, but rather she draped herself over his chest, and his cock got impossibly harder.

  Her hand slid from his chest to his belly.

  He tried to stop her, but desire had slowed his reflexes, and she had her hand curled around him before he knew what hit him. “Daisy,” he said on a gasp. “If you so much as move, I’m going to come.”

  He said that hoping she might let go, but instead she squeezed him gently but insistently and then began to stroke him. “Ah, shit. Oh Christ. Daisy…” His hips surged off the bed, matching the rhythm that she set. It took very little effort on her part to finish him off. “Wow,” he whispered when he could speak again. “That was…amazing.”

  “Don’t suffer in silence. I feel bad enough about my freak-out without leaving you aching. You have to let me take care of you, too.”

  “You took very good care of me,” he said, holding her close as the tension seeped from his body.

  “Tomorrow night, after Blaine and Tiffany’s wedding, I want to try again.”

  David waited to see if she would say anything else.

  “I want to try to make love with you.”

  She sounded so brave and so fearful at the same time.

  “Let’s wait awhile. We’re not in any rush.”

  “I know myself, David. Until I get past this hurdle, it’s all I’ll think about. Please?”

  “Whatever you want, honey. I’ll do whatever you want.”

  “Thank you,” she said, relaxing against him.

  David had said what she wanted to hear, but he hoped he wasn’t making a big mistake by going along with her plan.

  *

  Tiffany woke to bright sunshine streaming in the French doors they’d left open the night before and Blaine’s naked body curled around hers from behind. They only slept naked on the nights that Ashleigh stayed with her father or grandparents, and they had the house to themselves.

  With his hand warm, large and possessive on her belly, Tiffany sighed with contentment and was on her way back to sleep when her eyes shot open. Holy hell! They were getting married today! She had no time to be lounging about in bed! She had to get up and shower and do something with her hair and what time was Ashleigh due home, and oh my God! They were getting married today!

  She threw off the covers and was on her way out of bed when he dragged her back against him.

  “Not so fast.”

  “I have so much to do!”

  “It’s six thirty, Tiff. You’ve got plenty of time.”

  “Spoken like a true guy who takes a shower, shakes the water out of his hair, throws on some clothes and gets married.”

  “For your information, I also plan to shave for the occasion.” To make his point, he rubbed his whiskers on the back of her shoulder, giving her goose bumps.

  “Please don’t. You know how I love your stubble.”

  “My mother would never forgive me if I don’t shave for my own wedding.”

  “Your wife will never forgive you if you do.”

  “Oh, baby, you drive a hard bargain.” He flexed his hips and pressed his erection into the cleft of her bottom as his hand covered her breast.

  She was so, so easy where he was concerned. All he had to do was touch her and she was ready for anything he wanted to give her. And right now was no exception, despite her staggering to-do list and a two o’clock ceremony planned at the lighthouse.

  While he tweaked her nipple, she thought about how fast their plans had come together. Jenny had offered up the lighthouse for an afternoon wedding, Mac and Maddie had taken care of all the food and drinks as well as getting the word out to all their mutual friends that a special surprise was planned for the cookout.

  Tiffany had even found the perfect dress in the latest shipment to the store. It was a rich ivory with spaghetti straps and a large, bright, orangey-red flower positioned over her hip. A slit up the side of the dress ran through the middle of the flower. A tad bit unconventional, the dress was perfect for her, and she had no doubt Blaine would love it. She’d ordered bouquets of red and orange Gerbera daisies for herself as well as Ashleigh and Maddie.

  The only remaining question was whether Ashleigh’s white eyelet Easter dress still fit her, which they would determine when Jim brought her home later this morning. Tiffany couldn’t wait to share the wedding news with her daughter, who would be thrilled. Ashleigh loved Blaine as much as Tiffany did, which was probably why Jim had made such a stink about Blaine moving in with them. He felt threatened by the other man in his daughter’s life.

  “What’re you thinking about?” Blaine asked as he kissed his way down her back.

  “If I told you, you might think I don’t like what you’re doing.”

  He took a bite of her bum, which made her squeak with surprise. “Tell me.”

  “I was thinking that the reason Jim is so mad about you moving in is because he’s probably figured out that Ashleigh likes you better than him.”

  “That was never my goal.”

  “I know, but you’re so good with her. When you’re with her, you give her your undivided attention. Jim has never done that. He’s always face-first in his phone or watching the game or doing anything he can to not engage with her. That’s why I hate when she spends the night with him. I always worry that she’s going to get hurt when he’s not paying attention.”

  “For all his faults, he loves her, Tiff. He’d never let anything happen to her.”

  “I know. You’re right, but still, I like it so much better when she’s here with us.”

  “So do I, but I gotta say, I also love the sleep-naked nights. I love them a whole lot.”

  Tiffany laughed at his lecherous tone and pushed her bottom back against him, making him groan.

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