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  “I can’t do that.”

  “Yes, you can. You can do it for me.”

  He blew out a deep breath that sounded frustrated, but his body seemed to lose some of the tension.

  Encouraged by his partial capitulation, she continued downward, uncovering the erection that stretched past his belly button. She took him in hand and stroked him the way she knew he liked it.

  Sucking in a sharp breath, he lifted his hips off the bed.

  Laura bent her head and fitted her lips around the broad crown while continuing to stroke him.

  He gasped and fisted her hair, seeming to give in to the inevitable now.

  She opened her mouth wider and took more of him, using her tongue as well as her hand and the heat of her mouth to pleasure him. “So much more than your share,” she teased when she came up for air.

  The comment, as usual, made him laugh. “Come up here.”

  “In a minute. I’m not done yet.”

  “We’ll be all done in less than ten seconds if you keep that up.”

  Since she yearned for the connection with him, to show him in every way she could that she loved him, she yielded to his wishes but didn’t surrender control. Rather, she straddled him and leaned over to kiss his lips. “How’s this?”

  “Amazing as always.” Running his hands from her thighs to her waist, he eased her nightgown up and over her head.

  Laura hated how big and ungainly her breasts were getting with this pregnancy, but Owen said he loved them—almost as much as he loved teasing her about them. Tonight there was no indication of amusement. Tonight he was all about reverence as he filled his hands to overflowing.

  He sat up to gain access to her and drew her left nipple into his mouth.

  Laura wrapped her arms around him and held on as he aroused her the way no one else ever had or ever could. His touch set her on fire. She raised her hips until she hovered above his erection and took him in slowly, giving herself time to adjust to his considerable size.

  “Easy, baby,” he whispered as he kissed her. “Nice and easy.”

  She had no choice but to take it easy where he was concerned. The thought made her laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “The usual thing.”

  “That’s not funny.”

  “Yes, it is,” she said, delighted by the amusement she heard in his tone. “It’s hilarious.”

  “You didn’t let me pull out all the stops to prepare you.”

  “Because you said you didn’t want me tonight.”

  “I never said that. I would never say that.” As he spoke, he leaned forward, forcing her onto her back. He followed her, never losing their tenuous connection. “I said I was afraid I might hurt you because I was wound up.”

  “And I said you could never hurt me, because I believe that’s true.”

  “I’d never hurt you on purpose.” He withdrew from her and leaned over to kiss the small baby bump. “Or our babies.”

  Aching for him, Laura combed her fingers through his shaggy blond hair. “I heard something about pulling out all the stops to prepare me?” Despite the ache, she kept her tone lighthearted, hoping it would have the desired effect on him.

  “I might’ve mentioned something about that.” He never touched her with anything other than supreme tenderness, but tonight he took the tenderness to a whole new level, perhaps trying to compensate for his fear of losing control. Settling between her legs, which were propped on his broad shoulders, he opened her to his tongue.

  Laura arched into the heat of his mouth, grasping handfuls of the sheet to anchor her to the bed. Encouraged by her moans of pleasure, he slid a finger into her as he sucked on her clit. The combination detonated her release, forcing her to muffle her cries with her hands so she wouldn’t wake the baby. As she came down from the incredible high, he moved over her but kept her legs propped open on his thighs.

  “I think you might be more ready now,” he said, testing his theory with his fingers.

  “I think you might be right,” she said between deep breaths.

  “Let’s see, shall we?”

  Laura reached for him, bringing him in for a kiss as he pressed his cock into her, his entry stretching and burning despite the preparation.

  “So hot and so tight,” he whispered against her lips as he moved her legs from his thighs to wrap them around his hips. “It’s all I can do to hold on until you let me in. Every damned time.”

  “I’m sorry it takes so long.”

  “I’m not. It feels better than anything ever has.”

  “For me, too.”

  “I don’t know if I believe that. I get an awful lot of complaints.”

  His teasing was a huge relief to her. Underneath all the worry and heartache he was dealing with, her Owen was still in there and hopefully still would be after the showdown with his father.

  “They’re not complaints, per se, but rather commentary on the fact that you did, in fact, get more than your share.”

  His laughter went a long way toward easing the knot she’d carried in her belly all day as she worried about the trial causing a rift between them. She couldn’t let that happen. No matter how difficult it got, she had to be the one to keep them on an even keel. He deserved nothing less after all he’d given her.

  He kissed and touched and cajoled until he was fully embedded in her, which caused them both to tremble and cling to each other. Owen was always careful not to put too much weight on her abdomen, and tonight was no exception. He took her on an exquisitely erotic journey without causing her a moment of pain or uncertainty over how much he loved her.

  He told her so every time he looked at her or touched her or spoke to her. As he made slow, sweet love to her, his gentle strokes igniting her all over again, Laura wished she could make him see that there wasn’t one bit of his father in the man he’d grown up to be.

  “Owen.”

  “What?”

  “I love you so much. I love you more than I’ll ever love anyone.”

  “You’re allowed to love our babies more than you love me.”

  She shook her head. “I love them as much as I love you. Not more.”

  His forehead landed on hers. His hands curled around her shoulders as he pressed deeper into her.

  Laura tightened her legs around him and lifted her hips to meet him stroke for stroke until they both cried out from the incredible pleasure that overtook them. Still buried deep inside her, he moved to his side, taking her with him. He pulled her leg up and over his hip as he continued to throb and pulse with aftershocks.

  Touching her lips to his chest, Laura closed her eyes and breathed in the familiar scent of him. “If you really don’t want me to go with you, I’ll stay home. If that’s what you need, I’ll do it.”

  “I was down on the beach before, thinking about how badly I want to spare you the trip, the trial, all of it. If I had my way, you’d never lay eyes on Mark Lawry. But since I made my stand about you not going, I’ve begun to worry that I won’t be able to handle it if you aren’t there. And that makes me the most selfish bastard on earth, because I know you’d be so much better off if you stayed home.”

  “You’re not selfish, Owen. You’re the opposite of selfish. If you asked me your biggest flaw, I’d say that you think of everyone else before yourself. And that goes right back to your father and the way you were raised and how you looked out for everyone at your own expense. You’re still doing it, and all I’m trying to tell you is you don’t have to anymore.”

  He tightened his arms around her and kissed her. “Keep reminding me, okay? It might take me a while to get the message.”

  “We’ve got the rest of our lives to work on it.”

  “The rest of our lives,” he said with a sigh. “That sounds so good to me.”

  She kissed him and caressed the stubble on his jaw. “It sounds like paradise to me.”

  “While I was at the beach, I tried to imagine what it would be like if this trial was h
appening before I had you and Holden in my life. I’d be going insane—much more so than I am now.”

  “I’m glad that having us around helps you.”

  “It does help me, Laura. I hear you tell people all the time about how much I do for you, but you’ve given me my first taste of normal. You can’t possibly know how much that means to me.”

  “I want you to remember that over the next few weeks. I want you to focus on what you have now and not on what used to be. Those days are over, and they don’t matter anymore. You’re no longer the helpless kid who didn’t have any options or any way to protect the people he loved. You’re a big, strong man who takes care of everyone in his life with love and kindness.”

  “Will you keep telling me that, too? And will you ignore me if I’m a total asshole over the next few weeks—at a time when we’re supposed to be blissfully happy and looking forward to our wedding?”

  “I’ll keep telling you, and I’ll never ignore you no matter what you say or do. It’s not your fault the timing worked out this way. The trial was supposed to be long over by now, so don’t add the delays to the list of things you feel the need to be sorry about. None of this is your fault.”

  He smoothed her tangled hair back from her face with the gentle caress of his big hand. “The day after Janey’s wedding, when I found you outside the hotel in the rain, looking up at the place… That was the day my real life began. Everything before that… Well, it doesn’t matter now that I have you.”

  “It matters because it made you who you are, and I love who you are. But it has nothing to do with the life we’ve made together—unless we let it.”

  Owen toyed with the engagement ring on her finger, spinning it around and touching it as if he needed the reminder of their connection. “I’d never let that happen.”

  Though he spoke emphatically, Laura was still afraid of what the trial might do to undercut his hard-won freedom from a painful past.

  Chapter 5

  “I can’t believe we’re really doing this,” Carolina Cantrell said to her fiancé, Seamus O’Grady, late on Saturday afternoon as they took a break in the preparations for the party they were hosting later in the day. They’d hired their pilot friend, Slim, to oversee the preparation of an authentic New England clambake, which was currently simmering in a seaweed-filled pit in the backyard.

  “Still time to chicken out,” he said in the charming Irish accent that had worked its magic on her for close to a year now.

  “I’m not going to chicken out, because that’s exactly what you expect me to do.”

  “So that’s the only reason you’re going through with it? To save face with me?”

  “Yep. That’s the only reason.”

  His green eyes narrowed with displeasure that made her laugh.

  “You’re so easy to rile.” Inciting him—in all ways possible to incite a man—had become her favorite pastime, especially since she’d stopped trying to fight the tsunami known as Seamus O’Grady. He’d pursued her with relentless determination and managed to wear her down until her concerns about their eighteen-year age difference seemed silly and insignificant when stacked against the overwhelming love she felt for him.

  “I don’t find you funny today,” he said, sounding grumpy. “Not one bit funny.”

  “Yes, you do. You always think I’m funny.”

  “Normally, I do. Today—not so much.”

  Carolina took an assessing look at her handsome fiancé and came to a startling conclusion. “Are you nervous?”

  “What? No. Of course I’m not nervous. What in the world do I have to be nervous about?”

  “Um, well, I could state the obvious…”

  “I’m not nervous, Carolina, so get that right out of your pretty head and get back to work.”

  “Not until you tell me what’s wrong. If you’re not nervous, then what is it?”

  “Nothing is wrong except for you poking at me when we’ve got so much to do to get ready.”

  The comment normally would’ve made her mad. Poking at him? She was not poking at him. Although… She crossed the kitchen to where he was sorting plastic utensils and wrapped her arms around him from behind. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “I swear to you, love, nothing is wrong. Not one single thing.”

  “Then why aren’t you yourself today?”

  “How am I not myself?”

  “You’re prickly, which is usually my thing.”

  “Perhaps you’ve rubbed off on me in more ways than one.” The sexual innuendo was much more in keeping with what she expected from him.

  “So you’re not going to tell me?” She encouraged him to turn and face her.

  He sighed and pushed his fingers through his rich auburn hair, making a mess of it. “I guess you could say I’m feeling a tad bit…” He made an up-and-down motion with his hand. “Over what we’re about to do.”

  “Emotional. You’re feeling emotional.”

  “Except saying that makes me a first-rate pussy.”

  Carolina burst out laughing. Her man had a way with words. “It does not make you a first-rate pussy.” Her mouth twisted around the dreaded word. “It makes you a first-time groom with a perfectly natural case of jitters.” She took him by the hand and led him into the living room, where they sat together on the sofa.

  “I don’t have the slightest doubt about us or what we’re about to do,” he said. “You have to know that.”

  “I do know that. Because if I thought you were having doubts after the campaign you waged to get to this day, I’d have no choice but to kill you.”

  His face lifted into the impish half grin she adored. “And I’d have no choice but to let you.”

  “Fortunately, there will be no killing today. Only loving.”

  He leaned over to kiss her. “Today and every day.”

  Carolina curled her hand around his nape and kept him there for another kiss. She shifted ever so slightly until she was pressed against him.

  He responded to her the way he always did—passionately.

  They stayed that way, wrapped up in each other, until Carolina heard a door close in the driveway. She drew back from him. “That’ll be Joe and Janey. Are you ready for this?”

  “I was born ready, my love.”

  Smiling, she fixed his hair and left her hand to rest on his cheek for a moment. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

  “Aw, Christ, Caro. Don’t say that. You’ll make a mess of me.”

  Touched by the fact that his emotions were hovering close to the surface, she said, “I mean it. You’ve made me so happy—happier than I ever expected to be, and I want you to know that before anything else happens today. I know I gave you a run for your money—”

  He grunted out a laugh. “That’s one way to put it.”

  “I just want you to know I’m so glad you were relentless. So very, very glad.”

  Reaching out to run a finger over her face, he said, “I love you, Caro.”

  “I love you, too.” She kissed him again, lingering until she heard the screen door open. Leaving him with a smile, she got up to meet her son and his family.

  “We heard something about a party here today,” Joe said. He carried his newborn son, P.J., in an infant car seat that he put on the kitchen table.

  “Are we the first ones here?” Janey asked.

  “You are.” Caro greeted them both with hugs before she turned her full attention to her adorable grandson. Born by emergency C-section several weeks premature, he’d spent more than a month in the hospital until he’d finally been released to come home to Gansett. “How’s my baby today?”

  “He’s doing great.” Joe unbuckled the straps and freed the baby, handing him right over to his grandmother. “He’s eating well and sleeping a lot.”

  Carolina gazed down at the tiny face, the feathery brows, the miniature lips, the light dusting of blond hair. He was the most gorgeous thing she’d seen since she held his father in her arms. “That’s exactl
y what he should be doing.”

  Seamus appeared at her shoulder, leaning in to kiss P.J.’s forehead. “There’s my new best mate.” The lilting tone of Ireland in his voice had become music to her ears over the last ten months.

  “Is there anything we can do to help get ready for the party?” Janey asked, helping herself to a pickle from an open jar on the counter.

  Carolina exchanged glances with Seamus. He nodded, encouraging her to share their news with the two most important people in their lives. “There is one thing you could do for us today.”

  “What’s that?” Joe asked, still focused almost entirely on the baby.

  “You could stand up for us.”

  That got her son’s attention. “Stand up for you?” Joe’s gaze shifted from his mother to Seamus and then back to her. “You wanna run that by me one more time?”

  “The party today,” Seamus said, “is actually a wedding. We didn’t want to make a big thing of it—”

  Janey let out a shriek that startled her son. “Oh my God! Are you serious? You’re getting married?”

  “We’re getting married,” Carolina said. “And we’d like the two of you to be our witnesses. If you’re willing, that is.”

  Joe and Janey looked at each other, and for a brief moment, Carolina couldn’t tell what they were thinking. Waiting for them to say something made her feel nervous for the first time that day. Then she felt Seamus’s hand on her back, and the simple gesture calmed and centered her. No matter what, he was right there with her, and they were in this together.

  “Of course we’ll be your witnesses,” Joe said as Janey nodded in agreement.

  “We’d love to.” Janey hugged them both. “Thank you so much for asking us.”

  Seamus shook hands with Joe. “Who else would we ask?”

  “Wow, I can’t believe this,” Joe said. “A surprise wedding. Everyone will be blown away.”

  “We didn’t want the fuss and the gifts and the months of planning,” Seamus said. “We just want to be married.”

  “What about your family?” Janey asked.