Page 56 of Gentle Persuasion

They slept so peacefully. And Morgan suspected it had not come easy. He backed out and quietly eased the door shut. Last night was over, but he knew there would be many more nights during which Cole would suffer. What had happened yesterday wasn’t something a man could quickly forget. It was something he would have to learn to live with. He prayed that Cole would let Debbie help him.

***

His hand cupped her breast and then moved slowly across her rib cage, feeling its way across her body like a man lost in a fog locating familiar landmarks to pinpoint his location before moving on to a chosen destination. She moaned and shifted her leg across him, recognizing the feeling that was beginning to build, knowing that it would only take a touch to send sanity flying.

He thrust slowly against her belly, sighing as the pressure intensified and moaning as he felt her mouth against his nipple. He rolled over and inside her before his eyes ever opened. It was with shock that he realized he hadn’t been dreaming and that the woman beneath him, the woman he’d just entered, was real and not a figment of his imagination. She moved beneath him. Her body tensed, drawing him deeper, and he shuddered, realizing how quickly he was about to lose control.

Debbie’s hands moved of their own accord across his backside. Her legs opened to accommodate him as she felt his muscles tensing beneath her fingers. She arched up in a silent plea for more and then gasped as he thrust. Dreams had never been this vivid. She opened her eyes and then smiled softly as she saw him staring down at her in shock. It wasn’t a dream. And it was only beginning.

“I love you,” she whispered as he began to move.

“Ah, God, lady…I…” Words became impossible.

Motion became fluid as their bodies merged perfectly into one instrument of pleasure. Nothing existed for them at this moment but the need and the feeling that they each knew was coming.

Heat intensified. Sunlight came through the overhanging clouds and burst through the curtain of his room at the moment he spilled into her. Daylight had never felt so good.

Weak from what she’d taken, strong from the knowledge that it would happen again, he dropped his head onto her breasts and nuzzled against their pillowed softness. He finally was able to finish his sentence.

“…I love you, too.”

***

“Oh my God,” Cole muttered. “Buddy cooked!”

“How can you tell?” Debbie asked as she walked into the kitchen several hours later.

“I can smell it,” he answered.

Debbie wrinkled her nose and tried not to laugh. She finally got the message. She smelled a variety of things, none of which seemed disgusting or burned, but they all shared one thing in common. The kitchen smelled like a candy factory. The air was permeated with the scent of sugar…and chocolate.

“Wonder what it was?” she grinned, trying not to laugh

“I can tell you,” Morgan groaned as he walked into the kitchen from the pool. “It was pancakes. Chocolate chip pancakes. And he ate his with chocolate syrup.” He shuddered. “I’ve been trying to swim mine off ever since breakfast. My God, what did your mother and I do wrong to produce an offspring like him?”

Debbie patted Morgan comfortingly as she went to prepare an antacid. “Here,” she said, handing him the glass of bubbling effervescence. “And from my point of view, you did everything right. Yesterday, when it mattered, Buddy came through. And I don’t want any of you to forget it. Do you hear me?”

Cole heard the strain in her voice and knew that yesterday had been a nightmare for them all. He watched her closely, searching her features for proof of his worst fears. He saw nothing but a small frown. And all he heard was a gentle warning that Buddy was not to be mistreated.

“I love my brother,” Cole said gruffly. “But I don’t have to love his cooking. Come on, we’ll get something to eat on the way.”

“Where are we going?” she asked as she headed out of the kitchen to get her purse and shoes.

“To the hospital.”

His short answer sent her running to comply.

Chapter 11

Cole walked into the waiting area. His stomach lurched as Tina turned dull, lifeless eyes their way.

“What happened?” He could tell that last night had been rough.

“He took a turn for the worse around four this morning,” she said. “They have him stabilized now, but for a while…”

Her lips trembled as she crawled up to a sitting position. She kicked the blanket the nurses had provided for her to the end of the couch and ran her fingers through her hair, smiling weakly as Debbie sat down beside her.

“I shouldn’t have left,” Cole said. A wave of guilt swept over him as he remembered where he’d spent the night…and how. Why should he have been enjoying life when Rick was fading?

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