Page 61 of Stars Shine In Your Eyes

“I want to touch you too,” she said, and reached for his shirt, trying to pull it up and off.

His laugh was raw and hoarse with need as he helped her, pulling off his sweater and shirt until his torso was bare. With greedy hands and mouth, she touched him, craving him more and more with every second they were together. She simply couldn’t get enough of him. She needed him completely naked, just like her. So that she could touch all of him. Love all of him. She moved her hands to his jeans, but he was already one step ahead of her, yanking the zipper down, then shoving them off.

She reached for the warm skin of his hips and then around the front to clasp his hard heat in her hands. Soft like silk and yet hard like steel. She gripped him gently at first and then with a firmer touch as he pushed into her hands, and she ran them up the length of him and then down and then up again. Until the next thing she knew, he was lifting her in his arms. He had barely laid her back on the bed when she heard the tearing of the condom package. She wanted to help, but without sight, she’d only make the process take longer.

And she couldn’t wait any longer for him. For the ultimate pleasure of becoming one with him. There were faint bits of light coming in under the blindfold, but not enough that she could see. No, there was only his delicious masculine scent. The sound of his ragged breathing to match hers. And the pleasure of feeling him move over her at last and then fill her. Not slowly this time, but in one hard thrust that she welcomed with a gasp of pleasure.

She wrapped her legs around him and would have wrapped her arms around him, too, except he threaded their fingers together and lifted her hands above her head, holding them on the pillow. Holding her right where he wanted her as he moved over her, into her, harder, faster.

There were no words, only the sounds of the purest bliss. Unrivaled ecstasy. More sensation than she had ever felt before. Everything was heightened, and she fully gave herself over to it.

This was different. And not just because of the blindfold. Tonight, everything felt bigger, heavier, because this was real now. This was no fling. This wasn’t just a passing couple of weeks in her life to experience pleasure. This wasn’t just about her body anymore. It was about her heart too. And it was about trusting Malcolm not only with her body, but also with everything she was.

She crested the peak on a cry, but she didn’t fall alone. Malcolm was there with her, every heartbeat, every breath, every blissful explosion of pleasure.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Sunday morning, Josie and Malcolm took a stroll around the island before heading over to the cottages. The local café would be catering breakfast and lunch at the reading retreat, so Josie wanted to make sure everything was on track. Malcolm liked having a meeting with Jacob over coffee and fresh croissants in the bakery. It was so far removed from the life he’d lived for the last decade.

There had been satisfaction in closing the big deals, he wasn’t going to deny that. But there was something about creating something beautiful with your bare hands and with the kind of partnership that he and Josie had so naturally together. They often thought of the same thing at the same time, and when one of them did have an idea that the other hadn’t thought of, it was always a good one and easy to agree upon.

He loved working on the cottages with her, taking a lunch break with her and whoever else was onsite—usually one of his sisters—under the shade of a cherry tree, sprawled on the lawn, eating a sandwich and an apple. It all felt so simple, in the best way.

The life where he took clients out for two-hundred-dollar lunches felt like someone else’s life now. And yet, it had only been a week. Funny how much had changed in that week. Not just what he did during the day, but how he felt about the woman he was with.

Before Josie, his heart could always stay closed and, frankly, a little cold. But with her, everything was warm. He’d never been with anyone like her. Never thought he would find anyone like her. And the truth was, even in high school, she’d been different from everyone else. And he’d never stopped regretting what he’d done or how bad he’d made her feel back then. She’d forgiven him, absolved him of the sin he’d carried around for so long. And yet, in his heart of hearts, he knew that what he’d done could never be completely erased and that it had affected her deeply. He’d spend the rest of his life making it up to her.

The thought stopped him cold. The rest of his life? Was that really what this was?

Malcolm had never been a man who questioned his path. Not until recently, anyway. He made a decision, and he moved forward. In business, he made quick decisions and stuck to them. It was one of the things he was known for, that he never wavered. And that he never operated out of fear. But now he had to wonder if the reason why he never had any fear in business was because he’d just never really cared that much.

This last week, he’d found himself caring more than he had in a very long time. Of course he always cared about his family, but he never got that deep with women. No long-term relationships. That was what made a guy start to think about things like forever. But was he truly cut out for that? Was he truly a man who could stay the course, no matter what?

He was a realist. Just because things were butterflies and rainbows now didn’t mean they’d be like that forever. He and Josie were certain to have bumps.

When they left the Elderflower Café, they spent a couple of hours at the cottages. It was mostly small stuff left now to be done. Picking up books from Elderflower Island Books that had been special ordered for particular guests, making sure there were enough seating areas inside and out, and enough plates and cutlery.

They were also setting up tradespeople to help transform the bedrooms so the guests of the next retreat would be able to sleep in the cottages.

To shut out his thoughts, he turned and pulled Josie against him, kissing her hard. Kissing her so that it would block out all the other thoughts.

Then he checked his watch. “Are you ready for Sunday roast?”

She smiled up at him, her cheeks rosy from his kiss. “I can’t wait. Partly because everyone in your family is so great. And partly because I’m starved, and Sunday roast sounds amazing.”

He kissed her again. “The way Mum makes it is better than amazing. My aunt in Maine—well, she’s an aunt once removed, but close enough—is from Ireland, and she is the chef at her own café. I’ve often said to Mum that she could do the same. But she loves her job at the V&A enough that cooking was only ever second place.”

“Now I really can’t wait.” She looked down at herself. “I need to change into something cleaner first, though. If we leave now and drop by the houseboat, we should still make it on time, right? I want to make a good impression.”

“Yes, we’ve got plenty of time. But even if we didn’t, I don’t think it’s possible for you to come across badly with my family. At this point, I’m pretty sure they’d trade me in for you.”

She laughed. “No, they all adore you. Even the way everyone teases you. You’re all so great together. I always wondered what it would be like to have siblings.”

His answer was easy. “Great most of the time, a pain in the neck for the rest.”

She reached up and put a hand on his cheek. “Has anyone ever told you how sweet you are? Especially when you’re being all grumbly.” She went on her tippy-toes to press a kiss to his lips.

A burst of sunshine exploded in his chest, the same thing that always happened when she kissed him. But there was also that tightening in this gut, the tightening he was doing his damnedest to ignore.

---