Page 36 of Hello Darling
I run my fingers through my hair when I shut the car door, when they can’t see me, and walk up the curved stone path steps that lead up to the large front door. I can’t see my brother’s SUV from here. Most of the house seems to be geared towards views of the ocean and garden area. I hesitate, stupidly trying to decide whether I should knock or ring the doorbell, unzip my coat to expose just a little more of my sweater-covered top half, and before I can make a decision, the door opens and there he is.
He is far too handsome and pleasant at this godforsaken hour.
“Good morning, darling. Let me grab my things. Come in, come see this house it’s fantastic.”
“Oh, um…” Before I get the chance to protest, he takes me by the hand and pulls me inside.
Half the house is floor to ceiling windows. Open concept floor plan, polished stone and hardwood floors, exposed beam ceilings, but still somehow rustic and warmly inviting.
I could live here.
It’s a surprising thought, since nobody’s invited me to live here, but I feel strangely at home anyway.
The house is sparsely furnished, but there are books and blankets and sweaters lying about. I can tell he’s been using the fireplace, and for some reason this makes me happy. Glad that he knows how to use a wood fireplace. He may not look like a lumberjack, but I bet he’d go outside and chop wood for his lady to keep her hearth warm…
He gestures towards the windows at the rear of the house, the ones that would overlook the beach. “I wish it were lighter out so you could see the view of the water. It’s really stunning.”
I point down to the twinkling lights of the marina. “That’s where our boat’s docked.” I point out towards a channel in Puget Sound that’s just offshore. “That’s where we’ll be heading…For the winter Blackmouth.” I’ll leave the sexy talk of tidal flows and “mooching” to my brothers.
He is standing so close to me. His arm brushes against my shoulder. I can barely feel anything through my puffy waist-length coat, and yet it sends a shiver of delight all through me.
“I was half hoping you’d wear your sexy sailor outfit today.” He continues to look out the window. “We are going out on a boat after all.”
“Yeah. With two of my brothers. Who have threatened to destroy many boys’ lives just for saying ‘hi’ to me, so you should probably take it down a notch or twenty.”
“I vow to be on my best behavior all day.”
“Well, I guess now we’re both a little disappointed,” says some quiet husky voice that sounds an awful lot like mine.
Suddenly, his hand is in my hair, one hand on my waist and he’s turning me to face him.
“Can’t have that, now…” he whispers as he leans down, pulling me to him. It seems to take forever for his lips to reach mine, but once our mouths touch it’s like remembering a dream kiss—familiar and comforting.
“I do think about you an awful lot, you know.” I feel his breath on my cheek, and hearing his deep soothing voice so close to my ears just might be the death of me.
“Hmmm.”
“If you don’t think about me that way, I’ll never touch you again. Just say the word.”
I don’t say the word. I can’t say any words. What are words, again?
After three seconds of me staring up at him with fluttering eyelids and the sound of my heartbeat echoing around the room, he takes my face in his formidable hands and kisses me again. His mouth is hungrier this time, his tongue parting my lips and teasing mine until I respond by grabbing his jacket and sucking on his tongue. He groans, and in one second he has lifted me up by my ass, my legs wrap around his waist and he’s pressing me up against the window.
I gasp for air as he kisses my neck. “You call this your best behavior?”
“You tell me...”
My back instinctively arches and my head falls back because apparently I no longer have bones in my neck. They have melted beneath his hot tongue, the combination of his voice and lips against my skin is more than I can handle. But I want to handle him. My hands want to reach down into his jeans and handle that firm bulge that has haunted me ever since the movie theater. But now is not the time for that. Now is the time for me to know what it feels like to run my fingers through his floppy blonde hair and kiss that mouth that has kissed fair Juliet Capulet, and now for some strange wonderful reason, it’s kissing a sassy small town girl named—Me.
“I have no complaints so far…”
He squeezes my ass and my legs tighten around him and every single part of me just wants him inside of me, except for my brain and my heart.
He gently bites my lower lip as he pulls back. “I love everything that comes out of your mouth, darling, but I really am dying to fuck you so long and hard you’re too exhausted to speak.”
“Oh shit,” I whisper. “I want that too.”
Our lips smash together again, and my hands have found their way under his coat.
