One phone call taken care of. On to the next. “Hello, Steph.” Libby nodded up and down. “I know I’m not in my hospital bed, I’m on my way to Celina.” She held the phone away from her ear because she was about to get blasted. As predicted, Steph went on a long-winded spiel about the weather, men, and how happy she was to not be single.
“Falling in love is madness,” Steph said. “Been there. Done that.”
“You enjoy the insanity; you just don’t want to experience it firsthand.” Libby laughed. “Just so you know, I’m going back to Slayte Designs. Amanda and I worked things out. She’s with me right now.”
“Say what?”
Libby gave Steph the short version of how things played out.
“I ought to smack you upside the head, Libby. That woman is the devil.”
“Calm down. I’ve forgiven her. You should too. And Steph, things are going to be different this time around.”
“Are you trying to convince me or you?” Steph asked. “Tell your boss that if she makes one false move I still have those pliers and it’s going to hurt like hell when I use them to tweeze her eyebrows.” She snorted. “I’m serious. I’ll do it.”
“I know you will. Love you, Steph.”
“I love you too, Libby. I’ll get off my bandwagon about Amanda for now. But so help me, God, I’m itching to use those pliers.” She giggled. “Now go get your man. But be careful.”
Be careful getting her man? Or be careful getting to Celina? Both were a danger—one to her heart, the other to the rest of her.
Amanda’s Cadillac surprisingly plowed through the drifts encompassing the campground. She threw it in park, sagged against the seat, and exhaled. “We made it.”
Libby hugged her friend and business partner. “I had faith. Thank you, Amanda.” She squeezed her hand. “I owe you big.”
“No you don’t. Give me the keys to your cabin and I’ll make myself at home.” Amanda nodded to Max’s place. “Now do what Steph told you to do, go get your man.” She issued Libby a mischievous grin. “I don’t want to see your ugly mug for a day or so.”
Libby’s pulse hadn’t stabilized from seeing the county sign. With Max’s car now in her line of vision, it sped up even more. If she didn’t get out of the car and into his cabin soon, she was going to have a heart attack. She opened the door and sunk into a drift up to her knees. She gave Amanda a toothy smile. “Wish me luck.”
“You don’t need luck, Libby. You need to get your butt in there and tell him how you feel.”
“I know.” Libby took a deep breath and tried to run in the snow. The ton of emotion that had been building inside since Max left the hospital tried to escape in the form of tears. She held them off and fell into a drift. Libby picked herself up, brushed the snow from her coat and trudged onward. By the time she got to Max’s door, she was trembling. She loved Max. He’d said he loved her too. There was nothing to be afraid of, yet she was a mass of nerves. She rapped lightly on the solid oak door.
****
Rory barked, turned in a circle, and skirted to the door.
Max shook his head at the mongrel that was only too happy to have visitors. “Some watchdog you are.” He grabbed his coat. Whoever was at the door probably had their car stuck in the snow. He could try to pull them out with the station wagon but realistically it would take a tow truck. The only real assistance he could render would be a hot cup of coffee and a place to roost until help arrived.
The peek hole in the door was covered with snow. He unlocked the dead bolt and gave the door a push against the drift piled against it.
For a long suspended second, his heart stopped. Wrapped in a black, fringed scarf with only those magnificent hazel eyes visible was…Libby!
“Libby?” His emotions whirled and skidded. “Oh, God! Libby!”
Rory went crazy when he heard Libby’s name. He jumped around, barked and jumped some more.
Max pulled Libby into the cabin, gave his coat a toss, and draped his arms around her. Before she could speak, he pushed the scarf away, swooped to her mouth and caressed it with a tender kiss.
They parted just enough to stare into each other’s eyes.
Libby put her lips to her hand and bent down to place the kiss on the waiting terrier. “I’ve missed you so much, Rory.”
Max was filled with so many emotions at once. “You’re here! The roads are awful.” He couldn’t think straight and repeated, “You’re here!”
Libby’s voice splintered. “I had to come, Max. I’m so sorry I sent you away.” Tears cracked the plane of her bottom lids and he felt her tremble. He trembled too, differently. He was shaken to the core. While he was filled with joy that Libby came to him the reality that she risked life and limb to do it, jarred him with a fear unlike any he had ever known. His pulse went haywire and the air hitched in his lungs. If anything had happened to her…
Libby smoothed her hands across the back of his head, her voice still quivered. “Forgive me, please.”
Her soft plea pulled him together. “Shh, sweetheart.” Max laid a finger across her lips. “It’s okay,” he said gently. “We’re okay. Everything between us is great, if you want it to be. The things that happened and the things we said are all part of finding out if this relationship has staying power.” He wanted to crash her mouth with a strong kiss that would reveal everything in his heart, but he’d been short on words before and she needed to actually hear how he felt so there would be no mistake or confusion. “I want you, Libby, and I’m in it for the long haul, if you are.”
Libby nodded and pulled her lips in as though she was holding back tears. “Yes. Yes. I want us to be okay. I want the long haul too.”
A dozen questions fired through his brain but only one mattered. “Do you love me, Libby?”
“I do, Max, with my whole heart and soul.” Tears made her eyes sparkle.
Max ran his thumb softly across her cheek. “I love you too, Libby.” He tightened his embrace. “We’re so different, but so right for each other, ya know?”
“We’re not so different. We’re both right-brainers. You like the lake. I like the lake. We both love Rory. And when we make love there’s nothing better.” She sighed with a smile. “There’s a lot more but your mouth is distracting me. Kiss me again?”
“Gladly.” Max was going to kiss every inch of her. He started with the top of her head and leisurely worked his way to her mouth where he grazed it with his lips on the way to the hollow of her throat. He reared up with a smile. “We both like your choker necklaces.” He gave the thin leather band a small tug. Libby giggled. She held up her hand and took a half step away. Off came her coat, scarf, and boots.
“I’ll bet you were expecting a hospital gown,” she teased, and began unbuttoning her simple, blue plaid shirt.
Max put his hand to his mouth and watched with fascination as each article of clothing fell to the floor. He swallowed hard. “You’re an amazing woman, Libby Griffin. A sexy, mouthwatering woman that I can’t live without.”
Libby came to him completely naked and entered his arms. “Make love to me, Max.”
Max clutched her like his very existence depended on Libby. She was considerably thinner and there were dark circles under her eyes. “Sweetheart, you’ve been sick. Maybe we should wait.”
She shook her head. “I’m on the mend. And I just traveled three hours in a hellacious snowstorm. I need your tenderness. I need your arms, your mouth, everything. I need you, Max.”
How could he refuse? In ten seconds flat, he was out of his clothes and Libby curled into the curve of his body. Max could feel her heartbeat beating erratically against his chest. He scooped her into his arms and carried her to the loft, whispering into her hair how much he loved her and that she was the one he’d been waiting for forever.
He stood Libby by the bed and placed a tender kiss on her lips. He ran a hand down the contour of her body and rested it on her hip while he cupped a breast with the other.
A delicious heat flowed through Libby like liquid fire, radiating pleasure at a fast pace, making her vocalize her joy against his mouth.
Libby thrust her tongue in; tasting Max, enjoying his warmth, reveling in the joy that they were together at last. She lowered her hand to wrap his velvety power, slowly stroking, making him swell and buck against her touch.
Libby felt a hard tremble wrack Max’s frame. He stilled her hand and parted them just inches. He lifted Libby’s chin so they were eye to eye. “I love you, woman.”
“I love you too, Max.”
The moments that followed became a whirlwind of touching, tasting, discovering. Max moved to her jaw line and suckled his way to her collarbone, trailing his tongue to the swell of her breasts. He flicked her nipple but soon went at it with a vengeance. He elongated it with his lips, and made Libby vault into him. His hand strayed between her thighs and every nerve in her body came alive. She inhaled sharply when he dragged his thumb across the bud of her desire. He toyed with her warmth until she thought she’d go crazy.
“Max, please,” she said, her breath coming in choppy pants, “make love to me now.”
There were no further words.
Max guided her onto the bed and towered above her. He smiled even though his face was tight with need. In one swift, intimate move, he connected them.
Libby twined her legs around Max’s, taking delight in the closeness, moaning from pure joy. This was the man she loved. The man who knew her so well. The man she could give everything to. Her heart. Her soul. Her body.
Max moved slowly at first and Libby moved with him. Passion and love guided them with unhurried rhythm, but the turbulence of ecstasy soon took over. They kissed and clutched like two people who couldn’t get enough of each other. Libby dug her fingers into Max’s back as she yielded to the searing need that had been building over the past month; the month that had been almost unbearable without him. In that moment, she felt vulnerable and wild. Loved and cherished.
Their thrusts caught fire, driving them toward that burning sweetness. Libby was the first to experience the explosion of bliss. She cried out and let the powerful sensations spiral her to paradise. Max bucked and shuddered until he reached the same glorious pinnacle. He collapsed on top of her, straining to breathe, but the corners of his mouth tipped into a contented smile.
“Marry me, Libby,” he said between labored breaths.
Libby hadn’t expected a proposal this soon, but she wasn’t the least bit frightened by it. “Yes. Yes. Yes,” she squealed against his mouth. She kissed him with all the happiness of a woman in love. “I’ll marry you, Max.”
Max rolled to his side and propped himself on his elbow. “Soon, Libby.”
“Whatever you want is fine with me. I’d like to meet your parents first, if that’s okay,” she teased.
Max ran his thumb back and forth across her chin. “I know women need months to plan and prepare, to get everything just right, but this can’t wait, sweetheart.”
“You want to make an honest woman of me, huh?” She toyed with the curly hairs on his chest.
“I do. And…” He threw his legs over the side of the bed and raised his index finger. “I’ll be right back.”
Libby watched him descend the stairs and then buried her face in her hands. It had been an exhausting but wonderful day. She’d finally accepted that she was in love with Max, drove a hundred miles to tell him, and now was going to become his wife. Plus, she and Amanda mended their rift. Life couldn’t get any better.
Max returned in all his naked glory with his hands behind his back. “Don’t get mad, but I have something for you.”
Surely he hadn’t bought an engagement ring ahead of time. Did he? “How could I be mad?”
“You might be, but please know that my heart is in the right place. Okay?”
Libby sat up and pulled the comforter around her. Max seemed unsure of himself and nervous. In turn, she was getting a little anxious too. “Okay.”
He slowly brought his hands to the front. In them, a small, vibrant pink rectangular box. Libby’s eyes widened. “Max?”
Max knelt by the bed. “Don’t be upset.”
“I’m not.” Tears gathered in her eyes and her heart clenched. “But I don’t understand.”
Max smoothed a lock of hair from her forehead.
Libby tried to hold back the tears. Unsuccessfully. Salty pain leaked from the corners of her eyes and she felt sick to her stomach. She snatched the box, rushed down the stairs, and locked herself in the bathroom.
She sagged against the bathroom door, falling to pieces, a thousand tears at a time. Bile inched up her throat. She’d promised not to be mad. Truthfully, she was beyond mad. She was furious. Libby ripped open the box, worked herself to the toilet, and pee’d on the stick.
Max was beside himself for doing something so stupid. What the hell had he been thinking? He acted on a hunch, a stupid, brainless hunch and in the process screwed up in the worst way by buying the pregnancy test. What prompted the lunacy was something Steph had said about Libby having a window of opportunity to get pregnant but only with a special surgery. He tucked the information away until he was on his way home from Columbus. From out of nowhere it came back and he’d wondered if maybe, just maybe, that Libby’s throwing up wasn’t from the flu. He didn’t know jack about fertility, or rather infertility, but he’d latched onto hope that his sperm were tough, kick-ass, swimming ninja’s that could maneuver their way past Libby’s endometriosis. It had been ridiculous to consider the possibility.
He braced against the bathroom door with one hand and put the other across his eyes.
God, August, if you had a brain you’d be dangerous.
“Libby, honey,” His voice quivered. “I’m an idiot. And I’m so, so sorry.” He reminded himself that he wasn’t a crier as he choked back tears. “I love you so much.”
No noise came from the other side of the door. Libby was either ignoring him or had passed out. “Please, Libby, say something.”
Again, not a peep.
Max hit his head on the door three times, blasting himself for being so stupid.
He jerked at the sound of the door being unlocked and he watched the door open, almost in slow motion.
Expecting Libby to dash past him with steam coming out her ears, he was stunned when she threw herself into him and buried her face in his chest. Sobs racked her thin frame and he could no longer hold it together either. Tears fell unrestrained down his cheeks. He loved Libby and one small, careless act hurt her more than anything he could have ever done.