Outside The Lines (Love Beyond Reason Book 2) (16 page)

“Well, now, I haven’t smelled anything so good since my Ellie passed on.”

Maria looked up from the big cast iron pan and grinned at Tanner. “I hope it passes muster.”

“I’m sure it will,” David said then, coming up behind her and reaching around her for the wooden spoon. He lifted it and tasted.

“Hey!” She laughed, embracing the delicious pull of his presence so close to her. “Go get cleaned up and set the table. I’ll put these rolls in the oven and we’ll be ready to eat in about ten minutes.”

The desire in his gaze made a blush rise on her neck. She turned from his heat and blindly stirred the stew. But a smile played on her lips.

Dinner at the cabin was the first true family occasion she’d had since leaving home. Being sick in California had tweaked her plans to do dinners and hang out…really enjoy the companionship of her siblings. She wasn’t with siblings now, but the conversation flowed, and as Tanner began telling stories of David’s
misspent
youth, she laughed at them, sharing her own bits of home.

He was a different person here.

He was
her
David. The one who had come to California and made her believe love could look different than she expected.

She was glad they couldn’t leave.

Perhaps they could stay, forever.

“The deal never went through,” David was saying to Tanner when she cued back into their conversation. He was across from her at the small table. His legs stretched before him, invading her space so that his leg rested against her calf. And even that contact was enough to distract her, warm her, and otherwise make her think of all the things she wanted to do to him. “Not yet, anyway.”

“Oh, no. David. The Florida deal?” Maria frowned.

But he shrugged. “Valiant made a counter offer. They want to dance, but I don’t think anything will come of it. I hate to say it, but I think it was mostly Tammy, sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong. I’ll go back down when things are settled.”

She ignored the hesitation in his voice at the word when. Things? Like Tammy the bitch ho? Calling her that didn’t help though, and she nodded as if she understood, but deep inside, a tiny little green monster woke from its sleep. He would go back. He would travel a lot—for business.

“Maybe you could come with me,” he suggested, as if he knew what she was thinking. His gaze was intent on her, and her heart fell down that slope to love a little more.

“I might be busy with a baby soon—” The surprise on his face, the almost-disappointed look made her shake her head with a smile. “But, I’d love to travel with you. Heck, we’ll raise a jet-setting baby who travels to countries, far and wide.”

“William will love that,” he answered without losing a beat, and his eyes lost the shocky glaze. He grinned, even as she bit off the retort on the tip of her tongue.

They would need a name, eventually. At least he was thinking about it.

He took her hand, and she felt unbelievably complete—like a real couple. Then he turned his attention back to Tanner, who was following their conservation with an interested gaze. “I’m sorry I didn’t invite you to the wedding, Grandpa.”

Her hand went slack in his. This was definitely a night for surprises.

“You know what they say about shotgun weddings.” He grinned sheepishly. “We didn’t want to waste any time.”

Tanner got up for more food. “Well, if this stew is any indication, she’s a keeper, son.”

Maria blushed and sipped the last of her milk. “I wonder how long we’ll be snowed in.”

Tanner sat back in his chair. “Heard on the radio this afternoon it’s going to snow through tomorrow before it starts to clear. It’s not the snow so much making it dangerous as it is the visibility. I’ve got a couple of snowmobiles in the shed. I’ve done the run enough times, if there was an emergency, I could get out of here while it’s snowing. Just more dangerous is all.”

David’s frown deepened the line over his brow.

“Do you have a doctor yet, dear?” Tanner asked.

“Actually.” She blushed. “I’ll be seeing Colleen.”

“You will?” David asked, surprise on his face.

Tanner patted her hand. “That’s good, dear. Your mother is the best around without driving all the way to Burlington, David.” Tanner slapped the table as if the discussion was over. “I’m doing the clean-up. Why don’t you two go get a game from the hall closet? Or the cards off the desk.”

Instinct had her standing up. “No. I’ll help clear the table.”

Tanner waved her back. “Now, now. You need to relax, go put your feet up.”

David stood too, and he held out a hand to her. “Come on. You can do the dishes tomorrow morning. I promise. I’ll even cook.”

She raised her brow. “The cook never washes the dishes.”

David grinned as he led her into the living room, but instead of stopping, they walked up a narrow, hardwood staircase. Upstairs, the walls were covered with wood paneling, and the ceiling was very low. Two bedrooms—one on either side of the hallway—and one door, a narrow closet, straight ahead. First David opened the door on the right, into a bedroom. The ceiling sloped down to a small six-paned window over a little, window seat. The double bed jutting out from one wall had an old patchwork quilt on it.

“We can stay in this room.”

She leaned on the door jamb. “Good.”

It wasn’t a secret that she wanted them to be together as man and wife. Even if he freaked out at the last minute and pulled the this-is-an-arrangement card. She was done letting him create distance between them.

He brushed the hair from her face. “I’ve been desperate for you for days, and I want you, want to be so deep inside you I can feel you start to come even before you make those sweet little noises at the back of your throat.”

Desire ran hot through her veins and pooled deep inside her.

Okay. Maybe he was getting the message.

15

With a quick stop at the hall closet to pull out a couple boxes of games, social etiquette drew them back downstairs. And David relaxed for the first time since she’d shown up on his steps. They played Trivial Pursuit for a while and then sat around the fire place.

He and his grandpa sipped the aged liquor while Maria told stories from home and made them laugh. He found himself lulled by the rough-hewn sound of her voice. Add to hers, the familiar tones of his grandpa, and it didn’t take long for the week to catch up with him and their voices to fade.

At the sound of her laughter, he blinked and sat up, shaking off the dregs of the home-cooked meal and bit of alcohol. “I’m going to shower and hit the hay.”

Maria sat next to him on the couch with her feet up on the pillow-topped stool and a blanket over her lap. She was the picture of comfort. He turned and held out his hand. “Ready?”

Grandpa also stood. “It’s been a good day.” He started around the room to shut off the lamps. Two in the corners and one over Maria’s head on the end table.

Maria took David’s hand, and he pulled her up but didn’t let go until she’d given him a hug. He couldn’t stop himself from kissing the top of her head. She pulled away and folded the blanket before laying it over the back of the couch.

“Good night, young’uns.”

“Thank you,” Maria said.

He walked toward the back of the cabin and gave her a wave as he disappeared into his bedroom.

David might have been about to fall asleep on the couch, but the thought of getting Maria into bed again turned the tide. He followed her up the stairs, his hands drawn to her rear and then her waist.

She swatted them away. “David.” She glanced at him, with a look of what-are-you-doing, but it just made him smile and take the next step more quickly so he could get his hands even further around her. He felt the sexy indent of her waist and then the sweet swell of her breasts.

The urge to take her, right here on the steps, to squeeze her, tug her down, and thrust into her was a physical ache deep down inside his soul. He moaned and nipped at the back of her neck.

She slowed. “Your grandpa will hear us,” she whispered, even as she leaned back into him at the top step.

When he lifted her into his arms, she drew in a breath and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“You’re definitely getting heavier,” he teased.

The look she gave him then was pure petulant, and filled with humor. “You’ll pay for that.”

He almost tripped at her retort. “Shit. That did it.”

Maria reached back to push open the door to the small bedroom. He gently laid her down and moved to the foot of the bed where he began to undo her shoelaces. First one shoe and then the other until she was barefoot.

“I have nothing to wear.” Her voice was quiet. In the dim light of the room, she almost seemed unreal, a dream.

“Are clothes really necessary?”

Her lips pressed together. “It might get cold.”

His brow rose, involuntarily.

“It might,” she reiterated, and he rolled his eyes. But he looked in the old bureau anyway. “Men’s t-shirts—”

“That’s fine. Anything.”

David took one off the top and held it up. It was going to be big on her, if she had the chance to actually put it on. When she reached for it, he snatched it back. “I’m sorry. I can’t let you do that.”

Her eyes were intent on him as he dropped the shirt and reached for her. His hands went to the low-rider waistband of her jeans that sat just below her baby bump. Her snap came undone with a flick of his fingers and the zipper slid down. She wore dark purple underwear, nothing fancy.

With her warm skin under his fingertips, his swollen length nudged his jeans.

He groaned, ignoring the need to sink into her, and pressed his ear to her stomach. Maria’s hands came out and threaded through his hair, brushing against his scalp. He couldn’t move, didn’t want to. The passion raging through him simmered below the surface of this dark need to drink up every last drop of goodness from her soul.

He kissed around her belly button then followed the smooth skin lower so that he had to pull back on the waistband of her panties. Her breath hitched, and he looked up the length of her body to eyes filled with anticipation. Slowly, she lifted her hips.

David slid her pants and underwear down her legs. He kissed the mole above her knee then stripped the clothes from her body. Starting back at her feet, his mouth moved up, tasting every inch.

She worked her way out of the sweatshirt, the t-shirt, and the thermal so that she was left with only the sports bra, covering her amazing breasts. She didn’t stop there, though, and withdrew her legs from his hands, slid them up the bed, and sat up, tucking them under her.

She was so hot, so incredibly gorgeous with nothing on.

He licked his lips, his eyes still caught on her chest. He reached for her and grabbed the front of that offensively modest material. He pulled, bringing her closer. Her hands came out and gripped his shoulders.

David worked the bra over her head and tossed it. He framed her supple breasts with his hands then cupped them in his palms. “Thank God.”

Her brow rose.

“What?” he asked as he rolled her nipples in his hands.

“You’re praying now?”

“I pray in thanks, Maria. That you are finally naked in my bed again.”

She laughed as she shook her head. “You’re too much, you know that?”

But, on her knees before him, she returned the favor and quickly divested him of his clothes. Her hand found that sweet spot inside his shorts and cupped him. Seconds flat, he’d guess, and he was at her mercy. He tensed in her hand, and she hummed her approval as she gripped him. “Gah,” he groaned, trying to pull away.

This time he would last longer, he swore it.

But, Maria wouldn’t let him escape and drew him onto the bed, coaxing him to his back.

“No way,” he answered her silent command and rolled her onto her back. He lifted her hips, lined up their bodies to each other, and stopped. Jesus in heaven… she was wet, dripping with her desire. “Damn, Maria. Let me look.”

The gorgeous brown of her skin, the pale pink of her center. He slowly massaged two fingers in the folds of her hot, wet skin. Her back arched. “David,” she moaned.

He found her small bundle of nerves and felt his own breath turn to panting.

He palmed the bump on her belly with the other hand. She spread her legs to him and rose to her tiptoes. “Well, do it then, David. Make me come. I want to be the only one who comes for you. ”

He gripped her hips and thrust home. Achingly paced, once, twice, three times…until he lost count and closed his eyes on the feel of her around him. She was heated, pumping with him and refusing to be left behind.

Her hands traced lines over his chest and down his abdomen. She held onto his sides and curled her feet around his legs—cold feet. Slowing, he reached behind him and pulled the quilt up his back and over his shoulders. He planted his hands beside her head, and adjusted his weight onto his knees so that he could move without hurting her.

She took the edge of the blanket with a grin and drew it over his head then she pulled him down so they were flush against each other.

“The baby.”

“—is fine,” she finished for him as her arms came around his chest. They were nipple to nipple and beneath the warmth of the blanket, she circled his waist with her legs, pulling him even further into her heat.

He tucked his face into her neck and rocked against her. It was serene. Home and love and the most amazing woman he’d ever had in his bed, ever. Her mouth moved over him, from his lips where she gently sucked his bottom one into her mouth and licked the inside of his mouth, down his neck, across his shoulder… she bit lightly at his pect.

“Geez.” The beginnings of his orgasm flooded his veins. And then she grabbed his ass and ground her hips against him. “Holy—”

A sheen of sweat glistened on the smooth skin of her shoulders. And he let go with her. Wanting her, needing her. Just so damned thankful he’d found her here and that she hadn’t left.

He was saying her name, over and over, as they worked the bed together—skin on skin. His hands tunneled through her hair and he tilted her head so that he could see into her eyes. “Maria,” he whispered.

And she came with that spark and snap in her eyes as they slid shut, and the tightening of the sweet, internal hold on his dick, pulsing against him. He pumped hard and fast, faster still. And then anticipation met climax, and he tensed in her arms. David rolled to his side and pulled her into his arms on top of him, as his body gave in to the only part of love that had ever made sense before her.

~*~

Maria woke what must have been hours later. The light brush of a branch on the window made her shiver in the dark and remember all those scary movies her brothers would watch, and she’d sneak down the stairs to peek at. She snuggled deeper under the covers and further back until her bare rear found David at her back.

She ran her hand down his hip and rested it on his thigh, lightly scratching the course hair of his leg. They had a great unity in bed. This was easy, where it had all started. Being at home in these woods was her first glimpse that what they had could last.

They were good here, good in bed, connected—even through mind and spirit. It was enough. He was enough for her. And somehow, she would convince him.

Behind her, David stretched and evidence of their union nudged her. She hummed, the smile coming involuntarily. His hands moved over her.

“What are you doing awake?” He kissed her still-bare shoulder. “You need rest.”

When his hands came around and rested over the baby, a lump formed in her throat.

No matter how much distance he created during the day while his brain was functioning at one hundred percent, his natural instinct was to protect her.

But she didn’t want to sleep and she turned in his arms and straddled his waist, grinning down into his handsome face, his sleepy gaze, as his erection grew beneath her.

With gentle strokes, she rode him awake and the easy, cruise of arousal travelled through relaxed muscles and into reawakening senses. With those drowse-filled eyes barely opening, he reached for her breasts and cupped them, caressed the slope from her shoulder to her nipple.

Her head fell back as she soaked in adoration, and when his hand trailed fingers down her throat, a shiver started in her spine. Her orgasm neared; her nails dug into her thighs, and he lifted her and rocketed into her in one sharp thrust. Her eyes flung open.

Even in his position beneath her, he never submitted. The sleepy gaze turned to an intense glare as his eyes raked over her, and a smile came to her, out of the blue.

The hands on her hips tightened. “What?” he asked.

She blew out a breath as his hips pumped under her and her heart pounded so hard. “Don’t you ever submit?”

A funny look, she couldn’t quite interpret, came to his eyes. And an instant later, he growled, levered himself up to sit up, his feet under him.

She landed in his lap, stunned and amused. “Wow. That was impressive. You’re still inside me.”

He grinned. “But we’re equal now.” He had his arms around her torso as he squeezed her and they were chest to chest, breathing hard. “That okay with you?”

She nodded as he lifted her off his thighs and set her back down with aching precision. Muscles tensed and quaked as he rocked them, gently, taking her breast into his mouth and drawing passion from her that made her boneless and vulnerable.

The rocking, back and forth, pelvis to pelvis, built pressure within her.

Maria forced herself to relax, and leaned forward, resting her head on his shoulder. She wanted this to last forever, wanted the tight feeling in her gut to go on and on. He must have known because his kisses went soft, the rocking deeper and deeper. His hands traced circles on her back until she found herself hypnotized by his touch.

He nibbled lightly on her shoulder. She shuddered, lifting her hips to slide his length against her clit, then forced herself back down.

“Oh, David.” Without warning, her nerves lighted with fire, drove her into the burning of the coming orgasm. She shoved him back to his prone position and let loose, riding him with all the pent up emotion—lust, uncertainty…love.

He never hurried, never stopped the sweet caress of his hands against her skin, into her hair, down to lightly draw figure eights around her nipples.

The contrast drove her mad until finally, finally she climaxed, tightened around him as all thought left her.

He tensed in her arms and grasped her—hard hands on her thighs as he too let loose within her. She slumped onto his chest. Her cheek mashed against sweat-sheened skin.

David rolled them over and lifted his hip so she could get her leg out from under him. She slid the leg straight and curled the other one more tightly around his waist.

He was accommodating the tiny person between them.