CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Molly couldn’t believe Harry had chartered a yacht for the evening. She understood that he had a very successful career, but it wasn’t about the money he’d spent.
No one had ever done anything so special for her. Even in college, though he might have wanted to make her feel special, their plans had always fallen through. But tonight, everything was absolutely perfect. Especially after he’d come on board grinning as he told her that his siblings had promised to make sure his father was doing okay.
Once on board, they made a video call to Amelia, who was going to spend the night at her best friend’s house after final dress rehearsals at the high school theater.
Molly could tell that Harry missed Amelia already and would have wanted her to join them on their cruise if she’d been free. It warmed her heart to know that they’d been able to create such a strong bond in so short a time. She’d been so worried that the years they’d spent apart would make it difficult for them to become close. But despite the years they hadn’t had together, it looked like father and daughter were going to be perfectly okay.
Molly hugged Harry tight, not wanting to let him go. Aldwin, of course, wanted to be part of the action, and when he stuck his big muzzle between them, they broke apart laughing.
Harry pulled an enormous rawhide bone from one of the bags that he must have stashed on board earlier, and once the dog was happily settled on a big pillow in the corner of the deck, Harry held out a chair for her at the dining table.
She felt as though she were living a scene from a movie, with the light breeze in her hair, the yacht moving smoothly between islands, the sun setting over the water—and the most handsome man alive sitting beside her, holding her hand. All she was missing was a fancy gown, but her jeans and the sweater he’d brought for her were keeping her perfectly warm. Not that she needed much help with that whenever Harry was around, of course…
He topped up her champagne, and she wanted to pinch herself. Was this really her life?
And could it last?
The captain had left them with a brochure that pointed out the enormous mansions on Millionaire’s Row; Tom Thumb Island, which was the smallest of the Thousand Islands; and Devil’s Oven, which had been the hiding place of pirate Bill Johnston. But though they were hugely interested in history, Molly knew they’d have to do another tour one day for her to take in all the details.
Tonight, she couldn’t focus on anything but how good it felt to be with Harry.
“Thank you for a wonderful evening.”
“Are you enjoying yourself?”
How could he doubt it for a second? “So very much.”
He kissed her, then said, “Do you remember the night we practiced waltzing at my house, and Suzanne and Drake thought it would be funny to score us?”
“Your sister kept giving us nines, and your brother wouldn’t go higher than a three,” she said with a laugh.
But Harry wasn’t laughing. “I had planned to take you dancing, but that was another date I had to miss.” Before she realized his intention, he took his phone out of his pocket, scrolled across the screen until a waltz was playing through the boat’s on-board speakers, then stood up.
He reached for her hand. “Will you dance with me, Molly?”
Her heart was in her throat as she put her hand in his. The next thing she knew, he was sweeping her into his arms and around the open deck beneath the stars.
Every dream, every fantasy she’d ever had, paled beside this moment. One so wondrous she felt as though she must be sparkling like the lights reflecting on the water.
“You make me happy, Harry.” No matter what happened from here on out, she needed him to know exactly how she felt this very second. “Happier than I even knew was possible.”
Then she kissed him, a kiss that said everything she wasn’t yet able to speak aloud. But that she hoped he heard.
And when he said, “I love you, Molly,” she thought maybe he had.
* * *
They danced, and laughed, and kissed, and drank champagne until the captain let them know they were nearly back at the dock. By the time they walked back through town to her cottage—a trip that Aldwin was intent on stretching out as long as he possibly could, either by sniffing or by lifting his leg for every rock, fence post, and tree—Molly was so full of anticipation, she was almost shaking from it.
At home, Harry put Aldwin in Amelia’s empty bedroom, where the dog was perfectly content to curl up into a ball on her bed and close his eyes after all the excitement of the boat ride. Harry closed the door and came back into the kitchen.
Within seconds, Molly and Harry were kissing and tearing at each other’s clothes.
In their haste to get each other naked, they knocked a lamp onto the couch and stumbled into the dining table. But all that mattered was how good it felt when Harry backed her up against the wall, then put his hands on her bare hips while she wrapped her arms and legs around his waist.
With one glorious thrust, he drove into her.
All control lost, they loved each other in a frenzy of passion that stole her breath away. She’d never felt so good—so free—so utterly, wonderfully right as Harry’s mouth came down on the arch of her neck, licking, sucking, biting in time to the movements of his hips.
It was all she could do just to hold on tight…and beg for moremoremore.
Fireworks exploded inside of her as he covered her mouth with his, their kiss creating a kaleidoscope of sensation beyond anything she’d ever imagined. Release shuddered through them both, rolling waves of pleasure that went on and on and on, their fierce lovemaking the absolutely perfect way to end the perfect date.
For long moments, he held her to him, their hearts pounding against each other. Eventually, she’d need to unwrap her limbs from his body and stand on her own two feet again, but Molly didn’t want to put that kind of distance between them. Not yet.
Not ever.
“Don’t let go,” Harry said, then walked through her kitchen and down the hall with Molly still wrapped around him.
It wasn’t until they were in her bathroom that he put her down. A rush of cool air threatened to chill her skin where she’d been pressed up against him, but the kiss he gave her quickly heated her back up.
He didn’t let go of her hand as he leaned over and turned on the bathtub faucet. “I’ve been dreaming of taking a bath with you ever since I saw this tub.”
Even if he hadn’t been naked and touching her, his deep, rumbly voice—along with the sexy memories of the one time they’d been able to take a very naughty bath together in college—would have made her want to jump him again.
“I’ve been dreaming of exactly the same thing,” she said.
He climbed into the water first, then held out a hand for her. He sat back in the tub, and she sank into the water with her back to his chest. Reaching for the soap, he began a very leisurely and thorough journey over her arms, her legs, her stomach. By the time he ran soap bubbles over her breasts, she was desperately aroused and full of anticipation.
Just as every taste she had of him made her want more, every climax in his arms was better than the one that came before. Already, she couldn’t wait to reach that next peak.
She turned to straddle him in the tub. “I can’t wait,” she said, neither a plea nor an apology. But simply the truth. “I need you.”
“Then take me, Molly. I’m yours.”
She came down over him on a gasp, the pleasure so intense that she could barely believe she wasn’t dreaming. That he was really here. In her tub. In her house. In her life.
But most of all, in her heart.
“Harry.”
She looked into his eyes, and what she saw in them had pleasure streaking through her like a lightning bolt, shocking every inch of her with the power of it.
With the joy of it.
“I love you,” he said, his words feverish against her skin. With his hands on her hips and his mouth at her breasts, he showed her yet again just how right they were together.
The perfect match in every way.