Chapter 12

Kiley headed up to bed first, but she didn’t have sleeping in mind. She dug out the retail bag tucked in the bottom of her suitcase and held up the skimpy baby-doll outfit her friends had picked out for her. The black and red lace barely hid anything, and she’d asked her friends what the point of it was, but then they’d asked her what Charlie would do when he saw her in it? She’d bought it in hopes of seeing the look on his face.

She darted into the bathroom just in time. He stepped into the bedroom. “Kiley?”

“I’ll be out in a minute,” she said through the door.

She stripped out of her clothes and pulled on the black thong and slipped into the lingerie, cupping her breasts in the soft lace. It was split with a V in the front. Her reflection in the mirror appeared better than she thought it would. The scars were there, but all the bruising had finally faded. This was the start of her new life, this night with Charlie. Her nerves ratcheted up another few notches as she reached for the door.

“Here we go,” she whispered and stepped out.

“So tomorrow, I thought I’d take you back to town to show you…something…” Charlie stopped talking as his mouth fell open and the muscles in his neck strained.

Kiley fiddled with the hem of the lace. “Yeah? Does it have anything to do with where you were today?” she asked, moving closer.

“It might,” he replied roughly.

She took another step, running her hands over her hips and higher. “Sounds interesting.”

“Yeah, interesting.” His Adam’s apple bobbed and the bulge in his jeans grew.

Kiley moved her hands higher, cupping her breasts. She stayed barely out of his reach, tugging on her nipples through the lace. “I wasn’t sure if you would like this.”

“Why the hell would I not?” he growled, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. He reached for his wallet, but Kiley closed the distance between them and stopped him. He frowned, but she took his wallet and set it aside, knowing what he wanted.

“I got a phone call two days ago from the clinic,” she said, lifting his t-shirt from his jeans. “I wanted us to truly enjoy each other, if you know what I mean.”

His hands caught hers and he kissed her hotly. He backed her into the wall, and she hurried to relieve him of his shirt so she could feel bare skin. There was so much more she wanted to tell him, but she was lost in his touch and his lips caressing her neck. His hands were everywhere on her body, cupping her breasts solidly in his palms as his knee spread her legs. Kiley thought their times before had been filled with passion, but what grew between them now was so much more intense. It was raw, insane, and she wondered if she would ever be sated.

He shoved the lace aside, and when his hot mouth closed around her nipple, she moaned, her back arching as she pushed him closer. She needed more, wanted more. He picked her up and carried her to the bed, laying her out beneath him. Kiley’s legs wrapped around his waist, but he shifted out of her grip and tugged down the thong. His lips found hers again as his fingers rubbed her throbbing folds. She arched her back, trying to get him inside her, but he teased her instead of giving her what she wanted.

“You’re not playing fair,” she argued as he massaged her thighs and her hips, circling her clit but not touching her. “Charlie.”

He felt up her body, and when he tugged hard on her nipples, he sucked her clit at the same time. Kiley bit back a curse as his mouth explored her depths, licking and kissing her until she couldn’t see straight. He dragged her to the edge of the bed and ravished her. She was soaking wet, but he didn’t stop, not until she squirmed and writhed beneath his touch. As the orgasm burned through her, he stood quickly and undid his jeans. Kiley sat up as he revealed himself to her. The sight of his cock made her hungry to feel him, really feel him deep inside her, but he didn’t plunge into her yet.

He climbed back onto the bed and pulled the lingerie from her body. They kissed and rolled in the sheets as Kiley was overwhelmed by his desire and his love. The raw emotions were too much and not enough at the same time. He pulled her up to her knees, him right behind her, and dragged her hand down her body to cup her sex. She massaged it without embarrassment and he groaned, his cock pressed hard against her ass. His fingers traced the curves of her body as her head fell back to his shoulder. He shoved her hand away and cupped her sex, his thumb massaging her bead as his fingers spread her lips and sought her g-spot.

How she could handle any more, she had no idea, but his cock was against her dripping lips and she silently begged him to thrust hard and fast. They rolled back on the bed and he hovered over her, pressing his tip against her sheath.

“Charlie,” she whispered. His arms trembled as he struggled to control himself, but she wanted to tell him first, wanted to see his eyes. “I love you.”

His eyes darkened and he smiled, flashing his dimples. “I love you,” he replied, kissing her and thrusting at the same time.

She cried out against his mouth as he filled her, and the heat of his shaft burned to her very being. Every shift of his body wrought another wave of pleasure over her, but hearing those words lifted the last of the guilt and despair that had weighed her down for so long. His love filled her up with each drive of his body against hers. They moved with a passionate fury, and he lifted her with him so she straddled his body, riding him hard and steady as he sat up, holding her close. Their lips refused to part as the orgasm reached its high point. Kiley’s body shuddered in his arms. He held them together, driving into her until she felt him shoot his hot seed within her body. She took all he had to give her and more, riding out the wave of pleasure together before they sank to the bed.

He grinned as they caught their breaths, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, and the tip of her nose. She snuggled closer, and they held each other as their recent confessions floated through her mind.

“I’m glad it wasn’t only me,” he told her earnestly. “I was worried.”

“You were worried?” she mused. “I thought it was me getting over emotional.”

“And it’s not?”

“Hell no,” she whispered and kissed him fiercely. “I love you, Charlie Devons.”

“Good.” He slipped free, and they both moaned at the pleasurable separation. “I think we have a lot to talk about. But first, wine.”

“Wine?” she asked, watching him with an arched brow as he climbed off the bed and sauntered around the room, searching for his pants. “And why do we need wine?”

“Every good proposition requires wine.”

“Proposition?” She sat up as her stomach fluttered. “What proposition?”

“You’ll have to wait a few minutes longer. I’ll be right back.” He tugged on his jeans and left Kiley wondering what the hell that man was up to.

***

Charlie poured two glasses of wine and sat with Kiley in his old bedroom. She loved him and he loved her. The night was going better than he anticipated, so he thought now was a good a time as any to confess what he’d been up to in town.

“What would you say if I told you I was thinking of relocating here?”

She stilled with the wine halfway to her mouth. “Permanently?”

He nodded. “Permanently. Open the practice I meant to and get back to the small-town life.”

“I would say congratulations? And I hope you’re happy here,” she replied with a fake smile.

“And if I asked you to come with me?”

“Move here? With you?”

He nodded again. “Kiley, I want you to be with me, and that city—I know you want to get away from it. I can’t picture my life without you in it anymore.”

“But the hospital?”

“I have given so much to that place, it’s worn on me over the years,” he told her. “And if we’re going to stay together—which after tonight I have a feeling we will be, for a while at least—I want to be able to spend time with you, not work twelve to twenty-hour shifts.”

He set down his wine glass and took hers, too. He kissed the back of each hand as he stared into her eyes. “I want you to move here with me. I can give you a job and we could be close to my family.”

“I do like your parents,” she admitted.

“And they love you. I think you and my mother would get along famously.”

“We already do.”

“See?” he said excitedly. “Then it’s perfect. What do you say we leave San Antonio behind? It’ll take a few months to get the practice up and running, but you can live here until then.”

Shaking her head, she kissed him. “No, I’ll stay with you until it’s time, and then yes, I’ll move to Maine with you.”

He kissed her, embracing her securely in his arms as they drank the rest of their wine and made love until the wee hours of the morn.

***

The following morning, they were dressed and ready to go, despite the lack of sleep, before his parents were even awake. He wanted to show her the building he’d picked out for his practice. They swung by the realtor’s office, and the man gladly handed Charlie the key so they could look around before he put a down payment on the place.

“I’ll need some new walls built, of course, and equipment brought in,” he explained as they walked around the space brightly lit by the front windows. “But it’ll be just what this small town needs.”

“I can see you as a small-town doctor,” she mused, wandering around the place.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You won’t be chained to the ER all day, dealing with crazy people like me.”

“Just townsfolk crazy people,” he pointed out and they laughed. “It’s taken me so long to get back here. Now I can’t wait to move home.”

“Do you think there’ll be snow this winter?”

He smirked, glancing out the windows she had her back to. Taking her hand, he guided her to the front door and they stepped out. “What do you think?”

Flurries fell over the town, and Kiley held up her hands to catch the flakes. They caught in her hair and on her eyebrows until she spun around, squealing like a little kid. Soon, they would both be there and start a life together. A real, non-dangerous life. He locked up the building and walked back to the realtor’s place to put down a payment on the space. He stayed there for an hour as he went over what needed to be done to the building as Kiley stared out the window, content with watching the snowfall.

They would fly home tomorrow. He wished they had more time, but there were only a few days remaining in his vacation time and he would have to figure out a way to tell Millie he was leaving so she didn’t kill him for it. Then there was the packing and getting the hell out of Texas. The sooner they returned home, hopefully, the sooner they would be back.

On their way back to his car, they walked hand in hand, admiring the snowfall and what would soon be their permanent home. Charlie longed to ask her another question, but that one could wait a few months longer. He wanted the moment to be perfect—needed it to be perfect for his Kiley.