Jill Shalvis - Back In The Bedroom

Tessa held her breath. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see what Reilly’s father was trying to tell him. Take a risk. Love again. Feel.

Live.

But was he hearing it? She searched his inscrutable expression and didn’t have a clue.

“Beat it,” Reilly suddenly said to his parents, his eyes still on Tessa.

“Sure.” Eddie turned to Cheri. “Let’s go make out.”

Reilly winced. “What in our history together suggests to you that I’d want to hear that?”

Cheri laughed and reached for Eddie. “You know what? Let’s. I think the kid wants to be alone.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Eddie said. He helped Cheri into the convertible, winked once more at Tessa and then drove off.

“They were wrong,” Reilly said. “I don’t want to be alone.” He reached into her car and took her keys out of the ignition. “I should warn you, I’m moody.”

She lifted a brow.

“I’m also…grumpy sometimes.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” she said cautiously, and he nodded.

“I will. But first…”

She watched him pocket her keys and wondered what he was up to.

“Tell me that you’ll think of me every day of those three months of your adventure,” he said. “That it’s killing you to walk away.”

She closed her eyes, then opened them again and met his. “Of course it’s hard to walk away. We’ve slept together. We made love in your bathroom,” she said, her voice quivering a little and he grimaced.

“I know,” he said. “God, I know. You don’t take that lightly and-”

“Lightly?” She said, laughing and shook her head. “You want to know what I don’t take lightly? Falling in love with you, you idiot.”

He stared at her. Then he opened the car door and hauled her out. Lifted her up to her toes to look her in the eye. Nose to nose he said, “Then why the hell are you leaving?”

“Because…” She lifted her hands to his face, which she lovingly cupped. “I didn’t want to be the only one in love.”

“Now who’s the idiot?” He set her down gently, wrapped his arms around her. “I do love you. I love you so much you’re driving me right out of my living mind.”

It was her turn to stare at him, speechless. Then she both laughed and cried and took one of her hands off his face so she could smack his shoulder. “You might have said so.”

“I did,” he said, and put his forehead to hers. “In every kiss, in every look and every touch.”

“And you were going to let me walk away?”

“I wouldn’t have held you back, not from your adventure.”

“You love me that much?”

“Look, I’ve screwed up at love before. I’ve gone the opposite route and closed myself off, and screwed that up, too. Neither worked for me, but then you came along-”

She made a soft noise of emotion, of hope and joy, and he hugged her. “I know how to put numbers together,” he said in her ear. “I know how to get them to make sense. I know how to do a lot of things, but loving you…I don’t have a clue.” He pulled back to see her face. “All I know is that your smile makes my day and that when I’m with you, everything seems right.”

“Oh, Reilly,” she sighed, devouring his mouth. Just plastered herself against him, sank her fingers into his hair and kissed him desperately, hungrily. She kissed him with everything she had, everything she wanted to give him.

“So you’re staying,” he finally said, his voice unsteady and missing its usual easy confidence.

Tessa buried her face in his throat, inhaling him, just breathing him in. “I don’t know…that was a heck of a job offer from Eddie. I mean, the Greek Islands? Think of the experience.”

He tightened his hands on her. “I can offer a chance for experience, too.”

“Really?” she asked. She cocked her head. “What do you have in mind?”

He whispered in her ear, low, raw, earthy suggestions, things no one had ever whispered to her before. Excited, aroused and her heart overflowing, she nodded. “Sounds like quite an opportunity.”

“Oh, yes,” he agreed and put her back into the car, this time on the passenger side. He got in behind the wheel. “In fact, there’s no need to wait, we can start-”

“Now?”

“Now.” He drove her to his house.

“But work-”

“Forget work. I gave Marge the day off to go do something special, something she’d never done before,” he said. “I told her I was going to do the same,” he said, smiling at her, a smile full of so much love she felt her eyes well up again.

And his quickly faded. “What’s the matter?”

“I always wanted to fall in love with a man who’d show me his feelings,” she said slowly. “A man who was warm and compassionate and soft-”

“Wait a minute.” He turned off the engine, then led her inside. Once there, he took her hand and led her to his bedroom. “Warm and compassionate, no problem. Or at least I can try… But that being soft thing-”

She laughed.

He pressed against her, so far from soft that her laugh turned into a little gasp.

“You think this condition is amusing?”

“Only because…” She paused and looked at his bed.

“Because…” he said helpfully, drawing her to his mattress, where he started in on her buttons.

“Because I know how to relieve the condition,” she said, assuring him and started on his buttons, too. “We’ve finally got it right. We’ve finally made it to a bed.”

“Finally.” He held her off, the playfulness gone. “Right place, right time, right woman. It’s all just right. You’re everything to me,” he said softly. “Everything.”

She reached for him, half-undressed, holding him close, so close that she could feel his heart beating against hers, could feel the two different patterns merge, become one. And she sighed as her world became complete.

Fifteen months later

THE GREEK ISLANDS were lovely this time of year. Tessa let out a languid sigh and figured she was the luckiest woman on earth.

She was in her bathing suit, lying on her back, staring up at an azure summer sky so amazing it took her breath away. Beneath her, the yacht rocked gently in the breeze, the water lapping at the sides with a pleasant, hypnotic sound.

“Mrs. Ledger?”

That brought a smile to her face, though she didn’t turn toward the male voice. “Yes?”

“I’ve brought you your sunscreen. Turn over and I’ll rub it on you.”

With a naughty smile, she turned onto her belly and wriggled a little to get comfortable on her towel-and to show off her backside.

She gasped when the tie of her bikini top was tugged free, then set to her sides. Then the cold lotion was squirted on the small of her back, making her gasp again.

“Mmm, nice,” he breathed into her ear. His hands touched her, slid over her muscles and warm skin in a way that made her moan, without the strap of her top across her back to encumber him in any way. Up and down, then to the backs of her legs, even dipping into her bikini bottoms enough to have her wriggling some more.

“Does your husband know what I do to you?” he whispered, his fingers getting quite wicked, making her lose her train of thought.

Hmm. To even the score, she flipped over and exposed her bare breasts. She looked up into Reilly’s face. “He knows,” she said, feeling smug at the glossy look in his eyes as he devoured the sight of her.

He cupped her breasts, gently stroking her nipples, and it was her turn to give him a glassy-eyed look. “Husband,” she managed to say. “I like that word.”

“Do you?” He leaned in and kissed her mouth softly, settling one big hand on her belly.

“You know what word I like even more?” she asked.

“What?” He gave her the indulgent smile of a man on his honeymoon, a man who knew he was about to get very lucky for the third time that day.

“Daddy,” she whispered. “I like the word daddy.” She watched as he went very still.

His eyes cut to the hand he held on her still-flat belly, his fingers tightening a little as his eyes went hot with that wild emotion called love.

“Remember on your desk last month?” she asked softly. “When the condom broke-”

“I remember.”

“Well, funny thing about broken condoms…”

His eyes cut to hers. “Are you saying-”

“Would you mind a whole lot?” she asked, holding her breath.

“Mind a whole lot?” he repeated and closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were bright and just a little damp. His voice broke, his breath hitched. “Minding isn’t quite the right word.”

Her own breath hitched, too. “What is?”

“Ecstatic,” he said fervently. “Blown away. Overcome.” He spread his fingers wide on her stomach, his expression pure love and protectiveness. Then he bent his head and kissed her right below her belly button. “Another generation…” He let out a breath.

“Terrified?”

“Only slightly,” he admitted, then scooped her up in his arms, against his chest. “I’m crazy in love with you, Tess.”

“I know.” Her joy complete, she sighed with pleasure. “Let’s go inside, back to our stateroom. You can show me just how much…”