The Last in Love (Ardent Springs Book 5) Page 14

  “And I like the sound you make when you come apart against me.” Skating his palms up her rib cage, he leaned in closer. “Let me love you, baby. Come back to bed.”

  Silky legs locked around his hips as she murmured “Yes” against his cheek.

  Justin carried her down the hall, one hand tucked beneath her ass while the other worked open the buttons of his shirt. Before they reached the bed, the shirt hit the floor, followed by an empty wineglass that they were too distracted to see roll out of sight. The mattress dipped as he lowered her gently into the center, but Abby didn’t seem interested in gentle this time. With impressive speed, she dragged the boxer briefs to the floor and kissed the tip of his erection. A groan ripped from his lungs as she took him deep, and it was Justin’s turn to feel weak in the knees.

  Her tongue slicked down the side of him and then back up until he filled her mouth again. Jaw locked tight, Justin closed his eyes and shoved his hands into her hair, using every ounce of focus to hold back. To make it last. God, she was so good. Scalding heat threatened to fry his brain as every muscle tightened with unleashed desire. When she cupped his balls, he roared with release as the orgasm splintered through him, leaving him breathless and shaky.

  Unable to support his own weight, he leaned forward until his hands pressed to the bed and his forehead rested on her shoulder. “You’re amazing,” he panted, dropping a quick kiss along her collarbone.

  “I’ve been wanting to do that all night,” she drawled, leaning back and pulling him down with her. “That seemed like the right time.”

  Nuzzling into her neck, Justin licked behind her earlobe. “Whenever you get the urge to do that again, I’ll happily oblige.”

  Suddenly playful, she trailed her nails up his rib cage. “What if I get the urge in the middle of the day?”

  “Anywhere. Anytime. I’m all yours.”

  Abby tipped up his face until their eyes met. “That’s what I needed to hear.”

  Dazed by the weight of her words, he brushed his thumb over her damp lips. “I was always yours, Abby. And I always will be.”

  As if sealing a vow, Justin spent the rest of the night fulfilling the promise he’d made in the kitchen—loving her until they drifted off to sleep together.

  Chapter 15

  “Earth to Abby,” Haleigh said, snapping her fingers an inch from her friend’s nose. “Are you in there?”

  Shaking her head, Abby dragged her thoughts back to the present, blinking at the bright walls and eclectic decor surrounding her. “I’m here,” she said, rising off the leather bench inside the entrance of Mamacita’s Mexican Restaurant. “I’m ready.”

  Though she wasn’t really here at all. She was still in last night, punch-drunk on sex, floating on an emotional high both raw and addictive. Justin had kissed, suckled, and deliciously tortured every inch of her body until she’d screamed his name loud enough to wake the neighbors. Once he’d talked her off the cliff in her kitchen and then stroked her body to heights she hadn’t even known existed, she’d slept like a woman spent and satisfied until he’d woken her—in the best way possible—just before eight.

  Mowing his parents’ yard had been on the agenda for first thing that morning, though Karen Donovan would never know that her yard was technically the second thing her son had done that day.

  “I said your name three times,” Haleigh whispered as the hostess showed them to their table.

  “I was thinking about something else,” Abby admitted, working to keep the smile off her face and failing miserably.

  Her friend chuckled. “That was obvious.”

  The voluptuous brunette stopped at a corner booth and spread five menus around the table. “Here you go,” she said with a lovely Spanish accent.

  “We don’t need—” Abby started, but Haleigh cut her off.

  “This will be fine, thanks.” She edged onto the red vinyl seat and scooted around to the back of the large, round table. Looking up at Abby, she said, “What are you waiting for?”

  Unless her friend had three little mice in her pocket, their lunch for two had been upgraded. “Who else is coming?”

  “Just Lorelei, Snow, and Carrie,” the blonde said, tapping the seat beside her. “But not for another fifteen minutes, so get in here and start talking.”

  Great. Abby’s quiet lunch with her best friend would now be a gathering of four crazy-in-love women—and her. Lorelei had become the baking queen since returning to town two years ago, Snow owned a charming flea-market-type store downtown, and Carrie ran a women’s shelter on the outskirts of town. Including Haleigh, all four women had significant others who treated them like the desirable, deserving women that they were.

  And then there was Abby.

  “You could have told me they were coming,” she mentioned, taking the spot Haleigh had tapped.

  Haleigh opened her menu. “And you could have told me that you were going into business with Justin Donovan instead of blindsiding me with the news yesterday.”

  Not telling her mother had been intentional, but she hadn’t kept the news from her best friend on purpose.

  “The business idea only came to fruition Thursday morning. By the time I finished helping Mama with wedding stuff and ran another errand that afternoon, you were on duty at the hospital.”

  “You could have come by and told me. Though I suppose the hospital is the last place you want to be these days. Still, a call would have been nice.”

  Recalling what she’d done instead of calling, Abby hid a blush behind her menu. “I was busy.”

  One slender finger lowered the laminated flyer. “Busy with your new partner?” Haleigh asked.

  Once upon a time she and Haleigh had shared every single secret, from the first time either of them went to second base with a boy—Abby had rounded first three months before her friend—to the difficult times when Haleigh had fallen off the wagon. But since Kyle’s death, which for a while had planted a wedge between them, their friendship hadn’t been the same. To the point that Abby had, in her anger and grief, nearly ruined her friend’s romance with her brother.

  The fact was, she missed how things used to be. And maybe moving on meant going back, in this one way.

  Closing her menu, Abby clasped her hands on the table. “Justin made me dinner at the firehouse on Thursday, and then he brought a pizza to my place last night.” Tossing a wicked grin Haleigh’s way, she added, “We had sex all night and I couldn’t even tell you how many orgasms I had.”

  Haleigh jerked back as if she’d been smacked. “Are. You. Serious?” she loud-whispered. “All night? Is that why you’re freaking glowing?”

  Abby nodded. “I don’t know if not having it for two years made it that much better, but holy cheese and crackers, that man is good. I mean, he’s really good.”

  “He must be,” she laughed. “I haven’t seen you lit up like this in years. But what happened to all that ‘I’m too old for him’ crap?”

  That really had been crap. “It’s only five years. Kyle was seven years older than me and no one batted an eye.” Recalling the scene in the beauty salon, she corrected, “Except my mother, apparently, but she never said anything until yesterday.”

  “Linda didn’t approve of you and Kyle?”

  “Not at first, I guess. When I told her about me and Justin, she got all bent out of shape and kept referring to him as ‘that boy.’ As if he’s still ten years old.”

  A waiter appeared with two glasses of water and a bowl of chips and salsa.

  “We have some friends coming, so we’re going to wait to order,” Haleigh said.

  “No problem. I’ll come back when the table is full.” Dark brown eyes lingered on Abby longer than necessary before he smiled and walked away.

  “I think our waiter likes you,” Haleigh mumbled. “They say men can tell when a woman’s been getting busy. I bet he can smell it.”

  “That’s gross,” Abby declared. “Besides, I showered this morning.” Not alone, but she’d sho
wered.

  “I’m just sayin’,” Haleigh defended. “It’s simple science. Pheromones, I tell you.”

  “You can shove your pheromones up your—”

  “Be nice, young lady. Getting yourself a boy toy is supposed to make you nicer.”

  Abby reached for a corn chip. “I don’t like that term.”

  Once again flipping through the menu, Haleigh said, “He’s the younger man with whom you’re having a fling. What else would you call him?”

  “This isn’t a fling,” she corrected, snapping the chip in half. “I don’t do flings and you know it.”

  Awarding Abby her full attention, her tablemate grew serious. “If it isn’t a fling, then what is it? Because you can’t really see Justin Donovan as long-term material.”

  Abby reached for the salsa. “I can see Justin Donovan in whatever way I want. He’s a good man, and he cares about me.”

  “You’ve known him for a week.”

  “I’ve known him for nearly twenty years. I know his parents,” she pointed out. “I know where he grew up and we went to the same school. And his senior year he used to deliver flowers to the hospital and would stop to see me all the time.”

  “You make it sound like we ran in the same circles when in reality we graduated a year before he stepped foot in the hallowed halls of Ardent Springs High. I couldn’t even tell you what he looked like back then. And he hasn’t been a senior for a decade, which means you have no idea what he’s been doing for the last ten years.” As if sharing some ominous secret, she added, “Mom says he’s back in Ardent Springs because he got fired from his job in Chicago for some shady business dealings.”

  Losing her appetite, Abby dropped the chip onto her napkin. “I’m not interested in town gossip. I know he lost his job.”

  “Not lost,” Haleigh corrected. “Was fired. There’s a difference. A man used to closing million-dollar deals doesn’t settle for seasonal landscaping in Ardent Springs.”

  Amazed by the sudden disapproval, she shook her head in wonder. “A few minutes ago he was an acceptable candidate to sleep with, but now he’s a money-hungry, possibly corrupt businessman who’s going to what? Embezzle my life savings and leave me heartbroken? The classic tale of a young con artist and the unwitting, love-starved widow who believes he really loves her?”

  “You’ve never been a drama queen before,” Haleigh muttered, pinning her with an angry glare. “Did you know that he accused me of not paying attention to you? He says that I flaunt my relationship with Cooper in your face and that it makes you miserable to see us happy.”

  Staring at the cluster of hubcaps attached to the ceiling, Abby said, “He shouldn’t have told you that.”

  “Then it’s true?”

  Gnawing the inside of her lip, Abby didn’t answer right away.

  “Be honest with me, Abbs. Is that how you feel?”

  “It’s just hard,” she confessed. “I’m happy for you guys. Really, I am. And I’m happy for everyone else. But I’ve spent two years mourning and watching you all pair off. Even Mama.” She ripped her straw paper into tiny pieces. “I’m like the last woman standing. I must have mentioned my feelings to Justin, but I didn’t mean for him to repeat them.”

  Haleigh lowered her voice. “Abby Lou, I want you to be happy. I want you to find love. But don’t mistake the first guy to come along for the right guy.”

  Abby hadn’t labeled Justin as Mr. Right. At least not yet.

  “I’m not saying I hear wedding bells or picture us growing old together. I get it. It’s fast—probably too fast—and crazy, and a month ago I’d have run in the opposite direction, but I’m through running from things that scare me or don’t fit in my practical little box. I’m going to see where this leads, and I don’t want to feel like my best friend is sitting around waiting for me to be wrong.”

  “But what if you are?”

  “What if I’m not?” Abby took a deep breath. “The truth is, Haleigh, I don’t have anything to lose. This is a win or break-even situation for me, and I’m ready to take the risk.”

  Softening, the woman who knew her better than anyone in the world shook her head. “I knew you were attracted to him, but I didn’t see this coming at all. You’ve never even gone out with a younger man.”

  Voicing what seemed to be her motto these days, Abby said, “There’s a first time for everything.”

  “I guess so,” Haleigh laughed, diffusing the tension. “He seems to really like you, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now, but do me one favor.”

  Relieved to have her friend’s support, she said, “What’s that?”

  “Ask the important questions. Find out what happened in Chicago and if he’s back for good.” When Abby bristled, she added, “You don’t have to share what you learn. Let the gossips think what they want. I’m simply saying that you’re less likely to regret this if there are no surprises down the road.”

  She had a point. Not that Abby doubted him, but she was curious about those complications he’d mentioned before.

  “That’s fair,” she agreed, “but I won’t interrogate him. If there’s anything he doesn’t want to share, I won’t force him.”

  Haleigh didn’t appear to like the compromise, but the rest of their party finally arrived, leaving her no option to argue.

  Justin stank. Why couldn’t his parents have one of those cozy quarter-acre lots? No, they had to have five acres. Because two people with no young kids or animals or even a freaking garden needed five acres. Dropping onto the glider inside the screened-in porch where he’d spent many a night growing up, Justin gave his aching muscles a break. To be fair, some of the soreness likely stemmed from last night’s rigorous activity, but Justin regretted nothing.

  They had eventually gotten to the pizza, Abby once again clad in his shirt and him in his underwear. He couldn’t remember ever having that comfortable a meal with a woman. Justin had regaled her with stories from his days at Northwestern, many fueled by liquor and bravado, while she shared tales of her most bizarre patients over the years. His favorite had been the elderly gentleman who kept ringing for a nurse and then stripping himself bare before they arrived and demanding a sponge bath.

  When it came down to it, you couldn’t blame a guy for trying.

  “I see you’re sitting down on the job,” his father said, stepping onto the porch and letting the screen door slam behind him. “Am I paying you to lounge around my glider?”

  “You aren’t paying me at all,” Justin reminded him, accepting the chilled glass of tea. He’d missed sweet tea while living in Chicago. The one time he’d ordered it, the young waitress had brought him a tiny pot of hot water, a mug, a tea bag, and twelve packs of sugar. Needless to say, he hadn’t made that mistake again.

  Father and son rested in companionable silence, watching a determined fly bounce off the screen. Over the years, they’d learned to appreciate these quiet moments, mostly because they were few and far between. The word silence did not reside in Karen Donovan’s vocabulary. She believed in conversing all the time, and lucky for them, required little to no participation on their part. They loved her. They’d do anything for her. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t enjoy her absence from time to time.

  “Pulled in a little later than planned this morning, didn’t you?” Pop asked.

  Justin’s target start time had been seven thirty in order to beat the heat, since the cool April temps had given way to hot May days. But showering with a wet, purring Abby had delayed his departure. Again, Justin regretted nothing.

  “I got hung up,” he replied, keeping the details to himself. Details that had been replaying in his mind all morning, doing more to raise his body temperature than the sun or heightened humidity. Lost in the memories, he’d smiled wide enough at one point to nearly swallow an unsuspecting bug. Hard to tell which one of them had been more surprised.

  After swallowing a sip of his own drink, Ken Donovan switched topics. “Your mother says you got th
e job of prettying up our downtown.”

  Justin nodded, rolling the cold glass across his forehead. “We did, indeed. The turnaround will be tight, but I think we’ll hit the deadline.”

  “We?” his father asked, always more astute than one would guess from his slow drawl and even keel.

  “I got myself a partner,” he explained. “Abigail Williams. Do you remember her?”

  “Your babysitter?”

  “That’s the one.”

  A weighted pause preceded his next question. “She’s a widow now, isn’t she?”

  Though his wife would swear the man never listened, her husband proved her wrong on a regular basis. “Yes, she is.” Justin saw the next question coming as clear as the weeping willow bowing in the distance, but he let the older man ask it anyway.

  “Is that where you got hung up?”

  Gripping his pop’s knee, Justin grinned. “You taught me never to kiss and tell, remember?”

  “Well,” he said, rubbing the gray stubble along his chin. “I wasn’t asking for any details. She’s a good girl. A lot better than that bit of fluff you were going to marry up in the big city.”

  Pop had only met Victoria twice, and the Donovan patriarch had never voiced an opinion about her one way or the other. Interesting to know that his father saw the fluff before he did.

  “I can’t argue with that.” Eager to finish the trimming, he chugged the rest of the tea and set the empty glass on the table beside him. “You have a full schedule today?” Justin asked, rising to his feet. His father had been working six days a week for as long as he could remember, always making time to come home for lunch.

  The older man rose beside him, a little slower than he used to be. “Not too bad. Does this new business mean you plan to stick around for a while?”

  Justin’s long-range plan still included moving back to the city. He just didn’t know which one yet. Or when. “For the time being, sure,” he answered. “But I’m keeping my options open.”

  Stepping out of character, Pop said, “I’ve never been one to give advice, but I have a suggestion, if you’re interested.”