The Second Chance Café (A Hope Springs Novel Book 1) Read online

  “Because I didn’t think it mattered.”

  That brought his mind back to business. “How could it not matter?”

  “I want to be here. I want to make love with you. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only thing that does.”

  He wanted to believe her, to agree with her, but…a virgin. He didn’t want her to regret her decision, or to hate him afterward because he wasn’t the right man. He wanted to be the right man. He wanted tonight to be unforgettable. He wanted—

  “Ten?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Did you forget about me?”

  “Never, baby,” he said, then added, “Not a chance.”

  “Do you believe me?”

  He nodded, swallowed, and nodded again, staring into her eyes as he did, and falling. How could he not believe her when her skin was flushed and her pulse visible beneath the translucent skin of her neck? Her eyes bright, the color lost to arousal, like he was lost to his.

  “I believe you,” he finally said, the words scratching their way up his throat.

  “Then can we stop talking now?”

  She had no idea what she was in for. “I guess this is when I should tell you that I’m a big believer in talking during sex.”

  Her lips parted, and she caught at the lower with her teeth, teasing him, and it worked because nothing about the move was practiced. It was pure Kaylie, genuine and unaffected and true. “Then don’t stop talking or…anything else.”

  He took a deep breath, shed his hesitation along with his briefs, and settled between her legs. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You’re going to. I know that. But it’s okay.”

  He couldn’t say anything to that. All he could do was bring his mouth down on hers in a kiss so soft she sighed beneath him, melting and spineless as she lifted her legs, dragging her heels down the backs of his thighs. He wasn’t quite as soft after that, his tongue hungry in her mouth, his body shuddering from her touch.

  “You like?” she whispered, her lips at the edge of his.

  “More than you know.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Kaylie—”

  “I don’t want you to hold back. I want everything. I want all of you.”

  And so he told her, moving down her body with his mouth, whispering against her skin, licking certain spots and making her squirm, smelling her and squirming, too. She was soft and sweet, her scent of sun-soaked flowers so familiar he felt a tug in the center of his chest. But he didn’t talk about that. He couldn’t talk about that. Not when she’d brought her thighs up his sides in invitation.

  He knelt on the bed between her legs, holding her as he kissed her the way he’d been wanting to for days, tasting her, drawing her hips off the bed as she pushed against his mouth, whimpering as if asking for more.

  “You like?” he asked, his voice like sandpaper to his ears.

  “More than you know.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Unbelievable. Please. Oh, please. I want…” She stopped, shivered, gooseflesh pebbling the skin of her thighs where he held her.

  “Are you cold?” he asked, pretty sure her trembling wasn’t about the room’s temperature.

  “No.” She shook her head on the pillow. “I want more of your mouth. And I want to come. And I want to feel you inside me. That’s what I want most of all.”

  Magic words. All of them. Words that had his body tightening, growing harder than he already was. But since he knew this wouldn’t be easy on her, he held himself in check and lowered his head.

  He used his tongue to lick and pierce her, his lips to suck and kiss her. He pulled on the hard bud of her nerve endings, applying the pressure her movements told him she liked, listening to the noises she made each time he shifted, or adjusted, or slid deep, or withdrew.

  He tasted the metallic salt of her release before she gave in, flinging her arms to her sides and fisting her hands in the sheets. She cried out, stiffening, shaking, shoving herself against him where she most needed his touch to finish. He let her use him, giving her all that her body asked for, then reaching for the condom he’d tossed to the foot of the bed.

  At the sound of the packet tearing, Kaylie opened her eyes and rose up onto her elbows. She watched while he rolled the protective sheath into place, then parted her legs and lifted her gaze to his. He crawled over her and lowered himself into the cradle of her hips, one hand holding his shaft as he probed at her entrance, pushed at her barrier. And then he was inside, sliding into her, a slow, easy penetration that had her eyes going wide, her teeth grabbing for her bottom lip, her hands pulling the sheet to her sides.

  When it looked like she was about to punch holes through the fabric, he stopped, said, “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t stop,” she said. “And don’t be sorry.”

  “I’m hurting you.”

  “Yes, but I think it’s going to get a whole lot better from here.”

  It was, for both of them, but he needed to be sure. “Tell me how you want me to move, to make it easier. Tell me what to do.”

  “Tennessee Keller. I don’t want it easier. I just want it. And I want it from you. And I really, really want it now.”

  “You’re killing me, Kaylie. You know that, right?”

  “That’s good, because I wouldn’t want to be the only one here dying.”

  And with that, his elbows braced on either side of her head, he began to move his hips, easing in and out with long, gentle strokes, holding himself to that rhythm as long as he could, in and out, in and out, his gaze holding hers as he did. Her breathing increased to match his, a rough digesting of the air between them. And her pulse in her neck beat like a drum, pounding and labored like his.

  He increased his speed, and she raised her knees along his sides, lowered them, raised them again, urging him on with her heels to his backside, smoothing her soles down his thighs to his calves. She squeezed her legs around him, squeezed her sex around him, too. He couldn’t have found the words, even if he’d had any brain left for speech, so he grunted to tell her she was doing everything right.

  She responded in kind, moans and whimpers and panted breaths, but soft ones, where his noises were crass and heathen. He was crass and heathen, and she was beautiful and thoughtful and so hungry. He fed her the only way he knew how, pumping ever harder in response to the insistent, greedy push-pull of her hands and feet on his body, urging him to hurry.

  He didn’t want to hurry, but he couldn’t take his time. Not when she was so demanding, and when he was enjoying finding out that she was. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected to discover about her in bed, but this wasn’t it, this total lack of inhibition, and Kaylie a virgin. The thought had him burying his head in her pillow, his face against her neck, and increasing the speed of his hips.

  He knew she was climbing with him, her whimpers now desperate cries. He bit her neck, sucked on the skin, soothed the wound with his tongue, and she let go, arching upward, drawing her fingers down his back, then turning her head to bite him. At that, he surged into her, the hot physical rush followed by a burst of complex emotions, and then he collapsed, finishing in a quaking shudder that left him spent.

  Long minutes later, Kaylie shifted beneath him. He started to roll away, stopping when she reached for his shoulders and held him still. “No. Stay.”

  He’d be content on top of her for the rest of the night, but she had to be sore, and they both needed to shower. He wanted her again, but he wanted her to recover. And sleep was sounding better and better. But first there was the condom to deal with.

  Leaving her with a kiss, he rolled off the bed and headed into the bathroom. He’d just turned on the bathwater when he heard her behind him. He looked back without thinking, then sucked in a breath and stepped into the claw-foot tub, closing the curtain around him and flipping the lever for the showerhead.

  He’d had her naked beneath him. He’d been buried inside her. But seeing her without her clothes, head-to-toe bare walki
ng toward him…he forgot how to breathe, how to think, how to do anything but grow thick and hard.

  “Do you want company?” she asked, her voice nearly lost in the steam filling the room. “Someone to wash your back?”

  At the moment he couldn’t think of anything he wanted more. Thing was…“There should be another condom on the floor by my jeans,” he said, then stuck his head under the spray. He’d leave it up to her and not press, but just in case, he had to be ready.

  Moments later he felt the curtain against his shoulder move, felt the brush of Kaylie’s hair as she reached around him for her sponge and flowery body wash. He didn’t ask about the condom. They’d get to that.

  He faced her and asked something else instead. “Do you want to tell me why you’re still a virgin?”

  “I’m not still a virgin,” she said, her smile coy and honest as she sponged his chest, her gaze following the trail of suds down his torso.

  He closed his eyes, thought about the basketball game he’d missed tonight. Thought about the mess still to clean up in the kitchen. Then he thought about Mitch and Luna’s deception, and that effectively took his mind off Kaylie’s hands. “You were until a few minutes ago.”

  “And it’s so nice the way you took care of that for me.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “I don’t know that I have one,” she said as she moved to wash his arms. “Except that the time was never right. And the man was never right. Until now.”

  He turned so she’d wash his back and not…anything else. “You’re gorgeous, and you’re willing, and you’re a whole lot of fun. I’ve gotta think you’ve had more offers than you can count.”

  She continued to soap him. “I knew what I wanted. I don’t know how else to explain it. I had a lot of opportunities, and it wasn’t always easy to say no. But it wasn’t right. And I’m afraid if I say anything else, I’ll scare you off.”

  “Then scare me,” he said, his hands laced on top of his head as he looked over his shoulder. “I really need to know.”

  She stilled, the sponge in one hand, the soap in the other. “I couldn’t give myself to someone who I might never see again. I’m not the one-night-stand type. Or the casual-sex type. And that’s why I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want you to stay with me because I guilted you into—”

  “Kaylie, stop,” he said, spinning to grab her by the wrists. “I’m here, and I’m staying, and there are many, many reasons why, but the most important one is this.” He used the long edge of his index finger to lift her chin, forcing her gaze up to meet his. “I want to be here with you. I don’t want to be anywhere else. Guilt has nothing to do with it.”

  The sunshine of her smile lit him up, a warmth more comforting than the water soothing his tired back. And then she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him, her skin on his skin, her heart beating with his. “I didn’t think that you did, but I still had to say it. Don’t be mad.”

  “I’m not mad. I just want to understand,” he said, holding her.

  “I’ve lost everyone who’s ever mattered to me, Ten. Or everyone who should’ve been there for me. It’s not hard to figure out why I go into relationships looking to make exits easier, for me, for the other person. It’s a coping mechanism, I guess. Or a defensive one. And it’s probably why I don’t have many friends. Any friends, really.”

  She was breaking his heart, always alone, having no one. “Oh, baby. You have me. And you have Luna and Dolly and Indy. And Carolyn and Jessa. And Will.” He forced himself to add, “And Mitch.”

  She let him go, looking up with a sharp eye. “That hurt, didn’t it? Putting Mitch in there.”

  “Are we done here?” he asked instead of answering. “Because I’m pretty sure my prunes are pruned.”

  She swatted him on the bottom, pulled the curtain aside, and handed him the first towel, stepping out and wrapping herself in the second. They were barely dry before he met her in the center of the bed, spooning his knees into hers, wrapping his arm around her waist, nuzzling his cheek against her hair spread out on her pillow. “Do you want me to come with you to Austin on Sunday? To get the last of your things?”

  “I thought you had to go to San Antonio for supplies. I thought that was why Mitch said he’d go.”

  “I do, but if you want me there, I can change my plans.” He could hear the hesitation in his offer, and he had no doubt she sensed his reluctance that was bigger than changing some plans. He loved this woman. He did not want her hurt. And he’d set her up to be devastated. It was hard to think about his killing her Sunday after she’d loved him so thoroughly tonight.

  She tucked her shoulder into his armpit and wrapped herself tighter into his arm. “I’ll be fine with Mitch. It’s just a walk-through of my condo, and telling Austin good-bye.”

  His responding laugh was low and gruff and rife with his gut-roiling guilt. “I hope it’s as easy as that.”

  She wiggled against him. “You saw through that, did you?”

  “I know a little bit about leaving behind something you love.”

  But she didn’t answer, already fast asleep.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  When Luna walked into the parlor of the house at Second and Chances Saturday morning, Kaylie looked up from the floor where she was sorting linens and grinned. “We missed you the other night.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it,” Luna said, dropping down to sit, and to help. She’d spent the night in her weaving shed, lost in the penance of the repetitive motion. “I wanted to, but…something came up.”

  “I would ask if that something was Will Bowman.” Reaching for a stack of forest-green cloths, Kaylie arched a fine brow. “But since he was at my place…”

  Luna smiled. Maybe one day she’d tell Kaylie about her adventures with the wolf. Just not today. “Will and I are just friends.”

  “You say that like it’s a good thing.”

  “It is. Will’s a little too intense for me.” And yet she was here because of him. Because he’d made her realize she owed Kaylie the same truth she’d given Mitch. And he’d done that before Ten Keller had issued his ultimatum.

  As right as Ten was, she’d come to this decision before he’d discovered the secret she’d been keeping. This was her own heart, her own heartbreak. And because of Will, she had to tell Kaylie good-bye. “I don’t think I’m in the right place for a relationship anyway. I’ve got some personal things to sort out first.”

  “Can I help?” Kaylie asked, reaching over to brush Luna’s hair from her shoulder to her back. “Can I do anything?”

  “No. I screwed up. I’ve got something I need to fix.” More than one something. And after Luna made things right with Sierra’s family, she’d come back here and try to do the same.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Strangely enough, she did. “I had an accident,” she began, smoothing the russet-colored napkin she held. “In high school. I lost my best friend. I was confined to my bed for weeks. It’s when I took up weaving. But I never told Sierra’s family the truth of what happened. I never told my parents, either. I’ve been carrying it around all this time. And it’s refusing to stay in the corner where I tucked it away.”

  “Oh, Luna,” Kaylie said, her face pale, her eyes like moss and sorrowful. “I’m so, so sorry. I know what it’s like to have something eating you up. It doesn’t matter what it is.”

  “I owe it to you, actually.” And to a wolf. “You being brave enough to face your past.”

  Kaylie gave a snort and went back to her linens. “Brave is about the last thing I am. If I were brave, I would’ve actively been looking for my parents. I’ve done next to nothing.”

  “Do you not want to know?” she asked, because tomorrow was coming all too soon, and if Luna needed to put a stop to Mitch’s revelation…

  Smoothing the napkin she held against her thigh with one palm, Kaylie shrugged. “I think I’m scared to know.”

  Luna pressed. �
�Scared of what?”

  “That everything is going to change. I’m happy,” Kaylie said, her hands stilling in her lap. “Or I think I’m happy. But then I wonder if I even know what being happy means.”

  “And you’re afraid learning what happened to your parents will mess that up somehow.”

  She nodded, solemn like stone. “What if finding them, or finding out what happened to them, ruins what I have?”

  “I guess it could,” she said, but being Mitch’s friend, too, she couldn’t help but look on the bright side. “But what if it makes things so much better you’re left laughing at all your doubts?”

  “It’s all the unknown, isn’t it?”

  “The unknown’s a monster. It really, truly is.” Dark and haunting and waiting in the wings. “With jaws that bite and claws that catch.”

  “I love ‘Jabberwocky,’” Kaylie said, swatting at Luna’s arm with a towel.

  Luna swatted back, smiling. “I read it over and over when weaving during a really bad time. I think that resulting scarf went for more money than anything I’ve ever done. If it didn’t hurt so much to be in that emotional place, I’d stay there. It was some nice cash.”

  Kaylie got back to folding. “It’s wonderful that you have that outlet. I just…bake. Usually brownies. And then I have to get rid of them before I take the whole pan to bed with a gallon of milk.”

  “I think I’ve done that before,” Luna said, and Kaylie laughed with her, though the laughter quickly faded, and Kaylie sighed.

  “I think the worst part for me is wondering if I really did do something to make them want to leave me. I mean, I was only four when my father left, five when my mother tried to check out. It’s not like I could’ve done anything too terrible. And I tell myself anyone who could blame a young child for anything isn’t much of a parent. But then I wonder, what if they never even wanted me at all?”

  “Kaylie—”

  But Kaylie pushed on. “My mother could’ve found me if she’d wanted to after her release. She would’ve had access to my foster-care records. She could’ve asked questions of my caseworker, followed whatever trail was there, found me in Hope Springs, or even later in Austin. But she didn’t.”