Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (46 page)

He finally brought his head up
to her neck when he knew that the avalanche had passed, and he moaned
into her flesh at the feel of her hands running the length of his
back. When he was over her, Awstin pushed her legs apart again and
guided himself inside of her. She was so wet, and he know he
wouldn't last long. Not that time.

He pushed slowly inside of her,
but Morgan didn't want slow. She put her hands on his arms and
brought her legs up, placing one on each of his shoulders. He held
her thighs and pushed deeper, bringing sounds from her that he hadn't
heard all week. “I can't last...I'm..” He pushed inside
of her several times, trying to feel her hot tight center for as long
as he could, until his body defied him and his own pleasure was too
great to fight any longer. She sighed as she felt his hot release
inside of her, and dug her fingers into his biceps as his body nearly
jerked under her touch. Their breathing wasn't even under control
yet when Awstin began to laugh. “When ye say welcome home, ye
mean it, aye?” She swatted his bare ass and laughed, then
lowered her legs to the floor and kissed her deeply until his arms
shook under his own weight. It was only then that he took his place
beside her.

That night, they didn't watch
movies, they didn't make pizza, they didn't even make love. Awstin
made them a comfy mountain of pillows and blankets on the floor and
the two of them sat in the light of the fire, just enjoying the
company of one another. Awstin enjoyed the company of Morgan more
than he could even tell her. It was nice just to talk to a female,
and her
companionship
was definitely a bonus.

At work, he only had men to
talk to, and after the divorce, he hadn't had the desire to go out
and seek another relationship. He wasn't a one-night-stand kind of
man, but he thought hiring a girl for a week wasn't a bad option.
“Not bad at all....thank you, Morgan,” he whispered in
her ear after she had fallen asleep. He kissed her forehead softly,
then draped her arm back over his chest and fell asleep.

*****

“So, you know where
you're going this month?” Awstin set down a plate full of eggs
and bacon in front of Morgan and took a seat across from her. Morgan
playfully ran her bare toes up his leg, then giggled when he captured
her foot between his legs.

“Well, I don't know about
the month...I'm going to Russia this week though, then I know I have
to take a week off....” Morgan twirled her folk in the air and
flicked a chunk of eggs in his direction. “Oops!” She set
her folk down slowly and they both laughed.

“A week off? Ye should
come back here!” His face lit up when he put it together. If
she had time off, he'd like for it to be with him, but of course, it
was up to her.

“Ah, I'm not sure you'd
want me here for all that...uhm...girl stuff. You know,”
Morgan's voiced trailed off and her face heated. She didn't want to
talk about her menstrual cycle over breakfast.

“Oh! I...I don't mind,
doll. If ye want to come back, you're welcome.”

His sincerity was endearing and
sweet, almost enough for her to say 'yes' right then.
No, this is
dangerous. Very dangerous. I could really like him, and I have no
more room for this in my life. Best answer...think...think....that's
it!
“I'll think about it.” She smiled at him
wickedly, leaving the option open for either, or. Morgan wanted to
come back, of course, but she was already struggling with too many
emotions at the time and she knew it would be easy to get attached to
Awstin, just as she had with Tanner or Finlay. He was everything she
loved about either of men...
yep, this is dangerous indeed.

“Awrite, fair
enough. I know I can't request you, but you know, maybe you can
request me...”

“I think I can do that.”
Morgan smiled again, letting him know it was definitely possible.

After their breakfast, the rest
of the day went by in a blur, much too fast for either of their
liking. When Morgan told the man that she had to leave Wales by nine
AM the next morning, she could see the sadness in his eyes. She, just
like he had, hoped that her flight wouldn't be until late that
evening. Morgan didn't mention anything about going to Scotland, she
just left it with him believing she was flying right to Russia.

After lunch, they had spent
their afternoon walking along the water for the twentieth time that
week and she bought a few more things that she couldn't live without
in one of the many shops. They had gone back to the house just long
enough for them to change and Morgan got to test out the gift from
Finlay for their last night out.. Awstin greatly approved and enjoyed
slowly taking it off of her after dinner. That night, they made love
for the last time.

*****

“Read it on the plane, he
said,” Morgan looked down at the little envelope in her hand,
then watched as one of her tears that had fallen onto the 'O' of her
name made the ink spread across the paper. The thin black lines of
his neat cursive spread out like spider webs as two more tears fell
onto her note.

The goodbye had been harder than
she thought it was going to be...even harder than some of her
goodbyes in the past. Both of them had tried to make it as painless
as possible, with just a short kiss and a hug, they had parted their
ways. “At least I managed to keep my tears to myself until he
was gone,” she scolded herself for crying. Before leaving the
house, Awstin had shoved the envelope into her purse and had told her
to wait until she was on the plane. She didn't have to wait long
though because the boarding announcement rang out and she was first
in line, yet again.

Once the girl was settled on
the plane, she opened the note.

Morgan,

You're
the first woman I've been with since my divorce, and I'm glad it was
you. You've brought me out of my shell and I feel like I can just be
myself again. I can't thank you enough, for everything. I do hope to
see you again. Please think about it.

Awstin

The tears started all
over again, but she wiped them on the sleeve of her sweater and
pulled her scrapbook out of her bag. Morgan folded the note up into a
small square, then tucked it behind the picture of the gorgeous man.
She didn't have to write anything, the note was there any time she
wanted to read it. Also, beside his picture was the rose she had
pressed onto the page their first night together. She softly ran her
fingers over the stem, then closed the book even more softly. “I'll
think about it, Awstin.”

*****

Morgan looked at her phone one
last time, comparing the name of the restaurant in front of her with
the name of the one Julianne had told her to meet her at. “This
is it.” She took a deep breath and held her head high as she
opened the door to the fancy restaurant. Just as she was about to
step in, a hand pulled her back outside.

“Morgan, dear! Oh, God, I
don't think I can do this...is he in there?” Julianne scared
Morgan to the point of making the young girl jump and scream at the
same time, but when she saw her boss, it was a relief.

“Julianne!” Morgan
gave her a tight hug, then told her how stunning she looked. “You
can do this! I don't know if he's inside yet, let's go find out...”
She took Julianne's hand in her own and without waiting for the woman
to argue with her, Morgan opened the door again, and stepped foot
inside.

There he was. Felix, sitting
front and center of the restaurant. The man saw Morgan first, as she
was practically dragging Julianne a few feet behind her.

“Morgan!” He stood,
his loud voice bellowing through the restaurant. Julianne followed in
right behind Morgan. She'd heard his happy greeting just as clearly
as the young girl had. Her face turned white as she looked from the
love of her life to her best girl, then back to Felix.

Morgan wanted to hide. Run and
hide and never be seen again.
Shit! He didn't get the message...

Russia

Book
Fifteen

Chapter One

Julianne didn't even have the
chance to process the fact that the man she'd been waiting over a
decade to see was sitting only a few feet away from her. All she knew
was that he'd just said Morgan's name and she wanted to know why.
Felix had told Julianne that he
lived in Sweden, but was that possible? Could Morgan have ran into
him?

The
older woman took a step forward, then looked back at Morgan, hoping
to get an explanation, but none would be offered from the young
woman. Morgan tried to keep a calm face and demeanor on the outside,
but inside, she was screaming for a way out of the situation. She
shrugged her shoulders slightly to her boss, then smiled as if to say
she had no idea who the man was or how he knew her name. Julianne's
eyebrows came together, but Morgan couldn't tell which emotion was
playing out in front of her.
Is she mad? Does she feel
betrayed? Oh, Julianne, I'm so sorry...

Julianne's
attention went back to Felix and she took another few slow steps
forward. Behind her boss, Morgan waved her arms over her head wildly
to quickly capture Felix's attention and it worked. She saw the
subtle dart of his eyes and Morgan violently shook her head and
crossed her arms back and forth in front of her. When she mouthed “I
DON'T KNOW YOU!”, Felix returned his eyes back to Julianne and
stood from his chair. Morgan took a deep breath.
He'll fix
this.

The
man approached Julianne, meeting her half the distance to the table,
and took her hands in his. “My sweet Rose. Look how beautiful
you are.” He pressed his lips to the top of the woman's hands,
then continued to hold them as he brought them down to his chest.

“Felix...I...” For
the moment, Julianne forgot why she was upset. All she could do was
look into the icy blue eyes, the same as Alrik. The memories of their
time together washed over her thoughts like a tidal wave. “I...can't
believe it.”

“Come, Rose...let's have
a seat,” he told her and guided her by the hand back to the
small table. Morgan followed slowly behind, lugging her bags behind
her. It felt very awkward bringing everything inside of the nice
restaurant, but she'd be leaving in a couple of hours, so there was
nowhere to store them.

“Felix
is it? It's so nice to finally meet you. I've heard so much!”
Morgan decided to break the ice and let whatever was going to happen,
happen.
Please, Felix, play along!

“Well,
I hope I was right in calling you Morgan? If so, I've heard much
about you as well.” The man smiled and extended his arm toward
the blonde girl and she did the same, shaking his hand across the
table.

“Yep, that's me!”
she announced.

“How...how would you...?”
They both looked to Julianne who was sitting mouth agape across from
them. She couldn't make sense of any of it.

“I
saw you talking to her outside,” Felix admitted. That part was
true. Julianne blushed at his words, feeling embarrassed that he must
have seen her schoolgirl crush behavior. “Then, I saw you,”
he nodded toward Morgan, “come inside with your bags. It was
pretty easy to put together,” he winked at Julianne.

“Oh...right.”
Julianne nodded as she squeezed the life out of her fingers
underneath the table, just like Morgan had many times in the past.
Morgan wouldn't admit it to Julianne, but she loved seeing her boss
so nervous. She couldn't imagine the fierce woman ever being nervous
about anything.
Boys, they'll do that to you,
she
thought. Julianne looked at Morgan and continued, “I guess I
just worried myself for a minute there. I thought you two had met
somewhere! What would be the chances of that?”

Morgan and Felix exchanged
quick glances, but gave away no sign that Julianne could pick up on.
“Yeah! That would be pretty crazy!” Morgan laughed
nervously. “Where are you from, Felix?” Keeping up the
charade was the best she could do. She absolutely hated lying to the
one mother figure she had in her life, but she wasn't going to ruin
the day for her boss. Felix told her he was from Sweden and Morgan
casually mentioned that she'd been there. The conversation went
smoothly and they played along with each other perfectly.

Morgan backed out of the
conversation and soon enough, her boss and Felix were talking as if a
minute had never passed. Even though there had been brief messages
about it through their Facebook interaction, Julianne began telling
the whole story about how she moved from California to Ohio.

“I've tried to find you
so many times, Rose. I even called your old boss. You were nowhere to
be found. I'm so glad you're here.” Felix grabbed Julianne's
hands again, but let go when the server arrived to the table with
their wine.

“Please,
call me Julianne, Felix. Rose is in my past, and I'd like to keep her
there.” The Julianne that Morgan knew was making a comeback.
She could see the confidence on her face, just as she'd seen the
first night she'd met the woman. Julianne took a sip of her wine and
Morgan smiled at the memory of sitting down at her little table back
in Ohio, drinking the same kind of wine. Morgan was also thankful
that Felix had been careful not to call her Julianne even though
Morgan had dropped the information on him before that night.