Diamond in the Ruff (Matchmaking Mamas Book 13) (15 page)

His heart pounding hard, Christopher stepped up his pace until the ride became dizzying for both of them.

By the end, just before the heat exploded, embracing them fiercely a beat before the inevitable descent began, he felt confident that he had been granted every wish he’d ever made in life.

The feeling was so intense, he tightened his arms around her to the point that he almost found himself merging with her very flesh.

Somehow, they remained two very distinct, if two very exhausted people. Two people clinging to one another, forming their own human life raft in the rough sea of reality as it gradually descended upon them and came back into focus.

When Christopher could finally draw enough air into his lungs to enable him to form a sentence, albeit a softly worded one, he kissed the top of her head and said, “I am definitely hijacking a moving van and having more boxes delivered.”

She laughed and her warm breath both tickled him and somehow managed to begin to arouse him again. He didn’t understand how that was possible, but there was a magic to this woman that seemed to make all things possible.

After all, he had been so sure, after what Irene had done to him, that he could never feel again, never
want
to feel again, and yet here he was, feeling and grateful to be doing it.

“I think,” she said as she lay her head on his chest, “that we’ve gotten past that stage—needing boxes as an excuse.”

Christopher managed to kiss the top of her head again before he fell back, almost exhausted by the effort as well as insanely happy.

“Can’t argue with that,” he said, the words straggling out one after the other in an erratic fashion. “Even if I wanted to,” he added, “I can’t argue. Not enough air in my lungs to argue and win.”

He felt her smile against his chest. “Then I win by default.”

They both laughed at the absurd way that sounded. And they laughed mainly because just hearing the sound of laughter felt so good and so satisfying, as well as oddly soothing at the same time.

Christopher’s arms tightened around her.

Feeling Lily’s heart beat against his felt as if it was the answer to everything that was important in his life.

He knew that he had never been happier than right at this very moment.

Chapter Fourteen

L
ily very quickly came to the conclusion that there really was no graceful way to go from making mind-blowing love with a man to getting dressed and slipping back into the everyday world that she had temporarily stepped away from.

It would have been a great deal easier to get dressed and make her getaway if Christopher had been asleep. But the man who had lit up her entire world, complete with skyrockets and fireworks, was lying right beside her and he was very much awake.

Even if he was asleep, there was still the small matter of actually making a soundless getaway with her Labrador in tow
and
getting by Christopher’s two Great Danes, Leopold and Max. She’d made friends with them over the past few weeks so she was fairly confident that the dogs wouldn’t immediately begin barking the moment she stirred. But she had a feeling that they wouldn’t turn into two docile statues, silently watching her slip out of the house with Jonathan in her arms.

Any attempt to see if she was right went up in smoke the very next moment.

“Going somewhere?” Christopher asked as she tried to sit up on the sofa, ready to begin the taxing hunt for her clothes—
any
of her clothes.

He slipped his arm around her waist, firmly holding her in place as he waited for her to come up with an answer.

“I thought I’d finish tidying up the family room, break down the empty boxes we left behind, little things like that,” she told him innocently.

“In the nude?” Christopher sounded both amused and intrigued. “Glad I didn’t doze off like you did. This I have to see.”

She looked at him over her shoulder and protested, “I didn’t doze off.”

“Yes, you did, but that’s okay,” he told her. “It was only for a few minutes.” He drew her in a little closer, his arm still around her waist. “Besides, you look cute when you sleep. Your face gets all soft.”

Lily turned her body toward him and gazed down at his face. “As opposed to what? Being rock hard when I’m awake?”

“Not rock hard, but let’s just say...guarded,” he concluded, finally deciding upon a word. Once he said it out loud, it seemed to fit perfectly. “You know, kind of like a night watchman at an art museum who’s afraid someone’s going to steal a painting the second he lets his guard down.”

Lily frowned. “Not exactly a very romantic image,” she commented.

“But an accurate one,” he pointed out. His intention hadn’t been to insult her or scare her away. He was just being observant. “You don’t have to go, you know.”

Oh, yes I do. I can’t think around you, especially after this.

“I know,” she said out loud. “But I’m thinking that a little space between us might not be a bad thing, so I can get my bearings.”

He wasn’t about to keep her against her will if it came down to that, but he wasn’t going to just give up without a word, either.

“A GPS can give you the exact latitude and longitude, but it can’t give you a secure feeling. That kind of thing only happens between people,” he told Lily, lightly brushing her hair away from her face.

She felt herself tensing. Reacting. “Don’t do that,” she told him, moving her head back, away from him. “I can’t think when you do that.”

“Good, I was hoping you’d say that.”

Lying back against the sofa again, Christopher pulled her down to him. Before she could make a halfhearted protest, his lips brushed hers.

In less than a moment, she lost the desire to speak, as well. He had relit her fire and they began making love all over again.

* * *

There were still a few boxes left scattered around his house. It was a definite improvement over the first time she’d walked into the older home, but the fact that there were any left at all bothered her.

But each time she thought they were going to spend a quiet evening going through the last of moving cartons, something came up. The first time he’d had another emergency surgery to perform, this time on a mixed-breed dog that had been left on the animal shelter’s doorstep. The poor dog had been more dead than alive and, he’d explained to Lily, he was one of the vets who volunteered their services at the shelter. He couldn’t find it in his heart to say no when they called. One look at the sad mutt—a photo had been sent to his smart phone—and neither could Lily.

She’d insisted on coming with him to help in any way she could. As sometimes happened, she had made extra pastries for the event that Theresa’s company had been catering that day, and Lily brought some of the overage with her to share with Christopher and the other volunteers who were at the shelter.

In the end, the surgery had been a success—and so had her pastries.

“I think they want to permanently adopt you,” he told Lily as they left the shelter several hours later. He smiled at her, lingering in the all-but-deserted parking lot. “Those pastries you brought with you were certainly a hit. Thanks.”

She looked at him a bit uncertainly. “For what?”

“For coming along. For being so understanding. For being you.” He took her into his arms, something he had gotten very used to doing. “It’s pretty late, but we can curl up in front of the TV and not pay attention to whatever’s on cable. I can order in.”

“You need your rest,” she told him, amused.

He kissed the top of her head. “What makes you think I won’t be resting?”

Amusement highlighted her face. “I’m beginning to know you.”

“Damn, foiled again. I’ll make it up to you tomorrow,” he promised.

She paused for a moment, tilted her head back and, grabbing the front of his shirt, pulled him down slightly to her level. Lily pressed her lips against his, kissing him with feeling.

Before either of them could get carried away, she moved her head back and told him, “There’s nothing to make up for. I like watching you come to the rescue like that. You’re like a knight in shining armor, except that instead of a lance, you’re wielding a scalpel.” Stepping away from him, she unlocked her car. The second she opened up the rear passenger door, Jonathan bounded inside. “Now go home.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered obediently, then repeated, “Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” she echoed.

* * *

Despite occasional detours like that, she had expected that they would be back on track the next evening, spending it at his place, unpacking the last of the boxes that were upstairs in his bedroom. Dinner would consist of something she’d prepared.

But when Christopher closed up the hospital for the evening, he informed her that he had a surprise for her.

“What kind of surprise?” she asked suspiciously.

“The kind you’ll find out about when we get there,” he said mysteriously.

“We’re going somewhere?”

“Good deduction,” he applauded.

“Shouldn’t we drop Jonathan off first?”

“No. He’s coming along with us.”

“Then we’re not going out to eat?” That would have been her first guess at the kind of surprise he was taking her to.

Instead of answering, he merely smiled at her and told her to follow him.

She was intrigued. He had succeeded in capturing her complete attention.

* * *

“This is a restaurant,” she noted when, fifteen minutes later, she had pulled her vehicle up next to his in a semicrowded parking lot. She was standing beside her car, looking at the squat building that was obviously Christopher’s intended destination.

“It is,” he confirmed cheerfully.

“We can’t leave Jonathan in the car while we eat.”

“We’re not going to,” he informed her, taking the leash from her hand.

“But—”

“Ruff’s is a restaurant where people can go to dine out with their pets,” he told her. “I thought you might get a kick out of it.

She didn’t get a kick out of it, she
loved
it and told him as much over dinner, and continued to do so when they got back to his place.

“How did you find it?” she asked.

“One of my patients’ owners opened it up not too long ago. I thought it was an idea whose time has come. I’m one of the investors,” he confided to her.

“Really?” The idea excited her—just as the man did, she thought as she felt him trail his fingertips along the hollow of her throat.

“Really,” he confirmed. “I’d never lie to a beautiful woman.”

“But I’m the only one in the room.”

He laughed. “Fishing for compliments, are we?”

She put her hand to her breast. “Me?”

“You,” he said, nipping her lower lip.

That was the last of the conversation for quite a while.

* * *

“Who’s this?” Lily asked, pulling a framed photograph out of the last carton that was still only semiunpacked in his bedroom.

Time had gotten away from her and she’d wound up spending the night. Which meant she needed to hurry getting dressed so she could swing by her place and get a fresh change of clothing before proceeding on to work.

They had already decided, sometime during the night, that Jonathan would remain here and Christopher would take the dog with him when he went in to the animal hospital.

The framed photograph—Christopher posing with an aristocratic-looking brunette, his arm around her waist in the exact same fashion that it had been around hers that first time she’d tried to slip out of his bed—had all but fallen at her feet when she’d bumped into the open box. It had fallen over, spilling out its contents. The framed photograph was the first thing she saw.

“Who’s who?” Christopher asked, preoccupied.

He was searching the immediate area for his keys. He assumed they had fallen somewhere as he and Lily had made love last night. Rather than settling into a certain predictability, their lovemaking only seemed to get better each time.

Instead of answering, she turned toward Christopher holding up the framed photograph. “This woman you’ve got your arm around,” she told him. Even as the words came out, she had a sinking feeling she wasn’t going to like his answer.

Christopher’s mind went temporarily blank as he saw the frame she had in her hands. “Where did you get that?” he asked, his throat drier than he could ever recall it being.

“It fell out of that box when I accidentally knocked it over,” she told him, nodding her head toward the carton that was still on in its side. “Who is she, Chris?” Lily repeated. With each word, the deadness inside of her seemed to grow a little larger, a little more threatening. “She has to be someone because you wouldn’t have packed up this photograph if she wasn’t.”

“I didn’t do any of the packing,” he reminded her. “The movers did.”

The point was that it had been there, at his residence, for them to pack. The fact that he was being evasive right now just made her more anxious.

“Well, it has to be yours,” she insisted. “The movers wouldn’t have packed up a stranger’s things and put them into your moving van—besides, you’re
in
the picture and that’s your arm around her waist.” Each word tasted more bitter than the last. “Who
is
she, Chris?” Lily asked for a third time, growing impatient. It wasn’t as if they didn’t both have pasts, but she didn’t like the idea of not knowing enough about him—and his having secrets.

“She’s nobody,” he told her, taking the frame out of her hand and tossing it facedown on his rumpled bed.

Lily squared her shoulders defiantly. “If she was nobody, you would have said that right away. You don’t take a picture with nobody and then have it framed,” she pointed out. “Why won’t you tell me who she is?”

Christopher blew out a breath. He’d honestly thought he’d thrown that photograph—all the photographs of her—out. “Because she doesn’t matter anymore.”

Lily heard what wasn’t being said. “But she did once, right?”

“Once,” he admitted because to say otherwise would really be lying.

Lily’s voice became very quiet. “How much did she matter?”

Because he knew he had to, Christopher gave her the briefest summary of the time he had spent with Irene. “Her name was Irene Masterson and we were engaged—but we’re not anymore,” he emphasized. “We haven’t been for three months.”

Three months.
The words echoed in her brain. She had him on the rebound. There was no other way to interpret this. She was a filler, a placeholder until he got his act together. How could she have been so stupid as to think this was going somewhere? Things didn’t go anywhere except into some dark abyss.

For a moment, Lily stared at him, speechless. She felt her very fragile world shattering and crumbling. “And you didn’t think that was important enough to tell me?”

He told her the only thing he could in his own defense. “The topic never came up.”

Was he saying it was her fault because she hadn’t interrogated him?

“Maybe it should have,” she countered, feeling hurt beyond words. “Preferably before things got too hot and heavy between us.” At the last moment, she had stopped herself from saying “serious between us” because it wasn’t. How could it be if he had kept something so important from her? She’d been deluding herself about his feelings for her. It was painfully obvious now that she had read far too much into ther relationship. There wasn’t a “relationship,” it was just a matter of killing time for him, nothing more.

“I don’t remember a single place where I could have segued into that. When was I supposed to say something?” he asked. “Just before we came together? ‘Excuse me, Lily, but in the interest of full disclosure, I think you should know that I had a serious girlfriend for a few years and we were engaged for five months.’”

Five months. The woman in the photograph had had a claim on him for five months—longer than they had known each other. Plus, it had only ended recently, which made her presence in his life shaky at best. The very thought twisted in her stomach, stealing the air out of her lungs.

“Yes,” she retorted. “You should have told me, should have said something.”

Trying to get hold of herself, Lily took a deep breath.

This was her fault, not his. Her fault because she’d given in to the longing, the loneliness she’d felt, thinking that she’d finally found a steady, decent man, someone she could love and go through life with. But Christopher wasn’t the guy. He couldn’t be with what he’d just gone through. She didn’t want to be the girl who picked up other people’s messes, a placeholder while the injured party healed.