Finish What We Started (14 page)

“The second bedroom is a good size and has its own bathroom,” Marisol told her, then ate a French fry from the basket they were sharing.

“That sounds like heaven. My parents are great, but honestly, if I don’t get out of there soon I’m going to go bat-crap crazy.” She rolled her eyes to emphasize how close she was to the nut house. “My mom is bored, and that’s never, ever a good thing. You saw who she fixed me up with last time. And now that she knows that Lee and I are seeing each other again, she’s started leaving copies of
Modern Bride
magazine around the house. I found a copy of
Martha Stewart Weddings
in my underwear drawer this morning.”

Marisol nodded sagely. “That’s why my mother lives in another country.”

“Lee says that you’re seeing someone.”

“It’s not serious, but yeah, Jason Anderson and I are...” She shrugged. “I don’t know what we are.”

She smiled at her around a bite of sandwich. “Are you having fun?”

“Oh yeah. But if
mi mama
knew it would be all over.”

The conversation paused for a moment while she chewed and her new friend sopped up ketchup with more fries.

Finally, Marisol asked what she was obviously dying to know. “So what’s going on with you and Lee?”

Well now, that was the grand question, wasn’t it? “I don’t have an answer for that.”

Marisol nodded and took a contemplative sip of iced tea. “Please don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not trying to butt in. Just be careful with him. Holly says you’ve seen the Palace of Misery, so you know he’s a lot more fragile than he’d like to admit. He’s a great guy. I’d really hate to see him fucked over, you know.”

Candace smiled at her. “I know.” When had she become such a liar? She wanted to use him. That was the idea wasn’t it? She was probably going to hell.

“
Bueno
.” The last of the fries disappeared. “When are you moving in?”

“Uh, what are you doing right now?” Candace said, only half kidding.

* * *

Lee turned the last screw on her bed frame, and they lowered the box spring and mattress into place. She finally had him right where she wanted him.

She and Lee had the run of the place for the next three days while her new roommate and the man-who-shall-not-be-labeled took a long weekend to New Orleans. The several guys Lee had conned into helping him move her few things out of storage and into the new place had left with much thanks and a twelve-pack of Bud Light. Now they were alone. With the exception of Jose the Cat and Romeo Darling, who were still slinking around the house sizing each other up, she and Lee were alone in the house.

“Somewhere in one of these boxes there are sheets.” Candace stood with her hands on her hips and surveyed the stacks. It seemed too much to hope for that there would be one labeled
bedding
.

A suntanned arm wrapped around her waist and turned her to him. “I wanted to wait until after dinner to do this, but I can’t.” His mouth covered hers, warm and soft. A calloused thumb traced along her jaw while his fingers curled behind her neck. She swayed into the steady column of his body. When Lee kissed her she couldn’t think of anything else. He nibbled her bottom lip before soothing the spot with the tip of his tongue. She opened and his tongue swept inside to stroke the softness of her mouth. When he finally lifted his head she was left feeling loose and liquid.

“I’m not sorry I did that,” he whispered with a sheepish grin.

“Me neither. Don’t stop now.” He felt so, so good, and she was dying to get this out of her system so she could get back to rational thought processes. One good fuck ought to set her straight again. Lee was not on the long term agenda and as soon as she got that through to her sex-crazed alter ego, her train would get right back on
track. She slipped her hands under his T-shirt and smoothed them up his body, along his ribs and caressed the ridges of his abs with her thumbs.

She smoothed her palms down the ropy muscles that defined his arms.

It was his hands that did it for her most. His fingers were long and his palms wide. Calloused, masculine hands. They worked hard. Yet when he held her, stroked her, petted her body, he could be as gentle as he was rough. The same fingers that manipulated the tile in his house with intricate precision could tenderly tuck her hair behind her ear before kissing her or worry a nipple until she was begging. She needed those hands on her body, doing those things that made her desperate.

His stubbly beard was scratchy when his lips traveled across her jaw to nuzzle her neck. “Mmm mphh mmphhmm.”

Candace arched backward. “What?”

Lifting his head, he grinned at her. “I said, you’re hot.”

“So are you.” She inched her fingers under his waist band and pinched his butt.

“Well, yes, you’re that, too. Outrageously sexy.” He kissed her nose, then bit her chin. “But I meant that your skin is hot.”

“Oh.” That was disappointing.

“Don’t fret. I have a plan.” He waggled his eyebrows while he raised himself onto one elbow. He tugged at the hem of her tank top, slowly revealing her stomach, then her bra. She lifted her arms and shoulders, willing him to hurry up, and he pulled her shirt off over her head.

She wanted hot, raunchy sex, but he was being tender and sweet. She slipped her knee between his and moved her hips. He was as ready as she was.

“See?” He feathered kisses along her ribs. “Don’t you feel better already?”

“Uh-huh.”

She got Lee’s shirt off as well, then ran her hands along his suntanned skin, feeling the dip and rise of his shoulder muscles and along his arms. With his free hand he massaged her breasts, then finally slid the satin of her bra down to release one breast to his gaze. “You’re so beautiful.”

She responded by yanking her bra off and flinging it to the side.

She pulled him down with her onto the bare bed. One leg wiggled between hers, and he settled half on top of her. He rasped his tongue over her nipple, then blew on it. She shifted restlessly under the weight of his hips and legs. He did the same to her other breast until both nipples were tight and demanding more attention. His beard softly abraded the tender skin under her breasts as he ran his tongue further down. He kissed her sternum and belly, stopping to circle her navel.

“You’re still hot.” He met her gaze with mock concern.

“Hotter by the minute. Are you gonna put me out of my misery?” She lifted her hips immediately when he unbuttoned her shorts and encouraged him to pull them off.

He kissed each hip, then left a tiny row of open-mouthed kisses where the top of her panties met her skin.

“Aren’t you hot?” Good grief, was she panting? He’d reduced her to panting.

“Oh, baby, I’m burning up.” He rose to his knees and she leaned forward to undo his cargo shorts, but not before he pulled a string of foil packages out of his pocket and tossed them on the bed. He didn’t need her help to push his shorts and his boxers off. All she could think of was getting one of the packages open and on him. God, he was beautiful. Her gaze followed along his pecs and down the hollow between his abs, tracking the path of soft chest hair that led across his flat belly to his cock. The shorts landed on the floor with the growing pile of clothes.

She smiled and spread her legs so he could settle between them. He pressed her into the mattress. He bent and filled his mouth with one breast, grazing his teeth along on her nipple then sucking on it hard. His other hand kneaded her other breast, pinching that nipple.

Candace hummed in encouragement. She didn’t want to be worshiped. She wanted to be fucked. This wasn’t about tenderness.

Her fingernails skated up his back, starting at his ass, lightly scoring his skin, then sunk into his hair. She pulled him back to her mouth so she could kiss him aggressively, tangling her tongue with his.

He pressed her bent knee to the side, opening her wider and those fingers she loved so much found her opening. His thumb—a digit she’d previously undervalued, she discovered—rolled her bud under light pressure and her hips jerked up in response. One finger slid inside her and the two of them groaned in concert.

She arched her neck and moaned. “Now.”

She felt behind her head for the string of condoms and pulled one free. She tore it open, then reached between them, intent on rolling it over his cock. His hand grabbed hers.

“Hold on. Slow down.” He kissed her fingers, then her lips, before trailing his lips down her belly. Fingers and thumb worked together and she wasn’t prepared when the orgasm hit her. Her muscles contracted around his fingers and she keened as pleasure coursed through her. Lee chuckled in satisfaction but didn’t stop the relentless massage on her clit. He took her nipple into his mouth again, sucking in rhythm with her contractions.

“Oh my God, Lee. Oh my God.”

When her body finally relaxed he rose up so he was kneeling between her legs. “Look at me.”

She met his gaze. Those green eyes looked at her, full of tangled emotions she wouldn’t acknowledge. Before she could look away, he grasped her hips and plunged into her, sliding all the way to the base in one fluid movement that threatened to shove her over the edge again. He flinched and clutched her hips harder.

Breathing as hard and fast as she was, he pulled almost all the way out, then pushed back in. Each thrust came harder, faster until Candace was desperate to come again. She squeezed him tightly and raised her hips higher, pushing for the finish. Oh yes. This was what she needed. She rose up to meet him each time, riding the steady friction. She closed her eyes so that she wasn’t distracted by his intense gaze, so that she was just being used as much as she was using him.

But he wouldn’t let her.

“Look at me,” he said again, and caressed her cheek, ran his thumb over her lips. “Watch me.”

Almost there. She wanted to call out, call his name like she’d used to do. Why couldn’t this just be about sex? Her body strained for the climax, rushing and moving with each thrust. He kept her gaze captive as he made love to her.

He drove into her, his grip on her hips turning almost painful, desperate. His eyes closed. Yes, that was what she wanted. Greedy, desperate, grasping. She wanted bruises and marks from crazed release, not tenderness and whispers and caresses.

“Come, baby. Now,” he commanded.

There it was. One more surge from him and she plunged over with a scream. His orgasm followed. He arched his back and tossed back his head, every muscle straining as it wracked him.

Eventually they relaxed. He curled next to her on the bed, his head on her chest, his fingers curling into her hair as their breathing slowed. His other palm rested flat on her belly. His thumb drew lazy circles on her skin. Several minutes later, he raised his head and kissed her, slow and satisfied, the urgency from moments ago gone. “Wow.”

She blew out a heavy breath and turned her face. “Yeah.” She couldn’t look at him and she sure as hell didn’t want him looking at her. She curled her body away from him and struggled to breathe.

“Baby?” His hand moved against her shoulder and he pressed her flat, but she kept her face turned away. “Honey, what’s wrong. Did I hurt you?”

Five years ago he’d devastated her. This time, she’d done it all by herself. It was too late to pretend that this was an itch she could scratch, that she didn’t want him to hold her and love her and tell her everything was going to be all right. She knew that if she cried she could curl up in his arms and he’d do everything in his power to make it better. But what if he withdrew that affection again? She was lost and there was nothing she could do to save herself now. She would not allow herself to cry. When she squeezed her eyes tightly against the emotion, the tears leaked out anyway.

He pulled her into his arms and shushed her. “It’s okay. Please don’t cry.”

Wishing the tears weren’t signaling her nervous breakdown, she pulled away from him and sat on the edge of the bed. But he was still there. A gentle hand stroked her back. A long finger tucked her hair behind her ear.

“Talk to me,” he said, his voice infinitely kind. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m just scared.” She whispered the words because saying them out loud made them terrifyingly real. “We were always really good at that. I thought it would be different this time. I hoped it wouldn’t happen this way again.”

He kissed her shoulder. “I know. But I’m glad it did.”

“Now what?” It was too late to go back.

She felt him shrug, the rise and fall of his shoulders behind her as he moved to hold her. “It’ll be better this time.”

This time, better might just kill her.

Chapter Fifteen

So long as there were no squirrels around to distract him, Oliver was doing a way better job walking on his leash now that Lee was walking him through the neighborhood every day. Candy said the puppy needed a ton of exercise to keep him out of trouble, and Lee had taken that advice to heart.

Even with all the trouble Oliver got himself into, Lee was as shocked as anyone how much he enjoyed having the dog around all the time. He found himself talking to the animal as if he was another person. And he’d made fun of Holly for that.

“But you’re way cooler than Milo, huh, dude?”

Oliver perked up his ears and wagged his tail with excitement and agreement. As far as the dog was concerned, Lee was the smartest human to ever walk the planet. That was heady stuff.

Lately it felt like the life he was leading was someone else’s. He and Candy were doing awesome. After the two of them had gotten past that weird false start, it was like the last lonely five years had never existed. People said you could never come home again, but Candy was home and he was there. It was way too soon to suggest she move into his house, but they spent most nights together at either her place or his. He got up early to run with her, something he’d previously hated, and they were in the middle of watching
Breaking Bad
since she’d been out of the country when it originally aired. There had been a feisty wrestling match that ended in epic sex when he’d accidently disclosed a plot point too early.

So long as he suppressed that itchy feeling that she hadn’t loved him enough the first time around and that it could always happen again, he’d never been happier. He’d told her he was over it and he was trying hard to make that true. Nevertheless, he spent a lot of time surreptitiously watching her when they were together, eyeing her reactions and questioning her true feelings. She seemed happy and he made an effort to relax.

Besides, the sex was out-of-this-world good. She made him crazy. He was practically running around hard all the time.

He clipped Oliver’s leash to his collar and they jumped out of the truck. He slipped the leash over his wrist and pulled the pop-up canopy from the truck bed. He saw Candy’s blonde head and those of her brother and father milling around the park with other exhibitors at the summer animal fair.

“Hey, babe.” He kissed her on the cheek, then nodded to her older brother Clay and shook her father’s hand. “Doctors Claesson. What do you call a collection of veterinarians? A practice of vets?” He laughed at his own joke but only got blank stares from his audience. “So where do you want the shade?”

“Good to see you,” her father said to him, then turned to his daughter. “All right? You’ve got this, then? I’m gonna go.”

She had Oliver sit. “Bye, Dad.” She waved the dog’s paw at her father.

Candy was busy loving on Oliver, so Lee addressed his questions to her brother.

“Over here.” Clay directed him to an aisle between a dog groomer and a baker who made organic dog biscuits. The bakery lady was staring at Clay, who really did look like Thor. It was ridiculous, with all the honey-colored hair and muscles.

The two of them had no problems getting the canopy erected and the long table set up to put the information about the new neighborhood veterinary clinic.

“Candace,” Clay called to his sister. “How do you want to put all this stuff out?”

“I’ll do it.” She stopped kissing on Lee’s dog and came over. “I want it to look right.”

Once everything was set up to her liking, he and Oliver wandered through the crowd to see what there was to see. Lee was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of money that could be spent on one’s pets.

He also had no idea how many food options there were. The vendors tried to make him feel guilty for not feeding him the best possible menu, like his dog who ate furniture cared what the hell his kibble was called. He refused to fret about their dire warnings. After all, his personal veterinarian had endorsed the food Oliver ate.

And if he thought the amount of money people spent on toys was outrageous, he nearly busted a gut when the pet psychic offered to “read” his dog and tell him what he was thinking.

He declined, saying, “I’m pretty sure he’s thinking, ‘Where’s my ball’ or ‘Let’s go for a walk’ or ‘I’m gonna take a crap in the kitchen’.”

Oliver was very handsome, but Lee was not under any delusions that his dog was a canine genius. His Great Dane was like the doggy equivalent of a frat boy. He was an all id, follow your bliss, hey let’s have a beer kind of dog.

Still, Lee was having a great time. He’d been told that puppies were girl magnets but he’d had no idea how very true it was. If he’d been in the market, he could have collected twenty phone numbers. That made him think of Candy and how she was faring against all the guys with bait-dogs hitting on the hot vet, so he turned Oliver around and they ambled back in that direction.

“Hey,” he said when he recognized the couple and their dog standing at her booth. “Milo, my man, how you doin’?” He stooped to pet the Yorkie.

Holly scooped up her puppy in the face of Oliver’s obvious interest. She kissed Lee’s cheek. “I didn’t think we’d see you here. I forgot you bought a dog. Or a pony. Wow, he’s really growing, isn’t he?”

Oliver stretched his neck and did an amazing hind leg stand in an effort to sniff Milo. Milo yipped at him from the safety of his mother’s arms.

“Even if I didn’t have this guy—” he pulled on Oliver’s leash to make him get down, “—I’d still be here to help out with the tent and stuff.”

Holly elbowed him in the ribs. “I was just showing Candace that Milo is not going bald.” The not-balding Yorkie wiggled in her arms with abandon. “You don’t want down.”

“Of course he wants down,” Mark told her. “He’s dying to play.”

Holly eyed Oliver. “What if that behemoth squishes him?”

Candace shook her head. “Oliver’s gentle with the cats. I’m sure he’ll be fine with Milo.”

As soon as the two puppies met on ground level there was much gleeful barking and bowing at one another.

Mark rolled his eyes. “It looks like the cousins are getting along.”

Candace laughed, and she and Mark shared a look that suggested that Lee and Holly had slipped over the edge of sanity where people called dogs their children and dressed them in little clothes. For the record, Oliver didn’t have any actual clothes—just a Rockets baseball cap with little holes cut out for his ears. That dog rocked the hell out of that hat. Lee figured it was good luck or something and made him wear it while the games were on.

While the puppies romped and played tag, the ladies chatted.

“So, dude.” Mark grabbed his attention. “I’m going to have next weekend off from the restaurant. The first time in months I’m taking the whole weekend away.”

“Wow.” Lee was impressed, certain that Holly had demanded he take a break. Mark had been intimately involved in every aspect of his restaurant since it was conceived.

“Yeah, and I was thinking about taking Holly camping down at the river by Dad’s old spot. You and Candace want to come? I thought we could make a fun trip out of it. Everyone could get to know each other again. We can ask Marisol and that guy she’s been seeing.”

Dad’s place at the lake. It could only be reached by boat, so it was fairly remote. It wasn’t a cabin or anything, just a great place off the river bank with giant shady trees. It made for an excellent place to pitch a tent, lie in a hammock, do nothing. That’s where Dad had taught Mark, Sarah and him to fish. He was thrilled for the opportunity to share something that meant so much to him with Candy. This was a family event, and her willingness to participate would tell him a lot about her feelings. “Oh, man. I’d love to.” He turned to her. “Honey, did you hear about this?”

* * *

Candace was going camping. Yay. She imagined an unenthusiastic cheerleader in her head, weakly waving her pompoms. It was the last open weekend before the clinic opened and would probably be her last free one in a while. She hadn’t imagined spending it wet, dirty and plagued by bugs, but nevertheless, here she was. Going camping.

When the idea had been presented to her, her instinct had been to decline, but Holly gave her such a plaintive stare that Candace couldn’t say no.

“Don’t make me go by myself,” Holly had whispered.

“I’ve never been camping,” Candace told the crowd of expectant faces.

“Never?” Both Mark and Lee said it at the same time.

“I went once.” Holly’s expression was grim. “My uncle took all the cousins.”

“Honey.” Mark stepped over the wrestling puppies and took his wife in his arms. “We’re gonna have fun. I promise.”

“What do you say, babe? Wanna go?” Lee’s grin was fraught with important subtext. It felt like a test. How could she say no? Slowly but surely, she was slipping back into the bosom of Lee’s family, and as long as she didn’t think about it too much, she had no issue with it. When she did think about it, it scared the hell out of her. She didn’t know if she’d live through another crash and burn.

“Sure. Yeah, okay.”

Lee whooped in excitement and the dogs paused in their romping to see what was going on. Holly’s smile was more along the line of relieved.

The week leading up to the Grand Expedition, as she was beginning to think of it, was filled with planning. She’d always thought camping involved throwing a tent in the back of the truck with an ice cooler and a twelve-pack of beer, but she’d been so very wrong.

When she got to Lee’s house after the animal fair wrapped up, he had pulled out several storage containers and had a veritable sporting goods store’s worth of supplies spread out on the back lawn, including a full-sized tent pitched in the grass. Oliver thought this was great fun. He barked with glee as he dashed out of the tent, ran a tight circle around her, and then dashed back into the tent.

Candace laughed. “I hope you’re planning to bring Oliver with us.”

“He’s been like this for hours. I wouldn’t have the heart to leave him.”

Oliver answered with woofing from inside. She could see his shadow spinning through the tent material.

Lee snaked his arm around her waist from behind and nuzzled her cheek. “How did the rest of your day go?”

She nodded. “Good. Hopefully we’ll pick up some neighborhood patients from it. Besides, it’s fun to see all the animals.” She turned her face so she could kiss him, long and slow with a puppy soundtrack in the background.

He broke the kiss and turned her to face him, wrapping his arms around her. “I wish you had let me come and take the canopy down for you.”

It had always seemed as if Lee’s mission in life was to take care of his people. There wasn’t any task too small or insignificant. As independent as Candace was, especially during the last five years, she would have thought that she would have found it annoying or overbearing. Surprisingly, she didn’t. She’d always kind of enjoyed him fussing over her, making sure she’d eaten, that her car had gas. Since they’d gotten back together, it seemed he’d made it a point to make her feel valued and loved. Every day her guard disintegrated more and more, and she was finally getting to the point where she didn’t feel like things were going to implode if she let herself love him again.

“It’s fine. I made Clay do it. Then he got to impress the dog-treat girl with his physical prowess. The two of them made moony eyes at each other all day.” She slipped her hands underneath the back of his shirt and rested her palms on his warm skin. “I’m certain the women who come to the clinic will be disappointed that the Dr. Claesson they end up with isn’t my brother.”

“But it will all even out when the guys come in and there is the Dr. Claesson
they
were expecting. Yours will be the only clinic in town with a primarily male patient base.” He pinched her butt.

“You mean all those guys who steal their sister-in-law’s dog and the neighbor boy’s snake?” She pinched him right back. In fact, she may have lingered with her hands down his shorts a bit longer to get her point across.

One of his sneaky hands found her breast and gave a gentle squeeze. “Yep, those are exactly the kinds of guys I’m talking about. Who knows what bullshit they’ll come up with to get the gorgeous vet into bed.”

“I should be careful, then? Be wary of strange men with girly dogs who are afraid of rats?” She unbuttoned the button on his fly and slipped the zipper down. With one swift motion she pantsed him in the back yard—jockey shorts and all.

His waggled his eyebrows at her and gave his naked ass a little shake. “Oh, baby, they’re the worst kind.”

Candace laughed at his antics. Undeterred, he pulled off her shirt and bra. She got his shirt over his head while he undid her jeans. Her sandals came off with her pants.

“Come here, Dr. Claesson.” He pulled her by the hand. “Let me show you what we can do in a hammock. You’re going to
love
camping.”

* * *

As far as Candace could tell, camping consisted of being wet and staying wet. First there was a light rain, just a sprinkle really, while they unloaded the trucks of all the gear necessary to mobilize the seventh fleet and placed it in boats. She’d had no idea that Lee actually owned a boat, but he did, a big blue-and-white thing that he kept under a tarp in one of the outbuildings on his property.

She pointed at the words
Lee Way
lettered on the back in big black letters. “That’s clever.”

He grinned at her and stacked up the coolers in the bow.

Marisol’s guy, Jason, was actually out on the disabled list while his foot healed from an Achilles tear, and Candace was thrilled that he and Marisol were coming along, too. From the looks of things, her roommate’s unnamed relationship seemed to be doing pretty well, too.

The rain let up on the way up the river, but the spray off the boat kept her damp, and Candace was even wetter by the time they arrived at the fabled spot.

Lee pointed to the shore. “That’s where we’re going. That’s the place.”

“Wow,” she said, hanging on to Oliver’s leash to keep him from jumping overboard. “That is...Wow.”

She could see why they loved it. A small green meadow surrounded by an arc of massive cottonwood trees spread away from the water’s edge. A fire ring in the middle left plenty of room for three tents and all the other flotsam and jetsam they’d brought in all those boxes and packs. The place seemed carpeted in soft grass. She half expected a deer and his rabbit friend to gambol through the place with a cartoon soundtrack playing in the background.