Fool for Love (30 page)

Sitting as far apart as they could get on
the wide bench, they rolled along in the carriage with only the horses' hooves
clomping on pavement to break the silence. The driver took the long way around
the island before pulling up in front of Janey's house.

"Thanks very much," Joe said,
slipping the driver a fifty as he jumped down from the carriage.

"My pleasure, Captain Joe. You folks
enjoy the rest of your day now."

"Oh, we will." Joe reached for
Janey's hips and swung her down as if she weighed twenty pounds rather than a
hundred and twenty. Okay, maybe the caveman act was a
little
bit
attractive, not that she'd ever tell
him
that.

Janey went in ahead of him and took a
moment to greet her pets. Then she turned to let him know what she thought of
him pushing her around this way. Before she could say a word, however, his
mouth was feasting on hers, and he'd sucked the breath from her lungs. His
strong arms came around her, lifting her right off her feet as his tongue
engaged in a fierce dual with hers.

He kissed her straight into submission. At
that moment she was so grateful to be with him again that she would've given
him anything he wanted if it meant he would never stop kissing her. Her fingers
sifted into his hair, anchoring him to her.

Many heated minutes later, he tore his
lips free, set her back down and went to work on her neck. "Let's go back
to the other night," he said, dropping hot open-mouth kisses on her
collarbone. "When I asked what had happened to upset you."

"I got into vet school for this
year," she said without hesitation. "I freaked out about what it
would mean for us."

"And you thought it would be easier
on both of us if you ended it now rather than later."

"Yes," she said, moaning when
his clever fingers molded her breasts through the silk of her dress.

"And was it? Easier?"

"No, it was horrible. I missed you so
much, and it was only
four days
. Oh, Joe, how will we ever be apart for
four
years
?" The idea alone was enough to reduce her to tears.

He raised his head and found her eyes.
"Who said anything about being apart?"

"But you live here. Your business,
your whole
life
is here."

Staring down at her, he shook his head,
his eyes filled with what looked an awful lot like regret. "I guess I
haven't done a good enough job."

"Of what?" she asked, confused.

"I thought you'd know by now that
everything I want, everything I
need
, is right here in my arms. The rest
is just details, Janey."

She melted into his tight embrace.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I never meant to hurt you."

"That's okay. I knew you didn't mean
it."

"How did you know?"

"I figured if you really didn't want
me, you wouldn't have been bawling your head off."

Janey smiled. He knew her so well, and
there was such comfort in that, even if he had a shocking bit of caveman hidden
beneath a usually cool exterior.

With his arms tight around her, he lifted
her again and walked them through the house to the bedroom. By now, her
obedient pets had the routine down and headed for their own beds, knowing
they'd be locked out of her bedroom for a while. Joe put her down next to the
bed and started with her hair, tugging each pin free while never taking his
eyes off her face.

As she reached up to release his bowtie,
Janey's heart hammered at the intense expression on his face. "I need to
tell you something else," she said.

"What's that?" He unzipped the
gown, pushed it off her shoulders and let it fall into a puddle at her feet.
His eyes went wide when he got a look at the sexy teddy she'd worn under the
dress.

With both hands on his face, she directed
his eyes up to meet hers. "I
love you
love you."

He sucked in a sharp deep breath.
"Really?"

She nodded.

"Since when?"

"Since the second I thought I had to
give you up."

"You don't have to give me up,
Janey."

"But what about—"

His mouth came down on hers, a frantic meeting
of lips and tongues and teeth. His hands were everywhere, pulling at buttons
and hooks and vests and pants. "Goddamned tuxedos," he moaned against
her lips. "Too many pieces."

Janey laughed and helped him get rid of
the last of his clothes. The second they were both naked, he lifted her and
slid into her.

"Oh!" she cried, her arms
wrapped tight around his neck. "
Joe
."

"You really thought you could live
without me?"

She shook her head. "I knew I
couldn't, but I wasn't about to ask you to give up everything for me."

Without losing their connection, he
brought her down to the bed and hovered over her, moving his hips slowly, just
enough to make her crazy. "Yesterday, I hired someone to run the business
in my absence, and I made two of my part-time captains full-time."

Janey stared at him, trying to comprehend
what he was telling her. And then he pushed hard into her, and she ceased to
think at all.

"Nothing," he whispered against
her neck, "means anything to me without you. I would go anywhere in the
world if it meant I got to be with you."

"It's four
years
, Joe. You
can't be gone that long."

"Yes, I can." He withdrew from
her, leaving her bereft and wanting. His lips laid a trail from her neck to her
breasts. "I can do any damned thing I want to. I own the freaking company,
Janey." His tongue circled her nipple, and she tried to direct him, but he
wouldn't be rushed. "That freaking company makes a lot of freaking money,
which gives me the freedom to do any freaking thing I want to." He tugged
hard on her nipple, making her cry out from the sensations that darted through
her. "And what I want, what I
really
want, is to go to Ohio with
you."

His lips shifted to her belly, his tongue
flirting with her belly button as his broad shoulders pushed her legs apart. He
had her so ready, so primed, that just a few strokes of his tongue over her
most sensitive area sent her flying higher than she'd ever gone before. A cry
that sounded more like a sob erupted from her throat, and then he was back
inside her, riding her hard and fast.

Janey had no choice but to hold on tight
and go with him to the place that only he could take her.

"Tell me again," he said,
breathing hard as he looked down at her. "Tell me."

"I love you love you, Joe, and I
always will."

"I love you love you, too, Janey
McCarthy. More than anything in this whole damned world, and I always
will." He pushed into her one last time and threw his head back as he
came. His powerful released triggered another for her.

For a long time afterward, he rested on
top of her, still joined with her.

"You're really going to come with
me?" she asked, her hands caressing his back.

"I really am. Someone has to take
care of you and the menagerie while you're studying."

"And you're sure that'll be enough
for you?"

"I figure we can come back here in
the summer so I can get my fix on the boats, and I'll have the rest of the year
to paint and help you study."

"You can't help me. You'll be too
much of a distraction."

"We can fight about that later. In
fact, I'll look forward to it."

Janey let out a little squeal.

"
Jeez
, you gotta do that right
in my ear?"

"I'm just so happy! I get to have vet
school and you, too. I never imagined I'd get both."

He raised his head to press a soft kiss to
her lips. "I never imagined I'd get you." One kiss became a second
and then a third. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"That dream wedding you planned for
next summer—how much of that was you and how much was him?"

"One hundred percent me."

Joe rested his forehead on hers. "Don't
cancel it."

Her eyes widened. "What are you
saying?"

He withdrew from her and shifted onto his
belly to reach for his suit jacket on the floor. When he came back up, he held
out his hand. A diamond ring sat on his palm. It was easily twice the size of
the one David had given her. This one came with everything that mattered most
to her—things that had been woefully lacking last time.

Janey covered her mouth as tears sprang to
her eyes.

"I think Dr. Janey Cantrell has an
awesome ring to it." He reached for her hand, slid the ring onto her
finger and kissed the back of her hand. "Don't you?"

"Yes, I think so, too."

"I've loved you for so long I don't
remember a time when I didn't love you."

"It took me a little longer to catch
up, but now that I have, I can't imagine my life without you."

His face lifted into that sexy grin she so
adored. "You'll never have to."

Janey reached for him and held him close.
"Thanks for waiting for me, Joe."

"You were well worth the wait, my
love. Very well worth it."

Turn the page for a sneak peek at Luke and
Sydney's story,
Ready for Love
, coming July 1, 2011.

Ready
for Love

The
McCarthys of Gansett Island, Book 3

By: Marie
Force

"Are you ever going to say anything?"

Her familiar voice electrified Luke,
startling and shocking him as he squatted in the dark beside her parents'
porch.

The peal of laughter that followed her
question reminded him of the happiest time in his life, when she'd laughed at
all his corny jokes, before she'd gone away to college and met someone she
liked better.

"Luke?"

He stood slowly, not sure if he was more
relieved or mortified to have been caught watching her. "How long have you
known?"

"Since the first time you came last
summer."

Okay, mortified. Definitely mortified
. Luke released an unsteady laugh. "And here I
thought I was being so sly."

"As if I could ever forget the sound
of your boat scraping against the beach. I used to listen for it every
night."

The reminder of those unforgettable summer
nights made his heart race. When he'd heard through the island grapevine that
she'd arrived on a ferry earlier in the day, he'd told himself to stay home, to
leave her alone. But knowing she was here, knowing she was just across the
pond… Like the summer before, he'd been unable to stay away.

"I'm sorry," he said. "You
must think I'm some sort of creep. I swear I'm not. It's just when I heard
about what happened … to your family … I had to come. To make sure you were
okay. Well, of course you weren't okay…" He released an unsteady breath.
"Jesus, I'm screwing this all up."

She smiled, and he was relieved to see it
reach her expressive eyes the way it used to, back when she smiled at him every
day. He took it as a sign that she'd recovered, somewhat—as much as anyone ever
could—since he last "visited" her a year ago.

"Do you want to come up?" she
asked.

"Oh, I don't want to bother you or
your parents—"

"They're off-island for a few weeks.
Family reunion in Wisconsin."

"You didn't want to go?"

She wrinkled her nose. "I'd rather be
here in the summer than Wisconsin."

"You always did love it here."
Somehow he worked up the fortitude to climb the five steps to the porch, his
heart pounding so hard he wondered if it would burst through his chest. He
stood with his hands in his pockets so she wouldn't see them tremble, unable to
remember the last time he'd been so nervous. Speaking with the love of his life
for the first time in seventeen years would make any man nervous, he supposed.

"It's my favorite place in the world."

"I wondered if you were going to come
this year."

Her smile faded a bit. "I had some
stuff I had to take care of before I could come out to the island." She
gestured to the rocker next to hers. "Want to sit?"

"Um, sure. I guess. For a
minute." Under the glow of the porch light, he took a furtive glance at
her. He was relieved to see that she did, in fact, look a thousand times better
than she had a year ago, just a few months after the accident. "Who's your
friend?" he asked, referring to the gorgeous golden retriever who lay
between their two rockers. The dog had taken a long measuring look at Luke as
he approached the porch but had remained silent.

"This is Buddy." She reached
down to scratch his ears, and even as he clearly enjoyed the attention, the dog
never took his solemn eyes off Luke. "We gave him to the kids the
Christmas before … the accident… He loved them both, but he and my son Max had
a very special bond. I thought poor Buddy would die himself of a broken heart
after what happened. He whimpered and cried for months."