Loving Lily (15 page)

"Yeah, me
too
. "

"What
about your brother?" she moaned, digging her fingers into his skin.

Matt lifted his
head.
 
"We'll be right there, Alex.
 
Drink some coffee or something," he
yelled.

"What? I
can't hear you. "

Matt heard Alex
start walking down the hall and he stifled a groan.
 
"We're getting dressed, Alex.
 
Give us a minute!"

Just then, Lily
bit down on his neck, hard.
 
Matt grunted
and slammed into her, making the door bang against the wall.

"That
doesn't sound like you're buttoning a shirt, Matt," Alex said from right
outside the door, a thread of amusement in his voice.

Matt panted and
reached out to swing the door completely shut while juggling Lily.
 
She was pink all over now, nipples pebbled as
she pressed into his chest.
 
He groaned
and fucked her hard, not caring any longer that Alex could probably hear them.
 
He didn't care about anything except Lily: her
hands in his hair, her breath in his ear, hot and frantic.
 
He cupped her ass and slammed into her until
he felt her pussy contract around his dick.
 
He
orgasmed
at the same time, his entire body sparking from head to toe.
 
His cock pulsed as he held onto her.
 
She'd dug her fingers into his shoulder and he
knew her nails were going to leave marks, but he didn't care.

When she
finally relaxed, he took a shaky step back, then another, until the back of his
knees hit the bed and they collapsed on it, sweaty and exhausted.

"There is
no way your brother doesn't know what we were just doing," she muttered,
face against his shoulder.

Matt couldn't
help it.
 
He laughed.

She lifted onto
her elbow and glared at him.

"I've
caught Alex in way more compromising positions.
 
He can deal," Matt said, still chuckling.
 
"There was that time he was dating
those twins…" He trailed off when Lily whacked him on the arm.

"I'm
embarrassed! And you think it’s funny. "

Matt leaned
over and kissed her.
 
"Don't worry
about Alex.
 
He won't care.
 
Take your time.
 
I'll go deal with him and we can figure out
what to do next. "

She grunted,
clearly not in the mood to be soothed out of her mortification.
 
Matt kissed her again.
 
She was cute when she was irritated.
 
"The bathroom is over there
. "
He pointed across the room.
 
"Come to the kitchen whenever you're
ready
. "
He pulled the sheet over her and rolled
off the bed.

****

Lily pulled the
sheet up over her head when she heard the bathroom door shut.
 
She refused to budge until he was done.
 
How could I have let that happen?
she
asked herself, blushing again just thinking about it.
 
She'd let him fuck her up against the wall!
With his twin brother right outside the room!
God.
 
She put both hands over her face.
 
When Matt was done in the bathroom, Lily
peeked out from under the covers.
 
He
grinned at her and tweaked her foot as he headed for the kitchen.
 
She gave him the finger, not caring that she
was being childish.
 
He could kiss her
ass if he expected her to act anything less than embarrassed about this.
 
So what if she was in her forties? That didn't
mean she'd lost all sense of propriety.

The thought of
facing Alex right after making love with Matt was enormously uncomfortable for
her.
 
She had enjoyed sex with her
husband, but it hadn't been anything like what she'd just experienced.
 
Their relationship had been a lot more
ordinary.
 
Boring
, her mind
whispered to her, but she shushed it, standing up and stretching.
 
Matt had made sure to shut the door firmly, so
she wouldn't feel embarrassed, but it didn't help all that much.
 
She knew Alex had heard them.

After a long,
hot shower, she managed to calm herself down about the entire thing.
 
Any inadvertent exhibitionism was entirely
worth it, if only for the relaxation value of that stupendous orgasm
, she
thought to herself, somewhat bashfully.
 
She felt great.
 
In fact, after all the mind-blowing sex, and
the sleeping in, and the way Matt made her feel incredibly safe, Lily felt
better than she had in years, despite the night’s attack.

She pulled on
one of her new dresses as she admired the way the sunlight slanted through the
windows onto Matt's bed.
 
Thank goodness I managed to get a little
shopping in this week
, she thought.
 
She never expected she’d want to look pretty
for anyone but herself ever again, but this past week with Matt had changed her
mind.
 
She smoothed the soft fabric down
over her hips.
 
Matt had slipped her bag
into the bathroom while she'd been showering, so she had all the things she
needed to get dressed.
 
She ran her brush
through her hair one last time, rolled on a bit of lip-gloss, and walked over
to the door.
 
She took a deep breath and
opened it, letting the sound of male voices wash over her.

Everything
is fine
, she told herself as she stepped into the
hall.
 
You're safe here.
 
It's just Alex with Matt, not a stranger.
 
When she walked into the kitchen, Matt's
welcoming smile helped her believe it.

"Coffee?"
he asked, holding out a cup.

"Please
. "
She smiled at him and sat down at the table.
 
The scent of fresh baked muffins made her
mouth water.
 
"Hi, Alex
. "

"Hi, Lily
. "
Alex didn't even smirk as he said it, raising him
up a notch in her estimation.

"So, I
managed to convince our local sheriff that he doesn't need to come torture you
with questions," Alex said.

"The local
asshole," Matt muttered under his breath.

Alex rolled his
eyes.
 
"Actually, it wasn't
difficult.
 
He really hates you,
Matt," Alex said to his brother.

Matt shrugged.
 
"Not my problem
. "

"It might
become a problem, in the future, you know.
 
And it makes shit difficult when we have to
coordinate emergency services with him,” Alex said.

"Emergency services?"
Lily
asked.

"Matt and
I are volunteer firemen.
 
Matt also gets
called on to do the crazy shit like water rescues and helicopter work, because
of his SEAL training. "

Lily raised her
eyebrows.
 
"I had no idea
. "

Matt shrugged.
 
"It's no big deal
. "

"Yes it
is," Alex disagreed.
 
"If Matt
didn't do it, we'd have to call in help from elsewhere, and sometimes we don't
have the time to wait.
 
He’s also a lot
cheaper.
" Alex
smirked at his brother.

Lily smiled at
Matt who was rubbing the back of his neck bashfully.
 
"That's really cool of you
. "

"It's
nothing
. "

"You're
such a pain in the ass," Alex said, poking his brother in the arm.

Matt ignored
Alex's sharp finger as he slid Lily's coffee across the table.
 
"Muffin?"

"Yes,
thank you," she said.
 
Clearly he
was trying to deflect the conversation away from himself.
 
Lily snorted as she took the mug from him.
 
He kept surprising her.
 
Who would have expected a man so accomplished
to be so modest? He grabbed a plate of pastries.

"Help
yourself
," he said, pointing to the pile of blueberry
muffins on the dish.

She grabbed one
and tore into it, suddenly starving.
 
"Thanks for getting my stuff, Alex,"
she said after she'd devoured the muffin and made some serious inroads on
another.

He smiled at
her.
 
"No problem
.
"
He kept smiling at her, long after she expected him to look away.

Lily wondered
if she had crumbs on her face and dabbed at her lips with a napkin.
 
Nothing.
 
She lifted an eyebrow.

Alex laughed.
 
"You're not the kind of woman I expected
my brother to fall in love with
. "

Lily almost
choked on her last bite.
 
"Excuse
me?" She must be hearing things.
 
Did he just say Matt loved her? She swallowed,
throat suddenly dry.
 
She knew she'd
already fallen for Matt, and fallen hard.
 
Choosing to forego birth control was not
something she would have done if she hadn't felt that way, but she didn't
expect Matt to feel the same, for all his declarations of wanting to have a
child with her.
 
Things like love just
didn't happen that fast.
 
She glanced at
Matt.
 
He had the strangest look on his
face.

"You're
all he talks about," Alex elaborated.

"Jesus,
Alex," Matt said, flushing slightly.

"What?"
Alex looked confused.

"I haven’t
told her yet, you moron
. "
Matt glanced at her,
an apology on his face.

Lily felt her
skin go cold, then hot.
 
She smiled
helplessly at Matt, unable to stop it from spreading over her face until she
was grinning like an idiot.
 
An answering
smile from him had her flushing even more.
 
"
It's
okay, Alex.
 
I love him too. "

Matt's eyes
went wide and before she could even put her mug down, he'd scooped her up,
spinning her around the kitchen.
 
Coffee
sloshed from her cup, but she didn't care.
 
She hung on, giggling, until he finally set
her down.
 
She stretched up on her toes
and kissed him before he could say a word.
 
He cupped a hand on her cheek, gentling her as
he returned her kiss.

"I was
not
expecting that," Matt said when they finally broke apart.

Lily laughed,
ridiculously happy for what felt like the first time in years.
 
"Yeah, well, neither was I," she
retorted.

"I wasn't
expecting the two of you to freak out and run around the kitchen," Alex
chimed in, paper towels in hand.
 
He
crouched down to mop up the spilled coffee.
 
"Aren't the two of you supposed to be
grown-ups?"

"Shut
up," Matt said affectionately.
 
He
had his hand around Lily's waist and seemed in no hurry to let go.

"Does this
mean you're going to get married now?" Alex asked, eyes twinkling.

"Jesus,
Alex! You're such a shit," Matt exclaimed.

Lily laughed.
 
"You're just goading him now
. "

Alex grinned
and threw the wet towels in the trash.
 
"That's my job as a brother
. "

Matt cleared
his throat.
 
"Actually—“

Lily's heart
leaped against her ribs when he dug into his jeans.
 
What was he doing?

He pulled out a
piece of lint.
 
Alex snorted.
 
Matt smirked and held the fuzz out to Lily.
 
"Lily, my love, will you take this
string?"

She batted his
hand away.
 
"You're so ridiculous
. "
Marrying someone so soon after meeting someone
is insane
, she told herself firmly.
 
You
should be grateful he's joking.

Matt smiled at
her and dug back into his pocket.
 
Lily
was already turning away, about to put her coffee mug on the table when he
caught her hand.
 
He went down on one
knee, and she stopped breathing, completely flustered.
 
His face was completely serious.

"Lily,"
he said quietly.
 
"I love you.
 
I knew pretty much from the moment we met that
I would always love you.
 
Will you marry
me?" He held out his free hand.
 
In
his palm sat a gold band with a champagne diamond perfectly nestled inside a
lovely antique setting.
 
"This was
my grandmother's ring.
 
It would mean the
world to me if you wore it. "