Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (233 page)

“Connor,” she said.

“Carlie,” he said.

Carlie laughed.  “I’m sorry.  Go ahead.”

“No, you go ahead.”

Carlie licked her lips.  “Will you kiss me?”

Connor smiled.  “I’d like nothing more.”

Their kissing soon grew heated.  Carlie pulled back several minutes later to take a breath.  “Would it sound too forward if I asked you to stay with me tonight?”

“I’d love to.  I’d have to leave early in the morning though.  I want to make sure that I’m home when Isabella returns.  Would I be too forward if I told you I don’t have protection?”

Carlie blushed.  “My brain is kind of cloudy right now.  I was thinking of that, but I didn’t think that far ahead.  I’m not on birth control anymore.”

“I could go to the store.”

“Maybe next time.  I’ve never been with anyone besides my ex-husband.  I’m really nervous.”

“I haven’t been with anyone for almost four years Carlie.  There have only been two women for me besides my wife.  I think we’ll do fine.  We’ll take it slow and easy okay?”

Carlie smiled.  She took his hand.  “I’m not sure I can handle slow and easy the first time.”

Connor grinned.  “We’ll take it slow and easy the second time then.”

“Sounds good to me.” 

She led him to her bedroom.  Connor shut the door behind them.  Mitty whined to be let in, but Carlie shook her head.  “He likes to jump up on the bed.”

“We wouldn’t want that right now, now would we?”

“Oh no.”

Carlie undressed herself.  Connor took it slow.  It reminded her of the delicious moments she had spent watching him through the window.  He smiled at her and then led her to the bed.  The sex was incredible.  Carlie didn’t think she’d ever spent so many pleasurable hours in her life. 

After they had showered, they let Mitty into the bedroom.  Carlie gave him a stern look and directed him to his bed which lay on the floor at the foot of her bed.  She and Connor lay down together.  She felt utterly content.  She knew at that moment that she could love him, that she very likely would quite soon.

She traced a heart on his chest.  “Do you shave your chest hair or do you just not have any?”

Connor chuckled.  “I actually seem to have inherited an almost hairless chest from my father.  Not very manly, I know.”

“No.  It’s nice.  Every part of you is very nice.”

Connor kissed the side of her neck.  “Thank you.  The feeling is mutual.  I realize that you’ve lost a little weight, but you must have been terribly thin before you gained weight.  You have a beautiful body.  Curves in all the right places.”

“Thank you.  I actually feel like I walk Mitty most of the time now instead of the other way around.”

“That is good.  Isabella wants a dog.  But my mother is allergic.”

“I’m sure she’d love Mitty.  Tanisha’s kids loved him.  She can visit him if she’d like.  Of course I guess it would have to be well before she goes home.  When does she leave?”

“Four days.  The time seems so short.  I’ll miss her so.”

Carlie hid a sigh.  “I know you will.”

Connor brushed her hair back from her neck.  “Carlie, are you okay?  I don’t like to think that you already regret what we’ve done.”

“It’s not that.  I’m afraid of losing you.  I know that you have to do what’s best for Isabella though.”

“I feel like I’ve been hit by a freight train Carlie.  But not in a bad way.  What we could have together can be a very beautiful thing if we let it.  My daughter still needs time to get adjusted to the idea of living with me full time.  Maybe with enough visits with Tanisha and her kids, she won’t even be upset about living here.  The schools are quite good here.”

“Are you sure?”

“If we question too much, we can talk ourselves out of anything, even something that could quite easily turn into love.”  Connor squeezed her hand.  “I could very easily see myself totally and completely head over heels in love with you Carlie.”

Carlie smiled.  “I feel the same way about you.  It half scares the shit out of me and half makes me want to tie you to my bed and never let you leave.”

“Mmm.  Sounds kinky.  We might have to try that sometime.”  He winked at her.  “Will you set the alarm for seven thirty please?  I’d say eight, but I think I might have a hard time talking myself out of your bed.”

Carlie kissed him.  “It’s a good thing I don’t have to work tomorrow or you’d have to talk yourself out of my bed at four thirty in the morning.”

Connor chuckled.  “I didn’t think about that.  The shop is closed on Sundays right?”

“Most Sundays.  Busier parts of the year we’re open longer hours and seven days a week.  That’s when Tanisha has to hire extra help.”

Connor yawned.  “I could see that.  Goodnight Carlie.  I had a fantastic time tonight.”

“I did too.  I’m so glad you came into the shop today.”

“Me too.  I almost didn’t stop.  My daughter convinced me.”

“I’ll have to thank her someday.”

“Yes.  I’m sure you two will get along great.”

“I hope so.”

Carlie leaned over and set her alarm.  She switched the lamp off and then snuggled back into Connor’s arms.  “Goodnight Connor.”

The alarm seemed to go off all too soon.  They both used the restroom and then crawled back into bed together.  Mitty whined to be let out.  She sighed as she let him out the back door.  When Carlie returned to the bedroom, their heated make out session turned into leisurely love making.  When they had finished, Connor groaned as he looked at the clock.

“I wish I didn’t have to leave.  I would love to spend all day in your bed.”

Carlie smiled.  “There will be other days for that.”

Connor grinned.  “Oh yes there will.”  He dressed quickly and then gave her a quick kiss.

She let Mitty back in on the way by.  If her dog had been a human she thought that he would have given her a very dirty look.  She walked Connor to his car.  “I’ll see you.”

“You will.  Count on it.  Oh, can I have your phone number?”

Carlie laughed.  “Of course.”  He took out his cell phone.  She gave him her number.  Then she gave him a lingering kiss.  “Goodbye Connor.”

“No goodbyes.  ‘Til we meet again Carlie.  I’ll call you.  I’ll ask Isabella if she’d like to visit Mitty.”

“Sure.  I’ll talk to you later Connor.”

He gave her a wave as he drove away.  He called her later that afternoon.  Isabella wanted to visit Mitty the next day.  They made plans for them to come over after Carlie got off of work.  It was a nice day.  They walked the dog together and then made dinner together. 

Connor talked Carlie into going with him when he took Isabella back to his mother’s house.  His mother was thrilled to meet her.  Carlie liked the older woman very much.  She spent much of her time off with Connor after that.

  Things moved very quickly between them.  Two weeks after their first date they discussed moving in together.  Four weeks after that they did because Carlie was pregnant.  They compromised at first.  Carlie and Mitty moved into Connor’s house since it was bigger.  They found a bigger house two months later.  Isabella was soon living with them happily.  They were married on the sixth month anniversary of their first date.  Carlie thought she’d never been happier.  She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to tell her grandkids the truth about how she had met Connor though.  It still seemed strange to her to think that she used to spy on him when he undressed in front of his window, but she was glad that she had and that he had caught her.

Special Bonus Story:

One Night of Your Life

Winter rolled her window down a crack.  The rain was pouring down.  She almost rolled it back up, but she’d never been able to stand being cooped up anywhere with the windows closed when she smoked.  She took a drag of her cigarette and wondered how much longer she could drive before she fell asleep behind the wheel.

She turned the radio up and happened to glance to the side of the road as she passed the exit sign.  It was the middle of nowhere, but there had been a man standing by the side of the road, not carrying an umbrella or wearing a coat.  Winter had never in her life thought of picking up a hitchhiker, but before she could talk herself out of it, she braked and then backed the van up. 

She rolled the passenger side window down.  “Get in.  Please.  You’re drenched.”

He gave her a grin.  He had straight white teeth and a beautiful pair of green eyes.  She noticed as he got in that his t-shirt was plastered to his chest.  It looked to be a very nice chest.

He shut the door.  She rolled both of the windows back up and turned the heater up a notch.  “You can put your bag in the back if you want.  Where are you headed?”

“Anywhere but here.”  He laughed.

“That makes sense since it’s the middle of nowhere.  How long have you been out here?”

“Hours that felt like days.  What’s your name?  And thanks for the ride by the way.  I never expected a woman to stop, especially one who looks like you.”

“Uh huh.  My name is Winter.  And you are?”

“John.”

“It’s nice to meet you John.  I’m rather exhausted and was thinking about pulling over for the night.  What do you think about sharing a room?” The last part had come out completely without thought.  While the sensible part of Winter’s brain wanted to take it back, the hormonal part that knew she had a very attractive man beside her did not. 

“Is that some kind of a cheap come on line?”  John chuckled.  “You can drop me off wherever you decide to stop.  I wouldn’t want to put you out like that.  You’ve already done enough.  I was beginning to think that no one was ever going to stop.”

“I insist.  Who knows when it’s going to stop raining?  You can take a shower, put on some dry clothes.  Please tell me that you have a jacket.”

“It’s in my bag.  You sound like a mother.  Where are your children?”

“I don’t have any.  My ex and I had trouble conceiving.  Sometimes I think that was a blessing.”

“Was he really that bad?”

“No.  He wasn’t that bad.  I wasn’t that bad.  We just tended to bring out the worst in each other instead of the best.”

“I see.  My ex-wife walked out on me about a year ago.  We tended to do the same thing I think.  We were separated for about six months and we were perfectly civil.  We got along better than we had when we were together.  So we tried to get back together.  It didn’t work.  Within two days we were at each other’s throats again.  So I left.  Been kinda drifting ever since.”

“Isn’t it hard?  I wouldn’t think that a lot of people would want to pick up hitchhikers.”

“You’d be surprised.  But if I get stuck somewhere for too long, I just buy a bus ticket out.”

“Oh.  Are you hungry?  That exit coming up should have a drive through.  I’d say we could go to a diner, but I’m not in the mood to wait.”  She yawned.  “I’m so tired.”

“I am hungry, but you don’t need to bother.  If you’re tired just find a motel and get some sleep.  Where are you headed?”

“To my niece’s graduation.  I can’t believe she’s eighteen.  It seems like the last time I looked she was a baby.  I am a little hungry myself so we’ll see what we can find.  I’ll pay for the food and the motel.  It’s no big deal.  I’m doing pretty well right now.  Somehow I’m able to balance my budget a lot better now that I’m divorced.”

John chuckled.  “My wife was better at that than me.  I always had this idea in my head that no matter how broke I got, there would always be more ya know?”

“Hmm.”  Winter pulled off at the exit. She could see two drive through fast food restaurants and a motel within sight.  “Do you prefer burgers or tacos?”

“I don’t care.  Get whatever you want.”

Winter sighed.  “Give a girl a break.  I don’t care.  I’m easy.”  She turned to look at him when she stopped at the stop light.  “Well, not easy like that.  Although I was a little back in high school.  I was a chunky and that seemed to be the only way I could get a guy to like me.  Wow, I did not need to tell you that.”

“It’s not wrong to like sex.  It feels good.  I considered myself a sex addict for a while.  I cheated quite a bit.  Sometimes I wondered why my wife didn’t leave me long before she did.  But I’m trying to be a better man.  I wanted to be a better husband, but it’s a little hard once you figure out that you really are better off apart.  She’s dating some actor now.  I can’t even remember his name.  He’s the third one.  The divorce was final and she wasted no time.  Anyway, I would prefer tacos.  Thank you.”

Winter smiled as she pulled away from the stop light.  “An actor huh?  When I first got divorced, this was right after my first novel was published, this actor that I had a crush on when I was a teenager hit on me at this party.  It was kinda gross because he’s like twenty years older than me and he did not age well.  I turned him down and then regretted it since I heard he’s supposed to be fantastic in bed.  I’ve been rather high and dry since my divorce.”

“I find that hard to believe.  You’re beautiful.  What do you write? Anything I’ve heard of?”

“Nothing on the best seller list and definitely not the great American novel.  I write mostly romance.  Down and dirty bodice ripping romance with lots of sex.  Which I find to be totally ironic most of the time since I have no love life or sex life to speak of.”

Winter pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and joined the line behind three other cars.  John cleared his throat.  “So I’m thinking that you don’t want a man in your life?”

Winter snorted.  “Oh, there have been times that I felt like I would have taken any man, even if it was just for the night.  Then I decided that I wanted to do it right the second time around.  Do you think you’ll ever get married again?  Do you have kids?”

“I don’t know about marriage.  I kinda feel the same way that you do.  If I do it again I want to make sure I get it right.  No kids.  I wanted them and she didn’t.  She won.”

“I’m sure you’ve had plenty of women out on the road.  You’re gorgeous.  Many women must have invited you into their house for the night, into their bed.”

“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t true, but it was just meaningless sex.  It was about one body helping another body get off.  I always thought that if it was right, even if you just met someone, it didn’t have to be meaningless.”

Winter swallowed hard as she pulled up to the speaker.  She didn’t look at him.  She was afraid of what she would see written on his face.  “So what do you want to eat?  Anything you want.”

“Oh I don’t think you’d be comfortable giving me what I really want Winter.  But that’s okay.  I’m not going to try to talk you into something you don’t want to do.  I’m not that kind of man.  Let me look at the menu.”

He leaned over her.  She could smell his cologne.  She suddenly wanted to kiss him like she’d never wanted to kiss a man before.  He was crazy if he thought she didn’t want what he wanted she thought.  He told her five items that he wanted.  She laughed and had to tease him even though they were all a dollar or less.  “Are you sure that’s all you want?”

“To eat yes.”  He winked at her as he moved back to the passenger seat.

She closed her eyes briefly and then waited for the voice to come back on the speaker.  She placed their order and then pulled forward.  She felt like the tension was so thick in the car that you could probably cut it with a knife.  The food seemed to take forever and the last two songs on the radio had been about sex.  She reached over and shut the radio off.

John gave her a lazy grin and pushed his dark hair out of his eyes.  “Do you believe in signs Winter?”

“If you want to see them you can find them anywhere.  If you look for them everywhere you can eventually turn them into whatever suits your purpose at the time and end up driving yourself crazy.”

“I suppose you could.  Have you ever picked up a hitchhiker before?”

Winter shook her head.  “No.  I never even really thought about it.  I don’t see them that often.  When I do, it’s usually somebody who looks like they’ll rob me or something.”

“Do you believe in destiny?”

“I guess.  But I don’t believe in all that romantic bullshit.  It probably sounds kind of dumb coming from a romance writer, but it’s true.”

“I see.”  He paused as she took their food from the girl at the window.  She handed him the bag, then pulled out of the parking lot and headed up the road to the motel.  “So you wouldn’t believe me if I told you that I thought we had been destined to meet tonight?”

“No.  I should have actually already been there.  My sister is kind of nontraditional.  She had the graduation party before the actual graduation.  I was supposed to leave two days ago, but I had a deadline to meet.  I got behind when I got an idea for this other novel that just wouldn’t leave me alone.  The party was tonight.  I missed that, but the graduation isn’t until the day after tomorrow so at least I won’t miss that.”

“Does it not seem strange to you that you should have already been there but you’re not, and you happened to decide to pick up a hitchhiker when it’s against your nature?”

“It’s not exactly against my nature.  I’m not a bitch, or at least I don’t like to think so.  I’m just cautious.”

“Normal behavior for a single woman.  I’ll shut up now.  It’s obvious that you’re not interested.  I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay.”  She pulled into the parking lot of the motel and parked next to the office.  “I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

A pretty woman in her twenties was behind the counter.  She gave Winter a bright smile.  “Good evening.  How can I help you?”

“Your sign says that you have vacancies.  Please tell me that you do.  I’m exhausted.”

“We do.  Smoking or non-smoking?”

“Smoking please.  With two beds.”

The girl raised an eyebrow and glanced at John.  “Tell me you’re related to him.  There is no way I wouldn’t share a bed with a guy that looked like that if I wasn’t.”

Winter fought an eye roll.  “I’m not.  Do you have a room with two beds?”

The girl sighed.  “You’re a lesbian aren’t you?  Or he’s gay.  All of the really good looking ones seem to be.”

“No.  I don’t mean to be abrupt, but do you have a room with two beds?  I really am very tired.”

“Sorry.  My husband is in the military.  Sometimes I think I like to look a little too much.  Um, let me check.”  The girl looked at a sheet of paper.  She ran her finger down and then looked at Winter and shook her head.  “The only smoking rooms we have only have one bed.  Actually, the only rooms we have left period have one bed.  There’s some convention in town.”

Winter sighed.  “Damn.  I guess we’ll take a smoking room then.  It’s $39.99 plus tax right?”

“It’s $68.12 with tax.  Will that be cash, or credit?”

Winter stifled a groan.  “That seems like an awful lot of tax.”

“That’s the ‘and up’.  I told the manager that he should change it since there are only three rooms in the whole place that are $40 a night, but he won’t do it.  People usually end up paying it anyway.  We’re a lot cleaner than the other places on this road.”

“Fine.  Credit.”  Winter gave the girl her credit card and her license.  “Do you need to see his ID too?”

“I’d like to see a lot more of him than his ID, but no.  You’re fine.  Just one night?”

“Yes.”

The girl made a copy of her license and then processed the card and handed her the receipt.  She pulled a key off a hook behind her and handed it Winter.  “Second floor, all the way to the right.  Are you sure you’re not a lesbian?  If I had a guy like that even for the night, there’s no way in hell I wouldn’t have sex with him.  If I wasn’t married and you told me you didn’t want him, I’d be all over him right now.  You wouldn’t have to worry about sharing a bed with him because I’d have him in mine.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-three.  Why?”

“He’s too old for you.”

“Not for one night he isn’t.  Are you blind?  I can see his shirt sticking to his chest through the window.  I can only imagine how good he looks without it on.”

“So he’s good looking.  It doesn’t mean that we need to hop into bed with someone every time we find a member of the opposite sex attractive.”

“Before I got married, it was really good when I did a few times.”

Winter turned away and rolled her eyes.  “Have a good night.  I hope your husband comes home soon.”

“Me too.  I’m not gonna let him out of our bed for three days straight.”

Winter laughed.  “I’m sure you won’t.”

Winter shook her head as she walked outside.  John grinned at her.  “That took long enough.  Did they not have the room that you wanted?”