Never Stopped Loving You (25 page)

Chapter Thirty

Kara glanced around the big open space and stood before the large windows. The carpet was cozy between her toes. The light tan on the walls was warm, and then there was the bathroom with that oversize bathtub just waiting for water access. Wade’s future bedroom in the new house. He’d made a lot of progress in the past two months since they’d been together.

“Well?” he questioned.

She pushed away from the windows. “I love it.”

“You sure?” He turned and lifted some paint swatches. “I debated between these two colors on the walls.”

She grinned. They were practically the same shade. “It’s perfect.”

“I’m almost there. I can’t wait to stay our first night here.”

She crossed the room to him, enjoying what they had, while they had it. In the back of her mind lurked knowledge that Wade said he wasn’t going to wait forever. She tried pinning down a time when she’d be ready to take that final step and say
now!
Now
,
I’m ready!
But what exactly was she ready for? What was their next step?

Oh, the ideas and daydreams on her mind were as fierce as ever, but she couldn’t. Her mother’s words echoed like a bass drum pounding in her ears.

She gets that from me
.

No. No. No. Kara refused to believe it. She wasn’t like her mom. She wasn’t dreaming of the future, as often as she tried to, and for now, she was going to wait and see what life brought her. For now, it gave her Wade.

She pressed her lips over his. His arms came around her, pulled her against his chest and his mouth took hers in hungry need. That morning they’d been together. She’d woken early as usual for a quick run home and he’d held her up...in the best, most satisfying way possible. It was their comfortable, good, easygoing routine. So long as they stuck to the routine, they would be fine.

But that had been hours ago. Desire spun through her. Anticipation of his touch wound through her belly with weightless spasms of excitement. She clung a little tighter, held a little harder and pushed her hips against the front of him. “Do you think maybe we should have a practice run?”

He was already hard. A moan rumbled from his throat and he turned with her, pushed her against what would one day be his bedroom wall for an answer. The bare Sheetrock was cool against her hands as he held her captive. The wall hard against her back.

She angled her chin up and what they’d done so many times now it should feel like a dead pattern was still new and exciting as he kissed the angle of her neck, nuzzled the gap of her V-neck shirt.

The grip he held on her hands released. Coolness touched where she’d been held tightly and her shirt was ripped overhead. His hand cupped her satin bra, fingers caressed against the smooth line of the cups against aching, sensitive skin.

“Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

She got the last button open from the row down the front of him and pulled the shirt from his tight jeans. “I have a feeling it’s the same you do to me.”

She dropped the shirt off his shoulders and he shrugged it down. Reaching behind his neck, he grabbed his undershirt and pulled it off too. A sigh escaped her lips. She’d never grow tired of seeing him. Of his chiseled chest, how under all those hard muscles, his heart pounded. The way his pulse threaded through his throat against her tongue. Over their time together she’d learned what made him gasp, what made him twist.

She grazed her nails across his ribs and a soft laugh escaped his mouth, whispered against her chest. And yes, where his ticklish spots were. His thumb stroked against her lower back and she shifted away. He had also learned all those things about her.

More and more it was what she wanted, becoming the perfect life she’d tried not to dream of so many times. Every time they came together, he’d do something that brought life to a once-dead dream.

Soon it’d come to an end. Something this good, this
great
, couldn’t possibly last. Not for her. She tended to wreck too much when everything seemed about right. Right now, everything was right. From Whitney, to finding home at Chester Farms, to Wade.

He pulled the long ties of her cotton sweats and the waist dropped from her hips to her ankles. “These are way better than jeans.”

She popped the buttons on his jeans. “Yeah, why don’t you invest?”

He grinned before sealing his mouth over hers for a kiss that made all her nerves sit up and take notice. She kicked off her flats and stepped out of her pants. There was no missing the hunger on his breath. The anxious stroke of his fingers. She smiled against his mouth as her bra was next to go, her panties behind that.

He opened her with his fingers, caressed and thrust. She reached between them and held his cock, mirrored his movements. Husky tones crossed his tongue. A moan curled up her throat and he pulled her hand away.

He covered himself, put one of her legs around his hip, grabbed her ass with the other and filled her. Breath was lost on her tongue. Tingles stroked through her veins as he pumped, thrust and filled her deeper and deeper.

Each time he entered, a whisper of words stroked across her skin. Her name uttered harshly, desperately. His hands holding her pinched. She squeezed him with her insides, held him to her until she couldn’t anymore.

The pooling of desire and aching want couldn’t be held anymore and she shattered in his arms. Dropped her head back and called out his name as quick release spread through her body. A glow that flooded her veins, blinded her to the room around her and Wade as she groaned against his neck and thrust one last time.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his sweat-damp forehead. The grip he held on her loosened. His gasping breath slowed. She combed through his short-cropped hair. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to cook now.”

A chuckle rumbled his throat. “Don’t burn yourself.”

“If I did I wouldn’t be able to do anything. Not even bathe myself.”

“In that case...”

She kicked him in the ass with her heel.

“Hey.” He straightened and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Only teasing.”

“Sure you are.”

He pulled free, his length left her and she noticed the absence. The emptiness. The nerves of
was that the last time?
washed over. She blocked off the uncertainty before spoiling the moment, but couldn’t stop the shiver that shuddered through.

“Cold?”

She only smiled. “Maybe a little.”

He lifted the dark blue shirt she’d stripped off him and he dropped it around her naked shoulders. She threaded her arms through the sleeves and stood there while he buttoned her up, then rubbed her arms. “There.”

He stepped back and surveyed her naked feet, legs and the shirt reaching to her midthighs. The thick cotton was heavy against her bare butt and she hugged herself. “A little big.”

His grin widened as his gaze reached hers again. “I like it. You should wear this later.”

She stepped into him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Maybe I’ll wear it the rest of the day. No bra, no panties under my pants. What do you—”

The front door of the house opened and popped closed. Wade turned to the noise. The wall blocked them from seeing who was there. With a sigh, he released her. “Better put clothes on before Whitney catches me naked again.”

She chuckled and pulled her pants on and stuffed her panties and bra in the oversize pockets of her sweats.

He grinned as he pulled his white T-shirt back on. “Don’t think I missed that.”

“Good.” She left a kiss on the corner of his mouth. “I was hoping you’d notice.”

He laced his hand through hers and pulled her to the front where they found John staring at the ceiling.

She blinked and eased down the stairs. It really was him. “John?”

The smile on his face quickly fell. “I guess the rumors are true. You two are dating.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and willed the bra in her pocket to be on her body. Wade’s hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her into the security of his embrace. “What can I do for you?”

There was no missing the red that crawled up John’s neck and wrapped over his ears. His gaze slid away and he cleared his throat. “Kara, Mom’s been asking me for a few weeks if you had any blueberry jam left.”

She rubbed Wade’s arm and pulled out of the warmth he’d wrapped her in. “I have all she wants. It’s in the house.”

Wade didn’t let her go. His eyes dropped to her chest and back up. “Kara, I left that paint color in the back. Whitney wanted to see it. Could you take it when you go in?”

He didn’t even have to finish before she was already heading that way. “I’ll grab it.”

She hurried up the stairs, down the hall and after rounding the corner completely out of their sight, she moved to a full run to the room they’d been in. The swatches were on the floor and she pulled her bra on real fast. She didn’t waste time on panties, not wanting the two of them left alone longer than necessary. Wade’s entire body had tensed just by John’s presence. The quicker she got John a couple jars of jam, the better.

She jogged back to the front. The room so tense it could be cut with a knife as the men stared at one another. She waved the crumpled paint sample. “Got it.”

John stepped back, put his hands in his pockets. “Getting ready to paint?”

“Yep,” Wade answered. And that was it. Nothing more.

She cleared her throat, left a quick kiss on Wade’s cheek. “I’ll see you after a while.”

She headed for the door, breath held in her throat that only slid free once Wade turned for the back where he was working in what would become the laundry room. John walked next to her to the house and she didn’t even want to give him the chance to say anything. “I also have some strawberry left too, if you think she’d like that.”

“I think just the blueberry. She likes it in her oatmeal.”

“Ah.”

“Nice shirt.”

She hugged Wade’s shirt to her. “Thanks. I’ve been canning pumpkin pie if she’d like that too.”

“She makes her own. You look happy.”

“I am. Has she tried the jalapeño yet?”

“Kara.” His hand on her shoulder stopped her.

Her stomach wadded in knots as she stopped and faced him, trying to keep this mask up.

“I’m sorry. I was clearly wrong about you and Wade and I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

“Thanks. It was a long time ago.” Even though she was still up in the air about it all now, pretty much as she was then.

“How long have y’all been dating?”

Dating.
She wasn’t going to put a label on it. Labels meant stuff and she didn’t know what they were. Other than people who had a lot of sex and laughed a lot. When she was too busy thinking and planning and dreaming before, she’d screwed it all up. This time she was living and hoping and for now that was enough. There was no decent way to answer that, though. “Little while. We’re taking it slow.”

There. That should work. She stepped in the house, hoping an end would come to this subject. She was not so lucky.

“Not serious then?”

Would
Do you want it to be?
count as an answer? “Like I said, we’re taking slow.”

“Sorry for prying.”

She kept her overly big fake smile on and opened the pantry to her stash. “You’re fine. And here’s the blueberry. How many?”

“Just one. I do want to get her several for Christmas. Will you have enough then?”

“Of course. I have plenty of blueberries frozen and put back to make more.”

He nodded. “Excellent.” He took the jar and rolled it between his hands. “Guess I was right then.”

She didn’t want to ask, but he didn’t leave her much choice unless she wanted to be outright rude and she was running a business here. “About what?”

“All those years ago. Wade hassled me because I thought he was jealous. Guess I was right.”

She wouldn’t go there, not about that. “I think it had more to do with you sharing intimate details about me with your friends.”

He winced. “He told you that, I see.”

The knot in her throat grew thicker. Lord only knows what all he said, but she wouldn’t have him throw Wade under the bus. “Not everything, but enough that we would have stopped seeing each other sooner if I’d known then.”

He nodded and placed the jelly on the table. Rested his hands flat on the counter and leaned over. “I wonder if he just now told you that so we couldn’t explore any possibilities between us.”

A shadow moved through the doorway. “I’m sure that’s not it.”

John started and turned to see Wade filling the doorway. Not standing in it, but filling it. “I think you’re done here.”

John cleared his throat and lifted his jam. “Just pointing out the obvious.”

She swallowed. “No.”

Wade’s gaze landed on hers. “Kara.”

She shook her head. “I’m fine.” She looked to John. “The reason we didn’t work out then is because I used you to make Wade jealous. There wasn’t anything there, not with me and I’m sorry. When I realized I was in too deep, I left.”

His brow pulled in deep.

She gripped the counter’s edge. “I was cruel. It was unnecessary and that’s why we wouldn’t have worked out today. Us not being together has nothing to do with Wade or anything he might have said. Don’t try to convince me of that again.”

He started to say something else, but she fled the kitchen for the always-open back door. The fall breeze cooled the heat, filling her cheeks, and she leaned against the cool brick. Fallen leaves crunched under her feet. Her knees were weakened and she sank to the ground. That wasn’t something she’d wanted to do, but what choice was there? She wouldn’t have John stand there and accuse Wade of that bullshit. And she wasn’t going to be harassed by him further either.

It’d needed to be done. She just wished it didn’t have to be so damn embarrassing. The engine of a truck cranked and faded off in the distance. She wanted to take a calming breath. To relax, but it just wouldn’t come.

The back door creaked open and then Wade was squatting in front of her. He dropped her iPod in the oversize pocket of his shirt and rolled up her sleeves.