Searching for Sea Glass: BEST-SELLING AUTHOR (Sea Glass Secrets Book 1) (10 page)

“I’m… I’m sure,” she said. Though she was far from sure she’d told him the truth.

He nodded. He captured her soft mouth under his. He drank the sweetness of her breath. She was everything he needed. An addiction, he’d never known he possessed. Sunny was like her name. The pure essence of goodness, sweet beyond anything in his experience. But scorching at the same time. He loved her innocence. He coveted her purity. Perhaps the taking of it would heal the brokenness in his own soul.

JD trailed on finger over the sensitive skin of her stomach. He traced the tiny concave indention of her navel. He smiled against her mouth when her breath caught.

“Easy Sunny,” he whispered into the shell of her delicate ear. “Relax for me, baby.”

She tried. She truly did. But every muscle in her body clenched as his searching hand left her belly and traveled further down.

The hot wet kiss, he drew her into was decadent. He lowered the zip of her jeans. He eased them off her hips. Now
his
breath stilled in his chest when he saw the elegant lacy lingerie she wore. A dainty little scrap of nothing that was the same succulent ripe-peach color as her skin.

Sunny arched up. She knew she would die in the next second if he didn’t touch her. She smelled the scent of her own arousal. The odor was rich and fertile, like the still morning ocean. It was a celebration of the creation of life. It was an intimate aroma. One she most likely would have been ashamed of, if she’d been thinking clearly. But she wasn’t thinking at all. She was burning. She tried to guide his hand. She wanted to place it over her throbbing center.

JD stopped her. “Slow down, Sunny. You’re nowhere near ready for what comes next.”

“I am,” she rasped.

“No, you’re not ready yet. But you will be. I’ll make sure,” he said against her soft lips. Then he teased slow, seductive circles on the delicate inner skin of her thigh. The tormenting of his fingers reached higher and higher. Finally, finally the backs of his fingers brushed, ever so carefully, over her silk-covered mound.

Sunny gasped. Her hips shot up to prolong the contact. “JD, I need… I need.”

“Shhh, baby, I’m going to give you
everything
you need,” he said as he eased his hand under the edge of her panties.

Sunny’s labored breathing increased. She felt the firebrand of his finger as it teased and traced its way down to her center. Her head thrashed side to side as he discovered her.

“You
are
still a virgin.”

The surprise in his voice brought a blush to Sunny’s entire body. Her eyes, which had been closed tight, now flew open. She drowned in the heavily half-lidded look he gave her.

“It doesn’t matter. I want this. With you,” she confessed.

“I’ll cherish this gift for the rest of my life,” he told her as he increased the rhythm within her sweet depths.

Sunny rocked her hips as she felt her release building. Something instinctual within her wanted this man to the exclusion of all else. Rational thought fled. She didn’t care about anything but JD McIntyre and what he was doing to her straining body.

With his long, hard fingers cradled inside her core, he commanded, “Let go, love. I want to watch you fly.”

His seductive words and deep probing movements sent her spiraling off into oblivion. A cascade of stars filled the edges of her vision. Fire, scalding and sweet poured over her body. Her entire being was transformed. Before it ended Sunny, slipped off the jagged edge of reality into a black serenity. She woke seconds later to his gentle comfort.

“Shh, love,” he said as he tenderly brushed riotous taffy-colored hair away from her flushed face. “Take deep, slow breaths. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

He began righting her clothing. He drew down the hem of her shirt. His closing of her jeans caused a tiny series of delicious aftershocks. He smiled as her hips bucked, following the movement of his hands.

“Sit up Sunny,” he ordered.

“But you didn’t…,” she tried to argue.

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You should get up and walk over to the door. You’re about to have company,” he said. He tilted his head towards the flashing lights of a sheriff’s car coming through the window.

It was parked in front of Sea Glass Café. Sunny watched as Trey got out. Trinity wasn’t with him. That alone was enough to cause Sunny to frown. She quickly smoothed her clothes. She gathered her hair into a messy knot at the base of her nape. She opened the door, as the officer came up the steps to the house.

“Where’s Trinity?” The words were out of Sunny’s mouth before she saw the haggard look on the man’s face. “What’s wrong?” she demanded.

“She’s in labor.”

“It’s too soon,” Sunny said.

“I know. And I’m on duty tonight. We’re short handed. There’s no one to take my shift, Sunny.”

“I’ll go,” the girl said. She didn’t even turn to gather her things. She walked out onto the rickety porch. “I’ve been a birthing coach before.” The statement wasn’t exactly true. She’d taken the classes. But poor Willie had ended up delivering Billy by C-section. Sunny wasn’t about to tell Trey that fact. “She’ll be just fine.”

“What about Billy?” Trey asked. Now it was his turn to frown as he looked over her shoulder and saw the big man standing in the living room. “What’s he doing here?”

“Why would that be any of your business?” JD demanded. His words held a warning.

“Stop it, both of you. This won’t help Trinity. Can you stay here with Billy?” she asked her question to McIntyre. She still didn’t feel like she knew him. But he
was
the boy’s uncle. And after what had just transpired on the sofa, Sunny was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“I’ll take care of it,” he said. Though his eyes drilled into Trey with a relentless promise of retribution if anything happened to the girl standing in the silvery glow of the porch light.

“Billy’s a little boy. Not an
it
.” Sunny was suddenly not so sure leaving her precious son with this man was a good idea. What if he used this opportunity to take the child? “You’ll both be here in the morning?”

“I’ll take care of it,” JD said again.

Sunny nodded, relieved. It wasn’t until she was halfway to the hospital that she realized JD had failed to promise her anything. By then she and Trey were almost driving into the Tri-County hospital parking lot.

They rushed into the small medical building. It was a quiet night. Nobody was in the tiny emergency room. The lights were lowered. The whole interior of the little building looked calm. Except as they went down the short hall that led to the Maternity Ward. Once Sunny got there, she didn’t think about Billy or JD either for that matter, for a very long time.

There was no nurse at the station desk right outside the ward. That was not a good sign. Sunny knew from experience that even at rural Tri-County there should have been someone to greet them. The empty waiting room was eerie. There was the steady low hum of an old-fashioned water cooler. It stood sentry with an overflowing trash can filled with cone-shaped paper cups. The TV mounted high on the wall was showing a shopping channel. Other than those machines, the place was silent.

“I’ll go back there and check on Trinity,” Trey said. He powered past her. He walked through the swinging doors.

Now Sunny was alone. She didn’t like the hospital. It brought back too many memories for her. None of them good. But she wasn’t one to desert a friend. And Trinity was going to need her.

“Sunny?”

She heard her name being called. She turned to see JD striding into the solitary waiting room.

“Where’s Billy?” Her son was her first concern. She’d find a way to deal with JD later.

“Sam and Matt are taking care of him at the Towers.” JD moved to stand by her. He automatically pulled her over to lean against him. He was pleased when she did it without protest. “How is she?” he asked.

Truthfully, he didn’t know Trinity. And he didn’t care if she lived or died. He didn’t care if her baby was delivered healthy. All he cared about right now was Sunny Murphy and his nephew Billy.

“I don’t know. Trey went back there to find out.”

“You need to come back to the Towers with me, Sunny.”

She lurched away from him. She tilted her head back to glare up at him. “I don’t know how it works in your world, but here in Murphy’s Point, when your friends need you, you don’t just decide it isn’t convenient and walk away.”

JD frowned down at her. And though that particular callous look usually got him anything he wanted, especially from a woman. It had no apparent effect on Sunny Murphy. She stood with her hands planted in the back pockets of her jeans returning his glower for one of her own. He rubbed the back of his neck. She was a complicated little thing. It was clear he would need to be very careful with her from here forward. He couldn’t risk losing either her or the boy by being impatient.

“Here in Murphy’s Point we look out for each other,” she continued lecturing like a stern school Marm from an earlier century.

“Sea Glass Point,” he corrected.

Her eyes caught fire. “Sea Glass Point,” she said with a huge amount of disdain. “Here in Sea Glass Point we consider our neighbors to be family. But you wouldn’t know anything about that, because you don’t even care about your own blood.”

“That argument is getting stale, Sunny. If I didn’t care about Willow, why did I leave in the middle of my own wedding when Billy called?”

“So you admit you were marrying that female version of Attila the Hun?”

“My relationship with Leanne is none of your business.”

“None of my business?” she said fuming. “None of my business? Really? I can’t believe I was stupid enough to let you put your hands on me.”

“You’re blaming that on me, too? Little girl, don’t fool yourself. You were like a bitch in heat. I would have done a lot more than just put my hands on you, if we hadn’t been interrupted.” Once he’d said it, he wished he could call the harsh words back.

A whiplash of hurt jerked her head down. And because he was so attuned to her, he felt it with twice her anguish. He saw her bite the inside of her mouth. That luscious perfect mouth, he’d recently been plundering with so much breath-stealing pleasure. Then one of her hands began nervously twisting a curl that fell over her hunched shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” he tried to make amends.

Sunny wasn’t prepared to listen. She shook her head. She forced herself to meet his steady eyes with her own. An errant tear slipped down her peach-colored cheek.

“No, you’re right. It
was
my fault. I should have never let you get close to me again. I knew it. And I just let my guard down. My only defense…” Here she stopped and gave a low heartbreaking laugh. She sniffed. “My only defense is that I don’t have much experience with men. But I’m sure you knew that before you decided to use my weakness for you against me. Let me be as plain and forthright as possible. I don’t want you here Mr. McIntyre. I’d like you to leave. Right now. I’ll call one of my
friends
to come and pick up Billy. He knows them and will be comfortable with them. I don’t want to ever see you or any of your family, employees, or lackeys again. Do you understand?”

“Billy is my nephew,” JD stood very still. He knew how badly he’d wounded her. And He had no intention of making it any worse by engaging her in some kind of emotional battle he had no hope of winning. He cursed his bad temper. And he cursed the desire for her that flooded every molecule of his body.

“No, Billy is my son.” She stood her ground, daring him to dispute her.

“Sunny, I didn’t mean what I said,” he tried once more to apologize.

She shook her head. Her honey curls danced down her back with the graceful movement of her small body. “You meant every word. And we both know it. I’m not accustomed to being used by a man. Most of the ones I know are just not that devious. But I thank you for your honesty. It’s helped me gain a whole new prospective on you, Mr. McIntyre.”

“Stop it,” he growled. He couldn’t stand the iciness of her voice. “You know what happened between us was mutual. Damn it, I wasn’t using you.”

“So you expect me to believe you left your bride at the altar? And less than a day later, once you saw me again, you were overwhelmed by a real heartfelt passion?” She couldn’t keep the mocking tone out of her words. She laughed again. The ugly sound grated in the space between them. “I bet you’d long ago forgotten about me until that phone rang.”

He grasped her shoulders. He drew her into the shelter of his body. He whispered in her hair. “I thought of you every damned day.”

And he realized he had. He’d worried about her. He’d awoken from dreams with her name on his lips. He’d compared every woman in his life to the beautiful, provocative girl he’d chanced to meet on a lonely midnight beach.

“If that’s true, why didn’t you ever try to find me?” She shot back at him.

“Because you were little more than a child. And I knew I would destroy you,” he bit the words out.

“It takes a lot more to destroy me than a few hot kisses on the beach, Mr. McIntyre,” Sunny said. She knew it was true. She knew how strong she was. She knew the circumstances that had made her that way. And she wasn’t about to let this man, or anybody else rob her of that strength. She stepped back.