Barefoot at Moonrise (Barefoot Bay Timeless Book 2) (24 page)

She squeezed his hand, but Ken barely felt it.

“The moment that I realized that thing was falling, I looked to the ground and realized my dad was right there. I opened my mouth, but it happened so fast. Five hundred fucking pounds of steel fell like it was in slow motion…” The sob broke, along with the tears he hadn’t realized filled his eyes.

“Oh, Ken,” she whispered.

“It crushed him.” He blinked and swiped at his eyes. “I reached him first. But he already couldn’t breathe. He wasn’t even conscious when I reached him. There was nothing I could do to save him.”

“Oh, Ken.” She pulled on his hands and forced him to look at her. “You cannot blame yourself for not knowing how to save a dying man when you were eighteen.”

“I don’t blame myself.” He blamed Ray Endicott and some half-assed inspection, but he didn’t have the heart to say that now. Not while Beth was covering him with comfort and sympathy. “But that was the moment I knew I wanted to be a medic and firefighter.”

“Your dad would be so proud of you.” She was so sincere, he melted into a sad smile.

“That’s what my mom says.”

She searched his face. “What else does she say…about what happened?”

“That Dad had himself to blame.”

“Really?” she asked, sounding surprised or even hopeful. “She blames him?”

“For fighting with me on his last day on earth,” he said. “For not treating every day like it could be your last.”

“Are you sure that’s what she meant?”

He drew back, frowning. “Yeah. Why?”

“I don’t know.” She took a long, slow inhale, looking away, thinking. “Blame and guilt,” she finally said. “They are two very debilitating emotions.”

“They are.”

“They could ruin us if we let them,” she said. “We could wallow around in blaming one person or ourselves for something that can’t be changed and cost us everything we have.”

“Well, listen to you.” He put his finger on her chin and turned her face toward him. “Three
we
’s and a few
us
’s in there. I thought you ran away from those words.”

She didn’t answer, her own eyes as misty as his still felt. “I don’t want to run away from us anymore,” she whispered. “I want to be a
we
, but I’m so scared.”

“Only one thing should scare you,” he said, easing her body against his.

“What?”

He placed a kiss on the top of her head. “Missing the opportunity for us to have something amazing.”

She looked up at him. “You really think we could?”

“I know we could.” He kissed her forehead. “I know we will.” He kissed her nose. “And we should start….” He kissed her lips. “Right now.”

“Another excellent seduction.” She whispered into his mouth.

“Did it work?”

“Like a charm.” Slowly, she stood, holding her hand out in invitation. “Come to bed with me, Kenny Cavanaugh.”

* * *

As Ken kissed them both back into the bedroom, Beth could feel herself letting go of all the fear and tension and secrets and guilt and blame. It fell to the floor along with the tank top he dispensed with somewhere in the hall.

Inside her room, he closed the door. “Let’s not make Sally witness this,” he said, pulling her into him.

He smelled like sunshine and salt water, so masculine and Ken-like that she had to press her lips on his shoulder and inhale. Still standing, he lowered his head, kissed her mouth, then dropped lower, his lips over her breasts and stomach while she threaded her fingers into his hair.

“Beth.” He breathed her name onto her skin, slipping his fingers into the waistband of her flannel sleep shorts, and then began to slide them over her hips. She wore nothing underneath, which made him let out a sexy grunt as he revealed her inch by inch.

Tugging the shorts down her thighs, he knelt in front of her to suckle and lick, making her dig her fingers into his head.

At the first contact of his tongue, she stiffened in a little shock. “Oh…” He kissed her belly, then looked up with his mouth still on her flesh. “Too much.”

“I’ll be gentle,” he promised, his voice taut, as if gentle was the last thing he wanted to be.

“It’s not that. It’s…intense.” She stroked his head, stunned at the sparks of fire on her skin. “It’s…different.”

A slow smile spread as he lightly tapped the skin right under her navel. “Crazy-ass hormones exaggerate everything,” he teased.

“Yeah.” She sighed, pushing his head so his mouth would be back on her. “
Everything
.”

Stifling a laugh, he kissed her again, then tongued her, flicking the tuft of hair and sucking lightly until her knees actually wobbled with weakness.

“I’ve got you,” he said, standing up to lead her to the bed.

When she dropped on her back, he yanked his T-shirt over his head, making her suck in a breath at the sight of his gorgeous chest. Cuts and dips, muscles and skin, hardened nipples, and a happy trail of hair leading right where she wanted to go.

Reaching for his hips, she brought him to his knees on the bed, unsnapping his shorts and hungrily unzipping to free him.

His erection pulsed in her fingers while she stroked the length, in awe of how incredible he felt. He pushed off his shorts and stripped down, lying on top of her to give her the sweetest, slowest, warmest kiss she could remember.

His lips and tongue were so soft but demanding, his large hands holding her face like she was the most precious thing he’d ever touched. His body pressed on hers, and she spread her legs to accommodate him, wrapping them around the rock-hard muscles of his backside.

Every move made her want more, every second of skin-on-skin contact made her moan, every breath of him nearly brought her to tears.

“Ken, what is happening?”

He laughed a little, lifting up. “If I have to explain it to you, then we need to talk.”

“Everything is so…intense. Can it really be because I’m pregnant?”

He stroked her cheek with one finger, and even that featherlight contact shot fire between her legs, pushing her toward a release she hadn’t had time to build up to yet.

“Actually, I think it’s more than the baby.”

She closed her eyes, sucked in a breath, and rocked against him, eager to have him inside of her.

“It’s
us
,” he whispered.

The gruff, masculine way he said
us
was as sexy as the body she moved against. Every sense, even her hearing, was heightened.

Her whole body felt weak and boneless, but sparky and bright at the same time. She heard herself moan and whisper his name, but it was almost like the sensations were so powerful she couldn’t be experiencing them herself.

His fingers were like brands searing her skin, but soothing her, too. When his lips touched her throat and nipples and stomach, she arched her back and moaned in pleasure.

Nothing had ever felt like this before. Fiery and fierce. Achingly good, insanely sweet. Desperate but…perfect.

She squeezed his buttocks and pushed him closer to her, pulsing and ready and dying for him.

He lifted his head. “Guess the condom ship has sailed, huh? I have an unopened box if it makes you feel better.”

“You haven’t been with anyone?”

“Only you that night and every night since then…” His mouth kicked up. “In my imagination.”

Oh wow. Just the thought of that damn near sent her into an orgasm. “Me, too,” she admitted.

“We should have been together all these weeks.” He eased into her. “Like…this.”

He gritted his teeth and went deeper. And deeper. Until he was all the way in.

“Like that.” She sighed, then met his next thrust.

She stopped thinking, stopped fearing, stopped wondering about anything and everything. All she could feel was the power of this man, filling her, taking her, owning her…
changing
her.

All of the things she’d sworn she never wanted, but right now, they were all she wanted. Him. Us.
Them
.

He held on a long time, dragging out the pleasure and every insane, sticky, sweaty sensation until they reached the edge of control. He bowed his back, lifted his head, and slammed one more time, then lost the fight.

He groaned and let go, spilling into her. With each pulse, she could feel him surrender to the satisfaction, and that took her right to the brink of an orgasm.

She came as he finished, every cell tingling and twisting as pleasure whipped through her whole body.

He held her through her orgasm, kissing her and whispering her name, lazily thrusting as the heat deep inside rose again, twisting and burning and demanding another release.

“I can’t stop,” she cried, moving against him again, letting the second orgasm rock her. He clung to her, bucking to keep her satisfied and let her ride it out.

Sweat and exhaustion tingled over her body when she finally finished. He collapsed, heavy on her, and she clung to his heaving shoulders as aftershocks made her quiver.

“Kenny,” she whispered.

“One more?” he asked.

“I could, so easily.”

He lifted up, a spark in his eye. “You mean it?”

“Yes. No. Wait.” She squeezed his shoulders. “You’re amazing.”

“No,
we’re
amazing,” he corrected, easing down to kiss her jaw and ear. “We are so good together, Beth.” His breathy words tickled and made her shudder.

“I know,” she admitted.
We
. How did those two little letters become so much more powerful than
me
in Beth’s head?

“It’s worth fighting for,” he said.

It was also worth…lying for. She closed her eyes, tucking him as close to her as they could possibly get, trying not to picture that damning autopsy report not twenty feet away inside her closet.

She couldn’t tell him the truth about his father. If she did, he might forgive Dad. But then Ken would blame himself. Because it was likely that John Cavanaugh’s dark mood over the fact that Ken was dating Beth was what made him drink on the job that day.

“What’s the matter?” He lifted his head to look at her.

“I didn’t say anything.” And that was the problem.

“You just…whimpered.”

“Did I?” But how could she keep this from him? How could her family?

“Beth, I can tell something’s wrong.”

Sally’s plaintive doggie moan and some desperate scratching at the door saved her from having to answer him. “Oh, get her, Ken. Don’t let her cry at the door.”

“And have her see us without our fur on? She’s fine.”

She nudged his rib. “Is that the kind of dad you’re going to be? Let the kid cry in the hall for attention while we languish in bed?”

He started to get up, but froze, a flicker of emotion crossing his face. “That’s what it is,” he said.

“What what is?”

“That feeling.” He touched her face as he slid out of her, sitting up. “The…I don’t know, anticipation of languishing in bed with you, of having a kid crying, of being a family, of building that…together.” His throat caught with emotion, making her eyes fill up. “I want that so bad, Beth. I want it with you and…” He placed his hand on her belly. “Her.”

A wave that felt very much like what he was describing washed over her. Could they have that? Could they overcome the past hurts and the truth and family and their started-in-reverse romance to get it right?

“We could have that,” he said, as if he’d read her mind. Without waiting for an answer, he got up and walked to the door, opening it so Sally could waddle in and give Ken a look of pure disgust.

“Somebody’s jealous,” Ken joked.

“Aww, of course she is. I would be, too, if you disappeared behind closed doors with another woman.” Beth clapped lightly and patted the bed. “C’mon up, girl.”

“Don’t shame her. She can’t jump onto the bed.” He bent over and scooped up her wide belly to airlift her onto the foot of the bed.

Sally stared at Beth for a second, launching the showdown. But Beth reached out her hand to scratch Sally’s neck, which did the trick. With a doggie sigh of resignation, she took a few slow steps over the bedding and pressed her considerable weight next to Beth’s stomach.

“Hy, that’s my spot,” Ken said with an unhappy snort.

“There’s room in my bed for both of you.”

He joined them, letting Sally lie between them like a sack of flour.

“This is what it’s going to be like with a baby,” he said.

“Only less fur.”

“We hope,” he added, making her laugh.

It could be good. It could be perfect. Except there was the matter of that paper in her closet.

And now she had to choose between being with Ken but breaking his heart, or being alone and breaking both of their hearts. Or…she could try to keep a secret from him forever. She sighed audibly.

“I know what you’re worried about, Beth.”

Actually, he didn’t.

“And you don’t have to be.”