Lakeshore Candy: The McAdams Sisters (By The Lake Book 4) Page 12

  Instead of joining her, he stopped at the end of her feet touching them, digging his fingers into her soles and massaging while staring at her almost naked body sprawled on the bed.

  She licked her lips. “Take my bra and panties off.”

  “You’re beautiful,” he said.

  “That’s because you haven’t been with a woman in three years.”

  He climbed over top of her, settling between her legs. His serious stare made her feel like the most beautiful woman, inside and out.

  He stroked the side of her face with his fingers.

  “You are beautiful,” he repeated, lowering his lips and kissing her softly, like the night on his sofa: sweet soft, and teasing like they had all the time in the world. They had all night long and she could kiss these lips the entire night.

  As his hand slipped between her legs, the lightening it sent through her gave her a whole new list of things they could do all night long.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I’M HUNGRY,” ABBY said, stretching her naked body alongside his.

  He tickled her bare middle. “You’re always hungry.”

  She giggled, tightening the area, then gasped. “Wait a sec.” She rolled away and his body immediately missed her.

  Come lie with me. There it was again, that longing to lie beside her.

  When she rolled back beside him, his body silently thanked her, while a smile formed at the open bag of gumdrops she held.

  She grinned at him. “I had them up here earlier when I was looking through stuff. Want some?”

  He held his hand out and she dropped little colorful balls of sugar on his palm, before popping a couple in her mouth.

  Abby rolled her front against the side of his body so she could look up at him. Her arms rested on his chest and her fingers made circular motions. “Kate told me to talk to you about whatever this is.” So she had spoken to Kate about him. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean to do this.” He knew for a fact Kate didn’t mean this and the warning popped back into his mind. “I haven’t been with a guy since Gran died...maybe even before that.”

  He loved the way her soft hair felt in his fingers, moving it behind her ear, running the length of it, and then moving his hand along her back with her hair tickling the top of his hand. “I know.”

  “How?”

  “You would have told me.”

  She sobered. “Should we talk about this then?”

  “Right now?”

  She shrugged. “What else are we going to do?”

  Riley pulled his arms tightly around her, kissing the top of her head. “Snuggle. Sleep.”

  He felt her giggle against his chest. “Riley snuggle.” She sighed and fell into silence.

  He pulled a quilt over their naked bodies and Mrs. C’s words came back to him, live his life. He was sure this wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind. Since their talk, his walls had started slowly breaking down, letting him feel for Abby everything he’d been holding back.

  It wasn’t fair Abby didn’t know anything about him. He felt the sudden urge to share parts of his life with her, and tell her about himself. He wanted her to know everything.

  “My mother was a stay at home mom,” he started, conjuring up the courage to begin. He felt Abby’s naked body stiffen beneath him so he kissed the top of her head and played with her hair in hopes she would melt against him again. “Her name was Danielle and she wanted nothing more than to stay home and raise me and my sister.”

  “We lived on a farm with gardens of tomato plants.” Riley could still smell his mother when he sliced into a tomato, as silly as that was. “My mother wouldn’t let one single juicy fruit go to waste during the harvest season. She made salsa, pasta sauce, tomato soup, ketchup, tomato juice, pizza sauce; you name it. My mother would make it, freeze it, can it and we were set until the next summer.” Tomatoe’s reminded him of summer days grazing the garden, laughing with his mother and sister, picking tomatoe’s before skinning them or slicing them for hours.

  When Abby was quiet, only listening, he continued. “My sister’s name is Cecilia. She’s three years younger than me and nothing like me.” He chuckled remembering times when his determination and her reserve bounced them into a ring of back and forth...him usually coming out ahead.

  “What? Tell me.” Abby’s fingers slowly explored every part of his skin she could reach and he felt at ease telling her about his sister, his life.

  “We lived in the country when we were young and I remember this one time I wanted to sneak down to the crick and go fishing. I was around ten, and Dad was working. I gathered all the fishing gear and, of course, we weren’t allowed to go to the stream alone, but I didn’t listen to reason. Cece wanted to come but she was too much of a good girl to disobey our parents. She lagged behind until we reached the edge of the property. I gave her one last chance to come but she shook her raggedy hair and was unmoved. I turned, took two steps and she threw a tomato at the back of my head.”

  Abby laughed.

  “Hit me right on. I couldn’t believe it. I dropped my fishing gear and we spent the next ten minutes having the most amazing tomato fight before my mother came out flailing her arms for us to stop. She was so upset with all the perfectly good tomatoe’s we’d ruined. We were grounded for days.” Grounded on a farm meant a doubled chore list. “I think we would have gotten in less trouble if we’d gone to the crick. But that was Cece.”

  “She sounds sweet, careful...like Sydney.”

  “She is. Even when we were adults and I was running around risking everything she was the voice of reason. Sometimes I listened. Usually I didn’t.”

  “Hmm, the badass country boy.”

  He chuckled. “Something like that. My dad worked in a factory, long hard hours. He had saved up money to take my mom on a trip when I was fourteen. It was their first trip, just the two of them, since I’d been born. We’d gone on trips as a family every summer, but he wanted to take his wife on a trip, just the two of them.” He remembered Cece’s reluctance to let them leave her at their uncle’s house. “They never made it to their vacation. They died on the way to the airport in a pile up on the highway.”

  Her hand stopped. “Riley, that’s awful. I’m sorry.”

  He tickled the inside of her palm, up each finger, and then laced his own between hers. “I’ve never told anyone that before.”

  Abby wiggled her way back onto his chest to look at him. “Thank you for telling me.”

  He pushed a piece of her fallen hair away from her face. “I’ve never wanted to tell anyone else.”

  Her smile comforted him. “My mom would read to me. Bedtime stories.” Abby frowned then. “I don’t really remember her like my sisters do. I was too young. I remember the stories, but then Peyton’s face flashes in my head reading them. I remember her cooking in the kitchen, but then Kate will flash in my head. I was young when she died. I wish I could separate her from my sisters, but I remember more of them then I do of her.”

  Riley stroked her forehead and she closed her eyes. “She’s in there. You know everything she did.”

  “Gran’s in there,” she said, slowly opening her eyes.

  That troubled look crossed her eyes. “Why don’t you read me some of those letters you were talking about earlier,” he suggested.

  “That’s what you want to do right now?” she asked. It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but it was what she needed to do. He didn’t mind putting her needs before his own desires.

  “Yes.”

  Abby rolled away from the bed, taking the quilt with her, wrapped around her body like a toga costume. She returned, towering above him, with a handful of envelopes. Her hair draped down across her bare shoulders. She looked damn sexy.

  “I found these today, but didn’t have a chance to read any.”

  He rubbed the warm area she’d just left. “Come read them to me.”

  Abby lay back beside him, sharing the quilt...that’s better...and started reading.


  Dear Grace...

  Riley closed his eyes, listening to her low voice whisper about photographs shared, stories to tell and much more in the letters Abby read, one after another, like a soothing bedtime story blending together until it was a long stream of her voice.

  For the first time in years he didn’t go to bed feeling the guilt of his past, instead he felt like he was going down the road to recovery with Abby at his side. Slowly, one step at a time.

  Chapter Nineteen

  ABBY SLEPT THROUGH the night. She didn’t stir until light peeked through the stained glass windows in a display of purple and green, teasing her awake.

  Buttery bacon and eggs, Gran-style, whispered good morning to her senses. The usual sadness accompanied with the thought of Gran wasn’t there this morning and she smiled, stretching under the quilt and reaching for Riley. The bed came up empty.

  Abby’s eyes flew open and she sat up.

  Where was Riley? Did he leave? Did he regret it?

  Then she saw his dress shirt lying neatly across the end of the mattress and knew it was him downstairs cooking breakfast.

  Relief and excitement rushed through her body as she slipped into his shirt and reached for her black panties. She grabbed the empty candy bag and Gran’s letter then made her way down the ladder, doing up a few of the middle buttons on the shirt.

  The sight of Riley standing in the kitchen, turned away from her, frying bacon and only wearing his pants hung low around his trim waist, stopped her in her tracks. The morning sun streamed through the lace valance across the top of the window facing the road, glistening against his exposed tattoos. His bare feet tapped against the beige linoleum floor in tune with his light, hardly recognizable humming.

  Abby couldn’t remember a time in her life when her body felt so...complete...and it wasn’t only physical. Sure this man was drop-dead gorgeous in the dark, mysterious way she loved, but he was also the man she’d grown to care about and who looked at her like she was a jewel he would always treasure. Riley was ready to explore these feelings between them. Knowing this was all new to him made her excited to journey down this road.

  It was just past eight. Abby wasn’t worried about Avery getting up anytime soon and catching them together. She wasn’t worried even if he did.

  Abby crossed the room. Her anxious fingers couldn’t help touching his warm skin, but with one hand holding the letter and one holding the empty candy bag, she let her lips have the advantage of grazing his warm tattoos across his shoulder blades. “Good morning.”

  She wasn’t sure what she expected of him this morning. Would he be the cranky man she’d grown to lo...care for....care for! There was Kate putting words in her mouth.

  The thought stopped her lips and she crinkled her face. Damn you Kate!

  Riley turned, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her body against his. “Good morning.” He bent down and kissed her like he’d waited all morning to do just that. Kate’s choice words vanished as quickly as they’d come. When Riley pulled away, he stared down at her with lighted eyes and a half smile that eased the usual hard lines across his face. “I cooked you breakfast, so you don’t eat so much of this...” He ruffled the empty candy bag in her hand.

  “I like this.”

  “It doesn’t mean it’s good for you.” He spanked her rear and she jumped, with a little squeal that he caught in his mouth. A good morning adrenaline she’d never felt soared through her and when his hands travelled down her butt cheeks, squeezing them, her eyes flew back open to find his pumping that adrenaline right into her. She liked it. He pulled away, kissing her forehead. “Go get a coffee. I’m almost done.”

  Almost done what? I am just starting.

  He let her go and turned to the bacon.

  Was he serious?

  His humming returned, a tiny sway of his hips caught her eyes before she sulked away to the coffee maker.

  He wasn’t cranky at all, in fact he was damn sexy and if he slapped her rear like that again neither of them would be eating breakfast.

  Abby filled a mug with the black liquid then grabbed the sugar.

  “Try to stay away from pouring half the bottle into your mug,” he said over his shoulder.

  She paused. Was he like this every morning? Sweet mixed with a little humor and oozing seduction? She liked it a lot.

  Abby sat at the small table flipping through a magazine, absorbing absolutely nothing and trying to settle down her desire to pull Riley onto the floor and mount him, when Riley brought over two plates of food.

  “Isn’t Mrs. Calvert going to be missing you this morning?” It was small talk to keep from touching him.

  “I talked to her already.”

  “You left?”

  He nodded. “You were sleeping solid.” He glanced at their plates. “Where do you think I got eggs and bacon? Out of your TV dinner fridge?” He grinned at her and she grabbed a fork needing to touch something. She pressed her thumb on the sharp tips, while her feet bounced under the table.

  “Don’t be hating the TV dinners.” She looked at her plate of scrambled eggs and crispy bacon and her stomach growled, starving.

  Abby jumped to her feet. “You know what tastes delicious with bacon?”

  He eyed her unsure. “Do I want to?”

  Abby carried a container of marshmallow dip to the table and poured it all over her bacon.

  Riley cringed.

  “Have you tried it?” she asked him.

  “No.”

  Abby made a small puddle of the white goop, that was even better between graham crackers with chocolate, on the side of his plate. She dipped a piece of bacon in and took a bite, sending him a yummy, delicious look and enjoying the look of horror across his face.

  “You have a sugar addiction.”

  Abby laughed, but was cut short when his eyes trailed down her body, slowly, seductively burning desire into every area his eyes landed. When he finally made it back up to her eyes, his dangerous flicker of emotion caught her breath. He wanted her. She wanted him!

  Abby slid her leg over his lap and sat facing him. She wished he wasn’t wearing pants so her thin panties would press against his growing bulge.

  “I have a Riley addiction.” She bent her head down, opening her mouth, giving him access to test-taste the cream on her tongue. His tongue seemed to love the flavor of marshmallow cream, stroking, licking, and sucking. Her hands couldn’t get enough of him, running up his bare, hard torso, then down, and then up again. His hands slid up the back of her shirt flaring heat and she pressed harder against his lap.

  How had she kept her hands to herself for so long when he felt so good?

  He pulled away. “God woman, you are so delicious.” His rasping voice turned her on even more.

  Riley’s hand gripped the back of her neck and pulled her lips against him hard, tugging on her bottom lip, licking every marshmallow leftover from her mouth. Abby leaned back and felt her back hit the edge of the table. Riley was right against her starting to rise from the chair. His other hand had slipped under her panties and grabbed her ass lifting her higher up.

  Take me on the table!

  Abby shoved away everything on the table her hands could reach as he lifted her to the edge, pressed against her. His hand moved up the front of her shirt and cupped her naked breast and she moaned against his lips.

  He is going to take me on the table!

  Abby had never had sex on a table. Another first. She couldn’t wait to spend the rest of her life doing firsts with this man.

  “I told Peyton you two were tapping.”

  They stilled at Avery’s voice.

  Avery groaned as he walked past them.

  What was he even doing awake yet? He was so hung-over and apparently, heartbroken Abby had been certain he’d be in bed until noon.

  “Now we can add tapping on tables to the next McAdams dinner party conversation starter,” he said dryly, sounding exhausted, angry, sad and disgusted all at the same time.<
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  Abby felt Riley’s lips smirk against hers, as he slowly sat back on the chair, his arm keeping her body pressed against his and not letting her jump away like she should have. A dangerously, dark, smirk, that looked a lot like pleasure of getting busted by Avery sent a thrill of naughty excitement through her.

  It was slashed by Avery’s whining. “Abby where’s that tea? That hung over crap that Sydney gave you.” He groaned. “I’m so hung over.”

  Abby didn’t want to move from Riley’s lap and was debating grabbing his hands and leading him to her bedroom. But her whiney, heartbroken brother needed her.

  Riley pulled her head down into a hard, rough, quick kiss before she climbed away pulling the hem of the shirt down as much as it would. When she turned away, Riley’s hand landed on her rear again and she jumped just the same, minus the squeal. Her eyes shot to Avery who was, thankfully, leaning over the counter resting his head in his arms. Then to Riley, who was sending her a challenging look. What did he want her to do? Have sex with him right now...

  Avery groaned like he dying animal.

  Her shoulders fell, defeated.

  Riley shrugged, winked and turned to his breakfast.

  Abby slapped her brother’s bare shoulder, but felt her cheeks flare thinking of Riley slapping her bottom.

  “Go sit down, you drunken fool and you can tell me all about who she is.”

  The color drained from Avery’s face and he sent her a horrified look. “I talked about her.” He looked disgusted that his mouth had betrayed him.

  “A little.”

  A frown caught his lips. “It’s Ems,” he whispered quietly. “And I’m not talking about it.” He sauntered to the table, collapsing on a chair and dropping his head in his hands groaning like he’d never had a hangover. The truth was, Abby couldn’t remember Avery ever having a hangover, and it was no doubt because of watching their father’s drinking addiction.