McCarthys of Gansett Island Boxed Set Books 1-3 (60 page)

Staring down at her, he shook his head, his eyes filled with what looked an awful lot like regret. “I guess I haven’t done a good enough job.”

“Of what?” she asked, confused.

“I thought you’d know by now that everything I want, everything I
need
, is right here in my arms. The rest is just details, Janey.”

She melted into his tight embrace. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“That’s okay. I knew you didn’t mean it.”

“How did you know?”

“I figured if you really didn’t want me, you wouldn’t have been bawling your head off.”

Janey smiled. He knew her so well, and there was such comfort in that, even if he had a shocking bit of caveman hidden beneath a usually cool exterior.

With his arms tight around her, he lifted her again and walked them through the house to the bedroom. By now, her obedient pets had the routine down and headed for their own beds, knowing they’d be locked out of her bedroom for a while. Joe put her down next to the bed and started with her hair, tugging each pin free while never taking his eyes off her face.

As she reached up to release his bowtie, Janey’s heart hammered at the intense expression on his face. “I need to tell you something else,” she said.

“What’s that?” He unzipped the gown, pushed it off her shoulders and let it fall into a puddle at her feet. His eyes went wide when he got a look at the sexy teddy she’d worn under the dress.

With both hands on his face, she directed his eyes up to meet hers. “I
love you
love you.”

He sucked in a sharp deep breath. “Really?”

She nodded.
 

“Since when?”

“Since the second I thought I had to give you up.”

“You don’t have to give me up, Janey.”

“But what about—”

His mouth came down on hers, a frantic meeting of lips and tongues and teeth. His hands were everywhere, pulling at buttons and hooks and vests and pants. “Goddamned tuxedos,” he moaned against her lips. “Too many pieces.”

Janey laughed and helped him get rid of the last of his clothes. The second they were both naked, he lifted her and slid into her.

“Oh!” she cried, her arms wrapped tight around his neck. “
Joe
.”

“You really thought you could live without me?”

She shook her head. “I knew I couldn’t, but I wasn’t about to ask you to give up everything for me.”

Without losing their connection, he brought her down to the bed and hovered over her, moving his hips slowly, just enough to make her crazy. “Yesterday, I hired someone to run the business in my absence, and I made two of my part-time captains full-time.”

Janey stared at him, trying to comprehend what he was telling her. And then he pushed hard into her, and she ceased to think at all.

“Nothing,” he whispered against her neck, “means anything to me without you. I would go anywhere in the world if it meant I got to be with you.”

“It’s four
years
, Joe. You can’t be gone that long.”

“Yes, I can.” He withdrew from her, leaving her bereft and wanting. His lips laid a trail from her neck to her breasts. “I can do any damned thing I want to. I own the freaking company, Janey.” His tongue circled her nipple, and she tried to direct him, but he wouldn’t be rushed. “That freaking company makes a lot of freaking money, which gives me the freedom to do any freaking thing I want to.” He tugged hard on her nipple, making her cry out from the sensations that darted through her. “And what I want, what I
really
want, is to go to Ohio with you.”

His lips shifted to her belly, his tongue flirting with her belly button as his broad shoulders pushed her legs apart. He had her so ready, so primed, that just a few strokes of his tongue over her most sensitive area sent her flying higher than she’d ever gone before. A cry that sounded more like a sob erupted from her throat, and then he was back inside her, riding her hard and fast.

Janey had no choice but to hold on tight and go with him to the place that only he could take her.

“Tell me again,” he said, breathing hard as he looked down at her. “Tell me.”

“I love you love you, Joe, and I always will.”

“I love you love you, too, Janey McCarthy. More than anything in this whole damned world, and I always will.” He pushed into her one last time and threw his head back as he came. His powerful release triggered another for her.
 

For a long time afterward, he rested on top of her, still joined with her.
 

“You’re really going to come with me?” she asked, her hands caressing his back.

“I really am. Someone has to take care of you and the menagerie while you’re studying.”

“And you’re sure that’ll be enough for you?”

“I figure we can come back here in the summer so I can get my fix on the boats, and I’ll have the rest of the year to paint and help you study.”

“You can’t help me. You’ll be too much of a distraction.”

“We can fight about that later. In fact, I’ll look forward to it.”

Janey let out a little squeal.

“
Jeez
, you gotta do that right in my ear?”

“I’m just so happy! I get to have vet school and you, too. I never imagined I’d get both.”

He raised his head to press a soft kiss to her lips. “I never imagined I’d get you.” One kiss became a second and then a third. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“That dream wedding you planned for next summer—how much of that was you and how much was him?”

“One hundred percent me.”

Joe rested his forehead on hers. “Don’t cancel it.”

Her eyes widened. “What are you saying?”

He withdrew from her and shifted onto his belly to reach for his suit jacket on the floor. When he came back up, he held out his hand. A diamond ring sat on his palm. It was easily twice the size of the one David had given her. This one came with everything that mattered most to her—things that had been woefully lacking last time.

Janey covered her mouth as tears sprang to her eyes.
 

“I think Dr. Janey Cantrell has an awesome ring to it.” He reached for her hand, slid the ring onto her finger and kissed the back of her hand. “Don’t you?”

“Yes, I think so, too.”

“I’ve loved you for so long I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love you.”

“It took me a little longer to catch up, but now that I have, I can’t imagine my life without you.”

His face lifted into that sexy grin she so adored. “You’ll never have to.”

Janey reached for him and held him close. “Thanks for waiting for me, Joe.”

“You were well worth the wait, my love. Very well worth it.”

***

Turn the page to read Ready for Love, Luke and Sydney's story.

Chapter 1

“Are you ever going to say anything?”

Her familiar voice electrified Luke, startling him as he squatted in the dark beside her parents’ porch.

The peal of laughter that followed her question reminded him of the happiest time in his life, when she’d laughed at all his corny jokes, before she’d gone away to college and met someone she liked better.

“Luke?”

He stood slowly, not sure if he was more relieved or mortified to have been caught watching her. “How long have you known?”

“Since the first time you came last summer.”

Okay, mortified. Definitely mortified
. Luke released an unsteady laugh. “And here I thought I was being so sly.”

“As if I could ever forget the sound of your boat scraping against the beach. I used to listen for it every night.”

The reminder of those unforgettable summer nights made his heart race. When he’d heard through the island grapevine that she’d arrived on a ferry earlier in the day, he’d told himself to stay home, to leave her alone. But knowing she was here, knowing she was just across the pond… Like the summer before, he’d been unable to stay away.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “You must think I’m some sort of creep. I swear I’m not. It’s just when I heard about what happened… to your family… I had to come. To make sure you were okay. Well, of course you weren’t okay…” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Jesus, I’m screwing this all up.”

She smiled, and he was relieved to see it reach her expressive eyes the way it used to, back when she smiled at him every day. He took it as a sign that she’d recovered, somewhat—as much as anyone ever could—since he last “visited” her a year ago.
 

“Do you want to come up?” she asked.

“Oh, I don’t want to bother you or your parents—”

“They’re off-island for a few weeks. Family reunion in Wisconsin.”

“You didn’t want to go?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I’d rather be here in the summer than anywhere else.”

Somehow he worked up the fortitude to climb the five steps to the porch, his heart pounding so hard he wondered if it would burst through his chest. Keeping his hands in his pockets so she wouldn’t see them tremble, he was unable to remember the last time he’d been so nervous. Speaking with the love of his life for the first time in seventeen years would make any man nervous, he supposed. “You always did love it here.”

 
“It’s my favorite place in the world.”
 

“I wondered if you were going to come this year.”

Her smile faded a bit. “I had some stuff I had to take care of before I could come out to the island.” She gestured to the rocker next to hers. “Want to sit?”

“Um, sure. I guess. For a minute.” Under the glow of the porch light, he took a furtive glance at her. He was relieved to see that she did, in fact, look a thousand times better than she had a year ago, just a few months after the accident. “Who’s your friend?” he asked, referring to the gorgeous golden retriever who lay between their two rockers. The dog had taken a long measuring look at Luke as he approached the porch but had remained silent.

“This is Buddy.” She reached down to scratch his ears, and even as he clearly enjoyed the attention, the dog never took his solemn eyes off Luke. “We gave him to the kids the Christmas before… the accident… He loved them both, but he and my son Max had a very special bond. I thought poor Buddy would die himself of a broken heart after what happened. He whimpered and cried for months.”

Luke’s heart ached at the pain in her voice and at the image she painted of the devastated dog. “He wasn’t with you last summer.”

“I was still recovering from my own injuries, and we worried I’d trip over him or he’d knock me over without meaning to. He stayed with our neighbors at home for a few months. I’m so glad to have him back with me now. The poor guy has been through a lot.”

So have you
, Luke thought but chose not to say. As if she needed the reminder.

“I owe you the world’s biggest apology,” she said, startling him.

“I was the one stalking you. How do you owe me an apology?”

“You were
checking
on me. Big difference.” She curled her legs up under her and turned to him. “The apology I owe you is for seventeen years ago.”

“Oh. That.”

“Yeah. That.”

“Sydney—”

“Luke—”

He cleared his throat and folded his hands tight in his lap. This was far more excruciating than he’d ever imagined it would be—and he’d imagined it plenty of times. Thousands of times, to be honest. What he might say. What she might say. If either of them would have anything at all to say. “Sorry,” he said. “Go ahead.”

“What I did to you was unconscionable. I know it’s no consolation, but I thought of you so many times. I wanted to write to you or call you or something, but what does one say in that situation? ‘I’m really sorry I left for the school year and never came back?’ Would that have made anything better?”

“It helps to know you thought of me.”

“Oh God, Luke, how could I
not
think of you? Those summers… The time we spent together... Other than when my kids were born, it was the most magical time of my entire life.”