Page 27 of Delivery After Dark (Gansett Island #28)

W hen she woke to total darkness, for a second or two, Monique had no idea where she was or whose warm hand was resting on her bare hip.

Then she remembered. Linc. Dancing. Kissing.

Tearing at clothes. Doing it like sex was about to be outlawed any second, and they had to get it all in before it was too late.

She closed her eyes tight against the flood of memories that had her questioning everything, the way she always did since the man she’d expected to spend the rest of her life with had let her down so terribly.

Linc wasn’t Jaden, and he shouldn’t be held up to the same light for comparison. He’d never been anything other than lovely to her, but so had Jaden until he’d crushed her with his lies and deception.

She needed to get out of there and find the sanity that had deserted her in the hours she’d spent in Linc’s bed. But where had her clothes ended up?

“What’s wrong?” he asked when she pulled away from him.

“I need to go.”

“Where?”

“Back to Dara’s.”

“I thought we were hanging out together.”

“We did, and now I have to go.”

He sat up and turned on the light.

She was glad she had her back to him since her hair was probably wild and her makeup smeared.

“Monique.”

“Yes?”

“Will you look at me?”

She shook her head. “I’m pretty sure I look like the Joker after rolling around in bed with you.”

He snorted out a laugh. “I highly doubt that.”

“No, really. Can you give me something to put on? I have no idea where my clothes ended up.”

He handed her his T-shirt, which was on the bed.

She put it on and got up to use the bathroom attached to his room.

When she glanced in the mirror, she nearly let out a shriek.

Thank God she hadn’t let him look at her.

She scrubbed her face, did what she could with her hair—which wasn’t much—and used some of his toothpaste on her finger to brush her teeth as best she could.

Yet, even after all that, she still didn’t feel ready to face him with every flaw and insecurity on full display.

A soft knock sounded at the door. “Are you okay in there?”

“Not really.”

“Can I do anything for you?”

She felt ridiculous. The old Monique would’ve found this version of herself pathetic.

Hiding from a man? In what lifetime would that’ve ever happened?

In this lifetime, the one after Jaden, she had no idea who she was anymore or how to face Linc after the way she’d clawed at his back and shrieked like a wild woman in his bed.

Ugh.

She sat on the closed lid of the toilet and dropped her head into her hands.

“Whatever you’re in there thinking, you should knock that off. I had a great time, and I can’t wait to do it again. But you’ll have to come out of there for that to happen.”

“I don’t want to come out.”

“Then can I come in?”

After a long silence, she said, “Yeah.”

He stepped into the room and closed the door. Then he took a seat on the floor next to her and wrapped his arms around his knees.

His nearness made her feel better, which had her remembering one of Lewis’s favorite stories about Pooh and Piglet sitting with Eeyore when he was sad and how it had made him feel better to have his friends close.

“I’m sorry for the dramatics.”

“Don’t be. I don’t think either of us was expecting that to be so…”

“Wild?”

He grunted out a laugh. “I was going to say incredible or maybe life-changing or something like that.”

She raised her head ever so slightly to find him watching her with gorgeous blue eyes that she’d thought of as kind eyes from the first time she met him. Nothing she’d seen from him since then had changed that first impression.

“I don’t trust myself anymore.”

“How come?”

“If you’d have told me my husband would do what he did, I would’ve bet my life there’d be no way… I’d be dead.”

“That’s on him, not you.”

“Maybe so, but it’s a reflection of me and the life I thought I was living when he was off having a completely different kind of life.”

“Monique… Look at me.”

She forced herself to make eye contact.

“You shouldn’t take responsibility for what he did. I have no doubt you were an exceptional partner to him, and he let you down epically. But it would be tragic if you let him steal your future happiness along with your past happiness.”

She wiped away a tear that escaped down her left cheek. “I never saw it coming. That’s the part I’ve had the hardest time coping with. I pride myself on not missing a thing. How’d I miss that?”

“He made sure of it. My dad was like him. He had two kids with two other women in our town—kids I went to high school with—and I had no idea they were my half siblings until the whole thing blew up when I was in college. If you’d asked me, I would’ve said he was a great husband and father, the kind of man people looked up to, including me and my brothers and our friends. ”

“That must’ve been such a shock.”

“It was pretty bad, especially for my mom and my two younger brothers, who were still at home when the shit hit the fan. At least I was away for most of it.”

“I’m sure it still messed you up.”

“I ended up on academic probation that semester, which is a big deal at the Coast Guard Academy.” He ran his hand over her calf, setting off a reaction she felt everywhere.

“The thing about guys like them is they get off on the deception. That’s part of the attraction, the getting away with it, you know? ”

“One of my friends thinks Jaden is a sociopath because he lies as easily as he breathes.”

“My dad is for sure, and he’s a narcissist, which is an awesome combination.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah, it’s been a lot, but we’re all doing better these days. My brothers are married to great women, and they each have a couple of kids and successful careers.”

“What about your mom?”

“She’s got a significant other who makes her happy, but she’ll never marry him.”

“Is he okay with that?”

“I think he’d like to be married, but he gets why she won’t risk her independence or her financial security.”

“I hope that means she took your dad to the cleaners.”

“Big-time.”

“Good for her.”

“We were all firmly on Team Mom.”

“Do you see him?”

“Not much. He lives in Colorado with wife number three and has a couple more kids with her. I’ve never met her or the kids, but my brothers have. They say she’s cool and the kids are cute, but they’ll never be family to us or anything like that.”

“What about his other kids, the ones from when you were in high school?”

“Amazingly enough, they’re some of our closest friends. We went through hell together when the whole world found out about our connection, and we turned to each other to survive it. We didn’t blame them, and they never blamed us.”

“That’s really cool that you’re close to them.”

“Life is so weird.”

She laughed. “Sure as hell is. Thank you for sharing that with me. It helps.”

“You’re beautiful and funny and sexy and smart, and did I say funny? Don’t let him ruin a good thing for you. He’s not worth it, and I promise you I will be.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I have never, ever, ever felt like this about anyone, and all I want after tonight is many more nights just like this one.”

He extended his hand to her.

Monique eyed it as she tried to decide if she was ready for him and for this. “There might be more steps backward.”

“I’m here for that.”

She reached out to him.

He curled his hand around hers and kissed the back of it as he looked up at her. “I might be the safest bet you could ever make, because there’s no way in hell I’d ever do to anyone what my father did to us.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“I do. I get it. And it’s not something you have to worry about with me. If I want out, I’ll tell you. And hopefully you’ll do the same.”

“I would. Absolutely.”

“For what it’s worth, though, I don’t expect to want out. I want in. I want you and this and us and all of it. I’ve been waiting a long time to find you.”

“Will your family approve of, well, you know…”

“What?”

“That I’m Black.”

He gave her a look that told her everything she needed to know. “The only thing they want for me is the same thing I want for myself—happiness with the right person. Trust me, that’ll never be an issue for any of us.”

“It’s been an issue for me in the past. I dated a white guy once… It was going well until his mother met me, and suddenly it was over.”

“He didn’t deserve you either.”

“No, he didn’t.”

“You know what my mom will love about you?”

“What’s that?”

“Your sense of humor. She loves irreverence and sarcasm and all the rest of it. You’ll fit right in with us.”

“It’s nice to hear the qualities that’ve caused me trouble with every boss I’ve ever had will finally pay off.”

He flashed that sexy grin. “Are we good now?”

“Yeah, thank you.”

“For what?”

“For making me talk about it. I’m famous for running and hiding when things go sideways.”

“You can run, but I’ll always come looking for you—for as long as you want me to, that is, not in a weird stalker kind of way.”

Monique laughed and then let him help her down and onto his lap. “Thank you for clarifying.”

He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to his chest. “I don’t want you to worry about anything. Let’s just be together and have all the fun for as long as we can. Like four or five decades maybe.”

“That’s an awfully long time,” she said as she looked up at him.

He kissed her sweetly. “Won’t be long enough for me.”

Sierra woke before Morgan, cocooned in his arms with her head on his chest and their legs intertwined, as if they’d been sleeping together for years rather than one night.

She who normally preferred her own space in bed had never slept better than she had snuggled up to him after three sizzling rounds of life-altering sex.