Page 8 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

Brad pinned her firmly against the bed. Waves of pleasure racked and titillated his body. She was his. They were together. And that was all that mattered. The intense pleasure he got from making her feel wanted and special and protected was more powerful than anything.

Suzie trembled and slumped backward against the bed and he released his lip-hold on her. Sweet Suzette. He never wanted to be rid of the taste of her on his lips.

“Suzette, my Suzette….”

They wound together legs and arms. With every stroke that bordered on excruciating pleasure, he reveled in the wicked delight of pleasing her, experiencing again the no-holds-barred passion they’d once had.

She shook and gasped and dug her fingernails into his back.

His explosion was powerful and loud. He growled out her name in a primal shout, then followed with a whisper of passion from his lips to her cheek.

Their sighs mingled. When he rose to look into Suzie’s face, he noticed the mist of tears in her eyes. No small thing, those tears. And for some reason, they scared the hell out of him.

****

Suzie woke tangled in sheets, body parts, and stray pieces of clothing. A sunbeam slanted into her bedroom and her right eye. Groggily, she stretched and moaned, then snuggled into Brad’s warm and naked body.

Holy shit. What in the hell had she done?

Her brain spun. She was too tired to ponder it now. She was feeling too lethargic to move or think about it. All she wanted was to roll over in bed and burrow into Brad’s side and sleep some more. It was Sunday morning, right? One deserved the right to sleep in on a Sunday.

Instead, she rolled to her left and glanced at the grandfather clock against the far wall.

Eight-thirty-three. Which meant it was really eight-twenty-three. Which meant she should have had breakfast fixed one hour and twenty-three minutes ago. She never slept this late!

She shot up taking the sheets with her.

“Breakfast!”

Brad pulled her back down to the bed and wrapped his arms around her.

“Relax, sweetheart. Your only guest is me, remember? And I’d just as soon have breakfast in bed.”

Sighing, she relaxed and snuggled close. He was right. There were no other guests. Fortunately, since she was late.

“Um, what do you want for breakfast?”

“You.”

Not ready to go there again, she pushed nervously on his chest.

“No, I’m serious. I’ll fix us something. What do you want? Omelet? You know I can do a great omelet.”

Brad nuzzled her neck and smoothed his hands over her back, down to her buttocks.

“No worries. No omelet. Not now, maybe later. The only thing I want for breakfast is you,”

he said lazily.

“And since I’m your guest, I’m assuming you’ll accommodate? Bed, breakfast, and you. Perfect.”

Why did he have to be so freaking romantic? He had to stop this, or she was going to fall for all of this crap. Hook, line and sinker.

Suzie smirked and sat up.

“Smart ass. C’mon, we need to get up. What do you want?”

It was a little too cozy, too familiar, too much like old times. She didn’t want it to be like old times.

Did she?

He tugged on a lock of her hair and pulled her face closer to his.

“I want you for breakfast,”

he moaned.

“My little love slave.”

Groan….

Suzie backed away and jumped off the bed. Hell’s bells. He could turn her on like a light switch.

“We need to talk first, Brad.”

He smiled and burrowed further into the pillows, his left leg and hip exposed from under the covers. “Hm.”

Suzie smacked him on the butt with the back of her hand.

“Ow!”

“C’mon, Brad. You can’t avoid this. We have things to talk about.”

With a lengthy exhale, Brad moved to a sitting position and looked at her.

“Well, then sit.”

He patted the mattress.

“I’m not going to have you lording over me. At least let’s be on equal ground.”

Grabbing the tail of the sheet, she wrapped it around her and sat.

“You could cut me a little slack,”

she told him. Brad grinned and lifted himself so she could easily wrap the sheet around her, leaving him uncovered.

She tossed him a pillow.

“Here. Lay something over…that.”

Brad grinned a lazy, slack-eyed grin and did as she said.

“There, you comfy?”

“Yes.”

“Then what do we need to talk about?”

Men. Doesn’t he know.

“Um, well, Brad we have to talk about…um…this.”

She patted the bed.

“Us. You and me. What happened last night. And all that.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“And…”

“And what else?”

“The hotel thing. We need to talk about the hotel thing.”

He concurred with another nod.

“So you start. You pick.”

She stared at him. Why was he being so accommodating? She watched his gaze lower to her chest and hers followed. Cleavage. He was looking at her cleavage.

And the fact that he’d gotten laid last night, which contributed to part of his plan, was likely making him…accommodating.

“I think I can talk about both of them at the same time, Brad Matthews, but quit ogling me!”

He jerked his gaze back to her face.

“Sorry, sweetheart. It’s just that….”

Suzie yanked the sheet beneath her chin.

“Brad, this hotel thing. I mean, why?”

She fiddled with the corner of the sheet.

“Did you not think about what this would do to me? To my business?”

He stared at her with a blank expression, then huffed out a breath and said.

“I was thinking about you. All the time, every plan I made. With every detail. You, Suzie-Q, are why I came here in the first place. I want to be with you. And I made a lot of changes in my life to do that.”

“But I don’t understand.”

He leaned closer.

“Suzie. My grandmother died six months ago.”

“Oh no…”

She reached for his hand. Large and strong, she loved his hands.

He shook his head.

“Yeah, I miss her, but she lived a full life. Thing is, she wanted me to live a full life, too. She left me a good chunk of money with instructions to follow my dream. My dream, Suzie-Q, is right here. With you. In Harbor Falls. And Falls Lodge? That’s part of my dream, too. My own business. A wonderful woman by my side. Family.”

There it was again. Family.

Stunned, Suzie sat watching his face. His gaze played over her and he waited. What could she say? He had it all planned out. But what would happen if she couldn’t fulfill the rest of his plan? His dreams. Give him that family?

He squeezed her hand.

“Sweetheart,”

he softly said.

“You don’t have to say anything now. We’ll work all of this out. Let’s think it through.”

How could she think of anything else? Bewildered, she looked away.

“You’ll see. It will be great,”

he added. He leaned closer to kiss her cheek.

“Oh, and I nearly forgot! When the hotel is built, it’s going to be the two of us again. Chef de Cuisine and his sous chef.”

Grasping her face in his hands, he looked longingly into her eyes and whispered.

“You and me, baby. Like old times.”

She pulled back.

“But I don’t see why you need to tear down the Lodge, Brad. Why can’t you fix it the way it is? Renovate it or something?”

Why can’t you do something that won’t put me out of business? What about me? My dream?

He shook his head.

“The structure is too bad, honey. It would take too long, too much money, Suzie. Better off razing the thing and starting from scratch.”

He rose then, tossed the pillow aside and walked toward the bathroom.

Better off starting from scratch?

Maybe he’d be better off starting from scratch with a new relationship. Someone more his age who could give him kids. Thing was, he had it all figured out. Did he not realize that sometimes plans don’t work and dreams don’t come true?

“I am getting a little hungry after all,”

he called from the bathroom.

“Yeah,”

she said, not directing her response to him.

“I’ll go fix some eggs, or something….”

He popped his head out of the doorframe smiled.

“No, sweetheart. We cook together, remember? Wait for me.”

Shit. Suzie bit her lip. There he goes again, being so damn perfect.

****

Brad left Suzie in the bedroom and headed for the shower. What he needed was a good long stream of hot water beating on his head to clear his brain and make sure he was thinking straight.

What had he been thinking, anyway?

Of course, he had come off all cocky and self-assured the night before, and he had definitely hauled her butt cave man style into her bed—but was that the right thing to do? At that moment he had felt all predatory and possessive, like he wanted to claim or mark her or something. Too primal. He wasn’t normally like that.

But he could feel the moment slipping away and he’d wanted to grab it and hold on with everything he could. He needed that chance, needed that intimacy with her.

And it had been the right thing to do, hadn’t it? Making love with Suzie?

It wasn’t like she was pushing him away or anything. Quite the opposite, in fact. She was more than into it.

He twisted the shower nozzle and a blast of icy water hit him square in the chest. He jumped back. Perhaps that was the jolt he needed. A jolt of reality—because Suzie had definitely presented him with a huge dose of reality this morning with her immediate questions about the lodge and their relationship. Plus, she had made it quite clear that the two were intertwined.

Why do women always have to complicate things? Ask so many questions?

He guessed it was because of their need to understand all angles. Perhaps it was a measure to protect themselves from hurt—or to prepare themselves for potential hurt.

He didn’t want to hurt Suzie, that was for certain, but it seemed he had unintentionally done that with his disclosure about the lodge and his plans at the town council meeting. Perhaps he should have given her a heads up—but when? There had not been much time for the two of them to discuss much of anything.

They would just have to work this through. They could do it, right?

He sure as hell hoped so.