Sins and Scarlet Lace

chapter EIGHTEEN

A week passed by, and the feeling in Declan’s gut only grew stronger. Strong enough that he’d convinced the women and children to take a vacation into Canada for a few days, just to be safe. The original MacKenzie land was pretty far removed from where he’d set up his own stead, but he wasn’t willing to take chances with the life of his family.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t had the same luck getting rid of his brothers and cousins. Or his parents, who’d flown in unexpectedly a few days before. Dane had left with the women, but that was only because he needed to be with Charlie in case she went into labor, but he hadn’t been happy about leaving them all behind. And Riley and his family had gone back to the other home they had in Washington State.

Despite the feeling of dread he felt, he enjoyed every moment of the time he spent with Sophia. He realized his home hadn’t really felt like a home until she’d walked through the door, and now it seemed as if she’d always been there. He loved curling around her in the middle of the night or the way she looked first thing in the morning, when her cheeks were still flushed with sleep and her hair tousled.

It was the picture of the future he’d always wanted for them, and he’d never take it for granted again.

“Maybe sometime we could do this in a bed,” Sophia said. Her heart pounded wildly against his chest and he hoped the spots in his vision were temporary.

A picnic down by the lake had turned into more than just lunch by the time they’d finished eating, and he’d never been more thankful for the isolated area he’d chosen for his home, though he was pretty sure Sophia’s screams could be heard up in the mountains.

“I thought you wanted to be spontaneous.”

“Spontaneity was awesome when I was twenty. Now I have a deep and abiding love for mattresses. I can only imagine how you feel. You’re not getting any younger either.”

He pinched her backside and she giggled, wiggling against him in a way that didn’t do anything to slow down his heart rate.

They’d set up their picnic blankets under a heavy covering of trees in the soft grass a few feet from the bank of the lake. Water lapped against the muddy bank and the wind rustled the tree branches above them.

“I think you broke my spine,” she sighed.

“If you can’t feel your legs, it means I’m doing something right. But next time I’ll let you be on top. You deserve to have to do some of the work.”

She laughed and rolled so her breasts were pressed into his chest and her leg was thrown over his thigh. Her hair brushed against his shoulder as she looked down at him, and he knew this moment would be another one of those snapshots of her he carried with him always.

He felt the familiar pull of arousal, and knew his body should be replete, but he could never seem to get enough of her. His hands went to her legs and he shifted her so she straddled his hips, and then he ran his fingertips up the smooth arch of her back. She purred beneath his touch and her eyes widened as his cock nudged at the still moist folds of her sex.

“I need to take out better health insurance,” she said, leaning down to kiss his chin, then his lips. Her body relaxed and she sank into the kiss—gently—reverently—until time and sound ceased to exist around them.

His hands massaged her back and then lower to her buttocks, and then he shifted the head of his cock so it probed at her opening. Their gazes stayed steady on each other and neither of them seemed to breathe as she sank down all the way to the hilt.

He held her captive there, his hands anchored on her hips, filling her completely, and neither of them moved. In that moment he believed in the power of magic and he understood what the term soulmates meant for the first time, because he’d never felt more complete—more connected—than at that moment.

“I love you,” he managed to get out as her muscles flexed around him. “More than I could ever say with just words.”

Her breath shuddered and her eyes filled with tears that she blinked rapidly away. Her lips rubbed against his softly and the kiss was as light and fluttering as their first. “I love you, too.”

The words left him feeling invincible and powerless at the same time, and his hands squeezed at her hips as he began moving inside of her, a steady push and pull that took him from hilt to tip with every thrust.

He knew he wouldn’t last long, and by the rippling muscles of her p-ssy, he knew she’d be right there with him. Her hands pressed against his chest and he watched in awe as she rose high above him. Her hair tickled his thighs as her head dropped back on her shoulders, and her hands slid up her body to cup her breasts. He’d never seen anything more erotic, more beautiful in his life.

Then she rode him slow and steady, squeezing tight around him every time she lifted herself up. It was more than any sane man could bear, and he couldn’t help but thrust upward every time she sank back down. His balls tightened and he felt the beginnings of his release at the base of his spine.

“Come with me, Soph. Come now.”

Her p-ssy became hotter, tighter, and her orgasm washed over him as he pushed higher and harder inside her. Her scream was silent as she fell forward onto his chest and his semen erupted from his cock, draining him with every spurt, until he felt completely wrung out.

“I see what you mean about a bed,” he said. It could have been a few minutes or hours later. “I think I’m laying on a rock.”

She snickered but she made no move to untangle their bodies.

“I want you to make your home here with me.” Her shoulders tensed and then he felt her slowly relax again. “We’re right for each other, Soph. We’ve had our road blocks in the past, but I think we’re at a place where we can move on. There’s no one else I want in my life. No one else I’d want to make a family with.”

“Wow. That’s a lot to take in.”

He could feel the nerves coiling in her spine as she sat up and tried to move away from him. He kept his hands on her hips so she couldn’t disjoin their bodies and he kept his gaze steady on hers.

“You said you loved me. It seems like a natural progression to me.”

“I just think this time around we should maybe take things a little slower. There’s no rush for the happily-ever-after. And I want to make sure that we’re both totally committed to what we have before we bring children into the mix.”

“You don’t trust me enough to keep loving you.” He wanted to push back the anger building inside of him because he knew he deserved her skepticism and the fear that was obviously ruling her emotions, but he couldn’t deny the hurt her lack of faith brought him.

He let her go this time when she tried to pull away, and he watched as she scooted to the other side of the blanket to grab her clothes and start pulling them on.

“All I’m asking for is some time to think about it, and I’m not going to let you pressure me into doing it any other way.”

Dec pulled on his jeans and T-shirt and packed up the food as his heart pounded in his chest. He didn’t know how to convince her that he’d never push her away again. That he couldn’t push her away without destroying himself.

“Fine,” he finally said. “Take as much time as you need. As long as you’re thinking about it here with me. The last I recalled you needed a place to live and you seem to like it here.”

“Oh, yeah,” she asked, eyes narrowing and her hands fisting at her hips. “How much is the rent? It might be out of my price range.”

“I’m sure we can work out some kind of deal.” He loaded up the stuff in his arms and turned his back to head toward the house. The waves of fury he felt hitting his back didn’t make him feel as good as he thought it would, but he wasn’t going to back down now. “MacKenzie Security could use an in-house accountant if you want the job.”

Something hit him square in the back and he look down at the sandal that lay at his feet, his lips quirking. He turned around to face one furious woman.

“Don’t you walk away and then drop a bombshell like that. You think you’re wrapping things up nice and tidy when what you’re really trying to do is put a noose around my neck.”

“Do you really believe that, Soph? Or are you the one who doesn’t want to tie herself down too tight? If you don’t want the job then don’t take it.”

“So you’d just hire anyone to work for you without checking out their background first? You run what I’m assuming is a multi-million dollar corporation with government contracts and top secret information going in and out on a daily basis. That doesn’t seem like very good business to me.”

“It’s actually excellent business. I know more about your work ethic and your brains than the partners at your old firm could ever hope to know. I know that if they’d paid attention, they would have known you’d never have been responsible for conspiring with Kane to move that money. They should’ve realized they were letting go their best accountant and someone who would likely be sitting as partner in another five years. Their stupidity is my gain. But like I said, if you don’t want it, don’t take it. Now can I go back inside or are you going to throw more shoes at me?”

Tears streamed down her face as she stared at him in complete surprise. He had no idea what he’d said to make that look appear on her face, but he knew he probably owed her an apology. Instead she surprised him with her gratitude.

“Thank you for saying that,” she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “That’s one of the things that had hurt the most. When they let me go. No one believed me. Believed in me.”

“I believed in you. I just couldn’t show it at the time. And I’ll pay for that for the rest of my life.”

She started toward him, defeat weighing down her shoulders. “Just give me a little more time to get used to this. To be with you. I do love you. I never stopped, even when I told myself I hated you.”

He sighed and held out his hand. It was an offer he had no choice but to take.

“Oh, damn,” she gasped, her hand going to her throat. “My necklace.”

The chain she always wore around her neck was gone, and he set down the supplies and went to help her look. It was the only thing she had left of her old life, and if he had to drag the lake to help her find it then that’s what he’d do.

“You had it on when we started eating lunch,” he said, looking over the ground where their blankets had been spread.

“It must have come off when I took off my shirt.”

“My memories are pretty vague after that, but I think your shirt landed somewhere by the tree.” He walked over to the area in question and knelt down so he could see beneath the roots and wild grass that grew there. “Aha, here we go.”

The cameo necklace lay face up, the silver chain crumpled beneath it. When he picked it up the chain slid out into his hand.

“The clasp is broken. We can get it fixed in town. There’s a little jewelry store there.”

“As long as the cameo itself is okay then I don’t care. It’s all I have left of my family.”

“It’s beautiful work.” It was pale pink in color and the image was of a Victorian woman, her hair piled high and her face serene and somehow lonely. The artistry was intricate as each feature was detailed with precision.

“My parents were older when I was born, so I never met my grandparents, but I remember my mother wearing this every day when I was little. She gave it to me for my thirteenth birthday and told me to take good care of it.”

He turned it over in his hands, noting the silver markings on the back and the tiny clasp to the side. “Do you have pictures inside?” he asked, working at the clasp with his thumbnail.

“What are you doing? No, it’s not a locket.”

“Yes, it is,” he insisted. “See, you’ve got a clasp here. It’s just hard to see the seam because it’s so well made.”

The clasp gave and the cameo split in two. “I’ll be damned. You were right.”

Declan opened it up so it lay open in his hand. A picture of Sophia’s parents lay was inserted in one half of the oval, and in the other half a picture of who he assumed were her grandparents. And on top of their picture lay a tiny silver key. A lockbox key.

“What’s that?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

“If I had to guess, I’d say half a billion dollars.” He dumped the key out in his hand and handed her the cameo with the pictures of her family. “You took good care of it,” he said, kissing her on the forehead as she stared down at the only photographs she had left of her family, and his heart broke as her tears fell.