“I know you didn’t,” he said. “Still, it only seems right. You, the kids and your mother have worked on her. Brendan asked me point-blank if he could help restoring Lucy. That takes a serious time commitment for someone his age. He’s a great kid. So’s Jenny.”
She shook her head in amazement. He quirked one eyebrow at her.
“What?” he asked, grinning.
“I can’t believe I ever thought you were arrogant.”
His grin faded. He leaned forward and deposited his cup on the coffee table. He put out his arms, reaching for her. “Come here,” he said gruffly.
Colleen went without hesitation. Nothing in the world sounded so appealing to her at that moment as the idea of sitting in his lap and having his arms surround her. And it was nice, she acknowledged a second later when she settled on his thighs, facing him, her knees bent at her side and her hands around his neck.
Not as nice as when she leaned forward and kissed him with the force of all the emotions she had brewing in her chest. Not as nice as when Eric returned the kiss with undisguised fervor and admirable skill.
“I’ve been waiting to do that since I woke up this morning,” she told him a while later, her damp lips brushing against his as she spoke.
“I’ve been waiting for you to do that for half my life.”
She laughed. He delighted her. She kissed him again. He opened his hands along her hips and buttocks, scooting her forward on his thighs. Their embrace was very similar to that night after the engagement party on her couch. Intimate. Heated.
It was drastically different, too. Tonight, Colleen’s desire had been liberated.
She ran her fingers through his hair, and then tilted his head, turning hers at an angle to deepen their kiss. He groaned, and she transferred her mouth to his throat, relishing the vibrations of his desire on her lips. She ran her fingers fleetly down his chest and belly, unbuttoning his outer shirt. Beneath it, he wore a Detroit Red Wings T-shirt. He seemed all too eager to assist her struggle in getting him out of it, post haste.
She kissed his bare chest a moment later, submerging herself in the sensation of him. She gave herself full permission to forget everything but the gorgeous, delicious male she currently sampled with lips, tongue and teeth. He hissed when she bit gently at a hard, rounded shoulder muscle. He began to lift up her sweater, but she stopped him.
“Remember last night?” she asked breathlessly. “When you said I’d have my moment to touch you? Now’s the moment.”
His nostrils flared slightly. She pressed a kiss just below his right nipple and glanced up at him. She thought his stare would burn her when she placed her lips directly over the nipple. He was still watching her, his face rigid and his eyes blazing, when she scooted back on his thighs and tested the texture of his taut abdomen with her lips. His muscles leapt at her touch, sending a thrill through her. Her hair fell forward, swishing across his stomach.
He hissed like she’d scalded him.
He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her up to him. He consumed her with a kiss so hot, it melted her all the way from her core to her toes and the roots of the hair on her head. He started to undress her. Colleen didn’t protest this time. It felt too amazing, and besides, if she gave him enough practice, maybe he’d get used to the idea of her being the one to ravish him once in a while. A girl could always hope, anyway.
And it was a nice, long weekend…
The next day they lingered in bed until late morning. Eric had pulled back the draperies on the window that faced Lake Michigan. They held each other and watched the heavy snowfall.
“Did you ever consider becoming anything besides a doctor?” Colleen mused during one of their many murmured conversations. She lay on her side, facing the snowy window. Eric’s long body traced hers from behind. She dreamily was stroking his forearm, which surrounded her belly.
“Sure. I wanted to be a hockey player. What kid doesn’t dream of being a professional athlete? My mom wasn’t too thrilled about the idea.” He chuckled and nuzzled her neck. She felt his smile pressed against her skin when a shiver coursed through her.
“Was it your mother who wanted you to be a doctor?”
“Yes. Luckily, I decided the same thing before she died. The winter that I was seventeen, I got a bad knee injury during the high-school playoffs. I was out of commission. Thought my life was over. My mom made a comfortable life for Natalie and me, but she worked her hands to the bone to do it. She couldn’t afford insurance. She’d religiously save money every month for Natalie’s and my medical care. When I started working, she made me do the same thing.
“My knee was really screwed up after the playoffs, and the doctors said I needed surgery. We didn’t have the money to pay for it. I took the news hard…acted like a real ass,” he said bluntly.
Colleen turned in his arms. “What do you mean?”
“I thought hockey was my whole world. My golden ticket. I sulked a lot when my mother told me we couldn’t afford the surgery.”
“That’s not too surprising,” Colleen murmured. “Not if hockey meant so much to you, and you were so talented at it.”
He shrugged. “I made such a big deal about it, my mom did something she’d never considered before. She applied to get state medical aid.”
Colleen studied the angry slant of his mouth and averted gaze. It obviously still bothered him that his mother had done such a thing for him.
“She was your mother, Eric,” Colleen said softly. “She didn’t apply for the aid because you were being a sulky teenager. She did it because she would have done whatever was necessary to get you the care you needed.”