Read Online Forty Candles by Virginia Nelson - Free Book Online Page B

demanding he fulfill her and his cock pressed against his zipper, begging to answer. The feel of her breasts, round and soft, made him want to suckle just to watch her come undone.
    And to feel them, and her, his again.
    Stopping at that point was akin to punching himself in the gut, but he slowed his kisses, raining them across her temple, not quite ready to release her from where he’d pinned her to the door.
    She wasn’t his yet.
    If he slept with her tonight, by tomorrow she’d be full of reasons why they might not work out, ready and willing to push him a safe distance away again.
    He wasn’t Gary. They weren’t her parents.
    She still didn’t believe in them. She wanted him, maybe just as bad as he craved her, but she still hadn’t admitted she needed him.
    “Jack?” The question was, in and of itself, a temptation, an offer.
    Catching her wrists, he kissed each of her hands. “Goodnight, Red.”
    Sure that if she said it, if she actually asked him to stay with her, he wouldn’t be able to walk away, he double-timed it back to the truck. A single wave and he pushed on the gas pedal quite a bit harder than he needed to.
    The wind, as it cut through the window of the truck, cooled his ardor.
    He couldn’t mess it up again. This time, unlike the last time when he’d proposed to her drunkenly and not proved he meant his words, he’d do it right.
    She’d see.

Chapter Seven
    “Did you ever wonder if maybe Jack was gay?”
    Harper choked, sputtering on her coffee and appearing to inhale some of it. After a moment to collect herself and a slap on the table of the diner, she blinked past tears to meet Chloe’s searching gaze. “You’re kidding, right?”
    “Uh,” stirring her drink, she searched for answers in the clouds of creamy froth. “I mean, he’s had no serious relationships since me.”
    “I hardly think that makes him gay.”
    Chloe shrugged. She didn’t really think he was gay, either. The hardness of his dick when he held her, the fascination with her breasts…none of it set off the gaydar.
    Harper’s hand came into her line of vision, clamping on her wrist. Glancing up, she saw concern etched on her friend’s face. “You ever consider he’s not the one who has…issues with relationships?”
    Chloe snorted. “I’ve had lots of relationships.”
    Gnawing her lip, Harper seemed to search for words, waving her hand as if she was going to pluck them out of the air. “You’ve had lots of men you slept with for a while, like you were waiting for the other shoe to drop, not like you were a big slut but…”
    “So you’re calling me a little slut?”
    Blowing out a breath, Harper scowled at her. “Yes, dear, I’m calling you a slut. Because I’m all judgy like that. Get real. What I’m saying is your heart didn’t seem to be in a single one of those relationships.”
    “Still kind of hearing slut.” Pretending to be offended wasn’t working—Harper knew her too well—but it seemed safer than telling the truth.
    My husband left me because I was broken inside when we got together, but everyone was so nice to me—the poor young widow. The poor fake.
    Thinking it, wanting to say it, reminded her of the young, sweet woman who wept over Gary…she’d known, seeing her, that she’d loved Gary in a way Chloe never had. That she grieved the death of the man she loved and no one comforted her—distracted by the woman they thought they should comfort, the wife he would have left.
    I can’t ever love like you do, Harper, and besides…even if I could, Jack deserves a family, a happily ever after.
    I can’t be any of that. I can’t have kids and I’m not made for long-term.
    Blinking back tears, Chloe lifted her own hand to signal for more coffee.
    Harper sighed. “I wish you’d just tell me whatever it is that holds you back. No one can help you fix it if you don’t tell us what is wrong.”
    I’m wrong. “There’s nothing wrong. If I was like you, I wouldn’t let the fires