CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Beth kept her gaze glued to Heppel. He matched her stare for stare, the silence stretching. Finally, he leaned back in his chair and said, “You’re the cop. Figure it out.”

“Now, Rick…” Dan pushed to his feet. “That’s uncalled for, and you know it.” He resumed his seat after a moment. “You made a damn strong accusation. If you have something to back it up, share.”

“Yeah, share,” Ty said, his tone etched with acid as he emphasized each word with his finger. “I’ve spent seven years trying to find out what happened to my wife. If you know, we’d really appreciate it.”

He didn’t reach for his wine this time, but water. And drained it. Beth could have used a refill herself, though the wine was sounding better and better. But no…not after last night’s nightmare. She had to be extra careful.

Extra alert.

Especially with the word murder now out of the closet. “I asked you this question at your place, Rick,” she continued, her tone still as mellow as she could make it. “What makes you so certain Lorilee is dead? And more important, why are you so convinced she was murdered?”

He nodded. “Fair enough. I’ll share.” Rick steepled his fingers under his chin, staring across the room at something only he could see. “Ty, Pearl, Cecil, and I all know she wouldn’t have left her babies. Agreed?”

They all murmured in agreement.

“That don’t prove she’s dead, or that she was murdered,” Dan argued.

“Then where is she?” Rick half turned and seemed like a different person—more educated, more outspoken, more confident. “After all these years, if she didn’t leave under her own power—and the people who knew her best know she didn’t—then where the devil is she, man?” He slammed his fist down on the table, much as he had that night Beth had eaten dinner at his place. “Where, dammit?”

“Thank you,” Ty said, and reached across the table with his right hand extended.

“For what?” Rick eyed Ty’s hand with open suspicion.

“For saying it outright and honestly.”

Rick shook Ty’s hand, and Beth made a mental note to scratch Heppel off her list of suspects. She trusted gut instinct, and even though her empathic and psychic abilities did not extend into this realm, she just knew.

“What happened today, and the fact that someone is working so hard to keep me from uncovering the long-buried truth, lends credence to Rick’s theory,” Beth said, choosing her words carefully. “What do you think, Sheriff?”

Sheriff Bailey leaned toward her and said, “Your office got a court order for the letter. Happy?”

Beth smiled and took another sip of water. “Not yet, but it’s a start.”

“It’s about damn time,” Ty said.

“The letter,” Rick repeated. “The letter? The one that started all the lies about Lorilee?”

“One and the same.” Ty leaned back in his chair. “I never even laid eyes on that letter. Bill wouldn’t let me see it. He was so upset by it, he just wanted to sweep it all under the rug and move on. Said he felt betrayed by his own flesh and blood.”

“Trust me, I remember.” The sheriff sighed again. “He’s gonna have my hide over this.”

“No, he won’t,” Beth said, still smiling. “I already told him about it.” She did her Southern-belle eyelash thing again.

Pearl actually laughed. “Don’t you beat all.”

Cecil said, “Amen. It’s time Lorilee’s memory was cleared, and this mess put to rest once and for all.”

“Well…” The sheriff looked around the table, his expression one of resignation. “Looks like I’m outnumbered here.”

“That’s a fact,” Ty said.

“I have an apple crisp in the kitchen if anyone’s of a mind for dessert,” Pearl said, rising with dirty dishes balanced in both hands.

Cecil groaned and imitated her actions. “I’m so stuffed, I couldn’t eat another bite.”

Echoes of agreement swept around the table, and everybody followed the woman—despite her protests—to the kitchen with their own dishes in tow. Beth couldn’t help feeling a pang of envy for the deep love and respect every person present—including Rick Heppel—obviously felt for Pearl Montgomery.

Though she was a housekeeper, she was a queen in this house, and treated like part of the family. From what Beth had seen, she deserved every ounce of that respect.

Beth hadn’t met a lot of people in her life she truly admired, but Pearl and Cecil Montgomery were at the top of her list. Ty was lucky to have them here for his children, and for himself. And to his credit, he clearly knew it.

Rick Heppel announced it was time for his “bird to fly” while he was still awake enough to pilot it. While Cecil helped Pearl clean up the kitchen, Beth and Ty walked out to the chopper with Rick and the sheriff.

“Stay in touch, and let me know if anything else suspicious happens,” the sheriff said as he climbed into the small helicopter. “Damn, I hate these things.”

Rick Heppel laughed. “I heard that.”

“Hey, Rick,” Ty called. “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard you laugh before.”

Rick grinned through his beard in the lighted cockpit. “You hadn’t earned it before, cowboy.”

“I am not a cow—”

Ty’s words were drowned out by the starting engine and whirling blades. Beth and Ty ducked and hurried back toward the house as the chopper rose into the air and headed toward Brubaker.

When they reached the front steps, Beth stopped and tugged on his hand. “Remember? I don’t do front doors,” she said.

“Oh, that.” He took a step closer and pulled her into his arms, allowing his hands to snake downward and cup her butt, tugging her firmly against his erection. “What do you do, Beth?”

“I know you’re there. Help me!”

She knows we’re here. We have to move away. “We’re too close.”

“I want to get a lot closer,” Ty whispered, nuzzling the lobe of her ear.

“Not here.” She pulled away and tugged on his hand. “Wait until Pearl and Cecil go home. Besides, you said we’re going to talk. Remember?”

“Me and my big mouth.” He followed her quick strides with plodding steps. “I need to check on Cissy anyway.”

“I’m goin’ to do that now,” Cecil said as he headed out the back door. “That’s what your fancy webcam is for, anyhow. Then me ‘n Pearl are callin’ it a day.”

“Thanks, my friend,” Ty called. “It’s been a long day.”

“So we’ll go help Pearl finish in the kitchen,” Beth said, heading around to the back door as fast as she could. The spirit in the foyer was definitely gaining strength.

She met Pearl at the mudroom door. “All done. I just started the dishwasher. All you two have left is turnin’ off the lights. Oh, and lock the doors tonight, Ty.”

Ty sighed and Beth laughed. “That’s what I keep telling him.” She aimed her thumb over her shoulder. “But he says you don’t do that on a farm.”

Pearl held up the jailer’s ring of keys she had hanging around her neck. “Then why do you make the kids do it when you or I aren’t here, Ty?” She laughed at his sigh. “ ‘Night, you two.”

“ ‘Night, Pearl,” Ty called. Once she closed the door behind her, he slid the bolt. “It’s locked.”

“Go check the front door, too.”

“Come with me?”

“No, Ty. I’m tired. I’m going up—”

“We’re having a talk. Remember?”

“Yes. I remember.” She turned off the kitchen light as he headed for the front of the house, then went to the back staircase.

“Meet me in my room at the top of the stairs,” he called back to her through the empty house.

Top of the stairs, left, then right. Wasn’t that the room from her dream?

She almost tripped on the bottom step, but gripped the banister and pulled herself up one step at a time. Maybe they’d just talk.

But she knew better. This thing between them had been coming to a head since the moment he’d stopped to change her flat tire. She had to make the choice in order to be in control, and that was exactly what she was doing now. It was time. Past time.

Sure, they both had enough baggage to keep every bellhop in Chicago busy for a year. But even her self-enforced pragmatism couldn’t deny how her feelings were evolving.

Take it slow, Dearborn. Control…

With a secret smile, she remembered the other stop she’d made besides Gooch’s Garage that afternoon, and reached into the front pocket of her jeans to make sure the three-pack of condoms was still there.

It was time.

Resigned and more excited than she cared to examine, she just hoped only two of them occupied his bed tonight.

There she stood beside his bed. Light from the hallway spilled through the open doorway into the dark room, bathing her in a golden glow. He couldn’t wait to run his hands through her soft, short curls.

She obviously knew that talking wasn’t uppermost on his mind, since she was waiting for him in the dark. Beside his bed.

“All locked,” he said, walking over to stand right in front of her. “Happy now?”

“Almost.” The tone of her voice told him she wanted him as much as he wanted her, if that was possible.

“I’m out of practice, you know.”

“Then you’re due a workout.”

“Holy…” He released a long, slow breath and nibbled the lobe of her ear. “Be gentle with me,” he teased.

“Not a chance, cowboy.”

“It’s a good day to die.”

Ty gently pressed her down to sit on the edge of his neatly made bed and stood with his hands on her shoulders. Her unique, haunting scent wafted up from her closely cropped curls to fill his senses. No fancy perfume here. She smelled clean, fresh, and sexy as hell.

He barely knew this woman, yet she’d invaded his life, his home, and his mind with a gusto that left him breathless. He wanted her in ways he hadn’t believed he was still capable of wanting a woman. She’d made a part of him that had died return to the living. She was a gift of fate, or perhaps it was simply time.

She reached toward him, brought her hands up to cup his face. They felt cool and soothing against his burning skin. With the tips of her fingers, she drew an invisible line from the lobe of his ear to his mouth, then gently stroked the contour of his lips. Lips that wanted to sample every toned curve, every valley, every soft inch of her.

Beth didn’t have an ounce of extra flesh, but she wasn’t scrawny by any means. She leaned toward the athletic side—probably all those martial arts. He smiled down at her.

“Something funny?” she asked, her voice huskier than usual.

“I was just remembering when you threw me and buried your knee in my spine.”

One corner of her full mouth curved upward. “Did I hurt you?” Her eyes smoldered. “Want me to kiss it and make it better?”

“Oh, yeah.” He caught his breath in anticipation. “Definitely.”

“Well, I might have a few bruised ribs you can tend the same way…”

Though he didn’t like to think of her being shot at or in pain, he swallowed hard when she stepped flush against him. Without hesitation, she captured his mouth with hers. His arms snaked around her waist and pulled her hard against him.

Her lips were soft and sweet, like Pearl’s best dessert, only better. Much better, and far more enticing. She parted her lips, drawing him inward to taste and explore.

And he did. God help him, but he was lost. Maybe a part of him was using her to heal himself. Maybe he had no right.

Then why did this seem so right? Why now? Why this woman?

Sweet. That one word described and explained so much. After years of torment, of grieving, of living hell, he’d found this sweetness. Not her personality, but her response. Her generosity. Her spirit.

A still sane part of his brain knew Beth Dearborn would hate being thought of as sweet. Later—much later—he would tell her, and she might throw him to the floor again. At another time and place, the thought might have made him laugh. But not now.

He fused himself—mind, body, soul—to the sweetness. The now.

Their mouths became feverish, studying, claiming, consuming until Ty thought he’d die from craving more of her. She oozed more natural sexuality than any female he’d ever known, seen, or even imagined.

And then some.

She explored him with eager hands, her long fingers caressing the spot on his slightly bruised back where her knee had been planted night before last. Then she pulled his shirt from the waistband of his jeans. Her sighs of longing echoed his and filled his mouth, arousing the inferno that already burned him to his very soul.

Beth’s movements became more frantic, almost jerky. Ty sensed her need matching his, and he knew she would not deny them tonight.

His shirt had snaps instead of buttons, and she took full advantage, ripping it open in what he considered a Beth-like manner. Her usual caution had no role here. She groaned into his mouth when her hands met his bare torso, and she broke their kiss to explore new territory, tracing small circles around his nipples with her tongue.

He was hot and hard and horny as hell.

“Beth?”

“Hmm?”

With a groan, he grabbed a handful of her T-shirt and tugged it upward, forcing her to break contact long enough to pull it over her head. “No bra,” he whispered.

He barely caught a glimpse of her newly bared flesh before she resumed her teasing. He’d never known a man’s nipples could be so…so…

Then she nipped him with her teeth and he growled. She lifted her head to stare at him and he swallowed. Hard.

How long would she torment him? How long would she make them both wait for what they both so obviously needed?

As if she’d heard his silent question, she unfastened his belt buckle, then released the five buttons of his fly.

“What’s in there?” she asked, pressing the palm of her hand against his throbbing erection. “Mmm.”

“Easy, Beth,” he warned. “It’s…been a while.”

“Me, too.” Her tone was filled with empathy. She pressed her bare breasts against his chest. “I want you, Ty.”

“I’d say the same, but it’d be the understatement of the year.”

His gaze dipped lower to her breasts, nicely rounded against his ribs. The only light in the room came from the hallway. “I should’ve turned on the lamp.”

“We’ll do that next time.”

Next time. There would be a next time. He almost came then, but held himself in check. “I feel like a high-school kid going all the way for the first time,” he confessed. “Don’t know how long I can—”

She pressed a finger to his lips. “Stop.”

Maybe he couldn’t see her as clearly as he’d like, but he sure as hell felt the woman. Her nipples were firm nubs against his chest. She wasn’t small and delicate. Not Beth. She was tall and sturdy and fearless, though she oozed feminine sexuality with every breath.

And for now—at least tonight—she was his.

His hands slid over smooth skin as he opened her jeans and savored the gentle slope of hip to waist. Then he brought his hands around and filled them with her delectable breasts. She responded by thrusting her hips even more firmly against him, and punctuated that with a strangled gasp.

He could definitely relate.

“I want all of you,” he murmured.

“Ditto.” She eased her hands into his jeans, flush against his hips, shoving them downward. “So what’s stopping you?”

“I don’t have…” He was a grown man. He should have kept condoms around, but there hadn’t been a call for them in years. “Protection.”

“I do.”

He chuckled. “I should’ve known.” And he kissed her hard and fast and deep.

She trembled as he savored every inch of her exposed flesh against his hands. But he wanted more.

He eased her down to the bed, dropped to one knee beside her without breaking their kiss. He cupped her breast again, brushed her nipple with his thumb until her moan filled him. She was everything he’d dreamed she would be. More.

Dragging his mouth from hers, he kissed his way down her long, slender neck and found the rampant beat of her pulse. Gathering what patience he had left, he rested his lips there until she pressed her breast eagerly against his hand.

Her small, firm breasts had beckoned to him since that first day out on the highway. The fact that she walked around braless all the time added to her appeal. He seriously doubted she did that to entice men. No, Beth Dearborn probably did it for either comfort, practicality, or downright orneriness.

And he didn’t care. All he knew was the need to taste her. He kissed his way lower, then returned the torture she’d inflicted earlier by using his tongue to trace the shape of her swollen nipples.

“Oh,” she whispered, and gripped the back of his head with her hand. “That feels…amazing.” She offered more of herself to him.

Starving for what she offered, he closed his mouth over her and feasted. She panted and raked the back of his neck with her short nails. Her soft purrs and moans urged him on, reminding him what they both wanted.

The feel of his erection brushing against his jeans reminded him that they weren’t nearly as naked as they could be. “I think it’s time we both shed some denim,” he said.

“Past time.”

He started to slide hers down her thighs, but she grabbed his wrist.

“Wait.” She reached into her front pocket and withdrew something. “We’ll need these.”

“More than one. Good girl.”

He pushed his jeans down and stood to completely rid himself of his boxers and socks. In the partial light from the doorway, he saw her reach toward him, holding her arms up to urge him back to bed.

Unable and unwilling to resist her invitation, he slid his long body against her softer one. They fit well together. Almost as if they’d been made for each—

Don’t go there, Malone. Not now. Not yet.

She turned to face him, her mouth hot and hungry. Now all he had to do was remember how to ride a wild mustang.

Beth savored Ty’s unique taste, hot and commanding. His kiss was thorough, wet, wicked, and she welcomed it, even while she yearned for more. Much more.

She wondered what surprising breakthrough she might discover next in this man’s bed. His gentleness, wildness, sense of humor? Oddly, she felt no fear now, only wonder and want. No invading voices or memories—no horrifying images or nightmares. Only Ty.

Still, the niggling voice in the back of her mind told her to hold back, just a little. Keep control. Don’t let go completely. Don’t let down her guard. Don’t let them get her when she wasn’t looking.

Yet…as his lips left hers to drift down her throat again, the voices were drowned out by the roar of desire through her blood. Her breasts swelled against his firm chest, and she ached to feel his hot mouth tugging against her again.

Naked and yearning, she relished each touch of his lips, each stroke of his tongue against her flesh. She felt vaguely distanced from her body, almost an observer, yet acutely conscious of every spiraling need that thundered through her.

Like the storm, her mind tried to reason. You’re letting go, Beth. Losing control.

But she couldn’t stop this. She’d finally met a man strong enough to push her beyond her coveted self-control. No, not just him. It was their mutual, combined desire and need overshadowing all else. And she had no choice but to allow it to burn free.

That realization brought her a moment of terror, and she stiffened.

“You all right?” he asked, nibbling the lobe of her ear. “Should I stop?”

She laughed, a low throaty sound. “If you do, I’ll have to throw you down again and have my way with you.”

He didn’t laugh. He hovered over her. “You’d better open that condom now.”

“Oh, my.” Beth caught her breath and opened one of the packets. She hadn’t even had the chance to explore his body as much as she wanted yet. “You want to play rough, cowboy?”

“Right now I don’t even care if you call me cowboy.” He kissed her again to punctuate his statement.

The emptiness inside her clenched deep and hard where Ty would soon fill her. She tingled all over as she eased her hands between their bodies. He rose slightly to accommodate her.

He was hot. So hot. A scorching fire swept through her as she closed her hand around his impressive erection. “My, my,” she whispered. “You have been holding out on me.”

“You’re killing me here.”

“Not yet, I’m not.” She savored the petal-softness at his tip, the vital, pulsing power of his length. This was Ty, and she wanted him more than anything.

All of him.

Her hands trembled slightly as she rolled the condom over the tip of his penis and slowly down the length.

“Definitely killing me.”

His words and his gasp made her laugh quietly again. The act of protecting them both didn’t dampen their desire. On the contrary, it merely fueled their need.

Beth wrapped her arms around his muscular back and dragged her long legs up the backs of his. “What are you waiting for now?” she invited.

Her body cried out for his warmth as he abandoned her to the cool evening air and kissed his way down her belly. Instinctively, she tightened her grip on him, but he winced and slipped from her grasp, lowering himself between her thighs.

Beth hadn’t anticipated this—not the first time. Anticipation erupted as gooseflesh as he kissed the curve of her hip and slipped his hands beneath her bottom to hold her. The part of her that wanted to maintain control tried to object, but couldn’t. She couldn’t break away.

She wouldn’t.

He held her pleasure firmly in his hands, angling her hips to his will. There was a quiver of pleasure deep in her core, and it spread ruthlessly as he kissed her inner thighs and eased them farther apart.

Even though she knew his intent, she still gasped when his mouth covered her slickness. The man’s tongue was wicked and wild and wonderful.

So much for being out of practice.

Scalding weightlessness filled her body as he brought her higher and higher toward total loss of control. She could only pray she returned unscathed.

All she knew was this gift of pleasure—beautiful, delicious, wanton pleasure. She’d denied herself this level of abandonment all her life, unless asleep or drunk or possessed by a dead spirit. This Beth savored pleasure and joy only for herself and for the now.

Just this once. Just this once…

He’d awakened in her something she’d never known existed. This strange, foreign, alien thing within her. This ability to want and need and give in turn. This slumbering yet potent emotion of which she’d been blissfully unaware until now.

Until Ty.

The fever ravaged her as she heard a strange animalistic sound and vaguely registered it as her own primal growl of pleasure. Her need was primitive, almost savage.

She buried her fingers in his hair and held him to her as she climbed toward a place she had tried, in the past, to avoid. Now she had to find it or die. Everything she had depended on this moment, his mouth, her body, and the incredible joy.

He pushed, he sought, he claimed. His hands on her hips held her captive as he ravaged her with the sweep of his tongue, the scrape of his teeth. Her head tossed from side to side and her hips thrust upward, demanding more than she could bear.

The first climax hit her like a punch as she shattered in his grasp. A tsunami of convulsive joy swept through her, carrying her away on a sensual voyage.

She had relinquished control, and nothing bad had happened. Beth wanted to shout her discovery to the world, but her lover was busy bringing her back to reality, and reminding her there was still more to come.

She felt herself actually blush at the double entendre. What has come over you, Dearborn?

Then, as he kissed her thighs again and eased himself slowly upward, she remembered what—and who—had come over her. He teased her belly button with his tongue and cupped her breasts with his farmer’s hands. Every inch of her was so sensitized, she wanted to shout from the merest touch of his lips, his fingers.

But she knew there was more. And now he would give it to her—all of it. All of himself.

A foreign stinging sensation began building behind her eyelids, and she blinked. Beth Dearborn did not cry after good sex. What was that about?

She couldn’t take the time to analyze her emotions now, because Ty and her hormones were in total command.

He touched her face, his fingers long, rough, and enticing. She tried to see his eyes but couldn’t, so she conjured their turquoise depths from memory. It was enough, for now.

His mouth covered hers again, and she tasted herself, strange but not unpleasant. She moaned when he finally covered her with his body, all the while stroking her tongue with his own.

She might not have been with a man for a while, but she wasn’t some innocent virgin. She knew what came next. She wrapped her legs around his waist, reached between them, grasped his throbbing penis in her hand, and guided him home.

“Now, Ty. Now.”

His deep thrust made her breath come out in a hiss of pure fulfillment. All those years of running and martial arts had left her toned and strong, and she used her lower body strength to hold him deep and hard and fast.

“This is gonna be over before it started, if you keep that up,” he warned, nose to nose.

“Let’s try it anyway.” Beth wrapped herself around him like shrink-wrap. “Ride me, cowboy.”

He tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a gasp. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

His voice was ragged, but his movements were slow and strong. Beth answered him stroke for stroke, hungry for every blessed inch, answering and wanting more.

Wet and hot, her body hugged and held him. A sigh left her lips each time he withdrew and returned to fill her again. And again.

She felt so whole, so…wanted.

As he found his rhythm inside her, his thrusts probed deeper, became more forceful. Even with her legs around his waist, Beth couldn’t seem to get close enough, couldn’t let this end without taking all he had to give.

He answered her unstated plea, demonstrating that she could not only take all of him, but that she could want him even more. The muscles of his shoulders and back were rigid cords beneath her hands.

Each stroke drove her closer to the brink. She fell into a dark pit of pleasure and sensation, where thoughts and fears lost their power. Where painful memories surrendered to the more potent and pleasant forces of the present.

Her body contracted beneath and around him, drawing him inward and answering him thrust for thrust. Each time he buried himself inside her, she found a more delicious level of madness.

Her mind filled with a rainbow of colors. The colors gave way, blurring and dissolving completely when she came again. She surrendered to the physical urgency as the explosion crescendoed. She expected to make her way gently back to reality, but it happened again and again.

“Oh. My.” She bucked against him, on fire. He took her higher and higher into this unknown place, this world of pure carnal bliss. Fractured yet complete, filled with only this man, as he brought her to orgasm again, seeming determined to keep her there.

Then Beth realized why this was different. She felt Ty—literally. Not only him inside of her, but his pulse, his heat, and his sensations. She sensed the length of him and tingled along with him.

Oh…oh, God. Did all men feel so hot inside when they had sex? This had never been part of her gift. Why was it different with Ty?

Maybe because she wanted it to be different? Better? More important? No, because it was better, different, and more important. She savored feeling what he felt. So she took that next step—that extra risk. She let her guard down even further. Deliberately.

Instead of fear and death and violence flooding her mind, sensation and tenderness enveloped her. No one and nothing except she and Ty existed now.

Joy filled her. Not only did she let him into her body in the most intimate way a woman can take a man, but she shared an even more sacred part of herself. Would he know it, somehow? Until now, she’d only had empathic experiences with the dead. Why this was happening, she didn’t know, but she liked it.

She loved it. Loved him? Later. Later.

Slowing her rapid breathing, she gathered her thoughts, mentally unlocked the vault at the back of her mind she’d kept carefully blocked for so long. Ty merged more fully with her, and she welcomed him, savored every nerve ending.

Tears streamed down her face. He thrust into her, and they were one in every way. She was he and he was she, though perhaps only she was aware of it. It was as if she had splintered into two halves that perfectly fit together again as one.

In fact, she’d never felt so complete, so whole.

All the other implications could be dealt with later.

Slowly, she brought her hands to Ty’s face and wished she could see his eyes as she felt his emotions join with hers, just as their physical sensations melded.

There were definitely only two people in this bed, and—in many ways—they were one.

He pushed deep, sure, and powerfully into her. She felt like heated silk to him, and he like molten steel. What a combination. Mother Nature definitely knew what she was doing.

She met and matched his every thrust, ready to revisit the joy he’d shown her, and now, to share his. Tiny fingers of heat bloomed inside her until one climax blended into the next. The convulsions merged into one long, exquisitely painful sensation.

Then he buried himself inside her and tensed. The heat built along his length. Pulsing pressure reached an unbearable point. He threw his head back and shouted, as did she.

Beth convulsed around him, taking his completion and her own as one. She shared his orgasm, which made her come yet again. He marked her with his completion, and they rocked together slowly. She held him with her body, her arms, her legs, stroking his back and shoulders as he strained against her, and she actually felt him empty himself.

So that’s what it’s like. A secret, knowing smile tugged at Beth’s lips. But only women get multiples.

He peppered her face with tiny kisses and eased his weight off her, then rolled onto his side and gathered her against him. Beth rolled to her hip with her back against him, enjoying the tender kisses he rained across her shoulder.

Her throat filled and tightened, and she realized the combination of his emotions and hers had her struggling against more tears. The need to say the words in her heart drove at her, but she bit her lip to silence them.

Were they hers…or his?