TIS THE SEASON...FOR ROMANCE (WESTMORELAND/MASTERS/JEFFERIES) Page 15
Thinking it was Kelly, he opened the door and then blinked. He leaned in the doorway to get his bearings while the shock wore off. “Peggy?”
Instead of answering, she gave him a huge smile before throwing herself into his arms. He caught her, tightened his arms around her and pulled her into the house and closed the door. It was then that he leaned down and kissed her.
Like always, the hunger was there and desire leapt into his veins and began racing through all parts of his body. He deepened the kiss and she followed his lead and deepened it as well, mating their mouths in wild abandonment and greed. They’d gone two weeks without this and the yearning and craving had almost been unbearable. They were starved for each other and their mouths knew it. Tongues tangled, plundering the depths with a desperation that he felt in every bone in his body. He pressed forward, determined to get as much of her taste as he could.
When the kiss ended they fought for breath. The very air surrounding them seemed charged with sexual currents, and even when they’d stopped kissing they needed to retain a degree of contact by touching. Already he was unbuttoning her blouse and pulling down her skirt. And she was going at his clothes as well.
When they stood facing each other in the middle of his living room totally naked with clothes strewn all around, he pulled her into his arms and whispered her name on a guttural sigh as he leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers. He drew in a deep breath, inhaling her aroused scent. He wasn’t even sure why she was there, all he knew was that she was there and that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
“I’m going to Paris with you, Willie.” She’d said the words in a heated breath on his neck.
He pulled back slightly to meet her gaze when she further added. “Joe is an ass. I’ve always known that but today I realized he wasn’t worth the pain and hurt I suffered. I wasted thirty years on him and he’s not worth me losing out on the best person to ever come into my life. He’s not worth me losing you.”
His hands slowly lifted to push a lock of hair from her face. “You would not have lost me, Peggy,” he said in an assured tone.
“It doesn’t matter because I’m yours if you still want me.”
Oh, he wanted her and he intended to show her how much. He bent his body and swept her off her feet and into his arms. When he saw her glancing around, he smiled down at her and said. “I’ll give you a tour later.”
Willie carried her straight up the stairs to his bedroom. As he lowered Peggy to the bed, she glanced around the huge bedroom and before she could compliment him on how nice it looked, he was there in the bed with her.
“I love you so much, Peggy.” His voice rumbled and made her shiver at the sound and she knew at that moment she wanted to always be with him. Share his life and his dreams. They would share grandbabies, daughters, sons-in-law. They would be one big happy family.
He pulled back and whispered. “I need to get a condom.”
She reached out and grabbed hold of his hand. “No you don’t. Not ever again because you are my one and only, forever more. I love you, Willie.”
He smiled and then his hands were all over her, one was caressing her breasts and the other was fondling the area between her legs. And then he leaned forward to kiss her again, making sure she felt the pleasure all the way to her toes. When he released her mouth she moaned his name as his lips trailed lower to her breasts, drawing her nipples into his mouth and then sucking on them with an intensity that pulled at her stomach muscles.
“Willie.”
He released her breasts and moved lower to nibble her stomach, licking around her navel while muttering all kinds of sweet words about how good she tasted. And then he shifted his body to move his face between her open thighs.
Deciding he wanted to torture her with some intense foreplay, he blew his breath lightly against the curls of her womanhood before opening her thighs wider to delve his tongue between her womanly folds. He then scraped his teeth over her clit while holding her hips tight in his hands.
It didn’t bother him when she reached down and clutched his head to hold it to her. That only made him plunge his tongue deeper inside of her tasting her with a voraciousness that made her tremble.
And then she screamed out when an orgasm rocketed through her, touching every pore in her body and sending shivers of ecstasy all through her. Every part of her felt whipped, filled, sexually sated. And when the last shudder left her body, he moved his body upward to straddle her.
He looked down into her eyes as the tip of his erection pressed against her moist womanly folds, coming into contact with her bare flesh for the first time. And when he tightened his hold on her hips and eased his body down and his erection inside of her, he pushed through her inner muscles all the way to the hilt.
She arched her body the moment he began moving, riding her into oblivion, thrusting and stroking his way, over and over again. And then when he threw his head back as a deep guttural sound slammed forth from his throat, shudders of pleasure ripped through her when she felt his release fill her. But he didn’t stop. He continued to stroke her body with his until they were both too drained to move. It was only then that he slumped down and shifted his body to pull her tight to hold her in his arms.
* * *
“So, there you have it. Joe discovered someone else fathered Joey.”
They were still in bed and Peggy was wrapped in his arms as she told him the latest episode regarding Joe and Suzette. Willie wished he could feel sorry for the man but he couldn’t. The old saying of what goes around comes around definitely applied in this case. Joe had had a good, trustworthy wife for over thirty years and hadn’t appreciated her. Unfortunately the man had gotten his mind messed up by the sight of a hot little skirt.
“That’s sad,” he finally said, and was expressing it more so for the baby than for the two adults.
“Yes, but that’s their problem and they’ll have to deal with it. Personally, I’m ready for Paris,” she said.
A smiled touched his lips. “Are you?”
“Yes.”
“And I’m ready to take you to Paris and anywhere else you want to go, but first,” he said, reaching over and opening the drawer to the nightstand and pulling out a small white box. He opened it up and slid a beautiful diamond ring on her finger. “I’ve had this since the holidays and planned on asking you on Valentine’s Day, but I can’t wait any longer.”
He met her gaze and held it. “Peggy, will you marry me?”
Tears glistened her eyes as she stared down at the ring. It was beautiful. She glanced back up at him. He was beautiful.
“I guess before you answer I need to tell you that I intend for us to travel a lot between here and Orlando; especially since we’ll have grandbabies to spoil,” he spoke up to say.
She nodded and wiped away her tears before saying. “Yes, I’ll marry you and I promise to make you happy, Willie Baker.”
He pulled her closer into his arms. “Sweetheart, you already have.”
Epilogue
Peggy smiled over at her sister. “We certainly made it easy on our girls by agreeing to have a double wedding.”
Barbara returned her sister’s smile. “We certainly did.”
The two couples had decided on a private wedding the week before Easter with only family and close friends. Sonya and Kelly, both pregnant and radiant, were Peggy’s maids of honor. And Courtney stood beside her mother. Courtney had surprised everyone with her announcement last night that she and Lake were having a baby seven months from now.
Norris was Willie’s best man and Rick’s son, Antron, was his. The wedding was held in Toni and John’s huge backyard, and every time Peggy and Willie looked at the greenhouse they would remember their secret rendevous.
They had had a wonderful time in Paris and had agreed to go back every year. It was definitely the city of romance. She was happy and as she glanced over at Barbara and Rick she knew they were happy as well. Both her and her sister had gotten bum dea
ls with their marriages the first time, but she knew in her heart the second time around for them were for keeps.
She shifted her thoughts to Joe. He and Suzette were still battling it out in court and things weren’t pretty. Although it had been proven Joe was not the baby’s father, Suzette was still fighting for child support since the baby was in Joe’s name.
“Hey, pretty lady, what are you thinking about,” her husband came over to ask.
She smiled up at him. “I was thinking that everyone should be as happy as I am at this moment.”
He raised a brow. “Even though you quit a job you enjoyed to fly around the country with me?”
“Yes, and I did promise Toni that I would take a seat on the board so she was okay with that. It’s time I retire and give you and our grandbabies one-hundred percent of my time.”
A soft smile touched his lips. “Our grandbabies.”
She knew what he was thinking. Kelly had told him earlier they were having a girl. Although he knew that no one would be able to replace Tiara, the granddaughter he lost, the thought of having another little girl to spoil made him happy.
And according to Mike and Sonya, they were having a son. And everyone was happy about that.
Willie leaned forward and softly kissed her on the lips. “I love you, Peggy Baker.”
“And I love you, too,” she said. And she meant every word of it. Now and forever.
CONQUERING HIS HEART
To my readers, who enjoy reading
about the Jeffries family. This one is for you.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine:
but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Proverbs 17:22 KJV
One
“Cathy, I need you to take a trip with me to New York.”
Cathy Bristol felt as if all the blood in her body had shot through one particular vein. The one leading straight to her heart. Although she was sure her boss hadn’t meant it as it sounded, and no doubt the trip would be business related, the point remained that he’d asked her to go. She had been his administrative assistant for over fifteen years, and they’d never taken a trip together that required overnight stay.
She studied his features thinking he was a handsome man who looked a lot younger than his fifty-six years. He had short hair tapered neatly around his head with barely a hint of grey at the temple. He had a perfect oval face with dark eyes and a mouth with full lips. And when he wasn’t sitting, he stood tall at six-feet four inches. He was lean and in good physical shape and he stayed that way by going to the gym before coming to work each morning.
“Cathy?”
She swallowed and hated she’d been caught staring. “Yes, Orin?” Years ago they had stopped being so formal in their employer-employee relationship, and agreed to be on a first name basis. He was comfortable with it and so was she.
“Will you be available next week? The Electronics Trade Show is next weekend and Mark Herring can’t make it since his wife is due to have their baby at any time. I volunteered to go in his place.”
Cathy thought that was a nice thing for Orin to do. Mark was a product liability attorney, while Orin was the senior executive attorney. So in essence, he was Mark’s boss.
“I’m thinking we’ll leave on Friday to get set up,” Orin was saying. “And we should be back in the office at least by Tuesday. Monday will be used as a travel day. Is that workable for you?”
She didn’t want to seem too anxious, so she gave the pretense of gathering up the papers in her lap and said. “I’ll check my calendar to make sure I can move a few appointments around, but it should work. I’ll let you know later today. Will that be okay?”
He nodded. “Yes, that will be fine.”
He leaned back in his chair. “How are Maverick and Shandon?”
She smiled back up at him. He always inquired about her two sons. “They’re fine. “Shandon is remaining in Tennessee to take a class over the summer. But he’ll be home in a couple of weeks for the Fourth of July; and I’ve gotten used to Maverick not being able to share his location,” she said regarding her Navy Seal son. “However, I did get an email last week that simply said, DFM. That’s our code for saying, doing fine, Mom.
“You must be proud of your boys.”
She couldn’t help but beam. “I am, just like I know you’re proud of Olivia, Terrence and Duan.” Duan at thirty-six was a private investigator; Terrence at thirty-four, was a former pro football player living in the Keys and running a night club he owned; and Libby, who was twenty-seven, had gotten married three months ago to a senator.
“And that’s a fine young man Libby married,” she decided to add. “I can see Senator Reginald Westmoreland setting his sights on the White House down the road. Libby would make a beautiful First Lady.”
He chuckled. “I can see that as well. I’m glad I had the good sense to drop out of the senate race.”
Orin had let a few of his friends talk him into running for the Georgia senate earlier that year. His opponent had been Reggie Westmoreland. Olivia had flown in from Paris to work with her father on his campaign and ended up falling in love with his opponent. In the end, Orin, who’d never had his heart fully interested in a political future anyway, had dropped out of the race and thrown his full support behind his future son-in-law, who had won in a landslide victory.
“And of course I’m glad Terrence not only came through that nasty hurricane in the Keys okay, but he’s found someone and is ready to settle down and marry,” he said, grinning proudly.
Cathy smiled. “Have they decided on a date yet?”
“I think they’re planning a wedding for next May. We’ll know for sure when they arrive for the Fourth of July. Reggie and Libby are hosting a cookout in their honor.”
A short while later Cathy walked out of Orin’s office. When she reached her desk she eased into her chair and turned to the computer screen and sat staring at it for the longest time. She had been Orin Jeffries’ administrative assistant for fifteen years, and she could easily remember the exact moment she had realized she’d fallen in love with him.
It had been the year that his daughter Olivia, who’d been fifteen at the time, had come down with a bout of pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. Cathy had dropped by the hospital to deliver papers needing his signature and had walked in on him praying, asking God to make his daughter well. She had been teetering on the edge, but on that particular night she’d taken a deep fall. Now twelve years later she was still harboring feelings for the sophisticated, polished and extremely handsome Orin Jeffries.
She had known for years what a great father he was; a divorced man whose wife had deserted him when Olivia was three, Duan twelve and Terrence ten. Somehow Orin had managed his work schedule to include attending baseball games, football games, and dance and piano recitals. He had inspired her; especially during those times after her husband’s death when she thought raising Maverick and Shandon had definitely been challenging.
It was on that particular night she’d seen that not only was Orin an extremely handsome man, but he was a dedicated father as well. For a man to handle both a full time job that was demanding, and his children’s after-school activities, impressed her tremendously, mainly because it was something her late husband had never tried doing.
Donald Bristol had practically lived to do two things, to work and bowl. He would go to work every day and go bowling at night, leaving his wife and sons every evening to their own vices. Shandon had been only two when his father died but Maverick had been seven and already into soccer. Don hadn’t attended one of Maverick’s soccer games because her husband’s main goal was the bowling alley. He refused to miss even one night of bowling. When it came to his favorite sport, nothing or no one could compete and they all knew it. In fact, he was on his way to a bowling tournament in Memphis after working a double shift, when he’d fallen asleep at the wheel of his car and caused a head-on collision, killing himself as well as the family in the other vehicle.
“I’ve caught you daydreaming, pretty lady.”
Cathy blinked and glanced away from the computer to the man standing in front of her desk. Orin’s oldest son Duan. She couldn’t help but chuckle because he’d definitely caught her daydreaming.
“Okay, I’m guilty. Welcome home, Duan. Orin mentioned last week you were working in Boston. How did that go?”
His smile showed gorgeous dimples in both cheeks and she thought the older he got, the more he resembled Orin. The same thing could be said about Terrence.
“Case solved,” he said, leaning a hip against her desk.
“That’s wonderful. Sounds like business is going great for you?” she said
“It is, although it seems I’ve been handling a lot of weird cases lately.”
Duan had worked a few years as a police officer in Atlanta, and then as a detective before opening his own PI firm a few years ago.
“Is Dad in?”
“Yes and I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you.”
“Thanks.”
She buzzed Orin’s office to let him know Duan was there and he told her to send him right in. After Duan left she couldn’t help but smile. What she’d told Orin earlier was true. He’d done a fine job of raising his kids to become responsible adults.